Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Meegwun Fairbrother

Meegwun Fairbrother is a renowned storyteller who is making his mark. His past credits include projects like Mohawk Girls, Haven, Wynter, and most recently, Burden of Truth.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Meegwun about the final season of Burden of Truth, his journey with his character, and the impact and change he hopes to have on the industry.

Career

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling?
Meegwun: It’s always been a part of my life and existence. Storytelling is integral to indigenous life and knowledge preservation. It’s how stories and teachings get passed from generation to generation, from elders to the younger generation, and so on. I grew up with non-English stories and stories from my grandparents. You can think about it the way Thomas King does when he says, “The truth about stories is that that’s all we are.”

I grew up on the res in a couple of northern and northwestern communities in Ontario. There were no roads. You have to fly in. My upbringing was living in the woods and listening to stories, watching movies, and acting them out with my friends. I would jump in a canoe and go up the river, playing Star Wars or Terminator or Ace Ventura. We all had the Ace Ventura haircut.

When it came around to deciding what we wanted to do with our lives, I really liked the drama class I was taking. It was because I had come from a lot of those northern communities. I was kind of shy, so drama class really helped me come out of my shell. I didn’t know that I could make a living at it and make it part of my world. But we traveled around to pow wows and dances on the weekends. Performance and storytelling was always part of my life.

PC: In addition to acting, you’re also a producer, director, and editor. How’s your work behind the scenes made you a stronger actor and vice versa?
Meegwun: Over the last two years, I’ve been digging into understanding how the whole machine works. That’s where my interest is in terms of venturing out from the acting world. A lot of the time, you can feel powerless as an actor because we play such a small part in the whole machine of a story. When we’re playing a character, we’re really worried about and concerned with the journey of that character in the story. But when it comes to making a TV show or a movie, there’s a lot that goes into it. I didn’t really understand that whole process. So I felt a little powerless against it in some ways. You’d get a lot of noes in our profession. You have to grow thick skin to continue on in this industry.

But I’d say learning about the whole mechanism has empowered me. I know what it means to be a producer and why they get ten percent of the budget. I know what the writer’s role is. I know what the director’s role is. Now that I’ve tried those different hats on, I started to get a picture of how the work is created, whereas before I didn’t understand the industry that well. So now I feel empowered to be able to make even better choices as an actor to say yes to certain projects or to say no to certain things that don’t align with who I am anymore or what I want to try and put out into the world.

Creating the opportunities that I wish I’d had is another thing. Instead of waiting for somebody to come along and give me a job, how about I create two or three of those jobs and write a script? I know that’s a goal of any actor, but I really took that to heart. Instead of waiting around for the phone to ring, I might as well get to work and see if I can create some of those opportunities for myself. I was recently a producer on a smaller, short film. It’s such a cool thing to pay people.

To pay other artists has been really fulfilling. It helps me to really care about the work that I’m doing too. That’s really important. You have to love it. Otherwise, you can easily leave the business after being told no a thousand times. But with Burden of Truth and these projects, I love them so much. I put my whole heart into them, and that’s why it’s been getting the response it’s been getting.

Burden of Truth

PC: Speaking of Burden of Truth, when you look back at that experience, what do you remember the most?
Meegwun: It’s the whole team from top to bottom. They’ve been fantastic. The crew is amazing. It sounds cliché, but we really did become a big family and one that I really respect. I loved going to work every day. You can’t always say that with every project. Some projects you do because it’s going to pay the bills. Some projects you do because you’re lending your voice and talent to somebody’s project.

But sometimes that synergy happens where the writing is good, the story is good, the characters are good, the people who are playing the characters are good. They’re all like Kristin Kreuk and Peter Mooney. These guys are really genuine and beautiful human beings. That shows in their characters. They are who they are. They’re really great people. I had a wonderful time working with them.

PC: Having embodied this character for several seasons, did anything surprise you about his journey/arc?
Meegwun: What was neat about Owen Beckbie and Burden of Truth was the process of creating him. He was supposed to be a bad guy. He really grew from there. They amalgamated two or three different characters and put them into one. He became the guy that he became. But I think the writers and I discovered him in every single scene. With every season, we discovered a new layer and a new space to investigate. Now in Season 4, he’s the police chief. He’s learning how to deal with that position of power.

It’s still another struggle but on a different level. We get to see him deal with that. It’s the experience of any indigenous person working within a system that isn’t theirs and what that reality is. It’s not easy. Being able to tell that story has been one of the biggest honors of my life and career so far.

PC: You’ve touched upon this already, but you’ve used your platform to bring awareness to underrepresented communities. What has it meant for you to be a part of this project? What has your experience been like?
Meegwun: We got to speak about the things that either bother us or move us or inspire us. We have to be strong and strong-willed to speak about those things. This is something that I see: that there’s a lack of representation or a burgeoning one that needs to be addressed. The doors in the space have to be cleared or at least opened for us to be able to come in and fill it in our way and not somebody else’s way. That’s where we’ve been: people asking us to come in and give our thoughts to their content and the things that they’re making.

But the next step that we should be on is inviting indigenous people to write. We need people from underrepresented groups to write. We should let them write. If we want to bring them in to create something, let them create something from their point of view. Because that’s the way it’s done. That’s going to bring authenticity. That’s going to be something that our audience and the people consuming our content will understand and feel right away. That’s authenticity. It’s coming from a real place. The more and more I learn about how important representation is, the more I’ll speak about it. Before, I didn’t really think about this stuff. I was just an actor and performer, and I needed to perform.

I needed to tell stories. I didn’t care what story it was or how I was going to do it. I just needed to speak the lines, sing the song, or do the dance. But now I’m seeing how important it is and how it changes people’s lives and affects them in positive ways. Showing positive representation and images is powerful. It has a way of searing itself into our psyches. If we see ourselves represented in sh*tty ways, then that’s how we’re going to think about ourselves. But if we can start seeing ourselves in positive ways—in positions of power, in places that are meaningful spaces and normalized—we’re going to do more of the same.

We have to take those steps. I want to see more indigenous doctors, lawyers, governors, presidents, and prime ministers. I want to see those in TV shows. I want to see it in movies. I want to see native superheroes. I want to see that representation in a big way.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Meegwun: I have two. I always watch it when I’m writing my pilot, which is some heavy stuff sometimes. I need to have something to tune out. It’s either The Circle or Love Is Blind. Most recently, I started watching Selling Sunset. I love my trash TV.

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Meegwun: I like anything Leslie Nielsen. I like those classic spoofy movies. When I’m back home, my family and I will throw on Wrongfully Accused and laugh through the entire movie. It’s so silly, but we love it.

PC: Favorite book?
Meegwun: My wife teases me. I read maybe three quarters of a book and then I never get back to it. I’m a serial non-book finisher. My favorite book that I last read was The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline.

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Meegwun: My Scottish grandmother used to take me to musicals once a year when I was a kid. We’d come to visit her for Christmas. She’d take me to see Anne of Green Gables. That’s a pretty good one. The other one was Phantom. I haven’t seen many musicals in my lifetime. The only ones I can remember are from when I was a kid.

PC: Who would play you in the story of your life?
Meegwun: Tom Hardy.

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