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Feature Editors:
Waverly Coleman,17
Natasha Labbe, 17
Massachusetts
Thirteen-year-old Sarah Ramos has already
won awards for her role as Patty Pryor on
NBC's American Dreams. In 2003 she won
the WIN (Women's Image Network) Award for
Best Actress in a drama and she was
nominated for Best Ensemble in a TV Series
for the 24th Annual Young Artists Awards.
Sarah plays the bratty younger sister in a
family dealing with the major issues of the
1960s—racism, youth culture, and the
Vietnam War—but she assured Teen Voices
that she is nothing like her character. Off the
set she's a down-to-earth teen who enjoys
soccer, horseback riding, and singing and
doesn't like waking up early. Read on to see
how Sarah's American dream is coming true
for her.
Teen Voices: How were you inspired to be an
actress?
Sarah Ramos: I was inspired to be an
actress by other great actresses. I want to be
like them, and have a lot of fun acting so that
makes me want to do it more.
TV: Who are some of your favorites?
Sarah: I like Amanda Bynes, Cameron Diaz,
and Reese Witherspoon.
TV: How did you get started on your acting
career?
Sarah: We heard this advertisement on the
radio and we went there but it turned out it
was a scam, and they wanted a lot of money.
My mom took me to get pictures done and
then we sent them out to agencies. And the
ones who liked the pictures called us and
then I auditioned for them.
TV: What is it like playing Patty on American
Dreams?
Sarah: It's a lot of fun because she's so
different from me. She's so bratty and I get to
be bratty and stuff. Everybody on American
Dreams is really nice and really funny, so it's
just a lot of fun going there every day.
TV: How would you describe your character?
Sarah: She's really smart and she's really
bratty to her sisters and she corrects her
family. She always has to be right. She thinks
her younger brother is stupid. But she can be
really nice sometimes; she's a really nice
person on the inside.
TV: How has the role changed your life?
Sarah: It's changed my life because I don't
get to go to school anymore, everyday, just
sometimes. I have a whole different lifestyle
now. I actually go to the set most days to film,
which is a lot of fun. It's changed my life in a
good way.
TV: American Dreams is set in the 60s. What
do you think you've learned from the show
about this time period in American history?
Sarah: I learned a lot about the music and TV
and about how they did stuff, and how it was
that people were discriminatory against
others. It was not just that they didn't like the
people, they did really mean things to them.
People didn't have as many rights as we do
now.
TV: What are some important themes
covered in some episodes?
Sarah: In the first episode, they showed
when President Kennedy died and how
everybody felt about that. And they also
showed the Philadelphia riots.
TV: What do you feel teens get out of
American Dreams? Do teen fans write to you
to express their feelings about the show?
Sarah: I think they get to learn about what
was happening when their parents were
growing up, which is great because their
parents probably like that and they can relate
to the characters, but they can also learn how
people acted in the 60s. I think they like to
hear from Brittany and Vanessa, who play
Meg and Roxanne, more because they're
older and more people look up to them.
TV: Based on your experience playing Patty,
what do you think are some similarities and
differences between being a teen girl now
and in the 1960s?
Sarah: I think that it's a lot the same because
you still have to go through peer pressure
and stuff, and boys, and people being mean
and it's a lot the same. It's a lot different
because we didn't have all this technology
then to help us be mean and do other teen
stuff. Instead of going online, she would read
a book.
TV: What do you like best and least about the
acting business?
Sarah: What I like least is probably that you
have to wake up really, really early
sometimes. What I like best is that it's a lot of
fun and the people that I work with right now
are really nice.
TV: We read that you have also done some
theater work. What are some similarities and
differences between acting in theater and
acting on TV?
Sarah: I've only done theater work for my
school, so it's a lot different because it's not
professional and there's not all the people.
We had one director who did a bunch of other
stuff, too, so it's a lot different doing
professional television work.
TV: What was it like winning a Best TV
Actress Award through the Women's Image
Network for your performance in American
Dreams?
Sarah: That was a lot of fun because it was
the first award I'd ever won by myself and I
got to go and I got to wear a pretty dress and
stuff. A bunch of the cast came with me, and I
just had a lot if fun.
TV: How does your family feel about your
career? Do they support you?
Sarah: They support me a lot and as long as
I'm happy, they're happy.
TV: What is your cultural background?
Sarah: I'm Hispanic and Jewish and my
grandma was Polish.
TV: We read that you have written some
situation-comedy pilots. Do you aspire to
become a writer in the future?
Sarah: When I was bored, I would just write
stuff. It was just fun to do. I think when I'm
older I might want to be a director and an
actor. I just don't know yet.
TV: What advice would you give to a teen
woman who aspires to be an actress?
Sarah: Make sure it's what you really want to
do because it takes a lot of time and it's a lot
of hard work. It's harder than it seems and
you have to miss a lot of school and you have
to go on a lot of auditions and you just have
to really want to do it.
http://www.teenvoices.
com/issue_current/tvarts_interview.html
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Storyworks Feb/March 2005
Kids Issue 2003
Winter 2004
December 2003
September 2002
YOU'RE HIRED: On the small screen,
American Dreams' cutie-pie Sarah Ramos
(she was prickly sis Patty) has been added to
the cast of Runaway, CW's proposed drama
about a family of fugitives....
3.27.06
