Toronto Actress Stars in A&E Show The Cleaner

(andPOP) - As a teenager, Amy Price-Francis had few dreams of becoming an actor.

"I had a wonderful teacher in high school who basically insisted that I audition for the National Theatre School of Canada," she says. "I thought it was a waste of time."

Price-Francis's teacher paid $50 for the application anyway, helped her fill it out, and sent it via express mail a day before it was due. Three auditions and a final interview later the NTS, which admits approximately 12 students into its acting program each year, offered Price-Francis a place at the school.

"I never was inspired to become an actress until I became one," Toronto's Price-Francis says. "Although my teacher, and many other angels along the way, are great sources of inspiration in my life, which of course bleeds over to the work."

Since graduating, Price-Francis has performed regularly, acting in both new and classical theatre and landing leading roles on Canadian television series and guest spots on American ones. Her most recent, The Cleaner, is a dramatic series centred on former heroin addict turned interventionist William Banks, played by Benjamin Bratt (and based on real-life "extreme interventionist" Warren Boyd, who is a producer on the show).

Like many extreme workplace dramas, the show provides both a glimpse of Banks's family (his wife, played by Price-Francis, and kids, played by Brett DelBuono and Liliana Mumy) and his crew (played by Grace Park, Esteban Powell and Kevin Michael Richardson), which is made up of former drug users. Banks decided to become an interventionist upon the birth of his daughter, and though no longer using drugs, he now tackles his work with the same determination as his former addiction. Each episode depicts Banks and his crew taking on a new case.

"Sometimes they make it, sometimes they don't," says Price-Francis. "Though if I had to sum the show up in one word, it would be 'hope.'"

Asked to describe her character, Melissa Banks, Price-Francis says, "Melissa is very near and dear to me." Just as the character of William Banks is based on a real person, she says, so is she. "She is a wife and mother of two, with a job and a household to maintain, but first and foremost, she is the glue that has kept the family together."

Price-Francis got the job after three separate auditions with casting directors, studio heads, and the network, and was in a sporting goods store next to the studio lot when she heard the news. "I answered the phone and was greeted with five congratulatory voices," she says. "The creators, director, casting director, and Benjamin were all on the line. It was great."

Asked what she hopes viewers take away from the show, Price-Francis replies, "As a television show, it is first and foremost entertainment." That said, "I do believe that this show has the ability and power to offer much more than that. Impact can generate movement, and movement can be a very good thing."

The Cleaner airs Tuesdays on A&E at 10 PM EST.