Chantel Riley – Frankie Drake Mysteries

By starrymag | October 22, 2018

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

 

 

Q) What are some projects that you’re currently working on?

 

A) As of right now I am working on the “Suits” spin off. They are following the story of Jessica Pearson played by Gina Torres and she heads back to Chicago to try to help out the city where she’s from. Usually she’s in New York, so she heads back home to try and make a difference in Chicago. I play her cousin. Pretty much she comes back home, and I may or may not give her a hard time about it. I am also working on some music stuff of my own and putting an EP together.

 

Q) You’re on your second season portraying Trudy Clarke on “Frankie Drake Mysteries.” How do you continue to connect with the character, especially while juggling other projects?

 

A) What’s really cool with Trudy is that we’re set in the 1920’s so the hair, the makeup, the costumes always allow me to dive right in to who I am and who I’m playing. Trudy has some characteristics that are very similar to mine. She sings, she’s a great friend – I like to think I’m a great friend. I’m also learning a lot from her. She’s very courageous, which is something I’m trying to pick up from her, and she’s very bold. I think the atmosphere that I work in allows me to dive into Trudy. Working with Rebecca [Liddiard] and Lauren [Lee Smith] and Sharron [Matthews] makes it very easy to do that, as well as our crew and directors. They make it a safe space for me to really dive into Trudy and really have fun with her as well, not take it too seriously but allows me to have fun and really get into who she is.

 

Q) From “Frankie Drake Mysteries” to “Wynonna Earp,” you seem to have a habit of picking projects that involve strong, complex, and flawed women at the helm. Was this something you set out to do, or was it more of a happy accident?

 

A) I feel like it was a happy accident! I definitely feel it was a happy accident. It’s not every day you get to have the opportunity to play those kinds of roles and I feel like now people are writing those types of roles instead of the typical soft, sweet, submissive types of women. They’re actually writing stuff where we literally kick ass and I believe it was definitely a mistake that I am VERY happy about.

 

Q) What do you hope the biggest takeaway for fans will be in Season 2 of “Frankie Drake?”

 

A) I think most of all that women can do just as much, or even more, of what men can do. When it comes to the industry, stories about women and empowerment and sisterhood and friendship are important. We can see that on screen and people will watch it. It’s not just “oh more women on TV are just running around doing stuff” – people WILL enjoy watching. I’ve seen it with viewership, comments and tweets that we get while watching the show that they are enjoying it and it does sell. There was maybe some kind of negativity towards having an all-female lead and maybe thinking it won’t do well because it’s a bunch of girls, but it’s way deeper than that. It’s way more than that. We’re being able to portray it in a different light than what we’ve been used to in the past few years. That’s the great takeaway, we are changing the industry.

 

Q) Costumes and fashion play a major role in the characterization of both Trudy and Kate. Did you find the costumes to be transformative for you as an actor and how did they contribute to the overall tone of these projects?

 

A) If it wasn’t for the costume, hair, and set design in wouldn’t be the 1920s. It’s such a staple and is really able to show where we are within the timeline. It’s really important to have the different dresses and suits. They’re very specific in our hair and makeup departments, even in set design to they take a lot of time to do the research to be as specific as possible. I definitely think it makes our show. We get a lot of compliments on it so it’s working. I have fun wearing that stuff, I think it’s very cute.

 

What I’m finding, too, is that a lot of the pieces I’ve worn are stuff that they’ve pulled from current designers now. We do have great vintage pieces but there’s been a couple of my dresses that we’ve gotten from ZARA, but they’ve added embroidery here and changed the buttons there. It’s really cool to see the old school coming into the new school. Fashion is just all recycled.

 

Q) Your character on “Wynonna Earp” goes by many names. “Contessa,” “Big Nose Kate,” and more simply “Kate”. Each of these names seem to be associated with a certain period of her life or an aspect of her personality. When is she more of a “Contessa” than a “Kate?”

 

A) When she started getting her way, she really knows how to play that card. When she’s trying to get her way, when she’s around Doc (Tim Rozon), I feel like some of that aspect comes out. When she’s doing her tarot readings she gets a nice pretty penny for that and when she’s hungry and ready to feed, that’s her Contessa side. When she’s with her Kate side, she’s in her more vulnerable state. Doc also definitely brings that out of here and even telling her story with Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) – you see her backstory and you see her softer side.

 

Q) “Wynonna Earp”’s version of a vampire strays from the traditional blood sucker portrayal, but Big Nose Kate is a significant historical figure. Did you do any research on vampire lore or Big Nose Kate’s history to prepare for the role?

 

A) Yeah, definitely. When I was asked to be a part of the show and they told me that she was an actual person, I researched on the Wikipedia and the YouTubes and I came across a story about Kate and this will show more of her Kate side than her Contessa side because she is ride or die for Doc. There was a time during a card game with someone who assumed Doc was cheating after Doc won and it turned into a big old brawl. They tied Doc up and put him in a room to deal with him, so Kate got word of that and she lit up this house next to where he was staying. She lit it up on fire, arson, literally lit it on fire as a distraction and went into the hotel and freed Doc. They escaped together. That’s a really cool story that stuck with me and I think it’d be pretty cool to see it in an episode if they take me back next season. I was able to do some research on Kate. She’s very interesting and had a huge, really deep love for Doc.

 

Q) Kate was gifted as a Seer, even as a human. Her abilities were an integral part of season 3’s various arcs, from Waverly’s identity, to fostering hope towards the end. Do you think she considered her abilities to be a gift or a curse?

 

A) I think she thought of them as both. You know it’s a blessing because she was able to use it to find Doc, she was looking for hundreds of years. I also think it becomes a curse because although we say we want to live forever, we really don’t. I think having that, I can only imagine the things she might have seen and experienced after all the years. I’m sure she’s had some really tough times in her lifetime in that lifespan, so I definitely think it’s both. She got what she wanted to do, which was to find Doc – but she’s been living forever, she’s got to drink blood and hunt and all of these things. When she finally got there, she found out that the love of her life was in love with someone else and had a baby. That’s the downside of it.

 

Q) Love and loss was a major theme of “Wynonna Earp” this season. Kate lost Doc, found him and lost him again. Did you find anything particularly interesting about the dynamic between these two characters and their history of being lost and found both with each other and apart?

 

A) I feel like what I found I interesting is even though Doc is obviously in love with Wynonna, he still does have a deep love for Kate and a respect for her. The same with Kate, she knows that he moved on, but she also knows that Doc will always love her. She is the epitome of ride or die and to have held onto that love for that long is heartbreaking to think about. She turned herself into a vampire, so she could find the love of her life. The depths of their love and respect for each other is very beautiful and interesting to me. If it was anybody else, we’d be like “Bye, I’ll find somebody else,” but their love for each other, especially Kate’s for Doc is very beautiful.

 

Q) With your experience in the world of crime and mystery, to sci-fi and genre television – are there any tropes that you’d like to explore or see play out on screen for your characters?

 

A) It would be cool for “Frankie” to have some kind of weird day in the future kind of thing. I don’t know how it would happen, but it would be cool to see an episode that’s modern day. Frankie and Trudy are female detectives in 2018, which can happen. I’d love that vibe, it could be a little darker, and we could compare the different decades.

 

For “Wynonna Earp,” I think a character swap would be an amazing idea. I think that would be so dope. I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up doing that. If people tweeted about that enough, I’m sure they’d make that happen. Can you imagine? Wynonna switches with Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley). I could totally play Jeremy (Varun Saranga). That would be so much fun. Or Doc. Or Jeremy would be Doc. That would be hilarious considering he has an obsession for him. I’m down for that.

 

Q) How do you think Kate will react to the news of Doc’s journey into the Garden of Eden at the end of “Wynonna Earp’s” Season 3 finale? Will we get to see her journey next season?

 

A) It would be amazing to come back next season and continue that story. I think her reaction with Doc would be that she wouldn’t be too surprised. I say that because she knows that he’s a hero and knows that he wants to be a hero and he will do anything for his friends and the people that he loves. I feel like she’d be expecting that from him. Of course, she’d be sad and worried but overall – she would expect it to happen. She wouldn’t expect anything less from him.

 

Q) The town of Purgatory spontaneously vanished, with just Nedley (Greg Lawson) and Wynonna as the leftovers. Was Kate affected by the disappearing act or did she high-tail it out of town on the vampire party busy from the first episode?

 

A) You know what? I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know. I know that I’m alive. I know that, but I don’t know. Nah – she’s sticking around. There’s too much drama and fun for her to get into. Personally, I think she’s still there. She’s just chillin’.

 

Q) Can you give us any hints on what’s next for Frankie Drake and Trudy?

 

A) Ooooooh! What can I say to not give anything away? [laughs]. What I can say is that we got picked up by Ovation TV, so now our US viewers are going to be able to see us starting next year in July 2019, which is exciting. For this season, there’s a lot more ass kicking than last season. We can look forward to more Flo and Mary. What’s great about this season is that we are all a team now. We look like we’re officially a team. You’ll be seeing a lot more of the Sharron and Rebecca characters, which is always hilarious. I love when we all get to work together and Sharron and Rebecca working together is absolute hilarity. Definitely look forward to more of them which is exciting.