Odette Annable Dishes on Her New Series 'Breaking In'
Cuban actress, Odette Annable, 25, gave us the 411 on her new FOX show, Breaking In (premiering April 6 at 9:30/8:30c), told us what it's like working with a rockstar like Christian Slater, and explained how her character's name went from Melanie Green to Melanie Garcia!
What's Breaking In about?
The show centers around a group of twenty-something oddball geniuses who work at this high-tech security firm called Contra Security, and we're basically hired to break into peoples' security systems - or, protect whatever they ask us to protect. We find loopholes in their system and it's basically like legal breaking in. Oh, and we have the coolest boss ever - Christian Slater!
Tell us about working with Christian Slater.
He's pretty amazing. I mean, I was nervous at first because he's Christian Slater, and he's in True Romance, one of my favorite movies of all-time! But he's so amazing - he immediately eliminates the whole "I'm a big movie star thing," and he's so grounded and down to earth and such a pleasure to work with. He's perfect for the role.
Tell us about your character Melanie Green.
You know what? It's so funny because when we were doing the TCA Panel for FOX, somebody asked me about being Latina and how we should have some more actresses that are Latin - and once they realized that I was Latin - which I don't know how they could have missed that! - they changed my name from Melanie Green to Melanie Garcia. It made me happy! I was like, that's great!
That makes us happy too! We're always happy to see more Latinas on television. But tell us: Is your character a bad girl?
Yeah - she's a badass! Here's a little bit of a backstory: She was raised with just her father, who's an ex-con artist, and you'll be able to see that in the coming episode after it airs. You realize why she is the way she is - it's because her father raised her picking locks. One of her Christmas presents one year was her own lockpicking case, so that's who she is. She hangs with the guys and she can put up with all of their crap and throw it right back at them. She's fearless. She's one of the funnest characters I've ever played because she's unapologetic about everything, but she also has a really vulnerable side. She's really sweet and she accepts everybody.
Is she also involved romantically with a male character?
Yes. She has a boyfriend on the show {played} by Michael Rosenbaum. He is known as a real douchebag on the show {Laughs}. He's very interesting. He drives this huge yellow hummer with racing stripes and he's just like out of control. You think: well why is this girl with this guy? But ultimately, he does the sweetest things for her and he just wants to make her happy. So I guess if you want to break it down, he's like the most awesome douchebag you can meet.
In what ways are you and your character similar?
I think I'm pretty fearless.I like to try things at least once, things that I never thought that I would try. The thing is, she's way cooler than I'll ever be - she rides motorcycles, and wears leather jackets and picks locks for a living. I'm not that cool.
Have you ever broken in anywhere?
Not anywhere where I could get into some serious trouble, but I definitely pissed my grandparents off a few times. I used to try to pick locks because I grew up on my grandparents’ farm and I started my own little spy club. I would go around the farm and try to break into the shed and try spying on my grandpa. It was ridiculous. [Laughs]
Who would you say is handier with locks: You or your husband, Dave Annable?
Me. He's handier with the computers and I can probably pick a lock faster than he could. I've done some research on it now, because Seth Gordon, our creator, sat me down and was like "Look we know your acting but we do want to show that she knows a little bit of what she's doing." There's this whole world on youtube about lockpicking and if you just look it up, there should be some pretty great tutorials on how to break in anywhere. It's probably highly illegal, but it taught me! [Laughs]
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What's Breaking In about?
The show centers around a group of twenty-something oddball geniuses who work at this high-tech security firm called Contra Security, and we're basically hired to break into peoples' security systems - or, protect whatever they ask us to protect. We find loopholes in their system and it's basically like legal breaking in. Oh, and we have the coolest boss ever - Christian Slater!
Tell us about working with Christian Slater.
He's pretty amazing. I mean, I was nervous at first because he's Christian Slater, and he's in True Romance, one of my favorite movies of all-time! But he's so amazing - he immediately eliminates the whole "I'm a big movie star thing," and he's so grounded and down to earth and such a pleasure to work with. He's perfect for the role.
Tell us about your character Melanie Green.
You know what? It's so funny because when we were doing the TCA Panel for FOX, somebody asked me about being Latina and how we should have some more actresses that are Latin - and once they realized that I was Latin - which I don't know how they could have missed that! - they changed my name from Melanie Green to Melanie Garcia. It made me happy! I was like, that's great!
That makes us happy too! We're always happy to see more Latinas on television. But tell us: Is your character a bad girl?
Yeah - she's a badass! Here's a little bit of a backstory: She was raised with just her father, who's an ex-con artist, and you'll be able to see that in the coming episode after it airs. You realize why she is the way she is - it's because her father raised her picking locks. One of her Christmas presents one year was her own lockpicking case, so that's who she is. She hangs with the guys and she can put up with all of their crap and throw it right back at them. She's fearless. She's one of the funnest characters I've ever played because she's unapologetic about everything, but she also has a really vulnerable side. She's really sweet and she accepts everybody.
Is she also involved romantically with a male character?
Yes. She has a boyfriend on the show {played} by Michael Rosenbaum. He is known as a real douchebag on the show {Laughs}. He's very interesting. He drives this huge yellow hummer with racing stripes and he's just like out of control. You think: well why is this girl with this guy? But ultimately, he does the sweetest things for her and he just wants to make her happy. So I guess if you want to break it down, he's like the most awesome douchebag you can meet.
In what ways are you and your character similar?
I think I'm pretty fearless.I like to try things at least once, things that I never thought that I would try. The thing is, she's way cooler than I'll ever be - she rides motorcycles, and wears leather jackets and picks locks for a living. I'm not that cool.
Have you ever broken in anywhere?
Not anywhere where I could get into some serious trouble, but I definitely pissed my grandparents off a few times. I used to try to pick locks because I grew up on my grandparents’ farm and I started my own little spy club. I would go around the farm and try to break into the shed and try spying on my grandpa. It was ridiculous. [Laughs]
Who would you say is handier with locks: You or your husband, Dave Annable?
Me. He's handier with the computers and I can probably pick a lock faster than he could. I've done some research on it now, because Seth Gordon, our creator, sat me down and was like "Look we know your acting but we do want to show that she knows a little bit of what she's doing." There's this whole world on youtube about lockpicking and if you just look it up, there should be some pretty great tutorials on how to break in anywhere. It's probably highly illegal, but it taught me! [Laughs]
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