Actress Shannon Jardine is proud of her Saskatchewan roots

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Shannon Jardine wasn’t necessarily born to be an actress, but she didn’t waste any time growing into the role.

“I guess I’ve known I wanted to do this for a long time,” says the Saskatchewan-born farm girl, who wasn’t shy about pursing her dream at a young age. “When I was in Grade 2, I went to the University of Saskatchewan career fair. I went up to the theatre department and said ‘Hey, I want to be an actor as a career — how do I get started?’”

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It was recommended that Jardine enrol at the Georges Vanier Catholic Fine Arts School in Saskatoon, where she studied disciplines like music, art, drama, creative writing, and dance in her elementary school days.

Looking back, there are plenty of fond memories from those formative years.

“It opened my mind up in different ways …,” she recalls. “We got to do modern dance, which I hadn’t even heard of. We got to be creative and explore and there was no judgment. I remember writing stories, and then I got into debating. They entered me into some big competition. (The school) was all about not censoring yourself and being able to be creative. (They were) so supportive. And they’d take us to these amazing professional productions in Saskatoon so we got to watch incredible theatre.”

Jardine’s early education led to a 20-year professional career that has featured close to 40 credits in TV and film — not to mention numerous experiences in theatre.

One of her latest TV projects is a support role in the new comedy Bria Mack Gets A Life, which premièred this fall on Crave.

The sitcom was filmed in Toronto, where Jardine now resides, but she has a long history of contributing to Saskatchewan-based productions like Corner Gas and Little Mosque on the Prairie.

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Jardine also remembers an “exceptional experience” on Hard Core Logo 2, a feature film shot at Manitou Springs in Watrous. That was preceded by two TV miniseries filmed in Saskatchewan: Englishmen’s Boy, and Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story.

“If you think about it, Saskatchewan has done a lot of projects to be proud of,” says Jardine, who mentioned Corner Gas as an obvious career highlight. Another one was the 2008 film Surveillance, which premièred at the iconic Cannes Film Festival in France.

It was shot in Saskatchewan and directed by Jennifer Lynch, the daughter of legendary American filmmaker David Lynch.

Lynch and Jardine flew to France for the première and walked the red carpet alongside Hollywood A-listers like Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond, both of whom starred in the movie.

“It was just a different stratosphere,” Jardine says of the experience, which also included a star-studded after-party. “It was so inspiring (for Surveillance) to be among the best films in the world. Saskatchewan was a big star of that film because of the way they shot it in the big open skies. I remember some of the international reviewers saying that.”

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Jardine comes from a farm background in the Torch River area near Nipawin. She grew up making regular trips to Saskatoon for acting classes in addition to being part of a drama club in junior high and high school.

Jardine also performed across the province as a member of the Saskatchewan Drama Association.

“That was a super foundation to feel what it’s like with the audience and get that instant feedback,” she says. “I remember getting a scholarship in high school. When I was 16, I had my driver’s licence so I would make that six-hour round trip every weekend to Saskatoon to take acting classes so I could get help to learn and develop my skills.”

After graduating high school, Jardine enrolled in the Sheridan College drama program at the University of Toronto. One of the first things that stood out about that experience was how the instructors tried to warm students about life in show business.

“They told us being an actor is really tough (and) ‘if there’s anything else you want to do in the world, do it,’” she recalls with a laugh. “They’re like, ‘When you graduate, even though you have all this training, it’s going to probably be a long time before you even book something.’”

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That wasn’t the case for Jardine, who wrote a play in university called Torch River. It was based on the life of her grandmother — “the first female pioneer in Torch River in 1924.”

“I wrote about her life story as a one-woman play,” says Jardine. “We ended up touring North America so that was great. Instead of waiting to get hired, we created our own work.”

Jardine’s career eventually took her to Toronto after residing previously in Vancouver, Regina and Saskatoon. Her husband, Terry Mialkowsky, also works in film and TV as a producer while Shannon — despite some experience with writing and producing — is best known as an actor.

“He’s behind the camera and I’m in front,” says Jardine, who has collaborated with her husband on multiple projects, including History Television’s “Dust Up.” The docuseries followed a group of crop dusters in Nipawin, featuring her father Bud and brother Brennan.

True to her Saskatchewan roots, Jardine returns home each summer to visit family and spend some time where the whole journey began. That also includes places like Globe Theatre in Regina, where she starred in plays like “Over the River and Through the Woods” and “Jake and the Kid.”

“I miss a lot of things about Regina but it’s good here (in Toronto) too,” adds Jardine. “It was really a great job doing live theatre in Regina, where I lived (at the time). I could just walk to the theatre. All my relatives came from across Saskatchewan. I really enjoyed that.

“It was a great place to work.”

gharder@postmedia.com

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