Spotlight

Robb Wells works on his flexibility

Five minutes into our interview, Robb Wells asks, “Sorry, is this going to be in or out of character? They didn’t tell me.”

Truth is, there’s a lot of Ricky, the roughest-hewn of the Trailer Park Boys, in Robb Wells, and vice versa. And the star of Showcase’s hit, but now defunct, series and its 2006 big-screen spinoff movie knows it. That’s why, after this month’s release of the Boys’ second movie, Trailer Park Boys: Count Down to Liquor Day, he and his co-stars John Paul Tremblay (Julian) and Mike Smith (Bubbles), along with director Mike Clattenburg, are going to do everything they can to prove their flexibility, starting with a sketch comedy series they’re pitching to a major network and hope to get on air sometime next year.

“It’s a cross between Monty Python, Mr. Show and League of Gentlemen, I guess,” says Wells over his cellphone from inside a building supply store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He’s renovating his house so he can sell it and buy a bigger one. “We play more than one character each,” Wells continues. “Right now, part of our concern was being typecast in [our Trailer Park Boys] roles, obviously. To avoid that, rather than saying here’s a new version of John, Robb and Mike, here’s five different versions of John, Robb and Mike. It just kind of breaks the typecasting, if nothing else.”

The demo for the as-yet untitled show (one working title was The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour) has the guys playing pirates, Mafioso, superheroes, radio deejays and soldiers. “It’s very all over the map,” says Wells. And if the show isn’t picked up?

“We have a ton of ideas for movies and series,” says Wells. “This one was just a way to kind of combine a bunch of those ideas and get to play a bunch of roles all together, rather than waiting a few years to play each one.”

Marni Weisz

Photo: From left to right John Paul Tremblay, Mike Smith and Robb Wells