Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 12, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba C2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2025 Degrassi co-creator settles lawsuit over series doc screening at TIFF TORONTO — A short-lived legal dispute between Degrassi co-cre- ator Linda Schuyler and makers of the new documentary Degrassi: Whatever It Takes has come to an end, allowing its première to move forward at the Toronto International Film Festival. In a joint statement released late Wednesday, Schuyler and the docu- mentary’s producers said the world première will continue as planned this weekend. The announcement comes after Schuyler filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that “defamatory statements and innuendo” in the film would lead viewers to believe she created an “empire” that profited at the expense of the show’s young actors. The suit named as defendants the Toronto film and TV production company WildBrain, owner of the Degrassi franchise, and Toronto production house Peacock Alley Entertainment. As part of the settlement, produc- ers of the documentary say they have agreed to add “some additional context around the compensation paid to the performers” after the film screens at TIFF. A representative for WildBrain de- clined to say whether the settlement included any other terms. In a version of the documentary provided to the media, some of the show’s early cast members say they were not paid much despite the fran- chise’s success. Dayo Ade, who played B.L.T. on Degrassi High, says he ended up tak- ing “every job under the sun” in the years that followed, including at a car rental and security company. “People are under the assumption that we are millionaires; we have money for the rest of our lives. Couldn’t be more wrong,” Ade says in the film. “I’m not going to throw a number out there. I’ll just tell you this: it was nowhere near what people thought we were making. You’re going to bleep this part out. We were paid way too (expletive) nothing.” Amanda Stepto, who played Spike, adds her perspective about working on the show the 1980s. “On Degrassi Junior High, I don’t even know if I’m allowed to say it, but I remember 50 bucks a day, or something like that. It’s not a lot of money.” “And also being on a non-union set we weren’t allowed an agent or a lawyer or all those things that would be looking out for me professionally when it came time to payment, resid- uals and all those other things. When it first started, none of them would’ve known the success it would’ve been, but it grew into an empire. And there are definitely individuals who have made money off of the empire.” The film then cuts to close-up shots of the show’s various awards, which include two Emmys, and the cover of Schuyler’s 2022 memoir The Mother of All Degrassi. Schuyler’s lawsuit disputed the pay- ment claims, stating that the early actors received a “generous compen- sation package” and more than union rates at the time. In her settlement statement, she added further context, saying that “it was important to me, and to the whole Degrassi team, to do what we could to set our young performers up for success.” “The cast was paid much more than $50 a day,” she said. “We also created and contributed on their behalf to a retirement fund and a scholarship foundation that provided them with opportunities for counselling and supported them into the future.” Schuyler sold her production company Epitome Pictures, including rights for Degrassi, to WildBrain 11 years ago. She appears in the documentary to share memories of making the influential show, but is not shown onscreen addressing the payment allegations. “You do the best you can with what you’ve got at the time. For our young performers, some of them have done well and others, it has been a disap- pointment for them, and I’m really sorry that they feel disappointed. I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do to help with that,” Schuyler says in the film. The documentary’s producers even managed to get Aubrey Graham, a.k.a. rapper Drake, to talk about his time playing Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi: The Next Generation. He left the show in 2008 to focus on his burgeoning music career and since then, he has rarely spoken about his role in the TV series, and the filmmakers were so uncertain he’d agree to appear in the documen- tary that they assembled a rough cut without his voice. Degrassi: Whatever It Takes is set to screen Saturday and Sunday at TIFF. — The Canadian Press, with files from Nicole Thompson DAVID FRIEND WILDBRAIN Aubrey Graham, better known as the rapper Drake, appears in Degrassi: Whatever It Takes. THE LONG WALK ● FROM C1 That leaves emphasis entirely on the characters, chiefly Raymond Garraty (Cooper Hoffman of Licorice Pizza) and Peter McVries (David Jonsson of Industry). They share benign, thought- ful natures and a deep contempt for the competition in which they are partaking. Their rapport that will attract other competitors and alienate others, especially Gary Barkovitch (Char- lie Plummer), a bully whose deadly haranguing of another competitor gets him ostracized by everyone. They’re all very good performers, especially Plummer, but Hoffman and Jonsson hold the centre of the film. Hoffman has a natural charm, providing much-needed warmth in the chilling premise. And one would be hard-pressed to recognize the British Jonsson from his earlier role as a childlike android in Alien: Romulus. Playing a much- abused streetwise American with a heart of gold, Jonsson somehow dodges the clichés inherent in the role and humanizes McVries. Not a lot of Manitobans get on cam- era, but those that represent behind the scenes include costume designer Heather Neale and makeup depart- ment head Doug Morrow. Manitobans may find it especially poignant that Hoffman is performing on the same geography as his father, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who filmed his Oscar-winning turn in Capote (2005) here, where those lonely country roads doubled for rural Kansas. randall.king.arts@gmail.com MURRAY CLOSE / LIONSGATE From left: Joshua Odjick, Jordan Gonzalez, David Jonsson, Cooper Hoffman and Charlie Plummer have to walk to survive. OTHER VOICES As bloody and upsetting as King’s fable can get, at its heart, it’s a 100-minute walk- and-talk between some of the best young actors out there, trying to stay sane while trudging through a trenchant metaphor. — Jacob Oller, AV Club Lawrence isn’t preachy in his attempt to make this film an emotional gut-punch. He lets the dialogue speak for itself and the simplicity of the environment, the camera angles, even the hair, makeup and cos- tumes are there to enhance, not distract. — Meredith G. White, Arizona Republic While The Long Walk doesn’t entirely escape its narrative limitations, it features generous amounts of the sort of emotion and heart that have marked the best King adaptations. Of course, that doesn’t make it any less gruelling. — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter Dance-drama examines what might have gone on behind famed mansion’s doors PLAYBOY UN-FUNNIES L EGENDS are printed and shredded to ribbons in Glory, an astonish- ingly well-calibrated demonstra- tion of technical wizardry, textual analysis and embodied historiography from the independent collective We Quit Theatre. Across two hours, this performance invites audiences back in time behind the gates of the Playboy Mansion, a self-mythologized Xanadu overseen by publishing magnate Hugh Hefner (impeccably portrayed by Emma Beech, whose serpentine delivery con- sistently surprises and delights). Other guests to the party include un- dercover bunny Gloria Steinem (Dasha Plett), a hapless Shel Silverstein (Arne MacPherson) and a charismatic MC (the banjo-plucking Dhanu Chinniah) who serves as a spiritual guide and protective spirit as the dreamhouse turns nightmarish. Like the listeners of the gender-af- firming album that forms the sonic backbone of the production, Glory is free to be whatever its creators decide it should become, and the result is a brilliant, modernist portrait of trans liberation — from theatrical expecta- tion, from societal oppression and from the rigid binary gazes that silence, censor and threaten equitable expression by marginalized groups. Described by the company as a contemporary dance docu-drama and a transfeminist fantasia, the experi- ence brought to the stage by director Gislina Patterson feels like an indie magazine rendered in multiple dimen- sions, flipping past the flat centrefolds to reveal well-rounded truths. This idea is thrillingly realized by a pair of high-powered props: an office printer and an air-blower retrofitted with a shredder, where throughout the performance, online comments and transphobic missives are routinely sent to bed. At centre stage, lit with intensity and restraint by designer Max Mummery, is a circular, blue velvet platform, rigged to rotate by Dan Chatham. The material communicates twin layers of exclusivity, typified by Hefner’s smok- ing jacket and by the roped boundar- ies that prevented public interaction with the dehumanizing scenes that occurred behind closed doors at the mansion. The platform is also a direct refer- ence to Hefner’s circular bed, upon which, during several heartrending discursions, the cast breaks the fourth wall to describe both their own experiences and those of the women whose bodies served as the foundation of Playboy’s legacy. These vulnerable moments are shared with considerable strength and life-affirming courage. Even with the weight of those mo- ments, Glory maintains a light touch, a playfulness. This balance is best exemplified during the printer-dance sequence, in which comments under a transphobic op-ed in the New York Times — some silly, some cruel and some downright inscrutable — are printed and shredded as the perform- ers do the monkey dance. The performers are each clearly in tune with their viewers, and with each other, routinely displaying patience to allow every moment to breathe. Before the opening scene, director Patterson advises audiences they’re allowed to leave the theatre if they feel the need, that it’s the wish of the creative team for each guest to feel comfortable in their space and in their bodies. That level of creative integrity and communal care is rewarded by the au- dience’s rapt attention: every moment in Glory is one to behold. ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca THEATRE REVIEW GLORY We Quit Theatre ● Théâtre Cercle Molière, 340 Provencher Blvd. ● To Sunday ★★★★½ out of five ARTS ● LIFE I ENTERTAINMENT BEN WALDMAN Kennedy Center fires head of jazz programming, adding to string of staff exits THE Kennedy Center has fired the administrator overseeing its jazz offerings, the latest in a string of staff shake-ups since U.S. President Donald Trump took control of the institution in February. Kevin Struthers — whose title was senior director, music pro- gramming — told the Washington Post he was terminated Wednesday, and a representative for the arts centre confirmed the firing but did not offer an explanation for the dismissal. The centre also fired Malka Lasky, its last remaining social-impact staff member and a co-ordinator of its free Millennium Stage shows, according to a person familiar with the termina- tion who was not authorized to speak publicly. Prominent jazz artists and up-and- comers in the genre can frequently be seen at the Kennedy Center, but that leg of its programming — traditionally led by a notable jazz musician — hasn’t had an artistic director since the acclaimed pianist and composer Jason Moran resigned from the Kennedy Center in July. Moran is one of several prominent advisers to the institution, including Renée Fleming and Ben Folds, who have severed ties since Trump ousted the previous leadership and installed allies as trustees and in its top leadership ranks. Trump is now the chairman of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees. Struthers’ termination follows other recent changes to the programming staff. Last month, the centre laid off its dance programming team and appoint- ed Stephen Nakagawa, a choreographer and former dancer with the Washington Ballet, as the new director of the depart- ment. Nakagawa had previously com- plained about “radical leftist ideologies in ballet” and “woke culture” in companies such as the Washington Ballet in a letter he wrote to Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell that was obtained by the New York Times. Jeffrey Finn, the senior vice presi- dent of artistic programming as well as vice-president and executive pro- ducer of theatre at the centre, resigned in August. Struthers, who declined to comment further on his firing, had worked at the centre since 1995 and was responsible for the artistic programming and day- to-day direction of the jazz program, as well as a variety of special concerts. The Kennedy Center’s jazz program- ming includes regular live music perfor- mances, the annual Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival and Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead, an international two-week jazz residency for emerging artists. Lasky’s social impact team focused on reaching new and diverse audi- ences. In March, the Kennedy Center fired at least five members of that team, including its artistic director, Marc Bamuthi Joseph. It marked the first major reduction in workforce since Trump’s takeover. — The Washington Post TRAVIS M. ANDREWS AND JANAY KINGSBERRY ;