Close-up Culture’s James Prestridge caught up with actress Victoria Dunsmore to learn more about her role in The Last Porno Show.
The film, directed by Kire Paputts, will premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. It tells the story of Wayne, an amateur method actor, who inherits Toronto’s last adult cinema from his estranged father and descends into a dark pornographic underworld as he struggles to resolve the traumas of his youth.
Q: ‘The Last Porno Show’ will premiere at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival. What does it mean to premiere at TIFF, especially given that this is a Toronto-based story?
A: It’s a huge deal to be premiering at TIFF. This is the second largest international film festival in the world, and it’s Canadian! They’re also unwavering in their support of Canadian content, which is so important.
The industry of film is growing in Canada, and we can’t lose sight of the voices that we have here. It’s easy to be dwarfed by our brothers and sisters south of the border, and TIFF has always made it their mission to give Canadian filmmakers that extra bit of love.
And yes, this is very much a Toronto-based story. There are familiarities for anyone who calls Toronto home, people and places they’ll recognise, seedy nooks and crannies that local audience members will hopefully be really jazzed to see. And for everyone else it’ll hopefully showcase Toronto in a way that they haven’t seen before!
Q: What can audiences at TIFF expect from ‘The Last Porno Show’? What was it that drew you to this story?
A: They can expect weird and whacky. They can expect to laugh. Some folks can definitely expect to feel uncomfortable, which makes me really excited. There’s something very distinctly impolite about this movie, very unCanadian, while still maintaining a lot of compassion and kindness for the characters and context. It has a lot of opposites going on, and in my biased opinion, it’s a well-crafted and well-executed film.
Kire, our writer/director/producer, is extremely talented. He made the entire script available for anyone auditioning in the interest of full-disclosure, which says a lot about him as a person, and then actually reading the script and enjoying it start to finish, that’s rare.
Q: You play Ashley, a naive and ambitious actress looking to be a star. Can you tell us more about Ashley and how you tapped into this character?
A: You’ve already highlighted that she is naive and ambitious. She is also passionate and well-intentioned, and perhaps a little overconfident to start, which disappears pretty quickly as her fear gets the better of her over the course of the film.
I could empathise with all of this very well, and still do. If I’m to be very honest, most of the work was alleviated due to good casting. For example, I booked this role in my first four months of pursuing acting as a career. It was my second feature film. This was Ashley’s first. I was unrepresented at the time, hustling as hard as I could at securing as many opportunities for myself as possible. I imagine Ashley was in a similar boat. When I was offered this role I was immediately terrified because of what playing this character would entail.
This kind of project could very much break a career if not handled properly, and I took a risk, believing that this was going to be a good experience. For me, it was an incredible experience. For Ashley, not so much. So you see, I didn’t have to do a whole lot of extra work. I had to focus on being as authentic and honest as possible.
The only thing I had to really conceive for myself was what it would be like to be on set and not have anyone there to support you, listen to your opinions, and ask if you’re okay.
Q: The film follows a character, played by Nathaniel Chadwick, who takes method acting a little too far. Have you ever had any strange experiences with method acting or getting into a character’s mind?
A: I have studied at studios that take more of a “method” approach to acting. It works for some people, and it’s always strange to think you’re interacting with someone you know, meanwhile they’re in character and being someone else entirely.
There are many misconceptions about method acting, and it can be very destructive if not handled properly. Nathaniel’s character, Wayne, is a pretty damn good example of an actor using acting as therapy, which is a huge no no. If you’re dealing with material that forces you to confront unresolved issues within yourself, it can be detrimental to your metal health.
Q: ‘The Last Porno Show’ features a number of non-actors or first-time actors. Did that create a different atmosphere on set?
A: I imagine it did. The bulk of my time on set was spent with Nathaniel and Luke, though I heard stories from them about working with the other personalities and celebrities that Kire wrangled to be in the film. They were cast simply to act as themselves, which only adds to the authenticity of the film and is extremely interesting to watch. I can only imagine how entertaining it must have been to have those folks to goof off with in-between takes.
Q: Director Kire Paputts has also said he encouraged experimentation and improv on the set. Did you get involved in that? If so, do you have any stories of it to share?
A: We did get to go off -script which, looking back, I didn’t take enough advantage of at the time. I definitely could have gone further. But yes, we were very much allowed to do and say what felt natural and truthful, as long as it remained within the given circumstances.
Particularly in the climax of the film, Kire was wonderful and encouraged me to try different things, and was so considerate in making the snap judgement of giving Ashley more power in the scene. I won’t spoil the ending, but it was very cool to have a male director say: “Hey, you know what, she should be the one to say [this]” and have her character arc really shift because of it. He is very open minded.
Q: One of the quotes in the film reads: ‘There are two kinds of people in the world: there’s people that are happy and then there’s people that make people happy.’ Which type of person are you?
A: Depends on the day. I make sure to be kind and generous to as many people as possible, as often as possible, though I know myself well enough to be able say that there are days when I choose to look out for myself and do what I need to do.
Nevertheless, we can’t live just for ourselves. It should be everyone’s goal to bring happiness into other peoples lives if we have the power to do so.
Q: Was acting always something you knew you wanted to pursue or was there a specific moment you can pinpoint where it got under your skin?
A: I remember being about fourteen and having a full-blown obsession over Meryl Streep and how wildly talented she is. It blew my mind because I had grown up watching The Bridges Of Madison County with my mom, and then The Devil Wears Prada came out, and it took me a moment to piece together that the main characters were played by the same person.
I had already been performing for a couple years at that point, and I had obviously been watching movies my whole life, but that was the first time I was able to fully grasp what was possible as an actor, and how far you could really dive into a role and become somebody else.
After that I proceeded to become extremely depressed because fourteen-year-old me knew I would never be as good as Meryl Streep. That’s something I’ve come to terms with, however. I’ve managed to heal from that very traumatic realisation!
Q: ‘The Last Porno’ is your most prominent role to date. What have been some of the biggest hurdles you’ve faced in getting where you are now?
A: Training. Consistently training. It’s a huge investment, and so unbelievably necessary, but at times it can be difficult. Life happens and you think you can’t afford to take class, or you’re spreading yourself too thin, etc. The work/life balance is difficult for everybody, but I think more so for anyone who works the freelance game, which is what actors are. We’re guns for hire.
An analogy that I always enjoy hearing is, if you hired a carpenter and he didn’t bring any tools with him, he’d do a pretty shitty job on your kitchen renovations. An actors toolbox is taking classes and making sure they’re trained and ready at any given time. My goal is consistency in my work, and that requires consistent work. I’m still figuring that out.
Q: I hear you are a cinephile. Tell us the three films you’d take to a deserted island.
A: The Devil Wears Prada (duh.), Lost In Translation, and Practical Magic.
Q: What is next for you? What are your hopes and ambitions for the future?
A: Next is vacation! Getting out of the city for a bit. And then more of the same: seeking out as many opportunities as possible, making more films.
Hopefully people like those films enough to give them some love and feature them to larger audiences, and the snowball continues. I would love to work in television at some point as well, a series lead or series recurring would be incredible.