One-On-Two With Cindy Sampson and Jason Priestley, The Stars Of the Hit Series Private Eyes
Originally Published in the Aug. 15 Edition of The Newfoundland Herald
Cindy Sampson had reason to be excited the day this interview took place. She was planning to drive from Toronto through New Brunswick to her home in Nova Scotia, which she hadn’t been to in a year and a half because of COVID-19. “I’m going to visit my cousins, and I’m so excited,” she said.
At this point Jason Priestley, from his home in Nashville, asks both of us via Zoom if the maritime bubble is still going on to which Sampson, his good friend and co-star answers It just opened on June 30th, the day of our interview. Seven days later would see the season premiere of their hit detective series Private Eyes.
Observing the banter between Cindy Sampson and Jason Priestley is every bit as entertaining as watching their on-screen characters, Angie Everett and Matt Shade, trade barbs on the Toronto-based detective series. When Sampson apologizes for taking up my interview time, I assure them it’s no bother at all, and I could watch the two interact with each other all day. Something many a fan of Private Eyes has without a doubt done at some point.
‘SIGN ME UP’
Priestley developed Private Eyes, along with series creators Tim Kilby and Shelley Eriksen, from the Brad Shade thrillers, a series of books written by C.B. Joyce. “What I enjoyed about this character is that he struggles,” Priestley says. “He struggled early in his life to get to where he got, and when that part of his life is over, he becomes a guy struggling to find a second act in his life.” For the series, the character’s name was changed to Matt, an ex-pro hockey player who, in a nod to the classic detective series Moonlighting, finds himself charmed by a feisty private investigator named Angie Everett (Sampson).
Priestley knew right away he would require a partner for the series. “In books, it’s easy for a character to be on his own because an author can write what he’s thinking. In television, It’s more difficult to do that, so we created the character of Angie for Shade to bounce off of.” With the character established, the creators needed to find the right actress to bring the character alive. Priestley says it was an exhaustive search as they looked at actresses not only in Canada but also in America and England. That search ended the minute they met Sampson. “Luckily, we found an actress who could encapsulate all the qualities we envisioned Angie to be.” When asked about her primary reason for wanting to be a part of the show, Sampson doesn’t even have to think about the answer: “What drew me to the show was the fact that Jason Priestley was starring in it and I went ‘SIGN ME UP! Like everyone else I grew up watching 90210 so bridging the gap of being comfortable to work with him was terrifying, but he made it the easiest transition. He’s become one of my very close friends.”
Angie Everett is a role tailor-made for Sampson, who admits that at a young age, she envisioned herself becoming a detective. “I thought I was going to be an investigator of some sort. I don’t know why. I love mystery novels. I used to live in my head a lot. My mom works for CSU’s, which is interesting, but now I just play one on TV because it’s safer.” At this point, she plays the role of interviewer and asks Priestley what he wanted to be when he grew up. “I’m a good Canadian boy, so I grew up with dreams in my head of becoming an NHL hockey player. Now I just play a retired hockey player on television because it’s safer.”
If anybody behind the show was worried whether audiences would accept Priestley, the former heartthrob of sunny Beverly Hills 90210 as a low-key, single dad and former hockey player turned a private eye in gray Toronto, those worries were to be short-lived. An initial ten episode seasons of Private Eyes debuted in May 2016 and became an immediate hit. Today it is watched in 186 countries around the world.
With 54 episodes of Private Eyes now filmed, we asked both performers if the overlap between actor and character has grown in them over the past seasons. Sampson: “I feel Angie is pretty close to who I am. Playing her wasn’t a real stretch for me, but I find as the seasons have gone on I have settled into her. On Private Eyes, Jason and I will rattle off pages of dialogue, but then I’ll go work on something else, and I won’t even remember two lines. It is like embodying a character after so long. It’s comforting to live with a character for so many years.” And the connection between Priestley and his character? “There is a comfort to it, yet I feel there’s enough distance between Matt and myself,’ he says. “There are certain similarities but playing characters for as long as we have there’s a certain ease in bouncing in and out of the characters,“ To this, Sampson adds that both Jason and Matt own a lot of nice cars and love to drive very fast. “Okay, I guess Matt and I are the same person,” he resigns with a laugh.
‘The Best Co-Star I Ever Had’
With production on Private Eyes now wrapped for good, Priestley offers no hesitation in answering what the one thing is he’ll miss the most about his five years with the show: his co-star. “We hit the jackpot with Cindy. She’s been an unbelievable co-star for me for the last five years. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. She has been the best co-star I’ve ever had, and I’m going to miss working with her every day.”
Upon hearing her friend and co-star’s words: “This is the worst,” Sampson says. “I just want to cry myself to sleep right now.” While either star didn’t know this would be the last season as they were filming it (they found out after production had ended) Sampson assures fans they will not feel slighted by the sudden ending. “What we did in the last episode, which you will see when it airs, we all felt was a perfect ending. So it just made the most sense to go out on a high note. We haven’t commented on it at all because we’re still also processing it. I don’t want it to be true. Aside from the wonderful gift that has been working with Jay every day, it was always fun and exciting every step of the way.”
For Priestley, It’s also emotional to see Private Eyes end, yet his final words are not ones of sadness but of gratitude to the viewers who have tuned in and also took the ride. “Whether they were there from day one or whether they came to the show in the last year, we thank all of those fans from the bottom of our heart. Without them the show wouldn’t be what it has been, We hope they will tune in for these last eight episodes and celebrate it along with us.”
