It was 10 years ago that actress Annie Wersching told a Mattoon Journal-Gazette reporter that it was her dream to perform on Broadway.

And though the Millikin University graduate has found success as a co-star on the hit FOX series “24,” Wersching hasn’t let that dream fall by the wayside.

“It’s been five years since I’ve done theater, and I’m hesitant to one day return,” the 31-year-old said, but “I’m looking forward to it happening someday.”

But until that day comes, Wersching is enjoying her role as Agent Renee Walker on “24.” She plays opposite Kiefer Sutherland, who plays CIA agent Jack Bauer. The series, which is about a day in the life of Bauer as he races against time to solve national security crises, is in its seventh season.

Wersching, who lives in Los Angeles, recently returned from promoting the show in Europe.

“Obviously, I can’t say much about the show, like whether I’m in the next season or not,” she said. “But it’s going well for me.”

Wersching is a 1999 musical theater graduate who appeared in numerous productions at Millikin, as well as performing at Sullivan’s Little Theatre-On The Square. She moved to Chicago after graduation, where she worked for several theaters and toured with the stage productions of “Anything Goes” and “A Christmas Carol” before moving to Los Angeles in 2001.

“I was going to Chicago to decide,” she said of choosing between New York/Broadway versus Los Angeles/Hollywood. “And I started performing theater in Los Angeles,” and then the television roles came.

She made her first small-screen appearance on Star Trek: Enterprise, and went on to guest star in Boston Legal, Cold Case, Supernatural, Charmed, Angel and other shows.

Her big break came in 2007 with the recurring role of Amelia Joffe on the ABC soap opera General Hospital.”

She said playing on a serial was vastly different from any of her other television roles.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done because of the amount of lines I had to remember,” she said. “Also, you have to make the most outlandish situations seem realistic.”

But, she added, it was great training for her later roles, including “24.”

“It’s been a dream,” she said of working on the show. “I was a fan of the show before I got the part.”

A rising star, Wersching is still humbled by memories of starting off in the business.

“The biggest thing about acting is that it takes hard work,” she said. “You have to really want it ¦ it takes a lot of determination, takes a lot of resilience.”

What got Wersching through was her attitude.

“You’ll go on multiple auditions and hear back from maybe 2 percent,” she said. “But what you need to do is leave and don’t think about it anymore. Don’t dwell on it. You have to move on to the next thing, because there are so many people out here doing this.

“Auditioning is a full-time job.”

Source Herald Review