DCTV Interview with Out With Dad Star Kate Conway

With over 1,000,000 views on YouTube, teen drama Out With Dad will be back for Season 2 on July 7, 2011! What will happen to Rose and Vanessa’s complicated friendship? Will Rose come out to her dad? Fans, you’ve still got a month to wait! But in the meantime, DCTV Creative Director Daryn Strauss took some time to get to know Out With Dad’s super-talented young star Kate Conway. We talk Season 2, YouTube comments, high school awkwardness, and Tina Fey.

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DARYN: First of all, congratulations on all the well-earned awards for Out With Dad! It’s such a terrific, well-produced show. And it has proudly reached over 1,000,000 views on YouTube in just a few months! What has the journey been like for you?

KATE: Thank you so much! Everyone involved with Out With Dad is thrilled with the positive response the show is getting. The cast and crew have been working their asses off out of pure love for it. The journey has been crazy. In February of 2010 I went to the audition knowing I really wanted it! And then finding out that I got it was such an exciting moment! We started filming in April and continued on into the summer. It was very nerve racking for me because my training had been more theatre, less film. However, Jason Leaver, the creator/writer/director extraordinaire, put me at ease. When the show
premiered in July, it was on the OWD site, YouTube and a few lesbian content sites. I learned from this that the internet can be a cruel place. Some of the comments were kinda harsh about my acting. I felt like I ruined this great show. Jason once again reminded me to give it time for more people to see it. He was so right! As new episodes came out, the fan base grew, and I had people finding me on Facebook from other parts of the world. THAT WAS THE COOLEST! People would leave wonderful comments on YouTube and help spread the word. Fans have actually been angry that season 2 is taking so long. The fact that I have been a part of something that has touched the hearts of strangers all over the world is something pretty freaking awesome. It’s a huge privilege as an actress and human being that I will never take for granted. I feel like this show is helping move humanity closer to where it should be. Everyone deserves to feel self confident, happy and loved.

DARYN: Season 1 ended on a high. Rose came out to her first person, her male best friend Kenny, and it went great, but she has had some complications coming out to her female best friend, Vanessa. What can we expect in Season 2 from her relationship with Vanessa?

KATE: SPOILER ALERT! THEY GET MARRIED! Actually that’s not true… yet? Last season was all about Rose really coming to terms with the fact that she is a lesbian. Season 2 will focus more on her coming out to the important people in her life. Vanessa is also confused, and her situation is a little more difficult. She doesn’t really have a Nathan in her life holding her hand while she figures it out. I can’t give too much away, but Rose and Vanessa’s friendship will be complicated. Being 15 is rough for the both of them, especially now that they are struggling with their sexual identity.

DARYN: One of my absolute favorite scenes in the first season is the movie night scene, where we could see Rose and her father Nathan’s inner monologues as he brings her to a gay movie in order to get her to come out. Hilarious and sweet. Talk about the process of shooting that scene.

KATE: It was intense! My first green screen shoot ever and a real lesson in film acting. We filmed it at the Encore Cinemas in Oakville. They kindly let us use the theater from about 10pm to 7am that morning. This is further proof of what an amazing filmmaker Jason is and how awesome the production crew is. Will Conlon (Nathan) and I would shoot “regular Nathan” and “regular Rose” with stand-ins and then switch into “Head Rose” and “Head Nathan” and do the scene again. There was a lot of back and forth. Things like positioning and lighting were of the utmost importance, and the fact that we were working into the wee hours of the morning made it that much more difficult. My energy level was drained by about 4am, but we had to keep going. You just have to keep telling your self, “this is gonna be sooooo worth it”. Once we wrapped there was a real sense of accomplishment as we loaded up the cars. The drive home was kind of a bonding experience as we all tried to keep the driver/key grip Josh Ary awake. In my exhaustion I thought it was hilarious. I crawled back into bed at around 8:30 that morning feeling different. I felt like OWD was now more of a family. We may not see each other everyday. But the reunions are always bomb.

DARYN: Another one of the things I love about Out With Dad is that despite her coming-out worries, Rose seems pretty adjusted and comfortable at school. What crowd were you into in high school?

KATE: I was NOT well adjusted and comfortable in high school. I struggled hardcore with confidence and self-assurance. I went to a school for the arts and dropped out of drama after grade 10 because I didn’t feel like I was good enough. I tried on a lot of hats in high school. I tried being an athlete. Badminton counts, right? I tried doing stand-up and being the school comedienne. I even dressed kinda slutty for a while just to get attention from boys, unsuccessfully. I assumed that if you weren’t the most popular person in school, then you were no one. If you weren’t winning awards and dating hot people, what’s the point of trying? It wasn’t until I got to university that I finally relaxed. I stopped forcing myself to be anything other than me. And people really liked me. Who’d of thunk it, eh? I look back on high school now as a huge waste of my energy. I should have been happy with the close friends that I had (who are still my friends by the way) and not tried tried to define myself so much. I was and am Kate Conway. And I am simply awesome!

DARYN: Then you went to school for theatre. Did you have to break the news to your parents that you wanted to be an actress or were they already aware at that point?

KATE: After I dropped out of the high school drama program, my parents really thought I was done with it. However, I was still doing little performing things here and there, so it was questionable. I didn’t know of anything to really study after high school that I would realistically want to turn into a career other than acting. A friend of mine told me about a joint program (college diploma and university BA) in Theatre and Drama studies. It seemed right up my ally. My mom, who got me into community theatre when I was a youngster, was happy for me but thought it was a little bit of a waste of money to go to university for acting. I never had to really “break the news” that I wanted it as career. They both knew it was the only thing I was ever consistently interested in. To this day, they are quietly supportive and cautiously optimistic. One of my older brothers is seriously pursuing a career in comedy writing, so that kinda takes the pressure off a little. He’s part of the troupe “The Raisin Gang”. You should check out their stuff on YouTube. They’re not half bad!

DARYN: Favorite teen angst movie?

KATE: Hmmm. I think Mean Girls is an amazingly written movie. Tina Fey is my idol, and I could relate a lot to this movie. I don’t know if it’s angsty enough, but Superbad is my all time favorite teen movie. It’s side-split-tingly funny, even after seeing it 30 times.

DARYN: Favorite actress?

KATE: Tina Fey is my numero uno, but honorable mentions have to go to Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Funny chicks are awesome, hot, and taking over Hollywood.

DARYN: Three albums or artists you always have on your ipod?

KATE: Jimmy Eat World, Mumford and Sons and a three-way tie between Ke$sha/Avril/Britney.

DARYN: Kindle, ipad, or real book?

KATE: This is going to sound terrible, but I don’t like to read! Never really have. I am a HUGE tv and movie nerd, but reading is an unpleasant activity for me. I know I get this from my dad. In school he used to take the number of pages of a book and divide them by 30. That’s how many hours of torture he’s be subjected to. I am pretty much the same, and I wish I wasn’t. I will say this — The Harry Potter series was amazing, and number 6 is the only book I have ever read twice. EVER! And due to the fact that I am currently poor, it’s going to have to be good old fashion books for me.

DARYN: If you could spend the day with one celebrity, past or present, who would it be?

KATE: I hate these narrow-it-down questions! I can’t narrow it down! Judy Garland was the first actress who started my interest in performing. Tina Fey for sure. I pretty much would marry that woman. And Barack Obama is pretty awesome too.

DARYN: OK, lastly, the show will be doing a very cool thing and incorporating fan stories into the Second Season. I know that Jason Leaver, the Creator, has extended the Submission Deadline. How can the LGBT community submit their stories to the show?

KATE: There is a link at www.outwithdad.com to submit fan stories. It’s very easy. We really want anyone and everyone with any kind of coming out experience to submit.

DARYN: Thanks for chatting! How can fans follow you to get updates on Season 2?

KATE: Again, www.outwithdad.com is always updating. There is a link from that site to twitter and YouTube. We also have a fan page on Facebook HERE. Thank you for chatting. It has been lovely.

WATCH THE SEASON 2 TEASER BELOW.