UnREAL's Breeda Wool On Faith And Amy's Future, The Food In Vancouver, And Which Sitcom Was There For Her In Tough Times

I have absolutely no idea! It could be anything. I think they're going to try to stay with the Everlasting framework? As opposed to going to an entirely new show But I don't even know if that's true. They're going to get into the writer's room, and they're going to get really good group of writers, and make another masterpiece, I hope.

Let's see. A spinoff show. Gay Wedding Mississippi.

It could be Rodeo Love.

Maybe Amy and I don't work out. Maybe she wants to be in the closet forever. I don't know.

Maybe I end up marrying Adam after all.

This wonderful casting director named Barbara Fiorentino called me in. She's been incredibly supportive of me since I've been in Hollywood, and I was shooting the Amazon show Betas at the time. I got the call very late, and thought I might be shooting and that I might not be able to make it, but then I saw the short [UnREAL was based on]. I read the sides. It was...extraordinary. [Series creator] Sarah [Gertrude] Shapiro's vision from the inception was something that I was extremely excited about. I think I went back three times. Sarah was campaigning for me, I think. She was like, "Trust me, we got it!"

Because she told me.

Yeah, she's been incredibly supportive of me since from the very beginning. I don't know, I think I understood something that she had made. I was excited to make a project with her. I thought she was a visionary. Not every project you come across makes you say, "Oh, people are trying to make something. Trying to push a rock up an uphill slope." I saw that Sarah was. I wanted to get behind her, help her push it up the hill.

I kind of suspected right away. I had many different [possible] professions [for Faith], and sort of came upon ranch handler and rodeo barrel racer. Before that, I had other professions that were very male-dominated. When we actually shot the original pilot, it was a little bit sillier? In the original pilot -- I actually never saw it -- I was much more masculine. Then when we went to shoot the show, I sort of became less of a caricature, I guess? Not that I was a caricature before, but I really played up the fact that I'm very masculine in this unusual circumstance where you're being manipulated into these structures of femininity that don't really apply to real women. You take the person who's most outside of that structure, that stereotype-- There's no place for me on Everlasting, really. I think when we shot the show, it's a little bit like that, but not as exaggerated. All the traditional femininity issues were not something that I was privy to, even on a deep level.

The whole issue with my breast implants, my church getting me breast implants, and my gran, and how she sort of pressured me to go on the show, and this very religious background, it seemed obvious to me -- that I would be forced into a certain place of conformity inside of my community that wasn't me. I hate the people-pleasing aspect of it.

I think anybody can relate to wanting to be a part of a group -- being a people pleaser and just being willing to do anything to support the group and not take into effect what it is that you really want in life and go after that. I really identify with that.

Yeah, I don't know. It's a little combo of the writing and of me just goofing around. I feel like, as a person, Breeda as a human being, I frequently find humor in the darkest places of my life. I often feel like the moments where your life is under the greatest amount of pressure and in the most dire straits, you're usually the most entertaining person at that moment in your life. If you could have an audience walk in and observe you, they would either be like, "This is a great drama." Or, "This is an amazing comedy." Every minute would change between the two. I think I'm written funny. I think it was partly the writing, but also part of what I, Sarah, and Marti Noxon came up with. Some of the directors would let me improvise a lot. I thought it was hilarious. The whole thing is absurdist. I maybe luxuriated in that sometimes.

I did a lot of imagination work on trying to understand what it would feel like to be kicked out of my community; and what it would feel like to be cast out by God. I wasn't raised religiously at all, personally, so I first had to believe in God, in order to understand what it's like to be cast out or to feel like you're going to be. It took me a little while.

I talked to some people on my set, and I actually had a really wild conversation with an evangelical Christian on a plane. She was all about the end of the world. I really thought that plane was going down. She was reading a Bible, and it was right before we shot the show, and I was like, "May I ask you a few questions?" It was a five-hour flight. She was totally open and willing to talk to me about everything. I was like, "How do you know?" "What's the Holy Spirit?" "How do you know God exists?" These kinds of questions. Then she was like, "You know, I didn't want to be on this flight, but now I realize it's to convert you." I was like, "Oh my, gosh. I'm going to die on this plane. I'm going to get converted to evangelical Christianity and then die on this plane." But I didn't! Instead, I landed and I made a TV show where I believe in God. Worked out well, I think.

That was a big part of it, or just the sensation that your thoughts are sinful. People can try their hardest to live a life without sin in their actions, but I found out from this woman on the plane that nobody succeeds at that. That being born is a sin. Which I was like, "Whoa. That's intense." Little babies, sinful little babies. The idea that your thoughts could be a sin, and what it would be like to have these thoughts and ideas and that every time they come into your head it's actually a terrible, horrible thing. Then to have a moment in your life where you can just have those thoughts without that fear, and have it be okay. It just felt like an incredible release to just not be afraid of your own mind.

Oh my. Honestly, the last four episodes I can't remember at all.

I think seven months ago? Eight months ago? I knew about my arc for Episode 5 for so long, and I worked on it for so long, and as soon as that episode happened, I didn't know what was going to happen next. We wre shooting and getting the scripts very close together. It didn't have the same imprint. From Episodes 0 to 5, I had lots of time. Then from 6 to 10, it was like-- I bet there are scenes that were changed that I don't even know about. I'm sure of it. They were changing things so rapidly at that point. Preparing for this role was really fascinating for me, and I ended up learning a lot. It was an interesting experience. I feel very proud -- not necessarily of what I did, but proud that I got that opportunity. I have a lot of love and faith in the experience of making this show. I feel like it was important, especially with what's happening in America right now with marriage equality.

I know! I feel like there's been a lot of things like that. They're sort of happy accidents.

Yeah, we did! Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman who plays Jay is Canadian.

He's Canadian; Christie Laing [who plays Shamiqua] is Canadian. Christie Laing is a star. That woman is amazing. The coolest. She is a super-rocking babe. The Canadian group and contingency was amazing in this show. Canada is amazing and so are all of our crew, all of our drivers, and crew, and everybody was Canadian. I even said, "Eh"! While I was there in the dressing room, my hair lady, Sharon, who's amazing, went bananas. She was like, "It's baby's first 'Eh'!" And everyone in the trailer, all the hair and makeup people, were like, "Woo!" Celebrating because I said "Eh." Without even recognizing it in a simple sentence.

First of all, all of the cast would hang out. We were all living in Vancouver, and every weekend when we had time off, we'd all hang out together. We'd go eat food. There's definitely this camaraderie/summer-camp style of playfulness while we were there which was so magical, and amazing, and awesome, and everybody was very supportive of each other. We were shooting nights for the first few months that I lived there. I was like a vampire. I was living this weird television vampire place. I'd get home at dawn, and then I'd sleep until 3 or something, and then go back to work. I would just sit on my balcony and watch the sun come up. I'd watch all the people get up, and it was interesting. I had a great time there. We basically worked the entire time. I loved it there. The food is so good there. I'm friends with this guy, Eric Wareheim, he does Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job. He is going to go shoot up in Canada, in Vancouver, and he was like, "Will you give me a list of places?" So I went back through my Canadian experience and made this Canadian list of places to go. Nuba, definitely. Café Medina. There's all sorts of cool places.

My favorite show on television? Contemporary show? Togetherness.

I think the Duplass brothers took a very simple subject and wrote a very eloquent take on it that I've never seen before. They took the most basic topics and are examining them in a way that I don't think I've seen before. Just very simple family dynamics. Like Transparent! I think Transparent is a masterpiece. The family arguments in Transparent.... I think that UnREAL explores kind of gray area where you explore topics not by making decisions or judgments about them, and those shows explore topics that our show does, too. Although our show definitely likes to use shock value, because we're making TV about making shock value.

Oh my gosh. Can I think about this for a second?

What about movies? Are we introducing movies or are we only doing TV?

No, no, no, I'm not drawing a blank. I'm having an overload. I want to say Fraggle Rock. But...how about I give you three?

Fraggle Rock, Roseanne...Sopranos. I think.

The reason why I say Roseanne is because: I went and did a play at a regional theater in Amish Country, Pennsylvania. It was the most bleak play by William Inge. It was in the dead of winter, and I was living in this haunted brownstone. Everything was so bleak, it was just the bleakest, weirdest time of my life. I had this really old television from the '70s, and all I could get on it was Roseanne. I'd just sit all day and watch these Roseanne marathons.

That was my saving grace in Amish Country.