Kat Cunning

Interview by Nolwen Cifuentes

Photography by Ben Trivett

Congrats on the TIFF opening for On Swift Horses! How has the reception for it been?

It’s been great! It feels like the critics are raving, but it was extra emotional for me to see that AutoStraddle, a lesbian/trans publication that I follow, rated us #1 in Queer films at Tiff. 

How was the experience at TIFF? 

It was my first time at Tiff! I wore a period-accurate, rabbit glue corset and almost made it through the night without having to unlace. I learned the word 'Torontonian' and gushed over the team that made the film possible. I was especially grateful to chat with Dan Minahan (our director) and Shannon Pufahl who wrote the gorgeous original book. I confessed over a controversial tequila martini that my first read of the script made me tremble-cry. 

How did you get involved in this project?

I had just finished singing for a Gatsby-themed gig in Vegas where I was dressed in 1920's regalia, so I was chronologically halfway to Gail when I picked up the script. I kept the diamond earrings in and let her bubble through me for my audition. 

What can you tell me about your character, Gail?

Gail is a bottle blonde champagne toast with a morose glint in her eye.  She is her own work of art. Full of prowess and poise she is a martyr, a mystery, a scorpio? A chameleonic survivalist hiding in plain sight and drinking to the fools of her circumstance. Adored yet rarely known, she's an icon.

On Swift Horses is set in the 1950s, when gender and sexuality were often stifled. The film follows two people who realize they are queer. As a non-binary actor, did engaging with this historical context inform or deepen your understanding of queer identity? Did you find any personal resonance in these themes?

My god, yes. For me, hyper-femininity is a really fun costume to wear. I experience it as drag, and I imagine that many women in that era did, too, only the stakes were higher.  It was life or death in some cases. It's really powerful to embody that visage as a choice, knowing that it was a form of armor for women like Gail. I'm also lucky to have a personal queer reference for the generations that came before us, because my mom came out to me as gay when I was a kid. With the rising popularity and acceptance of queerness, it's important to honor how we earned our freedoms. Queer people have been and always will be here. Playing Gail was an homage to those ancestors who gave us our rights, and a nod to the people who aren't yet safe to be fully themselves in today's society. No matter what the laws say, we always find a way to thrive, at the very least, a bar for kissing in the dark. 

What do you hope audiences take away with them after seeing the film?

Throw all your chips in on the right to be who you are. Risk it all to love who you love. 

Is there anything you can us about your upcoming film, Star People?

It's a major contrast to OSH and my first lead! I love to play these characters in drag where I use my learned expressions of femininity but Claire is a landscape photographer/UFO hunter who has no need for those affectations. I have never played someone so close to myself. She's driven by her obsession which overrides her sense of identity, but the stars along her journey light the path in ways she doesn't expect... Among them: Mccabe Slye, Connor Paolo and Eddie Martinez. 

You got your start in Cirque du Soleil and immersive theater such as Sleep No More. What were those experiences like and how does it enrich your work in acting for film?

There is nothing as valuable to me in the art of storytelling as being in a live room. Nothing sharpens your pencil more than feeling the breath in a space, and taking a risk with an immediate visceral return. I will always find outlets for my need to perform live, although I'm being more selective these days.

What moved you from live performance to acting for the screen?

I leveraged my dance career into everything I do now. Ballet was my first love, but I've always been a storyteller at heart. I think it's helpful as an actor to have had your heart broken by something other than acting. I didn't "make it as a dancer." I took the seed of my love for ballet and "made it" into something else. 

Acting is such a vulnerable profession—you often give up control to casting agents, face frequent rejection, and navigate an industry that can take a lot from you. How do you manage the challenges of asserting and protecting your identity in an industry that can feel so demanding?

I forget every job I lose. The second I start to feel like I’m begging for a job, I do something different, creatively. If I can’t put pleasure and evolution at the forefront of my experience, how can I expect my audience to be pleased, to evolve with me? 

I love multi-hyphenate artists and we seem to be having more and more in July. As a multi-hyphenate myself, I really believe artists have so much to express that can’t often be done in one medium. Talk to me about your music and how that expression differs from acting. 

Music is all mine. As an actor, I have to relinquish control to so many collaborative aspects of a project. I think both would suffer without the other. I can leave my own head as an actor, but singing and writing are the way back in. 

Any tours or shows in the works?

My debut EP 'Glass Jaw' is coming this fall. I've released singles until now because it's important to me for my debut EP to be a mission statement. I’ve really been learning how to sing and write in the public eye, since I only started singing 7 years ago. I finally have a strong sense of my own identity in the music. 'Glass Jaw' is a long form poem, a boxing match and a ball. I'll be touring 'Glass Jaw' and announcing some other special shows on my IG soon at @katcunning 

How do you find time to balance it all?

There's always time for love. 

✦

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