Satan and 2020's romantic selfie (Submitted)
Natalie Roy plays 2020 incarnate in the viral Match.com commercial, produced and written by Ryan Reynolds and his production company Maximum Effort, where she meets the love of her life – Satan himself.
“I loved the Beauty in the Beast Disney movie, I used to sing it to myself all the time as a kid and growing up in Keswick Ridge,” said Roy when asked about how she became interested in acting. “I used to run up and down the road and in our backyard performing and making plays, so I feel like that creative impulse was always inside of me.”
Roy was part of drama club and acting productions at Keswick Ridge School and Fredericton High School, taught by the late Jim Myles, and graduated from St. Thomas University’s theatre program in 2004. She was also a member of the Calithumpians theatre troupe in Fredericton.
Her career took her to Toronto and then to New York, where she has lived for ten years, and has amassed a CV of numerous film, television and stage credits, as well as being an acting coach.
Natalie Roy headshot (Submitted)
“My technique is really about helping people learn that what you have inside of you is enough – you don’t need to look different, you don’t need to lose five pounds, you can just trust that whatever is coming up from inside of you is exactly perfect for what the role needs,” says Roy.
It was in New York City where Roy auditioned for the Match.com commercial, which threaded a delicate needle of comedy in, and literally about, a difficult year for so many people.
“Ryan’s script had this really perfect way of fitting into this moment in time where we could have some laughter and have some lightness, but while recognizing that this has been a challenging year, and not to make light of the challenges of the year either,” she explained.
Her audition was conducted on her laptop with the director Bryan Rowland via Zoom and was invited for a callback. A few days later, Roy got a call on the subway and learned the part was hers.
“It feels like one of those like once in a lifetime moments where you really get to work with elite artists, every single person is a genius at what they were doing,” she said, adding Reynolds’ production company had done several commercials before. “I realized that he [Ryan] was watching what we were doing and giving notes and feedback, and even sometimes doing video messages for us like letting us know different directions he wanted and things like that.”
The commercial was the first set Roy worked on during the pandemic and everyone rigorously followed COVID-19 protocols, being tested before arriving on set clear, having their temperatures taken and social distancing on set and wearing masks.
“I have to really applaud the team of how much time and effort and money they put into making sure that this could run and could run smoothly,” she said. “It puts me in awe that production companies are going to the lengths they are to make sure people can still have content on their televisions, because it really is at a big cost for them to really do it right.”
Roy’s 2020 had fourteen costumes changes altogether, focusing on patterns, bright colours, and mismatched clothing to increase the absurdity of the character. “She thinks she looks great, and she’s on her date and she is falling in love,” said Roy, who as 2020 is having a blast with the man of her dreams. “The comedy I think comes out of me not realizing how tragic I am.”
The weather during the shoot also helped cultivate a 2020 atmosphere.
“The week that we filmed it was pouring rain every day and freezing cold,” she said. “We were laughing and saying, ‘Well of course this is what 2020 would be like and of course they would be having a picnic in the rain!’ – that makes total sense.”
The surprise of Taylor Swift’s re-recorded 2008 hit song “Love Story” was the final touch to launch the commercial into the stratosphere. Like everyone else, Roy had no idea the commercial would use Swift’s song.
“That Taylor song is so perfect and the circumstances around her re-recording her music felt so perfect in accordance with this commercial,” she said. “You take that love story and put it against Satan’s face and the face of 2020, and it is just the perfect thing.”
When the commercial debuted at the beginning of December it became an immediate viral hit, but Roy was aware it could have been received in a very different way.
“I was really present to the fact that people could hate 2020, all of a sudden maybe my face represents all the things that people hated about this year,” she said, adding her friends and coaches prepared her about that outcome.
“There was this funny feeling inside of knowing for myself as an actor that whatever people thought about it, whether they loved my performance or hated my performance, whether they loved me or hated me, that I would have to just let that go.”
Roy has filmed further spots with Match.com reuniting the lovebirds and has a feature film in the works that plans to shoot in the spring.
“So many people have reached out to me and it makes me feel so good that so many people come back into my life to say what it meant for them or that it brought them some joy,” she said. “To think that you could be part of something like that has just been overwhelming gratitude for me.”
