SheWired Chats with 'Anyone But Me' Star Rachael Hip Flores

A new web series with the tagline “A new generation searching for love and belonging in the post-9/11 age,” is exploring what it’s like to be an out teen these days. The show is called Anyone But Me, and it follows the lives of a diverse group of teenagers in New York City, some of whom are gay or lesbian, and all of whom have one thing in common – their lives are largely out of their control.

Hopefully you caught last week’s interview on SheWired with Anyone But Me actress Nicole Pacent. This week we caught up with her on-screen love, Rachael Hip Flores, who gave us the scoop on kissing girls on camera and why she would play an elf in a 'hot second.'

SC: Tell me a little bit about your character. Who is she? 

RHF: Vivian is 16 years old. She’s an out lesbian. She is in a situation now where she is forced to move away from the Queens area to the Westchester suburbs, which have a decidedly different atmosphere. The show follows her struggles coming out to people, dealing with her father’s illness, this new mother figure in her life (Aunt Jodie) and her relationship with Aster (her girlfriend) and how the move affects them as well.

SC: There is a lot of pressure on her. She’s so young, and because of that a lot of her life is out of her control (the move, for example) and she’s just dealing with it as it happens to her. So what’s it like for you, because obviously you’re not 16 anymore, to go back to that time and relate to that time period? 

RHF: It’s so uncomfortable! It’s awful but also, because it’s awful, it’s so much fun. I think that regardless of sexuality or race or anything, when you’re 16 things just are out of control. I think one of the things I relate to about Vivian is that she is very mature beyond her years. I’ve always felt a little bit older. Vivian’s not going to get bent out of shape over not being invited to the prom, she has weightier issues to deal with. It’s fun and also awful to go back there. I mean, who really did have fun when they were a teenager?

SC: So when you first heard about this project, what was your first impression? What drew you to it? 

RHF: It was a weird process. I’m still starting out, so I have to audition for everything that comes up. So, I went into it a little bit blind. I was in China at the time with my family when I got an email from a friend who works with me at my horrible day job at Barnes and Noble. He sent me a message about a project where they needed someone who looked 16. And everyone at the store always made fun of me for how young I look. I didn’t know anything about Tina, didn’t know Susan Miller was a part of it, and then I walked into the audition room and did it and thought it was fun. And the sides were well-written, so all of a sudden, it started to feel kind of exciting.

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SC: How do you feel about the storyline? Have you ever played a gay character before? 

RHF: It was never a deterrent for me. Tony -- my friend from Barnes and Noble -- mentioned when he told me about it, “Oh yeah, by the way, the character is gay you might have to kiss a girl.” And it was really not that much of a switch for me –when you’re acting, you have to pretend you’re attracted to someone either way. It doesn’t matter so much whether it’s a guy or a girl. Now, the sexuality aspect definitely makes Vivian’s journey a whole lot meatier because there are higher stakes behind it. It makes her struggle something I can really dive into.

SC: What’s the cast like to work with? 

RHF: We have so much fun! It’s great. We are a bunch of strangers who got tossed into this together. I don’t think it could have worked out better. There’s no drama. Filming can be arduous sometimes but I get to hang out with these incredibly cool people. Nicole (Pacent, who plays Aster) is one of the smartest, sweetest, funniest people I’ve ever met. And it’s a joy to get to work with her. A lot of us are very similar to our characters, temperamentally. I think the onscreen chemistry works because we mesh so well together. When you’re still taping at 5:30am, you look around and go, “Yeah, if I have to be here right now, these are the people I want to be working with.”

SC: Have you taken cues from anyone else in the cast, Nicole for example, about what it’s like to be gay? 

RHF: I have talked to her about what it’s like to come out. I talked to a lot of my gay friends about that process too. I read a lot of coming out stories. I do take my cues from her, but I also feel like the struggles at their essence are always about being accepted and wanting to be loved. And I think that’s pretty universal. The need to be accepted is standard. So, there are some cues to be taken, but they’re not too different from the average teenager. 

SC: Plus, I imagine there are less cues to be taken here than if you were, for example, a show like The L Word where there are more explicit scenes.

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RHF: Exactly. And I think teenagers are awkward no matter what label you put on them. It’s always a painful time. Part of my research was going back to my own diaries from that time and remember what it was like to be at that point.

SC: So what was the most angst-filled teen horrible moment for you? 

RHF: I wish it had been just a moment! It was my whole senior year of high school. It should have been this incredibly fun time, but it was awful. The entirety of my senior year was, “I have got to get out of here.” I had this incredible restlessness.

SC: Where are you from? 

RHF: I’m from central Jersey. Horrifically boring, but a nice town.

SC: So when you did get out of high school, where did you go?

RHF: I was really academic in high school – did all the honors classes and the extracurricular activities that you’re supposed to do for your college applications, and I got into Columbia, which was my first choice. And then, sort of on a fluke, I went to an audition for the BFA acting program at Rutgers. I had no intention of going. I didn’t even have any intention of getting in. And then I did get in. And I decided to go completely insane and went to acting school instead of Ivy League college. And I’ve never regretted it for a second. It was the best decision of my life. 

SC: What have you worked on since?

RHF: A lot of NYU student films, independent stuff. Theater work mostly. Before anyone but me, it was all smaller roles in independent theater and movies.

SC: And of course, your thrilling day job at Barnes and Noble. 

RHF: Oh my gosh, I quit maybe a month after getting cast for this. I can fake being sweet to customers for only so long. And you’re not allowed to read! Which is ridiculous. You’re surrounded by books! And they had me working in the cooking and exercise section, which is crazy because I don’t know anything about either. So I just made up my recommendations for people.

SC: So what’s your favorite book? 

RHF: There are so many! I love the Harry Potter books. I’m so dorky about them. I’m into fantasy. If there’s a unicorn in it, I’ll probably enjoy it.

SC: Do you think you’ll do fantasy roles?

RHF: Oh my god! In a hot second I would play an elf. At this point, I’m finding things that I didn’t think I would be attracted to. I was never really happy with how young I look or the idea that I might be playing teenagers for a really long time. But this show changed my perception of that. My initial thought was that I’d have to be worried about the prom and all of that high school stuff for the next twenty years. And that wasn’t that appealing. I never really found all of that to be very important.

SC: It’s nice to know that you can play a teenager without being Miley Cyrus.

RHF: Yeah, exactly, that’s what Anyone But Me has taught me. Not all teenagers are Miley Cyrus. There are stories that are worth telling.