In the fantasy series Ruby and the Well, Kyle Breitkopf has played Sebastian Lutes since Series 2, and last year, he appeared in feature film Queen of Bones as Arvin. Kyle played Nathan Jr. in Series 6 and 7 of Canadian sitcom Workin’ Moms, Thom Lafarge in Barkskins for National Geographic (with Matthew Lillard, Marcia Gay Harden and David Thewlis also in the cast), and he played Desmond ‘Dez’ Swann in the 2019 Netflix series V-Wars, having Ian Somerhalder as his on-screen father Dr. Luther Swann. Amongst Kyle’s film roles, he played Jude Andrews in the post-apocalyptic horror The Silence, Miles in Wonder and, at six years old, he played Barker Simmons in Parental Guidance, which starred Billy Crystal and Bette Midler, which saw Kyle directed by Andy Fickman. As a voice actor, Kyle voiced Rusty Rivets across all three series of the Canadian animated series of the same name, and co-lead character Greg / Gekko in PJ Masks for the first three series. Chatting with us, Kyle talks about playing Sebastian Lutes in Ruby and the Well, filming for Canadian sitcom Workin’ Moms, his role of Barker Simmons in Parental Guidance and his voice work in Rusty Rivets and PJ Masks.

Can you tell us about the fantasy series Ruby and the Well and your character Sebastian Lutes?

So, Ruby and the Well is a fun little family series that we filmed in Toronto. My character Sebastian is kind of an outsider at the start, being the antagonist’s son, but as the show goes on I think he becomes more and more lovable and more of an integrated character.

How was it joining the cast in Series 2 and how has it been developing the character across your three series so far?

Joining any show a season or two in is always interesting because you’re joining something that pre-exists. Normally when everyone starts a show at the same time, everybody’s kind of finding their footing and getting the feel at the same time. Everyone was already in a groove by the time I joined the show, so trying to find my place in that groove was a bit of a challenge, but it was fun all the same!

Have you had any favourite episodes to film and what are you enjoying most about being part of the series?

I don’t have any specific favourite episodes to film, but I always love doing scenes with Zoe (Wiesenthal), Dylan (Kingwell) and Lina (Sennia) all at the same time. There’s more of a dynamic going on on set, and I feel like it’s a lot more playful. When you’re one on one with somebody it’s a more intimate filming experience, and while that is still very fun and I still look forward to those episodes, I just have a great time filming with that whole group.

In last year’s feature film Queen of Bones, you can be seen in the role of Arvin, what was this like to work on?

Queen of Bones was a very interesting experience. It was a period piece. I’ve done a couple in the past, but that one was so specific in the timeframe. With my character being the bootlegger, it felt like I was playing an adult role as a kid (I was 17). It was kind of interesting to play that kind of villain role at that age.

How was your time playing Nathan Jr. in Series 6 and 7 of the Canadian sitcom Workin’ Moms and was there anything that drew you to the show?

Working Moms was interesting. I didn’t know a whole lot about that show going into it, since it was for adults. It was as I started filming, my mom was watching the show and kept coming to me saying “this is so funny” and “this scene was so relatable” and so on and so forth. So I started to get a little familiar with the show that way, and then I watched some bits on my own, and I became a little more well-versed with the show.

Joining that cast was incredibly fun. I was laughing all the time, probably ruining takes by just giggling in the background. It was a lot of fun to play that character. Nathan Junior is very different than myself. They dyed my hair dark and cut it short, changing my entire look. The clothing even was vastly different. I personally would just never wear khaki shorts lol. I did really love playing a character so different than myself. It allowed me to really put effort into the character, and come up with reasons why he would be doing what he’s doing. It wasn’t something where I was thinking “oh I would do this”. It was more like “what would be the reasoning for what I’m doing?”. It required a little bit more acting skill, and made it very fun and very educational for me as an actor.

How was it filming as Thom Lafarge in Barkskins for National Geographic?

Barkskins was a very cool experience. That set is the first thing that comes to mind. It was an entire village built for the show. Every building was functional. It was just so cool to see everything coming to life around me. I got to work with incredible actors like Matthew Lillard, Marcia Gay Harden and David Thewlis and the list of people in that show goes on and on and on. It was also the first time that I got to play a dead body, which was kind of fun as well. I had to just be limp for an entire scene and make it look like I wasn’t breathing. I got to climb a two-storey building to the roof, which as a 14-year-old that was obviously very fun!

You played Desmond ‘Dez’ Swann in the 2019 Netflix series V-Wars alongside Ian Somerhalder as your on-screen father Dr. Luther Swann, what are some of your favourite memories from filming?

V-Wars I remember quite a bit from. Things that stick out the most are actually the mishaps that we had. There was one scene I had to run out of a motel room and sprint off out the parking lot. One time we went to shoot and the sweater of my hoodie got caught in the door frame, and I swung full speed into the room window. I bonked my head on it and everyone comes rushing over and I’m dying laughing on the floor. Then there was one scene where Ian threw an iPad onto a chair, and it landed on the chair and then bounced off, hit the ground and the screen cracked. Everyone was just kind of like ‘what do we do now we don’t have an extra iPad?’. It was very funny. I remember having the giggles for one scene, and I just could not hold it together. Obviously eventually I got myself under control, but yeah, there was a lot of shenanigans that occurred on that set. As far as the rest of the show goes, it was super cool. It was the second in a row for dramatic sci-fi horror projects for me. Just before that I had done The Silence. I was kind of like in my element. All the makeup effects and everything on V-Wars were really cool, and it was really fun to see how they did that sort of stuff.

Can you tell us about working on the post-apocalyptic horror film The Silence as Jude Andrews?

The Silence was another project where it was very cool to see the process. I got to see mock-ups of what the creatures were going to look like in pre-production, because the director John Leonetti, who had his hands dirty on everything to do with that movie, actually had a meeting with me before we had started filming. He was telling me ‘hey, this is what we’re working on, this is the our creature and this is kind of the mock-up’ and he showed me some of the storyboards. He was very inclusive the whole way through for me, which was very refreshing because as a kid not a lot of people do that. I think I was 11 or 12 at the time and not a lot of people really feel the need to include someone in pre-production at that age. John was very excited about everything on that project and he was excited going into every single scene we shot. He was excited at the beginning of every day, he was excited to eat lunch, he was just full of energy and was so clearly happy to be there.

The cast was incredible as well. Off the top of my head I can think of Stanley Tucci, Miranda Otto and Kiernan Shipka. That’s a crazy cast to be working with! John Corbett was a riot as well. Everyone was having a pretty good time on that set, and we all kind of fed off of each other‘s energy in every scene.

Filming that was interesting because Kiernan‘s character was deaf. There were takes that we did where we had sound and everything, and then there were takes where there was no sound. There was no mics and no sound department on deck ready to go. It was very interesting to see that back-and-forth and then to see how it played out in the final product was just really cool. That was actually my second project where I used sign language.

What was it like playing Miles in Wonder and being part of telling the story?

Wonder was a cool project because my experience going into it versus coming out of it, were very different. Going into it I didn’t really understand the impact that the movie was actually going to have on as many people as it did. I didn’t have a whole ton of scenes, so there’s a lot of hanging out and talking and just chilling with the other kids. Wonder was so impactful to so many people. I still have people messaging me or coming up to me if they see me in public, and telling me how much the movie meant to them. It’s really cool to hear people’s stories and experiences with that movie.

At the age of six, you were cast as Barker Simmons in Parental Guidance alongside Billy Crystal and Bette Midler, what do you remember most from your time on set?

Parental Guidance was really the one that kind of started it all for me. I’d been doing some commercial work and guest spots on TV shows. Parental Guidance was really my breakthrough project. I got to work with very experienced actors in that movie like Billy Crystal, Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei. There was a bunch of talent in that movie.

Being as young as I was, I was kind of unaware of what was going on around me. I understood that I had lines and there were scenes and I had to do things for the camera but as far as the level of movie I was working on, that I didn’t understand. I was just doing my six-year-old thing and got to walk away from it with a really cool experience and some fun stories to tell.

What I remember most from that movie is probably the cake scene. That scene took two days to film and I didn’t want to eat ice cream cake, or any kind of cake for a really, really long time. Lol! The movie was directed by Andy Fickman, who made the experience so memorable. He was amazing and I hope I get to work with him again.

As a voiceover actor, you starred as Rusty Rivets in the Canadian animated series Rusty Rivets across all three series, how was it getting into character and what was Rusty like to voice?

Voice work is a very different experience than being on camera. Actors don’t always have the other cast to feed off of. You don’t have any visuals to feed off of if the show is brand new. You’re reading the words on the page and giving life to a character that sometimes hasn’t even been drawn yet. It can be challenging. Rusty Rivets was a bit of a challenge because there was a lot of things that I had to just picture in my head and make them work. He made cars and dinosaurs, and all kinds of stuff. The first time that I ever had to say the lines was long before I ever saw what they looked like.

Voicing that character was a very well-thought-out plan on production’s part. I actually worked with the same director for PJ Masks. She knew at that age that my voice had started to change. So what we did for the first season was pitched my voice down slightly. Then by the second season, my voice matched the first without changing it. Then by the third season my voice was a little lower, so we pitched it back up slightly, so that it sounds more or less the same over the three arching seasons. It was very smart because then they only needed one actor to do that character for the life of the show. I’m sure if it had continued I would’ve eventually “aged out”.

Over the first three series of PJ Masks, you voiced co-lead character Greg / Gekko, how did you find the experience working on the show?

Gecko is probably my most well-known role. I did that show over the span of four or five years. It was my first big voice gig so I was kind of finding my footing in the animation world. Learning how to give life to an animated character was awesome. I believe I started it when I was eight, and I recorded my last episode of the TV show when I was 12. It was upsetting to get the news that I sounded too old by that time. The boy who replaced me did an amazing job, and he was a perfect fit for that voice. It was definitely sad to have to pass that torch, but I totally understand, and someone else gets to have a great experience like I did.

Can you tell us about some of the other projects you’ve been part of over your career so far, which have included Creeped Out, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Catch a Christmas Star and Corn & Peg?

On top of the projects mentioned previously, there were a few others sprinkled throughout that deserve to be mentioned. Creeped Out was one that was a very cool kind of period piece that I got to do, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters is another. Sid and Marty Krofft were fantastic people to work for, and I’d love to work for that production company anytime. The Whispers was another really cool experience as one of my first sci-fi projects that I got to be a big part of.

There have been a number of projects that are kind of in the cracks in between the bigger stuff. Every last one of them I’ve had a great experience on. I am so lucky to have had an amazing cast and amazing crew on everything that I’ve worked on, and just been surrounded by really great people from the jump.

How did you get into acting and was it something you always wanted to do professionally?

I’m very proud to say that acting from the start was my idea. A lot of people get brought into the industry by their parents. For me, it was always my idea.

I wanted to be an actor when I saw the Jonas Brothers driving around where they were filming Camp Rock 2 in probably 2009. We were camping in the park they were filming in. I turned to my mom and I said “that’s what I want to do” and she goes, “Oh you want to be a rock star?” and I was like “no, I want to be in a movie”. From there forward, my mom, who I always joke is my number one employee, but really is just my number one supporter since the start, has always done everything she can to get me to where I want to be. I greatly appreciate that now more than ever. I’m at the age now where I have to actually be the one doing the work that my mom did for so long. I understand the trouble that she went through, and the effort that she really put into it. Without her, I would never have gotten to where I did. She’s also fun to have on set!

What are some of your favourite films and TV shows to watch, and how do you like to spend your free time?

In my spare time, I do a lot of the things that most people my age probably do. I recently got into working on cars after I bought myself my first car. I’ve been playing guitar for the last six years. I play a lot of video games, right now I’m really into Helldivers 2. I also watch a lot of movies and TV.

Some of my favourite movies are the Star Wars franchise, I’ve been a fan of them since I was like four, but I also really like the original Halloween from 1978, and movies like Fight Club. I also have a newfound appreciation for animated movies. I was never one to really get emotional watching movies until recently. I don’t know what changed, but there’s been a few animated movies that I watched recently that really got me. I rewatched Inside Out with my family a couple of months ago, and I can admit that I cried during that. I just really enjoy movies in general. Everything from rom coms to big dramas and monster movies. I love the experience of watching a movie. One movie that just came to mind that I would love to shine some spotlight on is Godzilla Minus One. That is one of the best new movies I have seen in a couple of years.

As far as TV, I watch whatever grabs my attention, or is recommended by others. In the last year I’ve taken an interest in Formula 1 racing and I watch that whenever the Grand Prix is on.

Have you been given any advice over your time as an actor so far that has stuck with you?

I’ve been given a few pieces of advice along the way that I carry with me. There is one in particular that comes to mind. Tom Everett Scott told me that he naps on his lunch break whenever he gets a chance. In the last couple of years I’ve tried it a couple of times, and it is really refreshing! Going back into the second half of the day rested is like a midday reset. I think that was actually really smart, and I should’ve been doing that the whole time.

I’ve also gotten just general life advice from a few people over the years. Things like not to let work consume you, make sure that you keep your yourself on the ground, and don’t let the movies that you’ve done effect the way that you act as a person, because we’re all just people. We just have a more spotlight-oriented profession.

If I had to give any advice to anyone of any age coming into the industry, I would probably just say: don’t be afraid to refuse to do something if you really don’t want to do it. If there’s an audition that you’re not comfortable with doing and you don’t actually want to perform the scene, make sure no one’s forcing you to do anything you aren’t comfortable with. If something on set is bothering you, don’t be afraid to speak up. It’s no different than any other job. A lot of times people will respect your boundaries and find an alternative. I think that a lot of people believe that if they say no to something, that word will get out and people won’t even think about hiring them. I think people just need to realise that saying no doesn’t end your career.

Do you have any projects coming up that you can talk about and what are you hoping this year brings for your career?

I am starting on some projects soon, but you’ll have to wait for details.

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