A tearful Mike Myers on Sunday night paid tribute to his native Canada for paving his way to Hollywood and to classic roles like Wayne Campbell, Austin Powers, Dr. Evil and Shrek.
“I just want to say, Canada, I don’t know what to say, dude. I’d just really be nothing without you,” an emotional Myers, who last year led Canada’s “elbows up” moment after U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to annex Canada, said when accepting the Icon Award at the Canadian Screen Awards in Toronto.
“I had a whole speech written about how much I love Canada, but I suspect some of you might be sick of hearing that at this point,” Myers added, before getting emotional when thanking his parents “for moving to Canada and stressing the importance of being silly.” He also gave thanks to a long list of friends and colleagues, including Martin Short and the late Norman Jewison.
And Myers, who lives today in New York City along with his family after growing up in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto, also thanked Canadians for dipping into their pockets to support his early career as a funnyman. “I want to thank the Canadian taxpayer. I really do, actually, because I always say to my American friends, I had a big ally in my hand. I have 40 million people behind me.”
Also Sunday night, Heated Rivalry, the gay hockey soap opera dominated the TV series competition. The popular Crave and HBO Max drama took home trophies for best drama series, best lead TV drama performer for Hudson Williams, the audience award voted on by ordinary Canadians, while Sophie Nelisse, who plays Williams’ girlfriend on Heated Rivalry, picked up the Radius Award.
“If I could cut this award down the middle, I would, because if these gay yearning little bottom eyes didn’t have a big sexy Russian to feast upon, my performance wouldn’t be as good. So to the honorary Canadian Connor Storrie, I share this award with you,” Williams said of his co-star when accepting his trophy. Storrie as an American citizen was ineligible to compete in the best TV drama category alongside Williams. The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television allows only Canadian citizens or permanent residents to be nominated in the country’s film and TV awards.
Heated Rivalry , based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changer book series, follows the steamy romance between Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, hockey players played in the Canadian TV drama by Williams and Storrie, respectively. “We cannot believe the way that audiences have reacted to this show. We’re so grateful,” Heated Rivalry TV series creator Jacob Tierney said when accepting the audience award at the Toronto gala.
The best TV comedy prize went to North of North, the indigenous comedy now headed to season two on the CBC and Netflix. “This show is incredibly personal to us. It reflects our community, our families, our lives in the Arctic,” Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, co-creator of the Inuk comedy along with Stacey Aglok MacDonald, said when accepting the CSA trophy. And the best lead performer in a TV comedy went to Anna Lambe for her star turn in North of North.
Lambe, when accepting the honor, paid tribute to the creators of the Inuk comedy, Aglok MacDonald and Arnaquq-Baril, for “the way you represent our communities, the way that you have shown that Inuit do not just exist within a historical context, that we are real, that we are here, that we are thriving, beautiful communities.” North of North led all nominees with 20 nods coming into the final prize giving at the CSAs on Sunday night.
On the movie front, the best motion picture prize went to the mockumentary Nirvana The Band the Show the Movie, director Matt Johnson’s film about two Toronto musicians go to extreme lengths to score a gig at a local club. The feature also earned Jay McCarrol the best performer award for a leading movie comedy role.
Director Johnson when accepting the best movie prize appeared to criticize French-speaking filmmakers in Quebec for traditionally dominating the film categories at the CSAs with a Montreal block vote. “I’ll start with a piece of advice to the Quebecers. You guys got to stop nominating so many people in these categories, you’re going to get destroyed ever year if you keep doing it. You got to send one, okay?” Johnson said, before producer Matthew Miller stepped to the front of the stage to offer his own word of thanks.
R.T. Thorne’s 40 Acres, a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Danielle Deadwyler, lost out in the best movie competition to Johnson’s mockumentary after in pre-telecast prize giving sweeping the film categories with nine trophies. And Grace Glowicki earned the best movie drama leading role trophy for her performance in the gothic horror thriller Honey Bunch, from directors Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli.
In other prize giving, Filipino-Canadian sportscaster Hazel Mae picked up the Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism. Also Sunday night, Eugene Levy offered a tribute to the late Catherine O’Hara, who co-starred with him as part of the SCTV ensemble and more recently in the Schitt’s Creek sitcom and Seth Rogen’s The Studio comedy take on Hollywood.
“For me, she was the one person I spent the most time working with over our 50-year careers, and that is something I take great pride in being able to say,” Levy said of the two-time Emmy Award winner and fellow Canadian comedy legend.
Original Article on Hollywood Reporter