The big development to start this fourth season was Daniel being promoted to equity partner by Harry [Victor Garber]. How does that affect the sibling/workplace rivalry between Daniel and Abby?
JEWEL: I mean, I think Abby has a sense of, “Oh God, just let him have it.” It’s when things develop even further though, she starts to get really nervous. All Abby’s really wanted is a voice — and we do get a fantastic nemesis this season who comes in and rocks the boat and takes away her voice even more. So, the dynamic gets pretty sticky, a little bit precarious . . . until shocking things happen, of course, and change everything all over again.
ZACH: Daniel’s definitely excited about it, to start off. I’d say “gung-ho.” But, as Jewel said, there are things that happen. The ring of power, he looks a little too closely at it, and Daniel gets to make some decisions about that as well. It’s a fun journey for him.
There’s that scene early on where Daniel expects Harry to make a speech announcing his partnership, and it ends up falling short. Are both Daniel and Abby, on some level, still caught in that fool’s errand of craving fatherly validation from a man who simply can’t give it?
ZACH: It’s the heart of the show. For all the characters, not even just family. Cecil [Brett Kelly], Winston [Ryan Lino], Jerri [Bobbi Charlton] — Harry is such a centre of gravity for everybody. But especially, as his children, he really is the thing that we want to move the most and get approval out of.
JEWEL: And it’s never gonna happen. Especially with Daniel and Harry, it’s so sad because Daniel is constantly trying to get his dad’s approval. He’s constantly wanting to be a legitimate partner with his father in his firm. And I think Abby has seen a lot of that, felt really bad for Daniel and has seen the way that their dad treats him as much lesser than equal. It can be really tough to constantly have to go after this approval from somebody who’s just never gonna give it to you.
ZACH: Yeah, and Abby doesn’t really care. At least, that’s the front. She’s good at not showing that she cares. But obviously there’s the heart of it [for her] too — the dad love. We always talk about that during filming. That’s, I think, the really beautiful part of our show and for us to play, is there’s just that constant need for love in a familial way. It kind of brings all these characters together despite their work dynamic, despite who’s in charge or whose case it is.
And for Harry, it’s not like he’s withholding approval out of cruelty or as a motivational tactic. He just seems oblivious to what his kids need.
JEWEL: He is oblivious to it. I mean, he thinks of it as a bonus that they’re fighting for his approval, right? He thinks that keeps them on their toes, but that’s not his motivation. He’s just completely oblivious to the fact that his children need to feel love at all. He’s like, “Aren’t I doing that by giving you a job? Quit your whining!”
ZACH: But his aloofness [in his personal life] is also the reason we’re all in this situation — the beginning of our family dynamic. It’s just so true to his character.
They say that people who visit family for the holidays almost revert to who they were when they were kids. Is that the same for the Svenssons, after they were all suddenly thrown together in the same firm?
JEWEL: Oh, very much so. There’s something so fun as an actor to play this. They just become so infantile when they’re around each other, you know? They’re in this professional workspace and they really do turn into petulant, arguing children. It’s really fun to play these professionals who are great at their jobs, but very easily slip back into that brother-sister dynamic of, “No, stop it! It’s my turn!” We’ve talked about trying to find the moments of them being true siblings in the scene . . .
ZACH: . . . yeah, as opposed to just being competitors.
And Jewel, you mentioned when last we spoke that Abby was still in denial about her issues with alcohol. Is she closer to acceptance this year?
JEWEL: I think this is the season where she has not only accepted that she has an addiction, but that it will always be a part of her life. This will always be a battle for her and it’s something that she’s always going to have to pay attention to. She’s accepted that as fact, which is kind of refreshing, right? Because she can kind of move on to these other issues that she has with her parents; she’s not as afraid anymore to dive a little deeper. And I also love that there are some really beautiful scenes in season four where she talks about her addiction in almost a matter-of-fact tone. She says to someone, “Oh, I can’t drink that. I’m an alcoholic.” Before, she couldn’t even say that word out loud. It’s been nice to see her journey into acceptance, because obviously that’s what she had to do to change.
I’m also struck by the juxtaposition of Abby’s fraught relationship with her mother and her fraught relationship with her daughter. Have those two bonds come to mirror each other?
JEWEL: Well, these are tough pills to swallow, right? You really get to know yourself when you become a parent. I know that from personal experience. You’re like, “Oh wow, that’s a trigger for me.” Her relationship with Sofia [Eden Summer Gilmore], especially with Sofia becoming a teenager, it’s been tough. Sofia’s just been giving her the gears and has been so unaccepting of all these battles that her mother is facing. And now, Sofia’s turned a corner too, and she and her mother have grown a lot closer. She’s come to the realization that her mother’s had it really tough.
And I think looking inward at her relationship with Joanne [Lauren Holly], her mother, it’s been a little hard because she idolizes her mom. She was raised to believe that her mom did nothing wrong, and her dad was the enemy. He’s the one that left us. [But] all of these new things have come to light where she’s starting to realize that there are two sides to every story. And maybe her mother isn’t so perfect. That’s been a hard thing for her to face.
Do you feel it’s a tough balance to strike, dealing with heavy issues, but also keeping things buoyant and funny?
JEWEL: The goal is to make you laugh and make you cry in every episode — and mostly to make you think. There is no black-and-white in this show. There’s always been a grey area, and that’s the area that we celebrate and dive into the most. Do you think this person is right or do you think they’re wrong? And everybody has a different opinion.
All these characters are essentially flawed humans. We’re all ruled by ego. We’re all trying to let go of the ego and figure out how to be — and how to be happy, honestly. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions, as life is. That’s my favourite part about working on this show, is that we get it all.
The cases that you all tackle each week are seemingly quite outlandish . . . but more grounded in reality than we might think.
ZACH: Credit to our showrunner [Susin Nielsen] and the whole writing team — they very much have their ears to the ground on what is really happening. I feel that’s one of the strong qualities of the show, that it’s just so prescient with current issues. I read something in the news recently and I was like, “We did that!”
JEWEL: And they’re wild, right? We’re reading [the scripts] and going, “There’s no way someone has done this.” And our writers are like, “No, no. This is a real thing.” That’s where they get a lot of their inspiration from — these funny little things they find in the news.
ZACH: As the old saying goes: “Truth is stranger than fiction.” That’s what our show definitely highlights.
Family Law airs Sundays on Global
MEMORABLE ROLES:
Prior to landing the part of endlessly ambitious, type-A lawyer Daniel Svensson, Regina’s own Zach Smadu was best known for his three-season run as Det. Ash Kular on CTV’s Cardinal, offering some comic relief to the ice-cold crime thriller. He’s also guested on fellow Canadian-made hits like Letterkenny, Hudson & Rex and Transplant. Meanwhile, before the gifted-yet-reckless Abby came her way, pride of White Rock Jewel Staite had a long and accomplished career dating back to childhood, co-leading Disney Channel phenom Flash Forward with Ben Foster. Later, she soared to fame as brilliant, bubbly engineer Kaylee Frye on Firefly and its big-screen follow-up Serenity. Further adding to her sci-fi cred, Staite played Dr. Jennifer Keller on the latter seasons of B.C.-shot Stargate: Atlantis.
CURRENT GIG:
Now in the midst of season four, this B.C.-set legal dramedy follows the Svenssons — a dysfunctional family of lawyers helping other dysfunctional families tackle such issues as, say, a frozen food magnate who wants to disinherit her children in favour of the actors she hired to play her children. Battling for the upper hand in the firm are scrappy half-siblings Abby (Jewel Staite) and Daniel (Zach Smadu). The boss? Their rakish dad Harry (Victor Garber), who’s sired three kids by three different wives.