92 ND ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS

BUTLER Yancy

On the thriller ‘Emerald Run’ and her many tough action roles

BY ALEX A. KECSKES

Born and raised in Greenwich Village, Yancy Butler is best known for her role as Detective Sara ‘Pez’ Pezzini in the TV series ‘Witchblade’ and as Detective Anne-Marie Kersey in ‘Brooklyn South.’ At 13, Butler entered the prestigious HB Studios in New York and later attended Sarah Lawrence College. She made her major motion picture debut in John Woo’s action thriller ‘Hard Target’ with Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Her television debut in ‘Law & Order’ landed her the series lead in ‘Mann and Machine,’ which led to a starring role in ‘South Beach.’ She also co-starred with Wesley Snipes in the skydiving suspense, ‘Drop Zone.’

In the crime adventure, ‘Emerald Run,’ Butler is Anna Thomas, wife of a desperate man trying to smuggle emeralds across the Mexican border to save his daughter’s life.

22 • HOLLYWOOD WEEKLY Thank you for taking the time for this interview. ‘Emerald Run’ is an action thriller that pulls no punches. What drew you to the role of Anna and this film? Yancy Butler: It’s action-packed but I love the idea of a man struggling with his faith. The internal journey he’s taking and what lengths he’ll go to for his family. It’s about his morals and ethics, and that drew me to the film.

What did you find most challenging about this role and being in this film? Yancy: My character is so into her faith—so God-driven. That’s very unlike me because I consider myself a spiritual person and not a religious one. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. What was hard was that religion for this character kind of overshadowed everything else. What I mean by that is her daughter is suffering and possibly dying from some unknown illness. And my character thinks that her belief in God will solve everything. Not just take her through it, which I understand, but make it go away. That was a struggle for me because it almost felt un-empathetic. Not that my character wasn’t but I think she kind of ignored her daughter in a certain way. And that part was challenging.

Every actor has a favorite scene. What was yours in this film and why? Yancy: I think in the end when Michael prays. I like the scene in the church because she’s just so oblivious to everything else. She‘s just punching her daughter, and as long as her daughter confesses, she’ll miraculously and medically be okay and absolved of all her sins.

Yancy: (laughs) It’s funny, in one of the horror films coming out—called ‘Dembanger’—I play a detective. I love playing cops.

David Chokachi & Yancy Butler

You play the wife of a man desperately trying to do the right thing and the mother to a troubled daughter. What did you draw from to so convincingly play this complex role? Yancy: Thank you. With every character I play, you have to believe in that character. No matter what it is. Like when you’re playing a crazy person, you can’t play crazy, you have to convince yourself you’re as sane as everyone else. I just drew from the things that I believe in my own life. What my morals are.

You seem to be attracted to thrillers and crime dramas. Any romantic comedies on the horizon for you? Yancy: Don’t I wish. From your lips to the casting god’s ears. It’s so funny, I fell into action because Dick Wolf cast me in this series called ‘Man & Machine.’ Your career could only go downhill from there. I played this beautifully created robot. So I just fell into these action roles and these thrillers have just followed me. And I love them. I have two horror films coming out, which is different for me. It’s a genre that everyone is coveting now.

In your many detective roles, how did you prepare for the mental and physical demands of being a cop? Yancy: My hats off to the police. My cousin is a cop and I’ve done a lot of ride-arounds with him and other officers. Our jobs are similar in some respects. While ours isn’t life and death, it’s similar in the sense of we have to ‘hurry up and wait.’ There’s just a lot of downtime, which is what happens on set. Sometimes we work 19 hours a day. I’ve actually worked a 24-hour day once. It gets more difficult with each passing year. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but I’ll figure it out (laughs).

24 • HOLLYWOOD MONTHLY 24 • HOLLYWOOD WEEKLY What did you like about being in ‘Witchblade’? And were you ever injured in doing those stunts? Yancy: OMG it’s so funny you asked me that. When we were doing ‘Witchblade,’ the movie—I never dreamed it would be a TV series— there’s a scene where I’m running after someone. This background player zigged when they should’ve zagged and I ran right into some construction scaffolding and broke my toe. We had about a week more to film and they were going to shut down production because I couldn’t walk. But like an injured football player, I was given cortisone shots to keep going—six shots every three hours on my toe. And that was more painful than breaking my toe.

What have you learned about acting and being in show business that surprised you? Yancy: Good question. Actually, how much hard work it was. My mom was a company manager for a Broadway show so I grew up around the theater. I thought there would be a lot more rehearsals and that the hours would be different. I was used to the curtain going up at 8 o’clock and coming down at 10:30. But there are no rehearsals in this industry and the hours are really something.

What were you like in high school? The girl most likely to…? Yancy: OMG. The girl most likely to…well at first, getting in trouble (laughs). But then I turned myself around and became a straight-A student. I think it was the girl most likely to get into the business I’m in now. I’ve always loved being around the arts. So I think people won’t be surprised that I chose that for a career.

Magro’s biggest inspiration in acting and philanthropy is Leonardo DiCaprio. “ “