The iconic Canadian actor speaks to CanCulture about her role in the new sitcom Overlord and the Underwoods

By: Apurba Roy

Toronto-born and York Region-raised Patrice Goodman is a Canadian actor, dancer, director, choreographer and teacher who's been involved in practically every genre since she started performing in her late teens in dances and acting classes. From indie films and lifestyle movies to sci-fi shows and comedies, she’s done it all.

Goodman is best known for her work in the comedy television series Sunnyside, for which she won a Canadian Screen Award along with her cast. You might also know her best for playing characters like Flower Underwood from the hilarious CBC Gem sitcom Overlord and the Underwoods and Dot from the hit Netflix show The Umbrella Academy.

Goodman’s career dates back to 1998 and she has worked hard since then to be where she is now.

In an interview with CanCulture, she spoke on how it all began, what she has learned and what she hopes to continue doing.

You have been an actor since you were a teenager, first credited as a dancer for Blue Brother 2000 in 1998. How did it all start for you, did you always know that you wanted to act?

My mom would say that I started dancing first, I would walk around on my tiptoes so she started putting me in dance classes when I was four years old and I loved it! I went to see The Nutcracker by the National Ballet and I saw Karen Kain play the Sugar Plum Fairy. I went home and I learned how to do pirouette and learned how to spot. I think dancing was one of those things that was innate for me. I took dance for quite a few years but… dancing kind of lost its romance because I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to move forward with it.

Then I realized that I enjoyed putting on shows and my mom would tell me that I would memorize all the voices from the Disney records and I could do it from the top to the bottom. When I was about thirteen she enrolled me in a community theatre group. I had always been in the school plays and made people laugh but when I actually did the community theatre group and found people were like me, that solidified it for me and then I auditioned for an art school — Arts York and Unionville High School. When I got into the school and when I met my people I was like ‘this is it!’ so it was just a matter of finding out where I belonged.

The thing about the arts is that a lot of the time, you have an aptitude for it and then you have a moment that sort of solidifies why it’s important. For me, that was watching Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple. I watched that journey and that arc that she had and I was so fundamentally changed by her emotional journey. I understood really what I want to do as an actor, which is to create empathy and understanding for the human experience in people and that's when I understood the thing that I had been drawn to my entire life and that gave me the why to do it.

The hilarious sitcom Overlord and the Underwoods on CBC Gem is the second Black sitcom in Canada history. How does it feel when you play Flower Underwood knowing that you are a part of this big change in Canadian history?

It’s the first on CBC with a Black family so I am really grateful to be a part of the first and I am really excited to not be the last. I am really excited to see what is coming down the pipe.

Everybody who is involved in the show loves being there and I think all of us were excited to have the opportunity to tell these kinds of stories, a sci-fi genre story but with our faces of many colours. All of us are movie geeks, all of us love the business, love what we do and we are really excited to have the opportunity and I think to me that’s what real equity is. Equity of opportunity.

We don't talk about being Black on the show. We are all about the joy and we are not so much about Black trauma. That was also really amazing to do because sometimes I find that a lot of African diaspora discussions are really focused on the trauma that we experience but there is a lot of joy and there is so much more to our existence than just our difficult moments. So I was happy to be telling other stories and maybe new stories that people don't necessarily see us in. And I love Flower Underwood. I think she's a great person so I was really honoured to play her.

As you mentioned, the series focuses on a Black family but it is not necessarily about Black trauma, why do you think that is important?

We may not necessarily understand other people unless we see them really and if all you see about a certain group of people is their trauma and their difficulties, you end up dealing with each other as stereotypes and you are not really trained to really take in a person for everything they are and for their whole experience. If all you see is the same story, you will just take in parts of their story and it creates a lack of connection in the society and a lack of empathy.

The show is designed for young people as well as older people. I think it’s just healthy for my son to see role models, see regular stories with regular people and have him know that not only does he belong in the Canadian community and the world community, but that he and his history is a valid part of it.

You are always booked with incredible roles and are always working as an actor but you also teach drama and dance. How do you get the time to do what you love and also teach it? And what made you want to teach?

Acting is a weird business because there is a lot of “I get a call for an audition, I drop everything, I do my audition and I could go for months without knowing if I got the part or not” so there is time. It’s actually sort of a great lifestyle because I don't know what tomorrow is gonna bring. Every day is kind of interesting.

But for teaching, I was recently teaching at Toronto Film School and it was two classes a week, which is not a heavy workload and it left room for me to teach. Part of the reason I teach is because when I am not actually working or don't have a script to learn or I am not going on set, it's hard to stay in tune. It's an art, just like how you have to practice violin or dancers have to practice their movement every day. It's hard to go and act in a corner by yourself. It’s very much a communication process and it’s much more active.

So, I started teaching so that I could continue to learn about the craft from a different point of view. I learn from my students a lot and I end up giving advice and reminding my students to do things that I am like “Oh, I should be doing that too!” or “I have not done that in a while,” so it helps reinforce the stuff that I have learned.

I ended up falling into teaching because my teacher, Jacqueline McClintock, went to Europe and said “If you come, you can be my teaching assistant.” She was teaching at a school in Spain and so I went and got the chance to be her TA and the school ended up asking me to come back and start teaching when she was engaged in other things.

You have been in smaller indie projects but also hit shows watched by millions such as The Umbrella Academy. What have you learned from working on smaller projects and also something that millions of people see?

It's the same kind of people, just different budgets. It's amazing to me how everybody wants to make something that they think is good and they push themselves over small moments, big moments. Everybody wants to do something that they can be proud of. What's amazing too is you can really see how much of a difference the budget makes. The Umbrella Academy has the money to make the most beautiful costumes and the most beautiful sets and that is really to their benefit because it is a feast for the eyes. But at the root of it is human connection. At the root of it is a story. And that's what I have learned.

As a Black woman in the industry who is so immensely established and successful, what advice would you give to BIPOC who want to pursue a career in the industry?

The first thing I would say is start to learn what you are doing. Take classes. It is like other art forms, it requires focus and practice and also as you are learning, understand that the people that you are learning with are actually your cohort and these are the people who might end up giving you jobs. These are your connections into the career. It takes a while for everybody to get there but it's not uncommon for me to go to work and actually have somebody who I went to high school with who was in the same arts program.

So taking it seriously when you are with your cohort and showing them that you are reliable and that you care about the work, it actually affects you. The other thing I would say is make the most of every opportunity. Show up, be good, be precise, be pleasant to work with.

Also, start writing your own work, that is a piece of advice I got. Having a hand in producing stuff and having a couple of irons in the fire is always a good idea. Start figuring out how to produce your own stuff. That doesn't mean you can't do the mainstream stuff, but it really helps.

What is next for you?

The first thing up is I am going to be on a show on NBC called In the Dark. I am guest-starring in an episode. It’s an awesome show about a blind woman with an amazing personality who ends up investigating a murder of a friend of hers. It's a drama that is based on a really strong, amazing personality and I think everybody should watch the show, it's brilliant.

The other things I have coming up are a couple of Lifetime movies of the week, one about a woman whose children get stolen and taken to Greece and I play her best friend. I had the honour of going to Greece and working with Sarah Drew, who played April Kepner on Grey's Anatomy. She's really sweet and a very good actor so I learned a lot working with her. The other show I am doing is a show called My Loving Stalker, where I play a police officer who's investigating a woman who is being stalked and it's also based on a true story.