Some Assembly Required is a Canadian comedy series created by Dan Signer (A.N.T. Farm, Mr. Young) and Howard Nemetz (Mr. Young, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody), and produced by Thunderbird Films. After a chemistry set from Knickknack Toys blows up his house, Jarvis Raines sues the company and becomes its CEO overnight. He hires his friends and some people from his school to help him run the company, and their adventures become increasingly zany and humorous.
You always hear that acting is glamorized, repetitive work, and I got to see that in action close-up for the first time at this live taping. 16-year-old Kolton Stewart and 19-year-old Harrison Houde (playing best friends Jarvis Raines and Bowie Sherman, respectively) were just a couple feet away from me, executing their lines with such ease, even with starry-eyed fans huddled around them.
The directors had a whole line-up of scenes they wanted to finish filming within four and a half hours. Each scene was filmed quite a number of times to get a good array of shots for the editing team to work with, but the actors were all very patient. It was amazing to see how professional they were, and how each actor carried him or herself.
In between the filming, an emcee came out to entertain the audience. He generally kept the atmosphere light and fun and hosted little contests, gave away prizes, and had the audience tweet or snap selfies for social media. He also gave the audience inside scoops and stories about the industry. The crew took exceedingly good care of the audience, providing everyone with bottles of water and giving out free pizza around dinner time. There were meet-and-greets with the stars and autograph signings after the filming wrapped.
It was a wonderful experience to get a peek into the film industry, and I left with a pretty good impression of the hardworking folks that make fantasy a reality. While there, I caught up with Kolton Stewart. Quieter and more reserved than his character, Stewart was still a friendly and engaging interviewee.
The Peak: How would you say your character has changed from the first season?
Kolton Stewart: [Jarvis] has changed in his maturity level. In the first season, he was so into toys; he was very business-driven. He’s now getting into himself more.
P: You started out with singing and have even performed on The Ellen Degeneres Show. Will your music be involved in Some Assembly Required?
KS: There’s a lot of music involved, especially in season three. We love putting music into our show; we have a really good time.
P: How was your audition process?
KS: It was awesome. The first audition, I actually auditioned for the role of Aster, and then they called me back to do the role of Jarvis. I auditioned this in Toronto, then they flew me out to Vancouver where they had the last two people for each character, and then I got the role.
P: If you could give some of your fans a tour around Vancouver, where would you go?
KS: Squamish. I love Squamish. I haven’t been to Whistler yet, but I heard it’s really great. Grouse Mountain is great. There’s this really nice breakfast spot called Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe. Me and my friends like to hang out at the parks to play football and tennis.
