BM: I've read that you were a Pyschology major in College, does that help you get inside a character? Do you bring any of that experience to your work as an actress?
EC: I'm sure on some level I do, but not on a conscious loevel. The idea of breaking a character down is a very similar process to reading about a case study, or trying to pick out variables. In a lot of the pyschology classes, you're doing theories. Your taking information and trying to come up with your own theory as to why things work the way they work. When you get right down to it, so much of pyschology is conjecture and a lot of subjective opinions. There are things that are definitely fact, but so much is left up to interpretation. It allows you to take everything that you read and study in class, and break it down. You find the common denominators and work back up, which is really the process of acting. You break the character down to its common denominators; you make it bare, and then you start to build something.
BM: Do you think you've done that with Anya?
EC: I guess I've done that, but it's been such a long evolution with her. It's not like it was all there on day one, this whole 'out-line' of where she came from and what they were doing with her. It's been a process for the writers as much as its been one for me to discover who this girl is - what she wants, where she came from, and where's she going. She didn't start out being funny, she started out being a very bad girl. I think its definitely helped me deal with this type of situation, as opposed to when you read something and the writers have a breakdown of who the character is? On the surface, a lot of work is done for you. It's probably helped me more than I realize, to get into the essence of Anya. What does she really want? I don't think we even know still.
BM: Do you see yourself ever returning to Pyschology someday as a career?
EC: I really love what I do. I always have since I was a kid. I've always been the little drama queen. I studied it, did theatre and loved theatre. The best excuse I've had to be ridiculous was to be an actor. How else can you get away with doing things you can't do in a normal structured society? It's a really interesting world I live in. I do love pyschology. I think people are just fascinated. The child pyschology was something that I really liked. That would have been something I would have loved to delve into a little bit more. But who knows? I don't know that I'll be doing exactly what I'm doing right now in 10 years. I don't think I would want to be 'just' an actor. I like to discover things too much. I'd like to produce and be an actor. I don't think I'd ever want to direct; I couldn't deal with the hours. It's too much. You leave here and your still working. But I'd definitely like to evolve into something else. If people stopped hiring me, I'd have no choice but to open a practice somewhere. |
