Exclusive interview with Gregory Smith

This interview with Gregory Smith about "Rookie Blue" was made available to us by 13TH STREET. "Rookie Blue" season 4 airs on 13TH STREET since January 5, 2014.

Gregory Smith plays the part of Dov Epstein on the Canadian Police Drama "Rookie Blue". He is also well-known as Ephram Brown from The WB's "Everwood". In this Interview he talks about his role on "Rookie Blue", his work behind the scenes as a director and his love for travelling the world.

Foto: Gregory Smith, Rookie Blue - Copyright: 13TH STREET/Caitlin Cronenberg
Gregory Smith, Rookie Blue
© 13TH STREET/Caitlin Cronenberg
Note: © 13TH STREET/myFanbase 2014 - The interview is exclusive to myFanbase and may not be published on other websites or the like. You may share the first 2 questions or up to 160 characters if you link back to this site. Translations other than English and German may be posted with full credit including the writer's name and link to this site.

For me Dov was always the one doing rookie things. Is he maturing now?

Yes I think so. Part of that is inherent in his personality and part of his charm- he love's what he is doing so much and wants so badly to succeed at it that he ends up becoming his worst enemy a lot of the time. Season Three is the ultimate trauma so putting that behind him and really finding himself is going to be a big part of Season Four.

How do you like playing Dov

I love it. I love playing Dov from the first moment that I read the first script. He suited me really well I think he's really funny. When you play a character for a long time you really start to live with them and they affect your personality and what they're doing over the season can really effect what you're doing with your life. I really enjoy living with and playing the character as well.

How much has being in the show changed your perception of the police in general?

It changed it a lot in the beginning because you see past the uniform. You think about things like if they're in a bad mood who knows how long they have been on shift without sleeping or who knows how many intensely dramatic situations they've been through in the last day or week. It made me think about the personal lives of the police officers as opposed to just the professional lives.

Do you use your uniform in real life for fun?

I tried to use it for Halloween once but they wouldn't let us, kind of a liability. Sometimes we're shooting and we'll go get a coffee if we're shooting downtown and people, especially in the first season, would see us in the uniform and would try to give us free stuff like free coffee and we were like, “No, no we cant take that”.

Is there anything that you do so much when you're acting that you begin to do it in your life as well?

This year, in Season Three, I directed an episode. That's a lot of responsibility and everyone listens to you and it's your job to tell everyone what to do basically. In my personal life, after doing that, I was sometimes trying to direct everything. We'd be going to dinner and I'd be like, “okay you're going to make the reservations, I'm going to get dressed, we'll meet here.” and it was like, “Easy, easy there director!”

Was it your first directing experience and how did you get the job?

Yes. It was something that I had asked about before I started the show- I told them it was something it was interested in. They said they would, if the show went to Season Three, consider giving me the opportunity. In the first two seasons I spent a lot of time with David Wellington who is our main director and executive producer and he became my mentor. I would shadow him on set and follow him into the editing room and watch him cut the shows together. I did everything I could to learn as much as he was willing to teach me. He really became supportive and when they told me which episode I was going to do he worked a lot with me. He did an exercise where in all the episodes he did prior to the episode I did he would give me one or two scenes. He would leave set for an hour or two and let me shoot it. The first time I yelled action my voice cracked I was so nervous. By the time I did a couple of scenes and my episode came up I was very confident. It was the way that he really got me up to speed that was amazing, I don't know what I would have done without him. The cast were awesome! Seriously they were so supportive and all on their best behaviour. It was wonderful.

Foto: Gregory Smith, Rookie Blue - Copyright: 13TH STREET/Caitlin Cronenberg
Gregory Smith, Rookie Blue
© 13TH STREET/Caitlin Cronenberg

How difficult did you find it dealing with them on that level rather than as co-stars?

When you're working on television sometimes directors come in and you love them and they come back and sometimes they come in and it doesn't go well but you never see them again, they go do another show. With this, if I came in and everybody hated me or I did a bad job they were stuck with me. If I blow it I'll never live it down. On the one hand it was difficult because I was nervous and I didn't want to say something that was going to piss them off. So I was nervous for that and I was nervous to give them direction. But on the other hand I feel that I know how to talk to an actor because I've been doing it my whole life so the two kind of balanced each other out. All of the regulars in the cast on this show are so good you have to tell them very little. If you have to change something you just whisper one word and they do it. That was very nice.

Do you find yourself back seat directing sometimes when you're in a scene?

No, if I did I'd go crazy. But often if we're in a complicated scene you'll see me with my notepad and it looks like I'm writing notes but what I am actually doing is drawing a diagram of how the director has everything laid out, all the different camera angles he's doing so that I can then go home and look at the geometry of how its all done in the amount of time we had. A lot of times I'll be taking notes or ask questions to the directors we're working with and just try to learn a bit from each one. Always trying to understand more.

Are you a big traveller?

Yes I love to travel. I spent a month in South Africa this year, which was a big trip. I've been around South and Central America, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East a little bit but not much in Asia no.

Anything to do with work or personal?

A lot of times I'll shoot somewhere and then use that as a base to travel from or I'll train and plane my way home. I shot a couple of movies in Romania and then I went from there. I shot a movie in Fiji and then I travelled around. Sometimes I just grab my backpack. In South Africa I wanted to so somewhere and I was really exhausted after the end of the year last year so I went there and spent a month in Cape Town and then at the Kruger National Park. Brazil is one of the top places on my list and I've been to the UK. My dad is actually from London.

Do you get good fan reaction in Toronto, crazy lady and cops aside?

Yes in Toronto especially in the summer when the show is airing. Some nights it gets wild. Especially at night when people have had a couple of drinks and they are less inhibited. Sometimes it's a little scary walking around because people come out of the allies and shadows and grab you for a picture! Even travelling around Europe I found that too. In South Africa- Rookie Blue hadn't aired that much there yet but everywhere I went people still knew everything from Everwood much more so than when I'm travelling around LA or somewhere like that. It was interesting.

What's the biggest challenge playing this role for you?

I guess it would be the technical stuff like the handcuffs. For me actually, because I'm not a big person, I'm pretty slender, so sometimes when I have to arrest somebody or get in a physical altercation it's a challenge to believe that I could actually arrest this person.

The show is called Rookie Blue. Do you still feel like a rookie?

The way I think about that is that they are the rookies until the new rookies come along. This year both the cops that come in are not rookies so they are still at the bottom of the ladder. I guess you're a rookie until you're not at the bottom of the ladder anymore. I think it would be cool for the show to progress if Dov and some of the other characters became training officers to new rookies, that's just my own thought. That would be a nice way to cyclically bring the story back. There are no plans for that- which I know of.

What's your relationship like with the rest of the cast? It seems you're quite friendly.

Yes it's like a family. It's wonderful- it's one of the nicest and most supportive casts that I have ever been a part of. The relationship between the cast and the crew and the writers is really what makes the show and defines the experience and what makes the show so nice to work on.

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