The Insider.com

Sara Canning: Never A Victim

Women in peril is starting to become a theme in Sara Canning's work: she was abducted in 2009's Taken in Broad Daylight, sacrificed last year on The Vampire Diaries and assaulted in the new Lifetime movie, Hunt for the I-5 Killer.

But while the women Sara plays may be victimized, they are never victims -- instead, the actress finds a way to imbue each of her ladies with an incredibly deep reservoir of strength, making them (for lack of a better word) heroes.

I caught up with Sara to talk about the emotional work she brings to the table in I-5 Killer (get an exclusive sneak peek by clicking play to the left), how she feels about her TVD offing and whether Ghostly Jenna might be making a return trip to Mystic Falls this season!

TheInsider.com: What attracted you to Hunt For The I-5 Killer?
Sara Canning: It's some pretty dark material and I was kind of freaked out by the script. So I knew it would be a tough part to navigate because it's so heavy, but I tend to throw myself into challenges. I'm addicted to that.

Insider: You also starred in Lifetime's Taken in Broad Daylight playing another real person. Do you approach that differently?
Sara: Well, for me, as a woman, it's always a little unsettling to approach material knowing it's actually happened to someone. You want to really honor their experience but also remember that it's "based" on their experience, so you're bringing more to the character and not actually playing that person 100 percent. Above all, it's important for me to find the strength in a female character. Even in a script like this, where such terrible things have happened to her, it's so easy to expect her to fall apart, but I wanted to find what it was about this woman that kept her going. I come out of each project having learned something, and I learned a lot working on the character of Beth.

Insider: Chronologically, this fell almost immediately after you wrapped work on Vampire Diaries, right?
Sara: Yes [laughs], I literally drove my car from Atlanta to Vancouver and went into prep for this film right away.

Insider: Going from Jenna's death to Beth's attack, were you a fun person to be around off-set at that time?
Sara: [laughs] I pride myself on being able to separate work from my life, but it was a pretty emotionally few months. Not only because I-5 is so emotional for so many reasons but I also didn’t have much notice that my last episode of Vampire Diaries would actually be my last episode of Vampire Diaries.

Insider: Did jumping right into another project help you cope with that "loss?"
Sara: Oh, I think so for sure. It was hard to say goodbye but I've been so busy since April -- busier than I have been in a really long time. I haven’t had time to sit still.

Insider: If Jenna had to die, were you glad she went out the way she did?
Sara: Oh, absolutely. I really invested a lot in Jenna. When we weren't seeing her on the screen, I was trying to fill out her life off-screen. Everyone saw Jenna as this party aunt trying to figure out how to be a good parent, but there was a lot more to her, to me. The great thing about the last episode was that we got to see a lot of her frustration and guilt and betrayal. Why didn’t anyone let her in on the secret? Why wasn’t she given the chance to be there for Elena 100 percent, because I believe she would have been. It was nice for Jenna to deal with that in the last episode. Everyone always asks us, 'Would you want to play a vampire?' I always said of course and while I only got to do it for a day, it was great while it lasted. It was great to see Jenna’s last physical act being one of protection. Refusing to go down without it being in a blaze of hellfire. I loved that the writers gave that to Jenna before her death.

Insider: Ghosts have come into the show a bit this year -- any plans to bring Jenna back?
Sara: I haven't heard anything about Jenna coming back yet, but I would love that! I really believe that Jenna remains one of the most mysterious characters because she was so often not around. I’d come up with all kinds of stuff in my head – like, what she was really doing on the college campus [laughs]. She had some tricks up her sleeve and I would love to be able to explore a little more of what she had been doing. Maybe she had actually been affecting what had been going on supernaturally in town, without anyone knowing.

Hunt For The I-5 Killer premieres October 2 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.