Inside a TV studio at the eastern edge of Toronto, actress Leah Renee and her two Satisfaction co-stars are on set, comfortably sprawled across worn-in couches, discussing strategies for handling the mouse that’s been tormenting them in their apartment.
Their well-travelled living quarters — with colourful walls, makeshift furniture and orderly clutter — would doubtless be familiar to anyone who spent their 20s in a shared living situation in Toronto (or any other major Canadian city, for that matter). And the conversation about the mouse probably hits home as well, possibly even down to the agreement that the best way to deal with a pest in the bathroom is simply never to use the bathroom again. The whole scene screams urban, twentysomething everyday life and not the pristine Dwell magazine version of that life, either.
Then suddenly Jason Priestley yells “Cut!” and darts across the set to give his actors notes, and the full artifice of the scene comes into the foreground.
The three stars of the new CTV sitcom listen attentively to Priestley (their director for two episodes) while crew members hover at the periphery of the living room, preparing for the next take.
It’s all a show, but it looks strikingly real: the set is accurate down to the chipped paint on the apartment radiators, the tacky decor of the local hockey-themed pub and the eclectic selection at the convenience store.
This attention to detail speaks to the show’s commitment to depicting the daily intricacies of life and relationships of today’s twentysomethings — and making you laugh while doing so.
As the melee around the living room couches breaks up, Renee jokes with her onscreen boyfriend, London, Ont., native Luke Macfarlane (of Brothers & Sisters fame) and Calgary comic Ryan Belleville, who plays their third wheel of a roommate. Moments later, though, they snap professionally back into their dialogue without missing a beat.
Like her character, Maggie, Renee is from Toronto and in her late 20s. Unlike Maggie, Renee has never had to pour pints to make rent, since she’s worked in entertainment pretty much from the time she could speak.
When her father first explained the profession of acting to his five-year-old daughter (who was curious about “how people got into the television”), Renee announced that she was the girl for the job.
“My dad said, ‘I don’t know how to help make that happen,’ because nobody in my family’s in the industry at all,” says Renee, “but he ended up taking the night shift at his job so that during the day he could take me out to auditions for commercials and stuff.”
Her family’s sacrifices and encouragement helped Renee succeed in the business from the outset; although the early days were not about showcasing her acting.
“I was really terrible in the beginning,” she readily admits, recounting having just recently seen her seven-year-old self, on an old audition tape, hard at work. “It is some of the worst acting I’ve ever seen in my life. I was definitely not one of those child prodigies, that’s for sure.”
Shaky acting and all, her nascent career blossomed.
First she focused on advertising work until she hit her stride at age nine with voice acting for animation. Upon graduation from high school, though, Renee took a slight detour away from drama to focus on her other passion —singing.
For five years she built a music career in New York, but she wasn’t quite able to find her place in the industry.
“While I was happy to do music, I wasn’t happy with the genre of music that I was doing at that point,” says Renee, citing a pop-crazy climate in which labels were itching to find the next Britney Spears.
Her own tastes veered away from sugar-coated pop into singer-songwriter and country music territory, and when she realized she was not headed in that direction, she knew her music career wouldn’t last.
“If you’re doing something you don’t love to do, it’s probably not going to work out,” she reflects.
“Now in my spare time I get to write music that I really like, and even if I’m just singing it for my family and my friends, it’s way more fulfilling than what I was doing.”
Renee’s return to acting was, evidently, successful.
After a slew of guest spots and then a principal role in NBC’s much-hyped, short-lived Playboy Club, she landed the part of Maggie. Renee’s confidence seems bolstered by the fact that her first leading role has her playing a down-to-earth girl who is neither a Britney Spears type nor a Playboy Playmate.
“I felt more than ready to jump in and play the role of Maggie, and I don’t know if it was a different show if I would have felt the same way,” she says.
“I think that’s probably because being in a sitcom is what I’ve always wanted to do and this is where I feel most comfortable.”
That comfort is obvious on the Satisfaction set, especially in the easy rapport between Renee and her colleagues.
When she tries to downplay her own natural gifts, proclaiming “I am not the funny one on the show,” Belleville starts waving his arms behind her, miming his disagreement.
The other source of comfort is home. Renee’s downtime is spent exploring new areas of the city she loves, hitting up vegan restaurants along the way (Feel Good Guru is one of her haunts).
And Satisfaction showcases her hometown, to Renee’s approval.
“That was one of the things that I was so excited about,” she says. “I like that they don’t shy away from the fact that it is Toronto. It’s not just some random generic city.”
With the cast about to shoot on location at King and Jarvis, the actress is looking forward to an on-set visit from her grandmother, who lives nearby. (Other family members have already biked over to the studio to watch her at work.)
“I just hope we’re doing things that are appropriate for a grandmother to see, ’cause it’s a little risqué sometimes.” Renee laughs.
“I mean, we shot a scene yesterday where we walk in on Mark watching porn, and that’s not something you want your grandma to sit there and watch, you know?”
But although it might not be suitable for Grandma, this Toronto show about twentysomethings is just right for Renee.
