Pickle Barrel
EVERY YEAR THE Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) teases its eager fans by announcing one film well in advance. By the time the festival rolls around the film has built up so much buzz it becomes larger than life.
This year that film is festival opener Fugitive Pieces. For several months now the picture and its stars have been been one of the few things film fanatics have been feeding on.
One of those stars is Bayview’s own Jennifer Podemski, who plays the role of Marilyn in the story adapted from the acclaimed novel of the same name by Toronto author Anne Michaels.
The film tells the story of a Holocaust survivor who witnesses his family’s death and is later rescued by a Greek archeologist who adopts him and raises him in Greece and Canada.
Podemski is currently on set in Saskatoon shooting a televison project. Even over the phone, it’s clear that the project means a lot to the young actress.
“It’s the closest that I’m ever going to get to my grandfather’s story — he was a Holocaust survivor,” says Podemski of the Jeremy Podeswa directed film.
Podemski is half Jewish. And though her character does not participate in the portion of the film set during the Holocaust, Podeswa stressed to her that she was crucial to the film.
“I play Marilyn, the main character’s girlfriend’s best friend,” she says. “For Jeremy the role is essential in understanding the main charcter. I’m one of the first people he meets in Toronto, and I’m a lefty, socialist type. This makes him very uncomfortable.”
Podemski knows the feeling and was able to draw on her mixed ethnic heritage (her mother is First Nations) for the role.
“These influences were always very prevalent. When you come from a mixed background, it’s always difficult to define yourself as a young person,” she says. “I dealt with a lot of identity issues up until my early 20s. But I would say that my weaknesses, things that were holding me back, ended up becoming my strengths. I wouldn’t change who I am for anything. Growing up, whether it was spending summers doing powwow with my mother or celebrating Shabbos with my other side of the family, that was culturally a strong mix.”
While Podemski is proud of the role, she is quick to mention that, when she chooses a charcter, she does so with specific goals in mind — goals that will not only help her grow as an actor but also grow as a person.
“As far as a character, a dream role would be to play someone who had helped to change the world,” she says. It makes sense. Beyond acting, Podemski, who is also a producer and writer, does her own share of changing the world.
One of the ways she’s doing this is by supporting projects that are socially responsible. And one such project is what has brought her to the dusty prairie city of Saskatoon. She is co-producing Rabbit Fall, a TV drama co-starring Tamara Podemski (Jennifer’s sister and Canada’s first recipient of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize for Acting).
The six-part series serves as a training and mentorship opportunity for the young Aboriginal people involved in the production. It’s a project right up Podemski’s alley, and right now the set is buzzing. In the background someone asks a question in a slightly panicked voice. Podemski answers politely, makes a few suggestions and then comes right back on the phone. After apologizing, she continues on the subject of what really motivates her: helping youth.
In 1998, when she was only 24 years old — just a youth herself — she co-founded Big Soul Productions with Laura J. Milliken. Four years later, they had created the repREZentin’ Media Training Program, which pairs up Aboriginal youth with professionals from the film industry to develop artistic projects.
Podemski says it’s the most rewarding thing to see a young person grow and develop creatively. She adds, “I love the diversity of the work that I do. I think the thing that excites me the most is working with like-minded people, people who are passionate about their work.…” And she excuses herself for a moment to do exactly that: work.
She’s a lifelong area resident, yes, lifelong, as she actually bought a house just a few minutes from where she grew up and where her father still lives — Yonge and Wilson. Not that she gets to spend as much time there as she’d like. Podemski travels a lot and needs to have a home that she can get back to and feel comfortable.
“When I’m away, I am in a better position to appreciate Toronto. I love it that at any moment you can experience any number of diverse things from different cultures — from dining to art to outside exploration,” she says.
She also likes to shop in her area, and no, she has no idea what she’s going to wear to the festival premiere. Thankfully she’ll have plenty of help as her three closest friends live right around the corner from her.
Podemski says Toronto is the “epitome of home to me” and mentions that having a house in such a multicultural area is one of its greatest attributes. She loves waking up early, having barbecues, having friends over, visiting friends, lounging.
Podemski is a graduate of prolific Earl Haig Secondary School in the heart of Bayview, a school that has produced notable Canadian stars such as musician Geddy Lee of Rush, tennis star Daniel Nestor, nowdirector Sarah Polley and the actress Neve Campbell, among many others.
“High school was crazy and very competitive. I had dancing, music, theatre.… It was a very rich experience, all those activities, but then you have all the other [academic] stuff,” Podemski says.
“There was a lot going on for me. I was definitely rebellious, I was a bit of a trouble person, I had a lot of issues,” she says. But she’s quick to offer perspective.
“High school is trying to find your place in the world, and you forget about the task at hand. But overall it was a great, great, great experience.”
Perhaps it was dealing with these challenges that led her to, in a way, stay in high school for good and accept a role on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Podemski plays Ms. Sauve, the guidance counsellor, someone who the other charcters can turn to when they’re having their own difficulties.
“In high school you can always count on guidance counsellors. They’re always there to help. It’s a great job for me. I am very grateful for Degrassi,” she says.
Podemski loves acting but says, “Most times it’s pretty scary, but it’s also really exciting. I like roles that you can sink your teeth into,” she says.
It’s not always easy to find those roles; however, that’s the life of an actor. For Podemski the key is to find roles outside of her comfort zone. “Sometimes you don’t get a role that you want or you get something that is really challenging,” she says. “My role on Moose TV was a huge challenge. It was completely opposite of me. It was comedy, and I had to use muscles I hadn’t worked in a long time. I spent six weeks being challenged creatively.”
She says she would love to adapt In Search of April Raintree, by Beatrice Culleton Mosionier, a heartbreaking story of two Metis sisters in a foster care system. But, if she really had the means, “I would put more musicals out there. I love musicals!” 
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