Calling Jared Abrahamson a well-travelled man would be an understatement.
The Flin Flon-born actor’s newest television show, the Netflix-Showcase sci-fi production Travelers, aired its second season premiere on Oct. 16.
In the show, a team of time-travelling special operatives head back in time and assume the consciousness of people in the past to prevent a societal collapse. Abrahamson plays Trevor Holden, an engineer who travels back in time and takes over the life of a high school athlete.
“Everyone always says in interviews, ‘oh yeah, this will be better than last time,’ and this and that, but I honestly do think it is,” said Abrahamson, who is currently working on a project in Vancouver. “I think the writers know the actors better and know how to write for each of us better. I think it looks better. Last time, we had different DOPs (directors of photography) working on it. This year, we had one guy from beginning to end and I think it looks more slick.”
Abrahamson isn’t the only person with a Flin Flon connection in the show’s cast. Patrick Gilmore, the son of former Flin Flon Bomber and Edmonton Oiler Tom Gilmore and brother of entrepreneur and columnist Scott Gilmore, also plays a recurring role on the show.
Abrahamson met Gilmore during the show’s first table read. Meeting another Flin Flonner caught Abrahamson off guard.
“We were doing the table reads and meeting everyone and he said, ‘Hey, I’m Pat, I’m from Flin Flon.’”
During his time in the acting world, Abrahamson has had several chance encounters with people who have ties to Flin Flon – including at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where a film Abrahamson starred in, Hello Destroyer, got rave reviews.
“I was at TIFF and I probably met three or four people from Flin Flon, people who were either from there or their grandpa was from there or something. So many people have a connection to it. It’s crazy,” said Abrahamson.
Not long before Abrahamson’s career took off, he spent his days working as a diamond driller. Since then, Abrahamson has brought a diamond driller’s work ethic to his film career.
He currently has a number of projects in progress, including film roles, and is fresh off the festival circuit for Hello Destroyer, which earned him a Best Actor nomination at this year’s Canadian Screen Awards.
“I’ve been doing the festival circuit the past couple months. I was in Toronto with a film, I was in Vancouver with four films. I’m just back out here on the grind right now. I got a few things where my hat’s in the ring,” he said.
“Right now, the climate in Vancouver is that everybody is working. There’s so much work there. It seemed like everybody and their dog had a show on Netflix last year. It was awesome. It was like an oil boom for film.”
Abrahamson’s latest film project, the docu-drama American Animals, wrapped production earlier this year and is set to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Abrahamson said he had great on- and off-set chemistry with his co-stars during shooting, something that he likens to his father’s experiences mining.
“I was talking with my old man about that. He was a contract miner. He said that if you get on a new contract, some little town or something like that, you’re going to meet other miners with a similar background. Right away you get to drinking and everything that comes wit h that. This is a different job, but we’re all still just contractors.”
