In a career spanning almost four decades, Gabrielle Rose has never experienced a year quite like this. With this weekends Leo Awards set to honour the best of British Columbia film and television, Rose finds herself nominated for three awards: Best Lead Performance by a Female (Feature Drama) for Everything and Everyone, Best Supporting Performance by a Female (Feature Drama) for Sisters&Brothers, and Best Performance by a Female (Short Drama) for The Provider.
Its an embarrassment of riches, suggests the humble Rose. And if all of the recognition has come as somewhat of a surprise, thats only appropriate. As the actress explains, her involvement with Sisters&Brothers was also completely unexpected. When another actress had to exit the project just before production commenced, Rose leapt at the opportunity to work with director Carl Bessai again. Of the filmmakers loosely structured, intensely collaborative approach to storytelling, she enthuses, I love it to pieces. It really gives you a broad spectrum of creativity to cull from.
Meanwhile, filming for Tracy D. Smiths Everything and Everyone came right on the heels of a stage production of Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In a matter of days, Rose transitioned from Woolfs drunken, abusive Martha to a benign woman suffering from dementia. She credits splitting her career between stage and screen with allowing her to bring a greater sense of physicality to her onscreen personae. As she explains, The theatre allows me to be a bit larger than life. Often in film, people play it very safe and dont want to go too far. Im willing to go a little bit further, which makes me a little more extreme. Perhaps a bit more intense than others.
Everything and Everyone was hardly the first time that Rose has played an emotionally damaged or mentally frail character. I dont know why those kind of parts are attracted to me and Im attracted to them, she admits. They are wonderful to play. Im far more interested in someones faults and foibles than I am in in how perfect they are... For women my age, there are not very many parts. Therefore, the really great parts there are are these challenging, tragic roles.
I love a good challenge. I like pieces to have a certain darkness to them too, she concludes. What I love to see is an audience laughing and laughing and then suddenly going, Oh my God! Thats entertainment to me. Its not just frivolous. It actually sweeps you up and then drops you into a place where you have to think philosophically about it.
The Leo Awards are handed out May 25 and 26 at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Information and tickets are available at
By Curtis Woloschuk
