The Laughter is Free, And So Are The Clothes, in Season 3 of ACTING GOOD

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede When Paul Rabliauskas walked into the interview room, he was dressed exactly like his character in ACTING GOOD. Which made perfect sense, once he explained it. “These clothes are from the set, actually,” Rabliauskas admitted. “I came here from shooting. I didn’t have any time, so I stole some clothes from wardrobe, which I tend to do a lot. The best part about being the creator of a show is when everything’s done, I get to take home some pants and shirts. It’s like going to the ‘Big & Tall’ store whenever I want.” Rabliauskas’ expanding wardrobe is on full display in the third season of ACTING GOOD, which premieres with back-to-back episodes, Monday, Oct. 21 at 10 p.m. ET and 10:30 p.m. ET on CTV Comedy Channel, CTV.ca, and the CTV app. Subsequent Season 3 episodes air on Mondays at 10:30 p.m. ET. Thematically based on his own life, Rabliauskas plays lead character Paul in ACTING GOOD, which follows a vast array of dysfunctional but lovable characters living in the fictional Grouse Lake First Nation. Season 3 sees Paul and his on-again off-again girlfriend Rose (Cheyenna Sapp) navigating the possibility of parenthood, while Jo (Roseanne Supernault) juggles being Chief with raising her daughter Chickadee (Avery Sutherland), and Dean (Gabriel Daniels) and Greg (Erik Athavale) face the realities of running a community store. Rabliauskas was asked if the humour in ACTING GOOD has become more about what changes in Grouse Lake First Nation, or about what doesn’t change? “Being from a small place like that myself, what I notice sometimes is that the only thing that’s different are the kids,” Rabliauskas said. “They speak internet language now. But everything else is the same. Everything is slow. The development of the world is slow. I always say, it’s 1996 on the reserve, man. But it’s cool to go back home to a place like that, because it’s nostalgic. There’s character development in the show for sure, but the aesthetics of the place don’t change. It’s always going to be isolated.” Going back for a second, just out of curiosity, what does Rabliauskas mean specifically when he says the kids speak internet language now? “Even in places like that, young people try their best to make it more modern, and make it like a city as best as they can,” Rabliauskas explained. “You’ll see a kid doing a TikTok trend challenge, and nobody else does it. It’ll be one kid, and his mom is rolling her eyes and saying, ‘sure, take your little camera, go outside, and do your fun videos.’ It’s the most foreign thing to an elder on the reserve to see kids dab, and do all these crazy dances and characters and stuff. So that to me is funny. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when I’m an elder, and what kind of things kids will be doing when I’m yelling at them to get out of my yard on the reserve.” Rabliauskas still has a long way to go before that happens. “Hey, not that long, I just turned 40, man,” he replied. “The way I describe it is, it’s like going to your destination, and now you’re going back, and the ride back always seems a lot quicker. I’m 65 years old in fat guy years. But I still don’t want to grow up and understand the world from an adult perspective, because that’s scary to me. I think I’ve just been avoiding it my whole life.” There’s certainly a big element of that with the Paul character in ACTING GOOD. “Well, in the first season, he sort of went back home with his tail between his legs, and of course his mom will always take him back,” Rabliauskas said. “But then in Season 2, for the first time in his life, his mom didn’t take him back. I don’t want to spoil things for Season 3, but there is a big development that sort of forces him to make a real effort. But obviously that’s hard for him, because he’s a baby. Maybe if he ever fully grows up, that will feel kind of like the end of it, if you know what I mean. But it’s fun to write about his efforts to kind of put that off.” The Paul character in ACTING GOOD continues to endear himself to audiences, his arrested development notwithstanding. With three seasons completed, does Rabliauskas feel like a “sitcom star” now? “I don’t see myself as a star, but I do call myself ‘Safeway famous,’ ” he said, referring to the grocery chain. “I get recognized at all the Safeway stores, for some reason. And it’s always some old lady. But the moment I start calling myself a star, that’s when I’ll be accused of ‘acting good.’ So the title of the show keeps me humble.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv