Calm waters in Black Harbour
Rebecca Jenkins setles comfortably into TV role
October 22 , 1997
By Claire Bickley Toronto Sun
I'm looking out my Sun window at patched asphalt. Rebecca Jenkins is watching the Atlantic Ocean lap at Nova Scotia's South Shore.
Who am I to claim that Here is the heart of things?
"Tell me you wouldn't rather be looking at this," Jenkins says from her rented home not far from the set of the CBC drama series Black Harbour.
The show opens its second season tonight at 9 and Jenkins says the cast and crew of mostly come-from-aways have moved beyond cabin fever to a vibe more in keeping with their surroundings.
"It's definitely more mellow," she says.
"When I'm not working, I walk down to the beach. I just like to be in nature, so it's a pretty big bonus to doing this."
Cast and crew have bonded more in off-hour gatherings such as baseball games where they're more concerned with who can play second base than with who's who on the production.
"It creates more of that friend feeling and eases things in every way. It just boosts the spirits," says Jenkins, who is now shopping for property in the area.
She also feels more at home now with her character, Katherine Hubbard, an L.A. restaurateur returned to the Canadian fishing village that suffocated her as a teenager. She looks more like herself too, her hair soft and blonde and strikingly different from Katherine's severe dark 'do last season.
"I was supposed to be this really hard-nosed business woman and they just couldn't think that anyone with fair hair could possibly have any brains. I take great offence to that and I didn't like it and I fought it," she says.
Jenkins also lobbied producers Barbara Samuels and Wayne Grigsby, whose dramatic style tends towards the melancholy, to lighten up the show along with her hair.
Although the story arc of Katherine's failing marriage continues, the first two new episodes are noticeably more playful, energized by the addition of actress Shannon Lawson as "Evil" Evie McGregor, Katherine's high-spirited friend from high school, and Katherine's motel-hopping affair with her married childhood sweetheart Paul (Alex Carter).
"It's not easy to play being down or angst-ridden all the time," Jenkins says.
"It affects you. So it's a pleasure for me to have a little fun. It's a pleasure for Katherine to be enjoying life. There's definitely going to be that melancholy, but there is more humor, definitely some lighter beats in it. It's so welcome by cast and crew."
Co-star Geraint Wyn Davies, who plays Katherine's estranged husband Nick Haskell, directed tonight's episode but does not appear. Nick returns next week to tell the family he's staying in L.A. and to ask for a divorce, but Davies will appear in 10 of the new episodes nonetheless.
Jenkins says she'd like to continue at least through a third season of the series but wants to return to movie work when production breaks at Christmas.
She spent the first off-season back home in Toronto -- "When I flew over the city, my heart got little palpitations because it was just so busy and I'm not used to that anymore" -- enjoying time with 20-month-old daughter Sadie and working on her upcoming CD. Jenkins puts on a sample of her latest work, complex and haunting vocals over an almost native drum loop. Its lovely and kind of witchy -- in the good way.
"Well -- tell 'em," she says.
Done.
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Rebecca Jenkins setles comfortably into TV role
October 22 , 1997
By Claire Bickley Toronto Sun
I'm looking out my Sun window at patched asphalt. Rebecca Jenkins is watching the Atlantic Ocean lap at Nova Scotia's South Shore.
Who am I to claim that Here is the heart of things?
"Tell me you wouldn't rather be looking at this," Jenkins says from her rented home not far from the set of the CBC drama series Black Harbour.
The show opens its second season tonight at 9 and Jenkins says the cast and crew of mostly come-from-aways have moved beyond cabin fever to a vibe more in keeping with their surroundings.
"It's definitely more mellow," she says.
"When I'm not working, I walk down to the beach. I just like to be in nature, so it's a pretty big bonus to doing this."
Cast and crew have bonded more in off-hour gatherings such as baseball games where they're more concerned with who can play second base than with who's who on the production.
"It creates more of that friend feeling and eases things in every way. It just boosts the spirits," says Jenkins, who is now shopping for property in the area.
She also feels more at home now with her character, Katherine Hubbard, an L.A. restaurateur returned to the Canadian fishing village that suffocated her as a teenager. She looks more like herself too, her hair soft and blonde and strikingly different from Katherine's severe dark 'do last season.
"I was supposed to be this really hard-nosed business woman and they just couldn't think that anyone with fair hair could possibly have any brains. I take great offence to that and I didn't like it and I fought it," she says.
Jenkins also lobbied producers Barbara Samuels and Wayne Grigsby, whose dramatic style tends towards the melancholy, to lighten up the show along with her hair.
Although the story arc of Katherine's failing marriage continues, the first two new episodes are noticeably more playful, energized by the addition of actress Shannon Lawson as "Evil" Evie McGregor, Katherine's high-spirited friend from high school, and Katherine's motel-hopping affair with her married childhood sweetheart Paul (Alex Carter).
"It's not easy to play being down or angst-ridden all the time," Jenkins says.
"It affects you. So it's a pleasure for me to have a little fun. It's a pleasure for Katherine to be enjoying life. There's definitely going to be that melancholy, but there is more humor, definitely some lighter beats in it. It's so welcome by cast and crew."
Co-star Geraint Wyn Davies, who plays Katherine's estranged husband Nick Haskell, directed tonight's episode but does not appear. Nick returns next week to tell the family he's staying in L.A. and to ask for a divorce, but Davies will appear in 10 of the new episodes nonetheless.
Jenkins says she'd like to continue at least through a third season of the series but wants to return to movie work when production breaks at Christmas.
She spent the first off-season back home in Toronto -- "When I flew over the city, my heart got little palpitations because it was just so busy and I'm not used to that anymore" -- enjoying time with 20-month-old daughter Sadie and working on her upcoming CD. Jenkins puts on a sample of her latest work, complex and haunting vocals over an almost native drum loop. Its lovely and kind of witchy -- in the good way.
"Well -- tell 'em," she says.
Done.
Back to articles