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Rookie Blue’s Peter Mooney joins Saving Hope

Hope Zion has quickly become Rookie Blue reunion central. The past few weeks have seen Travis Milne and Charlotte Sullivan walk through the doors, and now it’s Peter Mooney’s turn. The former Nick Collins drops by Saving Hope for a recurring role as Jeremy Bishop, general surgeon and Charlie’s good friend.

His journey begins this week with “Waiting on a Friend” as Jeremy is plunged into the middle of a complicated surgical procedure that effects much of the team and we learn a bit about his backstory to boot. We spoke to Mooney on the phone as he walked home after having breakfast at Lady Marmalade.

Before we talk about Saving Hope, I have to ask you about Rookie Blue. I was sorry to see it get cancelled, but at least we got closure.
I think the way Tassie Cameron wrapped it all up was kind of perfect. As much as you hate to see something come to an end, I’m really happy with where it left off. There are no nagging, lingering feelings about anything.

That said, I would not be opposed to a spinoff web series following Nick and Juliet fighting crime in Vancouver.
Yeah, I wonder what they’re getting up to in Vancouver? I think that would be awesome. [Erin Karpluk] and I will do our own spinoff.

What do you take away from that set?
It was just such a good vibe on set. I know it sounds cheesy but it’s pretty rare to have that level of ease and comfort and familiarity with everyone. We’ve become really close friends throughout the process. It was a great period of life, like you might look back on high school. This little, self-contained time period that was so nice. It’s also something to bring onto future jobs; that attitude and how much fun work can be.

He’s there to complicate things that are going well for other people. High-stakes situations like this cause you to look at your co-workers a little differently and things can blossom.

If Rookie Blue was high school, is Saving Hope college?
It’s pre-med. [Laughs.] I think of it as pre-med because I’m sort of learning. We have amazing medical advisors on the show and yesterday I was learning how to do a one-handed, left-handed suture on a patient’s spleen. Now, the patient is just a dummy and I think I would have killed him if he had been real. We don’t have anywhere near the wealth of knowledge that actual doctors and surgeons have, but getting a taste of that has been really, really exciting.

You’re the perfect guy to have in an emergency. You know how to take someone down and to sew someone up.
Yeah, I’m the perfect person to have during a calamity on a plane.

Jeremy shows up in Thursday’s episode and makes an immediate impression with his three-day stubble and buttoned-down shirt. How did you get the gig? Did you audition or did they seek you out?
This one was kind of special and rare. Rookie Blue and Saving Hope share producers, so they were already familiar with me because we share a lot of the same directors. I’d known the cast because we’ve been in side-by-side studios and some of the cast are very good friends of mine. So when it looked like Rookie Blue was wrapping up, there was a perfect opening on Saving Hope so I jumped on over. It was a speedy transition and not a lot of time to learn all of the medical base I would have liked to.

Tell me a bit about Jeremy’s back story. We learn on Thursday that he’s a friend of Charlie’s and that he had some trouble in L.A.
He and Charlie go way back, and that’s rolled out during the season. He’s from Toronto but spent years in L.A. doing his residency. He had a house there and was really settled down. His return to Toronto is an abrupt, surprising shift for him and his head is still spinning when he arrives.

Jeremy seems to have a good bedside manner.
Yeah, he’s very off the cuff. He’s running on impulse and not very calculating and that comes in handy with his bedside manner because he’s able to read the situation and their need and he’s able to respond to that. He’s not a clinical or removed doctor.

Talk about his journey this season. Any love on the horizon?
He’s there to complicate things that are going well for other people. High-stakes situations like this cause you to look at your co-workers a little differently and things can blossom.

You’re filming Saving Hope until the middle of December. What’s next in the new year? Are you writing and developing your own projects?
I am. I have several projects in the early stages in development that I’ll go back and focus on. But I’ll be back to auditioning too, which is kind of exciting. It’s been such a long time since I’ve done that … I’m kind of excited to get back to it.

Saving Hope airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

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Tara Spencer-Nairn shakes off Corner Gas with Saving Hope

For six seasons and one major motion picture, Tara Spencer-Nairn played beleaguered small-town cop Karen Pelly on the wildly successful Corner Gas. And while she’s forever grateful for the experience of starring in a beloved Canadian television series and will cherish it forever, she’s been champing at the bit to play something different.

Janice Fenn is that character. Unlike the perky, sarcastic Karen, Janice is a drug addict who comes to the aid of Taylor, a 12-year-old who checks into Hope Zion on Thursday night following a motocross accident. What follows in “Heart of Stone” is harrowing and heartbreaking … exactly what Spencer-Nairn has been looking for.

Janice Fenn is definitely not Constable Karen.
Tara Spencer-Nairn: Right?! I was pretty excited about this.

Janice is the type of person Karen would try to arrest.
As soon as I got the breakdown I knew it was something I wanted to do and that I needed to do. I love Corner Gas and everything it has done for my and I’ll be forever grateful, but I feel like I’m constantly having to remind people that I’m not just a comedian and that I’m not a comedian. This was a real departure and something that I could really sink my teeth into. It was dirty and gritty. And I’m at this point in my life, with two kids, where it fits. It’s funny, I was telling my agent, ‘There’s no way I can’t get this role because I haven’t slept in days and I look like shit. I’m perfect! They don’t have to do anything, they don’t even have to put makeup on me.’

After Corner Gas and taking a break to have kids, I really wanted to come back and do something I’ve never done before. I think that’s what’s great about these Canadian shows; there are these great little characters that come along that we all get to drop in and play.

Although you appreciate it, do you feel as though Corner Gas caused you to be pigeon-holed?
Absolutely. It’s weird, because if you look back at how my career started, it’s not very funny. New Waterford Girl was funny, but in a very different way. And again, I love Corner Gas and everyone involved and if I could do a Corner Gas movie every two years, I’d be there. But I do kind of feel like I’m constantly fighting to get into rooms and show people I’m more than just Karen Pelly. And because of the success of Corner Gas, it’s been really hard for all of us to break out of those roles.

“We’re fighting pretty hard to not have strong characters, but good characters, interesting characters and characters reflective of who we are that don’t just support another male character.”

OK, let’s talk about Saving Hope and this role of Janice. She’s a tough character to play because she’s a drug addict, and therefore a little hard to viewers to like. Is it hard to portray a somewhat unlikeable character?

Well, I never thought of her as unlikeable. It was interesting working with David Wellington—the director for this episode—I trusted in him 100 percent. We really wanted to make sure we didn’t play into any stereotypes and the way the character was originally written was more of a stereotype. He really went back and fought hard to make sure she wasn’t dressed in a miniskirt. In a way, I felt sorry for her and I wanted to help her and make her better. Her choices, from the outside, look truly horrible but when you walk a mile in those shoes it’s horribly sad and heartbreaking.

Having two kids of your own, was it easy to tap into the emotions the role calls for?
Yeah, you have to go there. Having kids has become, truly, a blessing for my career because I now have a depth that I couldn’t have imagined before I had kids.

The storyline is open-ended; will you be back?
I don’t know, but let’s make that happen! I watch Saving Hope and I’ve never seen a character like her on the show. I applaud them for creating a character like this and for allowing the character to be a woman. As women, we’re fighting pretty hard to not have strong characters, but good characters, interesting characters and characters reflective of who we are that don’t just support another male character.

Are female characters getting more interesting and reflective? 
I think we’re talking about it, but I don’t think it’s getting better. I hope that talking about it is the first step. I’m in my mid- to late-30s and as an actor I do feel like I should be busier than I am. I feel like there should be more roles for me out there and it kind of breaks my heart every morning when I get up and it’s, ‘Nope, not today.’ It’s nice that it’s a big topic in Hollywood and I hope the ripple effect will happen.

Is writing, directing and producing your own projects the next step in that journey for you?
It’s something that I’m working on, yeah. At first I was like, ‘I’m just going to do this, no problem!’ And now that I’m in it, it’s ‘Wow, this is really hard!’ The stuff that I want to write isn’t necessarily network TV and as you know this industry is in flux with pick and pay. There aren’t a lot of cable shows being made in Canada. But, at the same time, I appreciate conventional network and a show like Saving Hope who create characters like Janice, but that isn’t the type of show that I want to create.

What kind of show do you want to make?
I want to make the kind of show everyone wants to make. You look at a Nurse Jackie or an Orphan Black … gritty and dirty and real. I’m not interested in being earnest.

Saving Hope airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

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Interview: Kim Shaw, Saving Hope’s newest doctor in the house

It doesn’t take long for Hope Zion’s newest junior resident, Dr. Cassie Williams—played by Kim Shaw—to make an impression on Dr. Alex Reid in Thursday’s new episode. Cassie’s bubbly enthusiasm and confidence attracts the attention of all. But this being Saving Hope, nothing on the surface is truly what it seems, and key facets to Cassie’s life are uncovered by the end of “Start Me Up.”

Shaw’s gig on Saving Hope is the latest in an impressive body of television work. The Windsor, Ont., born actress has appeared in sitcoms like Two and a Half Men, Anger Management and How I Met Your Mother, and high-profile dramas like NCIS and The Good Wife. We spoke to Shaw about her career, playing Cassie and winter weather.

You’ve had a really varied career. You’ve been on comedies like Two and a Half Men, Anger Management and How I Met Your Mother, and dramas like The Good Wife and NCIS. That’s a lot of high-profile stuff.
Kim Shaw: It’s been a roller coaster. You never feel like you work enough. I moved to New York when I graduated from high school and went to theatre school and kind of started working right out of the gate. I was very lucky to find people who wanted to work with me and put in the time, management-wise. Then I got sick of the cold and moved to L.A. about five years ago and, happily, haven’t had to waitress since I made that move. When you’re a comedy actress, which I kind of consider myself, you never really feel like you ever get a chance to show that darker side. And then when you’re doing a dark show, you just want to be light! [Laughs.] It’s been fun to explore all of that.

How did you get the role of Dr. Cassie Williams?
I’m a Canadian citizen but have been living in the States and I applied to have a Social Insurance Number. Saving Hope was the first audition I had after getting the card. It was a self-tape, so my boyfriend—God bless him—put me on tape about 20 times, just trying to get the takes right for the scenes they had given me. You send that away and kind of forget about it after it’s gone. I got that wonderful phone call that every actor dreams of—that they were interested—and they tested me out of Los Angeles and I booked it and flew to Toronto.

My best friend is a nurse, my mom is a nurse and my brother is a doctor, so I’ve had that repertoire in my system but have never gotten the chance to do it myself. I’ve played heroin addicts and things on the other side of it, but this is so challenging. Everyone on set has been so lovely … it’s lovely to join a well-oiled machine and feel like you fit in immediately.

Saving_Hope

How does your family feel about you playing a doctor?
I called my brother and told him, ‘I’m a doctor now! In your face! Mine happened a lot quicker than yours!’

Has anyone on-set, like Michael Shanks or Benjamin Ayres played practical jokes on you?
Wendy Crewson is the most trouble on-set. She is just the most fun; she is an amazing person and cracks everybody up. I have a couple of story arcs with her and I’ve learned so much from her, from who I want to be as a person and who I want to be on-set. Erica has just had a baby, so she has this glow and joy about her all of the time which is fun to be around. I don’t have a lot of scenes with Michael, but during the table reads he likes to throw in zingers and make everyone laugh.

Cassie certainly makes an impression when she appears on Thursday night. She’s spunky and ready to go.
She’s over-eager, but I think anyone—on the first day of the rest of your life—is excited to get started. I’m sure that’s how I came across on our first table read.

That excitement is tempered by an incident that occurs a little later on.
As medical students, I think you think you’re ready but you’ve only been cutting open dead bodies for the past four years and you crave that real OR. It’s overwhelming as an actor to be in the OR for the first time because you’re covered in plastic, the gloves are so hard to put on, you’re sweaty and your mask is on. I’m glad I got to show how I felt on the inside.

At the end of the episode, there is another incident, this time involving Dr. Curtis. How long will it take for that storyline to shake out?
It’s a little bit of a slow burn, but it’s a juicy storyline once we get into it.

What can you tell me about Cassie’s evolution this season?
The thing I enjoy about her the most is that she is extremely empathetic, which I can relate to, and she is going through this thing. She thinks she wants to be a doctor and realizes how hard it is to see a patient as a patient and not a person. She struggles with that, and how blunt she has to be. Doctors have to be really cold sometimes and she has a hard time with that. She is one of the smartest doctors—she knows her stuff—but she struggles with the emotion of the new job.

Saving Hope airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

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Saving Hope returns to its roots for Season 4

If this is the final season for Saving Hope, fans will be happy on one front. Erica Durance and Michael Shanks were mum when asked directly if the current season will be its last, but they did acknowledge CTV’s homegrown medical drama is returning to its roots.

“Charlie and Alex become mature adults,” Shanks says of Hope Zion’s central doctors. “One of the reasons the love triangle [with Daniel Gillies’ Dr. Joel Goran] ended is because that story only has legs for so long. To be playing CW love triangle stuff with the level of angst that they write … why is Charlie getting into another fist-fight with Joel?! It became time for these characters to move forward.”

Things have moved forward significantly in Thursday’s return, “Sympathy for the Devil.” Eleven months have passed since Joel was blown to smithereens. Alex (Durance) leaves baby Luke for her first day back at Hope Zion and it doesn’t take long for her to become embroiled in drama both in and outside of the operating room. The headstrong, brilliant doc finds herself competing with one of the hospital’s newest hires, Dr. Patrick Curtis (Max Bennett), over how to treat a car crash victim. Then Alex tackles her next case: a man named Tom Crenshaw (Rookie Blue‘s Travis Milne) who was convicted of murdering his wife. And while Alex and Tom connect on the operating table, the accused killer turns to Charlie for help. Shanks explains almost every ghost who has interacted with Charlie has been well-intentioned and a resulted positively.

“With this one, we don’t know,” he teases. “There is a bit of a raised eyebrow.”

Meanwhile, Zach (Benjamin Ayres) is struggling to deal with Goran’s death, going so far as to put his life on the line by entering a quarantined area to help a sick patient rather than take the time to don a hazmat suit.

“For all of the fans of Zach, this is going to be a really big year for him,” Durance says. “He really gets to unpack some emotional stuff and deal with the guilt that he feels.”

Saving Hope airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

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CTV’s unwavering support for Saving Hope, Spun Out’s future still uncertain

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CTV is happy with Saving Hope. So much so when executives from Bell Media jetted to Los Angeles to purchase American acquisitions, the one untouchable timeslot was Thursdays at 9 p.m.

“We wanted to plant a flag that on the biggest night of the week in the home run timeslot of that night, Saving Hope is not only our choice but is going to compete for the No. 1 spot every week,” says Mike Cosentino, senior vice-president of programming for CTV Networks and CraveTV. “We think this is a great opportunity for Saving Hope.” The broadcast veteran notes there a big stories headed viewers’ way in Season 4, which began production on 18 episodes in and around Toronto.

Appearing in recurring roles are Kim Shaw (The Good Wife) as Dr. Cassie Williams, a book smart intern learning how to practice medicine, not just read about it; and Max Bennett (Anna Karenina) as Dr. Patrick Curtis, a surgical fellow who has been filling in during Alex’s mat leave. Travis Milne (Rookie Blue) appears in a four-episode arc. Repeats of Hope will air Saturdays at 10 p.m. on CTV.

CTV and CTV Two’s 2015-16 broadcast schedules were announced Thursday morning in Toronto, with the Erica Durance/Michael Shanks drama, newsmagazine W5, culinary competition MasterChef Canada and crime drama Motive all being part of the mix. Those last two join CTV’s midseason schedule.

Saturdays on CTV Two, meanwhile, boast old instalments of The Listener, Flashpoint and Motive, a move Cosentino says offers new viewers a chance to catch up on the crime trio.

One series absent from either schedule was the second season of Dave Foley’s sitcom, Spun Out. Plans to launch the laffer this past March after a high-profile return following the Super Bowl was scuttled when co-star J.P. Manoux was charged with voyeurism following an incident in the Toronto condo he rented during filming. The series remains in programming purgatory until the case is sorted out.

“We said it then and we’re still in the same place,” Cosentino says. “We’re holding off on our decision until we can get more information. As to whether it will make air or not is to be continued at the moment.”

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