For actress Emily Rose, a proper introduction deserves more than a handshake.
“I’m going to give you a hug,” she said, when we met for coffee at Aroma Coffee & Tea in Studio City. As we waited in line for her vanilla latte, the UCLA alumna (née Emily Rose Maier) gave me the skinny on the quaint neighborhood joint where she chose to meet.
“I feel like the “˜Cheers’ song should play when I walk in here,” the 27-year-old said with a smile.
It’s easy to see what she means. In the crowded front room, baristas and customers exchange welcomes, easy conversation and phone numbers: It’s the type of place where everybody really does know your name.
With all the commotion, it takes a few minutes for those behind the counter to notice Rose. But she doesn’t mind ““ she’s too busy telling me about the scavenger hunt she’s orchestrating for her boyfriend’s upcoming 30th birthday. And once they do notice her, she’s busy explaining the party all over again to the barista, who she invites and exchanges numbers with before we step away from the register.
Our conversation moves into a cozy side room, where Rose sits with her “a bit on the sweeter side” latte, just the way she likes it. The coffee isn’t the only thing on the sweeter side; it quickly becomes apparent that the actress is not your average fame-hungry Hollywood starlet. Perched on her chair in jeans and a hoodie, blonde hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, Rose begins talking as if we were old friends, and by the end of our conversation, I feel as if we are.
In a city saturated with the superficial, Rose’s genuineness has likely contributed to her success as an actress. Since graduating from UCLA in 2006 with a master’s degree in film, she has appeared on both cable and network television in “John from Cincinnati,” “Brothers and Sisters” “Jericho,” “Cold Case” and “Without a Trace,” as well as in stage productions and as the voice of a video game character.
In short, Rose has been busy, but she knows that in the volatile life of a working actress, a year of success could be followed by a year of pinching pennies.
“UCLA teaches really well to never sit around waiting for someone to hire you,” she said. “They tell you to go out and create your own work, and they show you how to do that.”
After graduation, Rose was introduced to a manager through her mentor Gordon Hunt, a visiting UCLA professor and director of television and theater (and not to mention father of actress Helen Hunt). With management in tow, Rose began the arduous process of auditioning and trying to become a member of the Screen Actors Guild, which is necessary to audition for certain roles.
From the moment Hunt saw Rose act in his auditioning class in 2005, he knew she had natural talent.
“She sparkles on stage and on film,” he said. “(Success) was just waiting to happen when she got out of school and circumstances brought it about.”
People often tell Rose how lucky she is, but she doesn’t think luck has anything to do with it.
“I’m a very spiritual and faith-oriented person and I believe the world has brought people into my life and opened doors around me,” she said.
Rose’s Christian faith and her love for acting both played an integral role in her upbringing. As a child in Washington state, her parents ““ an engineer and a teacher ““ soon realized they had a performer in the house.
“We always said, even at 2 1/2, that she could go in a room full of adults and relate well,” mother Margie Maier said, adding in jest, “We thought she’d be an air traffic controller, because she could have everyone at the altitude and speed she wanted.”
Rose and her younger sister Amy Maier regularly performed shows at home, at church and at school. The family often recalls the Christmas when Rose set up a nativity scene in their house, casting Amy as baby Jesus and placing her in a cardboard-box manger.
“When we were younger (my sister) would make me be her audience,” Amy recalled. “And when she was done singing she would say, “˜Now clap.'”
The sisters both loved acting, but when Amy was cast as Marta in a local production of “The Sound of Music” and Emily didn’t get a role, she decided acting was too unstable a passion and switched to horseback riding.
“I was like, “˜Forget this, I’m going to do something you can count on more,'” she said. “I didn’t get back into acting until junior high or high school when we had these comedy speech debates. It was in making people laugh that I got really comfortable again.”
Although her professional resume has taken a turn toward more serious roles, Rose actively pursued comedy until she graduated with a degree in theatre arts from Vanguard University in Costa Mesa.
“I feel like I was funny in undergrad, and then I went to grad school to work on my dramatic stuff,” she said, deepening her voice into a rich Shakespearean accent. “I’d love to do a comedy, but maybe I’m not really as funny as I think I am.”
Until that comedic opportunity comes knocking, Rose is content with dramatic television. She is also content with not being a regular on a TV show.
“I guess financially it would be great to be on a show permanently,” she said. “But I like what I’ve done because I got it on my resume and now I’m free to do what I want.”
Ironically, Rose’s successful audition that earned her a multi-episode arc on “Brothers and Sisters” wasn’t the first time she had tried out for the show. She auditioned and was called back for the role of Rebecca Harper, now played by Emily VanCamp, but she skipped the callback to be with her family on Christmas.
It’s that kind of dedication to the people in her life who matter that gets Rose noticed. “She’s not just a talented actress but a really good human being,” Hunt said. “She looks out for other people and she’s caring in a non-egoistic way.”
Rose is constantly amazed at how much influence Hollywood has over the rest of the world, and because of this she chooses her roles carefully.
“When I do work I want to be able to call my grandparents and say, “˜Watch this,'” she said. “I want the stuff I’m putting out there to make people think. I want to make choices in my career that are true to my artistic integrity.”
With this mindset, Rose has been able to enjoy the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles without getting swept up in it. Sure, she may have an iPhone, but she also still drives a ’97 Volkswagen Jetta.
“If you’re so freaked out about your job and so freaked out about your career and so freaked out about obtaining things, you’re going to eventually crash into those things,” she said.
“The minute we start caring for people instead of caring about obtaining something, then I think we’re in the right place.”
Looks like she’s already there.