Not as fearless as Frankie

Lauren Lee Smith has stepped away from herself in latest role

GUELPH, Ont. — Lauren Lee Smith has a confession to make. When it comes to fleet-footed adventure and high-speed chases, she’s definitely not as brave as the latest character she’s bringing to life.

The Vancouver-born actress, who co-starred on both The Listener and This Life, now plays the title character on Frankie Drake Mysteries, premiering Monday on CBC.

Created by Carol Hay and Michelle Ricci, two of the writer-producers behind Murdoch Mysteries, the historical whodunit is set in the early 1920s – about 15 years after Murdoch – and follows the adventures of Toronto’s first female detective.

This is the Jazz Age, a time of flyboys, rum-runners and speakeasies. Post-war women are embracing new freedoms, including the right to vote and the fashions of the flapper era.

Into these liberating times steps Frankie Drake, the most fearless of them all.

“She’s kind of bad-ass,” Smith says between takes on a rural airfield filled with vintage airplanes, carnival booths and automobiles.

“She’s not afraid to use her powers of persuasion and her sexuality to get what she needs to get done.”

The 37-year-old actress, however, insists she’s not as fearless as Frankie.

“I am terrified of flying,” says Smith. “When I read the first script and saw I’d be riding motorcycles, hopping into old cars and jumping onto airplanes, internally I’m going, ‘Oh God, I’m going to have to fly in a bloody airplane.”’

Smith toughened up with some training, including boxing lessons. She also went out and obtained a motorcycle licence.

“They got me some pretty intense, one-on-one training,” she says. “Not going to lie – the first day I came home crying.”

She eventually mastered the bike but had trouble with four-wheelers. Knowing there’d be plenty of car scenes, the producers went out and bought the most ubiquitous auto of the age, a Model T Ford. “These cars are no joke,” says Smith. “It’s a cantankerous beast,” agrees executive producer and showrunner Cal Coons, who helped launch Murdoch Mysteries 11 seasons ago. The “Tin Lizzie,” for one thing, is a finicky starter. Then there was the day it caught fire with Smith behind the wheel.

“Maybe they don’t want me talking about that,” says Smith, recounting this real-life adventure. “All I hear is, ‘Fire! Fire! Get out of the car!’ There were literally flames shooting out.”

Coons, who worked with Smith on The Listener, says she remains unflappable no matter what the situation – one of the reasons she leapt immediately to mind when it came time to cast the spunky lead in this series.

“She carries herself in a certain way,” he says. “She could walk through a room full of old boys at a club, plunk herself down and say, ‘So! I think you’re a murderer!’ She has the confidence in her stride to make me believe that she could do it.”

The character is also outrageously flirtatious, a trait Smith says she worked on with director Leslie Hope.

“Anytime I’ve done any kind of contemporary cop stuff I’ve always shied away from that,” says Smith. “Here though, because of the time period, it makes the character stronger.”

Smith dyed her locks red for the role. “Silly as it sounds, the red hair makes me feel a little sassier.”

Helping Frankie at the Drake Detective Agency is her associate Trudy, played by Chantel Riley. Riley, who loves dressing up in her Jazz Age apparel, sees Trudy as a loyal “sister-protector, making sure no one’s about to pull a fast one on Frankie.”

Smith says Riley “just lights up a room. Her smile is infectious and she has this incredible presence.”