Published: November 22, 2008 08:11 pm      

Huntsville native ready for prime time

Huntsville native Erin Cummings will be appearing in a starring role in the CBS crime drama “Cold Case” tonight at 8 p.m. CST.

Cummings, who has been working in Hollywood for seven years in various screen, stage and television roles, is a graduate of Huntsville High School and the University of North Texas, and was active in Huntsville ISD theatre performances throughout her childhood.

“My first play was when I was in first-grade and my Dad was stationed at an Air Force base in Korea,” she said. “I played a chicken whose eggs were stolen by the Easter Bunny.”

In junior high, Cummings joined the Mance Park Middle School park players, and took her first role as a villain, portraying the White Witch in an adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.”

Though she enjoyed performing, Cummings did not immediately pursue acting as a career choice.

“I was never shy in front of groups of people,” she said. “I always loved entertaining people and being in front of people, but I’d never heard of anybody who’d gone out to Hollywood to be actor, so it just seemed like this pipe dream.”

After graduating from high school, Cummings attended Kilgore College, where she pursued a dance education degree and performed with the renowned Kilgore College Rangerettes, an experience that included performances in such high profile venues as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Cummings eventually transferred to the University of North Texas to pursue a degree in journalism with a specialization in advertising, a goal she achieved, earning her BA in 2001.

While at UNT, Cummings continued to perform, first as the captain of the dance team, then with community theatre and acting groups throughout the Dallas area.

While interning at the DDB Needham, a prestigious Dallas area advertising firm, Cummings realized that her heart was not in the advertising world.

“The day-to-day grind of advertising world wasn’t exciting to me, it was only being in front of people and making a sale that excited me,” Cummings said. “I think that whatever it is that you choose to do, you can’t just enjoy the glamorous aspect of it. I had a friend who was also interning there who said to me ‘I don’t know what you’re doing in advertising. It’s so obvious that you’re an actress.’ So that’s when I starting working with an acting coach and doing theatre.”

Cummings’ story then took a fortuitous turn. While vacationing in South Padre Island, she was approached by an agent who later offered to fly her to Los Angeles to try her luck as an actress and model.

“When I came out here on their dime, I met all of these people just like myself who didn’t know anyone famous or were related to anyone, but they came out here with a dream and they worked really hard, and eventually they started working,” she said. “I thought, I can do that. I’m a hard worker and I’m young, so obviously this is something that presented itself for a reason, so this is something I should pursue.”

On her second visit to L.A. Cummings made a choice about how she would pursue her new career possibility. She set three goals, and made a deal with herself that if she achieved them during her visit, she would try acting as a career.

“My three goals were to get a Screen Actors Guild card, get a good apartment and make some contacts,” she said. “And I did all three of those things, so then I just set a date and decided I was going to move out to Los Angeles. I think I moved on a Sunday and I was in acting class on a Wednesday. I was just ready to work hard.”

Cummings described being somewhat worried when she first informed her parents of her goal, but was gratified by a supportive response.

“I told my parents that I was gonna run out to Los Angeles,” she said. “My parents have very solid, stable jobs. They’ve always grown up with the idea that you go to college, you get a job, and that’s the way it is. I can be very convincing when I want to be, and once I sat my parents down and explained to them what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it, they’ve been incredibly supportive ever since”

“We felt that she should follow her dreams,” said Cummings’ mother Cheryl, “and if this was her dream, we were going to give her all the encouragement of the world.”

Cummings landed her first television drama appearance in 2003, appearing in a minor role on “Star Trek: Enterprise.” In the years since, she has appeared in roles on such diverse series as “Charmed,” and “Threshold.”

“Cold Case,” will be her first starring role in a television appearance.

In the episode to air tonight, Cummings stars as Rita Flynn, a 50s pinup girl shot through the heart. Cummings praised the show’s unique ability to maintain two plotlines: the past and the present.

“My role in ‘Cold Case’ is really a starring role,” she said. “That’s the interesting thing about ‘Cold Case,’ there’s the show, and then there’s a kind of movie within the television show that’s the story of the victim, and I’m the star of the movie.”

Cummings’ portrayal of Flynn was an intense test of her acting chops, particularly when it came time for her death scene.

“When you’re staring down the barrel of a gun, you see that there’s a camera crew there, but you’re also human, so there’s part of you that’s like ‘Oh my god, I just got shot,’” she said. “So I let out this scream, which was not the way it was written, but I did it because it scared me so much, and it actually ended up working very well for the scene.”

Though “Cold Case,” may be the current peak of her exposure, Cummings has a bright future. Post-production is currently under way for an independent grindhouse-style action film in which she co-starred alongside cult heroes Kevin Sorbo (“Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”) and Lucy Lawless (“Xena: Warrior Princess”).

To promote the film, Cummings and her fellow cast members recently completed a 12-page spread in Maxim UK Magazine, which will hit newsstands in late December.

The film is scheduled to complete post-production in January, but no definite release date has been set.

Back home in Huntsville, Cummings’ family and friends can’t wait for tonight, when they can tune in and see the girl they know and love on national television.

“Her Dad and I are very thrilled for her because she has worked very hard and very long,” Cheryl Cum-mings said, “and we hope everyone enjoys seeing her as much as we do.”