For Plan B, Vinessa Antoine had to learn how to be a tough cop

In its second season, CBC time travel drama Plan B — based on the hit Radio-Canada series of the same name — follows Montreal cop Mia Coleman. At work, Coleman is haunted by a murder she feels like she could have prevented. At home, her personal life is slowly unraveling.

So she does what any of us would do: she engages the services of Plan B, a shadowy company that kidnaps people and takes them back in time in order to fix their mistakes. Of course, every time Mia tries to fix things, she creates a new complication for herself. Such are the rules of time travel.

We talked to Vinessa Antoine, who plays Mia, and show co-creator Jean-François Asselin about the story, how Antoine turned herself into a "tough cop" as well as the challenges and joys of working on what might be Canada's most bilingual set.

Chris: Vinessa, what attracted you to this story? 

Vinessa: It was the writing. Right off the top, I gravitated toward the character. She felt, to me, like the ultimate role because she goes through so many different emotions. As an actor, that's kind of a dream to be able to play all of those and different ages — sort of looking at the totality of somebody's life. It's a character study of humanity and of a human being.

Chris: Jean-François, Season 2 of Plan B, the English version, is based on Season 3 of the Quebec version. What are the differences between the two seasons, beyond language?

Jean-François: We adapted to the market and the cultural aspect of the rest of Canada that is different from Quebec, but the biggest difference is the actor. It's the same character, written almost the same, but the experience of adapting it showed me the importance of what an actor brings to the table. [They] bring a personality, a voice, a sensibility, and we don't project the same thing on an actor. In French, it was Anne-Élisabeth Bossé; in English, it's Vinessa — and it's really two different characters. And it's two different tones, two different sensibilities … For me, that's what was difficult: to forget about the French version and to go with Vinessa's tone and Vinessa's sensibilities. 

Chris: Jean-François, what attracted you to Vinessa as an actor?

Jean-François: I didn't know Vinessa before, but her audition was amazing, and I think she had all the sensibility, all the emotion. What I said to Vinessa when we first got to work was "We're going to have to work on your tough cop." And that's what we worked on together. But she's a brilliant actress.

Chris: Vinessa, tell me about what working on your "tough cop" looked like?

Vinessa: I worked on a few things. Definitely, body language is a big thing. Even the tone of her voice is different from the way that I talk. That's something that I learned with the consultant that Jean-François and Louis brought on. There's a tone that needs to happen — an authoritative tone. So it was something that I was focused on, aside from [learning] French … That was my big challenge to continuously work on, because I'm not really a tough girl. I'm much more of a girly girl. So I changed a lot of my mannerisms.

Chris: Jean-François, since Vinessa mentioned it, let's talk about language. I imagine shooting an English adaptation of a Quebec show in Montreal makes for a very bilingual set. What's that like?

Jean-François: That's a good question. The big challenge was to make [her] believable [as a Montreal] cop. She doesn't speak a lot of French in the show, but here, if you are a cop, you need to speak both languages for sure. So that's why Vinessa worked hard on that … I was speaking to the actors in English. The crew were bilingual, but because it's a crew that usually I work with them, I spoke to them mostly In French. We were speaking French and English, and sometimes both in the same sentence.