‘Mandrakes Feel Pain! And Other Magical Vegan Myths’ - Interview with Courtney Crisfield of Northern Star Productions

Northern Star Productions was founded by Courtney Crisfield and Bayne Orion Bradshaw, two talented actors and creators who also happen to be vegan activists.
 
Based in Australia, the dynamic duo has been hard at work writing, producing, directing, AND acting in multiple projects that make up their Lights Up: Animal Activism Through Fiction anthology series.
 
Among these projects is one that greatly piqued our interest: Mandrakes Feel Pain! And Other Magical Vegan Myths. It poses the question of what would happen if a vegan attended Hogwarts.
 
To put it simply, this is right up our Diagon Alley!

The first episode of Mandrakes Feel Pain! is set to launch on Saturday, October 2nd, 2021 at 9:30am AEST (Friday, October 1st at 4:30pm PST), so be sure to follow Northern Star Productions on YouTube to watch! The trailer is available for viewing on their channel, along with trailers for the other vegan projects within the Lights Up series.
 
Courtney is the mastermind behind Mandrakes Feel Pain! She is credited as the writer, producer, director, performer, and video editor for the project. We absolutely cannot wait to see what she’s come up with!
 
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Courtney to discuss this exciting new series and Northern Star Production’s take on activism through fiction. Here’s what she had to say!

The Protego Foundation:  Thanks so much for joining us, Courtney! To start us off, can you tell us when you first became a Harry Potter fan?
 
Courtney Crisfield: I feel like Courtney and Harry Potter have been synonymous for so long! When I first became a fan I was just starting school age, so like four or five years old. I was read the books by my mum and my stepdad before bed each night, and I tell you what, on the nights when I'd been a bit naughtier and I wasn't allowed to have Harry Potter read to me before bed, I would cry and scream. I think you can tell by that how much I was just in love with the series from the start.

It's been a whole journey where I feel like my life and Harry Potter just keeps weaving in and out and we keep crossing paths in the best possible way. It's always the thing that’s so comforting - you can always read the book and watch the films and you just feel like, “Oh, I'm home.”

TPF:  What led you to going vegan?

CC: In 2015, I moved out of home properly for the first time and I was really getting into fitness and trying to be healthy and I got into cooking for the first time in my life. Myself and my partner were both gym junkies at that time and I was always interested in looking up something healthy that I could try. Somewhere in that time, I realized that dairy milk was just not doing my digestive system any good at all, even though ice cream was my favorite food growing up. I had to sort of let that go bit by bit because it just made me feel gross all the time.

Then I just started doing more research and in 2017, What the Health came out, which is awesome and covers so much. It was the biggest glass shatter of my life. You can be super healthy by eating beautiful, colorful, fresh plants. I would say I initially went vegan for my health, but after researching more, I realized how everything is connected and the damages that animal agriculture does to our planet as well as the whole ethical side of things, which is definitely what has really sustained and amplified my passion for helping everyone understand what veganism is.

TPF:  How did you get into performing?

CC: I've been training and doing non-paid and paid performing since 2011. I just absolutely love it! My main passion is live theater. My main inspirations when I was growing up [were] any film that Jim Carrey or Robin Williams did, like Mrs. Doubtfire and Bruce Almighty. I was just absolutely captivated with the [joyful] feeling. It's just such a nice feeling seeing someone enjoying what they're doing and you're enjoying it at the same time. It's this really nice, happy cycle of just wanting to have fun, and the fact that I can do that with most of my time is  awesome.

Auditioning for Universal Studios Japan was just like any other audition for me until I realized that there was potential that I could be interacting with the Wizarding World. It was like this massive culmination of my whole life, marrying my love of performing and my love of Harry Potter. It was absolutely a dream come true and I don't take it for granted in the slightest. I was so fortunate to have multiple positions within the Wizarding World during my time there, one of which was especially special because it was the debut of the first ever official Harry Potter parade. The first time that I saw the parade float with all the lights on the train was such a magical [moment] and a massive dream come true.

Credit: Courtney Crisfield

TPF:  How are the vegan options at the Wizarding World in Universal Studios Japan?

CC:  I loved to go into the Wizarding World whenever I had time. [At] the Three Broomsticks,  when you ask if they have anything vegetarian, they call the manager of the restaurant and they come over with their charts for allergies. When I was first there, it was a bit of a challenge, but I just used my trusty Google Translate. After I went back a few times, I [was] able to communicate a lot more effectively and easily. I just took a photo of everything that I had and I would just show it to them.

The vegan spread that they can make is so great. It's fresh steamed vegetables, massive corn cobs, potatoes - really, really good.

​TPF:  That’s fantastic! So how did Northern Star Productions come to fruition?

CC: My partner and I are both performers with acting and theatre backgrounds. We are both really ambitious and have a lot of ideas and a lot of plans all the time [about] stories we want to tell and movies and theatre shows we want to make.

When we were together in Japan, [the pandemic] made us more sure than ever that we really wanted to make our own work all the time, no matter what. We're more in control of what we get to do and try next, rather than waiting for someone to give us an okay or waiting for a different opportunity. So we founded the company last year and now [we are] really focusing on a massive passion of ours, which I think is why it's been met with a really awesome response so far.

TPF:  What is Mandrakes Feel Pain! And Other Magical Vegan Myths all about?

CC: It is a Harry Potter fan exploration of veganism series. We follow the protagonist, Emilia, who is a young, British animal activist. She receives a Hogwarts letter and finds out that she's a witch. But as [anyone who] has ever even just thought about Harry Potter through the lens of animal ethics [knows], there are a lot of different dilemmas that come up with going to Hogwarts and being in the wizarding world. So we're going to follow Emilia through her entire journey.

Credit: Northern Star Productions

TPF:  What can we expect from this series?

CC:  [It will be] on YouTube for free. [It is] primarily a comedy - I can't help myself. I always find myself drawing back to comedy. I think that is a very universal language. The first episode is the intro episode [and is around] six minutes, and then after that, I think they're going to be probably 10 minutes each.

The first episode is when Emilia receives her Hogwarts letter and she wants to respond somehow. That's sort of the little intro into how she thinks and who she is. She's a passionate little animal rights activist. From there, the next episode will be Emilia having to get her wand at Ollivanders, which is gonna be really good. As soon as we're able to, we're going to be filming more, and we can't wait! The possibilities, as you can imagine, are endless.

TPF:  Why did you choose Harry Potter for this series over other fandoms?

CC:  I think there is a really good opportunity for those little vignettes of what would happen if a vegan was in [certain] situations in all of the books and the films. What if a vegan was there at that time and what would have happened? There will also be some well-known characters making appearances, which is going to be super fun. You have got me thinking [about] what other series in the future with other fandoms [that I could] develop.

​TPF:  There are so many possibilities! So why do you think that activism through fiction is important?

CC:  There are a lot of documentaries on the topic and there’s a lot of information and research, but in terms of fiction, there's really not a lot available. I think that with veganism, it's like everyone's got a lock inside [their] mind and everyone's got a different key that's gonna unlock that realization. I normally find that if [you are] reading a book, watching a TV show, or watching a movie, you can have really profound realizations [that] can really stick with you a lot more than seeing a whole bunch of research on a screen.

I just want to contribute to activism through everything that I love, which is storytelling. I think that for the people who [are] not going to hit ‘yes’ to the documentary but they will hit ‘yes’ to the comedy series, I think it's going to open the door for a whole bunch of people who never would have had an interest in the topic before.

We are vegan filmmakers who are making this for anyone. It's not by vegans for vegans, it's by vegans for anyone who's interested. 

TPF:  What are your future goals for Northern Star Productions? 

CC:  We have a lot of aspirations and things that we want to try and places we want to go and things we want to create, but the main goal is [that] we really want to be that production company that, whenever [we] do a film, all of the catering and craft services is vegan. Just having a fully vegan-friendly set would be so nice and so fun.

We do have an idea for a Black Mirror meets veganism type of TV show, which I think has a lot of potential. We'd like to cross mediums as well because we both have a theater background. I really want to do a live vegan comedy show, maybe next year or the year after. ​

TPF:  Can you tell us a little bit about the other vegan series you have in the works?

CC: In our first roll out, we're gonna do three different series. [Apart from] Mandrakes Feel Pain! And Other Magical Vegan Myths, [there is] Addison the Ex-Vegan YouTuber, which is a satire series about all of the ex-vegan celebrities that you see and all of those stereotypes. That series [is] written and directed by myself.

And then the series that is written and directed by my partner, Bayne, is called My Inner Carnist, which is a super absurd, over-the-top, ridiculous comedy series. The main premise is that his inner carnist is this monster of sorts, constantly terrorizing his entire life, trying to get him to eat meat again and give in to societal pressures. It's going to cover all of the common arguments that one comes across that are anti-vegan. 

TPF:  Those all sound absolutely incredible and we can’t wait to watch them! Thank you so much for sitting down to talk with us!

​​You can watch the full interview with Courtney on our YouTube channel.

We will be closely following the Mandrakes Feel Pain! And Other Magical Vegan Myths series as episodes are released. You can show Courtney and Northern Star Productions support by subscribing to their YouTube channel and following them on social media.

You can follow Courtney on Instagram @cjc._.performer.

You can find Northern Star Productions at their website and on YouTube @NSP Originals, Instagram @nsp.originals, and Facebook @northernstarproductions. The trailer for Mandrakes Feel Pain! And Other Magical Vegan Myths is available to watch here.

Credit: Northern Star Productions

 
​What do you think about this new series? Will you be watching it on October 2nd?
 
 
 
 
Written by Valerie Short

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