Sara Canning auditioned for Lead Murder in a small town role
Sara Canning‘s guest spot on Murder in a small town is a full-circle moment after she originally auditioned for the lead role.
“The show was definitely on my radar because I got to read the pilot and audition. I immediately loved it,” Canning, 38, told exclusively We weekly about her appearance on the Tuesday, November 4 episode of the Fox series. “A good friend of mine was in the pilot and the nice thing about being in the industry is that I’ve gotten to know a lot of the actors really well. I see a lot of them on shows that are shot locally. So it was pretty cool to be on an episode.”
Based on novels written by L. R. Wright, Murder in a small town follows a police chief named Karl (Rossif Sutherland) who investigates mysterious murders with the help of a few others, including his girlfriend Cassandra (Kristin Kreuk). The procedural format allows the show to feature celebrity cameos, such as Canning, who played Mackenzie in Tuesday’s episode.
Before working as Mackenzie, Canning initially read for Kreuk’s character, Cassandra Lee.
“Kristin is such an incredible actor and it’s so beautiful to see the chemistry between her and Rossif [Sutherland]. It was very special to come on board,” she said of her role.
Canning’s character is originally introduced as someone who organizes a memorial service after the death of her sister. The event went wrong after a bear attack, but it was eventually revealed that Mackenzie planned to kill someone during the memorial to avenge her sister’s death.
“It’s really interesting to play a character who is in the middle of such a traumatic event and dealing with so much grief. It’s about living in the reality of the trauma of the bear attack event,” she shared Us. “To have all these scenes in a hospital bed, you have to try to distinguish between where she is in processing what has happened and the sudden feeling that she is being investigated.”
Canning called the opportunity a “quite challenging” role.
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“The great thing about playing Mackenzie is that we get to meet her in a pretty honest state. This terrible thing happened and it affected her in a very real way — despite the plans she had in mind. That’s what I loved about this character, this revelation,” she teased. “These particular mystery shows are really good at giving us a character that has a lot of people in it. We meet Mackenzie in a very real state of trauma. It becomes all the more interesting as it unravels what the premeditated nature of this whole thing was and how she now has to pick up the pieces while stuck in a hospital.”
Playing Mackenzie allowed Canning to push herself as an actress. “I love murder mystery shows. I just started watching Task, which I’ve only seen the first episode of, but I love shows that exist on that tone,” she said before teasing what’s next. “Then I did that Virgin riverwhere I have a pretty significant arc in season 7 of that show, which was very exciting. And I did a movie with old friend Daniel Gillies from The Vampire Diaries, aka Shaman.
Murder in a small town airs on Fox Tuesdays at 8pm ET.
