The streaming service boom is keeping Grace Gilroy as busy as ever. And that’s fine by the Vancouver-based producer, who continues to find the work exciting after four decades amassing various producer credits on TV series and features including The X-Files and Blues Brothers 2000 and serving as production manager on more than 45 projects.
Gilroy is currently executive producing kids series The Spiderwick Chronicles, the latest screen adaptation of the novels about a fairy world by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. The Disney+ eight-parter is expected to shoot through January.
“There are a lot of puppets and makeup effects and that kind of special work, which I like to do,” Gilroy says. “Anything that’s a little challenging, I’m interested in.”
Another special project she recently coproduced is VFX-heavy fantasy series The Mysterious Benedict Society for Disney+. Gilroy attended the Children’s & Family Emmy Awards in December in Los Angeles, where the show had a leading 11 nominations and won for costume design and directing. “That was a huge tribute to all the directors,” she says.
And then there’s Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, a 10-episode pre-rock and roll musical series she exec produced for Paramount+. It is set at Rydell High four years before events in the John Travolta/Olivia NewtonJohn blockbuster feature, following four rebellious females who form a clique. It is expected to drop in the spring.
“We had a lot of fun,” Gilroy recalls. “I love musicals and I’ve done a few of them. We don’t generally do musicals in Vancouver – they’re generally done on the East Coast because that’s where the talent is. But we pulled it off.” The series was originally to be shot in California, but the bottom line was more attractive in Vancouver, so north it came.
Having Gilroy in B.C. helps the studios feel comfortable shooting there. An earlier example is sci-fi classic The X-Files, which began shooting in Vancouver in 1993 but after five seasons shifted to Los Angeles for the next four, a decision reportedly driven by the show’s stars. But when Fox revived the show in 2016, it was back to B.C., and Gilroy was hired to produce.
“I hired her after years of hearing her spoken of in the most reverential terms,” Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, tells Playback. “A Grace Gilroy production is a thing of beauty: no wasted energy, no wasted resources, no wasted time. She’s great at putting together a team, and it’s telling that people are so loyal to her. She knows script and how and when to step in on the creative side, but all the drama happens in front of the camera. She has a very low level of tolerance for the usual nonsense, but she’s really fun to work with. She is simply the consummate producer.”
Gilroy is often credited as executive producer, a title that can encompass varying levels of involvement. But make no mistake, she is hands-on.
“I come from production, and my counterpart is often from the creative side, so we have to work together,” she explains. “I’m the nuts and bolts person. I help the creative producer get where they want. That’s my main job. I’m not the kind of person who will say, ‘Well, we can’t afford to do that.’ I’m all about ‘This is what we have to do.'”
Another notable partner has been Steven Spielberg, who spearheaded the TNT/Super Channel series Falling Skies, about civilians warding off an alien invasion. The acclaimed program shot its first season in Toronto before moving to Vancouver in 2011, at which point Gilroy was hired on.
One might expect a Spielberg production to have limitless resources, but that was not the case, and it would be highly challenging to realize his vision for the show – a point Gilroy impressed upon executive producer and director Greg Beeman.
“When they sent me the budget, I said ‘Beeman, I’m driving over the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and there’s a small stage under here. Have you ever heard of Ajatan Film Studios? Because that’s all we can afford,'” she recalls with a laugh. “And we turned that space into every city and everything else we needed for the next four years.”
Gilroy’s journey in the biz began in her hometown of Edmonton. She had long been interested in the performing arts and volunteered at local educational broadcaster Access, which led to work with independent producers. She was a partner in Kicking Horse Productions, which started off making docs.
“I scripted, I location-managed, I unit-managed. I basically tried everything and then eventually started doing a fair amount of dramatic work,” she recalls.
She had an early gig doing location work for SCTV when the show moved to Edmonton for its third season in 1980. She brushed with another level of fame as production manager on the Western comedy Draw! (1984) starring Kirk Douglas and James Coburn. It proved an invaluable experience.
Douglas, she says, “passed on so much information. Those senior actors like him and Anthony Hopkins, whom I had the pleasure of working with on The Edge (1997), are an open book. On Westerns you’re dealing with the environment and animals. It puts everybody on the same level. They put their ego on the shelf and they’ll do anything to explain things to you.”
Gilroy’s career took off in the ’80s with the many miniseries that came to Canada, such as Kane & Abel and Evergreen, both of which shot in Toronto. She impressed studio execs and later donned the hat of associate producer on the feature Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) and producer on Bride of Chucky (1998).
“Grace is a powerful force,” says producer Leslie Belzberg, whom Gilroy worked under on Blues Brothers 2000. “She is not only a great collaborator but also a wonderful friend and ally. We have worked together a number of times and in each case our collaborations were seamless. I have often reached out to her for advice and information on Canadian production.”
Gilroy has long believed in giving back. She was a founding member of the DGC Alberta District Council and served as its chair, and is currently secretary-treasurer of the DGC and the DGC Health & Welfare Plan, and vice-chair of the Canadian Entertainment Industry Retirement Plan. She was recognized with the DGC Distinguished Service Award in 2002.
“I have been lucky enough to work with both studios and great people on the labour side,” she says. “And I attribute my interest in the Directors Guild of Canada to that. It has given me an opportunity to do better by people, and I think that’s important.”
Playback‘s Canadian Film and Television Hall of Fame was founded in 2007 to recognize extraordinary achievements in the Canadian entertainment industry. Inductees are selected by a jury of their peers.
