Tonight at 9p on ABC Family’s Chasing Life, Brenna finally gets her own episode and Haley Ramm talked to me about it and her character.
Brenna is a teenager in high school and life is hard enough for her. She has the perfect older sister, who has been diagnosed with cancer, and now she has to compete for attention against that and her sister. Everything has always been April, April, April, but tonight it is all about Brenna.
Since April has been diagnosed with cancer, Brenna has realized that she is bisexual. Her first relationship with another girl didn’t work out because of the other girl’s parents. Now she is single in her private school and things are finally working out for her. That is until last week when her mom told her that April’s medicals bills are piling up and Brenna is going to have to go to public school. Brenna has had enough and tonight she is going to have her say. Ramm describes tonight’s episode as, “It is all about how Brenna has been feeling. How this has affected her. What she is upset about.” Then she added, “She says that she is kind of always living in April’s shadow. She touches on what it has been like to grow up with a sister who is so perfect, most of the time, and Brenna tends to fall behind. She is more of a struggler. She is coming into her own. She just takes a little more time.”
Coming into her own means that Brenna will be dating. Will she be dating a boy or a girl? She said, “Both. I mean, she likes both.”
When she signed on for the role, she didn’t know about Brenna’s sexuality. When did she find out that her character would be bisexual? Right around when they were filming the third episode, she had a meeting with the producers and the writers and they told her the news then. How did she react? She smiled as she shared with me, “I was so thrilled. I think that it makes so much sense for Brenna. She is different. She is kind of the black sheep in the family.” Plus, she says, “I am so excited, to kind of, be that voice on the show for people who watch. It just makes my heart so happy.”
It is also makes her happy when she logs on to Twitter and people are responding to her character. She has followers tell her that they would not have asked out someone of the same sex had it not been for Brenna. In one episode last season, Brenna was bullied and she told people about it. A young boy watched that episode with his mom and then he admitted to her he was bullied. The mom contacted Ramm and thanked for her for giving her son the strength to speak up. When I asked her about being a role model, she humbly responded with, “We are all just playing people who are trying to do their best.”
Something that comes easy to her, because as she explained, “Playing a character where it is so accepted and normal. It was never explained, I think she just said it. She said it again and again and again. It is making it normal, which is should be.”
How does she want things to turn out for Brenna? She says, “I want Brenna to find happiness and peace.” Expanding on that thought, “Just to continue being comfortable in her own skin. I think she will find herself in a very happy relationship.”
Before she gets to that point, she has to deal with leaving her private school and starting a new public school. All of this while dealing with being bisexual in high school, her older sister having cancer and getting to her know her older half-sister she didn’t know about until recently. You thought your teen years were hard? See how much harder they are for Brenna tonight and every Monday at 9p on ABC Family on Chasing Life.
