Totally practical - and totally uncool
Published February 10, 2010
Allan Hawco is one of Canada's hottest young actors. He plays Jake Doyle, a cool, suave, romantic rogue and private investigator, on CBC's new series, Republic of Doyle. On TV, his ride is a retro muscle car, a 1968 Pontiac GTO. In real life, Hawco drives a more practical vehicle around the Rock: a 2010 Toyota Tacoma truck (luckily, not one of the vehicles recalled for a faulty gas pedal).
"It's Jake Doyle versus Allan Hawco - cool versus uncool," he laughs on the phone from the Republic of Doyle set in St. John's.
"For a long time I always wanted to have a GTO or a Charger. It would have been cool in my teens and there are a lot of adults who can pull it off, but it doesn't suit my personality. ... I don't have the disposition that does it properly," says Hawco, who also writes and produces the comedy-drama series.
"That's the parallel for any actor. You capture something in a character and you bring as much of your own personality that's realistic and possible to the character you're playing. There's always a separation - the character you're playing doesn't really represent who you are.
"The juxtaposition of those two cars is the perfect separation for Jake and Allan."
Deep down, Hawco says he's just not cool enough in real life. "There's no way I'd be able to pull off driving a really cool car because I'm not cool at all. I get to play a character who drives a GTO - he's awesome - but it would never work for me."
For the native of the Goulds, Nfld., a truck makes more sense. "My Dad always had pickup trucks growing up; that's probably why I have one myself.
"It feels good. It has a lot of power and 4WD - it had the best of everything I needed. It's a nice little mid-size pickup truck with a standard transmission," says the 32-year-old actor, who initially enrolled in business at Memorial University, but dropped that to study at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal.
But the truck does have one major flaw: there's no rear-defrost system. "It's the one … drawback to mid-size pickups," he says. "Because I live in a smaller city in Newfoundland, and a lot of the things I do involves needing the use of my truck, it validates the reason why I need it. My dad can also take it to go moose hunting. It suits the lifestyle I have now."
Growing up, he used to tinker with his father's old Mustang, but now he's not much of a gear head. "When I was younger, I knew a bit more about some of the older cars… Now I feel like I've lost all that knowledge. There's no room left in my brain for any of it.
"I don't even know how to plug in my VCR. VCR - who has a VCR any more? I don't even know what I'm talking about!" he says, laughing.
Hawco does appreciate the GTO's ride and handling. "I really like driving and I like to do my own stunts. We do a lot of cool car chases. I'm not a stunt driver, but for the most part I try to do most of the stunts in my car as possible. I feel really comfortable behind the wheel of a car - I've been doing it since I was 10."
He pulled some stunts back then, too. "When I was 10, I used to sneak into my mother's car, a Reliant K-car. We had a big, long driveway with a huge white fence at the bottom and a basketball net at the end. I used to get in and fly up and down the driveway with all my friends in the car.
"One time, I was flying up and down the driveway in the K-car with my buddies. I was so young, so small that when I hit the brake I hit the gas and I smashed the car right through the fence. …
"The basketball net flew about 60 feet into the backyard. The whole fence was destroyed. Weirdly enough, though, the old Reliant K didn't have a dent in it.
"Mom got in the car at night and she didn't even look at it. Dad came home from work the next day and blamed it on my brother. I held the secret for a lot of years," laughs the actor who also starred in the television dramas ZOS: Zone of Separation , Trojan Horse and H2O .
At 18, Hawco learned to drive a stick shift. "I was first learning to drive a standard on the crest of Prescott Street and Duckworth in St. John's. There's a light and I was on a hill. I hadn't figured out how to start up again on a hill. I was there 25 minutes spinning my wheels. I was terrified to roll back and slam into the person behind me. That was really embarrassing."
Now, Hawco is hooked on standard and his Tacoma. Even if his role as Jake Doyle pays off, he still won't buy a GTO. "If I ever became rich and famous, I'd get a black Tacoma with rear defrost and then I'd give my grey Tacoma to my father."