I really don’t remember when I first connected with Camille Mitchell, but no doubt it was a Hallmark match made in heaven. When her publicist (Lesley Diana of The Promotion People) reached out to me for the opportunity to interview Camille, I didn’t have to think twice! I knew this woman’s work quite well, and how thrilling it was to be able to discover more about a remarkable artist and fabulous woman such as she. In light of her body of work over the years (including a couple of Hallmark gems) and her upcoming works, I am honored to share our recent interview with my readers today!
RH: How/why did you decide to pursue a career in acting?
CM: Unlike many parents, mine expected me to go into acting. Both my parents were actors and had worked in classical theatre early on and then in film. I tried to fight it, but it really does run in our veins. As kids, my brothers and I always wrote and performed skits — at family events, we were “the entertainment.” So, of course, my teenage rebellion was to go into pre-med my first year at UBC and save the world! But with an exhausting course load, someone suggested I take a “Mickey Mouse course like acting” as an elective and I truly fell in love with it. It combined all my passions – literature, human psychology and performance.
What kind of training have you had to prepare you for this career?
I’m always studying and taking classes or workshops when I can. I really love learning. Early on, I studied singing and dance, as well as acting, and I got my B.A. in Theatre at UBC. Right after that, I was accepted into the three-year Acting Program at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, UK, which was amazing. Then I worked professionally for a few years back east, and while I was auditioning and trying to establish myself in Los Angeles, I studied with Lee Strasberg in his MasterClass.
What was your first film/TV credit and what are your memories of working on that project?
Oh my! My very first TV credit was A Guy, A Grand and A Girl with Chuck Shamata for CBC-TV which I did while I was in third year at UBC. I played Girl #2 with whom he flirts at a party. He was lovely and it seemed so easy and fun and well-paying compared to the torrid Greek tragedies we were doing on campus for just credit!
You have appeared on a wide variety of sci-fi shows in Vancouver that are very well-known. What are some of your most memorable performances on those series, and why do those stand out for you?
It has to be the Outer Limits episode called “Rite of Passage” with James Marsden and Emmanuelle Vaugier. I played their alien mother, a scientist who re-establishes the human race after the Ice Age from DNA samples. I was in makeup for almost four hours a day as they created my E.T. appearance, but no one would even eat with me, I looked so hideous!
With Dylan Bruce
A Novel Romance
I believe your first Hallmark movie was A Novel Romance. What did you know about Hallmark before working on that film? What was your experience like on that first Hallmark work?
Hallmark is a great company to work for. They look after their production people and their cast. Hours are very fair, it’s very well organized and people are happy. A happy set for both cast and crew is so rare in our business and has great value. I loved working with Amy Acker, Dylan Bruce and director Mark Griffiths. Mark found some beautiful locations outside Vancouver for filming and driving to work every day was such a pleasure.
In recent years, we’ve seen you in Legion, iZombie, and Somewhere Between (I saw you on Somewhere Between). Any memorable moments of any of those shows that you would like to share?
Somewhere Between
I find memorable moments are nearly always about the people you work with. Since the debut of their show Fargo, I have been a huge fan of show creator Noah Hawley and director Michael Uppendahl, so to be on their show Legion was just a thrill. I didn’t have a lot to do but it was very exciting just being there as this evil bureaucratic presence.
The iZombie script I worked on was very clever and playing a perky school principal oblivious to cannibals was really fun as was working with director Michael Fields.
On Somewhere Between, to play Paula Patton’s crazy mother and to work with creator/ producer Stephen Tolkin, who was so kind and to be with so many amazing local actors was just pure joy.
A couple of years ago, you returned to Hallmark for Marry Me At Christmas. That may have been your first and only Christmas movie. What was enjoyable about working on that film?
As Mrs. Fontleroy in Van Helsing
One of the things I love about acting is being able to be different people. I’d never played an actor’s agent before. Working with director Terry Ingram was a hoot. We had been in the company together at the Shaw Festival a few years ago, but we hadn’t worked together since, and Trevor Donovan was such a gentleman.
Please tell us about your role on Van Helsing and why that particular role was so memorable for you?
To be in the hands of people who know what they are doing is pure gold and Van Helsing’s director/ Executive Producer Michael Nankin really really knows his stuff. I had worked with him a few years back on Caprica and it’s a great experience. His sets are fantastic to be on. They are calm, people are happy, everyone from the cast to crew does their best work. And the exotic world he created in that episode is thrilling.
I understand you attended the Venice Carnival earlier this year. Please share with us why that experience was so amazing and any of the highlights from that time you would like to share.
Where to begin? It is the oldest carnival in Europe. The entire city of magical Venice plays host and everyone is celebrating in costume from dawn to dusk mainly in 17th-century European dress and wearing masks. People come from all over the world, the streets are packed and there are fabulous balls in glorious old palazzos where you can learn the minuet, or boogie in the oldest Casino in the world by strobe lights to a band dressed like Star Wars stormtroopers! There are costume parades on barges in the canals and just wandering the mysterious alleyways in costume conjures what life might’ve been like there a few centuries ago. It is marvellous!
You’ve also done some directing, producing and writing. Please share with us any highlights from those that you would like to. Do you have plans to do more in those disciplines?
Leo Awards Red Carpet 2019
It’s all so intertwined, isn’t it? It’s all about story-telling. I’d been a journalist in my summer months while at UBC, and I’ve worked with playwrights on new scripts all my career. I finally studied documentary filmmaking at Capilano University’s School of Motion Picture Arts a few years back, and then I was stunned and elated when a short script, A Mother’s Love that I wrote in 2012 was chosen by Crazy 8s to be produced. I directed it, asked my friend, actress Susan Hogan, and my son, Charlie Mitchell, to star in it. My house and neighbourhood provided the set and locations and we shot it in two days. The short has since gone around the world without me a few times, hitting festivals and garnering some awards and it’s been fabulous!
Five years ago, I got scholarships in Film Production and Feature Screenplay Writing at Los Angeles’ Loyola Marymount University to work on my M.F.A. I made a short film there, By The Fountain that took me to the Marche du Film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 – that was a fantastic experience!
Any other upcoming works you can mention?
I’m about to start filming a guest star/ recurring role on Netflix’s new dramedy, The Healing Powers of Dude playing the role of Rosie – and really looking forward to it and to working with director Richie Keen (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – a show I love).
Do you have any special summer plans you would like to share?
I love summers here in Vancouver – hoping to do some kayaking his summer, have family and friends over for some homemade pasta, go hiking with my dog, do some watercolours and finish some rewrites on a new script!
Thank you so much, Ruth! 🙂
I find it quite intriguing that Camille attempted to avoid what was decidedly her calling in life, but in the end, her destiny was imminent. Thankfully, her passion is purposefully embedded within every fiber of her being, and we are all the beneficiaries of her acquiescence to the artistic vocation. To not have this woman’s intuitive depictions of a wide variety of stimulating characters would have been an immense loss to the world of film and television, so I am eternally grateful to Camille for her eagerness to do what she loves for a living and share it so authentically with us. No doubt her current and future pursuits within the filmmaking community will continue to chart new territories and pave the way for even more incredible content which has not even been conceived as yet. She is an industry professional who has never abandoned her dreams no matter the circumstances, and every project with which she has been involved has been a blessing to her and everyone else associated. She is a lifelong learner who recognizes the necessity for teamwork in this profession as well as life in general, and it is with joyous anticipation that I await these forthcoming works of hers.
If you have not witnessed her accomplishments, I would invite you to watch out for Marry Me At Christmas (next showing on the Hallmark Channel will be on July 16th as a part of the network’s Christmas In July programming) and look up her work in Somewhere Between as well as Van Helsing. (A Novel Romance will also be showing on the Hallmark Channel again next month, August 5th!) While you’re luxuriating in all of Camille’s works, I would invite you to visit her links below and consider following her on your preferred social media platform. If there is one actress who personifies that genuine spirit of the strong, vibrant woman who can decidedly achieve anything she desires, it is Camille, and I am ecstatic to support this woman in all of her endeavors!
FOLLOW CAMILLE
