Tom Cavanagh starred as Ron Spencer in the 2013 film The Birder, which was filmed entirely in Windsor-Essex. Cavanagh took on the role of a down-on-his-luck high school teacher and birder. While the film did not win Academy Awards, it has been praised for its script and heart. Cavanagh notes the importance of community support for independent films like The Birder and enjoyed working with the local filmmakers.

1. The Bird’s the word
The‘Birdman’of Windsor-Essex
Actor Tom Cavanagh says‘community’brought The Birder to life
By Claudio D’Andrea
Tom Cavanagh was the Birdman before Oscar-
winner Michael Keaton.
Proof is at the 23:44-minute mark of The Birder,
the revenge-comedy filmed entirely in Windsor-
Essex and recently released on DVD.
Cavanagh, the Ottawa native and actor whose
roles range from the title character on Ed and a
supporting role in Scrubs on TV, Ranger Smith in
the movie Yogi Bear and Dr. Harrison Wells in the
series The Flash, plays Ron Spencer in 2013’s The
Birder. The moment comes with the mild-man-
nered high school teacher and aspiring ornitholo-
gist sitting on his school’s rooftop with former stu-
dent Ben, played by Mark Rendall.
“Let me ask you something,” Spencer (Cavana-
gh) says. “Do you think I’m cool? I mean, do you
think I’m hip?”
“Sure!” Ben replies.
“Why?”
“Well, I mean, we’re sitting on the top of the
school chugging back some beers,” Ben says. “I
mean, that’s pretty cool in my books. And I re-
member back in high school, we used to call you
The Birdman.”
The loveable, down-on-his-luck Spencer smiles
and his face lights up.
In a phone interview from Vancouver where he
wrapped up the final episode of The Flash, Cava-
nagh chuckles at the suggestion that he took flight
as ‘Birdman’ a year before Keaton. In his typically
modest, oh-so-Canadian manner, the actor throws
back the spotlight to the other actor.
“That was a great movie, wasn’t it?” he says.
“Tremendous.”
The Birder may not have won any Academy
Awards (although it does include Oscar-nominat-
ed Graham Greene of 1990’s Dances with Wolves’
fame, as well as Hollywood funnyman Fred Wil-
lard) but it’s been hailed as “smart,” “hilarious” and
“a surprisingly sweet and sensitive comedy full of
charm and heart.” Cavanagh himself praises the
“really crisp and tight script” written by Windsor
native Theodore Bezaire, who also directed the
movie, and Mike Stasko, who graduated with a
B.A. in Communication Studies at the University
of Windsor.
The Birder is also as homegrown as it gets, with
Point Pelee and Ojibway Nature Centre featured
prominently as well as scenes from other locations
including olde Sandwich Town, Collavino Estate
and St. Anne and St. Thomas of Villanova high
schools.
Cavanagh says the film was an example of a
“good show of community” with people coming
together to solve problems and overcome short-
comings of cash flow. He says that sense of com-
munity started right from the time he arrived in
town for his first meeting in a car driven by pro-
ducer Jeff Nadalin.
“It’s not often that the producer picks you up
and drives you where you need to go,” he says. “We
just hit it off and it sort of set a high bar for cama-
raderie and bonhomie for the rest of the shoot. It
was really enjoyable.”
Actor Tom Cavanagh is shown in a scene from the movie The Birder,
where he starred as Ron Spencer. Photo courtesy The Dot Film Company
Tom Cavanagh is shown in various roles over the years in-
cluding (l-r): Dr. Harrison Wells/Reverse-Flash in The Flash,
Ranger Smith in 2010’s Yogi Bear, Dan Dorion with Zach Braff
in Scrubs (2002-2009), as Ed Stevens in Ed (2000-2004)
and with Eric McCormack in 2009’s Trust Me.
Cavanagh’s impressive career
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2. Bezaire says local settings were critical to the
making of The Birder. “We said time and time
again that we couldn’t have made it anywhere else,”
adds Bezaire, who also shot his debut Things to Do
in town. He now lives in Toronto and is working
on a TV series and two feature films including one
that also has a strong Windsor connection.
Cavanagh says writers are often the unsung he-
roes in film and TV. He says that was the case with
many of his characters, from Ron Spencer to Ed to
the “slacker, roguish brother” of J.D. Dorion (Zach
Braff) in Scrubs or Dr. Wells/Reverse Flash.
“In these instances, the people who are shep-
herding those roles along on their laptops and their
computers, pens and writing paper were doing
yeoman’s work.”
He admits playing a dual-role character in The
Flash brings joy “because it adds colours and layers
and depth” to the role.
“It’s fun to put on a supersuit,” Cavanagh says.
“It’s fun to have some darkness. It’s always enjoy-
able to play the villain, especially when the villain
is having a good time himself.”
Cavanagh considers himself fortunate to have
landed the signature role of Ed in the long-running
NBC TV series, as well as the renewal of The Flash.
He quotes William Goldman -- “Nobody knows
anything” -- from Adventures in the Screen Trade:
“Or if they did, they’d be making hit movies all
the time,” Cavanagh says.
And even though several of his characters are
quirky, funny, loveable and in some ways adrift in
their lies, he says each role has a different profile.
During the ranging interview, Cavanagh
touched on several subjects.
As a child, he and his family lived in Ghana and
Malawi, Africa. “I’ve never been back but I would
definitely like to go at some point,” he says. “(It
was) a tremendous way to grow up.”
His father was a teacher and educated other
teachers in Africa, and Cavanagh also has an Edu-
cation degree. In that sense, the role of Ron Spen-
cer was close to him.
“It’s certainly a character that the Cavanagh
family knows well,” he says. “If there’s something
that you’re familiar with, it doesn’t hurt when
you’re jumping in to play a character like that.”
His uncle, John Cavanagh, is also “an accom-
plished birder” and he remembers accompanying
him on trips to the Kawarthas and Peterborough
area – again, bringing his birder character close to
home.
“There was a level of osmosis there for me,” Ca-
vanagh says. “But I’m an actor, not a birder. And
so when I got (to Windsor-Essex), we went to the
park and we talked to these birding experts which
were most helpful. I got a little crash course in
it. That was indispensible to making the movie, I
would say.”
Cavanagh, who turned 50 in 2013, stays active
and enjoys sports and playing guitar. He says what
he enjoyed about filming The Flash in Vancouver
was riding his bike every day along the seawall at
Stanley Park.
“They’ve got trails in the woods of Stanley Park
and it’s kind of old-growth, beautiful northwest
forest,” he says. “I’ll take the mountain bike in there
and go through the trails. I’ll usually run the sea-
wall also every day.”
Cavanagh, who played basketball at Queen’s
University as well as with the international team
for the NBA 2002 all-star weekend’s 3 on 3 tour-
nament, also enjoys the stature that Canadians are
enjoying in the game. That includes the success of
the Toronto Raptors.
Again, he goes back to the word “community”
in the largely Canadian-based fan network that has
grown around the team which he says is a “go-to
model for a franchise’s fans.”
Their enthusiasm, he says, “is collegial.
“You often get that in pro sports. There’s a real
excitement and fervour to it,” he says. “I think the
fans should be proud of their showing. They’ve
made the league stand up and take notice. I think
that’s great. I think that’s great for basketball and I
think it’s great for Canada.”
Which brings him to his other sports passion
– hockey, and particularly his favourite team, the
Montreal Canadiens.
Interviewed on the eve of Montreal’s playoff
opener against the Ottawa Senators (which the Ca-
nadiens would win in six games), Cavanagh says he
shouldn’t be blamed for cheering for the Habs dur-
ing the 70-year hiatus of a team in his hometown
because “once you set your allegiances somewhere,
you have to be faithful.”
But Cavanagh did admit to some “chagrin”
that in the opening round of the National Hock-
ey League playoffs two Canadian teams would be
eliminated because they were playing two other
Canadian teams.
“The Canadian teams are going to be eliminat-
ing their own!” Cavanagh says. “They’re killing
their brethren! How great would it be if there had
been a couple of playoff spot switches and we could
have had all four, and at least had all the Canadian
teams in active duty against all the other teams?”
But in keeping with his easygoing, friendly de-
meanour, it’s a fate that he accepts.
As Cavanagh put it: “That’s hockey! That’s how
it goes. Or should I say, that’s sport. Right? That’s
how it goes.”
•
The Birder tells the story of Ron Spencer, a down-on-
his-luck birder and high school teacher who sees revenge
against a young rival Floyd Hawkins (played by Jamie
Spilchuk) after losing the coveted head of ornithology
position at a local park. The film follows Ron’s relationship
with former student Ben (Mark Rendall) and daughter
Samantha (Cassidy Renee, in her debut) and their lives
criss-cross with characters played by Graham Greene,
Fred Willard, Tommie-Amber Price and Allana Harkin.
Launched May 9 at a party at Ojibway Nature Centre,
the DVD is available in retail outlets across Canada. For
more details, visit thebirdermovie.com.
Hotspot for birders
Birders love to flock to Windsor-Essex.
An estimated 2,000 people visit Point Pelee alone on
an average day during the Festival of Birds in early May,
and busier days draw more than 3,000 birders. Local
tourism officials report that birders from every state in the
U.S. reserve rooms during the season.
Although birding reaches its peak season in May,
Windsor-Essex offers plenty of natural habitat through-
out the year. Besides Festival of Birds, which ran May
1-18, Holiday Beach Conservation Area holds its annual
Festival of Hawks every September and Camp Cedarwin
in Kingsville is the spot for the Winter Owl Prowl in Feb-
ruary.
For more information, including information on how
to download a Birding in Windsor Essex App, check out
the website vistwindsoressex.com.
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