Congratulations on your role in Lovesick, which has been playing festivals and recently screened at Cinematheque here in Winnipeg. Can you tell us about that experience and that role. Thank you 🙂 Lovesick was fun because we had that really beautiful balance between “we gotta get this done” and… “let’s try something new”. Which was really nice, and something I credit Tyson for. I think that type of balance is something you don’t get too often. I mean- you can ask everyone else on the project and I think they’d agree. When did you become an ACTRA member, and what was your first union gig? I became an ACTRA member almost 10 years ago. I got fluked in when my background commercial became an SOC spot. (I was soooo excited). But my first auditioned union gig was for Todd and the Book of Pure Evil. What was really unique about that, was I was the guest star on that project. And I was SOOOOOO sick for two weeks prior to the call-back, that when I got myself down to the audition room, I think I got it because I didn’t have enought “thinking” to get in the way. I had no choice but to “just be”. And it worked! 😀 How has being a member of ACTRA benefited you? Pfff. So many ways. Let’s see here. Having the standards of our union to fall-back onto when I’m feeling unfairly treated on set. It’s allowed me to speak up and be clear about my boundaries. Also, I’m SOOOO grateful for our MIP’s, CIPIPs and Resume agreements. It allows us (especially Winnipeg Folks) to be able to work with amazing directors, and get experience, skills and connections that we wouldn’t be able to get if we didn’t have those options available to…

You won the ACTRA Manitoba Award this year for your performance in “A Warden’s Ransom; CONGRATULATIONS! Tell us about that experience and that role. My character, Amy, spends the entire 1 hour and 24 minutes running time of that film trying to be useful and help all the characters around her while she herself tries to survive and be strong during a time of great chaos and a fundamental breakdown in the system. Now, if you know me, you know that at my core, I believe in being helpful and want to live a life of service to everyone that crosses my path, so that part was easy. But the strength in a time of great fear and perceived danger? Well… What people outside of the production don’t know is that at the exact time, my own life was under its own sort of breakdown. My father was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma during my audition process and he started his chemo the day before my first day of shooting. The universe had conspired to bring me home to go through that head on, to grow through that pain and become a stronger person, and gave me a stage to pour that entire experience into a character that was experiencing the same thing. On top of it, the universe blessed me with a figurative and literal cast and crew of humans in my life to give me a safe place to open my heart and be as vulnerable as my character needed to be. The human kindness, encouragement and inspiration to hold still, accept help and stand in my own power that I received from Onalee Ames, Adam Stone, Diane Neal, the incomparable Dave Brown, Jeff Reyes (my other co-star) the cast and crew, the entire Winnipeg film community,…

You won the ACTRA Manitoba Award this year for your performance on The Pinkertons, CONGRATULATIONS! Tell us about that experience and that role. Thank you very much! It was a thrill to be nominated alongside Ray Strachan, Arne MacPherson, Steve MacIntyre and John C. MacDonald, and to be able to celebrate many of the many amazing accomplishments of our talented artists. The Pinkertons turned out to be an experience that I will always cherish. I actually didn’t think there was going to be much work past the first couple of episodes as I wasn’t sure they knew what they were going to do with the character. He was added to the story late as part of many changes, and I was convinced he’d be just a static character on a couple episodes. Thankfully the writers and producers seemed to like what he brought to the story and decided to incorporate him as more of a presence as the show went on. Due to the extremely short turnaround time from first draft to shooting each episode, it was necessary to make choices as we went along without knowing what was in store for him down the road. We had no series bible that could act as a guide and influence my choices with some additional information. Sometimes it can be difficult if an actor isn’t privileged to the character’s journey, but it became very exciting to me because I felt I had more of a hand in shaping his story, and because the writers were open to collaboration and discussion regarding the character. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my career. I absolutely loved Sheriff Logan. There were so many areas to draw on, but I tried to play him as a man at odds with…

You won the ACTRA Manitoba Award this year for your performance on The Pinkertons, CONGRATULATIONS! Tell us about that experience and that role. I’d had several auditions for the series, and of course, every one seemed like the role of a lifetime, so not getting every one was disappointing! I just kept feeling grateful for the opportunity to act – because each audition is hard-earned, and is a gift. I’d had a really hard week leading up to my audition for the role I ended up getting. I’d had a mental health breakdown, and had been in the hospital. I’d heard the day before the audition that the role was “mine to lose”, which puts a lot of pressure on a person not to lose it! I didn’t even know if I could muster the audition, but working on it gave me a lot of strength. The character was so different from me in so many ways. I was able to let go of a lot of sadness by channeling some deep-down-inside rage to do the audition, and then “capping” it as acting teachers will tell you to do. Playing the role a short time later was another challenge – a lot of people on set knew that I had been in the hospital, and why, and mental health breakdowns can be embarrassing. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. The cast and crew were so amazing – nobody brought it up, and everyone treated me like I was normal. That included the incredible director Doug Mitchell kicking my ass to get my best performance, and it was so much fun. It was very cool to be on set with my beloved ACTRA member friends, like Rick Skene, and a new friend, Kevin Ramberran, who is phenomenal,…