| An Interview with John Paul Trembley of the Trailer Park Boys |
Toronto Star Wheels - 6/16/07 |
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When Bubbles, Ricky and Julian came to Toronto recently as part of a cross-country tour to promote the seventh season of Trailer Park Boys and the new book, The Complete Trailer Park Boys: The Official Sunnyvale Fan Guide, I was more than pleased to have been granted an interview.
However, knowing the boys usually do interviews in character, I wasn’t quite sure whom I’d be meeting: petty criminal Julian of Sunnyvale Trailer Park or the man behind the character, Halifax native and co-writer of the show, John Paul Tremblay. While a conversation with Julian would no doubt prove interesting, it was Tremblay I really wanted to speak with as I’d heard he’s a bit of a car enthusiast. Despite being greeted at the interview by all the boys dressed in character, I took my cue from the fact that Julian’s trademark rum and coke was |
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conspicuously absent and happily settled in to talk cars with J.P.Tremblay.
Q. I understand that some of the cars used on the Trailer Park Boys set actually belong to you? A. Most of them. Q. Such as? A. The Trailer Park Boys Movie, - there was a ‘87 Corvette that I owned. And then there was a SVT Cobra that I had, the red one, that was mine. The big black Ford truck was mine, Bronco, and the Mercedes that Barb (Mrs. Lahey) was driving around in for one season was also mine. Oh, and this season one character uses a ’67 Camaro RS, that’s mine. Q. What’s in your driveway at home? A. I’ve got a super-charged Jaguar XJR, a super-charged Saleen. I’ve got the 600-horsepower ‘67 Camaro RS. I’ve got a Ford Excursion truck that’s done up like a P-Diddy mobile. Also I’ve got just a Ford Expedition truck. That’s it, five cars. Q. Do you cringe when your kids go near your cars? A. Hmmm, yeah, sometimes. My two favourite cars are the Camaro and the Saleen, so I usually keep those in the garage, away from the kids. My kids are only two and three. We have a big back yard, so we just throw them in the backyard. Yeah, they know to stay away from Daddy’s cars. It’s pretty funny, my son’s got so many Dinky cars that he knows the names of all kinds of vehicles and he’s only three. So he’s going to be a car fanatic exactly like me I think. Q Does he have the Dinky toys to correspond with what you have in your garage? A. Yeah, he always picks those out first when he goes to the toy store. Q. What was your first car? A. My first car was something called a Fire Arrow. It was a Plymouth, a little Plymouth special edition. That was back when I was 15or 16. Q. When you made it in this business did you buy a particular car? A. No, not really, I’d always wanted an old Camaro because growing up I had an uncle who used to drag race Camaros, so for as long as I could remember I’d see crazy drag cars in my uncle’s driveway. They were all like ’67, ’68 Camaros, just insane vehicles. He had four or five at a time. He used to just drive us around; he’d drop us off at the roller-skating rinks. We thought it was pretty cool. Q. Did you pass your driver’s licence on the first try? A. Yes I did, but I mean I was driving vehicles back when I was like eight years old, on the farm in P.E.I. I’ve driven bulldozers and tractors and stuff as far back as I can remember, plus motorcycles. We always had dirt bikes and stuff, from the age of five. Q. You were into motocross? A. I love motocross. Unfortunately, Robb (Robb Wells a.k.a. Ricky) and I both, -I had a CR250 and Rob a KX250 motocross bike, and because of the show we had to sell them. Because under contract we weren’t allowed to drive them. Q. You end up crashing cars on the show, but you’re not allowed to drive those? A. Yes, exactly. Q. Who taught you to drive? A. My mother taught me how to drive. I grew up basically spending summers over in Prince Edward Island, so it was a great way to grow up because I was always driving vehicles around. My uncle had so much land, my cousin and I, we’ve always been driving vehicles and getting into trouble. Growing up in the country was a great upbringing I think. Q. What type of car did you learn to drive on? A. It was an old Datsun pickup truck that my cousin and I used to just drive around on the property, we were like 8 and 9. So it was kind of cool, it was a little 4-speed manual, so I got to learn how to drive a vehicle at a very young age. Q. Gearhead or got no clue? A.When I was younger, I could take apart my motorcycles with my eyes closed and put them back together. Q. Are your current vehicles filthy or flawless, clean or cluttered? A. Flawless, I keep good care of my vehicles. Q. Any tickets or haven’t been caught yet? A. I’ve been pulled over so many times. I actually, two years ago, lost my licence for six months for driving like a madman. That was in Halifax. I’ve slowed down considerably because well, I’ve got two kids now. That’s really slowed me down. Q. What’s your pet peeve of other drivers? A. Driving too slow, that drives me crazy. I don’t know, those guys in the little Fast and Furious cars drive me nuts. Those little tuner cars, I’m not into those, at all, they drive me nuts. Q. In your career so far, especially considering everything that happens on the set, are there any car-related incidents that stand out? A. Well yeah, something that didn’t happen to me, it happened to Ricky. He was driving the Shitmobile (the dilapidated ’75 Chrysler New Yorker) and the accelerator got stuck, it was pinned to the floor. This was right in the trailer park….Rob had to take this crazy corner, it was squealing and the producer freaked out at Rob a little bit and Rob’s like ‘Hey, the accelerator got stuck. I couldn’t help it.’ The vehicles we use on the show usually aren’t the greatest mechanically sound vehicles. There’s constant problems with our vehicles. I feel so sorry for the guys who are in charge of transport on the show because they go through hell. Q. Some of the stuff you’ve done, plus those cars! Just getting in those cars would be a worry. A. Oh yeah it’s from hell, and with my character I always have a drink in my hand so having to hop in and out of vehicles, it’s a bit of a pain in the ass when you have a drink in your hand. Q. I hesitate to ask this, but what’s the strangest thing you’ve done in a car? A. I don’t know…oh, we used to buy vehicles for like $200 and go out to pits and jump them, destroy them. Yeah, when we were younger. That happened quite a few times actually. It was a blast. Q. When you realize “Freedom 35” (the TPB’s brilliant plan to get enough money, through crime, to retire early) and can slip behind the wheel of any vehicle you desire what would it be? A. I just saw a friend of mine who has a Lamborghini and I drove that. I drove the snot out it actually in Vancouver and that was a pretty fast car, a lot of fun. But I don’t know, I’m a Ferrari guy. Q. Best day on the road? A .I guess when I was younger, back in 1989, I was 18 and I bought a brand-new Ford Mustang GT Cobra and I think it was the time I had it going 280 km/h. It was a great rush. [Grins, chuckling at the memory.] I love speed. I’m a speed fanatic. I’d love to race one of these days. That’s always been a dream of mine to do like a Dakar kind of race or a Baja race. Actually I just bought a frame to a Baja-racing kind of vehicle, so I’m hoping to actually work on that and do some races like that. Q. Worst day on the road? A. When I smashed up my Ford Mustang GT Cobra, three weeks after I bought it. I got hit in the front end and it was destroyed. Q. Your fault? A. My fault. I actually had a blind date that night. I ended up going on the blind date with this girl, I started having a couple of drinks then it really sunk it what happened and I ended up just getting drunk with a buddy of mine that I bumped into and left the girl just sitting there. Q. Who’s the absolute worst driver you’ve ever been with? A. Mike Clattenburg (TPB’s Director/writer/producer and a childhood friend.) He actually didn’t get his licence ‘til I think he was 21. It’s funny because growing up with Mike Clattenburg he used his vehicle as basically a trash can for Tim Horton’s coffee and take-out bags and stuff. So you’d hop into his vehicle and it’d just be a bloody mess. He’s not the greatest driver in the world. It scares the hell out me getting in the car with him. Q. On a roadtrip whom would you most like to invite along to ride shotgun? A. Good question. Paul Tracy. Q. Where would you head off to? A. I’d love to actually drive on the Autobahn. Hopefully I’ll do it this year, try and get over to Germany just to press the hell out of some kind of exotic vehicle. Q. Have you notice any differences in driving styles in places you’ve been? A. Yeah, Prince Edward Island, horrible drivers, they’re so slow. The lifestyle over there is just so laid-back, that people just aren’t in a rush. Toronto – people are crazy. Actually Quebec, Montreal, -I think Montreal has the craziest drivers in Canada. I remember almost getting hit by a vehicle downtown Montreal and my dad kicked the guy’s door in as he went by. Yeah it’s pretty scary there. Q. When you’re at the wheel are the tunes blaring or is it blissful quiet? A. It’s different, in some of my cars they’re blaring, but in the ’67 Camaro I like to hear the engine ‘cause it just sounds like a beast. So you don’t drive with the tunes cranked in the old car, you gotta listen to it. Q. But in the other vehicles, what’s on? A. I like Guns N’ Roses, Tragically Hip and Rush, that’s about it. Oh and reggae, I’m into Steel Pulse, I like listening to those guys too, especially when I’m with my kids. Q. So there’s no kiddie music going on? A. No, that drives me crazy. It’s Dad’s choice. Q. Finish this sentence: I’m a pretty good driver but I do have a habit of ____? A. Driving like a crazy bastard. |