Juno actor looks towards Oscar night

By Laureen McMahon

Colin McSween will be glued to his TV set on the night of Feb. 24, when the 80th annual Academy Awards ceremonies are broadcast live from Los Angeles.

Laureen McMahon / The B.C. Catholic Colin McSween, an actor from the Lower Mainland with a part in Juno. The acclaimed feature film has been nominated for an Oscar at this year's Academy Awards.

McSween, an actor born in North Vancouver who lives in Abbotsford with his wife and six children, is a big burly Teddy bear of a man who played the role of a high school principal in Juno, one of this year's films nominated for an Oscar.

Juno has been praised by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as a good choice for Catholics because of its pro-life message. B.C. Catholic movie reviewer Alan Charlton recommended the movie for its "ringing statement in favour of old fashioned family values."

McSween, a former Holy Trinity elementary student, has acted in a slew of locally-produced movies and TV series in the past decade.

While his part in Juno was not big enough to warrant a trip to Hollywood, he is proud, he says, to be associated with the comedy-drama which the rating service of the U.S. bishops conference has called "smart, funny, and ultimately moving."

Canadian actress Ellen Page, whom McSween says is a "really delightful young woman," is nominated in the Oscar's Best Actress category, and the movie is also up for Best Screenplay.

A man of varied and eclectic interests, McSween juggles acting with three other careers these days, although his mainstay has been in the funeral industry; he is a licensed embalmer who apprenticed at Kearney's Funeral Home in Vancouver and still works as a funeral consultant.

His association with acting began in 1991 when he was brought in as a make-up consultant for a production of the travelling musical Les Miserables. Shortly thereafter, a film company shooting in Tsawwassen asked for his help with staging funeral scenes.

A sound technician on that production recalled talking to him about the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, a subject on which McSween happens to be an expert, and introduced him to the producers of the popular locally-made TV series the X-Files.

McSween was hired as a consultant for an X-Files episode based on the 1962 shooting tragedy in Dallas. Out of the blue, he was offered the part of Kennedy's secret-service chauffeur.

"That was a blast," said McSween, "and my introduction to the `hurry-up-and-wait" of making an episodic television series."

McSween, who at the time had a teaching contract at the B.C. Mortuary School and was managing a large-operation funeral home, had also taken on work in the mental health field, but he discovered he loved to act, although there was no question he would still have to keep his "day jobs."

Since then, calls from production companies have kept coming and he was hired for the movies I Spy and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, among others, and did a number of television series such as Supernatural, Millennium, and Monk.

Along the way, he has worked with top flight actors like Dennis Hopper, Ben Kingsley, Uma Thurman, Ben Affleck, Jon Voight, Patricia Heaton, and many others.

About a year ago, McSween's agent told him about a little film project called Juno.

"I had been offered something else but we decided to keep both jobs on hand in case one folded. Well, it turned out that both were cancelled, but it wasn't very long before I heard that Juno was on again. I switched around my schedule and went to the audition at 3 p.m. on a Saturday with the director, Jason Reitman."

After a nail-biting few hours, McSween was told to report to the movie set that very Monday.

Friends marvel at McSween's ability to handle the anxiety of seeing "sure-thing" projects cancelled at the last moment, but he is philosophical about the ups and downs of an acting career.

"I just figure that God knows what He is doing," he said with a friendly grin. "Sure, I've had things fall through and then suddenly something else comes out of nowhere. I consider myself very lucky to have these opportunities. It's certainly a thrill to be in a movie good enough to be nominated for an Academy Award which also has a great message for kids and families."