The compelling, compassionate new Degrassi documentary “Degrassi: Whatever It Takes” from Lisa Rideout is one of the hottest tickets at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, selling out both screenings.
The candid cast spills gallons of tea, from on-set crushes to alleged low pay and enforced manual labour; one cast member alleged fees of $50 a day.
(The latter claims resulted in the screenings almost not going ahead, as co-creator Linda Schuyler launched a notice of action to stop the premiere from happening, claiming the film contains “defamatory statements and innuendo.” Schuyler and the filmmakers were able to swiftly settle their dispute, although future screenings of the film will contain new material adding more context around Schuyler’s defamation claims.)
The Degrassi machine rolls on; rumours have been swirling recently that Drake could be involved in rebooting the series yet again. He began his foray into fame playing Jimmy, the jock who began using a wheelchair after a school shooting left him paralyzed, in “Degrassi: The Next Generation.”
Despite recent reputational challenges from his much-publicized Kendrick Lamar beef, Drake still feels like a big get for the doc and is foregrounded in the film — and is startlingly honest about his experiences working on the show. Here, we share the eight most intriguing Drake reveals from the Degrassi documentary.
Drake wasn’t popular with the ladies in school — and had one of his first kisses on the show
“I didn’t have much romance. The girls at my school were just dating, like, cool hockey-playing guys,” Drake says in the doc. “Lauren (Collins) must have been up there; she had to be one of my first kisses for sure. Damn, I never thought about it like that.”
Drake had crushes on multiple cast members — and even dated one of them
“I was in love with Lauren (Collins), Stacey (Farber), Melissa (McIntyre), Andrea (Lewis). Stacey was the one, though, out of all the cast members that I had the crush on,” he says. “I’ll always be in love with Stacey; she was just kind to me and she was funny, and she was the outlier redhead.” Lewis, however, was the one he ended up dating IRL.
Drake was so high during his audition he fully thought he crashed out
Drake told his mom after his audition that he “blew it and threw away a big opportunity.” She later called him during lunch to tell him he got the role, but it meant he would have to switch schools; Drake got up and left immediately.
Like many cast members, Drake didn’t find the salary particularly fair
While he declined to cite specific numbers, he did say, “it’s not reflective of how big that show was.” The cancellation of “The Next Generation” was also shockingly abrupt: “At the end of the day, it was just like, ‘Thanks for your time, this is how life works.’”
Drake didn’t know what would happen to Jimmy until he was already in the script read-through
He remembers somebody recommending he mentally prepare himself for the day’s script but, he says, “they didn’t tell me there was going to be a shooting at the school and it was me … We were holding hands and crying in the read-through. It was dark; it was intense.”
Drake would secretly sleep in his dressing room
Drake recalls recording songs for his burgeoning rap career until 3 or 4 in the morning, then driving back to his dressing room, where he would sleep for three hours until his call time.
The producers were … not impressed. They confronted him about sleeping at work, telling him he couldn’t sleep in his dressing room due to it being an insurance liability. “But I did it for a long time,” he says, “as it was the only way I could do both things.”
Drake wasn’t even the most popular boy on the show
Cast members reflect in the documentary on the widespread popularity of the series, including frequent mall appearances. Jake Epstein, who played Craig in “Next Generation,” relishes the fact his meet-and-greet line was much longer than future superstar Drake’s. “My line was, like, shorter,” Drake admits. “Shoutout to Jake, he was the man; we were coming off the era of Teen Bop (magazine), the era of the heartthrob, he was our mysterious grungy guy. And the rest of us all fell underneath that.”
Drake’s part was written for a white actor
Drake hated school but was saved by his potential new career opportunity. A kid in his class had a dad who was an agent and wanted to send him for an audition. He wasn’t exactly confident about Drake’s chances: “You’re not going to get it, probably,” Drake recalls, “it’s for a white football player.”
“Degrassi: Whatever It Takes” has its world premiere at TIFF on Sept. 13. See tiff.net for information.
