By Christina Radish
As would be expected with any series on The WB, things will be heating up on The Bedford Diaries, in its two-hour season finale. Following the lives of six students (played by Penn Badgley, Victoria Cartagena, Tiffany Dupont, Corri English, Milo Ventimiglia and Ernest Waddell) in a sex seminar class taught by Professor David Macklin (played by Matthew Modine), the young men and women document their thoughts on sex and love in video diaries, as class assignments.
Playing over-achiever Sarah Gregory, 25-year-old Tiffany Dupont assures MediaBlvd. Magazine that things will get both exciting and upsetting before The Bedford Diaries ends for the season. “My character broke up her relationship and, now, she’s being put in the middle of Natalie and Owen’s relationship -- her little brother, and the girl she doesn’t like. She’s just trying to look out for her brother and help, and they’re telling her she’s just a problem and she has no compassion. She gets really angry that she’s coming off the wrong way, when she’s just trying to help.”
Although Dupont wasn’t the student body president, straight-A workaholic in college that her character is, she admits to being able to identify with her leadership qualities. “I’m very goal-oriented and hard working. I did student government in college myself, made sure to keep good grades, and was always looking towards the future and what I was going to do. In that regard, I’m a lot like her. But, she’s just not really enjoying life. I had a lot more fun in college than she’s having right now. If there would be a season two, it would be interesting to see her just break down or realize that she can’t do it anymore, and that she needs to just kick back and have fun and relax a little bit.”
Having grown up just outside of Washington, D.C., in northern Virginia, Dupont says that she’s known from a very young age that acting was her calling. By the age of 4, she had decided that she wanted to make the stories on the TV -- she just didn’t know exactly what that meant.
{quote_top}“I’ve always been very outgoing, running around, performing, singing and being silly. I’ve known that I wanted to do this since I was a little girl. I didn’t really know what I was talking about, but it sounded like the most fun occupation out there, and so, I’ve always just said that’s what I was going to do. I’m very fortunate that that’s actually happening.”
Until recently, Dupont’s professional training consisted of middle school and high school theater, preferring instead to rely on her natural instincts and ability. “I actually got a degree in music with no emphasis on theater at all. I did that because I didn’t want to learn theater, I wanted to learn film and TV, which is a bit different. A lot of actors come to L.A. with a strong theater background, and they have to unlearn a lot of things. I’m now working with two of the best coaches that I think are out there, and they are just developing what I’ve already got going, and not giving me a set of techniques to start working with.”
Dupont received The Bedford Diaries pilot script last January, before pilot season officially started, and even though her team thought it would be a great project for her to be a part of, it took a bit more convincing to get her the audition.
“They tried to get me in two or three times, but they wouldn’t let me come in and read. I kept hearing, ‘Sorry, they’re not letting you come in, but we’re working on it. We’re trying to get you in.’ They tested two rounds of girls and couldn’t find their Sarah Gregory, so they finally let me come in and read. It all happened in less than a week, and I had the job. It was pretty obvious, from the first audition. That’s a rare thing, but when it happens, you know it’s just the right role.”
{quote_middle}After a series of guest starring roles, on such shows as Grounded for Life, Joan of Arcadia and Yes, Dear, The Bedford Diaries marks Dupont’s first foray as a primetime series regular. “I had shot a few movies before I did the show, and one of the main differences I had to deal with was just the speed of a television show. I was used to getting a lot more time to build a scene and really dig deep. On television, there’s a very tight schedule. There’s a lot to get done in a short amount of time, and you have to be good because you’re moving on. That adjustment was actually very good for me, as an actor, because it taught me to get really good, quicker.”
Executive producer/co-creator Tom Fontana has been responsible for such cutting edge television as Oz and Homicide: Life on the Street. Not only was Fontana a regular presence on The Bedford Diaries set, but Dupont says that he was actually there every single day, for the filming of the pilot.
“He is very involved. He would come in for the more difficult scenes that we were concerned about, and make sure that he was overseeing it. He’s so smart that he’s like a walking library. If you had a question about a scene, he would come and sit down and explain to you what he was thinking. It was never like, ‘Oh, God, the producer’s here, we better either kiss ass, or be on our best behavior.’ We could just be ourselves and hang out, and he was wonderful. I hope I get to work with him again.”
Relocating to New York for the series was initially hard for Dupont to adjust to, since she didn’t know anyone, but she says that the cast quickly bonded, making the more intimate subject matter on the show that much easier to film. However, as the good girl, Dupont knew that her character wouldn’t be doing anything too crazy.
“Sarah Gregory is the one that’s not going to be shown in bed, doing whatever. I’m honestly not into that stuff, and it’s very difficult to shoot. You’ve got to be careful what message you’re sending to your audience. I think we’re doing a good job with that because it’s not a bunch of kids just romping around in bed. There is an intellectual discussion happening every week to learn from the mistakes you may make, when dealing with sex and relationships. “
Mild, in comparison to what goes on, on real college campuses, The Bedford Diaries received more than its fair share of criticism for its content, before a single episode had even reached the air, forcing the powers that be to edit the show.
“The controversy was so misplaced. Our show has just about nothing in it, compared to what I’m watching on other channels. They’re not getting censored, whatsoever, because they have the viewership. It’s a little frustrating because it took away from our show, and the spice and fire that we had. Some of the things we really worked hard to get on camera, they cut out, even though nothing was really shown. It’s an unfortunate insult to the hard work that we all gave.”
Understanding the reality that The Bedford Diaries may not be returning, in part due to the consolidation of The WB and UPN into the new CW network, Dupont is determined to continue to learn and grow, as an actor. Currently, she is focusing her attention on finding strong, well-written roles in film.
“Right now, I’m working on a film called He’s Such a Girl. It’s a good little coming-of-age story about a guy and a girl. The guy, played by Bryan Fisher, is just too nice and easygoing, to the point where it’s annoying, and he needs to be a man and put his foot down, hence the title. And, my character is the total opposite. She’s very strong, very confident, and is driving the relationship. He wants to get married and she’s not happy anymore, and she needs some space to think about it and figure everything out. And then, at the end, there’s a big twist. It’s a totally different character for me. It’s a lot more to deal with than I’m used to, and I really like it. It’s a way to see me in a totally different light.”
Another upcoming project, to be released later this year, called One Night with the King: The Call of Destiny, is a film that Dupont is particularly proud of, and that she is also quite anxious to see. Following the journey of Esther from the Old Testament, the film tells the story of a little Jewish girl, living in Persia, and her quest to return to her homeland in Jerusalem. Having been chosen from a worldwide casting search, Dupont joined such notables in the cast as Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif and The Lord of the Rings star Jonathan Rhys Davies, to work in India for three months.
{quote_bottom}“That was the most challenging experience in my career, so far. You can’t prepare for living in India -- the smells, people, places, tastes. There’s nothing like it here. You step off the plane and it just hits you. It’s just so foreign. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just so different. And, I was in, basically, every scene. It’s a very dramatic story with a lot of emotion and strain that I had to go through. And, it’s pretty much an all male cast, other than myself. I was in India with a bunch of men, and the closest one to my age was 10 years my senior. But, after a month, I was really comfortable and loved it. And then, by the time I had to leave, I was crying because I didn’t want to go. The shoot was rough, just because of the subject matter and the work I had to put into it, but I wouldn't change one thing about it because it grew me up pretty fast and taught me more than I’ve ever learned in a class about my job.”
Once she’s finished with He’s Such a Girl, Dupont must return to the grind of reading scripts and auditioning for roles, but she is optimistic that she will soon have another movie lined up for the summer. “There’s so many things out there to do. Hopefully, I’ll get to do some quality work where the characters are growing and learning something. That’s the best.”
