Carter Ryan: The Leap of Faith That Built a Child Star’s Resilience in Hollywood

As a part of my series about pop culture’s rising stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Carter Ryan.

Carter Ryan was born September 8, 2006, in Vancouver, British Columbia to Dorlyn and Carol Evancic. He has an older sister, Vanessa Rae Evancic, who as a young actress inspired Carter to start acting. He began commercial auditions at 8 months old and booked his first commercial shortly after. It wasn’t until he was the age of 7 when he decided to take his acting career more seriously. Within a year he booked his first role as a Lead in a Feature Film, Her Infidelity (2015) where he played the son of supermodel/actress Rachel Hunter. He also had appearances in Man in the High Castle, Impastor and Travellers. Carter is known for his role as Cody on the popular show When Calls The Heart. He walked onto the streets of Hope Valley at the beginning of Season 3 and fans enjoyed watching Carter’s character grow for 4 years. He has worked closely with a number of cast members; Lori Loughlin, Jack Wagner, Erin Krakow, Daniel Lissing, Pascale Hutton and Kavan Smith to name a few. As of Fall 2021, his role of Cody has been reprised in Season 2 of When Hope Calls, a spin-off show to When Calls the Heart. Carter loves being on set and meeting new people and looks forward to a growing career. Carter has also been recognized with 6 nominations and 4 wins for his role as Cody in When Calls the Heart.

When he is not working on his acting and training he enjoys being with his family, friends and dog Baxter. He loves to go biking, hiking, keeping fit in the gym and playing video games with his friends. He has played box lacrosse since the age of 8 years old and enjoys school sports such as Basketball and Track and Field. Carter also enjoys building lego and model cars.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I have lived in Port Coquitlam, BC all my life but just recently moved into a newer home further away. I really enjoyed living in our cul de sac because I liked our house and had some awesome friends. I have many memories of everyone, there must have been about a dozen of us, all different ages playing mantracker in the cul de sac, playing basketball and hanging out at each other’s houses. We had the best Canada Day parties with all our neighbours, building snow huts during the winter and sledding down the steep driveways. It was the best house to live in and I have lots of awesome memories with my mom, dad and sister. When I was 8 years old we also got my dog Baxter. She flew down from Prince George at 3 months old and was so cute in her little carry cage. She is a Morkie (Maltese / Yorkie) and is the best dog I could’ve asked for. I went to a great elementary school just up the street and had lots of fun there too. The teachers were great and we had some amazing events at the school. My favourites were the Halloween event and party, the cakewalk and the bouncy castles and games. I also loved the book fairs. My mom worked on the PAC and she would always let us in early before the book fair opened to check everything out. I loved going to the trinkets table and getting new erasers and fun things. My younger days were awesome and I’m excited about more great years to come in our new home and surroundings.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

I’m an actor because of my sister, she has been a great influence on me. She started acting at 5 years old and eventually when I was older she suggested to me I should try it again. I started doing acting classes at 7 years old and really enjoyed it. After my first 10 months of classes, I booked my first role and played Ash on Her infidelity. It was really fun, Rachel Hunter played my mom and she was so nice to work with. It was such a great experience and thanks to my sister, I am continually working on my skills as an Actor and excited about the opportunities in my future.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your entertainment career?

I was in Harrison Hot Springs on vacation for a week. We went down to the dock to go on seadoos when someone recognized me. It was the weirdest thing ever because I’m not a big actor at all, so having someone recognize me is always a crazy surprise. It is really nice though. One other thing which is funny is that when I was younger, from 4 years old to about 13 years old, I had so many people tell me I looked like Macaulay Culkin ( I even acted like him a lot like in Home Alone) with all the gadgets and traps as a young kid.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The funniest mistake I made while first starting would be during a scene on WCTH. I was doing something on my own and I got told by Abigail to go play with Robert and Timmy. As I was running over with a kickball to play with them, Robert wasn’t paying attention. I was instructed to pass it to him first. At the very last second after I passed it he turned to catch it but couldn’t and it hit him straight in the face. We broke down crying with laughter and so did the crew. When we had our season-end party we watched the bloopers and that was in there. The whole room erupted with laughter. I have learned to make my own decisions, if something doesn’t go to plan, just do what you think is right.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

At the moment I’m not working on any projects but I am doing auditions. Right now I’m at an age where auditions are slow so I am fortunate with the ones I get. I haven’t booked anything new within the past couple of years, but this Fall my role of Cody was reprised in the Season 2 Christmas special in When Hope Calls (the spin-off of When Calls the Heart). It was a lot of fun working with Lori Loughlin again and being back on set. I met some great new friends and the cast and crew were awesome to work with. It’s been a few years since I had a new project and I was excited to be part of this one. I haven’t thought about the fact that my work could help people but I realize that it actually can. My character on WCTH “Cody”, was an orphaned boy with a good heart and his story was felt very much by the fans that watched the show. This can help people because Cody at a young age was forced to try and find what was best for him and his sister. An orphanage was not where they wanted to be so they ran away to hopefully find a better life. Cody took care of his older sister who had a disease so Cody did everything he could to help her. Ms. Abigail (played by Lori Loughlin) took Cody in and they were eventually adopted by her. This can help people because it shows you things can get better in the end. You just have to take a leap of faith and do whatever you can to get where you want/need to be. You need to take leaps of faith in life and Cody shows you it’s worth it.

Most young people your age don’t have to balance work and school. Can you tell us how you manage to balance your schoolwork, auditions, and time on set?

When I’m filming, balancing work and school is surprisingly not that hard. My teachers are really good about it because they help me work while I’m gone and send me the required documents and answer my questions. They also give me work ahead of time so I’m prepared while I’m gone. On top of that, they omit work that can only be done in class or stuff that I can’t do until I return. As for me with the work that I have to do, when I have off time on set or I’m at home/hotel, I just work on it. Once I’ve done what I planned for the day or finished a good chunk of work I sit down and relax. As for auditions, it doesn’t take a substantial amount of time away as I build the prepping into my schedule. If it does I just talk to my teachers or fit the work in somehow later that night or the next day.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My mom. My mom has helped me with absolutely everything in my career so far. When I was younger she prepared all the lines for me, printed them, highlighted them, worked with me on them, and more. She did everything. She always made sure I had the right wardrobe and a good coach to tape with. Now that I’ve grown up and I’m a Teen now, I take more responsibility with this stuff but my mom still helps out. She’s helped me keep growing as an Actor and continues to give me suggestions with classes and such. She’s suggested online classes like “Masterclass” which has helped very much and I’m still finding other things on there to watch and learn from. It has been a good way to keep learning during Covid.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s jump to the main part of our interview. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)

5 Things I wish someone told me when I first started would be;

First is to apply yourself to the character and find the person and create parts of them as needed. I wish I would have understood this better because in several of my old auditions, you could just tell all I was thinking about was the line that comes next. Many auditions I actually did well on and booked the projects I did, but I can only imagine I would’ve landed so many more roles if I had become the character more and had better feelings and reactions to the dialogue. I do put everything I have into a character and I understand that we can’t control the casting process just to do my very best and that is what I learned.

The 2nd thing would be do what you feel is right. For example, if I was working with a coach who taped me and obviously coached me with the audition and gave me their opinion on it, if they told me to do something or play it differently, I would do it without even thinking. Which is good sometimes, but I should have gone with my own instincts on more of them. This is something I have learned more as I have grown older.

The 3rd is simply don’t be nervous. Being nervous just creates more problems. When you’re nervous you can forget lines because you’re focused on other things than playing the character naturally. When I went on set for When Calls the Heart for the very first time, all I had to do was steal wood from a schoolhouse. I was so nervous I started shaking. If I had messed up and forgot to do something that would just delay things. Fortunately, it all went well and my instincts were good. My mom always tells me to turn my nervousness into excitement and that gets it out of my head.

The 4th would be to take the chance. One time I got offered a role. Literally, my agent gave me the role and said “Here”. That NEVER happens. I turned it down because it had “Too many big words”, looking back on that I wish I took it. I was just nervous I would mess up and it would take too much work and time to do it.

And that leads to my 5th thing. Put in the work, it’s worth it! The thing I didn’t want to do most back when I was younger was to put in too much time and effort to do an audition. Don’t get me wrong, I did want to do my best and they always went well and I was happy after we did them but being a young kid, I also wanted to play video games, play with my friends or go to birthday parties and things like that too. My mom always made things work so I had the best of both worlds. I am very happy I kept going because now that I’m older I have recognized that I did have a good work ethic but it is even stronger as I understand so much more about being an instinctive Actor and feel proud of my accomplishments… and one of the most important things I want to do is act.

You are a person of enormous influence. How do you think you can use social media as a platform to be a positive influence to your fans, and for society at large?

Honestly, I’ve struggled with this for a while. I wasn’t sure for a long time and I’m still not 100% sure how I can be a positive influence but I think I’ve got a good idea. Being a positive influence to your fans means that you are confident and positive and put good things out there. You need to show happiness, kindness, compassion and empathy. Basically, being a human and touching someone else in their life and whatever they might be going through, good or bad. I hope to at least make someone laugh, smile and somehow make a connection with them and by doing that, it comes back to me as well and makes our society a better place, at least this is my part. I also very much appreciate all the fans I have who have supported me and watched me grow as an actor, it means alot.

If you had the ability to choose to work on any TV show or film, or work alongside any co-star, or with any director, what or who would that be, and why? You never know who might see this article, especially if we tag them. :-)

If I had the option I would choose Stranger Things. I’ve liked the show for a few years but as far as I know, they’re filming the last season now. So I wouldn’t have a chance unless they film another season which they were talking about. The show always interested me because I like alien stuff and the idea of parallel universes. Normal people with powers are also very very cool. The storyline is amazing and the show has evolved and I’ve loved the introduction of new characters and certain things happening which I won’t spoil for any readers who haven’t seen it. I would also like to work with Jaiven Natt who plays Robert in When Calls the Heart. We had a great friendship in the show and are still good friends outside filming. I have had great experiences working with directors such as Neill Fearnley, Martin Wood, Peter Deluise and recently Bradley Walsh. I would love to work with them again, they are all great. If I could also work alongside an actor that isn’t my friend, it would be Ryan Reynolds. He is hilarious and a Vancouver-born actor like me. My favourite show he was in is Dead Pool.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

They can follow me on just about everything.

Instagram: @carterryan4175

Twitter: @carterryan4175

Facebook: @CarterRyanEvancic

Snapchat: @carterryan4175

Tik Tok: @carterryan4175

I am on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook most often and am new to Snapchat and Tik Tok.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much!

My pleasure!