Tuesday, March 8, 2011

White Collar?s Tiffani Thiessen Interview

I have been an avid fan of White Collar?s Tiffani Thiesen since her days on Saved By The Bell as the love of Zach Morris?s life Kelly Kapowski. Needless to say it was an honor to get to interview her the other week and you can read all about it right here. She has come a long way from her days at Bayside that is for sure.

Tiffani Thiessen

On the USA hit show White Collar Tiffani Thiessen stars as Elizabeth Burke the pretty freaking awesome wife of FBI agent Tim Burke. It is a role that Thiesen herself said is the one character she has played that is most like Tiffani in real life. You might be wondering how I know this little tid bit of information. Well I had the pleasure of participating in a Q&A interview session with Thiessen and that my friends is only the beginning of what I learned about the actress I have admired for years.

I have to get this out of the way first Tiffani is so not at all like the character Valerie she played on Beverly Hills 90210. She is the nicest, warmest most down to earth woman. Seriously she was so open and what a great sense of humor, who knew she was so funny! I just wanted to get that off my chest before I enlightened you on everything that Thiessen shared during our chat.

Along with learning that her current role is the one that is the closest to her in real life she gave a little insight into why. Simply put, it seems it is all about where she is in her life currently. Tiffani is happily married with a great husband who is her best friend and that is exactly how Elizabeth is on the show. In fact it is one of the few marriages on TV that actually works. She did say the big difference is her on screen persona does not have children and as I am sure you all know Thiessen is now the mother to a beautiful eight month old girl.

Even though Elizabeth is similar to Tiffani there are some challenges but as it turns out not necessarily with the role itself. Thieseen revealed the biggest challenge for her is balancing her personal life as a wife and mother with her killer career. Not a bad thing to have as a challenge if you ask me but I can see where that would be a struggle. Other than that she made it very clear her current job is one of the nicest she has ever had, especially in the past few years.

As you all know Tiffani has a vast amount of knowledge from her time on various sets so it brought up the question as to whether or not she had any input into her character. Although most of decision making is left up to the show?s writers and producers Thiessen did share one idea of hers that actually saw the light of day, so to speak. It was Elizabeth?s career, which the powers that be had a difficult time figuring out. Well apparently if Tiffani wasn?t an actress she always thought she would be an event planner. She shared that little known fact with the writers and Jeff Eastin and the next thing you know Elizabeth is an event planner, pretty cool huh.

If you haven?t seen the show it really is amazing. I just got into it but I am hooked. I have my favorite things about the show and guess what so does Tiffani. She let it be known her favorite thing about the show is the people she works with. I believe she said it was pure joy to work with them. Thiessen also gave a little bit of advice to those of you who aren?t watching her hit show. Basically she said and I agree it is one of the most entertaining shows on TV, partly because it has a little bit of everything so you should watch it.

There were a couple of questions that I thought you should hear the answer directly from Tiffani and here they are.

Q. What?s the best advice you could give to a struggling actor who?s just starting out?
A. I think determination and being resilient is probably the only thing that you can really tell somebody. It really is one of the hardest businesses to make it and to crack, but the more that you can kind of push yourself and stay into it, the better chances you have.

Q. How would you feel if your daughter came to you and wanted to get started at such a young age?
A. I?ve actually gotten asked this a lot lately and it?s nothing I would encourage. The reason being, 20, 30 years ago when I was in the business it was a lot different than it is today. Nowadays, with the tabloids being as aggressive as they are and people making money off of the misfortunes of actors, I just would not want her to be susceptible for that kind of stuff. When she?s old enough and over 18 and can make those decisions then, of course, I would support her in whatever she wanted to do. But when she?s under 18 I would definitely not advise it. It?s not something I would wish for her at this point.

She may not want her daughter to be an actress but that doesn?t keep her from bringing her little one to set. In fact we learned that little Harper goes everywhere with her very proud mama.

As the session began to wind down there were still a few things Tiffani wanted to share, like the difference between working in LA. and New York. Her answer was classic, the weather. Yep that seems pretty obvious doesn?t it? However she admits she loves being bi-coastal especially now with her daughter. I am a New York girl so I will take the lights and excitement of the city over sunny LaLa land any day but that is just my two cents.

On a side note here, it was pointed out that some of Thiessen?s former Saved By The Bell costars have done Dancing With The Stars, which of course sparked curiosity as to whether or not she would appear on the reality TV show. She has been approached but I am sad to report Tiffani will not make an appearance on the show. In fact she pretty much told us it was something she wouldn?t consider. I want to make it clear she followed up by stating it is because her focus now is her family and the show. You can?t fault her for that, she has priorities and takes them seriously.

It was honestly like a dream come true to get to participate in the interview with Tiffani Thiessen of White Collar fame, well now any way. I could go on and on about how fabulous she is but I won?t. I will simply say she is a class act with a heart of gold.

Photos: www.wenn.com/Nikki Nelson/Judy Eddy/Mr. Blue/PNP

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