WILL WORK FOR FOOD
ACTUALLY, THIS ACTOR WILL WORK FOR FREE
Victoria actor Emily Piggford first came to attention with her work in Impulse Theatre. The movement-based performance company known for site specific works was started by her former classmate, Andrew Barrett. She toured Toronto with the company for the Summerworks Festival five and a half years ago.
At the urging of her agent, she stuck around. It was a good move, and she hastily set about establishing a busy career.
Piggford has gone on to work in such varied series as Netflix’s Eli Roth-helmed Hemlock Grove, Lost Girl and playing Meagan in the web series That’s My DJ. She won best performance by an actress at the Canadian Screen Awards for that part.
This coming season is looking particularly busy for the actor, whose IMDB resume still notes that she will do unpaid work. Weird.
I’ve never seen a resumé that noted a willingness to do unpaid work. Is this what the acting biz has become?
Yeah, I’m actually right now in the last two days of this Indiegogo campaign for That’s My DJ. All of that acting is unpaid, although the crew is paid, which is great, and so are the editors, musicians and so forth. This is the last campaign to raise enough for the post-production so we can release the final season, hopefully in the next few months. Actually, it’s a lot of work to do unpaid work.
This is all part of the creative process now with web series and such. I see you’ve done some other ones such as The Riftworld Chronicles?
I love to work on anything that excites me, and you always get something from it, if not direct financial benefits. It always takes money to get something to take off, and I guess the hope is that there might be more once it does. Still, I really love learning about creating content for broadcast. I was trained in taking new work to the stage in my studies at the University of Victoria, but producing on That’s My DJ has really lit a fire under me now.
Given your filmography, it’s a good guess that you might wind up making something with either eerie or science fiction elements?
Fantasy and sci-fi are all fine with me. I find the genres pretty much at the top of my list, because within it you so often get to deliver both this sensory, mind-bending overload and then inject these elements of heart or humour, which really works on the audience. It’s something I really, really want to do because I’m also someone who really, really wants to watch it a lot of the time.
This must make you pretty pumped for your part in season 3 of Killjoys, which is the mostwatched original series on the SPACE Network?
So excited to be a part of it because it’s such as great show. I’m one of the Hackmods (modified human beings) in the season and they appear to be a catalyst of the story arc. The pop singer Viktoria Modesta is appearing, and it was so cool to meet her. Embarrassed to say, I live under a rock and had no idea of the really powerful and interesting work that she is putting out there. It was her first time acting aside from her videos, and she really brought something special.
Tell us about the six months you recently spent at the Canadian Film Centre’s Actor’s Conservatory?
It was this incredible six months of coaching and mentorship in everything from drama to comedy, improv, different approaches to acting and a lot of collaboration. They flew in Lindsey Davies from Australia, who has coached Cate Blanchett, Rosemary Dunsmore (Anne of Green Gables) was there and it was great to do the various labs such as Directors, Writers and so on. It’s great for making you a really well-rounded and far more active member of the film and television community.
Season 3 of Killjoys premieres on June 30. The third season of That’s My DJ should be released in July. Also look for Emily Piggford appearing in season 2 of the Girlfriend Problem.