Bridge over troubled daughters
September 19, 2002
By Rita Zekas -- Toronto Star
IT WAS 8:30 in the a.m., the morning after the Alliance Atlantis Toronto International Film Festival party at the Royal Ontario Museum, and Rebecca Jenkins rung up for the interview.
Arghhh! We were under the impression she'd call at 10 a.m. Never mind, at least we were vertical.
Jenkins had been up for hours, getting her 6 1/2-year-old daughter, Sadie, off to school. Sadie's dad is Markus Wade, a film technician and writer/filmmaker whom Jenkins met on Destiny Ridge. They are no longer a couple.
Jenkins, the darling of the Alliance Atlantis series Destiny Ridge and Black Harbour, is the co-star in two festival films, Past Perfect and Marion Bridge, the latter winner of the Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature.
"I had a great time at the party," she enthused. "I'm secure. There is such a buzz about the films I could relax. I don't have to apologize; I could settle down and have a great conversation."
Jenkins was a dancer/singer before her acting breakout as a swing singer in Bye Bye Blues, which bagged her a Genie in 1989.
She ditched dance for singing and then acting. "I wasn't committed enough," she said. "I didn't love dancing enough to starve."
Jenkins left theatre school in 1983 and landed her first film three years later. She had to audition for Bye Bye Blues director Anne Wheeler five times.
"She kept auditioning all over Canada," Jenkins recalled, "and then went to L.A. My Queen St. West identity was a problem, and I hadn't carried a feature."
Jenkins was an integral part of the Queen West music scene during the '80s, touring with Parachute Club and Jane Siberry.
After Blues, there was a brief flirtation with Hollywood.
Jenkins had a role in the film Bob Roberts, in which Tim Robbins starred and made his directorial debut. "I remember I was on the set once, and someone came up to me and called me `Susan.' I thought, `Right. I've been cast because I remind Tim of his partner (Susan Sarandon)."
There are worse things.
"I did the PBS show Clarence Darrow, and I played his wife, Ruby, a journalist. Kevin Spacey played Darrow. He is a sweetie, a pretty great guy."
And Jenkins looks nothing like his partner.
Past Perfect is written and directed by and co-stars Daniel MacIvor, who is also the writer of Marion Bridge. Jenkins and MacIvor mesh so well, people thought they were a couple when they posed on the red carpet at the party the night before.
"We're not involved, but I can't love him enough. I just `get' him. He is an outrageous talent."
Past Perfect is essentially a two-hander for Jenkins and MacIvor. They play two disparate people who meet on an overnight flight from Halifax to Vancouver, hook up and then become unglued. Her character, Charlotte, works in a garden centre, and she is seated beside Cecil, a seemingly prissy and stuffy linguistics professor.
When they met, Charlotte suspected he was gay.
"She was relieved because she didn't want him to hit on her; she was running away from Buddy,'' whom she'd met through a personal ad in a newspaper.
"I like how subtle Daniel is," she enthused. "The piece is so artfully created, it flows like a puzzle falling into place. Basically it is about communication and intimacy. It's about the difficulty of relationships and how important ritual is in life, how it gives some kind of meaning. There was a strong response for Past Perfect (at the festival). People have stopped me on the street."
But there was a five-minute ovation for Marion Bridge, which is a three-hander, or rather, a three-sister: Agnes (Molly Parker), Theresa (Jenkins's character) and Louise, played by Stacy Smith (New Waterford Girl). It is set in Cape Breton and written by MacIvor, based on his play.
Jenkins has four sisters and one brother herself.
In Marion Bridge, three sisters are reunited because their mother is dying of cancer, and they have to exorcise their personal demons. It is "a tale of loss and healing, of learning to let go of the past, crossing bridges and opening doors.
"It's about three sisters coming to terms with something difficult, and all three find something within themselves that they didn't know they had before," elaborated Jenkins.
"This is (director) Wiebke von Carolsfeld's first feature —she edited Five Senses. There is a lot of laughter in the film, and it is so real, you don't doubt for one moment that they are sisters. They want to kill one another, but they love each other. They share a particular secret, and each deals with it in different ways — they are responsible or numbed out."
Jenkins credits MacIvor with an uncanny knack for writing credible dialogue for women.
"He has sisters," she explained.
Yeah, but so does Oliver Stone.
"Audiences are ready for movies like this," she theorized. "Look at My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It's accessible, a romantic comedy, and a Cinderella story. It's corny, and it's a fantasy, and it's funny — it's not K-19."
It's a good time to be over 30.
"Daniel writes unbelievable roles for women, and he doesn't write for ingenues," stated Jenkins. "He writes older women who are gorgeously fleshed out, fabulous women."
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September 19, 2002
By Rita Zekas -- Toronto Star
IT WAS 8:30 in the a.m., the morning after the Alliance Atlantis Toronto International Film Festival party at the Royal Ontario Museum, and Rebecca Jenkins rung up for the interview.
Arghhh! We were under the impression she'd call at 10 a.m. Never mind, at least we were vertical.
Jenkins had been up for hours, getting her 6 1/2-year-old daughter, Sadie, off to school. Sadie's dad is Markus Wade, a film technician and writer/filmmaker whom Jenkins met on Destiny Ridge. They are no longer a couple.
Jenkins, the darling of the Alliance Atlantis series Destiny Ridge and Black Harbour, is the co-star in two festival films, Past Perfect and Marion Bridge, the latter winner of the Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature.
"I had a great time at the party," she enthused. "I'm secure. There is such a buzz about the films I could relax. I don't have to apologize; I could settle down and have a great conversation."
Jenkins was a dancer/singer before her acting breakout as a swing singer in Bye Bye Blues, which bagged her a Genie in 1989.
She ditched dance for singing and then acting. "I wasn't committed enough," she said. "I didn't love dancing enough to starve."
Jenkins left theatre school in 1983 and landed her first film three years later. She had to audition for Bye Bye Blues director Anne Wheeler five times.
"She kept auditioning all over Canada," Jenkins recalled, "and then went to L.A. My Queen St. West identity was a problem, and I hadn't carried a feature."
Jenkins was an integral part of the Queen West music scene during the '80s, touring with Parachute Club and Jane Siberry.
After Blues, there was a brief flirtation with Hollywood.
Jenkins had a role in the film Bob Roberts, in which Tim Robbins starred and made his directorial debut. "I remember I was on the set once, and someone came up to me and called me `Susan.' I thought, `Right. I've been cast because I remind Tim of his partner (Susan Sarandon)."
There are worse things.
"I did the PBS show Clarence Darrow, and I played his wife, Ruby, a journalist. Kevin Spacey played Darrow. He is a sweetie, a pretty great guy."
And Jenkins looks nothing like his partner.
Past Perfect is written and directed by and co-stars Daniel MacIvor, who is also the writer of Marion Bridge. Jenkins and MacIvor mesh so well, people thought they were a couple when they posed on the red carpet at the party the night before.
"We're not involved, but I can't love him enough. I just `get' him. He is an outrageous talent."
Past Perfect is essentially a two-hander for Jenkins and MacIvor. They play two disparate people who meet on an overnight flight from Halifax to Vancouver, hook up and then become unglued. Her character, Charlotte, works in a garden centre, and she is seated beside Cecil, a seemingly prissy and stuffy linguistics professor.
When they met, Charlotte suspected he was gay.
"She was relieved because she didn't want him to hit on her; she was running away from Buddy,'' whom she'd met through a personal ad in a newspaper.
"I like how subtle Daniel is," she enthused. "The piece is so artfully created, it flows like a puzzle falling into place. Basically it is about communication and intimacy. It's about the difficulty of relationships and how important ritual is in life, how it gives some kind of meaning. There was a strong response for Past Perfect (at the festival). People have stopped me on the street."
But there was a five-minute ovation for Marion Bridge, which is a three-hander, or rather, a three-sister: Agnes (Molly Parker), Theresa (Jenkins's character) and Louise, played by Stacy Smith (New Waterford Girl). It is set in Cape Breton and written by MacIvor, based on his play.
Jenkins has four sisters and one brother herself.
In Marion Bridge, three sisters are reunited because their mother is dying of cancer, and they have to exorcise their personal demons. It is "a tale of loss and healing, of learning to let go of the past, crossing bridges and opening doors.
"It's about three sisters coming to terms with something difficult, and all three find something within themselves that they didn't know they had before," elaborated Jenkins.
"This is (director) Wiebke von Carolsfeld's first feature —she edited Five Senses. There is a lot of laughter in the film, and it is so real, you don't doubt for one moment that they are sisters. They want to kill one another, but they love each other. They share a particular secret, and each deals with it in different ways — they are responsible or numbed out."
Jenkins credits MacIvor with an uncanny knack for writing credible dialogue for women.
"He has sisters," she explained.
Yeah, but so does Oliver Stone.
"Audiences are ready for movies like this," she theorized. "Look at My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It's accessible, a romantic comedy, and a Cinderella story. It's corny, and it's a fantasy, and it's funny — it's not K-19."
It's a good time to be over 30.
"Daniel writes unbelievable roles for women, and he doesn't write for ingenues," stated Jenkins. "He writes older women who are gorgeously fleshed out, fabulous women."
Back to articles