David Boreanaz

Ex-MuchMusic VJ finding success in pursuing acting

Amanda Walsh stars in the movie These Girls, which opens Friday.

Being on the other side of the interview table is a switch for Amanda Walsh.

The former MuchMusic VJ left her host’s job at the music station in 2004 to pursue an acting career, a path which led her straight to the Canadian film These Girls. So instead of asking the questions, this time around Walsh is answering queries about her life, career and her new comedy.

In the film, Walsh plays Glory Lorraine, one of the three teenaged girls who become obsessed with their town’s much older bad boy Keith Clark (David Boreanaz). When all three girls end up sleeping with the married Clark, emotional chaos ensues.

“When I was a teenager I was never attracted to older men,” she admits. “Like when girls would have crushes on teachers I was like, ‘ooh, he’s a grownup, that’s gross.’ When girls go out with older men when they’re really young I think it’s because they want to feel grown up, at least that’s my guess.”

Growing up in the public eye is something the 23-year-old has done a great deal of over the past four years.

At 19, Walsh became the youngest Much VJ in the station’s history and quickly became one of its most popular, hosting key programs, from the MuchMusic Video Awards to the daily Much On Demand.

But after three years on the job, the native of Rigaud, Que., decided it was time to pursue her original passion.

“When three years came up I felt like I’d learned what I needed to learn and I needed to move on,” she says. “It was a great job and I was really comfortable, but it was time to take a risk and go after what I loved or else I’d just wonder what could have been.”

Along with These Girls, Walsh has also landed a part on the television show Sons And Daughters, produced by Saturday Night Live legend Lorne Michaels, set to debut later this year.

And no surprise, she relocated to Los Angeles late last year, leaving friends and family behind in Canada. No stranger to hard work, Walsh got a new lesson in putting in the effort for a job after auditioning for months during pilot season and spending all of her free time studying lines.

“When I got the part on (Sons And Daughters) my manager said ‘I’ll take you out, where’s your favourite place to go?’ ” she says. “I had nowhere to go because I never went out, I was always too busy learning lines.”