Sarah Gadon, left to right, Mae Martin and Toni Collette arrive on the red carpet for "Wayward" at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Tuesday, September 9, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Laura Proctor

TORONTO — Mae Martin’s “Wayward” explores a small town riddled with dark secrets, but the juiciest drama happened off camera.

The Canadian comedian says they were nursing fresh heartbreak while shooting their new Netflix limited series — and didn’t shy away from oversharing with everyone on set.

“I had a big breakup during filming,” explains Martin, who was last linked publicly to "Survivor" alum Parvati Shallow.

“I think maybe every day, I told 200 crew members exactly what I was feeling and going through. But it was a bonding thing, because then everybody tells you what they're going through.”

The cast, a whirlwind of giggles and inside jokes at a recent TIFF junket, clearly thrived on that atmosphere.

“We overshared back,” Toni Collette says.

“We all got very invested in it – maybe a little too invested,” adds Sarah Gadon.

That camaraderie bled into “Wayward,” a thriller set in the early 2000s that follows two Toronto teens — played by Alyvia Alyn Lind and Sydney Topliffe — sent to a reform school in the unnervingly picturesque town of Tall Pines.

Martin co-stars as Alex Dempsey, a trans cop who relocates to Tall Pines with his pregnant wife, Gadon’s Laura. At first, the town feels progressive and welcoming, but as troubling events unfold, Alex grows suspicious of Collette’s Evelyn, the fanatical head of Tall Pines Academy.

Hitting Netflix Thursday, “Wayward” draws from Martin’s past: as an adolescent they went to rehab for drug addiction, while a close friend was placed in a facility for troubled teens.

They hope the series sparks conversations on the way society treats teens who don’t fit a mould.

“I think we all, deep down, know we've made a pretty big mess of things in the world. I think teenagers really feel that and see that and call it out when they see the hypocrisy and the injustice,” says Martin.

“We should empower them to have a voice and change things, instead of just, in our shame, being like, ‘You'll grow out of that optimism.’”

Colette says she was eager to “give a voice” to those caught up in the troubled-teen industry, an area of youth rehabilitation that some have accused of abusive practices under the guise of therapy.

“Society already does a pretty great job of suppressing all kinds of individuality and freedom. But to have an entire industry built around manipulation and making people conform into whatever you want them to be, instead of allowing people to grow into who they are, is both fascinating and horrifying,” she says.

“Wayward” is the second Netflix series Martin has created, co-written and starred in, following British dramedy “Feel Good,” where the non-binary comedian plays a fictionalized version of themself.

Yet Martin says they still wrestle with “impostor syndrome” when acting — especially sharing the screen with the Oscar-nominated Collette.

Martin and Gadon say before filming their first scene with Collette, they watched her memorable turns in 1999’s “The Sixth Sense” and 2018’s “Hereditary.”

“And then we were like, ‘Why did we do that?' We were so intimidated," recalls Gadon.

But Colette says she felt just as nervous.

“We shot this dinner scene and honestly, we all got the giggles so intensely. It was like being a teenager at somebody else's family dinner when you really just lose it.”

Martin’s breakup wasn’t the only life event shaping the atmosphere on set. Gadon says playing a pregnant character felt especially meta, coming just months after giving birth herself.

“I felt really connected to Laura because I had gone through the experience of being pregnant, of nesting, of pushing the boundaries of my relationship, and rebuilding myself after having a child,” she says.

“I just felt really raw when we were making the show because I was six months postpartum.”

Martin says Gadon's child brought comfort during a personally difficult time.

"It was just nice having a baby on set. I could cuddle Sarah's baby. I finally understood wanting to be a father and to protect an infant."

Shot in Toronto in mid-2024, “Wayward” is among Netflix’s first Canadian originals, following its CBC co-production “North of North." American writer Ryan Scott served as co-showrunner.

The series boasts a soundtrack with Canadian acts such as Our Lady Peace, while Lind and Topliffe’s characters rally around a patriotic motto: “We're survivors. We're Canadian."

“It feels like a love letter to Toronto and the resilience of Canadians,” says Lind, who’s from L.A. but has a Canadian parent.

“We're strong, we can fight the winter, and we can make it through the McDonald's at Spadina and Queen, the portal to the underworld,” adds Toronto's Topliffe, nodding to the notoriously chaotic fast-food location downtown.

While Martin has appeared in Canadian TV comedies including “Baroness von Sketch,” they say “Wayward” was the first full project they filmed in their home country.

“There were people on the crew who were like, ‘Oh, I partied with you in high school.’ It's a small industry.”

Which may explain why Martin felt so comfortable opening up to the team.

“Sarah was like my therapist and so was Toni. They basically sorted my life out for me.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2025.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2025