He was lost too soon but never forgotten. Craig Veroni, now an established Vancouver realtor, takes a walk down memory lane to share stories from his home in Atlantis during Season One of the series!

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Welcome, everyone, to Dial the Gate. The ‘Stargate’ oral history project. My name is David Read. I appreciate you tuning in with me for this episode. Craig Veroni, who played Doctor Peter Grodin in ‘Stargate Atlantis’, is joining us. This is a live show, so if you have questions for him, turn them over to our mod team in the YouTube chat. If you’re not on the YouTube chat and you want to ask questions for Craig, get on the YouTube chat. Craig Veroni, Doctor Peter Grodin hello sir.

Craig Veroni:
Hello. First of all, I want to apologize to anyone that’s on the live stream because I completely forgot. I’m late, by the way. Really apologize. And if you’ve been there waiting patiently, I appreciate it.

David Read:
So, we had Shane Meyer on a couple of weeks ago.

Craig Veroni:
Oh, good old Shane. Yeah.

David Read:
And, oops, I guess I was muted. Sorry, guys, I apologize. I took care of it. I thought I had unmuted and I hadn’t. We had Shane Meyer on a couple of weeks ago and I was like 15, 20 minutes late, the first live stream I’ve ever been late. So that was fun. But, so I apologize no one could hear me, so that was my mistake. Welcome to Dial the Gate. We have Craig Veroni with us here. We have a lot to cover.

Craig Veroni:
Oh, I moved. I’m so sorry. I just realized you had me perfectly centered and I moved.

David Read:
No, it’s perfect. You have been busy in the Vancouver market.

Craig Veroni:
Yes.

David Read:
Tell us about what’s going on in your life.

Craig Veroni:
What’s going on in my life? Ah, man. I’m back home now. This this is my home. But, we had been out of our home for nine months. There was a fire in the unit above us in the wall and caused a massive burn through some sprinkler lines. Caused a massive flood. So, this past year has been a very, very challenging year. Yeah. We were in an Airbnb for nine months, and then back in our home. We’ve been home for a couple of months, but there’s still some things that that need to get sorted out, some deficiencies. So yeah, it’s been it’s been a wild, wild year for sure. But other than that, I still I have a home to come home to, unlike, some other people in the world who lose their homes entirely. So, I have to keep looking on the positive side of things.

David Read:
But on the topic of homes, you been…

Craig Veroni:
That’s a nice segue.

David Read:
Busy. Kind of, not kind of. Definitely. Creating a name for yourself in the Vancouver space. And you are a husband, father, actor, realtor, as the website CraigVeroni.ca says. And tell us about your business and how you transitioned over into this and how it’s just become your world. I’m very curious to hear this story.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah, it’s an interesting story. we purchased, not this home, we purchased, a house, 2007 December-ish and moved in about February 2008, right when the global financial crisis hit. And, so, yeah, here I am. We have a house, so got a mortgage. I have a two-year-old kid and I’m an actor. And the global financial crisis hits. And, for the next two years, I worked less than I had in my very first year as an actor. So, needless to say, times were incredibly difficult, and my wife sat me down after, because I, I’d always worked. I was one of those fortunate actors. I took it for granted. I was one of these fortunate actors who always worked. And I just kept thinking, the next gig’s just around the corner, I’ll be working, I’ll be working. And, two years later, after holding down jobs at restaurants and Home Depot and whatever I could to pay the mortgage, my wife sat me down and said, “Babe, I love you, but if you don’t get your shit together, I’m leaving.” So that was my wake-up call. And she had remembered this conversation we had when we first met? I don’t know how she remembered because I think I only mentioned this one time, and she said, we had talked about, if we weren’t actors, what we might be doing. And you mentioned real estate. I said, “Did I? Okay.” And she said, “My best friend has a colleague who’s a real estate agent. Why don’t you go have coffee with her and see what could happen?” And, I met with her and she thought I’d be great. So, I thought, okay, that’s all I need to hear. I knew nothing about anything going in. It was wild. But I enrolled at UBC at the Sauder School of Business. The textbook arrived, and no kidding, it was this thick (gestures), full of law, math, more law and more math. With a bit of real estate terminology thrown in, and I broke down, literally broke down, and I said, I can’t do this. And my wife said, I’ve been back to school twice now, babe, it’s your turn. And so, I just dug in, I got it. I hired a tutor to help me, and, scored 97% on the exam.

David Read:
I’m doing the same thing through, a branch of medical school right now myself.

Craig Veroni:
Nice. Good for you.

David Read:
You’re looking at the mountain. Thank you. And what you need to be looking at is those first few steps. You just start looking at the mountain. It’s like, stop looking at the summit, you know? It’s doable.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah, this tutor was brilliant in doing exactly that, breaking it down, bite sized pieces for me so that I could just absorb. I realized I’m not actually bad at math. I actually am pretty good. I just had terrible teachers when I was younger and, this person was able to really make me see that. And, once that clicked for me, all the acting training helped with retaining all of the law information. I could recall it like that. So, writing the exam, was easy. Well, I shouldn’t say easy.

David Read:
Digestible.

Craig Veroni:
It definitely helped. the acting training, memorizing scripts, came in handy. And the rest is history. I mean, everybody asked me, do you regret leaving acting and I don’t. If someone said to me today, “Come play on our set, come. We have a role for you.” In a heartbeat I’d be there. Absolutely. But I do not miss auditioning, the grind of it. Now I’m in a business where the grind is. Is just like acting. I traded I traded one business for another where the grind continues. But here, as a real estate agent, I have so much more control over everything that I do. And, as an actor, you walk into that audition room, you audition, that’s it. Your control is over. as a real estate agent, I’ve got far more control over whether I get the job, whether I get hired or not. But it took me five years to figure out how I fit into real estate properly, because when I started, I felt like I needed to put on this persona of a professional, a real estate agent, wearing the suit, the tie and all of that. And five years in, I met a couple of guys who transformed my life, Michael Thorn and Jesse Peters. They ran a workshop called Video Bootcamp. And it was all teaching, real estate agents how to leverage video and social media in their business. And that was the sort of ‘light bulb moment’ turning point for me in my business, where I could marry the career of an actor with the business of real estate and find my way. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.

David Read:
Wow. There is so much at work there that I want to unpack and I want to save a big chunk of it for after the conversation about ‘Atlantis’. But I want to know how many homes have you sold? And, I would like to know, how much of your people skills and of your personality in terms of being able to connect with a room of people who are watching you audition transferred into your genuine commitment to find someone the perfect home that exactly fits their needs.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah. The thing for me is all of the skills I learned as an actor translate naturally into sitting across from someone and having a conversation. Obviously. when I got into this business, I realized kind of, how low the bar really was set for, for many agents. And, yeah, I came home and I said to my wife, my bar is way up here, and just operated that way from the get go. All I want to do is help people. So, I sit, I listen, absorb, and solve problems. And that’s the bulk of what I do. The other side of it, of course, is the marketing, and since getting into video, creating cinematic listing videos where I’m the star, so I, I treat people’s homes like the marketing of their homes, like it’s an HGTV show, and they try to figure out the story of that particular home. Come up with a compelling script and execute it, you know. One of my favorites is a recent listing of mine, 2825 Ontario Street, where we personified the home. So, the video is being told from the perspective of the house. Now, this wasn’t my idea. I borrowed this from an amazing, colleague of mine, Matt Leonetti, out in Ontario. And, he had done this about a year ago with an amazing, amazing script called “Benny” on a property that he sold. And when I saw that, I just waiting for the perfect home to, copy that and run with it and make it my own. Finally got the chance to do that. So, it’s telling the story, telling the story of the homes in a unique way. And, I get to be on camera still, just now in my own videos.

David Read:
So, I had a buyer’s agent when I bought my house, they didn’t have a specific cache of homes. So, you have specific homes that you’re listing.

Craig Veroni:
Well, as a real estate agent, you work with buyers and sellers. So, there’s not you’re not just… Well, some agents focus primarily on listing homes and having, other agents on their team that that handle the ‘buy’ side. But, most agents do both, you handle buyers and sellers. Yeah.

David Read:
I want to dig into this a little bit more, but I’d like to park this for a little bit, if you don’t mind. I want you to take me back, to when you discovered that you wanted to at least spend the first part of your life being up on stage in front of everyone. How old were you? What was it that really hit you? And, tell me about the road that led to 2004 and ‘Atlantis’.

Craig Veroni:
Grade 11, discovering acting in high school and grade 12. And an amazing, acting teacher, Bill Greenland. So, he’s responsible for my bug in acting. And I then went to Studio 58, it’s one of the top theater schools in Canada. And, I did this sort of right out of high school. I was out of high school, maybe about a year, less than a year, and then went to Studio 58, and it wasn’t the right time for me. I actually had to withdraw before the end of the second term. It was just too overwhelming, too much. And I then I then spent six years doing every other job imaginable, banking, advertising, I mean, you name it, I probably did it. And found my way back to acting after doing, all these different jobs for six years. I finally sat down one day and went, “None of this is making me happy. What is it that I really want to do?” And I realized I wanted to go back and go back to Studio 58. I wanted to complete the training, and I wanted to pursue my career as an actor. And I left myself no fallback. I said, I’m either going to do this and I’m going to be successful as an actor or, I’m not going to do it. And I’ll have to find something else. And that’s what happened. I went back to Studio 58. They couldn’t believe. I think I still hold the record for the student that has the longest time between, first coming to Studio 58 and then and then finishing, six years.

David Read:
That’s the longest. Wow.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah. But, it’s an amazing program. I’ve been fortunate to work on stages across Canada and the US. But once I started my professional career, I graduated in December. And, December ni…, I can’t even remember the year now. And I think it was 1997 or 98. And within a month, a month and a half after graduating, had my first professional theater gig and the first professional film gig. So, I was able to join both unions immediately and just never look back from there. Like I said, I was one of these fortunate actors that continued to work steadily, loved what I did. And had been on the original ‘Stargate’ prior to auditioning for ‘Atlantis’.

David Read:
Yes. As a helmsman or a weapons officer. A weapons officer, I believe.

Craig Veroni:
Yes, I believe I was on the Daedalus.

David Read:
The Daedalus came in season two. So, you had been gone at that point. But you were definitely aboard Prometheus.

Craig Veroni:
Prometheus. Okay. Yes. Okay. Glad someone to keeping track.

David Read:
Absolutely. Is there a part that you have played that has continually stuck with you over the years? That you occasionally find yourself thinking about? I’m curious.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah. Two parts, actually. One in theater, one in film. The one in theater is a play called, “The Matka King” by an amazing playwright, Anosh Irani, and I played the title character. It’s just an amazing character. The wildest. he’s a eunuch, who dresses in a sari and, it’s out, you can get the book. You can get the play it, it’s fantastic. But that character stuck with me, and I continually think about that. The other is, “Two for the Money”, character Amir. This was a film with Matthew McConaughey, Al Pacino, Rene Russo, written by and directed, I think, by Rene’s husband at the time. Did he direct and write? I can’t remember, he was the writer anyway. We may have had different director, but an amazing script based on, or cast and script based on a true story about sports gambling. And so that that character was an amazing character. And it’s probably one of the more widely known films that I, people see me and they once they make the connection, I go, oh, yeah. So those two.

David Read:
I think that if we’re fortunate enough to connect with some material or art that just truly moves us, I think that we’re blessed because there’s so many… I keep on going back to, and people should tell me I should go back to ‘Stargate’ about this, but I keep on going back to ‘Lost’. I have a buddy I just finished the series with, again, and it’s so personal for me as an experience. This story from beginning to middle to end. I can’t imagine taking on a character personally, that you connect with so much. Not just as a job, one and done, because there are those roles, but also as a human being, part of it would stick with you forever. I would think.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah, I think there are, not every single one. But there definitely are roles that are far more meaningful than others for sure.

David Read:
Tell me about auditioning for Peter Grodin. You’ve already appeared at the previous season on ‘SG-1’ in “Grace”. So, this is not your first go around for auditioning for that team of people tell me about that role and rising.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah. The audition process was great. And I got to play around with the character in the audition. I was the one that came up with the accent for the character. And initially I envisioned the character being born in India, raised in the UK. And, that’s why his accent initially for me was a blend of, Indian but raised and schooled and educated, in the UK. And when we got to set, they wanted less of less of the Indian accent in there and more of the British. So, I just made him British.

David Read:
He started there.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah. because, I kept getting the direction of. Yeah, we want we want the accent a little lighter, I want a little lighter. And so, because I was trying to blend two accents together anyway, I felt like, well, if I do any lighter, I’m just going to, you know? So, shall we just lose that part of it? And part of me felt sad that I couldn’t do exactly what I wanted to do. I felt like, we could have. The character might have been a little more interesting had I been able to stick with what I had envisioned as his voice.

David Read:
Was this a tough audition or was it pretty straightforward?

Craig Veroni:
Yeah, it was a pretty straightforward audition. Yeah. Yeah. And I think so. I think there was definitely a callback, I think, for, it wasn’t just one audition. I auditioned, and then there was a callback.

David Read:
Okay. What do you remember about shooting this enormous pilot? All new toys. Everything’s brand new. A team, some including new people, but who have largely, been working together, at least through ‘SG-1’ and some in the case, a couple since MacGyver. What was it like getting on to this “new car” attached to this “moving train”?

Craig Veroni:
Well, Martin Wood was director. And I’d worked with Martin before. Fantastic guy. But stepping onto that set for the first time, I still remember that. It still gives me goosebumps. It was the first time stepping onto a set so large that it had been built from scratch. And as you said, everything was new. So, walking into that and seeing all of this equipment that we got to play with, and touch and feel, it was incredible.

David Read:
I remember the grand pianos up on the operations deck and the dialer and, yeah, the amount of power that it was look like was coursing through these things, and the hologram, lights and everything else. You get lost in that space. it doesn’t take too long to convince yourself, part of yourself, at least, that this could really be happening. Does that assist with the performance?

Craig Veroni:
Oh, absolutely. I mean, the more real and enveloping the environment is that you’re working on as an actor, the more you just, you don’t even feel like you’re acting because, everything else is assisting you in such a way that it’s effortless.

David Read:
Was there anyone that you connected with, in front of or behind the camera, when things weren’t rolling? Is there anyone still in your life from that period of time?

Craig Veroni:
Not really. I, don’t, because all of my acting colleagues, I don’t see all that often because I’m just not in the business anymore, you know. Usually, if you’re if you’re an actor, you’re seeing everyone at auditions, in the audition room and, either on set. I just don’t see people all that often, but, Torri. Yeah, we connected instantly. We got to do a lot of work together as well. everybody, everybody was great. Paulie, Paul McGillion. Yeah, everyone was fantastic. And, I got to meet Jason Momoa. I didn’t actually work with him, but I got to meet him when I, we did a, a convention in London. Yeah. So, he had just finished his first season on the show. Or maybe didn’t even – he was just even just been on the show for a little bit and, and I’d already been killed off, so it was neat to meet him back then, and see how far he’s gone.

David Read:
I know it’s kind of wild. Really cool guy. Good guitar player, too.

Craig Veroni:
Great, great guy. Yeah. Knew how to party, that’s for sure.

David Read:
Oh, that’s certainly the truth. Was the dialog a language in and of itself, something that you took like a duck to water, or was this something that required a great deal of assimilation to get it right? It’s just like I’ve been repeatedly told on here. It’s like Shakespeare, in terms of its flow and movement, particularly because you’re someone who’s assisting in the furtherance of the story, you know? So, there’s always something going on, either with the city or outside of the city or with one of the personnel. And it’s very technical. What are your memories of that?

Craig Veroni:
Yeah, some of the technical stuff can, can be very difficult. I remember one of the first couple of episodes, it was like a second or third episode I was in. There was some technical stuff that just, I had a hard time, it was the first time that it really I had a hard time with the text on a set. But, we got through it. But, it was a bit nerve wracking and probably cause the director and everyone else a few, issues for a little while. Can Craig get this line right? But, yeah, no, for the most part, it wasn’t an issue, but there were there definitely was one episode. I vividly remember just having a hard time with some of the dialog.

David Read:
I have some fan questions I’d start to I’d like to start threading in here, if you don’t mind. Krisztian Unpronounceable asks, do you remember anything about David Hewlett? Are there any interesting or fun stories that leap to mind? I’m curious.

Craig Veroni:
David. Such a yeah, he was a great friend and a great colleague on set. Always…

David Read:
Talk about delivering dialog.

Craig Veroni:
Oh, my. Oh, fantastic. Just fantastic. Always so funny. Yeah. Always had us laughing on set. if it was a long day on set, he would find a way to make light of things, and he’d just help you keep going. Yeah, it’s nothing but nothing but good memories about David.

David Read:
The material has to get done. It doesn’t have to get done completely painfully. If you’re surrounded by people who at least enjoy being there, because on sets, that’s not always the case, you know?

Craig Veroni:
Yeah, we never experienced that. Yeah. Thankfully. Everybody there was super professional, loved working, loved being there, obviously. So yeah, we didn’t have any of that on set.

David Read:
Was it a year that went by real fast in your mind, or do you feel that this was like a sizable portion of your career was taken on in that gate room, in that space?

Craig Veroni:
No, I went by way too fast. Yeah, way too fast. When I got, I got the call from, I can’t remember if it was the director or someone. Someone called me letting me know that the upcoming episode, I’d be killed off. And that was hard. That was hard to hear. But I understood, this is a TV series where they’ve got to find some characters. It’s the, season finale. They’ve got to find some characters who, that the audience connected with. But, it isn’t one of the primary characters of that is going to be super missed. So, yeah, I understood.

David Read:
I wouldn’t necessarily characterize it as such. I know a number of people who were super missed. You were super missed by a number of people.

Craig Veroni:
Yes. Well, and I appreciate it. It was neat after the fact to see the response from people. And, there were some wonderful gals, created the “Save the Brit” campaign. Right. Yeah. It is just always nice to, see fans reactions and get that kind of response. So, the interesting thing for me now, in my career now, is that I get recognized far more now for my YouTube videos and real estate stuff than I ever did as an actor, which is wild.

David Read:
You’ve found your niche and you’re also, that’s your community up there. And so, it’s so good to see that they’re paying attention to what’s going on around you. So, your advertising is working, which can’t always be said, so okay, so there was, you don’t remember Kevin Weaver was about to ask, you don’t remember who it was, who contacted you, who had that conversation?

Craig Veroni:
I think it was the director at the time, but I can’t remember exactly. No.

David Read:
Okay. Let me see who that would have been. I’m genuinely curious just to get that on, the record here. So that would have been Martin Wood. So.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah, I know it wasn’t Martin.

David Read:
Martin Gero wrote the episode.

Craig Veroni:
Maybe it was. Yeah, maybe it was. I can’t remember. Okay. Sorry. This is a long time. A long time ago now.

David Read:
I don’t know why you’re having trouble. It’s all right there for me. This is a really poignant episode because, like you say, they’re needing to raise the stakes and, almost always, unless there’s a contract issue or someone wants to get out of it, that the principals are generally safe. Couldn’t say the same for Paul McGillion a couple of seasons later. But is this, how do you move into a place in your mind where you’ve been enjoying going to work at a specific place, in a specific pair of shoes, walking in a specific character’s role. Do you have to compartmentalize that? Yeah. This is for a season. And then that’s going to be one day it’s going to be finished. And how do you how do you navigate that as an actor?

Craig Veroni:
Well, I wasn’t signed to a contract for one year. So, every episode that I got to be in was amazing, right? Of course, you hope you’re going to be around for season two, season three, or if that happens, so when it, when I got the call, it was sad, but I understood, and, just had to deal with it. But being on set as that character, having to say goodbye to everyone wasn’t hard, because I was alone on that satellite. And, I knew what I had to do for the good of everyone else. And which paralleled as Craig the actor having to do my part, for the good of the show. I needed to be, my character needed to be killed off. So, it wasn’t hard to just go there emotionally. And, you just you just want to, as an actor, you just want to do the best job you can. if this is going to be my last episode, I want it to be great. I want people to remember it. So, and people do, which is which is amazing.

David Read:
They do, and it’s an intense sequence. Have you seen the episode?

Craig Veroni:
Oh yes. Yeah.

David Read:
Okay. Yeah. Man. It just it’s just absolutely whacks you in the stomach, especially because his last line is, “I’m sorry.” And it’s like not like, oh crap, or oh my God. It’s just there’s, there’s so there’s such a defeated…

Craig Veroni:
Yeah. He could, he failed. He couldn’t do what he was hoping to do and just, he was just sorry. Yeah. Yeah.

David Read:
Now I’m hearing…

Craig Veroni:
[To off-camera] Sorry … Oh, yeah. I’m just on a I’m just on a very important call Tamara.

David Read:
Sorry, guys. Okay. Sorry about that. So, this is, I really appreciate you being so thoughtful about it. And a couple of fans are curious. I know Raj [Luthra] wants to know, if and when the franchise returned, which is just a question of when, as a TV series or a movie. If a role was posed to you or some wacky version of Grodin, would you be open in either reprising the character or appearing as something else? Would ‘Stargate’ be enough to whet your whistle?

Craig Veroni:
In a heartbeat. Yeah. Of course. as I said, if so, if someone came along and said, we’d love for you to come play on the show with us, I’d be there in a heartbeat. Absolutely awesome. Yeah.

David Read:
Matt T says as a Brit, he says, I didn’t question your accent for Grodin for a second.

Craig Veroni:
Man, thank you guys.

David Read:
He said as a South African/Canadian, was this an accent you perfected at all prior, or was this the first time you would explore that in this role?

Craig Veroni:
No, I love accents. I have a very bad habit of when I’m around people with an accent, I want to start talking like them, which is horrible.

David Read:
No, you’re mirroring, you’re connecting.

Craig Veroni:
Some people. Well, some people might take that as mocking them, but I just I love people accents and I love trying to figure it out. And when I hear an accent that’s intriguing to me, I want to start talking like that person. So, no, I’ve always loved working on accents. So that wasn’t the first time I did it, but like I said, the original accent, the original voice for Dr. Peter Grodin was slightly different. And I feel would have been warmer and more even more charismatic for the character. But, I was happy to do what I could.

David Read:
Absolutely. What was it like meeting fans at conventions? That’s where you and I, originally met in, Vancouver at Creation. What was it like connecting with that audience, especially after his fate?

Craig Veroni:
Oh, it’s always it’s equal parts awkward and fun. Awkward because this was such a long time ago for me. Even when I even when I had met you, that was several years after.

David Read:
It had been about 7 or 8 months at least. Season two was in production.

Craig Veroni:
Oh, was it okay, so.

David Read:
It felt that way.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah, I guess it. Yeah, it did. Yeah. So only 7 or 8 months. Really. Wow. But yeah, it felt like eons had, had to have elapsed between then and that event. But it’s fun to just meet, who doesn’t enjoy meeting and talking with fans? It’s a joy. It’s an honor. we create this show, this piece of art, whatever you want to call it, it goes out into the world. But it really means nothing if nobody cares about it. If nobody watches it, you know? So, to have people interested in it, interested in the characters, It’s great, I love it.

David Read:
Do you recall, Matt also wanted to know, out of curiosity, do you recall any special configuration or, apparatus that was used to help you appear weightless in some of those earlier scenes in that episode?

Craig Veroni:
Yeah.

David Read:
How did they do that?

Craig Veroni:
It was a green screen technology. Right. So, the apparatus that you’re on disappears, and you appear weightless. The technology has come a long way since then, so I think the technology’s even more phenomenal now than, because the apparatus I was on was quite substantial, like it was a sort of an articulated arm on which I had to stand and sort of lean up against, if I remember correctly. Yeah.

David Read:
And just simulates the experience of being in this confined space. The stuff that they put you guys through to pull off some of this stuff was wild.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah. But the sets, like I said, the sets that they built were phenomenal. really have to hand it to the team that that did all that work. I just, I loved showing up. I was always more interested in everybody else’s job when I was on set. And I’m like, how the hell does this happen? It’s an orchestrated chaos. It’s really, really impressive what it takes to make a show come alive, or a movie come alive. It’s incredible.

David Read:
All these needles that are being threaded all simultaneously. It’s kind of mind blowing. Timothy wants to know, did you watch the show after you left at all, or was that in the past, and you’re moving forward?

Craig Veroni:
No, a little bit I, I watched it some somewhat, but I didn’t, I think I watched some of season two. I don’t think I finished season two. Yeah. But I yeah, no, I didn’t continue watching the show. Not because I was mad or hated the, you know. No, it’s just that even the stuff that I was in as an actor, whether it was a TV show or film or whatever, I haven’t seen half of the things that I’ve been in. Yeah. So, there’s a lot of stuff that, I was in myself that I haven’t even watched.

David Read:
I find that very common when talking to actors, like some of them don’t look at any of it. And, yeah, I can understand that, but I would certainly like to, okay, what could I do better next time that I can see in myself that that no one else necessarily was paying attention to, that I want to fix for myself, you know? But I could understand how that would be uncomfortable for some.

Craig Veroni:
One of my favorite memories of being on a set where I had to do a lot of work was “Destination: Infestation”, a.k.a. ‘Ants on a Plane’. The original title was ‘Ants on a Plane’. And then they found out they couldn’t use ‘Ants on a Plane’, so they went with “Destination: Infestation”. I played the copilot of this plane. I wound up landing the plane, but, I messed up the landing. And I’m there with a great actor friend of mine who I’d worked with before, who was the pilot. And we get on set. We’re in this cockpit of the plane, and I’m looking at all the instruments. And my uncle had his own helicopter school. He since passed away, unfortunately. But, but I knew nothing about flying or, any of the instruments. So, when we’re sitting in this cockpit, the director comes up and he’s talking to us about how they how are they going to block shoot this and what he wants from us. And so, after he had finished talking, I said to him, “Do we have someone on set, the pilot or an expert that’s going to show us how to use the instruments?” And he sort of looked at me blankly and, “What do you mean?” And I and I said, “Well, is there someone that’s just going to sort of walk the two of us through what buttons and things we might need to be touching?” And he went, “No, no, we don’t have the budget for that.” And you know everyone else on set was laughing at me, but, the pilot, he looked at me and he went, “I’m not touching anything.” And I went, “What are you talking about? You’re the…” He’s like, “I’m not touching anything.” And so I said, “Okay.” And so, I started figuring out what I needed to do to make this look believable. I wanted to make this look believable.

David Read:
So, the captain’s going to be on a coffee break for this project.

Craig Veroni:
I’m like, yeah, if you don’t want to, I’ll fly this.

David Read:
You can both fly it.

Craig Veroni:
Didn’t get paid any extra, but I flew that damn plane. Yeah. Well, that was fun.

David Read:
My helicopter pilot, father of more than 40 years, will be very proud of you.

Craig Veroni:
Oh, wow.

David Read:
That’s great, man.

Craig Veroni:
So, do you fly?

David Read:
To his chagrin, do not. But I’m not…

Craig Veroni:
One of my biggest regrets was I was offered the opportunity by my uncle to come learn and, and get my pilot’s license. And I wish I had.

David Read:
My 16th birthday, I got a pilot’s log and there’s one entry in it to this day. So, you and I are rowing the same boat, man. Just different oars.

Craig Veroni:
Well, you tell your father if he ever wants someone to go up with him, I’ll happily go.

David Read:
They took his wings from him from a few years ago.

Craig Veroni:
Oh, I’m sad.

David Read:
It was the coldest, darkest day in hell you can imagine. He’s never gotten over that. But, he’s probably listening. So, message received.

Craig Veroni:
What’s his name? Dave? Nice to meet you.

David Read:
When I bought my current home. This is the second one.

Craig Veroni:
Okay. And Sorry, where do you live?

David Read:
North Nashville.

Craig Veroni:
Okay. Nashville, nice.

David Read:
I saw 3 or 4.

Craig Veroni:
That’s not a lot.

David Read:
No, my real-, so I contacted my realtor, and I said, okay, this is it. And once the paperwork was signed a few weeks later, he just turned to me and said, “Thank you for making this so ridiculously easy.” I was like, what do you mean? I just knew what I wanted, he says, “A lot of people don’t.” And it’s like, I never thought of it that way. like doing something like this is fairly deliberate, like there’s going to be gives and takes. You have to land on something. Very rarely, what I think, and I’m curious to know your perspective on this, very rarely are you going to find something that ticks all of your 20, 30, 40 boxes. I don’t want you to tell any horror stories, because you may have potential customers in this audience, but what is it like threading those needles of dealing with customer expectations versus reality? And when do you have to sometimes dial up the acting a little bit to make sure that you don’t explode? Because occasionally you’re going to have a client that is unreasonable. Because they do exist and they still deserve housing.

Craig Veroni:
Yes, they do. However, I fire those people and they can go find their homes with someone else. And I have let people go. Yeah. It’s well, I mean, it’s in the best interest of the client, right?

David Read:
If I’m not going to, if I’m not cutting it for you. Yeah. It’s not you, it’s me.

Craig Veroni:
If we’re not gelling, if we’re not on the same page. This is the great thing about the use of video. Yeah. And how I’ve been able to sort of carve out my career. For the most part, I attract clients who are amazing to work with. They’re people who want to work with me. They’re people who I want to work with. They’re wonderful people, lovely people. I’m friends with many of them.

David Read:
So, it’s an energy level thing.

Craig Veroni:
Absolutely. And if I get the sense that that it’s going to be hard and difficult from the get go, there may come a point where I say, I think we, I think you should find someone, I’m happy to recommend someone. Yeah, yeah, I don’t think this is working out. And that’s happened a couple of times.

David Read:
I never thought of it that way. That makes a lot of sense. My guy is so much more lower key than me. we’re still in touch. He’s. I consider him, an acquaintance. Not so much a friend, but, like, our energy levels didn’t match at all. But we still made it work. Because he was a recommendation from my guy in Phoenix, and that’s as far as I needed, as far as I was concerned, that was all I needed.

Craig Veroni:
Yeah, and that’s… For most people that’s what they love. Having a referral. Yeah. But most of the people I work with are not referrals. They’re people who find me through my videos, right? So, like I said, I’ll have people who recognize… This is the wild thing. They come from Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, all over the world. They come to Vancouver, they’re here for a few months, and they bump into me on the street and they recognize me. And it blows my mind every time. one gentleman with his two kids were in a grocery store. They they’d just moved from the Himalayas, a small village in the Himalayas.

David Read:
Nepal?

Craig Veroni:
I don’t know where exactly, but, my God, they he’s like, oh, we watched all your videos and he said, “I’m a big fan.” But he pointed to one of his kids and he said, “But that is your biggest fan.” And, this is before I actually knew they were talking about real estate because he called out my name like he knew me. And they started talking. And when he said fan, then he pointed to his son, I thought ‘my film stuff?’ might, but he looked too young to, because I’d been out of acting for a while now. So then when he said, “Your YouTube videos about the neighborhoods in Vancouver,” I just, I teared up a little bit and I said to the young boy, I said, “You manifested this, you made this happen, you know?” Because the father said, “We watched all your videos.” And the boy said to his parents, “One day I’m going to meet Craig Veroni.” And there we are in a grocery store, and we got to meet. So that’s pretty special.

David Read:
That’s amazing. The thing that I like about what you are doing with particularly with your channel is that it’s not just for people who are looking to move to Vancouver. It’s also people who are looking to visit. And it’s also educational about the city in itself. it’s not just one note. Was that intentional from the get go? I mean, obviously, the purpose is, is to serve your larger interests. But was that intentional from the get go with the channel and with what you were pursuing?

Craig Veroni:
Yeah, absolutely. when I started my YouTube channel, I don’t know, 5 or 6, I don’t know how many years ago now, but, I looked around and there was nothing about Vancouver, really. And I thought, well, if people are going to move here or if people are moving from one, one municipality to another, if they’re moving from Vancouver out to Langley or Abbotsford or vice versa, they want to know what’s going on in those neighborhoods. They want to know what’s in those areas. And I can create videos telling them about that, because I grew up here. And, I have lived in almost every place. And I love being a tour guide in my city. So yeah, it’s been fun, but they are a ton of work to put together. Just putting a neighborhood video together, my God, takes a week or two weeks sometimes.

David Read:
Do you edit yourself?

Craig Veroni:
I used to, yeah, I did it for three years or so on my own. And then I finally hit the wall because filming, editing, all that stuff was another full-time job on top of my full-time job. And I, it just got to be too much.

David Read:
Yeah. A good editor can be worth their weight in gold if they know exactly what it is that they are doing. Or, can at the very least serve as an interpreter for you for something that you can’t properly articulate. I’m looking for this thing. Am I giving you enough information on what I want here? Oh, so this is.. Yes! Or that’s better, you know.

Craig Veroni:
Well, I have a great I, I have a great videographer that I work with. We have a great relationship and he knows he can bring things out and or suggest things that I’m not even thinking of because I’m trying to think of so much when, when we’re shooting. So, I love working with someone like that who gets me and can suggest things that are going to make, or suggest, camera angles and shots that, that I’m not thinking about because that’s not my forte or my expertise. So, yeah, I love it.

David Read:
What’s next? Are you in the lane that you want to be for the considerable future, or are you looking to expand in some different directions as well?

Craig Veroni:
Not expand in different directions. I certainly would love to grow my business where I have a small team of 2 or 3 people, you know? Yeah, I’m definitely in the lane that I want to be in. I love what I do. I absolutely love helping people find the home that’s right for them. And I love creating content for people who are looking to buy and sell homes. So, definitely the lane I want to be in. And, as I said, if someone comes along and says, we’d love you to be in this, I’m not going to turn that down.

David Read:
I have been wanting to ask you this question, because I think it applies to me and a lot of other people, especially, 40s, 30s and younger, who are not like our parents, who do not work a factory job all of our lives, who find ourselves in and out of various things. In some cases, it could be blamed on the fact that we can’t stick to anything, which is I can certainly make that case for some people, but for others, I think, to everything there is a season. And I myself have been in, I’m 42, 6 or 7 different industries at this point in my life, most of which are ‘Stargate’ related. But I’m curious for your perspective, especially when there are a number of people, and actors this could be said a lot of, where like, I’m in the job that I want to be in, this is it for me, and I’m not looking at anything else. I’m not going to be pragmatic. To being open to the possibility that this is a stop along the way. This is what I’m doing now. This may peter out. I may have to have other options later on in the future. At least be open and have an ear to the ground that your true calling may not even be what you thought it would be, because that’s, in some cases, what happened to you. For people who are trying to make their way in terms of finding their next industry, or at least being open and receptive to the possibility that why they are here, if you do believe that you’re here for a ‘why’, may not have been unveiled to them yet, what do you say as someone who has become extremely successful in the area where you are now thinking that the high school you, this wouldn’t even have occurred to him? What are your thoughts on that? And I’m sorry for taking three minutes to get there.

Craig Veroni:
No, that’s quite all right. That’s such a great question. Really. we live in a very different world from our parents, just now, the advancement of AI right now is turning the world upside down.

David Read:
It’s going to change everything.

Craig Veroni:
Well, in ways we can’t even imagine yet. The idea of going to work for a particular company and working for them for 20, 30 years is, I mean, that that’s so long ago that it’s not even in the realm of possibility for most people today. But you’re absolutely right. It’s staying open to possibilities. And I wish I had done that more while I was acting. I wish I had, as an actor. I mean, as an actor, you’re supposed to stay open when you’re acting. You’re supposed to stay open to possibilities. That’s the mark of a great actor. But I wasn’t doing that in my life enough. and it took it took a very traumatic event to get me there. Pushed me across that line. But I think that most people fear what we. Well, me, myself, I was fearful of what I couldn’t do. I, as you said earlier. I was looking at the summit and not thinking about what the next step would simply be. there’s a great line in acting all the time. Everybody says fake it until you make it. And, I’ve had to do that for this entire career. I’ve had to continually fake it until the real thing.

David Read:
The real estate career?

Craig Veroni:
Yes. Absolutely. Because there’s so much to learn. There’s so much to learn, so much to do. You can’t know everything from the get-go. But you have to be able to come across as competent and professional and you have to know your stuff. So, it’s just a matter of staying curious, staying in that learning mindset. Right? Never thinking that you know everything because you never will, but being open to continually learning. And I think those are the types of people that will always thrive in any environment and in any career. Those people who are continually curious, open, and willing to try things even if they don’t know how necessarily to do them. You figure it out as you go. And I’ve had to do all of that.

David Read:
You have to be able to, if at all possible, unless you have very, very wealthy, parents, I suppose, be able to pull your own weight and, make it so that you can sustain yourself so that you’re not having to depend on someone else, if you’re fortunate. But also, at the same time, I think this comes back to the other point. You have to be able to live with yourself so that your soul isn’t being sapped out of you. I have had the opportunity to talk with a couple of actors on this show, and, so often – I’ve never said this – I’m sitting with an actor, and, I ask them about a role that they want to do or, a role that they haven’t been given yet. And a couple of them have been honest enough to say, ‘the one that I want hasn’t come yet’. And part of me feels really bad in the back of my mind because it’s like I’m saying to myself, this is a really amazing person. They haven’t had their Jason Momoa moment at this point in their life, depending on their age, they probably won’t. And it’s a real shame, you know? And if they can find something.

Craig Veroni:
Well that’s the business of acting.

David Read:
I know. That’s the thing. There are only so many slots. And if they can, if a person can reinvent themselves, like you have, largely on the same trajectory of interfacing with people and having a relationship with people and communicating the way that you like to communicate, and be successful, but be content with yourself. That’s a real, rewarding thing. And recognizing that that’s happened to you is a blessing.

Craig Veroni:
It certainly is. It certainly is. There’s so much as an actor that I wish I had treated acting like a business when I was in it. It wasn’t until I got into real estate that I understood the business of acting, if that makes any sense. Yeah. And so. Not that I have regrets, but, if I had the opportunity to do things over there, I certainly would learn from, the lessons that that I have learned. But absolutely, the real the reason that I don’t feel any regret of letting go of the acting career is because I feel very fulfilled in what I do. there are couple of roles that I feel really proud about. And, I can point to that and say I’m proud of what I did there. But there are far more did I, as an actor? Sure. I entertained people and sure, people were, fans and pleased with what I did, but did I really change anyone’s life? Probably not. But I know as a real estate agent, I’ve had, not that I’d change someone’s life, but I’ve had a meaningful impact on the people that I’ve worked with and that is important to me and that I’m proud of. because as you say, when you’re in a career, it needs to fill your cup and you need to find things that fill your cup outside of potentially what you’re doing. Right. So that’s which is why I said, as an actor, when I was acting, I wish I had been open to other things at the same time and not just be so, have the blinders on of ‘This is all I’m doing, this is all I’m about. This is my entire identity’. I was able to, once I got out of that, I was able to realize that, as you said, I can reinvent myself. I do have other things that I’m good at and can be successful at. And, yeah, I certainly hope everybody out there finds that as well. I mean, I’m not going to sit here and say that I’m at that place where everything is rosy and smooth, and…

David Read:
There’s always going to be a mountain.

Craig Veroni:
That there is. The one thing about life is that there’s always change and there’s always adversity, and that’s the constant. Those are the constants. But I’m very pleased with the career path that I wound up taking and, happy to have met some amazing people that that showed me that I could use that career as an actor, in my real estate career, instead of denying it for the, first four years, five years of my career.

David Read:
You I think have changed people’s lives. You’ve met one little boy who self-actualized his way, arguably right in front of you. And I think that there is something to that. I think we are both fortunate to be in positions where we are able to connect with people and provide them with something they didn’t necessarily know that they wanted. I am very fortunate with this. I’ve received letters and communiques from people who are rebuilding my home. It was destroyed because of this freak event, where I’m rebuilding my life from what’s going on. And you’re in my earbuds talking to me right now. And, it’s not why I do this, and it is why I do this. You are putting people in a place that is going to carry them for a portion of their life, and the connection that you make with them at the time is going to set the tone for everything that follows. Maybe you’re not the right, person for them. Maybe you are, but you have an opportunity to affect people on a very personal level because these places that we reside in are they bear witness to the highs and lows of our lives. And that’s so important to get it right. that’s the that’s the thing that I loved about my guy Lyle when my first house, it was, we would go to these places and he would be like, “No, we’re turning around.” What are you talking about?

Craig Veroni:
I’ve done that with clients, too.

David Read:
He says, “This isn’t right for you.”

Craig Veroni:
It’s not right for you. Absolutely.

David Read:
And I’m like, “Don’t you want my money?” He’s like, “Not if it’s going to put you in a place where I know you won’t like it, because I’ve had enough time to sit down and get to know you and find out what makes you enough about what makes you tick.” And that right there. Craig, you just said it. you’ve done the same thing. I think that that’s the mark of a of a good, buyer’s agent, because I’m not going to just shuck this off to you and leave you with potentially a negative experience in your life and a horrible mistake. trust the process and the right home will come as long as you aren’t too granular because you can be.

Craig Veroni:
Well, I had yeah, I had clients actually write the offer and, and me saying, I don’t think you should be writing this offer. And at the last second them pulling back. And then a week later, we found the right home.

David Read:
See. These things happen. That’s cool.

Craig Veroni:
And to this day, I don’t know what I’m getting paid from any transaction until it’s actually, solid. And I’m having to fill out the paperwork because the job is the job. the remuneration fluctuates based on the size of the home or the, the price of the home and that sort of thing, but the job stays the same. So, I love, sometimes filling out the paperwork and going, wow, I get paid this! This is fantastic! It bugs my wife to no end it. Yes. She, she’s kind of jumped on the bandwagon with me now, because now say do ‘Should I tell you what we possibly could…’ ‘Nope. Nope.’ So, Yeah. I’m here to serve. I’m here to do my job. And just like your agent Lyle, he’s there for you. he’s there to make sure that he does the best job he can for you and that you wind up with the best home that you can.

David Read:
It’s one of the most remarkable experiences of my life. It was so easy.

Craig Veroni:
Nice.

David Read:
I came out and I told him that was the one. And he said, well, we’re going to get it for you. And 12 days later, it was. And, it’s the second-best decision I’ve ever made for myself was purchasing that first home. The first one was moving out from my parents’ house, 2000 miles across the country. But you guys are the lubricant that makes these things work. And if you do it right, it feels like a seamless experience. So, I really want to thank you for coming on and sharing your story, stories, because, if we are privileged enough to have the opportunity to, to put ourselves into a place and make it truly ours, the right guide can be everything. It can be an amazing experience, or it can be a bloody awful one. And the fact that you’re serving the community up there that has grown around ‘Stargate’ in its own way, is kind of really cool. That you found that city to be your home, long term. Are you staying there long term? Is that the plan?

Craig Veroni:
Yeah. I mean, I’ve lived here most of my life, as born in Cape Town, South Africa, lived there till I was eight, came to Canada, Toronto first for about a year, year and a half. But the bulk of my life has been here in Vancouver growing up around here. So, I mean, I don’t know if I’ll stay here during retirement, basically wherever my son, my son is now 19. Right. So, wherever my son winds up, that’s where my wife and I will be.

David Read:
Absolutely. Yeah. Right around ‘Stargate’, he was. But my goodness. So that’s quite the arc.

Craig Veroni:
He actually didn’t, he I mean, it was funny with him growing up, he didn’t know what I did for, for a living until he was probably about seven, eight years old when he started seeing me in things on TV.

David Read:
Craig. Thank you for taking so much of your time and sharing your story. And, where can we find you? Where can we go to look you up?

Craig Veroni:
You just have to type in my name. I’m there. I’m not hard to find. But, Instagram, YouTube, my YouTube channel is “Living in Vancouver, BC” but Instagram @craigveroni. Facebook. LinkedIn. You wherever you want to find me. I’ll be there.

David Read:
Would be surprised I know 3 or 4 people who moved to Vancouver because they fell in love with it through ‘Stargate’?

Craig Veroni:
Really. So, they fell in love with ‘Stargate’ and decided that that’s where they want to? That’s awesome.

David Read:
They fell in love with the city and, yeah, the whole everything that was there through the show.

Craig Veroni:
Nice. That’s cool.

David Read:
I just I totally believe it. So, Yeah. Thank you again, sir. I’m going to go ahead and wrap up the show on this side. But, this was a real pleasure to be able to reconnect with you after all these years.

Craig Veroni:
It is a real pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. And thank you to everyone that was out asking the questions today.

David Read:
Absolutely. Sir. I’m going to wrap up on this side. Be well. Craig Veroni, he played Dr. Peter Grodin in ‘Stargate Atlantis’, and you can also check him out at CraigVeroni.ca. We have a number of episodes coming up for you the next few weeks here. We’ve got Alex Zahara and Patrick Currie who are going to be joining us Saturday, May the 31st, at 1 p.m. Pacific Time. We are going to mainly focus on “Space Race” and, brains, don’t fail me now. And it’s failed me. So, the “Unas” episode, “Enemy Mine”. That’s it. And Kevin McNulty joining us just after, who played Dr. Warner in ‘SG-1’ and Lycus in ‘Atlantis ‘and then, Jill Teed, Kira Clavell. We’re rescheduling Kira. All these folks and a number more are heading your way as we move further into season five. If you enjoy ‘Stargate’ and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, click that like button. It really helps, with the show in terms of making a difference with growing our audience. And if you want to get notified about future episodes, click subscribe and clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few weeks, and both the ‘Dial the Gate’ and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. I really appreciate you tuning in. Thanks so much to my moderating team. You guys have my back. Antony. Jeremy, Kevin, Lockwatcher, Marsha, Raj, Jakub. You guys are the absolute best. Really appreciate, having you week to week helping me out. Frederick Marcoux over at ConceptsWeb who keeps DialTheGate.com up and running. And Kevin Weaver, Anthony Rawling and Linda ‘GateGabber’ Fury, my producers. My name is David Read for ‘Dial the Gate’. I really appreciate you tuning in, and I will see you on the other side.