Greyston Holt – louisferreira.org

Greyston Holt is a Canadian actor and director who has worked with Louis Ferreira on three different occasions to date. We met up with Greyston at Dragon Con 2015 where he was delighted to commit to an interview. He joined The Friends of Louis Ferreira in November 2015 with the conversation below, originally published in Ferreira Fest 71.

Ferreira Fest managed to catch up with Greyston Holt at Dragon Con this year! Having worked on three different shows with Louis he was high on our list of future guests, and he graciously agreed to do an interview with us.

As usual, we’ll let Louis introduce his young colleague. Listen to the sound clip here:

LF – “My beautiful son, Greyston. And I say that obviously as a joke. But Greyston played my boy in a series we did together called Durham County. I believe it was his first big thing that he was doing. He’s obviously gone on to do incredible things with himself and his career.

But what stood out for me, meeting Greyston, he was brought up on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia and he just reminded me so much of my actual son, Aidan. Such a beautiful spirit, inside and out. He’s now like a Greek god. But he is just this beautiful man who, and at the time this beautiful boy who was in a big city – Montreal – and was very much coming into his own. So it was interesting to catch him at that point of his life where the journey was beginning. And was inspiring. Because for me, more than anything, it’s about someone being conscious and being a good person and he was that, ten-fold, at such a young age.

I remember, he did this thing that reminded me so much of Aidan: he came down a stairwell and there in the corner was this spider web. And he took the time to stop and was so enthralled and intrigued with this beauty, this spider web, this thing, he just went on and on.

And we literally, and as it was raining on the outside, we were checking out the spider web and there was no way there was going to be any damage done to that beautiful piece of art that had been created. And I just sat there in awe, really.

But, it’s so amazing to see, and again, right away I was so touched by his spirit and who he is, was, and continues to be. That’s such a wonderful thing in acting, because when they do and you’re starting to share such a moment, whenever I see him I will call him son. We have that connection forever and that’s a beautiful thing, it’s one of the things I love about our biz, when you have that brotherhood.”

Please welcome Greyston Holt to our circle of friends! Listen to the sound clip here:

FF – Welcome Greyston, this is Ferreira Fest and we’re so glad to be talking to you today. How are you?

GH – I am fantastic. I’m happy to be talking to you.

FF – All right, great. Now, so for the three people who might not know on this planet, who is Greyston Holt and what gets you up in the morning?

GH – Greyston Holt is an island boy at heart with aspirations of living in the big city. I love to act, I love to cook, I love new experiences, travel. I currently live in Vancouver which is my favorite city in the world, the rain and all, it’s a pretty magical place and my heart will always be there, however I’m in Toronto right now filming Bitten, our third season, and that’s kind of where I’m at right now.

FF – Greyston, for your age you have an amazing number of acting credits to your name. Besides being ridiculously talented and just an overall nice person, to what do you attribute your success as an actor?

GH – I guess just staying real and focused and grounded and down to earth, and also having perseverance, you really have to stick with it in this industry. You can’t be impatient, you know, you really have to just believe in yourself and hope that it’ll work out for you.

But, yeah, I think, just being grounded and down to earth has really helped me in this industry because it’s easy to get your head inflated with your ego and I’ve always remained a very grounded person and I’ve been kind to everyone I come across on set, whether it’s crew, fellow actors, producers, writers. When it comes down to it, this is a job as well. You know there’s the art part of it but there’s also the side that you need to work well with others, and people want to work with you, so…

FF – Right. And don’t run with scissors, right?

GH – Don’t run with scissors, exactly.

FF – Tell us a little bit about what your training was like, how did you get bitten by the acting bug? How did you get into this whole thing?

GH – I fell into it accidentally. When I was going into my last and final year of high school I needed an extra arts credit in order to graduate and there were a few different options. One of them was Acting 12 and I decided to take it on a whim and I just really fell in love with it, I had a lot of fun. I loved creating characters and stepping outside of myself, learning lines, just reading scripts, and so I obviously had talked to my parents about school and the things I’m liking and I was telling my parents that I was really into this acting class that I was taking.

And my mom, off the cuff, mentioned it to one of her coworkers, and I guess her coworker, her sister is an acting agent in Vancouver. And she’s like, well, if that person is really interested in acting maybe they should meet.

And so I flew over on the seaplane, because I grew up on Salt Spring Island, a small island near Vancouver, and I went to meet Kathy Carpenter who’s still my agent to this day. And, yeah, the rest is history we’ve just sort of been picking away at it since. That was, god, like thirteen years ago or something like that.

FF – Wow.

FF – So, tell us a little bit about who were, or still possibly even are, your mentors in this business. None of us do it alone, of course, so who are some of the people that have helped you along the way?

GH – Definitely Kathy Carpenter, my agent. She’s believed in me from day one. We really have collaborated in my career path and she’s like a second mother to me, in the city. And of course my parents have guided me, but as far as the professional side of it, yeah, Kathy would definitely have to be one of them. And just the various actors I’ve worked with throughout my career that have inspired me, taught me and guided me. So… it takes a village.

FF – Yeah, yeah. Do you think that maybe, a little bit further down the line – I mean, you certainly have the experience already, but is mentoring something that you have an interest in?

GH – Yes and no. Not in an official capacity. I find I just do it anyways, on set, when we have a new, a green actor and/or a young actor, I just always like to make people feel comfortable and welcome.

FF – Right.

GH – And then just really help them in the process. A lot of times, it happens to all of us when you first start out, you have a lot of nerves, if it’s a big scene and you have a lot of dialogue, or it’s your first scene ever and… you know, it’s just about making someone feel comfortable on set. Most of the time what kills an actor is nerves; you can use those nerves to your benefit, but if you don’t, it can squash your performance.

GH – And then just really help them in the process. A lot of times, it happens to all of us when you first start out, you have a lot of nerves, if it’s a big scene and you have a lot of dialogue, or it’s your first scene ever and… you know, it’s just about making someone feel comfortable on set. Most of the time what kills an actor is nerves; you can use those nerves to your benefit, but if you don’t, it can squash your performance.

FF – Right, right, right. Now you’ve been on a lot of shows with a lot of big names, if you just read down your IMDb, but can you tell us something about maybe a lesser known role? One that you’re really, truly proud of – that you wish people would talk more about, or know more about.

GH – Good question, I don’t know, I guess I’d have to be, I have to lose my modesty here. I did a film called Lonesome Dove Church, shot it almost two years ago. It’s just a little MOW that I shot, a Western, with Tom Berenger, and I had a lot of fun on it.

I’ve done a couple of Westerns in the past, but this was my first sort of lead in a Western and I just had a lot fun. I really immersed myself in the character and the role. It was a really tight shoot, we shot it over twelve days, which is very tight for a movie, and I just had a blast and I’m proud of my work, in the end.

I’m proud of most of my work but that was one I had a lot of fun with.

FF – Okay. Great. Now, you’ve had the opportunity, over your career, to work with Louis Ferreira in three very different series, on three different occasions. Durham County, of course, Stargate Universe and most recently Motive. So that’s probably where most of our readers…

GH – I forget that we’ve worked… I always forget that we’ve worked on three separate things together.

FF – Yeah, it’s been three shows … So, in those three shows you’ve gone from the sensitive youth to the soldier in distress to the criminal mastermind. That’s quite a range there. Can you tell us a little bit about how you perceive your own growth as an actor, looking at these three stations in your life?

GH – I think a lot of it just has to do with timing, you know. I booked some of these roles; I mean I’m not going to book the soldier role when I’m the age I was playing Durham County, right, so a lot of these things just go hand in hand. Run parallel with your off-camera life.

as Corporal Reynolds in *Stargate Universe*

When I was doing Durham County I was that guy. I was young and angsty, maybe not quite as introverted as Ray Junior, and then when I booked Stargate I was craving some work, it had been a dry period for myself and I was coming into my own, physically. And I booked that role as a soldier which was perfect timing. And then I booked Motive, I felt more developed as an actor and more willing to take on… I felt more mature as a person, and more willing to take on a role that I thought I wouldn’t take on years earlier, which is the criminal type, you know.

FF – Well, it’s also interesting that all these three roles are, they’re very psychologically influenced roles. They were all thinkers.

GH – Yeah.

FF – It was the wounded soldier, you weren’t out in battle fighting and that kind of stuff but it was mostly with one other character in conversations, a lot of script in all of those three roles.

GH – Yep.

FF – Which is really an interesting connection between them. You have known Louis since Durham County or even longer? When did you first meet?

GH – No, I met Louis on Durham County. When we started filming the first season. So that was, oy, 2005?

FF – It’s been quite a while.

GH – We filmed… it came out in 2006, yeah, so ten years ago. Geez.

FF – Yeah, wow. Would you share a memory of working with him?

GH – This doesn’t involve working with him, it just involves, this was off-set.

FF – Sure.

GH – Hanging out with Helene Joy who played Audrey. And Louis, the three of us were sitting around having some wine and we were getting into it, we were all sharing some life stories and heartache and heartbreak and Louis had a pretty heart wrenching story to tell and Helene the same thing, story of loss, when she’d lost in her life, and so it came around to me and… I wasn’t sheltered, but I had such a beautiful upbringing.

My parents were great parents. They were together, I didn’t have any major loss in my life, I lived in this sort of idyllic, beautiful paradise of an island and so I was like, “Uh… my parents gave away my dog when I was twelve...”

It was like I had nothing to relate to. We had a pretty good laugh about that, I still remember that to this day.

I don’t know, on set it’s hard to say, we were pretty serious on set, so we just focused on the work.

I just remember, Louis really took me under his wing. And I learned a lot from him. That was my first large role. And we definitely bonded, we had a close connection and he showed me the ropes which was really great and I felt like I came out of that show a better actor for it.

FF – All right. We’re almost at the end here, Greyston. So, here comes the difficult question that all of our interview guests get to answer: So, you can take your time…

GH – Boxers, I wear boxers.

FF – You wear boxers? Okay. Great, we have that out of the way, but here comes the real difficult question.

GH – Okay.

FF – If you could describe Louis in four words, what would they be?

GH – Fantastic! Witty. Big-hearted. That counts as one word. And hilarious.

FF – Those are great words, Greyston, thank you so much. How can people keep up with you and your work online?

GH – I usually post most updates, career-wise, on Twitter which is @GreystonH, that’s my Twitter handle.

FF – Oh, fantastic. Great, thank you so much for your time, Greyston, and I hope you have a wonderful day and a great rest of the week.

GH – Awesome, thanks, you too.

FF – All right, bye-bye.

GH – Bye!

Follow Greyston on Twitter at @GreystonH!

Friend him on FaceBook!

Read about Greyston on Wikipedia and check out his IMDb Page.

All photos supplied and © by Greyston Holt.
Screencaps by Ferreira Fest.
© louisferreira.org – Please do not repost this interview without permission.

Thanks to Casey for the transcript!

“When I found out I was coming out to Toronto to test for the role of Clayton, it was down to me and two other guys. I kind of pulled out all the stops. I live in Vancouver, and I went running through the mountains just north of the city with my buddy’s dog. I left the trail and left all my clothes in my bag and just ran around naked for about an hour and howled and yelled and screamed – freaking my friend’s dog out, I’m sure.”
from IMDb Personal Quotes

Good buddies help you keep your eyes open during those crack-of-dawn shoots…

… and they don’t tell anybody about that selfie you took in your trailer the night before.