B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton dead following prison attack
Convicted B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton, who preyed on women he lured from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to his rural pig farm, has died.
Kevin Durand has a simple explanation for why he always gets cast as the bad guy.
“Just look at my face,” the actor says during an interview at a Toronto hotel. “People see me and they’re like, ‘Ahh!’”
The Thunder Bay, Ont., native has a countenance that tells a story and a resume teeming with villainous characters, including a psychotic neo-Nazi in 2006’s “Smokin’ Aces,” a trigger-happy cop in 2013’s “Fruitvale Station” and a possessed war captain in Netflix’s 2020 series “Locke & Key.”
His latest detestable turn is as a bad ape — the tyrannical simian king Proximus Caesar in Wes Ball’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which opens Friday. It’s the latest instalment in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise.
Being typecast as an antagonist suits the 50-year-old well. He’s always gravitated toward sinister roles, dating back to his early days as a Shakespeare-obsessed aspiring actor.
“I only wanted to play the bastards. I didn't want to play Hamlet or Romeo. I wanted to be Iago. I wanted to be Petruchio,” he says.
“There's something interesting about stepping outside yourself. I spend my whole day being a nice Canadian boy from Thunder Bay. And then all of a sudden, I have licence to just lean in and be evil? Awesome. That's therapy.”
Set several generations after 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes” — in which leader Caesar dies while ensuring freedom for his fellow anthropoids — “Kingdom” takes place in a world where apes are the dominant species. Young chimp Noa, played by Owen Teague, lives peacefully among his tribe until their village is raided by Proximus Caesar’s army. Joined by a mysterious human and sage orangutan, played by Freya Allan and Peter Macon, Noa embarks on a journey to rescue his kidnapped friends and family.
Durand says on its surface, the film is a “Friday night popcorn movie,” but if you choose to delve deeper, it’s “a reflection of ourselves as humans and what we're doing to the world and what we're doing to each other.”
Like its predecessors, “Kingdom” uses motion-capture technology to bring the simian characters to life. Durand spent six weeks in “ape school” studying under movement coach Alain Gauthier, a former Cirque du Soleil performer, to learn how to stand, move and speak like an ape.
Once he got the movements down, Durand delved into Proximus Caesar’s motivations. He says his character is rooted in his deep knowledge of human history.
“He knows the nature of man and he knows he has to do whatever he possibly can to keep a paradigm power shift from happening, because if humans get in control again, there's a good chance his kind will end up in laboratories being experimented on,” he says.
“I never approached him as a big villain."
Durand says he used to have trouble playing villains because he would often bring his characters’ psyches home with him. But that all changed when he became a dad.
“I was like, ‘Well, people obviously, more often than not, see me as being on the heavy side of the narrative, and I have to feed my baby,’” he says.
“So (I decided) I just have to not bring it home. And God, was that ever liberating, because then I could really just lean in. There are characters I’ve played that hurt me a little bit, but nothing that wasn't repairable.”
The next dastardly role Durand is leaning into will be in the upcoming reboot of “The Naked Gun,” which will star Liam Neeson as detective Frank Drebin, originally immortalized by Leslie Nielsen. Durand says he’ll play a ’90s-style villain in the film, currently in production.
Director Akiva Schaffer asked the actor to bleach his hair for the role and is giving him plenty of licence to decide the origins of his character.
“I gave him eight different accents and (Schaffer) was like, ‘I like all of those.’ So now I have to record all of them and then have him just sit there and listen and decide which one he wants to go with,” he laughs.
Durand says he’s a huge fan of Nielsen in the original "Naked Gun" films and that it’s a “dream come true” to dive into the same cinematic universe.
“The older and more messed up I look, the more people seem to be wanting to give me a shot. It’s wonderful because I've never felt so good in my life as an actor, as an artist, as a human.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2024.
Convicted B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton, who preyed on women he lured from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to his rural pig farm, has died.
Two young children and three adults were seriously injured in a major collision on Highway 417 between Palladium Drive and Carp Road in Ottawa's west end Friday afternoon.
The Department of National Defence is moving approximately 1,000 employees out of an office building in Ottawa's Lowertown neighbourhood, citing safety concerns for its employees.
A newborn is dead after being delivered via emergency C-section to a woman in police custody.
Jennifer Lopez has cancelled her 2024 North American tour, representatives for Live Nation confirmed to The Associated Press.
After years of price increases and a decline in customers, fast food chains in the United States are competing with each other and offering value deals in hopes of bringing more foot traffic into their establishments.
There's a luxury 'tree home' for sale in Calgary.
Marian Shields Robinson, the mother of Michelle Obama who moved with the first family to the White House when son-in-law Barack Obama was elected president, has died. She was 86.
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
A hefty donation by a renowned local activist to the University of Winnipeg has created what is believed to be the most comprehensive two-spirit archives in all of Canada.
Leanne Van Bergen discovered a skulk of 10 baby foxes, and two mothers, had made themselves at home on her property in Beausejour.
An 81-year-old Waterloo, Ont. woman thought she’d never ride a horse again after a brain bleed led to severe physical complications.
A CP24 camera caught the moment a driver frantically got out of her car as it was being dragged by a truck on Avenue Road Wednesday afternoon.
Prince Edward Island is celebrating its first-ever International Day of Potato on Thursday.
The president of Covered Bridge Chips in New Brunswick is hoping to have his factory rebuilt for late 2025 following a devastating fire last year.
Students and staff at Winnipeg’s Westwood Collegiate had a unique problem to solve this month; how do you lead ducks to water from the school’s courtyard when 12 of them can’t fly yet?
Debby Lorinczy remembers her father as an amazing person and as a man who also made an amazing discovery.
Abigail Strate is a member of the Canadian national ski jumping team and an Olympic bronze medallist. She's also a certified beekeeper.