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Degrees of separation.

How many are there between you and anyone else? Six or seven are the numbers often thrown out there. Numerologically, they’re certainly both sexy, but don’t be surprised the least if they actually happened to be less.

Your own personal experiences should confirm some of this. While you, perhaps oblivious, carelessly walk through the world, some kind of eerie synergy seems to be working behind it, connecting invisibly the dots. You think of a friend and he calls you. Or the other way around: you call him minutes after he thought of you.

Same with letters and so on. Our lineal, ‘logical’ minds dismiss these experiences with a simple dictum: ‘it’s just a coincidence’. Boom… memory displaced to a vault.

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After at least 4 foiled attempts at a phone interview, the take-charge actress spells it out loud: “You know what Sergio, this phone thing isn’t working… let’s meet personally… that’s the only way it’s gonna happen…”

I agree immediately. No point in arguing. She’s right.

She shoots the details over the phone in a rapid-fire mode while assuring me the appointment is in her calendar: “Tuesday at noon, Bundy and Olympic.” Where? Coffee fix stop de rigueur: “Starbucks”.

When I get there, I’m reminded again that I personally find them obnoxiously preppy and overly priced… but by all appearances, that’s definitely just me. The place is packed.

Behind the counter, the brow of two latino girls shows you their degree of busyness. The two English speaking operators taking orders from patrons also seem at full steam –pardon the tempting irony. Employees at this branch seem particularly friendly. You hope some employee dividend program won’t be just a dream.

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Erin orders her tea and her instructions are long and meticulous. The employee smiles, I get lost with all the technical details but he seems used to this kind of specific orders. As she steps in front of me, I notice for the first time how tall and slender she is… and how bright her eyes flicker when she lets a smile sneak in. Her face, speckled like a little girl’s, is too beautiful not to notice. It’s like one of those perfect make-up models whose tiny facial specks we idolize simply because they make them look ‘cuter’.

I order a double latte. Small. She’s gracious enough to let me pay…

We sit outdoors. The usual: people with laptops, cell phones, newspapers or mag’s. Some have pets. A few suits, most wear comfy ‘lounge clothes’. Everyone sits around minding their own business. I wonder if someone might just recognize her from some of her film work she’s done and will burst in the middle of the interview asking her for an autograph.

Nah… Thank God, Erin isn’t a super famous Hollywood star yet.

Which is not to say that she’s not busy as hell. Nor that some of her best acting improv work might not just get her a regular weekly gig at FOX every Sunday night. Recently released at a Fox Press Junket, she’s been officially announced –and you can now start seeing the show’s promo featuring her- as the female lead actress in the rather distinctively formatted comedy show, Free Ride.

Sequined cami from Medak on 3rd Street

 

As we finally sit down and get passed the two official weather questions, I go straight to Free Ride. I hate asking the typical journalists’ lazy question: ‘so, uh… tell us about your latest project…’ Instead, I manage to utter sincerely enough: “are you excited about the upcoming premiere of your show at the FOX Network?”

She smiles and says simply: “Totally…”

I was hoping she’d be a lot more talkative. “Uh, share with me a bit of the details of the making of the show”. I can see in her eyes that I’ve struck something meaningful. Actors, like everyone else, love to discuss their craft:

“Oh, an absolutely incredible experience. The entire thing, from recording the pilot to… well, wait, we actually had this amazing experience where FOX was so interested in our format that they actually bypassed quite a bit of the Pilot phase and we went straight into production and shooting of the first six episodes which is how we’re launching…”

She sips on her tea while her gaze strays briefly toward her Treo, sitting out in front of her. She feels self-conscious for a moment and says: “sorry, I just need to make sure I’m out of here by 1pm to make my other appointment… it’s very important… as I mentioned earlier, I’m meeting a director for possible casting etc…”

I assure her I understand. I truly can relate to the multi-appointment styled mornings so common in LA. In my case, for motives less glamorous, to be sure.

Erin's wearing shoes by Seychelles

 

Immediately, she steers back the conversation again to Free Ride. “Working on this type of show was truly an amazing learning experience for me. I’ve done quite a bit of other work where the usual setup is, you get scripts to read and memorize. Here, we based it all in a very loose script where we truly go in a half-hour improv tour”.

“No writers?” I ask.

“Yes, of course,” she replies, “we’ve got writers working with us all the time. We get the bones of a scene but pretty much from there the actors run with it…”

“Give me an example…”

“A scene will be given to us outlined in its bare bones: an example whatever, she goes to the bank, they meet, incident A or B begins unfolding here etc… stuff like that”.

“Sounds like a lot of fun… and a lot of work,” I interject. “And unlike many of the things saturating the airwaves out there,” I add.

She agrees:

“Yes, absolutely. There’s the show Curved Enthusiasm but I can’t think of many others… We truly worked based on a totally loose script and this format was really refreshing for all involved and I think it shows in the final product.”

I ask her about trying to make it in a town littered with the hopes of many that never did.

She looks pensive and answers:

“It’s really tough out there. In that sense FOX is really taking a risk and being really brave and supportive trying out new programming where the main characters are not very well known actors. I have received nothing but courteous attentions from the Network’s President all the way down. I am thrilled and very excited with the possibility and great opportunity of being part of their programming”.

“Can you disclose much about the show’s content?” I ask.

“Free Ride is about a guy who graduates from college but has to head back home to live with his parents in a small town in Missouri, after he’s lived in LA while attending college. He thinks the move will bore him but, voila, there comes me… you know, we knew each other in high school… in the series that is…”

As she says that, her Treo rings. She chooses not to pick it up but smiles in a shy kind of way while her voice softens: “… Aaaaa… how sweet –she seems to have received a text message- it’s my boyfriend… my real boyfriend…” she adds.

I realize that I’m interviewing Erin on February 14^th. Her boyfriend better call. A couple of years from now, she might just be inundated with flowers from adoring fans in this particular date. Not to mention invitations here and there.

We talk again a bit about working in this town, about up and coming actors… before answering, Erin looks up, suddenly notices something from her sitting position I can’t from mine, and points to the huge billboard directly above my head. She says: “wow, look up there, XX, another up and coming actress who’s also a really dear friend of mine… “

The billboard is so huge and practically above us it’s hard for me to read it. Erin, in the opposite side, can see it from her seat. I get up, I notice the big name actors next to Erin's friend.

“Talking about making it,” I say smiling. “Talking about degrees of separation…”

She looks at me and innocently adds: “I know… isn’t crazy?”

We both head back to our cars. Her, to meet the director of a prospect film. Myself, lighting up a cigarette, head back to the house…

Only in the car the many ‘coincidences’ and synergies of our meeting hit my conscious mind. I realize that if we would’ve had the interview prior, she couldn’t have noticed her friend in the billboard above us while we were precisely discussing, making it in this town. Or her, talking about her Free Ride TV series boyfriend, myself interviewing her on Feb. 14^th plus her real-life boyfriend calling her at just about the same time.

After seeing Erin’s eyes sparkle with the idea of working regularly for a major Network on her own show, I also realize that any given morning in LA, can be the break-through moment for some of these hard working actors whose faces we’ve seen often but whose names are still not on the tip of our tongues nor minds.

But Erin, being so young, on the topic of fame and fortune seems already very wise. As she headed out to her car, I asked her: “do you want to be an actor or to be famous…?”

“I just want to work doing what I love”, she replied as she waived goodbye.