If you could go back in time to change something in your life - to undo a regret - what time would you go back to?
What would you change?
These are the questions posed in the new dramedy
Being Erica, which premieres on
Hallmark tomorrow, Thursday 12 November at 21h00.
The series runs weekly, in
double-bill episodes and centres round Erica Strange: 32, single, always struggling for cash, searching for the key to happiness and success.
One day she accidentally meets a therapist Dr Tom who offers her a trip to her past (the 1990's) so that she can undo her regrets by doing things differently.
To find out more about
Erica's Being I caught up with actress
Erin Karpluk, who plays her:
Tashi: What’s the must-see aspect of the show - why would
you enjoy watching it?
Erin: What I love about it is that it deals with all different spheres of Erica’s life - unlike say Sex & The City, which is a show that I absolutely love, it doesn’t just deal with her sexual relationships. It deals with her career and her family and her friends so it’s very well rounded.
That and there’s the added bonus of time travel - she’s given the gift of time travel which she uses to go back to fix all the different regrets in her life.
Certainly in Canada and the United States the show’s been received well and I feel it’s because everyone can indentify with having regrets.
Tashi: What are some of the regrets we can look forward to?
Erin: One thing about the show is that the regrets, no matter how trivial they might seem to be, they’re important to us all. Certain episodes deal with her heavier regrets, certain episodes deal with her lighter regrets.
In one episode she goes back to revisit losing her virginity - which is one I’m sure a lot of people can relate to. She revisits her really bossy professor at university, she goes back to learn more about the divorce of her parents.
Tashi: That’s so seldom dealt with in shows - even in stories in the media and it’s such a huge thing.
Erin: Yes absolutely - she has the opportunity to go back to see what it was like before the divorce and she learns more than she did the first time round.
When she goes back she has the life experience and the foresight of knowing what’s happened already - she sees things more clearly as to how things take place.
The biggest regret that she has is of the death of her brother Leo - in the Season 1 finale she goes to explore that and it’s a really powerful episode.
Some of the regrets are light, some aren’t but all of them are relevant to her learning to pave a brighter future. Actually in one of the episodes, one of the regrets she has isn’t a regret - she goes back and realises she had to go through it.
Tashi: That was something I’ve been thinking about - like what’s a regret and what needs to happen? If you yourself were to go back and change something - what would it be?
Erin: I’m asked that quite frequently and some of my really darkest regrets I wouldn't share with some of my friends let alone reporters and journalists but one of the lighter ones: I knocked my front teeth out when I stood up in a water slide - that was 10 years in a dental chair and lot of money for my parents to get my teeth fixed so I
wouldn’t have stood up in the water slide.
I don’t know that I’d personally want to change too much because I’m very happy with my life as it is however, in Season 2 there’s an episode that’s sort of like a Groundhog Day (the Bill Murray flik) - she's given a Groundhog Day. Everything she does in the day gets undone - that was the most fun I’ve ever had acting (would want to do it over and over again).
Tashi: There’s the whole thing that people fall in love with their therapists - does Erica fall for Dr Tom?
Erin: No, no - there is a certain amount of chemistry that Erin and Dr Tom have and I can’t see that changing but the type of relationship they have is one of mutual respect - and tough love. It’s just one of mutual respect but Erica does have other loves in her life.
Tashi: I was gonna say, I’ve looked at the pictures and I’m thinking Dr Tom isn’t quite hott enough.
Erin: Oh *laughs* He has a police uniform outfit - I think he wears it in Season 2 and all the women in hair and make-up were talking as soon as he left - he looks very good in that. Erica has lot of love interests in Season 1 but not with Dr Tom, no.
Tashi: You've had a role on
Supernatural - who’s hotter up close:
Jared or
Jensen?
Erin: Oh that’s so hard - they’re both very easy to look at, both of them are. Do you know that Jared is so tall? He's like 6 foot .. I'm quite short but I couldn’t get over how tall he was but I’ve worked with Jensen on a couple of shows though so ... Can I say it’s a tie? Okay I’ll say Jensen because I know him better.
Ends
On My R-List* Not standing up to a maths teacher I had during my first year of high school. No matter how many times I put my hand up to answer a question she'd ignore me - which made me think I was useless at maths.* Spending a year wearing goth gear at Uni.
* Never having a BF at high school - I was a nerd who worked and worked and never had "time" for anything else.
*Crushing on George Michael (argh).
*My parents divorce.
*Buying my current car - it was in an accident before, I suspected it before buying it but bought it anyway &*^%$%.
* Starting smoking.
* Eating snails: resturant-type ones.
It goes on natch ...