A VJ’s rise from MuchMusic to McConaughey

While other actors were waiting tables and juggling part-time jobs before their big breaks, Canadian cutie pie Amanda Walsh was charming a nation as the youngest VJ on MuchMusic. The Quebec native, who used to put on skits for her family as a child, joined the nation’s music station at 19 and acted as an interviewer and host over her three-year tenure until she packed her bags for the sunny streets of L.A.

And five years after throwing herself at the mercy of an unsympathetic system known for churning out stars and starlets at an alarming rate, she’s come out on top.

The plucky Canadian currently appears in the Matthew McConaughey-Jennifer Garner rom-com The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past as ditzy but loveable Denise, the only bridesmaid who has yet to be bedded by McConaughey’s Connor Mead. A fan of the Southern stud’s film work, especially courtroom drama A Time to Kill, Walsh admitted to some initial anxiety but was mostly elated to be in the movie.

“I was a little nervous but I was more just kinda pinching myself,” confessed an audibly excited Walsh on the phone from her home base in L.A. “I remember the moment when I went on-set to shoot a scene with Matthew and it was him, myself and the director [Mark Waters], and I was like, ‘Whoa, this is a real movie.’”

Walsh is affable and quick to erupt into girlish giggles, bearing no signs of a hardened L.A. alter ego, and smartly uses her naturally aw-shucks demeanor to comical effect in the film.

“I like to say that my character is nervous around his character, so it worked – I’m just very method about it,” she laughed. “I think I did so many embarrassing things during [the bar scene with McConaughey]: I spilled my drink on myself on one take, I tripped on another, I face-planted on another. It was a bit of a mess, but he was very nice about it.”

They stay the saaaame age

Though the character McConaughey portrays in GOGP is anything but, Walsh is quick to sing his praises as a very grounded and sweet man. Indeed, he carries the bulk of the film and takes arrogant and sleazy to another level as a self-centered uber-bachelor. Threatening to derail his brother’s wedding with grandiose speeches about the myth of love and tyranny of monogamy, he’s visited by the ghost of his womanizing Uncle Wayne (a George Hamilton-hued Michael Douglas) along with a few other apparitions, who jolt him into another way of thinking by forcing him to relive his deplorable treatment of women.

Currently in a relationship, though she’s keeping mum on who the lucky man is, Walsh definitely believes in the idea of romantic love. She admits that, much like the characters she’s played, she’s largely guided by her heart but is quick to qualify : “My head is pretty loud too.”

But then it would have to be. For a music network host with only a few acting credits to her name to try and conquer the acting world, reasonably thick skin and a steely resolve would be definite prerequisites.

“It’s been an adventure. I came down here knowing only one other person, pretty much. I lived on my friend’s couch for five weeks before getting a job. I was here before that, staying in a two-star hotel…there’s a community of Canadian actors down here who help each other out, it seems like, when a new person comes to town, which is so nice. But yeah, it’s pretty overwhelming.”

Moving on up

Working on a big-budget, large-scale film has not only upped her profile and given her CV a nice boost, it also helped Walsh learn to trust her instincts when there was a chance to improvise and learn first-hand from seasoned professionals.

“[Matthew] is a very, very charming guy but he also works really hard. He always plays this easy-going dude, effortlessly, but at the same time, he had a ton to do in this movie. And watching him work on-set, he never dropped a line and he was always on his game.”

And Walsh is no slouch when it comes to plotting her own success, having already lined up her next project. In “Washingtonienne”, a female-led HBO comedy pilot produced by none other than Sarah Jessica Parker, Walsh plays a small-town Republican whose workaholic existence comprises her social life. Walsh is crossing her fingers that it gets picked up and reveals that, if she has her way, appearing in front of the camera will only be the beginning.

“I’d love to be in a place where I could write and produce my own material as well. I really admire women like Tina Fey for that.”

Liz Lemon, consider yourself warned.