Pasadena Magazine

Brianne Howey INTERVIEW BY // CUYLER GIBBONS PHOTO BY // NATE TAYLOR ∫ GROWING UP IN NEARBY LA CAÑADA, BRIANNE HOWEY TRIED A LITTLE OF EVERYTHING BEFORE SETTLING ON ACTING. IT SEEMS SHE MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE. FOLLOWING HER STARING ROLE ON THE ABC SERIES TWISTED, AND APPEARANCES ON 90210, NCIS, HEART OF DIXIE, CRIMINAL MINDS AND REVENGE, BRIANNE RECENTLY LANDED HER FIRST FEATURE FILM ROLE IN THE SOON TO BE RELEASED HORRIBLE BOSSES 2. WE CAUGHT UP WITH BRIANNE AT KING'S ROAD GASTRO-PUB WHERE SHE TALKED ABOUT HER FAMILY, HER RECENT ROLES, AND WHY BANANA BREAD IS INDISPENSIBLE. So. California certainly has no shortage of actresses, but it's nice to meet one who actually grew up around here. Tell me a little bit about your background: Well I'm a native La Cañada girl. I grew up in La Crencenta/ La Cañada , and my family is still in Pasadena and La Cañada . I went to Palm Crest in La Cañada for elementary school and lived right there. For high school, I went to Sacred Heart, which is an all girls catholic school. I loved it. Now my Dad's side lives in Arcadia, my aunt and uncle live in Altadena, and my grandpar- ents live in La Cañada . I think lots of girls imagine becoming an actress but there is a long way between imag- ining and becoming. When did you decide that was what your were going to do?: I defi nitely got hooked in high school. Originally, I tried pretty much everything. I played tennis, and basketball and soccer, I tried out for everything and none of them worked. Finally, I tried out for the improv team and it just kind of all clicked. And then my fi rst play in high school was for St. Francis, the all boys school in La Cañada, and I did all the rest of the plays at my high school. Well it must have taken, because I know you went on to study theater at NYU, like count- less others, but, unlike countless others, you were working almost as soon as you graduated. Yea, I did. I got a manager my last semester of college. I was really fortunate in going to NYU because in college I did a ton of student fi lms. It was so much fun, so collective. You make little families. It was great. There are just so many resources over there. Everyone is so talented and so committed. I had a really cool reel to show my future manager. You've got a lot of TV under you belt, and now you've completed your fi rst feature fi lm role, in Horrible Bosses 2. Tell me about that transition: Initially before we started, it was super intimidating because you have all these really huge successful names like Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis, and Jennifer Aniston, and Charlie Day, and your mind is racing but you get there and it all works. My fi rst day on the set was with three of them. I felt totally taken care of. It was a wonderful feeling to work with them and to see them this close, improvising right in front of me. It's easy to think it's all in the edit, that makes people look better, but they are the real deal. They are just really talented. So now that you've notched some big time movie experience will you make movies a priority or do you plan on sticking to TV? For now whatever comes along is meant to be, but I love doing movies. In fact, I just got one this morning! It's called "Synkhole," written and directed by an indi-duo who went to UT in Austin. There are a lot of stunts involved, which I've never done, so that will be exciting. You've been very busy, fortunately, but when you're not acting what are you doing with your time: I spend so much time with my family. I see them all the time I love eating out. Los Feliz especially seems to have a lot of really cute, cool small places. Little Doms in Los Feliz is defi nitely one of my favorites. They have a tuna melt. It's incredible. And Marstens, they have this French toast that is my favorite French toast ever. I'm also involved with an organization called School on Wheels. They fi nd individuals to help tutor homeless children. Children who are truly homeless or children who are just con- stantly moving and changing the families they are living with. Where there is no consistent home base, providing tutors helps them keep up and keeps them in school more. It helps them succeed so that they want to be there. I'm not sure how, but somewhere in my research banana bread came up. What's the deal with you and banana bread? In my family everyone is a baker. My mom's whole side, my grandma, and my aunts. I grew up sort of always baking. We baked when we were happy, we baked when were sad. We baked when we were stressed. Good things, bad things we were just constantly baking. And my favorite is ba- nana bread. It's a family recipe, and I could eat banana bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 128 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 TALK the

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