Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Amish Abduction’s Ryan Bruce

Ryan Bruce is a gifted up-and-coming storyteller who’s equally comfortable in front of or behind the camera. He began formally training for the arts when he joined the theater department at the University of Saskatchewan, and he hasn’t looked back since. Along his journey, he’s learned important lessons, including taking pride in what makes you unique. Pop Culturalist caught up with Ryan for this inspiring conversation.

Career

PC: You’re an actor, writer, director, and producer. How did you discover your passion for the arts? Is there one that you gravitate towards more than the others?
Ryan: I find myself gravitating most strongly to my writing currently but still enjoy the thrill of performance above all else.

The nature of the business is that you are often having to wait to be employed to perform, and that can be incredibly frustrating, even at the best of times. So I think it is essential that all actors, no matter their level of success, have other outlets to express themselves within that is on their time and their terms.

Writing is that for me and that is why I have come to rely on it as my main artistic outlet and also my main hope for the future. For if I write great stories, one day I will be in a position to create work that matters, both for the ones involved in its creation and for the viewer.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Ryan: I have two primary mentors: Andrew McIlroy and Lindy Davies. Both have played instrumental roles in my development as an artist and storyteller. Without them, I don’t know where I’d be. All I know is I probably wouldn’t still be working in the industry—maybe serving tequila in a bar in Tijuana, which actually sounds pretty ideal to me as I stare out at the bleak winter’s day through my hotel window in
Ottawa, Canada.

PC: What’s one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you started your career?
Ryan: Take pride in what is unique about you and the way you see the world. Don’t let the critics of the world influence your path in the slightest, and know that the jobs will come when the money people finally figure out that taking a risk on someone new always pays off. And if that takes some time, get off your ass and make your own shit.

Working to please others will never leave you satisfied and will often leave you feeling insecure and confused, which has been the ultimate downfall of many actors. They don’t know what they’re looking
for. It’s our job to inform them. Stand up and speak your truth; your story is worthy.

Amish Abduction

PC: Tell us about Amish Abduction, your character, and what drew you to this project.
Ryan: The director and cast attached were why I was initially interested in the project. Ali has been a long-time friend, and when she got the opportunity to direct her first feature, I wanted to be a part of it in any way possible. Much of the cast she had attached to it were also people who I had started my career with in Vancouver, and I was happy to go back and be a part of something with them again, as they are some of my favorite people to be around.

I was also interested in Thomas specifically, as I thought he was written as a true salt-of-the-earth farm boy, here to be of service to his community and help others in need. I believe that mentality to be an incredibly rare thing to find in the current world, and therefore, there aren’t many characters written with that type of perspective. So to me, he was very unique in that way, and I wanted to explore what happens to a person like that when their values are compromised by their animalistic wants and needs that are contrary to their belief structure.

PC: Thomas has a lot of interesting relationships within the film. Which was your favorite to explore and why?
Ryan: The relationship with Annie [Sara Canning]. It was Thomas’s primary relationship within the film, and she is a wonderfully caring and kind actor to work with. The relationship was made complicated as the many ties within the small community they are a part of made it difficult for them to express their feelings for one another. With these types of relationships that form under times of duress, it is also interesting to explore how much of the attraction has to do with circumstances they currently find themselves in and how much of it has to do with how compatible they are as people.

PC: This is Ali Liebert’s debut film. What was it like collaborating with her?
Ryan: She’s a wonderful director and always keeps things fun and light on set, which is incredibly important with these types of TV films that shoot under extreme time schedules and limited budgets. She’s a problem-solving wizard and was one of the most prepared directors I’ve got to work with in the world of TV and I hope she gets further opportunities on bigger and better projects in the future as she is capable of much more in my opinion.

PC: Besides Amish Abduction, do you have any upcoming projects you can chat about?
Ryan: As an actor, I’m currently working on another Lifetime project called The Madison Trilogy and recently shot a film for Focus Features where I play Diane Lane and Kevin Costner’s son. Both are thrillers, in their own way, and I’m sure they will find large and receptive audiences.

As a writer, I have a novel I hope to publish within the next year called A Killer Named Sue, which is about a woman who has decided to change the world by any means necessary after being pushed to the brink of her sanity by the abusive forces in her world and the often brutal way of life in the rural prairies, which she calls home.

As a director, I am filming a doc about bands on the brink of the mainstream as they tour the unique venues across the continent. I’ll be using it as a proof of concept for a Parts Unknown-inspired docuseries, where the focus will be on the artists, their music, and the everyday heroes they meet along their journey.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Ryan: Survivor

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Ryan: Super Troopers

PC: Favorite book?
Ryan: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Ryan: My favorite play is Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind, and my favorite musical is Come from Away.

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Ryan: Midnight Vesta and Yanni

PC: Who would play you in the story of your life?
Ryan: If Bill Murray and Nick Offerman had a son, that guy.

To keep up with Ryan, follow him on Instagram.