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 Perth’s Allison Graham stars in Rumours, a daily drama that begins Tuesday night on CBC. (FILE PHOTO) |
Perth actress Allison Graham was in Montreal trying out for something else altogether when producers tapped her for the lead in CBC’s Rumours.
So at the 11th hour, she dashed to Toronto to audition. But the lead went to someone else and she ended up with a supporting role, playing banker Annie Burroughs, the ex and mother of a main character’s child.
“It was,” says Graham. “Then you know, you’re like, ‘It’s a part, she’s interesting.’ It’s work. I quickly got over the disappointment.”
The English-language version of the popular French series — which is set at a Toronto-based women’s gossip and lifestyle magazine and stars Jennifer Dale and David Haydn-Jones — is set Tuesday to begin airing daily at 7:30 p.m. The network is giving the first season a second chance after the series failed to catch fire when nine episodes aired last year.
It’s a big break for Graham, whose previous claim to fame was as a guest star on the PAX series Doc starring Billy Ray Cyrus. She has also appeared in several of the CTV and Lifetime movies of the week shot in Ottawa in recent years.
“I actually really enjoyed it,” says Graham, who commuted to the Montreal set. “Because you are working with the same people you become so relaxed and comfortable, as opposed to these movies of the week where you come in for three or four days.”
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Graham was born and raised near Perth, heading off to Queen’s University after high school. She took a drama class there in first year, loved it, and decided to head to Los Angeles to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
She spent three years at that school (where CSI’s Eric Szmanda was a classmate), studying everything from dance to dialect.
School helped her land a work visa and Graham stayed on for a year, bouncing between Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto for work. She later returned to Los Angeles, this time taking writing courses while attending auditions.
Graham came back to Canada in 2000, around the same time she realized she was “sick of cities” and wanted to move back home.
“I found myself coming back here for weekends and staying a bit longer. I much prefer at this point to stay here and make the trip to Montreal and Toronto,” she says. “Since I’ve been back in Perth, I’ve probably worked more in the last two years combined than in the last 10 years I’ve been doing it.”
One of Graham’s most recent gigs was playing opposite American actress Jennifer Grant (daughter of actor Carey Grant) during scenes in the made-for-TV movie My Daughter’s Secret. She also appears in two more upcoming television movies shot in the capital in the past year, Christie’s Revenge and Too Young to Marry.
Though the work has been steady enough, Graham says she struggles with the unpredictable nature of the business.
“It’s like, is it worth it?” she says.
To gain back a little more control, Graham has been writing episodes for a television show she conceived, Gentle Bend, which she calls 7th Heaven meets Northern Exposure. She and friend Norm Berketa hope to eventually shoot the episodes right here in Ottawa.
Knowing she can write, says Graham, helps “when the jobs in front of the camera are few and far between.”