ComingSoon Associate Editor Spencer Legacy spoke to Shoresy stars Tasya Teles, Blair Lamora, and Keilani Rose about their characters and the show. Shoresy will debut on Hulu on May 27, 2022.
“Foul-mouthed, chirp-serving, mother-loving Shoresy join the Sudbury Bulldogs of the Northern Ontario Senior Hockey Organization (The NOSHO) on a quest to never lose again,” says the official series synopsis.
Spencer Legacy: Tasya, your character is probably the toughest person on the show. You don’t take any flack from Shoresy or anybody and you run a team from behind the scenes. Is that resilience what appealed to you about the role?
Tasya Teles: Oh yeah, a hundred percent. When I was reading the script, a lot of what I was thinking about was “who is this person that’s so resilient and what is it that makes her so strong when she, you know, counters Shoresy?” And I think that it’s that she’s unaffected more or less, she doesn’t let those guys get to her. She just really has that inner strength. And that’s what gives her the power to take command over the team.
Awesome. And Blair and Keilani, your characters have great chemistry as they tear the hockey players up. Did that come naturally or did it take some work?
Blair Lamora: Totally came naturally. I have brothers who played hockey all my life and honestly, growing up in a hockey rink and the chirps and the back and banter is not new. So Jared [Keeso, co-creator of Letterkenny and Shoresy and actor for Shoresy] made it very easy to go back and forth.
Keilani Rose: I will have to say that, for me, I grew up in a house full of girls and the chirping did not come so naturally. So it was like flexing a new muscle. But I would say that I think everyone would agree that I can hold my own, for sure.
This series has some very long lines and they’re delivered very fast. Is it difficult to keep up with compared to other scripts?
Tasya Teles: I would definitely say it’s difficult to keep up with. It feels like you’re running a marathon. It’s its own language or its own rhythm. I call it Shakespearean Canadian because Jared has imbued these beautiful, punchy words and this alliteration and all of these jokes and this flow to it, that is very its own flavor. And it’s just, once you catch it, it, you can just surf that wave and live in it. But at first it was a bit intimidating for sure.
Blair Lamora: Oh yeah. Super intimidating. Because it’s in a category all of its own. Like when you watch Letterkenny, for example, there’s no other show like it. Then to transfer it over to Shoresy, it was something that was completely different, but it was such a fun challenge to do and they made it easy. It’s all in the writing. Jared made it so comfortable for everybody and same with Jacob [Tierney, co-creator of Letterkenny and Shoresy], which was really, really nice. They were so inviting, which gave us all a nice floor to kind of play with one another and be able to bounce back and forth. So it was just a great time. It was so fun.
Keilani Rose: I mean, the rhythm is just its own thing. It’s so satisfying to be able to play and engage with each other at that pace, it just feels like you’re riding on a high. And then when we get to the end, it’s just like, high fives! Yes! We rocked that! So yeah, it was great. Shout-out to Jared for creating that.
Tasya, we talked about the resilience, but there’s also kind of like some emotion to Nat with her backstory, with the team and the arena. Was it tough to balance that sort of tough exterior with that emotion? Or did that come naturally?
Tasya Teles: I think it came naturally. I think a lot of women embody that ability to be resilient and emotional [at the] same time. But it’s about picking the scenes too, and choosing where you’re going to let certain things show. And there are definitely those moments throughout the series or the season where I would let people see more of Nat and we’d try it different ways. Like we do some takes where she would get tearful, and some takes where she wouldn’t and you just try to give Jacob and Jared the opportunity to have a lot to play with in the editing room.
Blair, what’s the biggest difference between you and Ziig?
Blair Lamora: Between me and Ziig? Ziig has no filter, man! She really just like goes for the jugular. She really does not care. There is no time and place with her. She says exactly what she feels. And she’s not afraid of anybody. I’m not afraid of anybody either, but she just like goes for it, balls to the wall … I mean, I don’t know if I can say that, but I mean, she just goes for it. So that’s what I love about her. She’s just so explosive and so fiery
And Keilani, what’s the biggest difference between you and Miig?
Keilani Rose: I absolutely love Miig. I mean, she’s a tough Native and yes, tough Native is redundant . It speaks to my heart because you look at the story and what we’re talking about here is the importance of sports and bringing people together, keeping kids off the streets, which is one of my character’s lines. And it resonates so deeply with me because I grew up in a community of dance. So in the same way, it translated over, it really helped me survive. It saved my life and full circle. I found myself when I was 15, 16, volunteering to teach dance to native youth at the Prince George Native Youth Center. And just seeing firsthand the positive influence that that can have, we really get to celebrate that with what we’re doing with Shoresy.
How important was getting the representation right in Shoresy and how much did you all contribute to that?
Tasya Teles: It was paramount, yeah.
Blair Lamora: It was super important. I feel like there’s such a lack in representation in a lot of industries. And I feel like the fact that they were so opening and welcome to us and also inclusive when it comes to wardrobe and when it comes to the values of it, it was very important. And they put that at the forefront, which is really nice to see. Including crew, there was so many Indigenous and BIPOC, so many people around us that I feel like those opportunities were never there before.
Tasya, you’ve also been in video games along with acting, how different is the process there?
Tasya Teles: That’s an interesting question. I find the process to be very similar, however, when it comes to video games, because it’s very movement based, you are thinking about movement quite a bit more in physicality. Whereas, especially with Shoresy and this style of filming, I was thinking more about what the frame was going to look like and what is the composition of the frame going to look like and how, um, you know, how are we going to be standing and how are we going to be positioning, you know? So it was less physical movement. And I think more of the play came with the scripts themselves, but otherwise, yeah, they’re similar.
As a Canadian myself, I have to ask, what’s your go-to Tim Horton’s order?
Keilani Rose: Oh boy, my indulgent Tim Horton’s order is definitely a French vanilla.
Blair Lamora: I go with like an ice cap, I get honey dip Tim bits. Those are my favorites. So good.
Tasya Teles: Classic double-double and honey crueler all the way.
Blair, did you have a favorite scene to record in particular?
Blair Lamora: Hmm. Did I have a favorite scene? Yeah, I would have to say, I feel like the beginning of episode two, we have like this long scene with the duo-tangs and I feel like that was just such a big moment for all of us, because it was a crazy day. The amount of work that we put into it, the prep and how long it was … It was just so fun also to be so back and forth and to just like snipe out all these lines to one another, it felt so good when we were done. It felt just like magic when we were doing it. So hands-down that scene was the most memorable.