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On February 26th, 2020 a new medical drama premiered on CTV that took over Prime Time viewing for that night. Up against well-established show Chicago Fire and Seal Team, Transplant had an average audience of 1.3 million viewers in the 9 p.m. timeslot in its debut airing, according to bellmedia.ca. Since then, it has grown to become one of the nations most-watched shows and it stars North Bay’s own Jim Watson.
“It's wild and its strange and its everything you thought it would be and nothing like you think it would be,” says Watson. “If you told me at 16 that I would be on a hit Canadian TV show and also a hit show that’s on Tuesday nights in the USA and you’re one of the leads I bet I would think that I would be a superstar. It's different though, its everything you want it to be but completely different from what you might have expected.”
See related: CTV Transplant star is from North Bay
This was a path Watson didn’t think about carving out for himself until he reached high school.
“Well my mom will tell you the acting bug was always there, but I think that’s pushing it a bit. I was just a really goofy kid trying to be the centre of attention all the time.
But in high school, I played a lot of hockey and hadn’t shown any real interest in anything artistic. I was in a drama class in grade 9 or 10 and my teacher at the time Chris Mogan at West Ferris Secondary School noticed I wasn’t showing up to school too often and, not to be dramatic, but he gave me sort of this ultimatum of either doing this after school musical or you’re going to fail drama class and really, who fails drama class?” says Watson.
Other teachers, Al MacAskill and Marla Sunstrum helped push Watson towards the Theatre Outreach on Stage (TOROS) program and that’s where things started to really click for him.
“I just felt like this was something that I was comfortable with and something that just felt right and I’m very grateful that they saw that in me, and saw past the lazy high school kid who didn’t want to try very hard. And now I am where I am and I’ve always been very grateful to those people who gave me a kick in the butt because this would not have happened on its own. I would not have found this career by myself.”
Watson went on to perform at the Sears Festival and other high school theatre show competitions but knew that if this was going to turn into a career, he was going to have to leave the Gateway City.
“I was riding these highs and being proud of these accomplishments, but I lived in North Bay and I didn’t know what to do. At the time there was no real film in North Bay. It was very dry, and Mr. MacAskill pointed me towards George Brown Theatre School, and I put all my eggs in that one basket.
"So, I went and auditioned and got accepted and this school was militant. It was 13 hours a day, six days a week and if you missed a couple of days, they would drop you. They did cuts every semester and you had to show you had a willingness to be there and a willingness to improve. It was the hardest three years of my life and developing that idea of what a hard worker is.”
Watson says the program wanted to mold all the students into their idea of what an actor is, and that didn’t completely fall into his own ideologies.
“The hardest thing about the three years was remembering who I was and why I liked acting. That I still had some natural ability that I couldn’t just fully throw out. I really learned that I was enough. You can’t just sit there and take everything they give you and apply it to the real world. That doesn’t work and I was fortunate enough to realize that in school. You have to be an individual in this industry.”
However, he adds that there are many things you need to learn while you are attending a theatre school such as, “dialects and movements and staying healthy and the discipline I never would have had without going to George Brown.”
Right after graduating, Watson says there was some good fortune thrown his way in the form of his agent who was able to secure him some work right away.
“I was very lucky that he chose me and took me in. I had been working steadily since I got out of school, but the thing is that doesn’t mean you would ever know, or see anything that I’ve been in. I’ve done a few Netflix series, a few horrors. People like to see me get hurt for whatever reason, I’m not really sure why but they say I’m a good screamer. I’ve done the Toronto scene which means Murdoch Mystery and other Canadian shows and whenever an American company comes to town, you hope that you can get a couple of lines here and there.”
And that hope came to fruition one day for Watson in what he considers his biggest break, before landing the role on Transplant.
“What sort of really reaffirmed my idea that I could stick this out was a few years ago I got a really great job on a tv series that was directed and produced by (Horror Movie Icon) Guillermo del Toro called The Strain. It was an amazing opportunity because he hired me to play the lead character, but in flash backs,” says Watson.
“I played the lead character during the holocaust, so I lost about 30 pounds to play the role and shaved my head to do that. And that’s the craziest thing about it is that del Toro is like a God in this business, it was a very surreal experience. I went and met him for lunch and he and Carlton Cuse, who had produced Lost, basically said “we need you to lose weight and shave your head,” and I said, “yes sir. I will do whatever you say, I promise.’”
After one season of that series, del Toro called Watson back for another go around.
“He wanted me to now play the same character but in his 60s. So, the lead actor was playing the character in his 80s and I got to play him in his 20s and now again in his 60s. So, they put me in a full-face prosthetic. I got to ride on horses, I got to do all kinds of crazy stunts. And since then del Toro has continued to be great to me. He came here to shoot a movie and there was an actor who got sick on set and had to leave so del Toro called my agent and I came in and did a day's work for him.”
Watson says people reading this story might think that he was lucky to find work right away and he says that is not the way young actors, or actors of any age should look at his story because he says it's all about putting in the hard work.
“The word luck is thrown around so much, ‘you're so lucky you made it’, but you’re not lucky, you’re fortunate. Your name wasn’t thrown in a hat and they pulled out whose playing Captain America, you have to earn it. I’ve had so many people that have taught me that if you are good and are willing to try and learn and be an employee and not just an artist, if you realize that this is a job, then you will be successful. Where the luck comes in, is where that success may take you. You might do an audition where you do a movie that had a budget of $100,000 but somehow makes $100 million. That’s where the luck comes in and you really had nothing to do with that.”
After 1.3 million people watching the debut episode of Transplant, the series has done well to hold on to its viewership and Watson says it's likely due to the fact that their medical knowledge on the show is very authentic.
“I’ve watched Greys Anatomy and all these other medical shows, and all these actors do these interviews where they say ‘we have the best medical staff.’ But honestly, on Transplant, WE have the best medical staff. These doctors are already working 12-hour shifts, and then they come on to our set to hang out and tell us what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong and showing us how to properly do procedures. The dedication just from them to make the show what it is, is just fantastic. I have people in my life that work in the medical field and they will watch the show and say we’re doing a very accurate job. Our attention to detail, because of this crew, has made it watchable for them. It's elevated our show.”
Watson says that playing a doctor has also given him a new perspective on the medical field in real life.
“The things the health care workers are subjected to daily is just unbelievable and they have to be stoic and strong. One thing this show has really done for me is it has given me an immense amount of respect even more so than what I had for what these people do every day.”
Watson says this has truly been an experience of a lifetime as the cast and crew of Transplant are allowing him to expand his reach as an actor while working in an environment where everyone is focused on the same goal of making this show the best it can be.
“It’s a crazy business and you just try to go along for the ride and I’m just fortunate that the ride has led me to Transplant. I’m only 31 and I’m feeling pretty confident for at least the next couple of years, which is hard for a lot of actors to say that.”
The encore broadcast of Season 1 of Transplant airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on CTV.
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