Exclusive Interview with You Me Her’s Priscilla Faia
Rookie Blue fans fell in love with Priscilla Faia as the quirky and loquacious Chloe Price on the hit Global/ABC cop drama. Faia won audiences over with Chloe’s sweetness and charm, and her ability to anxiously talk her way through any awkward situation. This season Faia has taken on a new role and has the opportunity to tell a love story seldom seen on television. Talk Nerdy With Us had the opportunity to catch up with Priscilla and hear all about her experience on DirecTV’s You Me Her. Read on to hear all she had to say!
Last time we spoke it was the final season of Rookie Blue and we were chatting about that. What’s been going on since then?
After Rookie Blue I had pretty much a year off because they hadn’t decided if they wanted to come back again. I mean, the show was written to end but I think that there was some talk of maybe going another season so we were kinda waiting for that to happen. And then when they did decide to end it, then it was more of a process of ‘Ok, where am I going next?’ So I moved back to Vancouver, started working a bit, and then I got this job called You Me Her. And that’s what I did all fall/winter. I’m really excited about it.
Yeah. I read a little synopsis, but tell me about this show.
Well, the show is…essentially the way we talk about it is a poly-romantic comedy with three people. So, it follows a married couple, Jack and Emma, who are played by Greg Poehler and Rachel Blanchard. And they’re in a rut in their marriage and at the very bad advice of Jack’s brother, he hires an escort. I play Izzy, the escort. I know how that sounds….the great thing about the show is that it sounds different than what it is and people are often surprised when they watch it because it’s not what you…something like this could easily be gratuitous…or…do you know what I mean? (laughs).
Yeah. Of course.
People kinda have an idea when they tune in and it’s not like that at all. So, Izzy is a grad student who escorts on the side, for extra money. But she’s not sleeping with these men, she’s spending time with them and helping them get their mojo back. Anyway, so she meets Jack and they hit it off, and they hit it off a little bit too much and he tells his wife, and she goes behind his back and she hires me and then we end up falling for each other. It gets into this crazy thing where these three people have feelings for each other and they’re looking at each other going ‘Ok, now what?’ It’s grounded and it’s real and it’s something where you go, ‘Oh man, this could really happen.’
It’s so interesting because we talk about how television is changing in terms of its representation of the LGBTQ community and relationships on TV aren’t just heterosexual anymore. But this feels like the next step of the conversation; maybe relationships aren’t only between two people.
Absolutely. I think that it’s really important that we’re having these conversations because it’s happening, we’re just not necessarily talking about it as much. It’s kind of on the down low. It’s important to have these conversations, that for me anyway, I think are about more than sexuality, it’s about connection. So, why this show is so great is because that’s what it’s about. It’s about these people who are connected to each other. They’re not even sure what they’re doing, they’re just like ‘Ok, so we have feelings for each other, what do we do now?’ So it’s not so much about ‘we’re this’ or ‘we’re that’ it’s ‘How do we find our way here? Where do we fit in with each other here to make this work together?’ And it’s bringing up conversations. On the panels we did, we did a press tour, and people came up to us from the audience and said ‘I’m in a polyamorous relationship. Thank you for bringing this to the forefront where we can actually have conversations about this.’ It feels really good to be part of a show that people can connect to and relate to and feel good that they’re not alone in where they are in their life.
Also, I think people are sometimes open-minded to a degree. It’s like ‘OK, I can accept two men being together, but the idea of adding a third person into the relationship, that’s where I draw a line. So, even though we’ve been better at expanding our representation there are still people who feel alienated.
Absolutely. As a general note, people like boxes, and to be fair, boxes are important because they give people something to be a part of. But when you have something like this, it’s really hard for people to understand because we’ve lived in a society where a relationship is between two people, for the most part. So I think it’s really hard for people who aren’t necessarily open-minded to even wrap their head around that. That’s why this show is so important because these aren’t people who identify as anything, they’re just figuring it out as they go and I just think that’s really real. I think this happens.
A thought that just came to me as you were talking is that this is fascinating because when we talk about being gay we talk about it as something that is a part of you from birth. But this strikes me as the type of thing that could potentially happen to anyone, where suddenly you realize you have feelings for more than one person.
(laughs) Yeah. I think there are definitely lots of people who identify with being gay or straight immediately, but I do think there’s room for people to have feelings for both and not necessarily right from birth. I think the more that you get to know yourself I find that you’re just more open to connection with an actual soul and a human, as opposed to whether or not it’s male or female.
Right. And even more than one person at the same time.
Absolutely. And as an actor, I really had to find my way through this because I wasn’t going to go into this just faking it. So I really had to find where I fit into this and how this would genuinely be something that would happen.
So what would you say was your biggest takeaway from the experience?
Oh man, that is a very tough question. No one’s ever asked me that!
I just mean, you had to go into this and you had to find the truth in it for you.
Well, you know, finding the truth of Izzy and finding the connection between Jack, Izzy, and Emma for me was really easy, mostly because of Nisha Ganatra who directed every episode. We blocked shots so she was our partner through the whole thing. She had us in rehearsals with Greg and Rachel, they had five days and then I came in for three, where we were doing theatre technique and connecting with each other and finding physically how we connected with one another and that was so important for us. We did it right before we went to camera so our connection was always there when we got to camera. We shot 10 episodes in seven weeks. It was really intense, so there wasn’t room for us to not actually be connected with one another. That was the most exciting thing for me through this, was the actual acting process with Nisha because it was so intense, we had to be with each other constantly, emotionally, physically, everything. That was my favorite part of this experience was how intense it was.
I’m excited for you to be back on TV. Even with Rookie Blue having a complete ending, I think people were holding out hope that you’d be back. The fan base is pretty strong.
Yeah. The Rookie Blue fans are die-hard. I feel so lucky that I got to be a part of Rookie Blue for so many reasons, but they were just very loyal to us. And still are! There are still pages out there that are like ‘Save Rookie Blue!’
I know! At some point we all have to collectively agree to move on, I think.
I know, but it’s hard, you know? (laughs) You invest in these characters for six seasons, it’s hard to say goodbye. I feel the same way. It was really hard, we were friends, we’re still friends, but when you get to go to work every day and get to see the people you like the most. It was definitely hard.
Yeah. We miss it.
But it lives on forever on the DVDs or iTunes, it’s pretty cool that technology these days keeps things alive.
You Me Her airs Tuesdays at 9pm on Audience for DirecTV