L.A.'s Southern Belle
an Exclusive Spotlight on Amy Acker


ylea was a crazy place. A lot of interesting things happened in the season ending, three-episode arc back in May of 2001, the most important being the introduction of an odd girl dressed in a burlap sack. Labeling her as insane seemed logical at the time; considering how she lured a wild beast-like Angel back to her cave dwelling with a blood soaked hand. And then there was her peculiar, barely coherent, rapid fire speech. Yes, that was the introduction of Winifred Burkle, the brainy beauty Angel fans would come to love and respect as one of the gang. Amy Acker, the woman behind the character, does share a few of Fred's characteristics, namely her charm and carefree laughter. Having made her mark on Angel for two full seasons now, she has undoubtedly established her talent and presence. Recently, CoA got the opportunity to chat it up with Amy on a relaxing Thursday morning and become the happy victim of that wonderfully infectious giggle.


DANCING INTO THE THEATRE

As Therese Raquin, Amy cultivates her talent on the stage

On December 5th, 1976 a Dallas based lawyer and his wife had their first child: Amy Louise Acker. While growing up, Amy found herself drawn to forms of physical artistic expression. For thirteen years, she rigorously studied various styles of dance. Unfortunately, knee surgery in high school forced her to give up her passion for dance and look for another creative outlet. Needing a required arts credit in high school, Amy started taking a theatre class when she stopped dancing. "I had always been really, really shy and never thought I would like to talk in front of people. I think that's why I liked Dance; you can still express yourself creatively without having to say words. Then I realized that as long as they were someone else's words, I really didn't mind," she confessed laughing. "The work that was involved in Dance -- I was going five days a week -- once I got involved in theatre I was like, 'Oh this is the same type of thing, I have rehearsal every day.' I think I liked that work ethic, it kept you busy doing something creative." Luckily, Amy had no difficulty overcoming her fear of public speaking when acting, "It was a lot less hard than I thought. It just had to do with the fact that I had never liked making speeches or doing projects where I had to talk in front of people. Once I got a script and I got to kind of become somebody else, and just sort of dive into it, it wasn't really me doing it, you know? It just seemed really easy and ended up being something that I really like doing; I think a lot more than dancing."

Amy continued to pursue acting while attending Southern Methodist University from 1996-1999. She got her first television role in the TV movie To Serve and Protect which was released in February of 1999. Also in her senior year, she was a part of the Undermain Theatre and got nominated as best lead actress for the Leon Rabin Awards for her part as Therese Raquin. Always versatile, acting was only one of Amy's pursuits. She had spent three previous summers modeling in Japan as well as posing for the J. Crew spring 1998 catalogue. However, modeling never captivated Amy the way acting did, "For me, it was kind a fun thing to do for the summer, to get to travel. I never really thought of myself as a model. In my experience, and I think it is different for everyone, it was just the fact that I was getting to go meet these people and do different things. I never really liked the actual modeling part. When I was ver there I did a lot of commercials, and that was always what I liked doing more," Amy admitted with a laugh. "The challenges seemed to be challenges that I didn't really care about. I wasn't really invested into getting this job or that job, it just sort of felt like the luck of the draw."

After graduating with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting, Amy moved to Wisconsin where she joined the American Players Theatre. There she honed her skills with the parts of Hilda in Ibsen's The Master Builder, and Hero in Shakespeare's classic Much Ado About Nothing. Eight months later, she made the transition to New York and obtained roles in two independent films: The Energy Specialist, and The Accident. Amy's extensive theatre background proved to be a great asset for her future jobs, "I feel like, especially with Joss' shows, that he loves theatre so much that it's really paid off. Pretty much everyone on Angel has started off doing theatre and I think at some point wants to get back to doing theatre," she laughed. "I think the idea of the 'work' and 'ethics' that we learned in college; about developing characters, a lot of the stuff that we deal with on Angel is so much larger than life and just finding ways to make that real. Having had stage before this allowed me that medium that has the same sort of unbelievably and everything, and you have to make it work."


OUT OF THE CAVE, INTO THE SPOTLIGHT

As Winifred Burkle on Angel, intellectual shy-girl

After less than a year in New York, Amy made the definite transition to the center of the acting world: Los Angeles. New to the whole atmosphere, Amy got a break and starred in Groom Lake, a film written and directed by Star Trek's William Shatner. However, her breakout role would come in the form of a quirky scientist stuck in an alternate dimension: Angel's Winifred Burkle. Knowing the role would provide a great opportunity and national exposure, Amy had an interesting way of preparing herself for the audition, "I just didn't think I would get it," she joked. "All the roles I had played up until that point had pretty much been the stereotypical ingénue roles of 'the pretty girl who cries' and not anything like Fred. When I got the script, I was like, 'Oh, they'll never cast me as this,' but it would be really fun. So I went in and did it how I thought everyone else in the whole auditioning time would have done it too. Afterwards the casting director, Amy Britt said, 'Wow, that was completely different than everyone else who has done it.' They called me back the next day and I think I had another callback after that. At the final callback I was the only one there so I was like, 'I guess this is a good sign…'" Sure enough, it was an excellent sign. Amy went from a two episode stint in Season Two to having a pivotal role as a cast regular the following season!
"Mike Massa [Angel's stunt coordinator] is always like, 'I know you want to use weapons but Fred doesn't know how to use them" ~ Amy on kicking butt
Before the arrival of Fred, Angel was primarily a male dominated cast. With the exception of Charisma Carpenter, there was an abundance of testosterone at Angel Investigations. With Fred, Amy got a chance to add a much-needed dose of femininity to the show. She arrived to a warm welcome and was instantly a member of the team, "It was nice. Charisma and I got along right from the beginning. Everyone was really great. The first person I met was Andy Hallett, he was in his makeup and I was like, 'Okay, what am I doing?' But he was just so crazy and fun and went out of his way to make sure I had people to sit with and it was just really nice."

Now approaching her third season as a regular, Amy has really begun to define Fred's character. She has been able to utilize her versatile acting skills as Fred has evolved from a shy, cave dwelling girl into an aggressive member of the team. Amy has a few favorite episodes where she really was able to let loose and enhance Fred's depth, "The first time that started to happen was probably in "Fredless". That was the first time I really got to break out of my shell and felt like I was part of the team. This season I felt like the last couple of episodes, when I was on my own against Jasmine, that was a really big turning point for Fred just having to - it was my first time I ever had a fight by myself. It was really a growing experience for her." However, Fred hasn't yet learned the martial arts expertise that Amy would like. While studying at Southern Methodist, Amy had to get trained and certified in weapons and stage combat. She's constantly looking for a way to h! ave Fred utilize these skills, "Mike Massa [Angel's stunt coordinator] is always like, 'I know you want to use weapons but Fred doesn't know how to use them!' There have been a couple of times where I had really wanted to do something with a quarterstaff; broadsword and he tried to work that in. Then I just wanted to be able to kick someone and knock them out, so he put a couple of kicks in one episode for me." Unlike her inexperienced alter ego Fred, Amy is not someone you want to mess with. Her specific training while in college included, "quarterstaff, rapier and dagger, hand-to-hand, and broadsword." Still, Fred has come quite a long way since the Pylean days. Who can forget the fact that she had not one, but two main characters fawning over her, "Yeah, that was fun too," she laughed.





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