Pic from Times Colonist
Times Colonist 12/13/06
Fitness writer stretched goals to establish TV acting career
Eric Kohanik, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Sometimes, the path to TV stardom can be a long and circuitous route.
Just ask Victoria Pratt. The Canadian actress plays Andrea Battle, the former police partner of Brett Hopper (Taye Diggs) on Day Break. But acting wasn't exactly her chosen profession.
A native of Chelsey, Ont., Pratt has a degree in kinesiology. And, while she was studying at Toronto's York University, she was busy working at the school's human-performance laboratory.
"I got a scholarship to work in the university while I was going to school there," Pratt told CanWest News Service during a press session for her show in Los Angeles.
"We would do fitness testing for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets during their training camps. And for figure skaters in Canada.
"We would do drug testing. And testing on firefighters to try to find suits that would help them in a fire, so that they could stay in there longer and resist the heat."
So, how did that career path evolve into acting? "I was doing fitness writing with Oxygen magazine, which is a ladies' fitness magazine," Pratt recalls. "And the editor actually said, 'Hey, you should take acting classes. I think you should just kind of go for it.' So, I took classes for two years before I had the courage to get an agent. And my very first audition, I ended up getting a series."
That series was John Woo's Once A Thief, a Canadian/American co-production that got widespread attention in the U.S. Pratt's other TV credits would include stints in Mutant X, Cleopatra 2525 and Xena: Warrior Princess.
Still, acting "was never something I wanted to do as a child," Pratt reveals. "But I think you're kind of born with the desire to entertain, whether or not it's on TV or just when you're hanging out. And that was, I guess, always my personality."
Facets of that personality certainly translate well onto the screen in Pratt's performances on Day Break. A couple of episodes ago, viewers got to see more of what her character had done to run afoul of the police department's internal-affairs squad in the mystery thriller.
Tonight's episode, meanwhile, has Hopper tracking down a major player to the conspiracy that has framed him for murder. 9 p.m., ABC
© Times Colonist
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