Avaah Blackwell is both an actor and a stunt performer, known for her versatility and power on screen. She is lucky enough to be a part of one of our personal favorite series, Star Trek: Discovery. Read all about it below!
Hi Avaah, thank you for chatting with us! We are huge fans of Star Trek: Discovery. What can you tell us about the current season? What can you tell us about the Osnullus and what is it like playing one?
Hello and thank you for chatting with me! So great to hear you like the show and thank you for all of your love and support! Season three is airing on CBS All access in the States and Crave in Canada. You can catch season two on Netflix! This season is an incredible ride for all of the Starfleet crew aboard the Discovery! We are in the future fighting for everything we believe in and everything that StarFleet is about!
Eric, a Saskatchewan native, moved to Toronto to pursue his dream to become an actor– and you might have seen him in popular shows such as The Strain, Reign and Schitt’s Creek. His new movie, Love in Harmony Valley, premiered on the Superchannel this Fall. Learn more about his journey and projects below!
Hi Eric, thank you so much for answering our questions today! Tell us about yourself and what influenced you to pursue acting. When did you want to know you wanted to become an actor and what was that journey like for you to get you to where you are today?
You know what, there was this one moment as a kid that I decisively remember saying to myself, “I want to do that when I’m older.” I was featured background on a Jamie Foxx movie when I was around nine years old I think, and it was the one day we finished getting these baseball game scenes shot and as I was walking across the dirt roads to go back to holding, Jamie and his team were shooting a basic car stunt. The car is ripping away in the gravel and Jamie was hanging out of the window, and I guess maybe what I really wanted to do was stunts, haha, but yeah, I just loved that whole experience so much and knew it was something I really wanted to do one day. But it really wasn’t until I was 21 [years old] that I truly entertained the idea of the arts as a career choice.
Actor, Sydney Meyers, is known for her roles in shows such as Shadowhunters and The Expanse. Now, she stars in Netflix’s Grand Army, a show that represents and explores many social issues that teenagers are facing today. Season one of the show is now available on Netflix.
Tell us more about your new show on Netflix, Grand Army. What is the series about and what drew you to the project? Who is your character, Anna Delaney, and what role does she play in the story?
The series is a true to life look at five teens in Brooklyn and their lives in school and online as they struggle to find themselves and their voices in their community. I was working the casting sessions in Toronto as a reader and I was immediately drawn to the rawness and authenticity of the scripts. I was invested right away and knew that I wanted to be a part of the project. Anna is Joey’s best friend since childhood and Tim’s twin sister, she’s also the motherly figure of her group. She is put in the middle of a conflict that arises between Joey and the rest of her friend group and Anna is forced to pick a side and ultimately to deal with the consequences of having to do that.
What was the most compelling aspect about playing someone like Anna for you personally? Do you relate to her in any way, or what do you admire the most about her?
It was really interesting for me to play someone who is 16 years old, it felt like such an interesting exercise in hindsight to play a high school student and look at her actions and decisions as an adult and try to really take myself back to the place I was when I was that age. I relate to Anna’s nurturing side and her desire to do well.
For the young adults who will be watching, how do you hope they’ll respond to the show and to your character plus the other people in the show?
I’m really just hoping that young people will watch this show and feel seen and heard and represented. I hope that this show will act as a catalyst to open up conversations that need to be had. I hope it will give young people the courage and the space to discuss these issues with the people in their lives.
Why do you think it is important to explore these harder topics and situations that many teenagers are now facing today? What makes Grand Army’s story-telling authentic?
I think it’s important that young people feel their struggles are being heard and are being represented and I think it’s important that adults look at shows like this and understand what the young people in their life are potentially dealing with. It’s important to bring these issues out of the shadows and create a space for conversation and solutions and healing. The story telling in Grand Army is authentic to me because it is messy. It isn’t glamorized, the kids don’t always get it right, they don’t always make the right choice, it isn’t always fun. It’s real, and it’s messy and it hurts and often they fail. That is real life.
If you could go a few years back and give the teenage version of yourself advice, what would it be and why?
To be blatantly honest, I feel like when I was in high school I had so many adults telling me “these are the best years of your life!” with the best of intentions, but I think that really was hard for me to hear because high school sucked. I read a book later in my life that said “if life were to suddenly get easy, I doubt it would happen in High School”, and that felt so relevant to me. I guess I would say to my teenage self, you don’t peak in high school and that’s a beautiful thing. You have your whole life to blossom, have patience with the process. These hallways aren’t the whole world. That might not be the shiniest answer but I think that’s the truth for me.
As an actor, you’ve gotten to play in different worlds– Shadowhunter, V-WARS, The Expanse, etc– do you have a dream project or role you’d love to play one day?
I feel like there are so many roles that I’ve watched brilliant artists do and thought “man I would love to play that”, but the truth is, that role was so special and impactful because it was unique at that time and the artist portraying it was at a particular place in their life that they brought something unique to it. So it’s hard for me to point to any role and say “that’s a dream role”. There are things I would love to do, people I would love to work with, challenges I would love to take on. But I’m hoping that there will be a role, or roles that come my way that when I see that script I feel inspired, and it feels right and I’m at a place in my life where I can bring something to it and the story is relevant and that would be a dream. That’s all I can really hope for. I don’t think I can draw that out at this point.
Thank you so much for doing this interview! For our final question, if you could choose one super power, which would it be and will you use it for good or evil?
I’d love to be able to learn/adopt any new skill I wanted. I would obviously use it for good, what are you talking about– the world needs no more evil. We’re set there.
With the world and culture of Drag taking on the mainstream media, Drag Heals brings heart and soul through this documentary style series now available on Amazon Prime, OutTV Canada and AppleTV. Find out more from the minds behind the show, Tracey Erin Smith (stage director) and Charlie David (director) in our interview below!
Hi Tracey and Charlie, thank you for answering our questions! Can you tell our readers about your series, Drag Heals? How did you both get involved in the project?
Tracey: Drag Heals is a documentary TV series that follows my 10-week SOULO theatre workshop teaching drag artists to transform a story from their lives into a one-person stage show. Each episode dives deep into one of the participants’ lives and explores their life outside of class. In class, it’s like being a fly on the wall in a bedazzled and soulful therapy group for drag performers. I had been teaching Drag King Workshops in Toronto called Dude For A Day and I wanted to offer the reverse for men, while combining it with my SOULO process.
Circus of Books was a bookstore and gay pornography shop, opened in the 1960s by an unlikely and unassuming straight couple who kept their business from their personal lives a secret. The documentary explores the challenges they faced, edited, written and produced by Kathryn Robson who was nominated for an Emmy (Outstanding Writing in a Nonfiction Program) for her work on the film. Find out more below!
Congratulations on your Emmy nomination for Circus of Books, Kathryn! How are you feeling? Did you know while working on this documentary as editor, producer and writer that you had something special in your hands?
Thank you so much! I’m feeling all the things– thrilled, surprised, excited, and really humbled. I knew Circus of Books was a really special story, and while I was working on it, I definitely felt if we could get the film out, we would find an audience who loved the story as much as we did. But getting an Emmy nomination is really beyond what I imagined. Just getting a documentary made and into the world feels like a minor miracle, so this is really rewarding.
Jessica Huras is a Canadian actor and filmmaker, and Bing! Bang! Bi! is her latest short film, which she wrote, directed and starred in. The film is a personal exploration of representation of bisexuality on the screen and is currently screening at Frameline International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, then at the Inside Out Film Festival in October. Find out more about the movie and Jessica below.
Hi Jessica, thank you for answering our questions today for Defective Geeks! Please tell us about your new short film, Bing! Bang! Bi! What inspired the story and the title?
The film is a bi-visibility, slice of life, comedic short that follows Morgan– a recently single, struggling actor, who is trying to navigate her sexuality and express herself amongst her oldest friends after arriving in her hometown for an unusual gig. I wanted to write a screenplay that was personal and meant something to me. My process was inspired by a scene I had observed between two exes who hadn’t seen each other for almost 20 years. By contemplating the fluid nature of relationships and love gone by, I started to zero in on what I really wanted to explore– the intricacies of being bisexual. The title is a play on the song at the end of the film. That Sophia Loren track really encapsulates the buoyant and slightly vintage feel I wanted the film to have.
PADMAVYUHA is Raj Krishna’s latest thriller film starring Nikhil Prakash, Ross Turner and Pooja Batra, which is set to hit the film festival circuit in 2020, starting with the North Carolina South and East Asian Hollywood Film Festival (NCISAFF). Krishna delves and pulls inspiration from faith and mythology for the setting of his story’s mystery. Find out more below.
Hello Raj, thank you so much for answering our questions. Can you tell us about your film, PADMAVYUHA. What is it about and what inspired the whole premise of the story?
Padmavyuha is a unique Indian-American production, a mystery thriller. It’s about a mysterious phone call that draws a religious studies professor into a dark labyrinth of mystic puzzles– the answer to which could shake the foundations of the world’s religions. I wanted it to be a trippy, edge-of-your-seat thriller, whilst also being a comprehensive, balanced lesson in Indian history. I followed the good old-fashioned filmmaking advice and made the movie I would want to see on opening night.
At eight-years-old, Carina Battrick’s rising success as an actor shows her passion for performing. Her upcoming film– Viggo Mortensen’s directorial debut– Falling will be set to screen at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival this month. Read more about Carina and the movie below!
Hi Carina! Tell us about your upcoming film, FALLING– what is it about and what role do you play in it?
Falling is a family drama spanning over many generations. It is a story of the relationships we form with our loved ones and how those connections affect the life we lead as adults. In this film, I play the role of younger Sarah and what I really liked is how the relationship between my character and her father is portrayed when she grows up. How small moments that we might think are not big at the time can really have a big impact on who we end up becoming 30 years later.
