Diaz was attending a martial arts school in his hometown of Mississauga, OD, when an acting teacher suggested he drop his hat in the ring for his role as Bing, a young, gay Filipino boy from a troubled family. “It was definitely a trip,” he said. “I thought it would be just a small small product, but I’m glad it bloomed big.” Liam Diaz appears in the movie Scarborough. Adulthood is an adaptation of Catherine Hernandez’s 2017 novel, which tells the story of community support and resilience. (Compy Films)
Diaz is now one of the youngest ever nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Canadian Screen Awards. Like other actors of his age, he lives through the whirlwind of an up-and-coming career, while at the same time trying to maintain his grades and hang out with friends. CBC News spoke with a new generation of rising Canadian stars about the challenges of navigating the industry. Vancouver’s Jayden Zhang has always been interested in acting. His mom sent him to a summer camp, where he caught the attention of a talent agent. The auditions started – but the first one stood out for a mysterious script, with only a few pages and a little information associated with it. Eventually, he led Zhang to the role that would be his big break in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. “It’s a Marvel movie. It came out last summer,” Zhang said. Jayden Zhang and Simu Liu attend the Canadian premiere of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in Toronto in September 2021. Zhang played a young Shang-Chi in the film. (George Pimentel / The Canadian Press)
Indeed, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was one of the biggest blockbusters of 2021 and Zhang had a great performance as a young Shang-Chi, the same in the leading role of his Canadian colleague Simu Liu. “It was like a crazy train that you were scared to get on at first, but then it was a lot of fun and you didn’t want to break up again. It was great,” she said of the actress in the film.

Finding balance

Stephanie Gorin, a casting director in Toronto who has worked on projects such as Anne with an E, the Baroness Von Sketch Show and FX Fargo, said the challenge for young actors is to pursue acting for the right reasons. “I think the hard part with youth is doing it because you really love it, not because you think you’re going to be a star,” Gorin said. “Do not worry if you suddenly have a basketball final and you can not listen. Go to the basketball final, still live your life. I think it is important to have a balance for both children and adults.” Zhang said that while working on Shang Chi – the first role he took on through the detention of an agent – he taught him how to stay grounded despite the film’s success. Because the film was shot in Australia in the middle of Zhang’s school year, his friends sent him the work to complete at his hotel after a day of filming. It was a “weird trick,” Zhang said, but he overcame it with the help of a teacher. In Diaz’s case, the sudden onslaught of red carpets, awards ceremonies and media interviews has taken time away from his social life and he hopes that, in the future, this will be taken more into account in productions where there are child actors. “I feel like they could definitely improve by letting us relax a bit and let us take a breath,” he said. Jett Klyne, a 12-year-old actor from Penticton, BC, worked on the Marvel Wandavision mini-series. Klyne played Tommy Maximoff, the son of the protagonists Wanda (Elizabeth Olson) and Vision (Paul Bettany). Having started his acting career at the age of five months when he was cast as Gerber Baby, Klyne said balancing his passion with his academic responsibilities is hard but “rewarding”. “If you do it your whole life or you do it for half your life as a child, it’s a lot of your time, so you really have to love it and work hard to make it work. ” he said.

Breaking some obstacles

Saara Chaudry, 17, who recently won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress by Children or Young People for Lockdown, said her favorite part of acting is telling the stories of people whose stories generally remain untold. “Being a brown girl on screen is a statement in itself,” Chaudry said, adding that this kind of representation was unusual when she was younger. “And for the longest time, and still somewhat, it is not the rule.” Saara Chaudry, right, is pictured with executive producer Angelina Jolie and director Nora Twomey (center) on the red carpet at the Toronto International Cinema for The Breadwinner. Chaudry voiced the protagonist, Parvana, in the 2017 animated film. (Reuters)
Chaudry recalls an incident as a child actor playing in a Les Miserables scene where, she said, her casting as Young Cosette was challenged because she was not white and blonde. One of the people who believed in her the most was Gorin, who put her into production, he said. “I was lucky enough to break down some doors, to break down some obstacles,” Chaudry said. “And people have believed in me enough to let a girl like me take up screen space.” Gorin said she is excited about how much the representation of blacks, Indigenous and colored performers has improved, as well as the representation of the LGBTQ community. “I think studios and networks are now trying to have more representation of minorities and the LGBTQIA + community,” Gorin said. “I think it’s very important that we do that.” Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings marked the first time a Marvel superhero played an Asian actor. Zhang hopes he can be an example. “I just want to say that for those other young kids from Asia like me out there looking for more opportunities, believe in yourself,” he said. “You can do it. And you can just end up like me. And I’m very happy about where I am.”