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Dreamwatch

Miller does get a lot of fan mail, however. “I thought I would get a lot of letters from women, but my fan mail is largely male,” she reveals, “I know that there’s a strong fan base in the gay community, but it’s really good and telling that people aren’t just making this big leap and judging the character based on one part of her identity. I’m impressed with the way they’ve handled the character, so I think that’s a large reason why. Some of the response that I’ve gotten is from people in the middle of the country who say that they never knew any lesbians or any gay people and that they didn’t think anything of her being gay. They just wrote in to say, “I really love your character and I think it’s so cool that she’s this, this and this.”

Unlike most high-profile shows, Miller reveals that the cast of DARK ANGEL get to have a say in what happens to their characters. “We all have some input,” she explains, “so you can actually sit down and talk to the producers and everybody it’s really informal. You can call them and say, “Hey, I was thinking. I don’t really like this. What about this?” and they listen. One of the executive producers had an idea and he wanted to bounce it by me, and it was actually something that I had been thinking all along and it wound up as a small little chip in something that’s probably going to wind up being a storyline. There’s an episode coming up that’s being written right now, and they called to ask what I thought about it. We’ve also been talking about Original Cindy getting a girlfriend.”

Sassy

Asked in what ways she is like Original Cindy, Miller responds without hesitation. “People always say I’m sassy. I’m a pretty spunky person; I have my own strong opinions about things and I like clothes. She’s a lot tougher than I am, though. Although I may be outspoken, I’m nowhere to the degree that she is. I always say she’s me amplified. Some people that don’t know me very well might meet me in a situation and assume that I’m like that, but I’m really nowhere near as extreme as she is. She’d go into a room and just say whatever, whereas I might keep it to myself.”

DARK ANGEL has also rubbed off on Miller’s personal life. “On this show, we use so much slang that you start picking it up,” she reveals. “You’re saying stuff to people and you realize, “I just quoted a line from the show. How embarrassed am I?” You try not to do it but you can’t help it!”

Acting is not a profession Miller always had in mind. “I don’t really know that I officially decided to become an actress at any one time,” she says, “I did some stuff in school, and I was paying for college by doing commercials and a bunch of other things like that. It just kind of happened and I always liked it and was always interested in it. When I’m doing something, I put a lot of effort into it. I’ve studied and I still study now and I try to do my best at whatever I’m doing but I’ve never been convinced that I wnted to be some huge movie star or anything.”

Dispensing her own advice to other would be actors, Miller suggests, “Know why you’re doing something and remember the reason, because I think a lot of people get wrapped up in stuff and they pick jobs to fill a need. I think a lot of actors are miserable and unhappy because they’re looking for someone else’s approval. Don’t just pack up everything and move to LA and think you’re just going to land some huge TV series and be bitter because it didn’t work out the way you wanted [because] you didn’t have head shots, you don’t have an agent, you never studied, and you didn’t actually do the basic steps. It’s a job, like what anybody else does, and I don’t think people keep that in perspective enough.

“It’s great if you have a dream and you’re following it because you truly enjoy what you do, but do it because you love it, not because you want to validate yourself, because you’ll never get that.”

VALARIE RAE MILLER

• Miller made her stage debut playing Sally in You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown in the second grade…
  
• As a sophmore in high school, she auditioned and was accepted into a performing arts high school. While attending college near her home in Fort Worth, Miller landed a series of high profile commercials and then, during a summer break, she visited Los Angeles where she tried her hand at stand-up comedy…
  
• Despite numerous offers to go on tour with her stand-up routine, Miller decided to move to LA and pursue acting, where she quickly booked a long-term job hosting Reebok’s PETV athletics series for which she interviewed celebrities and athletes about fitness and they role it played in their lives. Soon after, she landed a hosting role on Fox TV’s pre-game baseball show IN THE ZONE …
  
• In her spare time, Miller likes to watch movies, knit, exercise and read. She is skilled in martial arts training and can speak near-fluent Spanish, and is keen to learn at least one other foreign tongue. She is also keen to take up singing lessons for personal reasons, “so that I can carry a tune a little better.”