Comedy·RISING STAR
‘No one is who they want to be when they’re in high school.’ says the 22-year-old Canadian actress.
‘No one is who they want to be when they’re in high school.’
CBC Comedy
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This is Canadian actress Katie Douglas's year.
If you haven't already seen her on Ginny & Georgia, the most popular show on Netflix since the beginning of March, or on CBC's new Pretty Hard Cases, the 22-year-old is a rising star to keep an eye on.
Both of these TV series have a coming-of-age story with a mix of crime, romance and humour. Douglas says she is especially drawn to characters who consistently indulge in "destructive tendencies," like the "scary redhead" Abby in Ginny & Georgia or crime-involved Jackie Sullivan in Pretty Hard Cases.
"We essentially meet both Jackie and Abby at the arch of their story lines before their worlds kind of spin into disarray," says Douglas.
Jackie Sullivan on Pretty Hard Cases
Pretty Hard Cases is a buddy-cop 'dramedy'centred on the take-down of a Toronto drug gang, and Katie Douglas plays Jackie, the daughter of the gang-leader.
"Jackie in Pretty Hard Cases is thrown into a world of crime and winds up using her involvement with the police to help out her soon-to-be drug lord mother," says Douglas.
Jackie gets close to the lead detective's son, Elliot (Percy Hynes), but unintentionally falls in love with him, which adds a cute teen romance story to the plot of a crime drama.
"In the process, she finds herself falling deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole, dragging the people she cares about along with her, despite only wanting to help them in the first place."
Abby in Ginny &Georgia
Ginny &Georgia is similarly about the daughter (Ginny) of a single mom involved in crime (Georgia), who moves to a new town and quickly gets into a close friend group. One of those friends is Abby (played by Katie Douglas), the "scary redhead" who feels threatened by the new addition to the close friend group.
"Jackie of course is more outside of the box and comes from a tough part of town, while Abby is popular and from a privileged neighbourhood and is more interested in being social above anything else," says Douglas.
Abby in Ginny & Georgia is the sarcastic, scheming friend who lashes out while keeping her body image issues and parents' impending divorce to herself. But she cares about her friends more than anything else in her life, says Douglas.
"As her home life begins to crumble and the new girl in town starts to threaten the foundation of her security with her friends, she begins to lash out towards the world, becoming consumed by her insecurities and leaving her feeling more alone than ever."
Frustration and empathy for flawed characters
"At first glance, Abby and Jackie are quite different in nature," says Douglas, "I think their similarities lie in their imperfections as they both navigate the obstacles of growing up as teenage girls," says Douglas.
"We continuously watch the two characters make mistakes as conflicts arise in their storylines, and I think more than anything the two characters evoke both frustration and empathy." says Douglas.
Douglas, originally from Burlington, Ontario, began her acting career at age 6. She is also known for playing the co-lead in the drama TV series Mary Kills People, and as Sally Wilcox in Spooksville.
"At their core, Jackie and Abby are trying to protect and hold onto the people that they care about," says Douglas.
"I think it's incredibly fun and interesting that both Jackie and Abby take a turn for the worst throughout their story lines. There is room for growth but as of now, they are flawed and imperfect characters."
No one is who they want to be when they're in high school. It's a clumsy, beautiful mess and I think that's what makes these two characters so relatable.- Katie Douglas
The themes of complicated mother-daughter relationships, crime, love, and destructiveness tend to go hand in hand with being a teenager, says Douglas.
"Jackie in Pretty Hard Cases experiences all of those things to capacity by diving into them headfirst. She's a bit of a wild child and she takes life as it comes."
"Abby in Ginny & Georgia on the other hand treads around those themes in a more dismissive way. She keeps her personal family problems private in order to appear as though she has it together. She's cold and dismissive to her mother. She pins the blame on Ginny for the shoplifting incident and has never had a boyfriend because she's seen how a relationship can turn south like with her parents."
"Though both characters are confronted with similar themes, their idiosyncratic approaches are what make them wildly different characters."
Watch more of Douglas as the first season of Pretty Hard Cases airs on CBC Gem.
