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In This Season Of 'Flashpoint,' Spike Gets To 'Enjoy Life A Bit More,' Says Actor Sergio Di Zio

by: Lindsay Zier-Vogel Date: 10/4/2012

It’s been a rough fourth season for Spike – he lost Lewis "Lou" Young, his best friend to a landmine  in Season 2, and his parents in Season 4.

“He had to deal with grief and loss and growing up and losing his innocence,” says actor Sergio Di Zio, who plays Team One’s bomb and tech expert.  “But this season, it feels like Spike gets to enjoy life a bit more.”

“We had four years of Spike learning what it’s like to be a part of the SRU and be a police officer and this year, things have calmed down for him. He’s gotten comfortable in his job and happy in his life, which is kind of perfect,” Di Zio smiles.

“The show’s going to be done and I feel like I’ve had this whole cycle with him. He’s trying to get there and in this last season, he’s there. It’s such a nice way to end it. I’m as excited for Spike as I am for Sergio,” he laughs.

To keep himself in top acting shape, Di Zio studies Meisner, an acting technique based on improvisational exercises that helps bring nuance and dimension to character, with Toronto-based John Riven.

“It has become this thing that I can do to keep me in the moment,” Di Zio reflects. “We hit the emotional spectrum in class, through repetition exercises. I’ve fallen in love a thousand times in class and I’ve been enraged with people a thousand times in class, so when an audition or character asks for it, it’s something that’s in my emotional and physical memory that I can draw on, instead of just hoping that I can pull it out when someone yells ‘Action.’”

“For me it is the special tool that leads to pretty much all my jobs, I’d say. It’s why I keep going back to it.”

Since wrapping up the final episode of “Flashpoint,” Di Zio has been travelling all over North America, from Banff,  where he began work on Hannah Moskovitch’s play, “This is War,” that will open in Toronto in January, to Kelowna,  where he shot a holiday movie where he plays a man who has a phobia of Christmas. “We shot it in the hottest days of the year, in Kelowna, the hottest place in Canada,” Di Zio says with a laugh.

He’s also been working on his singing skills, for an animated series called, “Grojband,” where he plays a mad scientist keyboard player.

“I sing every episode!” he says. “The first time I had to do it was a scary moment in the recording studio. It was very vulnerable, but it was so much fun!

“And the songs are just brilliant,” Di Zio says. “We’re doing rockabilly and death metal and rap.

Di Zio has since been working on his acting chops down in L.A., where he says he can see the Hollywood Hills sign from his deck. And even though he’s been busy, he admits, he misses his character Spike and the rest of the “Flashpoint” cast and crew.

“I feel like we’re on the best show in Canada, for five years, so how do I leave that? It gave me everything it possibly could. It’s been five years of 12-14 hour days with the same people. It’s family. I know it’s cliché to say it, but to get this close to people in our line of work is ridiculous and you never want to let go.”

(Though he does admit he had brunch with Hugh Dillon (who plays Ed Lane) and Jessica Steen (who plays Donna Sabine) just the other weekend).

“I’ve got to say, ‘Flashpoint’ challenged the heck out of us for all five years,” he reflects. “Spike was a great guy to be for five seasons and I really believe that Spike affected me more than I affected Spike,” he says.

“He’s an eternally optimistic guy who is always trying to get tougher and still keep that optimism. Five years of playing that reminds me to keep doing that myself.”

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