Two months shy of her 18th birthday, she was sent to Milan, a fashion capital crawling with party promoters in search of pretty young things to lure into clubs. "It was a very odd experience for me, because you're basically a bunch of high school and college-age kids living together with no guidelines - no classes to attend, no grades to get - and I remember a lot of kids just kind of going crazy and partying." Rather than fall into that trap, Tricia focused on booking gigs, instead. "Growing up having to be responsible and having to work hard, you don't take things for granted as much."
Prairie values may initially have saved her from sin, but within a couple of months it became apparent they might also be saving her life. "[My roommate] had gone out Saturday night and we were at a grocery store on Sunday and I remember her having some sort of a seizure and me riding in an ambulance with her to the hospital. She didn't want me to tell the doctors that she had taken drugs. I said, ‘I can't not tell the doctor that you've taken drugs. I mean, maybe you're overdosing.' That was my first experience of people doing drugs and that really kind of scared me. If you get sidelined by a bunch of silliness, you're not going to achieve your goals."
Shortly after turning 18, Tricia won the 1992 Ford Supermodel of the World contest. Recovering from her initial shock, she parlayed that win into assignments for the biggest names in fashion, including Armani, Versace, Channel, and Dolce & Gabbana. "It was always a business to me - it wasn't like it was my dream to be a fashion model."
But the common sense that made Tricia a top cover girl for Vogue, Elle and Cosmopolitan tripped her up when she hosted the first season of Canada's Next Top Model. "I was trying to instill in the girls that it's a business and you have to be smart about it ... and that's just not fun TV. So it was best for me to part ways, because I couldn't be the one to go, ‘You gotta be fierce!' ... and try to do the cattiness and stuff. I'm not a catty person."
What was more important for Tricia was to look for new challenges. "I wanted to travel less and to use my mind more," she says. She auditioned for the last vacant spot at an advanced on-camera acting class at the Penny Templeton Studio in New York - and that's where her love for acting was spawned. Tricia finally had a dream, so she cut ties with New York and with modelling, and moved to L.A. in 2001.
After changing modelling agencies and finding a manager who believed in her, she landed her celebrity-making role on Battlestar Galactica a year after arriving in L.A., even though her lack of ex-perience initially made the producers nervous. "They had to debate it internally forever." She ended up being the last to cast and the first to shoot among an illustrious ensemble. "I was a sponge, I would watch ... what the other actors would do before scenes and how they talked to the director, and realized that I had to just believe in myself and do what worked for me," she says.
That remains her mantra when she makes intriguing bold choices, whether it be as a dominatrix in Walk All Over Me; her terrifying part in the indie thriller Open House, opposite Anna Paquin, who also wrote and directed it; or her controversial 2007 Playboy cover.
Still a self-described "tomboy," Tricia's Playboy spread exposed more than just skin - it exposed the walking contradiction of a strong-willed, independent woman who is also seen by some as a sex object.
"Coming from a modelling background, I am certainly not a prude and I think photographing the body can be art," she says. By that point in her life, Tricia was married to entertainment lawyer Jonathan Marshall, who impressed her as an honest and caring human being who wasn't afraid to speak his mind. While discussing the Playboy shoot, some apprehension did emerge for the couple. "[Our] concerns were basically: how do we think this will be received? Have I moved beyond modelling enough? Will it be bad for my career, etcetera ... We ultimately decided to go for it and I'm very happy we did."
The publicity of the Playboy feature only furthered her career, but Tricia has seen enough of the world now to treasure her homeland. She and Marshall are building a green vacation house next to her childhood farm in Donalda. "Personally, I can't quantify in words how important it would be to me to have a home on the land that I grew up on."
In addition to the green home, she also dreams of opening a shelter for the furry set. "I have always loved animals and I say quite often - and fully feel that way - that I like animals more than I like people. They are just so true and honest and have no agendas."
Her blunt honesty is evident in her advice to model/actor hopefuls. "Don't do it if you have stars in your eyes ... It's sad to see when somebody's self-worth gets wrapped up into it and then they get taken advantage of by the leeches that are out there. If you realize that it's work and are willing to train and study, then be smart, take care of yourself and surround yourself with people who have a similar mindset," she says.
Despite her obvious acting success, Tricia's commitment to the craft precludes ego, and she is not too shy to say she still has lots to learn from other actors. "I want to be challenged and do good work," she says. She will admit to having one grand ambition, one that is every actor's Holy Grail: "OK, one goal I have is to get to a place in my career where I don't have to audition!" She may soon get her wish, as industry hype hints she's primed for fame.
As Wreggitt observed while pitching The Dealership pilot to networks in L.A. in the hope of triggering a full series order: "There's a lot of interest in her. I think she's poised to do great things." The sentiment is echoed by Fox's executive vice-president of casting, Marcia Shulman, who said in a TV Guide interview about Walk All Over Me: "She was so incredible in it. She had a pretty remarkable range. She showed vulnerability and strength. She is a star."
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