Anna Cathcart first captured our hearts as Kitty Song-Covey, the charming and hilarious younger sister from the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before franchise. Just as Kitty is now embarking on her own adventures in a new Netflix series, another one of Cathcart’s iconic characters is receiving the spin-off treatment.
In Middlebridge Mysteries, a new spin-off of the Audible Original series Mistletoe Murders, Cathcart returns as the fan favourite Violet Wilner. Far away from her hometown of Fletcher’s Grove, Violet is enrolled in the prestigious Middlebridge University, following in her father’s footsteps in the criminology program. As she’s balancing her difficult workload with a part-time job, having fun with her dormmate Bonnie, and flirting with her crush, she finds herself at the center of several campus crimes…and can’t resist the urge to investigate.
Cathcart tells us she was thrilled to step back into the world of Mistletoe Murders and embrace the acting opportunities of an audio drama. In our interview, she opens up more about the new series, her voice acting experience, and which characters from XO, Kitty would thrive in the Middlebridge Mysteries universe.
What will fans of Mistletoe Murders enjoy about this spin-off?
Something that this spin-off really carries through the original series is that fun mystery that is just always there, always underlying, and having a lead character who is so investigative and can’t let things go. Violet’s always looking for that next clue, always noticing little details. She cares so much, and she’s so driven and so excited. I think that’s definitely similar—having a female lead who is just really driven and determined to get to the bottom of things is really fun to follow.
And there’s some crazy mysteries happening in both of these series! There are wild plots and wild stories that are so fun to imagine. I think it’s so cool that every listener can kind of picture their own world when listening, and imagine those characters, and imagine the places in their own way. So it definitely has that same kind of fun and that same mystery.
What do you like most about your character, Violet?
I think Violet represents the university experience and mindset so well. She’s balancing so many things at once, and we often see her stressed about homework and stressed about balancing her crazy schedule, and that’s something I can heavily relate to. So I really appreciate that we kind of explore that in this series. I think Violet is definitely a go-getter and someone who’s super determined and always wants to do her best and improve herself. So I really admire that about her.
@audibleYou thought your cozy mystery listen ‘Mistletoe Murders’ couldn’t get any better? Well, the new spin-off starring Anna Cathcart is officially here 👀🔎🎄 Listen to ‘Middlebridge Mysteries’ out now on Audible.♬ original sound – Audible
You’ve narrated Violet’s character for a few seasons now, and Kitty is another character that you’ve gotten to embody for a while. How would you describe some of the similarities you see between Violet and Kitty?
Something that I was realizing recently is they are both really nosy people! They cannot let things go, and they cannot mind their business, but it’s all for the right reasons. It’s all because they want to help, and they see an opportunity for how they can be involved and how they can help someone out. But they definitely would be friends, they would bond on always getting in people’s business. So they definitely have that in common! But I love them both.
If there was someone from the world of XO, Kitty who could be involved in Middlebridge Mysteries, who would it be?
I love this question. Maybe Yuri, because I feel like Kitty and Yuri have gone on a lot of adventures together that do include mysteries…like following something and seeing a clue and noticing details. I feel like Yuri and Kitty have done that together already, so we know they make a good team.
Speaking of XO, Kitty, what are some of the biggest differences in your approach to acting versus voice acting?
It definitely was a whole new medium for me to explore that brought a lot of learning opportunities. Even just from the script itself, it’s so different, because you’re not describing visual things. It’s words, but it’s also sounds that they’re describing, like, we’re hearing footsteps, we’re hearing a door closed, and I’m so not used to that. But getting to really rely on only your voice obviously creates such a different experience. The subtleties in expression, or even in body language, I feel like so much of acting lies in that. For Middlebridge, it was really just only your voice and only your tone, and getting to really emphasize those things and play with it was so fun.
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What does a typical day look like behind the scenes of narrating a series, as compared to a day on set?
You can get so much done! It blew my mind that we could record a whole series in three days. We had eight hours or something like that each day, but then we were done. That was really exciting, how much you can cover and how much you can dive into in a single day, in a single hour. That was probably definitely the biggest difference, but another one that was awesome is you could literally wear pajamas if you want! It didn’t matter what you were wearing, what you looked like. You could just be comfy and really just focus on the character.
Is that something you think people like might be surprised to know about the voice acting experience?
Something that I didn’t know until I started working in this industry is that you’re not together a lot of the time. I’m interacting with all these other characters, but they’re in a completely different city, sometimes a different country. They recorded months before, or months after, and they all splice it together and make you feel like you’re all in one room. That’s such a foreign concept to me. When shooting on set, there’s so many logistics of getting everyone together…but for voice stuff, you can be all over and have very different schedules. I would love to meet my co-stars…but it was cool to see that we could all make it work separately.
What have you learned from being part of both of these series, Mistletoe Murders and Middlebridge Mysteries?
The biggest thing that I learned from both of these is you really never know what’s gonna happen next. When I first booked Mistletoe Murders, I never expected there to be a spin-off years later. Same for Kitty. I never, ever expected there to be a spin-off when I first booked the movie. Even when I auditioned for the movie, I never expected to book it. So you really just never know what’s in store. And that keeps me going, keeps me curious and grateful.
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