Aimee Teegarden sat down next to me holding her little Yorkie. It was The CW’s day for Television Critics Association press sessions, but we scored some private time with the cast of “Star-Crossed.”
Fresh off “Friday Night Lights,” Teegarden plays Emory, a girl who met an alien boy 10 years ago. Now she’s 16 and the Atrians are going to school with the humans. There are Atrian integration protests though and the Atrians are still confined to a ghetto. Not to mention, the Atrian boy she met is all grown up, Roman (Matt Lanter), and now creates a love triangle between Emory and Grayson (Gray Damon). “Star-Crossed” airs Monday nights on The CW.
CraveOnline: What is your dog’s name?
Aimee Teegarden: This is Gizmo.
Is that named after the Gizmo from movies?
It is. It’s named after the Gremlins. She just looks like a Gizmo. There’s no other name for her.
I have a cat who I think looks like a Mogwai. Mogwai would be a good name, wouldn’t it? I should have called her Mogwai.
Yeah, there’s certain animals it’s like, “I want to name you something else but nope, nope, you’re a Gizmo. That’s it.”
After “Friday Night Lights,” how choosy could you be when pilot season came around?
I guess as an actor you can be as choosy as you want, but it’s definitely hard going from something like “Friday Night Lights” which is such a rarity I think in the industry, and I really kind of grew up on that show. Kind of going and choosing something, it had to be a really good fit. With this show, I love sci-fi. I sat down with Meredith [Averill] and Josh [Appelbaum] and Scott [Rosenberg] about what their vision was and about how they wanted to execute it. They were just so on fire about it that it convinced me that this was my next project.
What have been your favorite sci-fi movies or shows?
Okay, so I grew up in a house where we watched a lot of Star Wars. So Star Wars was a huge thing. I loved “Firefly,” yes, rest in peace. There’s so many different TV shows I get into. I would say mostly though, I’m all over the place with TV and movies.
So you know what you’re getting into with the fanfare. Will it be a different sort of passion than you experienced with “Friday Night Lights” fans?
“Friday Night Lights,” I was born and raised in California, so football didn’t mean anything to me. When I went to shoot “Friday Night Lights,” it was almost overwhelming to me how into football everyone got, just in the small towns, but it was so cool and I think our fans for “Friday Night Lights” are just die hard Texas forever kind of fans.
This year was my first year ever going to Comic-Con and that, to me, is one of the coolest things because it’s the fans. It’s like the blood of your shows or movies or projects that are there, rooting, wanting to talk theories and characters and all sorts of things. Just being able to see that from an outside point of view, I’m excited. I’m excited for people to watch the show and get into it.
The Atrian camp is such an impressive set, what did you think when you first saw it?
I was really blown away. I wasn’t expecting it to be so colorful and so textured. I was blown away. It was really cool. Some of the background talent that we had there was just so into it and we had this great band playing and we had all these different people and different booths set up selling different things. They were just having a ball on set so that was cool to see.
I was impressed your first scene was running. Do you run a lot in real life?
I tend to run a lot in real life. I’ve always been a very active person but running is a way to decompress for me. It just sort of clears my mind. It’s like surfing. Yeah, throughout the whole pilot, I feel like I run the whole time. That’s all I’m pretty much doing is running, running away from things, running to things, just running.
What is appealing about both Grayson and Roman?
Oh, I would say with Roman there is this gravitational pull I think that they feel towards each other, and obviously I think there’s a lot to know and find out about him. Grayson I would say he’s like the safe bet. There’s something a little dark and interesting about him but obviously he’s a human and it seems like more of a logical choice. I think she’s sort of battling her emotions between what she should do and also with Grayson there’s a bit of wanting to save Grayson and save Roman. Emory is a fixer I would say. She wants to go in and take on the world and save people, which I think is why she finds herself in a lot of trouble all the time.
We know what Roman does for her friend Julia at the end of the pilot. Will she have more characters she takes care of, or is she really focused on Julia?
I would say in the pilot you definitely see that they start out as friends, as hospital buddies and Emory sort of becomes champion of not letting her give up. I think throughout the season, Emory takes on her fair share of cases of people that she wants to save or knows they’re so much better than what they think of themselves or wants to defend them, protect them or champion for them. In different was. I would say in a lot of different ways. She has a very big heart.
Were you the first one cast in “Star-Crossed?”
I was. I was and then I think Gray might’ve been the second person cast. We did a lot of interviews for Roman and did a lot of tapes and couldn’t find the right guy, couldn’t find the right guy. I think we must’ve gone through at least four casting sessions that I was there for to mix and match with. Then Matt walked in and we all were like, “He’s our guy.”
Did you read with other potential Romans and Graysons?
I read with other potential Romans and I think I read with a few other Graysons.
Were there any actors that you knew from other jobs up for the roles?
There was a couple actors that I’d worked with before or know. This industry’s so small, it’s kind of funny. But yeah.
But there were no other Emorys?
No other Emorys, no. Just me. It’s so strange because traditionally with a TV show, you go in, you audition two, three times. Then you go to studio and there’s like 10 other people for your part, and then you go to network and there’s five other people for your part. Then you go to network again and there’s three. You break it down, and I showed up when they needed to put a tape together for the network test and it was just me.
Does Emory get involved into the Atrian rights and politics of “Star-Crossed?”
Yeah, I would say that’s big. She becomes the Atrian integration poster child and really is trying to fight for equality for them, which she ends up coming up against a lot of friction from the community. At the end of the day, she just wants everyone to have equal rights and people to get along.
Do you feel like audiences get what “Star-Crossed” is really about, that it’s really about human rights?
I think the majority of the people who watch it understand that. I think it’s very easy to hear a description of the show or see snippets of the show and be like, “Oh, it’s just a pretty CW show.” The reality is, while maybe it looks kind of glossy on the outside, there’s a lot of deeper issues and meanings.
I don’t think anything is just a pretty CW show. I think they have some layers in their programming.
I personally think CW has some amazing programming but I feel like a lot of people don’t take the time to actually really pay attention to what’s going on on screen.
For a young audience it’s really important to explore these ideas, in an entertaining format so it’s not a lecture.
Right.
What is the most challenging aspect of Emory for you?
I would say the most challenging thing about Emory I think is keeping her level-headed, because while at some points she’s been in the hospital the majority of her life, she’s gotten out. She’s experiencing the world and high school for the first time. She’s dealing with so many different things going on with her dad and the shooting and aliens getting integrated into her school. All sorts of Red Hawk and Atrian violence. But at the same time, she’s still 16 and still seeing the world from those eyes but I think in a lot of ways, she’s very naive. Then also has seen a lot more than I think most kids her age.
What is completely natural to you about Emory?
The running.
Her physicality?
Yeah, I would say so.
