NEW YORK -- The ratings for ABC's new medical drama Off the Map have been declining week after week. The first episode was viewed by 7.6 million people while the show which aired the last week of March was only watched by five million.
And while U.S. critics don't seem taken with the show, Montrealer Rachelle Lefevre doesn't spend much time worrying about it.
"I'm like in a bubble in Hawaii," said Lefevre, who just celebrated her 32nd birthday. "I don't read the critics."
She does however regularly tweet to her 209,000 followers who appreciate the show.
Lefevre plays Doctor Ryan Clark, an impulsive and unstable woman who is hiding a troubled past.
"We'll learn of the secret in the next episode," she said. "And I guarantee that no one will be able to predict what it is."
Lefevre's character wasn't part of the pilot; it was added at the last minute after she met with the show's producer Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice).
Lefevre had to learn Spanish for the role. Filming is also quite physical. Several rescue shots are set underwater.
"You think that the technical side of the show is complex?" she asked. "We dive with bottles of ketchup to simulate fake blood!" Wikipedia has become her bible for medical terms, she added.
There are two weeks left of filming for the first season's 13 episodes and Lefevre said the second season has not been confirmed.
"I'm waiting. I'd really like to be part of a long-term project," she said.
Lefevre, whose father is a francophone and mother Anglophone, has lost some of her French after living in Los Angeles for seven years.
She'll have to pick it up again because she's on the cusp of landing a role in her first Quebec film.
"I've been waiting for a long time to act in French in Quebec," she said. "I'll need practice."
Lefevre can be quite persistent. She tried to convince the director of Twilight, Catherine Hardwicke, to cast her for the role of Victoria by writing her a 30-page letter.
Lefevre was eventually cast in the second Twilight film but not in the third, which prompted a deluge of Internet protests from fans.
Fans still stop her in the street but the storm has calmed.
"It's better like this," she said. "The paparazzi don't really recognize me anymore in Hollywood unless I go shopping on Robertson (Blvd.)."
Lefevre said she misses Montreal.
"Nothing can replace a beautiful Montreal day, sitting on a terrace on Prince-Arthur Street with a good beer," she said.
Source : Via!
