Celebrity on board

>> At work or play, stars
determine chauffeur’s schedule

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Steve Szewczok

Age: 44

Occupation: “Driver to the stars.”

Bio: This affable and erudite Outremont hunk first arrived in Montreal from his Cape Breton birthplace in the early ’90s to further pursue his music and acting career. Frustrated because “even though I was a classically trained actor with 10 years experience in radio, film and theatre, I couldn’t get one Montreal agent to come see me or find me work. I couldn’t even get an interview,” Steve eventually relocated to the arguably greener acting pastures of Toronto to essentially experience more of the same. Deciding it wise to focus his energies more on the production side of the film/TV biz, in late ’96 he returned here after a friend offered him a plum gig driving movie stars and the like around during the production of the Nicolas Cage film Snake Eyes. He’s been chauffeuring Hollywood’s finest around town ever since.

A few people he’s worked for: Robert Downey Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and company, Billy Zane, Mose Allison, Rupert Everett, Frances Fisher, Dennis Weaver.

Is he on call 24/7? “It depends on the actor’s contract. But most have me at their call 24/7.”

So if Robert Downey Jr. rings him up at 3 a.m. on a Monday morning saying he has some stranger he needs to meet on a Little Burgundy street corner within the next half an hour, he’s obliged to get up and escort him there to cop? “If that’s what he wanted, then that’s what I’d do.”

Does this stuff happen often? “Not so much, really. When I was working with Stephen Dorff, well, yeah, some of these guys want to stay out late, really late, but for the most part everyone is pretty cool.”

Is it tricky staying awake and sober, trying to keep pace with a star on a drug-fuelled bender? “Well, I never go in to bars or parties with them. If it’s at the end of a shoot and a star wants to invite me in for dinner or something as a way to thank me for the work I’ve done for them, well, that’s one thing, and I’ve done that a couple of times, but I generally just wait out in the car.”

Is that insufferably boring? “Oh sure. I mean, basically, you’re all alone in a car for what, 14, 15, 16 hours a day? My office on a movie set is, essentially, my car. But it’s okay. I’ve got a little DVD player with me, I write a little bit, read a little bit, I’ve got my iPod. To quote Meryl Streep, sort of, “They pay me a lot of money to wait, and the driving I do for free.”

Who he’s currently driving around town: The dynamic, delightful and delectable Ms. Nicole de Boer, star of TV’s Dead Zone program, currently filming its sixth season here in Montreal.

Last book read: Gold Warriors, by Peggy and Sterling Seagrave.

Musical preferences: Charlie Parker, 39 Steps, Taj Mahal, the Replacements.

Words of wisdom: “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.”

Comments: Dimwit@openface.ca