Katie Leclerc – Switched at Birth

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) We started filming “Switched At Birth” season three back in October. Right before I got to start that, I was able to do an episode of “Community.” That will air at the end of this month. I have a couple things on the burners right now.

Q) What is new this season on “Switched At Birth” and with your character Daphne?

A) The last we saw Daphne, it was sort of right after the whole Chip Coto debacle. We found out that blackmailing a Senator is actually not such a good idea. This season we start off where it is kind of a terrible nightmare that she is in an orange jumpsuit freaking out that she is going to jail. That doesn’t end up happening. She gets to spend some time at a health center as sort of volunteer hours and it is an obligatory there where she has to do it, even though she really doesn’t want to, because of the courts. Through the course of the season, it turns into this great blessing in disguise. It turns out she is really good with medicine and she never would have been exposed to it or been able to figure that out in any other way. I guess that’s always finding the silver lining. This season Daphne gets a little more medically inclined. There are definitely some boys involved, because they always are. There are two at the clinic, one is played by RJ Mitte and the other is by David Cataneda. Jorge, who is played by David, is a little more grounded and a little more quiet. He kind of reminds Daphne of her roots. Campbell, who is played by RJ, is wheelchair bound and he’s kind of a daredevil and a little bit reckless. He’s not really afraid of anything and at this point Daphne is kind of letting the two boys duke it out. She’s like, “Ok, I’ll take either of you. You guys figure out who the winner is and somebody get back to me.”

Q) Daphne has a new friend this season named Sheree. Tell us about her.

A) She is an African American girl who goes to school. She is less fortunate than some of the other students. So, there is new mixture students at Carlton and some of them are a little rough around the edges. Sheree comes from kind of a bad neighborhood and Daphne strikes up a friendship with her. We have this new little friendship that blossoms. It starts off bad and then becomes something that is really good for Daphne and creates some drama for the storylines.

Q) How does your character connect with Campbell since they are disabled, but in two different ways? They also have different relationships with their disabilities.

A) I think it’s really interesting the way that they do connect. Often times when you see someone in a wheelchair you want to run over and open the door for them. In the first scene where Daphne and Campbell connect is him getting into his vehicle. So, he has to take apart his wheelchair, speak to Daphne and remember to keep facing her so she can read his lips. It’s kind of a funny way where they both realize they are differently abled and both just as able as the other one. It’s kind of nice to see the connection. It’s not really voiced, but it gives you the idea that, “Wow, maybe I need to think about how I interact with disabled people. It’s nice to offer help, but sometimes people feel uncomfortable.” I don’t want this wheelchair bound person to think they can’t open the door themselves, but if I’m standing right there then why don’t I just do it?

Q) Speaking of relationships, how will Daphne’s relationship with her mother be tested or strained with her going off to college soon?

A) Kathryn is really struggling with the girls going off to college and Toby being married now. Kathryn is definitely taking it a little harder than Regina. Regina is preoccupied with work and has some exciting things going on with her life. Kathryn is really struggling with it, which she doesn’t really express to the girls. The girls are busy doing their teenage thing. Kathryn ends up joining a dance class to meet new people and get more out of life.

Q) Was there anything about your role as Daphne that you added that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) They cast me and then they said they wanted Daphne to play a sport. They asked me if I played any sports and I had played basketball from grade school into middle school. I ended up having to pick Drama over basketball, but it was nice that my first big role asked me what sport I wanted to play. This season on “Switched at Birth” we are playing a lot of field hockey, which is fun and exciting and incredibly hard!

Q) Who are some of the guest stars we’ll be seeing?

A) Bay starts taking classes at a local community college and there she meets a boy named Tank, who is played by Max Adler. Theresa, the art teacher at that school is being played by Sandra Bernhard, which is crazy because Sandra Bernhard is on our set now! Beyond that, there is Alec Mapa from “Ugly Betty” fame. He plays Kathryn’s new gay BFF. I feel like our show has really up’d their guest star game. It’s great because I get to nerd out all the time.

Q) What has been your favorite aspect of playing Daphne?

A) My favorite thing about Daphne sort of goes back to the wheelchair thing. If you don’t know somebody has this different thing going on in their life it can be a little bit scary since you have never been exposed to it. It doesn’t mean you’re bad because you’re afraid of it. It just means it is time to go face your fears and figure out what it is. I think that “Switched at Birth” gives a unique experience because not too many people know a deaf family. And by watching this show you sort of get a window into what kind of world that would be like. The way that we portray our deaf characters is that no one is a victim and no one is less than. In fact, often times our deaf characters have moments of strength that I think sort of come out of no where that you think, “Good for you!” My favorite thing about Daphne is that she is a normal girl. She has school, family drama and boy drama and it’s stuff that everyone can relate to. The fact that she is deaf is almost secondary to that face that she is a well rounded character and somebody that I really get to enjoy being around.

Q) What do you think it is about “Switched at Birth” that has made it such a fan favorite show?

A) I think that the sign language is a hook. It’s sort of one of those interesting things that people might be curious about, but don’t really have a way of looking into that world. I think that the sign language hooks you and the characters keep you coming back. If you have watched from the first episode, it’s great how much our characters have changed and how big an arc we’ve had over the last seasons. This season  you get to see Daphne become more of a woman. She’s getting braver where as before she used to be an innocent delicate flower, which is not the case anymore.