As a child growing up in Sherwood Park, Sara Canning had a steadfast curiosity for the paranormal. The 22-year-old actor remembers a time when her dad wouldn't even let her watch The X-Files. "I would creep into the living room and hide behind the couch to watch it," she laughs. "I would scare myself. I had a
really overactive imagination."
Who would have guessed she'd become part of one of the creepiest shows on TV? After a mere two years working in television, Canning is the second-credited star of The Vampire Diaries, winner of the 2010 People's Choice Award for Favourite New TV Drama. The success of the CW Network's teen drama has Canning dipped in America's teen culture and its current obsession with bloodsuckers. Canning portrays mortal Jenna Sommers, legal guardian of her teenage niece and nephew, who is entangled in the dark world of the undead.
But fame comes with its perils, as Canning and her female co-stars found when they became brief tabloid fodder after a photo shoot atop an Atlanta bridge went awry last fall. Concerned motorists made numerous calls to police about a pack of girls hanging off the highway bridge, and rumours of them flashing traffic took to the web. Charges of mischief were ultimately dropped, but Canning notes that it was a big wakeup call as to how entrenched the TV industry is in the media and how sensationalized things can become - and how quickly.
"My friends and family all automatically called me, laughing, because they know I'm the last person in the world who would do something like that," she says.
Originally from Newfoundland, Canning's parents moved to Sherwood Park during her preteen years. Her seventh grade drama teacher at F.R. Haythorne Junior High piqued her interest in theatre. At Bev Facey High School, she snagged a handful of starring roles in its main stage productions, and she acted in numerous shows on Sherwood Park's headline stage, Festival Place.
When she was 18, Canning appeared in George Orwell's 1984 at the Citadel Theatre. Not knowing what to do next, she entered the University of Alberta's general arts stream. But as much as she loved her English and philosophy classes, she says, "Nothing really fuelled my fire the way that performing did. So I [asked myself], ‘Why can't I do this?'"
She left university and her parent's house for the brighter lights and bigger city of Vancouver. She completed a year-long acting program, hired an agent and found numerous roles in TV shows and made-for-TV movies - everything from the true-life story of a kidnapped teenager who engineers her own escape in Taken In Broad Daylight, to playing Nicki Hilton in Paparazzi Princess: The Paris Hilton Story, which even her Bev Facey drama teacher, Larry Frank, had to chuckle at.
"I didn't quite get it," Frank says of his reaction to the ditzy debutante casting, "but I thought she did a good job on it."
Actors don't always get their dream roles, especially ones as young as Canning, but she didn't have to wait long to snag a character with more substance.
Between filming the pilot for The Vampire Diaries and seeing it picked up by the network, Canning was knee deep in Manitoba mud filming Black Field, a feature-length historical drama about two Scottish sisters and their struggles on the Canadian Prairies in the 19th century. The film was well-received at the Vancouver Film Festival last year, and is set to open in Edmonton next month.
Black Field writer and director Danishka Esterhazy cast Canning in the role of Maggie McGregor, the burdened older sister, after being impressed with the actor's character range in Taken in Broad Daylight.
"When Sara did the audition for Maggie, she really transformed," Esterhazy says, adding that she had planned a lot of preparation work to help Canning get into the dramatic mindset needed for Black Field, but the young actress already had it covered.
"Sara is an incredibly intelligent actor. She came to town so prepared and had done so much of her own research on dialect and history. She really was completely ready for the role."
Amid her busy schedule filming The Vampire Diaries in Atlanta, Canning stays in touch with her pals at home, and often sends autographed silent auction items to her former high school.
"I can't say enough good things about her - and not just because she's making it big now. She's just a great kid," says Frank.
Knowing that she could be at risk of being labelled just another pretty face, Canning isn't leaving anything to chance about her future in the industry.
"When I moved away from home ... there was no thought in my head of maybe this is going to work out," says Canning. "I was always really adamant about making this happen."
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