The TV Chick

Premiere day has finally arrived! Life Unexpected premieres tonight, and I couldn’t be more excited about it! The show centers around Lux (Britt Robertson), who wants to emancipate herself from the foster care system when she turns sixteen. The journey brings Lux to her biological parents, Nate “Baze” Bazile (Kris Polaha) and Cate Cassidy (Shiri Appleby), and they all wind up with the family they never knew they had. This show has a ton of heart, and in speaking with most of the cast members and the creator, it became so evident that this is a passion project that they love, too. It represents what dramas should be, in that they make you laugh and cry and learn all in about an hour. I recently had the chance to speak with Britt Robertson (Lux) about her new leading role, her own family and her favorite moments from filming the show.

Tell us a little bit more about your character, Lux.
The show Life Unexpected centers around 15 year old Lux, and she’s seeking out emancipation from the foster care system and during that process, she ends up meeting her biological parents for the first time since they had given her up, and she’s sort of like this tough, hard-edge, funny, sarcastic character who ends up becoming a little more in touch with her emotions towards her parents throughout the series and she’s this 15 year old girl, but she’s really not 15 at all because she had to grow up so fast, because of being in foster homes and group homes. So she’s definitely got a lot of layers to her.

What originally drew you to the role?
Originally, when I read the script, I loved the story itself and when I spoke with Liz, our creator, and I found out how connected she was with it and how passionate she was about the project, [and] I just fell in love with the idea of the show and secondly, it was so well written. The characters were all so well written, and Lux the character that I’m now playing, but the character that I was auditioning for, she was so different from anything else I had ever done, and that was like really, really interesting and challenging and I was just taken aback by how fun and interesting it could be.

And you just mentioned your creator, Liz, who was adopted. Did you speak to her or anyone else in the foster care system to get a sense of how they grew up?
Yeah, well originally when I was auditioning for the part, I had spoken to her a little bit about the situation and she was telling me — I had no idea that she was adopted at the time, and I had no idea that at the time she was actually seeking out her biological parents as well and it wasn’t because of the show or because it was getting off its feet, it was actually just sort of coincidental that we were shooting the pilot and she had just now gotten in touch with them. And it was interesting, because I was sort of able to understand what it’s like to not know who your parents are and wish for certain people, and not necessarily get the people you were hoping for, or vice versa. So it was really helpful to speak with her, because I’d never really known anyone to be adopted or in the system. And also, I spoke with — there’s a program in Pasadena, California, that I sort of did a lot of research with called the Casey Family Program. It’s sort of directly targets, sixteen to twenty five year olds who have been in foster care or group homes and basically it’s sort of teaching them how to get emancipated and move out on their own and take care of themselves and keep pursuing things even though they don’t have the money or the sources and so that was really helpful because all of the employees there have actually been through it themselves as well.

The show is at its core about family. Lux’s new family, and her old family which we get to see a little bit in the upcoming episode. What is your family like?
It’s interesting because I moved out to LA when I was pretty young, and my family wasn’t able to come with me because I have a lot of younger brothers and sisters and my parents just couldn’t uproot our whole lives, so I ended up moving out when I was a lot younger and I think that actually has helped me a little bit with drawing from my experiences to relate to Lux because moving to LA you don’t have your mom to come home to or people in your life to sort of direct your path, I kind of had to like figure it out for myself a little bit, and I think though I’m super close with my family, I am away from them and I don’t get to see them as much as I’d like, so I think that’s definitely helped me relate to Lux a little better.

There’s a very poignant moment in the pilot that is one of my favorites, where Shiri Appleby’s character Cate tells you everything will work out. What was it like filming that scene?
That scene in particular other than being freezing cold in January in Vancouver, it was interesting because we got to film that scene a couple times, and sort of feel out different emotions and different layers to the scene and I think it was a really important scene because it sort of establishes our relationship and us trying to be the people that we know that we have to be for the people that we love. And I think not only did it turn out really well, but I think it also spoke really highly of those characters. We can just sort of click into a scene and play it out for however long it takes. And so that scene in particular really helped me connect with her, and it was great. I think it turned out the way we hoped.

Do you have a favorite moment from filming the show so far?
It’s so hard. There’s so many moments. I love the scenes when we’re all together, because there’s really rare moments when we all — all of us — me and Shiri and Kris and Austin and Reggie — the original five of us have scenes together, it’s really rare. So when we do, it’s kind of like this epic moment because we’ve been in this together for almost a year now, and so whenever we have scenes together, it’s so much fun and there’s so much life and we get so excited for each other, and we get so excited for the scene, and the show and it’s just a really amazing feeling.

This is your first big leading role. I loved you in The Tenth Circle (a Lifetime movie) and Dan In Real Life, but this is your first lead role. What has that been like for you?
It’s a first for me, for sure. It’s challenging and it’s fun and a lot of pressure, but I think it’s good. For me, it’s been such a fun ride, and it’s been a great experience. Originally, it was really scary to take on a leading role like that because you never know what you’re going to get, and you never know who you’re going to work with, and if you can handle it ultimately. But, luckily for me, Shiri showed me the ropes a little bit and Kristoffer is so wonderful and the two of them — between their advice and their leading examples, it’s been pretty easy.

You have great chemistry with both Shiri and Kris. Was that instant when you started filming?
Kris and I instantly sort of clicked. From the original moments of when he was auditioning, because I had actually gotten the role before they started auditioning parents. And so I went in to do some chemistry reads with him, and instantly I just felt super connected to Kris. He came up to me and introduced himself, and I was just sitting there by myself, and he was very warm and welcoming. And ever since then, I was like “I like that guy,” and I think that we’ve really had this close bond. And then with Shiri, it was definitely different, because they didn’t cast her up until a couple days before we started shooting. So I didn’t even really know her, but it sort of fit into the pilot a little bit — life imitating art, art imitating life, but now we live together in Vancouver, we’re roommies. So we’ve become super, super close and I know all the ins and outs of Shiri Appleby, and it’s kind of great. Because we’re really good friends now, and so I think the relationship between the two of them are so different, I have such a different bond with the both of them. So it’s great, it’s a balance between parental and fellow employees and also friends.

We were just talking about how Lux is a very complex character with a lot of layers. I know you can’t spoil too much — but can you give us a little teaser of what’s coming up this season for her?
Liz has done a lot of research. And with the writing, it was sort of bound to happen that Lux had pent up feelings, or wasn’t able to trust her parents fully, because she doesn’t even really know these people. She takes on this experience, but doesn’t really know what to expect out of it yet, which is intimidating. And I think through the first couple episodes, on to the last couple episodes, a lot of it is Lux dealing with how she feels, and her former life, and her current life and I think she definitely takes some emotional rollercoasters trying to figure out the balance of being the person that she used to be and being the person she can be now.

What would you tell viewers as to why they should tune into Life Unexpected?
Mainly, it’s a character driven show and you can really — from the get go — watching the pilot, I feel like you can really get to know these characters and they’re likable, and you want to root for them, and you want to see their flaws because it’s a very real show. And it’s a very compelling show and we have a lot of heart, and it’s about a family — growing and conquering and just sort of riding it out with each other, and I think through the season, you’ll really start to relate to all of them.

Do you have any big plans to watch the pilot?
Well, I’m actually off that day, believe it or not I’m not working. So, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m probably going to kick back, throw some popcorn in the microwave, and just love it up.

Well, that sounds like a good plan to me! And thank you so much for taking the time off from your busy schedule to talk.
Of course, thank you so much.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 9 pm on the CW for the series premiere of Life Unexpected!