Tennille Read on the Independent Women of ‘SurrealEstate’ and ‘Workin’ Moms’ [Interview]

Many viewers have gotten sucked into the quirky dynamic of full-time mothers who also work on Workin’ Moms. The Toronto-based comedy now has all five seasons available to stream on Netflix. 

In the latest season, Tennille Read takes on the role of Bianca, Frankie’s girlfriend who is also a new mom, trying to do it on her own.  

I recently spoke with Read about her funny, charming role as Bianca but also as Megan on the new SyFy hit drama, SurrealEstate. We were able to get candid about what makes each of these unique roles tick in the grander scheme of their respective shows. 

“[Megan] has an interesting position on the show, because it’s really about the agency itself. And there are the five core members of the agency that she’s sort of on the peripheral of. But, very much engaged with the story of Luke Roman,” Read said about SurrealEstate. “And as the season goes on, we see how she starts to be incorporated into the other characters, they have some story overlap.”

It’s good to know that this peripheral character will become more intertwined as the season progresses. As Read put it, “I hope there is a second season so we get to see that happen even more.”

“They’re all kind of invested in this house — the Donovan house — and so there is room to have them engage more together.”

We also discussed how Luke’s connection to the house really plays into his connection with Megan. “There is this idea that I talked with the showrunner, the creator, George Olsen, about how the Donovan House has the ability to read what scares you the most and provides the ghost that will do that for you,” she said.

In the first episode, we see Megan transformed inside of her textbooks and becoming the dead body. “It feeds her fear of failure, or not measuring up as a doctor, or not passing med school. All of that haunts her. So in a way, it’s kind of like, is it [Luke’s] mom’s ghost? Or is it an entity that is feeding off her fear and appearing as his mom’s ghost?” 

“Before [Luke] she was just willing to blame it on having too much Chardonnay or dim lighting. Or being alone in a big house,” Read continued. “It would not take much for me to get scared as a kid. So, I’m not sure I would be able to stay in that house, even with the closed portal.”

When it comes to her two most recent characters, Tennille Read was easily able to decide which one she connected with more. While she loves both characters, one is more like her than the other. 

“There are elements of Bianca that I can really grasp onto for sure. But, Megan has a very analytical and scientific background. She’s kind of skeptical, she’s constantly challenging what she knows to be true. And she doesn’t want to believe in ghosts,” Read explained. 

Read also took the time to describe Bianca in a bit more detail.

“Bianca is a girl new to the group. She is Frankie’s girlfriend and she has decided to have a baby on her own. Frankie initially helped her kind of get brave about that and to take the plunge to do it. Now, Bianca has what everyone describes as the ‘ugly baby’ who everyone hopes will grow into his face.”  

“She is a character who is very rooted to her faith. We get to see her kind of navigate with her belief in the modern time. I think that is kind of interesting, for a single mom use her faith as her anchor to the world,” she said.

The show, Workin’ Moms itself is, as Read puts it, “a fun snippet of our society that we don’t usually get to see on TV in [a comedic] way.” She thinks that the show does a great job of taking an “ordinary mom” and “smashes the box to give the characters a life beyond mothering.”

“Each character has an interesting career path, and the challenges that come out of balancing that with having kids is part of it,” she said. “But it also takes those characters and [have them] interact with many different funny characters and situations that are gonna give you a good ride.”

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*featured image credit: Matt Eastman

You can catch Tennille Read every Friday night on SurrealEstate on SyFy or on Workin’ Moms on Netflix.

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