Catching up with Jennifer Finnigan

Jennifer Finnigan has been working nonstop since she left B&B nearly 20 years ago, racking up a list of impressive credits on CROSSING JORDAN, CLOSE TO HOME, BETTER WITH YOU, TYRANT and SALVATION.

- Tom Stacy

Now, she's enjoying that her latest project, MOONSHINE, a Canadian series, is airing in the U.S. on The CW. "I can't even tell you enough about this," Finnigan begins. "It came at a time that was very scary in the world. When this show came to my attention, it was February of 2020. I remember reading it and thinking it was such a special show. I've always wanted to do a Canadian show. It was so well-written, and the character of Lidia jumped off the page to me. I was like, 'Who is this Sheri Elwood [creator] and how does she know how to write for women so well?' We had all these meetings scheduled to talk about potentially doing the show, and then the world shut down."

Fortunately, the show found a way to go on. "Lo and behold, in Nova Scotia in the Atlantic provinces, Covid was so low, it was almost nonexistent for months," she recalls. "We were one of the first productions in North America to get started. We started shooting and we did all the protocols. I remember flying out of LAX and there were maybe three people on the entire plane. We did a full two-week quarantine, where we weren't even allowed to leave our front door. But after, I remember leaving the rental house outside of Halifax, and we went to a restaurant. This restaurant was open but not just that, it had music. I was like, 'Where are we? Are we in the place that Covid forgot?" It was crazy. I was able to keep my kid in school, and we were able to be social within the bubble of our show. It was a huge gift, not just to be able to work during that time but to work on something we loved, and to form bonds which would never have been that strong if not for the conditions we were shooting under."