Sara Rue stars on TV Land’s “Impastor” as Dora Winston, the kind-hearted conservative church worker who mistakes an alcoholic lowlife as her gay, mail-order man of God.
On playing Dora.
“I like playing characters that can’t hide how uptight they are; that’s the fun of Dora. Her whole purpose in life is to sort of update her church, and she’s taken a big risk by hiring this pastor. Unbeknownst to her, the guy who shows up isn’t the guy she hired. Her dealing with a small-time criminal who has some substance abuse issues is just a funny juxtaposition.”
On doing honest comedy.
“A lot of the stuff in ‘Impastor’ isn’t very jokey—it’s not a lot of setup jokes. It’s character-driven, so a lot of the comedy comes from the situation that these characters are put in. That’s more fun to play as an actor, because when [jokes] come from reality, it’s easier to do it in a truthful manner.”
On growing up in the business.
“The best thing my parents did was they always made me go to camp in the summer. [They said,] ‘You can be an actor and you can audition, but you have to be a normal kid for at least a month out of the year.’ That was a really good thing, and really grounding. My mother would always say to me, ‘Look, you can act till you die, but there’s only going to be one junior prom—go to the junior prom!’ ”
On introducing her daughter to acting.
“We just cracked open the ‘Frozen’ DVD, so she’s not quite ready for [my work] yet. She came up to Vancouver with me when we were shooting ‘Impastor,’ so my husband was kind enough to take some time off and basically be a stay-at-home dad. I explained to her, ‘Mom’s an actor and this is where I go to work and this is my dressing room,’ but she doesn’t really understand what that means yet; I think that’s a good thing. We don’t need her to catch the acting bug. If it’s gonna happen, I’d rather she go to high school, go to college, and then [see] if she wants to do it.”
On being a guest star.
“It really is like being a guest in someone’s house. It’s nice for a change of scenery, especially on a nice set with good people. Last year I did a couple of episodes of “Mom,” and that’s really fun because you get to work with Anna Faris and Allison Janney and Octavia Spencer and Jaime Pressley and all these wonderful people. It’s a great way to fill your time and use your craft a little bit, and it’s also not as high-pressure as doing a series because you don’t shoulder the responsibility.”
Like this story? Read more of our Spotlight On interviews!