“Van Helsing” fans are excited that Heather Doerksen reprised her recurring role as Michaela in the fifth and final season of SyFy’s hit series. The delightfully dark character has been a welcome addition to these last episodes and this talented actress enjoyed playing her. On top of her vampire return, she can be seen in CW’s “Charmed” with her recurring role as Aladria. More popular roles of hers were Captain Veutinin from Netflix’s “Altered Carbon”, and Donna Smith in A&E’s “Project Blue Book”. Switching things up, she voices the accident-prone pterosaur in Disney Junior’s “Giganotosaurus.”
Out of Winnipeg Canada, she originally studied Biological Sciences before a theatre teacher inspired her to pursue acting. Heather loves perogies and says that if she wasn’t an actor, she’d be a baker. This probably goes along with her “superpower” of looking through a fridge/pantry and being able to make
something delicious from seemingly ‘nothing.’
Colleen Bement: Thank you very much for taking time out to chat with us. You are just fabulous in your role as Michaela on SyFy’s “Van Helsing.” Fans are definitely digging this season!
Heather Doerksen: Thanks! That’s who we do it for!
CB: What was it like to film in Slovakia?
HD: Any time I travel I feel like I absorb info in my soul I didn’t know before. So to travel and also work? Dreamy.
CB: Did you face any challenges?
HD: Shaking Michaela off at the end of the day was necessary. She was dark. (Delightful. But dark.)
CB: What do you do to get into character?
HD: Totally depends on the character. In general, I create a mask of the character that I can slip on and off when I need to, you know, so I don’t take that person home with me at the end of the day.
CB: Do you share any similarities with Michaela?
HD: I think Tricia Helfer is the bee’s knees, does that count?
CB: Tell us about your experience on the recent episode of CW’s “Charmed.”
HD: It was my first time back on set since the pandemic started and my first time around a group of people, so every conversation with anyone I was like that awkward girl at the high school prom asking someone to slow dance for the very first time. Stammer stammer giggle blush. But for reals, I was welcomed very warmly into the Charmed family by Sarah, Madeleine, and Melonie.
CB: What was it like to voice the character of Disney Junior’s “Giganotosaurus”?
HD: I remember doing the voice audition for Hegan under the blankets on my bed and coming out with the biggest crown of bedhead you’ve ever seen. There are lots of crash landings, smashes, and squawks that happen. I’ve perfected the Hegan Squawk.
CB: I read that you were planning to be an environmental biologist before switching to acting.
HD: I was! I wanted a steady paycheque! But my heart had other plans and opted for an unpredictable yet absolutely satisfying career and I can’t imagine not doing this for a living.
CB: What inspired you to become an actress?
HD: Again, my heart always knew. I just needed the key. The key, in this instance, was a particular acting teacher who nudged me to ask myself why I wasn’t pursuing it. (The answer was fear, and that answer wasn’t good enough for me, so I jumped into acting and didn’t look back).
CB: Do you have any causes close to your heart?
HD: Whenever a friend asks me to donate, I do. My friends are my cause. I also continuously donate to my old college into the arts scholarship program, because the fine arts notoriously have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with the money to put into their productions.
Written by Colleen Bement
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