Pickle Barrel
LET’S SAY YOU’RE a movie producer
and you need to cast a villain.
Chances are, at some point you’ll
audition actor Aaron Abrams.
“I usually play cocky, slick types,” says Abrams. “And my voice is a big part as to why I get the ‘jerk’ roles as it’s pretty low and raspy and sleazy. I sound like the Cookie Monster if he was a strip club DJ. And as voices go, I guess it’s hard to find a more immoral combination than that.”
Now let’s say you’re a fingerpointing, socially-conservative lobbyist with a jones to axe funding from independent film projects, while simultaneously boosting your national profile, and you need to cast a villain. Aaron Abrams is your man as well.
That was the strategy of Charles McVety, head of the Canada Family Action Coalition, when he repeatedly cited Abrams’ new film, Young People F**king (YPF), in his recent national tour of self-congratulation. McVety claims he was the driving force behind an amendment to Bill C-10 to revoke tax credits to film and television projects with content some might deem questionable.
That’s all fine with the Bayview born- and-raised Abrams. But he’s not exactly expecting a cheque for all the free press McVety has piggybacked off the film.
“He’s throwing plenty of attention back our way as well,” says Abrams. “So it’s ‘tit for tat,’ so to speak.”
And this is what Abrams finds so concerning as a filmmaker in this country. “McVety’s bill’s definition of ‘offensive’ is extremely vague, so then the question becomes ‘who’s going to decide what’s offensive and what isn’t?” he asks. “Mr. McVety? Who claims he speaks ‘on behalf of most Canadians.’ That’s a quote, by the way. Maybe he’d have a leg to stand on if he’d actually seen YPF, which he hasn’t. But even then, it’d be the opinion of one guy, not a nation.”
This, of course, is Abrams problem. Due to the film’s title, people have pre-judged the film. He’d prefer people just see it for themselves.
Movie producer, director and cowriter of YPF, Martin Gero, says, “We were talking about doing a film about sex and relationships, but we couldn’t figure out a structure.” Adding, “I came up with the title in a cab on a way home one night and we desperately tried to think of something better. But people, once they’ve seen the film, would say that’s exactly what it is.”
Abrams says that he doesn’t want people to get the wrong idea because of the title. The film is not something “raw and out there,” but a movie about relationships with sex in them. He says romantic comedies end with a kiss and sex comedies are mostly about high school kids losing their virginity. Gero and Abrams wanted to make something that would combine both genres.
The two were good friends long before they started writing the feature and Gero says, “We would see four, five movies a week. If you see that many movies with someone for two years, it really allows you to develop a shorthand encyclopedia of movies.” They spent so much time together working on YPF, he adds, that they even developed the same mannerisms.
When Gero ran into Abrams’ good friend Sarah Polley during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last year, she said, “Jesus, you guys are the same person.”
YPF was one of the top 10 films in the 2007 TIFF. “We were overwhelmed with the response. We made a movie for younger people but [as it turned out] it was universal. It shouldn’t surprise us, but 40- to 60- year-old people were seeing it and they went crazy for it. Everyone could relate. Our distributors got really excited about it,” says Abrams.
And his parents?
“They liked it. I still haven’t told my grandparents what the movie is called. My mother didn’t have a problem with it at all, and I’m in various forms of undress [in the movie]. Afterwards she said — Abrams’ voice goes a few octaves higher — ‘I really loved it, I loved it!’” he says. “And that is somehow creepier.”
Abrams grew up in North Toronto, eventually moving to the York Mills area where he went to St. Andrew’s Junior High before going to Earl Haig.
For the kid who was not into math or science, “Earl Haig was the perfect school for me to go to,” he says.
With acting as his major, Abrams had an acting class every day. “The experimental theatre, it was an improv guerrilla-style theatre [where you play] off of live people, on a subway for example. It was dangerous in the hands of stupid kids,” he says.
But the kids rarely got stupid, mainly because of a great teacher that Abrams recalls fondly. Paula Citron — a Toronto writer and critic who writes articles on dance for The Globe and Mail and Toronto Life magazine — was loved by her students, and Abrams mentions her name more than once when talking about the past.
You’d think that little Aaron would be a little sick of acting after his intensive classes were over, but no. If he had some free time after school, he would use a special movie card that he got from his father as a gift (a Famous Players movie pass called “the Big Card”). The card allowed him to see any movie at any theatre for a year. “So I was in movie theatres all the time after school. It didn’t even matter what movie it was.”
His father still lives in the York Mills area, his mother lives downtown, his brother is in New York working as an assistant general manager of the New York Giants. Abrams jokes, “Yeah, the New York Giants. I’m officially son number two.”
But this may all change. While he’s too humble to admit it, Abrams looks to be on the cusp of major stardom.
Abrams is starring in an upcoming movie with Greg Kinnear and Alan Alda, Flash of Genius. A drama, the film is based on the life of Robert Kearns an inventor of a windshield wiper who said his invention was stolen by the Detroit automakers. “It’s a great story about a guy who spends his entire life trying to get recognition for the idea he came up with. I play Alan Alda’s lawyer [Ian Miellor] who tries to reach an agreement with the car company.”
But even bigger still is the role Abrams signed on for after TIFF.
He’s currently filming Amelia, the Amelia Earhart biopic starring Oscar-winner Hillary Swank and Richard Gere. Abrams plays Slim Gordon, Earhart’s eccentric navigator.
Well, that’s not exactly the kind of villain character that Abrams claims to often be cast in, is it?
Abrams quickly mentions another upcoming project, Weapon, the first action movie he’s in.
“I play the bad guy [Dr. Tyler Voller] who’s the brains of the evil operation — a scientist in charge of the evil laboratory.”
Who knows if this will be the last villain Abrams plays on screen, but with YPF due out on June 13, he’s sure to be cast, at least one last time, as the bad guy.
Unless people actually see the film of course.
“Everyone is entitled to their
opinion. However I will say I don’t
know how strong your opinion can
be if you haven’t seen the movie,” he
says. “Like, if you are pro C-10, at
least see it so you can use actual
facts to argue why I’m an unartistic
sleazebag. And if you’re against C-10,
you should see the film so you send a
message to people like Mr. McVety,
who’s speaking for you and saying
you don’t want to see movies like
this. Either way, you should check it
out — especially if you have a thing
for raspy-voiced dudes who grew up
in the Bayview area.” 
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