Post City Magazines | June 2006, Smooth Operator: John Bregar by Joshua Errett

John Bregar

How this North York star battles stereotypes as the emerging hero of Degrassi.

by Joshua Errett

EXTREME FITNESS isn’t a place where an actor on Degrassi is likely to get recognized. For whatever reason, the upscale Yonge and Sheppard fitness centre just doesn’t seem like it would be frequented by too many Degrassi devotees.

To wit, among the professionallooking gym-goers and the superbuff fitness instructors, Degrassi: The Next Generation actor John Bregar works on his biceps completely unnoticed.

But with a recent role on CBC’s Canada-Russia ’72 miniseries, a part in this fall’s It’s a Boy-Girl Thing and a slew of other films, his low-key celebrity status won’t last long.

For now, Bregar is most familiar to fans as Dylan, an openly gay teen on the new Degrassi, an offshoot of the television phenomenon from the 1980s. The series uses local actors and sets, producing a number of recognizable Degrassi actors around Toronto. But a few years ago, Bregar — much like his fellow weightlifters — wouldn’t have been able to recognize any Degrassi stars, either.

“I never watched the show growing up,” admits the 21-year-old North York actor. “I actually didn’t know anything about it until the day I showed up and auditioned.”

That means Bregar doesn’t remember the classic episode of Degrassi when Joey failed Grade 8 or Spike got pregnant or Melanie went bra shopping for the first time.

These famous Degrassi Junior High plot lines gave teen viewers valuable life lessons in its half-hour time slot. Though Bregar wouldn’t remember any life lessons from the original television series, he can legitimately say that the franchise has helped him mature.

His role as Dylan is both his firstever television acting job and firstever onscreen kiss — which happened to be with another male. Looking back, the actor describes the role as a fast-paced lesson in overcoming his teenage insecurities and a way to build up a resumé in the process.

“I was 18 when I joined Degrassi, and was still very much a teenager,” says Bregar, who was graduating from Earl Haig at the time he auditioned. “Of course, I was nervous about playing the role at first. But, basically, I grew up.”

After completing three seasons on the show (he’s currently filming his fourth), Bregar has long since dropped any insecurities he had as a straight male playing a gay character on TV.

“I looked at actors playing gay roles in Mambo Italiano or productions like that and just became more comfortable with everything,” says Bregar. “I realized there was nothing wrong with two guys kissing on TV. I’m actually all for more of it.”

Aside from his enthusiasm with the part, Bregar also wanted to play his character with all the realism he could muster — keeping up the Degrassi franchise’s reputation as a gritty, true-to-life teen drama. And since his character was described as a “gay jock,” part of that realism was handling the character’s sexuality.

(Bregar works out at Extreme Fitness three times a week, so the jock part came more naturally.)

“With Dylan, I made it a point not to fill any gay stereotypes,” says Bregar. “He’s a real guy, and I wanted to play him like that.” And as Bregar settles in to the role, he hears less about the sexual orientation of Dylan and more about what Dylan will be doing each week — a testament to Bregar’s reading of the character.

“In the beginning, people would always ask, ‘Are you gay? Are you straight?’ Everybody was curious about me playing a gay character,” said Bregar.

(To reiterate, he’s straight.)

“But, at this point, it’s more about my character and the relationships he’s having on the show.”

In fact, Bregar plays such a believable gay jock that he’s consistently recognized by gay and lesbian organizations. In 2004, he was nominated for an award at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards and was profiled in the gay and lesbian magazine The Advocate.

Along with his attention-grabbing role on Degrassi, Bregar also gets noticed for his attention-grabbing good looks: In the March 2006 edition of Flare magazine, Bregar took a prominent place in a photo shoot with other up-and-coming Canadian actors like Falcon Beach’s Steve Byers and A History of Violence’s Greg Bryk.

But his striking features, accumulating film credits and growing fan base — complete with fawning websites — don’t make him want to change his routines.

“I still have all my neighbourhood friends,” he says. “They knew me before my acting career. They keep me grounded. I’m actually hanging out in North York all the time.”

In fact, Bregar took advantage of North York’s public ice rinks to train for his role in Canada-Russia ’72, which aired in early April.

Bregar had to learn to shoot lefthanded to play Canadian hockey legend Bobby Clarke.

“Two weeks before the actual skating audition, I was out on the rink in my neighbourhood trying to figure out how to shoot lefty,” recalls Bregar, normally a right-handed shot. “And it was a good thing, because the filming was thirteen hours of playing hockey and hitting people every day.”

To add to the challenge, Bregar also had to give his lines with an obtrusive dental plate, which made Bregar’s pearly white teeth look more like Bobby Clarke’s characteristic gap-toothed smile.

“I even talked to Bobby to help me learn how to mimic his every movements,” says Bregar, obviously still proud and in awe.

In return for his adaptable acting, Bregar gets his share of admirers — from as far away as Honolulu, Hawaii, to as close as his next door neighbours in North York.

This summer, Bregar will join fellow Toronto actor Rachel McAdams for Presenting Our Vision, a non-profit film camp for underprivileged youth in the city. Bregar says he admires McAdams as an actor and considers her on the top of his list of people to work with.

“Being a Canadian actor, she knows how hard it is and that we have to support one another,” says Bregar. “I look up to her.”

Another reason Bregar might see McAdams as an inspiration: She’s an A-list local actor who has more or less remained in Toronto throughout her rise in Hollywood — something Bregar says he would also like to do.

Although he’s currently dedicated to his role on Degrassi: The Next Generation, Bregar concedes he may eventually have to leave Toronto for more acting opportunities in the future.

“Yeah, I’ve considered the fact that I may have to move to the States. It is, as they say, the land of opportunity,” Bregar says.

But even with the magazine shoots, the blossoming film career and growing celebrity, Bregar remains dedicated to his hometown.

He still lives with his parents, plays baseball in his local park and hopes to stay in the GTA to study film production at Ryerson University next year.

In addition to training for roles in North York and the locally filmed Degrassi, Bregar got his start in the city: He was a stagehand on the now-defunct Open Mike show with Mike Bullard while still in Grade 12.

“I was born in North York General Hospital, and I’ve been here ever since,” says Bregar proudly. “Maybe I just can’t live without my mom’s chicken dinners? I don’t know. We’ll see.”