The Canadian actor Anna Silk created a lasting legacy with the SyFy/Showcase series “Lost Girl,” about a supernatural female, a member of the “Fae” race, who is both a succubus and a bisexual.
Bo drains the life out of her enemies, but she sometimes drains the life out of her friends by accident, like her high school boyfriend.
In its five seasons, from 2010 to 2015, "Lost Girl" drew a huge following. Many of those fans will be at Dragon Con 2018 this weekend, where Silk and eight fellow cast members will have a "Lost Girl" reunion, host panels, pose for photographs and hang out with each other.
We talked to Silk, 44, in a phone call from her Los Angeles home, where she lives with her husband Seth Cooperman and their two sons, Sam, 5, and Levi, 2.
Q. Have you ever been to Dragon Con before?
A. Once before. The first con I ever did was Dragon Con. It was about three years ago. I was hiding a pregnancy, and that weekend my belly popped.
When a woman says her belly popped, that means that all of a sudden they look pregnant. It popped at Dragon Con. I had the rest of the cast trying to stand in front of me in pictures.
Q. Was it a secret?
A. It was just a personal thing. I hadn’t shared it with a lot of people and I didn’t want to share it with everyone at Dragon Con.
Q. There are going to be nine 'Lost Girl' alumni at Dragon Con this year. How did that happen?
A. Yes. It is a ‘Lost Girl’ reunion, so yes, we’ve all been texting each other on a text loop, which is very entertaining at times.
Q. Do you have something special planned?
A. Yes. We’re going to do the entire pilot, but we’re going to switch parts. (She laughs. She’s kidding.) No, I don’t know what’s planned, but there will be panels and it will be nice to reconnect.
Q. And you’re all going out for sushi?
A. That is exactly what we’re doing, we are going to have a dinner one night.
Q. Bo is a succubus, which is not an attractive creature.
A. Bo’s back story is that when she was growing up she left a body count everywhere she went. It was a source of shame for her. Her journey was how it became a source of power.
I knew about the succubus and incubus phenomena. I had been having recurring nightmares, which went along with (sleep) paralysis. It was awful. I slept with all the lights on in my room for along time.
I was not a child. (She was in her late teens, early 20s.) I felt very, very scared. I never used to want to talk about it, by the way. The way I got rid of it, it would be sitting on me, and I would be totally paralyzed. Then it would spin, and I would eventually wake up. One night it was spinning, and it turned into this giant demonic head. It was yelling at me in this garbled language, and I just looked at it and screamed louder than it. I screamed and screamed and it went away. It was very scary. It also kind of teaches you that when you’re backed into a corner you can find that strength for yourself.
Q. You’re not bisexual but you play a bisexual. Does that make you responsible for representation -- does it put a burden on you to get it right?
A. I think that when we started the show my own set of beliefs, the way I grew up, was: love is love is love. I never thought twice about it, to be perfectly honest: Anyone’s sexual orientation, or who they’re in love with, or who they sleep with. When the show started, the fact that I was going to be in a love triangle with a man and a woman, didn’t resonate, as in, ‘oh, she’s bisexual.’ It was just that she’s a sexual creature.
It wasn’t until the first season (that I thought) this does feel like a responsibility. The whole cast, the whole writer’s room, everyone felt that responsibility.
Q. The current administration is kind of harsh on Canada. Has that caused any problems for you?
A. The news is pretty intense these days. Once a week my husband and I would read headlines to each other, then make one up. Often we’d have a hard time figuring out which one was the made up one.
Anna Silk and much of the cast from “Lost Girl” will be at Dragon Con and hosting events Friday through Monday.
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EVENT PREVIEW Dragon Con
Aug. 30-Sept. 3. Five-day membership: $140 at the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel. Three-day, two-day and single-day memberships: $10-$120 depending on number of days and which days. Tickets available on a day-of basis at the Sheraton. Free, ages 6 and younger. Sheraton Atlanta Hotel, 165 Courtland St. NE, Atlanta. dragoncon.org.
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