Final Transcript

NEW MEDIA STRATEGIES: Greek – Amber Stevens

September 24, 2008/3:00 PM EDT

SPEAKERS

Chrissy Fehskens

Amber Stevens

PRESENTATION

C. Fehskens Hi, everyone. This is Chrissy Fehskens from New Media Strategies. I wanted to welcome you to the Amber Stevens Q&A session and start things off by thanking Amber for being with us today. As you know, Amber plays the role of Ashleigh on ABC Family’s hit series, Greek, which is currently airing its second season Tuesday nights at 9/8 Central.

Moderator We have our first question coming from Megan Masters with E! Online. Please go ahead.

M. Masters What surprises can we expect during initiation and Hell Week coming up this season?

A. Stevens Ooh, well, we do have a special surprise – well, I guess it’s not a surprise anymore–that LC will be on the show in that episode. That’s something to look forward to. It’s kind of a really exciting episode because it’s what you’ve been waiting for the whole time; you really want to see how Rusty handles it. There’s a huge surprise with the ZBZ initiations. I can’t go into detail, but it’s really exciting and it shocked all the actors on the show. We got the scripts and we were calling each other, freaking out, going, “Oh, my God! What is this?”

M. Masters When does that air?

A. Stevens That airs October 28^th.

M. Masters That’s exciting. What about Casey’s new boyfriend, Max? There seemed to be something really mysterious about him.

A. Stevens He’s in quite a few episodes. He’s in the rest of the season. He’s this new guy that comes out of nowhere who’s really not a person that she would normally date. He’s kind of geeky; he’s not very social, but she discovers something that she really loves about him and brings him out of his shell. We just learned that he was so closed off because he had a girlfriend that just died and he was mourning her for so long that he was never leaving his room, and Casey was the first person to bring him out. So, I guess it’s just more of how they deal with each other and how they bring out the best in each other for the rest of the season. We’ll see what happens.

M. Masters What about your character Ashleigh, where do you want her to be by the end of this season? And what about the other juniors and seniors?

A. Stevens Actually, where it actually ends up at the end of the season is exactly the opposite of what I would have ever expected for her. I think it’s really exciting what’s going to happen. It’s a whole new chapter for her, something that’s going to really challenge her, but for now she’s having a lot of fun with her new job. She’s giving campus tours and just trying to make her money back when she went crazy with her credit card.

M. Masters Yes. Are you thinking that you might get your love interest that we’ve all been hoping for, for Ashleigh?

A. Stevens I would really hope that Ashleigh gets a love interest. She deserves a nice little boy toy, right?

M. Masters Definitely. Thank you so much, Amber.

A. Stevens Yes, thank you, Megan.

Moderator Thank you. Our next question from the line of Kimra McPherson with Sugar, Inc. Please go ahead.

K. McPherson Hi, Amber. Thanks so much for doing this call.

A. Stevens Hi. Oh, no, thank you!

K. McPherson So, Ashleigh’s had a lot of wackier antics on Greek over the past couple of years, including the flip flop incident. I’m wondering if you have a favorite Ashleigh plotline that’s been the most fun for you to play.

A. Stevens Oh, that’s a good question. I really, really liked last night’s episode when Ashleigh becomes the tour guide. Gil Younger directed the episode, who directed our pilot and our first two episodes of the show ever, and I just had a lot of fun working with him. He came up with the whole thing where I’m giving the tour, and we’re walking, and we’re walking, and I had to take the whole group through and then introduced my friends. I just thought that was hilarious. She gets to be the leader for once, and kind of tell people what’s cool around campus and she just has fun with that. So, I like that new job that Ashleigh has.

K. McPherson You mentioned something right there just about getting to be the leader for once, getting to be the one who tells people what’s cool. Is there ever any resentment of Casey being the Queen Bee on Ashleigh’s part, or are you just really supportive BFF?

A. Stevens I really don’t think so. I think Ashleigh is just a huge supporter of her best friend. She has no interest in the things that Casey does for herself. She likes that someone else does those things, and Ashleigh can stick to her own thing. She is a leader of herself a little bit, like with her fashion forwardness. She’s not listening to anyone about that. She wears whatever funny, crazy things that she wants to, but when it comes to her social life and stuff she’s not necessarily the leader. She just likes to make sure that other people around her are happy and make other people feel comfortable. I don’t think there’s any resentment there, but she definitely needs to become a leader one day in her life.

K. McPherson I’m not sure if you had any college experiences yourself, but I saw on your Web site that you were the student body president at Beverly Hills High. I’m wondering if you had any experiences either there or elsewhere in your life that remind you at all of ZBZ.

A. Stevens Oh, a whole bunch! I was obsessed with Student Council in high school. I randomly got into it because my freshman English teacher was the leader for Student Council. She was like, “You should do this. It’s fun. We go on trips.” I’m like, “Okay.” Then, it just turned into this love of my school and the student body and wanting to make sure that everyone’s experience in high school was memorable and fun and they had cool parties that they could remember for the rest of their lives and stuff like that. Ashleigh is the social chair of ZBZ. So, she’s doing the same thing I was doing in high school, planning parties for everyone, making memorable moments, and just bonding with everyone.

The people that I had in Student Council are still family to me, we can talk to each other on Facebook. It’s like we’re always going to be family together. Even kids that are still at my high school now, new students that are on Student Council, will contact me, like “I’m in Student Council now with Miss Newman and we know that you were there.” We’re still like a family together, which is just like what happens in a sorority too. It’s fun. That was my closest experience I guess to sorority life.

K. McPherson Thank you so much.

A. Stevens Oh, yes. Thank you.

Moderator Thank you. Moving on, our next question is from the line of Chandra Williams with Comedy Centric. Please go ahead.

C. Williams Hi, Amber.

A. Stevens Hi, how are you?

C. Williams Fine. Thanks for talking with us today.

A. Stevens Oh, of course! Thank you!

C. Williams This question has two parts.

A. Stevens Okay.

C. Williams What has been the biggest surprise to you about being a regular on Greek? And can fans look forward to any surprises in the future regarding your character as Ashleigh?

A. Stevens The first part – well, my life has completely changed. I went from being an out-of-work actress/part-time student at a community college to having a full-time job where I’m working 15 hour days and not having as much of a social life, but being recognized on the street by high schoolers and college students. So, it’s a complete 180, my life, but in the best way possible. It’s so much fun to be on this college-based television show. It’s my age group. My peers are just graduating college now or in college still, and I get to do it on television. It’s so much fun. I thank God every day that I have a job, and I hope it doesn’t go away soon.

For Ashleigh, there are definitely some huge surprises. Next week is just a really fun episode. The girls go on a – I guess it would be a retreat to Florida where they meet with all the ZBZ chapters across the nation. They meet with alumni and such, and Ashleigh just becomes obsessed with it and loves it, and loves old ladies, and just really embraces her ZBZ-ness.

In the following episodes there’s a huge surprise that happens with Ashleigh’s character which comes out of left field. It’s really exciting. I can’t go into too much detail about it, or you’ll kill me because you won’t want to know this until it happens. But keep watching.

C. Williams Okay. I would just like to sneak this in because I’m a huge fan from way back and I remember your father. How is he these days?

A. Stevens Oh, he’s wonderful. That’s so nice of you to ask. He’s really great. We were just talking this morning. He works on the Craig Ferguson show. He comes home every day with a new funny story about what happened at work with him. He was just telling me about a band that was playing on the show last night, and he’s still excited about music and working hard. He’s just doing wonderful. Thank you for asking. That’s really nice.

C. Williams That’s great. Thank you.

A. Stevens Yes, it was nice to talk to you.

Moderator Thank you. We have a question from the line of Kendra White with Side Reel. Please go ahead.

K. White Hi.

A. Stevens Hi.

K. White With Greek being kind of an example, especially with ABC Family viewers, a lot of them are younger, college life and Greek life, what do you think is most important for the younger viewers to take away from the show?

A. Stevens Just that there is something really wonderful to look forward to in college, the bonding of – being in the fraternity or sorority and the new family that you can make. People are worried sometimes that we portray something that’s inappropriate, but I think that our show has a responsibility to make sure that with every bad decision there is a consequence for it. So, we do show the crazy partying that people do, and they get drunk and sleep with someone that they shouldn’t have or something like that, but then there’s always a consequence for it, which is what real life has. You can’t just go around making bad decisions without anything bad happening in the end. So, I think that we do a good job of making sure that we do that every week.

K. White Sounds good. Also, my next question is, do you think for the Casey and Frannie rivalry that there will be more personal involvement for Ashleigh, or do you think she’ll kind of remain as backing up Casey when she needs it?

A. Stevens I think she will always back up Casey. I think Ashleigh and Casey are best friends, no matter what. Ashleigh is there to kind of be the level-headed one. Casey can make rash decisions, and Ashleigh is there to help guide her and give her both sides of it, but no matter what she will always see Casey’s side as being right and help her succeed.

K. White Great. Thank you.

A. Stevens Yes.

Moderator Thank you. Megan Masters, E! Online. Please go ahead.

M. Masters Hi, again, Amber.

A. Stevens Hi, Megan.

M. Masters I have two more questions for you.

A. Stevens Okay.

M. Masters The first one is – actually, you just brought up Frannie, but we’re not really sure what the grades are of some of the girls, but we know that Frannie is obviously older than you guys because she was Casey’s big sis, but now she seems to be lobbying for a leadership role on ZBZ again, but will she be leaving at the end? Is she going to go alumni, or is she not –

A. Stevens Frannie is considered a 5^th-year, but she will be sticking around for a while. She didn’t finish all the courses she was supposed to, so she’s going to have to stay a student. So, you’ll see some more of Frannie.

M. Masters Okay, but is she going to be able to keep the leadership role? I came from a house at UC Santa Barbara, so I know how the 5^th-year thing works, but are they –

A. Stevens Well, she can still stay a ZBZ now that she’s been brought back to the sorority, but we’re just going to have to see what happens about keeping a leadership role in the house because, right now, she can’t run for president again. She can’t run for office because she was officially removed from it, but next week will answer some of those questions actually.

M. Masters Okay. I see that you just finished a movie, Fired Up, and it’s with several people that are pretty big in prime time right now, like AnnaLynne McCord and Molly Sims. I just wondered how that went doing your film.

A. Stevens It was great. It actually was just a small part. It’s the opening scene of the movie. It’s just a small, funny little thing. I shot it a few months ago and then they’ve continued filming, so it seemed as if I have just finished it, but I did it a while ago. It was really fun. It was one day of work with the two lead actors. I had a blast. I can’t wait to see when the movie comes out because I was at the table read and that’s when the whole cast was there and I got to meet everyone. It’s a hilarious movie. I think a lot of people will really like it.

M. Masters My last question is, are you guys finished with the “Declare Yourself” tour that you were going on, or do you have more that you’re doing? How did that all go?

A. Stevens The tour is done, yes, but they’re still going to continue airing our spot that we made for the commercial. We’re still trying to tell people, get the message out there about Declare Yourself and making sure that people are registered to vote. There is a Declare Yourself event tonight actually that all the cast is invited to. We’ll just continue to feed the message to people and first-time voters that this is a really big election.

A. Maloney This is Amy Maloney from ABC Family. I did want to give a quick update because this is new information as of this morning that Amber was unaware of. We are going to be partnering with Borders Bookstores to do two additional days in October.

A. Stevens Oh, cool!

A. Maloney So, that’s news to Amber, but I did want to give that as an update for everyone that we have two more dates, one in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco. Dates and times are still being confirmed, but it’ll be in October because we want to hit before the California voter registration deadline, which is October 20^th.

M. Masters Great. Well, thank you so much again, Amber.

A. Stevens Yes, thank you.

Moderator Thank you. We do have a follow-up from Kimra McPherson of Sugar, Inc. Please go ahead.

K. McPherson Hi, again.

A. Stevens Hi.

K. McPherson Just one quick question, when you were talking about the ages of all of the characters a second ago, has it come up at all what’ll happen once you guys are seniors? How long can you stretch out senior year?

A. Stevens Oh, my gosh, we are so concerned about that because they made our first – this is our third season to viewers, but it’s really second, but they’ve made that just one year because at the end of this season it’s Hell Week, which is the end of the year. So, hopefully they’re going to slow time down and make each season a semester or something because you will run out of time eventually. I don’t think that the show would make sense if we graduated.

K. McPherson Right.

A. Stevens Because the show is called, Greek. So, I think that they’ll probably just slow down time and make things – elongate the chapters of the life.

K. McPherson If you could get four years out of your senior year, I’d be good with that.

A. Stevens Yes, me too! I’m good with that. Another four years of a job would be great.

K. McPherson Cool, thanks.

A. Stevens Yes.

Moderator Thank you. Also a follow-up from Kendra White. Please go ahead.

K. White Hi, there. Going along with that idea of you guys wrapping up with senior year and everything, I thought it was kind of fun when Casey was trying to figure out her career path and everyone realizing that they have no idea what they want to do. So, I’m curious, for Ashleigh, there’ll be more with her job now as a tour guide, if that’ll be a possible opening, or if it’s just a fun job.

A. Stevens I think it’s just a fun job. I don’t know if that would be her career choice for the rest of her life. I’ve assumed that she is some sort of a design major, so I think that she’ll try to pursue a more lucrative career. But things can always change. You never know.

K. White Good. Thanks.

C. Fehskens If there are no additional questions, I’d like to once again thank Amber for being with us today. Please remember to tune into Greek Tuesdays at 9/8 Central on ABC Family. Thanks, everyone.