By Joy Tanner
Tell us about your award-winning role in My Little Pony: Make Your Mark and what inspires you about playing Misty.
My character, Misty Brightdawn, is a complicated, adorable little unicorn who is on a path to finding herself and her voice. She has experienced hardship and struggles. I love her because she is completely flawed and makes big mistakes. She’s imperfect, she’s awkward and sometimes uncool. You can see the efforts she makes to figure things out, to grow and learn. Being able to share that journey with our audiences is something I find very meaningful. I think she represents a lot of kids and adults. Those who might feel they are in this sparkling world, around all these sparkling people (and ponies), who can seem like they are so together and perfect. Yet who actually feel they don’t fit in or are unworthy. So I get to see Misty reckon with and transcend some of those things and accept the parts of herself that may be different. Those things that are just… her. I think that resonates with a lot of people.
The Outstanding Performance award nominees and winners are decided by a jury comprised of ACTRA Toronto members. How does it feel to be honoured by a jury of your peers?
It is a tremendous honour. Because we know what this work takes; we see all the wizards behind the curtain! Yet to still be able to move my peers enough to be recognized in this way is a magnificent feeling. Thank you to everyone!
What does it mean to you to be an ACTRA member?
It means community; it means solidarity and belonging. Even though we are the faces of the work, actors often occupy such a small, powerless part in the whole production. Without the camaraderie and collective strength of a union like ACTRA, it would be easy to be swallowed whole by the industry. It’s also like a club, which can be cute, especially when it comes to celebrations and awards.
Have you ever had a specific challenge with a role and how did you work to overcome it?
Ahaha! I think every role is its own challenge; its own beginning again, a starting from scratch feeling. Because each role presents this infinite void of possibility. There are endless choices around how to make-alive each moment, each beat, each arc, each character. They’re all these endlessly, unfolding series of questions around meaning and truth. Am I getting too deep? I recently played a character, Ava, in the short film, White Noise, who suffers from a chronic and extreme hyper-sensitivity to sound. That was an interesting process; to seek to manifest within myself an understanding of what that sensory experience would be like. To react to stimuli, without being able to actually hear it in that way. It’s all a matter of focus and imagination. If you contemplate a situation enough, I think something in the Collective Unconscious opens up and you can actually access some truth beyond your own personal experience.
Can you share anything about any upcoming projects?
Yes please! I have a solo show that I wrote and will perform called shaniqua in abstraction that will have its world premiere at Crow’s Theatre in April 2024. It’s a kind of poetic unravelling of the various absurdities and memories we use to construct an identity. It’s a piece that’s quite close to my heart, so I hope you can make it out and let me share it with you.
Joy Tanner is the Editor of Performers Magazine. She has voiced Candy Kong in Donkey Kong.
