In the following conversation, Sydney and show creator Mae take us behind the scenes of Wayward – detailing the time that Sydney recreated all of Die Hard on set; how she learned to pull focus; and how no one actually told her she got the job (and why she decided to just start rehearsing anyway).

Sydney

Where are you right now?

Mae

This is my house. It’s a very creative space. I think you’d approve.

Sydney

I love it.

Mae

I think you'd like it, it's very hippie-ish. My buddy lives in my back house with his girlfriend.

Sydney

I'm in my house. This is what I built with my sister when I was doing my carpentry time.

Mae

You built that!?

Sydney

We built this. This alcove thing with this bench. We built the fireplace over here.

Mae

I thought that you were like, I don't know, building small side tables! You’re doing full pieces!

Sydney

Yeah, we were doing full pieces, but honestly, I was just doing the sanding and the chiselling. Anyway, how are you?

Mae

I'm good. I'm going to go to Big Bear this weekend to lie in the forest. All I want to do is be in the forest.

Sydney

I had to go back to the forest and lie down as well, because it was wild. I did the Simcoe Trail which was fun.

Mae

Oh, you did? Is this in the wake of the show coming out, you gotta get to the woods.

Sydney

Yeah, because remember our manic texts where we were like: this sucks.

Mae

Well, I think we're similar – it’s just not a normal experience, that level of exposure and I think people are amazingly cool to handle it, but I think it's a lot.

Sydney

But you also went to your fun little retreat.

Mae

I went to a therapy retreat for a week. I can't tell if it helped or hurt her. I think it helped. It was just nice that I didn't have my phone for a week. But, okay, wait, Sydney, wait.

Sydney

Oh, we have to be real? Okay.

Mae

Tell me about your journey into acting. You did shows in school right?

Sydney

We didn't do school shows because we were too country to have a drama department, so we didn't even have drama class. I did it through community theatre, but that's it. But you were doing standup when you were like a teenager! This feels weird to talk only about me.

Mae

I only want to talk about you. You can throw back to me occasionally, but only occasionally. I'm trying to remember how we found you in the audition process. We did a massive, like a massive sweep of Canada and I just remember seeing your tape and everyone was like, “Well, this girl will be in the show, of course”. At first we thought you were going to be Leila.

Sydney

Really?

Mae

You did an amazing tape for Leila as well, but there's also such a sweetness about you that then we knew we should also have you read for Abbie. It became early on about finding someone to do a chemistry reading with you. You were the first young person that we cast.

Sydney

Ew! That’s crazy. I just remember self-taping and I was on vacation and I was like, “Shit, I don't have anything. I just have my phone”

Mae

Do you hate self-tapes usually or do you not mind them?

Sydney

I don't know, I like them.

Mae

I like them because you can just do them at your own pace and not be nervous. Were you nervous when you ended up coming to do chemistry reads with Olivia?

Sydney

I don't think there's a greater laxative than anxiety because I was shitting my pants. It was fun when I got in the room. What are you like auditioning?

Mae

I'm similar. Where it doesn't matter because it's just: oh, yeah, I'll do this audition. But then when it gets tantalizingly close to something then I'm a wreck. I unravel and I show them why they shouldn't hire me. I'm not good at auditions. I really freak out. My voice still shakes and stuff.

Sydney

Really?

Mae

I remember you guys were really nervous at the table read with everyone.

Sydney

I remember they were like: “Can you guys speak up?”

Mae

You were whispering, both of you! That is intimidating - the whole cast together for the first time. You never really know how much everyone's going to go for it.

Sydney

Do you like rehearsing?

Mae

I do. You don't?

Sydney

Okay, For TV and film I don't love it. For theatre I would love to just rehearse and rehearse and that's it.

Mae

And never do the show.

Sydney

[Laughs] Never yeah. For TV and film. I just like to find it. I like talking about it, but I don't really go for it until [the shoot] which is so unprofessional of me to say.

Mae

I know a lot of people are like that. It's more spontaneous that way. I'm just not confident enough as an actor yet. I have such imposter syndrome. I'm always so embarrassed that I wrote it as well. It’s so embarrassing to write something where some movie star is telling you they love you and looking you in your eyes and you're like: “Sorry about this. I'm sorry.” We only had three scenes together, but I think our first actual scene together was at that gate – at the fence.

Sydney

And you come up to it - first take - and laugh out loud.

Mae

I'm actually so relieved that we didn't have more scenes together because there's something about you - you're a very perceptive person and you're very like switched on to what's going on. I just couldn't fake it. I was like: this person's going to say what a terrible actor I am. I was crying laughing. And that took us a long time, people were really losing patience.

Sydney

It's so weird because we had never like, there's no crossover between the two worlds. I just remember looking at your eyeballs and I was like: Oh my gosh, I'm acting with Mae. This is so weird.

Mae

Also being there with all of you guys - there's a whole other show going on and a whole other community of actors.vWhat was your reaction to finding out that you were going to do the show and how did you feel?

Sydney

I remember going into the final audition with Olivia and I didn't know that we had already gotten the jobs. So we went in there as if it were an audition. And then Jennifer [Kawajawas, the producer] and Euros [Lyn, the director] were really talking as if we had already got it. “We'll work it out in the rehearsal.”

No one ever said explicitly - congratulations, you guys got the job. So we walked out of there like – did we get the job? I just remember sitting in the Uber and he didn't speak English and there was no music. And I just felt really uncomfortable to call my agent and say I don't know what happened. So I just sat there in the backseat.

Mae

Was there ever a moment where someone said: By the way, you got this job?

Syndey

No! No, till the very end. I think they signed the contract, but I don't know? I was just like: I guess I'll start preparing.

Mae

Would you and Aly [Alyn Lind] rehearse in the makeup trailer?

Sydney

I don't think we ever read lines or did anything about the scene.

Mae

Really?

Sydney

No.

Mae

That's so impressive.

Sydney

I remember being like, should we be rehearsing? But then, we just kind of did it.

Mae

That's crazy! You have these long dialog heavy scenes. You guys were really carrying the emotional weight of the series. Where you nervous to work with Toni [Colette]?

Sydney

Well, I only have that one scene. We never really interact with each other.

Mae

Yeah. That's true. She kind of ignores you.

Sydney

It wasn't until the day where I was working with Toni, but by that point we’d already danced in her kitchen so I wasn't really intimidated. But definitely, for sure, at the beginning. When we had that scene, we shot it with two cameras at the same time. So, we had Brad and Jeremy in between us, so I didn't have to be that close to her. I still haven’t seen the show. I know I should, but I can’t.

Mae

You’ve got to watch the show and just fast forward your bits. You hate watching yourself, right?

Sydney

I can't watch myself. Oh my gosh - last night Michael [Cannon], who was in your side of the show – he did a tarot reading.

Mae

What was your tarot reading saying?

Sydney

I asked about career, and it was literally: calm down, chill out, let it happen. Stop trying. That makes sense. Do you do Tarot?

Mae

Of course. Frequently, if in fact, I'll pull a card right now. I'm just going to pull an animal card. Actually, I lost some. I'll pull a regular card. Okay, I'm going to pull the card. And it's about what energy do I need to embody today? I have a show tonight. Whoa! Sacred boundaries. Oh. I gotta have boundaries. That's not my best. I don’t find that easy.

Sydney

That's so funny.

Mae

I want to know if there were any stories that happened on set that I am not aware of.

Sydney

No. Because we were professionals… I mean when John and I recreated Die Hard - that was a day when Elizabeth was having her overdose. Everyone was like: where are John and Sydney. We were recreating Die Hard.

Mae

They were doing this super dramatic scene and then you guys are in the corner like crawling.

Sydney

Yeah, it was so funny.

Mae

You got so close with the crew. It was so inspiring to see. You were never on your phone, you were always talking to people, you were doing all the different jobs - you were focused pulling at one point! Do you want to direct and stuff?

Sydney

I don't know, it seems like a lot. It seems hard. You also knew everyone and were just chill and fun.

Mae

But my fun is like, oversharing and you're like playing games

Sydney

I just feel like we're supposed to have fun because it's a fun job. I hate when people just go back to the trailer to eat by themselves. I don't know how people do that and just sit on their phones. I don't know what it was like on your side of the shooting, but we were really close. So when it was the kids, there was a lot of energy for the crew. They would just be like: Oh, Sydney’s in today.

Mae

Thank you for being the emotional heart of the show. You made the experience. You really set a tone of having fun and collaborating. I miss it very much. What are you doing for the rest of the week?

Sydney

I'm trying to get into this whittling club. There's this intense whittling club in High Park because that I'm really trying to get into but it's very exclusive. And then I'm flying out to Vancouver on Saturday to start shooting.

Mae

What are you shooting?

Sydney

A feature film

Mae

Whoa. I feel really competitive. I’ll kill them.

Sydney Topliffe takes us behind the scenes of Wayward – in conversation with Mae Martin

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