QQ. Are there any current projects that you are working on?
A. Yeah, I'm working on a couple of things. I'm doing a cartoon right now, I'm the voice of one of the characters on the cartoon and it's called "6 Teen." That just started airing on television here in Canada but it's also controlled across the world. It's coming to the states in January and France, Germany and Japan and a whole bunch of countries. So, I'm doing that on a regular basis and I'm shooting a pilot for a show in December, so that's about it right now.
Q. Can you tell us a bit about your new movie Sam's Lake and your character Melanie?
A. Sure, Sam's Lake is a psychological thriller that involves five friends who have gone away for a weekend to Sam's Lake. Sam is one of the girls who is on this lake that she's been named after. There is a legend that surrounds Sam's Lake that we find out about, the friends and then one of the friends, Melanie is one of the friends. The legend becomes a reality and Melanie is basically a really tough girl in the city, she's had a pretty tough upbringing and her parents died when she was young and she's had a tough time growing up. She hasn't really got her stuff together at this point in the movie, she's a tough city girl but when she's out in the country she's basically out of her element so she kind of falls apart out there especially when this legend sort of befalls them all.
Q. What made you want to be a part of this project?
A. Well, I originally I had done the short film version of Sam's Lake three years ago and I did that with the director Andrew Erin and with one other cast member who is Salvatore Antonio who played the part of Dominik. I found out that the Maverick company was going to be producing it, which is Madonna's company. I sort of thought it would be a good chance to do the feature film, it's a whole different script and much more exciting than the short film, it seems much scarier. Melanie's character is much more developed so I really wanted to take that chance to make the feature happen.
Q. Do you have a most memorable moment from filming Sam's Lake?
A. I guess you know there is always lots of memorable moments but I think probably just being back and having a reunion with the director and Salvatore and being in the limo surrounded by these beautiful mountains and out on the lake and just shooting in the middle of the night. It was pretty scarier, just being in that environment sort of made that film become quite a bit more real. I was really far from home and it was really good to make that fear sort of a reality.
Q. You worked with Sandrine Holt on the movie Resident Evil and now in Sam’s Lake you were able to work with her again. What was it like reuniting with her again and working on this project?
A. It was great, unfortunately Sandrine and I didn't have any chance to work together on Resident Evil and we never really got to know each other very well, we had been introduced. So, when we really met on Sam's Lake and really got to know each other for the first time it was great, we realized we were definitely meant to work together because we just got along really, really well and had a lot of fun together outside of work. Sometimes tough conditions for working all hours of the night and six days a week, which is always a tough kind of shoot, we really sort of were there for each other and kind of kept each other together and each other laughing and having a great time.
Q. You did some stunt work in the movie Foolproof, what made you want to take on this type of role for the movie?
A. Well, the thing with Foolproof was that I generally usually do my own stunts, which means I act in the show and then I also do my own stunts. With Foolproof it happened that it was one of my very close friends, Kristen Booth, who was starring in Foolproof and she asked me as a favor would I do some stunts for her. Because she's been working so hard so that she could do most of her stunts, but unfortunately, production doesn't always allow us to do our own stunts. Because I'm a good friend of hers and we have a sort of similar look and body type, she really thought that if I did her stunts that it would really look like her doing her stunts, as opposed to her stunt double doing the stunts for her. I really did Foolproof as a favor to her and I loved doing it and I would do her stunts again, we love working together and I love doing stunts. I love the whole physical aspect of doing stunts, personally I prefer to do my own stunts but as a favor to Kristen I did them and I had a blast doing them and I'm glad I did it because she was really happy with the outcome and so was I and we had fun.
Q. How did you get your start in acting?
A. I got my sort of passionate start when I did the play "Peter Pan" when I was in grade six, and I played Peter Pan. It was really the first play I had ever tried out for and I just happened to sort of just fit the bill for Peter Pan. I absolutely loved doing the play, I loved the kids in the school yard afterwards yelling to me and calling me Peter and looking to me for advice. I loved that reaction and I really just thought this is just the greatest thing ever. I ended up pursuing it on a professional level in my teenage years and did my first movie when I was sixteen and went off to Budapest and shot that. I had my head shaved because I was playing a concentration camp survivor and just had a blast. Yeah, I decided to take a little hiatus and sort of get my degree and do some traveling before I made this sort of life decision as a profession. I did make it (the decision) and it (acting) has become my profession and I'm really glad that I've done that. I'm glad that I had the experience before so that I had a different experience other than just acting to sort of make sure that this is what I wanted to do because it's not always fun and it's not always a piece of cake. It can really beat you up some times but if it's your passion and it's what you really love, then you can have a lot of fun and a great life doing it.
Q. You’ve worked on a few made for television movies, what makes working on these kinds of projects so appealing to you?
A. I really hate the label made for television movies but I love doing made for television movies because I often find the story to be usually based on a true story, which always has more meaning than just any old sort of fictional movie. I find that I get to work a lot more in these made for TV movies, I get to play a lot of varying characters and so I really do like making made for television movies for all those reasons and more.
Q. How do you prepare for a role?
A. I usually try and do a lot of research if I can, like if the role is say a therapist I will try and go to Al Anon or any of those sort of places or I go to hospitals and sort of see how the therapist works and deal with people. I do a lot of reading, a lot of web research and I think about the role sort of how it would fit into my life and I really try and sort of imagine what it would be like to be this person and if I really was this person how I would have gotten there. I just kind of think about that, I really try to embody and embrace the character as a part of me. I take whatever necessary steps I need to in order to make it real for myself and the audience.
Q. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
A. I do a lot of different things, I play a lot of sports, right now I play a lot of hockey. I do a lot of martial arts, I run and I do a lot of mountain biking and I water ski a lot in the summer and wake board and I snow board in the winter. I basically try and get outside and face it and enjoy life that way and I have a couple of cats that keep me occupied at home and I read a lot, I love to cook and I like to just watch movies too. Not just for research purposes, but just for good old fashion escape!
Q. What is the last great movie that you saw?
A. I guess I am going to have to say, The Pianist, I saw The Pianist not too long ago, I didn't see it when it first came out. I just got to see it for the first time recently and I find all those sort of WW2 movies to be very emotional and obviously because they're mostly quite historically correct, I like the retelling of life stories. With The Pianist, I think the thing that stood out for me as a WW2 movie, was that the way they portrayed the ghetto I thought it seemed to be a lot more real than in other movies. But, I thought they did a great job of just making it really horrible and really seeing the horridness and I thought Adrian Brody did a phenomenal job in the role and it was very moving and it was a major emotional roller coaster, I cried my eyes out. The German guy who was in it and sort of helped him out in the end I met on the set of Resident Evil so it was kind of interesting to see him in the role and he's an incredible actor. He played a completely different character in Resident Evil and just sort of have that interaction between the German Nazi and this poor pianist who just struggled hard was kind of an interesting take on the whole, it was just an interesting moment.
Q. Is there anything that you'd like to say to your fans and supporters?
A. Enjoy life, it's short and follow your dreams. If you feel passionate about something you gotta just go for it, you gotta take the opportunity to just go for it and just feel confident that it will happen for you. If you want to pursue something as a career, you don't want to spend too much time wasting, you don't want to waste away doing something you don't love. So, if there is something you really love, follow your heart and go for it!
