New Episode of #1 Canadian Drama TRANSPLANT Sheds Light on Complex Character Mags, Played by Laurence Leboeuf

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Dr. Magalie “Mags” Leblanc had a very succinct way of summing up her personal life in last week’s episode of TRANSPLANT. “I’ve had to accept the fact that the hospital is my current boyfriend,” said Mags, who is played by Laurence Leboeuf. The line was delivered in a largely lighthearted way. But in this week’s new episode of TRANSPLANT, airing Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on CTV, viewers will get a much clearer window into the more serious reasons why Mags is the way she is. TRANSPLANT, which is continuing its impressive run as a Top 20 program in Canada with an average audience of 1.2 million viewers, stars Hamza Haq as Dr. Bashir “Bash” Hamed, a Syrian doctor with battle-tested skills in emergency medicine who is making a new life for himself in Canada. Mags is an Emergency Medicine resident at a top Toronto hospital, where she works alongside Bash, as well as characters played by John Hannah, Jim Watson, Ayisha Issa, Torri Higginson, Linda Smith, Sugith Varughese, and Grace Lynn Kung, among others. Leboeuf, a Quebec actress with a lengthy resume of successful TV shows and movies, in both English and French, answered with a simple “yes” when asked if Mags is lonely. But did the job make Mags that way, or was she like that anyway? “It’s a little bit of both, at least, that’s my view of it,” Leboeuf said. “She was a bit of a lonely child, and I think that got her more into her own space. And then when she started to become a doctor, studying all the time, you have to be in your own bubble for that kind of stuff. She struggles to even go for drinks, or to have any kind of life outside the hospital. So I do think one thing led to another, and then all of a sudden you realize, ‘I’m alone all the time.’ ” While the medical profession and the acting profession obviously are very different, Leboeuf recognizes at least one similarity. The solitary hours required to perfect the craft – not to mention the odd schedules that automatically come along with working in those fields – can throw a wrench into the everyday friendships and relationships that many people take for granted. “With acting, you’re often trying to find the right way to say things when you’re working on your scripts, there’s a lot of reading, watching stuff, doing research, and much of it comes from you being alone, living through that emotion, finding that universe inside of you,” Leboeuf said. “I’m a bit of a lone wolf anyway. So I do get that. And our schedule is crazy, where sometimes you don’t work for a month, and then you work two months of nights, and then you’re working Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and your weekend is on a Monday. It’s hard for friendships to follow. But when they do, you know that they’re real.” So Leboeuf definitely understands Mags, and her compulsion to prioritize work. But interestingly, one of the things Leboeuf appreciates most about playing Mags is that the character’s personality leads to some amusingly awkward moments. “I’m happy that there’s a little bit of comedy with her!” Leboeuf said enthusiastically. “I was really happy to play with that. I’ve almost always done serious drama all the time. So whenever I’ve had a chance to kind of dabble in that, I’ve taken it. With this character, I’m able to play emotional clumsiness, given her inability in knowing how to react to other people sometimes. There’s a bit of humour in it. I’ve done some comedic things that were really out there, but with this, even though it’s obviously a drama, there’s some comedy mixed into it in a natural way – and I really like it.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv