ATHABASCA – There is only one person in Athabasca who knows exactly what to do if you are infected by a zombie, and he knows from real life experience — sort of.
Most days you’ll find Nathan Loitz behind the counter at the Book Nook in Athabasca, but there are also times the mild-mannered, used book store proprietor, can be found fighting zombies in an alternate TV world, especially if you happen to be watching Season 2 of the Netflix series Black Summer, which was released in June, specifically Episode 4.
The local actor/stuntman/fight director appeared in the streaming series for just a few minutes, but it fulfilled a dream he has been working on since getting his Fine Arts degree in performance from the University of Lethbridge about a decade ago. Since then, he has been in numerous stage productions as an actor and fight director and even played John the Baptist in one edition of the Canadian Badlands Passion Play. He also “built the fights” for the film Dead again in Tombstone, starring well-known Hollywood actor Danny Trejo.
“I didn't have any lines, but if you watch the piece, it's a very intense fight that leads to something that needs some emotional connection to. I don't want to give it away,” said Loitz of his latest role in an Aug. 5 interview at his book store.
Having fulfilled his stage dream of playing the role of MacBeth, Black Summer gave him a chance to test his skills in film and television. It’s not the first film/TV credit for Loitz, but this particular project meant a lot to him.
“I mostly focused on theatre for most of the beginning of my career, but I'm very fight-orientated, I have a background in martial arts like taekwondo, judo, boxing … One of the reasons that I was drawn to performance is I found there was a stage combat class at the college I went to, dealing with small swords, long swords, rapiers, daggers, because if you look at Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, there’s so many sword fights, so that’s where the training stems from,” he said.
“I always wanted to be in a zombie show, and Black Summer fulfilled that, so that's beautiful … An opportunity came up where they were looking for someone — a stunt man who knows how to act — and I'm fortunate enough that I have two specialties where I'm I think I'm a decent actor and I know how to fight.”
Going from stage to film was definitely a transition, as his first scene took 13 takes, a reprieve of sorts for the stage actor, who was used to having to prepare to the point of being able to perform a scene flawlessly on the first take for a live audience.
“All I had to do was walk in, check out the location and do some flashlight acting,” he said. “As a theatre actor I'm thinking, ‘OK, what’s my motivation? Where am I coming from? What's my story arc?’ but you don't have to worry about any of that in film or television, it's more about blocking and making sure you step here, then look down here.”
Even more recently, Loitz finished working on a project called Billy the Kid, where his job was to dodge a team of charging horses. He also completed work on another project filmed in Alberta that will be released on HBO, but other than that, he is bound by a non-disclosure agreement and his growing fan base will have to wait to see him back in action, but probably not for long.
In the meantime, you can still find him at The Book Nook, at least until the next fight comes his way.
