Born in Grimsby, Ontario, Chloe Van Landschoot was drawn to acting and dancing while simultaneously pursuing a career in medicine. Between shifts as a nurse, she took auditions and filmed self-tapes; yet her acting life was put on hold when the pandemic began and she turned to caring for patients in a hospital. Chloe is known for her portrayal of Eliza in the Canadian drama Lune and her portrayal of Nicole Kessinger in the family crime drama Chris Watts: Confessions of a Killer. In the tense thriller FROM, Chloe is Kristi, a paramedic trying to save lives in a nightmarish town that traps all those who enter. As the unwilling residents fight to keep a sense of normalcy and search for a way out, they must also survive the threats of the surrounding forest – including the terrifying creatures that come out when the sun goes down. In season two, hidden truths about the nature and terrifying origins of the town begin to emerge, even as life for its residents is plunged into chaos by the arrival of mysterious newcomers.
FROM is a riveting horror series about survival. What drew you to the role of Kristi?
Chloe Van Landschoot: Number one is that she’s not too far from me in some ways. I work as a nurse, so playing a med school student on TV wasn’t too much of a stretch. It was exciting to bring those parts into who I am.
Did you audition for the role? If so, what was that like?
Chloe: It was kind of your standard audition. I was working full-time at the hospital during the pandemic in 2021. My agent sent me a note to audition and I had to come up for a Zoom audition. Afterward, I took a nap and went back to work at the hospital. Then a week later, I got a call for a network test where I met with all the producers, studio, and network people. I also met with Jack Bender, our director and we went through a couple of scenes. The next day, I got the part.
So what’s going on with your nurse’s career now?
Chloe: I work very part-time now as a nurse. So I’m pretty focused on my acting career now.
How much of your experience as a nurse did you draw on for your role as a paramedic?
Chloe: All of it. I had to put a lot of my own feelings away for certain scenes. But in terms of all the hands-on skills that you see me apply, all of them came from my experience as a nurse. In navigating through some scenes, I had a lot of doctors and paramedics who are my friends help me pull through some stuff that I was unaware of. So it was very much a collaborative effort with my healthcare workers to make all those scenes seem as realistic as possible.
What did you find most challenging about being in this series and playing Kristi?
Chloe: I started to learn a lot about who I was as a person watching season one. I follow my natural instincts in certain situations, to see that on display. It’s very rewarding too, because when you play a character, you come away learning something about yourself. There were a lot of challenging scenes, especially in season two, episode three—that euthanasia scene with Kelly. I’ve been in situations where there’s no pulse, nobody there, so you just have to assist in someone’s death. It was a lot for me but it’s also amazing to be able to be in a show and have them share that in a way. To represent what it’s like to navigate something like that as a healthcare worker. My friends who are healthcare workers who watched that scene said they had not seen something like that. It kind of makes it all worth it.
Do you have a favorite scene or scenes?
Chloe: I love the scene with Ellis when he gets stabbed, all of that. The pandemonium. The finger in the chest cavity—that was really fun to shoot. It was so crazy and you realize how much effort goes into a scene like that. There’s special effects, stunts, and prosthetics and you only have like one or two shots to get it right. So there’s a lot of choreography and teamwork.
What were you like in high school? The girl most likely to….?
Chloe: The girl most likely to faint. I was always fainting. But I’m fine now though (laughs).
