Then Flashpoint came along, I was instantly in love with the show and as the actors grew into their roles, my interest in the characters and actors on the show became deeper. Hugh Dillon and Rico Colantoni were the center of the show and the way they jumped off the screen together. Their chemistry and obvious enjoyment of working together as well as their growing friendship off screen made the show even better. It was a few years in before I even put together ‘Ed Lane’, the stoic yet lovable character and the punk-rock band ‘Headstones’. It wasn't until an episode where they used Hugh Dillon’s music that made me go, 'Hey, that sounds like the guy from The Headstones. Oh wait, that sounds like Ed Lane! Holy shit!' A quick search on his career and I was surprised, but then a little bit shocked that I hadn't put two and two together before. After that I made it a point to get my hands on as much of his music as possible. His solo music is vastly different than Headstones, but I love it as well.
When he came to my town, I put it out to the local film-set extraordinares letting them know that I was looking for Dillon and I desperately wanted a meet. A photo, an autograph, whatever I could get. I just wanted to meet the guy. He proved to be hard to find. We found out later that his character in The Killing is a prison guard (and a damn creepy one at that). Not going to find him there because it's all set work. Continuum I knew he was playing ‘a CEO’. More buildings, less streets. No one had tips. When the new Headstones album came out I pushed my contacts even harder, I wanted that bad boy autographed.
The story officially starts the day after Mumford and Sons played in Surrey (May 24th, 2013), I was with some friends that had come over for the show from Victoria. While we were at lunch, Hugh Dillon tweeted a photo from his Continuum set. It was easy to figure out the location near Gastown from the photo and the direction it was taken. Once my friends headed for the ferry, I headed downtown. On the way down I made a resolution to myself, I wanted to meet him that day.
The fates seemed to be aligned as I reflected on exactly why that day was important.
You see, a friend, neighbour and fellow musician that shared community bands and musicals with me in the years she lived in BC was a huge fan of Flashpoint. We would get together and watch it, talk the show and about the characters in the long drive to gigs in Vancouver from Abbotsford. She was from South Africa and went back when her green card expired and there were some complications with the paperwork. She had only been there since Christmas 2012 but she passed away in April 2013 from complications from Cystic Fibrosis. That day (May 25th) was her birthday. Her favourite character from Flashpoint: Ed Lane, Dillon's character. I know she would have been with me if she could have to meet him, and I thought that was a nice way to remember her on the first of her birthdays that she would miss.
Once I got downtown, found the shoot and made some friends on the crew while I waited I tweeted Hugh to let him know I was geeking out and waiting outside. The Tweet read: "@realhughdillon Just got my copy of #loveandfury, hanging out outside #continuum. Want to come sign it?" It didn't take long for a couple of fans and filming friendlies to catch on on Twitter and they were egging him on to come down. I didn't bother him more than one tweet at a time, I just waited and chatted with the workers that were hanging around. Not long after, to my shock, he answered in his usual spectacular fashion.
Can't argue with that.I told him I’d wait. "@realhughdillon hi! Cool. It's all good. Bought a crew guy a coffee down here and hanging out. :)" The guy was bored and nowhere near craft services and I was just standing around. Thought I'd help him out. There were lots of vehicles constantly going in and out past us in the time I was there and soon he tweeted again. It had a photo but I didn't look right away but instead answered that I was downstairs still. A few minutes later I looked at the photo: He was back at the trailers.
Without looking I'd replied: "@realhughdillon Hey you done? Still down at the purple wall! :)" (The coffee tweet included a photo of a distinctive purple wall outside) Now, Twitter is a busy place. He has no obligation to meet fans, I wasn't angry or faulting him in any way, but I did think maybe he didn't want a meet. I get it. Not a problem. Not wanting to give up, I tweeted him again saying I was coming there, it was Plaza of Nations and also kind of intimated that it was okay if he didn't want to do this.
"@realhughdillon Hey! Are you staying there for a few minutes? I'm near. Or am I not getting the hint? #StubbornFan"
To my surprise, he answered me again saying he had to run home to work on a script, but he would have stopped if he’d seen me. I took him at his word, accepted defeat and headed home. I responded kind of as a courtesy that I had just arrived at the circus where the trailers were and promised to explain myself via Twitter/Twitlonger later on.
"@realhughdillon Oh damn. Just got here. Won't try and find 'home' #Creeper. Next long tweet will explain why today:) "
I felt bad for not getting it done for my friend, but saw a wonderful rainbow on the way home. Somehow, it made me feel better. I wasn't going to give up.
"@realhughdillon Sorry to bug again but wanted to say thx for being so friendly via twitter. :) Make sure u read Frans story in my last tweet" (I sent him a link)
I also posted on my late friend's Facebook, just because I was feeling reflective:
"May 25: Happy Birthday, Fran. I went to try and meet Hugh Dillon today, thinking of you, but didn't succeed. On the way home, feeling bad about it, there was a big fat rainbow near the Port Mann, thought maybe you sent it."
A couple of weeks passed. That day I was more brazen than I usually would be to meet a celeb and the more I thought about it the more I felt I'd gone too far. I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable or make them feel awkward.
Everyone has their own lives, doing their own thing. I figured I was that close and missed my chance, I didn't want to bother him again. Unless I walked into him on the street, I wasn't going to actively pursue meeting him. I’d bothered him enough and I can accept defeat. I have this crazy luck of running into people randomly that I want to meet, like running into Josh Jackson at a Canucks game. These things just happen. I thought maybe it might work out, but I wasn't holding my breath.
I was tweeting with a filming friend who always has great info on shoots. We were talking about something else and I passively mentioned Hugh Dillon saying that I wasn't after him anymore, so she could stand down on the information. Unless there was some kind of miracle it wasn't going to happen. He was almost done in town, work is busy for me. Sad but true. I’m a realist.
Within minutes, he had tweeted me back. It was Sunday and he told me he would be filming downtown on Tuesday, hashtag: #NeverGiveUp. I actually didn't work on Tuesday. I’m a music teacher. Because I teach some days outside of the schedule, I get days off. Tuesday was my day off. As much as I didn't want to seem to push too hard, I had to go. He’d tipped me himself, he must be okay with this.
Julie Holden @jholden23 9 Jun @--- Thanks so much! FYI, given up on meeting @realhughdillon, unless there's a miracle, I'm not getting 2 meet him :( #JustWantAPhoto
(Nov. 2015 intrusion thought.... I totally, never ever ever thought he'd see this, respond to it. He's a busy guy. Looking back now I don't even know what I was thinking @'ing him in it. Apparently a bout of the crazies...)
Hugh Dillon @realhughdillon 9 Jun @jholden23 @--- shooting downtown tues #nevergiveup
@realhughdillon Just so happens, I don't teach Tuesday. #Miracle? I'll head down & hope for info. Thx, u didn't have to do that. #URock :)
Monday was insane for me, teaching straight from 7am to 4 with no breaks in the eastern Fraser Valley and then driving straight to Vancouver Community College for a rehearsal until 10:30 and then back home to Abbotsford. School was busy, awards day and all the end of year things happening was pressing on my time. I got up Tuesday and had to drive back to the east side of Chilliwack to pick up trophies for my students and then I was planning on going downtown for a bit to see what I could dig up and then going back out to work (even though it was my day off but... teacher). Before leaving my place I tweeted @realhughdillon saying that I was coming to him and asked around with the filming knowledgeable what was happening downtown.
Julie Holden @jholden23 11 Jun Ok, @realhughdillon, coming to you. #StillHope #ThankYou #StubbornFan #yvrshoots :)
I dropped my car at the park and ride in Langley at around 12:30, just passing the Port Mann rapid bus (my bus) leaving as I pulled in. I’d have a full half an hour wait before I could go anywhere. I sat down and started working on some emails when a message came in, ‘Hugh Dillon is now following you on Twitter’. What? Then right away, ‘Hugh Dillon has sent you a direct message .’ Well, I can tell you that I almost freaked out right there.
And here I am at a bus stop in Langley at 12:30. Good thing I missed the last bus, it’s about an hour via bus and Skytrain. I jumped up and headed back to the car, answering him that I was coming from Langley, I’d get there as soon as I could. My friend had gotten back to me about locations that day was already downtown so I told her where I would be. As I high tailed it to the car I responded to him: "You are fucking awesome. Driving from Langley. Get there as soon as I can. :) :). Wow. You rock."
I headed out and made it from 202nd to Main Street in just under half an hour. I threw the first coin I found in the meter with shaking hands and headed up to the intersection where Dillon had said he'd be. It was pretty close to 1 and there he was signing for a couple of guys next to a motorbike.
I waited across the street for a second and then went right to him, introduced myself and thanked him. He was friendly and accommodating. He shook my hand and I dug out my CD. He asked what I wanted it to say, it didn't matter to me. He told me good timing, then wrote it on my CD. He asked someone standing nearby to take a photo and we got that taken care of. I babbled about being a long time fan of Headstones and that it took me a while to put it all together. He smiled and told me that was normal. I didn't want to keep him and I couldn't pull any of my questions I wanted to ask from my brain, so I thanked him again and left him.
I didn't want to leave the area since I’d bought 2 hours of parking plus had just done a lot of driving. I walked up the street into Chinatown and tweeted my friend back. She was nearby so I doubled back and waited for her. In not too long she came and met me and we chatted, both agreeing that this was such a strange situation. Good strange, awesome strange, but strange. She had already passed by after I had and taken a few photos, but when she looked at her photos and realized he had left a funny setting on her camera, she didn't like any of her photos she'd taken of Dillon. The whole thing happened so fast for both of us. She writes for a couple of blogs around town and wanted to check out the filming as well as get another shot at some photos of Dillon. I was happy to keep her company and maybe see some filming.
We went back to the corner and scoped out the situation. We could see activity but it didn't look like they were going to be filming on the street. Less than 5 minutes later, Hugh came out of a coffee shop across the street from us with a couple of others carrying a cup. He spotted us across the street and came right over. I didn't expect that at all and greeted him by joking that he just can’t get rid of us.
My friend mentioned she wasn't happy with her original photo and Hugh, with a smile, wanted to inspect it for himself. However, when he looked at the shot in question, he agreed, no good. He then turned to me asking about mine. I dug my camera back out and showed it to him. He didn't like that one either.
Pulling out his iPhone he said that these things take great photos now too. He wanted to use his phone to take a couple. He turned it around and then hopped up on a step outside a pizza joint because I'm “so damn tall.” I couldn't believe what was happening and rolled with it, sticking my arm around him and posing with him.
He took two photos and decided he didn't like that we were looking at the camera, picked a window and we looked up at that and he took another. Looking at the photos now, it's obvious who the actor is. I couldn't even keep a straight face.
Once he was happy, he decided he was going to tweet one and asked which I liked. Like I'm prepared to answer that? Quickly though, he changed his mind and said I should tweet it. He asked what the best way to get them to me was.
I'm a tech geek, but the first thing that came to mind wasn't going to work. It couldn't. But judging his iPhone comfort level and sparse apps, he probably didn't have ‘Bump’. I just spat out what I was thinking saying that text was easiest, but then I’d have his number. He didn't care, jumped in and texted one of them to me. He asked again which ones I liked, I told him to pick, I’d like them all. I rattled off my number and he sent the first one and then handed the phone over to me to send the rest of them to myself. Smiling, he said he does the same thing with his friend Elliott too, just hands her the phone.
So I'm standing there with his cell phone and we chatted about how much he liked Vancouver. I took the opportunity to apologize if I over-tweeted him. I still felt a little sheepish for being so pushy. He said it was all good, he could tell I was honest and real. If someone was in town he loved musically, he’d try and say hi too. He mentioned Muddy Waters. Oh blues. The awesomeness never ends. He continued saying he said he could see I was a big music, TV and film fan. It was more the music for me I said, although Flashpoint helped.
Looking around, I realized my friend had disappeared, she had been talking to the producer of the show. She came back and said she’d been invited to the rooftop to watch a bit of filming. I wanted to chat with her some more, still had plenty of time on the meter so I said I’d wait down there while she went up. I didn't want to overstep anything or assume but right away Hugh told me to come too. Okay. This is awesome.
We went in the building and up we went in an elevator to the top. The whole time in the elevator, Dillon he was dogging me with a smile about tweeting the photo, “Have you done it yet?” While standing there, with a director, producer, actor/musician in an elevator, suddenly my cell is ringing. One of my students was calling me, probably something to do with running the sound system. Okay, real world, meet this crazy one I just walked into. Ignore that call. We chatted a little about teaching, I told them where I worked and that I taught band. (Later, I told the student in question exactly where I was when he'd called. He was even angrier that I didn't answer...)
Once on the rooftop, Hugh went and got set up and they ran a couple of rehearsals and then shot the scene for The Last Crop. It involved Hugh talking on the phone (his own phone I noticed) about a hockey bag outside a black Jeep Grand Cherokee overlooking North Vancouver. Standing there watching this I was still in awe of what just happened. It took me a while for my brain to work again and to realize I should probably be taking some photos. I started doing just that while I still was probably glowing about the way this day worked out. I kept telling my friend that I couldn't believe this.
Once they finished their scene, we were ready to get out of the way. The guy that was throwing lines, James Hutson, came over to talk to us for a few minutes. My friend was trying to get a photo of the producer/director and Hugh. They pretty much just wandered over and started posing, so we both snapped some photos. After, she called the elevator so we could slip away and Hugh came back over one last time, “You good?” He asked me. Umm, yeah! Is that even a question? I nodded, thanked him again, he reached an arm out and hugged me. Wow. I continued to thank him profusely and we left. Now with my meter out, I took off, even getting to Terminal Long & McQuade to buy gifts for my award winning students. Bonus.
And he even sent a follow up DM. Plus, I got a follow from James Hutson, the writer and lead in The Last Crop. It’s all just so outrageously ridiculous, I have trouble believing it’s true… until I see the photos.
On a personal note, this last year has been hard for me, professionally things are not at a great place in my life right now and they have been magnified by some personal losses. I’ve been trying to push through and find joy in the little things, although this was certainly no little thing. Overall, I think the biggest lesson to take away from this was a reminder of something that got me to where I am today. Something that pulled me to the success that I’ve had until now. Beating the odds and getting to and through university with the challenges I had growing up. Wanting to live a meaningful life, to love music and teaching. Some of the ideals I've built my life on have slipped away in exchange for cynicism and negativity in the past years. Although connecting with my students has never changed, sharing my passion for music and playing music is still there. Students still tell me I've changed them for the better, present students and past. But the external pressures and problems have pulled me under recently and made me question what, exactly, I was thinking by going into teaching.
On a higher level, Hugh reminded me of something that I've always had inside me that has been pushed aside, that I’d abandoned in favour of looking for a way out. Even though I know I'm making a difference in the lives of my students. He rejuvenated a belief deep inside me that I’d neglected in the face of adversity in my career and uncertainty in my future. Three little words. #NeverGiveUp
The previous post was written very nearly after this happened, but was saved as one of many word documents on my computer with the intent of sharing it with a few friends. Looking back now on it even 2 1/2 years later, I still hardly believe it. My cell phone lock screen background photo hasn't changed since this day. Seeing it every time I turn my phone on helps me remember, #NeverGiveUp. Helps me remember my roots and my own life direction and drive that got me where I am today.
Since this time I have made some changes in my career and am still teaching, but have moved out of the toxic situation I was stuck in during this time.
I am living closer to Vancouver teaching in a district with a lot of great things happening. While there are still challenges, I feel better about my career and my life.
I felt it was time to share it after seeing The Headstones for the first time ever just 2 nights ago. Amazing show. Amazing man.
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