The show enters uncharted territory in season four. Tell us about that.
It’s the first one we’ve filmed in summertime — which presents some challenges for the Bulldogs because we’ve seen them only in the wintertime, on the ice, being hockey players. We haven’t seen them in their time off. The challenges that present themselves are quite hilarious. The Bulldogs face some “distractions” in the summer, which leads to a whole world of problems for Nat as she tries to navigate how to keep the team together, and keep the team focused. Especially with Shoresy [Jared Keeso] now not being one of the members of the team — this new role for him and her, and their dynamic — she has to figure out how to support him after being a hockey player, which he’s devoted his whole life to. That’s what we see in this season: what happens to hockey players after hockey — and what the team as a whole is dealing with now that they’re winners.
Overall, what is the particular portrait this series paints of a life in hockey?
When you look at hockey, the one thing that shines for me is how much these players sacrifice — and how intense the sport is. In many ways, I look at them as gladiators of our time. They fight, and it’s fast, and it’s intense . . . they go through a lot of injuries and they protect each other in a different way than you might see in other sports. I think Nat definitely wants to honour what the boys do on the ice by also being someone who is self-sacrificing and puts the team before herself — so that the boys know she’s committed.
Just like The Office isn’t really about a paper company, Shoresy isn’t really about hockey. So, what is it exploring?
It touches upon community. It touches upon what a family is, and how people create family in different ways. It touches upon identity, and achieving greatness within the context of your own life . . . It’s about people being flawed and clumsy — and all of the comedy that comes from all of those mistakes that people make. That’s where a lot of the comedy lives — the simplicity of a person going through the world, trying to do their best.
One of the other things that I love is the male camaraderie. We get a lot of messages from the fanbase about how the show has revived their love of hockey, and the importance of male bonding, and getting out there and getting together . . . You hear a lot about how the mental health crisis is affecting men because they don’t have avenues to process their feelings. This show offers this really sweet, silly mirror into the male experience and the comedy of it. What I’ve heard from the audience is that they feel seen, and there’s something about it that’s relaxing. They can laugh about themselves.
That said, Shoresy has also been praised for its female representation.
Of course . . . the struggles of what it means to be recognized in the sporting space as a woman, and what they have to go through to get respect. To play a character that is so strong and so successful in her endeavours is so important. I love that Jared set up the show in that way, where you have these three women that are really running the team. When I’ve been staying with my cousin in Ontario, their sons play hockey, and you see how women are so much the backbone of this sport. They have to bring their kids to the rink at all hours of the day. We also bring in the conversation about female hockey players . . . All of it’s important, because we’re Canadian, and it’s who we are — women and men.
Shoresy, streaming Friday, February 21 on Crave
MEMORABLE ROLES:
Born in Toronto, but growing up in Vancouver, Tasya Teles first rose to fame and acclaim on The CW’s post-apocalyptic YA series The 100, playing everyone’s favourite antiheroic assassin, Echo.
CURRENT GIG:
These days, Teles is on creator/star Jared Keeso’s beloved Letterkenny spinoff Shoresy, about a men’s senior hockey team struggling with life on and off the ice. She plays Nat, owner and GM of the Sudbury Bulldogs — a woman who, in season four, must grapple with the downside of the Bulldogs’ unexpected success. Specifically? Keeping her team from spiralling into outright debauchery in the offseason after their big championship win last year.