Photo By Jaclyn Vogl
It’s hard to see the frame when you’re in the picture, a sentiment that has become a bit of a positive omen for breakout star, Erika Prevost. At the beginning of 2024, the actress didn’t have any work lined up and she was struggling with her mental health. The audition for Saint-Pierre (streaming now on CBC Gem) as Patty Montclair-Ito was not only meaningful but serendipitous.
The CBC original series created by Allan Hawco, Robina Lord-Stafford and Perry Chafe, follows Newfoundland Constabulary Inspector Donny “Fitz” Fitzpatrick as he is forced to relocate to the French territory, Saint-Pierre for being a little too good at his job. The moment Prevost was introduced to the character, she knew she had to play her. “This was a role I was talking about with my agent, I loved the writing. I just thought it was so well-written and seamless. I remember walking late at night after an acting class when my manager called me. He congratulated me. I was so surprised and very excited!”
Booking the role may have come as a shock to Prevost but speaking with her left me with a different impression, I suspected it was her destiny to play Montclair-Ito. The trajectory of her acting career has been littered with those inexplicable bits of magic that guide all of us on a journey we don’t yet know we are on. Originally from Montreal, the actress began her career as a dancer, dreaming of performing with Beyoncé and Janet Jackson. She never thought she’d be an actress. In fact, the opportunity came by accident. “I came to Toronto because of a dance gig. I made a lot of friends and some of them messaged me about a show called The Next Steps, they were looking for dancers. So, I did the audition and got the job but I wasn’t fully aware of what I was getting myself into.” she laughs. “ When they called me to tell me I booked the role as a series regular and needed to move to Toronto for six months, I was surprised about this because I thought I auditioned for a dance role, not a speaking role!”
Prevost instantly fell in love with the craft and ran with it, booking roles in iconic franchises like Bring It On and The Boys. Now in her biggest role yet, she is a rookie cop whose naivete and love for the job add much flair to solving the many mysteries the quaint island expertly hides. What drew Prevost to the role was Patty’s admiration and respect for her peers; she shows up to work every day with no other motivation than to be the best she can, an aspect of her character that Prevost loves. “All of her values align with how I feel. Just being in that space and working with all these other actors who are so talented and so generous.”
Joining an original Canadian series with a cast of major stars like Allan Hawco, Joséphine Jobert, Benz Antoine and Jean-Michel Le Gal, may feel a bit intimidating, but Prevost assures that working together was truly a family affair. “The set didn’t feel like there was a hierarchical structure and I think that helped a lot with cast bonding. Alan [Allan Hawco] is the writer, producer and lead actor on the show and that makes him so busy. So busy! Yet he would take the time on weekends to host a BBQ and bring people together. Josie [Joséphine Jobert] I love her so much! She has become like a big sister to me. We would go to the supermarket together and get our groceries and when we weren’t able to do it together, we’d make sure to do it for each other. That sense of giving amongst the whole cast continued throughout the five months of filming, it definitely created the chemistry you see on screen and solidified us as a team.”
The making of Saint-Pierre was as much a cast-bonding experience as it was a community experience for the locals with many of them standing in as background actors. “By the end of filming, we kind of knew everyone from our daily routines – that’s the barista who makes my morning coffee and that’s the hotel clerk,” she laughs. The sense of camaraderie between the cast and locals added another level of excitement to filming on the island. Saint-Pierre is known for its colourful houses, and picturesque landscapes by locals but was less known to me and thankfully Prevost. “Until I got this audition, I didn’t know it was a real place either!” We laughed, at that moment we became kindred spirits. However, not being aware of this stunning island served as a wonderful first-time experience for the actress and the rest of the cast. “Filming there was a bizarre, yet eye-opening experience. It’s such a lovely place in Canada but the culture is French. The food is fantastic the locals have Parisian accents, everything closes between 12 and 2, and because it’s such a small town everyone sort of knows everyone.”
Erika is the sort of person that we all quietly aspire to be. Her self-awareness allows her to be generous with herself, she possesses a raw energy that invites you to witness the spiritual journey she is on and, in many ways, being an actress has aided her in that self-discovery. But to be in this industry requires a certain level of mental strength and agility, a reality that is not lost on Prevost. Before landing the role of Patty, she found herself at the crossroads of an existential crisis, unsure of where the year was going to take her but with a clear vision of what she wanted. “I remember talking to my therapist about it and she asked me, if you booked a job right now, would all of your problems go away? I instinctively said yes. I told her I wanna get a role and to play with people I love to work with. I believed if I got that then everything would be fine, and then I got Saint-Pierre and although I was excited and grateful, everything wasn’t fine.”
Her response to her achievement is a universal experience, actor or not. Putting our hopes and dreams on pedestals may appear to be the answer but it only distracts us from reality. For Prevost, instead of facing this realization with defeat, she turned into a personal motif: presence as a principle. “Mental health is so important because the nature of our job is to face rejection all the time and it requires someone’s approval of you to get a job. You are faced with that way more than the average person, that constant NO can easily turn into believing you’re not good enough or talented enough and it’s hard not to take that personally.” Having a support system, practicing self-care and keeping perspective are essential for Prevost as an artist, these are the foundations for developing that “keep-going” mentality actors need to have because, beyond the rejection, the job also comes with irregular amounts of uncertainty. “When you’re on a job it’s so great and it’s so much fun, but the reality of it is you finish the job and you’re like – okay, what’s next? The constant uncertainty does train your mental and emotional strength and how to detach yourself from how much you’re booking. For anyone who is in this industry, we can all agree that mental health can take a toll, the goal is getting to a place where you can feel enough despite these challenges.”
Presence as a principle has naturally evolved into her advocacy for mental health for other actors, creating an environment that embodies some of her own anecdotes for surviving the industry. In 2024, during the writer’s strike, she and best friend and actress, Jennifer Hui started Snacks & Play, a community for actors to show up and support each other. “At first, Jennifer and I wanted to bring people together to check in on each other. We wanted to create a safe space for actors to be able to share whatever they might be going through. Our motto is Show Up As You Are. We all bring a snack and we play. The playing can be a cold read, practicing for an audition, watching a movie together, anything. It has become a space where people share a lot and I think it’s helping support all of our mental health.”
It is a thrilling experience to bear witness to the evolution of an artist, a gift to see the finished painting before the subject does. When I asked her why being an actress was important to her- she had not yet recognized the altruistic nature of her presence in the industry. “What I love most about it is being able to explore all the different parts of me and having full permission and license without judgment. I would love to say I’m doing it to tell meaningful stories or to inspire others and maybe that will happen at some point. But right now I think I am doing it to heal parts of myself because I have permission to be whatever I need to be because it’s a character and a safe space and I’m creating art.” Nearly twelve years in the industry as an actress – a path she would have never taken had it not been for that fateful audition – and Prevost is thriving, doing her part to make the industry a safer and better place for herself and other actors. Her sincerity is charming.
As Prevost continues to shine weekly as Patty Montclair-Ito, she is already imagining her next endeavour and entering her behind-the-scenes era. “I want to be a part of some really good indie films,” she grins, “where everyone is passionate, it can be any genre. I’m also working on developing a series with my director partner, this is a project we started working on two years ago. I’ve never made my own series before and I don’t know how it works but hopefully it gets made.”
It will definitely get made and she will find that perfect indie or two that satiates her creative appetite because that is the type of person Prevost is. She’s the risk-taking, figure-it-out, make-it-happen type of artist. And she is exactly where her destiny wants her to be.
Saint-Pierre is streaming now on CBC Gem.
