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10 THINGS with Breeda Wool

You have a background in theater and a love for the arts. When did your passion for acting and performing begin?

Acting is a profession where dreaming up worlds and meandering in fantasy can benefit you greatly. Its the daydreamers occupation. As a kid, I was an avid daydreamer, and my playground love was the game of make-believe. My father always said, if you can make a profession out of your childhood game, you’ve got a lot better chance of becoming successful. My father built a science lab in the attic of his home in Ireland. When he grew up, he built a science lab at a university and became a material scientist. If you like model airplanes, make planes when you grow-up. Its a simple formula, but it seems to work in my family. I wanted to dance and use my body, I wanted to be really weird and make faces, and I wanted to ask people “why?” a thousand times. Acting seemed like the right place.

Which actors inspired you to pursue your career and to put in the work doing so?

Basically, my whole life as a woman and actor has been modeled after Daryl Hannah in Splash. A tall, sexually liberated, amazing, naked fish lady. I’ve based a lot on that. There was also a time in my career that whenever things got tough, I would say WWZGD: What Would Zack Galifianakis Do?

How has the theater training you received helped you transition to the film and TV platform today?

After you’ve chased people through the streets of Barcelona with a pack of wolf women, there’s very little that will make you afraid as a performer. I have done street theater, interactive theater, theater that gets very up-close and personal, Shakespeare, and performance art. The immediacy of the exchange between actor and audience is thrilling. Television and film has a level of intimacy that isn’t directly touching people, or interacting with your audience live, like theater, but the devotion to truthfulness is quite powerful. If you stop telling the truth the camera will see it and people who watch it later can feel it, I think. Also, when we document a performance to digital film it gives me a great sense of satisfaction. It’s really magical to hand off your work, your interpretations of a story to an editor and sound designer and have them finish the painting for you.

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You’ve also had some experience working with On-Demand projects. How does that differ from what we consider standard television shows and how has your audience received it?

Betas was a great experience. On-Demand internet television is the new frontier. There’s so much amazing content being made on Amazon, Netflix, Hulu. Its an exciting time to be an actor, there’s a lot more content and less rules & boxes.

Let’s talk about the highly anticipated series, Lifetime’s Un-REAL. How did you first connect to this show?

The wonderful Barbara Fiorentino brought me in for casting. I had been shooting Betas and wasn’t sure if I would make it at first. I went home late to look at the story and I watched Sarah Shapiro’s short film Sequin Raze, which UnREAL is based on. I immediately thought “Oh daaaaaang, this is gonna be gooooood!”. It was so dark and clever. Sarah Shapiro is a poet and I think that this is only the beginning of new and exciting female voice in television and film.

On the show, you play the role of Faith DeLuth. What are the good and bad sides of your character and what do you enjoy about playing her the most?

In UnREAL, I am very open and vulnerable to the myth of “Everlasting”, our reality dating show. I think I might be the only one who doesn’t know how UnREAL it all is. But my naiveté I think, is what also makes me one of the more authentic people there. I’m not trying to manipulate anyone, which causes me to be wide open for cruelty and deceit. I’m also quite religious, a bit sheltered, and a six foot virgin, so lets just say I’m not that suave.

What can fans expect to see in this first season with your character and the show as a whole?

Oh honey, this show goes so many places! My story as Faith is quite a ride. I think there will be a lot of people who will relate to it. Every contestant on the show is basically put into a pressure cooker and then fired out of a cannon. As for the show as a whole, there’ll be cat fights, dog fights, maybe even a little death.

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You keep yourself pretty busy and that’s a good thing. When you have some time to relax, what do you enjoy doing on a typical day off?

I can’t help but sound cheesy right now, but I like to find really cool places to watch the sunset. I stare at the sun and think about my existence on this planet and then eat a bunch of food someplace. My favorite place right now is Topanga Canyon. I usually hike really high, watch the sun go down, and then I never leave enough daylight to get back and end up running through the woods from imaginary serial killers.

In regards to fashion, which designers and styles would we find in your personal closet?

My closet is filled with a combination of clothes I found in my parents’ basement, vintage artifacts, and stuff someone gave me in a swag bag. I really love finding rare and unusual pieces of clothing and I will wear things forever. One of my favorite shirts is one that my sister wore in her second grade school picture. It’s hilarious when I wear it in front of her because she always responds like she’s seen a ghost. It’s also hard to know where clothes are being made these days. Almost all American stores have exported their production, and many of those factories will outsource to other factories. So, regulations on child labor or people working for slave wages can’t always be carried out. It’s something as a consumer that I try to be conscious of. The American shopping mall: made in China.

We look forward to seeing how things develop on Lifetime’s Un-REAL. What other projects can we expect from you in the near future?

I am in a beautiful film called AWOL that’s now in post-production. It’s about a high school graduate named Joey, played by the extraordinary Lola Kirke. She falls in love with the down-and-out married mother Rayna, that would be me. The film explores love, economic entrapment, and the challenges of what happens when you try to change your life for the better.

UnREAL premieres on Lifetime June 1, 2015 @ 10/9c

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Photo Credits: George Polychronopoulos