Bonnie Dennison, age sixteen, was born and raised in New York City. She attends private school there full-time. In school, Bonnie studies both French and Spanish and loves to play volleyball; her team enjoyed an undefeated season this year. Bonnie also studies dance and yoga and attributes her love of sports and movement to her older sister Sally, who attends college in Pennsylvania.
Bonnie first became interested in acting at age nine when the PBS show Reading Rainbow visited her fourth-grade class to select children to review books for their young viewers. She thoroughly enjoyed everything about the experience and knew she wanted to do more.
Although Bonnie began acting as a lark, it quickly became a passion and she began studying acting on weekends, both privately and in group classes. She soon booked Sidney Lumet’s 100 Centre Street, The Education of Max Bickford, Law & Order, and Law & Order: SVU. Since there aren’t many New York-based shows, when the call came for a recurring role as Emily Yokas on NBC’s Third Watch, it seemed too good to be true (and Bonnie felt she had blown the audition). Bonnie has since learned that reading the reactions of casting directors isn’t her strongest talent. She joined the cast and has been with the show for three years. Most recently, Bonnie performed Off-Broadway in a T. Schreiber Studio production of Hurlyburly.
Although there is no question that Third Watch is the biggest thing that has happened in her career, Bonnie will always recall being on Saturday Night Live (even though her lines with Jimmy Fallon were cut ten minutes before show time) as the most exciting. More is available at https://imdb.com/name/nm1216253.
I was actually eight and the PBS show Reading Rainbow came to my school. I auditioned for that because my principal just thought I was a chatty kid and that I’d like to do something like that. She was right. I just remember in the audition—I just kept talking, I wouldn’t stop talking. Even other people’s questions—I’d answer them. I got that and it was so thrilling, going to the hair and makeup room and getting to make the lines sound fun and stuff.
I begged my mom to get me a manager for months, I was just nagging her. She had a friend who had a manager so I ended up meeting with the manager. That’s how it started. But, I guess maybe in second grade I was in a play. Our class teacher wrote a play about the environment called Recycle It, Renew It. I was Elizabeth Gimme, the horrible, selfish woman who wore fur and tortoiseshell clips and was just very lavish. I had a great monologue. That was fun, actually. I remember that as my very, very first gig.
What do you consider your first break?
It would probably have to be 100 Centre Street. That was the first legit thing I booked. It was a cable show—that’s since been cancelled—on A&E by Sidney Lumet. Before that, whenever I auditioned for anything legit, or even commercial, it was almost like there was no chance I was going to get it. It was like a one out of a thousand chance. But as soon as you get that one credit, it kind of makes things possible.
100 Centre Street had me in quite a demanding scene, actually. They wanted me to cry and it was for no apparent reason that I could see, from an acting standpoint. The character just burst out into tears. That was beyond what I could do, at that point. Sidney Lumet called me over and said, “Do you think you’re going to be able to cry for this?” I said, “I don’t know.” So, they ended up putting Tiger Balm around my eyes. I wasn’t expecting it. They said, “This will tingle a bit.” Uh, yeah. The tears aren’t really from the Tiger Balm—they’re from the pain of the Tiger Balm! That was definitely stressful. Now, if I’m given time, I can get the tears going. And I’ve since discovered the Essence of Menthol. Much better! Much less pain, much more effective, no red, unsightly marks.
How did you get your SAG card?
My SAG card came from a stint on Saturday Night Live, actually. I was an extra and I had a line, but then they cut it last-minute. It was still a lot of fun.
How do you handle being a working actor while in school?
I’m not homeschooled. I’m in regular school. For a while there, I was contemplating maybe the Professional Children’s School. But my school has been great about it. I just tell them I’m going to keep up my grades and they say, “Okay, fine. Miss as much school as you need to.” As long as I’m keeping up my grades, they don’t seem to have a problem with it. Right now, it’s exam time, and I’m working tomorrow. I’ve got math and history exams Friday and I just got news that I have a play audition tomorrow, after I’m working. So, it’s a lot of emailing teachers and buying them cookies at Christmas for being so helpful. It’s just so strange because there will be two weeks where I will be attending school every day, have nothing to do on weekends, be bored out of my mind, and then all of a sudden things will speed up. It’s never interspersed nicely and calmly.
In my school, I’m the only actor. I’m the one exception, for them, for this scheduling thing. But being the only actor in school provides a certain amount of stress. Today, all the girls want to be actors or they want to be in the limelight somehow. There’s a lot of jealousy. And then there are a lot of people who will come up to me and all they’ll talk about is acting because they are interested in getting into the business. It’s hard in that respect. But I have a handful of close friends that I know aren’t really interested in that aspect of my life. The hardest part is just getting catty comments now and then and having to understand that it’s not anything to do with what they really feel about me.
Is your family supportive?
My mom is wonderful. She does everything. She is my personal manager and partner in crime when it comes to this. My manager has a lot of other clients, so she can’t devote all her time to me. Mom can. That’s the thing about being a child actor: You have to have a supportive guardian with you. I remember there was a time when I wasn’t really booking and after every single audition, Mom would say, “Y’know, this has been fun and you’ve had a lot of really interesting experiences. Whenever you want to quit, it’s fine.” I would just say, “No. I want to keep at it.” It’s a lark, really. We’re in New York, we’re right here, there’s so many people that commute from Pennsylvania for a little voiceover audition. We never understood that. At that stage, when you’re going on so many auditions with very little to show for it, it can get pretty discouraging.
How do you handle rejection?
On TV, it’s portrayed as though you go on the audition and they tell you right there and then if you’ve booked it or if you haven’t. It’s not so much like that. You go on the audition, and if you don’t hear about it for a month, you assume you haven’t gotten it. So, it’s kind of like a distilled rejection. It’s quite the opposite of direct rejection. It’s not as horrible as they make it out to seem. I can never tell what casting directors think of me. It’s hard, of course—especially when you do get attached to a role or you get particularly excited about something—but it’s the whole mentality of, “There will be more,” that helps. You really have to believe in fate to be in this business. You have to believe that some of these jobs weren’t meant to be; you weren’t supposed to have a role for whatever reason. Like maybe you were meant to do something else and you wouldn’t be available for that if you were doing the other job. I can’t say that I’ve never had a jealous thought towards someone that’s gotten a role that I wanted. Of course, jealousy arises, but you just have to keep perspective because it happens so often that you wouldn’t be able to stay in the business if you walked around jealous and angry all the time.
How will you choose between New York and Los Angeles?
While I’m in New York, I would love to do stage work. I did my first theatre last spring, actually: a production of Hurlyburly. That was so much fun. I enjoyed that a lot. I would love to continue that as long as I am in New York, since this is the center of stage. I’ve never been out to LA. I’ve done pilot season from New York, putting stuff on tape, but that’s not quite the same as going out, of course. I would love to go out to LA, once Third Watch is over. I wouldn’t know how much I’d want to head in the direction of television. I think I’d be leaning more towards film or theatre. Television is fun, but I feel like I’ve tried it and I want to try everything else.
I recently did a commercial for Differin acne gel. I like commercials with a lot of copy—a lot of script—to do. It’s fun for me. Surprisingly, it takes a lot of energy, but commercials are fun. Obviously, it’s not acting, per se, but it exercises creativity. It’s more intense than people think it would be, at a commercial shoot. It’s a lot of takes packed into one day and you have to do every line ten different ways. It’s fun to see this commercial on TV because it’s probably the most widely-distributed that I’ve done. For a while at school, everyone was coming up to me saying, “Oh, I saw you on TV! You’re in this acne commercial!” It’s hard because everyone thinks they’re the only one who has seen it. So, coming up with things to say is tough: “Oh, did you? Great.” And being known as “the zit girl” gets old after a while. There is a downside to it being a very, very public ad. At least, if someone misses an episode of Third Watch where I didn’t like the way my hair looked, they probably won’t see it again.
How do you handle being recognized?
The first time I was recognized, I was on the Second Avenue bus and a person right across from me was staring at me and said, “Oh, aren’t you the girl from Third Watch?” I said, “Oh, yeah! I am.” That was the first time, so it was really fun. And then the person next to him said, “You are? Oh, I love you. I love the actress who plays your mom!” And then the person next to her chimed in and soon it was like the whole bus was telling me about their love for the show. It was kind of intense. I got off at my stop and it was kind of dizzy-making. It’s still fun, but I don’t get it. I don’t understand why people are giving me funny looks. That’s mostly what I get: people who can’t place me. We live right near a police academy and the show is quite popular among law enforcement. It’s always funny, walking past there. Heads turn. Actually, the building complex I live in has a lot of kids who watch the show. One time these little public school boys were playing basketball and I walked past the court and heard, “Emily! Emily!” They all ran up to the gate. It was a little scary but it’s fun.
What is dating like when you’re on a network show?
It’s not very productive. The thing is, I don’t spend a lot of time in school. So, there are social drawbacks. I can’t really devote as much time to dating as some of my peers would. But acting has kind of helped me in that way; I don’t obsess that much about school and about social stuff, because I kind of have perspective that there is a life outside of high school. It’s really easy to get absorbed in that. I see it in my friends a lot: being obsessed with one guy and getting kind of boy-crazy. It can’t really happen to me because I don’t spend that much time at school and I just realize, “Yeah, but I have an audition tomorrow,” so there’s a different perspective. High school can be very consuming.
What do you do when you’re not acting?
I’m always on the volleyball team, which I somehow manage and I never know quite how, but I make it through every season. I do yoga. I had to give up a lot of my extracurricular activities, but I like to read. I like all of the subjects in school pretty much. I got a lot of that in before things really picked up in the business. I took dance class for a bunch of years and I took singing class before I got too busy to do anything beyond that. I feel like I explored different areas. It’s kind of ridiculous to say, at the age of sixteen, that I’ve kind of found my calling, but I found something that I really enjoy and I feel like I’ve looked into other areas as well.
How do you prepare for a role?
I’m not sure what method I use—maybe you can tell me—but what I do depends on what kind of role it is. If it’s for a Disney-esque movie, then I’ll usually read through it and try and make the lines as interesting as I can. I usually focus on how I’m reading the lines and maybe the superficial emotion of the scene, because I just know from experience that I’m not going to take time to form a character for that sort of thing. That’s not really what they’re looking for. But if it is a more meaty role like in a play or an independent film, I usually start by looking at the basics. I start writing down differences between the character and me, physically and emotionally. Then I look at what kind of food they would eat: junk food or healthy food. What kind of music would they listen to? I do this just to get a basic view of the character. Then from there, I write down facts about them: what their parents are like, what they’re like in school, what kind of boys they like, stuff like that. A lot of it is written, at first. And then, from there, it’s mostly intuition. I learned that from my terrific acting coach. He has a teen acting class and I’ve taken private classes with him too. His name is Peter Miner. I take his teen class at the T. Schreiber Studio. It’s a great acting fix every Saturday.
What is your favorite thing about being an actor?
The acting. It’s the actual performing. I think that’s what I really like about the theatre. It’s none of the technical stuff. You don’t have to pause for lighting. There’s no cutting because the camera went wrong or you forgot your line. You’re out there and it’s pure performance and you’re purely in the character. That’s when I feel like you can really allow it to be intuition. You can’t think. You have to just be there. And just the rush of totally forgetting who you are—that’s why I keep doing it.
What is your least favorite thing about being an actor?
Probably the stupid Disney-esque movies that I have to audition for. Those take the fun out of it a lot of the times. It’s the auditions I’m not inspired by. And I don’t book those. I don’t know if I could if I wanted to. It’s hard and I know I have to put forth a decent performance just because I’m meeting a certain casting director who might be doing something of substance later. So, I know I can’t totally slack off and do nothing, but it’s hard for me to get going enough to make these horribly-written lines sound like something I care about. It’s really difficult for me. With those roles, I kind of like to always go back to reality. I look at the lines and look at the scene and say, “Well, they’re saying that this is really happening. What if this were really happening to me?” As far-fetched as some of them might be—they’re saying that my dad is turning into a dog or something—I just try to put it back into reality, but I’m really not good at that stuff. Still, that’s when I leave it up to intuition. And that’s when some of the best stuff happens, when you relax and say, “Y’know what? You’ve been at this for many years. You can probably pull it off.” That’s what I do once I get into the audition and I’m usually happy with the way I read it once I’m actually in there.
Who is your favorite actor?
Right now, I really like Mark Wahlberg. I just saw him in I Heart Huckabees and Boogie Nights. I really like him.
How do you choose the material you work on?
I get three kinds of movie scripts. I get the Disney-esque movies, I get movies where I’m supposed to be naked, and I get movies where I’m held hostage. I get onslaughts of those kinds. Of course, I won’t do nude scenes. It’s so easy to get pigeonholed. Once I’m over 18, if the nudity adds to the scene, maybe I’ll do it. It’s not so much content that I’m worried about. Hurlyburly for example—that’s a very racy play—and the character is quite provocative. But it’s a really good play. It’s multi-layered. It has substance. And it’s an interesting character that’s fun to play. It’s not superficial. So, to me, a racy play that’s got a lot of cursing and a lot of implied sexual situations is better than a Disney-esque movie that’s wholesome. And it’s more fun to do! And my whole family is in agreement about that. It’s something that we’ve decided. Adult content is okay. I essentially grew up with adults because that’s what the business is comprised of. In a lot of ways, I find myself most comfortable in discussions with adults.
What are some of the ways you stay on the industry radar?
I’m very reluctant to book out. The first year that I started acting, that summer—like all the summers past—we went up to the country house and stayed out there the whole summer through. I booked out that summer and when I came back in the fall, it was just like starting back over again. I had to re-meet all the casting directors and no one felt like they really knew me. It was only two months, but it made everything disappear somehow. In New York, at least, a lot of the casting directors like to go out to their country houses on the weekend too, so on weekends things kind of slow down. I still get a lot of time out there, it’s just a lot of commuting now. We don’t get to stay out there the whole time. Of course, there are some sacrifices, but it’s better to not have to reestablish all of those relationships every fall. I send postcards if I’m going to have a big scene or if I book something new. If I haven’t seen an agent for a while, I’ll make an appointment just to say hi. I try to keep up with stuff like that.
What advice would you give to an actor starting out?
It’s not going to happen overnight. Don’t expect that, as much as it seems to be what the case is when people talk about how they made it. There’s always work put into it. Also, if you are not able to pursue it for some reason—because you don’t have supportive guardians or something like that—just train. Be in school plays. Go to classes. Read about it. Watch good movies. Go see plays. Inform yourself as much as possible, because then once you actually do pursue it, you’ll be ready and rarin’ to go.
This interview was conducted on December 8, 2004, and it originally appeared in Acting Qs: Conversations with Working Actors by Bonnie Gillespie and Blake Robbins, available at Amazon.