Live well and prosper

Annie held in her hand the envelope. It was like so many mailed to her through her agent from fans wanting an autograph.

The difference was this envelope contained a trading card with her likeness as the waifish Liana from the “Oasis” episode of Star Trek Enterprise. That guest appearance had been Annie’s first television role, and holding the card gave her a thrill.

“”I was like, “Where can I get one of these for myself? Where can I get one for my mom?’ I don’t think I ever was able to hunt one down,” she says, laughing.

Trained as a stage actress with no real television experience, Annie had to remember to project less because she wasn’t trying to be seen and heard by people in the back of a theater.

“I kept telling myself, ‘Keep it smaller, smaller, smaller,'” she says. “You just have to be smaller with your face. You’re much bigger on the stage.”

Television also forced her develop an awareness of the camera.

“The camera sees every teeny tiny thing you do… I think the camera can see it even if you just think it,” she says, laughing.

It was enough to get noticed. Annie started making the rounds of popular network and cable programs, appearing as a co-star or guest star on Friends, Boston Legal and Cold Case.

Annie further built up her screen credits with film work, taking on supporting, lead and feature roles in shorts and full-length films, including Veronica’s Veil, Birdkeeper and Bruce Almighty.

“I used to love days when you had four auditions… I love the fast-paced part of that,” she says.

In 2007, she became a series regular on the popular soap opera General Hospital. Annie had tested for a role three years earlier. Never one to follow the soaps, she started watching and learned her best friend was a real fan.

“That’s when you find those people in your life, those closet soap opera watchers,” she says, laughing. “I have to say, I tune in now every once in a while to check up on my friends in Port Charles and what’s going on.”

The pace of her role as television producer Amelia Joffe really helped prepare Annie for the rigors of series television, she says.

“It was definitely one of the hardest thing I’ve done,” she says. “I don’t think people realize how much work it is. They shot 60 pages a day, which is crazy. Twelve pages on a TV show would be a lot. And they only shoot it once and move on. You really have to know your line, know your intention.”

The producers of General Hospital tried to persuade Annie to sign a four-year contract. “I was like, ‘Uh, I kind of want to keep the doors open,” she says.

Taking advantage of her freedom, Annie auditioned for the Fox pilot Company Man by the producers of 24. Taking two weeks’ leave to shoot the pilot, another actress played her General Hospital role. The pilot, however, was not picked up.