Original-Cin Q&A: North of Normal Stars on Creating Family
By Bonnie Laufer
Based on Canadian-born former model Cea Sunrise Person’s commanding memoir, the new Canadian-made drama North of Normal follows the author’s eccentric childhood in the wilderness of western Canada and Yukon Territory as well as her complicated relationship with her stoner teen mom and her incredible path to a version of normalcy on the runways of Paris.
Sarah Gadon (left) and Amanda Fix.
Newcomer Amanda Fix takes on the daunting role of playing Cea as a teen and the always fabulous Sarah Gadon plays her mother, Michelle. Our Bonnie Laufer spoke with Amanda and Sarah about taking on these challenging roles. North of Normal is in theaters on July 28.
Read our review of North of Normal
ORIGINAL-CIN: Sarah, you had a very stable upbringing. How did you wrap your mind around playing Michelle, this mother who was basically brought up in the wilderness by hippie parents?
SARAH GADON: It was difficult to be honest. I had a very happy and healthy childhood. My mom's a teacher, my dad's a psychologist, and I was a very well-adjusted adolescent. I had a lot of structure in my life, a person with a lot of consistency. So, when I first read the script, I thought, ‘I don't know if I can do this. I'm not this person. I never play characters like this.’ I had a lot of reservations because it was scarier thinking, ‘How could I do this character justice?’ But I started to get over that and found my way into the character and looked deeply into where she was coming from. I read the memoir which really helped me understand where Michelle came from.
OC: You really can’t blame her because it was how she was raised. She didn’t know any different.
SG: Absolutely, plus the time-period when she grew up made an impact. What it was like generally for women, for a woman who educated herself with a child to have the resources or any kind of psychological resources to deal with your own trauma. I have a lot of compassion for Michelle.
O-C: Amanda, kudos to you. Playing the teen version of Cea could not have been easy. How important was it for you to read her memoir and spend time with Cea to get her perspective on this and do it justice?
AMANDA FIX: I read the script and I instantly fell in love with the characters and the dynamic between Cea and her mom. That hit me most when I read the memoir. I cried quite a bit because she goes through a lot. Reading about Michelle's backstory, which you honestly don't really get to see a lot of in the film, made quite an impression on me. Mother and daughter went through a lot, and it was tough to read, and I had conversations with Cea about it. The script is a lot less dark than the real experiences that they had, but I related to her instantly.
O-C: It's a hard story to tell because when you think about it, what she went through was kind of hell and back. Sarah, developing your relationship with Amanda (and River Price-Maenpaa, who plays young Cea) and getting to know them off set had to have been an integral part of getting this right. How much time did you get to spend together to establish this amazing chemistry that you had on screen with both girls?
SG: I told (director) Carly Stone that part of the way that I work and part of the process that I go through as an actor is that I really love to sit and read through the scenes of a script in a rehearsal period with the director and the other actors. I suggested that we do that because it's a really nice way to get to know the person that you're working with and understand how each person communicates. We ended up doing that when we got to North Bay. We spent a couple of days just reading through the script together.
In the rehearsal process, Amanda and I got to know each other well. I wanted to make an effort to spend time with Amanda and River because I was a young performer myself once and for me, when I was less formally trained as an actor, I found it so helpful and it made me more comfortable.
A lot of times we are all working from a place of intuition, and so it's important for me for things to feel real to feel safe and to open up and be vulnerable with people that I was working with. I wanted to spend a lot of time with River especially because I wanted her to feel comfortable on set because like you said, they go through hell and they have to do so much emotional work in the script. We spent a lot of time together and luckily, we just became fast friends and ended up all living together through the shoot or part of the filming.
O-C: So, it almost felt like you were all a family?
SG: Absolutely! I also think that Amanda is such a talented, exciting new performer and I’m excited for people to see what she can do. It was such a joy to work with both Amanda and River, to be around their raw talent and their presence. We had such a positive experience making the film. Amanda obviously has a lot more experience than River and working with someone younger was like catching moments. It was extraordinary to watch and a fun new process for me, too.
O-C: Amanda, when you're working on something like this, did it make you think about your relationship with your mom?
AF: Definitely. I was attached to this early on in 2020. We shot in 2021. When I was reading the draft, I learned a lot and I took away things that I didn't expect I would. I learned a lot from Sarah, too. We had lots of conversations about relationships with parental figures, boundaries and things like that and I think it's just an important thing to explore. Your family is your family, and it really elevated my appreciation for them and what they do for me.
SG: Everyone's parents are people, and they make mistakes and they do things because of the way that they were raised and that's not always what's best for you. I think humanizing Michelle and really getting behind her as a woman and a mom made me realize that no parent is perfect, and everyone is going to pass on their mistakes. That's something that's unavoidable.