Sitting down with me on Cue To Cue – the performers’ podcast today is Actor/Director/Writer, Sheila McCarthy! I had a blast doing this interview with Sheila! Although she has amassed quite a body of work through the years and many awards to go with it, what I loved most about our time together ( other than the insane amount of wisdom she imparted) is that she doesn’t take herself seriously. She respects the art form and loves what she does but she also reminds herself that she gets paid to play for a living!
Sheila has recently signed with a new agent and she says she feels that she is getting a chance to reinvent herself and is reinvigorated and excited about this new chapter of her life. She also made light of how she thinks about just doing something else and throwing in the towel in but ultimately always finds herself back with her first love of performing and creating.
In this episode, we discuss what movies inspired her as a child to want to become a performer, what piece of advice she received from Sally Field that she has never forgotten, why working out and getting physical activity in on a daily basis is a non-negotiable, and how she views the current landscape of women in the entertainment industry when its comes to taking on more powerful positions ( i.e. producers, directors, and writers) and what she believes will help women gain even more of a foothold in an ever-shifting world.
Sheila McCarthy: Reinventing Yourself, Bringing Your Nerves Into The Room, And Remembering To Play!
A little about Sheila:
Sheila was born in Toronto and began her career at The Charlottetown Festival as a professional dancer when she was sixteen. She has spent four decades working across the country in every major theatre including Soulpepper, Stratford and Shaw festivals and is the recipient of 2 Genie Awards as best Actress in most notably I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing which also won her the Charles Chaplin Award in Vevy, Switzerland and Peoples Choice award at the Cannes Film festival. She has also been nominated and won 2 Gemini tv Awards as well as 2 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Little Shoppe of Horrors and Really Rosie. Other tv and film credits include Die Hard 2, Stepping out, Being Julia, The Day After Tomorrow, Virtual Mom [which she wrote and produced] Picket Fences, Emily of New Moon, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Orphan Black and is currently shooting Conviction to name a few. She directed and choreographed Sweet Charity in January 2016 at Sheridan College and will be directing HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS in the Spring of 2017. She also teaches Acting on Film at Humber, National Theatre School, Sheridan and Canadian Film Centre. Recent work includes directing her first short film Russet Season, as well as starring in LITTLE BLACK DRESS a film directed by daughter and producer Mackenzie Donaldson, and the film MARTIN’S HAGGUE written by Gordon Pinsent. She just completed a horror film entitled THE WANTING, which will be released in 2017.
Follow Sheila!
Twitter: @SheilaM52982245
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