LOS ANGELES -- Suffering through countless show biz auditions is bad enough, but actress Emily Hampshire is actually allergic to them. "I started breaking out in full body hives when I went to audition,” she says.
That was not exactly the impression she wanted to make. A Canadian actress with scores of shows under her belt, Hampshire was trying for the big time in L.A.
“That caused a lot of anxiety when I broke out in hives,” she recalls. “So I told my American agent that I can’t audition anymore. I can put myself on tape, but I can’t go into the room. And she dropped me – which was totally fair.
“So my Canadian agent, who I’ve been with since I started, didn’t. And then the audition for ‘Schitt’s Creek’ came along and she’s like, ‘Go in the room. They’re Canadians. They’re nice.’ And I went in there and that changed a lot of things.”
Hampshire’s role as the deadpan front-desk clerk in “Schitt’s Creek” proved a seismic shift. Hollywood producers began to take notice and she was no longer just another hopeful vying with 100 others for a small role.
In fact, on Aug. 22 Hampshire is costarring with Adrien Brody in “Chapelwaite,” a 10-part period thriller for Epix. Hampshire plays an ambitious writer who applies for the job as governess in order to document the family living in the infamous manor, Chapelwaite.
The series is based on Stephen King’s “Jerusalem’s Lot,” and exemplifies the foreboding terror he’s known for. “I just loved the role in that she’s such a modern woman ahead of her time,” says Hampshire. ”I really thought of her as the female Stephen King.”
Hampshire herself has always been ahead of her time. She left home at 16 to try her luck in Toronto, what she calls “Hollywood North.” “I moved there on my own, but I ended up living in my agent’s basement. At the time I thought I was soooo old and definitely mature enough. Now when I look at 16-year-olds, I’m, like, ‘Oh, my god. I was such a baby.’”
Her parents didn’t even attempt to stop her. “I just was very independent and I think I’ve always -- from a very young age -- wanted to live alone and have my own place. I remember when I was a kid, I had this little cubby-hole under the stairs, and I would go in and imagine it was my own apartment, and that I would have running water. So I think moving and living alone was something that inevitably was going to happen.”
Hampshire began to snag parts as the “pretty girl,” “girlfriend No. 1” the “cute girl-next-door.” But she wasn’t happy with the brand. “I got a little older, I’d put on some weight, and wasn’t as attractive and started to get these character roles which I absolutely ended up getting the best parts I could’ve ever gotten,” she says.
“It taught me how to be more than the little ‘box’ I was being put into and it taught me comedy -- which is a terrible way to learn it-- but I just thought, ‘Well, if I’m the fat girl, I’ve got to be funny.’”
Funny she is, but she explains, “I always felt uncomfortable and had kind of an imposter-syndrome in anything that would define me by my looks. In retrospect I see that it’s very possible that unconsciously, at the time, I tried to ruin the way I looked because I wasn’t just ‘the girlfriend.’
“And because of that, character parts led to other character parts, and I got to work with the same directors again and formed relationships in that way.”
She’d costarred in an earlier movie that was expected to erupt with kudos, but quickly fizzled. “I feel had I had what I initially wanted, which was at 16 to be working with Leonardo DiCaprio, and felt like I was a failure at 18 – had that all worked out the way I wanted, I would not have a career today or be a mildly sane person,” she says.
Hampshire is divorced from agent Matthew Smith. About that, she says: “I had a wonderful marriage. I was married to an amazing guy, and we were the perfect people for each other at that time. And one of the things I’m actually most proud of is how good friends we are now, even though I love his wife more than him.
“But I really have kind of realized that I love my independence. I guess it’s taken me a long time to – it sounds really cheesy – but to love myself,” she shrugs.
“And now that I'm so happy with myself, I'm kind of afraid to give that up in any way. So I don’t know if I'm ever going to be in a relationship again. I’m quite happy . I love working more than anything -- that’s my biggest relationship. And I feel like I have such great friends, I see myself more like living in an artists’ compound,” she says.
Hampshire admits that she’s a workaholic. “But I am happiest when I'm working – that doesn’t mean necessarily on the set – it’s when I'm creating stuff. And that brings me such joy. But I definitely think it’s because I never want to be heartbroken again. It’s not lost on me that I'm avoiding something.”
‘STARGIRL’ DIVULGES HER FAVORITE SUPERHEROES
Brec Bassinger returns for the second season of the stalwart “Stargirl,” cheerfully battling evil on the CW this week. Bassinger, 22, confides she coveted her share of heroes when she was growing up.
“I have tons of superheroes in my life -- like my family, and my mom is a real-life superhero, in my opinion,” she says.
“But as for a more fictional superhero, I remember going to Six Flags growing up and I just thought Wonder Woman was the coolest girl. I would take pictures next to her.
“More recently, I really loved Spider-Man. I think it’s cool that he’s in high school. So I really related to him. Talking about why people love superheroes, the ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming,’ I loved that movie so much, because it came out when I was transitioning out of high school, so I felt I related to him so much and I loved seeing him trying to balance the high school and the superhero life.”
As Stargirl, Bassinger must not only deliver comic lines, but must execute some authentic physical prowess, especially with her magic Cosmic Staff.
“I was a gymnast growing up. So, I could do some of it,” she says. “But as for the Cosmic Staff, I felt like I had two left feet. I was so uncoordinated with that thing. I’m 5-foot-2 and that thing is 6-foot. So I was always tripping over it. The amount of cameras I hit with it, the amount of people I hit with it the first season, was not my brightest moment.”
‘SEX AND THE CITY’ SEQUEL
Most of the ’Sex and the City” klatch will be back in the new 10-part series for HBO Max, “And All That,” which is filming now in New York. Of course, Kim Cattrall, as the snipey Samantha, won’t be among them because of an alleged feud between her and star Sarah Jessica Parker. But Cynthia Nixon, Parker and Kristin Davis will return as the femmes who now have to learn how to navigate their fashionable 50s.
Supporting actors like Willie Garson, David Eigenberg and Mario Cantone will once more join the chorus. Cantone, who plays Anthony Marentino, started his career as host of a kiddie show. But his humor goes way back before that.
“I was funny when I was little I was probably pretty obnoxious too not to say that I'm not at this point of my life,’ he says.
“I think a lot of it as a child was the need to make my mother laugh who was very serious. And in junior high school I was always the one that got f---bashed a lot because I was the ‘theater’ boy and I never bowed down to any of the peer pressure. I always did what I wanted to do,” he says.
“I couldn’t go places in junior high school; I was afraid because it was always, ‘Look there at the f--’ because I was doing theater. Then all of a sudden, it flipped over in high school,” he says.
“By high school I had the captain of the football team and baseball team as my protectors. It all shifted because I just said to them, ‘I may not be able to do that, but look what I CAN do, you b------s.’ I was the star of all the shows in high school, and I picked my roles. I told my drama teachers, ‘I want to play this role in this play.’ And they’d go ‘All right.’ I was much more difficult then than I am now.”
‘SUPERSTAR’ SERIES GRACES ABC
ABC will be doing its best to cure the “summer TV blues” by introducing its new series, “Superstar,” premiering Wednesday. The episodes will showcase America’s most famous faces including Kobe Bryant and Robin Williams, kickstarting with a revealing penetration of the late, great Whitney Houston.
The documentaries will feature never-seen interviews with friends, family, co-workers and intimates, revealing the heart of these treasured icons.
Houston tragically died on Feb. 11, 2012, in a Beverly Hills hotel room. Shortly before she died she talked to me about the cost of fame.
“I don’t want people camping outside my door, “ she told me. “ I don’t want to hide in my house because people are in the bushes -- that's what they do. That's so ridiculous. You're invading someone's life. It’s a waste of my time. I’m not going to do anything, I'm just going to take my daughter to school. It p---- me off.”
She was also the favored subject in entertainment magazines and exploitive TV shows.
“If had my way I would eliminate people being able to say and do what they want, putting us in this picture that they create without allowing us to say (the truth) for ourselves,” she said. “Let people accept us for what we are and not what people write about us.”
“Superstar” will air the following day on demand and via Hulu.
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