Tammy Gillis Talks Freeform’s ‘Siren’ and Female Empowerment [Exclusive Interview]

There are many new, exciting shows hitting our TV screens as the mid-season TV schedule takes reign. Of those shows to hit air is the highly anticipated Freeform series, Siren.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Tammy Gillis about her upcoming role on Siren. You might also recognize Gillis from her previous roles on Menorca, The Arrangement, and Ghost Wars.

Gillis will play one of the local town deputies, Deputy Marissa Staub, and while she can’t say much about her role on Siren, she does love how the show is not like anything she’s seen before. “It’s such a cool concept, and it’s not a concept that has been explored yet. It’s so hard after watching the trailer to have to wait; you just want to watch it,” Gillis said.

Another main attraction for Siren is the way it encapsulates female empowerment.

“One of the things that I love about the show and what I feel is the tone is that women really find their power throughout the series. There are a lot of amazing female characters in the show,” she confirmed.

One thing that proved a tad bit difficult for Gillis was slowing down and letting dialogue take a backseat.

“For me, as an actor, I like to do a lot of comedy, and I’m kind of a hand talker, so one of the challenging things was to have a lot of stillness and let the mystery and words of the character sit instead of demonstrating and showing too much,” Gillis shared.

Unlike some of her previous jobs where Gillis had friends on set she knew, Siren was a very fresh start. “I didn’t really know anyone other than another guy from Vancouver who plays one of the deputies, so it was interesting working with all of these people that I’ve never met or worked with before.”

“Everyone really bonded, which was terrific. We had a big cast dinner at one person’s house, and it was just amazing to get to know all of these people,” Gillis continued.

Strangers quickly became friends on set for Gillis and other cast members.

“The boys, they like to play around and have fun, and it was always a great time. There are some behind the scenes videos that people posted on Instagram where we’re just fooling around and dancing. It was a great set to be on. There were some moments that were heavy, but there were a lot of light moments as well.”

Shooting in Vancouver meant dealing with psychotic weather, which didn’t make filming fun on occasion.

“There was one day we were filming, it was a night shoot, and it started to snow. We had to stop filming because we had shot one side of a scene and had to go around and shoot the other side, but we couldn’t because it was literally a blizzard. So, we just sat and waited for a few hours until it started to let up.”

Although Gillis dealt with her fair share of hectic weather, she is grateful that she didn’t have to go through what some of the other cast members went through.

“The men who played the fishermen spent a lot of nights out in the rain on boats. I was lucky because I didn’t have a lot of things out in the rain and boats, which was great, so I really felt for those guys,” Gillis said.

Gillis also shared a bit about how she became interested in acting, and paid tribute to a special teacher who changed the way she looked at the arts at a young age. “I was fortunate that a new English teacher moved to the little town I grew up in. She started a drama club, and I was really interested in doing that. I did plays all throughout high school,” Gillis remembered.

“When I finally got to university, I initially went to go into pre-law but I was scouted by a modeling scout one night while I was out with my friends and I ended up started doing some modeling, which I didn’t particularly love. But, I loved auditioning for commercials and short films, so that’s kind of how it all started,” she continued.

When asked who her dream co-star would be, Gillis only had one actress in mind. “Kerry Washington pops into my head because I love Scandal, and I love how powerful she is. I’m so blown away by how fast she talks and how much dialogue she has.”

In addition to discussing her role on Siren, Gillis also shared some information about some of her upcoming projects. There is a lot to be excited about, that’s for certain.

“I’m in a feature film called A Dog’s Way Home starring Ashley Judd that is going to be coming out in the next year. Ghost Wars will be hitting Netflix worldwide soon, and I’m about to start shooting a movie next week, but I don’t believe I can tell you what it’s called yet,” Gillis said.

Siren Season 1 Intro – Sneak Peek

video courtesy of Freeform

Be sure to catch Tammy Gillis as Marissa Staub on Siren, premiering March 29th on Freeform. 

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