Carolina Bartcza stars as Abigail in Season 3 of the CBC sci fi emotional thriller series Plan B, an English adaptation of a French-language Quebec series of the same name. The original’s Its darkness carries forward in the English version tempered with touches of humour and the surreal. Abigail Is a television news personality but things are tough at home. Her daughter Lucy is in a bad place; she does her best to “fix” her but finds a supernatural agency, hoping to change Lucy’s outcome. This is one wild ride. What She Said’ Anne Brodie spoke with Bartcza.
Anne Brodie – What a fascinating series. I have a lot of questions for you, so let’s get cracking. The series is science fiction, but it’s grounded in the reality of being human. We have a family tragedy, and Abigail, your character and Lucy’s mother, uses the covert Plan B agency to go back in time to try to fix things to protect her daughter. What was your response reading the script for the first time?
Carolina Bartczak – Oh, my God, the thought of a white van pulling up with the two twins, grabbing her out of her house and throwing her in a van, and this van escapes backwards, its so genius to add this element of levity into such a dark story. It shocks the audience to be like, Oh, hey. Okay, great. We’re not in this Shakespearean tragedy; we’re watching a show that’s for entertainment as well. It struck me how smart it is, attacking serious subject matter, but also somehow finding the joy in it.
AB – That was way out there.
CB – It’s so weird. And, yeah, I absolutely loved it when I watched the first season. It’s not something I’ve ever seen before. This darkness, the Quebecoise love their dark dramas, and then, oh yes, so strange.
AB – What did you bring to Abigail to make it work that you wouldn’t normally have to do for a part?
CB- I did play this show as the tragedy that it is. But every time she goes back in time, she has information that everyone else doesn’t. There are moments throughout where she has these little inside jokes to herself, like, Yeah, I know exactly what you’re going to do. I found quite funny. But then I actually realised it must be quite lonely and burdensome, to have all of this information. People don’t know about and you can’t talk to anyone about it. They would throw you in the looney bin. We’ve seen her go back the third time. This isn’t a spoiler. She goes back 10 years and then so she’s reliving her life again, and knows everything about everyone around her and what’s going to happen. She even makes comments about Trump getting elected. Little funny links throughout the show, but also it must be the only one who has that superpower.
AB – No kidding, but I think the winks are important given the gravity of the situation, and thank goodness for them, because they do remind us that, you know, we’re all multi-faceted. And as you said, she has knowledge and she has humor and things that protect her, that make her able to get through all of this. Who wouldn’t want to go back in time and fix things? So, what is it that’s so special about her?
CB – I think when I first read the script, the first thing I thought about when I was trying to think of who this person was, I kept imagining her as this like freight train that just like flies, through a city at such a high speed and with such momentum that she can almost get anything done. But at the same time, there is this like collateral damage that she leaves behind. She’s so strong and even there’s the scene where Lucy is discovered dead. She’s still problem solving. She keeps going back to the bedroom while the paramedics are trying to resuscitate her, as if she’s going to fix something. Oh yeah, that’s a character, character, a positive thing, but also a flaw in her that she always believes that she can fix things. Yeah, it’s astounding what she accomplishes in her life. But also, she lacks, I would say, at the beginning of the season, she lacks vulnerability. There, there are reasons she has to be a freight train. She has to make things work.
AB – And Lucy, we totally understand what she’s going through, because her parents have told her diddly about their divorce, and she’s acting out with this inappropriate guy. I mean, she’s 15, so Abigail has a big role to fill here. And I wonder, were you able to help her accomplish it?
CB – Was I able to help the young actress? She didn’t need my help. Ah, she’s extraordinary. Wow. Yeah, this was her first part, really, this was her first role. You would never know. The only moment that actually reminded me that she was new was because all actors have to wear a microphone. We have a microphone pack that’s strapped to our leg or our back or our waist or whatever. And the first day on set, you know, the sound person is always hiding somewhere and jumps out at you and says “I need to put your mic on you”. And the thing I remember, the microphone, the sound guy was like, okay, I need to mic you. And she looked at me as if to say “What is this guy saying? Why?” No kidding, and she did such a good job.
AB – I guess it’s acting something like that you’re born with, like an intuition.
CB – No, I don’t have it, I certainly don’t. I went through a lot of training. It took me a really long time to I was quite shy, quite embarrassed to be in front of people, so it took me a while to figure it out.
AB – You’d never know. You’re just so seamless. You know, it’s I admire that.
CB – Thank you.It’s really good. I think some people just come from homes that are very permitting, very loving and very like, do your thing and I think that’s a really important quality of actors, someone who’s brave and who’s unafraid to get it wrong. They all have at some point, and you recover, and you’re stronger, and you’re a better actor. Because she knows more than people around her, I think it is instinctual.
AB – Now, can you give me any tidbits from the rest of the season?
CB – Oh, sure. Okay, wow. We see Abigail truly learn what it is like to be vulnerable, it’s a great arc.
AB – And the Sci Fi thing, how do you make that real? So that it doesn’t seem outlandish or outrageous, or people go, oh, please.
CB– It’s interesting, because on some level, she as a character, has to react to it and say t herself “This is ridiculous”. You can’t sit in that; you have to move on right away to go back to the story. I also love the way that Plan B works, it’s like with a travel agency, it’s a call. Obviously, she wasn’t in such a traumatized moment. “What is this nonsense? I’m not giving you my credit card number”. But she’s so hopeless in that moment that she would do anything. I think even after she gives the credit card number.
AB – But you know, we sometimes do these things, and it’s not always bad, so that’s something. Carolina, thank you so much.
CB – Thank you.
All episodes of Plan B S3 are streaming now on CBC Gem.