Exclusive Interview: Markian Tarasiuk Talks Why Can’t My Life Be a Rom-Com?, Celebrating Canadian Voices, and More

Markian Tarasiuk is one of the industry’s most exciting up-and-coming leading men. He’s best known for his transformative performances in projects including Shut Eye, Virgin River, and There’s Someone Inside Your House.

This February, he stars in the must-see E! original, Why Can’t My Life Be a Rom-Com?, which has audiences buzzing about his portrayal as potential suitor Rich Hawthorne. The much-talked-about film tells the story of Eliza Sloane (Em Haine) who appears to be living the life of her dreams that is until her boyfriend breaks her heart and she loses out on a promotion at work. With her life seemingly falling apart, Eliza makes the decision to head to the Hamptons to get a fresh start. That’s where she meets the man of her dreams, Rich Hawthorne (Markian Tarasiuk), or does she?

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Markian about his journey as a storyteller, Why Can’t My Life Be a Rom-Com?, celebrating Canadian voices, and more!

PC: You got your start in theater. What has that transition been like going from the stage to now the screen?
Markian: At the start, it was a hard transition. It’s a totally different style that you have to get used to. It’s a lot smaller, a lot more contained. I remember as a young man—I’m still young, but when I was even younger—I was having difficulty making that transition and understanding what that style is. Because when you’re in a theater, it’s about projecting to the entire theater. It’s a little different than when a camera is a foot away from your face. It was a tough transition at the start. But it was about practicing and getting more work. You get better and better at it. That’s been my journey with it all. But I miss theater. I last did it five years ago.

PC: You started acting professionally at the age of fourteen. When you look back at this journey, is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
Markian: That’s a great question because there have been different milestones for different reasons. One that stands out to me is when I did a movie called Status Update in 2016. It was a really great cast. That was my first large role in a feature film. It was an incredibly fun experience.

We shot it over the summer here in Vancouver and it felt like camp. Any job that doesn’t feel like working for a minute is a privilege and special. It’s the kind of experience where after a day of work I still want to hang out after we’ve wrapped. I don’t know if I’ve had a job like that ever since. It was really great.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Markian: These are some hard-hitting questions, and they’re great. There are a few people that stand out. I would say the early influences in my career were my mentors in the theater scene in Winnipeg, which includes Robb Paterson, who’s the director who gave me my first job ever. And Steven Schipper, who’s the artistic director of Manitoba Theatre Centre. That’s where I got my start. Those two men were instrumental in my decision to take this career and go down this path. Those two men stand out.

In addition to that, another colleague of mine named Kayvon Khoshkam. We ran a theater company for years. He and I had a close working relationship for a long time. We’re still really, really great friends but not working together anymore. But I think he also shaped the way that I see art and take it in and how I formed my opinion in my early to mid-twenties about theater acting and all of this. So that’s a very dear, special friend of mine.

PC: Your recent film just premiered on E! Tell us about Why Can’t My Life Be a Rom-Com?, your character, and what drew you to this project.
Markian: There are two female protagonists who want to find husbands. They go to the Hamptons to do so because they want to find particularly rich husbands. In the film, there’s this book called How to Marry Rich that was written in the 1950s that they use as a guide to find their men. I am one of those suitors. It’s a summer rom-com with a lot of eighties influences. The score is brilliant. We watched it with the cast this weekend. The score is highly, highly influenced by John Hughes films. There’s a lot of nostalgia. It basically asks the question: why can’t my life be a rom-com? Eliza (one of the protagonists) tries to turn her life into a rom-com.

I play Rich Hawthorne, one of her suitors. He’s a doctor. He’s well off. He’s one of these rich men that they’re looking for. Check it out on E! to see if I win her heart.

What drew me to this project was honestly how lighthearted it is. I think post-COVID I’ve been more attracted to lighter stuff in terms of what I want to act in. That said, I’m watching The Last of Us right now, and that’s a little heavy. [laughs] Since the pandemic, I’ve really taken in a lot more comedies, and I have also really tried to seek that genre out for myself to act in because it’s fun. I want to create that camp environment that I was talking about with Status Update. This was sort of that. We stayed at the hotel that we shot at and so it had this camp vibe. I keep saying that because I went to summer camp growing up and it was the best time of my life. I’ve been chasing that dragon ever since I was eight years old.

PC: This is one of E!’s first forays into original movie content. Did that bring any pressure to this project? What has it meant to you to be a part of that milestone?
Markian: That’s a great point. Whenever any network or channel or studio creates something for the first time, there is a lot of excitement…and pressure. [laughs] I never felt that pressure as an actor. The gang at E! were excited and have been excited ever since. There’s been enthusiasm around this project ever since we started. That comes from E! because they’re excited to start creating their own content instead of showing other studios’ movies. I find it incredibly exciting to be the first one and to be trusted with that. I’m proud of our entire cast. I’m proud of our entire producing team and Rich Newey, our director, because I thought the film was fantastic and such a strong start.

I think it all worked out, and they were so supportive and have been really supportive ever since we finished filming. I’m honored. It’s cool when you get to be part of new things. They’ll get more and more successful as people start realizing that they’re making original content.

PC: This film is going to have audiences guessing until the very end. What was it like getting ready to step into Rich’s shoes and making sure that the choices that you made towards the later half of the film didn’t bleed into when we first meet him?
Markian: It’s about playing him as human as possible. I think when you get a rich character there’s a certain stereotype people will put onto them. They’ll make judgments very quickly about them. At the end of the film, Eliza has to make a choice to go this way or that way. Rich (the director) and I chatted about wanting to make that decision as hard as possible for her because that’s more gratifying, more realistic, and more fun to watch.

PC: Outside of this project, what’s next for you?
Markian: There are a couple of things in the works. I did a really nice guest star on this show called Family Law, which is on the CW now in the States. It’s one episode, but I really do love that episode. I play a playwright in it, so I got to bring my theater background to this role. I don’t know when that’s going to be airing. It’s in Season 3.

Then I’ve got a small part in The Night Agent with Netflix, which is going to be an exciting new series coming out sometime this spring.

There are also a couple of things that I’m trying to direct. We’ll see. There’s a project that I’ve been developing and working on for almost two years now. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back to chat about that.

PC: Something that I’ve appreciated about you is that you’ve always used your platform to champion other Canadian filmmakers and storytellers. You’re living in such a great age right now where there are so many of them coming up. Why has that always been so important to you?
Markian: Thank you for saying that. It’s important to me because I want Canadians to be celebrated and supported properly. They deserve that. Honestly, the sad thing about being a Canadian actor or somebody in the arts here is that to be successful in a way that we deem successful means having to move to the United States. You have to make it down there to even make it up here. It’s this weird thing that we don’t have a Canadian star system. The Americans have a star system. The British have a star system. You can see that in the way that they champion their stars, their actors, and their directors. Some of the most incredible actors and directors have come from Canada, like Denis Villeneuve. The list can go on and on with some of the biggest A-list stars in the world in acting and music.

But their success only came when US producers took them under their wing and developed their projects. So I try my best to advocate for Canadians because we should be telling our own stories, funding our own stories, and celebrating our own voices in a way that we aren’t when you become successful in Hollywood and all of a sudden Canada says, “Wow, they’re so great.” We could have done that from the start. I really try to champion and lift Canadian voices up anywhere I can in the small ways that I can.

I want to see more Canadian stories and diverse stories on our big screens. If we can do that ourselves without having to get help from the Hollywood system and that route, that would be fantastic. We’re slowly starting to get there, but it’s been such a long time coming. I really try to advocate for hiring Canadians, and that’s not exclusive to me. That’s just supporting our own people.

To keep up with Markian, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Photo Credit: Grady Mitchell