How nice is the gorgeous Enuka Okuma? So nice that she took time to talk with me the week of her wedding! For real! The 34-year-old Canadian actress currently stars as the Traci Nash (tough mom and rookie cop) on ABC's drama, Rookie Blue. You may also recognize her from 24, Cold Case, Grey's Anatomy and most recently, the Tom Hanks-written and directed film, Larry Crowne. Not to mention, she has written, produced and directed her own short film called Cookie. The lovely (and busy!) newlywed talked with me about the show, her love for Zack Morris and some of her favorite guilty pleasure shows. Read on!

Follow Enuka on Twitter!

Rookie Blue airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.

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Hi Enuka! Thanks for chatting with me. How did you find time to do this interview? Aren’t you getting married, like, this weekend?!?

Yeah, it’s totally crazy. I have so many appointments and things to do! People are flying in soon. It’s ridiculous, but it’s great! It’s busyness, but for a great cause.

Are you pretty calm about everything or would you classify yourself a bridezilla?

I think I’m calm, but you need to talk to my fiancé, my sister and my friends, and they’ll tell you whether I’m a bridezilla or not (laughs). It can be totally stressful but there are certain times when it’s just ridiculous and you just have to laugh. My sister said to me, "Hey, you know what? If the acting thing doesn’t work out, you have a career as an event planner!"

Haha! Very true. So how did you land the role on Rookie Blue?

I auditioned for the role, but what’s funny is I actually auditioned for the role of Gail Peck and once I got the part of Traci, Charlotte and I got to talking. She had actually auditioned for the role of Traci Nash!  Both of us went into the audition and were like, “I want to read for that other part, that seems more like something I could do,” and we both said something to the producers and they were like, “Go for it!” And clearly, we were both right. Those were the roles for which we were more suited.

Interesting. Now can you describe Traci for us?

Well, she’s a tough cookie. She’s the one who kind of came from the darker side of town. She’s got street smarts and she’s a single mom. She’s definitely somebody who’s had to overcome adversity, so she’s a fighter. Actually, she’s quite literally a fighter because she’s a championship boxer!

What’s the biggest challenge for you?

I think the biggest challenge for me is that she is a mom and she’s also working in a very dangerous job, so I think I’ve had some concerns as to why, as a single mom, she’d go into such a dangerous profession. But I had a talk with our producer and the two of us came to the conclusion that she’s the type of woman that would never let anybody stand in the way of her dreams. What a great thing to teach your son, that you can do whatever it is you want; that’s how I came to terms with doing what she does as a mother.

Definitely. And how excited were you when the show got picked up for a second season?

Well, it's a rarity in this business, especially [with] a show that’s this unique and in both Canada and the U.S. Last year, I remember getting the news and jumping all over my living room; I was ecstatic! I’m hoping to repeat that in a matter of weeks when they tell us if we’re doing a third season.

How’s working with everyone on set? What are your costars like?

Well, all the guys are fantastic and the girls are great too! I can’t lie, we love each other and we get along really, really well.

Who would you say is the silliest person on set?

That’s a hard question. It’s probably a toss-up between Missy, Travis and Charlotte. Actually, you know who might be the silliest? Matty Gordon. He gets us in stitches all the time! You know the scenes where we’re getting briefed by our captain? Those are impossible to shoot because everyone’s just cracking up constantly and when they’re not on camera, they’re trying to make the other people laugh. We just get in trouble all the time. It’s ridiculous!

Nice! So as a Canadian, what’s your favorite thing about Canada and your least favorite thing about the US?

Can I do the opposite, too? (laughs). What can I say, Canada has a huge patriotic spirit that’s definitely grown since the Olympics and we went all the way to the Stanley Cup this year. It’s almost like there’s a school spirit throughout the whole country. It’s nice to be home and feel such a sense of community. I feel like, because there are less people in Canada, people tend to be more friendly. People actually look you in the eye and say “Hello,” and I find that throughout most of the country, but in the States, I find that only occurs in smaller towns.

As for New York, I think it’s very friendly. I remember the first time I went to New York, I was thinking I’d have to hold onto my bag and not look anyone in the eye but New Yorkers are really very friendly! I feel like New York gets a bad rap. L.A. is pretty cool. It’s got great weather, but the thing is, L.A. is very much all about the entertainment business, so sometimes it’s hard to get away from talking about that. The conversation starter always has to do with working in the industry, so that can get very exhausting.

Definitely. Speaking of exhausting, I was looking at your reel and it seems like you have a lot of crying scenes! Does that just come easy to you now?

It’s funny, I never used to be able to do it at all, but you know what it was? When I did 24, I had to cry all day long and people don’t realize when you’re doing those scenes, that you have to do them from all these different angles and for different characters. So you end up shooting one scene for a good four to seven hours. It could take a really long time. When I had to do this very intense crying scene, I had to cry all day and Kiefer Sutherland, who was in the scene but is also one of the producers of the show, was awesome. He took me aside and just said, “Look, this is your time. We’ll wait for you to do whatever you need to do to get to the place you need to and I think you’ll be really happy with the result.” It was the first time anybody actually gave me permission and I realized that’s what one needs to do as an actor and it was pretty cool. I was crying when the camera wasn’t even on me; I just kept going, it was awesome!

Haha! And what was it like working on (and crying during) Grey’s Anatomy? I love that show.

It was great! It was a very intense scene in the beginning, but for the rest shoot, I just laid in bed the whole time! It was fantastic for me because I was literally looking up and watching the rest of the cast just kind of playing. It was the best seat in the house.

How was working with Mark-Paul Gosselaar on Raising the Bar?

So great, I mean, we all know Zack, right? I was like, “I’m working with Zack Morris!” He’s so cool. He’s such a nice guy and a good actor. Watching Saved by the Bell as a kid, you never really see what somebody can do and watching him work on set was great. He’s very professional and very nice.

Now you’ve done some writing and directing. What do you like about being behind the camera?

I think what most actors who direct tend to like is being able to oversee the whole thing, being able to tell a story from my perspective. As an actor, you have your little part and you do as much as you can, as best as you can with your small contribution. As a director, you’re the puppeteer, you’re manning the ship and it’s pretty exciting, especially when you get to work with talented people. I had a really great cast and crew and I’m really proud of my little movie, Cookie, and that has only to do with the people that worked with me.

Tell me about Cookie.

An interesting thing about the film is that it stars Jennifer Finnigan from ABC’s Better With You and her husband, Jonathan Silverman from Weekend At Bernie’s.

And can we see it yet?

Unfortunately, it’s not out yet because it’s still doing a festival run right now. It opened at Newport Beach and it’s played in Ireland and at the Worldwide Short Film Festival here in Toronto. I’m talking to some distributors so hopefully we’ll get it out there to the public at some point.

Awesome! So we're all about passions and obsessions here at Ology. We call them "ologies." What are your top three ologies?

Movies are an obsession for me, for sure. Movies and fashion. I’m pretty simple, movies and fashion are kind of my obsessions; I don’t know if I have a third one!

What kind of music do you like?

It’s funny, I go through stages with music and there are so many choices out there. Music has changed so much in the last five to ten years, I don’t feel like I’m on the pulse anymore and that’s something I used to be really into. I still love music and I love every kind of music. I’m pretty open when it comes to music. If it’s good and it’s got some heart, then I’m a fan. Also, in terms of how to find [music], there are so many underground capabilities now where there weren’t before. I feel like there’s so much out there that’s getting past me and it stresses me out!

What about TV shows. Any guilty pleasures?

Well, I’m a big fan of most cable shows when it comes down to it. I’m a huge fan of True Blood and Nurse Jackie, those are both great shows. I also love this show on HBO called Tell Me You Love Me. It’s an older show, but I love it. Guilty pleasures? Undercover Boss (laughs). I love it! I love Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Weightloss Edition too. These shows make you cry and they know it! My other guilty pleasure is Wife Swap.

Those are great (laughs)! So can you give us any teasers about what's to come on Rookie Blue?

Tracy is still involved in a love triangle with her baby-daddy and her workplace “thing,” so she’s got some decisions to make in the coming weeks. As for the rest of the characters, somebody gets shot in the next couple weeks and it’s very critical, the situation this person gets in, and that’s all I’ll say.

Fair enough! Thanks so much for taking the time out of your wedding planning to chat!

Thank you!

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