The less you know about The Stunt Driver’s main character, Ken Carter, before heading into the theatre, the better. But even if you do remember the real-life daredevil – who was seen as Canada’s answer to U.S. motorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel – there’s still so much to get out of this fascinating take on his stranger-than-fiction story. Inspired by a 1981 National Film Board of Canada documentary The Devil At Your Heels, Montreal director Michael Dowse’s The Stunt Driver (in theatres Sept. 25) feels like the quintessential Canadian underdog story and a nostalgic nod to a very specific late-’70s-early-’80s era in our country. “When I was a kid, there were still men like Carter around,” the film’s star Jay Baruchel, 44, tells Zoomer after the movie’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) premiere. The actor, a regular in Judd Apatow comedies like Undeclared and Knocked Up, and the star of the Canadian hit Blackberry, grew up in the same Anglo Montreal neighbourhood as Carter: Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, commonly known as NDG. “There’s a kind of two-fisted, carousing, yet deeply humble, blue-collar POV to the whole thing. It’s a hard thing to always put your finger on and find words to articulate, but when I watch that documentary and when I watch The Stunt Driver, it sounds like my childhood and it sounds like the older guys in the neighbourhood, and even my dad. I see very little value in my career beyond finding a way to romanticize our neighbourhoods.”

Romanticizing with warm-hearted satire is exactly what director Dowse does best, going back to 2002 when he made the Gen-X cult-classic Fubar about a couple of Calgary headbangers, one of whom is facing a scary medical diagnosis. In 2011, the director and Baruchel (working as both writer and actor) joined forces for the minor-league hockey sendup Goon, following the travails of a Halifax enforcer with a heart of gold. Now, with The Stunt Driver, Dowse and Baruchel’s partnership is really hitting its stride, and, in my opinion, their creative ease and spark feel reminiscent of the U.S. indie team of Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke. Last year, the latter pair came to the Toronto film festival with Blue Moon, a movie that Linklater had been wanting to make for a decade but had to wait until his preferred star Hawke had the age and gravitas to carry it. It was the same situation for Dowse, who wanted Baruchel to be settled in his 40s, like Carter. They agree that having a real creative partnership and friendship is the key to making impactful films. “You’ve got to cherish it,” says Dowse. “It’s a rare thing.”

From top: Actors Jay Baruchel and Ed Helms star in The Stunt Driver, the rocket-fuelled story of Canadian Ken Carter; the film’s director, Michael Dowse.  |  Courtesy of TIFF

Their affection for each other and for their subject comes through on the screen – and at the TIFF premiere, it was practically a love-in, with the film’s big U.S. supporting star Ed Helms (The Hangover and Andy from The Office) joining the party. Helms plays a rocket-car designer helping Carter achieve his stunt goals – like getting his stunt aired on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. On stage, the actor was asked, “How has making Canadian films [he’s also in this year’s Northern Alberta-set hockey movie Smudge the Blades] changed him?” Turns out the Toronto premiere was the first time Helms had seen The Stunt Driver and it made him quite emotional. “I’m still trembling,” he said on stage. “I’m so moved by this thing. Yes, Canada has changed me. It’s turned me into a softie, and I now cry at movie premieres. I cry at movies that I am in – which is pretty narcissistic, which is very American of me. So, yeah, I’m a little bit of a mess, I guess.”

From left: Helms, Baruchel and Dowse at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival premiere of their movie.  |  Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

During our interview, Dowse and Baruchel mulled over the fact that they are both three-decade veterans of this industry. The director, now 53, made Fubar at 28, and Baruchel started in Canadian TV as a 12-year-old. “This is my 11th feature,” says Dowse. “I love making movies.

But I’ve also been a gun for hire, which teaches you a bunch of things. And I really love writing and directing. And I love producing with my wife [Jennifer Wilson], which we did on The Stunt Driver – you really get to put the money on the screen, and you deal with 90 per cent less bullshit. So I’d love to continue doing this and working with Jay.”

David Lawrence and Paul Spence (top, left to right) are Dean and Terry in the cult classic Fubar; Jay Baruchel as Mike Lazaridis (bottom, far left) leads a team of Research in Motion (RIM) techies in BlackBerry.  |  Courtesy of Alliance Atlantis; Courtesy of AMC

They are currently collaborating on a pilot, just as Baruchel is in high demand on both sides of the border. It was recently announced that next season the actor will join the Prime drama Reacher as a small-town police chief. “I’m very proud of my career,” he says. “Sure I’ve done a bunch of shit. But l was thinking about this while walking home last night: I am kind of zeroed in in a way that I never was before. And I never worked as hard, homework-wise, as I did on this movie. I’m 44 and I’m a father-to-be and, the older you get, the struggles don’t stop and the victories, you know, are hopefully still coming. But, yeah, I like my shit more than I ever liked it.”

In the immortal words of the Fubar metalheads, “Just give’r.”