I was a cadaver on ‘Law & Order Toronto’

I’m in the fourth episode of Season 2 of the crime drama, which airs tonight, March 20. The show returned to Citytv last month. 

“I’m really excited for people to see the season,” showrunner Tassie Cameron said in an interview in February. “I think it’s even stronger than Season 1, so I’m really proud of it.”

The Toronto-made spinoff of America’s long-running “Law & Order” franchise was a hit for City after debuting last year. That helped the cast and crew when making these new episodes, which were shot over the summer and into the winter. 

“We’ve had a great experience with things like locations on the show from the very beginning, but having it be a hit helps with that,” Cameron said. “We shot at the Rogers Centre this year, which was incredible.”

One high-profile story that makes it into this new season is the gold heist at Pearson Airport. “How could you ignore that headline? It was so fun to make up our version of what happened,” Cameron said.

Part of the fun of watching, of course, is matching the TV story to its real-life analogue.

My “L&O” adventure began on an otherwise ordinary Wednesday last August when publicist Lisa Ghione emailed to offer me a cameo on the show. She warned that it wasn’t “glam, it’s as a cadaver in Dr. Lucy Da Silva’s pathology lab.”

I said yes right away. I love seeing how the TV sausage is made and what better vantage point than right in the middle of the action, even though I’d have to keep my eyes closed throughout my entire scene. 

Besides, I have always wondered how actors who play bodies in crime shows manage to stay so still when the camera is on them.

The answer is sometimes they don’t.

Executive producer Amy Cameron, sister of Tassie, said visual effects are often used in post-production to get rid of rising chests and other signs of life.

Perhaps you’re reading this and thinking, “How hard can it be to hold your breath?”

The answer: very hard, especially when you’re lying on a very cold metal table in a state of semi-undress with actors right beside you saying their lines. 

There was a note on the call sheet, below the announcement that a person with a severe nut allergy would be around that day: “Toronto Star journalist Debra Yeo on set for Ep. 204 work.” And then further down, on the list of background performers, my role was identified succinctly as “Corpse”: no name, no cause of death or any other info.

Don’t think for a minute that scant description offended me. “Corpse” is a coveted role on “Law & Order Toronto.” 

“It’s the thing we get asked the most: ‘Can I be a dead body on the show?’” said Tassie Cameron. 

I was, in fact, the first person to play a cadaver in the series who wasn’t also acting in it. That’s got to be worth some bragging rights.

Mind you, this is not the route to take if you’re ready for your close-up, à la Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard.”

My appearance comes deep into the episode, when Graff and Bateman visit the morgue to talk to Da Silva (Nicola Correia-Damude) about a cold case, and it lasts for two seconds. Seriously, as I watched a preview of the episode, I missed myself the first time around when I glanced down at my phone. 

On the day of shooting, I was on set for about four hours, starting in hair and makeup at 9 a.m. Carmela Dos Santos, the first assistant hair artist, slicked down and blow-dried my naturally wavy hair, since in real life the cadaver’s locks would be washed and styled for family viewing in the morgue. Then I changed — in my very own trailer! — putting on borrowed sweatpants and a hoodie over my own undies and strapless bra.

I then traded the hoodie for strategically placed towels so Roxanne De Nobrega, head of the makeup department, could spray what she called rice paper makeup all over my chest, arms, shoulders and face to give me a deathly pallor.

Some brown marker lines on my chest — to show the Y-incision where the pathologist would “cut” — and violet shadow on my lips to make them look blue completed the look.

Suitably corpsified, I headed inside the Cinespace studio to wait for my debut.

“I look forward to cutting open your chest,” joked Correia-Damude on her way to the morgue set. 

As I watched her do a different scene with Young and Munroe on a monitor, I was impressed with guest actor Tanisha Thammavongsa, who was on the slab as that episode’s murder victim. She looked serenely lifeless, at least until she raised one eyebrow. But, apparently, the pulse in her neck could be seen throbbing on camera, which meant having to get the shot from a higher angle.

Afterward, Thammavongsa told me she had tried to breathe into her back rather than her chest and stomach when she was on the table.

I tried to do the same thing, truly I did. But I found that, due to nerves, my breath came faster rather than slower. And that was just in what they call the “blocking” rehearsal, when Young, Munroe and Correia-Damude said their lines while the director and assistant director checked the camera angles. 

Before I knew it, it was time for the real thing. I stepped onto a wooden block and was helped onto the rather wobbly table; two women held a sheet in front of me so I could doff my hoodie in relative modesty. I lay back with my head on a smaller block and the sheet was smoothed over me.

Sudz Sutherland, who was directing the episode, said he would count down from three and advised me to take in a breath and hold it on two. Alas, I couldn’t hold it all the way through the scene and tried to breathe as surreptitiously as possible.

Was my chest moving on camera? Were my eyes moving under my lids? Did my lips twitch?

According to Tassie Cameron, I did great. “You were better than many dead bodies,” she said, “many.” 

I only had to do one more take and I was finished. The actors had a little more footage to shoot but without the autopsy table on camera. By around 1 p.m., I was free to get the makeup removed and put my own clothes back on.

I commiserated with Munroe and Correia-Damude, who were relaxing on the show’s hospital set, about what it’s like acting dead.

“I think it’s hard when you’re in the cadaver role … they’re supposed to forget you’re there,” Correia-Damude said of the other actors.

Munroe said she’s played a body numerous times, often one that comes back from the dead.

While shooting a show in Atlanta, she had to lie in a replica of one of those refrigerated drawers where bodies are stored.

“Oooh, that was the weirdest,” Munroe said. “I had to shake it off at the end of the day.”

For the record, “Law & Order Toronto” has six such drawers but only one that actually opens, and Correia-Damude was dreading the day she has to open it in a scene.

It could happen, though. Season 3 is already in production and Tassie Cameron said she expects to have more nonacting bodies in the series.

“We will accommodate as many dead bodies as we can,” she told me with a laugh, “as long as they’re as good as you.”

“Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent” Season 2 airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on Citytv and can be streamed on Citytv Plus.