Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2007-06-21

Interview:
The Best Years follows orphaned and full-ride scholar, Samantha Best (Charity Shea, "Alpha Dog") as she starts her freshman year at the prestigious Charles University in Massachusetts. Samantha has been shuffled through the foster care system her entire life and is finally looking forward to a future of new opportunities and friendships. She'll have to contend with the ins and outs of college and mingle with a new world of 'frenemies' as she struggles to find her own identity. Along the way she will meet new roommate Kathryn Klarner, (Jennifer Miller) a rich socialite from one of the most prominent families in the mid-west, Dawn Vargas (Athena Karkanis) child actor who trades in Hollywood for college, and Devon Sylver, (Brandon Jay McLaren "She's The Man") a fellow scholarship recipient and star basketball player who has caught her eye. With her new dysfunctional family and a part-time job at Boston's hot spot Colony, Samantha will find herself juggling a lot more than just academics.

Your resume is mostly made up of movies. Have you always been interested in doing a television series or did The Best Years draw your attention specifically?



The Best Years drew my attention. My agents and I were more focused on feature films, however I really like the character Samantha and I the premise of the show. I was up for the challenge of playing a character different from what I have done in the past. Also, to experience an unfolding through time with one character as opposed to a movie where the beginning and the end take place in one script.



You've also done some theatre. How does that differ from film/television? Do you prefer one over the other?



Theater, television, and film are all completely different. In theater there is the excitement of a live show, television requires a different style of acting, and film is smaller, and it's the soft subtleties that count. All are fun because they provide different and new experiences in your life.