{"id":820892,"date":"2026-07-23T13:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/820892\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T13:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:24:09","slug":"william-fichtner-trades-the-intensity-of-hollywood-for-the-sensitivity-of-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/820892\/","title":{"rendered":"William Fichtner trades the intensity of Hollywood for the sensitivity of Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

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William Fichtner, featured recently in the new season of Netflix\u2019s Beef and Apple TV\u2019s Lucky, is one of the film industry\u2019s most sought-after character actors. His latest turn is in the new Canadian sci-fi drama The Outer Threat.DUANE COLE\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

William Fichtner is known for playing difficult men, sharp-edged tough guys who can all too convincingly occupy either side of the cops and robbers divide. Think of his dirty-money banker in Heat, his relentless FBI agent in Prison Break, or his shifty cop in Go. But one of Fichtner\u2019s earliest and most affecting roles was in the 1997 Robert Zemeckis sci-fi drama Contact, in which he played a sensitive, blind astrophysicist who dedicated his life to searching the stars for extraterrestrial life.<\/p>\n

It is tempting to draw a throughline from that performance in Contact straight to Fichtner\u2019s latest turn in the new Canadian sci-fi drama The Outer Threat from first-time filmmaker William Woods \u2013 another movie about humans looking for proof that we are not alone in this universe. <\/p>\n

This time around, the actor plays a widower and roadside restaurateur named Sam, who has a jarring encounter with a pair of married astrophysicists (played by Mark O\u2019Brien and Constance Wu) who just might have discovered the existence of aliens. Yet it was not Contact and The Outer Threat\u2019s twinned themes of interstellar existentialism that initially drew Fichtner\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n

Review: Compelling Canadian sci-fi thriller The Outer Threat offers a new kind of close encounter<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe connection wasn\u2019t there in, you know, that cosmos sort of way, but more in the feeling of being alone,\u201d Fichtner said during an interview in Toronto this week. \u201cMy big discovery working on Contact was my one hour a day with a blindfold in my apartment. You think you know a place until this feeling of being alone comes along \u2013 the power of being this smart and brilliant character who can\u2019t take things for granted, and it\u2019s a whole different thing to experience. And in this film, Sam\u2019s at a moment in his life where you know, boy, he\u2019s alone right now. He\u2019s the adult in the room with his grandkids, and what call is he going to make?\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past three decades, Fichtner has undoubtedly made one right call after another. After making a name for himself in New York City\u2019s theatre scene, the Buffalo, N.Y., native made the leap to L.A. in the mid-nineties and quickly became one of the film industry\u2019s most sought-after character actors. He has worked with Hollywood\u2019s heaviest hitters \u2013 Steven Soderbergh, Ridley Scott, Kathryn Bigelow, Michael Mann, Christopher Nolan \u2013 while maintaining enough stamina to become a staple of the small-screen streaming era, too. (That was him terrorizing Oscar Isaac during the new season of Netflix\u2019s Beef<\/a>, just as he\u2019s now involved in the heist shenanigans of Apple TV\u2019s Lucky<\/a>.) <\/p>\n

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Fichtner in The Outer Threat.VVS\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Partly, it is that workaholic drive that led him to North Bay, Ont., two summers ago to shoot a few days on The Outer Threat, which offers the actor a juicy role, though not a particularly large one. Sam\u2019s appearance, while crucial to the film\u2019s narrative and thematic elements, takes up just about 10 minutes of screen time. But Fichtner says that, above all, more important than the size of the role is the shape and depth of the screenplay. He turns down far more parts than he accepts, and if he doesn\u2019t think the role is there \u201con the page, it ain\u2019t on the stage.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting when you get a character like Sam. I want to understand the bigger picture of everything that\u2019s going on in the world around him, but maybe the bigger picture isn\u2019t about that character\u2019s journey. So I tend to lean in more to fine tune what he does know, in order to play the part,\u201d Fichtner says. \u201cIt\u2019s more important to think about the moment. That\u2019s the emotional journey, which I need to believe more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writer-director Woods, who has a long history as a producer in the Canadian film landscape (from the 2016 thriller Mean Dreams to the 2020 comedy The Kid Detective<\/a> to the 2023 gothic drama The King Tide<\/a>), long had Fichtner on his wish list for casting. But he didn\u2019t think it would come to fruition, given how relatively small the production was compared to the actor\u2019s usual gigs. <\/p>\n

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Fichtner says that when selecting roles, it’s more important for him to consider the shape and depth of the screenplay, rather than the size of the part.DUANE COLE\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to cast Bill was too good to even imagine. He can be warm and inviting but also intimidating and have that emotional heartbreak for what he needs to do in difficult situations,\u201d says Woods, who connected with Fichtner through his longtime friend, the talent manager and producer Tom Spriggs. \u201cIt\u2019s a small film and a role that only needs a couple of days, but Bill fought for the integrity of the scene and was a champion of making it all happen. I give him all the credit in the world for giving me the chance and reading it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWill sent me a letter and it said, \u2018Go Sabres!\u2019 and I\u2019m like, hell, I love this guy!\u201d Fichtner adds with a laugh. \u201cLet\u2019s go ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of Fichtner\u2019s process, whether on the mega-set of a Michael Bay blockbuster or in the woods of Northern Ontario, there isn\u2019t exactly one. \u201cI don\u2019t worry about the delivery part. It\u2019s what\u2019s written, what the character talks about. I really believe what Sam is saying for his own heart and soul, and having those words to say, that\u2019s wonderful. That just helps you figure things out in real time,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is more than I\u2019ve ever talked about it. I was a criminal justice major in college and took an improv class, and had a very influential teacher who encouraged me to do more of this. But I was always so intimidated by the language of it all. You know, \u2018method\u2019 and \u2018technique.\u2019\u2026 It always seemed way bigger than me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Fichtner says he turns down far more roles than he accepts, and if he doesn\u2019t think the role is there ‘on the page, it ain\u2019t on the stage.’DUANE COLE\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Not that the actor shrinks from larger-than-life challenges. In 2017, Fichtner made his directorial debut with the drama Cold Brook, which he co-starred in alongside his best friend, the Canadian actor Kim Coates, the two having met nearly two decades earlier while making Black Hawk Down. <\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of years after that went to festivals, I started working on a new one that\u2019s based on a true story, this coming-of-age story from the mid-\u201960s in a small town south of Buffalo. I got close to making it a couple years ago, but the floorboards fell out at the 11th hour,\u201d Fichtner recalls. \u201cMy new target is next summer. As Will said, like 40 things needed to come together at the same time to make his movie. I need 43 things. So we\u2019ll see, but it\u2019s how I\u2019d want to spend my summer vacation.\u201d <\/p>\n

One project Fichtner likely won\u2019t be lining up is a role in Mann\u2019s much-anticipated sequel to Heat, given that his character bit the dust in the first film. But that won\u2019t stop the actor from happily strolling down memory lane. <\/p>\n

\u201cMichael was super kind, and that movie was like one of two big films I ever worked on that took a whole week to rehearse. It was with Robert on Contact, and Michael on Heat. You went into his office every day and you\u2019d sit down with Jon Voight or De Niro, and you all had to come in because Michael was at his desk and he wants to hear the scene and is specific about every single thing,\u201d he recalls, before jumping into just one more anecdote for the road. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn the first day of photography, we had a 7 a.m. call time, so you think you\u2019re going to wrap at seven, maybe eight o\u2019clock. It\u2019s now 11, and I went over to Michael and asked, \u2018Mr. Mann, is there something else you\u2019d like me to try with this scene \u2013 it\u2019s take 26.\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018Call me Michael. And no no no, we got it on the first few takes. But let\u2019s go again.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

The Outer Threat opens in theatres July 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: William Fichtner, featured recently in the new season of Netflix\u2019s Beef and Apple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,2922],"class_list":["post-820892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-noastack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}