Big American Dreams for This
Little Sister
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.
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