Willow Rosenberg
I might be just like you!
It's something that never fails to amaze Amy Acker. People often recognize her when they see her. And it happens much more frequently today than it did only a few years ago. Yet others still only "sort of" know who she is. "When I go home to Dallas," Amy says, "the way people usually say it is, 'You look just like that girl who's on Angel!'"
Well, of course, she looks like that actress, the one who made a name for herself as cute but daffy science whiz Winifred "Fred" Burkle. She looks like that girl because she is that girl. Amy is so much that girl, in fact, that it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. "The more I played the character," says Amy, who joined Angel's team of monster killers in 2001, "the more she became like me and the more I became like her." Well, that was true until Fred died tragically and her body became a vessel for evil, ancient, blue-haired Illyria, the character she was playing when the show ended its five-year run last season.
Similarities between the actress and her Fred character began with the fact that both hail from the Lone Star State. "When I auditioned," Amy recalls, "the character's name was Logan. But after I got the part and they started writing it, they made her Fred and decided she was from Texas. Because basically they liked that I'm a Texan."
It's pure coincidence that Amy, like Fred, has a head for science and math. "I actually wanted to major in genetic engineering and theater together in college, but that plan ended after about a year." And surprisingly, given her slender frame, Amy possesses just as robust an appetite as Fred. "I eat all the time. Being from Texas, I love Mexican food -- and, of course, Fred was obsessed with tacos."
And here's another way in which they're two of a kind: once she joined the cast, her character's life was a whirlwind of change, much like Amy's has been. "I feel like I've gotten to play 10 different characters," she says. "I mean, when I started, I was this crazy girl in a cave. I went from that all the way to being in charge of an entire science lab." And from that to powerful demon.
As for the changes in Amy's life, after completing her studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, she worked for eight months with a Shakespeare repertory theater troupe in Wisconsin, then headed for Los Angeles, landing her breakthrough role on Angel after just one month in town. "It all happened pretty fast," she says. "I've been very lucky."
Amy initially had no plans to be an actress. She was an aspiring dancer who was painfully shy growing up. Knee surgery ended her dreams of dancing professionally and a high school theater class, in which she won the lead role in a play, led her to her new career. In addition to Angel, she had a tiny, blink-and-you'll-miss-her part in one of the biggest movies of 2002, Catch Me If You Can. "I was one of the stewardesses who Leonard DiCaprio chose to walk through the Miami airport with. He was great. And doing it was a lot of fun."
The past few years, Amy says, has been an absolutely charmed existence. "I don't think there are any negative ways in which the show has changed my life. It's all great. I loved the job. It's given me lots of security. And being out here in L.A. is what allowed me to meet my husband (she married in May 2003), which is my favorite part of everything that's happened."
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Well, of course, she looks like that actress, the one who made a name for herself as cute but daffy science whiz Winifred "Fred" Burkle. She looks like that girl because she is that girl. Amy is so much that girl, in fact, that it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. "The more I played the character," says Amy, who joined Angel's team of monster killers in 2001, "the more she became like me and the more I became like her." Well, that was true until Fred died tragically and her body became a vessel for evil, ancient, blue-haired Illyria, the character she was playing when the show ended its five-year run last season.
Similarities between the actress and her Fred character began with the fact that both hail from the Lone Star State. "When I auditioned," Amy recalls, "the character's name was Logan. But after I got the part and they started writing it, they made her Fred and decided she was from Texas. Because basically they liked that I'm a Texan."
It's pure coincidence that Amy, like Fred, has a head for science and math. "I actually wanted to major in genetic engineering and theater together in college, but that plan ended after about a year." And surprisingly, given her slender frame, Amy possesses just as robust an appetite as Fred. "I eat all the time. Being from Texas, I love Mexican food -- and, of course, Fred was obsessed with tacos."
And here's another way in which they're two of a kind: once she joined the cast, her character's life was a whirlwind of change, much like Amy's has been. "I feel like I've gotten to play 10 different characters," she says. "I mean, when I started, I was this crazy girl in a cave. I went from that all the way to being in charge of an entire science lab." And from that to powerful demon.
As for the changes in Amy's life, after completing her studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, she worked for eight months with a Shakespeare repertory theater troupe in Wisconsin, then headed for Los Angeles, landing her breakthrough role on Angel after just one month in town. "It all happened pretty fast," she says. "I've been very lucky."
Amy initially had no plans to be an actress. She was an aspiring dancer who was painfully shy growing up. Knee surgery ended her dreams of dancing professionally and a high school theater class, in which she won the lead role in a play, led her to her new career. In addition to Angel, she had a tiny, blink-and-you'll-miss-her part in one of the biggest movies of 2002, Catch Me If You Can. "I was one of the stewardesses who Leonard DiCaprio chose to walk through the Miami airport with. He was great. And doing it was a lot of fun."
The past few years, Amy says, has been an absolutely charmed existence. "I don't think there are any negative ways in which the show has changed my life. It's all great. I loved the job. It's given me lots of security. And being out here in L.A. is what allowed me to meet my husband (she married in May 2003), which is my favorite part of everything that's happened."
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