Holiday Heartwarmer

Fresh from her blistering cinematic start in a number of big-budget sci-fi films, Mackenzie Davis is hoping that her latest project will showcase a different side of her talents, and warm audience’s cockles everywhere…

Though she's made a name for herself in three big sci-fi flicks - The Martian, Blade Runner 2049, and Terminator: Dark Fate – Canadian actress Mackenzie Davis is anxious to explore more intimate emotional territory than those projects tend to allow.

And there are, after all, few projects more emotional than a romantic Christmas comedy – and with the year having been taken over by more serious matters, Happiest Season, in which Davis will star alongside Kristen Stewart in a refreshing twist on usual rom-com tropes, is looking to be the yuletide spark of joy that many moviegoers have been hoping for.

“It was a really, really special experience,” the 33-year-old says. “Clea Duvall [The Handmaid’s Tale, Veep] directed and wrote it and her goal was to make a Christmas romantic comedy that you would want to watch again and again every year...and I think she did that. [It] just happens to be about two women.

“It's the kind of romantic comedy that normalises what is already normal but hasn't been represented that much in Hollywood or in major studio movies. It's important to tell different kinds of stories that reflect reality and present situations and characters that we all know from life.”

For Davis, Happiest Season may mark a change of pace from her recent blockbuster action fare, but it also reflects a continuation of her desire to choose interesting scripts and three-dimensional characters.

“I've always been determined to show that women are multifaceted and generally more complicated than we tend to be depicted in Hollywood,” she nods. “Ever since I began acting, I knew I never wanted to play the girlfriend characters or women who have no real identity.

“Not that I'm an exception in thinking that way... I'm also attracted to characters that don't necessarily have to show their strength in obvious ways but reveal their strength in different ways and especially in more subtle ways that is so often the case with women.”

Such a burgeoning understanding of her career path is indicative of the way Davis is finally finding her feet in the business.

“I came out of drama school with the motto: Here I am, now I'm ready to work,” she laughs. “I still think it's a miracle that I have anything like a career at all today. I was a bit naive, to be honest. You can call my optimism a delusion, but I just didn't know any better.

“Still, it's probably easier to cope with the pressure when you have completely unrealistic ideas about your future in film. I was already 24 when I began to seriously audition for parts and that's considered a late start in this business.”

Much of the delay was down to her parent’s insistence that she finish her time in academia before pursuing her life-long career aspirations.

“It was always my intention to pursue it as a career,” she says, “but it was important for my parents that I go to university first and get my degree before I moved to New York to study acting.”

The move to the Big Apple would stand Davis in good stead for her later Hollywood days – and she flourished where countless others have seen their dreams of the silver screen peter out.

“I had a really good time!” she beams. “Sometimes I've been asked about how I managed to endure the life of the struggling acting student, but I've never found New York to be a cold or threatening place to live. My sister was already living there and she's one of my best friends… the hardest thing of course was making money!”

I've always been determined to show that women are multifaceted and generally more complicated than we tend to be depictred in Hollywood.

Thankfully, like many up-andcoming modern actresses, Davis is now enjoying the effects of the Hollywood overhaul that has swept the industry in recent years, from the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, to a concerted and long overdue push by established stars and studios alike to create quality female-driven content.

“Now that I'm seeing that there are so many more interesting roles available to women these days, I'm relaxing my standards about the kinds of characters I want to play,” she explains.

“I'm thinking that it might be interesting to play a wife and explore relationships in a deep way and not necessarily playing very strong or determined characters but doing something very quiet but very emotionally powerful.”

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