An Interview with Remedy’s Sara Canning

Where has the time gone? Tonight is already the Season 1 finale of Global’s much-loved medical drama Remedy, and we have a really special treat for you — an interview with Sara Canning who plays Dr. Melissa Conner on the series! In it, we chat about Mel’s journey throughout the first season and the potential for further exploring her character’s life outside of the hospital, plus she teases a bit on what’s coming up in tonight’s finale.

Read the full interview below, and be sure to watch tonight at 9pm ET/PT only on Global TV.

When Remedy started, Melissa appeared to be the one person in the Conner family who seemed to be on the right track. As the season progressed, we saw her unravel. Can you share a bit about that journey for your character?

She appeared at one point to be the most put together of the Conners, but how wonderful to have that challenge as much as it was in the first season. I really was excited right from the get go to play Melissa. Sarah Allen and I were considered for both roles (Melissa and Sandy), and I was not expecting [to be cast as Melissa] when I first read the script. A couple of people said to me, “Oh, you’d be so perfect for Sandy,” and I’m so happy that Greg (Spottiswood) and the rest of the producers and people behind the scenes kind of saw me as Mel because I don’t get to play that kind of role often. I was really excited to jump into whatever that was, and I couldn’t have even fathomed at the beginning of the season the journey that she would go on. Greg, the creator of the show, was giving me little hints along the way, but she’s a doozy that character.

It was a really wonderful thing to build up what the perfectionism was and what the armour was. I really saw her as the star quarterback of the family, or that’s what she wanted to be. She worked really hard to get to that point. It was a very rigid incline throughout her education and throughout working at this hospital and really putting the time in, and quickly falls apart.

I think that your performance, especially that breakdown after Mel overhears her father say she’s not a natural surgeon, was spot on.

I love that Remedy is so relatable, and I hope that everyone can relate. It really follows through on these wonderful arcs for all of the characters, whether the Conner family, or the porters in the basement. We all, in some fashion or in some aspect of our lives, I think, feel the way that Mel does about her career. I think we all have a little bit of that.

What I love about the Conner family is that even the girls, they’re such different personalities but they all really want to do the right thing. They’re so stubborn in trying to do the right thing, whatever their personality trait is and whatever their motivations are.

If there is a second season, would you really like to see Mel explore life outside of the hospital and seeing herself as more than just a surgeon?

I would love to explore that side of her life. For example, in episode 106 when we see her at home, all of her time is focused on forwarding herself in her career. I think Jerry as a character is a really lovely symbol of what needs to happen for Mel in order for her to have a balanced mental and emotional state. She is so on the edge all the time. We saw her kind of have a panic attack and that’s always looming for her because of the rigidity that she holds herself to. Brendan Gall who plays Jerry is such an interesting actor. He’s not at all your stereotypical guy who swoops in and sweeps someone off their feet. It’s a really interesting relationship between the two of them and I think he really challenges her in a positive way, in that you can have a life where you feel OK with yourself. You don’t have to be so hard on yourself all the time.

Hypothetically, if and when there’s a Season 2, that is now a door that’s been opened for Mel where she won’t be content to just shut everyone out in order to concentrate on her job 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some things have been awakened in her that you definitely see in the season finale what direction Season 2 will head in, which is exciting. I think the finale is definitely, for a number of characters, a trajectory changer.

Do you think that Mel becoming an aunt when Sandy has the baby will also be a catalyst for Mel’s change?

A very close friend of mine was already an aunt and a couple of nights ago her sister had her second baby. I feel like it slows everything down to what matters most. I think about it all the time because I have no siblings, but I have so many aunts and uncles. I think it really just boils things down to what really matters when this beautiful new life comes into a family. That will be a really interesting thing to see how it changes everyone [on Remedy].

You have such a passionate fanbase from your time on The Vampire Diaries and also on Primeval: New World. What kind of feedback have you received from those fans about Remedy?

It’s so wonderful to have a loyal group of people who watched me on Vampire Diaries and continued to watch projects like Remedy that are so different. It’s not a genre-type show, it’s a medical show, it’s pretty much night and day from The Vampire Diaries. Remedy has such a great cast — Enrico Colantoni’s amazing, Dillon Casey, Sarah Allen, everyone is amazing and we’ve all brought people from different corners of TV watching. Enrico has a huge fan base, Dillon was on Nikita, and Sarah as well, and I think a lot of people starting watching the show for one of the cast members — that’s what I’m getting a sense of — and they’ve come aboard because they’ve loved the show, and that is the most wonderful feeling.

When I read the first episode, I loved that it was character driven, that’s so important to me to have the people in the story have their lives and their problems, their loves and their excitements speak loudest. It’s a hospital show, but it’s a hospital happening around the people who work in it and their stories.

I’m so grateful to every fan of The Vampire Diaries or anything that I’ve done in the past that has come on this little journey with us. I think it’s the people, it’s the characters [on Remedy] that end up hooking an audience and keeping them.

You touched on the season finale a bit earlier. What final thoughts can you share with us about what’s in store?

It’s a really interesting episode because it really looks at where each of the characters is at, but at the same time, I got a huge sense of where the family is at. With the different episodes, we’ve followed different characters, which I love about an ensemble cast. It’s really interesting because no one really falls of the face of the earth. Everyone has been followed down the rabbit hole. The finale is an interesting look at [where everything stands following] Griffin’s return, what happened in Episode 9 with Sandy and Brian, and an interesting look at how life carries on. We’re walking hand in hand with these people from the first episode as life has been happening for them and there are so many interesting relationships that have developed over the first season. I think the finale both opens up a whole world of “What happens next” and it also is a really neat microscopic look at where these people are sitting now because of these kind of crazy events that have happened.

Photo Courtesy of Global TV

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