There’s no reason to dread the spring season finales in your DVR lineup because summer TV has stepped up to the plate and offers plenty of entertainment for you to get into. We caught up with six actors/actresses to dish on just what you can expect in their respective upcoming seasons and what attracts them to their roles.
APRIL BOWLBY
Acting wasn’t always plan A for California native April Bowlby. After studying ballet and French in college and then pursuing a modeling career, Bowlby came across her love for the Hollywood histrionics while auditioning for a music video. “They really wanted me to get upset and cry and get angry,” she recalls. “And I just really liked that feeling and the emotions that came up, and so, I was like, I think I’ve been bit by the acting bug. I really loved that kind of adrenaline that you got that I found in that one little music video.” Treading on familiar territory, Bowlby stars in Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva as Stacy Barrett, an aspiring model and actress. Oftentimes, Stacy has her stereotypical blonde moments, but the real life beauty has been able to make her character endearing and significant as the best friend of the lead role and can relate to her on-screen persona in many ways. “I think Stacy looks on the bright side and I feel I definitely try to do that, and I feel she’s very loose and she kind of wants to play all the time. Her character on the show – she kind of can do no wrong. She’s just got a really fun storyline all the time, so I kind of feel like that’s my life a little bit – not that I can’t do anything wrong – but I feel like it’s just a joyous life that I have. I think we’re similar in the sense that we’re just happy people.” This summer’s Season 4 of Diva follows past seasons in switching gears between drama and comedy during an hour-long episode, but it’s apparent that Stacy gets to stay in her comedic lane. The series opens with her involved in a new business with none other than Kim Kardashian, who branches out of her reality shtick to venture into an ironic character as a love guru named Nikki LaPree. Bowlby also reveals more guest stars to include Patty Duke and Joan Rivers and says, “I think with Diva you just never know what to expect, so there’s lots of love triangles and everyone is getting a little intense.” When it comes to Stacy’s love story, Bowlby admits, “I think I would like her to have better luck in love. I feel she kind of is a leaf in the wind. She kind of goes wherever the wind blows her, and I would like her to be a little stronger with the whole choosing of a boyfriend situation. But it’s great that this season she gets a career, which I’m really happy about, so she is a little more grounded this season than the previous seasons.” Bowlby is also widely recognized as the ditzy girlfriend of Alan Harper on Two and a Half Men in Seasons 3 and 4, but if she could choose a role to really challenge herself with, it would be a step away from the comedy scene – “something that requires a calmness, something where you have to really be still and precise and quiet. You know those roles that are very stealthy? I think I would have a hard time with that.” And since Diva is all about second chances, Bowlby knows just how she would like to come back to Earth given the opportunity. “If I had to pick a person, I think I would love to be like Mikhail Baryshnikov and be a man…and also to be in a dancer’s body that’s such like an athlete, strong and graceful. I think that would be really nice.”
