We had the wonderful opportunity to speak with actress Violett Beane. She plays Cara Bloom CBS “God Friended Me.” Check out the interview below.
Hi, Violett! Thank you for granting the interview. Congrats on your role as Cara Bloom in CBS “God Friended Me” television series. What should the audience expect to see?
God Friended Me is about an atheist who gets friended by someone calling themselves God on Facebook. He ignores the request because he doesn’t believe in God and he thinks someone is messing with him. Eventually, he accepts it and he starts getting these friend suggestions for people. He sort of ends up being a change in their lives and helping them in some way. Each week, there is a new “friend suggestion”.
Tell us about Cara. Who is she? What role does Cara play in the series?
I play Cara Bloom, she’s an online journalist and she ends up being one of the friend suggestions that Miles gets. In the pilot, you see that she struggles with the fact that her mother left when she was really young. She came to New York in search of her and she’s actually found her, but she doesn’t really know how to take the next step. That’s when Miles and the God account enter. She then decides to stick around after they’ve helped her.
Is it a challenge to play Cara? What is her personality like? Did you have to pull from experience?
I love playing Cara. I would say that there’s a good amount of me in Cara. Like Cara, I don’t let things go. I like to get to the bottom of things. I feel like we’re both pretty stubborn people. I’ve been able to bring a lot of myself because of our creators, Bryan Wynbrandt and Steven Lilien. They have been so communicative since the beginning. They were in my very first audition. They’re so excited to show the world this show. We’re constantly chatting with them about our characters and where we want to go with them, which is amazing. I’ve never had that much say in a character. I really appreciate that.
How did you get the role?
I was auditioning during pilot season last year and was reading a ton of scripts and going in multiple times a day for things. It was honestly one of the only ones that I read, that really left me feeling uplifted and positive at the end of it. I think with the world we’re in right now, we kind of need something like this. So I went in to audition and eventually had a chemistry read with my co-star Brandon, who plays Miles on the show.
What is going to surprise people about Cara?
She’s a journalist and she has realized with this God account that she is getting some pretty powerful stories and she is not the only one that has noticed. There is definitely going to be some development with her career path and, hopefully, making moves in that way.
What would surprise people about the show?
A lot of people have compared it to other religious shows and things like that. But I think what sets it apart from those is that while it says God in the title, and there are different religions explored, it’s really not so much about faith. It’s more about humanity in general, and our connectivity with each other, and it doesn’t really explore faith as much as I think people are thinking it does.
How did you get started in acting?
I started acting when I was in High School. I went to a performing arts school and I auditioned for all the plays and was in almost all of them. So, I knew I loved acting. When it came to senior year, I realized I didn’t really want to go to college necessarily at that point in time. So, I found a local agent in Austin, Texas, which is where I’m from, and just started sending in taped auditions for film and television. It started taking off and I ended up moving to Los Angeles.
You are best known for your role as ‘Jesse Quick’ in The CW’s series “The Flash”. Any chance Jesse will make an appearance this season?
I would love to play Jesse again at some point, so we shall see 🙂
Beyond acting, you’re passionate about environmental and animal causes and partnered with PETA for a campaign. How important do you feel it is for people with a platform such as yourself, in particular, to use said platform to speak up about the issues that matter to them?
With my social media and in life, I don’t try to force my beliefs on people but rather try to start the conversation. I have learned people have a lot of opinions and they’re often times fear base opinions. When I did the PETA campaign, I got a lot of comments from people saying, ‘Why do you have to shove this down our throats? Why are you putting this in front of us?’. Some people are very passionate when they feel that something is going to be taken away from them and fear is what drives negativity, I believe. It is a defense mechanism and I feel that once we are able to break that wall and be open and just have a conversation, things could be better. So spreading awareness is the biggest key and I just want people to not go blindly into their choices.
Are there any additional projects you would like to share?
I am going to be filming a movie next summer that I think fans are going to be excited about but I can’t talk about yet. So follow me on social media @ViolettBeane for all the latest news and pictures of my bunny and dog.
[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6XfmicoyZw”]
Connect with Instagram:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/violettbeane/
Featured Image Credit: Storm Santos.
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