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184. Eric Peterson: Corner Gas, Comedy & Playing Oscar Leroy
Eric Peterson, the legendary Oscar Leroy from Corner Gas, joins Aaron Pete to discuss landing the role, the show's success, Brent Butt, and its cultural impact on Canada.
Welcome back to another episode of the Bigger Than Me podcast. Here is your host, Aaron Peet. One of the most legendary characters of Corner Gas is Oscar Leroy. He was an absolute fan favourite. Today I'm speaking with the man who played Oscar. We discuss starting Corner Gas, where the term jackass comes from, the impact of the show on Canadian culture and the importance of fighting for that distinct culture here in the Great White North. My guest today is Eric Peterson. Eric, it is an honour to have you on the show. I have been looking forward to this day since I started the show and I'm so excited to be able to speak with you.
Eric Peterson:I've watched Corner Gas since I was a young man, Since you were born probably yes, exactly, and even before you were in vitro, you probably watched it. I was very young.
Aaron Pete:Can I first ask how did this role for Corner Gas come about?
Eric Peterson:Well, well, that's a very big question if you want to look at it. There's so many ways to look at it. I guess it came about because Brent Butt had this thing that he did and he's the guy that thought about this character. He's the guy that wrote this character. I have no idea. I can only assume that the kind of father that I play, you know that Oscar is. I mean, obviously Brent has some issues with his dad I mean no more than I had with my own father, and I loved my own father very dearly but you can't grow up without having a few issues about your parents. I'm sure I've damaged my children in a perfectly normal way as well. So, you know, life goes on. So, yeah, he wrote this.
Eric Peterson:Now I can remember it's a long time ago now, eh, it seems to me anyway that they, you know, and they were going across the country auditioning people. I get an audition to go in this. I read the kind of, I read the sides that we've had and kind of set up of the, of the of the situation, and I go Saskatchewan. I'm from Saskatchewan, I've got to play this part. You can't grow up in a province that never has any television shows produced there. And when they do produce a television show, you've got to hire the local people. You've got to hire the sons and daughters of Saskatchewan to be in it.
Eric Peterson:So when we did the part, and I immediately I mean it's really wonderfully written. It was consistently wonderfully written. So this part was very attractive to me and I could channel my own age into it as well, as I knew this type, the ball cap slightly on the side, and the kind of his stance about reality and the world that he faces. I was in my own life facing it, where everything that was new was just stupid and people were just stupid, you know, and it used to be so much better and everybody basically other than himself was a jackass, and I could really get behind that in my own personal life and it kind of reminded me of my own father. My father was, you know, obviously much more complex than most characters we see on television, as real people tend to be. But, um, yeah, so that was.
Eric Peterson:So when we did the audition, I and I don't think I've ever done this before, and Brent was, of course, brent was at the audition and I said you have to give me this part. I said I am this guy and I come from Saskatchewan. That probably carried no weight. Maybe everybody at the audition said the same thing, whether they were from Saskatchewan. That probably carried no weight. Maybe everybody in the audition said the same thing, whether they were from Saskatchewan or not. I knew several actors that did audition for it and some were from Vancouver. Maybe they said the same. They just lied and said you know, I live in Vancouver, but I'm basically from Saskatchewan, deep down, deep down in Saskatchewan. You know BC is close in Saskatchewan. You know BC is close to Saskatchewan, closer than Toronto. So anyway, so that's how it came about. But the real genius, the real the genius is that you know, it's the genius of Brent Buck, basically.
Aaron Pete:So when you auditioned, did you have a suspicion you might get the part? What was that follow-up call? When did you find out and how did that feel?
Eric Peterson:Well, I had been in a long-running, you know the street legal series and that was that had gone like what? Eight seasons Street legal sucks. It's a classic line. It's totally. I love saying that line. I don't think I was ever so delighted with that line. The other one I loved was what was it? Get the F off my lawn when the street sign fell down. There's a big letter F on his lawn. I love that one. But to turn and say street legal sucks, we had to do many takes because I would break up laughing saying I'm delighted by it, though sweetly. Oh, anyways, getting back to corner gas. So I didn't know, so that I auditioned for it, and then you don't hear anything for a while and of course, immediately you go I haven't given it to somebody, that's gone anyways. But I really wanted to get into a series again.
Eric Peterson:Being a Canadian actor, I mean being in a series, a regular in a television series. It's kind of the jackpot, you know, as far as making a living and feeling that you're a valuable citizen, or maybe not even a valuable citizen, just a citizen in your country and gainfully employed. It's a lovely place to be. And Street Legal was like that, and Corner Gas too. Suddenly you're introduced to this whole kind of routine and these wonderful people that ended up being the cast, as well as the crew, the people you don't see becomes this incredibly big family with some of the tensions that normal families have. But basically you're only working together for maybe four months a year and then coming back to it. So I didn't hear from him and finally then I get this call. I get this call they want to screen test me, screen in Regina. Now, in my expectation, when I was an actor, that I would be screen testing. They want to screen test you in LA. They want to screen test you in New York. We want to fly you to Rome to screen test with Sophia Loren, or something like this. No, this was we want you to come to Regina and screen test, which was fine. My, my parents were still alive at that point, living in Indian Head, which is 40 miles east of Regina, where I grew up. So that was fine. But because they wanted to screen test me with the actress that was going to play Emma and they didn't say who it was and it wasn't.
Eric Peterson:Until I got into Regina and the screen test was the next day, I went to the hotel and I said who am I screen testing with Janet Wright? Now I almost fainted, I almost swooned. I fell to the floor laughing, crying. I went hysterical. I had an event. I had a psychological event because I have known Janet since Janet was the same age as me, so at that point we'd known each other first. We'd first met when we were 18. 18. And this was like a number of centuries before Street League was being shot. So she and her sister, susan, I had known in the theater, the theater, you know. I'd never worked with them particularly, but I we knew each other from from Saskatoon, where I went to university and Janet grew up there. So it was.
Eric Peterson:I was tickled pink to think that I was going to be doing this with Jen and it does. I mean she was, I took, we went out together for a while when we were 18. So this was, this was no wonder we kind of clicked, as this old married couple and Janet Wright was. She was just a wonderfully complex kind of defies description, the kind of woman she was and a wonderful actress. She was also a very good director, very smart and very funny. So that was a treat and it just as you saw Emma and Oscar. I mean we might as well have been those people. We had so much fun doing that. We had so much fun, you know, exercising the dynamic of that couple. That, yeah, so that was so. But yeah, I don't know how many big stars, international stars, have actually flown into Regina to screen test.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, you're the legendary, one.
Aaron Pete:I suppose, it could be. Yeah, you're the legendary one, I suppose. Would you mind taking me back to season one? What I find really interesting in interviewing the other cast members was that nobody really expected this show to go anywhere, that there weren't high expectations that this was going to get renewed. Weren't high expectations that this was going to get renewed? Everybody, um like fred ewanuck, um brent, we all, they all thought they were going to have a good time, but they didn't know if it was going to be a short time or a long time. What was that first season like for you?
Eric Peterson:it was. It was exactly that, and especially, um, on the location that we had for dog river in rollo, saskatchewan, the town that was, and and that's where the exterior of the of course, as you, as people would know, that was where the exterior of the gas station was, with the interior of the store, but the exterior of the Ruby was there too. So, so you'd be there, you know, we'd be there filming, and people would drive in from the highway to get gas and that was a wonderful thing about Canadians and they'd come in and they'd go, they'd go, and you know the, you know the ASM would go up and say I'm sorry, we're, this isn't actually a gas station, we're, we're shooting a television series here, and people were so apologetic they go, oh, oh, I'm so sorry here. And people were so apologetic they go, oh, oh, I'm so sorry as if they, you know, as if they interrupted a moon launch or something that just to pick up gas, they went. They were so apologetic, oh, I'm terribly sorry, I'm serious, we didn't. I hope we haven't ruined anything, you know, forgetting entirely that they were now stranded with an empty tank of gas at a fake garage. Yeah, so, and I don't know. Yeah, it was just wonderful that first year, I mean, it was so fun to shoot this series the more we did it and we were all getting to know each other. I didn't know I'd known Janet, but I didn't know Fred, I didn't know Lauren. You know all the people on the cast. I didn't know Brent, and it was yeah, so that, and the scripts were just delightful to do. They were, you know, and these were very funny people to work with. So shooting was a joy, you know it was. It was good material to work with. It was funny the guests that were coming in, getting to know and getting to love and have tremendous affection for everybody else and the whole crew. It was wonderful.
Eric Peterson:And for me, who cared about a kind of you know, was a cultural nationalist wanting us in Canada to have our own film, television, theater experience and contribution to the world, as opposed to being a branch plant for the American one, or earlier on, when I was first one the British one you know to be that this, this was, so I'd been, a lot of my theater had been new work and and original work that was being done in this country. So to be shooting this television series where I had grown up, to come out at lunchtime when you'd have lunchtime, you know. You know everybody goes in a film set, your television set, and you shut down for lunch and everybody goes and has lunch and then you go back to work, to be walking and looking out at the prairies. I couldn't get over it. I was tickled pink by this that here I was because I had left saskatchewan years before going, you know, to go to be an actor, when they either had to go to. Then I went.
Eric Peterson:I was in Vancouver for a time, I was in Toronto. I'd gone to London, england, and lived there for a while and of course there was always you had to go to the United States to work, to be, to be this. So suddenly to be back in Saskatchewan and then having this wonderful setup where I, in Regina, I was 40 miles from where I'd grown up and from the Capel Valley and Lake Ketepwa, where we'd always had a cottage and we still had a cottage. I had this ideal setup and then I had my kids were young then, so my two daughters would come out for an extended period, so it was great fun for me to be able to show them where I had grown up as well and we'd experienced the lake and they all, you know, helped out in the set. It was, it was. It was really wonderful for me to have that happen.
Aaron Pete:So I'm just going to quickly reflect on my take on season one. So I've watched the show many times but rewatching it with your input and with Fred's input and Brent's and Nancy's, has given me new perspectives on it. And now when I look back at season one, I feel like we were being introduced. There was a lot of comedy from Brent. I think it was a little bit more low key and the whole cast was a little more low key. But one person was not and it was you, and I think for that first season you had those moments where it was like out of the park humor that really catches people and goes like, oh my gosh, this is hilarious. Like, uh, this might be in the weeds, but like the taxman episode where you're just ripping through stuff and you're just like, like my taxes pay for your salary like that energy buddy boy, it's just hilarious and, like everybody else, was more level, and then you were just knocking it out of the park throughout that first season.
Aaron Pete:And then you see, throughout, like subsidiary seasons, everybody starts to come out of their shell and have these wild moments. But you really kind of like showed out on that first season and I'm just wondering your reflections on being able to play that character really fully and give energy to that well again, I felt, uh, I felt I had a certain authority about it.
Eric Peterson:But both in my personal you know my personal stance to the zeitgeist that you know, oscar's railing against the, the old fart, railing against the present situation as well as, like I said in the audition, I knew who this guy was. He was my father, he was my uncle, he was everybody else's father. I knew I just, you know, this was a character that had met the writing, that wasn't trying to be another you know actor that had acted another character. You know I wasn't trying to be some other character from some other series and model it on that. I wasn't modeling it on real life. But the other thing I have to say about the show is and with acting you can only act. I don't know how to put this what's written? If there's good writing, you'll get good acting. If you've got good actors, good actors can act. Good writing, good actors cannot necessarily give a performance if it's bad writing, you really need that.
Eric Peterson:It's the genesis of the writing and Brent's writing and the writers that consistently through the series. But this was my first introduction to comedy. Writing like street legal was dramatic writing. So with the comedy writers and they were inevitably. I think all of them were stand-up comedians at one point or another, and it made me understand that being a stand-up comedian is basically a writing exercise. They write all their own material. And listening to Brent talk about his travels as a stand-up comedian and biker bars and other venues where if you're not funny it can be dangerous, you know. So you learn to write well quickly and the hard way, as it were. So their sense of structure and timing and they may have different languages, a language about it, like the button on the scene and things like this or the joke or the lead up, but as an actor doing I had maybe different terminology about it, but totally understood this and I've always felt terribly secure in the writing that I was having to do. I didn't have to, I didn't have to work very hard, I just had to learn it and get into it. You know, waste the pants and you know I remember I love the one where Oscar decides to build his own coffin.
Eric Peterson:They go to the funeral. They go to the funeral, right, and Oscar's going. He's going. He looks in the coffin. It's an open coffin. He looks around the coffin's an open coffin. He looks around the coffin. He goes you got ripped off, buddy boy. He says to the corpse right. And he goes I can do better than this and I'll save a lot of money. So he's now my.
Eric Peterson:My plot through this whole episode was oscar is decided he's going to build his own coffin. It's going to be a lot better than anyone you can buy. He talks to people about it and at the end he's standing in the coffin and it's the first time he realizes oh wait, a minute, I'm only going to be able to enjoy this coffin after I'm dead. And so then he turns it into a bookcase. Well, it falls apart for one thing because Oscar, though he prides himself on his carpentry, is a terrible carpenter. So I always loved the birdhouse yeah, exactly, so thank you for saying that about it. I loved doing that part and it still is great fun to me. And when we were really shooting it when it was on television and a very prominent part in all the time, I was always being stopped by people on this, total strangers, coming up to me with a big grin in their face and would you call me a jackass?
Aaron Pete:And I'd go really, really resonated with. There was something about like the off the cuffness, the frustration, like there was something about seeing that personified so sincerely, that like we wanted that, like we want that energy, and I don't know where that comes from.
Eric Peterson:Well, again, I mean not to sound pompous or anything, but again, when you have your own culture, that is when you are reflecting, when you have art forms that reflect the culture within which they come out of, as opposed to this happening in Dodge City. Or, you know, as Canadians we can translate the American experience very well and go well, we're sort of like that, but we're not quite like that. But in this case, where you had Brent Bott, who grew up in this place, reflecting in this comic way a kind of authenticity that this wasn't based on other forms, this was based on his own experience of the people and community that he lived in. And so and I responded to that because I also was interested in making art or images or whatever we're doing jokes, beauty, edginess, out of an authentic experience and that then gets verified or not verified, but in this case, in Street League, it's verified by the audience who go. They then recognize their own father, their own uncle, the number of times that people came up to me and say you're just like my granddad. Of course I wasn't just like their granddad, but again, so you've, you've, you've hit on a kind of arch. So the community is responding to and in this case because in in the canadian situation they're going.
Eric Peterson:It's kind of unusual because it's a canadian show. We're so, so accustomed to seeing uh, uh content from other places, mainly America, that when we get to see our own and we like it and we're proud of it, it's a kind of double whammy. I get to think about my uncle and what a funny guy he was and look at what this guy is doing and also I'm proud, I kind of own it, it's mine, you know. I mean I'm thinking as the audience member that this is a and you know, living in Saskatchewan, it's kind of, it's kind of okay, it's kind of. You know, the show demonstrates that in a way. So I think that element was very strong and because and I go back again, I keep going out, you have to keep going back to Brent Butt and the people he put around him. But Brent was he's a genuine valuable artist in this country, very funny, very shrewd, very a really wonderful guy. But he really captured something there. And in a sense we, you know again I go to the Canadian audience who's we've been so most of our film and television is 99.9%. So then when we hit something that's ours and so. So, even though it's Saskatchewan, well, again, that the the specificity of that authentic experience of corner gas and what they got there in the comic terms that it's presented in, that's a kind of universality that allows. And of course, in Canada, that Saskatchewan community is really no different than a BC community. I mean, they may have a slightly different accent, they bitch about the different politicians from province to province or from Newfoundland, but we're all that. And even living in Toronto or the city, there is a community around us that has an Oscar in it and has a friend. You know, it has Hank there and you can identify this kind of group of people and it's a delightful experience.
Eric Peterson:The other thing with Oscar was that he was so unaware of what kind of a guy he was. He thought everybody else was a jackass, but basically he was the jackass and everybody else was normal in a funny way, and Emma knew this and was always pointing this out to him. But she loved him. They all tolerated, they all knew what he was like, they all tolerated, they all knew what he was like and I always enjoyed the fact that young, you know sort of young teenagers or teenagers or that age, you know, the 11 or 12 year old boys. They loved Oscar. They because he said jackass, for one thing, but they loved that I. The number of times and because I then came to realize, because Oscar himself in some ways was no more mature than a 12 or 13-year-old kid, you know they really identified with him. So when a little person would come up and say, will you call me a jackass? And you'd go, you're a jackass, they would writhe with pleasure. They thought it was the funniest thing there is. It was really delightful.
Aaron Pete:Where did the catchphrase jackass?
Eric Peterson:come from. It came from the show. It was from Brent. Brent had a long, you know, and the Buddy Boys. He had a wonderful way of capturing that. And the one I loved was the Woolerton. When they mentioned the next town and everybody spit that killed me, coming from Indian Head, because the people you really hated were the ones closest to you Like. In my case it was St Louis and Fort Capel. You know, when you had to play hockey, it's totally human nature. You can see this, and across the world it's the next community is the real rivals right.
Aaron Pete:Do you? Do you think that like it took off or was jackass? Do you think always a part of the plan? Because it did become like a staple in every season and maybe you expected to do one episode, one scene and then it just it continued every episode it every season.
Eric Peterson:It did grow, it did become and, as the show went on, other people had you know, lauren, what was the one he had? He had a kind of you know, I can't remember what the phrase was, but he had certain characteristic reactions to things and the jackass really took off. Because, again, it was a great word, it was a great choice of words. This goes back again to stand-up comedians having this hard-won knowledge of what's funny and what isn't funny, because if it isn't funny you're going to get killed or a beer bottle will be thrown at you. So you better get it right or change whatever it is that you're getting the beer bottle thrown at you for right.
Eric Peterson:So jackass, that this double word is like. You know, it's like asshole or something. It sounds like swearing, yeah, but it isn't, and that's why the young kids liked it. You know it was like walking the line. It sounds like this bad word. It's a male donkey, for god's sake, you know, a male mule or whatever. Jackass is a male junkass. Oh, it's a male donkey, for God's sake, you know, a male mule or whatever. A jackass is a male junkass. And it's a double. It's a that the two consonants, I mean the two vowels, I mean the two syllables. God, it's just too bad. When you get old, like me, aaron, you have word flight, word flight. The word is there and then it just disappears. Yeah, so when you have the two syllables like that, you can really get behind that when you want to say you're a jackass and it grew. So I used to have one maybe every second show, then there were one every show and then there was nothing but jackasses.
Aaron Pete:So season one what was your reaction? Fred talked about actually getting the call from ctv saying like we are renewing this, this is fantastic and the overwhelming support of that first season. The numbers came in, you guys came in over a million. What was that reaction? For you to be able to be like wow, like we, we, we actually delivered, and like the audience is responding.
Eric Peterson:Delight, delight, surprise, gratitude, you name it. I, I mean, I'd had the experience of street legal, so part of me when it was going, thank you, Jesus, I need another series that's going to run for a while, and this looked like it. But you, jesus, I need another series that's going to run for a while, and this looked like it. But you could tell, in a way, the first season of shooting it. Like you're on a set, you're doing the things you're going, you know what. This is really working quite well. It just hasn't seen an audience yet, but you're going yeah, this, wow, wow, this is really funny stuff. The other thing I have to take my hat off to is CTV and the Comedy Network.
Eric Peterson:They had a group of people that were producing it from the network that were very savvy about this show. First of all, they let Brent and David and you know, they let the artists that were producing it run it. There wasn't a lot of executives, there wasn't executives coming in. We don't like this, we can't do this. In other situations I'd seen an over kind of, you know, interference by for lack of a better word the producing side, the non-artistic side. So they gave Brent his head and, of course it was well worth it. He knew exactly what he was doing and if you just let him do it he would lead you to the promised land. There was no doubt about that. But they had people that recognized that and let him. And then they marketed that very well, because our first performance it was after some I can't even remember some big American, I don't know show that attracted a million people or over a million people, and they kept running.
Eric Peterson:I can't remember what it was. The Big Bang Theory, it wasn't. No, that series I don't think was even happening. It was some other thing like the Office. No, it may have been a reality TV show or a music. I can't remember what it was. It's so long ago now.
Eric Peterson:Anyway, that drew a big audience. It was like, say, you know, after the World Series came or something, or you know it'd be something like that, a big audience. And they just ran ads through the thing saying after this show stay tuned for. And lo and behold, people did. And once you started watching it, it was funny, it was good. You know it was funny and and and. Again, when you were shooting it, you're going. This is funny. I don't see how people aren't going to like it. And again, I go back to the shrewdness and the canniness of the producing the comedy network and CTV and the and the executives there that went yeah, this is good, we're going to keep this. You know, and it filled a lot of boxes for its Canadian content. They had this. It was just one of the. It was just a, you know, perfect convergence of all kinds of considerations, that it was blessed in that way and it was yeah.
Aaron Pete:One of the things Lorne shared that I think was really impactful was about how it resonated with people or the role that it played in people's lives during certain trying times. The one he raised was that he had people reach out to him who were Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan and who had reached out and said we're watching Corner Gas when we're being rocket attacked and that's kind of our solace, our escape. What were some of the feedback you had received from the impact of the show?
Eric Peterson:well, I never had that. I, I totally was part of hearing that that, that that had happened and that situation was, yeah, it was very heartening. Again, I go back to the authenticity of the show. The authentic, how authentic the the show was, that as Canadians, this did reflect in comic terms something that was true to the experience of all of us living in this country, that it wasn't something we had to translate, that a town in North Dakota was something like us, but then again, not quite because. But this was us and this was us. This was us and this was good.
Eric Peterson:It wasn't the other trope, which is it's Canadian. It has to be bad, a kind of self-loathing about what we do and who we are, that other aspect, that darker aspect of us as Canadians vis-a-vis living next door to this great cultural behemoth called the United States and speaking the same language. So that whole element of it. For me, what was so interesting about the show was the number of people that said I can watch it with my whole family, I can watch it with my kids, I can watch it with my teenagers and we can all sit there and watch this show and have a good time. So the sense of the show, bringing that aspect to it of community or family could enjoy this.
Eric Peterson:It was very satisfying to me and again, it speaks to Brent's. I mean, brent is a stand-up comedian. He's his. His comedy is not, you know, it's not dirty jokes, it's not bad words. It simply catches the idiosyncraticness, and with a right turn, of how our lives are and that was, and that gets reflected in the show where things that in real life that aren't, um, you know where, things like where a pothole becomes a significant event as opposed to, you know, the cuban missile crisis or something like that, you know it's yeah, so I would. The enjoyment I thought of the show was this, this aspect of the family being able to enjoy it. So I was very proud of that and in it.
Aaron Pete:This question is just coming to me now. You have a deeper connection, I feel like, to knowing all the episode specifics. Then, like, I spoke to Fred and he basically said, like I can't watch myself, like I can't review the like, I just I know it went well, but like when I was trying to bat past episodes off of him he was like, yeah, I didn't watch that, or it's been a long time, and I totally get that. That's one of the challenges of re-listening to interviews and trying to figure out where I can improve. It can be tough to to see yourself Watch yourself on screen and stuff. But I feel like you have the deepest understanding of some of these episodes and have highlighted the culture in a deeper degree Of like where it was really authentic and living up to its name. And I'm just wondering what what that was like for you to watch Everybody in their element trying to trying to bring their best to the table, because you're the one who kind of saw it at that bird's eye level of the impact it was going to have.
Eric Peterson:Well, that was definitely the lens with which I appreciated the show through and that spoke to my previous experiences as an actor and my kind of modus operandi as an artist in this country and my kind of modus operandi as an artist in this country. I had always been, even starting in Vancouver, associated in theater projects that were new work and you know, again, to tell our own stories, for lack of a better term to use that well-worn term. That way we'd be telling our own stories that would be original and from a perspective that only a Canadian could tell, because you had to be here. And these stories would be told to our neighbors and they would be verified or not verified, or appreciated or not appreciated, which would allow us as artists to judge how well we were doing by our community, that we were no more important as artists or filmmakers or television producers than the doctor, the teacher, the baker, the plumber. You know, we had a function in the community. We had something to give to the community and the community gave something back to us. We had a role. We were no more important and no more exotic than that. We just belonged.
Eric Peterson:And that model was, when I discovered this, because I'd lived in England to be an English actor and I came back to Canada and fooled around when I ran into theater groups here in Toronto and it started basically in Vancouver. That ability to go you can use. I could use my uncle and aunt as models for the characters and work that I wanted to do. That unleashed a huge burst of creativity for me. I didn't have to pretend to be, you know, or try to be. I was going to say Brad Pitt, but he's though I have a striking resemblance to Brad Pitt. It's really telling. You probably thought it was his twin brother.
Aaron Pete:When you logged on I said, hey, it's.
Eric Peterson:Brad Pitt, exactly. So you know that you could use your own life as part of the modeling clay that we're going to make this for. You know the art for lack of a better word. I know we call it content now, but it was. You know this television show and that was reflected. I mean, what I loved about, year after year, being in Regina. People would come up to you in the grocery store and go, well, how was the scripts this year? And it was like they were asking you, how was the crop this year? You know it was like you fit right in that whole model that I've just described about having a place in the community and the contract, the social contract, between the community and you as an artist was totally fulfilled in the Safeway in Regina. When they go, how's the scripts this year? Are we going to have a good crop of jokes, you know, and things like that. Or they'd ask you about different characters and you would be treated like respect and and and a slight sense of ownership that they knew you and and. But they were. People weren't going, they weren't a gog, they didn't become tongue-tied, they just it was. It was lovely and I and I really enjoyed that. I had the ambition, while we were shooting the show, that I wanted to thank every Canadian that loved the show. I wanted to thank them personally.
Eric Peterson:Janet Wright used to kill. She used to tease me unmercifully. Then she'd say the tourist car people would come up and I'd be over there. Hello, I'm Eric B. And she'd go you're such a suckle. She'd say, yeah, they're going over edge, because she was very shy when about fans. Janet was, she didn't, she didn't, she didn't want to be around them. I, on the other hand, became, you know, mr host, hello, welcome. This is the set. Hello, yes, thank you for watching this show. It's so, it's so important.
Aaron Pete:Yeah that's such a beautiful philosophy. I just want to linger on that for a second because I think we sometimes forget why we do things or what the purpose is. And the one piece that I really liked of what you said within my First Nations culture we have this idea of Tomeuk and it's you look back seven generations and you try and learn from them. And I think so often I use learn as if it's just like teachings, like how to make stuff, how to make a good casserole, those types of things. But there's something to what you just said of like learning the idiosyncrasies, learning the humor, learning where their head was at, and kind of taking that with you too, so that when you're in new circumstances you can go how would this person looked at this new situation? And that's one way that they can almost stay with you.
Eric Peterson:Yeah, it's very true, and it's also something that is that kind of that kind of originality and original not and you've discovered something brand new, but original because you are the only point of view. All our points of view are unique. I mean, we all see things slightly differently and that difference comes from where you're standing and the eyes you're looking through. It comes from the kind of education, neighborhoods, cultural experiences, everything we've had. You build up this world that you perceive the rest of the world from, and it's very important if you can reflect that in terms of television programs or theater pieces or whatever films. That information is a gift to the rest of the world. It seems to me, and the same way their perception, like in Yugoslavia.
Eric Peterson:If you see a movie or something about that and you suddenly go, there's something about that imaginative connection that is. So. I mean, all that joins us together is imagination, basically, and when we exercise it in these, in art, that's the fundamental joy of it. You're not conscious of it, but to go, I get that in a way it's sort of like my life. But this connection, this imaginative connection, called a television show where everybody's pretending making believe bravely and I say bravely because it takes a lot of guts to get up there and pretend you're somebody else. Let me tell you it doesn't look, it sounds. It all sounds like fun and games, but it can be. It can be stressful. The audience responds bravely. They also get. You know, let out their imagination, let it run loose a bit, and then you get to experience other people in a way that we don't. You know. That's wonderful, it seems to me.
Aaron Pete:I know that's all very vague, no, I was just about to say that might have been the coldest cut of the whole all my episodes that the thing that connects us all is imagination. Like when you said that I was, I was like whoa I don't know if we've had like a deeper quote on this show. Um, because that's true, and and that is when people sat down and it was the whole family, every character represented them in some sort of like their family or who they knew. It all brought them together and it was being reflected back to them and that's why they were willing to enjoy the show and be so supportive. I don't know if I've ever thought of it that deeply before.
Eric Peterson:Well, yeah, I mean, that's the, and I think I mean I often said, you know, especially in theater I go, the play is simply an excuse for theater to happen, and by theater I meant was that you have a bunch of people at the same time in the same place, letting their imagination go through the story, and that experience is so counter to the other experience that we are all individuals. You live alone, you're born alone, you live alone, you die alone, which is the other extreme. I mean, that's true, but this power that we have of imagining and then imagining the other, there is a bridge, then that happens between us, that my understanding now, it's not. You know, I don't experience like I don't experience you totally, but I do get to connect with you in a way that is only possible through art, seems to me, and even watching a painting or a painting, there's something about the joy that a human being has of going, of that imagination being exercised. It's why we've always done it. I guess Sung danced, made plays.
Aaron Pete:I couldn't agree more. There's one quote. It's, I think, your most legendary quote and I want to recite it back to you because I think it was the thesis of the show. I also think that it is a huge opportunity to remind people of this path. And it's the last episode. It's your last rant. Why the hell settle? We never settled.
Aaron Pete:I'm a paper boy. One week you teach piano, the next, the next week, lacy's a hockey coach, wanda's a real estate agent, hank's an accountant, the cops have a radio show. We all try new things and I for one want to see brent up on that stage standing in a bucket of yogurt and it just the juxtaposition's beautiful. But I just I love that because I do feel like one thing maybe we're learning or trying to figure out is to just find hobbies, find passions, find things that interest you. Then drop them and try something new next week. Like you are able to chase whatever goals you want to set for yourself. You are the only person standing in the way of living a full and meaningful life. And I just you saying that as the last kind of big statement at the end of the show. I just thought tied the whole show in a ribbon for everybody.
Eric Peterson:Well, that's Brent. Eh, that's Brent, but Thriving. It's just beautiful. Yeah, it is. It's a wonderful book. I'd forgotten all about that.
Aaron Pete:It's really good. Can you tell me about what it was like to go through the animated series and the movie? Do you miss those pieces at all or are you okay? Can you close the book?
Eric Peterson:I, I, I didn't want the series to end right. I mean I'd gone through the, I'd gone through the. You know the eight years of the eight seasons for street and I and and in a canadian series I said are you kidding? People just love this show. There's, the ratings haven't dropped the ratings, as strong as ever. Let's ride this pony into the dirt. You know, let's take it as far as it'll go.
Eric Peterson:But Brent and Nancy wanted to do. You know they wanted to do other things. So and Brent wanted to. You know they wanted to leave on a positive note. I didn't care, I didn't care, I wanted to let's. You know I was already becoming a submerging artist. You know it's going to be downhill anyway. So let's ride it as far as we can downhill.
Eric Peterson:So I was sad that when we ended but you're always sad, I mean the series that I've been on, I've always been when they say we're not going to go next year, it takes a day or two to get you go to get over your grief about it, and this was no different I. I was delighted that we were going to do the movie and I was delighted with the movie and that the movie was not was really just three half hour episodes put together as a movie, you know. So they didn't change anything. Again, I can't speak, as you've heard, I can't speak too highly about Brent, I just can't. He's just wonderful this way. So that was fun. The cartoon was a hoot. The cartoon was. I love doing the cartoon. The cartoon was A. This was a chance for Brent. I just was so delighted because Brent always wanted to be a cartoonist, he wanted to have a cartoon. So suddenly he could do it. This was a way. And the whole thing about the shooting it live was there's certain parameters. You can't have Martians coming in, you can't have, you know, suddenly turning into you know, I don't know whatever they kind of. But in the cartoon you could, because you just had to draw it would just had to draw it. I mean it sounds simple. I mean it talked about complicated. Anyway, the other thing I liked about there was a group of us here in Toronto and then Brent and Gabe and Fred and Lauren were all in Vancouver. So they would record and we all recorded at the same time. So we'd do the episode just with the connection. So they would record and we all recorded at the same time. So we'd do the episode, just with the connection. So they'd go in at 9 o'clock in the morning and we'd be at 1 o'clock or something in the afternoon here and we got to visit again as we were recording the episode. We got to visit oh how are you doing? And things like that. So that was a wonderful connection, as well as the.
Eric Peterson:The great thing was we were all getting older, you know, I mean I, when we started the series. I'm 78. Now I don't know I was what, 65 or something. You know it was, you know, or between 60 and 65. Look at me now I'm. I'm like I'm older than I'm older than any.
Eric Peterson:I've gone into the land of the immortal now in film and television parts. I have to. I have to play Zeus, you know, or Santa Claus or a vampire, I have to, I. That's my category now. I can't play a living person anymore, other than if I was a cadaver, I could. I could use my body. In fact I often thought of getting my publicity shot with the kind of oxygen thing, well lit, so I can do cadaver, I could hold my breath, I don't know. So, doing the cartoon, we were all getting older. Suddenly there's Fred, they're getting gray hair, lauren, I couldn't believe it. They were all becoming.
Eric Peterson:I mean so, but your voice doesn't. You's always to a certain extent disappointing watching yourself, because acting has you're inside it. You're not on the outside watching it, so naturally as you're on the inside acting. There's part of you that thinks I must be just like Brad Pitt. I'm sure I keep referring to Brad Pitt so that when you see yourself and you are nothing like Brad Pitt, it's a bit of a shock, because while you were doing it you felt you were Brad Pitt. But then you see you're not. So, even though I can look at myself and go, okay, it's like hearing yourself, you know, on a tape recorder your own voice for the first time. You're kind of shocked about how different it is. But you do acclimatize yourself to seeing it. And you don't. I mean, especially in film, when you're shooting it. It's a coherent scene that you're in.
Eric Peterson:She says this, he says that, I say this, he says this, but then when you watch it it's cut. So it's so. You're going. Why did they cut away from me there? I did such a wonderful thing there. You can be complaining about yourself. You're not in control of it. So you see it put together as it is to's to be, as opposed to. And then that makes you realize I was just raw material. When we shot it, I was like copper ore, and then it got refined, when it got edited right. But and where was I going with this? There's something I was going to.
Aaron Pete:Sorry, I've lost my train of thought no worries, we were just talking about switching over from the animated. Oh, the animated, that's what we want.
Eric Peterson:So to see the animated me, I loved it. You could watch yourself without any guy going. I look just like I thought I would look as an animated character and I used to. My big joke was I learned more about acting that guy's acting the cartoon Oscar. I could do this now when I acted. I thought it enhanced my live performances when I brought my cartoon experience to bear.
Aaron Pete:One other piece on this that I think you've done an excellent job of is really highlighting the people who made the show possible, and that might just seem obvious to you, but I do think that there's something about like lifting others up and admiring their craft and admiring Brent, budd and David's story for the storytelling, and your ability to do that really stands out to me as something that's important, because when you're on a team, you can be very inward looking on what am I doing? Am I showing up? Okay, am I doing a good job? But you've, throughout this interview, done such a good job of highlighting what other people were good at and what you admired about the show and what they brought to the table, and I just want to appreciate you for that, because I think there's such a deep lesson about the role we can play when we do give people the other leg up and then when we do put shine on others, and I'm just wondering if you have any other reflections on the cast and and what they brought to the table or the camera.
Eric Peterson:I mean I, everybody, everybody did. I had such affection for it and the and the acting of. They're all wonderful actors on that show and wonderful people, I you know. And again, the art form itself, theater. These are communal art forms, you know. You can have one-man shows, but it requires the expertise of people in a group and that's the beauty of it. It can also be part of the hell of it, because we're all human. So, to put something forward, to get something, it's both fun and not fun at times and at, but that's only to be expected. That's, that's the best we can do, and I think it's such a wonderful activity for people to do, to spend their time trying to make something silly and funny. It is as opposed to getting together to kill other people or, to you know, blow up this or destroy the universe or the planet. It's so nice that people can get together just to make a joke and make other people laugh. It's a high calling to me.
Eric Peterson:The fact that it was being shot in Saskatchewan also made it what's important, what was to see that by that happening there? Everybody that now grew up in Saskatchewan as opposed to myself and Janet, and everybody that hadn't had this example, oh, you could do this. I could be a stand-up comedian, I could be an actor. I could shoot films, I could be a director. I could have this. And that was so important to me too, to see that you didn't have to go someplace else. You could do this and people could be inspired by this as a career choice.
Eric Peterson:When I was growing up, when you said I'm working in the theater, they go, what do you do? Do you take tickets? You know there was no idea that you would be an actor. I grew up. Nobody I knew was an actor. Nobody I knew knew anybody who was an actor. I mean it, just it was not on the radar as a possible way of living. And suddenly, by having people do this in Canada, wherever it is, suddenly there's this whole other opportunity to do what I just said, which is to make funny jokes. It's a high calling, it's worth it.
Aaron Pete:You've advocated for this for years, for this for years. In a CBC interview done 12 years ago, you were going on about how you were fighting for Canadian film, television and theater, and that you believe that having strong Canadian content that reflects the Canadian culture is important when we are so often overlooked because of what's going on in the US, because they have such a strong film and TV industry and theater industry and theatre industry that it's hard for us to get our shine. And I look at the landscape right now and, to be honest, it couldn't look worse during this period. Right now, from my perspective. We don't have shows like Corner Gas, bringing everybody together in the same way they used to. We have a lot going on in the US that's overshadowing everything going on in Canada right now, and so I'm wondering what is Canadian content from your perspective and how do we fight for it?
Eric Peterson:Well, that's a big question. I mean, I grew up as an adult and my artistic you know the kind of artistic experience that I searched for and wanted to establish in this country. The country that I imagined I was in is not the country that we find ourselves in now, canada. I think that there's been a lot and one could argue or one could say that part of the conversation that hasn't happened is this coherent Canadian culture and the results of that. We see part of the results or what's fed into the. What I see is the country is really on shaky ground. We're all in different communities.
Eric Peterson:The federal, the confederation itself, seems to be at war with itself, the federal government against the provincial jurisdictions. These are highly contentious kind of divisions between us. And then there's other issues, but again, partly that's due to culturally we've changed. We've changed, we're looking at, you know, I looked at it as an old white guy. This was the candidate. I talked to her and that perspective, quite rightly, has been said.
Eric Peterson:That is a point of view that lots of people in this country don't share and we want to look at it from those people, like First Nations, like yourself. If I look at it that way and tell their stories, then I can get behind that, because it's the same impulse I had to tell my story. And again, the same imaginative interchange happens when I see a story there. I get to be able to imagine and therefore join some experience that I hadn't understood or thought about. The other thing I just want to say is my tendency, my passion for Canadian culture, or this, basically, let's talk, let's have our, let's, let our own originality out has been a constant theme in Canada since, you know, ever since we've, you know, we seem to have, especially in English Canada, deep affection to be a colony of some sort, for some reason or other.
Eric Peterson:The other thing, the other big issue that's changed all that now, and so when I talk, this is very old-fashioned, old-fashioned what I'm speaking of and really not quite, it seems to me very relevant right now. The other thing is the internet, the kind of interconnectivity, the digital, interconnected people. So geography has disappeared in a way, you can be in Regina and not feel, and still be totally coherent and current with New York, if you want. We don't have the same sense of land and space because we're all in a virtual space now. Well, you all are, I'm not, as you just pointed out. You can't find me. I am under a real rock someplace.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, I've done long and hard.
Eric Peterson:In Ontario. He's living under that blade of grass over there. He's not on the internet. So what is Canadian culture now? I mean, I do agree there are all kinds of strains in this country and in my lifetime this is but there is in the world too. It's not just in this country. All our democracies, all our liberal democracies, are under various strains of other the world is much more unstable and unsure than any time I can remember in my adult life, and so we're not alone in that, and I, I, I don't know. It's's funny. Today we're talking. This is when Trump comes to power in the United States, and his remarks in the last six weeks have brought Canadians together more than I've seen in a lifetime and not in a lifetime, but in the last little while.
Eric Peterson:So who knows what's ahead? I still want to work. I still prefer. I just did an audition for a terrible audition for an American thing that's being shot here this morning and I still go. I still want to do something that's Canadian. I want to do something original. That's all I ask. I want to know, I like to work on somebody that says let's do this, let's tell this story, and that you know again. I refer to my advanced years. The parts for 1,000-year-old men are few and far between now, but I'm waiting to do any one of them that they want. As the 1,000-year-old guy comes up, I shall be there to try my best Anyway.
Aaron Pete:How about Wise man? I think that's a better fit for your category.
Aaron Pete:I think the piece that I'm taking away from this is that the reason that I'm such a fan of doing these interviews with you, lorne, nancy, brent, fred and yourself, is because I'm living off of the steam, the energy. I'm riding those coquetails and waiting for something else to come along that reflects back to me our culture and that is, to your point, more risky, more challenging. And some of the jokes you guys had in those early days they were bold for the space that existed at the time and letting those producers, the executive producers, run wild and come up with ideas. It was so refreshing. But I just I do think this is an opportunity for us.
Aaron Pete:I had an article go out where I talked about how I think this is allowing us to look at the flag, look at our culture, look at who we are and try and get back on the same page. We don't have to agree on everything, but we used to have a few things that we all agreed on and that humour, that sensibility was all found on a show that you were instrumental in helping bring to life and give us that connection, and I think a lot of the people who tune into these interviews on Corner Gas are all just trying to grab on to. What are Canadian values? Where are we and want to hear that back to them, and I think we're just sorely waiting for something to come to life that reinvigorates that in us.
Eric Peterson:Well, again, even talking about this, who knows what that will spark in anybody who's listening to it. As to just the idea of it is important. We can't dream about something we've never thought about before. We can't move towards something unless there's some sort of indication that there could be some way out towards that. But it is a tough time, you know. I, by my estimation, this is a tough time. People are, you know it's hard to share at the moment. People are very defensive, it seems to me. You know we're all in different, you know, points of view and they are, yeah, so. But who knows, who knows what's going to happen.
Eric Peterson:I'm just so thankful that I had Corner Gas. It was a rich experience. It continues to be a rich experience for me. And I was and talk about luck, you go if I hadn't been born in 1946 in Saskatchewan, I wouldn't have been of the right age to play Oscar Leigh. What a bit of luck that was, you know. So, like in every kind of you know life, you have to. I totally want to. And if Brent hadn't been born when he was, and Janet Wright and Fred, and you know we wouldn't have met. You know. So the huge I appreciate, I'm so grateful for this huge amount of whatever fate that allowed us to do this and, again, I'm so grateful that Canadians responded to it and still respond to it the way they do.
Aaron Pete:I couldn't agree more. Eric, I want to thank you personally. As I said, I watched the show growing up as a kid and it really shaped me, but your character also had a huge influence on me. I am not afraid to speak my mind, I am not afraid to speak up on so many things, and a lot of that was watching your character so boldly and bravely speak what his opinions were. Again, you might not agree, you might disagree, but I think that that was so valuable because I do think people are afraid to speak up and all they need to do is speak up on their worldview and nobody can take that from them, and I think we need to give people that permission again, and I think that's what your character did for so many is. I'm going to say the thing, and maybe it's not perfectly well said, but I'm going to say what I think the truth is, and I think there's so much admiration that I have for you, and it's been such an honor to be able to speak with you today.
Eric Peterson:Well, thank you very much, aaron. It's been a pleasure talking to you too, really To think about all these things. How can people follow your work? They have to come to Toronto, toronto.
Aaron Pete:And are there any?
Eric Peterson:shows coming up. Well, no, I haven't anything. I just finished. Over Christmas I was doing Into the Woods. This was my first musical, my first musical, and I've decided to pivot to become a broadway star.
Aaron Pete:Wow, just getting warmed up on the broadway shows.
Eric Peterson:I'm off to broadway. I can't wait. There's no business like show business. I can. I think they've been waiting for me. No, and I'm just doing a workshop now on an original play, but I haven't anything lined up at the moment to see. You know, I'm submerging. As I said, submerging, I'm slowly sipping below the waves.
Aaron Pete:Well, you have a huge legacy for so many to aspire to work towards. It's been a blast speaking to you. I love your sense of humor, your lightness and your energy. It's just. It's been so refreshing to speak with you today.
Eric Peterson:Thank you very much. Perhaps we'll meet sometime in person. That would be an honor Are you in Vancouver as we speak. I am yes, yeah good, wow and Tim, of course. Thank you, tim. Yes, Tim come on out, let's say hello Come on, yes, yeah, good, and Tim, of course.
Aaron Pete:Thank you, tim. Yes, tim, come on out. Come on, tim, come on out. There you are.
Eric Peterson:You look just like your portrait, tim, there you go that was delightful, I was just smiling.
Tim McAlpine:I was actually because Brad Pitt became a recurring go-to for you. I went to the internet and said how old is Brad Pitt? And he's 61. So I think if you're talking about relating yourself to a current leading man, you need to scale down just a little bit. But I guess, well, I should have said Paul Newman.
Eric Peterson:He was the guy that I always grew up with. There was a wonderful story about, uh, paul newman. I'll just bore you with this story. He, when we were I was doing street legal and joanne woodward was his wife right and she was doing a theater piece here in at the at the royal alleys, and one of the costume people on Street Legal came in one day and said that her aunt had been getting this was in the summer a Baskin Robbins ice cream cone and she put the ice cream cone. She got the ice cream cone and she put it in the stand in order to open her purse to get the change. And she looked up and she looked into the eyes of Paul Newman and she was so flustered she closed her purse and fled from the basket.
Eric Peterson:Robins got outside and realized she'd forgotten her ice cream cone. So she went back into the store and she went to the rack and there was no ice cream cone and suddenly beside her was Paul Newman saying yes, I am Paul Newman and you put your ice cream cone in your purse. I am Paul Newman and you put your ice cream cone in your purse. That's amazing. I thought it was a wonderful story about how people were flustered by it. That never happened with Oscar. Nobody ever put their ice cream cone in a purse. By talking to me, they just said would you call me a jackass?
Aaron Pete:One more piece on street legal you're. You're almost legendary because you have these catchphrases, but I was going through some past videos and one that you did your line had tom fuckery in it and all the comments were like that is my new line is stop the tom fuckery I even.
Eric Peterson:That's so long ago now. Yeah, that's funny. Yeah, oh god, it's all. I'm all out there in this virtual world that I don't know about.
Aaron Pete:It's just as well it's for the best it's all. I know.
Eric Peterson:I'm still just going back under my rock and blade of grass here somewhere in Ontario. Yeah, okay, thanks you guys, we got it. We got it. You're the man.
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