Sask. movie star Kim Coates talks new projects and Biggar revitalization

Saskatchewan movie and TV star Kim Coates loves his home province.

During an interview on The Evan Bray Show this week, Coates discussed his efforts to help the community of Biggar as it raised funds for its successful community revitalization project. Coates also shared some stories about working with stars like Kevin James and Susan Sarandon on recent projects.

Read more:

• ‘We all need comedy right now’: Sask. actor Kim Coates laughs it up in new rom-com
• Biggar: The Saskatchewan town that bet big on itself – and won
• Nakon’i’a with Kunsi: How a puppet is reviving the Nakoda language

Listen to the full interview with Coates, or read the transcript below:

The following questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

EVAN BRAY: Always excited to have on our homegrown great Kim Coates, from Saskatoon, who has been, of course, on many hit series. Many people will talk about Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead: Dead City, and American Primeval, which is one of my recent favorites. However, one of his latest projects has been catching attention for a bit of a different reason. It’s a bit of a departure from what we normally see Kim do. I’m happy to say Kim Coates is joining us by phone. Kim, thanks for taking the call. Welcome back to the show.

KIM COATES: Evan Bray, what is going on in Saskatchewan? Did I read, and did I hear, like, hail the size of golf balls? Is that true?

BRAY: Yeah, it was. It rolled through the province last night. In fact, it was quite a storm down in the Oxbow area. Sadly, it flattened some homes. It’s caused quite a bit of damage. No one was injured, although we did get a report that a dog died as a result of the storm last night, so there’s a bit of digging out happening this morning, Kim, in parts of the province.

COATES: Mother Nature, right? I mean, she just doesn’t stop. She plays by her own rules, and when I was there, seeing my mama Joyce, and Vern, my little brother, Dean and Larry Harley and the boys and Troy Davies about a month ago, or six weeks ago, before I started this movie with Susan Sarandon, we were gonna golf while there was six inches of snow on the ground. We could have played pickleball inside the YMCA, I suppose, but no, the weather’s been crazy. I hope it settles down.

BRAY: The last time you joined us, you were talking about Solo Mio. You must have enjoyed making this movie.

COATES: How fun was that? Honestly. I mean, Evan, you could tell how much fun I had. And Kevin James and I have worked together five or six times now over the years and, for whatever reason, he thinks I’m as funny as he is, and he keeps hiring me, and we’re best friends now. And I got to tell you, I’ll do anything with him, anywhere, anytime.

And when he said he was writing this movie for he and I to star in over in Rome, I went “Yeah, sure you are.” Well, he did, and yes, indeed, I was in Rome for two months and I had the time of my life. My first romantic comedy. As my mother said, “Did you die in this one, honey?” I go, “Well mom, it’s a comedy.” She said “I’ve seen you die in comedies before.” Well, no, I don’t. And it was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had. And filming in Rome was kind of fun, as well.

BRAY: Is there a difference for you doing something like this rom-com Solo Mio over Sons of Anarchy? I realize one’s a movie, one was a series, but is it a different feel?

COATES: Sure. I mean, you know me, and I’ve prided my myself on on all the hard work and all the not-afraid-to-fail thing, and learning from the U of S, and how to get into character. I’m a character actor. I’m a pure character actor, which means you play different characters.

And I heard you in your intro talking about American Primeval and Sons and The Walking Dead. Well, Kevin said to me “This is close to Kimbo Coates.”

I’ve never really played me, and there’s always parts of you in every cut, every part that you play. Obviously you bring parts of yourself to everything you do in the acting world, but I really just got to have fun and ad lib.

And Allison Hannigan, who played my wife, so amazing, so funny. She’s a TV star, and so it was different only in the sense where it was pure comedy. It was just pure comedy, and we had so much fun. So there was no drama, there was no weird stuff.

Then we got to go to Tuscany and hang out with Andrea Bocelli. That was his home that we got to film in, and he really acted in the movie, as you saw. His singing is like no other, and there was just a complete joy filming that for two months.

BRAY: Do you get a chance to enjoy the part of the world that you’re in when you’re filming a project?

COATES: I just finished one with Susan Sarandon and William H. Macy, where I didn’t get to enjoy any of New York. I went to Central Park one day and filmed that little video for Wayne Brownlee, which we’ll talk about in a minute. Here we were, filming there for one day, and it just happened.

New York is big, but this is bigger, and there I am in Central Park. Anyway, I do get to enjoy the bigger movies, like Black Hawk Down. We were in Morocco for five months. We got to visit Fez in Marrakech and the Atlas Mountains and things like that, because you have days off – weeks off at times – but a lot of the times you don’t, because you’re filming and it’s hardcore.

But in Rome, Diana, my beautiful wife, got to come with me, and she enjoyed every museum countless times, and every ice cream shop, and the pastas we would have, and spending time walking Rome. She certainly did a lot of that. And Brenna, my daughter, was filming a big movie in Greece at the time, so she was able to come to Rome for a three-day vacation to spend it with her mom while I was filming my butt off.

Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t, but you’re lucky when you can enjoy a city like Rome.

BRAY: Let’s talk about a couple of your new projects. You’ve already talked about the fact you’ve got a movie coming out with you, Susan Sarandon and William H. Macy. What can you tell us about this?

COATES: It’s called Exit Right. It’s a drama. This is really big for the two of them. I’m the fourth lead. Marcia Cross plays Susan’s sister in the show. I play a guy called Stephen, who’s a Navy SEAL, a former medic, who’s got PTSD, and I’m homeless in this movie.

I’m reading Slaughterhouse Five, so he’s become very anti-war, and I basically saved Susan’s life, it’s very, very heavy and beautiful, based on a true story of a woman who’s got cancer — that’s Susan Sarandon — and she runs into me in this homeless encampment, and what happens is very… well, I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s a drama and it’ll be out next year, and it’ll be big, so get ready for that.

BRAY: What about Anna Pigeon? This is coming out in August, and you play a role in this. Jeremiah Paulson, what’s this series about?

COATES: We filmed it last year in the Bragg Creek, Kananaskis area of Alberta. It was beautiful. Three months. It’s 10 episodes, I think. My character is in six of the 10. I’m the baddie in this one.

Tracy Sperodakos plays the lead. She plays Anna, Tricia Helfer plays her sister. We did Van Helsing together, and it’s an incredible cast, pretty much all Canadian, I think. I’ve seen some of it. It’s so darn good.

Tracy plays this park ranger, and there’s a different crime almost every week that she has to solve. It’s super funny, it’s super serious, it’s a bit violent at times, but it’s a really good story based on these novels written in the ‘90s.

Hopefully they’re shooting a second season, and it starts in August on USA Network in the States. I know Canada is going to have it on something, I’m sure they’ll announce it soon, but it’ll be a show you don’t want to miss. It’s really, really good.

BRAY: A big fan wants to know what is the job that you’ve done that you get recognized for the most?

COATES: I had no idea of the power of television, Evan. I was a movie guy, all those movies, right, all those countless movies — Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Water World, Client, Last Boy Scout, on and on and on.

And then you do some arcs like Prison Break and CSI Miami and Without a Trace, and I really enjoyed all of those, but I think Sons of Anarchy was, for me, the power of that show, and at that time, with Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Game of Thrones, those were the five big cable hits from that 2007-to-2015 period, and Sons was right in there.

And so I can’t really go anywhere really without being recognized, it seems these days mostly it’s Sons of Anarchy. I still get a lot of Bad Blood, that incredible Canadian series we did for Rogers and City TV back in 2017-18. So proud of that show.

I think it’s Sons of Anarchy. That’s a pretty safe answer.

BRAY: Ray just texted in and says he picks Goon. He loved you in Goon.

COATES: I had so much fun playing Ronnie Hortense. I’ve told the story before.

I was doing Sons of Anarchy, second season, maybe third. Get a call from my Canadian agent, Gayle Abrams. “You’ve been offered the head coach of this hockey movie,” and I went, “Oh wow, yes, send it to me!”

I said yes right away. I mean, to put the CCM super tax back on, and my wooden stick, and put that track suit on, and slick that hair back and base it on John Tortorella … It was so fun, and I think, Jay Baruchel and I got nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for best supporting actor, and neither one of us won.

Goon was something I’m very proud of, and did so well in the States, too. I always liked it when that happened.

BRAY: We had an actor on the show yesterday by the name of Michael Grayeyes, who is from Saskatchewan. He’s in the Walking Dead universe, so I said “It’s kind of weird. We’ve got two Saskatchewan actors back to back, both involved with the Walking Dead series.” I like it.

COATES: Yeah, there’s so many Walking Dead series I can’t even keep track any more. He’s great. I haven’t met him yet, but I hear really good things about him, and I’m glad you’re able to talk to him. Heck of a nice fella.

BRAY: Before we wrap up, Kim, I want to talk a bit about Biggar Saskatchewan, because you mentioned Wayne Brownlee. You did a bit of a video message for what’s going to be an incredible celebration this weekend.

COATES: Wayne Brownlee, he’s the real deal. He’s done so well in life with him and his beautiful wife, and he contributed a lot of money — a couple of million bucks — to get this thing started five, six, seven years ago, and Biggar raised money to match it.

It was about a $5 million project. Biggar has been completely transformed. It’s revitalized. It’s unbelievable what they’ve done. I’ve been out there four or five, six times over the years.

Wayne and I, we did a big video campaign a few years back, and hopefully it helped a bit. People certainly know me, and they certainly know Wayne now. I’m so proud of him. That town of Biggar, and it’s 50-50 but I’m really hoping I can still make it.

It’s gonna be unbelievable. I don’t know how many people are going to show up, but the town’s going to be packed. There’s bands, there’s beer gardens, there’s a bunch of graduating classes that are celebrating a 50-year, 40-year anniversary. They are getting together. It’s going to be a celebration.

I’m being a Saskie-Biggar-Springwater-Landis boy. I’m so proud about what Wayne and his team have done, and I think it’s going to be absolutely huge.

BRAY: It’ll be a fun weekend. Jodie and I are headed to there on Saturday, so we look forward to that. Before I let you go, I got a text from Vinnie in Weyburn, who said “I just want to say Kim is the real deal.”

He said, “I had the honor of meeting him at a Pasadena steakhouse about six years ago. He got his buddy Will Fichtner over for a photo and a shot of a prairie fire with a dozen Saskie boys.”

His point is, you’re always making time for people, and he wants to give you a shout out. I think that that speaks to who you are, Kim.

COATES: That just makes me feel so, so good, and I’m telling you, my mom and dad did it right with me. I’m far from perfect, but I love my fans and I love my province and my city, and Troy Davies and the Synergy 8 boys and girls. They’ve got their massive golf dinner night coming up at the end of August, early September. I’ll be back for that.

It’s almost sold out, but Troy and his team, what they do for the hospitals in Saskatchewan is unbelievable. Vaughn Wyant, who I do this Harley ride for, I mean, these guys were much bigger big shots than me. How they give their time and raise money in the community for things that we need raising money for, and awareness, is something I’m so grateful for, to be on a list that people call me and want my help, and I love my Saskatchewan.