Pepper: Ricochet

New York City. The Chrysler and Empire State buildings pierce the sky, encouraging us to reach for our dreams, while screeching subways underground expose an often harsh, gritty reality. Such is the life of a New York City actor pursuing a career - highs and lows, bright light and dark spaces.

I've been a professional-working actress for over twenty-five years and, in the NYCmarket, I've been working in episodic television and film for over twenty. During this time, I noticed a trend in women's roles for which I was auditioning and sometimes playing: many female characters lacked dimension. While perhaps that's not surprising, it's also obviously inaccurate. If the woman possessed any degree of authority, often the character description itself heavily-referenced a 'bitchy-quality." In contrast, an incredibly-helpless, weak and insecure "victim-quality" depicted a woman who was remotely vulnerable. Interestingly, I don't find these single faceted-females to be among the women I know, associate with, or even encounter on a daily basis. The lack of variety, complexity, dimension and concern for character development to me was astounding.

Having a great passion to collaborate with colleagues with whom I had grown to admire, appreciate and enjoy working with, and to simply act more than I was, I sought to sharply create a female-spy thriller with an edgy, messy, sexy, vulnerable and strong leading woman - hence my sensitive 'Badass' Pepper – and to tell her story with class, grit, style, elegance and brilliance.

My goal, clearly, was both challenging and exciting. There was passion. There was need. And it exploded. I've created a complex, strong female lead character, who presents an excellent and identifiable role model for women of many ages, on a painful and relatable journey to unravel her past, with equally-interesting, complex co-characters on their own journeys. Quasi-action, quasi-nouveau-noir - as I have termed the style we created in the pilot episode - that is compelling and authentic. It is significant to note the number of women who worked in key positions on The Pepper Project Pilot. We are thrilled to boast numerous fantastic females in decision-making positions alongside our male colleagues, which afforded an amazing collaboration and balanced perspective in the storytelling. With an outstanding crew of 30- plus, we shot over two weekends in New York City and a beautiful remote location upstate. A true collaborative effort from "chili to sriracha,” I am proud of the second spicy badass chapter we've created, and look forward to telling more of Pepper's unique yet universal story - exploring the highs and lows, bright light and dark spaces that both New York and a deep, personal journey afford.