In this episode I talk leadership, resilience and learning how to show up on the Zoom stage with award-winning actor Colm Feore in this pick-up from the Set The Tone Harry Rosen webinar series, Creativity Lives On.
Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada and with the support of omNovos Canada’s digital customer engagement company. ‘Tis the season for giving and omNovos can help you give your customers the gift of a personalized experience in 2021. Find out how you can Get Personal and Grow Sales with omNovos at www.realcustomerengagement.com
In this episode I talk leadership, resilience and learning how to show up on the Zoom stage with award-winning actor Colm Feore in this pick-up from the Set The Tone Harry Rosen webinar series, Creativity Lives On.
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Thanks to Colm, Trinh and the team at Harry Rosen for being my partners in the Set the Tone webinar series , plus omNovos for their support on this episode. If you liked this podcast please subscribe on Apple, Spotify or your favourite podcast platform, rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can watch my live interview with Colm at Harry Rosen online.
I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn
Until next time, have a safe week!
Michael LeBlanc
Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada with the support of omNovos, Canada's digital customer engagement company. 'Tis the season of giving and omNovos can help you give your customers the gift of a personalized experience in 2021. Find out how you can get personal and grow sales with omNovos at www.realcustomerengagement.com.
In this episode I talk leadership resilience and learning how to show up on the Zoom stage with award winning actor Colm Feore, in this pickup from the Set The Tone Harry Rosen webinar series entitled Creativity Lives On. Let's listen.
Trinh Tham
Hello, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our second episode of the Set The Tone webinar series presented by Harry Rosen. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Trinh Tham, Chief Marketing Officer at Harry Rosen and your emcee for today's episode, Creativity Lives On.
As you know, we started this series as a way to gain new perspectives from inspirational Canadians and role models on current events, their passions and how they set the tone in their personal and professional lives. We are so excited to be chatting with award winning film, television and stage actor Colm Feore today about his (inaudible) our cultural and creative sectors are navigating the pandemic while staying inspired at the same time. So, without further ado, I'll hand the mic over to you Michael.
Michael LeBlanc
Well thanks Trinh and I guess considering Colm your background we should be saying 'Without much ado', much ado about nothing, a little, a little parlay there. Trinh thanks so much for, for the introduction. Good morning. Good afternoon everyone, depending on where you are in Canada. Welcome to this the second episode of the Set The Tone webinar series presented by Harry Rosen.
I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to welcome and introduce Colm. Probably more than any other leader I've interviewed needs, as they would say, little or no introduction. A master craftsman veteran actor of the Stratford stage, best known appearances, countless movies, Bon Cop Bad Cop 1 and 2, CBC's Trudeau, most recently Netflix, Umbrella Academy. Colm's work has broken box office records, earned praise, fandom and Order of Canada Medal, amongst many honors. So, we're very excited to have you here today. And you know, beyond let's, let's jump right in Colm, welcome, and thank you again for joining us, beyond the highlight reel. Give us a sense of your personal and professional journey. And even what brought you to even what brought you to Stratford?
Colm Feore
Well, I started, you know, doing plays in, in primary school, and then in high school continued. I don't know quite why I was tapped to do the plays. A great Scot's teacher at the school I was at, says, 'Well, yeah, you'll do this son'. And I said, standup straight he put a coat hanger in my back and away we went. And so, that was kind of fun. And I continued doing that.
And by the time I finished high school, I suppose, you know, I was a middling student. I applied to universities. I was even accepted at some of them. But I also applied to the National Theatre School in Montreal. And I got in, and much to my surprise. I phoned my parents and said, 'Listen, change of plan, I'm probably not going to university to become a middling teacher. I think I'd like to go to theater school. 'Oh, yeah, we know' I said, 'Well, how do you know?', 'Well the letter came here, and it was time sensitive. We, we accept it on your behalf.' Which was an enormously encouraging, you know, vote of confidence. So, I went to the theater school, got out of there went straight to the National Art Center before I had even graduated.
Then out of the National Art Center for a show, I ended up in Toronto, looking for work. Did some television stuff there. And almost immediately ended up in Stratford. John Hirsch was looking for people. And so, at a very young age, I was catapulted into an awful lot of work. And I mean, obviously, this is an actor's dream. But, one of the great advantages of Stratford is you don't do one show, we're in repertory. So, you do three or four. And in the case of my first year here, 1980, 81, I did five. One of them I could never even have been in. I was under studying Richard Monette, who became an artistic director in his own right, a fabulous actor, god rest him. And, he was doing a show called 'Rivals' and I was understudying him as the lead in that. And I was in four other shows. I could never even have seen that show never mind being in it.
But, you know, it was such a kind of collaboration year for Stratford. All kinds of extra stuff was going on. But the bottom line was, I did the work. And in doing all of that wide variety of work, it laid a fundamental foundational understanding for me about how to begin a career. And so that's where I started and I stayed with Stratford for many years.
In the downtime, between seasons, I would do television and a bit of film. And then, at a certain point in my Stratford career, I did a little film called '32 Short Films About Glenn Gould', where I, where I played Glenn Gould and the director of that, François Girard said, 'Well, you, you should probably do more film'. And I said, 'Well, what do I need to do to do more film?' He said, 'Well, you need to be available. So, this Stratford thing you've got going has got a stop'. And I thought, 'Well, what do you mean available? For, for how long?' Because, available is actor speak for unemployed. And consequently broke. And so, he said, 'Two years'. And I said, ' François, I don't have two years.' I better get lucky, pretty darn quickly. But I did, I did risk it.
I went from Stratford and took the, the VHS copy of Glenn Gould around and said, 'Hey, I'm in this, and maybe you'd like to see me in it', and I got some work. And so, that started a different section, or part of my career. Then, once that had got its ball kind of rolling, I was able to come back to Stratford, and to the theater, generally speaking. And so, ever since then, I've been bouncing back and forth. And happily, this continues.
Michael LeBlanc
Well, take us a bit into your tradecraft. I mean, one of the movies I didn't mention that is actually one of my favorite appearances of yours is 'The Sum of All Fears'. Which is, it's a subtle little roll, but I do love it, because you're at the beginning. And then unfortunately, you, your demise, towards the end of the movie.
Colm Feore
You say unfortunately, what's your, what's the real question about?
Michael LeBlanc
Well, the real question is, what's your tradecraft? How do you pick these roles?
Colm Feore
Well, that was picked for me, interestingly enough, by 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould' because the director loved the film and said, 'Oh, I want him. Yeah, sure, he could do a South African arms dealer'. And so, that was it. And, it was the second time that year that Liev Schreiber killed me. Because, I did his Hamlet in New York in public theater. So, we were old friends. And no, the punchline to that is it, when I then did another film for Kenny Branagh, called 'Thor'. And he needed, he was then directing another installment of the Clancy thing, this time with Chris Pine, instead of Ben Affleck, as, as the guy, Jack Ryan. And, Kenny phoned up and said, 'Listen, I need you to do a cameo in this. Could you drop by London for a couple of days then New York for couple of days?' 'Yes, so Kenneth, I'd be delighted to do that'. And, you know, because he didn't ask, I didn't mention that I was in the last one. I just failed to mention that. Because I thought, you know, I'm an actor, there's a different Jack Ryan, what does it matter? So, I get to London, having already shot my two days in New York. And the kid who's playing my assistant, we get into the van to go, he said, 'Hey, I just looked you up. You were in the'
Michael LeBlanc
Exnah on the,
Colm Feore
So, I got totally busted. I got him to keep his mouth shut. So, I fly to London to shoot the next couple of days with it. And turns out, I'd forgot that Mace Neufeld, a man of a certain age, who'd produce the first one, was also producing this one. And, he slipped past me on the set somewhere in the London City where we were shooting, and he said 'I'm delighted to see that your neck healed so well', because we had to slice my throat in the last one.
Michael LeBlanc
That's right.
Colm Feore
So, the tradecraft is, is know why you're there, right. Know what your job is. My, because of my foundation at Stratford, I've always been using people like Shakespeare, Chekhov and Moliere as the guides. So, you can pretty much trust the writing. And so, my job is to figure out what the author's intention is, and, and then serve it. What's the story? Just tell it. So, in terms of the Jack Ryan, it was be the, you know, South African arms dealer who really only wanted a fancy apartment in Morocco.
Michael LeBlanc
With the hand at the end, right? You're listening to an opera at the end before your demise.
Colm Feore
Oh no, no, no, it's very specific. He was conducting Nessun Dorma. And, and what the director asked for, he said, 'I know it's a bit of a cheat and steal. But there's a little easter egg au mage. It's from the conducting scene from '32 Short Films About Glenn Gould'. So,
Michael LeBlanc
There you go,
Colm Feore
We, yeah, you know, I was stealing from myself. And, you know, the, the idea is, I think that all of these media, the theater, film and cinema and radio and voice work, they all cross pollinate. We learn something from all of them. And so, I use the foundational work of it, you know, the real rigorous structure of the theater, which requires, gives you a lot more time to work on it, a lot more rehearsal, but then makes you feel slightly more confident. I do the same kind of work for film and television, but I do it mostly alone. And, and hope that that structure will, will keep me safe in a very fast paced environment. And so, that's part of the deal, I prepare in mostly the same way, then the execution is what ends up being different.
Michael LeBlanc
As an actor and professional, how do you bring new inspiration to what is fairly timely, old, whatever we want to know, like Shakespeare plays have been done. They've been done many times. Some of the roles you've done have been done since the early dawn of Shakespeare or the early dawn of Stratford. How do you, how do you bring a new sense of sensibility, so to speak to, to those roles that, that are so well known, and yet so unexpected sometimes?
Colm Feore
Well, you know, first of all, you have to accept that you're part of the stream, the history of the theater. You're always standing on the shoulders of your past heroes. And you're stealing all their best stuff. There's nothing to discuss. We were going to do Richard III here. Open the new Tom Patterson theater, an homage to Tom Patterson, who helped found the festival and who got Alec Guinness and Tyrone Guthrie here for the first season, to do Richard III, and all as well. And so, there was a real historical book ending to that.
As a sidelight to that, at the National Theatre School, they got a lot of their costume wardrobe from old stuff that the festival was offering. So, the festival is overflowing with costumes 1,000s built every year. And so, we got some of their old stuff. And, I remember as a student, we got to go into the warehouse and just find some stuff to try on and see if we could use it for our rehearsals. I found something Alec Guinness wore for Richard III. And, like the ugly stepsister, forced my way into this jacket that was way too small for me. I must have been a very fat kid at theater school. And, I just I couldn't get it on, it was crippling, and I thought, 'Well, there's something in that'.
And so, coming to it now, so many years later, obviously, we did a little bit of photoshoot where we honored, Alec. I was dressed up more or less like him with the historical gown. We're saying, look, we recognize that's where we're from. We're not going to do it like that. We're not, we're going to steal everything that was great about that. But that was of its time, we will, by definition, be of our time. And so, I've done enough of this, to know that you're never going to be definitive, but what you will be is unique, you'll be unique, simply because it's you doing it. And you're going to do and say the words of Hamlet, King Lear and Richard III, very differently than the last person and then the next person. And so, you know, you have a certain amount of faith that if you just show up, having done the work, and we do an enormous amount of work.
And the heartbreaking thing about the shutdown is, you know, I did a year and a half on, on Richard. I, my floor here is littered with biographies and histories and knife, knife ware, and how to do armor, and where I was going to hide the knives. You know, even then, I just places lousy with knives, one of the knives I wanted to incorporate into the costume, I bought from one of my favorite knife stores in Toronto, and have a look at this. This is gorgeous, and I wanted to just keep taking this out and opening it and keep taking it out. Because historically, Richard had a dagger, and that's what he did. So, I was asking Stratford to find a place to build this into the costume because guys armed to the. So, I've got the knife. I live in hope someday we'll do it.
But you know, we had a perfect show for this time. Richard III was going to speak to today. It's about tyranny. It's about people who enable tyranny. So, obviously you look around the world, and this was a really important story to tell. We didn't have to dress it up. I didn't, I wouldn't have had to wear a red tie, as Oskar Eustis did a production of Julius Caesar public not too long ago.
Michael LeBlanc
You didn't have to create a con, you didn't have to create a context, the global, the global environment was doing it for you.
Colm Feore
No, and all you have to do suddenly, is say Shakespeare's words, just people speaking and just people speaking in English. With all the understanding of all that history with a year and a half work that me and Antoni Cimolino, the artistic director of Stratford and the director of this show, we're doing, we just have to make it clear, and the audience will go, 'Wow, I guess Shakespeare is relevant'. Razor, absolutely razor like to the truth of what's going on in the world,
Michael LeBlanc
Right on, right on.
Colm Feore
Not just south of the border here, but in South America, Turkey, Hungary you name it.
Michael LeBlanc
Many places.
Colm Feore
This is a message that is, that is, that is, that speaks. And again, heartbreakingly, we had a bit of a crystal ball. We were sold out. We, I would still be doing Richard III in the snowfall here. We had extended the show's run, the full extension that actor's equity will allow us. We had added more performances, and we had sold out the first three months. It was very gratifying to see. But of course that can't happen. So, you know,
Michael LeBlanc
Well, let me, let me follow one thread about what you're talking about. So, you're talking about the, the amount of preparation and the many, many months that went into it. Give us a sense, for those of us who watch and love the theater, but don't understand the behind the scenes. What's the scope and scale of a production like that? There's obviously, obviously yourself and your preparation, but how many people are there? And what goes into pulling a production like that together?
Colm Feore
You come into the first reading for Stratford for Richard III, and there were probably in excess of 100 people in the room, representing different departments of the theatre, but at least 40 plus of them are in the cast. Then we have stage management, directors, assistant directors, fight choreographers, assistant fight, you name it, lighting designers, costume designers, set designers, it's massive. And this is a $76 million operation that puts on big shows. And this season, particularly, we're going to do about 14 or 15 of them. My wife, Donna was gonna do two of them.
Michael LeBlanc
Directing, directing Chicago, right is one of the?
Colm Feore
Directing and choreographing Chicago, a brand new production of Chicago, she got the rights from the holders, rights holders to reinvent that for the festival stage. So, that was really cool. And, I would spend most of my coffee breaks from Richard dashing down to watch her do that. And she was doing Steven Page's new musical with, called 'Here's What it Takes'. So, those I mean, Chicago was up and ready. They were at syspro, she was going into tech. She was a couple of weeks away from preview. So, that shows still exists, all done and the money's been spent.
Richard we were less far advanced, but we were well on our way. And so, listen, we had in that room, Martha Henry, Lucy Peacock, Seana McKenney, McKenna, Tom Rooney, Mike Shara, Jessica, fabulous people that everybody knows, and trusts to do this kind of work. And, then a host of young people up and comers, really, you know, wildly keen to keep doing this kind of work and taking the torch from the rest of us. In the room, we had probably an excess of 500 years of experience with Shakespeare. So, a lot of people knew how to do it. And that was clear. We also had, you know, 11-year-olds playing the Princes. So, pardon me, it was a remarkable room to be in. Everybody came prepared. Everybody had done the kind of work I'd done. And, we're now starting to play together, trying to hash it out. Is this a good idea? It this a good place to stand? Is that a bad idea? We spent about a week just saying, 'What is he saying? What is he talking about? Do we actually understand these words? And for those words, we don't understand. Can we clarify? Or should we just change it?'
You know, I grew up with Michael Langham, who was one of the first artistic directors of the theater. And he said, 'Listen, if it's just confusing, let's either cut it or change it, because we don't want our audience to miss a beat'. So, that's the kind of work we're doing. Then we're doing the fights. We're doing the dancing, if there's dancing. We're doing singing, if there is singing. We're doing all kinds of fight choreography, trying to figure out how to make this happen. And, we actually had some pretty brilliant ideas for Richard because the real Richard III had been recently discovered in a parking lot in Leicester, under the parking space marked 'R' for (inaudible),
Michael LeBlanc
Some what ignominiously, but there you have it, right.
Colm Feore
Ignominiously, but to buried with a lot of pomp and circumstance. So, you know, I'm doing things as part of my research, like autopsy reports. Like the full history of the autopsy, the book on it, the archeological dig, all the videos, all the YouTube rabbit hole stuff one can do. And, all of this helps me enormously. So, I know a great deal more about the historical Richard, as well as about Shakespeare's Richard, who was mangled horribly by Sir Thomas More famously executed by his boss, Henry VIII. So, there's a lot of interesting interconnectivity between the real history, what Shakespeare's propaganda spin was, what people think the history is, and us actually putting a play on. Now, there's no moment for me to play all of the nonsense in my head. But, that I know, it adds layers and layers and layers of complexity, so that every time I just utter one word, it's redolent of all that work. On top of which, I played it before. I played it and Antoni was in it. He was but (inaudible)
Michael LeBlanc
I was going to say, I thought you had done it before, right.
Colm Feore
I did and it's embarrassing to say that, when Richard III was my age, he'd been dead for 32 years. Buy you know what, a great wig department here, a lot of red makeup, I would have looked fabulous.
Michael LeBlanc
Well, let's, let's you take me back to the before time as I call it. I mean, we all had this creeping awareness of the impact of COVID but really, it was one of those Jan, Feb, March this could be bad, it's bad other places, it's horrible What's going on? Could it happen to us? Maybe kind of sorta. But then there is this kind of moment of clarity, I know for me, where it kind of said, 'Oh my goodness, this is gonna, this is going to be catastrophic, change everything'. When did it start to dawn on you and, and your family as well, right, because this isn't just affecting you, it's affecting the people around you, the people you work with, and we'll talk about that later. But when was that moment of clarity? I guess somewhat short of Stratford saying we're not going to do it, but you know, it didn't at day one seem like it was going to stop, right?
Colm Feore
Well, no, no, this was, this is like the seven stages of grief. Because, when we stopped early, or mid-March, we, we believed, my wife and I, and you know, all the other artists we thought, 'Okay, this is going to be a couple of weeks' We're going to,
Michael LeBlanc
Hit the pause button.
Colm Feore
Yeah, we'll, we'll go home. We'll, we'll keep this on simmer, we'll be ready. And, then we'll get back to work. And the government will tell us, Theresa Tam will tell us, Trudeau will tell us it's time to get back. Let's go, be safe, wash your hands and protect each other. So, that happened for a couple of weeks.
Then a couple more weeks passed. And, it was clear that things were going to be radically different than we'd anticipated. One of the biggest issues is that to keep us all on salary, the festival was hemorrhaging money, hemorrhaging money, they were no longer bringing in from ticket sales, because people were in sort of a suspended animation. I'm not going to buy a ticket to a show that may not happen.
And, the festival had to be very upfront with folks and say, 'Look, we don't really know what we're going to do' Then we got into a slightly darker place, we're going to do something, it's not what we were going to do. Because Antoni had programmed a very ambitious season of 15 shows, you know, mega musicals opening 100 million dollar theater. So, that there was going to be a lot of learning curve stuff with that, making sure it could open at all, because, you know, I thought there was going to be big holes at the back, just cover with the tarp. Don't worry, it's like the tent days.
So, there was that. Yeah, and we're gonna get on with it. And everybody who comes knows that they're a part of something really special. Then it got a bit darker. And Antoni let it be known, the festival was always keeping in touch with all of us, we were doing kind of group Zoom things, that they were now in a, in a much more dire position. That they were going to have to pull the plug on what they thought was going to be a season, and what they thought might come back. So, when we started to think about what might come back, given that we had a crystal ball, we saw the ticket sales. I thought and I couldn't have gotten this more wrong. Well, of course, Richard will come back, because it's ready, and we're selling. Chicago,
Michael LeBlanc
Pre sold, yeah
Colm Feore
It's already there. They could open next week, and I've seen some of it, it's fantastic. That's what's gonna happen. But of course, those shows are big. They require big cast, big orchestra, big crews backstage, and they require a big audience. We need people to buy tickets. A public performance is nothing without a public. And so suddenly, it dawned on us that we were actually going to have to radically rethink the whole thing. And that, I have to tell you Michael, I won't be coy, that sent a lot of us into a very dark place. Because not only we were we wrestling with the idea of not being able to do the shows that we were preparing for and had prepared for and we're so looking forward to, we might not be able to do this, again. Not just these shows, but public performance. And when Stratford finally canceled their season, and released us all from our contracts, that was a dark day, because you have to understand, Stratford is a town full of artists.
Michael LeBlanc
Sure
Colm Feore
And people who work in the theater, you know, in an immediate or ancillary secondary way. And that includes now restaurants, hotels, shopkeepers, everything, dry cleaners,
Michael LeBlanc
Everything,
Colm Feore
Gas stations, you know, we bring 150 million bucks, at least into the, into the area. And, the festival employs over 3,000 people. So, it's a huge big deal. And most of my friends and colleagues are two artists household, artists households, right. They're both in it. And certainly, in my house, we're both in it. And all of my friends we started then to get together and say, 'Okay, how are you? Are you okay? Let's Zoom, let's Zoom cocktail. There's a lot of Zoom cocktailing. And a lot of Zoom coffees. My wife, it was particularly aggressive about this. She was holding weekly meetings with her team, you know, her assistant directors, choreographers, lighting designers, designers of costume, she was, and still does, keeps her team together and says, 'Listen, stay fresh. Our ideas are still there, our stuff is built, some of our stuff is on, you know, in the warehouse, just on ice ready to go. Don't lose hope. And let's just keep checking in with each other for our mental health and our artistic health'.
So, we were doing that, I've been doing that with my friends and trying to, you know, reach out to younger folks who, who don't have our experience. One of my wiser friends Scott Wentworth said, 'You know I'm a pensioner, If you tell me I can't do this anymore, I guess I'll be okay with that. And I'll make my piece and I'll write, or I'll study, or I'll, I'll do all the other things that I do'
Michael LeBlanc
Right.
Colm Feore
'But my heart breaks. For all of these folks whose big break this was, you know, this is your big part, this is your first time at Stratford, this is arriving to work in this playground of extraordinary possibilities'. So, there's a lot of suffering, not to mention the catastrophic impact, you know, financially to the city and to the Stratford Festival.
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah, yeah.
Colm Feore
All of our friends are trying to figure out how to survive. And this is an ongoing thing. Many have, and I hate this word, it's the word of the day 'pivoted', they're doing all kinds of other things. And
Michael LeBlanc
We've pivoted 360 degrees, practically, we're all pretty tired of pivoting. We're back where we started. I mean,
Colm Feore
This is called, yeah, it's called, you know (inaudible).
Michael LeBlanc
So, as you think, you're a veteran actor, you're surrounded by actors at all different levels, you know, as you said, some are just getting their first break. How do you, you know, to pick up the theme of our of our narrative here of our series, how do you set the tone as a leader as an influencer? You know, I'm sure actors look up to you for your vast experience and expertise, both professionally, but in circumstances like this, you've talked about Zoom meetings, how do you, yourself amongst that crew, as, as the main lead set a tone for how you're going to get, get through all this?
Colm Feore
Well, I always try to offer a message of hope and optimism and a real focus on staying ready. One day, we will do this again, in the way that we used to do it. Will it be different? Of course, it'll be different. But, when we get back to that place, we have a responsibility, as you know, the people on the stage with the, with the platform and the voice to say, 'We're back'. But it's not only that, it's okay that we're back. Trust us, we've taken all the precautions. This is the New World Order. And we are acting responsibly, to suddenly tell you now, this is how we live now. And this is the prison through which we view what happened to us. We're going to be scarred, no question. We're damaged, but we're going to deal with it.
And so, my message is always one of optimism. I believe it costs nothing to be civil. And I believe I have a responsibility, but thanks to my good fortune, luck, and to some degree, hard work, to say, 'Look, this is how you get through this. This is what I'm doing at home, I'm still studying, I'm still working at being a better actor, I think you should too'. And if there's any other way we can do this, be it online, in the street, at a distance, over a distance cocktail to say, 'Listen, this is what I'm doing to keep it fresh. What about you?' So, there's that.
I think also that, you know, in the room setting, the tone is saying, look, I lead by example. This is how I was taught. This is what's required of us to do this work. And the work is hard. The work is in fact hard. You know, there are enormous technical requirements to acting the classics, to acting in front of a camera, be it a television or a cinema camera. There's a, there are ways to do these things. And yet, the, the work of the artist is still the same. And it's still hard. And you need help, and you need encouragement. So, what I tried to do in the room, is show a willingness to be vulnerable, to be open to this kind of work and to say, 'There's a lot I don't know, I'm here on a journey of discovery, to find out what I don't know, to serve the author's intention and to tell this story for the benefit of the audience's understanding of themselves as human beings. That's our job'. And so, I believe that, you know, I received an enormous amount of that knowledge from people handing me the baton like that, and graciously generously sharing. So now it's my turn. And I
Michael LeBlanc
What do they say? It's your turn to send the elevator back down?
Colm Feore
Yeah,
Michael LeBlanc
Press the button.
Colm Feore
Yes, I'm going to steal that, yes, you're absolutely right.
Michael LeBlanc
Tell me a little bit about resilience. You have a job that is in one way very personal with acceptance and rejection like no others. And you know, I think an actor, for most, much of their life has to be pretty resilient not to take any kind of decisions personally. There's casting decisions, all kinds of decisions. Any advice for the, for the, for the viewers, the listeners about, about resilience as a, as in a time like this in the COVID era?
Colm Feore
Well, I think you have to start the journey of being comfortable with yourself. And obviously, it's a lifetime of, of trying to do that, being honest with yourself, even if it's, you know, you if you have to cheat a little bit. There's always people in my life who are more than willing to be honest with me. And I find that so, so helpful. You know, that's the thing as an actor, you, you're, you know, and I married a director, what the hell was I thinking? You know, both as my director, and as my wife, she's more than happy to offer an opinion about how I might be better. And, I'm, because I'm not dumb, I, I take her advice. And I'm, you know, and it doesn't always work. I mean, you, I am a lot of things. But it's a lifetime's work.
And so, what you're, what I'm getting toward now, in my advanced age, is, this is what it is, right. If you don't like it, pass, that's fine. I'm still working on it. It's an ever evolving thing. So, forgive yourself, you know, and, and keep going, keep working. You're absolutely right, we get rejected nine and a half times out of 10. What do we learn from it? That they didn't want us, that we weren't right for something. But when we are right for something, we should trust ourselves, and just say, 'Okay, like the clutch coming out, and the gears engaging, just move forward'. And don't carry any of that baggage of past rejections. You just can't. There's no point. And it doesn't serve you, it doesn't help you.
And, if you think back to, you know, Shakespeare's day, they had the plague, which was at least as serious as COVID-19. And they all, you know, bugged out of town, went back home to Stratford, and wrote, and said, 'Okay, when we come back, we'll be ready'. Of course, they were able to tour and make a little bit of money on the side. So, some of our people do have side hustles. And that's, that's keeping people you know, alive,
Michael LeBlanc
And keeping their creativity going. And,
Colm Feore
Yeah, and lots of my folks, my friends who have, have turned to equally creative outlets, you know, they're going back to carpentry school, they're building things, they're, they're doing makeup work, they're doing, you know, things that they've always wanted to do, and just never had the time for.
And, you know, I've been very, very fortunate, I've been doing a little bit of the stuff that I actually know how to do. But in a very different way. So, you know, you're doing distanced voiceovers, or, you know, your commercial shows for coordinators. I just actually finished a film with COVID capable protocols. And so, we're all trying to stay at it through this weird new time. And, I would just simply say, stick with it, stay positive, and stay safe. We're doing the right thing.
And what you learn about yourself, you know, make some notes, I keep making notes for an imaginary memo. I'm going to read, it's not going to go well, it's not going to go, it's not going to happen. Because my first was in response to you know, learning how to cook. It's, it's thinking and drinking, eating, cooking, there's not going to be great COVID memoirs, I'm gonna have to think of something else.
Michael LeBlanc
Well, you know, let me ask you, one of your favorite writers said something along the lines of all the world's a stage. I guess I would say today, all the world's a Zoom conference stage for many of us. And, I wanted to get your advice, I can't miss this opportunity, many of us are spending way more time on camera than we ever imagined in our entire lives. I got a piece, I got a piece of advice when I was going on live once and someone said to me, 'Be yourself plus 10%'. And I said, 'Oh, that's an interesting piece of advice'. What's your, what's your advice as a professional to all of us who have to perform at some level like we never imagined we would in front of a camera on these Zoom meetings and all these things, but what are your thoughts about that?
Colm Feore
My first piece of advice would be, and certainly considering recent news we've heard, keep your trousers on. That's probably the first place to start. But in all seriousness, the idea of being yourself plus 10 suggests that you're adding something. This is a performance of sorts. There is a new you that will project out to the world. And so, we talk about finding who you are and being comfortable with who you are. Putting on your clothes, choosing your clothes, so that you're comfortable. This is not a costume. This is how you want people to see you and things that make you feel comfortable. Because, if you feel comfortable, then there's a, there's a ghost of a chance that you will be natural and more at ease with yourself. And, if you're more at ease with yourself in front of a camera, then you can forgive yourself for all of the stresses that come at you when you're on, the lights are on, the little green thing is flashing. And you've got to be intelligent, articulate and sensible. And of course,
Michael LeBlanc
You're called to comment on something the CEO just said, and you're like, I was into a cup of coffee,
Colm Feore
But without the advantage of actually being able to look people in the eye. Because although Michael, I will glance at you, anytime I look at you, it appears that I'm looking down. So, I'm actually looking at a tiny little green dot and a camera lens. Which is weird, right? What we're used to in film and television, unless you're a newscaster, is looking just to the side of the lens, at the person you're talking to, which looks slightly weird in a Zoom thing. So, I would suggest the best Zoom etiquette is to say, 'Look, I'm going to look at you sincerely and honestly, and I'm going to pretend like you know how in 2001, that you're an entity, even if you're just a glass lens, and that you are Michael. But occasionally I'm going to look at the real Michael to see if I've missed any of the communicative nuances, the tones and things that we look for in our everyday communications. And the other thing is to be, you know, rather more forgiving with yourself about Zoom exhaustion, and don't book a whole bunch of them back to back to back, give yourself a rest. Because it hurts our brains. It hurts our brains to be that on, because we're not now allowed any moment to be dull. We're not allowed,
Michael LeBlanc
It's taxing right, I mean, it's very taxing, right?
Colm Feore
Well, like you said, you're suddenly you're on. So, it's a performance. It's, it's not insincere. When I say it's a mask or a persona that you're putting on, you do that in the moment you choose your clothes in the morning, you, then when you do your hair, you go to the barber, I want to cut like this. These are my new glasses. They all say something about how we would like to be perceived. And, you know, my advice to people is just find something you're really comfortable with. It took me for me, it took me decades to fall into this face. And now I go, 'Crap. This is what I ended up with'. You know, this is, I pass plate glass windows and shutter and have to come back and go, 'What was that old, creepy, bald thing? Oh, god, that's me'. And then make my peace with it. And say, 'Well, I'm sure I can find an audience for that somewhere, somewhere will need a creepy creature guy'. You know, I could have played Voldemort without makeup. Imagine how I felt,
Michael LeBlanc
Well now thanks to our hosts at Harry Rosen, they've launched an innovative campaign where they're actually casting themselves leaders like yourself, who you look fantastic today and, and trying to give as we are today, inspiration. So, how do you feel about being that broader role model, even beyond the stage that, that you're connecting? And, I guess I connected to a second quick question is, is you're experienced at costume as you talked about it before that, that makes in and of itself an important statement. So, connect those dots for me a little bit.
Colm Feore
Well, for us, it's, it's a it's a double edged sword. And because I grew up in Stratford, and I have had the great privilege of having most of my clothes for everything I've done, made for me. The Umbrella Academy actually has taken that one step further, everything from our genius designer, Christopher Hargadon, on the Umbrella Academy, is made for me in a cutting room, just off the studio. And, I, because I'm, I grew up with this. I respect clothing. I respect the people who make it. I respect the designers who design it. How their points of view are, what they're thinking how to please their customers, their clients.
And so, you know, I have a responsibility as just the artist it's never about me as I talked about the, the author's intention when I see the designers intention. And at Strafford particularly, when we get onto that stage, the festival thrust it doesn't have a set. The set is the clothing. I carry the kingdom on with Richard III's cloak. I make you see everything about that Cathedral, because of what I'm wearing. But it's not a costume, their clothes, their choices this guy made in the morning, which one of those do I want? What sword I'm I wearing? What jerkin? What crown? So, we make those decisions every single day.
One of the challenges for me as an actor is to come to wardrobe, and the costume, and say, 'No, no, my character shows these clothes. These are mine. I made these decisions. And I choose to have the world see me in this way'. So, then there's no disconnect. These are my clothes. I chose them. And this is how I want to wear them. I add an extra layer of hardening in that because of my respect for the designers and the folks that we lovingly call the thread fairies, who spent hundreds and hundreds of hours making, you know, an Elizabethan collar, stitching. And for my latest Richard III, hammering metal for my armor into place. As you know, per the designer’s indications, but also mine. I said, 'I want him to look cool, I wanted to look dangerous, this has got to look like he could kill you with this spike', right.
So, these are these are the choices that synthesize and integrate who we are and who we've chosen to present to the world. But, not as this is not me, this is me, this is how I see me and how I would like you to see me. And, if you judge me harshly, now, at my advanced age, I go, 'I don't care'. This is what I've chosen to do. I mean, I was 50 years old before I got out of jeans and a black t-shirt. You know, I am not by any stretch of the imagination ever going to be mistaken for cool. I get it. It's never gonna happen. But I am going to feel comfortable. I'm going to choose fabrics that please me. Designers that, the cuts that make me think I look better than I do, that disguise my foibles and my, you know, the things that I don't like about myself and accent the things I do. And, that isn't, you know, it takes a long time coming.
But, you know, places like Harry's offer me that, that opportunity. I mean, and I'm a terrible shopper. I never do it. I hate it. I don't like trying on things, I don't. I will go to a fitting and stand there for hours trying on whatever designers made. For myself, I'm very uncomfortable. My wife drags me by the ear. And, I don't feel that this is promotional, it's just the truth. Let's go to Harry Rosen. We go in, she picks a salesperson that she likes. She said, 'Okay, you dressing room', to them, 'Get me this, this, this, this and this, this, this and this. Look at my, look at my account'. And then in 10 minutes flat, we're out. And I've got a year's worth of clothes. And they all they all suit me. And they all do. And you know, I do the same thing for her. I can sit three hours outside of a dressing room for her. And I am very judgmental. And I'll say 'Yes, no, no, no, no'. Why? Because I have to look at it. You know, I have to see her in it. And, I want her to be beautiful and magnificent in everything that she wants. And so it behooves me to be honest, because I'm not that good an actor, right. Do I look lovely in this?
Michael LeBlanc
Yes,
Colm Feore
It's not going to work not gonna fly here. So, I have her for that for me. And I trust her absolutely. And so, you know, and now after all these many years, now decades, I just trust her, if she says 'Buy that', I buy that. 'Wear this', I wear that. It's as simple as that. And that and I feel comfortable. And so, it's that comfort that we're talking about. Where you synthesize the thing you want to present with the thing you actually are. And then, when you get out into the world, you don't have to add any more layers that you more of you that 10% that's extra when you're Zooming in on camera, can come out effortlessly naturally. And, you look around and steal from the people you admire most. You see them on camera, either your you know CBC, CTV Newscastor, CNN, whoever it is you like and say, 'Why do they seem so comfortable in front of that lens?' Either they've grown up with it, or they know who they are. And they're okay with that
Michael LeBlanc
And it's the choices, it's the choices they've made it. You know, I, I wanted to thank Eton for helping me set the tone. I mean, I have many shirts in my closet from the brand Eton, and I chose this one because as you said, it reflects me. I think you're wearing Boss, it looks fabulous on you.
Colm Feore
Yeah, thank you.
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah, listen, I just wanted to thank you for this. It has been wonderful for me, for the listeners, just to the exploration of art and creativity and, and resilience and all the things that we bundled together to help everyone set the tone and get through this COVID era, your contribution has been much appreciated. And I thank you for, for joining us today.
Colm Feore
Thank you so much for having me. It's been a great pleasure and forced me to think about where we're at, and about my optimism for the future. We'll be back
Michael LeBlanc
Trinh over to you.
Trinh Tham
Well, thank you, Michael, for being such a great host, as always. You always get the most out of people and that's what I love about you. And thank you so much for a wonderfully insightful and articulate guests Colm Feore. I told you before we started, how much I've always respected you and your talent and I just really love the perspectives you shared today on how you set your own tone and how you want to show up. We really appreciate you taking the time to share your incredible journey with us.
For everyone at home please don't forget to check out harryrosen.com for Colm's role model feature for more content. And you can join Michael and I for future discussions with inspirational leaders throughout the year and in the coming months. Episodes will be posted on harryrosen.com for later viewing. And make sure to follow us on Instagram at HarryRosenInc, and LinkedIn to hear more about future episodes. Once again, thank you everyone for attending, and we look forward to seeing you next time. Take care and be well.
Michael LeBlanc
Well, thanks to Colm, Trinh and the team and Harry Rosen for being my partners in the Set The Tone webinar series. Plus, omNovos for the support this episode.
If you like this podcast, please subscribe on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform, rate review and be sure to recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can watch my live interview with Colm at harryrosen.com/en/webinar. I'm Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc Company Inc. You can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co, or of course on LinkedIn. Until next time, have a safe week.