SIOBHAN MURPHY WAS a self-described “non-athlete” during her days at North Toronto Collegiate Institute.This summer, when she and her castmates on the set of the new CBC series Men with Brooms hit the ice for some curling lessons, little had changed.
“You’re on a massive sheet of ice with funny shoes, and you’re hucking rocks at each other. It’s sort of a recipe for disaster if you don’t know what you’re doing,” says Murphy.
“Suddenly I have mad respect for all the middle-aged men I see doing it on television because you have to be very limber and strong.” Murphy’s character, April, is a new arrival to the curling-mad town of Long Bay and knows nothing about the game, until she strikes up a will-they-won’t-they dalliance with the captain of the local curling team, played by Toronto actor Brendan Gall.
The series follows on the 2002 film of the same name starring Paul Gross. For this TV incarnation, Gross is executive producer, narrator and sometime cameo star. Having the acting veteran Gross on set was a comforting experience for Murphy, who starred in the W Network sitcom The Smart Woman Survival Guide and had small roles on The Bridge and Across the River to Motor City before landing Brooms.
“We’re all nervous little actors trying to do the best we can and prove our worth,and he breezed in with a lovely openness and had fun and got people loose, and that was a great thing to see, especially because he’s Paul Gross and our executive producer and the big boss,” says Murphy.
Long before she could credit Gross as her acting role model, her strongest source of advice was Ms. Kate Boutillier, her drama teacher at North Toronto. “She said, ‘You’re good at this. You should do this. This is something you have inside of you,’”says Murphy.“It was maybe the first and only time a teacher singled me out on something that I felt really excited about but was unsure about. Because what do you know when you’re 17? You’re not sure you’re good at anything.”
During auditions,Murphy felt an unusual connection to the role of April and to auditionmate Gall.“We’re Canadians, and we’re all very modest and humble, and you’re supposed to say, ‘I hoped they would choose me,’ but I was like,‘No. Eff this. I’m the girl, and we’re supposed to be the guy and the girl in the show. We’re funny together. We make sense together.’”
Luckily, the producers saw the same things in the young actor and signed her on. As for her ability to portray a terrible curler, that came naturally.