The CTV crime series Motive was the big winner Sunday night as B.C. film and TV actors got together for their second annual awards night.
John Pyper-Ferguson was named best actor at the Union of B.C. Performers annual awards for his Motive guest-starring role as a building contractor who turns killer as he mourns the accidental death of his son. Named best newcomer by the actors group was Tyler Johnston for his work in Motive’s premiere episode as a high school student who kills a teacher as he seeks to keep a secret.
“I’ve been waiting 10 years to get this award,” said Johnston, who started acting when he was 15.
Fellow actor Ellie Harvie hosted the awards gala at the Vancouver Playhouse, her second hosting stint.
“I’m not going to be gentle, and it’s going to last longer,” she told the boisterous crowd.
“I was jealous of Toronto a year ago — that changed,” she said, alluding to the uptick in B.C. film and TV production.
The event was produced by Jay Ono of Vancouver Theatre Sports and included video clips from B.C. actors in L.A. and Toronto alongside the live awards presentations and music from singer-songwriter Kevin House. Onstage presenters including teen actors Liam James and Valerie Tian, as well as Lexa Doig, Stephen Lobo and Ali Liebert, showed their own flair for improv and — in the case of Lobo and Liebert — dance moves.
On the feature film side, prolific stage and screen actor Gabrielle Rose was named best actress for her role as a rich dog-lover swindled and murdered by a real estate agent in director Bruce Sweeney’s indie thriller Crimes of Mike Recket.
Rose thanked Sweeney and actor Nicholas Lea, who played the real estate agent, and reminisced about her murder scene in the movie. “Nick was stuffing me into the dirtiest, smelliest hockey bag — Bruce swore he washed it, but I doubt that,” Rose said. “I could hear Bruce laughing behind the camera.”
The scene continued with Lea rolling the lifeless Rose up in a tarp, and Rose said it was all she could do to keep still and not laugh.
“I’m thinking, how great is this,” she said. “What a great flipping job.”
Nicole Oliver was named best voice for her regular role as a sassy purple poodle on the animated series Littlest Pet Shop, which airs on the U.S. Hub children’s network. She told the crowd the voice work was “just as much fun as it looks.”
Colby Chartrand earned the prize for best stunt for a multi-storey fall in the Steven Seagal action series True Justice.
Actor-writer-director Ben Ratner, whose indie feature Down River is set for a spring release after playing festivals this past fall, was awarded the John Juliani Award of Excellence, named for UBCP’s late president. The award was presented by Juliani’s son, actor Alessandro Juliani.
“John’s public persona was that of a rebel,” Juliani said of his father. “He liked to spar, the term gentleman brawler comes to mind.”
Calling Ratner to the stage, Juliani said: “I can think of no-one more apt.”
The Lorena Gale Woman of Distinction Award, named for the late playwright and actor, went to a visibly moved Carmen Moore, currently juggling roles on two TV series — CBC’s Arctic Air and APTN’s Blackstone.
“I’ve grown up in this community,” Moore told the crowd, offering thanks “to those of you who picked me up when I fell, sometimes literally.”
As well there was a special presentation inducting Garry Chalk into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame. Chalk, currently a regular on the U.S. Hallmark Channel series Cedar Cove, has a resume going back more than 30 years to The Beachcombers and MacGyver, and more recently including TV’s The Killing and the upcoming feature remake Godzilla. Chalk, himself an accomplished singer-guitarist, wrapped the evening up by joining House and his band to sing a rollicking version of “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.”
