Why don't you just get a haircut?
Excuse me?
You can't get ovarian cancer from a haircut.
If you want to look younger, why not just get a haircut?
Why don't you just shut the f*ck up and give me my hormones.
Sensitive Skin is a half hour comedy about a woman going through a mid-life crisis.
Who are you?
What have you achieved?
Is it worthy?
We all start to ask these questions.
Really, it's this woman on the edge, you know?
It is a comedy, but it's very soulful and very deep.
What's going to make this show hilarious, it's all grounded in reality.
There's a lot of dark humour in it, and there's a lot of poignant moments that people will be able to relate to.
It's just about how incredibly human we are.
It is a show about identity, about understanding who you are.
Catrell: We have a story to tell which is very unique.
That's what's so exciting about this is that it's new territory.
S01E00 - Sensitive Skin
Sensitive skin has been my passion project for the past eight years now.
When I saw the BBC Two series sensitive skin,
I was so captured by the freshness of it.
I'd never seen this story told, and it was done with humour and with such intelligence.
If we could find the right collaborators to bring this to North America, I felt that it was really worthwhile.
I had met Don McKellar socially.
I thought he would make a great Al.
He'd make a good leading man, and also a great director.
McKellar: Kim came to me with the project.
Gave me the original series. Said she wanted to do it.
I immediately understood why. It's the perfect part for her.
I watched it and by the end of the first six I was totally hooked, and excited about the possibility of translating it.
Are you happy?
Oh... what?
You know, with everything. With all the changes?
Oh, sure. I love living in a maximum security prison.
Who wouldn't?
What about me?
What do you mean?
You know. Do you...
Do you like my hair?
Right from the start it was Kim and Don as Davina and Al.
And then Don and I brought on Bob Martin.
He seemed like the perfect creative collaborator to do the actual adaptation.
I've known Don since I was 15.
We've worked on many projects together.
Don and I have a fantastic shorthand.
And Kim, we immediately hit it off.
She's a surprisingly normal person considering her level of celebrity.
I thought, these guys know each other so well.
Am I going to be able to keep up with them?
And they're so fast and so quick, but I'm just as smart as they are.
Any progress on the furniture, dear?
This urban camping is fun and all, but a couch would do it.
I'd be so happy with a couch.
I'm looking for a very particular couch.
There's certain criteria that need to be met.
Oh no. That makes me nervous.
May I request that one of the criteria be comfort?
The story begins soon after Davina and Al have moved from their suburban home into this urban loft.
Davina attempts to change their life, but she's doing it in a very surface way.
So they get this loft.
She sort of forced the move. They sold all of their stuff.
McKellar: She realizes that it's really not addressing any of the real problems they have.
She's a central character.
I really wanted to get inside her head.
Make her live in Toronto in a Toronto type condo.
I really want to reflect Toronto, moving from the suburbs back into this metropolitan city.
It's a big, big move. It's a big change.
Martin: Toronto is definitely a character because they're moving into the downtown core.
They've never lived here before.
They have to deal with public transit, lack of parking.
Yuppies from the burbs, they come here and they move into their high-priced glass boxes.
Now the core is crammed full with these rich idiots, and it doesn't function anymore.
Fine. I'll walk.
Toronto is the perfect city for it because Toronto is sort of condo-glut.
More than any other north American city, it's in flux.
It's transforming into something. We don't know what it is.
So it's like these characters of cities kind of going through middle-age crisis.
Martin: We're on location almost exclusively with this series.
There's only one standing set which is the condo.
McKellar: This apartment, we've sort of based it on a real apartment in Toronto.
It's actually even better than a lot of the ones we saw.
Still, I think, wow, this would be tough to move into.
I know the change is dramatic, but she hasn't changed as a person. She's still the same Davina.
Is she?
Catrell: My work as an actress has really been mostly about women who take charge, who know what they want, but I'm playing someone who is much more vulnerable than that.
I'm sorry that I went on and on about not knowing who I am.
I don't know why I did that.
It's a very brave place to be to say I don't know.
I don't know who I am in my 50s.
Are you hiding?
Sort of.
What's going on?
I don't know.
I know that my fans will really enjoy Davina.
As confused as she is, she still has spunk.
I can't play a woman without spunk.
It's a huge relief not to see my reflection when I look in the mirror.
That's a ridiculous thing to say. You're a handsome man.
You're over 50. So what? You're ugly now?
Kim completely redefined Davina and made Davina her own.
She is really at a point of flight.
She has a marriage which is good.
She has a son who is a bit of a problem, but she deals with him as best she can.
She's re-examining who she is and her relationships, not just with her husband, with the rest of the world.
Look at this.
Heavily filtered cigarette holder.
You puff and you puff.
You suck and you suck and you never get any smoke.
As a bonus, you look like Harry Truman.
Catrell: Al's really tough to live with, you know?
He's very charming and he's very funny, but he's also really, really stuck.
Why am I afraid all the time? Can you tell me that?
I'm afraid of being judged. I'm afraid of getting eye cancer.
I'm afraid of coming to these parties because I'm afraid of talking to people.
I have to pee.
Davina is at a point where she needs to be noticed, and Al is so in his head.
So it's safe to say I'm going mad?
McKellar: He's nervous about his health, his career, and his image.
He's probably not as concerned as he should be about his relationship.
It's hard, in a way, playing a character who has to be irritating enough to precipitate a mid-life crisis, but at the same time embody a long-term loving relationship.
It's the one you love is also the problem.
Jesus Christ.
Dad's trying pathetically hard to look young and stylish.
Fichman: We searched a lot for Orlando.
He had to have a certain look, and also he had to have a certain rage, and yet he had to be funny, and he had to be a great comedic actor.
Just admit it. You're trying to turn dad into a surrogate grandchild.
No.
'Cause you know you'll never have any real grandchildren because I have no sperm!
I'm giving her a really hard time about every choice she's making now.
Like I hate that she sold the house.
I think it's incredibly selfish.
He lashes out, and that's kind of who he is.
I'm a realist. You should be, too.
When you're gone, you're gone. That's it.
God. Imagine that. No more Orlando.
Imagine that.
I haven't seen writing like this in a long time.
And I haven't seen a character as much fun to play in a long time.
She was my doll.
I had her first.
I named her Furan, and just because you're barely younger and you had to have your stupid f*cking tonsils out, suddenly you have Furan!
McKellar: I loved writing Veronica's material because she's so angry.
Martin: Veronica just targets Davina as being a horrible person, but mainly because Davina is doing the things that Veronica is unable to do herself.
I can't believe that you would let it get that far.
Because I'm completely sexless?
No.
Gleason: It's regret and frustration and jealousy.
All those things that can eat you up.
Veronica is feeling all of those.
Veronica, you gotta come and sit on this.
Martin: Veronica's husband, Roger, is an extremely arrogant man.
Feore: He's a stiff, crisp executive, and he behaves, if not condescendingly at least, in a slightly prickly way.
I wish you'd talk to me before making major financial decisions.
It's my job to talk people out of doing stupid things like this.
Martin: And then at a certain point he has this change, this dramatic change, where he realizes that he's kind of been living a lie.
The most important thing I've realized is that I've been blind.
We were so excited that Elliot gould was going to be involved.
He brings something to this character. It's a tricky character to play because he's a charlatan but he's a doctor.
You're right.
It's all bullshit.
Gould: I think he works for Al.
I think the doctor understands him and can help him, hopefully.
Then I recommend getting high.
I think the material is very brilliant.
I'm privileged to be able to do it.
Al: Everyone, this is my friend Theodore.
Local merchant.
Anyone want to do a line before we head out?
Theodore is an aspiring real estate agent who is well versed in literature and art, and he appreciates Anne Murray's music.
Oh, and he deals dr*gs too.
Martin: In the original series there was a drug dealer, but he wasn't named and was never seen.
Here he's become a good friend of Al's.
It's slower this way. Not because you're a slow reader, it's just harder not to have a discourse about the material.
It's true. The discourse does tend to slow us down.
Hmm. Jesus.
It's pixel the dog. Everyone loves pixel.
Pixel is the star. My God.
Pixel plays William, Orlando's dog.
He's not breathing.
Oh, there he goes.
Okay.
Pixel's very expensive. We can't afford every day.
But I would love to have more pixel.
Feore: For the first time I'm working with Don as a director.
That's never happened. It's all quite new and interesting.
It's been going very well.
Don is the kind of director who enjoys what you're doing.
And when he does, he tells you.
So you want to do your best for somebody who let's you go, sees what you bring, makes his adjustments.
He makes you feel as if he's fine-tuning a really sensitive, wonderful instrument.
Don: Cut!
Man: Cutting!
In a lot of ways I'm really depending on the actors, and I can because I've got great actors.
My favourite stuff is still just watching the actors doing their thing.
I'm so fond of all that kind of stuff.
Wright: It's been a special experience to be able to look the director in the eye while you're doing a scene.
It's very interesting. He's done it so many times before.
He's such a pro at it so he puts everybody at ease.
He's never stressed about switching from one mode to the other.
Maybe try going that way.
To work with him is tremendous.
It's fun.
It's hard, but it means that you're more dependent on your crew and your collaborators.
So I'm very, very happy that I have such a lovely crew, and such strong collaborators.
He is very visually astute, and has a lot of really, really good ideas.
I learnt a lot working with him and have a lot of fun doing it.
I'm trying to make it real, and I'm trying to make it kind of fluid.
It's that feeling that Davina, in particular, is in flux.
The show itself is incredibly cinematic.
We're treating it like a three hour movie.
Lots of Dolly sh*ts, and steadicam work, and nice panoramas of the city as well.
It's really fun to play somebody who's into clothes.
I specifically wanted her to wear Canadian designers.
Jeremy Lin. I'm wearing Lida Baday is another.
And hopefully in the next season we'll have even more of a chance to do that.
Woman: So what're you going to do?
What?
You know he's interested.
Martin: Davina is going through a crisis but she's sort of in denial, and then she starts to have these episodes.
People around her who she doesn't know that well begin to talk to her in great detail about her own life.
Excuse me?
I was trying to find a way of directing the show where we would really get into her head and it would kind of be a subjective experience.
I'm trying to do that literally through the fantasies.
Not now.
It's a beautifully utilized device of a character reflecting to an audience or to a self, really, what's going on for me.
Really, there is a serious problem.
But what is it?
These delusional episodes are one of the things that really make the show special.
They're completely absurd, but they're actually quite touching.
Some of them.
My favourite is she goes to a production of three sisters and the characters begin talking to her from the stage.
I don't want to go to Moscow.
There is only moscow.
It's actually Davina's own voice rationalizing her behaviour.
The delusional episodes are telling her the wrong thing to do, usually.
I'd go for it.
But she doesn't realize that perhaps until it's too late.
I bet your life was absolutely amazing.
Well, it's not over yet.
She's been incredibly collaborative.
She's very passionate about it.
I know that it's very close to her.
She's started it but also just thematically that's close to her life.
That's hard and it's interesting.
And the way she plays based on her public persona and her history, I think that that gives extra richness to the show.
She's very aware of that.
This was such an exciting process, and to bring it to an audience, this experience in north America of this woman, this family, this marriage, this time in space, and that's very exciting to me.
People say to me, oh, my God.
You know, you really stuck with it.
And I'm glad I did.
I think I would've given up after maybe 15 years.
So eight, that's enough.
Fichman: Kim Catrell really has something to say here.
She's going for it, you know?
She's not trying to pretend that she's younger than she is.
And I'm just amazed how much she's embracing it.
Her message is more important, you know, it's not skin deep.
All good stories start toward the end, somebody once said.
The cauldron is bubbling and everybody's about to boil over.
This is what makes for drama.
We have got to talk about this thing.
When people are in crisis they don't necessarily make the right choices.
It's something you rarely see portrayed.
Davina, what is going on?
I think that's what people will relate to is that desire.
Maybe if I didn't make the right choice. Maybe I can start again.
Catrell: We've had an amazing opportunity to do it the way we feel it should be told.
With honesty and humour and love.
And we hope that you love the show as much as we've enjoyed making it.
Don't f*ck up your life.
Shut up.