Recently, she played her first lead role in the Hallmark Channel’s western Every Second Counts.
Magda is a busy lady.
Magda Apanowicz: Hi!
Jason Sizemore: Hi, is this Magda?
MA: Yes, it is.
JS: This is Jason Sizemore with Apex Publications.
MA: I’m actually watching Fast Times right now.
JS: Fast Times?
MA: Every Second Counts. Fast Times is what they called it in preproduction.
JS: Oh? How are you enjoying it?
MA: I’m really enjoying it. You know, when you’re making the movie you have no idea how it’s going to look like, and now it’s like “Whoa, it’s kind of cool,” because I put so much of myself into it and I when I finished the movie I was so completely, utterly exhausted and had nothing left inside because I gave everything I had, so it’s nice to actually see what happened with it. I’m really getting into it.
JS: I can call back later so you can finish it, you know, so you can see how it ends.
MA: <laughs> No! I can watch it afterward.
JS: So, how’s it going?
MA: Working a lot. I kind of have a few days and the weather is beautiful right now.
JS: It seems to me you’re in high demand lately.
MA: I guess a tiny bit. It’s nice, it’s nice to work.
JS: Just today a received an exciting press release. Something to do with the new Battlestar Galactica spin off.
MA: Well, we just finished shooting on Thursday night, the two-hour pilot to Caprica, which is the prequel to Battlestar Galactica, set 51 years before the fall of Caprica. If the show is picked up I would be a series regular!
JS: Do you know when/if Caprica would be picked up?
MA: I think it’ll air as a movie around the end of this year. If it is picked up we would start shooting around March/April of next year.
JS: Would Kyle XY fans be losing you from the show?
MA: Yeah. I think I filmed one of my last episodes this season.
JS: Oh? Were you scheduled to leave Kyle XY even before Caprica?
MA: No. I worked Caprica on Thursday, and Kyle Friday and Saturday.
JS: I’ll miss Andy!
MA: Me too. It’s a character that changed my life. I learned a lot from that chick. Know what I mean?
JS: Was it one of your first big roles?
MA: Yes and no. It’s probably when I was first noticed, but I’ve had big roles in the past that challenged me. It’s kind of interesting, for some people, Andy was the first time they noticed my work, but for me I’ve been at this a long time. I think Every Second Counts felt way more massive for me than Kyle ever did because Every Second Counts I was holding it on my shoulders, my first big lead role.
JS: I thought you did you a nice job in Every Second Counts. The role you played was in complete contrast to Andy.
MA: Thank you!
JS: How much of the horse riding did you do in Every Second Counts?
MA: I didn’t know how to ride a horse…well I kind of did. I’d been 10 years since I’d been on a horse. When I was 12 I did a thing called equestrian vaulting where a horse would cantor and I’d jumped on the horse and do gymnastics on and around the horse. But the thing that the Every Second Counts people said is that “you definitely have horse sense” and they trained my butt for three weeks hardcore everyday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. just on five different horses, we trained with cattle, we trained in an arena going fast as could be, and doing turns around obstacles and stuff. <laughs> They worked me hard.
JS: This makes me hope you’re an animal person!
MA: Yeah, I have pet rats.
JS: How big?
MA: They’re pretty big. They’re the size of feet…size ten feet…maybe a bit smaller. They’re pretty substantial. And we used to have mice, but they passed away. We’re slowly upgrading to a dog. We love a relationship you can have with a horse. With a horse you get a whole new level of trust and bonding. It’s a real hard lesson I had to learn with filming. I had to try to hide my fear and earn the trust of the horses I performed with.
JS: I’m scared of horses. A pony bucked me off once when I was 12 and since then I’ve…
MA: Oh no, you poor thing.
JS: Yeah, it scarred me.
MA: If it makes you feel any better, I was bucked off twice during filming of Every Second Counts. One take, we were filming in the competition arena and the horse bucked me off and they used that in the film.
JS: Hey, that scene did freak me out. It looked like you might have been actually hurt.
MA: Nah, just a few bruises.
JS: You’ve worked in westerns, SF, horror; you’re turning into a genre icon! Do you have a genre preference?
MA: I think I enjoy anything that is different. Because it scares the bejeezus out of me. Like with Every Second Counts, I didn’t know I could do it because I’d never done a western before and Kyle XY was something I was never sure I could do, It was the same thing with Caprica. Every time it scares me, but I’m glad I do because I learn something about myself and my characters.
JS: Do you like doing mainstream work?
MA: I don’t like or dislike mainstream work, it’s just that the variety in the roles you play can be restricted. Like in Caprica, there were no rules, you couldn’t do wrong. The more you experiment, the greater it is.
JS: How long have you been working as an actress?
MA: Since about 15-16. It was on Jeremiah, with Luke Perry, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and Jason Priestley. I was in heaven! I was 16 and was in love with these boys. I got to shoot a machine gun. I got to do a crying scene. It was my first part!
JS: Are you a big reader?
MA: I read all the time! One of my favorite books is Veronika Decides to Die. It’s kind of crazy because I always wanted to play Veronica and now they’re making a movie from the book and Sarah Michelle Geller is playing Veronica it breaks my heart. But I’m not quite there in my job-level that I people think of me to play a role like that. Right now I’m reading Wicked. I love the Harry Potter books. I’m a Harry Potter nut.
JS: What about SF?
MA: I love SF! It gives you so many opportunities to explore human pain and drama in different kinds of metaphors.
JS: Have you ever written short fiction?
MA: Yeah, when I was in film school they had us write a short fiction piece to make into a feature. It’s dark and heavy and human sadness…it’s more the beginning of a movie, not meant for a short.
JS: Ah, I can see that happening, since you wrote it in the film mindset. Got any Caprica teasers for our readers?
MA: One of the things I loved about Caprica was that it had this cool virtual reality stuff in it. We shot at the Orphan in Vancouver. The Orphan is like an opera house and in Caprica there’s a virtual reality nightclub and there were 470 extras and they were half-naked and there was strobe lights and some ritual sacrifice shit. There were people gunning down people and sex and drugs, and naked boobs and penises and vaginas. And I was supposed to walk past all these naked people and all I wanted to be like “Hello, how’s it going!” but I kept telling myself to concentrate.
JS: What was your favorite scene to shoot in Caprica?
MA: Wow, there’s so many. I really like a scene where I’m walking the dad through the virtual reality telling him all this sick shit that goes on in this place, the sex and drug dens. There was in a dark VIP room set that had this moat all around it and crew members kept falling in the moat. But I like to take things up a notch. We were getting ready to film this really emotional scene and the AD comes up to me and says “Be careful!” and I just keep talking blahblahblah and then I step into the moat and then fall full on into the water. My iPod fell in, I had a dress on with high heels, it was completely mortifying, but funny.
JS: I’m definitely will be looking for that scene in Caprica!
MA: <laughs> Yeah, exactly!
Be sure to catch Magda in Every Second Counts airing on July 24th, 9:00 pm on the Hallmark Channel.
