One would think it’s a shock to the system to come from the bright lights of Hollywood to the casual pace of Okotoks. For Stuart Gillard, a TV and film writer, producer and director, who recently came to town to see family, it’s a welcome change of pace.
“It’s refreshing,” Gillard said. “I love coming back here. It’s incredibly healthy to step off the plane in Alberta and spend some days with my family here. I don’t really have friends back here because I didn’t grow up in Okotoks but we are a very close family. So to see my brother, sister, mother and their friends, who are really down to earth, I really like it. It really gives you perspective on Hollywood.”
Gillard, 61, is currently a producer and director on the set in Beverly Hills television series “90201”. He makes trips to Okotoks to see his mother Mary, brother Hugh and his sister Jean Quigley who all live here. Gillard said he’s proud of the accomplishments of his mother who spent the last four decades of her 65-year teaching career in local classrooms.
“I’m still harboring some resentment that they never named that school after her,” he said referencing the under construction Westmount School. There was an unsuccessful movement locally to name it Mary Gillard School.
Even without the name, the Hollywood director said he gets a kick out of going places around town with his now 85-year-old mother and having her point out her many former students.
Gillard never lived in Okotoks full time himself. His parents and younger siblings moved to town from the family cattle ranch in Coronation, Alberta at the same time he was making preparations to start school at the University of Alberta. He said he did spend some summers here, however, first helping his parents to build a house between his years at college then later he spent a memorable couple of months pushing molten sulphur around at a former local energy plant.
“That’s one job you cross off your list very fast as a career choice,” he joked.
As a young man Gillard enrolled in pre-law at the U of A. He said he signed up for drama course in his first year mostly because he simply needed another course to fill out his schedule.
“That’s how life changes,” he said. “I took my first drama course and absolutely loved it and had success almost right away. So I switched out of all my pre-law studies and into drama and English.”
One of Gillard’s earliest breaks as a performer was as a star of the CTV sitcom “Excuse My French” which aired form 1974 to 1976. Wanting more lines in the show the actor began writing scripts for the show, which led his path to work behind the camera.
“My career gradually switched over to writing, directing and producing full time,” Gillard explained. “It’s what I have been doing for the last 20 years. ”
Gillard’s film directing credits include 1993s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III” and the 1997 Disney comedy “RocketMan” starring Canadian funnyman Harland Williams.
Gillard admitted it took him some time to adapt to the realities of Hollywood.
“The thing that struck me when I first got down there is how nice everybody is,” he said. “Everybody is super friendly. Then you realize nobody means any of it. It takes a while for you to figure it out. You go to parties and everybody goes, ‘We’re so glad to meet you. We’re so glad you are in town. We’ll get together and I‘ll tell you what some shows are doing.’ Then you never hear from them again.”
Gillard said he actually moved about an hour up the coast from Los Angeles with his wife 18 years ago. They made their way to the Santa Barbara area of California mainly to escape the pressure and scrutiny of show business life. But there are some things you can’t get away from Gillard has found out, one of them being our intrusive electronic information age.
He recounted an experience shooting an episode of “90201”. He was out in a boat directing a surfing scene off the coast of Malibu with bikini-clad series star AnnaLynne McCord.
“I have a twitter account the show set up for me,” Gillard explained. “I said something on it about being on the water shooting a scene and some girl from Argentina tweeted back, ‘I love her bathing suit.’ A picture had already been posted on the web and I wasn’t even back on shore yet.”
With eyes, camera phones and paparazzi seemingly everywhere in southern California it’s little wonder Gillard enjoys his occasional escape to the Foothills. His sister said she enjoys getting together with him.
“Over the years we have visited Stuart on some of his sets,” Jean Quigley said. “Which is always fun but mostly we see him at his home in Santa Barbara or when he is back in Okotoks. Family is really important to Stuart and he is very proud of his Canadian heritage so if he gets an opportunity to be in the area, he takes it.”
