Jennifer Spence Knows How to Cringe When She Feels Like Laughing on THE TRADES

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Jennifer Spence never thought that her ability to recoil would be such a valuable acting skill. Spence plays Chelsea in the blue-collar comedy THE TRADES, which returns for its second season Friday, March 14, only on Crave (photos from the new season are available on The Lede). As the usually responsible site manager at a large refinery filled with idiosyncratic employees, Chelsea often sees and hears things that she would rather not see or hear. Cue the recoiling, which Spence performs with humorous conviction. “I appreciate your feedback, because I didn’t realize that my recoil was somewhat effective,” Spence said. “But it’s actually a bit of a challenge for me, because with the writing on the show, as well as everyone’s improv, it’s hard to recoil and pretend I’m disgusted, when I actually think it’s hilarious.” Ah, so sometimes when Spence’s face and body are cringing to the maximum, she’s actually trying not to crack up. “Some of the stuff that the actors come up with, well, I guess it starts to become like a muscle in terms of holding in laughter,” Spence said. “The more you’re exposed to it, perhaps the easier it gets, although it can still be really hard. There were many ruined takes, I’m not going to lie.” And Spence also has to watch herself in terms of contributing to the improv atmosphere, when it wouldn’t necessarily be consistent with the Chelsea character. “I think Chelsea is more of the ‘straight man,’ which you need to have, for things to land in a more grounded way,” Spence said. “But again, it presents its own challenge with improv and all that, because sometimes Jen – my own Jen self – wants to, you know, say something dirty, because that’s my sense of humour. But I know that’s not really Chelsea, so it can be a bit of a filtering process with what I can, and can’t, say.” In an overall sense, the filtering process in the world of THE TRADES is, well, very limited. The story revolves around ambitious but frustrated pipefitter Todd, played by writer and producer Robb Wells (TRAILER PARK BOYS), his sister Audrey, played Anastasia Phillips, and a vast array of colourful misfits played by the likes of Jennifer Irwin, Patrick Roach, Dave Lawrence, Tom Green, Daniel Petronijevic, Enrico Colantoni, Jesse Camacho, Tara Spencer-Nairn, and many more. Spence’s Chelsea was the classic “outsider” in Season 1 (available on Crave), but Season 2 finds her in cahoots with the workers at the refinery more often, as everyone deals with an unsettling change at the ownership level of Conch Industries. “Absolutely, in the first season she was somewhat a fish out of water, even though this is her wheelhouse of turning around plants, and making them better,” Spence said. “But she hasn’t met this specific group of people before, who are very unique, quote, unquote, right? But in the second season, she is a lot more settled and accepted, I think, or I would like to think.” As the responsible one, though, it always makes it even funnier when Chelsea gets lured into the selfish scheming and daily debauchery of the other characters in THE TRADES. So in real life, is Spence the responsible one, or is she the one who needs to be reined in? “Yeah, I think I’m the responsible one,” said Spence, with exaggerated sadness for comedic effect. “It’s so much more fun to be the one that has to be reined in, though, isn’t it? But I’m pretty responsible. I think I’ve always been a bit of a nerd, and a bit of a ‘goody two shoes.’ So maybe there’s a bit of type-casting there.” Be that as it may, Spence has many different genres on her vast acting resume, from comedy, to drama, to sci-fi, and most things in between. Are there any stylistic boxes she still wants to check? “There are actually a couple of things – greedy, greedy!’ ” Spence said with a laugh. “I would love to do a multi-cam sitcom. And I would also love to do a medical show.” Hey, the possibility of a bizarre workplace accident at the refinery is always high on THE TRADES, so maybe Spence will get a jump on the medical stuff sooner rather than later. “Yeah, maybe Chelsea has a big background in First Aid,” Spence said. “Her specialty is remaining calm in a crisis.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv