Chasing Life‘s Haley Ramm didn’t know much about her character, Brenna, when she was cast in the role, but she was excited about the possibilities.
“When we got to Boston for the first time to meet with Joni and Susanna and we’d ask about our characters, I tried to ask as much as I possibly could,” Haley said while attending Outfest in Los Angeles this week. “Because when you have a character going into a role that’s already a little bit messed up or moody, there must be for some reason for that so I was trying to think of all the things they could be doing. And they mentioned that someone’s sister was a lesbian and I kind of thought, since I was based off of that character, ‘Oh my god, could it go that way? Because that would be so fun! and challenging and just really cool to be able to play a character like that so young.”
Haley Ramm In episode four, which aired on ABC Family a few weeks ago, Brenna met Greer (Gracie Dzienny), a lesbian at her school that she began a friendship with. But when ABC Family used the hashtag #BrennaandGreer, it became a little clearer that the two would be more than friends. However, Brenna also begins a romantic relationship with her boss, tattoo artist Kieran (Augusto Aguilera), and confides in him, as she has a lot going on at home with her sister, April, being diagnosed with cancer. She eventually shares the same information with Greer, though, indicating she’s opening up to her, which is something that has us glued to our TVs every Tuesday night.
While Haley says Brenna and Greer are “not officially” together as of last night’s episode six, there will definitely be something going on between the two, although Kieran will also be vying for Brenna’s attentions. In the meantime, Brenna will start to become “not so angsty,” as she’s wanting to step up and help out April and her entire family.
“People are starting to like her more now which is really good,” Haley said. “I’m excited about that. She gets sweeter, she gets a little more compassionate. Because of that things get confusing. There’s a whole love triangle going on. “
Out executive producer Joni Lefkowitz said Haley reminds her of “a baby Evan Rachel Wood,” of which Haley said, “I love that comparison. I’ve actually gotten that a few times. She’s awesome and if I have to have one, I’ll take it.”
“[Brenna] is finding herself and part of finding herself is a sexual identity crisis, which she basically is going to end up having a bisexual love triangle,” Joni said. “The way we approached this – ABC Family had done, like, everything. They have gay characters on all their shows, they’re not really shocked by anything so we were like, ‘How do we approach this from a different way?’ And I noticed that conversations I had with my sister-in-law, who is 19, is a lot of teenagers aren’t really putting themselves in a box as early as people when I was growing up, who would say ‘I’m gay for sure, and it’ll never be any different.’ I think it’s a sign of the times that they’re less judgmental but they don’t have to define themselves and be stuck in a box, and this character doesn’t label herself. She falls in love with people and she falls in love with a guy and a girl, and it just happens to be that- she’s not really angsty about that, she’s angsty about who to choose, but not about what gender they are. I think it’s fun.”
Outside of relationship issues, Brenna is still reeling trying to cope with her sister’s diagnosis, which is the driving story of the entire show.
“I’ve had a lot of people in my life that have had cancer and there’s something about someone who you love and who you’re close to, when you find out that they have it, you just you have this thing in you that makes you step up and just help out and be there,” Haley said during a TCA panel on Tuesday. “So my favorite part about Brenna was how she’s so messy in the first few episodes and doesn’t she’s so unorganized and just a mess, really. And then she finds out. And ever since she finds out, like, yeah, she messes up along the way still, but she just really steps up and helps out her sister and helps out her family and her mom.”
The best partner for Brenna will be the one that can help her through it all. We’re just not so secretly hoping it’s Greer.
Chasing Life airs Tuesday nights on ABC Family. Livetweet the episodes with us using #ChasingLesbians.
