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Canadian actress recognized for powerful roles

Published 4:27 PDT, Wed June 3, 2026

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Canadian actress recognized for powerful roles

Canadian/Polish actress, Carolina Bartczak, has built an impressive career across film and television. She’s now earning award recognition for her powerful role in the TV series “Plan B”.

OCT: Let’s start with talking about some of your favourite roles.
CB: I would say that one of my bigger roles that launched me forward was playing the wife of Michael Fassbender in one of the X-Men films, “Apocalypse”. It was one of my favourite roles because Michael Fassbender is one of my favourite actors. I also got to steal a little on-screen, unscripted kiss and who doesn’t love that. My character's name was Magda.

OCT: You have balanced film roles alongside many TV series. You had a really interesting role in the Netflix series called “Painkiller”.
CB: That is actually one of my favourite roles to date and I had a little more breadth than in the role of Magda in X-Men. “Painkiller” was a six episode storyline so I got to really dive into a subject that fascinated me. When I got the role, I had been auditioning so much that I didn’t know which role I got at the time. When they sent me the script, I had a 45 minute flight to Montreal so I quickly read all six scripts. It made me laugh and cry, and I felt honoured to be part of the show.

OCT: “Plan B” is a really popular TV series now and you’re playing an interesting character. In the role you’re dealing with unimaginable loss. Let’s talk a little bit about that.
CB: I play this wonderful woman named Abigail Walker who is a force to be reckoned with at the beginning of the series. We meet her when she has this amazing career, a great relationship with her ex-partner, two great kids, a lover and everything is going well. Very quickly, and this is not a spoiler, everything changes. Her daughter takes her life and it becomes a very dramatic, dark show. I always liken it to dark Danish dramas, and it has a strange twist that I love about Quebecois filmmakers. Abigail finds out that she can travel back in time, so it’s about her trying to prevent this tragedy from happening. It’s also about what she learns along the journey of taking care of her family and herself.

OCT: You have been recognized with a Canadian Screen Award nomination for your role in “Plan B” as the character of Abigail Walker. What does this honour and acknowledgement mean to you at this stage of your career?
CB: To be honest, I was not expecting it. I knew that the nominations were happening, and of course there was a part of me that wanted to be recognized, but I had peace in my heart. I was just so happy that I got the role and got to do it the way that I wanted. Then I accidentally thought the nominations were announced the next day. When friends started texting me with congratulations, I had no idea what was happening. I had to go on the Internet to find out that I had been nominated. Of course, I was absolutely delighted.

OCT: That is such a wonderful story. You remain so humble. You have gone from big Hollywood projects like X-Men to a little bit more human like what you’re doing with Abigail’s character. How do you choose the roles that you do? Do you give yourself limits of what you don’t want to take?
CB: The truth is at my stage, I’m still kind of a journeyman actor and I’m certainly not Cate Blanchett, so I don’t get to read 20 scripts and decide. It’s not as glamorous as people think. We are auditioning all of the time. In fact, I was almost late for this interview because I was coming back from an audition. We don’t, at my level, really feel like we’re choosing. When I book a role, then I decide if it’s something I really want to do and pour my heart into. Sorry that’s not such a glamorous answer, but that is the truth of the business for me.

OCT: That is a very honest answer actually. It’s a very good answer because you can still choose. And putting yourself out to these auditions is still very valuable to get that experience and I know that you can’t turn that down. It’s part of the job.
CB: Yes, definitely. This morning I auditioned to be a spy and then this afternoon I was an art dealer. We are constantly working different muscles.

OCT: What would be a dream role for you as an actress?
CB: A dream role for me would be to play Marie Curie. We have a very similar background as we are both Polish, both speak French and we’re both scientists. My first career was studying biochemistry and she was the first woman to win two Nobel prizes. I think she’s so cool and she was friends with Einstein. She would tell him what to do and she sounds like she was absolutely fabulous. I would give anything to play her.

Photo courtesy Wade Hudson