Magic, mystery, and murder are at the center of the upcoming Canadian thriller series, YAGA. Created by Kat Sandler and based on her play of the same name, the show reimagines the classic folklore of Baba Yaga as a twisting detective drama. Actor Sam Krochmal stars in the series as rookie cop Billy Granger, appearing alongside Carrie-Anne Moss, Noah Reid, Clark Backo, and Hudson Williams. Ahead of the premiere, he sat down to discuss the behind-the-scenes details of the anticipated new series.
This show is a very Canadian production. You have a Canadian team, and it premiered at a Canadian festival. How do you see the future of these homegrown genre productions expanding on the international streaming stage?
I feel like we're at a moment where Canadian film and television is getting its flowers for the first time in a long time. I think shows like Schitt's Creek and Heated Rivalry have cracked the door open and forced the world to take a second to recognize that. There's some excellent media coming out of Canada, and I hope a show like YAGA can continue to push that door open.
I think that oftentimes there is a preconceived notion or stereotype that Canadian TV is cheap. While we're not dealing with the same exorbitant budgets that American productions have to work with, I think we're swinging well above our weight class. Shows like YAGA look incredible and provide really fresh, unique, interesting perspectives in their stories. So I'm hopefully optimistic that shows like this are going to be made and hopefully get a bit more funding, and that Canada gets taken a bit more seriously because I think we're making cool shit up here.
This is an adaptation of Kat Sandler's play. Since it originated on the stage before jumping to the television format, how much inspiration did you take from the original text and previous iterations of this story for your own character work?
Yeah, it was interesting. I was really curious to see how the adaptation was going to work functionally, going from a really intimate three-hander play to extrapolating that into a pretty expansive television universe. Pretty daunting. I think that Kat Sandler did a tremendous job building the world and creating a really textured, layered world full of really interesting characters. I was blessed with the opportunity to bring a character [to life] that provided a bit more levity and comedy in a pretty dark story, and that work comes really naturally to me. I thought it was a really cool opportunity to be the source of some laughs in a pretty dark, dark story.
Your character is the comic relief in this story. How do you approach providing that levity to your scenes while still keeping the dark theme and tension of the show? How do you play against your castmates when they are the very serious straight men in this mystery?
From the get-go, the conversation with Kat [Sandler] and with our directors Rachel [Talalay] and David [Frazee] was we didn't want Billy to become this broad comedic device. We didn't want him to be the yuk yuk guy who's leaning into the joke, because the show is super high stakes; it's dark and gritty. I think the levity for Billy comes from his personal stakes being so high and him so desperately wanting to contribute and do a good job. In terms of me personally and how I approach my performance, it was just about doing less; it was the note that I got the most often from Rachel and David. They're like, "Everything you're doing is great; there's just lots of it."
Sometimes, working in front of the camera, whether it's for film or a TV show, at least for me, I often have the anxiety that I'm not doing enough. It's a reminder that the camera catches everything, and feeling like you're doing nothing is often the perfect amount. I'd finish a take and be like, "I felt like I wasn't doing anything", and they're like "It's perfect." Then, watching it, you're like, okay, it makes sense now [because you are] approaching the work from a more nuanced place and letting the stakes and situational context speak for itself.
The show takes place in this small coastal town. It relies a lot on the tension of these characters knowing each other and their previous relationships. How did you and your castmates build that chemistry to make these relationships feel intimate and lived-in?
It was such a blessing to work with such seasoned, talented, and giving scene partners. Carrie-Anne Moss, Clark Backo, Noah Reid, and Hudson Williams, all these guys bring such a warmth and an ease to the work. Working across from them, it made my job really easy. I think that Billy often gets caught in the crossfire of Carson and Rapp's dynamic, whatever that may be. We had a lot of fun, just bouncing off each other, joking around, and getting to know each other when the camera wasn't rolling. From the get-go, everyone was super welcoming and warm, and I was just trying to be a sponge and soak it up as much as I could.
As a writer and producer yourself, do you approach your acting roles with the same analytical, production mindset, or do you need to completely separate yourself from that process while on the other side of the camera?
I typically bring a pretty pragmatic, analytical approach to my work in general, and I think that serves me well. It's really good to have a good understanding of the concept, the direction of the story, and what we're aiming for it to look like. Something that I've been working on as an actor is just letting go and embracing a performance that doesn't feel so technically good. A lot of the magic comes from it being a little bit messy, organic, flawed, and alive. That's what I think makes a really good acting performance. I definitely have to switch off the part of my brain that is the producer/director back there and [saying], "this is what it's supposed to look like," because it doesn't serve the work. Oftentimes, the story only benefits from work that's a little bit outside the box and organic.
