According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), the 1994 film White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf made almost $9 million at the box office, but the experience that Britannia Beach native Ryan Cook got from the movie was priceless.
Cook snuck onto the set of the movie at the age of eight and witnessed a little movie magic.
"I remember jumping the fence into the mine and I stumbled into a director who asked what I was doing here," he said. "I told him I just wanted to see what was going on and he took me around the set, introduced me to the actors and I spent the whole day with them. I was in awe of all the actors and how crazy it was and just fell in love with it from then on."
After his close encounter on set, Cook took drama classes at Howe Sound Secondary School (HSSS) and after high school set out for Hollywood to chase his dreams. According to Cook, the move to Tinseltown was a challenging but fun experience.
"There are a lot of no's and you have to be strong enough to get through the no's to get to those one or two yes's," he said of his time in Hollywood. "I had a really great group of friends and actually lived with Jesse Metcalfe [star on Desperate Housewives] for two years. He introduced me to the right people, I got my first agent and a lot of lucky things started happening for me."
Cook managed to score a few small parts on shows like 90210 and The Hills, along with playing a surfer dude in the hit movie 2012.
Ironically, it appears as though Cook's big break may come in his own backyard after he was added to the cast of Sawdogs, a reality TV show featuring wood carvers that was filmed in the Squamish Valley.
"The producers were looking for someone local to be the apprentice on the show and after I met them, it was kind of a no-brainer," he said. "My first job was at Howe Sound Equipment and I used to be a heli-logger at Black Tusk, so I had some experience. I was just like, 'Really I come home to my hometown and get my big break?'"
The show, which airs in Canada on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), features a group of elite wood chainsaw carvers who receive a challenging project each week that must be completed within a short time. Cook was hired as the apprentice to the carvers and said the show changed his life.
"I'm the new guy and I didn't really know much about carving at first, but was very enthusiastic to learn about it," he said. "I'm mostly an antagonist on the show, I get into a little bit of trouble but I truly believe that what these guys do is an art form."
The first season includes 10 episodes and each week the carvers have a new challenge to be done in limited time.
"All the commissions were challenging in their own right," Cook said. "The first episode was pretty crazy - we had to make eagles for the Furry Creek Golf Course and every week, we have guest carvers and the guy for that episode was amazing. He did an eight-foot eagle in 40 minutes."
The only problem was that Cook managed to all but destroy the expert's creation.
"I was driving the forklift and I really didn't know what I was doing," he said. "And I broke the head of the eagle. I felt so bad; I was just trying to do a good job but things kept on happening that were out of my hands."
Cook said learning and working with the carvers was a lot of fun.
"As much as it's a reality show, it totally is all real," he said. "The carvers are just amazing and the commissions we all had to do on such short deadlines. To be able to be a part of this with them was awesome. This is their livelihood so to be able to learn from them was amazing."
In fact, Cook was so inspired by the show that he's started up his own carving workshop in Britannia Beach.
"I'm carving full time now," he said. "It's going good, I'm trying to get jobs and taking things seriously. It was such a challenging thing for me as a person to be thrown into the gauntlet with these experts but it was awesome."
Woodcarving has been steady for Cook, as he said he did a piece for the Carrat family, who own the Valleycliffe General Store. He's also working on carvings of bears, a Zelda sculpture and other projects. Anyone interested in working with Cook can email him at [email protected].
The future of the Sawdogs program is still to be determined but Cook said it's doing well in the U.S. and that he would love to be back for the second season if it comes about.
"The buzz around the carving world is awesome," he said. "It's really highlighting the art form that these guys do. I'd love to go back if we have another season, I want to learn more."
Sawdogs airs Tuesdays at 6 and 9 p.m. on OLN. For more information on the show, visit www.oln.ca/details.php?id=120.
