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  Young Canadian Wants To Be a Superhero
by Michelle Erica Green webdate: 1/16/00 11:30:35 PM
Lindy Booth plays the non-relic hunter on Relic Hunter, a ditzy student
who knows more about hunting bargains at department stores than hunting treasures
from the past. As Claudia, Sydney Fox's office manager,
she's responsible for keeping up with her boss' wild schedule...and with
culturally assimilating Nigel Bailey, Sydney's naive British teaching
assistant, upon whom Claudia seems to have a crush.
"It's so funny, the people on the set say, 'I'm so glad you're not like
Claudia!" laughed the actress in a recent interview from Toronto, which
has always been her home and is also where Relic Hunter films. "My voice
is a lot deeper than Claudia's. I'm not quite as hip, she's so sure of her
opinions. But she's so smart - maybe not about things that most people want
to be smart about, but she's just convinced that she's right all the time!"
Twenty-year-old Booth is still reeling from the astonishing success she's
had since deciding to act full-time after graduating from high school. "I got
my agent through my high school drama teacher, someone she had known, and
my third audition, I got my first series. It took off right from there,"
recalled the vivacious Booth. "I feel like such a spoiled brat right now!"
Though she still lives at home with her mother and sister, she has recurring
roles on two television shows, and is headed to Los Angeles over
Relic Hunter's winter hiatus to meet with casting directors there.
Digging Out Fossils Claudia is the daughter of one of the university's most
generous donors, but her major seems to be partying. Since she was flunking
out of her classes, she was given a job in the renowned Professor Fox's
office to help her get back on track. Claudia might not have been Sydney's
first choice as an assistant, but the younger woman's pop culture
knowledge has proven helpful to the academic more than once.
"I have a very close relationship with Claudia - I get where she's
coming from," noted Booth, who admitted that the character is
much more forward than she is. "She's very blunt, which I find very
interesting. I am not a flirty sexpot person in real life. Nigel hides a
lot around me, and Sydney just rolls her eyes!"
After several auditions, however Booth had all but given up on being
cast in Relic Hunter, and was actually on vacation in England when she
got the call to come back for the role. Originally meant to be a small
recurring part, the role of Claudia was expanded once Booth began working
on the series, and, within a few episodes, she actually got to travel with the
relic hunters. In "Myth of the Maze," Claudia turned to be the catalyst
for Sydney's discovery of the ancient Greek Labyrinth, since her romantic interest
in the male guest star enabled Sydney to discover its secrets.
"The Greece episode was a lot of fun," recalled the actress, who
particularly enjoyed the past few months of filming because she needed to
be on the set every day rather than just once or twice a week as in previous episodes. "It
was crazy trying to get everything done, because we were doing six episodes in two weeks.
We usually get the full scripts, but for the past couple of episodes, we've just gotten bits
and pieces. They look great though - some of the last ones are really, really funny. And finally,
I say something intelligent! I solve a problem that no one else can figure out. That's a highlight."
Booth believes that Claudia has a crush on Nigel (played by Christien Anholt), but
isn't sure whether that will lead anywhere, since Nigel in turn has a
crush on Sydney (played by Tia Carrere). Sydney meanwhile seems oblivious
to the rampant pheromones around her. The fact that she keeps running
into rivals who are also ex-boyfriends may have something to do with her current
attitude towards men, from whom she warns her assistant away.
"We had a Claudia/Nigel scene that was sort of hinting at stuff which was
very interesting and funny, but it ended in disaster of course, as things between Nigel
and anyone do," laughed Booth. "I think Nigel is basically stuck single for awhile." Well,
after hitting on a nun in an early episode, where is there to go but up? "Exactly! I think the
whole charm of the show is that you never quite know." Adds the actress gleefully, "I'm definitely working on the right show. There are all these cute guys wandering around the set all the time."
Booth was a little disappointed during the episode "Etched in Stone,"
when Claudia was absent ostensibly for a dentist appointment, and an even blonder
bimbo took her place in Sydney's office. "I ended up on set the day she was
there, and just stood there and went, 'So! Let's see what you've got!' As it turns out,
there are worse office assistants than Claudia...but not many. "I keep saying to Tia, 'Why
don't you just fire me? I wouldn't put up with me, I'm so obnoxious!'" But Carrere's
Fox seems to appreciate the frenetic energy and non-stop trivia provided by her assistant.
Still, Booth got a kick out of "Flag Day," when Claudia repaid her boss
for asking her to date a nerd by setting Sydney up with a professor who'd
been charged with sexual harassment. Another of her favorite episodes is "Headless
Nun," in which "Claudia went feminist and was into Lilith Fair,
and refused to get Sydney her coffee because it was gender enslavement."
Ironically, both actresses secretly agreed. "Tia and I were both sitting in
our trailers reading feminist literature, I'm reading Germaine Greer,
and we said, 'What are we doing? We're two intelligent women and
we're playing these crazy characters!' It was so funny."
It appears at times as if Sydney might be jealous of Claudia's ease with
men. "Well, apparently Sydney has had her share. But I steer clear from the relic hunters,
I went straight for the Greek guy with all the money!" Booth laughed. "Tia and I have such a
great time because our characters are such polar opposites. We want them to do an episode
next season where they switch personalities. Tia always has to play the tough girl and I always
play the cute little blonde girl. I want to play the tough girl for a change!"
Being a Superhero Booth has been learning martial arts for another series
on which she is a regular, The Famous Jett Jackson, which airs on the
Disney Channel. "It's a great kids' show," reported the actress, who plays
a 15-year-old from Beverly Hills who stars on a series in North Carolina.
"I play a superhero, Hawk, who is totally tough. I play like a Tia character!
One of the Relic Hunter stunt coordinators said, 'Lindy, you do martial
arts? I'm going to write you an episode for next season where
Claudia takes everybody else out!'"
Will there be a Claudia-centered episode next season? "I don't know,"
Booth admitted. The series has not officially been picked up for a second season, and
Booth has not yet been approached about reprising her single-season role. "We're all
wondering what would happen in a Claudia episode.
They might be afraid of a Claudia episode! Even in the Greek one, I
was thinking, 'This is why I'm not in the show more often - my voice is so annoying!
No one wants to listen to me talk for a full hour!' It would take
less than an hour for Claudia to talk someone to death. No wonder Sydney
keeps taking off on all these adventures!"
Booth said she has little in common with Claudia's constant stream of new boyfriends,
one of whom the character said she didn't sleep with because
"we didn't have time." In an upcoming episode, Claudia has a date with a
Goth, "a vampire guy. She gets very serious all of a sudden. No one
knows quite what to expect."
When the show moves to Paris to shoot for the remainder of the season,
the series regular will be on the set only as a tourist, having filmed all her scenes for
the upcoming installments in Toronto since Claudia rarely goes
in the field with Nigel and Sydney. "We did all the tags and teasers and some different
insert stuff over the past couple of weeks before they left.
It's okay, though. They haven't been doing too much exotic travel, it's only
been in and around Toronto. I've got tons of stuff I'm doing here, so I'm
busy while they're gone. But how could I resist visiting?" Born and raised
in Oakville, Ontario, a beautiful lakeside suburb of Toronto described by Booth as "very
quaint and pretty and small-town," the actress thinks about continuing her education at
some point. For now she's learning on the job.
"I've taken a couple of years off from school. It was just exhausting. I
was doing school plays in high school, plus tutoring this little girl in math
and French, so I was a little strung out."
She was an attentive student, however, who ironically wanted to be
an archaeologist for many years. "I was very interested in dinosaurs. I
always wanted to be an actress, but I thought I could do other things. I
went, 'I'll be an actress but in my spare time I'll be an astronaut,' or 'In
my spare time, I'll be a farmer.' Then I found out you have to wake up
really early to be a farmer. But then I realized you have to wake up
even earlier to be an actress!"
As a high school thespian, Booth wrote plays, and would like to do so
again at some point. She admitted to finding screenwriting very daunting.
"I want to be doing theater. That's where I started from. Classical- Shakespeare - that's
my thing. When I started out at six years old, writing plays, producing them, charging all my
neighbors to see them, I had no concept of fame or Hollywood or any of that. I grew up with
loving it and I always remember that that's why I started, because it was so much fun. I
love performing. I never really had the ambition to be a huge star." Booth
believes this is a good time to be a woman in the profession, though
there are still drawbacks, "which I think is why it's so exciting."
"I'm lucky enough that I have a very strong sense of myself," she adds.
"I have a strong background, my family is very supportive, I've got great friends,
and I work with great people who are all very grounded and keep
me grounded. I think that if you lose that aspect of yourself, you're in big
trouble. It's very difficult to be a woman in this industry if you don't
know from the beginning who you are."
Moreover, though she says she will work anywhere and would be perfectly
happy living in Los Angeles to film a series, she considers Canada her home.
"I love the country. Whenever I land in a plane in Toronto, I get all
teary-eyed. I just think it's such a beautiful city. My entire family is
here, and I'm very close with my family."
Down Time Currently, many U.S. syndicated and cable shows film in
Toronto, making this an ideal time for Booth - a self-described "little homebody"
- to remain where she is. "I love having international shows
shooting in Canada because it's great for our culture and our country. It's
such a great place to shoot, because it's so versatile, especially a show like
Relic Hunter where we're scamming locations from all over the world.
We shoot them right in and around Toronto. I think that's fantastic."
Booth is concerned about the issue of funding for the arts in her country.
"I support children in the arts. People just don't understand how important
it is to encourage in children Support for the arts for young people in
Canada is absolutely abysmal. I dealt so much in high school at counseling meetings
where I would say I wanted to be an actor, and they would say,
'Well, maybe you should take a computer course for backup.' I'm never
going to be an accountant! But I had only one person in my entire high
school career who said, go for it. So I love visiting my old school to say
to kids who are interested, take a chance, believe in it, and it can
happen. That kind of support is so rare in the schools."
Unfortunately, the television show she most desires to guest star on -
The X-Files, a popular choice among actors from all over the globe -
has moved production from Vancouver to Los Angeles. "It was terrible when they
moved!" exclaimed Booth, who admits to having a "huge crush" on
David Duchovny. "He's so cute. I try not to watch him on other things. I
want to live in the fantasy that Mulder is him. Besides, David
Duchovny is married, anyway!"
The actress said she would watch Relic Hunter even if she didn't appear
on the series. "I love watching the show, and because I'm not in it that
often, I love seeing what they do without me. I'm so amazed by our set decorators
because the sets are so phenomenal. I'll walk through our
studio and there's this big lake with a shipwreck in the middle of the
studio! I wonder what it's going to look like on camera!"
She is proud of the series, particularly episodes like "Myth of the Maze"
which recreated Greece on a few hot days in Toronto and like
"Smoking Gun" which was set in Al Capone's bunker. "That just looked
so slick and so cool. I love that whole time period and the whole gangster
thing. And there's one they're shooting in Paris that I'm looking forward to seeing -
Sydney is looking for a woman who was a can-can dancer. I think
that's going to be really cute." Even though the producers are happy with
the ratings so far, until they get formal word about a second season, Booth
isn't making any plans. "I'm hopefully going to go down to L.A. to see my manager,
if he remembers me! And then go to Paris in awhile to say
'Hi.' Everyone seems very happy with the ratings, but we haven't heard
yet about another season. Knock on wood. I'm overly superstitious.
I'm not saying anything!"
Claudia may be a ditz, but Lindy Booth has her head right
where it's supposed to be.
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