Rising Star Cassidy Barry On the Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry

An Interview With Jason Sheppard

Take time for yourself and your family. It is so easy in this industry, and I’m guilty of this myself, to book yourself for everything. Overbooking yourself to where you don’t have free time. You’ve got to remember to take a day even if it’s once every two weeks or once a month, take a singular day at minimum to spend time with your family, the people that you care about and love and take some time for yourself.

As a part of our interview series with the rising stars in pop culture, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Cassidy Barry.

Cassidy Barry is a rising actress who can be seen in no less than four TV projects such as the popular CityTV series Hudson & Rex, CBC’s Son of a Critch, SYFY’S Astrid and Lilly Save the World, and the Global series Departure. As a model, she is sought out by several of Atlantic Canada’s premier photographers. She works in the hair & make-up department of Rex, is a successful entrepreneur who, as a Swarovski Certified Nail Artist, owns and operates her own business, LUXE Nail Spa. She spends many hours volunteering with numerous charities in her community, including Wheels for Wishes, The Rebel Dolls, Habitat for Humanity, and Ronald McDonald House. In 2020, she represented her home province and country as a Miss Universe Canada finalist and, on top of all those accomplishments; she is enrolled in university studying to become a board-certified trauma surgeon. In between all these activities, Barry found time to sit with me to talk about her goals & aspirations and her surprising, busy, yet rewarding life and career.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Could tell us the story of how you grew up?

I grew up in a small town in Newfoundland and Labrador called Placentia, and grew up with a fisherman for a father and hairstylist for a mom, so we weren’t rich by any measure, but we had a good upbringing, they were always wonderful to my brother and I. I started acting as a kindergartner in school plays and I discovered right then that I enjoyed it. I took a break around grade ten, and then I stopped. I was heavily bullied my whole life to the point I didn’t want anybody to look at me or talk to me, so I just hid away, right until grade 12. I’ve always been somebody who wanted to dip her hands in every single field, and I’m still like that as an adult. I was the little kid you would see in the pink flowery dress, dipping her hands in the mud. I was very different because most kids were either very girly or not girly, and then I just kind of sat somewhere in the middle. So I never fit in when I was growing up. But I think that it benefited me greatly as an adult.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

I had begun modeling shortly after I had moved to St. John’s for university. A former friend had convinced me to try a photo shoot, and after that I began getting asked to work with other photographers. I continued that for a year and a half, and one day I noticed a casting call for a show called Hudson & Rex — they were looking for background people to play inpatients at a rehab facility. I went there and fell in love with the job. I forgot how much I loved acting until that moment. I fell in love and never looked back. I applied for every casting notice I came upon that I could, and now I’m almost a full union member with a bunch of work under my belt. I’ve been working so much, it’s great and super fulfilling.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

There’s so many. Oh, my gosh, I can’t even pick one. My most interesting would be learning how they do all the dog scenes on Rex. When you watch the show, you don’t realize that there’s people hidden in funny places calling out to the dog to get them to do their runs, jumps, and tricks. It’s also an entire canine team involved in the scenes, which included multiple dogs and not just one. It’s always fascinating watching Sherri Davis and her team work on set with the dogs because they are all so talented.

What was the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Probably the day I nearly walked into the wrong trailer on set. I thought I was going to hair and make-up, and I was about to walk into a cast member’s trailer instead. I went to knock on the door and I took a quick look right before I went to knock, and I realized there was somebody watching me, and I was like, ‘wait, this isn’t my trailer’ and walked away as fast as I could. That was one of my funniest mistakes. Gosh, I hope they weren’t changing at the time and thought I was being creepy.

What are some of the more interesting projects you are working on?

I’m going to start with the Hudson & Rex episodes we completed, because they are cool episodes I think everybody’s going to enjoy. I think fans are going to be shocked by one episode. They’re going to have mixed emotions. It’s going to be one of the most memorable episodes, for sure. I’m super glad that I was part of that one. It was so intense and chaotic.

Astrid and Lilly Save the World is another one I’ve been working on a lot. So That’s where I have my first role with lines. I’m assuming it’s going to be rated about 14-A. It’s a super-funny young adult show. The characters mess up the world, and they’ve got to save it. There are monsters and everything. The two key cast members, Jana Morrison and Samantha Aucoin are the sweetest people I’ve ever met. They don’t have that stereotypical actor “thing” about them, so they are always chatting with everyone in the room. They’re extremely nice people.

Son of a Critch starring Mark Critch and Malcolm McDowell. I was lucky to be there one day where Jay Baruchel was the director and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life. I left with absolute stitches in my sides. Mark is hilarious and when you put him in a room with Jay, it is amazing. I can’t wait to watch it.

And Departure. I think that’s going to be interesting. I didn’t know it existed until I started working in the third season. It’s about transportation disasters so I got to play a Coast Guard member. I’m excited about that one.

We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

It’s super important. I’ve noticed a huge jump in diversity, especially on our shows. It’s essential because it’s representative of the actual population around us. I mean, not everybody is a white person or a straight person, they are lots more people. It’s essential to represent what the population looks like, as opposed to just representing a small, teeny smidgen of it.

It’s also critical to show people they can do these jobs when we’re hiring diverse actors. We hire people in wheelchairs to play people in wheelchairs. We don’t think there’s a limitation, just because you have a disability, or you have something that the job’s not convenient, or actor-like. That’s why I think diversity is so important. It’s showing people, ‘hey I’m in a wheelchair, I can do that.’ We’ve had so many people in the last few weeks playing diverse roles on there, it’s been amazing.

And third, I think it’s important because it gives little kids the opportunity to realize that these people exist. It’s not just one type of person. I guess it all once again comes back to represent the actual population. Because it’s so critical to see what’s out there. We’ve been doing a lot on Astrid and Lilly, we’ve been featuring a lot of LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, we’ve got people on the spectrum. It’s been amazing. And it makes a TV show function in a whole new way because everybody has their own little smorgasbord of ideas they get to contribute.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. Oh my gosh, I wish someone had told me about the hours. I don’t hate my hours by any measure, but I wish I had known I would sometimes be working 20 hours straight. That would have been a nice help.
2. I would have liked to know how the union structure worked. Nobody explained to me really anything. I was kind of baptized by fire. So when I started, I was lost. I wish somebody had actually sat down and explained everything to me. I didn’t even understand how my pay worked for the first six months.
3. The third would be on-set etiquette. I wish people had taught me and I didn’t have to learn everything the hard way. I wish it was more ‘hey, this is what you do. This is how everything works. Go work.’ It’s more like, ‘Hi, where are you supposed to be? And why aren’t you there?’ So I wish there was more education before I started work.
4. I wish they warned me about food and to pack more snacks. They write in emails if you have dietary restrictions to come prepared. They don’t warn you that even if you don’t, you’re still going to want snacks.
5. I wish somebody had taught me how to do auditions correctly. I did a lot of bad auditions before I learned how to do this because when COVID-19 hit, self audition tapes became the thing. Everything I knew went out the window. I had to re·learn how to audition again. So I wish somebody had made or created a way for us to learn how to do that efficiently. Most of us don’t have great conditions for filming. So when you send a self tape, it’s not always greatly lit, or it’s not always ideal. I have a dog, so sometimes she comes walking through my audition [laughs]. I did a pageant interview the other night, and I was in my nail room moving my lights around that I used for nails to light the room well enough, so they could see me on the screen. It was so much more difficult than just walking into an interview and sitting down.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Take time for yourself and your family. It is so easy in this industry, and I’ve been guilty of this myself, to book yourself for everything. Overbooking yourself to where you don’t have free time. You’ve got to remember to take a day even if it’s once every two weeks or once a month, take a singular day at minimum to spend time with your family, the people that you care about and love and take some time for yourself, even if it just means getting a hot bath and sitting there for two hours. I think it’s the most important part of how I avoid getting burned out is making sure I always put a little of time for myself to do something that makes me feel like me.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would love to see a change in our provincial healthcare system. That would be my biggest thing. I have been suffering with health problems for the last four years while being ignored by the province. I have watched so many people I love and care for suffer the exact same issues, and even people I don’t know. Every single day you see it pop up in news articles, you see it pop up on Facebook. It’s everywhere that you know someone was sick and was left unnoticed, or was left not cared for because they couldn’t find a specialist. That’s my case. My jaw doesn’t work. I don’t have a specialist on the island, so I have to pay out of pocket to fly away and get it treated. My biggest thing would be that I would love to see some reform in our health care system. I’ve been personally pushing for this for the last four years. It’s fallen on deaf ears unfortunately, to the point that my calls get blocked by some officials, but it would definitely be a breath of fresh air to have a good, accommodating healthcare system that actually helps everybody and doesn’t let people fall through the cracks constantly. I would also like to see teeth cared about because teeth are part of your health. I would just really like to see a whole healthcare reform. It really needs to be done. Our citizens are suffering.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I have to say my boyfriend, Patrick. My whole family has been supportive during this entire career and without them, I would have gone insane by now. My best friend Sarah Gerbig, she’s a make-up artist that works with me, and she has been so helpful. She understands the same industry I’m in, so there are days I need to vent, and I need somebody to make me feel sane I go to her. Sarah’s has been the reason I ended up in the make-up trailer, so I am very thankful for her. She has helped me get further in my industry and is always encouraging me. She’s helped introduce me to more of the industry people and overall has been super helpful.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I’m going to go with the one I have tattooed on me, which is “even the worst storms have to end.” That’s one I stuck with for years and years and years, I even have a little tiny storm cloud on my ankle to represent it. Anytime I’ve had a difficult situation, which, as I mentioned, I was bullied heavily, I had a lot of mental health issues when I first started university. There’s been lots of little things, and I’ve always felt that little quote lived with me when I realized everything comes to an end. You’re not stuck in that horrible situation forever. So that has been a quote which I live by anytime I find myself in an unpleasant situation. Anytime I’m in a bad place or bad mood, even if it’s just one bad day, I always have that quote in the back of my head.

Is there is a person in the world whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with? And why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I’d love to sit in a room with some former Miss Universe titleholders and pick their brains for a day. Those women are amazing powerhouses of knowledge and strength, and they all have such different backgrounds. I’d listen to the things that they’ve done and the things that they’ve learned. Some of them have done such incredible things or advocated for so much. They’ve run charities, they won the title of Miss Universe, which is amazing. So if I had to pick one, it would be between Pia Wurtzbach and Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters because they are two of my absolute favorites.

I would like to sit down with Pia because she did so much advocacy about health care, in the Philippines, with HIV awareness. While Demi focuses on self-defence and stopping sex trafficking. I would love to pick their brain to see how they organized all their events because it inspires me all the time and I would love to do something like that on a big scale.

What is the best way people can follow you?

Instagram. I am @cassidybarry. That’s the social media I use the most. I have TikTok and Facebook, but they’re not really used that much. Instagram is where you will find me most often.

Thank you for joining us!

Thank you for the opportunity.