| A new article about Paradise Falls. Enjoy!!! ~Alma ____________ Meredith McGeachie's ready for more marathons By Glen Schaefer, The Province Series premiere Paradise Falls When and where: Tonight at 9 and 9:30 on Showcase Actor Meredith McGeachie is a marathoner -- at least, she was until she took a break to get pregnant this year -- so is it cheesy to suggest that an acting career is more of a marathon than a sprint? "That's not cheesy, that's accurate -- everything's always changing," says McGeachie, whose most recent career leg has her featured among the ensemble on Showcase TV's series Paradise Falls. McGeachie joined for the show's third season to play gay cop Cate in the show's fictional lakeside vacation town. The 26 episodes wrapped filming in and around Toronto eight months ago. Pregnancy with her businessman fiancé came a month later. While the show has its comic and romantic elements, McGeachie's role has been on the dramatic side, as the town is plagued by a series of unsolved murders. "It's heavy duty, from my side," she says, now back home in Vancouver. "It's a campy kind of show, but not with that stuff. Cate had a lot of secrets, a lot of internal conflicts." The gay theme remains but everything else has changed since McGeachie's last regular series role, three seasons as pushy publicist Tonya in the Vancouver-filmed The L Word. On that show, McGeachie was the abrasive comic relief amid the dramatic goings-on. "They brought me in to hook up with one of the favourite five leads and we ended up getting engaged and everyone else hated me. I was a social climber, very aggressive, not at all cool. And all the other girls were hip and cool." She got a taste of how intense fan feelings were for that show when she attended an L Word convention in Britain and the fans initially had trouble separating the character from the actor. "At first it was really terrifying when I walked out," she says. "But by the end, because the fans are so ferocious in their love and commitment to the show once they embrace you, there's nothing like it. If you have anything to do with the show -- it changed people's lives -- you get letters talking about how the show affected their coming out, really powerful stuff." The Winnipeg-raised McGeachie got her acting start in Toronto's theatre scene and relocated to Vancouver on spec in 2001. Steady work followed in TV and movies, including an attention-getting role as a topless boxer in the 2002 low-budget indie Punch. "If I was going to offend anyone, it was right off the top," she says. That athletic role inspired her to enter her first Vancouver Marathon. "I hobbled through it. I haven't done any in two years, but I'm going to do a post-baby marathon." And if Paradise Falls comes back for a fourth season next summer, she'll be ready for that, too. http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/Meredith+McGeachie+ready+more+marathons/1952985/story.html |
2 Sep 2009 by Alma
| First, I must apologize for taking so long to post again. When the site crashed, the wind seemingly went out of my sails. That said - as many of you are aware, Meredith can be seen as Cate on Paradise Falls. The show had been on hereTV but now will be aired on Canadian television. Attached is an article with Ms. McGeachie discussing Tonya, Cate, and the impending arrival of a new addition in her life. ~Alma ________________________________________ Paradise found: Paradise Falls gets a new cop in Meredith McGeachie. Thursday, August 27th, 2009 | 10:20 am Canwest News Service Meredith McGeachie is not a lesbian, but she plays one – frequently. On The L Word she was the infamous Tonya, a character once described by the actress as an "obnoxious, cat-hating, social-climbing publicist," and McGeachie is now about to make her debut as another Sapphic sister, this time as a "sexy but serious" cop named Cate on the Showcase series Paradise Falls. "She’s pretty tough," says McGeachie of Cate, "but she’s very straitlaced, whereas Tonya was pretty wild. The show is very campy and a little soapy – intentionally so – and with a lot of issues confronting Cate throughout the season, you had to be very careful not to allow for melodrama. That was really fun for me, to be able to bring it down a notch, because with Tonya on The L Word it was always ‘how outrageous could I be?’ It was kind of the opposite lesbian." Paradise Falls has a cult following, which is sure to grow as its new season steps even further into gay and lesbian territory. "It’s got a huge element of mystery and drama," McGeachie explains. "I sort of think of it as a campy, soapy Twin Peaks/Melrose Place with a huge Canadian kind of flair." Being Canadian, she adds with a laugh, "it has the gift of an extremely low budget." That leads to what’s called "block shooting" when Paradise Falls is on location at Sparrow Lake in Ontario’s cottage country. If one setting is to be used in a number of episodes, all those scenes are shot in a block to save money. "If I could do it in order, it’s much easier," says McGeachie. "But as much as I don’t encourage it, you just have to do all your homework and just let go of any kind of sense of control. You figure out what your truth is in the moment, hang on to your seat and go for it." That certainly applies to McGeachie’s latest project – motherhood – with a due date in November. "I have no idea what I’m doing," she says. "I’m figuring it’s sort of like when I play a cop or a robber or whatever – I never have any idea what I’m doing then either, until I figure it out. I tell myself that it’s going to be the same thing – enough research and hard work and it’ll all work out, right?" McGeachie is marrying a Mexican, having first fallen in love with the country’s Caribbean coast and then with Jorge. While they already know the sex of their child – "I’m such an OCD planner, I want to know everything," she notes – there is a debate about the soon-to-be little girl’s name. "See, the thing is, we need it to be a name that sounds the same in both languages," McGeachie says. "For example, if it was Jennifer in English, it would be ‘Hennifer’ in Spanish. Jessica is Hessica, Abigail is Abi-gile." Playa del Carmen in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo first saved her soul between the first and second seasons of The L Word, when Australia-born and Manitoba-raised McGeachie was first facing Vancouver’s notorious winter rains. "It was starting to get a little depressing, so I took off. I lived with a Mexican family, took Spanish lessons for three weeks, and on my last day went scuba diving and fell in love with it. I stayed until they called me and said, ‘Hey, we nominated you for a Genie, why don’t you come home and party with us?’" During a maternal timeout where "I think I’m too big for TV at this stage of the game" and "clothing shopping stopped being any fun at all," McGeachie has been indulging in a little fantasy. "I’d love to be able to work in Spanish," she says. How about one of those 300-part Mexican telenovelas filled with real soap? "That would be quite something! My fantasy would be that we could split our time between Vancouver and Mexico." And if the role is that of a Latina lesbiana? "Go right ahead!" says McGeachie with a laugh. "If the roles are great, I’m in. I don’t care who she wants to sleep with." Vancouver Sun http://www.kelowna.com/2009/08/27/paradise-found-paradise-falls-gets-a-new-cop-in-meredith-mcgeachie/ |
27 Aug 2009 by Alma
 Hey all! A quick update as it has been a while. Meredith has just finished filming Nuclear Hurricane and will be moving on to a new project slated to film in Toronto. Take care! Alma |
29 Jun 2007 by Alma
| Hey all - Just wanted to do an update on the site. Meredith is involved in a few projects that I think she will share with us soon. Take care all and thank you for visiting! |
4 Dec 2006 by Alma
| Meredith will be attending "Bad Girls on Parole" in Manchester, UK on November 10-12, 2006. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit http://www.inspiredproductions.co.uk/event_detail.aspx This would be a great opportunity to meet Meredith, ask her questions, and get your picture taken with her. |
16 Sep 2006 by Alma
| Hey all - thank you for your patience. The site is mostly back up! We are still working in the gallery as well as on the media. Feel free to click around and let us know what we missed putting back up. |
22 Jun 2006 by Alma
| We are working on getting the site back up. Please be patient. |
2 Jun 2006 by Alma
| This is a test story. Just checking to see if everything works ok. :D |
1 Jun 2006 by Washi