INTRO BY KAT VISTI
INTERVIEW BY CAMI LIBERTY
PHOTOGRAPHER: KATIE LEVINE
MAKEUP: COURTNEY HART
HAIR: CAITLIN KRENZ
STYLIST: FAIRFAX COPENHAGEN
Catherine Lidstone is a triple threat. She’s a singer, actress, and songwriter. She stars on the FOX legal drama series Proven Innocent as Isabel Sanchez, a law school graduate, who is hoping to make a career for herself in criminal law. Catherine stars alongside Kelsey Grammar, Rachelle Lefevre, Laurie Holden, and Elaine Hendrix. Her other new projects include starring in the new media series @AliceInPhotoLand, a fantasy adventure series entitled Dwight in Shining Armor, and a musical comedy series on YouTube called Super Single. In an interview with Unclear Mag, we got to know more about Catherine’s TV roles as well as her music!
When was the moment that you realized you wanted to be an actress?
CATHERINE: “According to my mom, I was three years old and a scene came on TV where several lawyers were conferencing in a boardroom, and I pointed at the television determinedly and told her, I’’m gonna be in there one day.’ In my own memory (since, God love me, I can't remember that far into my history) as a kid growing up in New England, I remember the alluring sound of such a thing as community theater. I auditioned for my first production of The Wizard of Oz singing Julie Andrews' The Sound of Music and found my passion. Coming from an academic family, acting and the arts were viewed more as hobbies than as a career path, so I focused on mathematics and sciences until I realized in my later college years just how much I enjoyed performing.”
You currently star as Isabel Sanchez in FOX’s Proven Innocent. Can you tell us a little about the show and your character?
CATHERINE: “Proven Innocent is a legal drama set in the world of wrongful convictions. My character Isabel Sanchez comes on as a new hire at the State's Attorney's office of Illinois, working for Gore Bellows (played by Kelsey Grammer) who is determined to get to the bottom of our lead Madeleine Scott's (played by Rachelle Lefevre) involvement in a cold murder case. Isabel is a fresh-faced, driven, smart Northwestern Law graduate who is about to enter into a world of politics and intrigue.”
Do you feel that you relate to Isabel in any way?
CATHERINE: “I certainly relate to Isabel's drive and passion. In her world, she learns quickly that everyone around her is expendable to a certain degree, and she uses the faculty of her mind to orchestrate herself into a more powerful position in the office. I courted the idea of pursuing law while in high school and in college, and Shawshank Redemption will always be one of my favorite films, so having the opportunity to play a young attorney fully immersed in the litigation involved in exonerating the wrongfully convicted is inspiring.”
What’s your favorite memory from working on the set?
CATHERINE: “I think I'll always remember the first scene I ever shot for Proven Innocent. I walked into a gorgeously designed office one-on-one with Kelsey Grammer and had to deliver. As a freshman actor sitting across from a legend of sorts, I was rather nerve-wracked. Fortunately he was one of the most humble, welcoming, warm and funny actors I've had the privilege of working with, not to mention incredibly talented, so he made the whole experience effortless. At the end of the scene, our seasoned director Howie Deutch came up into a group hug and said, ‘Well Catherine, first scene shot with Kelsey Grammer! How do you feel?’ and I just remember thinking, thank God the hardest part is over!”
We can also soon see you in @AliceInPhotoLand. What can we expect from this project?
CATHERINE: “@AliceInPhotoLand is a comedy lifting the veil off of social media stars and revealing the truth behind their wildly successful accounts. The audience watches Alice's journey from failed broke millennial to in-demand photographer for some of the most successful social media legends of the day. Ending up a little too far into their inner psyche's circles, my character Alice becomes privy to their egos, bravado, insecurities and business savvy tactics in a hilarious sequence of emotional highs and lows as she moves from amateur to professional.”
Of the roles you have done, which would you say has been your favorite and why?
CATHERINE: “The experience of playing an intellectual young professional like Isabel and witnessing the growth of her character and the show itself over the course of a full season is one of my favorite adventures. I also had a blast guest starring as a mythical creature in the new modern-meets-medieval fantasy series Dwight in Shining Armor by BYUtv which airs on Mondays at 7:30 PM. I got to invent my own language called Wyvernese!”
Is there a type of role you haven’t gotten to play yet that you would love to in the future?
CATHERINE: “I would love to play the role of any powerful figure of history or legend. Indira Gandhi, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Queen Medb, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Empress Zoë of Byzantium. I also hope to follow in the footsteps of someone like Sandra Bullock, who has taken roles written expressly for men and adapted them compellingly. It's exhilarating to write, produce and direct your own work, and that is something I intend to continue as I grow in my career.”
PHOTOGRAPHER: KATIE LEVINE
MAKEUP: COURTNEY HART
HAIR: CAITLIN KRENZ
STYLIST: FAIRFAX COPENHAGEN
Can you tell us about your new music video "Benefactor"? Can we expect new music from you soon?
CATHERINE: "‘Benefactor’ was the first project I put together myself from concept creation to the final product. It was my breakout music video and I got to work with some extremely talented players, namely my powerhouse DP Thanasis Petrakis of Fresh Focus and my creative stylist Asia Lee. When I wrote ‘Benefactor’, I was feeling aimless and unfulfilled as an artist and a human. My life was complex, tumultuous and had brought me to a long lonely period of struggle and waiting, and it came out as a spiritual letter seeking a deus ex machina to pull me out of my doldrums. When we began filming, I had recently lost a dear friend from college, and I wanted to portray the yearning many of us have for divine explanation of tragedies in our lives. I ended up with an army of friends who came and supported my vision and made it tangible. The car featured in the video is a '64 Ford Galaxie Country Wagon lent to me by a friend whose grandfather purchased it new 55 years ago. Little did I know it was a stick shift until we were already on location, so I had about 5 minutes in a DTLA parking lot to learn how to drive it!”
Are there any other projects we can expect from you soon?
CATHERINE: “I'm currently in studio recording two more singles for release this spring. Very excited to share those with the world, along with the accompanying music videos. And tune in for my appearance as ‘Winnie the Wyvern’ on BYUtv's 7th episode of Dwight in Shining Armor!”