By Mike McCarthy
You’ve seen her on Lost Girl, Haven and starting tonight you can see actress Lisa Berry on the final season of Continuum. Lisa is a Canadian actress that is a sci-fi genre fanatic and gets a little too excited when she’s working on a sci-fi project. Not only has she been in some big movies like Saw V or The Colony with Laurence Fishburne but you have also seen her in commercials for the Nintendo Wii, Walmart and Quaker Oats.
We sat down with Lisa recently to discuss her career and what we can look forward to seeing her in soon. The newest season of Continuum starts tonight in the United States (September 11th) on SyFy. We tried very hard to pry out what the project she is working on now, but she shut us down, multiple times. Make sure to check out her Youtube channel
Wingman Magazine: How did you get started in your rise to stardom?
Lisa Berry: Hard work, dedication and having a great outlook on life is just as important to my success as a good audition. It’s not just landing all of the big roles and being able to go from one major project to the next, but to be able to appreciate it all at the same time. I think people appreciate their rise to success by seeing what they have now.
WM: You have been doing a stint on the show “19-2”. What’s the show about and where and when can we see it?
Lisa Berry: 19-2 is a great show that is on Bravo and is a cop drama. It is centered around two cops that are unlikely partners who deal with their own person dramas while protecting the streets of Montreal. It’s based off of french version that is extremely successful and was later made it into an english version. In season two and three, they veered from the original French version of the story. I come in as Nick Baron’s (Adrian Holmes) cousin’s girlfriend. A jamaican immigrant and that’s not in the french version. It’s a great show with a lot of grit, which is really different for Canadian TV. I think the reason that it has been so successful is that it is on par with the shows that we love to watch that are on HBO or Showtime and what we are used to seeing on American television. It’s got solid performances and a great storyline, which is another reason why I think a lot of people are resonating with the show.
WM: What was your first audition for a big project like for you?
Lisa Berry: It was a lot of fun, it was for The Shaw Festival and I was so new to acting. The audition took place in Niagara on the lake, which is about a two hour drive. I was auditioning for the role of Tituba in the Crucible and my best friend drove me up and waited fifteen minutes for my audition to be done, then took me back to Toronto. It was a great road trip and we had a lot of fun, it was just super cool. I don’t really feel pressure in those “big auditions” though because I focus on the work and I look at it more like rehearsal than an audition. For big projects, they’re getting the best of the best, so you gotta bring your best and not be distracted by the fact that if you got it, it would be a high profile gig. In truth I just enjoy them and every time they come around I say,“ I get to audition for WHAT with WHO…absolutely!”
WM: Having worked on all different genres of projects, which one draws you in the most and why?
Lisa Berry: Sci-Fi. It’s my favorite because that’s what I like watch on my own time. I’ve always been drawn to sci-fi, but whenever I would work on a show where I’m playing a cop or detective my friends are always like, “I can’t believe you got to work with so and so,” I’m like “ who?” And they would tell me what other show they’ve been on and I would be like “yeah, I don’t watch a lot of cop drama.” But since getting to do sci-fi I’ve gotten to work with actors that I have been watching for a long time and I have to calm myself down. I really like working in sci-fi because pretty much all I watch is that, haha. It’s so great to get to be on a show that you also love to watch.
WM: Do you go back and watch your performance on screen?
Lisa Berry: Yeah, I love to see how it all came together afterwards. For me not watching my work is me also not watching the director’s work, or the editors work or the cinematographer’s work or anyone that put so much into the project and it’s not just me on the screen. Especially in sci-fi, I totally wanna see what they did to the scenes I’m in afterwards. In one of my scenes on Continuum I fire a weapon, and afterwards the director said there’s gonna be special effects around it too and I really wanna see how they do that. And I also like to watch my work to see how I can grow for the future.
WM: Being a sci-fi fanatic are you going to try and go after the new Star Trek film or Star Wars?
Lisa Berry: Oh yeah! Just to be called in to audition would be a blessing and I totally want to be on The Flash. I love how they nailed the story and kept it true to the comics, the casting is fantastic. I have my sights set on that, and I have a feeling it will be around for quite a few seasons, so I totally want to be on that, if all the stars align. In terms of going after the huge films, I think that they because they make so many of them and the genre is gaining more and more popularity, that at some point in my career I will eventually get to actually do one.
WM: The final season of Continuum is coming up and you have a few episodes as well. I know you can’t say much, being an action/sci fi show, how intense does it get on set?
Lisa Berry: INTENSE, haha. It was really cool and so much fun. The costumes and the role play and turning intimate objects into something amazing. Like in Back to the Future they bring a piece of paper to life, the Flux Capacitor. It’s all about imagination and I love it. I am doing this with all of the people that I have loved watching on tv for years, and it’s all coming true. For me it got pretty awesome and finding out that everyone I loved watching were also amazing was a treat. Rachel (Nichols) is awesome as is everyone involved in the making of the show and so welcoming, it was all fun.
WM: What can we expect from you next? Any projects that you are working on that you can talk about?
Lisa Berry:I can’t talk about what I am working on unfortunately. But I am smiling from ear to ear because things just keeping coming true. It is taking all of God’s Glue to keep me from saying what I am working on.
WM: During your stint on Nikita, what was your part, and were you an ass kicking assassin?
Lisa Berry: I was not a kick ass assassin, I was their scapegoat. When I got cast on the show as a reporter, I was told that I was going to be a reporter that got Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) into places. My character was getting the interviews of a lifetime, one that would win her a pulitzer. They brought me back three more times to help Lyndsy’s character get into different places. We made her a part of my camera crew, I was oblivious to it of course and just thought I was getting a great interview while Alex and Nikita were off doing all the spy stuff in the background.
WM: One piece of advice for anyone getting into show business?
Lisa Berry: My mantra is, “ Your attitude about your life and about how your career is going, will be as important if not more important to your career than a great audition would be.”