I am Victoria Pratt, I play Shalimar Fox. And we are at the Boyd Conservation area, which is a beautiful National Park just outside of Toronto, and the Pope has come to town so we’re not allowed to film in our studios because they’ve set up a big bandstand. And there’s going to be a big mass there so we’re all out for the week so we’re having an adventure.
This totally feels like we’re camping. *laughs* It’s great, it’s sort of like the beginning of mosquito season so we’re all covered in citronella oil and everyone’s really stinky and it’s been 34û and it’s crazy and I love it. I mean, it can never be too hot or too humid for me so I’m happy to be out here.
How did I get the part? *laughs* It’s funny, the last show I was on, Cleopatra 2525, was a Tribune show and while I was doing Cleopatra I did a little movie for Fireworks called Blacktop, with Fireworks and HBO. So I kinda had a flit in both camps and we had a great time working on that movie, on Blacktop, it was shot in Vancouver, and they didn't actually realise that I was Canadian so I think they tucked that in the back of their minds. And when Cleopatra got cancelled they had sorta been working on this great story idea for Mutant X and they called me up and asked what I thought of the whole idea. And I love to work and I really enjoyed working with Fireworks and I enjoyed working with Tribune and I thought that it would be a good combination. We worked on the script and they made Shalimar work for me and for the character that I wanted to play it just really came together so well. It was really really lucky, it was really good timing.
They're really great about working with the cast and the Shalimar character, initially was a real tough, mean, not a very likeable person. They'd set up this relationship with Emma that was really very miserable and they weren't liking each other. You know, one of the lines in the original pilot script was 'yeah Shalimar's a bitch, but she knows what she's talking about.' And I thought 'you know what, it sounds like Sarge, my character in Cleopatra, in a different costume', and I did not want to go there again. I think it's a tribute to the writers and to the producers. I think a lot people don't know what to do with a strong woman, and I think that because my physicality dictates that I play these strong roles, I think that people don’t' know what to do with that and so they make you into this woman who's not approachable and who's not sensual and not friendly and a woman that other women don't like and I'm so sick of playing that. That was the one thing that I really really desperately wanted to change. I think it's important for the superhero team to get along. I mean, we're fighting the enemies, we don't need that amongst ourselves. You know, we have little arguments every now and then but everyone in the team has gelled and we're like a family and that was the one thing that was important to me, I felt I really needed if I was going to be happy in the character and they just did it beautifully and they've given my character so many layers and you know she's got this sort of toughness but this vulnerability. If you think of, say a cat, you know in a jungle the cat is fierce and protective and territorial but if you think of a house cat it's very cuddly and very loveable but only when it wants to be. They've given me the room to play with all those things and the character I think is much much softer than when it originally started and I'm happy to play that.
You know I think people have an innate nature to them and I think mine is very physical. I've been physical since I can remember walking. I ran track for ten years and I did water sports and I did every sport imaginable and my whole life has been built around fitness and movement. Fitness is like a lifestyle to me. I think movement is very comfortable to me, I think I'm a co-ordinated person, and then when they write a great character for you that fits with all those things it just sort of meshes together really well. I don't find that I have to dig deep to tap into that feral nature. I think I'm an aggressive person by nature, I'm not timid and I think that really helps too. But *laughs* I'm a bit of a goofball which is kind of a contradiction. I think people that know me think 'I can't believe you're playing these tough, staunch superhero women' when they know me as a goof. But there's a side of me that, you know, the kick-boxing side, I love kick-boxing and I love the physical… I love getting my hands dirty, I love eating like, crab and getting food all over me. I'd roll in my food if I could. I like that *makes obscure gesture that could mean just about anything.* I like to get in it, it's fun for me, I love it. So, it you're afraid to get dirty you shouldn't try to be a superhero. *laughs* And you shouldn't try to eat crab legs.
Biggest joker on set? Maybe. We all have our moments. I think I maybe have more moments than others, although Victor gives me a run for my money. Yeah, we have a good time, it's like recess when we all get together. It's funny, the guest stars all come on the show and they're just like 'wow, you guys are having so much fun.' And you know what, why wouldn't we. We get to come to work and play these fantastical characters, you know, it's in my contract, I always get to win. And my joke is with the guest stars, like 'well if I'm not beating you up I'm going to make out with you' so *pages through invisible script* I don't know, where is it? Who gets to do that when they go to the office? You know what I'm saying? We have a great time. You can only hope as a member of an ensemble cast that you're going to get along with everybody and it only takes one person to ruin it and that person doesn't exist here. We're like, when you come to work, there's never someone you don't want to see and we don't work together every day so, you know. Victor and I have been working together all of this episode and I haven't seen much of Lauren and Forbes so, you know, next time I see them it's going to be fun, I'm going to look forward to it. It's such a huge huge thing when you enjoy the people you work with, and then the hair-make up team, we have so much fun in the mornings it just starts off like, with a bang. It's just good from the moment we get here until the moment we go home and you don't get that very often.
Larlarlar. Yes *laughs*
What's happening with Brennan? We have a connection. It's a funny relationship that we have, it's kind of like we're attracted to each other but we can't ever really let it happen. Even though at times we get close and we both want it and we're constantly making the other person jealous with out little dalliances, it's a fun thing to play and even when things aren't written into the script it's a fun thing to have tucked in the back of your head, to know that that relationship is there. So we’re having a lot of fun with it.
No, the first contact I had with a feral was in Fool For Love and they had a problem with the idea of that script, they thought 'how can we possibly build a love relationship in one hour' and I thought they got around it in such a clever way with the feral instinct heightening all of your animal nature and the hormonal thing and I think it came together beautifully and I think that was one of my favourite episodes. It was a really really emotional one. I think the next time I ran into a feral it was a woman, I can't remember the name of the episode, with Ralph Moeller, and we actually, after initially fighting just because she was trying to blow stuff up - you can't do that - we actually did bond and we had quite a good bond. That's what I like about my character, she doesn't just hate people because they're woman or because, whatever. I think she feels a kinship with other ferals. Just because we know what each other goes through. It's nice, it's nice to play and like, with the episode that's happening now, it's a feral that's kind of lost control, mutating out of control and I see that as a possibility for myself, so obviously she playing a bit of compassion and of fear and you know we want to be able to solve this problem and there's a lot of things to, again, put in the back of your head. To know that, you know, your feelings when the scenes happen, there's some subtext there, even if it's only in your own head, it comes out.
Definitely. *laughs* Because I'm not having sex with him, I gotta beat him up. Oh wait a minute, *examines invisible script again* nope, not having sex with him. *laughs* I shouldn’t be allowed out on my own, honestly, I need a nurse, a nanny or something.
No, no, absolutely. It's all one. Paul Rapovski we have a special connection too. He was my fight choreographer on John Woo's 'Once A Theif'. And like, five years later I come back in town, the next thing I do in Toronto and it's with Paul. So it was great to work with him again, and he's so so talented and he's created this fighting style for each of us to make us all really different and I'm very comfortable with the style he's created for me. My last show, Cleopatra, we did a lot of harness stuff so I'm really used to being up in the harness and doing a lot of my own action. So when it comes to Shalimar I love to do as much of it as I possibly possibly can, and I think it's a lot more exciting when you watch a fight and you can actually see that it's ME beating the crap out of someone as opposed to the back of my stunt double's head. Do you know what I mean? To me, I don't know if anyone else notices it or if it's just a subconscious thing, you know, 'wow what a great fight'. It's important for me to do as much as I possibly can.
Well I have a background in Shotokan and kiokoshinkai, two different types of karate and I study kick-boxing as well, so the fighting is no problem for me, I pick up fights really really quickly and a lot of the harness stuff I'm comfortable with, we've done before. If it's a really crazy harness move that could possibly injure me or that we didn't have enough time to practice then my stunt double will do it. And if it's something like breaking though a pane glass window when I could cut up my face, you know, I can't do that because, you know, I can't have scars on my face for what I do. I mean, they have to tell me not to do things because I'll go for anything, but yeah, it's kind of what ever I'm able to do, I do.
There's only… no, there's nothing that I read in the script, because ultimately Paul creates that action and the writers give a loose guideline, but they can't conceptualise in their head what building we're going to be in, you know she does a three storey back flip onto a, you know, blah blah blah, they don't know that, so they sort of give a loose guideline. We want some spectacular falling action or falling through a ceiling or jumping from a tree. Paul will come up to me and say, 'this is the action, what do you feel comfortable with', or if there's something he absolutely doesn't want me to do he'll tell me. But I have an adventurous streak in me. In the pilot episode, in like the very first episode of season one I dropped three storeys onto the roof of an SUV. And I thought 'yeah, no problem, no problem.' So I get into the harness and I'm all, and they take me over to the decelerator and I'm up there and the car's so small and there's me and I'm all 'what was I thinking' and I'm wearing these high heel boots and I'm like 'oh no'. And actually later I got the chance to buy the SUV because I like, caved in the roof a bit, but… I didn't, it was funny. But you know, it’s crazy, I do some crazy things.
Do you know what, it's a trick. It was just a great stunt, and it took a lot of practice. I started off on the railing and I mimicked the motions of doing a backward flip so when you land you land like this *demonstrates from the chair* so when I did the summersault I had to do that *demonstrates again* kind of motion as opposed to a diving motion. So I did a crazy front summersault and landed in the crouch that I would have taken off in. And it took a while, I mean I practised through my lunch hour. It was in the skyway between the skydome and the big train station so there were people walking through and they're like 'hey you're that girl from Cleopatra 2525' and you're like 'no no no, Mutant X, baby' and so we had like this crowd practising this stunt and it wasn't too co-ordinated in the beginning and you're like 'it'll be good, just wait'. But it was so cool. I was so happy to be able to do it because just, the effect, when they reverse print it, to make it look like I started and did a back flip is just phenomenal. And people can't believe that I did it, and you know, a part of me can't believe that I did it. But it's really magical when you see it, it's just so exciting. And I love that Paul thinks that I can do it. Do you know what I mean?
Yay! I know! There was a big cheer for me and we're all like 'yay, oh, cut, yay'. Yeah, it's really exciting when you get a really cool stunt and you get the time to practise and it's really awesome.
No, I'm miserable, I'm not having any fun, you can tell.
Personal highlights? That's hard, that's hard I mean, I think that when you're on a series, and it's an ensemble cast, more often than not the stories are not about you. I think I can speak for each one of the actors, their favourite episode is the one where their character actually gets to do something. I mean, we get to do stuff all the time, but when you have to reach into yourself emotionally or physically or do something that you don't do every week. So I think the highlights are the episodes where you get to play. I don't know if I have a specific highlight, I'm just having a really great time. I mean, you know some of the times we have off set, like the Halloween party that we had where we all dressed up and went bowling, those are just things that you'll never forget. We had so much fun and I remember Lauren was trying to quit smoking at the time and we'd been shopping all day for our costumes and we ended up making them and we looked really rediculous and, you know we'd had a couple of cocktails and I'm at the bowling alley and I'm looking around and Lauren's gone. And I'm like, 'where's Lauren? Where's my buddie?' and I see her coming in from outside and I think 'she's been smoking' so I went over and I just grabbed her by the face and I gave her a big kiss right on the mouth and she just went *mimics surprise* and I said 'have you been smoking?' she goes 'no' and I'm like 'mm, I didn't think so'. Don't ever try and quit smoking around me you'll be kissed more often than you want to be. But just, fun stuff like that. I mean, it's only because we got along so well that we can have those fun memories. One episode, I don't even remember which episode it was we were, we were outside and it was just a really nice day like this and there was me and Lauren and Victor. And it was just all running. I mean, running from the bad guys onto our ship and we were in the middle of this huge field and it was just full of goose shit and we were like little kids, like little calves in spring when they're finally let out of the barn and they're like all jumping around? We were like kids at recess. We were rolling around, we were covered in it, we were pulling goose crap out of our hair and wardrobe was coming over with a brush trying to get it off us. It was just one of those days when you're just crazy. Fresh air makes you crazy, I don't know if you can tell. *makes a face* we go crazy.
*laughs* Goose shit makes me crazy. There's just something about it.
Well I think that's something that all mutants struggle with. This was forced up on them, their mutancy was forced upon them and I think a lot of the characters… I think everybody had a really hard time coming to terms with their powers. And I know that my characters back story had a hard time with it and when Adam found me I was holed up in a hotel and I hadn't eaten for three days and I was scared and I was running from people. Brennan's character started off on the street with petty theft and Forbes' character didn't get along with his parents and with the computer guy and he just hid from the world that way. I think that when you're a kid all you want to do is belong and it's not until you're an adult that being different is OK. It's the same with regular people and I think it's the same with the mutant characters. We all just wanted to fit in and we didn't, and we felt harmed. You can only hope that the things you do when you're young, because you frustrated and you're scared, that you don't ruin what's left of your future, you know what I mean? So I think that in that episode, I think it was Fool For Love, when I was ready to give it all up, it was just that wanting to be normal, like everybody does. I think everybody wants to be loved and everyone wants to fit in and when you meet someone who you feel really connected with, like that Richard character was supposed to be for me, then yeah, you're willing to give up a lot for that. I mean, you see it all the time, people give up a lot of things for love.
Interviewer: Do you still believe in love then?
Do I still believe in love? Yes. I would throw it all away for love. *laughs* you have to believe in love, you have to.
Is Mutant X his only chance at redemption? I think he probably sees it that way. The neat thing about our show and the fact that he came from such a scientific background, from Genomex, I think the possibilities are there for him to expand in other ways. I mean, he could do more research to help but I think he sees helping us help others is the way to redeem himself. It's neat, it gives him something good to play, he's tortured, you know, tortured by his past, but at the same time he's got all these people who love him and look up to him and who learn from him that feed him, give him strength and make him feel not so bad about what he did. But I think there's a part of him that will always regret, you know, he was so impulsive. There's an episode in season two where we go back to his beginnings at Genomex. It's very very interesting, it's neat to see. You can see how someone could be swept away.
They touch on that every now and then. We all are constantly mutating and we all have our own brushes and changes and that's what happens in the finale of season one. We all realise the magnitude of what's happening with us. Yeah, things change.
What do I want to with the character? Well I know that we've been talking about making her a bit more feral, which is fine. I mean, there's an episode where an ex-boyfriend - this is back in season one - an episode where an ex-boyfriend comes back into my life and I'm not happy to see him. And I just like leap down the stairs and just like *mimics swiping at him and laughs* I bitch slap him. It was so fun. Tell me there's not an ex out there you wouldn't love to do that to. You can't because you're a guy, but you know, women. And the fan response to that was so strong, they were like 'we love when Shalimar did that'. It was just so unpredictable. I think they want to make Shalimar more unpredictable, and I'm all for that. I'm all for that, yeah.
Do you think I look like a cheerleader? It's actually funny that you say that, that's actually kinda cool because most people when they look at me… I mean, maybe I've gotten smaller *examines her arm* They think muscular athlete type thing. So if you look at me and think I look like a cheerleader I guess... hmm, that's different. *laughs* I'm not worried about that. I remember when I did Cleopatra they said, the Sarge character, they wanted her to be really staunch, this really tough warrior. And I got over to New Zealand and they said we'd really like to give you a buzz cut, and I said 'well you really hired the wrong girl'. And as far as I'm concerned, when you have the physicality to back it up and the fighting skill and the strength of character and of voice to play someone tough, you don't need to have a short haircut. You don't need to walk around wearing leathers and chains and whatever for people to take you seriously and I never worry about my character looking like someone who could kick someone's ass because I don't think… because I totally could. *laughs* That's definitely not a concern of mine, and I'm not worried that I'm not going to look like a killer or a strong person because I've got long blond hair. It's never been a concern. And you know, they throw my hair back in a ponytail or they make it look all dready and you know, it can look wild. And I think the hair is actually an important feature for the Shalimar character, like for this episode I turn into more and more and more the beast and they're going to keep adding pieces of different coloured hair and have little pokey ones up. You know when you see a cat and it's on guard and it's hair all stands up on its back, that's a really interesting thing and Clara, who does my hair, we're having a ball this episode because we get to do all kinds of crazy things that kind of, you know, work in nature. And hair in a fight scene creates the illusion of speed and I love being able to toss around a mane and, when you kick and all you see are legs sweeping and hair flying. To me it adds so much more to my action. Yeah.
They wanted to take us out of Sanctuary more and hit the streets which I think is an amazing idea, we were really really excited about that, but you know, we can't be swishing down the street in our long lizard coats and crazy - as much as I love it - these crazy clothes, because people don't wear that. You know, maybe on the runways. Oh, can I tell you how much we love our clothes but… so I was a little worried that they wanted us to wear, you know, I just love clothes. So this year we're wearing a lot more jeans, but you know, they're the best fitting jeans and we're wearing our jeans with the sauciest leather jackets out there and these, crazy, gorgeous things. They build incredible clothes for us in the studio and they shop and find the best clothes for us. And they've managed to keep out styles consistent, especially I think they really liked what they did with my style last year, it was all deconstructed clothes and jagged seams and lots of movement in my clothes. And they've managed to keep that, even though it's a lot more street friendly. With sort of ruffled and hem's gone and, it's all good, I love it. They're very creative.
I think the opportunities are endless. I think from an animal standpoint the territorial nature could take over or when they were talking about making me more unpredictable, you know. A lot of things could happen when you do what you want to do. You know what I mean. Every day there are things that you would love to do that you just don't do because it's not allowed. I mean, fine, I'm sure whatever the throw at me it'll be an interesting character choice. So I'm happy for anything. And they're great, they give me a lot of input and if I'm not happy with it I'm sure they'll work with me to make it alright, but it will be interesting to see what they have planned. As long as they don't reveal that I have a hairy ass and eight nipples, you know what I'm saying. I'm not that much of an animal. *checks her ass* no, I'm good. *laughs*
You won't be surprised at what you see - I'll put it that way. I walked in and went 'oh brother'. Well you see they made big changes to Sanctuary for season two and they wanted everyone to have their own bedroom, their own little escape and I actually sleep in a little cave like, up above. Like when you think of - because feral isn't necessarily cat, but I think cat is easier to play, especially for a woman and especially for… I mean, they're not going to make me do a ferret or a, it's just sort of an obvious choice so - when you think of a cat, cats like to be above it all, they like to be able to look down on things, they like to drape over things, they like to sleep where it's warm, they'll curl up in a corner. So you see a bit more of that. And my bedroom, my bed is in the wall, it's like this little hole. Nobody has sex in Sanctuary, I'm convinced of it, we all have single beds, I'm thinking 'what?'. Man, we have to go out for it. I can't have sex in that, it's little. Like *mimes a cat stuck in a small space*. I guess it's a family show. *laughs* Larlarlar.
Actually, I've been able to go to quite a few fan conventions and I guess I started from Xena with the convention thing and man is it fun. It is the ball. Actually I went to England a couple of weeks ago and Mutant X is playing over there on Sky One which is kind of fun. But it's great, it's just so nice to see that everybody everywhere's kind of watching it and enjoying it and having as much fun as we are. Yeah, it's neat.
Skip to a picture of Victoria Pratt upside down being held in a handstand by Victor Webster.
VW: As I'm crawling through the trees… *pretending VP's legs are trees before righting her.*
VP: Clara's still watching my hair. *laughs*
VW: Come to me my woman. *hug* We don't like each other on set, at all. *to the camera*
VP: No. *rights her wayward top*
VW: You're exposing yourself.
VP: I know, I've come undone
VW: Again?
Interviewer: Who's the best fighter out of you two?
VW: I let her think she wins.
VP: Victor's a pro.
VW: I let her think she wins, that way she's always nice to me *squeals as VP pinches his nipple.*
VP: Yeah, I always win with the nipples.
Interviewer: I think she got you there.