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The star of The Rage:Carrie 2 and The Lion in Winter is a precious diamond

who is rapidly self-polishing herself into a Cartier quality gem.

Interviewed by R. Allen Leider - April 22, 1999 in New York

On April 25th, 1999, Emily Bergl celebrates her 24th birthday, a fact that demanded a large bouquet

of daisies, her favorite flower on and off screen. It's been a busy day of auditions for the

almost-24-year-old actress. She's just on time for our chat an hour before she has to report to the

Roundabout Theater to transform herself into Alise Capet, French princess and mistress to Henry

II. Radiant Emily Bergl hangs her black leather motorcycle jacket over her chair at the coffee shop,

graciously accepts her bouquet, an unexpected surprise, and orders breakfast for dinner, fried eggs,

fries and toast and a vanilla shake. "I can't work on an empty stomach," she confesses. "I need the

energy. Laurence (Fishburne) can work sometimes without eating before the matinee and I know of

others who just don't eat because they have digestive problems if they work on a full stomach, but I

need the calories."

Biography

Emily was born on April 25th, 1975 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, UK where

she lived until she was 6 years old. This fact is partially responsible for her excellent diction and

distinctive voice. The family moved to the U.S. in 1981 and Emily grew up mostly around the

Chicago area where she received her basic schooling. She attended Grinnell College in Iowa

and earned her B.A. in Theater and English, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Emily is also the 1993

National Forensic League National Champion in Poetry Reading.

"I used to write poetry myself when I was younger." Emily admits, "when I was in college, I

discovered that writing drama was much more what my writing skills were atuned for. I have been

known to write some short plays, but I haven't done any of them. Baring one's soul through acting is

one thing, but my writings are more for me, a sort of therapy, maybe - maybe not. I'm not sure, at

least for right now. You never know. I would like to get into screenwriting eventually, too."

Emily trained at the Eugene O’Neill Center’s National Theater Institute and began her professional

career just a few months after graduating Grinnell when she was cast as an understudy in New York

City's Lincoln Center Theater production of Thornton Wilder's Ah, Wilderness!

The Rage: Carrie 2

"I don't have a detailed game plan for my career, but I am looking now for different things. I would

like to do another film. Before I did The Rage, I didn't have much of a plan. I was looking for any

kind of acting work and supporting myself as a word processor/typist. I was the typical struggling

young actress. The Rage came to me out of the blue. My agent submitted me to the studio for the

role. They were looking for new faces and through a long audition process I got it. They were very

receptive to casting an unknown because it was a genre film. I had done only theater before The

Rage and I was wary of doing a teen horror film. I pick my projects carefully. I'm theater trained

and I'm used to a live audience. I was concerned that I would have a blooming career in theater and

do the film and return to the stage and they would say 'Oh look, Carrie 2 is trying to do theater

now!'. I liked the script for The Rage and a liked the character because she was a strong person

and her background was similar to mine. That's what I liked about the original Carrie, the story

dealt with class structure. The heroine who needs and after school job, doesn't have designer

clothes, or a car to drive to school and takes the bus. I still use public transportation. So, I

understood Carrie and Rachel Lang inside very well."

"I was in high school when the original Carrie came out.. The biggest memory I have is when I

was younger, I would go to the video store and I was always fascinated with the box for Carrie.

The poster is so disturbing, those two images of Sissy Spacek. I always remembered wondering

what it was about, but I was too scared to see it. I eventually overcame the fear and saw it and

was fascinated by it. I was really nervous about meeting Sissy Spacek after I did The Rage. It was

at the Blast from the Past premier, but she was so nice. She liked the film and was very impressed

with my performance. I never had a compliment from an actress like that. It was very touching for

me."

"What was the hardest part of working on The Rage?"

The toughest part of making the film is a toss up between getting panes of glass exploded on me with

air cannons and having fire around and being shot in my general direction. I have a few little scars

from the glass exploding. It is fake glass, but when it's exploded at you, it can still cut you.

It was shot at my back and we were doing close-ups. The only protective thing I had was I was

actually cabled to the wall so I wouldn't move in the force of the explosion. The thing about that

party scene is that we ended up shooting it for about three days. It just got to the point where I'd

show up on the set, get on the floor and just have people screaming at me to the point where I could

feel the spit raining down on my back. It was good motivation because by the time we filmed the

scene, I was angry...really ready to kill everyone.

I had never done a feature film before and I didn't know just what to expect. I never imagined how

hard I would have to work, especially with the effects. My biggest surprise was the stunt and how

much work went into them. It was good for me in that I didn't know I was capable of doing this and

now I know that I can. I have expanded my horizons, so to speak."

"What was the scariest part of making The Rage?"

"The scariest part of The Rage....the press junket! I just had never done anything like that before

and facing all those strangers and being bombarded with questions. It was very scary. I'm not as shy

as some actreses are offscreen, but the press can be intimidating. In theater we don't do junkets. We

do things like this, one to one.

"I know, I'm often on the other end of them, " I assure her. "Junkets are like playing

tennis against eight people at once and things keep flying at you faster than you can bat

them back. How have your parents reacted to your sudden success?"

"It was funny because the show opened the same week that the film premiered in Los Angeles.

So I flew them out to LA for the premier and then they flew to New York for my opening. They

were more exhausted than I was. They definitely had a post-excitement drop after that. They've

always been very supportive of me and my work.

"Now, I get scripts for films similar to The Rage, but I am picky. I don't want to be the new horror

flick queen. That's why I returned to the stage after shooting on The Rage finished and did Romeo

and Juliet and The Lion in Winter."

The Lion in Winter

Laurence Fishburn as Henry II and Emily Bergl as Alise Capet

in the current Broadway hit The Lion In Winter

After shooting her first feature film The Rage: Carrie 2, Emily appeared as Juliet in the Old Globe

Theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet, then when on to her Broadway debut at age 23, as

French Princess Alise Capet, mistress of Henry II, in the revival of James Goldman's The Lion in

Winter with Laurence Fishburne as Henry II and Stockard Channing as Eleanor of Aquitaine. She'll

do the show until June, 1999 then move on to her next, as yet unannounced project,

probably another film.

(See our Broadway Lights area for a review of the show).

"There wasn't much research to do for the part. There isn't much actual documentation on Alise

Capet. I did do some general research on the period, but it is Goldman's interpretation of Henry II

and he takes some liberties as it is also a comedy. The Lion in Winter isn't historically accurate,

but...like the Christmas tree...it's very anachronistic and it's on stage for a good part of the show. My

research just allowed me to understand what Goldman is talking about in the play. The actual history

reads like a soap opera. I think we play up the comedy more than the film did. I've been very lucky

to debut on Broadway so soon in my career."

This month Emily Bergl was nominated for a Fanny Award, the theater's equivalent of the People's

Choice Award.

The Future

"What's lined up for you in June when you leave the show?"

"I have several irons in the fire. Nothing I can be specific about. I've been doing stage for the past

nine months, so a film would be nice. I've only done one and it's a medium that interests me. Both

stage and film are satisfying for me as a performer. Right now the money is better in theater.

I would never give up theater for film or TV. It's my first love. You go into the theater and for two

hours at 8 P.M. every night for months and months you are the character in the time and place of the

play. And out in the audience are real live people who paid sixty bucks to see you. In film, you hang

around your trailer..a P.A. brings you a Sprite and an aspirin and you take it easy for a while. Then,

you go on the set and shoot for five minutes and repeat the process over and over for six weeks or

more. People don't get to see your work for months and you don't see their reaction unless you go

to the movie house and watch them watch you.

Like I said, I have some prospects. I also have a small list of things I will and won't do. I will never

do a role that demeans women. I don't look specifically for strong female roles, but I look for roles I

can bring strength to. I have turned down several projects because they contained scenes or plot

material that was abusive towards a female character. In one script I read, the guy is very abusive

towards an girl by telling her that she's fat and I thought that was just awful and I passed on it. There

have been others."