With its gripping rigidity and emotional complexity, Lifetime’s new thriller Lady Taken has viewers buzzing—and one of many standout performances belongs to Canadian-born actor Eric Hicks. Within the movie, Hicks performs Perry, a person whose determined craving for connection pushes him into murky, morally gray territory.
SpoilerTV’s Kim Rogers caught up with Eric to speak about what it took to step into Perry’s emotionally unstable footwear, the real-life experiences that formed his efficiency, and the teachings he’s taking with him from this function—and from life itself.
Discovering Floor in Chaos
When Eric Hicks first learn the script for Lady Taken, he knew instantly he was in for a wild journey.
“Oh man,” he mentioned, laughing. “When I finally got the full script, I was like, ‘Oh… oh!’ It was juicy, but also like—how are we gonna do this?”
Even earlier than diving into the total script, Eric had a way of the emotional stakes from the audition scenes. However as soon as your entire story unfolded, it turned clear this wasn’t going to be a lightweight elevate.
“You book the role, and then you realize—you have to go there now. Emotionally. Mentally. Some of the places you have to take yourself are not easy. That’s the work.”
Nonetheless, for Eric, there’s consolation within the doing. As an alternative of getting misplaced within the overwhelm, he grounded himself in preparation.
“I just get to work,” he mentioned. “I learn that script entrance to again as many instances as I can, attempting to get the story and the plot in my mind, but additionally being open, realizing that they are assured going to do script rewrites. The story goes to alter.
And alter it did. A significant rewrite arrived simply in the future earlier than filming a scene: a personality initially written as Perry’s good friend, Kyle, was all of the sudden killed off. That meant Eric needed to utterly reframe Perry’s relationships and emotional motivations—in a single day.
“It’s like a knife to the gut,” he mentioned. “that man that I assumed was my greatest good friend is now lifeless. However , you’re consistently altering the plot in your thoughts and attempting to regulate and it is a fast-paced machine, however that is the fantastic thing about it. It’s good to be challenged, it truly is.”
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To grasp Perry, Eric needed to construct him from the within out. That meant setting up a wealthy backstory—one which, whereas by no means explicitly proven, knowledgeable each line, look, and silence.
“I made it in my mind that Perry was lacking family roots. He was always an independent kind of cat trying to make stability in his life in a way that he never had growing up,” Eric defined.
It’s this inner void that drives Perry’s each determination—and misstep.
“Perry just wants family, he really craves stability, he craves family, he craves community, but its just not the bedrock of his foundation. He doesn’t know how to function in that world. And so the actions that he takes are all just, you know, a little misguided although well intentioned” Eric said.
Eric layered Perry’s emotional world with principles from Vipassana meditation retreats, which he’s done himself—10 days of silence and self-inquiry. One of the key lessons he brought into the role was the concept of “clinging” as the basis of struggling.
“Perry likes this, he wants more of it, he is clinging and craving, he doesn’t want to let go of this. That’s the source of all of our misery as opposed to accepting things exactly as they are just being in the moment, moment to moment to moment, it is what it is accepted.”
Channeling Actual Ache
Getting ready for Perry’s intense emotional scenes required Eric to faucet into private experiences—most profoundly, his relationship along with his father.
“My dad is my greatest good friend on this planet. Now we have these open, sincere communication. It’s such a deep, lovely love that I’ve by no means had with one other man earlier than and , my dad obtained sick a number of years go, he had a psychotic break. Psychological sickness is an actual factor and once you expertise it firsthand, it is actually troublesome to witness, particularly when its somebody you’re keen on most in life. So for me, that is only a nicely of emotion, this deep love and to not have my father in my life anymore, is my largest nightmare.” That ache—of loving somebody fiercely and fearing their loss—turned the emotional anchor for Perry’s desperation.
“So I just bring that vulnerability into Perry. To lose Dani, to lose their child—it is something I will fight against to keep, I will do whatever it takes to keep that and I have to open that part of myself up when doing the actual scene work, so that I can understand emotionally what state of desperation he’s in. I allowed myself to be available and to be willing to be damaged and hurt and vulnerable in that sense.”
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A Scene That Broke Him Open
One second particularly pushed Eric outdoors of his consolation zone: a pivotal scene when Perry is confronted by Detective Henrique on the farm. Beneath Perry’s calm exterior, panic brews—his world is unraveling.
Hicks explains that Perry needed to placed on a masks in that second.
“You need to act like nothing’s flawed, however beneath, it is simply panic. And so to have that calm depth with Henrique, have intense moments performed off informal after which the next scene the place , I are available in the home and Dani’s asking me what’s flawed.” he mentioned.
That second led into a non-public breakdown scene between Perry and his companion Dani, which Eric mentioned was important for displaying Perry’s humanity.
“The viewers wanted to see that second of Perry truly panicking and dropping it. You see all of it come to the floor for the primary time and also you notice how determined he’s. He’s going by means of his personal struggling. All of us have our personal demons to battle in life. There’s a humanity to even the darkest of instances and the darkest of characters and the brightest of characters that all of them have. We’re all complicated people with an entire array of feelings.”
Classes in Love—and Missed Alternatives
Although happy with the efficiency, Eric was candid a couple of scene he needs he’d approached in a different way—a dinner desk second that, in his eyes, missed the prospect to indicate extra of Perry’s love for Dani.
“I felt Perry was too moody and too judgmental and a little too harsh. That was an opportunity for him to really open his heart and connect with her and have a heart to heart and I kind of missed that opportunity,” he admitted.
It’s a mirrored image that speaks to Eric’s ongoing evolution as an artist—and a human.
“You are all the time type of studying and navigating as you undergo the filmmaking course of.”
The Takeaway: Three Easy Phrases
Requested to sum up Lady Taken in simply three phrases, Eric didn’t hesitate:
“Have more understanding.”
He elaborated, “Everyone’s going through something. You never know what pain someone’s carrying. And when you understand that—it takes away judgment. It helps you navigate life with more compassion.”
Whether or not you see Eric Hicks as a rising star or a fully-formed expertise lastly getting his due, one factor is evident: his portrayal of Perry in Lady Taken is a haunting, human, and deeply nuanced efficiency that can stick with viewers lengthy after the ultimate scene.
Lady Taken is now streaming on Lifetime. Don’t miss it!
