For some teen-agers, squabbling with parents, shrieking angrily and slamming doors is a by-product of adolescence. For Katelyn Pippy, it’s a day at the office.
Katelyn, 16, begins her second season starring as a series regular on Lifetime’s “Army Wives” as Emmalin Holden, disgruntled daughter of an Army general (Brian McNamara).
In tonight’s premiere at 10 p.m., teen Emmalin runs away with a soldier (guest star Paul Wesley, “Wolf Lake”), whom she plans to marry.
When that falls through, Emmalin finds herself arguing with her mother, Claudia Joy (Kim Delaney, “NYPD Blue”), who’s trying to prepare the family for a move to Europe for Dad’s new post.
“I am not going, and you can’t make me!” Emmalin rages.
“I’m looking at you and trying to recognize you but I can’t,” her mom says. “Where is the daughter we raised with good values?”
For Katelyn, daughter of Pennsylvania state Sen. John Pippy and wife Kathy, learning the ropes of acting for television has its challenges, but Emmalin’s screaming fits are an opportunity to have some fun.
“The anger scenes come so easily,” Katelyn said. “I’m not quite as bratty as she was, but I can relate to that. Those are fun to me. … I’m not like that with my parents, I’m so grateful for everything they do for me, but it was nice. It’s therapeutic.”
Katelyn has been acting since age 9, including stage work in Pittsburgh and off-Broadway, guest-starring on TV’s “The Suite Life of Zach and Cody” and “Monk,” and co-starring in the direct-to-DVD release “The Haunting Hour.”
And, she said, she was a runner-up for the title role in Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana.”
“Oh well,” she says of not landing a role that’s made a star out of Miley Cyrus, “it happens.”
Katelyn auditioned for “Army Wives” during the 2007-08 writers’ strike. A different actress played Emmalin in the show’s first season, but when writers decided to kill off Emmalin’s older sister in a bar bombing, producers decided a better-trained actress was needed to step into the role of Emmalin.
“We knew we’d have to take the character down a pretty dark path,” said Deborah Spera, a nonwriting executive producer on “Army Wives.” “The young actress we had at the time wasn’t trained. We needed somebody adept and well-trained as an actor.”
Now Katelyn frequently travels to and from Charleston, S.C., where “Army Wives” shoots from February to August. During ice-hockey season, Katelyn, who plays hockey, would often fly on the weekends to wherever her team had a game scheduled.
She is contracted to appear in 10 out of every 13 episodes produced and keeps up with her schoolwork online.
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