People who grow up in Los Angeles don’t become farmers. It seems like Angelenos gravitate toward a career in the entertainment industry. After all, they’re surrounded by the glitz and glamour, and it’s attainable. But imagine growing up in Los Angeles with parents in the biz, and thinking about what the future holds. Think that they’ll be tilling fields in a few years?
There was never any doubt that Katie Cassidy would go into showbiz — she was destined for stardom. That’s an overused phrase, but she’s the child of David Cassidy, the famous singer/actor known best for his role on The Partridge Family, and Sherry Williams, the actress/model, and it was just a matter of time before fate caught up to her. “I knew I loved acting, and I was in theater when I was in elementary school, but I didn’t actually think that it was a reality,”
Cassidy recalls. “That it could be my career and I could actually make money doing this and support myself and a family and whatnot. And it actually ended up becoming my reality. I have the coolest job on the planet.”
Cassidy was just 18 when she decided to strike out on her own and try to get a career as an entertainer, something her mother and step-father weren’t behind. “I moved out at 18 and when I decided not to go to college, my mom and stepdad were like, ‘Well, then you’re on your own. We’re not going to pay for you to do whatever,’” Cassidy says. She struggled for a bit, but then landed on her feet doing some modeling work with Guess and Abercrombie & Fitch, as well as doing some singing.
But the acting bug was still there, so she started to go out on auditions, learning along the way the hard part about being the daughter of celebrities. “For having chosen the career that I’ve chosen, having that last name, it got me into rooms, and it got me seen, but it didn’t get me jobs or not get me jobs,” Cassidy says. “You’re either talented or you’re not. You get the job or you don’t.” Next thing she knew, she landed a part in 7th Heaven, and followed up that role with Adam Sandler’s Click, appearing as his daughter.
And now, Cassidy’s plate is full with roles in both the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie as well as CW’s remake of Melrose Place. For the past few months she’s been working on Nightmare, having positive experiences along the way. “Samuel Bayer directed [Nightmare on Elm Street] and it’s absolutely amazing,” Cassidy says. “He’s a talented artist. He’s brilliant. I’m so lucky to have gotten to work with him and I hope that he’ll become my Marty [Scorsese] and I’ll be his Leo [DiCaprio]. I want to work with him all the time — he’s fucking genius.”
Shortly after wrapping on Nightmare, Cassidy stepped back onto the set of Melrose Place. “It was interesting coming back and then having three days off before I had to start going into series,” Cassidy says. “I had to just keep drilling into my head [my character] Ella Sims. It was completely different and getting back into the other character was slightly challenging and at the same time, I knew it.”
Cassidy’s role as Sims allows her to play a wide range of emotions, as well as a fun character. “I’m having, honestly, a blast with this character and there’s no other character who I’ve wanted to play on a series, however long it goes, for a certain amount — like seven years — she’s so fun,” she gushes. Cassidy describes Sims as a “publicist, fashionista, bitch,” which is also where she drew some of her inspiration for the role. Turns out that Cassidy’s previous agent had a lot in common with the character she took on. “I just remembered how she was with me, so I was sort of like, ‘OK, let’s put a little bit of that in Ella.’ A little bit is my publicist, but she’s also exploring her sexuality. There’s a lot about this character that I think I took from a lot of different people and just created this woman.”
With the success of the new 90210, it seems like a given that the CW will be riding the Melrose Place train as long as they can, and Cassidy is in it every step of the way. And what is in the works for the crazy residents of that apartment complex in LA? Will it be just as campy and fun as before? Cassidy thinks so. “Oh yeah, it’s gonna be insane. There’s going to be craziness happening all over the place.”
Source: Six Degrees Magazine
