Canadian TV is on a roll: lest you feared Heated Rivalry was a one-hit wonder, there’s a new queer sports show in town, and it’s hilarious, irreverent and deliberately “failing” at being sexy (no shower sex scenes here, though there is an awkward game of Spin the Bottle). Hotly-anticipated lesbian softball Crave comedy Slo Pitch has got Elliot Page’s company Pageboy Productions behind it and a star-studded cast that includes the likes of Schitt’s Creek‘s (and new Heated Rivalry star) Emily Hampshire and Frasier‘s Jess Salgueiro.
Slo Pitch follows a bumbling queer sports team in a recreational slo-pitch league in Mississauga. Based on a web series by J Stevens, Karen Knox, and Gwenlyn Cumyn, the show sees Coach Joanne Pico (Salgueiro) attempt to lead her team to victory after breaking up with her girlfriend and now-rival Leanne (Hampshire). Shenanigans, hijinks and off-base seduction attempts ensue.
We caught up with Salgueiro and Hampshire ahead of the show’s streaming premiere to talk about what they love about the cast, conveying chemistry on screen and how (despite all the good-natured comparisons), they were never trying to be the “next Heated Rivalry.”
What led each of you to your roles in Slo Pitch?
Emily: I was actually working on something else with Pageboy, which is Elliot Page’s company, and they told me they were doing this show and asked if I’d do a part in it. At the time, I was really busy working on that show, and I was like, I don’t think I have time, but I’ll read it. And I read it, and the character of Leanne — I wrote them back being like, “How do they know that I’m obsessed with musicals in the most annoying way?” Because that’s something that I don’t think people, other than the people who are close to me and annoyed by it, know about. So I was like, I have to play Leanne. I thought it was the funniest part I’ve ever read.
I remember one of the first descriptions for Leanne was “charming narcissist.” Like, she bulldozes over everyone, and it said something about her being a “sparkly vampire.” I saved that somewhere because it was the best character description I’ve ever read. It just tells you exactly who this person is.
Jess: I was asked to read for it, and I went so ham. I remember I went to a park and filmed myself pitching badly, and cut it into my audition. Luckily, my buddy, who I was filming it with, was like, “It’s mockumentary; I’m gonna zoom in and out and like an actual mockumentary.”
Emily: Oh my god, I need to see this audition.
What was that mockumentary style like as actors?
Emily: I loved it. I’d never done mockumentary-style before, and it feels like the camera is like another character in the room that you can play off of.
Jess: I loved it so much too. The camera is sort of like your confidant, and you can convey so much in one look to the camera. It’s unreal; you could literally cut half of a scene with just one look. It also lets you play it a little bit grounded just because of the mockumentary of it all.
This cast is a bit of a queer Canadian “Avengers” moment; what was it like for you all to come together and be a part of this production?
Emily: I’m going to steal that! I feel like this cast is just so brilliantly cast. We’re all different but so complementary to each other. I was very proud to be part of it, even though Leanne’s kind of a bit of an outsider.
Jess: Yeah, this team is incredible. It was such a pleasure to go to work. Everyone’s so funny and everyone’s so different and it just clicked.
Speaking of clicking, chemistry is a big part of this show — there are plenty of fun romantic pairings, but also that team chemistry. What’s the secret?
Jess: In my experience, all of the actors on The Brovaries except for me had done the web series before, so I honestly was quite nervous to start because I’m the coach, but really I’m the the new person on the team, right? And luckily they were so welcoming and just embraced me, but I was scared. What if they don’t accept me? That’s just a testament to them and what they had built over two seasons of the web series, and also a lot of them being good friends now.
Emily: It does come from the top;Knox and Gwenlyn [Cumyn] and J Stevens, their kind of showrunner-manship of this show really made everybody feel like a collaborator. Everybody was just an equal and there was no hierarchy stuff going on.
I love that the idea of this show is based on a queer sports team and the idea of rec leagues in general. Did either of you have experience on your own rec teams before coming into this show?
Emily: I had no experience with it, except when somebody first was describing the show to me and said it’s lesbian softball, I said, that’s redundant. Right?
Jess: I played on a rec team very briefly in Toronto. It was a bunch of comedians actually. A softball came straight at my kneecap, and I passed out! So that was the last time I played. Everybody laughed because they were laughing at first, and then everyone’s like, “Oh shit, she’s down.” You know that part in your knee that’s like a funny bone?
Queer sports shows seem to be having a bit of a moment; what do you think it is about shows like yours that are appealing to people?
Emily: Well, I feel like the moment was Heated Rivalry. It’s funny; when one thing is a hit, people usually want to try to recreate them. But this show was actually filmed before Heated Rivalry, which is why I actually think it’s great, because it wasn’t trying to be that. If we were trying to be sexy, then boy did we ever fail!
Jess: That would be so funny, if suddenly we added in all these sex scenes.
Emily: I do think Heated Rivalry opened the doors for more queer anything, because before that, it was on a very fast goodbye road. I think it resurrected it in a way that nobody ever would have expected, especially at that exact time when just being queer at all was not OK anymore.
That’s a great point; it’ll be interesting to see what kinds of shows get the green light going forward.
Emily: I do feel like when I was going out and pitching my own show, everybody at the time was wanting the next Schitt’s Creek, and I was reminding people that when Schitt’s Creek went out and pitched, nobody wanted it. They did it in Canada because everyone in America passed on it. And thank God they did it in Canada because they were allowed to do the show they wanted to do, which would not have been allowed in America. And that’s the same thing with Heated Rivalry; Jacob [Tierney] got to put his vision out there without being questioned So if there is any key to what is going to be a hit, I really believe it’s letting the creator who has the vision for the show execute their own vision. Then it’s not going to be a copycat of what came before it.
It’s so true, and thinking about Schitt’s Creek and Heated Rivalry and now Slo Pitch, each of these shows being specifically Canadian is what worked for them.
Emily: Yes, their identity is authentic to it; even Letterkenny is like that. These are shows where they’re not Toronto pretending to be New York.
Jess: They’re specific. And it’s funny that like a lot of times the more specific you are, the more universal you become because people can actually feel the authenticity in it. That’s what people are connecting to, rather than some strange, broad, could be Anywhere, USA. Whereas our show is, you know, the Mississauga slo-pitch league.
Did you feel like this show had a specifically Canadian identity?
Emily: Not Canadian, but it did feel like it had its own identity. You want to hang out with these people, and there really hasn’t been like a hangout show in a while. I used to watch those growing up all the time. You just want to there, and those are the shows that are evergreen; you can watch them again and again.
OK, The Brovaries is obviously an iconic team name. If you had to name your own queer sports team, what would you call it?
Jess: I didn’t come up with this, but I’ve heard it before: The U-Hauls.
Emily: There’s like, The Blue Gays; I think that’s in the original web series. What about just, The Lesbian Slo-Pitch Team?
Jess: The Bi Baddies!
Jess, you’re from Toronto, and I know Slo Pitch filmed a lot of the show here. Where are your go-to spots?
Emily: I actually lived in Toronto for 10 years, and I used to love going to Fran’s Diner on College. If you keep ordering, they let you stay — except not for me.
Jess: I love Bernhardt’s; if someone’s in town, I take them there. And I love a little martini hour at Milou. There are a lot of other places, but I don’t want to blow up their spot!