Weird is the new normal
Jill Hennessy stars in Crawford, a comedy from the creator of Trailer Park Boys
Jill Hennessy is floored on hearing that the cost for a controversial one-stop Scarborough subway in Toronto is expected to ring in at upwards of $3 billion.
“Wow. Did I hear you right? $3 billion? You know what? I bet it’s beautiful. The acoustics must be great.”
Viewers would be familiar with Hennessy as the star of NBC’s “Crossing Jordan,” in which she played Boston medical examiner Jordan Cavanaugh, or in “Law & Order” as prosecutor Claire Kincaid. But in another life she was a struggling musician.
In Toronto, she would busk with her guitar in the subways, always searching for a spot, as she would say, for the “perfect acoustics.”
“My favourite spot was Bloor and Bathurst. There was a bakery there. In the middle of winter it was warm and the smell of baking bread was intoxicating,” says the 49-year-old actress. Other favourite spots were Nathan Phillips Square and Queen St. W., but subways have a special meaning for Edmonton-native Hennessy.
“I think my best haul was in December. I got a lipstick, a Foster’s can of beer. And I have to thank those people profusely. I was on cloud nine. It was one of my happiest memories.”
Although she’s not quite saying no to an opportunity to sing at the new Scarborough stop if she’s invited, Hennessy doesn’t have to sing for quarters anymore.
She was back in Toronto to star in the CBC comedy-drama “Crawford,” written by Mike Clattenburg, the man behind “Trailer Park Boys.” The show will be broadcast this summer, but episodes can be streamed beginning Friday at cbc.ca/ watch and on the CBC TV app.
If you’re familiar with Clattenburg’s subversively engaging work, then you might not be surprised that “Crawford” is about yet one more dysfunctional family.
Hennessy plays Cynthia, the matriarch, who is an “awardwinning cereal executive” for a product called Sugar Maple Pops.
“Don’t you just love that name? It’s so Canadian I could eat that every day, “Hennessy says.
Dad, played by American actor John Carroll Lynch, is a former police chief who is unable to use his voice and communicates with his smartphone.
Kyle Mac plays son Don, a struggling musician who has been dropped by his label and is a raccoon whisperer.
“When I got the script I had to read the first three episodes first a couple of times to get a through line; I couldn’t figure out what was happening,” Hennessy laughs. “But that’s what I loved. I had no clue where this is going. All I knew was that in the first episode my character walks in with a police officer and they say, ‘Mama, we’re not sure what happened, but somebody peed in the sink.’ That got me. They had me at someone peed in the sink.”
The CBC’s tag line for “Crawford” is “Weird is the new normal,” as the public broadcaster continues to take chances on edgier material with varying degrees of success.
While it is indeed weird, Clattenburg’s flights of fancy always need a great cast to ground his absurdist worlds. That includes the dramatic performance of Lynch, who never says a word but is the most empathetic dad you will find on TV.
“The strongest theme is communication. The irony is that the father can’t verbalize and yet he’s the most communicative father, “she says. “It’s what we’re afraid to tell each other, what we hold back on, the miscommunication that works with horror, tragedy and, in this case, extreme comedy.”
It wouldn’t be Clattenburg without a few skeletons in an open closet. In this case, Hennessy’s character, a mother of three, has a younger boyfriend on the side.
“There are no guidelines in this show, which is why it’s like nothing on television.”
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson plays Taylor, Hennessy’s boss at the cereal company.
“He’s phenomenal,” says Hennessy, a Rush fan. (Hennessy herself has released two albums; her last, I Do, came out in 2015.)
Given the musical connections, perhaps it’s surprising that Clattenburg hasn’t got Lifeson and Hennessy busking in a Toronto subway in a giant ironic wink to the audience.