A Nova Scotian actor-director played a key role in the creation of a highly-anticipated new series about Canadian Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson.
For years, Truro’s Corey Bowles made a name for himself as the hapless character ‘Corey’ on the hit Halifax-shot series Trailer Park Boys, but since formally leaving the show in 2018, he has earned a reputation for his talented work behind the camera as well.
In 2017, he established himself with Black Cop, a gritty crime drama that would earn the budding filmmaker a best director prize at the Atlantic Film Festival and the movie itself a Screen Nova Scotia Award for best feature film.
Since then, Bowles has kept busy with various projects, including directing such television series as FBI: Most Wanted, Law & Order: Organized Crime and the Halifax-filmed legal drama, Diggstown.
However, Bowles is particularly keen about his latest project, Hate the Player: The Ben Johnson Story, a new satirical series that follows the rise and fall of the 1988 Olympic champion who had his gold medal infamously stripped after admitting to steroid use.
“There’s a lot of stories out there and a lot of pitched ideas about what his story was,” says Bowles about the Canadian who briefly held the title of world’s fastest man before the doping scandal ended his career.
“This one just sort of captured a version of him that put a shine to his name but also doesn’t pull any punches on what went down but also, really as a personality, it really encapsulates who he is.”
Created by Emmy-nominated writer Anthony Q. Farrell (The Office, Shelved), Hate the Player is a six-part mockumentary that blurs fact and fiction as its disgraced protagonist self-funds a film to set the record straight and essentially pulls “viewers into a world of ethically questionable coaching, performance-enhancing cover-ups, and misguided redemption.”
“It was pretty much in the very first page, half way down, that I thought I have got to be a part of this, it’s so good,” recalls Bowles of reading the script for the first time. “They did such a good job at taking something that was so big in our youth and a big part of sports and identity in world sports and gave it such a funny, cathartic, interesting twist, I was just like, this is awesome.”
Now streaming on both GameTV and Paramount+, the series stars Shamier Anderson (John Wick: Chapter 4) as Ben Johnson with an impressive supporting cast that includes Mark McKinney (Kids in the Hall) and Karen Robinson (Schitt’s Creek).
Since wrapping the series, Bowles has kept busy and most recently completed directing an episode of the long-running medical drama, Chicago Med. However, Bowles will spend the next few months working trying to make a return to Halifax.
“I’m always looking to come home,” says Bowles, noting the would-be project is an adaptation of a work by Halifax author, Andre Fenton. “We’ve been working together for the last couple years getting that ready so we’re just about ready to get it going so hopefully, that will be the next thing.”
