Amy Acker

Haplin, Minnesota, also known as "Happy Town," has enjoyed an uneasy peace for five years, but all that is about to change. Still haunted by a number of unsolved kidnappings, the small town now faces a dark new crime that brings all its unresolved fears to the surface. Has the elusive "Magic Man," who many believe is responsible for the bizarre abductions that still scar the town, returned to claim another victim? As Haplin’s mysteries are revealed, many of its prominent citizens’ motives come under scrutiny, as their own secrets and personalities are peeled back, one layer at a time.

Dragged away from his idyllic family life to investigate the new crimes, Tommy Conroy (Geoff Stults), a small town deputy under the wing of his dad, long-time popular Sheriff Griffin Conroy (M.C. Gainey), has never had to take charge of Haplin’s law enforcement. His comfortable lifestyle is suddenly turned upside down by a bizarre set of circumstances and he must learn to pool his smarts, without the necessary training and tools, to rally the residents, as well as keep his wife, Rachel (Amy Acker), daughter Emma (Sophia Ewaniuk) and the rest of Haplin safe.

While at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour to promote the ABC mid-season drama Happy Town, one of the show’s stars, Amy Acker, talked about being a part of the small town mystery, as well as gave hints about her role in Cabin in the Woods, the highly anticipated and highly secretive 3-D horror film from Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard.

Q: When you started on Dollhouse, did you have any idea that your character would end up so evil?

Amy: No. When the whole thing started, I had been begging Joss, since I heard he was doing it. We’d be hanging out and I’d be like, "I wish I could be on your show." And then, it seemed like the day before they started shooting, he was like, "Actually, there’s this part. She was supposed to be a 55-year-old woman, but I’m thinking maybe you should do it." I was like, "Really? Okay, great! I’ll be there." I didn’t know if it was just going to be for the pilot. I had no idea that I was going to end up being a doll and that all this stuff would unfold. I’d hear about different stuff, but you don’t know. Q: How would you describe your character on Happy Town?

Amy: I would say that she just feels very real. She’s a loving wife and a mom. Her and her husband have this relationship that is so wonderful because they’re also best friends. So much on TV, you see these arguments and you see people cheating. One of the things I was really excited about was just getting to be a good role model for marriage. There are dark moments, but overall she’s trying to maintain civility and be the rock of the marriage, the sheriff’s wife and the good mother. But it’s real, so when bad things happen, people change.

Q: Do you naturally gravitate toward dark characters?

Amy: I feel like, with these type of supernatural or mysterious parts, you get to do so much more. With Angel, I went in playing this girl in a cave and came out as a blue demon goddess. You don’t really get to do that on CSI or something. You get to have a lot more range of emotion and just really get to experience things. It’s like you’re doing 25 different shows, every episode. With these guys and with Joss, they’re good at all of a sudden having a funny episode and then a scary episode. You’re not really trapped in a genre. For instance, there was that episode of Angel where he was a puppet. That could have almost been a sitcom episode. And Happy Town, luckily, has a lot of that same thing. I have this wonderful husband and we have this marriage. There’s this nice drama, and there’s funny stuff happening with my daughter, and then the next episode, crazy and terrible stuff is happening.

Q: What do you think it is about you that makes people want to hire you for these types of roles?

Amy: People think I look innocent, so they like to have me end up being the killer. I was like, "I’m totally going to be the Magic Man." But then, that’s too predictable. Now, people are starting to think I’m actually going to kill people.

Q: A lot of things seem to happen to you or around you on television. Are you drawn to these kinds of shows, or is there a sitcom star in you that’s dying to get out?

Amy: I feel like this is maybe the first part where I haven’t killed anyone, so that felt like a really big step. But, it’s only been eight episodes. I do love these shows because I feel like you really get to evolve as a character, like when I did Angel and Alias. You go in thinking you’re playing one person and you come out, at the end of the season, a whole different character. There’s a lot more room for growth. You really get to act in ways that you don’t in other shows. But, I wouldn’t be sad if, somewhere along the line, I did a sitcom.

Q: Does your character have a suspicion that something is wrong?

Amy: That’s the thing about the town. It feels really comfortable to be there, but then there is something just always beneath the surface where you feel like something bad could happen, at any minute to any person. I grew up in Dallas, which isn’t a small town, but in my community and my high school, everybody knew everybody’s business. Even now, my parents still go to the high school football games. And, this has that sort of feel. Everybody knows everything about everyone. It’s just an interesting dynamic of being super-comfortable and super-terrified. You’re sleeping in bed with your husband and you don’t know if he’s the killer, but you still love him. Everyone in the town has that dynamic of not knowing who they should trust, and yet being friendly to everyone.

Q: Growing up in Texas, were you a cheerleader?

Amy: No. In junior high, for a little bit. I was a failed cheerleader.

Q: Would you like to live in a small town, or do you prefer being in the city?

Amy: I wouldn’t mind having a little ranch somewhere and being able to escape. I don’t think I’d want to live in Happy Town, after filming the eight episodes.

Q: Do you have to do stunts or anything on this show?

Amy: I got to do some super-cool thing that I had never gotten to do. I did a lot of fighting and gun stuff with Alias and Angel, but for this, I was more on the other side, being chased a lot more. I got to spend some time underwater, which was scary, but really fun to do. It was in a pool, but I learned to do the scuba breathing. I had a day to learn to breathe underwater.

Q: You got to work with Joss and Drew Goddard again on The Cabin in the Woods, right?

Amy: Yeah. That was another lucky thing. They hadn’t found someone, and it was just a couple of days before shooting, so they asked me to go do The Cabin in the Woods. Drew is just so awesome, and Joss is one of my best friends. Any opportunity to work with them, I’m like, "I’ll do catering. I don’t care. Just let me hang out with you guys."

Q: How big of a role did they have for you?

Amy: It’s a smaller role, but I was out there for three weeks of it. All of my stuff is with Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford, so I was just laughing the whole time.

Q: Is there a separate adult story going on, with this kid story in the woods?

Amy: I don’t know what I’m supposed to say about this movie. Maybe. It’s a horror movie.

Q: Is it scary or is it funny too?

Amy: I’m not going to say because I don’t want to get in trouble.

Q: What did you think when you found out it was going to be transferred into 3-D?

Amy: I was super-excited. I got a note. Drew sent out an email to everyone. Having a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old, every movie I’ve seen in the past year has been in 3-D, so I was like, "That would be so awesome, if they made a real movie in 3-D." That’s the thing that everybody is doing now.

Q: How often do your son and daughter get to see you, now that you’re doing this show?

Amy: It works out well. We’ve been done since the end of October, and we actually moved to New York. My husband, James Carpinello, is doing the Broadway musical "Rock of Ages." It was an hour flight. When I was on Dollhouse, we lived in Studio City and shot at Fox. It actually took me longer to drive to work from my home in Studio City, then to fly home to New York from Toronto.

Q: Since you’re on a show called Happy Town, what makes you happy?

Amy: My family. Being with my kids and my husband. And, seeing other people happy.

HAPPY TOWN is a mid-season series airing on ABC