profile by Joanne F. Villeneuve Getting the Part: A Glimpse into the Life of Todd McGillivray a new path to follow. With time and effort, he convinced himself that he could do it. that he could face his a anxienties. Through the guidance of his teachers, including Dawn Moore and Bill Murdock, McGillivray acquired a taste for working in theatre and on independent films. Until recently, he preferred to avoid commercial fare. This enabled him to appear as a lead in manvlow-budget, but worthwhile, films, including 77ie Time Being, a European-flavoured work nominated for a Vancouver Film Festival Award. He spoke with much pride of the locally shot film, which is being submitted to the Berlin Film Festival. In The Time Being, trained in McGillivray's case. He's quick to quote people who have influenced him and his approach to his craft. An article he read about the Gnostic Gospels struck a chord in him, He shared one thought which hehas found particularly motivating. "If you bring forth what is within you. what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you. what you do not bring forth will destroy you." McGillivray concluded: "As an actor, as a human being, you have to do that." McGillivray looks at acting as a his job and approaches it as such. He is passionate about his work; it is the best way for him to express himself in a working situation. However, his wife takes precedence over all else. He and Judy have been married for over two years now and he has since become a bit more practical about his career goals. As fulfilling as working for independent productions is, the financial rewards are meagre. He is now expanding his horizons and auditioning for more mainstream parts Also, he is an active member of the North Shore Arts Commission, for which he organizes volunteers for arts events and sits on two arts-promoting committees. He is still interested in collaborating with audacious individuals, like Mark Tuit and Bill MacDonald of Burning Giraffe Productions; he relates to their proactive style. McGillivray himself is in the process of creating his own theatre company. In the meantime, he will be appearing in two festival circuit films this spring. Look for those striking blue eyes in Something Blue and When All You Feel is Gravity. So i typical. North Vancouver day in -November. The drizzle went unnoticed by the two men playing chess. Engrossed in their game, neither noticed me as I walked by. After placing my coffee order, I searched the squalid, poorly lit room for the young actor I was to meet -- blonde hair, blue eyes, medium build, with a copy of a De Niro biography. He was nowhere in sight. Coffee in hand. I went back outside to check the two men I had passed on my way in. Noticing the bio on the table next to the chess board. I paused long enough for Todd McGillivray to look up. Yes. I can imagine those blue eyes on the big screen -- intelligent, energetic, and captivating. I had found my interviewee. I 1 McGillivray plays Sebastian, a homosexual painter whose former lover dies of AIDS. The heterosexual McGillivray did not shy away from a part which called for scenes of nudity and intimacy with another man. "When you're acting, you're acting," he says. "It's still you, but you're playing a character. If that character does (something] to propel the story, then that's what you do, and if you're not comfortable with it, become an accountant." The Time Being is much more than a gay love story gone sour; it speaks to all of us of the universal reality of death. To prepare for this role, as much as for any other, McGillivray observes all that unfolds around him and gleans from his emotional "hank" to make his characters come to life. His father died when McGillivray was still a child, and McGillivray used the memory of those feelings for the part of Sebastian. The most important tool for an actor -- his memory -- has been well Todd McGillivray did not start his career quest with the burning desire to appear in movies and plays. He began his postsecondary studies in business, but his grade point average needed some bolstering. This pushed him to take art history and theatre courses. McGillivray is a shy person, especially when appearing before large groups. Despite this, he caught the acting bug and he knew he had found Joanne F. Villeneuve is a lives in Kitsilano. freelance who writer and aspiring screenwriter