Born in Leicestershire, England, Maurice Dean Wint is an actor, narrator, and musician who has an impressive filmography that includes film, tv, and theater that includes, of course, “SurrealEstate,” “Diggstown,” “Haven,” “PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal,” “TekWar,” “Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future,” and “Blue Murder” for which he received a Gemini Award Nomination. He has appeared in such features and MOW’s as “The Kid Detective,” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” Wint has definitely seen on “Suits,” “Murdoch Mysteries,” “Flashpoint,” “Heartland,” “The Outer Limits” and the list runs on and on. As a narrator, his credits include projects for The Discovery Channel, the CBC, Vision TV, Global TV, and even two IMAX documentary features. One premiered at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
Along with his acting career, he is a talented musician. His talent on the harmonica shows off such purpose and soul. Not a professional thing for him, yet he has done a fair bit of jamming with bands and players over the years. This incredibly talented human has a lot to share and says that “positive energy given returns tenfold.” Get to know Maurice Dean Wint in our exclusive interview.
Colleen Bement: I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about your new series on SyFy, “SurrealEstate.” It is certainly up the alley of our readers. Congratulations. Let’s start out by chatting about life on the set. What has the atmosphere been like?
Maurice Dean Wint: Wonderful! Your readers are looking up all the right alleys! Let me tell you, the energy and enthusiasm on set from Day One were extraordinary. There was a real dimensionality to that energy though, as you can imagine. The pandemic and the meticulous safety protocols that this production put in place created a heightened awareness and appreciation of the role each member of the team played in bringing these stories to the small screen. It took a bit of getting used to, with the masks and the frequent sanitization and the distancing requirements, but once these
procedures became second nature, the overriding feeling was that we were all a part of an incredibly unique beast-in-the-making.
For us actors, it was a tremendous treat to work with material that leaned heavily into character definition. This was true of all of the characters that creator/showrunner George Olson and his team writers scripted but if I may speak, in particular about the six lead regulars, it was heaven to have such clarity in terms of character identity and relationship one to another. There was an open-heartedness perhaps born of the difficult circumstances that the pandemic had saddled us with and there was a gratefulness to be on a set and working in such times. I can’t help but point out that there was
also an instant affection among the ‘Roman Agency’ core … we just liked each other.
There was zero tension, only a desire to devour these scripts and have a hell of a lot of fun in the process! I think a jovial atmosphere hung over the entire set because of the fascinating hybrid nature of the project. It’s horror when it needs to be. It’s comedy when it wants to be. And it’s incredibly moving drama when you least expect it to be. This made for a wonderful excitement and anticipation from one episode to the next. The energy remained fresh and challenging as each of our four directors took the reins and steered us in their own unique directions. It was incredible how each of them, Paul, Danishka, Melanie, and Paolo maintained the overarching style of the series while bringing their own particular flair to their episodes. I think that this show really benefited from an all-for-one mentality. It was SOOO appreciated and I dare say, necessary for the success of the production in such challenging times.
CB: I love your character’s name-August Ripley. Sci-Fi fans certainly know what a strong last name of “Ripley” happens to be. Tell us about your character and what do you like about him.
MDW: Yep, Sigourney certainly set the bar high as far as Ripley’s go. I do my best to live up to the family name. August Ripley is a magnificent invention out of the mind of George Olson. I took his words off a page, slipped them into a pair of shoes, and walked around in them for four months. Yeah, okay, I brought a bit of Me to Augie but for the most part, the template was crystal clear! These scripts render for me a man who is incredibly well educated, articulate, and exceptionally well-read. He is the team’s I.T. specialist. He builds and maintains all of the agency’s proprietary technology, which they use to purge, or de-haunted the properties they are enlisted to bring to market. If asked to define him in a succinct way I would say that he is a ‘modern-day wizard’. He has a razor-sharp scientific mind and his main avenue of expression is technical however there are colorful streaks of knowledge that range from dramatic and romantic literature, philosophy, social and political science as well as visual arts and music. He is an insightful, intuitive, kind yet somewhat stoic man who is nevertheless open to occasionally indulging his eccentricities or tongue-in-cheek spirit. He is fatherly, older-brotherly: there is a quality of the wise uncle, teacher, professor, mentor. August is many, many things. George O tells me he is an enigma.
I have come to refer to my character as a ‘bearded onion’ because these various layers reveal themselves one scale at a time. I firmly believe it is the intention of the writers to take their time in the exposition of these chambers of his persona. I love this about the character because it allows for a truly dimensional exploration that hopefully can take place over the course of a number of seasons. I have been asked if I am anything like Augie. Well, I have injected parts of myself into him. It only makes sense that a casting search is going to find someone who possesses or appears to possess those sought-after qualities. I do own some of his quiet reserve. I am to a certain degree analytical (not PhD analytical). I am on board with his love of words, phrases, quotations; these profound and beautiful pearls of wisdom, and sage advice from literary giants in history. But He quotes them effortlessly. They roll of his tongue with well-cataloged authority. I am nowhere near as encyclopedic as he is. I would love to be able to apply the writings of great thinkers, poets, philosophers, and playwrights in everyday life situations with as much specificity and relevance as he does.
CB: How would you react if you came face to face with a paranormal entity?
MDW: A: I’m a pretty inquisitive person so, if I could maintain consciousness in the moment, I would probably ask it what the deal is with the Bermuda Triangle. I have an uncanny feeling it might know! But, if it was an attractive entity … I might invite it out to dinner and a scary movie.
CB: Are you allowed to tell us a little about your new film “Six Guns for Hire, ” or any other projects in the works?
MDW: Certainly. ‘Six Guns for Hire’ is a Strange (capital ‘S’) and exhilarating postapocalyptic heist film. It is the third in a trilogy of films written and directed by Matt Campagna, which also includes ‘Six Reasons Why’ and ‘Six Ways To Die’. Melissa D’Agostina co-directs this third installment in the series. The film follows a vicious group of strangers who gather to divvy up the spoils of a train robbery, while an ace detective pursuers are hot on their trail. As the bandits realize they may not be strangers, after all, the detective unearths a deadly conspiracy at the heart of their crime.
This dark, freight train of a story, as with the other two, exists within the same bizarre, post-apocalyptic world, without being traditional sequels or prequels to each other. I play a character simply called ‘The Gunslinger’. He is a cold-blooded mercenary; a ‘gun for hire.’ I had the opportunity to get kitted out in the wardrobe and trappings of an Old West killer cowboy and got to play around a bit with a beautifully tooled leather holster and a pair of six-shooters! An actor-boy drools. The movie was shot at the height of the global pandemic and the circumstances brought about the necessity to innovate and customize the filming protocol to ensure a safe working environment. A unique COVID shooting plan was adopted that included the crafty use of a green screen and VFX technology. Scenes played out with only two actors at a time: the idea being that once the final cut of the film arrives all of the performers in a given scene would magically appear onscreen together through editing and the special effects process. I
shot my segments with my old friend, fine actor and veteran of the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, Juan Chioran. We had a blast! I’d tell you more about our shenanigans … but I don’t want to be a story spoiler. But, needless to say, we got up to NO GOOD. Also appearing in this wonderful film triptych is Colm Feore, another Stratford vet of 13 years, whose more recent credits include ‘The Umbrella Academy’, ‘My Salinger Year’, ‘The Amazing Spiderman 2’ and ‘Thor’. The film is scheduled to be released later this year.
CB: Let’s chat about your music. I listened to you on the harmonica and my jaw dropped. Tell your fans a bit about your music career.
MDW: When I was just a young man, I guess around about the age of 14 or 15, I developed an interest in the harmonica. My eldest brother played and I picked up a little bit from him. Both he and my second oldest brother had quite an impressive collection of Blues and Bluegrass albums and I used to listen to them a lot and try to emulate the masterful sounds of some of the great harp players. Nobody ever recommended or suggested that I should study the instrument. I just somehow instinctively loved the sound and feel of it and I used to carry one with me everywhere I went. Over the years I suppose I just got a bit better at it. It has never been a professional thing for me. I play more because I love its rootsy, soulful nature. I love playing different styles of music and learning tunes or creating original harmonica lines with new songs. I have been asked to use the harp in live theatrical stage productions and done a fair bit of jamming with bands and players over the years and on numerous occasions been invited to sit in for a set or two with musician friends at live clubs and other venues.
A character I currently play on the third season series “Diggstown” is the father of our fabulous leading lady Vinessa Antoine and he is a blues musician. When I was cast, the role actually specified that he was a Blues guitarist but when they learned that I could actually play some harp they changed it. It’s a terrific series and the character is a lot of fun. Throw in the bonus of getting to mess around with the instrument and do the occasional musical performance on camera and it’s a ‘gift’ of a role. I have no real plan of making any kind of a committed living playing. I just enjoy it. I am inspired and humbled by some of the harmonica greats like James Cotton, Sugar Blue, Little Walter, Junior Wells, or more recently Howard Levy, Carlos del Junco, Jason Ricci, and others. I don’t have that particular type of instrument mastery in mind. I’m an actor who enjoys it as a personal hobby that adds to my bag of tricks. I really love experimenting and creating new and original bits of music that perhaps one day will be fully developed. When I consider what it represents to me or brings to my life I simply conclude that it is a means of expression that felt so appropriate from the moment I blew my first sour note to this very day.
CB: You have the most amazing filmography. Wow. I’m a big sci-fi nerd, shocker, and I’ve seen you in a few of your roles. Is there a particular project that you really loved being a part of?
MDW: Uh … yeah … “SurrealEstate!” Hands down one of the most unique and interesting sci-fi projects I have ever had the good fortune to be a part of. Of course, you already might have suspected that. But we’ve already talked a little bit about that one so … let me see. I think as far as sci-fi vehicles go, I can narrow it down to three. “Haven,” the SyFy Channel hit from a few years back, “William Shatner’s TekWar” and “RoboCop: Prime Directives,” the four-part film series. I look back fondly on these projects because of the really fascinating dimensions that I was able to explore with the characters.
In all of these cases, there were these wonderful shadings of good and bad: oftentimes a beautiful ambiguity as to which side of the morality line the characters stood. Agent Howard, Lt. Winger and John T. Cable/RoboCable all gave me the opportunity to look at interesting ways to get an audience to both roots for you and against you: never fully trusting or liking these fellas but also acknowledging the redeeming qualities that make them loveable in a certain way. It is so much fun to be partially indefinable or misunderstood.
Take for example Lt. Winger, in the TekWar series he was a high-functioning police android. He was a cop and, in essence, should have been perceived as a good guy, a moral authority.
But because he was such a hard-nosed proponent of the law, practiced and applied strictly by the book, he becomes less liked than our hero Jake Cardigan, played by the incredibly charismatic Greg Evigan. He portrays him as a loveable, roguish private investigator who breaks all the rules in the pursuit of that self-same justice. Both are good at heart but approach a problem from different angles. Similarly, I loved playing Agent Howard because you could just never figure out what this shadowy, three-piece-suit-wearing FBI dude was up to. And RoboCable … forget it!! Once John Cable loses his faith in society and the justice system, he becomes a very dark man. In the end, he does the right thing but he makes one hell of a mess along the way! I have enjoyed immensely other projects in other genres but you are particularly asking about sci-fi here.
CB: The past two years and more have certainly been rocky. I’m curious, is there a piece of advice that you would like to share with the human beings on this earth?
MDW: Have something in your life to escape to in rough times; your own personal oasis. It is so important to have something, whether it be carefree family playtime, cards or billiards with the boys/girls, quiet time in the garden, creativity in a woodshop, physical release through sport, exercise, or meditation … the freedom of motorcycling. Whatever you decide is your special, private ‘hiding place’ from the occasional madness of life, treasure it, engage in it with a passion, and give yourself every opportunity to recharge your batteries and recommit to your profession afterward with a clear head. And be kind. Positive energy given returns tenfold. Try it and watch how tension melts away in the most unlikely circumstances.
See what everyone is talking about! The trailer for “SurrealEstate”
Written by Colleen Bement
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