This time last year, Calum Worthy was in Paris saving the world — or trying to — when he appeared with Al Gore during the Climate Reality Project’s The World is Watching climate-change telethon.
Before reuniting with the former U.S. vice-president in New York for 24 Hours of Reality: The Road Forward when it streams worldwide Dec. 5 and 6, Worthy has been busy preparing for an even greater challenge.
He has been learning how to navigate the perils of modern dating as part of a new millennial-targeted comedy series.
Cassandra French’s Finishing School was shot over the summer and into the fall, the Victoria-born actor and activist said.
Produced by Audience Network and Fullscreen in the U.S., the eight-episode series, based on the novel by Eric Garcia (Matchstick Men), premières Feb. 17 on DirectTV and AT&T U-verse. “I play a guy who makes a bad mistake during a hook-up with a girl and she ends up locking me in a basement and torturing me into being a better man,” Worthy said, laughing.
Their disastrous one-night stand prompts the overachieving publicist of the title, played by Jessica Renee Russell, to start a finishing school for young men.
“It sounds like a crazy premise, but it’s a really great story about dating in 2016.”
Worthy’s co-stars include Modern Family’s Anjali Bhimani, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Lisa Schwartz and MadTV’s Mo Collins.
“It’s every girl’s dream,” said the Claremont Secondary grad, describing the comedy’s premise. “They meet a guy they like and he’s flawed, and they have the opportunity to turn him into the man they want him to be.”
It’s timely and has much more of an edge than what you’ll find on Disney Channel, said the former Austin & Ally star.
“It’s definitely a lot edgier than my previous series,” he tweeted Tuesday to his 977,000 Twitter followers, not long after reuniting with his former co-stars on Disney’s hit sitcom.
Worthy’s impish sense of humour also surfaced when he weighed in on the controversy surrounding the post-Hamilton shoutout that U.S. vice-president elect Mike Pence experienced on Broadway last weekend.
“I’ll never forget when the cast of Cats heckled me out of the theatre. It was both political and adorable,” Worthy tweeted.
Worthy made his debut at age four as a kitten in a Cats number in one of Sooke School District 62’s annual musical comedy revues, which his mother, Sandra Webster-Worthy, stages and for which he still comes home.
Betcha he hasn’t told girlfriend Celesta De Astis about that one yet.
Worthy has been dating the Second City-trained, Chicago-born actor (ANT Farm) since the summer of 2015, after they met on the Austin & Ally set.
While last November’s Paris terrorist attacks cut short Climate Reality Project’s telethon, Worthy’s passion for environmentalism remains undiminished.
“Give Calum Worthy a hug for me,” De Astis tweeted when Worthy appeared in downtown Los Angeles last week during a day of action in solidarity with indigenous leaders and their supporters protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock.
“Every time we build a pipeline, we prolong the time it takes to switch to renewable energy,” Worthy said.
Movie Magic: The sad news about Jim Munro’s death last Monday rekindled memories of a time not so long ago that the beloved bookseller’s passion for literature translated into a brush with movie-making.
It was in March of 2011 when actor Poppy Montgomery caught his attention while playing a young J.K. Rowling in a scene for an unauthorized biopic on the Harry Potter creator being filmed at Munro’s Books.
Government Street had been dressed as a lively Edinburgh thoroughfare, complete with double-deckers, red phone booths and fashionable shoppers for Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story.
While the Harry Potter fan made it clear “there was no way I was going to close the store,” creating additional challenges for the filmmakers, Munro admitted he was somewhat smitten by the film’s Australian star.
“She’s an absolutely charming and beautiful person,” said Munro, who was also excited about getting to fly his new Scottish flag and because the bookshop it would portray would be called Munro’s in the film.
“They’re letting us keep our name, so maybe we’ll be known worldwide,” added the bookstore owner, whose movie equivalent was played by Jacqui Kaese, a Nanaimo-based actor and acting coach.
Kaese said Munro was a man who was passionate about literature and loved his store.
“He was so proud that the J.K. Rowling story was being filmed there.”
