Soap star to make TV history
Actress is first Black Canadian woman lead in a prime-time, legacy-network drama
When General Hospital’s Vinessa Antoine called her parents to tell them that she had been cast in a history-making role in CBC’s upcoming legal drama Diggstown, they thought it was for a very different reason.
“My boyfriend (fellow General Hospi- tal star Anthony Montgomery) was on the line first.
So they thought he was going to propose,” Antoine says.
“Then I told them I was cast in a new CBC show.”
At that point, like any good immigrant parents (Antoine’s were originally from Trinidad before settling in Toronto), they were happy their daughter had a steady job.
But this was not just any show. Antoine will make history as the first Black Canadian actress to star in a prime-time drama on legacy-network television, according to the public broadcaster.
“I’m just very excited to be chosen to do this,” the Toronto-born actress told the Star in an exclusive interview.
“I think it’s something that’s been long overdue.
But everything is changing right now and it’s definitely time.”
In Diggstown, scheduled to air in the key CBC fall and winter season, Antoine will play Marcie Diggs, a top corporate lawyer who decides to dedicate herself to a legal-aid office in Dartmouth, N.S.
“We were looking for someone who could be credible as a lawyer,” says showrunner and creator Floyd Kane. “She’s also a very positive person; she leads from a place of optimism, not from a place of cynicism.”
“And we needed someone who could communicate the physicality of Marcie because, among other things, she’s a big surfer. Vanessa embodied all of that.”
Kane said he auditioned about 50 actresses for the coveted role. “We saw so much talent. It was a tough decision and we saw so many incredible Canadian actresses.
“This will be the first time that a Black Canadian actress will be No.1on the call sheet. I think it’s a big deal. Although at the end of the day, yes, we’re just making TV. But from a pop culture perspective, I feel this is important.”
Canada is catching up to the United States: Kerry Washington made history in the Shonda Rhimes-created drama Scandal in 2012 as the first Black American to lead a prime-time network drama in four decades.
However, it wasn’t the first to feature a Black female star. That distinction belongs to Teresa Graves in Get Christie Love! which aired for one season in 1974. Black Canadian actresses have starred in shows such as the Vision TV limited series Soul with Keshia Chante (also produced by Kane) and Global’s half-hour comedy Da Kink in My Hair, but prime-time network drama remains the gold standard.
“When I first read the script I was really attracted to the notion that she was a corporate lawyer and she believed in the system,” Antoine says.
“And when that crashed for her, life nudged her to do something extraordinary. And because I’m a woman of colour, so many things connected. She’s complex, not stereotypical, and that’s refreshing.”
The series will also look at an under-represented segment of Canada, the historic Black communities of Nova Scotia, which at one point represented 37 per cent of the total Black population.
“This is huge for me. I always knew about the Black communities out east, but this is something I really didn’t learn about in school and I should have,” says Antoine. “My experience was growing up in a Caribbean household and I thought that the majority of Blacks came from the West Indies. But there is a huge community with a rich history in Nova Scotia that is finally going to be spotlighted and I think it’s time for their stories to be told.”
There is some fallout though: General Hospital fans will not be happy to learn that Antoine, who has been with the show since 2014, will no longer be a series regular when she starts shooting Diggstown in August.
Her character, former DEA agent Jordan Ashford, was supposed to get married to fiancé Curtis on the show, which was also a historic first, a Black couple getting married on the longrunning soap. That may no longer be the case.
“We were in the planning stages of the wedding and ABC hasn’t announced what will happen. But it’s a soap opera and something traumatic always happens at a wedding. But it would have been a first for a Black couple to be married on General Hospital, but we’re not sure where the storyline is going,” says Antoine.
Antoine is busy prepping for a different kind of history. On the phone from Los Angeles, where she lives and shoots General Hospital, she mentioned that she’s taking surfing lessons. In fact, she was drying off a wetsuit after venturing out in the water earlier that day.
As for her parents? Well they got over any disappointment of not hearing about an engagement.
“I had to explain to them what it all meant,” says Antoine. “And then they were screaming on the phone. It was awesome.”