Turnabout Is Fair Play
Van Hansis: What is the biggest similarity between you and Jade? Because I know that you’re a very sweet girl and she’s not. And also, how do you find all of her nastiness within yourself?
Elena Goode I would say our biggest similarity is drive, because I think in order to be an actor, you have to have the ability to be rejected, to take criticism, to better yourself against odds. You are, essentially, going against a lot of people for a small amount of roles. So I think it’s the drive and the ability to understand that one day’s rejection is another day’s opportunity. I think that Jade approaches everything like that. No matter how many times Will told her he wasn’t interested in her, she just came up with a new approach. As an actor that’s very helpful, as a person, it’s a little scary. [Hansis laughs.] To find the nastiness within myself? In high school, there was a group of girls who were very fake with me and I did have a few experiences, I’m sure as most girls do, with backstabbing. At the time, I was very reserved and apologetic. I looked at why people were doing things and I ended up feeling bad for them instead of defending myself when I should have. So a lot of times I take from, “I coulda, shoulda, woulda said this in this instance when I was upset.”Hansis: Oh, that’s cool.
Goode: So it’s that feeling of fierce defense of yourself. You can kind of pull from that and use it in a moment because Jade tends to go off at inappropriate moments. But it makes it feel very real. We tend to lean toward being a little more proper and thoughtful. In some interactions even now, I stand back when I really want to jump forward and say how I feel and stand up for myself. That, I allow to come out a lot when I play Jade and it’s fun. It’s a nice release.Hansis: It must be nice: to say what you can’t say in real life. Kind of let it all go. I’ve actually noticed you get more and more comfortable with that.
Goode: I totally didn’t understand how to do that in the beginning. I didn’t understand how to come across with her as very “runs off at the mouth,” but you want her to. I didn’t know how to find that balance until recently. Hansis: Yeah, I’ve definitely noticed. My next question regarding Jade is: Let’s say eventually, somehow she gets over Will and Gwen and she doesn’t want to break them up anymore. What do you want her next story to be? What do you think will flesh her out more once she gets over this Will fixation?
Goode: I think that Jade, once she does finally get over Will, is not necessarily going to be looking for love. I think Jade wants attention. She’s very motivated by people who get too much of it. She’s very put off by that; she feels very much entitled to attention because she’s not getting it. I think it would be very funny to see her with an Elwood-type character who would totally be her lapdog, shower her with attention….Hansis: Isn’t that what Luke does?
Goode: Yeah! But you know, they’re related now. If they weren’t, who knows? I think that’s very appealing to Jade: someone who can be kind of her sidekick, but also her companion, and someone she could boss around. I think a character like Elwood and Jade would be funny as well as realistic because Jade is a little too dysfunctional for an actual love relationship. I definitely see her having an unbalanced relationship with someone who would follow her around. Hansis: Cool. My next question is: If you could play any character on the show — old, young, man, woman — what character would you like to play?
Goode: Faith. I think what’s going on with her is so interesting and relatable, especially with everything that’s been going on in the past year with three supermodels who’ve passed away from anorexia, and the new rules as far as people’s size and weight index doing the runway in Barcelona…. It’s in the media; people are absolutely fixated with weight and food. So I feel what she’s playing right now is something that pretty much the vast majority of American women can relate to.Hansis: Yeah.
Goode: So I find it to be a really, really interesting story and one that I would want to play.Hansis: What is one movie, book, TV show, piece of art or anything that has changed your life?
Goode: A movie — it’s funny, this is not going to be something that people can relate to or have seen — but What The #$*! Do We Know!? It’s not a film for actors; that’s not what it’s about. It’s more a scientific documentary. I know that the book The Secret is a huge hit right now and What The #$*! Do We Know!? is sort of in that vein in that it’s a group of scientists explaining the human body’s relationship to the Earth scientifically and how our consciousness relates to the world outside of us. When I saw this movie, what moved me so much is the overall message: the human mind and human desire and dreams that drive us through our life really are attainable. It’s how far you’re willing to go and how deeply you believe. I think a lot of people struggle with truly believing in themselves and stepping outside of what they think is possible and going for what they think is impossible. What I love about this movie is that it explains to the viewer scientifically that essentially nothing is impossible. As long as you can imagine it and create a frame of mind that believes in it, you can achieve anything you want as long as you’re here on Earth. That movie really did change my perspective on how I live my life and how I want to do things for the rest of my life. A lot of people say, “I can’t,” before they say, “I can.” Now I try to say, “I can.” And then maybe I’ll fall [laughs], but I always say, “I can,” first. Hansis: That’s awesome. I pulled those questions out pretty well, didn’t I? That was fun!
Conversation
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