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There鈥檚 one word that star Lauren Lee Smith uses repeatedly when describing her 17-year acting career: luck.
Technically, she uses both luck and its adjective offspring, lucky. Smith counts herself lucky that she unearthed her passion for acting in the first place; she鈥檚 lucky that she found success almost immediately after committing to her career; she鈥檚 lucky that she鈥檚 worked steadily for nearly two decades.
As lucky as Smith considers herself, though, she also doesn鈥檛 completely eschew the impact of her attitude and hard work.
鈥淚 think that, for me, it鈥檚 a lot of luck and a lot of, 鈥楾his is it, this is what I鈥檓 doing,鈥欌�� says the 麻豆传媒映画actress in a recent phone interview.
On CBC鈥檚 Montreal-shot family drama This Life 鈥� which caps off its second season next week 鈥� Smith plays Maggie Lawson, the free-spirited, 30-something 鈥渒id鈥� sister of series protagonist Natalie Lawson (portrayed by Stargate Atlantis alum Torri Higginson).
Maggie is the prototypical emotionally stunted younger sibling, which makes her a complete joy to play, according to Smith.
鈥淚 love Maggie, because she is completely immature. She speaks her mind. She makes a lot of bad choices. There are no limitations with her. She really does not give a crap about anything,鈥� laughs Smith, whose lengthy filmography includes scene-stealing turns in The L-Word, The Listener, Helen (for which she won a Leo Award), and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
鈥淭he joy of playing Maggie is I get to act out on all of these crazy things she does and not feel bad about it in my real life. I get to do it for make-believe.鈥�
Smith鈥檚 passion for acting began when she was seven years old and watched The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth in short order.
鈥淚 know those both had a lot of puppets, but they had a big influence on me,鈥� she chuckles. 鈥淚 remember with Labyrinth going, 鈥榃hat is this world, and how do I enter it? I want to do what they do.鈥欌��
Smith honed her acting skills in youth theatre programs, but she wouldn鈥檛 fully pull the trigger on her acting career until her late teens, when she was working as a model in Korea. 鈥淚 was reading this acting book, and I said, 鈥極kay, that鈥檚 it: I鈥檓 leaving modeling, I鈥檓 going back home, I鈥檓 putting all of my attention into acting鈥� 鈥� and I have to say, I got really, really, really lucky.鈥�
Luck came in the form of her first role: Erin Evans on MTV鈥檚 cult-favourite boy band parody, 2gether.
鈥淐ut to 17 years later, and acting is the only job that I鈥檝e ever gotten to do. It鈥檚 pretty crazy when you think about it. I got super, super lucky.鈥�
Over those 17 luck-filled years, Smith has used every tool at her disposal not to be pigeonholed into any one type of role. 鈥淓very year I鈥檇 make a point to chop my hair off, or dye it black, or grow my hair out and dye it red,鈥� says Smith. 鈥淚 know it sounds silly, but I think it helped me a little bit because I really jumped around from one genre to the next, and one character to the next, which is,鈥� 鈥� here comes that word again 鈥� 鈥渓ucky.鈥�
These days, the new mom 鈥撎齭he has a six-month-old daughter 鈥� is looking at her life and This Life with gratitude. 鈥淲hen I was 20 years old, to me success was people knowing my name [鈥. And to me now, I look at my career and I think, 鈥榃ow, I鈥檝e made a really great life and a really great living for the last 17 years by working.鈥� And to me, that is success. I couldn鈥檛 really ask for anything more.鈥�
This Life听airs Sundays at 9pm on CBC.
