Kate Hewlett: News bits from Blog Radio 11-24-09 live interview
Snippets/Tidbits from BlogRadio interview with Kate Hewlett, November 24, 2009
Loves Italy. Favorite place is Florence. Used to speak Italian and took another beginner’s class
.
Been to Munich once and would love to go back there, as well as Barcelona.
Her only vice is drinking ;) She loves beer.
“Okay I have two vices!” The other is coffee.
She auditioned twice for Flashpoint. First role, she was too young and second she didn’t get. But she’ll keep trying.
Her charity is the Toronto Humane Society. She got one of her two cats there. And she likes Farm Sanctuary, which rescues farm animals. She got Martha at the Humane Society. It was around Halloween and she’s a black cat. Rufus is “challenging and adorable and obese,” and she found him on Petfinders.com.
When asked about David she said “I have no brother” (in jest). Apparently they rarely connect on the phone but connect via email, etc. In fact, he’s back in the States now and tomorrow she is flying off to Italy.
A chance to see my brother. She really prefers doing the cons with him as it’s more natural. A way to meet hundreds of new people who are supportive and lovely. The Q&As are quite fun.
Acting or writing? They’re different and fulfill different things for her. At the moment, she feels more like a writer. She’s working on a short film based loosely on Humans Anonymous, and a feature film treatment. She loves writing.
She didn’t want to admit she always wanted to be an actor as it’s not a real job. She went back and forth between being a teacher and actor but when at university, decided to see how acting went.
She’s got some great acting coaches and has taken auditioning classes, just little tricks. She said it was “so valuable”.
She’d love to visit New Zealand. And Australia. “That would be a good convention to go to.”
“Mars was the most professional actor I’ve ever worked with,” said Kate, of the dog star of “A Dog’s Breakfast.” A sweet dog.
How did she go about breaking into the acting/writing? Got an agent and tried acting for a couple years, couldn’t get in the door, then spent three very intense years training at a school, and then doors began to open. David never did. He’s “much more of a go-getter”. She’d write, then produced her work at the Fringe Festival and the right people saw it and it was produced in NYC. Best thing to do is generate your own material and get it out there.
Did voice work. It’s been really good to her. Just did a cartoon. “was a blast”. She’s done a series of TV commercials in an Irish accent. She plays a lot of teenagers as she can sound younger.
It came out that David has signed for another convention.
Was working with David challenging? Being directed by David was challenging and thinks he’s going to be a great director, but it’s tough being directed by a family member. “He’d make the sound of a truck backing up when I walked past the camera.” On Stargate, it was a different experience he was so laid-back.
About the movie “The Last New Year”. Shot in 2008? A lot of improve about a group of friend’s have a New Year’s project. She did a short film “The Day I Thought I Died”, directed by a sound editor in a group of shorts directed by non-directors. The CBC pilot, “Fancy” and at the end of December she begins rehearsal for a musical in Toronto. Has to play the trumpet as well! “The Assassin”.
Not a sports fan, when someone asked about hockey. She went curling for the first time for the “Fancy” shoot. Has a newfound respect for the sport as she kept falling over.
Blogging from Italy? Can’t blog until she surprises a friend in London, who hopefully didn’t listen to this interview!
What about doing Sanctuary? Not really, but would love to work with Martin Wood. “He was such a great director to work with.” And she’s in Toronto and it’s filmed in Sanctuary.
Who has she looked up in her life? A role model? This is going to sound so cheesy. “I’d have to say that my brother is one of my biggest role models that I look up to. No matter how much success he achieves he has a certain about him and a certain humility about him and he’s also kind…. He’s looked after his little sisters pretty well. I’d probably say him, even if he bugs me sometimes.”
How did parents handle having two actors in the family? She had an easier time than David, since he was the first one to go into it. Her father wasn’t crazy about it but her mother thought he was born to do that so was supportive now. Dad is very supportive now. Could never miss any school for auditions. Her sister Jenny was model/actress for a few years (not now), and other sister was an actress in theater when she was in high school and university but is now doing other things.
She was only going to chat for 20 minutes but stayed an hour.
http://www.loft-in-translation.blogspot.com/
The audio of this interview should be up at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ndbmedia sometime tomorrow.