Actress Elizabeth Higgins Clark is building a name and resume for herself in Hollywood these days. Her newest credit is an appearance on the hit CBS crime drama “Criminal Minds,” in the episode set to air on March 20th.
Elizabeth has popped up on the CW’s “Ringer” starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and on the ABC daytime soaps “All My Children” and “General Hospital.” The Grand Daughter to famed suspense novelist Mary Higgins Clark, Elizabeth also puts her pen to paper as a contributing writer for The Huffington Post.
We recently caught up with Elizabeth to ask her about her role on “Criminal Minds,” her writing and of course about her Grandmother.
Tell us about your role on the CBS hit-drama “Criminal Minds.”
ELIZABETH: I play a nice Minnesota girl named Tammy. She spends most of her downtime swimming and even competes in some amateur races. She meets a guy online and obviously things go horribly, terrifyingly wrong.
The show is pretty scary for network television, so does the situation of the storyline help you get into the character when you’re shooting it or does it not really make a difference?
ELIZABETH: I know! I've been a fan of the show for a long time and there are some episodes that still haunt me. In this case, the situation of the storyline was everything for me. It was an extremely creepy script. And when I think about some of the things that happen to me, I get chills.
Any interesting or juicy stories from the set you can share with us?
ELIZABETH: Everyone keeps asking me if I got to meet Shemar Moore. All I can say is that I doubt anyone will be disappointed.
You’ve also been pursuing a writing career, can you tell us a bit about that?
ELIZABETH: I wouldn't say I've been pursuing a "career" in writing. I wrote an essay about my grandmothers for The Huffington Post back in September. And then I wrote another HuffPo piece in response to Ann Coulter calling President Obama a "retard" on Twitter. That piece kind of took off. It was really odd. I had no idea anyone would even respond to it. But then all of these people started sharing it, Maria Shriver tweeted it, and it made the front page of the entire blog. My phone practically exploded. It was an insane twenty-four hours.
I plan to continue writing but, my focus is acting. I know how hard it is to be a writer and, at this point, I wouldn't feel comfortable calling myself one.
I’m guessing your Grandmother, best-selling novelist Mary Higgins Clark, has probably given you some advice about pursuing a career in the creative arts. Anything you can share with the rest of us?
ELIZABETH: The most valuable lesson I've learned from her is that you have to have a healthy relationship with rejection. She collected over two hundred rejection slips when she was trying to get her early stuff published. It's part of it. And as difficult and hurtful as it can be, she's always told me that the desire to prove them wrong can be the strongest motivator. She's absolutely right about that. She's right about a lot of things. She'll love that I said that!
Finally, how can your fans keep up with you?
Anything that I have upcoming will be posted on IMDB page:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1243646/?ref_=sr_1
Or my page at The Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-clark/
And I have a special email address for questions:
ToElizabethHigginsClark@gmail.com
Thanks, Elizabeth. And, no worries -- we’re certainly not going to reject you!
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