LOS ANGELES _ For many actors, performing is a way of gaining attention. For Canadian actress Rachelle Lefevre, it's an escape.
"My childhood had a fair amount of unpleasantness in it," she says. "And I wanted to be somewhere else _ which is something I hear a lot from actors. So it started from wanting to be somewhere else and just enjoying that reprieve in life. And as I got older, I started to realize the other side of it," she says.
The other side of it is the delight she feels when she's targeting a complicated character. The actress who's best known for "Under the Dome," "Proven Innocent" and two of the "Twilight" movies, is reveling in that challenge now.
She plays a frantic wife adrift in a New Zealand fiord searching for her lost husband in "The Sounds," streaming in eight episodes on Acorn TV.
"I like to play in the muck, something I find myself saying a lot," she chuckles. "I like the fullness of people. I like how they can be weird and complicated, and all the same. And every role I play I get to know myself better in the work I really enjoy. And also I always learn things from other people, no matter how different they are. I always feel more connected after those pathways have been opened."
Ever since she played the Wicked Witch in the first grade, she's never deviated from that pathway. Although she attended college majoring in literature and education, her eye was always on the prize.
"I always wanted to be an actress, but I wanted to go to school because I love learning. So I knew I wanted to do that. I also knew I wanted to learn as much as I could about the world and nature. I never felt acting was different."
Lefevre says her parents _ her mom is a psychologist and her dad teaches English _ didn't try to dissuade her from her chosen path.
"I never had any of those 'how-are-you-going-to-pay-the-bills?' conversations. They said whatever you set your mind to _ not in an overly idealistic way, not in a my-baby-can-do-anything-way, but it was more of a work ethic.
"It really had a place in our house in the conversations I had with my parents. They both had fierce work ethics and a very strong sense of their own strength. And so I just felt like I was always encouraged to merge my own desires and strengths with a really good work ethic."
The mother of a son, 4, and a daughter, 18 months, Lefevre remarks, "I would say to any parents with kids who want to be artists of any kind, I would say real suffering is having a fire in you for some creativity that wants to get out, and having it snuffed out before it even has a chance to exist."
Married for five years to Chris Crary, who is the chef at 1 Hotel West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip, Lefevre says she's not afraid to cook for him, though she's had what she calls "some embarrassments" in the kitchen.
"He's not intimidating. It's not his personality, he's not a snob. Just because he's a great chef, he doesn't really expect everyone else to be."
The two met on Twitter, and when she went to meet him for the first time at the restaurant, she took a girlfriend with her.
"I remember thinking that he was super cute, that was the first thing _ in that button-up chef's coat. And then I remember thinking that it was awkward. When he came out to the table from the kitchen, and I was sitting and he was standing, and I sort of didn't know what to say. I thanked him for the food, but it was hard to have a conversation in the middle of a crowded restaurant."
She and her friend stayed till quitting time.
"Then he came out from the kitchen, and it was lovely. I remember thinking he was shy, which surprised me. He was very confident when he came out of the kitchen, very comfortable in his environment, very comfortable in his chef's coat and in the role of a chef, but when he sat down and it was just boy-meets-girl, I remember that he seemed shy."
Lefevre admits that she's timid too.
"I'm shy inside, but it's not how it manifests on the outside," she confides. "People who are shy and introverted, both internally and externally, I think they cover up their shyness; they're afraid you're going to see. They cover up their shyness by just not speaking and staying quiet and maybe you won't notice them.
"Then maybe I do the opposite in that the bigger I seem, the less you'll see of the inside. The bigger the outside, the more distracted you are by the smoke and mirrors of the outside, the less you'll pay attention to the inside _ which is terrified. More specifically, I'm not shy, I'm terrified," she admits.
"I'm very comfortable being a character _ whoever that is. I won't cry as me. I would rather give myself paper cuts at home than have my real feelings shown in front of another human being, as ME. But as a character, you can have whatever you want. I can turn myself inside out for you."
HBO MAX STREAMS MURDER TALE
It was a British murder so puzzling that an Australian felt he had to tell it.
"The Murders at White House Farm" begins streaming on HBO Max Sept. 24. It's the true story of an entire family that was found slaughtered inside their farmhouse in England.
Kris Mrksa, who wrote and executive produces the series, explains: "I've actually written quite a lot of material based on true stories at home in Australia, and I can honestly say that of everything I've worked on, this is by far the most accurate, and the project in which the most attention has been taken in getting details right.
"Inevitably, there are moments where you have to take the liberty. Some of that's just dictated by the realities of making six hours of television as opposed to these events (that) took place over months and months and, in fact, a year or more in some cases, if you go through the trial."
He says he was intrigued primarily by two factors.
"One was the fact that it had an almost uncanny aspect to the crime. Whatever way I looked at it, there was this locked up farmhouse and the whole family are found dead inside it, locked from the inside. And the mystery about what happened that night sounds so intractable and so impenetrable that I found that absolutely fascinating," he says.
"But the second part was really the emotional dimension, the human dimension. Among the victims, were two little boys, two 6-year-old boys, and it was reading Colin Caffell's account of the crimes _ he was the father of those two boys, he was a survivor _ that really engaged me emotionally. And I thought that his journey, the way he managed to deal with those events and recover from them was incredibly inspiring and really, really moving."
VETERAN ACTOR ACQUIRES NEW SKILL FOR SERIES
Actor Toby Jones can switch from mild-mannered treasure hunter to a snobby aristocrat in a dizzying flash. That's no problem. But the British performer had to learn to drive a bus for his latest venture, "Don't Forget the Driver," a comedy premiering on BritBox Tuesday.
"I didn't have to learn the coach, but I found it a useful thing to do," he says.
Jones plays the bus driver hauling day-trippers on a variety of exhausting outings. "Don't Forget the Driver" is a little reminder for these feckless vacationers that they should tip the driver _ a courtesy they easily overlook.
"So, I did go and do coach (bus) driving lessons. I didn't pass my test, but I certainly did loads of lessons," says Jones, who's also a producer on the show.
"And we had a private place _ a private track, a studio track we could use for most of the coaching. (bus driving.) And anything we would do in public I would do with an official driver behind me. But I loved driving the coach. It was one of the great bonuses of it."
Jones, who was so funny in "The Detectorists," says he can maintain his composure, even when he's creating comedy. "I don't find it difficult keeping a straight face most of the time. Certainly, when you're developing your own show, there's the anxiety of making sure everything works OK _ that is enough to keep you with a straight face. As many, many people have said before, it's a very serious business trying to make comedy."
BARRYMORE HOSTS TALK SHOW
Drew Barrymore has spent many hours in front of the camera and the microscope on talk shows in her long life as a performer. But now she's turning the tables.
Barrymore is hosting her own syndicated daytime talk show, "The Drew Barrymore Show," which she promises will be different.
She says when she was the subject in the hot seat she always had a plan.
"Being spontaneous and being myself and not pretending to be anyone else or try to hit a comedic story, but use the time as if my heart and excitement were on the line, but that I wasn't there to sell something," she says.
"I would love to try and give people a refreshing approach if they want ... I would love to go in the backdoor of conversations and talk more about your life experience, or your upbringing, rather than the thing you're working on now and promoting. I know that's an essential sort of aspect, and we'll certainly professionally hit that button.
"But I love when Barbara Walters and Howard Stern interview people. It's like the journalistic integrity of research and interesting questions and (the) disarming has been something I've always loved as a citizen of the world. So I want to have a different approach to conversations, something more casual, something a little more disarming," she says.
