An Angel of a Daughter Spreads Her Wings
Angel Wainwright plays Betsy, Jonas and Molly Blane's strong-willed daughter. "She's a fighter," Angel declares. "A young woman who has a deep need to be something. She admires her father deeply. Admires his strength. But her mother..." Here Angel hesitates, perhaps because she's talking to the person who plays her mother. Then, carefully: "She misunderstands her mother. She doesn't relate to Molly's strength. Doesn't appreciate her mother's accomplishments. Doesn't want to be like her."
There is definitely a mother-daughter conflict in the Blane household. Molly, seeing how much her daughter is like her - both are hardheaded - wants to protect her daughter from the mistakes she's made. Wants her child to skip over the tough experiences. Wants her to avoid the pain that life brings. If only her child would listen to her. Molly knows that her daughter has to experience life for herself on her own terms, that it's the good and bad episodes in life that build character, hopefully making you stronger. But out of her own willfulness, born out of protective passion, Molly sometimes pushes Betsy to hear her.
"Pushing makes Betsy more determined," says Angel. Her big brown eyes sparkle mischievously. "Nothing motivates like opposition."
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Angel shares common ground with her role.
"I'm a fighter. I used to get into fights a lot when I was young at school. My little brother had a big mouth. I had to step in for him a lot. And we were poor. We couldn't afford $400 tennis shoes. Those who pretended not to be poor and wore those $400 tennis shoes would pick on me."
"People would say I'm like my parents. If you recognize, if you can see how alike you are, you can see yourself and maybe better navigate to avoid your parents' mistakes and try to honor their positive qualities." At the age of 25, Angel admits, "I don't think I'm like them at all." Though both were artists. "My father was a model and aspiring actor. He now teaches high school. My mother is a domestic diva and head of the neighborhood association. When I was 12 I found my mother's writings in a box. I thought, 'Wow! This is really good. I wonder why she didn't do anything with her work.' My mother taught me to write books when I was little. She encouraged me to do creative work. I loved poetry. She got me to go to the Baltimore School of Arts. Jada Pinkett Smith and Tupak went there. When I auditioned for entrance into the school I had to do a monologue or a poem. I didn't even know what a monologue
was. I was determined to learn once I got there. That was my intro into acting and the world of theater."
Angel worked hard, excelled and was accepted into SUNY Purchase in New York, where she met her husband, Ali, at a school forum to discuss current events. "He was poignant and articulate.... He has a wonderful vocabulary. He loves the planet and human beings. He inspired me - and I guess I impressed him, too." They are a striking couple. Both share high cheekbones, expansive eyes and ideals.
"It is a continuing struggle for consciousness," says Angel. "I want my art to produce consciousness. I'd like to see cultural progress through creative means. TV, books, movies don't have to numb and dumb people out."
In 2005 Angel graduated SUNY and married her "best friend and first real love," Ali, in a civil ceremony at City Hall in New York. And though "we didn't think it necessary for people to come to the ceremony," her parents determinedly drove in from Baltimore to witness the marriage. "We had to go through a metal detector and people in handcuffs waiting for their trial waved at us and shouted encouragement."
That same year Angel received her big acting break. She was in New York working in a small sweatshop of a medical office ("12 people shoulder to shoulder" for a company that translated X-rays and MRIs). It was here that she got a call from a manager about an audition in L.A. On that trip she met the casting agent for
The Unit, Sharon Bialy, and landed the role of Betsy Blane. She bunked out and slept on a friend's sofa while filming her first episode.
The couple has since moved to L.A. While she hates "the parking, the driving... anything to do with traffic," she loves the living space. "We couldn't afford a two-bedroom apartment in New York." Earning a living is still a struggle but they get by. Angel has recurring roles on
General Hospital: Night Shift and
General Hospital. Ali works with adults with developmental disabilities.
Angel's grandpa and all his brothers were merchant marines. Her great-grandpa was a Blackfoot Indian. Refusing to live on a reservation, he lived just outside the reservation on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. He was a Wainwright. He made wheels and owned his own taxi service. Angel's great-grandma was a newly freed African-American who moved to Virginia to teach. Getting off the train, she hailed a ride. Mr. Wainwright picked her up. He was 65. She was 20. He encouraged their sons to become merchant marines. Having lost the land, he taught that they could gain freedom by seeing the world. Angel says that her mother put all her dreams into the hope that her children could have a better life: "I think in some ways I've fulfilled her dreams."
Angel Wainwright is excited to see where the continuing storyline of Betsy Blane takes her as she follows in her father's footsteps and, against her mother's wishes, joins the army.
CBS'
The Unit airs Tuesdays at 9 pm/ET.
