Amid all the sweat-soaked work on the “Meteor” miniseries, there was one sentence Marla Sokoloff got used to.

“The line I say the most is, ‘I’m a scientist,’ ” she said. “It could be a drinking game, I say it so often.”

Her character (Imogene O’Neil) needs to say it, because people ignore her. She’s carrying data that could save the Earth; first, she must survive a car crash, an arrest, killers, profiteers and more.

Much of that was given extra realism by being filmed in the California desert, where a thermometer reported it was 112 degrees. “At least three times a week, crew guys would go down,” she said.

In the midst of that, Imogene O’Neil keeps saying she’s a scientist. Sometimes, people believe her; one even adds “she’s a genius.”

And yes, that’s an improvement over Sokoloff’s early days. In “The Practice,” she was a secretary, surrounded by lawyers who paid no attention. “Everyone would say, ‘Shut up, Lucy.’ ”

Sokoloff scoffs at the notion, but maybe she could have been a scientist. Her dad is a doctor and her mom is a caterer. She’s Russian on one side, German on the other; maybe there was a rocket scientist, waiting to emerge.

Instead, she was the only one in the family who was obsessed with performing. She did situation comedies at 12, went to the Los Angeles County High School of the Performing Arts and was still a teen when she joined “The Practice.”

At 28, she’s a busy actress (and part-time rock singer) who had some holes in her resume. “I had never had to do stunts; I’d never used a green screen to stare at a meteor that wasn’t there.”

Now all of that is rectified. She shoots one bad guy; beats another. Then she goes back to reminding everyone she’s a scientist.

All of that seems to conflict with her usual role, which is as a bride. She’s played one in the ABC comedy “Big Day,” in the upcoming Hallmark movie “Flower Girl” and in an episode of Lifetime’s “Drop Dead Diva.”

She’ll also be a bride in November, when she marries Alec Puro. He’s a busy composer for TV and movies; neither of them is actually a scientist.

From The Hub

Marla Sokoloff avoided on-screen disasters during her run as receptionist Lucy Hatcher on “The Practice.” No such luck with her latest effort: In NBC’s big-budget miniseries “Meteor,” she runs headfirst into all kinds of pitfalls as Imogene, a brainy scientist trying to stop the titular object from destroying the planet.

The bubbly actress talked about her jump into the world of TV sci-fi.

Question: This seems like a different kind of project for you.

Answer: It was something I’ve never done before. I was on a law show for many years. I’ve done drama and comedy. I’ve never done an action film, and I wanted to try the physicality of it all. You know, kicking butt, being tough.

Q: Are you a disaster-movie fan?

A: I wouldn’t say that I was a fan or was not a fan. We’ve all watched the same end-of-the-world movies, but it’s not like I’ve been die-hard about seeking them out. (Giggling) I did like “Armageddon.”

Q: You face the end of the world in “Meteor.” What would you do in real life?

A: Oh, I would hide out. I would be wishing I had a panic room. I’d probably freak out. I wouldn’t go into how-do-we-fix-this mode like Imogene. I’d be terrified and hiding.

Q: Regarding Imogene, did you really understand her dialogue?

A: (Laughing) I understood it for the most part. The hardest thing for me was all the numbers. I was having a difficult time with that. I would have to recite these numbers that would just go on forever. As an actor, you learn things by memorizing, so I’d be memorizing a group of numbers that meant nothing to me.

Q: You have a lot of scenes with Christopher Lloyd. Is he as quirky as he seems?

A: A little bit. He has that side to him. He’s really kind of shy. You have to really engage him to pull the conversation out a little bit more. He does have an insane sweet tooth. He can eat an entire plate of Reese’s Pieces. He’s like a freak about the stuff.

Q: When you make a project like this, what do you talk about between scenes? Do you try to stay in character?

A: I’m one of those actors who just like to have fun. Basically, we just sat around and tried to keep cool. It was literally the hottest movie experience I’ve had in my life.

Q: When did you shoot it?

A: Last summer from June to August in areas that were like the armpits of California. It was a million times hotter than my house. The sun was blaring, there was no shade. Crew guys went down regularly because they weren’t drinking enough water.

Q: Was it a tough shoot for you physically?

A: There is a scene where I’m in a police station and I almost get raped, and I wind up killing a couple of guys. They were actual stuntmen! That was a little bit scary. It was a challenge.

Q: That road trip Imogene goes on is horrible. You ever had one that bad?

A: No, certainly nothing like hers, where everybody that gets into her car basically dies. (Laughing) Well, knock wood.

From AZ Central

NBC’s new two-part miniseries Meteor debuts this Sunday, telling the story of what happens when a meteor approximately three times the size of Mount Everest is on a collision course with Earth – while meteorites are already causing untold disaster around the planet.

Starring in Meteor is Marla Sokoloff. While perhaps best known for her role on The Practice, Sokoloff’s many credits include a recent episode of Burn Notice and the miniseries Maneater. I sat down with Sokoloff to talk about what it was like jumping into the disaster movie genre and working with an impressive cast which includes Christopher Lloyd, Michael Rooker and Billy Campbell.

IGN TV: You’ve done comedies and dramas, but this seems like the biggest action/effects heavy project you’ve done.

Marla Sokoloff: Totally. It’s definitely the most out there thing I’ve ever done, as far as action and special effects. I’ve actually never done anything with special effects, so that really attracted me to the role and was really exciting to me. As far as the special effects and such, people ask, “How was it doing that?” I don’t really know, because it wasn’t a green screen or blue screen, it was just kind of plugged in later. So it was more just me staring off into the sky – feeling like an idiot, staring at nothing! [Laughs]

IGN: The disaster movie is a pretty classic genre. Was it fun to leap into something like that?

Sokoloff: It was so fun. I had a great time doing it and also playing a scientist and somebody who’s super intelligent enough to save the world. That was also really fun and challenging! [Laughs]

IGN: Tell me a bit about your character.

Sokoloff: Her name is Imogene. She is a scientist, and she works with her professor, played by the incredible Christopher Lloyd. He’s kind of her mentor and helps her through a lot of things, but [after the disaster begins] she’s left to her own devices and with his lap top computer, which has a lot of information to help her. But she needs to get from point A to point B in order to do that… and it’s very difficult when there’s meteors flying everywhere to call people, get in a car and what not!

IGN: [Laughs] Yeah, it sounds like there would be some difficulties.

Sokoloff: It’s a little bit tricky!

(more…)

Marla will be making a guest appearance on the upcoming Lifetime series “Drop Dead Diva”, Zap2it is reporting.

“Drop Dead Diva” stars Broadway actress Brooke Elliott as a “brilliant, thoughtful and plus-size attorney” who tends to be overlooked by her more conventionally attractive colleagues. That starts to change when the soul of a vapid and recently deceased model (Brooke D’Orsay) enters her body.

Other guests confirmed for the show include Nia Vardalos (“My Life in Ruins”), “Project Runway’s” Tim Gunn, Sharon Lawrence, Marla Sokoloff, Elliott Gould, Liza Minnelli and Delta Burke. The latter two will be playing sisters who sue one another when Burke’s character opens a competing psychic business across the street from Minnelli’s.

It’s up to Marla Sokoloff (The Practice) to save the world in the upcoming NBC miniseries Meteor. That’s because a giant meteor named Kassandra has been struck by a comet and knocked out of its orbit. This thing is three times the size of Mount Everest and it’s hurtling towards Earth. Showers of meteorites are destroying cities, no matter how many the military intercepts with missiles.

In Mexico, scientists Imogene O’Neil (Sokoloff) and Dr. Lehman (Christopher Lloyd) are the only ones who know the trajectory coordinates, and they must get them to the military before Kassandra destroys the planet.

[Note: Spoilers follow.]

(more…)

Welcome to the temporary version of Marla Sokoloff Web! I hope to have the complete version of this site open on June 15th! For now, I will be posting the latest news, articles, and other stuff while I continue to work on the site content and gallery.

Don’t forget to bookmark this site and check back to http://www.marla-sokoloff.com again soon!