Falls actress to appear in ‘Murdoch Mysteries’
Monday’s episode marks Emily Stranges’ largest role yet
Lots of three-year-old girls see something on TV and decide they want to do it. Play with Barbies. Visit Disney World. Go to Sesame Street.
Emily Stranges knew the characters she was seeing were being played by real people and made her decision.
“I asked my parents to let me be an actor,” recalls the former Niagara Falls resident. “At three, I pointed to the TV and told them that’s what I wanted to do.”
Two decades later, the 22year-old Ryerson University student has built a lengthy list of credits, including episodes of “Reign” and “What We Do in the Shadows.” She made her movie debut with 2014’s “Tension(s),” opposite “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” star Louis Mandylor.
But on next week’s episode of “Murdoch Mysteries,” she’ll have her largest role yet.
For the show’s 201st episode, airing Monday on CBC, Stranges plays a member of an activist group protesting against the sport of fox hunting. When a body is found during one of the hunts, she attracts the attention of Det. William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) and Insp. Brackenreid (Thomas Craig).
Stranges says the long-running show is a favourite among her family.
“Before, it was indie films and small episodes of shows here and there,” she says. “‘Murdoch Mysteries’ holds a prominent place in Canadian TV.”
For Stranges, it marks a big step in a career that started
with long trips to Toronto for auditions when she was a kid. She got her first agent at 10, and her first paying job was a modelling gig on the cover on the magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray. Upcoming — between film studies for her final year at Ryerson — is the lead role in the short film “The Return of Gabriel,” and her own short film she wrote and directed called “Retrograde,” about a celebrated artist battling addiction.
“It follows this idea that young kids in Toronto are getting exposed to things at a very young age,” she says.
“Sometimes, the people that we see, we don’t realize they’re struggling. The goal of the film is to open up a conversation about addiction and how to treat it.
“It’s a real issue and I’m an advocate for it.”
Later this month, Stranges will take part in a filmmaking master class with Oscar-nominated Canadian director Atom Egoyan. She is one of 12 film students selected.
As for Monday night, Stranges hopes to watch the “Murdoch Mysteries” episode as it airs, but suspects she might be on another film set.
“But I’ll probably have a small little group of friends and family around,” she says. “My sister’s in London, so I’ll probably put her on FaceTime.”
The episode airs at 8 p.m.