North Bay’s Chris Farquhar has been chasing acting opportunities all over Canada from Vancouver and Victory to the Greater Toronto Area.
He never imagined his biggest opportunity would, in fact, take place right in the middle of his hometown.
“Coming back to North Bay some eight years ago I would have never realized or predicted that this would be the busiest place for me as far as acting goes,” said Farquhar.
You see, the North Bay actor played the role of “Officer Rafalski” in the popular series, Carter.
Season one was shot almost exclusively in the North Bay area in the summer of 2017 and the series has already aired this summer on BRAVO and is now doing a run on CTV , WGN in the United States, and on the streaming service CraveTV.
Farquhar was pleased to find out his police officer character would be included in seven of the nine episodes in season one.
“When Carter came along I didn’t realize that my character would be used in as many episodes as it was,” said Farquhar, who is also known locally as Christophe the Magician.
“As the writing went on, my character kept having more to do with the storyline than I had anticipated and just completely honoured to be a part of it.”
With all the productions taking place in the north, he is glad to be one of the local success stories.
“I am not sure how many people auditioned for my role but it is nice to see a production come in and put confidence into someone who lives in that smaller community where they are filming and decide to cast somebody for a somewhat prominent role,” he said.
“It is nice to see productions give the opportunity to people within this community.”
And of course, working alongside the iconic Jerry O’Connell was thrilling too.
“What you see on screen is exactly what you get in person,” Farquhar said about O’Connell.
“The guy is completely genuine. It was nice to see him around North Bay as much as he was. I think everybody and their Mom has a picture on Facebook with him. I had some good conversations with him about how involved he became in the community. It is not something he had to do, it was not a publicity thing. It is just he did not want to hide out.”
Now, Farquhar, who also works at a car dealership in North Bay, is hoping his character will continue if and when the season two of Carter takes place.
“I think everyone is hoping there will be a season two of Carter in 2019 at some point, we are waiting to hear that but there are a lot of people waiting for that to happen and a lot of people are working toward that and if Rafalski is needed back in season two, if there is one, I would be 100 per cent Gung Ho.”
