Alicia Witt is a different kind of triple threat.
That term applies most to Broadway where dancing, singing and acting are the trifecta of aspiring stars, but Witt scores her hat-trick on TV and movie screens. Her "big three" skills are the kind possessed by the likes of Robin Williams, Gene Kelly, Christopher Walken, Emma Stone, etc., that being high abilities in comedy (remember Witt as sarcastic daughter Zoey in almost 90 episodes of the sitcom Cybill?), drama (she was gripping as a recurring cop in Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Paula in The Walking Dead) and music (she was the inspiring clarinet turnaround character in Mr. Holland's Opus, she plays country star Autumn Chase on Nashville, and is featured on 12 film soundtracks overall).
It's a great problem to have, but since the success of her recent album, Witt has a hard time knowing if she's a singer who has a big acting upside or an actor with with big music upside.
"It's hard to answer because when it's a role that's challenging and I can sink my teeth into it and immerse myself in something new, I love acting as much as I love music. But music is still much newer for me, since I've been making movies since I was seven," she told The Citizen in a phone interview shortly before her trip to Prince George for her VIP appearance at Northern FanCon.
Witt did indeed grow up right before the world's eyes. Our first glimpse of her was on the human feats show That's Incredible where, as only a tot, she recited the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet. That minute of fame caught the attention of a casting director looking for someone to take on the part of mystic child Alia Atreides in the 1984 film adaptation of Dune.
Witt nailed the performance, winning audience praise and the esteem of director David Lynch.
Lynch cast her again in his groundbreaking Twin Peaks television series, then again in a challenging scene in his film Hotel Room. Her career on the screen was well underway.
Yet music was a constant companion, a sidekick. When she first moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to pursue show business, with her childhood credits in tow but no certainty for the future, it was music that paid her bills. She was the house piano player in the grand lobby of the famous Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
In the past few years she has been busy as an actor, but also sharpened her focus on music.
She finalized the writing of some songs, called on musician friends to accompany her in the studio, and she created her 2009 eponymous EP, the 2012 concert album Live At Rockwood, then the 2015 full-length album Revisionary History. This was produced by acclaimed piano pop star Ben Folds who duetted with Witt on the torchy Theme From Pasadena (Cold Turkey), a film in which Witt also starred alongside Cheryl Hines, Peter Bogdanovich and Sonya Walger.
The momentum for her music is growing to the point it is now in need of outside personnel to deal with the popular demand.
"That's super exciting because up until now it's really been a self-managed enterprise, and I've always wanted the music to be as significant as the acting," she said.
Ever since she was a child, she scribbled thoughts into notebooks.
She noodled away on poems and prose, scratching down ideas and creative impulses as they came to her.
She heeded the advice she was given that an actor needs a strong avocation because of all the down time. You wait for weeks or months, sometimes, for the casting directors to call between jobs. When you are working, you spend large gulps of time in trailers or hotel rooms waiting for the technicians to set the scene for the actors.
Her avocation became writing, to the point this triple threat talent might become a quadruple threat.
She is closing in on completion of a script for a TV pilot she hopes will catch the attention of a production company.
"The pilot would incorporate my music. I'm really optimistic that I have a story here that people can relate to," she said.
She can't talk much about the pilot because of the confidentiality philosophies that are a matter of course in show business. But Witt can talk all about her immense acting career, her burgeoning music career, and her interesting personal life that has managed to remain rooted in the girl-next-door attitude that has made her a fan favourite ever since she was about six years old.
CN Centre is practically next door to the entire city, so fans can come meet her in person at FanCon this weekend in the autograph zone.
Witt will also perform a concert tonight then do a public Q&A interview on stage Sunday.
