An Interview with Marlene Forte (Mrs. Garza, Day Break)

Many actors begin their careers as soon as an opportunity presents itself, but more often than not, some miss out on experiencing the ups and downs life has to offer. Marlene Forte has done it all -- she has experienced motherhood, owned a business and lived a full life before setting foot on a stage. I was lucky enough to chat with the lovely Marlene Forte about life before acting, how she broke into the biz and her new role on ABC's exciting series Day Break.

Q: You decided to get into acting in your 30's, what prompted you to make the big jump?

Marlene: "I always wanted to do it, I just was a single mom early on. I married my high school sweetheart and played house for four years. I didn't have the luxury to take off and act and become a waitress or whatever, I had a daughter and had to finish college. I turned 30, it was the age thing and I was like, 'I'm never going to do this. it's now or never.' My daughter was about 10 years old and I opened up a video store in New Jersey. I was at the time waiting tables and wanting to act, but not quite doing it. My father said, 'Hey, there's this video thing, let's look into it.' So I did some research for him and he decided not to do it. I thought this is it, this is going to be my way of becoming an actress I'll be my own boss, I'll be in the movie business and I'll be the next Tarentino!

I opened a video store right around the corner from my mom and dad in North Bergen and I ran it for six years. My daughter grew up behind the counter and I couldn't act, so about three years into the video store, I started to do a little better and my mom started covering for me and I hired a friend. I was able to come and go and I started to dabble in it (acting), still living in Jersey and traveling back and forth to New York. Labyrinth theater company came along, LAB - the Latino's Actors Base. It was a new theater company being formed in New York holding auditions in New York. My girlfriend in New York told me to come out and I auditioned and got in. I was one of the 12 original Labyrinth members. I learned everything I really knew about acting from them."

Q: Was your daughter supportive of your decision?

Marlene: "My daughter's an actress now, she's 25 and went to Montclair State College and became an actress, God help me [laughs]. She was supportive; instinctively she knew I loved movies. At the age of 10, growing up behind the counter at the video store, her favorite movie was Young Frankenstein and Beaches. I would take her with me to auditions if I had a commercial audition. I think she didn't like me moving to New York. She grew up around it, I'd take her with me to Labyrinth on one of those Wednesday nights and she'd sit in the audience. Another thing I would do at the time was dinner theater in New Jersey and I would take her with me on the weekends, so she'd sit in the audience and get a meal and would you believe two months into it, she would start giving me notes."

Q: If you weren't acting, what do you think you'd be doing now?

Marlene: "Probably teaching. I do sometimes do teaching for my soul out here with Eastside Classical Theater Company with Tony Plana, from Ugly Betty. We go into the East L.A. Unified School System and we teach a 13 week course on playwriting. It's an amazing project and he gets professional actors to go in and teach and encourage the kids to go to school and write and be creative. At the end of the 13 weeks, we pick four plays and the kids (5th and 6th graders) get to direct and write them and act in them and then we have a presentation for the parents. I call it my soul work. There is nothing like performing an working with 10 to 12 year olds."

Q: You've had numerous television guest-starring roles, which role was your favorite?

Marlene: "Paul Haggis directed me in a Family Law episode. I was Tony Danza's first client on Family Law and I got to play a South American mom who comes across the border to tries to kidnap her kid back. So, I got something to do other than mourn a child, which I get hired to do a lot. That was an action thing, I got to drive a car."

Q: Do you feel there are any advantages or disadvantages to being Latino in show business?

Marlene: "Right now I think it does. Eighteen years ago when I started acting, I still had my daughter's dad's last name, Rodriguez. So at the time I was Marlene Rodriguez and they said no good, too Latin. They said how about Rodrick? And I said who is Rodrick? Forte is my mother's name. So, Forte, Forte works! They wanted it to be more diverse. But today....my daughter's an actress and she uses Giselle Rodriguez and it's fine, they love it! I think in my eighteen years, it has gotten better."