Mexican actress Sara Paxton called me up today to respond to the CW’s abrupt decision Friday to cancel her series The Beautiful Life after airing just two episodes.
You were effervescent and marvelous as the star of TBL. How do you feel about the CW’s decision to cancel your show so quickly?
We’re so shocked! I definitely think it’s unfair. The CW didn’t give our show a chance to succeed or fail. We had some amazing episodes coming up that we were all proud of, and the story lines were about to get really interesting, so we’re sad that no one will ever even see those! It’s unbelievable the way that they told us—we were all in the middle of work. I was sitting in the hair and makeup chair, and I’m getting my hair done just like a normal Friday—we were all excited for Friday. And all of a sudden, they got the call, and the producers had to make an announcement on set that we were done—that we were over! And I was sitting there in shock. I couldn’t believe that in the middle of work, the rug was pulled out beneath our feet. Immediately, I run over to Corbin’s [Bleu] room, and I’m like, ‘oh my God, oh my God!’ I was freaking out! And Corbin was shocked. Everyone was just devastated. It was horrible. Terrible.
You didn’t see this coming at all?
We were worried because our show didn’t get as much marketing as other shows. Everywhere you go in New York City, you see Melrose Place posters everywhere—I see Vampire Diaries everywhere. And CW, they just didn’t put any money into advertising for our show whatsoever. It was up to the cast to keep the show going, so we went to every red carpet, we talked about the show, we publicized, we did twitter, we did everything we could possibly do to get the word out about the show. We thought it was really worth it because we care about the show—we care about each other and we wanted to make it work. But if people don’t know that the show even exists, they’re not going to watch it.
Why do you feel they weren’t behind the show?
I have no idea. We wanted the same thing. We did the pilot, and when we saw the pilot, we were all so proud of it, and we really thought we had made something special. We’re a really talented group, and most of us have been working for a long time and have really good projects under our belts, and I just don’t understand why they would do this.
How do you feel about the CW’s decision not to air the five other episodes you’ve already filmed?
It’s a slap in the face! It’s almost like we were part of this family and now suddenly we’re dropped. I couldn’t even call the CW because they probably have my number on their caller ID and they’re like, ‘no don’t pick up, don’t pick up.’ It’s crazy. And oh my God, episodes three, four and five were going to be amazing. That’s what really sucks. You’ve got to have time to let a show get its legs and find an audience, especially when they’re putting zero dollars into advertising. And we were slowly going in that direction. Everyday I was getting emails from Japan and Brazil and the U.K from people who were buying the show on iTunes and were going nuts over it. And if they had just given it more time to really catch a fan base I think it could’ve been huge for the CW. I really think they missed out, and I really think they’re missing out on a huge opportunity for themselves.
And now they’re going to be airing Melrose Place in your place…
It’s hard because I don’t want to sound ungrateful for everything they have done for us, but I think especially since this happened Friday—it’s really hard for me not to be angry. I really don’t want to upset [CW President] Dawn Ostroff, because she is a really cool lady. I just don’t understand how they could do this.
Do you know how Executive Producer Ashton Kutcher feels about it?
I think he’s just as disappointed as all of us. This had his name on it, and it was his first scripted series. I don’t understand how they’ve given so many shows in the past a chance, and not ours. I mean why ours? Why us? It blows my mind. The saddest part for all of us is that we became friends beyond the show, and so we are sad that we don’t get to go into work everyday and have fun together. And honestly, we wanted people to just love the show. Everyday we came into work with a mission to do the best possible work we could do, and we did our jobs. It sucks that nobody can even see that. No one will even see the really cool things we did.
Do you have a message for the fans of the show that are devastated by this news?
Everyone that supported us—I know there’s a lot of people on Twitter who are really serious, and there’s a petition that has 8,000 signatures now—thank you so much for watching the show and for caring and believing in us. We really appreciate the fans and we are really thankful.
Do you know what your next project will be?
Are you kidding me? [Laughs]. We thought we were going to be here until December. Literally we packed up our lives from Los Angeles to New York. I spent two months and thousands of dollars without a paycheck moving to NY. And now they just say, ‘oh, peace, you’re done?’ We all signed 6 month leases, and now we all have to figure out how to get out of our leases, and I have to figure out how to get all my furniture back. I don’t know what to do with this NY furniture. We’re kind of stranded.
From Latina
