Happy New Year with Stacy McQueen

All Photos:   Alan Mercer

Stacy McQueen is one of the funniest people I have ever met. She is also a sensitive and caring individual. I fell in love with her portrayal of the five year old Annette Champagne in the web series ‘Pretty’, now in it’s third season. We met up at her ‘magic cabin’ home in Los Angeles for an enlightening conversation and these photos.

Stacy attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and earned her BFA from Webster University Conservatory of Theater Arts where she was one of twelve, out of the nation, recipients of the prestigious Irene Ryan/ Kennedy Center Award. She moved to Los Angeles and studied with the late great Roy London with the likes of Brad Pitt and Geena Davis. She was saved by Dolph Ludgren in ‘I Come In Peace’, served a two and half year stint on ‘General Hospital’ playing nurse Sheila Cantillion and portrayed a whore with a heart of gold on ‘Quantum Leap.’

She got her big break when she was reunited with Dean Stockwell as a series regular on the sitcom ‘In The Mood.’ Unfortunately, it wasn't picked up. She worked on the short lived ‘Maybe This Time’ along with Craig Ferguson in his first TV role in the US.

She's performed in many plays around town. Stacy started making her own videos after Oxygen offered her a web series, twice, and then mysteriously took the deal off the table. She is now happily playing a 5 year old in the award winning web series ‘PRETTY.’

Special thanks to Charlie Mason for suggesting this blog!

AM: Stacy I know that you believe the law of attraction has given you a good life. Can you elaborate?

SMQ: It didn't happen overnight but I feel my life is magical. I try to be aware of what I am thinking about now. I often think to myself, "What do you want?" Give yourself those endorphins by thinking that way as opposed to thinking about what you don't want which produces stress and more tension.

AM: I do believe that whatever you give time and energy to in your thoughts is what you experience. If you sit around and dread all day you will always have things to dread. If you choose to let go and start fresh and think of what you want, you have energy.

SMQ: It's so simple when you start to understand it. Someone said, "You only have to think positive 51% of the time and your life will change," so I thought, "I can do that!" Every aspect of my life has changed since I made the decision to think a different way. Before my change of thinking I kept saying I can't catch a break. Now my mantra, that I recite one thousand times a day, I am not kidding, is "I'm The Luckiest Girl In The World" I go around saying, "I am so lucky. I'm so lucky."

AM: The solid bottom line is be grateful.

SMQ: That's it. That's the magic elixir. In any bad situation you may find yourself in, take the time to be grateful and feel the change. It's true. You can't be sad and be grateful at the same time. The more I believe that this world is a magical place...the more I experience it. I'll give you an example. I saw a gnome for sale in the flyer from Target and was going to go buy it and my girlfriend came over and asked me if I liked that gnome and of course I told her I was going to get it...and it was sitting on my kitchen table! She bought it for me!

AM: Were you always funny?

SMQ: Since I was a little kid I was an performer. I went to the High School of Performing Arts in Houston. I’m not bragging but I always rose to the top. In high school I won a scholarship and then I went to college and I won that big thing too. I always thought I was destined to be a star!

AM: Did you still think that when you moved to Los Angeles?

SMQ: My agent got me a manager here and I got ‘General Hospital’ and in my mind I thought it was so easy. That’s the show that broke me. I didn’t know that being funny was my thing, but I got to be a little funny on ‘General Hospital.’

AM: Did being on the show give you more confidence?

SMQ: I didn’t have a lot of confidence and I had so many auditions. I had these agents and all they would talk about is my weight...and I weighed thirty pounds less than I do now! They would ask me if I was pregnant every time I walked in there. Finally about ten years ago I just quit.

AM: What did you plan to do?

SMQ: I decided to just work on my writing. I wanted to do stand up but I didn’t know how to deliver jokes. I took a stand up class but I was too intimidated. Then my friend asked me to be the ‘Crafts Lady’ in her Woman’s Group, which I didn’t want to do, but I did. I started giving my presentation and everyone started laughing.

AM: Did you have a little bit of an act already?

SMQ: I didn’t have anything prepared. I really thought I was going to be a script doctor so I got an internship with a company that did script doctoring, but it didn’t feel right. I then said a prayer and asked God to give me a sign if I’m meant to be an actress. The phone rang right then and my best friend Steve Silverman asked me if I wanted to be in a play and I said, “Yes!” It was great fun to do the play and I found my groove again.

AM: How did you get involved with ‘Pretty: The Series’?

SMQ: Once again Steve Silverman called me and told me he wrote a web series and he asked me to read it. So I read it and then I asked him if I was Annette and he said yes. I thought it was the funniest thing ever. Again I get to bypass auditioning and just have fun. When I went to auditions I had stomach issues and it was too much. I couldn’t take it.

AM: ‘Pretty: The Series’ is absolutely hysterical. How did it start?

SMQ: I feel so incredibly lucky to be in this business long enough to get in the web shows. Nobody can tell me I can’t do it. Steve did it right. He treats it like a TV show, even if it’s very low budget. He usually sends me what he writes and of course there are always note giving back and forth. Pretty much Season 1 stayed exactly how he wrote it off the top of his head. GENIUS MOMENT! Everyone he showed it to said YES and jumped on board.

AM: Wow that isn’t very common. How long does it take to film a season?

SMQ: It takes about two weekends. I think we shot season three in six days. We have a whole new look because of the camera. Each season gets better.

AM: What was the feedback like?

SMQ: It was amazing, I don't think he got one negative note or feedback. I don't think anyone turned him down. In fact, some people offered up their services for free, just so they could be a part of it.

AM: Do you all want to keep the show going as long as you can?

SMQ: Of course the dream of all the actors is that HBO picks us up and we get to do a TV show. I don’t know how realistic that is.

AM: Well at least the show is really good!

SMQ: We ALL felt like ‘Pretty’ was something really special from day one. We've all felt something wonderful will come from it, and lots of something wonderful has come from it.

AM: Can you give me an example?

SMQ: Getting to work with the most talented, fun, loving group of people I've EVER encountered to having a ball on the super organized and professional set that Steve commands in a relaxed fun way, I’m so proud of my friend, to all the great people I've met because of ‘Pretty’. From the most awesome talented Genie Francis, who is a delight to work with, to Emma Caulfield, who not only is nice but drop dead gorgeous, to all the fans. We have AMAZING fans! In fact, Season 3 is for the most part FUNDED BY OUR FANS! How cool is that? But all of the magic started with Steve Silverman sitting down and spitting out Pretty season one, fully formed in an hour. As a writer you live with that fantasy in your head, HOPING/WISHING/PRAYING that a project spills out of you like that and that it turns into something really magical.

For more information about Stacy visit her web site  http://www.stacymcqueen.com/