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>> Molly Parker goes from film to TV and from Toronto to Montreal

by MATTHEW HAYS

There's something distinctly Disneyesque about Molly Parker. She has big, striking features. She is unquestionably beautiful. She's terribly sweet and seems, well, downright pure. But this "Walt Disney quality" (as director Lynne Stopkewich puts it) doesn't quite mesh with the roles she's getting. Or taking.

"I'm attracted to these projects because they're different," says Parker, who's coming to Montreal later this month for a film shoot. "My taste is certainly not mainstream in terms of what Hollywood is doing. But the reality is that the majority of the people making films in this country are not making mainstream films anyway. They're not doing regular narrative storylines. It's all bizarre somehow."

Bizarre would be the word for it. Last December, Parker won the Best Actress Genie award for her role in Kissed, in which she played an obsessive necrophile. Stopkewich's casting of Parker indicated a keen instinct on the director's part; the actress's good looks meant it was clear she was lured to dead meat by choice, not by desperation. "I really wanted the part," Parker recalls thinking after reading the script.

For Parker, the notoriety she gained after Kissed became a huge hit at both the Toronto and Cannes film fests felt a bit odd. The film had been shot three years earlier and Stopkewich had finished the film over a long period due to piecemeal funding. "The wait was good in many ways," says Parker. "It gave me some distance and perspective. I could watch it from a different place."

Now Parker finds herself in Don McKellar's universe. Parker stars in the CBC comedy mini-series Twitch City. Directed by Bruce McDonald (Highway 61, Hard Core Logo) and written by McKellar, the six-part show has Parker playing a nerdy roommate to a TV addict played by McKellar himself. Parker expresses great admiration for McKellar, discussing how much she loved the script for Twitch when she read it. The role is paying off; Twitch City is getting rave reviews across the board for its irreverent, clever writing and wacky ensemble cast.

Does Parker see a major difference between acting for the big screen and the small box? "In essence it's all the same, whether you're on stage or on film or TV. What you're trying to do is tell the truth of the story and that character. But the technical stuff is very different. You have way more time when you're doing film. Even if it's very low budget and you don't have a lot of time, the time is taken to work and rehearse. Many times with TV you don't even meet the actors you're working with until you get on the set." For Parker, the quirkiness of the script and the professionalism of McDonald and McKellar was a welcome respite from typical patterns of TV work.

With the Vancouver native's climb to success well on its way, inevitable questions about where she'll end up arise: can Canada sustain a star system? Will she have to relocate to Los Angeles? "I don't think people have to live in L.A. to make it in the business. I'm trying very hard not to live there. I am, however, spending more and more time there--as much as I can afford to emotionally and financially. It's a hard, hard, sad city. The thing that scares me the most is the look of desperation on people's faces--the desperation to be somebody. And it's an incredibly hard city on women. But the reality is it's all going on there."

And what's Parker's most nightmarish L.A. story? "They all run together." Then she rethinks her apparent anti-California stance. "I've had a real distaste for L.A. for a long time, but the more time I spend there, I don't necessarily think it's such a bad place. You do need to surround yourself with people you trust though, more than in any other city I know."

Though Parker appears to be an indication that Canada may well be developing its own star system, for her our country's lack of one is a bit of a bonus. "We can't ever hope to have as massive a star system here as in the States. Something I really love about living here is that I can do this kind of work and still go and buy groceries and not worry about makeup or anything. To have a life is great--on the other hand, a star system helps to finance films."

So Parker will soon be arriving in Montreal, to act in two projects, one an indigenous anthology film and the other an American studio feature, coproduced by Polygram Pictures and Jodie Foster's production company. The former, Ladies Room, has Parker playing a young actress in conflict with two older actresses in a dressing room prior to their stage performance. Waking the Dead is the feature, in which she plays a woman involved with a man who can't leave his romantic past behind. "I can't wait to get to know Montreal better," says Parker, who now lives with her boyfriend in Toronto. "It's such a stunning city." Afterwards she'll return to Toronto for another feature.

With all the work and the increasing demand for her talents, where does Parker see herself in 10 years? "That's tough. Perhaps I'll have a family. I just hope I'm as happy as I am now."

Twitch City continues this Monday, Feb. 23, 9:30pm on CBC. Kissed is available on video