David Hewlett was born
in Redhill, Surrey, U.K., in 1968
and came to Canada
with his family at an
early age. Now 30, he says he has
been 'playing
around' with computers for at least half his life and acting for almost as
long.
"I wouldn't call myself a computer genius by any means, but I've been
playing with them for years, since I was 14 or 15 years old,"
Hewlett relates. "I've been playing with the Internet since it was first
available in Toronto and, before that, it was the BBS systems and
all that jazz."
His first computer?
"It was a Commodore 64, which I inherited from my dad. He was running his
entire office off a Commodore 64.
I was fooling around with computer games in BASIC."
After dropping out of
Toronto's St. George's College Choir School for Boys ("No, I can't sing!")
in Grade 12, Hewlett pursued careers in computers and acting simultaneously.
He describes himself as self-taught in both specialties.
Hewlett caught the
stage bug in high school and continued along the classic 'struggling actor'
career path for about ten years.
"But, when you're acting, you have so much
time when you're not acting. Computers and acting went hand in hand."
Then, about four years
ago, he had what he calls a career panic attack.
"I'd only ever done acting — that's the only way I'd ever supported myself.
I had to get myself a 'real' job! So, I went and I got a gig at a
voice-mail company, working as their networking and computer 'resident
expert'."
That part-time gig led to a three-month full-time position. After that, the
company offered him 'Head of Technical Operations'. He held
that position for about a year and a half, but admits that he missed acting.
The
modern era...
Hewlett started doing
Internet-related work in 1994 and, in 1996, he and a partner started up a
Web design business.
"We tried, for a
while, to do the corporate side, but it's pretty dull, and it's not what I
know. I know film and television."
Hewlett finally bought
out his partner early this year, brought in his sister, Moyra, as Art
Director and changed the company name to
Darkyl New Media.
The distinctive name
sounds as though it was carefully geared to convey the technical and
futuristic nature of the enterprise but, as
the wry Hewlett hastens to
explain, "[Darkyl] was a horse that my sister and I learned to ride on. It
sounds terribly high-tech and science fiction, but it's actually just a dead
horse."
Darkyl specializes in
film and television sites. Notable among its clients of record are Trimark
Pictures (the major U.S. film and video releasing company) and Atlantis
Films, producers of Traders, which recently merged with Alliance,
another entertainment media powerhouse.
"It's a lot of fun,"
says Hewlett. "We tend to approach sites that are going to be fun to play
with and fun for us to design — and information resources, as well. I think
we've got to start using the Web properly. There's so much garbage out
there!"
Darkyl's future plans
include getting into the development of interactive, entertainment-based
products for the Web, but with strong television or film tie-ins.
"Right now, I think it's too early for anything strictly Web-related,"
Hewlett observes. "The beautiful thing about television is that you've
got a huge [ready-made] market."
Hewlett recently
enjoyed what ranks as a classic fusion experience between his Web design and
acting careers.
"A friend of mine — I
went to school with this guy — Vincenzo Natali directed this feature film,
Cube. The film is incredible! The response has been incredible!"
Hewlett enthuses.
The science fiction
thriller with a 'Big Brother' bent is backed by Trimark Pictures and is due
for North American release in September. Hewlett snagged not only a major
on-screen role in the film, but the contract for the official Web site, as
well.
"We did a Web site for
Cube on spec — because the director is a friend of mine — and Trimark
called soon after it went up. We've [now] done three or four film sites for
them."
Enter, Grant Jansky...
Hewlett's acting
expertise, combined with his background in computers and a nervous intensity
that seems always to be bubbling
just below the surface, proved an
irresistible package when Traders went to cast the role of Grant
Jansky, the severely neurotic, self esteem-challenged — yet brilliant —
derivatives trader and all-round computer guy.
"My agent submitted me
for it and I went in and it just clicked. It was amazing!" Hewlett recalls.
He admits, though,
that he's often cast as a misfit or an outsider.
"It's generally the
off-centre technical guy. Certainly, on Traders, that's the role.
'Sociopath' is probably a better way of putting it. [Grant] certainly gets
along better with his computers and derivatives than he does with people! I
think we're going to see a lot more of that this [coming] year, by the sound
of it."
Hewlett insists that
he steers clear of 'real' (computer-related) work on the set. "I get asked
for advice every so often when I'm in the production office, but on set I
only 'play' with the technology. If they have a new computer in there, I'm
all over it — but that's hardly 'work'."
Commenting on the
technical aspects of his acting challenge, Hewlett lauds the Traders
writing crew for the accuracy and realism of the dialogue they provide for
his character. "I don't think I've ever caught any 'techno-faux-pas' and,
believe me, I look!"
Stranger than fiction...
It certainly hasn't
hurt Darkyl's business prospects for Hewlett to have a regular gig on a
critically-acclaimed internationally-distributed television drama series, in
a — more or less — appropriate role. But it has led to an abrupt change in
lifestyle for the actor.
"Traders keeps
me busy two to three days a week," he explains. "What I used to do, in the
free time on set, was run around, goof off and eat with my fellow actors.
Now, I hide in the trailers and work."
Hewlett also draws an
eerie parallel between his modest home-based business environment and the
broom-closet office that his character occupies on the show.
"I go from one little
room at home to another little room on the set. I've got to expand my
horizons!"
Finally, offering
another hint at what's in store for the coming season on Traders,
Hewlett confides that his quirky character's horizons
may be expanding, as well.
"I hear," he
stage-whispers, "there's a possibility of a love interest for Mr. Grant
Jansky..."
