It's an actor's life for 21-year-old Karyn Dwyer. Why else would she be carrying a suitcase full of clothes into a mid-town coffee shop? Out of wardrobe necessity, of course. The Toronto-based redhead from Newfoundland was taking a late-afternoon break after auditioning for three separate telefilm roles as "a hooker, an over-the-top sex vixen and then a demure high school student." She's flexible that way. She can go mean or lean or sweet 16.
What is getting attention for her lately? It's yet another assignment showing off her versatility. She's the featured attraction as a lesbian in love. The movie is called Better Than Chocolate. Opening commercially here tomorrow, the Anne Wheeler film has already received lots of praise at various summer festivals, including the local In & Out festival in July. The film also stars Wendy Crewson, Christina Cox, Peter Outerbridge and Ann-Marie MacDonald, but it is newcomer Dwyer who seems to be bathing in the 'overnight sensation' glow.
Her part in the picture even earned her an L.A. agent, but for now Dwyer is merely cautiously optimistic as she sits sipping her drink at the coffee shop.
"I'm open to taking chances," she agrees, "but I want to be intelligent about them."
Wheeler's Better Than Chocolate falls into that category. Her role as a college dropout trying to hide her gay lifestyle from her mother (Crewson) calls for lots of lesbian lovemaking and the nakedness that goes with it.
In a parallel universe, Dwyer recalls that she was anxious about describing her part to Betty, her mother who is a teacher in St. John's. In the end, she more or less told Betty what she tells everybody else, including the inquiring minds who want to know this. Like, is she a lesbian and is she into doing nudity? "I'm an actor," is what Dwyer says, trying to make it simple, but admitting it was difficult telling her mother about Better Than Chocolate. "We all have something we don't want to tell our parents. In this case it was that I had so many love scenes. My mom saw my naked butt when she was changing my diapers and I don't think she cares to see it again."
To daughter Dwyer's relief, it all worked out. "All my mom said was, 'Oh, yes, and when will it be coming out?' "She was tinkled pink, as we say. But I'm sure she'll keep her eyes shut for parts of it."
Others had their eyes opened to a new talent in Better Than Chocolate, just three years in the acting trade. After turning down a 1995 Carlton University journalism scholarship, Dwyer found herself enrolled at the George Brown College theatre school, where "she wanted to learn about acting." A year later she was learning economics. "There was a fear of not being able to pay rent," she recalls, smiling. "I was forced into the world of television to pay bills." "The first thing my family ever saw me in was Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. I was a gangster's moll. I got to do a lot of screaming."
Nearly 25 telefilms and TV shows later, Dwyer suddenly finds herself the object of attention. Her profile might increase even more in the fall with the release of Lorne Michael's Superstar, with Saturday Night Live's Molly Shannon. "I play a Catholic schoolgirl," she says of the comedy shot in Toronto last summer and fall. "She's a complete and utter bitch."
Dwyer grins, knowing her mom, Betty, from The Rock, will understand.�