Director/producer McG (Terminator Salvation, Supernatural, Chuck, The O.C.), through his Wonderland Sound and Vision banner, teams up with Big Fantastic – producers of the hit digital series Prom Queen – on Sorority Forever, an innovative mystery/drama that peeks behind the walls of one of the most intriguing secret societies in the world: the sorority.   Every fall, thousands of young women from all over the world enroll in college, each with their own experiences, secrets, and demons. These girls are looking for a fresh start. They want to be cool, they want to be liked, they want attention – and they desperately want to belong to something. So they take part in Rush Week, and if they’re lucky, they are chosen to join a sisterhood that will follow them for the rest of their lives.

In Sorority Forever, viewers will watch and interact with the daily drama: the secrets, the sex, the backstabbing, the rollercoaster life of being a girl who will do anything for Phi Chi, and the consequences of discovering the truth behind the secrets of the house. And every time they think they’ve figured it out, the mystery will go deeper – because at Phi Chi, every sister has a secret.

Annemarie Pazmino plays Rachael Perkins, the sorority vice president in the web series.  Annemarie began her career playing the lead role in the short film The Bitterness, directed by Kim Putnam, which played more than a dozen film festivals throughout the U.S., winning best film at three and honorable recognition at many others.   Her additional credits include the movies On Bloody Sunday, Edges of Darkness, Trinity and the forthcoming Small Town Saturday Night. A native of Los Angeles, Annemarie grew up in East Los Angeles and Pasadena, Calif.  She is a graduate of the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, with a bachelor’s degree in animal science/pre-veterinary medicine. 

Annemarie took time out from her busy schedule to talk about her role on TheWB.com web series.

Can you tell us what the series is about?

The series is called Sorority Forever.  It’s a thriller, drama, web series and the first for the WB.  They have several others, but we’re their favorite.  It’s about a group of girls trying to rust the most prestigious and hottest sorority.  It’s a world renowned sorority called Phi Ki Kappa.  And for every girl that’s trying to rush, if they get accepted, it’s a dream come true for them.  Phi Ki is the best of the best and we make strong successful women.  But Phi Ki has a lot of dark secrets.  They’re hiding a lot of stuff so that’s where all the thrills and mystery come in.

I know you said it’s a thriller, and you may not be able to answer this, but is it sort of a secret society like the Skulls, or something supernatural?

Well, there are a lot of secrets.  I can tell you that.  It does follow a closer line to Skulls than it would to something supernatural. 

Who is Rachael and how does she fit into things?

I play Rachael Perkins and she is the vice president of the sorority. She’s the girl that’s caught between two worlds.  She wants so much to achieve success in the sorority and to eventually become the president and go further in the ranks.  But in order to do that, she’s required to do things that really make her question herself. So she has a constant battle with where her lines of right and wrong fall.  She doesn’t really know yet how much she is willing to do to succeed, so she has a constant struggle back and forth.

TheWB.com just launched a few months ago and looks like an amazing concept.  Can you talk about what they are doing with it, and what the point is behind the WB.com?

I know the WB is really trying to individualizing themselves from the CW.  This is purely my opinion, but I think they are really trying to bring back that name to how people saw it, because now it’s become the CW.  Now the new way for a lot of studios to do that is to develop hit web series.  The future really is in web series.  With Sorority Forever, it’s no longer just watching a show like you would on TV.  It’s a full life experience because it’s sort of set up like an RPG show.  It’s the show, but then there’s the MySpace that’s involved and so it’s awesome that you can talk to the characters that you get attached to.  There are so many movies that I love and just the idea of being able to talk to that character and ask them, “Gee, how did this make you feel?”  It’s just much more involved and goes beyond sitting in front of a TV or computer.  You can go and find things, there are different blogs and tons of information.  The WB site is a lot of fun because you can go and edit your own episode, and pick from different episodes and put them all together.  They have a lot of stuff.  It’s a crazy site, and it’s really cool. 

How did you get this part?  Did they have a normal casting call?

They did.  I definitely earned the role.  The breakdown was submitted, and I submitted myself for it, and they called me for an audition.  I auditioned for the guys at Big Fantastic.  Big Fantastic are responsible for the writing and direction of the show.  It’s made up of four guys, Doug Cheney, Chris McCaleb, Ryan Wise, and Chris Hampel.  They are amazing.  They are so talented and so dedicated to everything that they do.  They really put every bit of themselves into the project, and they make things that they would like to watch.  They don’t make things that they think will make a lot of money, though I’m sure that’s what they hope.  But ultimately they want to put out something they would find entertaining, and that’s a true testament to the type of people that they are.  So we were called in and auditioned for them, and they made their top choices.  Then that went to McG’s company Wonderland.  McG is responsible for some really great projects and his company is fantastic.  The people working there are amazing and so supportive.  Then from Wonderland it went to executives at Warner Brothers, and they were the final decision makers.  It was a long time.  By the time I got the phone call saying, “Hey, we’d really like you to play Rachael.”, I was like, “Oh you guys haven’t shot this yet?”  I thought I’d lost it.  It was months later, and as an actor you get to the point where you are like, “Oh, I didn’t get that one, let’s move on to the next one.”  I was so shocked and so excited when I got the call.

So what schedule is the show on, when do the webisodes come out?

They are on daily Monday thru Friday, and can be watched on TheWB.com or on MySpaceTV.  The first season aired up until the end of October.  We did 40 episodes in all. 

And each episode is about 2 minutes?

Yeah they are just over 2 minutes.  Some are about 3 but the average is about 2.

I know a few other series have started this way, like Sanctuary on Sci Fi.  Do you think there’s a chance this may eventually find it’s way to a TV series? Or at least go to a 2^nd season?

I’m hoping.  There’s gossip about making it into a TV show.  There’s so much there I can definitely see it expanded into that medium, but I don’t know.  I’m just an actor and usually the last to know.  But I hope so.  If they do either, I’d love to take part in it.  Right now I haven’t heard anything other than just gossip.

Do you think this is the future of entertainment or TV?

I really do.  So many people have Internet now, and so many people watch their basic TV shows on the Internet.  It’s so readily accessible and it’s just easier.  You can take it wherever you go and you can watch it at work.  That’s part of the thinking behind making the webisodes so short.  They really wanted it to be accessible to anybody, even people that have dial up or their signal is slower.  It’s not going to take an hour to download a 2 minute episode.  The amount of people that you can touch and get to just goes up 10 fold; then to be able to have the liberty to watch it wherever you are is much more flexible than having to wait till you get home.  I think that’s how all shows are going to be.

So you guys are going to be responsible for millions of dollars in lost productivity at work?

Don’t say that! (laughs)  It’s interesting because you walk into people’s houses now and the monitors for their computers are like three times the size of their TVs.  People are spending more time on the net and everything is available so that’s the way it’s going.

Do you have any idea how many people actually watched or are participating with the show?

The last number I heard was we had hit over two million.  It’s been increasing and it’s been received really, really well.  That’s awesome as an actor because you want people to enjoy it.  You want them to have as much fun with the story line as you did making it.  I know that we have some over seas viewers, but with most of the sites they aren’t available overseas so when it’s expanded it’s just going to go up, which is really excited.

So are all the secrets revealed in the first season?

It’s kind of like Lost.  When one secret is revealed a new question is posed.  There is definitely a sort of resolution, but there are definitely things that they will wonder about, so there is a need for a second season.  Would you expect anything other than that.

Let’s talk about you personally?  When did you get the acting bug and when did you know this is what you wanted to do?

I have been acting since I was little.  I was always doing.  If I wasn’t in a theatre production, I was putting on shows at home forcing everybody to sit there and watch me.  I was a huge ham from the very beginning.  I was born and raised in LA and didn’t have any family or friends that were in the industry, so it was always a hobby.  I always really loved it and it was a huge passion for me, but was never anything I really saw as something I’d consider as a career.  So I decided it’s time to be an adult and go to school and be a professional.  So I was doing that.  I went and got my bachelors in animal science, pre-vet medicine.  I was almost done and just decided I needed to try this and take the leap.  As soon as I graduated I went and did acting full time.  It was a long process and it was hard for me to take that chance because it’s really scary.  The business is always changing.  This year alone has completely changed the entertainment industry.  So it’s scary but I love it.  I don’t look back and I’m so happy I decided to do it.  When I wake up in the morning it’s what I want to do and I have that drive and energy to excel at it.  School was always great and I love science, and love the field of pre-vet medicine, but it required more labor.  I had to study really hard to get good grades and had to put in the extra time.  It never became natural to me.  When I was acting, it was a fit.  It works. 

Where do you see yourself in five years?  Will you still be doing this?

Absolutely!  I love acting.  I haven’t yet gotten the directors bug or the producers bug, and I don’t deny them and it’s an avenue I’ll explore.  But right now I’m having so much fun acting and discovering new characters.  I’m sure five years down the line I’ll still be doing that.  Like with this project, I never got a chance to explore the Greek lifestyle.  I went to a commuter school and while there were sororities and fraternities there, they weren’t a huge focus as they are on some campuses.  Just being able to play Rachael, and doing all your homework to find out what the lifestyle is like is fun.  I was trying to talk to a bunch of girls and in the beginning they were very tight lipped.  They didn’t want to say anything because they aren’t supposed to be talking about the secrets of the sorority.  But once you get the information, a whole new world is opened up to you and that’s what is so great about being actor.  You get exposed to these lifestyles that you would have never had otherwise.  You really feel like you are in it?

What else do you have going on?

I just shot a webisodes for Cassanovas, on funnyordie.com/casanovastv.  And it’s funny because I get to play a very popular movie star girl and Carson Daily does an appearance playing himself.  He plays my boyfriend and he dumps me.  It’s really clever.  The link is available on my website which is AnneMarePazzmino.com.  I have a movie called Edges of Darkness coming out later this year, and that’s a horror movie.  It’s totally different character wise and I play the villain and I’m a little bit psychotic.  It’s very different from the controlled conservative girl I play on the Sorority.  People can always see me in On Bloody Sunday, which I shot last year.