Emily Hampshire has guts. The Canadian actress had a good thing going in Toronto–constant work, a solid cast of friends and colleagues, and a career on the rise. Set on taking her career to the next level, she embarked on a journey that tends to cast feelings of doubt and insecurity in the hearts of most young actors–she moved to L.A. We sat down with the genial actress while she was in Toronto promoting her latest, the pseudo-political yarn The Trotsky, to talk about her new life in the Lala land, the state of the Canadian film industry, and why being good at being bad may have changed her life.

Do you enjoy living in L.A.?

Yeah man, I feel kind of apologetic saying that, but I really like it! I think it’s because every time I’ve gone down there before for pilot season or whatever, I didn’t drive, which is a nightmare, you can’t do that, and I was going down there to get some kind of job, and if I didn’t it was depressing, and I didn’t know anybody. But this time, I had gotten married right before I left so we kind of made it our home, and L.A. wasn’t just for work anymore. I even love driving now.

Do you spend hours and hours on the freeway?

Yeah and I don’t mind it because I have everything in my car. I pretty much live in it now. I’ve become one of those people.

What neighbourhood do you live in?

Echo Park. I love it. I think we really lucked out, and that’s probably another reason why I really like L.A. I’m not in West Hollywood or any of the places you go when you don’t know where else to go. Ideally I’d like to live in Los Feliz, but not Silver Lake, that’s a little too hipster for me.

Have you tried to avoid all the traps that accompany being an actress in L.A.?

I haven’t tried to avoid anything, I mean I think I’ve gotten into some of the traps actually. My first year out there was really hard because I came from Toronto where there’s no real star system, and I felt like I had a community there of people I knew; directors, casting people, all that, and so I didn’t feel like I had to prove myself that much there. So going to L.A. was like starting over again, and was kind of humbling. The next year I got a new manager, and it made a huge difference.

Did that help you navigate what can often be a tricky Hollywood landscape?

Well the first three months were awful because my husband’s visa hadn’t gone through and he was flying in from Boston, and I was flying in from Toronto, and he couldn’t get in. So for three months he couldn’t get into the country and I needed him to teach me how to drive when he got there! So for three months I took the bus, which nobody believes exists there, but it does and it works if you have just one place to go all day.

So how has the move to L.A. helped your career?

I can’t say that I’ve gotten much work down there. It’s funny because when I went there I brought the actor’s strike, and then the writer’s strike and so the whole industry has changed. However, I’ve gotten so much more work here [in Toronto] which is awesome. I’d love to just live in L.A. and come back here and be put up in a hotel and do movies that I want to do.

Do you identify yourself as a Canadian actress?

I do. If anyone asks me what I do it’s always that. In L.A. I’m ashamed to say I’m an actor out there because everyone’s an actor! I feel like I’m lying or something, so I say “Canadian actor!”

Do you have a desire for that big U.S. break?

Not really! My desire is to have choice. And I want to be able to choose, even if it’s a Canadian project that I really, really want. If I was a name, it wouldn’t be a question that much. If I could have that kind of choice and not do stuff that I don’t want to do it would be perfect, and the only way that happens is by getting that American break.

Do you often do things that you don’t want to do?

It’s never been something that I don’t want to do. But it’s so rare to see something and say “I want to make this whole movie.” It’s starting to come, but I usually take things that I think are good, but are not really my dream projects.

Is The Trotsky an example of something that you’d consider a dream project?

Yes. The Trotsky and the next movie that we’re doing in Montreal Notre-Dame-de-Grace, that is a dream project for me.

How so?

The whole package is there, I think the script is brilliant. I think Jay [Baruchel] and Scott Speedman are perfect for these parts. Jacob [Tierney] and I are like twins separated at birth and the part he wrote for me–much like The Trotsky–is a side of me that Jacob knows, but that no one else who’s seen any of my other work would ever give me.

Does that make this role more pressure filled? Do you have these anxieties before taking on a role?

That’s really the perfect question because I had known about The Trotsky script for ten years. Originally I was going to play Caroline, the rebellious high school kid, and Jacob was going to play Leon, and that was back when we could both still play high school. And then years went by, and when it finally came to making it, we were both older, and I ended up playing the older woman, and knowing that this was Jacob’s baby, and knowing that his dad Kevin who’s kind of like a dad to me–knowing how important this project was to them, I constantly said “If you want a name get a name! Rachel McAdams! I’m sure she’ll do it!” I was totally talking myself out of it! The first day, I was such a disaster. But once the first take was over, it was easy and amazing and that goes for every movie.

Is it difficult going from one movie to the next and abandoning certain attributes from previous characters?

I don’t feel that way but I know a lot of people do. I feel like it’s so helpful to me because then I always have ideas, I’m always in this mode. I actually found it really hard to do a series, and I ended up getting out of my contract after three seasons because I felt like I couldn’t come up with stuff for the same thing over and over again. I need new ideas, so I find it easy. It’s weird because all my old roles actually feel like different stages of my life.

When did you decide to take the plunge and become an actress?

I always think about that. There were two defining moments when I think back. One, when I was really young and I went to see Les Miserables and I wanted to be Éponine, so I think I wanted to be in musicals and that was just the most amazing experience. I felt like I left the earth just watching that. Then I did a play, and my high school vice principal came up to me afterwards and told me how good and funny I was, and even though it was a terrible little play, and I, as much as everybody else was terrible, but I was the best of the terrible ones. Until then I hadn’t found anything that I was really good at except having ideas and arts and crafts and those types of things. When I got my first movie it was playing Geneviève Bujold’s daughter who’s actually in The Trotsky and she kind of took me under her wing, and we wrote letters back and forth, and she invited me to stay at her place in Malibu, and it was kind of amazing and inspiring to see someone from Montreal, who kind of looked like me, and who was kind of a model of a career that seemed possible. So that became a model for me at the beginning.  It was great to see her again on The Trotsky and say “I’m still working!”

What do you think about the state of the Canadian film industry?

People always say that Quebec has a real film industry because they have a star system, and you can’t discount the fact that it’s the language. I mean they’ve created their own thing, but I think it’s a lot harder for English Canada to compete with the biggest machine in the world. I can’t really speak for the film industry but as an actor, what I’ve really noticed being in L.A. is that there’s the famous people, there’s the Anne Hathaways, but when you get down to my level, which is not famous, but still auditions and I’ve worked, there’s not a lot of those in L.A. There’s a lot of people just doing commercials and aspiring and it’s kind of like they don’t get to work as much as we do. All of my actor friends work a lot because I can make ten movies and be the lead in them because they can’t get a huge American star. So I get that experience and I’m not famous from it, so I can do it again. It’s a situation I’m really grateful for now that I’m in L.A. When I was younger I wanted my first movie to be a huge success and instantly I’d be super famous but god, if that would’ve happened to me it would have been terrible. Every movie I learn more, so if I hadn’t had all those experiences that afford me to walk on set and be self-sufficient, I wouldn’t be the actress I am today.

(photos by Geoffrey Knott)

- Daniel Barna