Travis Milne plays the small-town guy who’s thrown into the world of big-city policing on the hit drama series “Rookie Blue.” An Alberta native who will be living in LA permanently, Milne took some time out between shooting scenes to talk to CraveOnline and let readers in on his original aspirations of becoming a real police officer, what he thinks about doing voicework, and his love/hate relationship with Los Angeles.
CraveOnline: Tell us about your work on “Rookie Blue” – it must be really exciting to be part of such a successful show.
Travis Milne: The people that I work with are the most artistically-inclined people I’ve ever worked with – it’s one of those jobs that’s very special and I’ll never forget the work I’ve done here. It’s great.
CraveOnline: And I understand you’ve made your grandmother’s wishes of you becoming a cop come true?
Travis Milne: Yeah. It’s always one of those things – when you’re a kid you say that you want to be a firefighter and mine was that I wanted to be a cop. I had little cop Hot Wheels toys and played cops and robbers – and I always wanted to be a cop and not a robber. And now it’s kind of true.
I actually applied to the Vancouver Police Department. Prior to booking the show it had gotten quiet and so I applied to become a cop. Then my very last audition was for “Rookie Blue,” so it was definitely fate.
CraveOnline: I understand you have two passions: the environment and carpentry. How did you become interested in both?
Travis Milne: I’ve always been really aware of environmental issues ever since I was around 14 or 15. I became well-versed in what was happening in the environment and got to put it all to use when I worked on my very first show as a host on “My Green House.” On the show there were carpentry elements in renovating people’s houses so after I finished that I applied for a carpentry job and ended up falling in love with it. I still do it in my free time.
CraveOnline: What other projects are you working on?
Travis Milne: It’s actually only been “Rookie Blue” because you know how it is when you’re shooting a TV series – it’s hard to get on anything else. So it’s been nothing but “Rookie Blue” for the last three years but it’s been great.
CraveOnline: You did voicework for “Manson, My Name is Evil” – how is voicework different from acting in front of a camera?
Travis Milne: Voicework is another totally gratifying field – it has nothing to do with how you look and has everything to do with how good are you. Those are the kinds of things that drive me to continue to work in this field. On “Manson, My Name is Evil” that was the coolest role – I was playing this crazy hippy and it was very cool. I really love doing stand-alone feature-based characters.
CraveOnline: Do you go back to your home province of Alberta often?
Travis Milne: I go all the time – I still have tons of family and friends there, and I go back and see mainly family because I usually only have a set amount of time to go back. But when I do I’ve got my entire family in western Canada so I usually spend a month out there. If I could stay in my little town and act and make movies I would never have left.
CraveOnline: What are your impressions of LA? Do you enjoy living there?
Travis Milne: I like LA. The first time I went there we had just finished season 1 – I had five months off and went down there, and the first three months were the toughest three months of my life. It’s very busy and everyone is very stressed out, and the lack of accountability in a giant metropolitan city is something that never ceases to amaze me. When a city gets big enough no one is accountable for their actions. But I started getting into hiking, and now I love it in LA. I’m processing my green card so I can live there. It was a hate-to-love relationship.
CraveOnline: Who’s an actor or actress you’d love to work with?
Travis Milne: I would say: flip a coin between Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt. Pound for pound they’re my favourite actors. Both of them, because of the way they look, could get pigeon-holed into certain roles and they’re constantly fighting against that. I hope to do that in my career.
CraveOnline: I understand you’re very athletic – what sports do you participate in and what professional sports do you follow?
Travis Milne: I play a lot of pick-up basketball. It’s pretty easy to find me – I’m the loudest one on the court and I talk more smack than a gangster. And I love following football – it’s back and I’m a happy man. My Vikings are 0-3 though.
CraveOnline: What would be something people would be surprised to know about you?
Travis Milne: When I was a kid I used to be short and very gregarious… or overweight (laughs). I was the short awkward heavy-set geeky kid from about grade 2-6. It’s true – I was that guy!
Photo Credit: Traver Raines
