windspeaker confidential - Andrea Menard

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From her acclaimed role in her one-woman show, the Velvet Devil, to her portrayal of Constable Strongarm on the television series Moccasin Flats, Andrea Menard has amply demonstrated her abilities as a singer and actor. She will star in Drew Hayden Taylor's play 400 Kilometres this May for the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company.

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?

Andrea Menard: Honesty. Absolutely.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?

A.M.: When I make an avoidable mistake. I usually get more mad at myself than other people.

W: When are you at your happiest?

A.M.: When I am in my house in front of my new fireplace with my sweetie Marcel, and I have to go to work that evening. It's all there. And my friends are coming over for tea.

W: What one word best describes you when you are at your worst?

A.M.: Frenetic.

W: What one person do you most admire and why?

A.M.: Oh, I have a million. One person? Jennifer Podemski. Because she is following her dream, allowing herself to fly, but taking her community with her. She's not forgetting where she comes from and she's providing work for others and training others, and thinking of the youth and the people coming behind her.

W: What is the most difficult thing you've ever had to do?

A.M.: When I was not in this arts world, I had to go against the grain. Because everyone seemed to be going for this nine to five job, the money every two weeks, you know, a paycheque. And for me, when I went against the grain and knew that I would be walking into a different world, that was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. Making the artist's life my life.

W: What is your greatest accomplishment?

A.M.: Changing unkind and unhealthy beliefs about myself, changing them into positive beliefs.

W: What one goal remains out of reach?

A.M.: I guess for me, nothing remains out of reach, because I'm a patient person. I feel like whatever I really want or desire or go for I will achieve.

W: If you couldn't do what you're doing today, what would you be doing?

A.M.: I seem to be doing everything I want to be doing, you know. I would have maybe been a teacher, but I'm teaching now sometimes. I maybe would have been a speaker, but I'm speaking now. If I can't do what I'm doing now, I would have created something new. I guess I'm a creative person and I figured out that I had to create. So teaching is creative, and workshopping is creative.

W: What is the best piece of advice you've ever received?

A.M.: In order to be a good actor, you have to be willing to be a bad actor.

W: Did you take it?

A.M.: Yes. . . It made me stop trying to be perfect. Because my pride would not allow me to give it all if I felt like I was going to suck. But the truth is, is that you have to take those big risks in order to fall flat on your face, and sometimes those falls are the greatest gift because they springboard you onto what you needed. But if you don't take any risks at all you won't be an actor. But you have to be willing to be bad in order to get where you really do want to go, which is to be a good actor.

W: How do you hope to be remembered?

A.M.: As an honest, courageous person who followed her dreams.