Amy Acker “Happy” to be working as an actress

By Kurt Anthony Krug

Amy Acker confesses she still gets into trouble for speaking too softly.

That’s hard to believe, given her strong roles as Winifred “Fred” Burkle and later Illyria on Angel, Kelly Peyton on Alias, the Huntress on Justice League Unlimited, Whiskey on Dollhouse, and Rachel Conroy on Happy Town, which recently debuted on ABC. In the case of the latter, she is the second lead, starring alongside Detroit native Geoff Stults of 7^th Heaven fame, who plays her husband, Sheriff Tommy Conroy.

“I was really shy growing up,” admits Acker, 33, of New York, who was born and raised in Dallas, the eldest of four children. Originally, she planned on being a ballet dancer, but knee surgery sidelined her. In her sophomore year at Lake Highlands High School, from where she graduated in 1995, she took a drama class to satisfy an art requirement, which cemented her career path.

“I became a different character and said words people had written,” she says. “I just loved doing it.”

Acker attended Southern Methodist University, graduating with her bachelor’s degree in theatre in 1999. From there, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career. In 2001, she landed her breakthrough role as Fred on Angel, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off.

“They wanted to add another girl to the show. They had some of the characters who were recurring and they thought they’d bring them in, but it didn’t happen… The role had a different name at the time. It was the role of this librarian,” recalls Acker. “I got to meet (creator) Joss (Whedon) and we hit it off... It was just gonna be a 3-episode character. Somehow, all the sudden, I was on the show as a regular (from Seasons 3-5).”

Fred died in the fifth season and the goddess Illyria – also played by Acker – was reincarnated in her body.

“(Whedon) dragged it out as long as possible to make me think I wasn’t on the show any longer... He said, ‘I’m killing Fred.’ So I’m crying, thinking what did I do? ‘But you’re still gonna be on show. You’ll be a blue-haired, demon goddess from a different dimension,’” she says, laughing.

Being on Angel was one of the high points of her career.

“I got to do so many different jobs. If you watch some shows, there’s an episode from eight years ago and the character’s still the same. Mine got to grow and change,” she proudly recalled. “It was really neat to play so many different things. Even Illyria… it was so fun to play so many different things and have this whole sense of person as a character.”

After Angel was cancelled, Acker co-starred on Alias in its final season and had a recurring role on Dollhouse. Believing Dollhouse wouldn’t return for a second season, she auditioned for Happy Town, created by Alias writers Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec, and Scott Rosenberg.

Happy Town – which co-starrs Steven Weber (Wings) and Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) – centers around Haplin, MN, alias “Happy Town,” whose idyllic existence is shattered when the enigmatic Magic Man, who committed a string of heinous crimes, returns with a vengeance after five years of peace.

“It takes place in a small town, so it has pace of a small town… people relating to each other in a small town, then it gets stirred up by something happening,” explains Acker. “There’s this mob mentality when something happens and things start to go wrong, you people suspect their friends, they don’t trust their neighbors, everything sort of flips around.”

She continues, “Rachel is the wife of Tommy. His dad has been the sheriff of Haplin forever. He’s gotten by, being his dad’s son. We have a happy life together and he ends up taking over as sheriff at the time everything goes bad. He doesn’t know what he’s doing in this role, he doesn’t feel able he can do (it)… The great thing is not only are Tommy and Rachel husband and wife, but best friends and I’ve got to help him figure out who he is. A lot of interesting stuff comes from it.”

Rachel works in the “Bready,” the Haplin bakery that employs 12 percent of the town, which is run by John Haplin (Weber), whose daughter Addie was kidnapped by the Magic Man and hasn’t been recovered.

“He’s one of the town’s royalty and owns the bread factory the town centers around. I think his character’s a little mean, but I’m sure he’s just misunderstood,” she says, laughing. “His character is central to a lot of the trouble caused in town.”

Acker continues, “It’s a wonderful environment working with (Applebaum, Nemec, and Rosenberg). I just think they bring together great people. It’s such a wonderful environment to be working with them. It’s a lot of the same vibe of being on other shows I’ve done – that’s something, I think, is important. I knew this series would be a character-driven thing and people are going to change. I like the idea of shows where I don’t know where I’ll be at the end of the season. This is something really fun to be a part of.”