Melissa Elias – Making Waves

Q.  What are some of the recent projects that you’ve been working on?

A.  Well, I did a movie called Tamara so I was doing press for that in the States.  That was released back in February and pretty much when you’re one of the leads on a show, it takes up a whole chunk of your life.  A lot of the time it makes your life harder, but it also makes your life easier at the same time.  You want to rest and relax in your off time.  In the mean time, I am really intent on moving to the States to pursue acting.  So, I have been auditioning and through the movie Tamara I have potentially booked another project.  Through the producers from New York from that, they wanted me to possibly work on another film.  I’ve been actively pursuing getting my Visa, which is a job in itself as far as that goes.  In my off time from “Falcon Beach” I am actually auditioning for other stuff in Vancouver.  Hopefully something will come up and I’ll continue to work.

Q.  What are some of the changes on “Falcon Beach” that viewers will get to be seeing for season two?

A.  Nothing is the same!  That’s the only thing that you can pretty much guarantee yourself, everything has changed.  For season two, one thing I noticed on our end right away, is that our scripts are a lot longer.  What that means, it translates into a lot more action in each episode.  So, I’ve found in each of our episodes there is no moment of slowness, so to speak.  There is a lot of excitement and twists and turns and things are very surprising this year.  The show is very, very surprising, you can’t predict anything.  You can’t say, “Oh, I saw that coming!”  A lot of the stuff is even surprising to us when we read it.  We’re like, “Woah, what is going on?”  I think that’s great, it’s an improvement. 

Q.  That’s a great testament to the show, that there is no formula to it.  Viewers can’t see the storylines coming. 

A.  No, no when my character got pregnant last season I was thrown through a loop then.  I was like, “Okay, now nothing else can surprise me.”  Then I read another script and I was like, “Okay, I’m surprised!”  It’s a a good thing, you tune in for the characters and at the same time the story has to take you on a wild ride.  I feel like our stories do that this year.

Q.  Will there be any changes with your character this coming season?

A.  Just expect the unexpected.  That’s pretty much Erin in a nutshell I have noticed.  A lot of this I look at in retrospect, after you see the character put together and I perform it, to see her from the outside looking in, she’s very interesting.  You never really know what you’re going to get!  She’s like me in a way, she’s a good person and has a good heart.  But, she does the most random things.  For her, you don’t know if she’s coming or going.  Literally, that’s what you can expect this year, you don’t know if she’s coming or going.  She’s so unpredictable and I really do hope that is what people will like about her.  She doesn’t always do it the way she’s supposed to do it.  She doesn’t always do it way one would think, but you know inside that she comes from a place of love and that her intentions are good.  That’s nice, a lot of people have been commenting that she’s the guy and Danny is the girl.  The reason for that is that she’s doing it her own way.  She’s not doing it based on the fact that this is how a girl should act in a relationship.  She’s her own person and that’s what I love about her.  Even when she does do a mistake, she can live up to it.  She’s very protective of her soul, Erin has a lot more going on then she ever lets on.  She’s written that way and she’s played that way and she’s perceived that way.  That’s why a lot of people don’t quite understand her because she’s very protective of that little soul of her.  You don’t really know what happened to her before and you don’t really know where she’s going.  What it does, from my point of view, is that it shows that she is not going to be boxed in one way or another.  That leaves the potential for the character wide open, I think that’s how she lives her life.  She’s always been the character that has been the connection between the rich and the poor, she’s right in the middle. She’s not one or the other, she’s the connection between the beach and the living world, she’s that medium.  Because of that, she goes back to front, she’s good, she’s bad, she’s angry, she’s sad.  I see a lot of myself in her because she’s pretty much the most random person you’ll ever meet, which is nice, open for anything, attached to nothing. 

Q.  What is it about the show that you think continues to grip viewers?

A.  I think one of the things is that we don’t have a lot of fluff and it’s a very grainy and real show.  Pretty much our show is as real as you are going to get.  You don’t have any characters doing things that you can’t relate to in real life.  I know, you can’t say I completely relate to Lane, but I do relate to elements of Lane.  He’s a real character, same thing with Tanya, same thing with Steve.  Everybody has got to relate to these characters in one way or another hopefully.  I think that’s what keeps the audience coming back week after week.  It’s because no one is putting on a show, so to speak.  We’re telling a tale about life and that’s what the goal is, to drive the story and show what’s going in this small town during the summer.  It’s exciting. 

Q.  That’s definitely what is so great about this show that makes it so different from shows like “The O.C.”  You don’t have the same plot lines again and again and you can’t relate to the characters.

A.  It’s every week that they’re going to those fabulous parties and expensive schools.  A lot of it is that I love those shows as well, I love watching them.  I watch everything, I watch every show I can get my hands on, I’m obsessed.  Same thing with movies, I want to watch them all.  Sometimes I want to watch them because they take me away from my own world.  Others I can relate to them and I can feel myself in those positions and see how other people deal with it.  Our show is very, very much the real show, it’s got real people doing real things.  There is not a lot of fantasy world to it, I like that about our show. 

Q.  Do you have a really memorable moment from working on the show?

A.  I’ll remember this forever, because it’s on camera and apparently it made our director of production’s day.  He said he laughed so hard that he cried.  There is one scene where it is me, Tanya, Jason and Danny and we’re all in Danny’s truck.  I’m not telling where we were going and I am not telling you where we were coming from.  I’m not sure if I can even remember!  But, we were in the truck and there is a scene where Danny wants to talk to me so he is taking me out of the truck because he wanted to have a conversation with me.  I had one these rather tall wood-based wedge shoes, super hot though, they looked super great with my skirt.  In retrospect though it was a bad choice!  So, they said for the first time that they were going to tape the rehearsal.  That usually never happens but in this case it was quite ridiculously funny that it did.  Ephraim is pulling me out of the car and I say to him, “Danny, you’re hurting me,” because he’s pulling me really hard.  All of a sudden, before I knew it, I bit the dirt.  I was wearing a skirt so literally, I slid out of the truck, one foot went down and the other one went up.  I went rolling into the ditch and originally if that had happened, and I had fallen on the ground, it would have been fine.  But, since Steve Byers was practicing his driving skills at the time he parked too close to the ditch.  So, I had an extra four feet of rolling to go down.  I really bit the dirt and it was so funny for all involved, I was so embarrassed.  There was grass in places I will not speak of.  It was a great day and everybody got a good laugh at my expense. 

Q.  What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

A.  In my spare time I love doing music supervision on movies now, I quite enjoy that.  Acting is my passion and obsession, I’ve been spending a lot of time studying and training.  Recently, I’ve startedopening up to yoga and walking and enjoying the company of those around me.  Really taking in the world, time is short.  I love, love movies, who doesn’t?  I really, really enjoy doing music supervision because it feeds my soul.  Music is very powerful, if I could sing I would, but I can’t. 

Q.  Do you have a latest obsession?  Are you into any particular music group, book, sport or activity?

A.  I went to go see the movie A Scanner Darkly and it’s absolutely insane.  There is a song called “Black Swan” played in it and I love that song.  Other than that, I find a song that I really, really adore and I use it in my work.  So, if I tell you the name of the song you’ll know what happens in the series so I really can’t tell you that.  I love all kinds of music, I love any type of soundtrack music, I love scores.  I love any new and upcoming artists.  I’m kind of getting into my old school clubbing days with Nelly Furtado’s song “Promiscuous” and Justin Timberlake’s song “Sexyback.” 

Q.  What would you like to say to fans and supporters?

A.  Thank you!  I would love to say to them that I appreciate every bit of positivity that they send my way at any time.  It just warms my soul to know that there are people out there that support what I do.  That’s pretty much the reason that when things are hard and difficult, it just keeps you going.  I hope that they will see more from me and I can guarantee that I will work my little butt off and turn in some good performances that will entertain them.  That’s why I do this, so thank you and I love everybody truly.