The TVSA - 11/Aug/2009

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The TVSA Interview: Luke Macfarlane
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Tashi Tagg

Hold onto your siblings B&S junkies! (I couldn't resist:0.)

Brothers & Sisters is back on M-Net this Thursday (13 August at 20h30) for more Walker fadventures (family adventures) after Season 2 ended with Kevin and Scotty getting married.

Actors Luke Macfarlane (who plays hotty Scotty) and Dave Annable (Lustin'-for-Rebecca Justin) visited Cape Town recently - to hang out, check it out and chat about the show.

I caught up with each of them to get the goss on the new season and find out more about them.

They stayed at the schmancy One & Only hotel - where they zap your car from you to park it even when you don't want them too (mine needed a clean) .

Here's what Luke had to say .... (to tune into Dave, please click HERE.)

"I'd like to thank my family"

Tashi: The show's reception and it's winning awards - why do you think it’s had such success?
Luke: I think everyone imagines their family as the Walker family and also, there haven’t been a lot of family drama’s on TV in a long time. Everyone can kinda see their family in different ways, in all the individual moments.

Tashi: Do you see your family?
Luke: Oh yes absolutely, my mother’s like Sally Field very much.

Tashi: I hear you have a twin sister?
Luke: I do.

Tashi: And you have an older sister?
Luke: I do.

Tashi: So who’s side does your twin sister take when there’s a Brothers & Sisters fiasco going on?
Luke: Mmmmm ... my twin sister’s most like Sarah - Rachel Griffith’s character - and my older sister’s most like Kitty (Calista Flockhart). Most of the time we’re on our own side, we’re always warring but my twin sister - she’s my twin so she always has my back.

Tashi: Do you look exactly the same?
Luke: We look nothing alike, my entire family looks like a group of strangers - it’s very strange.

"I need more lines - NOW."

Tashi: Could you tell us more about how the show’s written? Do the writers use their own experiences for the storylines?
Luke: A lot of it has - one of the writers who writes my storyline also writes the storylines for Calista Flockhart. He’s in the process of trying to have a baby and much of his experience with his partner became the exact experience you’ll see Kitty go through in the new season.

Tashi: And the actors? Do you contribute too?
Luke: It’s different - every actor is different that way. I tend to be hands off, I trust that ... you know, so much of my experience on the show has just been about waiting to see what comes to me.

I started off the show not as a series regular and more and more and more came so I’m just gonna sit back and wait to see what comes to me.

I’m not go gonna knock on the door and say “What are you doing with me?” - there are so many actors on the show that I don’t want to be a squeaky wheel.

Tashi: Yes are there are actors going “Argh!” ‘cos you’re getting a bigger role now? *booyakasha sound effect!*
Luke: You didn’t hear it from me. *booyakasha again!* There are so many people on our show, you kinda got to fight for your place.

Tashi: How does it work? If you’re an actor who wants to do more - what do they base the decision on? Your performances? Your role? How do you go about getting increasing your role?
Luke: I think you actually knock on the door of the producer - literally and figuratively. You talk one-on-one. Also there’s the sense that good work begets good work too.

"Mayday! they're gay"

Tashi: Current affairs also influences the storylines a lot?
Luke: Yes, with Kevin and Scotty very much as they’ve gone through the marriage thing, we’ve been through Proposition 8 in California recently. Also Justin going off to war - as many current events that we can bring in, that makes the show as alive as possible.

Tashi: Their marriage is obviously a commentary on all the controversy surrounding gay marriage in the US and also the senator and his attitudes.
Luke: Yeah, it’s a very interesting thing in California - we recently found out that the courts are going to uphold the marriages that did happen so that was nice to know that Kevin and Scotty are still going to be married.

Just after we got married the vote came through and people were wondering “What’s gonna happen with all the people who got married before?” and we’ve just heard that they’re all still married.

Tashi: South Africa’s right up there with Amsterdam when it comes to such things.
Luke: Yes, I just learned that yesterday.

Tashi: I’ve never been certain about how it works in the US - I was reading about it and there’s only about four states where it’s legal.
Luke: Yes, there’s also the difference between state law and federal law ... there’s still a long way to go in the US.

"Do my pecs look big in this?"

Tashi: What of your own experiences do you bring to Scotty?
Luke: I’m patient like Scotty, I guess I’m a good listener - he’s changed a lot though and so have I. It’s a very difficult question to ask an actor because you’re never quite sure. One thing I can say though is that I can’t cook.

Tashi: Snap. When you’re on set and the camera’s are about to roll - what goes through your head? Your lines? Your relationship?
Luke: All of that. That’s what makes acting difficult - you’ve got to think about it all, get to the right marker at the right time, say the right line, turn your head at the right time and you’ve got to feel, you have to have the experience and then you’ve got to think “Gosh - do I look good? Is my hair nice?” *laughs*

BFs (Best faves)

Tashi: Out of the two seasons so far - what’s your all-time fave scene that you’ve played?
Luke: I think it’s definitely the marriage proposal when Kevin asks Scotty to marry him. It was my favourite moment to shoot, my favourite moment to watch - I thought it was a really true and honest moment.

Tashi: And your most difficult?
Luke: My first day on set. It’s always hard because you haven’t quite figured out the character yet so you’re always kind of moving around a little bit.

You’re not quite sure if you’re in the right clothes or hairdo - you’ll see that Scotty looks a lot different and acts a lot different in the early episodes ‘cos I wasn’t even quite sure of him yet.

Tashi: I suppose there was also the thing that you weren’t sure of everyone - like you were joining a family who knew each other.
Luke: Oh very much so it’s like the first day of Grade school when you’re a kid - you want to be popular and cool and pick up with the right people.

Tashi: It's similar to the show too - Scotty coming into the big family and so on.
Luke: Yes except Scotty’s so self-assured - which is something, I’m not as self-assured as him - it’s something I admire about him very much.

Season 3 Sneak Peak

Tashi: Season 3 - what’s in store for Kevotty?
Luke: Well definitely one of the questions that comes up is finances - in most relationships this is the big deal - the thing they say is that one of the main things couples fight about is money.

Kevin’s always been the main breadwinner and Scotty starts to make a little bit more money than Kevin so that challenges him a little bit.

Tashi: It’s good that you’re dealing with money because so many shows don’t. It’s like Prison Break - I once read a story about Prison Break asking where do they get all the money to keep running?? It's so true.
Luke: Money’s boring but it’s an important part of a relationship.

Tashi: Except for Kevin, who’s your fave Walker sibling?
Luke: Scotty gets along with Sarah very very well. She’s wild, she’s got a great sense of humour, also I think Kevin gets along with her well too and you’re always attracted to the sibling your spouse gets along with most.

TV Guide.ca - 07/Aug/2009

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Little Tiger's love story is at the heart of CBC's 'Iron Road'

Hard ‘Road’


By Greg David
2009-08-07

CBC mini finds love amid slavery on Canada’s rails

Luke MacFarlane says he’s always wanted to act in a CBC TV-movie.

“My career has really had nothing to do with Canada. I graduated high school and then moved to the States, and all of my work was doing American plays, American movies and American TV shows,” says MacFarlane, a London, Ont., native who stars in the Canadian railway miniseries Iron Road.

”I really wanted to do something that was Canadian. Then this came along, and it seemed like the perfect Canadian thing to do. Also, growing up, I watched these great CBC TV-movies, and said, ‘I want to do that!’”

MacFarlane can check that item off his to-do list.

Iron Road is a visually stunning, remarkably enjoyable CBC miniseries that explores the romance between a Chinese slave and a railroad tycoon’s son set against the backdrop of the construction of the cross-Canada railroad circa the 1880s.

Filmed in China and B.C., Iron Road boasts a powerhouse cast – including Sam Neill (The Tudors), Peter O’Toole (Venus) and Sun Li (Fearless) – that delivers lines from a script written by Barry Pearson and Raymond Storey (The Guard) with aplomb and conviction.

Based on the opera by the same name, Iron Road doesn’t flinch away from one of the biggest black marks on Canadian history – the shipping of Chinese slaves to Canada under false promises of a better life.

The slaves ended up working in notoriously unsafe conditions as they built the railroad – thousands died as tunnels collapsed, dynamite accidentally exploded and cruel bosses oversaw them. Iron Road’s sweeping views of graves alongside the railroad embankment drives the point home.

“It’s really one of our great acts of shame,” says MacFarlane, who also plays Scotty on Brothers & Sisters, from the set of the ABC show. “At least the government acknowledged that with some form of retribution recently.”

But at its heart, Iron Road is a love story about two people from very different cultures.

On one hand is James Nichol (MacFarlane), son of railroad tycoon Alfred Nichol (Neill), who is so determined to impress his father that he goes to China in search of more workers to help build the railroad, and keep it on schedule.

It’s there that James meets Relic (O’Toole), the man in charge of recruiting new workers seeking a new life in Canada. It’s also there that James meets Little Tiger (Li), a girl masquerading as a boy so she can earn a living at a fireworks factory.

Falling short of his 100 slaves, James reluctantly agrees to bring the stubborn Little Tiger overseas with him.

Without giving too much away, Tiger is forced to decide – since she’s falling in love with James and all – whether to reveal her true identity to him, and face being sent back home.

“I want people to understand the sacrifices that these people made for the railroad,” MacFarlane says. “Yes, this is a love story, but this is also to honour the Chinese people and the sacrifice they made.”

Iron Road is a beautifully shot mini, going from black and white to sepia tones, to vibrant colours and then back to dull tones, and it’s all part of director David Wu’s vision.

“The film begins in black and white to show that this takes place a long time ago,” he says on the line from Vancouver. “Little Tiger’s [life in China] is hard, so the colours are washed out. When she comes to Canada, colours, like reds, begin to seep into the scenes, as things get better for her.”

When asked how much direction he had to give film legend O’Toole, Wu chuckles.

“He’s such a pleasant human being,” Wu says. “If someone told me that, when I walked out of seeing Lawrence of Arabia when I was 15, that I would be directing him, I would have said, ‘Get out of here!’

“When we were shooting in China, we would sit and chat, and he would talk about his classmates in performing school, like Richard Harris, and he studied his character pretty well, so I didn’t have to give him much direction.

“And if I did give him some direction, he would say, ‘Done!’ and then nail it in the next take.”

Part 1 of Iron Road airs Sunday, Aug 9, at 8 p.m. ET on CBC; the conclusion airs Sunday, Aug. 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
greg@tvguide.ca

Video: The Iron Road trailer

The Globe and Mail - 07/Aug/2009

Source(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/cbcs-long-train-running/article1244574/ need to be a member)

CBC’s long train running
Fiona Morrow From Saturday’s Globe and Mail Last updated on Friday, Aug. 07, 2009 01:44PM EDT

It took from 1881 to 1885 to construct the Canadian Pacific Railway, a Herculean task undertaken by thousands of labourers, including 17,000 Chinese workers, many of whom lost their lives. But it took even longer to get Iron Road – a glossy CBC miniseries about the building of the railroad, airing tomorrow and next Sunday – from script to screen.
Producers Barry Pearson and Anne Tait got the ball rolling in 2000, securing the rights to a 2001 opera of the same name by Chan Ka Nin and Mark Brownell that combined a complicated interracial love story with a saga about the CPR’s creation. The resulting $10-million production, starring Sam Neill and Peter O’Toole, took nine years to make it to the small screen.
A product of many partners, Iron Road is also the first project since 1989′s Bethune: The Making of a Hero to be made under a China-Canada film co-production treaty . “There’s a good reason for that,” says Pearson, over the phone from Toronto. “Battling your way through enormous paperwork and in two languages that don’t happily co-exist is extremely time-consuming.”
He estimates that it took five years simply to shepherd the script through the various funding agencies and grant applications. And if the administrative and organizational hoops appeared endless, the script was also in a constant state of development.
The plot centres on Little Tiger (Sun Li), a Chinese kid who toils at a fireworks company and trades laundry services for English lessons from a washed-up Brit named Relic (O’Toole). Little Tiger dreams of mythical Gold Mountain – and the father who never came back from the promised land of Canada. But Little Tiger also has a secret: Underneath his scruffy clothes and mucky face, he is actually a she. And she winds up falling in love with the railroad boss’s son, James (Luke Macfarlane).
The Chinese authorities demanded very little in the way of script changes, says Pearson. Their biggest issue was with the sex scenes, requesting that they be substantially toned down. And both Li and director David Wu had misgivings about the manner in which Little Tiger originally shows James that she is female – insisting there was no way an 18th-century Chinese woman would go skinny-dipping in a lake while thousands of men slept in nearby tents.
But according to Pearson – also a principal writer on the project – all those were easy fixes. “The real elephant in the room was making the gender-bender plot line work,” he acknowledges. “It was a long struggle from beginning to end to make it as plausible as possible – but it’s hanging on the edge all the time.”
For Wu, as well, the central premise was a headache. “I spent so much time trying to find the right actor,” he recalls. “It was very clear to me that the whole project depended on who we picked for that role – and we auditioned many, many actors.”
For 26-year-old Li, whose earlier films include Fearless , with Jet Li, the role was both a dream and a challenge. “Capturing the inner part of a boy, such as the way he makes eye contact, is a hard thing to express,” she explains over the phone from Shanghai. But she shrugs off the more strenuous stunts she performed as the railroad’s fearless explosives-setter, crediting her agility to the dancing lessons she has taken since childhood.
Li says she didn’t know anything about the history of the railroad before reading the script, but soon became obsessed with finding out more. “I was really shocked at the conditions the workers lived in,” she says. “I started to do a lot of research, and read everything I could find.”
Wu learned about the railroad as a child, but says he didn’t really understand the extent of the sacrifices made until one day during filming, standing on the railway tracks in Kamloops. “I stood there and just thought, ‘Wow! How did they do this?’ It was the same feeling you get when you walk on the Great Wall of China. Every single mile is built by these workers’ bare hands – and we take it all for granted.”
Iron Road premieres Sunday Aug. 9 at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Bloggers & Sisters - 07/Aug/2009

(Source deleted)

Bikers and Sisters
by John Kazlauskas

Luke with two bikes

Luke Macfarlane is a real mountain biker. The kind of biker who owns more bikes than most people do shoes. The kind of biker who is excited about spending a summer weekend doing a 120-mile roundtrip ride through the mountains. In short, the kind of biker you’d want on your team if you were participating in a relay triathlon. Which I am. (More on that later…)
Now I’m a runner because I’ve not had so much luck with bikes:

Poor baby

But Luke has been riding bikes for his entire life. Although now he spends his time at Topanga Creek Bicycles and riding in the Southern California sunshine, as a kid he’d go out regardless of the season. Cold winters didn’t bother him. He’d just push tacks through his tires so they had some traction on the snow and ice. And that was during a Canadian winter.
One Spring Break at Julliard he shipped his bike to San Francisco and boarded a plane – literally wearing his lycra biking clothes — to start a weeklong trek up California’s coast.

1967 Buick LeSabre

How the trip ended up in a 1967 LeSabre he had to buy from the side of the road and a $600 ticket from the Highway Patrol mailed to his parents in Canada is another blog for another day.
But you get the point: Luke is a biker.
Which is why we were all so excited when he agreed to be on the Brothers and Sisters team for the 2009 Malibu Triathlon in September. The show actually has 2 relay teams competing and, even though I’m a runner, I thought maybe I could try my hand at biking for the big event.
In the spirit of sportsmanship, Luke agreed to show me the ropes and teach me a thing or two by biking around the Disney Lot. In fact, almost everyone gets around this lot on a bike so it just made sense.
“You’re doing WHAT?” Marc Halsey, the other Writer’s Assistant asked.

Marc at work

“We have so much work to do! Episode 405 is being finished right now. Now is not the time!”
“Don’t worry.” I assure him. “If you need me, you know where to find me!”
Now immediately I was intimidated. Luke is the real deal. So I showed up for our lesson dressed appropriately. But I could tell by Luke’s face that I was maybe a little overdressed.

John in muscle suit

“Are you wearing a muscle suit?” Luke asked, warily.

I pause and look down: Was it THAT obvious? Embarrassed I run inside: “Just give me a second.”
More suitably dressed I was ready for the lesson to start:

John with water

“What is all that for?” Luke asks.

“Water! We’re gonna need to stay hydrated.”
Confused, Luke points out: “We’re just going around the lot—“
“SHHHH!” I cut him off. “You’ll thank me for this one day!” downing a bottle in one gulp.
As Luke starts talking about bike safety and clipless pedals I see something out of the corner of my eye. It’s Marc! And he’s looking for me! I can’t go to work NOW! The lesson is just about to start!
Thinking fast, I jump on one of Luke’s bikes: “You never forget how to ride a bike, right? Let’s go!”
“Wait…” is all Luke can manage before I am off down New York Street.

NY Street

Something is wrong. My foot feels weird on my pedal.

I stop somewhere near our parking garage, which we call “Zorro.”

Stopping at Zorro

Marc is nowhere to be seen. Good. “My pedals are broken.” I point out.

“They’re clipless pedals. I was trying to explain.” Luke tells me, pulling up next to me. He wipes sweat from his forehead.
“I’ll bet you wish we had those waters now,” I say under my breath.
“Actually I’m good.” Luke says.
I hear it before I see it: “JOHN!”
Marc speeds towards us:

Marc's car

“John!” He yells again.
I jump on the bike: “Luke! I’ll race ya around the lot!” And I’m off.
Here’s a piece of advice. If someone is as good at biking as Luke is, don’t challenge them to a race.
YOU. WILL. LOSE.
Luke was gone in a blur and in the time it took me to finish one lap of the lot, Luke passed me twice. Once in a parking lot:

7 dwarves

And again near “The Mill” where the sets are constructed:

The mill

As we approached the B&S home at Stages 6 and 7, Luke passed me one final time, finishing with a triumphant jump over a speed bump.

Luke bike-jumps

I start pedaling harder to try and get enough speed for my jump. But my feet kept slipping off of the pedals and…well…the speed bump did what it was supposed to do. CRASH! The bike stopped in its tracks and I went flying over the handlebars:

John flying

“That looked like it hurt.” Marc says coolly, relishing his moment:

Marc relishes

“Ready to go back to work now?”
I try to sound cheery even though I can’t feel my legs. “Sure.”
Marc stands, heading inside. “See you upstairs.”
Luke walks over and helps me up.
“Hey don’t get discouraged. Just get out there again – on your own bike next time – and you’ll improve. You have to.”
“I guess so…” I mumble.
“Well, you certainly can’t get any worse.“
“I’ll just stick to running.” I say, “I think for me mountain biking will just be an uphill struggle.”
Luke thinks for a moment: “You know when I’m biking, I like nothing more than going up a hill.”
“You’re mental.” I mutter.
Luke starts walking away. “Maybe. But you know why we work so hard going uphill? So that we get to enjoy the downhill. Oh and you should always wear a helmet. Later, dude.”

Luke waves goodbye

I look at the scratches on my arms, legs and ego and realize you know, he’s probably right.

A very special thanks to Luke Macfarlane, Johnny Foam, Melina Root, Marc Halsey and Sparkey Hawes for making this blog happen.

The Canadian Press - 06/Aug/2009

Source (http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iMf5A0q-QzH7D9UOxuf-jg4_OM6w deleted)

“Iron Road’s” tender love story shines spotlight on slice of Canadian history
By Diana Mehta (CP)

TORONTO — Director David Wu distinctly remembers standing on a railway track in British Columbia during the filming of “Iron Road,” marvelling at the way it snaked through the Rocky Mountains. As he walked the wooden sleepers that stretched on for miles, he says he knew the story he was portraying was one that had to be told.

Wu’s “Iron Road” tells the tale of Chinese workers who crossed the Pacific in the 1880s to build the transcontinental railway so they could earn enough money for a better life at home.
“As soon as I got the script, I said: ‘It’s about time,”‘ Wu says.
The film’s most important message, he says, is that a life was lost for every mile of track laid.
“I really feel that the railroad is built with blood and sweat and tears of the workers whether they were white, Chinese or Indian,” says the 57-year-old Vancouver resident, who also directed the films “Merlin’s Apprentice and “Son of the Dragon.”"
“Iron Road,” which was shot as a two-part miniseries for CBC, was also condensed into a 95-minute feature film for independent distribution. CBC says it’s the first Canada-China co-production to hit screens in 22 years.
The cast includes “Lawrence of Arabia”‘s Peter O’Toole, Sam Neil of “The Tudors,” “Brothers and Sisters” actor Luke MacFarlane and Chinese starlet Sun Li.
“This is my dream team,” says Wu. “We feel like family.”
MacFarlane plays James Nichol, the privileged son of a railroad tycoon who travels to China in the 1880s to recruit cheap labour. Li takes on the role of a girl disguised as street boy Little Tiger who longs to go to Canada to learn what happened to her workman father.
Producer Anne Tait first latched onto the story when she saw it performed as an opera in 2001.
“It’s where the germ of this story appeared. I was haunted by the image of this woman disguised as a guy,” she says.
The $10-million dollar project was shot within a tight schedule with 30 days in China and 10 in British Columbia.
Tait says while the role of Chinese workers in early Canadian infrastructure has been noted in black-and-white documentaries, this slice of history has never been told as a love story.
“I believed in that from the very beginning,” says Tait. “It was a way to show the attraction between two cultures and the problems and make it touch peoples hearts.”
Tait says Li’s performance as a boy in a rough-and-tumble crew of workmen was good to the point of disbelief.
“She worked hard on that swagger,” says Tait with a laugh. “She has to be believable, it’s a delicate thing to tread.”
MacFarlane, on the other hand, was the wide-eyed privileged playboy, inexperienced in ways of the world.
“There’s a kind of innocence about his portrayal of James which is captivating,” says Tait, adding that the project had made MacFarlane grow professionally.
“‘Iron Road’ turned him from a theatre actor to an action film star.”
MacFarlane says he brushed up on his Canadian history before filming, but deliberately ignored texts that dealt with China.
“I wanted to have the same fish-out-of-water experience the lead had,” he says, adding that filming in China had been a thrilling experience.
“There’s a rough and ready attitude about filmmaking there and I loved it,” he says.
Language barriers between the two leads meant Li and MacFarlane often used sign language and the most basic phrasing to communicate off-camera.
“It was very difficult,” says MacFarlane, “but there was a real sort of want on both of our parts to get it done right.”
A nude scene in which MacFarlane strips down in Li’s presence had the lead man playing coy.
“What you saw was pretty much how it went,” he says with a chuckle.
For MacFarlane, who hails from London, Ont., but has lived in the U.S. for years, the project was one which resonated on a personal level.
“This was an opportunity to come back to kind of where I came from,” he says.
Ultimately, the telling of the story was supposed to be more than just entertainment, it was considered a “diplomatic effort” as well.
“I think we all want to believe that the thing we’re creating is going to have some sort of greater impact,” MacFarlane says.
“I think art can be very interesting that way, it can really help to build bridges.”
The “Iron Road” miniseries will screen on CBC Aug. 9 and 16.

seventeen - 03/Aug/2009

[Source]
seventeen chats to Luke Mcfarlane

seventeen recently caught up with one of the stars from the hit show, Brothers and Sisters. Take a moment to see what this hottie had to say.

1. The worst thing I did as a kid that my parents don't know about is… travelled to California without them knowing by myself.

2. The one thing every girl should know bout guys is… they're scared of most girls.

3. The most random song on my iPod is... the Little Mermaid soundtrack.

4. If I could change one thing about myself it would be... to be a better speller.

5. If I were elected president of the U.S. the first thing I'd do is... make marriage legal for everyone.

6. The last thing I googled was... Table Mountain.

7. On Christmas I can't wait to... travel home to Canada.