Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie Finds His Break in Sterling Point, a Prime Video Series that Brings Back Childhood Memories

For Sterling Point star Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie, filming the Prime Video series brought him right back to his childhood. “It felt like when you’re 9 years old, and you’re at summer camp and every day is the best day ever,“ the 23-year-old tells The Hollywood Reporter on a Zoom.

The Megan Park-created series is a big step forward in Lavoie‘s career. The actor, much like several of his cast members on the show, has been acting since he was a child. He got his first gig a decade ago after his mom had spotted a Facebook post about an open casting call for a child actor who could speak French and was indigenous. Lavoie, who is of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation heritage and grew up on a First Nation reserve in Quebec, was intrigued but a little apprehensive.

“I didn’t have any experience whatsoever in theater or acting at all, so it was definitely scary having to learn lines and going into audition,“ says Lavoie. But his mother was persistent and encouraged him to at least give it a try. Thankfully, the team loved his audition and cast him on the spot.

That 20-day indie film shoot became the moment he fell in love with acting. He signed with an agent in Montreal and continued working on French-speaking productions. Despite leading a show in Canada, Premier Trio, he found he wasn‘t getting English self-tapes. While Lavoie loved his time working on French-speaking roles, he had aspirations to break into the English-speaking productions as it‘s a much smaller industry.

“[Sterling Point] is the biggest project I’ve ever done in my life,“ he says. The show has allowed him to break into the English-speaking market.

Lavoie is still grateful to work on the show and get to work with Park and executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. But perhaps the person he was most grateful to work with was Jeffrey Dean Morgan, or “JDM,” as Lavoie calls him.

In Sterling Point, Lavoie plays Ellis, a Canadian teen who meets the show‘s leading lady and newcomer to town, Annie, played Morgan plays his father, Joe, who is later revealed to have his own dealings with Annie‘s family.

“When I found out that he was going to play my dad, I couldn’t believe it, honestly,” the actor says. “I personally was a fan of The Walking Dead as a kid, so when I found that out, I kind of shat my pants a little bit. I was like, ‘Crap, Negin’s my dad. What?'”

The young cast of the show, rounded out

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“Everybody got to know each other so well and so quickly. I just love these people so dearly, and everyone’s just such a good actor,“ he continues. “I’ve learned so much working with them.“

Sterling Point wasn‘t the first show Lavoie had been in that featured a cast full of other actors his age. Premier Trio, the Canadian show he led, was a young-adult hockey show. But his personal experience was very different between the series.

On Premier Trio, he was the oldest actor, and there was quite a gap between his co-stars — he recalls being 19 and his love interest being four years younger than him — and that made the dynamics different. “I felt like I needed to lead because I just felt like I was the older brother on the show,“ he says.

Lavoie was the second-youngest on Sterling Point. He jokes that he felt like the “little ba“To work with people your age is just always so much fun and makes the experience just so much more fun,“ he says. “It was like we were just this tight group of friends and did everything together. On our off days, we were playing pickleball and always at the park doing something. It was really magical.”

Thanks to Park, Lavoie felt extremely comfortable on the set. He admits he was nervous going into the show, but the showrunner, creator, writer and director helped keep him calm — he notes that she has a “young soul“ that makes anyone feel like her best friend instantly. The actor found that attitude take the pressure off of his shoulders.

Lavoie recalls Park empowering the actors. “She’d let us improvise a lot,“ he says.

“I remember she told us on the first few weeks, ‘Honestly guys, obviously, I wrote this script, but if you guys want to go off script and just say this line or say this however you feel like, just do it because you guys are the Gen Z and we’re trying to make the Gen Z audience connect and relate,’“ he adds. It seems to have worked, as the authentic dialogue has been a talking point on social media since Sterling Point came out earlier this month.

Lavoie still has one hope for what‘s next after. He adds, “I hope we get a season two because I want to live it again.