An Interview with James Tupper (Jack, Men in Trees)

October, 2007

McDreamy, McSteamy and now McTreemy -- modern day culture has adopted these cute names given to the hunky men of ABC's Grey's Anatomy and Men in Trees and we just can't seem to stop creating those McPhrases.

From his days spent immersing himself in African culture to working with wild animals on the set of Men in Trees, James Tupper is clearly a man who believes in living life to the fullest. I had the fortunate opportunity to chat with the very funny and incredibly sweet actor about life before acting, life on the set of his hit series and where the show is headed in the coming months.

Q: When did you decide to pursue acting?

James: "I think I was about 19 or 20 years old and I went to a year of drama school in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but my life had been sort of a winding road. I had spent a year in Africa with an exchange program, came back and knew what I wanted to do, but I think the moment I really realized I wanted to act was any moment when I thought it may not happen, that my life may take a different direction."

Q: What was your very first job?

James: "I was a waiter for ten years. I worked in every type of restaurant, from banquets to four-star restaurants. I always had side jobs going on when I was studying. I ended up going to Montreal; I went to a very good drama program there at the Concordia University. After that, I spent a year working as a waiter and then I got accepted to go to a school just outside of New York called Rutgers. I did a three-year program there, left and went to New York City. They had this entrance thing where you would do what's called a league and it was auditions for casting directors. From there, I got a casting agent and started auditioning. It was about 10 or 12 years before I got Men in Trees."

Q: What was the worst job you ever had?

James: "I can't say it was the worst, but one summer in Montreal I had a job delivering refrigerators and washers and dryers. We had a truck and we'd pick up 80 refrigerators in the morning and deliver them all day. The guy I was working with didn't speak a word of English, only French and I only spoke English, and knew a few words of French. Basically, we just worked it out and by the end of the summer, we became the best of friends."

Q: On your show Men in Trees. where do you see the relationship between Marin and Jack going?

James: "I'd like to explore a relationship with her, but the writers control everything. There's a really big surprise coming up in the next episode and I think Jack is going to come to rely on Marin a lot more. I hear some of the fans are now calling us Tree Huggers and McTreemy!"

Q: What can you tell us about upcoming episodes?

James: "Well, there might be a nautical adventure and Jack might be getting a wolf."

Q: You would actually be working with a real wolf? Are you a dog lover?

James: "I am, I have a Great Dane/Lab mix - he's just beautiful. In the first episode we had wolves, and I also had to work with a bear. I had to step over an electric fence to go work with the bear and the trainer told me before I went in that the bear is at the top of the food chain, so don't act really confident around it, but don't act nervous because that's prey behavior. So, I got in there and he came over to me and stood right up, he was like 12 feet high, and put both of his hands on my shoulders and leaned his face right down over mine and touched his nose onto my face. I thought for a moment that I was going to be eaten! During the shooting, they had an electric fence around the house and they called the bear out and he came right out of the cabin and was supposed to go to the trainer, but he immediately came towards me and just sniffed me up and down. The director called 'cut' and they took the bear away and the director came over to me and said, 'Man, you have got a set of brass ones.'"

Q: That raccoon that was stalking Marin in the first season, was that a real raccoon as well?"

James: "It was a real raccoon, but it also had a stunt double. It was a little dog they put a raccoon costume on. I went to see the raccoon every morning, put my hands in his cage. They're great, they're so curious about everything. Elvis was the name of the raccoon."

Q: If you weren't acting, what do you think you'd be doing now?

James: "My dream is really to get to Broadway. If I wasn't doing television or film, I'd be trying to get into theater. If I wasn't doing that, I'd love to direct a play."

Q: Any projects in the works?

James: "During my hiatus, I filmed a movie called Pictures of Hollis Woods with Sissy Spacek and Alfre Woodard."

Q: What would people be surprised to learn about you?

James: "Anne [Heche] is a really open-hearted person, she doesn't hide and I feel in a way that we recognized each other as people who are trying to live in a healthy, honest way. Oh, and I've never been arrested."

Q: Anything to say to the fans?

James: "Oh wow, I've never been asked that. I think I'd say thanks, thanks for being fans!"