Dunsworth is in search of Santa Claus

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Sunny South News

If you ask Canadian actor-extraordinare John Dunsworth — who plays drunk trailer park supervisor Mr. Jim Lahey on the hit Netflix series “Trailer Park Boys” and Santa on tour and in the new holiday-inspired documentary “Santa Quest” if his latest film to hit the TV screen is a success — Dunsworth would say you’re asking the wrong guy.

Not because he doesn’t care — he said he’s proud of the Canadian-made film but he’s been on the road travelling in the United States and in Canada with his fellow trailer park brethren on their annual Christmas pilgrimage and/or Santa-based tour.

“I’m with the Trailer Park Boys — we’re on tour with the Santa show,” said Dunsworth, on the phone from Chicago earlier this month during the U.S. Dear Santa Claus stint.

“I have no idea how the film is going. Everyday or so I get somebody saying that they saw the video,” he added.

Dunsworth said the film was made last year. He attended the premiere in Halifax, Nova Scotia — which Dunsworth added was fun and people seemed to really like it.

“When people see it, it’s not what they expect. It’s a hybrid for sure. There’s very few movies like it you’ll see,” said Dunsworth.

From Vancouver to Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and throughout Canada and the U.S. Dunsworth and his partners in fictional crime continue to pack theatres. Recently, Dunsworth and the Sunnyvale Trailer Park clan paid a visit to cowtown.

“The audiences are really happy and wonderful,” said Dunsworth. “It’s amazing.”

“Santa Quest” is a documentary that follows Dunsworth, as he rekindles his faith and represents Canada at the Santa Winter Games in Sweden.

According to Dunsworth, Americans are digging the “Trailer Park Boys” characters and the show where hence Julian, Ricky, Randy and Bubbles came — even in Chicago, just before Christmas.

“I was out on the street with my hat on and it’s a big furry hat and three girls came up and went ‘can we get your picture?’ and they’re from Minnesota. For them to recognize Jim Lahey on the streets of Chicago, when they’re travelling from Minnesota, it’s an indication of the coverage that it’s getting down here,” said Dunsworth.

Season eight of “Trailer Park Boys,” Dunsworth noted, recently found a home on Netflix.

“It was one of the most popular ever and now that it’s on Netflix it’s quite accessible. For my money, season nine is probably the best season yet. It’s just amazing. I don’t know how we managed to breathe fresh life into the series but we sure have. Jonathan Torrens is directing some of them — that helped, in terms of everyone’s feel good on-set experience. It’s just unbelievable,” said Dunsworth. Torrens who plays J-Roc on the series, was also in the past one of the hosts of the award-winning consumer/sketch show for youth “Street Cents” and hosted his own program “Jonovision.”

Recently, Dunsworth said, he finished up filming season five of “Haven” — a supernatural drama/thriller.  “That’s got a huge audience base now too.”

He’s also hitting the road once again in the New Year for another “Trailer Park Boys”-related tour and Dunsworth also appears in another series on Super Channel entitled, “Forgive Me.”

“I even got a Best Actor award for that last year. I’m 68 years old and I’m still working in the business and it looks like I can do it until I die, which may be any day now,” he joked, adding he gets pretty beat up playing Santa Claus with the boys on stage.

With “Santa Quest,” Dunsworth said he’s very happy he was able to be involved with the project.

“I don’t think it’s going to go crazy overnight. I think it’s going to be around for a while,” he said, adding he and the crew travelled to Italy and Sweden to film the documentary.

On top of the film, now showing on Super Channel, Dunsworth has released a Christmas single with award-winning Canadian singer and songwriter Lennie Gallant entitled, “I Still Believe In Santa,” which is available on iTunes. Plus fans can check out the official “Santa Quest” mobile game for iOS and Android. Also, Dunsworth has created the ultimate and limited edition autographed Santa John bobblehead to coincide with the release of the movie.

“For me to look at that, I’ll enjoy watching that next year because every time I watch it, it stirs memories and I don’t have a great memory. I use it all up to memorize lines,” joked Dunsworth.

For the record, many a Lethbridge County resident binge-watches “Trailer Park Boys” on Netflix.