Welcome to "In Mike's Corner" I'm Mike E. Pringle, Chief One-Man-Gang. Now before I introduce my special guest, I want to share a little story first. About a year ago I checked out an independent fantasy film called "Max Magician and the Legend of the Rings". Anyone who's familiar with this film knows the story. They may also be familiar with some of the comments. I'm only going to agree with one general statement. That the high point of the movie is sitting to my immediate right. In My Corner right now, the lady who stole the show as the Blue Bell Forest Noblewoman, Princess Etain, welcome Miss Erika Ann!
The Corner was honored to welcome Erika Ann.
Chief: Thank you for being in my corner today Erika.
Erika Ann: Thank you for having me!
Chief: Before we start, I have to say this. When I first saw "Max", I pointed at the screen during your scenes and I said "I would love to work with you!" and here we are. Let's put all that to one side right now. We want to meet you Erika. Let's talk about your showbiz origins. When did you decide that acting was for you?
Erika Ann: It actuality all started with me singing. I sang allot and almost "everywhere". Like in the car. I got on my parent´s nerves with this. Because I was constantly singing. So, I started off in theatre. My first show was "Annie". I was one of the orphans. That´s basically how it all started out, with theatre. I wanted to do film. My first major role was "Max Magician". I did some extra work prior to Max. My true origins were in singing.
Chief: Singing in the car, huh? For most of us it´s the shower. We always sound better in the shower. When we get in front of people...that´s another story.
Chief: Where did you study or should I say practice your craft?
Erika Ann: I´ve done allot of community theatre in the Baltimore Maryland area. Right now. I´m doing two shows at the Timonium Dinner Theatre. Performing pretty much came naturally. I´ve taken a few voice lessons. However, it came natural.
Chief: What's your favorite role to date?
Erika Ann: That would have to be "Emma" in "Jekyll And Hyde". An Amazing show. Learned the part in two days.
Chief: Wow, we´re going to love you around here. We had a guy once. Prepared him for three months. He didn't know any lines during filming. You believe that?! Needless to say, he´s not here anymore.
Erika Ann: I´m a quick study.
Chief: All right! that´s what I like to hear.
Chief: Which actor/actress famous or not would you love to work with?
Erika Ann: Don´t laugh, but I have to say Johnny Depp. I think he´s a great actor. Constantly reinventing himself. I love his choices in movies. Such as "Sleepy Hollow". That was a nice dark Tim Burton movie. An I love Tim Burton.
Chief: I guess you enjoyed "Pirates of the Caribbean ".
Erika Ann: Yes!
Chief: I was told by your former "Max Magician" co-star, Greg Coale, who we all know and love as Tom Tit Tot. That you're a great singer.
Erika Ann: Oh, Thank you.
Chief: I had a chance to see you in "Cinderella" at the Timonium Dinner Theatre. I have to agree with Greg. Wow, what a voice!
Erika Ann: Thank you again.
Chief: Tell the visitors more about the show.
Erika Ann: Sure, it´s the hour long children´s show. It´s really cute. I sing like seven songs. So it´s a chance for me to shine. Or if you are a fan of Max Magician, see the show.
Chief: When Greg Coale e-mailed you and told you about me. Telling you about my projects and this web site. What was going through your mind?
Erika Ann: It was very exciting. I haven´t done a movie in over a year. Basically all I´ve been doing is theatre. I said oh wow, this seems interesting. Here´s an opportunity to work with new people. Doing another film and get back in front of the camera.
Chief: It didn't seem strange at all?
Erika Ann: A little bit, I had no idea who you were. In the end I´m glad I contacted you.
Chief: And we were glad to hear from you!
Chief: Now I have to do it. I'm going back to "Max". First, how did you land the role of Etain?
Erika Ann: I learned about the audition from an agent. Who wasn't my agent at the time. She sent out a general e-mail. I was on her e-mail list. So I got a copy. I said, OK, I´ll go to this. I showed up, they gave me sides. Once I read, they loved me. got a callback an I landed the role there. They said I was exactly what they were looking for for. I had a very good feeling each time I was there. I felt like I landed the role. An I did! Best of all, I got to work with some very good people.
Chief: At any time did you feel like, I´m not going to get this?
Erika Ann: I think that goes through every actor´s mind. You always have doubts. You have to be confident enough with your performance to know that you did your best job. If you get the role great. If you don´t, you know what? There´s more out there, move on. There is so much rejection.
Chief: OH YES...this is a tough biz.
Erika Ann: I felt confident with the role. Even if I didn´t get the part, I know I gave a great audition.
Chief: On the DVD commentary, I heard the writer say you were exactly what she wanted. When she created the character, you had the look. When you entered the room, she said "That´s Etain!"
Erika Ann: She said, even the way I delivered the lines was just how she imagined it. The voice and delivery. Which is kind a of strange. However, it was a wave of relief. Because, I believe they auditioned for six months before. They still hadn´t found anyone yet. So they had another audition. I was in the right place. There were allot of people auditioning for that role. So, I was very happy.
Chief: I would love to hear some set stories. Tell me about some of the cast & crew. What were they like to work with. Such as...
Chief: Fernando Londono...Fetch
Erika Ann: One of the bad guys. He was very, very nice and professional. Everyone was professional. Fernando, very talented and he was always trying to make me laugh. Like during the box scene...
Chief: ...it had the spell in it.
Erika Ann: Yes and it went everywhere. He was always trying to make me laugh.
Chief: Like making faces and stuff?
Erika Ann: Right, when the camera was on us. He was great though. Unfortunately I didn´t have that many scenes with him.
Chief: I can remember the one scene at the end. People said to me, don´t forget to ask her this. When Crimbil brings Max back to town after he had gone away. Fetch was kneeling beside you.
Erika Ann: In the blue dress.
Chief: Right, was he saying anything to you. The question really was, what´s he doing there.
Erika Ann: It wasn´t in the script really. Kevin (Summerfield) the director just put it there. Fetch didn´t say anything. He was just kneeling there kissing my hand. I guess it symbolized he was now good. He was coming to our side. He was no longer a villain. Respecting our side.
Chief: Asking for forgiveness.
Erika Ann: Forgiveness, but he never said anything.
Chief: You should have kicked him!
Erika Ann: He made those goofy faces again.
Chief: Steven Barry Prince...Worm
Erika Ann: I really don´t know that much about him. I didn´t have any scenes with him. If I can remember correctly. Most of his scenes were with Dagda.
Chief: You had that one scene with him. When Max brought Worm to your castle and Max says, "meet my new friend". You said "Begone troll, before I call my guards!"
Erika Ann: Oh, I forgot about that scene. This was two years ago. That was actually the first scene that we shot. This was my first speaking role in a film. The big camera was right there. This was filmed at the Renaissance Festival. Steven was great. I was really worried about my performance. They had little sandbags to mark our places. It was my first scene. I felt bad for him with all the prosthetics he had to endure.
Chief: I met Steven Barry Prince at an audition for a movie called "The Mommy Track". We were both in line for the role of Jed, the flamboyant party guest. Well I got Jed. I saw Steven maybe two days after that decision was made. He said "How did you do with Mommy Track?" I told him I got it. He told me "I´m off to Maryland to audition for this big fantasy film." Which I later found out was Max Magician. So I guess he got the BBD (bigger better deal). No knock to Mommy Track, a great movie. However, he got to do the kind of movie I want to do.
Chief: Greg Coale...Tom Tit Tot
Erika Ann: Great guy, great actor and very professional. Very, very funny at the same time. Some people are straight and dry at all times. They won´t do things to make filming fun. Not Greg, he was great. I got to see him on video. His character acting was excellent. I also felt bad for him too. With all the make-up. It gave him problems when eating. Great guy! I really believe he´ll go far. He keeps popping up. I keep seeing local films and there he is.
Chief: He´s also the one...
Erika Ann: ...who introduced us.
Chief: That´s right.
Chief: Kevin Curtis...Crimbil
Erika Ann: I Love Kevin! We did allot of theatre together at the Timonium. We did "Winnie the Pooh" He was Winnie I was Kanga. We were the leads. Yes, I played a Kangaroo and No you don´t want to see the pictures.
Chief: I like to see that. I like Winnie the Pooh.
Erika Ann: It was a cute show. Back to Kevin, he is so talented. He can dance like nobody I have ever seen. He voice...amazing. It was unfortunate that you really didn´t get to see him on screen until the end. Oh those ears. They were great and funny. When I was cast, I was excited. Wow we´re going to have little elf ears like LOTR. We got these big pig ears.
Chief: You should have went around the set going....What?
Erika Ann: I actually did have trouble hearing. They covered the whole ear and they only had tiny holes in them. They let me keep my ears!
Chief: Really, save those for the "Barbara Walters Special".
Chief: and of course Timothy Stultz...Maxwell Majeck
Erika Ann: It all goes back to theatre. We did "Mary Poppins" at another theatre. I was thirteen. Then I saw him at the Max auditions. We read together. They pretty much had him picked from the first round of auditions. So we did the lines together and it worked. He´s great to work with and he´s so funny. There´s pictures on-line with us doing dance moves.
Chief: Yes! I was going to ask you about that. Because I´ve seen those pix. It looked like you were raising the roof.
Erika Ann: No, we were doing mime moves. He always showed up to set in pajamas. I though that was cool.
Chief: How early did you shoot?
Erika Ann: About 6AM.
Chief: See, he just got out of bed.
Erika Ann: Me too.
Chief: Oh sure, you´re the professional one.
Chief: What was it like working for Kevin Summerfield?
Erika Ann: Great, he told you exactly what he wanted. And we got it done. We didn´t have many rehearsals. Just three read-throughs, but we got it done together. Plus, he got really good food.
Chief: That´s a plus.
Chief: You mentioned a little about the make-up effects. You probably didn´t spend allot of time in the make-up chair, did you?
Erika Ann: It took up to and hour to 90 minutes to apply the ears. The thing is you just can´t rip them off when you´re done. They had to "scrape" it. It sometimes hurt, because it got in my hair. I had glue stuck around my ears an in my hair for about a week. No matter how many times you showered, it came off when it wanted to.
I remember one location. I went to a public restroom in full costume. A lady came out and screamed. I don´t know who was more scared.
Chief: We had a girl on our set playing a blue skinned alien. She had to enter a library. So the kids there were like...HUH?!
Erika Ann: That will get some looks.
Chief: The make-up artists, did you get along with them OK?
Erika Ann: Oh yes. I had my own personal make-up artist. Then they had others to handle all the extras. That´s allot of work. With all the ears and war paint. Allot of times we didn´t shoot until 10AM. Some days I was there and didn´t get to film at all. There was so much to get done.
Chief: All elfed up and nowhere to go. What´s an elf girl to do.
Chief: Fight/stunt training.
Erika Ann: I took Tae Kwon Do. Made it to a brown belt. Should have kept going. Then I took dance and flagline. For the movie, they taught me to use the fighting stick. It had soft padding all over it. I got to keep one!
Chief: Cool!
Erika Ann: It was easy for me to learn because of my other training and experience. However, I´d never done a fight scene before. It was fun, I wish I had more fight scenes in Max.
Chief: What was the stunt coordinator like?
Erika Ann: He was great. He also taught Tae Kwon Do. I wish I could do half the stuff he does.
Chief: What time of year did you film? Did you battle the elements?
Erika Ann: It was May/June.
Chief: So you didn´t battle the elements?
Erika Ann: Not really, but the day we shot the scene where I told Max the story. It was freezing. They would throw blankets on me between takes.
Chief: That happened to me when we shot "Merc Force". The temperature dropped an I wore a t-shirt in the scenes. So between takes I had on a coat.
Erika Ann: When you´re shooting, you tend to forget about it. As soon as they call cut! Pass the blankets.
Chief: And coats
Chief: So tell me, what are your goals (showbiz) for the future?
Erika Ann: I´m studying to be a Radiation Therapist. That´s far from acting. For the biz, I would love to be on Broadway. Also some major motion pictures. Until then, I´ll keep plugging along.
Chief: Oh yes, it´s a tough biz.
Chief: If they were to do another Max, would you come back?
Erika Ann: In a heartbeat! I hope they can get everyone else back. We´re all getting older.
Chief: I want to pitch an idea to Kevin later on. It´s called "Max Magician and the Lost Legend". It will be allot darker than the first one. So I hope, if we can do it, it will be widely excepted. I waiting until he finishes his current projects. Then ask if he even wants to do another one. I´m having trouble writing for everyone. I have a good idea how to write for you. So you will have allot to do. So that´s why I´m asking you this.
Erika Ann: I´ll come back in a heartbeat. Tim is taller than me now.
Chief: Ouch, then maybe it can be, "Princess Etain and the Lost Legend".
Erika Ann: Hey...why not :)
Chief: Well I can't thank you enough for being in my corner!
Remember visitors Erika Ann performs often at The Timonium Dinner Theatre. For more information visit...
For more awesome pix from the Max Magician film...click the DVD box!