Non-MX Interviews: Lauren Lee Smith (6/12 Urban Rush)
Urban Rush video interview 6/6/12: Lauren Lee Smith
Transcript
Fiona Forbes: Welcome back to the show. You'll recognize our next guest from The Listener. I'm joined now by Lauren Lee Smith and Rainbow Sun Francks. How are you both?
Lauren Lee Smith: Excellent, thank you.
Fiona: Well, welcome home to you, I guess.
Lauren: Yes.
Fiona: Are you a Torontoian now?
Lauren: I kind of am. Toronto is, I do call--
Rainbow Sun Francks: We've claimed her.
Lauren: Yes. I call Toronto home now, but my whole family is still in Vancouver.
Fiona: Right.
Lauren: So I make many trips a year back.
Fiona: And Rainbow, you're no stranger to Vancouver, of course. You did Stargate here.
Rainbow: Stargate and This Space for Rent. I did a couple shows here, and I lived here for many, many years, almost a decade I lived here.
Fiona: And you're doing some music while you're in town.
Rainbow: I am, I'm working. Actually my whole musical crew is out here. They're called the Hastings Set, led by Chin Injeti out here. The reason I'm out here isn't just to promote The Listener, but it is to work on some music.
Fiona: Very cool. Now let's talk about The Listener. I mean, all the promo stuff I got said Season 3, you've got all these great guest stars and a lead character is gonna die. Who is it?
Rainbow: It's me.
Lauren: Noooo!
Rainbow: No, it's not me. It's not me.
Fiona: It's a pretty good teaser, though.
Rainbow: It's not me.
Lauren: It is, it is. Yeah, this season 3 is really exciting. There's a lot that happens. And we kind of start off with some great people. We have Ian Tracey and Kristin Lehman, and Rosiff Sutherland, in the first episode.
Rainbow: Rosiff Sutherland too.
Fiona: And some changes too, and that will bring us to the clip too. Maybe you can tell us, Rainbow, we'll set it up. What's new this season on The Listener?
Rainbow: New on The Listener? Well, last season, season 2, we ended with Toby having a really hard time with his powers, and his brain was gonna explode. And no one was sure what was gonna happen. And so that gets cleared up, which is a big thing. And the biggest thing is--
Fiona: Does he stop listening to people? He's just going to mind his own beeswax?
Lauren: He tries.
Rainbow: Yeah. I think he stops, he tries his best. It lasts for about 12 minutes...
Lauren: Yeah.
Rainbow: ...and we're on to season 3. But what happens is, he actually gets brought into our crew. So I think if we're going to set up the clip...
Fiona: Let's set up the clip right now. It's a good time to see it.
Rainbow: What happens is--well, it's self-explanatory, actually.
Fiona: Yep, it's from the first episode. Here it is. [Clip] And there you go, everybody is a happy little team.
Lauren: And he's a part of the team, officially.
Fiona: Now Lauren, we should probably mention your hair, because you look fantastic as a redhead.
Rainbow: Agreed.
Lauren: Thanks.
Fiona: But you're not one on the show. What happened? What brought this on?
Lauren: I had just a little moment when I went to go get my roots done a couple of weeks ago in L.A. And I just thought "Yeah, I definitely, I think I should go back to being a redhead for a while."
Fiona: Now, not to get you in trouble, but aren't you supposed to check with certain people when you're a lead on a show like The Listener?
Lauren: Yes. Yes, I am definitely supposed to do that. So this is my coming out.
Fiona: Rainbow, do you like?
Rainbow: I love redheads.
Fiona: Do you approve?
Rainbow: I love a redhead.
Fiona: There you go. Now we are going to look at some people of the show, and Rainbow, I don't want to talk about your hair.
Rainbow: Yeah, well.
Fiona: I want to talk about your Canadian tuxedo.
....
Rainbow: We have amazing wardrobe. Michael Ground is a genius.
Lauren: He is phenomenal.
Rainbow: And he is just such an amazing friend to us.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rainbow: And we love him. And he's been gracious enough to let, especially me, work out a lot my wardrobe with him. And so we get together and we come up with weird stuff.
Fiona: You're wearing that hat in an episode.
Rainbow: I wear this, is one of my personal hats. I wear a lot of my personal clothes on the show because Dev's style is very close to my own.
Fiona: Very cool. And Lauren, you are not a cop who wears sensible shoes.
Lauren Never. Never.
Fiona: There's a certain chase scene in an episode that hasn't aired yet that I saw that you couldn't keep up because you're shoes were too hot.
Lauren: Oh, I can run in heels.
Rainbow: She can, too. She bolts in heels. It's just insane.
Lauren: But we actually had to add a line in one episode because I did have on heels and we're chasing this guy. I'm like, "I'm wearing the wrong shoes, dammit." So, yeah, we've sort of incorporated that into it.
Fiona: Little bit of a different wardrobe than in CSI.
Lauren: A little bit.
Fiona: Little bit.
Lauren: Just a little bit. There was no heels happening on CSI, no.
Fiona: No.
Rainbow: I think they need to put that line in, you know, like the famous "I can do everything you can do, but in heels."
Lauren: But in heels. That would be good. Yeah.
Rainbow: I think that would be a good line for you.
Fiona: So what else is coming up with your characters on Season 3? Rainbow, what's gonna be happening with you?
Rainbow: I have a giant computer screen that they gave me.
Fiona: And you sit there.
Rainbow: And I sit there, and I do genius things that no human is capable of with two hands and about 15 monitors. It's an incredible thing.
Fiona: So you're the resident geek.
Rainbow: She calls me and says track down this and do this, and in four seconds I've done more than any human is capable of.
Lauren: It's pretty incredible, your new setup. He literally has these huge monitors surrounding him.
Rainbow: It's fun.
Fiona: Is that like real life? Are you a bit of a geek?
Rainbow: Yeah, I am very much so. And I have this new screen, a tablet that I can bring and I can brush things, like Minority Report.
Fiona: Oh, totally.
Rainbow: I can throw things up, so when I'm showing them, I'm like, "Yeah, so this is one of the suspects," and I do that and it shows up there.
Fiona: Do you guys as, like your characters, have you visited real police officers? Does anyone in real life have a Minority Report?
Rainbow: I spend my time at Best Buy.
Fiona: Best Buy.
Rainbow: I just like to shop, I spend a lot of time at electronic stores.
Lauren: I love that, the Apple Store.
Rainbow: Checking it out, doing my research. The Apple Store, I wait in line. I take my time.
Fiona: Doing character research.
Rainbow: Yeah. Just research, just research.
Fiona: And what about you? What's going on with your character this season, a little bit of love action maybe?
Lauren: Maybe, yes. My husband does come back for a couple of episodes, Kris Holden Reid.
Rainbow: All the ladies love him.
Lauren: All the ladies love him, yes, all the ladies love Mr. Reid. So he comes back for a little bit. And Michelle sort of, you know, she struggles a little bit with the new dynamic of the team now, because she is no longer the big boss. She has to answer to someone, so that's kind of interesting. She butts heads a little bit with Mr. Alvin Klein.
Fiona: There you go.
Lauren: So there's a bit of that going on.
Fiona: Lots of friction, lots of fun in Season 3.
Rainbow: And Toby.
Lauren: Yeah, and Toby becomes much more of the partner now, so working closely with someone who is not essentially a cop is challenging.
Fiona: Very cool. Make sure that you check out The Listener. It airs Wednesday nights, 10:00 on CTV. Thanks so much, you guys.
Lauren, Rainbow: Thank you.
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