‘Revenge’ star Emily VanCamp: “I’ve never really had to build a character from the ground up”

Brothers and Sisters actress Emily VanCamp isn’t new to the world of showbiz, but with her recent gig as leading lady of ABC’s Revenge things are definitely changing.  Out to promote the new show where VanCamp stars as the revenge driven beauty Emily Thorne, ABC has placed several billboards of the Canadian actress throughout the city.

Although VanCamp was aware her reaction upon seeing them sounds priceless according to a recent interview with Access Hollywood.  “I was driving on the 101 to work and it was some ridiculously early hour, and there it was… I had no concept of what that would feel like and there it was, on my way to work… My mom was the first person I called after I scared my boyfriend s***less because he thought I was getting into an accident.”

Asked if she was screaming, VanCamp replied, “I saw the billboard, I’m talking with Joseph, I just started violently screaming. I couldn’t believe it and he flipped out, he’s like, ‘What’s going on? Are you OK?’ And [I said], ‘I just saw it! I just saw it! That’s so weird, that’s so crazy.’ He’s like, ‘Emily! I though you were dying.’ Then… I called my mom, and my mom was flipping out with me too and I sent her a picture of it. It’s such an intense thing. You can’t prepare for it. That stuff doesn’t really get old.”  

With a new character, a person that is completely opposite of her, the actress had to find inspiration and create the personality of Thorne from the “ground up.”  “I think it was less about studying things about other people, but more about figuring out exactly what happened to her, exactly what affected her to make her this way. I had journals with loads of pictures and thoughts and poems and ideas that I put together to inspire the character. I’ve never really had to build a character from the ground up like that. A lot of characters that I’ve played in the past, I drew from personal experiences or I could relate to on a more human level, but with her, she’s just so different from who I am, it’s almost like there’s a separate part of my brain that I give to her and I rely on that… to get me to those places I get.”

Catch Emily VanCamp in her new roll in Revenge on ABC, Wednesdays at 10 PM EST.