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June 28, 2013
Helping change world
Actor Mia Kirshner speaks out and takes action.
CARA STERN CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
Mia Kirshner is naive in the best possible way. Perhaps best known for her role as Jenny Schecter on the television series The L Word, the actor says that when she wants something, she makes it happen, regardless of the obstacles that might be in her path. She’ll go for something even if most people would perceive it as being too huge an undertaking.
And her goals are impressive – she wants to change the laws in Malawi so that education is mandatory for every child who has been imprisoned in Kachere Juvenile Prison. The kids, who have been jailed for committing crimes as a result of their extreme poverty, are ones who would otherwise miss out on an education, and thus would not have the chance to get back into society once released.
“These kids had really slipped through the cracks,” she said, explaining that she found out about them when she traveled to Malawi to research the book she co-wrote, I Live Here, a visually stunning publication detailing the struggles of people in Ingushetia, Burma, Mexico and Malawi. “The conditions were so bad that I decided I just wanted to start a school.”
And build a school, she did. A school for imprisoned boys opened in 2009, and she’s working on opening another for imprisoned girls.
It’s an ongoing process, she said. “Is it a perfect school? No way. It’s overcrowded, it has a lot of problems, but it’s nonetheless a school structure, and the kids are getting an education.... We’ve made many great strides.”
Kirshner has finally returned home to Toronto after spending many years in the United States filming movies and TV shows. Her newest show, Defiance, which is shot in Toronto, premièred this spring on Showcase TV. It’s a space western, detailing the reconstruction of earth after the arrival of seven alien races. Kirshner plays Kenya, the owner of a sex club. She described the character as “tricky.”
“You don’t exactly know what she’s thinking and why she’s doing things. She’s extremely complicated,” she said. “Though [the show is] set in the future ... it’s still not accepted for a woman to be sexually promiscuous. [Kenya] is proud she’s living the life she wants to lead, with no shame.”
Although she said her views on sexuality don’t quite line up with Kenya’s, the two are similar in some ways.
“If I believe in something, I’m going to stick to my guns,” said Kirshner, giving the example of correcting reporters who, based on the show’s press release, refer to her character as the madam of a brothel. She’s seen what brothels are like and has met madams on her travels, she said, and Kenya is not a madam.
A madam is somebody who makes money off the backs of women who are, 98 percent of the time, absolutely exploited, tortured and abused in sexual servitude, she explained, “whereas my character in Defiance is [the owner of] a sex club, a place of sexual exploration and freedom. I know it’s an innocent oversight, but I don’t want to stand by something I don’t believe in.”
The show intrigued Kirshner because of its innovative integration with a video game of the same name. Viewers can play the game, including controlling some of the main characters, though not Kenya, and learn more about the highly developed Defiance world.
In addition to the concept, the fact that the show was being shot in her hometown sealed the deal for Kirshner. “I hadn’t worked in Toronto in ages, and I just realized how much I had missed home and missed being near my family,” she said.
It’s taken some adjustments to get back into the swing of Toronto life, she added. She left the city in her late teenage years to chase her acting career, and she joked about how her parents, including Canadian Jewish News reporter Sheldon Kirshner, still perceive her as that teenager.
“They remind me to turn off the stove, don’t forget to lock my door,” she said. “I think they forget I’ve lived an adult life more than half my life away.”
Now that she’s home, she’s finally getting the chance to set down roots in Toronto, including recently purchasing a house. She said she hopes to stay in the city for as long as she can, and the fact that Defiance has been renewed for another season means she’ll be there at least a little while longer.
Being away for years has taught her not only the importance of a family connection but also the value of a community connection. That’s why, she said, she was saddened to hear about the CJN’s possible closure.
“A community loses its way without a centrepiece,” she said. “Part of the function [of the CJN] was to gather stories that might disappear ... and out of respect to those stories, as a Jew, we need this. You can live anywhere, but without your community, I think you’re rootless and aimless.”
Kirshner is hoping that her next project will help her I Live Here organization further its philanthropic outreach: an online, interactive book, which will be accessible and able to constantly grow.
“I feel like, as a Jew ... I have a responsibility,” she said. “If you see an injustice, you have to say something and you have to do something about it.”
To find out more about the I Live Here project, visit i-live-here.com. Defiance airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on Showcase.
– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com
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