Victoria Sanchez – Bellevue

By starrymag | February 20, 2018

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

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

A) It’s not all acting. I’m also producing and writing and directing. So, I have my hands full with a lot of different projects. On the acting front, there are a lot of things I can’t talk about due to NDA’s and stuff like that as they are more hush hush. I’ve been producing a lot lately. I recently produced Adam MacDonald’s film Pyewacket. It’s going to be coming out sometime soon in the US. Then, I’m also developing a TV series called “Night Terrors,” one called “Bittersweet Tales” and a kids’ travel show. I’m directing a video for a dog rescue shelter. So, I’ve definitely been keeping busy. It’s great that I get to combine all my passions at once. I’m pretty blessed. I get to work with people I really enjoy working with. The next feature I’m producing is a fantasy film by a young genius filmmaker named Sebastian McKinnon (who goes by Seb). It’s actually based on a trilogy that you can find online. There are three short films called The KIN Fables that are meant to be a cinematic experience that these guys did at a very young age. I spotted them and I supported them and freaked out with what they could do. So, I approached them with my best friend, partner and manager Sandy Martinez. She is producing this film with me. We’re hoping to shoot that this summer.

Q) Please tell us the premise for your show “Bellevue” and about your character Maggie Sweetland.

A) I always see it as a giant puzzle. It’s about the disappearance of a teen questioning their gender identity in a small town and how that effects the people in the town and how it links people to dark past secrets. It also effects Annie Ryder (played by Anna Paquin) who is a detective on the case as she begins to receive eerie riddles from a mysterious entity. It keeps stirring up her haunting past. I play Maggie Sweetland who is the mother of the transgendered child who goes missing.

Q) What made you want to be a part of the series?

A) The script that Jane Maggs wrote was a bit of a revelation. Here in Montreal it can be a small town. It’s rare that we see these unique scripts come about. So, when we see these scripts start circulating within the actors of town everyone appreciates it since they haven’t seen anything like that in a while. It was daring, complex, edgy and different. I think that’s one of the things that drew me to the project right away. I’m drawn to dark stories and characters. I’m a good person and a kind soul, but I’ve learned to embrace my dark side in a happy way. [laughs] I think that’s definitely what drew me to the project as first. With the character, I love that she has so much baggage. It’s fun for an actor to play such juicy roles that have a depth to them. So, that was cool.

Q) What have you found the most challenging aspect of portraying Maggie?

A) First, I hadn’t touched a cigarette in a really long time. Maggie happens to smoke in like every scene so that made me feel a little bit sick, but I felt like I had to do it. That was a wise choice. Sometimes in our line of work you have to do things that are a little bit odd. [laughs] I also put myself on an unhealthy diet to feel more the part and look more the part. I think losing the weight also helped with the aging. I look older on the show than I do with the real life. It also added to the low energy of the character. Carrying the emotional tone of the show was a challenge. I can’t say that was really a challenge though because I have an easier time portraying emotional characters for some reason. I find comedy harder than drama, although I love both.

Q) Were you familiar with any of your costars before you started working with them on “Bellevue?”

A) I was familiar with quite a few because it was shot and cast around Montreal. Joe Cobden who plays the priest, is interestingly a comedic actor and a very funny guy. He did a great job as a priest and is super talented guy on many levels. I got to work with some of the finest actors in Canada. Shawn Doyle, who I recently met because Adam wanted to cast him on the film Pyewacket. So, it was quite a lot of people I knew on the show already. Anna [Paquin] was someone I didn’t know personally though, but was a huge fan of hers from The Piano I don’t watch a lot of TV so I wasn’t able to follow all her success through “True Blood,” but I couldn’t wait to meet her and see how she grew up from the girl who won the Oscar and had done that adorable Oscars speech. I was pleasantly impressed when I met her. She’s a real professional and really supportive and respectful of the craft. She’s also got this twisted sense of humor and knows how to lighten up the mood when it is called for. She’s just really supportive. We had some great talks. I felt like I bonded with her on many levels and I felt blessed to do scenes with someone who actually got how vulnerable one can be when you let yourself go there. So, Anna was a real, real pleasure to work with.

Q) What were some of your most memorable moments from filming the show?

A) It was shooting with Anna and working with great directors. Also, an awesome writer like Jane Maggs and veteran producers. I like how they all trusted what we were doing with our characters and gave us some freedom. Also, I loved shooting at that location. It was an eerie place that added to the mysterious vibe of the show. It was also creepy knowing there are old asbestos mines, but it definitely made for a very different kind of setting and mood. That was really special.

Q) What do you hope viewers take away from watching “Bellevue?”

A) That’s a good question. I feel like maybe it’s the complexities of being a teenager in a small town. Often big cities are depicted in TV shows like New York and LA. So, it’s nice to see small town folk and their issues. It is also important to make people aware of our transgender youth and start talking about what they go through and hopefully talk about awful the repercussions and the homophobia and how we can deal with it. I think somehow it would be good to get the conversation going and encourage the youth to speak more and come out more and find solutions. I think that’s what I hope people get from the show. I think people are already starting to open up on Twitter and send messages. People I meet on the street, too. Even transgender youth that I have met since I’ve shot the show, they are really happy that they get a voice. I’m proud to be a part of a show that sheds light and helps people come out and talk about it more.

Q) You are a part of social media. Do you enjoy the instant fan feedback you receive to episodes?

A) I do! I do! I’m not a big tweeter, usually, but the cast sort of got me on board for the episodes. And it’s been fun. It’s been fun to see people’s reactions live and the fans come together. Just seeing their responses…I think we made it to a top five trending topic for the premiere. So, that’s been cool. Also, Anna is such a trooper. She has so many fans and she’ll respond to them. She’ll add them. It’s pretty impressive with her schedule…An actress who has twins and works as hard as she does to actually have the time to do this…I have so much respect for her. That’s been really cool to see.

Q) You are also a part of the upcoming Amazon rendition of “Jack Ryan.” What does it mean to you to be a part of such an iconic series?

A) Honestly, I’m still pinching myself about that one. I’m so lucky. I’m still like, “Did that really happen?!” I absolutely loved working on “Jack Ryan” and with John Krasinski and Timothy Hutton. Tim was an actor I looked up to when I was growing up. There are great actors and directors on the show. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about it because we have to keep it pretty hush-hush for now, but it’s a big show. And Amazon is putting out some amazing shows right now like “The Patriot.” After we shot “Jack Ryan” they went all over the world to keep shooting. So, I’m really looking forward to seeing how that turns out.

Q) You are a director, producer and actor. Is there anything else you would like to try your hand at?

A) [laughs] I think I have enough on my plate with that and keeping working on that. But I’m also the type of person that goes with the flow. Producing was something I never had in mind. I knew I wanted to be an actor at the age of seven and I made that happen. And for twenty years I acted and then being on set and meeting people I was very aware of what was going on and I have a lot of compassion for what other people do. So, I understand the whole realm of teamwork and how it all operates. From there, people came up to me asking me for advice or asked if I could find some people (since I had a lot of resources and contacts to help them shoot their stuff). Bit by bit people started asking me to produce stuff for them. So, I was a production manager on a very, very low budget film that was shot for $35,000. It was a feature film that went on to win seven international film festival awards. After that, I adapted my favorite childhood book, which was a ghost story called Wait Till Helen Comes. Then, I made Adam MacDonald’s film in Toronto. That’s going to be released soon. Also, I’m writing my own stuff. I really plan on directing because I realize that directing has always been in my blood. My father was a director. It was always in my blood, but I was in kind of denial of it since I wanted to be an actress. I let it flow now and it’s been a realization of something I needed to do.

 

Follow Victoria Sanchez: