Actors unite!

>> Canadian actors’ union prez Thor Bishopric in Herculean battle for change

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Thor Bishopric explains how he was first persuaded to devote time to the Canadian actors’ union (ACTRA): “I was hoodwinked. I was told that I wouldn’t have to devote too much time to the cause. It soon became clear that I was being positioned to play a big role all along.” Eight years later, the 36-year-old Wood Avenue native with the Icelandic name is in his third year as the leading man in a drastic rehaul of the performers union which represents 18,000 Canadian screen performers.
Why he’s doing it isn’t exactly clear. Although Bishopric leads a staff of almost 200 workers, his post of president, for some unknown reason, is unpaid. Nor is it easy. “When I became president three years ago, ACTRA was in need of some significant cultural change. The union, unfortunately, had a poor self-image. Its general communications were not jazzing the members very effectively and the employees were having a difficult time understanding their role in the organization.”
Then there was the petty bickering. “The political leaders within the organization were not working together as efficiently and cooperatively as they all should have been, so it was really an opportunity for significant organizing and unification.”
The presidency has forced Bishopric, a member of the union since age seven, to partially shelve his dramatic ambitions, which in the past decade has focussed mainly on manipulating his baritone voice for children’s cartoons. He supplied the hero’s voice for Young Hercules, which some might think apt. “His first two years have been almost revolutionary and I’m not one for hyperbole,” says ACTRA rep Raymond Guardia. “Thor has achieved real results in terms of funding and getting the organization to be much more proactive. For example, we’ve got a new Web site and our members are on a searchable database, all without increases to membership fees,” says Guardia.
With Americans shooting more movies than ever in the True North, Bishopric’s team has successfully fought to cast Canadians in many key acting roles. That’s thanks in part to the massive amounts of travelling and union hobnobbing he has done as ACTRA prez, which keeps him away from his Westmount digs “at least half the time.” He’s been known to rub shoulders with everybody from union boss Melissa Gilbert (formerly of Little House on the Prairie) to labour firebrand Buzz Hargrove.
He’s also taken to using some good ol’ fashioned union firebrand terminology, launching a Five Year Plan for the actors’ union. “It was unclear how policy was established and the way management and staff were meant to pursue their objectives, so our objective was to create a standardized business plan for the organization. Such plans are pretty rare in the labour movement,” he says. :