An original son of anarchy is rumbling into Prince George on Saturday.
Pine Centre Mall will be hosting a visit by the toughest outlaw motorcycle thug portrayed on television. Kim Coates has been one of Hollywood's most dependable character actors for more than 20 years, but when he was cast in the role of biker gang sergeant-at-arms Tig Trager on Sons of Anarchy, he entered a new world of popularity and recognition.
"Of course I get a lot of 'oh, hey, it's Tig' but for the first time people know that I'm Kim Coates. I was always 'that guy' but because of Sons and the power of a hit television show people know who Kim Coates is now," he said.
He is also recognizable for his high profile role - coach Hortense - in the hit hockey movie Goon, and you can add in several episodes of Prison Break, a short recurring stint on CSI: Miami, Silent Hill, Black Hawk Down, all the way back to The Last Boy Scout, his first big break in big-league show biz.
But if you are a Canadian who paid attention, you would have spotted Coates early on in the CBC lawyer drama Street Legal and the lead role in the Sandy Wilson-directed music movie Harmony Cats alongside country star Lisa Brokop. Coates is from Saskatchewan and wanted to be a history teacher but a drama course in university drove him to acting.
He still maintains vivid ties to Canada, and part of the reason he is coming to Prince George is to inspire young actors and others aspiring to theatre professions. The chief advice he has for them in advance is, don't be afraid to fail, because you will, but if you keep at it you will also succeed. The other point he stresses is, don't look to Hollywood or New York to be your salvation.
"I don't care if you're in Thunder Bay, Vancouver, wherever - you stay where you are and take training, do improv, work with your peers, do community theatre. You need to get some work in your city before you can move on to other places," he said.
For him, it was a lot of stage work. He did more than 20 plays in the four years following university. He got offered a substantial acting job in Halifax for a theatre company, that led to an offer in theatre-powerful Stratford, then the offers appeared for Broadway, which led to film work all over the map. Let the career lead you places, he said, but you have to be the one leading your own skill-set and that can be done from small-town Canada.
He has at least one film or television credit almost every single year - sometimes more than one per year - ever since the late 1980s. But over that sustained career arch, the one thing he had never done was a regular role in a television series. And he almost didn't take the one offered to him when Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter called him in to audition.
At first he was considered for a couple of other roles that didn't fit. Then, Sutter called him back. Sutter had had an idea.
"They didn't have Tig, they didn't have that sergeant-at-arms, and they realized that was a mistake, they needed that guy, so they offered it to me the night before they re-shot the pilot and I knew nothing about that world," said Coates, but he did know how to ride a motorcycle. But when Sutter described the character - the muscle of the gang - Coates was reluctant.
"I told Kurt, 'I have no desire to play a sociopath, I'm going to have to pass' but he said wait a minute, this character will go full circle. You'll cry, you'll have a child to consider, you'll hold the club together at times, you'll be funny, and I trusted him. And it was true. Tig has had a constant heartbeat and it has been a pleasure trying to find out how to play him."
Now Prince George finds out about Coates. His appearance at Pine Centre Mall happens from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for an autograph session. The price of the autograph is $25, all of which will be donated to the local branch of Special Olympics. To guarantee your spot in line (in case of a sellout), pre-purchase your autograph ticket at the BC Northern Exhibition office.
Coates is appearing as an information catalyst for the upcoming Northern FanCon event - a conference next May for fans of comic books and cult-appeal popular stories like Sons Of Anarchy. His attendance and the Northern FanCon events are both a presentation of the BC Northern Exhibition and Citizen Special Events.
