What do Brad Pitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez have in common? Answer: all have acted on location in Winnipeg, Canada, for major Hollywood films. Not that you’d know it, because each scene doubled as someplace else. In Brad Pitt’s case, the rich period architecture in Winnipeg’s Exchange District replicated 1880s Kansas City in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford — a film in which he played the lead role.

The late Philip Seymour Hoffman won a Best Actor Oscar for his title role in Capote, the Truman Capote biopic set in 1960s Kansas but largely filmed in Winnipeg. And Gere and Lopez two-stepped across the floorboards of a real-life Winnipeg dance studio supposedly located in Chicago in the feel-good drama, Shall We Dance?

Winnipeg skyline, Canada. Picture: Destination Canada

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Winnipeg’s link with Hollywood doesn’t stop there either. The writer and star behind sleeper hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nia Vardalos, grew up in Winnipeg. And actor Anna Paquin — best known as Rogue in the X-Men movie franchise — was born in Winnipeg before she moved to New Zealand and scored her breakthrough role in Jane Campion’s The Piano.

Then there’s the real-life secret agent who provided the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Sir William Samuel Stephenson is barely recognised even in his home town, save for a statue dedicated to the daring World War II spy outside the Manitoba Legislative Building and a mural in the city’s West End district. But his is a life worth telling alone.

Other famous luminaries can also trace their origins to Canada’s Gateway to the West. The cartoonist behind Warner Brothers characters Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, Charles Thorson, was born in the Manitoban capital. It is also here where an Icelandic waitress — Thorson’s girlfriend at the time — became the muse for his depiction of Snow White, which he created for Walt Disney in the 1930s.

The original Exchange Building on Princess Street in Winnipeg's Exchange District. Picture: Mark Daffey

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Neil Young’s early performances were in Winnipeg bars and coffee houses, where he first met folk singer Joni Mitchell. Other bands hailing from here include Bachman-Turner Overdrive, The Watchmen and The Weakerthans. Ironically, considering the Crash Test Dummies also came from here, Winnipeg has the dubious honour of claiming the first traffic death in Canada, when a motorist was thrown from his buggy after his horse was frightened by a passing electric car in 1900.

Winnipeg was experiencing its boom period at the time of the accident, capitalising on its geographical location halfway between Canada’s east and west coasts. At its peak, 24 train lines ran through Winnipeg and Manitoba was considered the grain capital of the world, transporting wheat harvested from the province’s rich prairie soils to North America’s burgeoning population.

Street art in Winnipeg's West End. Picture: Mark Daffey

Winnipeg’s location at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers made it a popular trading post before the arrival of Europeans. Named after native Cree words meaning “muddy water”, in 1874, when it was first decreed a city, its population was 1000.

By 1920, it had grown to 200,000. With that growth came prosperity. And with prosperity, a flourishing arts scene followed.

Winnipeg’s discerning audiences meant that entertainers would often hone their acts here before embarking on wider tours. Performers at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre, built in 1913, included Harry Houdini, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, Laurel & Hardy and Willard, the Man Who Grows, who allegedly grew on stage. Felix, the Mind Reading Duck, also developed its craft here.

Pantages Theatre in Winnipeg's Exchange District. Picture: Mark Daffey

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet — Canada’s oldest ballet company — made its premier performance inside the Pantages Playhouse in 1940. The city also cultivates its own symphony orchestra. And the wedding cake glass and steel structure of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights — the country’s only national museum built outside the national capital, Ottawa — is rightfully hailed as world class. No wonder Winnipeg is considered Canada’s cultural cradle.

Winnipeg’s fortunes suffered following World War I. The grain economy collapsed, the dust bowl hit and the Depression forced workers out of jobs. With no reason to rebuild, existing buildings were preserved. Hence, Winnipeg’s popularity as a turn-of-the-20th-century film location.

Albert Street Diner — now known as Vicky's — in Winnipeg's Exchange District. Picture: Mark Daffey

Had Winnipeg continued to grow at the rate it had enjoyed before World War I, projections estimate it would now have a population numbering four million instead of the 710,000 recorded in its last census. However, by the 1960s, Winnipeg was on the rebound, giving rise to its second boom period — known as the Brutalist Era.

Named for its dour, concrete-dominated architectural style, it was during this period when the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre popped up, as well as the City Hall, Concert Hall and Public Safety Building.

Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg's Exchange District. Picture: Mark Daffey

The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre is the thespian community’s provincial hub, helping to fund the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, among other events, and home to such festival shows as Six Quick Dick Tricks. When Keanu Reeves performed as Hamlet here in the 1990s, people came from as far away as China and Argentina to sit in the audience and watch. Tourists from all over come to Winnipeg en route to Hudson Bay. Manitoba, along with Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, is widely lauded as the best place on the planet for polar bear spotting, and Churchill is the place to find them.

Food Hall inside The Forks Market, Winnipeg. Picture: Mark Daffey

If, however, you can’t make it that far north, then seeing Arctic and sub-Arctic species at the Journey to Churchill exhibit in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park Zoo is a worthy compromise. You’ll be forgiven for wondering why a bear of another kind deserves a statue at the zoo. Read on, however, and you’ll learn how A.A. Milne’s most loveable character, Winnie the Pooh, was based on a real-life bear named after its owner’s home town. And how Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, took a shine to the bear during family outings at the London Zoo, where it remained consigned throughout World War II. All of which goes to show: Winnipeg is more surprising than you think.

Mark Daffey travelled courtesy of Destination Canada and Travel Manitoba.

Street art in Winnipeg's West End. Picture: Mark Daffey

Getting there

Air Canada has daily flights from Sydney and Brisbane direct to Vancouver, with regular connections on to Winnipeg. Melbourne TBC

Staying there

Rooms and suites at the centrally located Inn at the Forks start from around $165 a night.

More

Travel Manitoba has more information, including bargain basement walking tours in Winnipeg’s Exchange and West End Districts.

travelmanitoba.com

Street art in Winnipeg's West End. Picture: Mark Daffey

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