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| Quick–name the Toronto neighbourhood. Missy Peregrym and Peter Mooney in a scene from Thursday night’s “Under Fire” episode of Rookie Blue. ABC |
Was out on the Toronto set of Rookie Blue several months ago and had a nice chat with Gregory Smith. The Toronto-born actor yakked about juggling acting with a directing assignment on the hit Global/ABC series, which returns for a fourth season Thursday night at 9 p.m.
This marks two years in a row Smith has snuck behind the camera on Blue. Look for his name in the director’s credit on episode 11 this season.
Smith, 29, says his interest in directing sort of grew from being a camera bug. “When I’m not acting, I find ways to express myself with photography,” he says. “I’ve traveled all over the world taking pictures and trying to tell a full story in a single image.” Directing, he says, was a way to bring together “my two kinds of passions, right?”
Smith says he’s constantly amazed at how passionate fans are about the series. “It’s exceeded all of our wildest expectations, you know, and every year it seems like the scripts get better and the fans get more and more into it.”
Especially last season, when Det. Jerry Barber (Noam Jenkins) was killed in the line of duty. “The reaction from people on the street, like I almost couldn’t show my face in public for a couple of weeks,” says Smith. “I would ride my bike through downtown, at 2 o’clock in the morning, people would be yelling at me and chasing me – ‘Why did you let them kill Jerry?'”
Read the rest of my Canadian Press feature on Smith here.
