If you’ve tuned into the newly-released TV adaptation of famous Stephen King novel The Institute, you might have spotted a local on your screen: Toronto transplant Fionn Laird. He may originally be from Calgary, but moving to this city clearly rubbed off on him — his approach to his acting career reminds me a lot of longtime Toronto Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet, namely Fred’s motto: bet on yourself. While enrolled in Toronto Metropolitan University’s acting program, in January 2024 Laird decided to defer his school after only a year and a half. “I should probably formally exit the school at this point,” he jokes.
“I wanted to try my hand at acting full time, auditioning full time, training full time to see what I could do in that regard,” he says. “By September, thank goodness, I had booked this role. It was a scary seven months where I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I really hope I get something.’ But worst comes to worst, I would have gone back.”
The role he booked is playing Nick on The Institute, an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name. The MGM+ sci-fi horror thriller premiered in July, and Laird stars alongside acting heavyweights Mary-Louise Parker and Ben Barnes. Though he hadn’t read the novel until during the audition process, Laird was already a big fan of King’s work, citing Carrie as one of his favourite novels. “I found myself feeling the same way I felt when I read Carrie for the first time,” he says of reading The Institute.
Though Laird has found success on screen, this wasn’t always the plan. Having spent his childhood and adolescence performing on stage, Laird originally wanted to study musical theatre. It’s through his work on stage that Laird met his mentor Stafford Arima, the director of Theatre Calgary and the founder of Broadway Dreams, a one-week intensive that allows young talent the opportunity to perform in New York. (A coincidence I’d like to point out: in 2012 Arima directed a Drama Desk award nominated revival of Carrie.) Laird was accepted at Sheridan and the University of Michigan’s musical theatre programs, which are both prestigious in their own respects, but ultimately settled on TMU and their more traditional acting scheme.
Laird has a laundry list of theatre credits to his name that include The Louder We Get, Billy Elliot The Musical, A Christmas Carol and classics such as Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Richard III. He also recently starred alongside Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones in Under the Banner of Heaven.
“I love to do musical theatre, but there’s people out there who are a lot better at it than me. So I’d be happy doing a stage play, something like that. I hope to keep theatre in my life as long as I’m acting for sure,” he says. “I never want to reach a point in my life where I’m pigeonholed.”
Before filming The Institute, Laird shares that he worked background on Guillermo Del Toro’s upcoming film Frankenstein, which is set to have its North American premiere at TIFF in September. If he had his pick, Del Toro would be his ideal director to work with.
“He’s brilliant, and he’s so cool and focused and respectful and passionate about what he does,” Laird says. “I also really like his use of practical effects and puppetry.” Maybe it’s the stage actor in him who can really appreciate the physical craft that Del Toro brings to his films, citing Wes Anderson as another director he’d like to work with.
“It’s kind of like opera, which is a big combination of all these different art forms, like set creation, the costumes and the props, and then the singers and the dancers. I think Guillermo and Wes Anderson really have brought that to film,” he says.
Laird’s back in Calgary for the time being, filming something for which details are under wraps, though he does admit that it’s very different from his performance in The Institute.
“It’s cool to come back and, like, have a job. It’s not motivated by just family — it’s like I’m on a work trip.” All the while, his family is happy to have him back for now. Apart from a short trip during the holidays, he hadn’t been back much. “We’re all having family dinner tonight. We’re going out with my sister and her boyfriend. It’s a nice little celebration, but also I’m still being productive. So it’s the best of both worlds.”
