Bones actor Tamara Taylor joins Wild Cards Season 3 for a high-stakes family reunion
Tamara Taylor joins Wild Cards cast for Season 3 as Vivienne, Max’s long lost mom
After faking her death 15 years ago, a woman comes back to ask for a favour.
One. More. Heist.
And so Toronto-born-and-raised actor Tamara Taylor arrives on the third season of Wild Cards.
Taylor plays Vivienne, a lifelong grifter trying to reunite with her family — and dragging a murderous revenge plot with her. Vivienne has to win over her onscreen daughter Max, played by Vanessa Morgan, and her former flame George, the iconic Jason Priestley, to pull off the impossible.
Actor Tamara Taylor delights in joining a family of ‘grifters’
Wild Cards, the snappy crime drama fronted by Morgan and Giacomo Gianniotti — as Max and Ellis, a con artist and cop duo — gave Taylor a new turn. She’s had decades of television roles, from Party of Five, Lost, and Law & Order spin-offs, to her career-making run on Bones.
But this character, Vivienne, was fun, flawed and a whole new level of chaos.
“To get to play a con woman was so much fun, because I just love the tone of this show so much,” Taylor said. “It’s a family of grifters, con people. And of course, they devise this huge plan. And it was really wonderful and wild to swan dive into different dialects.”
Taylor impersonated different characters within Vivienne — adopting a British dialect, and later a Midwestern and Southern accent, pretending to be Max’s aunt instead of her actual mother. It was an actor playing an actor, she agreed. “Totally meta.”
“So I really got to stretch in a way that I don’t usually get to stretch, you know — different dialects, crazy costumes,” she added. “And it really felt like a safe place to do it because I have to say this, the set, this cast and crew — everybody is so kind. It was really a safe place to play.”
Overcoming shyness as a performer
Starting as a model, moving into acting, and getting her first roles in the ‘90s, Taylor herself is a consummate Canadian actor. But as she described in a 2012 profile, she had to overcome a powerful shyness to work in the industry. In fact, her mother started her in modelling class to
help her come out of her shell. Is she still shy today?
Absolutely, she said. “There’s not one moment that I don’t walk onto a set that I’m not nervous,” Taylor explained. And it almost feels like jumping off the high diving board. Once you take that first jump, you’re okay, but the nerves walking out are always there. They’re always there.”
For every other shy person out there, they should know there’s value in it. Shyness can add to a performance, she said — you are alive in the moment.
“I think it does add a presence. Like you’re very present when you’re shy,” Taylor said. “You can’t phone it in. You’re incredibly aware of your surroundings. And I almost don’t trust it when I’m not scared.”
“So, you know how they say, ‘The gift of fear.’ I think the gift of shyness is that it definitely makes you present.”
Other Wild Cards cast members a joy to work with on set
Showing up on set as a new character feels like the first day of school, Taylor said. There are jitters. You are feeling everybody out. But Priestley was instantly welcoming and kind, even though an entire generation of TV fans were raised on his iconic 90210 role.
“But he was an absolute joy and just like the consummate Canadian actor,” Taylor said, “just humble, lovely, funny.”
Gianniotti was a pro — the good cop of the show — and an incredibly generous co-star, Taylor said. Shooting one challenging, fast-paced scene, she struggled a bit, both with her dialect and the pace. Gianniotti offered to run their lines together, between takes and setups.
They sat together, ran the lines, and she nailed the rest of the day.
“He didn’t have to jump in and save me,” Taylor said. “And he did. I think it was the second day I worked with him.”
In less serious moments, Taylor admitted she was the giggler on set. She would be first to “break” — drop out of character and laugh when a scene went sideways. She remembered one scene when Gianniotti had a serious closeup, and her shoulders were “going up and down, because I’m howling.”
“And Giacomo’s trying to keep a straight face because it’s a serious scene,” Taylor said. “So I think I definitely think I blew many takes with laughter. … I think it delighted the crew, and also drove them nuts.”
With her co-star and onscreen daughter, the “incredibly talented” Morgan — of Riverdale fame — there was an immediate bond. They connected on spirituality and life, and even their physical resemblances. They both noted this was the first time they worked with other actors, playing their mother or daughter, where they actually looked alike.
“She was like, ‘I now see what I’m going to look like in 25 years,’” Taylor said.
A change in family dynamic on Wild Cards
Season 3 sees the Wild Cards crew breaking the cycle. The shock reappearance of Vivienne, after years of loss and grief, throws tangled relationships into a tailspin. Was her character part of the cycle, or part of the break?
“Well, I think both, actually,” Taylor said. “Vivienne blows back onto the scene and wants her family back, and wants to go back to what they used to do, which was con as a family.”
“And Max has grown and changed. And I think what Vivienne realizes is that she too has to grow and change.”
The family has evolved. “I think that maybe the evolution is that we use our dastardly talents for good in the end.”
Stream Wild Cards now on CBC Gem.
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