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Cool Job: Meredith Veats, gatekeeper to reality TV stardom

Meredith Veats, reality TV caster

Meredith Veats has made grown men cry.

Or rather, her role as a casting director for some of Canada’s top reality shows – the proverbial gatekeeper to their shot at television stardom – and the opportunities she dangles in front of them has brought them to their knees.

There's been some casting interviews where I’ve grown men crying and begging for a spot on shows,” says Veats. It’s enough to make even the most hardened hearts cringe awkwardly.

But Veats has developed a high tolerance to the blatant and honest display of humanity. It’s a job she’d likely be unable to do otherwise

Born and raised in Edmonton, she pursued TV journalism before moving to Toronto and taking a post at CFTO (otherwise known as CTV) wrangling talent for talk shows.

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Shortly after, she worked at Discovery Channel before taking a job at production company Proper Television finding stars of shows like Newlywed Nearly Dead? and Canada’s Worst Handyman.

These days her main focus is finding promising young chefs to have their hearts chewed out on MasterChef Canada.

We sat down with Veats to chat about the delicate art of finding real characters, why she doesn’t cringe and the hazards of riding in cars with strangers.

I feel like you’ve had a hand in most of the big reality shows to come out of Canada in the last ten years – nearly eight seasons of Canada’s Worst Driver, the same for Canada’s Worst Handyman and now MasterChef. How’d you get into this?

My background actually comes from news which surprisingly has a lot of similarities. In news you’re telling people’s stories as well but this is just doing it in a different way. It was a natural progression, to move away from news into this realm of television.

I guess that makes sense. Journalism is about telling these grand archetypes of humanity through real life people. Reality television has the same vibe.

Right so it's similar but the brilliant thing about this side of it is we get a little bit more time to tell people’s stories. We get into the meat, into the grit of it and I love that.

Totally, I get that. But with reality TV, we’re watching these terrible drivers or handymen as a form of entertainment. Does it ever make you cringe? 

I don’t feel cringe-worthy for a few reasons. One is, I’ve spoken to so many bad drivers and it takes a lot to shock me and to make me cringe when it comes to bad driving. 

I mean, doesn’t it make you cringe knowing you're the one putting them on TV?

I think everyone has a story so if anything I’m naturally curious and fascinated by people and how they live and how they drive and what they do. So I don’t find it cringe-worthy I find it interesting and fascinating and unique. 

I guess it humanizes them in a way that being on the news or seeing a YouTube video of a person taking four minutes to get out of a parking spot doesn’t.

Exactly. I guess that’s the thing about me and probably a lot of people who end up casting for different shows; I just don’t have that judgmental gene. When I watch those YouTube videos I think "wow, they must have really been struggling!" I want to hear more about that. Maybe they haven’t had the training, maybe there's more to it. So I think that that’s a big part of it and hopefully it reflects in a lot of the TV shows and the people that we help tell their stories. 

Actually, I’m curious about that. How are you finding these people?

If you want to talk about dangerous jobs, part of my role on Canada's Worst Driver as casting director is actually to get in the car and go for a drive with these bad drivers.

What a nightmare...

I know! It has only been the last few years where I sort of realized, oh, maybe this isn't such a good idea but it’s important I see how they actually drive and what it's really like to be in the car with them. So I actually ride shotgun with Canada's worst drivers as they drive around their city, to get a sense of their driving and ask them questions. I film it as well so I can bring back examples of driving to my colleagues.

I guess MasterChef is the opposite side of things. You’re looking for really talented young chefs. Or is it about their character?

With MasterChef it really comes down to the food so first and foremost it’s great home cooks but if someone has the ability to help express that through their personality, it’s an added bonus. When people are passionate about something, their character comes out anyways.

I bet there’s a moment when it clicks, when you realize you’ve found a gem.

Usually the moments where you kind of walk away and say: "wow, did we almost just get t-boned?” With MasterChef it's similar. Sometimes I meet people and I really hope that the food matches their story and personality.

Are you coaching them too? Or are they just thrown into the wild?

It’s a little bit of both. When people come onto a show, we try to prepare them as best as we can – there’s going to be a lot of cameras, don’t wear logos and stuff. There’s a few sort of TV 101 things we cover. We don’t want to surprise or scare anyone. But in terms of training them for their personality and what to say – no. Because the nature of what I do is to put a lot of effort into finding great people which means that I don’t need to turn them into something they’re not.

Oh, I’d pick it up right a way. Most viewers would.

Yeah we're looking for sincerity and authenticity because that’s what people relate to. If we were looking for actors, my job would probably be a lot easier. Finding real people and keeping them real is the actual challenge. 

Are there any moments from your ten years of casting that still make you wake up in a cold sweat?

With Canada's Worst Driver years ago we had a young guy on the show from Edmonton and there was a busy highway there called Yellowhead. So usually with casting I go in the car with these people for half an hour or twenty minutes to get a sense of their driving and we just about wrapped up and I said to the guy “okay, jump on the highway, I want to see how you drive on the highway.” Well he was really jittery and there’s a huge 18-wheeler coming up behind us and he just panicked and dead-stopped on the highway.

Oh my god.

Right? So that was really scary. There have been some people on MasterChef and just seeing them blown away… When we do these big competitions in Toronto, there’re fifty home cooks and you see their hands shaking as they’re trying to prepare the perfect dish. It's really awe inspiring and impressive.

It’s such an intimate look at human nature. I suppose you’d have a heightened faith in people.

Definitely.

What about the gritty stuff – how are the hours?

I'm always on the clock, always on phone or email. To find the best people means a lot of evenings and weekends. The second part is on set, following through with them and doing interviews on set. There are different components and different categories so the hours obviously range but it’s around the clock.

Worth the pay though and on par with what casting directors make?

I’d say so. I love what I’d do so it’s well worth it and the pay is fair and adequate. The thing with entertainment and television is it’s freelance. So that can be a challenge for people. There's a lot of give and take with working in freelance but the pay is well worth it.