{alltv} 'King' star pulls off daunting role

No matter what Amy Price-Francis achieves in her career, she always will be the "LOL girl" to us.

Price-Francis - the star of the new Canadian cop series King, which debuts Sunday, April 17 on Showcase - literally LOL'd when we told her how we felt.

LOL, of course, is an internet acronym for "laugh out loud." But a few years ago when Price-Francis was playing Meredith, the short-lived girlfriend of David Duchovny's infamous Hank Moody in Californication, Meredith actually said "LOL" in conversation and was chastised publicly by Hank.

"That's awesome," Price-Francis said.

"It was Henry Rollins, right? (Hank) goes in (to be a guest on Rollins' radio show) and just goes on about what an abomination of the English language that is.

"But the funny thing is, in real life, I was so offended by (the thought of using LOL in a spoken sentence). That's me! So it was very hard for me to do it."

Price-Francis pulled it off ably, though, just as she pulls off the much more daunting lead role in King.

The series centres on Jessica King (Price-Francis), a veteran police officer turned lead investigator. When a detective named Derek Spears (Alan Van Sprang) has a televised meltdown, Jessica is called in to lead Toronto's Major Crimes Task Force, which is designed to handle in-progress cases that are going poorly.

King is not a cookie-cutter police procedural, though, in that Jessica's home life with her third husband Daniel (Gabriel Hogan) is a big part of the landscape, too.

Hmmm, King sure sounds like a new-fangled "dramedy," although Price-Francis bristles at the term.

"I just think 'dramedy' is a terrible word," Price-Francis said with a chuckle. "Who knows what that is? We're not one or the other, we're both! It's like 'tween.'

"But yes, (King) has all these lovely notes. A lot of people have very serious jobs and work hard, but you're still alive, and you still can be funny and make mistakes and say something you shouldn't say.

"These all are qualities (Jessica) has, but it doesn't mean she's not great at her job. It's part of her, she's a fuller person, and I really like that."

Price-Francis grew up mostly in Canada so she was thrilled to come back to Toronto to film King, even though it was the dead of winter.

"Toronto still is home to me, but I'm back and forth (between Canada and Los Angeles)," said Price-Francis, a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada. "I've been quite fortunate with some work (in the U.S., on shows such as The Cleaner, 24, Life Unexpected, The Chicago Code and Californication), so here I am."

Price-Francis certainly has a familiar face if you watch TV. So even with the wide range of roles she has played, she gracefully accepted our shallowness in remembering her as the "LOL girl."

"I've never once even texted LOL, nor will I ever," Price-Francis said. "But you think of me that way."

It's a compliment, really.

"Well, thank you," Price-Francis said. "That's not so shallow."