The technique, where an actor fully immerses themselves into the character they are portraying, is something Playfair unwittingly has been doing since he was a child traversing North America as his father, former NHL player Jim Playfair, coached across the hockey landscape.
Since dropping his gloves to take up acting after playing with Merritt of the British Columbia Hockey League in 2010-11, Playfair has appeared in several roles where his knowledge of the game, on the ice and inside the locker room, has come in quite handy. .
He played Marty Howe, son of Gordie Howe, in “Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story”; Dean Hunter, an American trying to continue his hockey dreams in Europe in “Odd Man Rush”; and Coach T in “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers.”
Beginning Monday, he’ll reprise his role as Reilly, one of “the hockey players” when the 11th season of the popular Hulu series “Letterkenny” premieres (the show debuted in Canada on Sunday).
“Tom Hanks has this really cool quote on the characters that he plays,” Playfair told NHL.com. “He says, ‘Every character I play already exists inside of me somewhere.’ … So for me, it’s funny that the character I’ve had the most success with is for sure the one that’s come the most easily for me.
“If I ever have to play like a tech-bro or a career-long rancher or something like that, it’s going to be a lot more character work and figuring out what’s this guy’s motivation and where they come from. With Reilly, I knew . I didn’t have to go very far. That character is right in my back pocket.”
A composite of hockey players he has met and played with over the years with “the funny part turned up,” Playfair got his “Letterkenny” break while playing — what else — beer league hockey.
He met the show’s creator, Jared Keeso, on a film set in Vancouver, and along with most of the actors on the show, they laced up the skates together. Originally a series of YouTube shorts titled “Letterkenny Problems,” Keeso approached Playfair and Andrew Herr, who plays the other hockey player, Jonesy, to appear in a two-minute short entitled: “Letterkenny Problems: Hockey Players.”
“To bring in the experience I had in dressing rooms over the years really influenced the humor and the way ‘the hockey players’ act and especially the way they speak,” Playfair said. “The language… I think that’s the element that the hockey community really picked up on. There is this vernacular in the hockey world that’s quite localized to the hockey world and for them to see it, it felt like they’re in on the joke .
“I think that’s the draw to ‘Letterkenny’ as a whole, is every person who watches it has this sense of like, I know someone like that, or oh, I thought that was only funny in my small circle of friends. The thing that I think really draws people to the series is this sense that they’re in on an inside joke.”
Toronto Maple Leafs forward Austin Matthews has seen clips of the show and appreciates how hockey slang is incorporated. He has used some of the terms he hears Reilly say among his Maple Leafs teammates, which is ironic because he actually knows the guy who says it. Matthews trained with Dylan’s younger brothers, Austyn and Jackson, who played in the Western Hockey League, when the family lived in Arizona from 2011-17 during Jim’s tenure as a Coyotes associate coach.
“Meeting [Dylan] and stuff, you can tell he’s very passionate about what he does,” Matthews said. “He’s very artistic and has a really good sense of humor. … The few times we were all together, [you can] kind of just see the contrast between the three. But when you grow up in a hockey family like that, I’m sure you have no choice but to learn [the sport] and so it probably pays dividends doing what he does now in the show.”
Hockey was always central to the Playfairs. Now 30 years old, Dylan spent the majority of his childhood in Calgary, where Jim was part of the Flames coaching staff from 2002-09. Winters were spent playing pond hockey on Lake Chaparral or at the nearest outdoor rink. Summers were for playing ball hockey on the cul-de-sac with other kids in the neighborhood. He’d use cut-down wooden sticks that had belonged to Daymond Langkow, Dion Phaneuf, Jordan Leopold and Roman Hamrlik.
There was one player Jim would tell Dylan to keep an eye on: Mark Giordano.
“I think you and ‘Gio’ have a lot of the same skills and attributes,” Dylan recalled his father telling him, while citing the now-Maple Leafs defenseman’s work ethic and coachability.
Giordano credits Jim Playfair, who was behind the bench for three of his 15 seasons in Calgary, for laying the foundation for his NHL success. He’s also a fan of the job Dylan is doing on “Letterkenny.”
“He gets the ins and outs of the dressing room and all the stuff that goes around with it for sure,” Giordano said. “And I’m sure playing hockey over the years … there’s a funny side to the game too. Guys who jab each other in the room and get on each other, I’m sure that’s a big part of him relaying that onto the [show]”
Marty Turco remembers Dylan and his brothers spending a considerable amount of time in the locker room during the two seasons (1998-2000) he played for Jim Playfair with the Michigan K-Wings of the International Hockey League. The former Dallas Stars goalie was embarking on his professional career after spending four years at the University of Michigan, and appreciated how Jim and his wife, Roxanne, made the team feel like a family.
“I just remember them being right into hockey,” Turco said of Dylan and his brothers. “They loved to be in the locker room. They loved being around the guys, and they were really just nice kids. … They’d come in there and we’re, like, ‘Man, what’s up? What do you want to do?’ do?’ Playing hockey, throwing tape around and just kind of whatever they wanted to do. We’re happy to hang around some fun-loving hockey kids.”
Dylan Playfair could have followed in the footsteps of his father, who played 21 NHL games from 1983-89 before getting into coaching, or his uncle, Larry Playfair, who played 12 NHL seasons with the Buffalo Sabers and Los Angeles Kings.
He may have wanted to be former NHL player PJ Stock, his favorite player and someone he viewed as the embodiment of what it meant to be a hard worker on and off the ice.
Instead he’s forged his own path, but he hasn’t left hockey far behind, taking everything he’s learned from the game on and off the ice to build not only an acting career but one that now includes producing and directing.
“[My dad has] always had this philosophy of, you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life,” Playfair said. “And he loves hockey and I saw the success he had by working in something that he enjoys doing… and that was acting for me.”
Photos: Hulu
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