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Featured, Strange Empire

Cara Gee puts on her dark hat – and meat blanket – for Strange Empire

When I met Cara Gee on the set of Strange Empire a few weeks ago, she was on a day off from shooting and therefore not sporting her character Kat Loving’s fierce expression or her “meat blanket” — long leather coat.  She was nearly unrecognizable, seeming more like someone I might be able to have a tea with and not fear for my life.

Gee earned her living in the Toronto theatre scene for years before earning a starring role in the well-received film Empire of Dirt. After a couple of television guest starring roles, she landed a lead in yet another Empire.

We chatted before the show premiered and before either one of us had seen an episode onscreen.

Tell me about Kat Loving.

She’s a gun-slinging horse-riding badass. She’s this fiercely strong woman. At the beginning of the series she is on her way west to start a ranch with her family, and things go horribly awry pretty much right away.

She’s alone and has to survive in this completely lawless wild town.

It’s written by Laurie Finstad who wrote Durham County, which is very dark. Is it the same kind of dark tone?

It is so dark. So dark. Which is great because I think it’s telling a side of this history that is often glossed over, and the violence that was very real and present when they were making a community from scratch and the genocide that was occurring. It reflects that. It’s not gratuitous, it’s essential.

I think it’s an important thing to look at, and to look in ourselves at the potential for violence. Under what circumstances could we be forced to kill someone.

It’s from a female point of view, and a lot of Westerns tend to be a male perspective.

Well, I don’t know if we can say that it is from a female point of view because it’s from many different points of view. The women who are in it are not allies. They’re not all on the same team and they don’t all have the same perspective. They fight quite viciously.

I think it’s good and important that it’s not all “rah rah rah women power in the west.” Because that’s not how it was. Any shred of power was won, and not easily.

But we’re more used to seeing men in those positions.

Oh totally. The western genre is often strangely nostalgic whereas this is not.

It’s not a genre I’ve ever been drawn to because there’s been no point of access for me as a Native woman. The depiction of First Nations people in Westerns is lacking at best, traditionally. At best. At worst it’s horrific and perpetuates negativity and violence against my people. So it’s not really a genre I’ve been dying to be a part of.

So what was it about this one?

This one is subverting the tropes of that genre. It’s looking at the people who were actually there, all of these different disenfranchised groups who had no power but survived, somehow. I’m inspired by Kat personally, especially. If I had to face some of what she’s facing I’d be curled in a ball in the corner. She is such a strong survivor.

This is quite a departure for CBC. How aware were you of that?

Very. Keenly.

Do you feel any sense of responsibility or trepidation?

Oh god, now I do!

It’s all on you. The entire future of CBC rests on your shoulders.

I love it, bring it, I’m ready for that.

No I think it’s great. Aaron Poole, who plays Slotter, recently started doing this hashtag on Twitter that was #CBCnsfw and I thought, that’s totally it.

It’s a conversation I’ve been having with my peers for a while. It’s this golden age of television and it’s time for CBC to throw their hat in the ring and I think this is the show. It’s so dark and cinematic. And with it being a serialized drama it’s something people are going to binge watch, I hope. I would. It’s something that I would watch. And you know you can’t always say that.

As an actor do you worry about the reception? Do you worry if it’s going to find an audience?

Oh I do, for sure. I come from a theatre background and when you’re performing in theatre your audience is in front of you. In film and TV your audience is the lens so it’s a little more abstract. But you are performing for the person who is at home watching, you’re just removed from them. But I’m very aware of the audience because that’s who we’re doing it for. I hope so much that we’re able to take people on a journey.

I trained with a theatre company called the SITI Company and Anne Bogart is their artistic director. She talks about theatre as making gifts.  I really believe that. If you’re doing it for yourself you’re just jerking off.

You have to be doing it for someone. That’s the whole point. That’s the reason I’m an artist, that’s the reason I’m interested in telling stories.

Where did that desire come from? Have you always wanted to act?

I didn’t know I wanted to be an actor. But when I was little – I grew up in a town called Bobcaygeon …

Oh!

Yes. They put us on the map.

Right, I was going to say “I know that town!” and then realized no, I know that song. Like everyone else.

I love that. It’s only 2000 people. It’s a small town so it’s funny that it’s kind of famous now.

Every year I’d participate in the Royal Canadian Legion public speaking contests, and I did quite well. I made it to provincials a couple times. So that’s a form of storytelling, but I only realized that looking back. I didn’t discover that I wanted to be an actor until my last year of high school. So it wasn’t something I was dying to do always.

And you started in theatre.

Yes, I want to theatre school and trained, and when I moved back to Toronto I worked in theatre for years and years. I ended up signing with an agent and then all of a sudden this world of auditioning for film and TV opened up. I did the film and it was so well received – that was a crazy experience, to carry a film when I had never been in a film before. It went well so I’m hoping lightening will strike twice here.

Whatever happens with it, it’s still a prominent show premiering on CBC in the fall.

I know! It’s crazy! I think people will like it. I love reading it – I haven’t seen any of it yet.

Like I said, I got excited about it because of who wrote it.

She’s so smart. It’s neat how she is observing everything and then writing for the chemistry that’s occurring, or what’s interesting to her and what’s working. It’s evolving and we’re all a part of it and we all have input. It’s amazing. It’s a dream come true.

So you’re able to offer input into your character?

Or just talk about what it feels like, what Kat feels about Slotter, what’s surprising.

Laurie’s so gangster. Every script that comes out I think who wrote this? 

When I’d talk about Durham County there was sometimes a perception that women don’t go that dark, that it’s unusual for a woman to go that dark. Which suggests maybe we aren’t allowed to bring it out as much.

Fuck that. We’re bringing it out. It’s done. It’s out.

Did she access something in you with that?

Oh yeah. We’re a good match for each other. I get it. It’s such a treat to be able to go somewhere where this character has to examine what she’s made of. So to be able to strip away so much and get to the heart of something is really raw. It’s crazy hard but it’s what you dream of as an actor – for someone to hand you a script like that and say have at ‘er.

At the end of the day I want to go stand in a field and scream sometimes. It’s this power that’s bigger than me. It’s fun. Well, it’s hard. It’s fun talking about it right now but I feel like my soul is wrung out daily. I’ve been saying it feels like I have my foot on the gas and break at the same time.

Is there any lightness in the script you can access?

No.

Are you able to leave it behind?

I don’t know yet. I’m so in it. I’ve been really lucky in that I’ve had a lot of friends from Toronto come visit. It’s really helpful.

Tell me a bit about your theatre company?

We’re called Birdtown & Swanville. We’re in residence at a theatre company called Buddies in Bad Times which is the most incredible queer theatre company in the country.  They do the most amazing, wildest work. It’s an honour to be in residence there with their guidance. We’ll be developing a few plays there in the seasons to come. … We’re just a group of people who had a similar aesthetic and taste and we’re all friends.

Catch Cara Gee as Kat Loving in Strange Empire Mondays on CBC. Catch up with the first episode here.  

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Bitten, Featured

Bitten creator Daegan Fryklind gets to the heart – and floof – of the show

Daegan Fryklind was in the thick of writing the final episode of Bitten’s second season when Anthony Marco talked to her for the TV Eh B Cs podcast. That of course meant that she had done laundry, walked the dog, swept the floors, and put aside an hour to talk to TV, eh?

Procrastination, thy name is writer.

Then again, the creator of Space’s top original series hasn’t had a day off since the beginning of April. “When you’re in production there’s no such thing as waiting for inspiration to hit you,” she says. “You’re constantly inside the machine.”

“Everything is resting on the finale,” she adds. “All the balls you’ve put up in the air, you have to juggle and then catch in the finale in the most graceful way possible.”

She also writes with “pure optimism” that there will be a season three, meaning fans might expect something of a cliffhanger, and are likely to clamour for another season as well.

The relationship she and the show has with fans on Twitter “has cracked everything open” and created a synergistic relationship. Though she doesn’t craft stories to pander to a fanbase, she does consider how fans will react when planning and writing stories.

There are the “floof moments” when one of the hunky werewolves takes off his shirt, for example, and “heart moments” for the romantic elements that will have fans swooning on Twitter. Then there’s the “vest of asskickery” Jeremy Danvers wears – and fans comment on.

She points out that Space put Bitten into development as part of a deliberate strategy to draw more female viewers to the network, having seen the number of women who attend Comic Con, for example. It’s worked.

Partly because of the fan reaction to the series’ fidelity to the books, Fryklind and her team of writers added for season two the witches who appeared in the second book — sooner than they first intended.
Calling Bitten “a mafia show but instead of the Sopranos you’ve got werewolves,” she points out that season one showed a family with skewed morals while others are challenging their turn.

Season two, then, is “Let the Right One In” as the otherworld elements expand with the witches, and the characters are faced with new threats and decisions on who to trust.

Listen to the full interview with Daegan Fryklind and Anthony Marco as they talk about getting ready for Season Two of Bitten, the interactive relationships between writers and fans, planning a ten episode season, cascading hierarchies of producers, and a little place called Castle Frightenstein.

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Featured

Interview: WGC’s Maureen Parker to government: “Let us grow our craft”

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Maureen Parker is frustrated with the way the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV campaign rolled out.

As executive director at the Writers Guild of Canada, Parker made a presentation to the CRTC as part of the Let’s Talk TV public hearings late last month. There she–along with WGC members and screenwriters Cal Coons and Andrew Wreggit, and Guild director of policy Neal McDougall–championed the Canadian television industry, the entertainment it provides and the quality content being made here.

Her frustration was the result of an overall negative tone to the hearings. As she says, Canadians are making consistently good television at home that results in fantastic ratings for a country with a small television market. It’s a success story she wishes would be discussed more often. So we did.

How do you feel your presentation went to the CRTC? Do you feel like yourself, Andrew Wreggit, Cal Coons and Neal McDougall got your message across?
Maureen Parker: Yes, I do. I think our presentation went very well. It’s very tough to address any of these very big issues in a 10-minute oral presentation, so we decided that we would focus on one or two of the issues at the hearing that were very distinctly writer related, and that was the issue of how do you make quality programming and we talked a lot about our audience and the success of Canadian programming. I think that message was really getting lost at the hearings.

It was a very negative hearing. No one is talking about the good things out there and the great accomplishments in Canadian television and those that work in the Canadian television industry. It felt like drudgery. Nobody wanted to do it, Netflix didn’t want to contribute … it’s disheartening to be honest.

Cal and Andrew’s part of the presentation was enlightening. How important was it for them to stress that good TV writers are choosing to stay in Canada and create?
MP: First of all, they’re volunteers and they feel very passionately about their career choice and they get very tired of defending that career choice because they are both very successful. Again, every time we are in a hearing we are forced to defend Canadian content and the focus really should be elsewhere.

Do you think that will ever change?
MP: You make me laugh! No, but it should.

I thought the Canadian TV Delivers video was very effective in getting the message across.
MP: That was something we did in conjuction with the hearings because I think the message is getting lost. Canadians watch Canadian programming, and they like it. You can talk about unbundling, you can talk about packaging, you can talk about the vertical integration code, but we’re really getting lost in all of the details. The main priority is making Canadian programming for Canadians and we make very good programs. I’ve used a couple of stats to back that up. The CRTC Profile Report, for example, said that in 2013, 46.1 per cent of viewers of English language programming were watching Canadian programs. They have all of their American shows to choose from, but 46 per cent of them are watching Canadian programs. That’s pretty darned good.

We’re getting programs that are coming in at over 2 million viewers per week. That is a huge number in a small market like Canada.

Those numbers would indicate a growth then, in Canadian programming?
MP: I would say yes, we are growing the business as everybody is. We’ve always underrated ourselves and we’re getting better. That was our message. Let us grow our craft; that’s how you build quality.

Everyone is so concerned with cutting the cost of their cable bill they’re not considering the fact that it means less channels, less timeslots and less work for Canadians in this industry.
MP: The CRTC has been directed by the government to address the unbundling issue and they are doing that. So we can waste energy fighting that or we can look for ways to enhance our business models within that structure. The Harper government has told the CRTC to address this. I don’t think Canadians want this. I need to be very clear about that. We’re now looking at either the skinny basic or enhanced basic setup and we have faith in our programming. Look, this will mean that some channels with disappear.  The one thing that was very important to us to obtain was an expenditure requirement on Canadian programming. They’ll still have to spend the same amount of money. That’s why we’re in favour of the enhanced basic. That means Bell Media could decide to include Space, Shaw could include Showcase.

I do want to say this about the presentation. At the end, the chair thanked us and asked us to help the CRTC to get the message out about Canadian programming. We took heart from that.

It freaks me out a bit that until this year I never really paid much attention to this and I’ve been in the business for over 15 years. The focus is being put on cable prices.
MP: And that’s a fair discussion, but it’s the way they’re going about it with the unbundling. They don’t unbundle in the States. That’s the market system. The bigger channels have to support the smaller channels. Really, this is about the Harper government inserting its opinion into our business and the broadcasting business.

Let’s switch gears a bit. I’m interested in the fact that here in Canada it is the television stars who tend to be promoted to viewers and less the writers or showrunners, which is something they do in the U.S. In the U.S. there is a focus on Greg Berlanti’s next project or what Aaron Sorkin is up to. Should we be focusing on longtime Canadian showrunners and championing them in the pitch a little more?
MP: Absolutely, and I think that’s changing. One of the things we started about 10 years ago was the Showrunner Awards. This isn’t a new position in the industry, but it’s more quiet and behind the scenes. Writers are not lead performers and they don’t get the lead spot in the promotion machine. Does there need to be more talk about that? Sure. The showrunner model works, but it’s a little different up here because we have independent producers who have always thought of themselves as part of the creative vision. It’s not like working for a U.S. studio. U.S. studios are not giving endless notes like they do in our system. There are too many cooks in the kitchen. Broadcasters, broadcast executives, producers … let us do our business. It’s a win for everybody. Butt out!

What’s next for the WGC?
MP: We’re working on collective bargaining. Our primary mandate is to negotiate the compensation and provisions around writers’ work. It’s very complicated. The one message I want to get across about that is: no more free work. No free rides. Writers have families, mortgages and rent as well and we cannot prop up the industry. That is not our role. Our role is to create content. It’s up to the producer and the broadcast to pay for that content.

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Featured, Podcast

TV, eh? podcast episode 167 – Dancing Around a Poll

This week, Anthony, Greg and Diane chat about the incredible response to our “What Canadian show would you fight for” poll, preview the coming premieres, gush over Jason Priestley hosting the Canadian Walk of Fame, and discuss the possibility of the US networks picking up their toys and leaving Canada’s cable companies if pick and pay comes into effect.

Listen or download below, or subscribe via iTunes or any other podcast catcher with the TV, eh? podcast feed.

Want to become a Patron of the Podcast? We’ve got a Patreon page where you can donate a small amount per podcast and get a sneak peek of each release.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Featured

Bad boy Brit food critic gets slice of Canadian TV pie

Giles Coren has been a restaurant food critic for The Times for over 20 years, so it’s pretty safe to say he’s sampled some pretty good–and bad–stuff. He’s therefore the natural fit to star in not one, but two, new Canadian series debuting back-to-back Tuesday night on W Network.

The first is Pressure Cooker, a cooking competition show from former CBC executive Julie Bristow and her Bristow Media Company. Each week, four Canadian home cooks face off against one another in timed battles using items used not only from the show’s ample pantry but ingredients grabbed from a moving conveyor belt. Every contestant must choose a minimum of items from the belt which have to be used in the final dish. Adding another level of stress are guest sous chefs of the celebrity stripe. Graham Elliot (Masterchef), Nadia G. (Bitchin’ Kitchen), Rocco DiSpirito (Top Chef, below with Coren), Duff Goldman (Ace of Cakes) and Hugh Acheson (Top Chef) are just a sampling of the high-profile chefs who drop by to help the competitors chop, blend, mix and offer counsel (they cannot take over for the competitor) as the ingredients roll in and the time rolls down.

coren

Coren scribbles notes madly into a notepad while the cooking is going on, sometimes muttering something to Pressure Cooker host Anne-Marie Withenshaw, before tasting each dish and declaring a winner. Each episode’s grand prize winner heads home with a massive haul: one year of fresh groceries from Walmart.

“I’m amazed that everyone has been able to put a plate of food in front of me so far,” Coren says with a chuckle. “It’s fun to see the competitors use the belt. Someone is running down the belt and they have to choose between salmon and chicken. And then they grab chocolate and say, ‘Oh shit, what am I going to do with chocolate?!'”

Coren’s dry sense of British humour is served in pinches on Pressure Cooker; it’s ladled on during Million Dollar Critic. The premise of that program–from Temple Street Productions and Coren–sends him (above with his assistant Julia) on a weekly mission to various North American cities where he eats at five restaurants. After noshing at each, Coren then decides which place will receive a glowing review from him. As the title of the show suggests, a kind word from Coren can mean $1 million in revenue from flocking patrons.

His first stop? Toronto, where he samples fare from high-end eatery Opus, Pakistani plates at King Place, platters of meat at Small Town Food Co., Mexican at Agave y Aguacate and off-beat stuff like geranium soup and crickets at The Atlantic. Aside from his critique of the local food, Coren welcomes a couple of guests too. Robyn Doolittle, the former Toronto Star reporter who uncovered the video of Mayor Rob Ford doing something naughty, dines with Coren at Small Town Meat Co., though the edited chat only mentions Ford in passing and focuses more on the fact Doolittle is vegetarian. And Ford himself is featured in a short clip as he welcomes Coren to City Hall before taking him down to Queen St. to grab a hot dog where they’re surrounded by media.

“I want to bring my knowledge of what restaurants should be like to a wider audience, to TV,” he says. “In this show it’s not all about the food. It’s about the cool environment and the revival of an area. I think of lot of food TV is pompous, and I want this to be travel and food and sexy people.”

Pressure Cooker airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on W Network.

Million Dollar Critic airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on W Network.

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