PASADENA, Calif.\u2014\u201cThe 100\u201d is a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi series coming in March to The CW. The 100 could also stand for how many Canadians are working this season on The CW.<\/p>\n
With so many CW shows shooting in Vancouver and Toronto, including \u201cSupernatural,\u201d \u201cArrow,\u201d \u201cThe Tomorrow People\u201d and \u201cBeauty and the Beast,\u201d the number of Canadians working CW shows could be closer to a thousand. Megan Follows (\u201cReign\u201d), Stephen and Robbie Amell (\u201cArrow\u201d and \u201cThe Tomorrow People\u201d), Kristin Kreuk (\u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d) and Colin Mochrie (\u201cWhose Line is it Anyway?\u201d) are among The CW\u2019s Canadian headliners.<\/p>\n
One of those thousand is Marie Avgeropoulos. The 27-year-old Canadian is among the stars of \u201cThe 100.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Tatiana Maslany, the Regina-born, Golden Globe Award-nominated star of \u201cOrphan Black,\u201d Avgeropoulos hails from a relatively remote part of Canada\u2014Thunder Bay, Ont.<\/p>\n
So how does a girl from Thunder Bay get to Hollywood?<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess,\u201d says Avgeropoulos, \u201cdreams have no boundaries with geography.\u201d<\/p>\n
The actress was among the stars of \u201cThe 100\u201d attending the Television Critics Association press tour Wednesday. She\u2019s not the only non-American in the cast. Eliza Taylor and Bob Morley both hail from Australia while Henry Ian Cusick is from Peru.<\/p>\n
The series is set 97 years after a nuclear Armageddon has destroyed Earth, poisoning the planet. There are 400 survivors, mainly from international space stations. To test the air and the landscape, 100 juvenile prisoners are turned loose on the planet to see if it is inhabitable. Avgeropoulos plays one of these adventurous trouble makers, Octavia.<\/p>\n
Her own path to Hollywood started at Thunder Bay\u2019s Confederation College, where she studied television production. Upon graduation, she did some on-air news reporting for a local broadcaster.<\/p>\n
A little voice in the back of her head, however, kept telling her, \u201cYour creativity is calling you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avgeropoulos moved to Vancouver and took acting classes. \u201cOn my off time when I was playing drums in a dive bar, I got scouted by an agent,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The agent drummed up roles for the actress on several shows shot in Vancouver, including, \u201cSupernatural,\u201d \u201cFringe,\u201d \u201cHuman Target\u201d and \u201cHiccups.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avgeropoulos eventually did what many ambitious young Canadian actors do\u2014headed to Los Angeles. She dropped out of acting school, whistled for her Italian mastiff Calypso, jumped into her Dodge Spirit and headed south for Los Angeles. She had no job lined up and really no contacts in the States either.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just a Canadian girl with a dream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As so often happens with Canadians, she landed a role on a U.S. network series which promptly brought her right back to Canada.<\/p>\n
Avgeropoulos became a regular on \u201cThe Cult,\u201d a short-lived, shot-in-Vancouver series.<\/p>\n
Some of the producers of that show went on to \u201cThe 100,\u201d and so did the actress.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t let her model looks fool you\u2014Avgeropoulos is up for getting smudged and sweaty in \u201cThe 100.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very into the outdoors,\u201d says the avid snowboarder.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s good, for a lot of \u201cThe 100\u201d is shot in the great outdoors. A river scene featured in the pilot was shot in rustic Squamish, B.C.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love to camp. I love to fish. So being outside in the wilderness and not inside of a studio, with no cellphone service, allows all of us to stay in character.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Thunder Bay has spawned U.S. network stars before\u2014most famously \u201cLetterman\u201d bandleader Paul Shaffer\u2014Avgeropoulos says no one in her family is in any way involved with show business. \u201cAbsolutely not. They\u2019re nurses and dental assistants and my mom\u2019s a bank teller.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growing up, she wasn\u2019t even exposed that much to films or television.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never even had cable TV or anything,\u201d she says. \u201cIronically, I have a degree in television broadcasting and now I\u2019m an actress. It makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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