Snug in a brighter Harbour
November 14, 1998
By Jim Bawden The Toronto Star
Rebecca Jenkins jokes she finally got her own TV series only to find Black Harbour was being shot in Hubbards, Nova Scotia. “It really is the most beautiful spot in the Maritimes. Also the most quiet. A yachting hub, everything closes down by 10 at night. If I stay up to 11 it’s a big event.
“Still, I get to stay in a wonderfully big old house in nearby Chester. I can concentrate entirely on the script without any distractions save the weather. It’s quite a nice life.”
Jenkins only had to travel as far as Toronto. Co-star Geraint Wyn Davies recently moved to Santa Barbara because his wife said she couldn’t stand another Canadian winter. So “I find myself in the dead of February facing the Atlantic Ocean and it’s so cold Rebecca and I couldn’t kiss in our big outdoor scene. We were so afraid our lips might freeze together.”
Jenkins has heard all the suggested alternative titles for the prime time CBC serial from Depressing Town to Bleak Harbour. “The first year we really were black – it was very woeful, the mood on the set. People even got after me because I had dark hair. Oh boy did we suffer.
The second season the show was a vast improvement but fewer viewers were watching. Stuck on Wednesdays at 9 in the most competitive time period of the week, the series was clearly floundering. Moving to Fridays for the third year at 9 gives the series space to grow.
“There’s been a sense of fun on the set,” says Jenkins. “The lid is off. In fact I think there’s been a little too much tom foolery going on. For highly paid professionals we’ve been acting mighty goofy between takes.”
Jenkins says for the series to work, the writing had to improve. “And it has. The latest script I saw had this wonderfully textured quality It was very much an ensemble piece which is what we are aiming for. But it’s so hard to achieve that.”
Davies won’t divulge what’s going to happen this season. Will Katherine (Jenkins) stick with her first love Paul (Alex Carter)? Will Nick (Davies) get closer to Paul’s ex-wife Vicky (Rhonda MacLean)? After all, tangled relationships are at the emotional core of every successful soap opera.
Davies should know - he’s also directing three episodes. “I just think the stories make more sense and get viewers better involved. We now know the kind of series we want to do. Directing is hardest on Rebecca. She doesn’t know whether to play to me as the actor or as the director:”
The two had met years before at a party at their agent’s Toronto home, exchanged pleasantries and “The next time it’s kissy huggy time on the set and I hardly know this gorgeous woman,” jokes Davies. “You see how hard this acting life is.”
Davies, 40, was born in Wales but his family moved to Canada when he was 7. He’s been acting since he was 18 and has eight seasons at Shaw and Stratford behind him. This is his sixth series – the others were To Serve And Protect, Airwolf, Dracula: The Series, The Judge and Forever Knight.
“I never think of myself as a TV actor, which is strange. I always say I’m a theatrical actor. But my tolerance for TV has risen with the years. I want to get into films now that the family is settled and comfortable in Santa Barbara. During the hiatus I spent 3½ months doing the play Gross Indecency in Los Angeles. I’m finally inching into the American acting community.”
Davies’ last TV work, Forever Knight, cast him as a blue-eyed, baby-faced vampire. The series was a cult hit but viewers complained they never could find it because Baton kept switching the time periods. “And there was no promotion,” Davies says. “That’s so important. Now that it’s in reruns on the Space channel and U.S. sci-fi channel I’m suddenly getting all this fan mail.”
Jenkins, 39, was born in Alberta, went to theatre school in Vancouver but these days lives in Toronto. Oddly enough she still thinks of herself as a singer who also acts. “Singing is for the soul. But acting is okay, too.” Her last series was Destiny Ridge dubbed by wiseacres Lustiny Ridge after Global tried to sex up the series for its second season. “It didn’t work. All those people who had watched for the pretty nature scenes were shocked and turned off.”
For years she sang backup for Jane Siberry and loved the work. CBC tracked her down and turned her into an actress with the 1988 TV feature Family Reunion – she was wonderfully cast as a punk rocker with platinum tresses..
If she has a defining role it’s the character of Daisy, the big band singer; in the 1989 Canadian feature Bye Bye Blues. “I loved her so much I thought of naming my baby daughter Daisy. Still think I should have.” The international success of Bye Bye Blues made her hot with American producers and she made the movie Bob Roberts with Tim Robbins and the TV feature Darrow with Kevin Spacey.
She never thought of defecting to American films saying “Home’s here. But I can work anywhere.”
What will happen to Katherine? Is getting back with Nick an impossibility? “Viewers don’t think so,” warns Jenkins. “They say in our letters that we look nice together. We do have a following, that’s for sure. How to get more viewers tuned in is the next big hurdle. Stay tuned.”
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November 14, 1998
By Jim Bawden The Toronto Star
Rebecca Jenkins jokes she finally got her own TV series only to find Black Harbour was being shot in Hubbards, Nova Scotia. “It really is the most beautiful spot in the Maritimes. Also the most quiet. A yachting hub, everything closes down by 10 at night. If I stay up to 11 it’s a big event.
“Still, I get to stay in a wonderfully big old house in nearby Chester. I can concentrate entirely on the script without any distractions save the weather. It’s quite a nice life.”
Jenkins only had to travel as far as Toronto. Co-star Geraint Wyn Davies recently moved to Santa Barbara because his wife said she couldn’t stand another Canadian winter. So “I find myself in the dead of February facing the Atlantic Ocean and it’s so cold Rebecca and I couldn’t kiss in our big outdoor scene. We were so afraid our lips might freeze together.”
Jenkins has heard all the suggested alternative titles for the prime time CBC serial from Depressing Town to Bleak Harbour. “The first year we really were black – it was very woeful, the mood on the set. People even got after me because I had dark hair. Oh boy did we suffer.
The second season the show was a vast improvement but fewer viewers were watching. Stuck on Wednesdays at 9 in the most competitive time period of the week, the series was clearly floundering. Moving to Fridays for the third year at 9 gives the series space to grow.
“There’s been a sense of fun on the set,” says Jenkins. “The lid is off. In fact I think there’s been a little too much tom foolery going on. For highly paid professionals we’ve been acting mighty goofy between takes.”
Jenkins says for the series to work, the writing had to improve. “And it has. The latest script I saw had this wonderfully textured quality It was very much an ensemble piece which is what we are aiming for. But it’s so hard to achieve that.”
Davies won’t divulge what’s going to happen this season. Will Katherine (Jenkins) stick with her first love Paul (Alex Carter)? Will Nick (Davies) get closer to Paul’s ex-wife Vicky (Rhonda MacLean)? After all, tangled relationships are at the emotional core of every successful soap opera.
Davies should know - he’s also directing three episodes. “I just think the stories make more sense and get viewers better involved. We now know the kind of series we want to do. Directing is hardest on Rebecca. She doesn’t know whether to play to me as the actor or as the director:”
The two had met years before at a party at their agent’s Toronto home, exchanged pleasantries and “The next time it’s kissy huggy time on the set and I hardly know this gorgeous woman,” jokes Davies. “You see how hard this acting life is.”
Davies, 40, was born in Wales but his family moved to Canada when he was 7. He’s been acting since he was 18 and has eight seasons at Shaw and Stratford behind him. This is his sixth series – the others were To Serve And Protect, Airwolf, Dracula: The Series, The Judge and Forever Knight.
“I never think of myself as a TV actor, which is strange. I always say I’m a theatrical actor. But my tolerance for TV has risen with the years. I want to get into films now that the family is settled and comfortable in Santa Barbara. During the hiatus I spent 3½ months doing the play Gross Indecency in Los Angeles. I’m finally inching into the American acting community.”
Davies’ last TV work, Forever Knight, cast him as a blue-eyed, baby-faced vampire. The series was a cult hit but viewers complained they never could find it because Baton kept switching the time periods. “And there was no promotion,” Davies says. “That’s so important. Now that it’s in reruns on the Space channel and U.S. sci-fi channel I’m suddenly getting all this fan mail.”
Jenkins, 39, was born in Alberta, went to theatre school in Vancouver but these days lives in Toronto. Oddly enough she still thinks of herself as a singer who also acts. “Singing is for the soul. But acting is okay, too.” Her last series was Destiny Ridge dubbed by wiseacres Lustiny Ridge after Global tried to sex up the series for its second season. “It didn’t work. All those people who had watched for the pretty nature scenes were shocked and turned off.”
For years she sang backup for Jane Siberry and loved the work. CBC tracked her down and turned her into an actress with the 1988 TV feature Family Reunion – she was wonderfully cast as a punk rocker with platinum tresses..
If she has a defining role it’s the character of Daisy, the big band singer; in the 1989 Canadian feature Bye Bye Blues. “I loved her so much I thought of naming my baby daughter Daisy. Still think I should have.” The international success of Bye Bye Blues made her hot with American producers and she made the movie Bob Roberts with Tim Robbins and the TV feature Darrow with Kevin Spacey.
She never thought of defecting to American films saying “Home’s here. But I can work anywhere.”
What will happen to Katherine? Is getting back with Nick an impossibility? “Viewers don’t think so,” warns Jenkins. “They say in our letters that we look nice together. We do have a following, that’s for sure. How to get more viewers tuned in is the next big hurdle. Stay tuned.”
Back to articles