Broken Trail now on DVD in Canada and available for purchase through Amazon

Up until AMC rolled into Alberta with Broken Trail, I’d been an extra or day player on a few Christmas television movies drifting through town, but acting was never something I’d allowed myself to seriously entertain. Broken Trail, would change all that.

How the Journey Began…

When I heard Emmy Award winning casting director, Jackie Lind, was helping AMC find five Chinese actresses to play a group of abducted girls who join two grizzled cowboys (Robert Duvall and Thomas Hayden Church) on a journey across America’s mid-west in the late 1800′s, I started driving to Calgary to attend the auditions. I remember scrambling to get out of my shifts as a news reporter, then driving six hours round trip to audition for five minutes, all the while thinking, “What the hell am I doing?”

I wasn’t sure my life was in local news anymore, but the thought of leaving a secure career I’d built from such a young age felt unsafe and completely counter-survival. Plus, acting seemed like a pipe dream.

But for the five minutes I was in that Calgary room auditioning, all the angst I felt over an urge I couldn’t explain melted away. I just enjoyed the process so much. The first Broken Trail role I auditioned for was cast a few days later out of LA. I shrugged it off thinking, “That’s okay, I’m not an actor anyway.”

Then I got called in to audition for another part. So exactly one week after my first audition, I made the six hour trek to Calgary to audition again. And once more, I found myself wondering, ‘What the hell am I doing?”

This time the part went to someone in Vancouver. “That’s okay,” I said to myself, as I hung up the phone dejected. Then a third trip to Calgary for another audition for another part, this time a director producer session… this time, the part went to someone from Calgary.

But then, an invite to meet with the project’s director, Walter Hill (Warriors, Deadwood), was extended. So for the fourth time in as many weeks, I drove to Calgary, this time to have tea with Walter who explained that Robert Duvall had spotted my first audition on a DVD with over one hundred actors and picked me out. After three auditions,Walter didn’t want to bring me in to audition again, rather, he wanted to talk to me about playing Ye Fung, the girl in the group who’s most emotionally vulnerable.

And then a funny thing happened. As something that once seemed impossible increasingly became a tangible opportunity, I freaked myself out… I was feeling uninspired in my news career, yet now I was fighting anything that threatened to make me look at changing my situation. In the end, with support of people around me who could see the bigger picture, I chose the very thing that scared me most. The very thing I wanted most– acting.

Pre-production…

Within three weeks of booking the role, I showed up in Calgary for my wardrobe fitting where I met Jadyn Wong, Valerie Tian, and Caroline Chan, they would become my little sista’s from other mista’s in a very short period of time. We traded our modern-day jeans and T-shirts for historical outfits that reflected the clothing of girls and women shipped over from China during that time (1890′s).

Meeting Robert Duvall…

The first thing Duvall did when we arrived was hold a dinner for key cast. I remember how he came into the private room, saw us, then smiled huge, and swept his arms open to announce his own entrance, “Hey hey hey! It’s Bobby D!”

You couldn’t help but be charmed by his presence and charisma.

Bobby quickly revealed his passion for tango, and invited a few of us to come learn some steps with him at a local studio. I arrived excited to move and shake. But the dance moves were foreign to me, and I felt flustered trying to learn from Bobby who was very particular about getting the steps right. Imagine being coached by Major Frank Burns. A bit freaked out, I finally blurted, “I feel like you’re mad at me!”

He looked surprised… then took a thoughtful pause before gently responding, “I’d never be mad at you.”

I think I remember that moment because I was struck by how quickly he could transform and affect people. From perfectionist drill sergeant to gentle mentor.

Another day, I knocked on his trailer door early one morning to hang out. I sat at a table with him while he learned his lines. Because he was so focused, I just chilled and watched him work, watching how his lips moved as he worked his lines, how his glasses sat crookedly on his nose amplifying the expression of focused concentration in his eyes. I was witnessing the quiet, dedicated craftsman putting his work in. No bullsh*t.  No short cuts to greatness.

The Shoot…

We shot on private ranch land 90 minutes outside of Calgary. The location, with its mountains, rushing rivers and grasslands was STUNNING. Absolutely breathtaking in its purity. Add a herd of two hundred horses wrangled by Alberta cowboys under a bright blue sky with cotton candy clouds, and the epic scale of our surroundings was undeniable.

I was so happy to be on set and fascinated with every facet of the experience having never been on set for more than a day at a time. In terms of the actual craft of acting, I had no idea what I was doing, and was blissfully unaware how I was as green as the grass I was standing on. There were many times my enthusiasm came out in my performance in ways that were completely inappropriate for the story. At one point, I remember watching Bobby do a scene where his character teaches Valerie Tian’s character to ride a horse, giving her a huge sense of freedom given her bound feet.

I whooped and hollered through the whole take, clapping with excitement for my pal. How awesome! Riding a horse with Robert Duvall? Dope.

Walter called cut and strolled over in the calm manner he had at all times. After taking a moment to choose his words, he finally said, “Remember, you’re in 1897 and you’ve been horribly abused. A little less Olivia, a lot more Ye Fung.”

As the shoot progressed, I became increasingly inspired as I watched the more experienced actors around me bring their roles to life. No two takes were the same, their silence said as much as their dialogue, and they really lived real moments in front of the camera.  I knew I was witnessing great artists at work.

I was never reprimanded by anyone on set for pushing moments, indicating emotion and having no understanding of the craft.  Walter would just gently tell me to do less. Bobby would come over and give me a game to play during my scene to get me out of my head. And sometimes the camera would find me when I didn’t know it to capture a real reaction.

A Play for Bobby D…

On our last night in town, Bobby held a dinner for the girls. Because of his paternal bond to us in the film, he’d gone out of his way to get to know us in real life, planning meals and activities for us throughout the shoot. To top it off, he and his wife, Luciana, went out shopping for gifts for us upon wrapping the shoot.

Me, Jadyn, Caroline and Val (Gwendoline was unable to stay for dinner that night), quickly huddled in the bathroom and decided we couldn’t end the evening without giving Bobby a gift of some sort in return. What do you get a guy like Robert Duvall?

During shooting, he’d mentioned a scene he’d really wanted in the movie, where the girls put on a play about the moon to express their appreciation. The scene never made it into the shooting draft, so we decided in the bathroom it would be fitting and meaningful to do the play now. We quickly came up with a plot, assigned parts, and walked out of the bathroom to announce our gift, a play for Bobby.

With Robert Duvall promoting at the Television Critics Association press conference to announce Broken Trail for AMC

I remember how quickly Bobby sat up, and put his crooked glasses on when he realized what we were doing. Don’t get me wrong, the play was five minutes long, klunky and so bad it was sort of good. But the sentiment hit home, and Bobby loved our play, maybe more so because of our mistakes, bad blocking and obvious making-things-up-on-the-spot.

In the end, Broken Trail would go on to be nominated for 16 Golden Globes, win the Emmy Award for Best Mini-series, and screen at the White House in a private viewing for the president. Promoting the film would take me to LA, New York, and Washington, big places for someone who’d never really gone beyond the limits of Edmonton.  While it’s so amazing to have been part of such a critically-acclaimed project, Broken Trail was just the beginning of a new path into the unknown, and for that, this project always holds a special place in my heart.

To view behind the scene photos, publicity stills and promo shots check out my Broken Trail Facebook album.