Newcomer Poppy Montgomery does a lot of knocking on wood these days. In fact, during a recent interview at a Los Feliz caf , she tapped a wooden table for good luck three times during our chat. The 23-year-old actress has been in a constant state of bloom since she stepped foot in Hollywood four and a half years ago and found steady work in television and film.
Montgomery spent the first 18 years of her life far away from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood, growing up with a large, eclectic family in Sydney, Australia. Believe it or not, her real name is Poppy Petal, and her four sisters are also flower children: Rosie Thorn, Daisy Yellow, Lily Belle, and Marigold Sun. Her brother is named Jethro Tull.
While Montgomery always knew she wanted to be an actor, there was little opportunity for her in her native land. During a visit to the United States, she decided on a whim to visit Los Angeles and made it her permanent home.
"I wanted to go to Juilliard and it just happened that I went to Florida to see a friend and I didn't have very much money," recalled the actress, who recently co-starred in the Garry Marshall film The Other Sister and can next be seen as a blonde bombshell in the upcoming Life, starring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. "I knew one person in New York and one person in L.A. and it turned out that when I was at the Greyhound bus station, the friend I called in L.A. was home, so I took the bus to L.A. I didn't come here to be an actress, but then I realized how much was going on and decided to stay and pursue it. I never made it to New York, but as I started working, I took classes and I'm still in class, actually."
One of the first things Montgomery did upon arriving in Los Angeles was go to Samuel French Bookstore and buy How to Make It in Hollywood, in which she read about manager Bob McGowan, who had helped launch Julia Roberts' career. Not one to be meek, Montgomery called up McGowan and asked him to take her as a client. While the manager resisted, with Montgomery's unrelenting persistence he changed his tune.
"I called him up and bugged him for a month until he finally represented me," said Montgomery, who is now managed by Peg Donegan. "That was basically how I got my "in.' I didn't have an agent. I didn't have a SAG card. I'd never acted before."
What Montgomery did have and what she continues to possess is an infectious exuberance that radiates from her every pore. It is not just that she is a pretty blonde with a nice smile; this striking actress has an uncanny way of lighting up a room with her presence.
After starring in American Untitled, a short film produced by Chanticleer Films and directed by Rob Lowe, Montgomery landed work on the series Party of Five and NYPD Blue, followed by her big break, a starring role as the outspoken, outrageous youngest daughter on the ABC series Relativity.
During her eight-month stint on the show, Montgomery shed her Aussie accent for the role and never regained it. While her real-life family may be mortified that she now talks like a Yank, she doesn't mind. That is, unless she's asked to play an Australian.
"I recently had an audition for an Australian girl and I'm thinking, "I'm a shoo-in,' but the feedback was that it was the worst Australian accent they had ever heard. I can't do it anymore!"
While she may not be getting cast as too many Aussie lasses these days, Montgomery is not lacking for work. She starred last year in the film Dead Man on Campus and recently wrapped production in San Francisco on the independent film The Space Between Us, opposite Jeremy Sisto. Currently, she is in Vancouver shooting a one-hour pilot for Fox Television that's being produced by some of the same people who created The X-Files. If this sci-fi medical drama, The Wonder Cabinet, gets picked up, she just may be the next Dana Scully of primetime.
Montgomery has a plethora of advice for young actors getting started in Hollywood. At the top of her list is perseverance, something which this actress can tell you pays off.
"You have to make a conscious choice not to get discouraged. Stay focused and goal-oriented, as cheesy as that sounds. That's how I always did it. I'd ask myself, What do I want to get in the next three months? When you're starting out, because you're not auditioning or working a lot, if at all, you need to make sure you're doing something every day towards your career, so you feel like you're working. Blanket the city with your headshot. Send letters. Try everything. Because you've got to feel like you're an actor. You've got to feel like you're doing something to achieve what it is that you want. Otherwise, you're just sitting around waiting for it to happen and that's when people give up."
Somehow, I think Poppy Montgomery has no intention of throwing in the towel... knock on wood.