Lauren Lee Smith – Frankie Drake Mysteries

By starrymag | September 23, 2019

By: Lisa Steinberg

 

 

Q) It’s been an incredible journey watching your character grow. Talk about her evolution from where she has been to where we see her now.

A) I think it’s been a really cool evolution for Frankie. I think what we see more of now is her sort of opening to these relationships in her life within her partnerships with Trudy (Chantel Riley), Mary (Rebecca Liddiard) and Flo (Sharron Matthews) and putting trust and relying on them a lot more. Then, also, sort of seeing the relationship with Nora (Wendy Crewson), with her mother, and watching that grow and sort of starting off in a very volatile way and now we see these two people who are really the only family that each one has. They do rely on each other more than they care to admit. That’s been really nice to get to play and see over the course of the last three seasons. Also, Frankie’s relationship with men, we delved into that a little bit in Season 1 and we’ll delve more into that in Season 3. We see some familiar faces pop up and some romances that happen in her life. So, I think watching the relationships with Frankie over the last three seasons has been quite interesting. It’s grown quite a bit in terms of letting herself trust other people and rely on other people. I think those are good qualities. [laughs]

Q) Each of her friends bring a great balance and element to their group.

A) It’s true. I think that’s part of why the show has been working so well. It’s because we are so very different, unique and each one of us brings a different element to the show and a different relatability to the audience. It’s a little bit of something for everybody, I think. It’s really fun to play off of that. I know people say this all the time, but the fact is the girls and I genuinely have fun together and enjoy each other off screen. I think that plays a huge part in why those relationships work so well. It’s not all acting. [laughs] We actually have a lot of fun together and work really well together. We’re always like, “We’re so lucky that we have the cast that we have and we all get along so well!” We hang out outside of work, as well.

Q) There is an awesome social media element to the series, too.

A) Yeah, it’s interesting because we each have our own deal with social media and our own different ways of using social media. So, it is like someone will post, post, post and then you can keep up with them. Then, I forget most of the time. [laughs] It’s very much us – how we post on social media as well.

Q) I really enjoy the intricate costumes which really captures each character so well. How do this season’s outfit help you to transform into her as the time periods progress and play into her evolving identity?

A) At the end of Season 2 the producers and I kind of took a step back and thought what works really well for Frankie and what we thought didn’t work. I know it was all a general consensus that in Season 2 we’d gone away from the more tomboy look. Frankie went a little more femme and while that was fun and really beautiful, it’s not how we all sort of identified the character with. So, we decided really early on (even before we actually got a Season 3 pickup) costume designer Jenifur Jarvis and we wanted to create ten iconic Frankie looks that we thought would be how we really wanted to present this character and who we thought she was to the CBS. So, we worked really hard. We worked with an amazing group of tailors and we built these amazing costumes. We really went back to the idea of Frankie being sort of a more tomboy, androgynous, and ready to take on action. Ready to hop on her motorcycle or follow the next adventure. Being in these beautiful 1920’s vintage dresses, it doesn’t really lend itself to that and the idea of Frankie was always a little bit more physical and Indiana Jones-ish. So, we decided to really go back to that this season and find what we really liked the best. It was being more in pants and also it kind of sets her apart from everyone else. It keeps her different and a little bit ahead of the time. She’s a little bit of a rule breaker and doesn’t conform to the ideals of what women were supposed to be at the time, which was something I was always drawn about the character Frankie Drake. I’ve been over the moon this year about the look for Frankie and I think we finally found her physicality in a way that everyone is really happy. We all kind of went, “Oh yeah! This is what we should have been doing all along.” [laughs] We kind of all felt very grounded in the character. Even with the new hair…Hair is always the bane of my existence. We were trying, I think, for the last two seasons to sort of emulate this one picture that someone found that we sort of thought was Frankie Drake. The fact of the matter is it didn’t work for me. And we tried and we tried and we tried. My hair fell out and we tried a wig and that put an extra hour and a half to my day. So, we thought, “Why don’t we go back to the basics here. I’m naturally blonde. Everyone is happy with me being blonde. In the 20’s there was sort of that iconic Louise Brooks 20’s bob. No one on the show has that. The character Frankie Drake would have that haircut because she doesn’t spend a lot of time in front of a mirror. So, it just makes sense. I think all of those things just came together for Season 3 and got her back to being a little bit more physical, got her back on the motorcycle, kicking a little bit more butt and dressing a little bit more masculine. [laughs] So, in that regard, I think it’s nice and a luxury to have a few seasons under your belt to go, “Here is what we liked and here is what we didn’t like and now we can kind of have smooth sailing, hopefully.”

Q) This season Frankie heads to London and finds herself thrust into this aristocracy era where she has to find her way through it in order to work. Not to mention the expectations of women in this era. How will that push her or challenge her this season?

A) Yeah, I think that’s sort of Frankie’s thing, especially coming from her background and her spy background, too. I think that’s one of the things Frankie is good at is her adaptability and being able to shape shift into whatever she needs to be. She can create these characters. At the core there is Frankie and if she needs to put on a cocktail dress and play the part, she’s happy to do that. And we definitely see a lot of that in Season 3. It’s sort of a theme that’s fun to play – that sort of undercover stuff and how to conform to what everyone expects of that time. Frankie reluctantly goes, “Fine! I’ll do it for a case!” It’s a fun way to sort of look at that and how women were treated at that time and the differences between men and women and all of that. It’s a really fun way to sort of incorporate that into the show. All of the girls get to play around with that quite a bit this season, the undercover stuff and pretending to be different characters. I know we all love it because it’s like, “Okay! Cool! Let’s play dress up!”

Q) In our society we tend to put women under a microscope and people try to prejudge and label us. In that aspect, “Frankie Drake” feels full circle.

A) It’s interesting. It’s true. I think what the show does a really good job with what the writers have done…It’s interesting because the four core women we don’t necessarily do that. We’re all sort of ahead of our time and rulebreakers in our own way. Not really going alongside with what society would have deemed “acceptable” or “right.” A lot of times how we play against that is with the guest stars and supporting cast. It’s a nice balance that the writers have sort of decided to keep the core four women all doing their own thing in this backdrop of early 20’s. Then, using all of the guest performers to show the reality of what it was like and how the girls can sort of help facilitate women and get them out of binds or help the storyline move along in each episode. It’s a lot of women this season, which is amazing!

Q) Episode 1 will have Agatha Christie appear. You mentioned there are other guest stars helping the storyline progress this season. Anyone else historically you can say are sprinkled throughout the season?

A) I can’t name names, but we definitely incorporate some actual historical people. We do it every season and I think it’s a fun way the writers sort of do that and Season 3 is definitely no different. We’ll also see some familiar faces, perhaps from Season 1. They show up and make some more appearances, which was really cool. All in all, we’ve been extremely lucky with getting the guest stars that we have. There is also an amazing story arc that happens early on in the season for Frankie where she is completely thrown for a loop and someone from her past (someone she didn’t even know existed) shows up and basically turns her world upside down because she just thought there was her and her mom. Suddenly, there is another person there. That’s kind of all I can say for now. [laughs] That was a really fun storyline to play and perhaps something that will continue on. We’ll see!

Q) It was kind of teased that a supernatural element will play into this season as well. How will that amp up the season?

A) It’s fun. We tried a few different things this season, starting with the opener which is very different. It’s Frankie in London with the girls back home in Toronto holding down the fort. That is also very different since they are working remotely from each other. Then, we have this supernatural type of episode that has a very different feel to it. We have my favorite episode of the season, which is this boxing episode. I’ve been doing boxing training for the last few years and they incorporated that into an episode where I actually have to get into the ring and have a full-on fight. That’s a very different episode as well because it’s something we’ve never seen before and physically based. They’ve really done an interesting job…We have a mystery to solve, but each episode sort of has its own feel and its own look and a special something. It’s like a mini movie and I think the writers did an incredible job this season with that. It was really fun. It’s a lot of fun episodes, actually.

Q) I think that noir of the 20’s will be explored this season.

A) Yeah, even starting with our new opening. We have a new opening this season as well and I think everyone has gone, “Okay, I think we know what we’re doing now. Let’s be confident in that.” Even the opening has a more sort of 1920’s vibe to it. So, hopefully people respond well. [laughs] Hopefully, people like it!

Q) We discussed in the past how locations play a role into the season. Can you tease some locations we’ll see this season?

A) It was incredible to get to shoot in London. We were only there for two days so it was really sort of run-and-gun. It was a tiny little crew. There were only a couple of us that went over. The logistics of shooting in London are absolutely insane. So, it was really like, “Okay, we have forty-five minutes here. We have an hour and a half there.” So, everyone just worked their butts off to make the most of it and get as much real estate as possible and see as much as we possibly could of London. I think the highlight for me was getting to shoot The Savoy scene at The Savoy. It was pretty surreal and pretty incredible. It’s sort of this beautiful shot that pans down and we get to see the whole entrance way to The Savoy. I think when we shot that scene it was like, “We have an hour.” We had the old time-y vehicles and background performers. Everything had to work out just perfectly because we knew time was ticking. It ended up being a beautiful shot and I think it just makes the show that much bigger and a real special way to open Season 3. It was pretty amazing to get to go to London, I’ve got to say. It was a “pinch me” moment.

Q) What does the term “strong female character” mean to you?

A) It’s amazing. I think we’re seeing it more and more. I think it used to be a novelty where as now, hopefully, it feels like we’re moving into a space where it is not a novelty anymore and, hopefully, we can start not having to always put that before a sentence. Hopefully, it just be the norm and I think getting to play a character like Frankie, I feel extremely fortunate. And for young women to have these role models who are self-assured and smart and don’t completely rely on their looks or a man…they are completely independent and doing things on their own terms and self-reliant. I think those are all really positive things for young women to see and young men as well. I think it should hopefully become how we’re perceived instead of needing to explain it to people that that’s what we are. That’s my hope.

Q) The new “The L-Word” is coming out. What are your feelings and what are you excited to see from this series having been a part of the original?

A) I can’t wait! I’m so stoked to see what they have done this many years later. I think they have an incredible group of women behind the scenes and I think they have a wonderful new cast lined up. “The L-Word” was such an important show for the time and it meant so much to me. Now, we’re in a time where we sort of need to be reeducated and I think this is perfect timing. I think that it’s a really exciting time for the show and I think it is’ going to mean a lot to a lot of people can’t wait! I’m going to be watching with everyone else! We have so many more stories to tell now and I can’t wait to see what they have done with that. I’m really excited!

 

 

Frankie Drake Mysteries airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC, or stream episodes anytime on CBC Gem.