MONTREAL – Everyone always says they love shooting movies in Montreal. Hey, we have one cool city. But sometimes these visiting filmmakers or actors aren’t totally convincing when they sing the praises of our burg. On occasion, particularly if they call Hollywood home, you get a sense these movie types might just be blowing smoke up you-know-where to make sure they get a good write-up in the paper.

But in a chat the other day at an Old Montreal hotel, Winnipeg writer-director Shawn Linden and Las Vegas-born, Los Angeles-based actor Thomas Dekker seemed 100-per-cent genuine when talking about their passion for Montreal. They were here in the summer of 2011 shooting the Montreal-produced indie flick The Good Lie, a smart, twist-laden thriller that opens on Friday. It’s produced by Kim Berlin and Susan Schneir, the duo behind writer-director Deborah Chow’s acclaimed The High Cost of Living.

“It’s my favourite city,” said Linden.

“It’s my favourite city,” echoed Dekker, putting even more emphasis on “favourite.”

“I love being surrounded by French,” said Dekker, who is best known for playing John Connor in the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Linden, it turns out, is fluent in the language of Jutra. He went to school in Winnipeg en français, “depuis la maternelle” and through Grade 10.

“During my later teen years and 20s, it kind of got rusty, but most of the artists and writers that I really, really admire speak French or they write in French. So I got my secondary French education from Albert Camus and Arthur Rimbaud.”

Linden and Dekker, like most everyone else who visits our fine city, also really dug the town’s eateries.

“I’m a food monster and we were all fat pigs when we left Montreal,” said Linden.

Dekker says Matt Craven, who plays his father in the movie, went to Garde Manger in Old Montreal nearly every night.

“And I love the architecture here. And it’s rare when you make a film that you end up making friends with people who have nothing to do with the film,” said Dekker. “I don’t know how it happened, but I met a lot of local young people. And I really liked the music here.”

The funny thing is that though both profess a real love for Montreal, when you watch The Good Lie you would never guess it was mostly filmed here. It is not set in a specific location, with the dark tale happening in a nameless town, located not too far from a wooded area.

Cullen (Dekker) is a high-school kid whose life is thrown for a major-league loop when his mother (Julie Le Breton) dies in a car crash and he discovers that he is the product of a rape. The rapist, who nearly murdered his mother, was convicted and sent to prison for the crime. Cullen decides he has to confront his biological father.

Linden wrote the screenplay 10 years ago and says it was partly inspired by growing up in a family where his mother was adopted.

“My grandparents, her adopted parents, are two of the most amazing people I’ve ever met in my entire life,” Linden said. “They’re not my blood, but I can’t think of anyone I’ve ever loved more in the world. So it was that relationship that was the inspiration for it.”

Linden mixes things up in The Good Lie by combining the main narrative with a series of wild stories told around a campfire by Cullen and his pals.

“It has this core story that’s very sober and very honest, and then it’s surrounded by these vignettes that are ridiculous and fantastical and funny,” said Dekker. “I felt it was very precisely constructed. But it allowed you to go on a very dark journey while still having a film that’s very entertaining.”

Dekker has starred in major studio productions like the Terminator TV series, but says he had no hesitation about agreeing to act in a low-budget Canadian independent picture.

“I really just look at what is good and what interests me,” said Dekker. “It’s actually the reverse for me. I’ll say, ‘OK. I’ll have to take something I’m not excited about because it pays well.’ The projects I get excited about, it doesn’t matter what country they’re made in or what I’m getting paid. My favourite work of mine is almost all small movies that didn’t pay the rent and I didn’t care. That’s the life of an actor — the job you have to take versus the job you want to take.”

Adds Linden: “It’s the job you have to take in order to take the job you want.”

Dekker just shot a high-profile pilot for CBS, Backstrom, produced by the creators of Bones and based on a series of Swedish crime novels.

“It’s very smart,” said Dekker. “’That would be a job that pays the bills and is enjoyable.”

The Good Lie opens on Friday, May 3.

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Thanks to farfarellomalebranche for the head’s up!

“An interesting premise and, supported by Dekker, a young actor with enormous screen presence, a well-acted film that is almost always engaging.”

read the rest of the Globe and Mail review here

(Thanks to @MattPurg!)

Arriving at the premiere with a friend: twitter.com/SeanHarry/stat…

— Sean Harry (@SeanHarry) May 9, 2013

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You may recognize Thomas Dekker mostly from his featured roles in TV fan favourites like Heroes, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles or The Secret Circle, but he’s slowly but surely making his way in the world of film. One of the big screen credits on his steadilly growing acting resume is in Shawn Linden’s Montreal-shot The Good Lie, which opens in Toronto on May 10. In the film he plays Cullen Francis, a young college student who finds out that he was the product of a violent rape.

Dekker sat down with Toronto Film Scene to chat about this challenging role.

Describe your character in 10 words or less:

I don’t know if it will be 10 words but…He’s a young man whose life is completely turned upside down.

How did you get involved with the film?

Shawn Linden, the director, had seen me in a couple of different projects and he sent the script to my manager. I read it and then Shawn and I talked on the phone for about 2 1/2 hours and I said I wanted to do it! The next thing you know, I was flying off to Montreal. It was a pretty smooth entrance!

What did you like most about your character?

The journey that he has to go on is an actor’s dream. You start with this guy in one place – he’s a wealthy suburban kind of cocky kid and then literally, everything is taken from him. I loved the challenge of trying to figure out his transitions and transformations throughout the script so that it wasn’t a one note performance.

What’s the one thing you’d most like people to know about the film?

That it is really unique and probably unlike anything else they’ve seen. I think that is why the movie is hard to describe easily. It’s horrific, it’s moving, it’s genuine, it’s funny, bizarre. And the narrative structure is unique as it is framed within a bunch of campfire stories.

What’s your best memory from shooting the film?

All the french food! Hmm..other than Montreal!? I loved the process of working with Shawn and Matt (Matt Craven plays his father). Matt and I lived next door to each other while we were shooting and even though we had very few scenes actually together – he is looking for me in the film – it was a great opportunity for us to bond as father and son. And I got an ipad as a wrap gift so that was probably the best part! (laughs).

Who’s your biggest acting inspiration and why?

Good question! That’s a tricky one for me to answer because I tend to gravitate toward female performances. I grew up really influenced by River Pheonix. I loved him. I thought he was a very sensitive and open young actor. So I’d definitely say him – and Sigourney Weaver. They are my favourite actors.

If you could be in your dream project what would it be?

I’d probably say I have dreams of working with certain directors rather than a ‘dream project’. But I’m going to be in every film Shawn ever makes – we discussed this last night. I heard he was going to cast me as the lead in all of them. That’s what he told me and he better not take it back when he’s sober (laughing). I’ve always wanted to work with David Fincher and Michael Haneke. I love most Gus Van Sant projects. I’d really like to work with all of them.

What are you working on next?

I just finished a pilot for CBS called Backstrom with Rainn Wilson where I’m the male version of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which was very fun to play. And I have two films coming up, one shooting in New York called Pretenders with Imogen Poots and one called The White City shooting in Tel Aviv, Israel with my costar from Kaboom (Haley Bennett). We are a couple in this one so it’s a slightly different dynamic!

@magdaeh: Getting PUMPED w/ @thethomasdekker stage to introduce ourselves to the AWESOME fans at #starfury twitter.com/MagdaEh/status…

— Magda Apanowicz (@MagdaEh) May 4, 2013

Our Version of the last super @miraclelaurie @thethomasdekker@envergjokaj #costumecomp photo assist by @seanharry twitter.com/MagdaEh/status…

— Magda Apanowicz (@MagdaEh) May 5, 2013

The Canadian film industry often gets a bad rap for its campy themes, underwhelming deliveries, and play-it-safe plot lines; director Shawn Linden is about to change all that with his new film The Good Lie.

Thomas Dekker stars as Cullen Francis, a “privileged young man whose life is upended by the sudden knowledge that he is the product of rape.” Framed within a series of campfire stories and urban legends, the shocking truth about a terrifying cat-and- mouse chase between son, biological father, and stepfather reveals itself as something more bizarre than any campfire fable.

I had a chance to chat with Linden and Dekker in Toronto about the new film – opening in Toronto and Winnipeg on May 3 – and many other fun topics on Tuesday, before they continued their hectic press schedule to Montréal. Check it out with the link below.

(if link doesn’t work, listen at the source)

EXCLUSIVE: Thomas Dekker and Haley Bennett will star alongside Bob Morley in the indie drama The White City, which will be co-directed by Tanner King Barklow (from the Oscar-nommed The Invisible War) and Gil Kofman.

The pair previously collaborated on Unmade In China. Barklow wrote the script for White City and Kofman is producing with Moti Adiv. Graham Ballou is co-producing and Paul Ruddy is associate producer. White City tells the story of an emotionally charged love triangle between three young artists that develops against the hot political climate of modern Tel Aviv. Production is set to begin in June.

Dekker is repped by WME and the Schiff Co; Bennett is repped by CAA and Schiff. Morley is repped by Intellectual Artists Management.

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(In case it doesn’t load, link here)

Promoting The Good Lie (See the trailer here), Thomas posed for pictures.

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