Marisa Lauren – Rising to the Challenge

Q.  You’re featured on the show “South of Nowhere.” What can you tell us about your character “Sherry“?

A.  “Sherry” is best friends with a character named “Madison Duarte,” played by Valerie Ortiz.  “Madison” and “Sherry” are the girls you love to hate, they are the mean girls of the school. We’re the head cheerleaders and the most popular girls and basically anybody we don’t like we make life at King High very difficult for.  There is a soft side which unfortunately you won’t see until the second season.  That is basically my role as one of the cheerleaders and I cause a lot of chaos at school.

Q.  What made you want to be a part of this show?

A.  My agent had told me about it and I went in to audition for it and the first script I read was so good.  Even though my character is so mean, it’s still a character that I have never played before.  She’s absolutely nothing like myself, which is always fun to do as an actor, to be someone totally opposite.  The writing on the show is just so good and I related to some of the other characters and that is basically it.  It was just the challenge to play a role that I had never played before and the really great writing.  I knew that it would really effect a lot of teens, I knew that it would be very impacting so that’s what I liked about the show.

Q.  How is it getting to work with a cast that is around your same age?

A.  I love them, to be totally honest, it’s very rare I must say, we’re all really, really good friends.  Valerie Ortiz who plays my best friend on the show, we’ve actually become really close.  You could almost say that we’re best friends now.  She lives in Orlando and I live in Tampa, we’re both from Florida, and we’re both going to be home for the holidays so of course we’re going to be spending the holidays together.  So, it was amazing that I was actually able to get some really, hopefully long term, friends out of it.  Gabby, who plays the character “Spencer,” she stayed the night at my house last week.  We’re all extremely close, we love doing things together.  We love having movie night, we love going shopping, so it’s the best when you work on something and you can actually get something more out of it then just filming.  When you actually make friends out of a project that is probably the best part of working.  That was the best part of “South of Nowhere” I could say aside from there being really incredible scripts.  The scripts are amazing, they are so fantastic, that was awesome.  But, the other side of it is that I made some really great friends and the whole cast is just super cool and super down to earth.  A lot of the cast members it is pretty much their first series regular roles.  So, everyone was so excited to be a part of it, no one had egos, everyone met for the first time and everyone was like, “Let’s exchange numbers, let’s have a slumber party!”  No one had their guard up, no one had an ego, everyone was just their to work and make some friends and learn from each other. 

Q.  You mentioned working on your own album, what music genre will it be and what can you tell us about the album?

A.  Before I started working on my own album I worked on other artist’s albums like Kaci Brown.  Now that I am writing my own stuff it’s really going to be about my own life, experiences I’ve gone through.  People I’ve been around and my friends and my ex-boyfriends, all the things we love to write about.  It’s a very strong album I’m hoping to write, I want it to reach out to mostly females.  Not that I am going to exclude any males, if men love it than great, if boys, guys and anybody other than a woman loves it that’s awesome.  But, I really want it to speak to young women and it’s very pro-female and I guess strong is the best way to describe it.  It’s going to be rock, it’s very rock actually.

Q.  Who are some of your musical influences?

A.  I actually get inspired by artists that I sound absolutely nothing like.  But, I get inspired by Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Jeff Buckley, I could go on and on.  Nirvana, just great songwriters basically, I love lyrics, I love writing lyrics.  Just anybody that has songwriting that I can relate to, that’s who I love.

Q. You’re also in the upcoming film Left in Darkness. What can you tell us about the premise for the movie?

A.  It’s scary, it’s very scary.  It’s about this girl who is visited by some not so nice characters, basically monsters, who are trying to bring her to the dark side.  She has to fight them off, so it’s going to be a thriller and it’s a horror flick.  It was a lot of fun because I had never done a horror film before.  So, it was really cool watching, I wasn’t one of the creatures, but it was really cool watching other people get turned into all the different weird characters.  Their makeup was amazing and it was a really cool experience.

Q.  Do you have a most memorable moment from your time working on this film?

A.  Actually, just the people I met.  The people that worked on the film were so nice and so cool.  I think that was the most memorable, I remained friends with a good portion of the cast so that was the coolest part about that.

Q. Will the movie be hitting the theaters or will it be a straight to DVD release?

A.  I think it might be in the theaters, I’m not too sure about that.

Q. What are some of your passions besides acting?

A.  Music is definitely one of my passions.  I work so hard, I really don’t have any hobbies.  My hobbies have turned into my work!  It’s kind of funny because as a kid my hobbies were doing plays, singing and dancing.  Now, I’ve been fortunate to turn that into my job, so aside from acting music is probably the biggest thing for me.

Q. What is your latest obsession? Are you into any particular book, sport, music group or activity?

A.  I love Sylvia Browne books!  I know that sounds kind of funny, but I absolutely love Sylvia Browne books.  One of my girlfriends got me hooked on her watching “Montell Williams.”  They are really, really awesome.

Q.  With Thanksgiving around the corner, what are you most thankful for this year?

A.  My family.

Q.  What would you like to say to people who are fans and supporters of you and your career?

A.  First off I’d like to say thank you.  Secondly, since a lot of my fan mail is girls, young girls, asking me about the entertainment industry, how to get in to it, if they should do it, my second thing to say is that anybody who is trying to get into the business or wants to be an actor or singer is pursue your dream even if it seems crazy.  Even if everyone around you is saying that you are nuts for doing it, that’s one thing I have to say like I said before, my hobbies became my work.  It’s only because I really, really worked at making it my work.  That was a desire and a struggle but still the payoff was so amazing.  Any young person trying to be an actor or actress or singer, just keep going for it, keep working no matter what.  Don’t give up and eventually you’ll succeed and the reward is so great.