From Bill Brioux of The Canadian Press:
Link: ‘Workin’ Moms’ returns with Reitman exploring more ‘really authentic’ stories
Catherine Reitman has it all: two children aged one-and-a-half and four; a loving husband and supportive parents; even her own TV series, CBC’s “Workin’ Moms.”
And it’s killing her. Well, not literally, but Reitman, 36, is not afraid to tell it like it is when it comes to juggling kids and a busy career. Continue reading.
Just how tight were lips on the set of Wynonna Earp during Melanie Scrofano’s pregnancy? So tight that Dani Kind read fake scripts when she was auditioning for the role of Mercedes Gardner.
“They wrote these fake sides for Mercedes … she was even named something else,” Kind tells us on the line from Toronto. “She was this character who owned a bar with her brother and her brother was this big sleaze. She ended up handing her brother his own ass.” And while we’d love to have seen that project come to light, we’re loving Kind’s real role on Wynonna, that of Mercedes Gardner. A fellow former bad girl of Purgatory, Mercedes has evolved from real estate baron to flesh-eating monster after being possessed. Now Mercedes and Beth (Meghan Heffern) have captured two of three seals, meaning the future of the world is in jeopardy.
We spoke to Kind about Wynonna Earp, the role of Anne, the wonderfully caustic, heartbreaking character she plays on CBC’s Workin’ Moms and … playing Tori Spelling’s stand-in!?
We were delayed a bit in our chat because you were going through some wig fittings. I guess that’s for Season 2 of Workin’ Moms?
Dani Kind: Yes! It’s crazy. It feels like it’s come around so fast. I got two months off working on Workin’ Moms and then I booked the Wynonna job. And then I got two months off from Wynonna and IÂ get to go back to Workin’ Moms.
I couldn’t let our chat go by without asking you about a credit on your IMDB page. It says you were a stand-in for Tori Spelling in Mind Over Murder?
[Laughs.] I was. I grew up in Ottawa and there is a production company there that just pumps out movies of the week. That’s kind of where I started. I got some parts and some lead roles. I was kicking around in Ottawa doing jobs and one of them was to be her stand-in for two movies. She asked me to come back for the second movie that she ended up coming and doing. She’s amazing. She was the coolest chick and has the greatest sense of humour. I know she has a whole celebrity image and stuff, but I was like, ‘I could hang with her.’ She has the exact same potty humour as me.
How did you score the role of Anne on Workin’ Moms?
I did a self-tape audition and then got a call that [creator and showrunner] Catherine [Reitman] had gone back to L.A. after doing some casting in Toronto. They asked me to do a callback Skype session with them in L.A., so I did another audition with them over Skype. Then, I flew out to L.A. to do a chemistry read. There were a bunch of women all reading for several parts. Then they called a few weeks later and said I’d gotten the part.
Did Workin’ Moms open the door for you to play Mercedes on Wynonna Earp or did you still have to audition?
I still auditioned. I went in to see casting, but the sides were totally different because everything was so locked down about Melanie [Scrofano] being pregnant. They wrote these fake sides for Mercedes … she was even named something else. She was this character who owned a bar with her brother and her brother was this big sleaze. She ended up handing her brother his own ass. I reamed him out during one scene and I felt great about the audition. The sides they wrote were so great. I got a call later saying I’d gotten the part, but I had no idea I’d be on as much as I’ve been on. I thought I’d only be on a couple of episodes.
It’s so awesome that you auditioned using fake sides.
I know! I got the [real] script and I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, what’s happening?’ Also, for the longest time, Mel didn’t look pregnant. She’s one of those women who turn around and you’d like, ‘Wait, what?! You’re pregnant?!’ She was so stunning and her body is so petite. I actually had people on-set talk to me and some of them thought she was wearing a fake belly.
How ironic is it you’re on two shows featuring pregnant women?
I know! And, when I got pregnant, I was asked what I was going to do. Everyone is so scared they’re going to lose their jobs and careers. It’s so not the case.
Before Mercedes was possessed, I really liked her attitude and not caring what people thought of her.
You don’t see men apologizing for chicks that they’ve slept with. There is so much about male characters on TV that women have had to identify with for so long and now it’s being shown that, ‘No, we’re three-dimensional human beings who also sleep around and get drunk and have fun and it’s cool.’ It’s so refreshing and so great.
Is it a bit of a challenge to play a character enrobed in black with your face obscured? You have to use body language instead of your face.
I had a lot of questions for Emily as we were shooting and she was like, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know!’ I think that, per episode, I was finding her. We all were. As wardrobe was, as hair and makeup was. Thank God for my acting coaches because they really helped me. This is super-specific work and when you’re working in sci-fi, you have to ask questions and just try stuff out.
Is it important to have answers to questions when you’re playing a role?
I do, especially for a character who is as complicated as this one. And, especially because I thought I was playing Mercedes and would be playing Mercedes all season. And then I find out I’m a different character. I grilled Emily as much as I could, and that really helped. Workin’ Moms is a little bit different because I don’t have to but up Catherine’s ass about Anne because there is so much about Anne that I understand and love. And because Catherine has been so smart about the way she writes it, I can see all of the characters in her. And then it’s just about getting really personal with myself and asking the tough questions.
Let’s close out talking a bit about Workin’ Moms. Anne is such a wonderful, galvanizing character. She made a tough decision to have an abortion last season.
You do see abortion storylines on TV, but it’s a woman who is hard done by or finds herself in this situation. They’re never portrayed as anything positive, it’s always associated with some negative thing. What I didn’t know is that one of the top percentages of women who get abortions are married women with children. I didn’t know that. Catherine was so graceful about the storyline at the beginning of the season. She asked me about it and wanted to check in and see if I could represent it. I said, ‘Absolutely.’ The way she wrote it was so beautiful but also, ‘Yes, of course, this is a decision that [Anne and Lionel] would make together as a couple.’ It just made sense and I felt really proud to tell that storyline.
Did you feel like, when you were in production on Season 1, you had something special?
There were moments when a camera woman or someone in the props department would be emotional during a scene. There was stuff happening that, especially for a comedy, that felt really grounded. Everything felt so real and Catherine was so specific in her choices about cast and crew … it really starts from the top and trickles down. I want to do everything I can to make this dream of her what she wants it to be.
You were incredibly active on social media during Season 1 of Workin’ Moms.
I just think it’s cool if somebody tweets about the show. Some people ask me stuff … why wouldn’t I respond? People are being incredibly kind and are genuinely invested in it. We put a lot of work into the show—Workin’ Moms and Wynonna Earp—and I feel like that interaction makes a lot of sense.
Wynonna Earp airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on Space.
Season 2 of Workin’ Moms is in production now. Season 1 is being rebroadcast on Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC.
Workin’ Moms images courtesy of CBC.
Season 1 of Workin’ Moms has been unlike any other comedy I’ve seen on CBC. As a matter of fact, to call Catherine Reitman’s creation a comedy is putting it in too small of a box. To tune into a half-hour episode on Tuesday night at 9:30 p.m. is to witness, yes, plenty of laughs, but also tears, drama and downright shock.
When we last left the ladies, Kate (Reitman) was reconsidering her decision to accept the Montreal gig; Anne (Dani Kind) had fleeting thoughts of an abortion; Frankie (Juno Rinaldi) had lost her job, and perhaps her mind; and Jenny (Jessalyn Wanlim) was juggling nipple piercings and alleyway makeout sessions.
With just one more new episode before the Season 1 finale—”Merde” on Tuesday—we spoke to Reitman about the journey she and these characters have been on.
Kate’s struggle has been awful to watch, but also very real and there were times I wanted to punch Nathan because this about her time to shine, for me anyway. But as of last week’s episode, it feels like Kate is regretting her decision. She’s being left behind and left out of her family dynamic.
Catherine Reitman: It’s not a ‘likeable’ storyline and it’s something I deal with a lot. Kate is in many ways a younger, naive version of myself. Someone who doesn’t want to compromise anything. To me, that’s very relatable but it’s also a very unrealistic way to live your life. Now that I’ve done a season of this show with a newborn, a three-year-old and a husband, something’s gotta give. To ‘have it all,’ as has been promised in this modern world, but there is not really a structure in place to achieve that. At least, not without compromise. The more I meet working women, there isn’t an affordable way to do this—daycare, etc.—trying to have it all, you lose all of your grace and relationship in the process or you lose things that have value to you and make you a unique, special individual and not just a mother.
When I got pregnant with Liam, it was the day before I got my first-ever series greenlight. All of a sudden I realized I had an option. I could move forward and just be a mother and say no to this incredible opportunity. Or maybe, I could be an OK mother and follow this thing I’ve been dreaming about since I was a little girl. That’s sort of the route Kate takes and I think it’s really easy to lose your grace on that path and it’s something that I wanted to explore.
Nathan is played by Philip Sternberg, your real-life husband. Did you and he have discussions about whether or not you would showrun Workin’ Girls?
We absolutely had that conversation and his fears and my fears were absolutely equal. He wondered if we could do this. It doesn’t just mean, ‘Hey, you’re going to be working while you’re pregnant,’ but we were uprooting our toddler and saying, ‘Not only do you have a new baby brother to contend with, but you’re now living in a different country and Mommy’s gone all day and all night in production.’ It’s actually the cruelest to our toddler because he doesn’t know what the hell is going on. [Laughs.] Yes, it was a huge adjustment for all parties.
Dani Kind has been fantastic as Anne.
She’s been magical.
Every character is good, but Anne has been in some pretty dark places, the most recent of which secretly hoping she’d lost the baby when she fell on her stomach. I’ve never even considered that that might be a thought.
It’s funny. When you think about a woman considering an abortion or a woman being relieved at a miscarriage … if you had just told me that I would have complete judgment about her. The truth is that life is incredibly complicated. I heard a statistic where women having abortions are most likely to already have children. There was this huge wake-up call when I heard that statistic because I have absolutely thought about having an abortion before and have fainted on my child while pregnant and thought a miscarriage might be a relief for a second. That doesn’t make me a villain, it makes me a person. To watch it, and see the disconnection Anne has from the child she already has and then see them growing closer … there is something very potent to me about that.
Anne could easily be construed as an angry woman and when you get somebody like Dani Kind … she never plays it safe. She plays it 100 per cent to the point where you become her. Every time I see her play it, I say, ‘Uh huh, I believe her and I want to be her.’ You get on board with a potentially unlikable subject matter.
This is a messy show.
Yeah man. This is a messy life.
The writers’ room must have been a real mix of laughs and tears.
It was pretty therapeutic. Everything you see on-screen is based on, if not mine, someone else’s story.
Have you gotten any negative feedback about some of the subject matter?
Not one. People put the fear of God into me. I was told that Canada would not accept this and we would have one wild season and be on our way. At first, the pushback was, ‘What kind of show is this?’ It’s not like a lot of stuff on our network. But as soon as you get on board with it and see it’s multi-faceted, then you can enjoy it.
One of the things Dani has said on social media is how caring the environment was on Workin’ Moms. That starts with you, the showrunner. How did you ensure it was a safe space?
I wasn’t afraid to fail. Because it was so real and we had been practicing fearlessness in the writers’ room for six months, but the time we got to production it was a very therapeutic environment. If someone needed to cry, they could cry. If they wanted to be angry, they could be angry. But we needed to be constructive and supportive of each other.
What are you most proud of?
That my boys still like me. I was really scared. I knew I had to go full-throttle with this and give everything I had to it with the awareness Canada might not accept it and it would be a flash in the pan for me. The fact we started to see [ratings] numbers and the fact that people wanted to watch it and stopping me at restaurants and thanking me for telling these stories and generating a conversation … that all of that happened felt really rewarding. And then, at the end of the day, my boys aren’t mad at me. They still accept me at their breakfast table! They know my features!
Workin’ Moms airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC.
Images courtesy of CBC.
Dan Aykroyd is stopping by next week’s episode of Workin’ Moms. CBC made the announcement Wednesday, revealing the veteran actor guest-stars as Kate’s (Catherine Reitman) dad Wayne Hoffman.
Check out a clip from the instalment!
Here’s the official logline for “Phoenix Rising”:
In the episode, Phoenix Rising, Kate (Reitman) joins her team at Gaze on a Saturday to work on a pitch, promising Nathan (Philip Sternberg) she’ll be home in time for family dinner with their parents. When the camaraderie and joking get out of hand, it’s up to Kate to rein things in. With her family balance in jeopardy, she rushes to leave the office. On her way out, she learns there’s been a decision on the Montreal job, and can think of no better counsel on the matter than her own dad (Aykroyd). Anne (Dani Kind) struggles to find a point of connection with her daughter, Alice (Sadie Munroe), and Jenny (Jessalyn Wanlim) is faced with disconcerting truths about her life and relationship when Ian (Dennis Andres) asks for her help with his Kickstarter project.
Workin’ Moms airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC.
Image courtesy of CBC.
Right out of the gate viewers will notice Workin’ Moms isn’t a typical comedy series, and certainly not the usual for the CBC.
In Tuesday’s debut at 9:30 p.m., a trio of moms sit at daycare, holding their infants and bemoaning how childrearing has ravaged their bodies, particularly their breasts. They speak of sagging, drooping and other changes while looking down. Then, suddenly, a wide shot of the ladies with their breasts totally exposed for primetime television. No editing, now pixelating, no black bars. This is Workin’ Moms, lumps and all.
“Bringing up a child, you lose a certain amount of privacy with your body and what happens to your body is incredibly humbling,” series creator, executive producer, writer and star Catherine Reitman says during a CBC press day. “To create a show about a mom where you don’t witness what happens to a mom’s body felt inauthentic to me … to not show it in a raw and honest way. It’s funny, but I also find heart and truth in it.”
Reitman—who appears sans top alongside her co-stars Dani Kind (The Good Witch) and Juno Rinaldi (The Killing); all have two boys in real life—has used her own experiences as a mother as the basis for Workin’ Moms. Reitman’s Kate is headed back to work at an advertising firm after maternity leave and struggles not only to spend hours away from her son but find her place in an office environment she left for months. Yes, there are funny moments in Kate’s days—reluctantly leaving her cherub with the nanny and she has to pump her breasts the bathroom, with the squirting results you’d expect—but there are sobering, serious moments that reflect on what it means to be a mother. The most poignant may be when Kate breaks down crying in the middle of a meeting with her male co-workers.
“I think that’s part of being a mother and a parent,” Reitman says. “There are moments of comedy and moments of pain. But, usually, in those moments of pain you have to laugh.” She recalls how when her first son was born (he’s now three), she went back to work after just a couple of weeks and was wracked with post-partum depression. Like Kate, Reitman was joking around with male friends. The jabs went too far and before she knew it, she was crying and the men went silent, awkward and unsure of what to do. When Reitman got home, she told the story to her husband Philip Sternberg—he’s executive producing and co-stars on Workin’ Moms—who told her to get out her laptop and write it down.
“Catherine’s writing has a real floor to them,” Sternberg says. “These are real experiences, so you relate to them, and when the humour comes out, it really works and hits hard. I don’t think it would hit so hard if you didn’t believe the characters and the struggle.” He’s right. All of the ladies are dealing with something. Rinaldi’s Frankie Coyne is a successful real estate agent who in one moment makes a flippant remark about post-partum depression and in another is sticking her head in a swimming pool, dreaming of drowning. Kind’s Anne Carlson is just getting into the swing of things with her baby when her doctor tells her shocking news, throwing her life into uncertainty.
And while, at first glance, CBC may not have been the most obvious home for Workin’ Moms, Reitman couldn’t be happier because it meant her vision would stay intact and not turned into a broad comedy or watered down.
“We got here, and we realized it was nothing but working mothers,” Reitman says. “I’ve never seen a network where I literally shook hand after hand of working mothers. [CBC general manager of programming] Sally Catto watched it, and it struck so deeply with her as a working mother that we knew she would do it justice.”
Workin’ Moms airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC.
Images courtesy of CBC.
