Angelic Amy Acker has a lot at stake in Angel.
One of the strengths of Joss Whedon's series (whether you're talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel or the short-lived Firefly) is the continual evolution of their core group of characters. What he and his writing staffs set up is a fluidity of central characters that works to a show's benefit, allowing a character's departure to not distract from the show itself. At the same time, it allows guest stars to suddenly find themselves in a co-starring position on the show.
When the late Glenn Quinn departed Angel (for whatever sordid or non-sordid reasons you choose to accept), Alexis Denisof was seamlessly integrated, followed in turn by J. August Richards as Charles Gunn. Not satisfied with the core group as it was, the show's creators decided to add Winifred "Fred" Burkle to the mix, having introduced her from a demon dimension in the three episode arc that concluded year two. Beginning with season three, actress Amy Acker's name was in the opening credits and Fred had become a central character. The question on more than a few minds, though, was how the impish, oddball, little girl lost played primarily for humor in her introductory episodes was going to fit in with Angel Investigations.
"I kind of wondered about that too," admits Acker. "I was kind of worried about Fred becoming a regular. My old roomie was a big Buffy fan and she said "˜I was on the website and people are not excited about a new character joining the show.' It was before I'd even started, so I was like, "˜Oh, no!' But it seems that everyone responded well to it."
A Texas native, Acker was born in Dallas and initially found herself drawn to the idea of being a ballet dancer rather than an actress. "But then I had knee surgery," she explains, "and realized that ballet wasn't going to happen. I decided to take an acting class and was kind of glad that I did, because I liked acting a lot better."
She enrolled at the Southern Methodist University to study Fine Arts and her career trajectory has, you suspect, been something of a breeze. Acker has no tales of hardship to relate, no diatribes about the difficulty of breaking into show business while living in roach or rat-infested New York lofts. "I've been pretty lucky," she laughs. "I was lucky because I went to SMU, which has a great theatre department. They have this thing called "˜January Audition', and lots of people come and watch you "“ people from grad schools and theatre companies. So in my senior year this theatre company asked me to come do Shakespeare for eight months, before I even graduated. I kind of got an early start and have been pretty lucky. I went to Wisconsin and worked with the American Players where I did maybe five plays and then we went on tour. I moved to New York for a little while, but then ended up doing a pilot and a couple of independent movies."
Those films were The Accident, The Energy Specialist, and Groom Lake, the latter of which is a black comedy directed by Star Trek's William Shatner (and Man's Man FF 12.6/13.1). She decided that since she was making films anyway, she "might as well head out to Los Angeles where it's nice and warm and sunny."
Her role as Fred followed shortly after her relocation to LA, though, again, there is no incredible anecdote about how she nabbed the part. "I just went in for an audition," she giggles, sounding very much like Fred. "I guess they had been looking for someone to fill this part since November (of 2000) and I had an audition in February, so it had been a while. Whether or not I was going to be a regular was unclear in the beginning. They knew that they wanted to add another girl character to the show, but I didn't have very much film stuff to show them. They weren't even sure what I would look like on film or anything. The first day I was on the job, Joss wrote a scene for me, J. and Alexis. Something that we might use later on. So we did the scene, the WB saw the audition and I got a phone call asking if I'd like to become a regular. It was pretty quick once I started, but at first I didn't know.
"I had been somewhat familiar with the show," she adds. "In college there were people who would have Buffy/Angel nights and they would have a party and everyone would watch the shows. I went to a couple of those. I didn't know all the backstories, but everyone else seems to, so I've gotten caught up. Actually, not knowing that much about it kind of helped with the character, since Fred had spent so much time trapped in that other dimension. On the set I'd say, "˜Oh, we can't go there?' and they said, "˜Well, in episode six we went into this other place.' In the beginning it was kind of like I was learning just like Fred was. I think as we've gone on, there have been more similarities between us. I don't think I talk nearly as much as Fred does in real life, but I do think I've started to say random things and people are kind of like, "˜What are you talking about?' I'm quirky in the sense that I'm kind of klutzy, so I'm always doing silly things. Hopefully I'm smart like her.
"I actually came up with some background for Fred, but during the first meeting I had with Joss and David [Greenwalt], they sat down and told me a lot of what they thought the back hisory was. We worked together on it. I added my own things to it, but then they'd call me up and say, "˜Oh yeah, when Fred was in high school, she graduated three years early.' Those are the kind of things they added."
