The following interview for Backstage’s on-camera series The Slate was compiled in part by Backstage readers just like you! Follow us on Twitter (@Backstage) and Instagram (@backstagecast) to stay in the loop on upcoming interviews and to submit your questions.
With two major Netflix roles under her belt—Dorcas on “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” and Bloom on the upcoming “Fate: The Winx Saga”—Abigail Cowen’s star is quickly rising. She’s recently spent time flitting between Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Ireland for her various projects, but she sat down with Backstage for a spell on Instagram Live. Cowen talked about “Winx” and her advice for actors at every stage of a project, from approaching the audition room to script analysis to time on set.
Working with fantastical scripts like those for “Sabrina” and “Winx” means Cowen is never bored by her work.
“[I love] the fact that it is magical and there are endless possibilities. There’s nothing that can’t happen; so every time you get a script, you are most likely to be shocked by what’s in there, as opposed to playing a real-life character where it’s probably predictable. I love that, and I love that you can just play and really use your imagination on these types of projects.”
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She uses a reverse-psychology trick to calm herself down in the audition room.
“For in-the-room auditions…the way that I would relax myself is [to] almost let go of the project already. Before I [walked] into the room, I would just be like, ‘I don’t need it. I don’t want it. I don’t care’—even though I really did.”
Familiarizing yourself with the scenes adjacent to the one you’re filming is key to knowing how to play your character.
“Whenever I get a script, I do an entire outline, because, for some reason, my brain just gets all jumbled with the entire story. You’re filming completely out of order, so [if] you go in and if you’re not aware of what happened right before this one scene that you’re filming or what’s going to happen right after, you could deliver the scene [in] a completely different way than it’s supposed to be delivered…. Also, writing it out helps me comprehend what’s really going on [by] putting it into my own words.”
Neither success nor failure as an actor is a reflection on you as a person.
“When you don’t get a role, it’s not personal. It’s just because someone else fit the character better than you did. It’s not because you suck, [and] it’s not because you’re a failure. That’s all that I would do—I would [lie down] in my room and cry. I had to learn that it has nothing to do with me. I need to keep going. I need to keep showing up and putting in the work, and if I keep doing that, it will pay off. And when you get the role, it’s still not personal. It’s not because you’re the greatest and you’re the best. It’s because you fit the character, you did the work, and OK, great, this opportunity worked out. Awesome. But there will be more that don’t, and that’s just the ups and downs of the industry.”
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