Klea Scott spent the better part of a year waiting for CBC to pick up her new show, Intelligence.
"I had my life mapped out a lot differently," says the Ottawa-born actress, 37, laughing.
Being under contract to the Chris Haddock (Da Vinci's Inquest) drug trade-versus-cops drama, which shoots in Vancouver and has been nominated for five Geminis, meant Scott missed the American pilot season. And she has a good shot at getting American series work, having starred in some high-profile, if short-lived, projects, including Steven Bochco's Brooklyn South, Chris Carter's Millennium and Michael Mann's Robbery Homicide Division.
But the You Can't Do That on Television alum is no fan of the necessary evil that is the annual casting "feeding frenzy."
"It's like duck hunting season on Bugs Bunny," she says. "No matter how much you think you're going to maintain your level-headedness, you get swept up in this freakout."
Getting rejected for a living would have been worse this time, says Scott, with film actors James Woods and Virginia Madsen scoring choice leads this year.
"It's all name stars who realize they'd work more often if they had a television show. They see Kiefer Sutherland (on 24) and say, 'That's what I need.' "
That's why Scott is "not at all sad" to be working in Canada right now, even if Intelligence was held up by last year's CBC strike and would only ever be picked up 13 episodes at a time because of CBC's renewal process.
Scott has moved to Vancouver from Los Angeles to shoot the rest of the first season. Whether she and theatre director hubby of eight years John Langs make it permanent remains to be seen.
Scott has been acting since she was a young girl, moving first to Toronto after high school and then New York. There she acted in Shakespeare in the Park and Williamstown productions, later graduating from the North Carolina School of the Arts.
She still returns to theatre whenever possible, travelling to Maui two years ago so her husband could direct her in Sweet Charity.
Throughout her career she has used dual citizenship (mom Sue moved to Ottawa from Panama when Scott was two) to keep her hooks in the Canadian production scene, while snagging parts in high-profile films Minority Report and Collateral in the States.
"I just thought if I'm an actor, I should be maximizing my opportunities," says Scott, "and if I can, then why the hell not?"
On Intelligence, Scott plays Mary Spalding, the all-business director of Vancouver's Organized Crime Unit. Though other directors might have wanted her to soften the portrayal to make Spalding more likeable, Haddock says he doesn't want her any less "bitchy."
"He was like 'Go for it,' " says Scott, adding, "Chris is not concerned with creating a character the male half of the audience would feel comfortable around."
Scott isn't worried about getting typecast in the tough female cop role either. She says it's a relief to operate outside the "skinny, pretty, big-boobed" pool key to Hollywood's marketing machine.
"With my theatre I get lots of opportunity to stretch myself with comedy," she says. "I get to be pretty when I go out with my husband."
Intelligence airs on CBC Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
