ABC Family’s Chasing Life is one of my top 10 favorite shows at the moment. The show follows the Carver family as they struggle through their 20 something daughters struggle to fight and survive cancer. The show is about how having cancer impacts not only the patient but all those around the patient. Chasing Life Airs on ABC Family, Mondays night.
It manages to somehow walk the fine line between being maudlin and hopeful, but it never feels like a movie of the week. The emotions are genuine and earned. One of my favorite television characters at the moment is Brenna Carver (Haley Ramm), April’s (Italia Ricci) teenage sister.
We saw Brenna change from being a selfish, unlikable brat in the first few episodes of season 1 to becoming April’s rock while dealing with her own teenage issues of self discovery. She’s had to put her own feelings and issues aside while April’s problems took center stage.
Haley Ramm shows a lot of maturity and range, considering her character is only 16. I had a chance to talk with Haley last week and here are some things that I discovered – and yes, I gushed for a few minutes. Not full on fan girl because hey, I’m a pro!
Playing A Gay Character
- Season 2 has been really fun for her so far. She likes the fact that she’s becoming a spokesperson for the LBGQT community.
- Playing a bi-sexual teenager is her favorite part about playing Brenna.
- There’s not enough representation of bisexuals on television and her favorite scene to shoot this year was at the beginning of the year when Brenna joined the LBGQT organization and they didn’t like her because she was bi-sexual.
- Haley thinks gay shaming is a very real thing. There are so many people that are Bi and it’s hard for them to understand it. She likes that the writes wrote that episode.
Brenna’s Love Life Gets Complicated
CHASING LIFE – “Ready or Not” – April gets competitive when an old college friend threatens to steal her thunder, but she is not ready to share her spotlight just yet in “Ready or Not,” an all-new episode of “Chasing Life,” airing Monday, September 21st at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on ABC Family. (ABC Family)
HALEY RAMM, PARKER MACK
- Haley thinks that Brenna and Finn (Editor’s note, I’m coining the couple name Frenna) are going to happen eventually. She likes that the writers are taking it slow and that they are starting off as friends first. It makes for a stronger relationship.
- Haley doesn’t think that the bone marrow Brenna donated at the end of season one ended up being donated to Finn.
- Haley did like that the show called attention and is trying to encourage people to become donors.
- Greer (Gracie Dzienny) is coming back for a few episodes and we’ll get to see how her return impacts Brenna.
Brenna’s Friends
- Brenna and Ford (Dylan Gelula) have been friends for a long time, so we haven’t seen the last of Ford.
- Haley’s real life friend Evan Bittencourt actually played the role of the TJ. The gay guy who had issues with her bi-sexuality. She had nothing to do with him getting the part.
Brenna’s Family and the Rest of the Cast
- Haley was really sad to see Scott Michael Foster (Leo) leave the show. He was a lot of fun to be around. It happened so quickly and with very little warning that it was a shock to us.
- If you go back and watch the episode, there were a lot of hints dropped in the last few weeks, where Leo talked about his headaches or that he wasn’t feeling well.
- Shooting the funeral scene was really tough.
- In many ways she thinks Brenna feels closer to her half sister Natalie (Jessica Meraz) than April.
- Natalie is mad and she holds the key to destroying their family. Brenna is going to confront her and have some words with her in an upcoming episode. Although she does get why Natalie is upset, and think Natalie just wants to be accepted.
- We will see Brenna deal with the reality that her father wasn’t who she thought he was.
- Be on the lookout for Beth (Aisha Dee). She’s going to go through some major changes over the next few episodes.
Haley’s Career
- There is definitely a different feel to working in television as opposed to film.
- Haley loves working on a television show. When you are in a movie, you form a small family but then it’s gone after a few weeks.
- With a television show the bonds are stronger because you are working together for several years. And the family includes the cast and the crew.
- In the past people used to ask me what I liked in a director and I couldn’t answer because on a movie you only work with 1 director. Being on this show, I’ve had the chance to work with so many different directors that I’ve been able to learn a lot.
Social
- Follow Haley on twitter @Halesbelles
- Chasing Life – @ChasingLifeABCF
- #ChasingLife