Lauren Lee Smith |
| Profession: Actress |
| Age: 30 |
| Hometown: Vancouver |
| Notable achievements: Won a Leo Award in 2009 for Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Feature Length Drama in Sandra Nettlebeck’s Helen; appeared in television series, The L Word, Mutant X, Twilight Zone, and films such as A Night for Dying Tigers, Art School Confidential, The Last Kiss, Lie With Me, Hindenbu |
| Upcoming: The Listener, Friday at 8 p.m. on CTV and Fox International channels; HBO Canada’s Good Dog, Sunday at 8 p.m. |
Lauren Lee Smith is one of Canada’s rising stars.
In 2009, she played Riley Adams on the hit CBS crime series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Nowadays, she’s best known as Sergeant Michelle McCluskey on CTV’s The Listener. The actress is comfortable with the spotlight on television and on the road where she drives a 2009 Mercedes-Benz GL450 4Matic SUV.
Why did you buy a Mercedes GL?
I had just got the show CSI and I was looking for a new car.
My husband is German and he insisted we get a German-made car. We did a lot of research and it was one of the safest cars on the market that year so we decided to go with that one. It’s a very nice car.
Did you cross shop against other German competitors like a BMW X5 or Audi Q7?
No. My husband is pretty particular about his cars. In his opinion, the Mercedes are the best of the best.
What does a Mercedes-Benz GL450 say about you?
I don’t think Mercedes-Benz says anything about me, really. I was in a situation where I was able to get a really nice car and I’m proud to have it.
It’s taken us from L.A. to Vancouver three times and Toronto to L.A. two times. We’ve spent a lot of time living in that car. That’s what the car means to me.
Does it have the personality of an actress – does it like the limelight?
No, I don’t think so. If you were to see this car now, it’s covered in dirt. It’s just filthy and I kind of like that. We have two big black Labs and our Labs are in the car constantly and the car is always in a big, giant mess.
I would get it cleaned once in a while. But there’s really no point because we clean it and then we put the dogs back in and it turns into a big mess again so we have to go with it.
What’s your driving style like? Do you like to drive fast?
I don’t. I’m actually not a very good driver to be honest with you. I’m a scatterbrain driver. I’m not very focused. I’m always trying to find the right music station or put on a new CD or trying to eat something.
Any speeding or parking tickets?
Parking, especially in Toronto. I feel like I never know where to park and when I do it’s always the wrong spot. Inevitably I always get a ticket.
I forget about them and then they add up. It could have been $20, but it doubles and then triples and then I hand them to my accountant at the end of the year and she gets really mad at me.
What was your first car?
The very first car I bought was a white 1992 Jetta. It cost me $3,500. I was 19 and I thought it was really cute – that was honestly my reasoning.
I looked at a whole bunch of cars in my price range and the Jetta I thought was the cutest, it’s sad but true. That’s how I picked my first car.
