Cristine Prosperi on Open Heart, Life, and Degrassi

At the age of only twenty-one, Cristine Prosperi has already won a Young Artists Award for Best Actress in a TV Drama Series, attended the Much Music Video Awards three times, went to the Creative Arts Emmys, and starred in four TV shows. She got her start doing commercials (such as a Xbox commercial with the Jonas Brothers and Finding Carter’s Vanessa Morgan) and dancing, as well as a few small roles in movies such as Stir of Echos: The Homecoming and Your Beautiful Cul de Sac Home.

Following the mantra, “Never a failure, always a lesson,” Cristine has proven herself to be a motivated and determined, yet, humble and down to earth human being time and time again. Travelling back and forth from Canada to California, a place she described on her blog as “slowly stealing her heart,” Cristine is out to set a name for herself while having fun with her friends, enjoying her family, and learning more about the world. Luckily, we were given the chance to talk to her about her experiences on both Degrassi and Open Heart, as well as her future plans.

Degrassi

The long-running teen drama Degrassi just finished airing their Season 14A block on Teennick. After joining the cast during the Now or Never Arc (Season 11) It’s almost time to say bye-bye to Cristine’s character Imogen Moreno, the artsy, adorkable, and (theorized) pansexual character who originally started out as a socially-awkward girl marching to her own drum trying to get the attention of fellow classmate Eli Goldsworthy. Although that didn’t exactly work out, Imogen quickly gained the attention of the fans especially as she grew into a plucky, outgoing, blithe spirit becoming one of this generation’s most memorable characters.

T: What can we look forward to with Imogen on Degrassi? 

C: As the Degrassi season is winding down, you’ll see Imogen finally expressing what she really wants in her relationship with Jack.

T: Without potentially giving anything away, if you could have given Imogen any plot on Degrassi, what would it have been?

C: Is it cliché to say I’m happy with Imogen’s storylines? I feel so lucky to have portrayed such a unique personality. I loved being involved with the LGBT community and I think more shows should shed light on those types of issues for teens!

Open Heart 

On Open Heart, Cristine plays Mikayla Walker, the bubbly, yet, fun-loving friend of Dylan Blake (Karis Cameron) and Wes Silver (Justin Kelly). In the series premiere, we learned that she volunteers at Open Heart Memorial, the hospital the Blake family works at and where Dylan has to serve her community service hours. We asked Cristine about what viewers can expect with Mikayla as well as some behind the scenes questions about her relationship with fellow cast members such as Karis, Justin, and Dylan Everett.

T: So what can you tell us about Mikayla and her backstory? Will we get to know more about where she comes from? 

C: Mikayla is a fun and friendly girly girl who is always up for an adventure. She’s a volunteer at the hospital, but as the show continues, we find out why she’s so familiar with it.

T: What drew you to the role of Mikayla?

C: I was really excited to audition for this part because I was just finishing Degrassi and I wanted to show everyone I could move on to a brand new a character. I was excited to take on the role.

T: Why do you think girls need female characters like Dylan and Mikayla to see on TV? 

C: I think it’s refreshing to see strong female roles in television these days. It teaches girls that it’s okay to be tough and speak your mind. I wish I had a strong character like Dylan to look up to as I was growing up.

T: Justin Kelly and Dylan Everett are also on the show, does working with people you’re friends with/worked with before make shooting scenes easier or harder (from laughing too much, having to get into work mode etc.)? 

C: I was so thrilled to hear I was working with both Justin and Dylan again. Familiarity makes being on a new set more comfortable. I do get the giggles anytime I’m on set with Justin! He’s just so funny!

T: Karis and your chemistry off screen seems just as, if not stronger than you guys chemistry on screen. Did the two of you know when you met that you guys were going to hit it off? Or were you both somewhat nervous?

C: I think we knew right away because we both agreed to go to a One Direction concert a week after meeting! instant besties!

Life and What’s to Come

Since her time on Degrassi has already wrapped, and the first run of Open Heart has been filmed, Cristine talked about what’s to come and roles she wouldn’t mind wanting to do. While she fairly kept it pretty quiet, we did manage to get brief information about auditions, her fashion blog Style Prosperity, and threw out a few role ideas.

T: Can you tell us about any other upcoming projects (tv shows, movies, styleprosperity) you’re working on/hoping to start? 

C: As of right now I’m focusing on going to LA and trying the auditioning scene out there. The LA lifestyle inspires me to blog so I’ll be doing a lot more writing!

T: A lot of fans were pretty excited about you hanging out with MTV’s Finding Carter cast, any plans/hopes for you to make an appearance on that show?

C: They are all such great people! Vanessa Morgan introduced me to them and they took me in as family! Finding Carter is a great show and I think it’d be so fun to make a cameo on it!

T: With movies like The Hunger Games and Divergent, there’s a huge crave for more female main characters in action movies, would you consider doing action and if so, what kind of character would you want to play? 

C: I think an action movie would be such a great experience. You’d have to go through a lot of training physically and mentally. Divergent was one of my favourite books so I would love to play a similar character to Tris.

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Who’s Most Likely To

Finally, we asked Cristine to tell us who was most likely to be caught doing the following things on the set of Open Heart here were her responses:

1.       Forget their line: Me lol

2.       Fall asleep on set: Me lol

3.       Trip or fall: Tori Anderson

4.       Laugh the loudest: Elena Juatco

5.       Tell the best jokes: Justin Kelly or Kevin McGarry

6.       Snapchat pictures: Karis Cameron or Me

7.       Have a hangout in their dressing room: all of us always hung out in hair and makeup

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You can keep up to date on all things Cristine Prosperi with her Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr, and Instagram accounts. You can also checkout her blog StyleProsperity.com. For all things Degrassi and Open Heart, you can follow their twitters @degrassi and @openheart_tv

New episodes of Open Heart air Tuesdays at 8/9p Eastern on Teennick and CTV.

(Photo Cred: Tianxiao Zhang for MTV Fora)