Character Analysis

I have been dying for this day.  Just dying.  Anytime that I am able to use my talents as an actress, I feel so blessed.  Just to get a part in a show or film is just the thing that brings me so much joy.  And I have been wanting to play the villain for such a long time!  I've always heard the line, "You're just not mean enough.  I don't see you in that part."  I have gotten that note a few times during rehearsals, but then I just change how mean I am.  I don't like being mean in real life.  That's why it's called "acting."
I get to play psychologist when I do my shows and it's always interesting.  You have to try to figure out why your character is the way they are and what is making them say the things that they are saying.  What does your character want and will she get it?
I love my part as Lily Belle in The Curious Savage.  She's absolutely crazy.  She's spoiled rotten.  I would say the family in this show is a cautionary tale of why you should tell your children, "No."  She's been married six times.  Her step-mother describes her as a bit of a whore.  I think she's exaggerating.  Not a lot.  She does try (unsuccessfully) to flirt with the doctor a little.  Her step-mother has put her in a position that she just can't have fathomed ever being in.  Her father passed away a year or two ago and since then, her step-mother has decided to spend the family fortune helping people fulfill their ridiculous dreams.  Her step-mother is probably the only mother she has ever known.  She's used to living a certain lifestyle and her mother is threatening to take it all away.
When it comes right down to it, Lily Belle just wants to be loved (and rich).  But she doesn't know how to ask for it.  I think she is very lonely.  She's so used to just being given her every whim that she hasn't figured out how to give.  Love requires a lot of give and take and she can't handle that.  She doesn't understand the meaning of actual true love that is real.  Neither do her siblings.  I think that's what makes her so emotionally exhausting sometimes. She is so angry all the time.  Once in awhile, she does things that make her proud of herself, but her brothers come in and snuff that out of her as soon as possible.
But honestly, don't feel sorry for them.  I am supposed to figure out how to relate to my character and understand them in a way that only I can.  I feel empathy for her, but I would never be friends with her.  They are total jerks and they deserve every bit of the horror that rains down on them in this play.

Mark your calendars and come see me in The Curious Savage at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse in Ogden, UT.  It's quite funny.  We open Friday, June 14th!