ON SCREEN:
LOST GIRL
Showcase - Sundays, beginning Nov. 10
"Girl" Talk
Anna Silk Faces New Challenges as
"Lost Girl" Begins Its Fourth Season
By Eric Kohanik
Inside one of the buildings that once housed the Lever Brothers factory near the Toronto waterfront, Silk, who plays succubus/heroine Bo Dennis on the supernatural series, has been locking horns on this late-September morning with guest star Linda Hamilton, who returns as ruthless assassin Acacia in the 11th episode of the upcoming season.
Lost Girl begins its fourth season Nov. 10 on Showcase with the first of 13 new episodes. Hamilton is part of a roster of guest stars that includes Kyle Schmid (Copper, Blood Ties), George Takei (Star Trek), Mia Kirshner (Defiance) and Ali Liebert (Bomb Girls).
When viewers last saw Bo, she had mystically disappeared in one of several cliffhangers in last season's finale. Bo's return will herald some big changes in the Fae world.
“Bo is a key player in the Fae world,” Silk says. “She doesn't even realize how key she is at this point.”
The new season also brings big challenges for Bo and those around her. But then, Bo has always had to face big challenges.
“What's been so great about Bo from the very beginning is that, no matter what, she has been a character with so much room for growth,” Silk reflects during a break in filming. “Because she started into this world brand new, she had everything to learn and every skill to learn and develop. So, that has been a real pleasure to play and a real gift.
“Our writers and creators come up with great stuff every season to keep challenging her. But, man, she never gets to rest! She always has to fight something.”
Exactly what Bo will fight is being kept super-secret. “I'm under lock and key,” Silk confesses. “Every season, I try to think of a handful of things I can say. And usually I have a good handful. This season, I have, like, no handful. And I've said this before in other interviews: The best way I can describe it is that you have to take everything you know about Lost Girl and turn it upside down, in every aspect of the show. With so many cliffhangers at the end of last season, the way that people might think it's going to go might not be the way it goes. Or it might be.”
Silk has a much easier time talking about changes that took place off screen between seasons, including the birth of her son, Sam, in May. So, how is mommyhood?
“It's wonderful. It's really wonderful. He's ridiculous,” Silk giggles as she shows a baby picture on her smartphone. “He's really a dream baby, as I'm sure every mother says about her baby. But he really is a pretty easy-going babe. He's a happy boy.”
As for whether parenthood has affected how she plays Bo, Silk isn't quite sure.
“I've always heard other actors say, 'Oh, being a parent changes how you perform.' And I think that's true because it opens up your emotions,” she says. “It opens up your heart in a broader sense. I feel I can't answer that question yet. I feel I need more time before I can really answer how it's changed. It's busier, for sure. And there's a lot more to balance, but it's really great.”
Parenthood seems to be a good fit for Silk, much in the way that Bo felt like a good fit to her right from the start.
“It definitely fit right away because I feel like, in my own life, I'm a bit of a late bloomer,” the 39-year-old New Brunswick native says. “And I've learned to kind of be proud of that. But I feel like Bo was so new and I felt like I was kind of new at taking on a leading role, and we kind of got to grow together, so it has felt very organic right from the beginning.
“And I've definitely learned from her. I'm way more tough in my own life now.”
Lost Girl - Showcase - Sundays, beginning Nov. 10
(First published in Channel Guide Magazine - November 2013.)
