Exclusive Pt II: Meet Kylee Bush in the upcoming fan film Nightwing ‘Prodigal Son’

Absolutely! I grew up in a small town in the Kootenays and was as involved with the arts in my community as possible. We had a strong community within my high school and the local theatre, so I was regularly involved in musical and contemporary productions. I worked at the local video store while in high school, which was a locally owned and operated establishment that had the largest selection in the area. As employees, we got unlimited free rentals and I would binge watch as many movies as I could squeeze into my evenings. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t in love with movies. My grandma would always bring me Shirley Temple films for special occasions when I was really young and it fueled my desire to act even further. I remember doing some research on how to become a film actor when I was a kid and climbing up the stairs to my parents in the living room and announcing with all of my 6-year-old authority, “Mom, I need to get an agent!” Now, I lived in a town of roughly 1,000 people 8 hours away from Vancouver, so this wasn’t my reality at the time. I had intended to relocate to Vancouver after graduation, but ended up pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Business in another city altogether. Two years in I decided I couldn’t wait any longer, collected my diploma and finally moved to Vancouver!

Well I aspired to relocate to Vancouver right after finishing high school to work and train in the film industry, but ended up enrolling in a Business program in another city instead. I had always planned to one day pursue a career in film, and after my second year of college I decided that it was time to make the transition. I joined a few local film boards on Facebook when I got to Vancouver and Brady Roberts (Nightwing in Nightwing: Prodigal Son) posted the original trailer they shot in Alberta in one of the groups. I was really impressed with the clip and messaged him to say that if they ever decided to go ahead with the production and were casting locally, I would be very interested. A month or so later they posted a casting call online for the series, and I went in to audition for Poison Ivy with Brady and Kyle-James Patrick, the director of the series, and found out within a week that I got the part!

I’m a big fan of action and adventure films, so I would love to be involved with a production of that degree someday. I’m a huge fan of so many different genres of film, so it’s definitely hard to pick just one. I would love to work with Quentin Tarantino someday, I love the tone of his work. I definitely enjoy working in the realm of comic superheros and villains though, so I would love to work on a feature film

of that nature.

I read a few of the comics that Ivy was featured in, but I mostly did a lot of research on her background and the history of her origin. I also found it very insightful to look at fan art and interpretations of the character; I really wanted to bring to life the character that fans of the comics envisioned so that was very helpful. One of Ivy’s key traits is her powerful demeanor that stems from her desire to protect the Earth. She is essentially a goddess of the Earth and she uses this, both physically and mentally, to her advantage. To get into character, I would listen to a lot of sensual and empowering music to channel an inner seductress of sorts. And of course dancing to Backstreet Boys with the rest of the cast & crew in between takes didn’t hurt.

My first introduction to Poison Ivy was admittedly with Uma Thurman’s interpretation in the 1997 version of Batman & Robin. I was intrigued by the strong and sexy female character that she was, and it was one of the first female leads I had witnessed who was a redhead. Growing up, I didn’t see a lot of leading lady’s with red hair so although it might not have been natural, she was both iconic and inspiring for me. When I was doing some further research on Poison Ivy for my audition, I was introduced to a whole different side of the character that I connected with very strongly. As I mentioned, I really wanted to portray a version of the character that readers of the comic books would recognize.

Well Poison Ivy is definitely my ‘dream role’ in any DC related production, but if I had to choose another character I would have to say Bat Girl. I feel like she has a very intriguing and compelling history that would be interesting to explore. In all honesty though, any of the characters that DC has created would be an amazing challenge to take on.

I try to maintain a relatively active lifestyle for the most part, but I definitely kicked it up a notch for this role. Consistent diet and exercise was my main focus. One of my good friends is a trainer and they helped me work out an excellent routine consisting of equal parts cardio and weight training and I ate as clean as possible. Except for my morning (and occasionally mid-afternoon) coffee, I would definitely have a difficult time completely cutting out coffee. That stuff is my life source.