JAY BARUCHEL + MATT JOHNSON

House of Crouse

On this week’s Richard Crouse Show: It’s hard to remember now, but there was a time when we were not tethered to our smart phones. A new film, “BlackBerry,” starring Jay Baruchel and Matt Johnson, and now playing in theatres, vividly recreates the scrappy story of friendship, betrayal and hubris that began our obsession with our phones. Today, we going to focus on that story, courtesy of the film BlackBerry, which opens in theatres on May 12. There was a time when the Canadian made, odd little phone, with a QWERTY keyboard, encrypted messaging and low data cost, was a status symbol, used by some of the world’ most powerful people. In the hands of everyone from President Barack Obama and Justin Timberlake to Katy Perry and Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, the phones helped the world communicate in a whole new way. They were the original smart phones, which makes their Canadian creators Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, visionaries, the men who gave us the future. Recently I sat down with BlackBerry co-writer, co-star and director Matt Johnson, and Jay Baruchel who stars as the awkward genius behind the BlackBerry tech, Mike Lazaridis. Matt is the director of The Dirties, which won Best Narrative Feature at the Slamdance Film Festival, Operation Avalanche, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and mockumentary television series Nirvanna the Band the Show. You know Jay from his voice role as Hiccup Haddock in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, and for roles in Knocked Up, Tropic Thunder, The Trotsky, Fanboys, She's Out of My League, Goon, This Is the End, and the action-fantasy film The Sorcerer's Apprentice. You can also see him as the host of We're All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel) on Crave. BlackBerry is the story of the company Research in Motion, Jim Balsillie, the hotheaded businessman, played by Glenn Howerton, who was there for the rise and fall of the iconic company. “BlackBerry” isn’t just a business story or the story of innovation. Instead, it is an underdog tale that emphasizes the human foibles that led to RIM’s downfall, not just the financial ones. We began the interview with the idea of talking about the film, but were soon sidetracked by a discussion inspired by the lessons learned from the film, about what it means to be Canadian, why we don’t celebrate our own stories and much more. Stay tuned, it often doesn’t sound like an interview as much as a conversation we might have had over a drink or two. Like the movie we were supposed to concentrate on, before the conversation took a few left turns, the interview is passionate, patriotic, funny and not quite what you might expect.