Thanks to the Lindsay Lohans and Shia LeBeoufs of the world, there's no shortage, or coverage, of child stars who became media-chronicled trainwrecks in their transition to adulthood. That said, there are a handful of those who did make successful adjustments, such as Jodie Foster or Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Less known are those who may have flown a bit more under the radar than some big-name stars or attention-grabbing troublemakers but continued to work consistently in the industry.

Canadian actor Kevin Zegers is one of those stories.

After starring in his first film at the age of seven, starring in the Air Bud film series, he went on to star in films ranging from Transamerica and Fifty Dead Men Walking to Frozen and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones as well as TV series such as Gossip Girl and Gracepoint. Although he's now based in L.A., he's also come back to his homeland (he's originally from Woodstock, Ontario) to appear in Canadian feature films such as The Stone Angel, The Colony, All the Wrong Reasons, Normal, and more.  

In an interview at the Georgia Straight office, Zegers says that although he always has been constantly working for the past two decades, he has never taken time off.  

Unfortunately, that left him with an understanding of the business that remained a hold-over from his childhood. He says he never believed in acting as a craft or art—it was mostly business for him.

"The way that I was introduced to acting was strictly based on, 'Do you like that?'," he says. "As a child, when I'm on set at eight or 10 or 11, if I'm doing something and the director looks and goes like thumbs up or great, to me, that's like affirmation of what I've done is good but it was solely based on someone else's reaction to it. So there was no emotional attachment or I felt no connection to the work that I was doing. It was so much more based on how people reacted to it."

How did he get beyond that? Fatherhood.

As soon as his wife became pregnant, he took off one year to support her and prepare for becoming a parent. Yet during that time period, he was also starting to feel restless. Upon a recommendation from actor Vincent D'Onofrio, he started to study with acting coach Sharon Chatten.

Under her tutelage, Zegers began to unlearn all of his previous experiences and started to develop a new approach to acting.

"It doesn't matter as much to me [now] the interpretation of the character's behaviour as much as it is about what's going for me and what makes it my version of it," he says.

While he became the proud father of twin girls, that he says changed life "in every way" and now "nothing's the same", he also underwent an artistic shift.

He applied his new approach to a role he snagged on Notorious, a new legal and crime drama TV series to debut on CTV on September 22.

Piper Perabo (Covert Affairs) stars as Julia George, a news program executive producer, and Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me) plays Jake Gregorian, a top defense attorney with celebrity clients. While in public, they appear to be foes, in private, they're secretly collaborating to pursue their attempt to control the justice system, the media, and each other.

Meanwhile, Zegers portrays Oscar, who he describes as a "self-made billionaire, which is an isolating life" and not a great guy.

"He's dismissive, he's a bit obnoxious, he's self-involved, but he's also very sympathetic and he's very pained and lonely and grasping at some semblance of control, which is the only thing that makes him feel comfortable, and so I can relate to that," he says.

The rest of the show is "almost separate" from his character's story, he explains.

"The show is sort of going on around him," he says. "He's the central case that's going on. I don't really have much interaction with anyone on the show besides my lawyer."

Meanwhile, the script, he says, was "by far the best thing I read this year".

"This was certainly the thing that I read where I was like, 'Oh, there's a lot for me to do here as an actor', and they were very open to my interpretation of the way the character was, not just your prototypical guy who got himself into some trouble."

For example, he explains how he approached his character's reaction when his wife dies.

"For me, distress comes in the form of anger and…there are specific ways that I inherently interpret emotion that are maybe different than the way that it's conceived. So I'm much more attuned to sort of my interpretation of emotional stuff."

What's now different for him is he's seeking out new experiences on set, rather than just turning up and doing his job.

"It feels great to me, and it feels exciting, and it feels new, and it feels interesting," he says. "To me, that's progress, because I'm not waiting for the pat on the back….I was too reliant on feedback and on being pointed in the right direction rather than having my own interpretation coming in. So it's been exciting."

Although he only took on the role because it was being shot in L.A., he calls it a blessing.

However, he says that the real true role of his lifetime is being a father: "It feels like the thing that I was meant to do."