MONTREAL GAZETTE: Hellish Alberta climes set scene for Hell on Wheels
By Eric Volmers
November 14, 2011
TV productions see all kinds of temperamental behaviour. But according to the cast of AMC's post-Civil war period drama Hell on Wheels, the most alarming of hissy fits came from Mother Nature herself during a few wet weeks in the spring on the Tsuu T'ina Nation, the beautiful native reserve outside of Calgary.
At the recent Los Angeles premiere of the show, weather was not the only topic of conversation...
... Patrick Gilmore, an expat Edmontonian who was on hand lending support from AMC sister show The Killing, talked about his new movie and desire to be back in Alberta...
... But for many, particularly when prodded by the Hollywood media, the topic of the evening was enduring the weeks of ill-tempered climes in that peculiar outpost of Calgary.
"It brings you back to the time when you are completely vulnerable to that intense weather that all of you guys know about living in Calgary or in that area," said lanky Canadian actor Christopher Heyerdahl, who plays a character known as The Swede.
"When the weather comes through, it comes through, and there's nothing you can do about it. You can see it coming and you just hope the wind will start pushing it north.
"It's this ominous reminder of how small and insignificant we are. We can just be washed away, and that happened to us a number of times. The grips had a hell of a time moving stuff around, knee-deep in mud and snow, and the wind would come up and be knocking things over..."
Christopher Heyerdahl as The Swede
... Heyerdahl decided that The Swede, for instance, is a character who would never purposely have mud on his shoes.
"But it was impossible," Heyerdahl says with a laugh. "He's so OCD, he is in constant terror of getting his boots wet and they were constantly dirty. So it was just a dirty, muddy mess for the first couple of months. You can't get away from that, it brings the reality. You don't have to sit there and do some sort of creative imagining; it's all there -- especially in that valley. It looks like it hasn't been touched. You get on the hill and you can see the suburban sprawl all around you. But there, you are away from it all. It's like going back in time..."
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