Exclusive: Lincoln Heights Premiere & Erica Hubbard Dishes on the Show

By Emily Hochberg
Fancast.com

Erica Hubbard may be best known as Cassie Sutton on the ABC Family Channel show Lincoln Heights, but she’s also a rising star who loves Judd Apatow and traveling. She talked to Fancast about life in Lincoln, possible wedding bells for our beloved “Chassie,” some serious upcoming “I Kissed a Girl” action and Solange Knowles’ guest role on the show. Read on for more on that and what else is to come for the Sutton clan and Erica herself when the third season kicks off September 16th, and catch the exclusive season premiere episode of the show on Fancast, in the video above!

You have the third season premiering soon and the first episode looks pretty loaded with a robbery and hostage situation. What was it like shooting that?
My goodness it was a mixture of feelings shooting the very first episode because it was so intense. At times I got scared, really, really scared on the set because we had a lot of stunts and a lot of situations dealing with guns and it was scary. At times, the tears were real!

I bet – that situation has got to be everyone’s worst nightmare!
Not to say that a lot of sets aren’t safe, I think most sets are safe. They do a safety routine before you start filming if you’re doing anything with guns. They’re prop guns, but still, if you are doing anything with a replica, something like a gun on a set in a scene, it can become really real, because it’s like, wow, okay, am I safe? There’s always that factor of what if that really happens. It’s crazy, sometimes I was crying literally for real. They’d be like okay Erica, calm down. But if you’re in that situation it’s scary!

And your show deals with a lot of those heavy storylines. What else is coming up this season?
Our audience really took to Cassie and Charles’ relationship. They call us “Chassie.” So we deal a lot more with out relationships and our ups and downs. And – let’s say that he pops the question.

Woo! Tell me more about that relationship! It’s a major storyline and one that gets a lot of attention, how’s that been for you?
It’s been good! Robert Adamson plays Charles and we really clicked from day one. We shot the pilot in San Diego back in 2005 and we were just happy to work with each other. We feed off of each other a lot. The chemistry is there.

So tell me more about what issues you’ll be tackling this season on the show?
There’s a very famous song out right now called “I kissed a girl” and we deal with that. It’s one of our big episodes is someone kisses a girl. I was shocked when I read it. I got the script the day before at the table read and it was whoa! That’s one thing I like about Lincoln Heights is that they are very spontaneous; you never know what’s going to be next. It’s not a show you can get easily bored with. It’s a show that’s very exciting with a lot of different topics each episode and it keeps our audience on their toes. And I think that’s why the audience has been so faithful over that last three years. We had over two million viewers last year and people write blogs and emails asking when it’s going to come back, it’s exciting.

It sounds like you don’t always know what’s happening beforehand; how is that for you when sometimes you’re just as shocked as the audience?
When I get script and read it I’m just as shocked as the rest of cast because we don’t get it until a few days before. But I think that’s good because it’s fresh. When we perform our role and deliver dialogue, it’s just fresh. It’s not like we had weeks and weeks and are over-rehearsed. We just got it, we do it, and it’s natural because we’ve been playing these characters for three years, and I can think, okay, that’s something my character would deal with. So we just do it and magic happens.

How do you personally relate to the issues your character deals with specifically?
It’s very serious to me because a lot of these topics aren’t discussed on television shows currently. Lincoln Heights does discuss a lot of topics in the community. One we’re addressing this season is block parties and how to raise money for your community. We had a big ‘ol carnival and that episode was dealing with pouring money back into the community. So that was a very serious topic because community service is something a lot of us care about on set and off. We read to impoverished communities and schools through a reading program, Read Across America, just last year. It’s something serious to us when we perform the role as well as when we’re doing a charity off set.

You mentioned the feedback you get online. How has it been for you to hear from viewers?
When we first started all of us were kind of nervous because we didn’t know how well received the program was going to be. But then we started seeing our fans blogging and emailing and texting about it. And then I’d be in the airport and people would run up asking when it’s coming back and what’s going to happen with Cassie and Charles. It’s been a dream come true. And I hate to sound cliché, and I know we work for Disney, but it’s magic, it is like Disney where dreams come true. I can’t express how excited I am. Yesterday we had the press junket and the room was filled with press from everywhere. So just to see people connect with Cassie, I feel like they’re connecting with me. And I use some of my own life experiences I’ve been through to portray Cassie, so love it.

And you’re playing as part of a very close knit family; what’s that dynamic like?
I come from a family that was broken. My mom and my dad divorced and when I saw Russell Hornsby and Nicki Micheaux who play Eddie and Jenn, my mom and dad on the show, that’s the family I was longing for, that close tight knit family. So I take the show really seriously because we need to see that image on portrayed on TV, that there are moms and dads in households raising their kids. Everybody doesn’t come from a broken family. And to me, they’re like my mom and dad if they had been together. So the love that we share on set and then off set is something I cherish. Family is very important to me and I’m just happy that I’ve experienced Lincoln Heights because I get to be in a caring and loving environment with Eddie and Jenn portraying my mom and dad.

Where would you like to see the show go as a whole and with your character specifically?
I want to see Jenn and Eddie become Grandparents! I’ve never said that before but I want to see it go that far where they’re holding some grandkids. And also that they’re seeing their children graduate from college. And we have a very big prom episode coming up and I can say who the guest star is! We’re having Solange Knowles on the show, so that was very big for us. I was so excited and she performed and was phenomenal. But I want to see the family grow up and watch the kids graduate from college and get married and have some grandkids. It would be cool to have some little babies on the set.

Well you said someone is popping the question! Maybe that’s not too far off.
Oh my God, during that scene, Robert was so nervous! He was sweating and shaking! He was like, I’ve never done this before, and this is how it feels! And of course if a guy pops the question, I’m going to be excited. But it’s going to be a great season, it really is. And to celebrate I’m going to the Bahamas!

Have you done anything else to celebrate the success? Any big purchases or trips?
Just traveling. My dad gets upset because he thinks I travel too much! This is maybe my 3rd or 4th trip this year. But I feel like this is going to be the biggest season ever. If we pulled in over two million last year, I’m hoping our numbers are just going to double! So I need to celebrate and I’ve gone to Riviera Maya and after that I went to Florida and I had to go to Disneyworld, I work for Disney! They gave me some park hoppers and I hopped all day. It was really fun. So I just go from state to state to state.

In your travels are you starting to get recognized more?
When I’m in airports a lot of people are like, aren’t you Cassie from that show, or, you’re from Lincoln Heights. So it’s a variation. It happens when you least expect it. One day my hair was all over my head and I just went to run to get some McDonald’s, and this woman was staring at me, and I was thinking sorry, I didn’t comb my hair, and she said, you’re on Lincoln Heights! But lesson to me, even if its late night and I’m going to get some fast food, I make sure to put a cap on my head or at least brush my hair because the show is becoming more and more popular.

Besides traveling, what do you do when you’re not working on Lincoln Heights? Are you working on other projects?
I’m getting ready to work on a film called “Miss Guided.” That’s in October. So while I can in between projects I travel. And then I come back and start the next project. And Miss Guided starts in October and is a comedy which I’m excited to do.

And comedy is something different for you too, right?
Yes, I’m so excited. I’m one of those actresses that likes to do a variation. I’m not just a dramatic actress or just a comedic actress. I want to say I’m an actress; I’ve done comedy, I’ve done drama, thrillers, and horror films.

What other TV shows do you watch and why?
I like to watch Law and Order, I like the storylines, and I love watching that show. I like Everybody Hates Chris because it’s funny. But I’m really a big movie buff. The latest movie I saw was Tropic Thunder. And people didn’t know Tom Cruise was in that movie but he was hilarious! Oh my God! Tom Cruise! But I also like a lot of Judd Apatow films and I had the privilege of working with him a few years ago and now he’s this huge success in film and is huge! And now I like going to see his movies. I loved Forgetting Sarah Marshall, it’s my favorite movie! Every single moment I just laughed. It’s so funny because when I watch television I watch a lot of drama, only some comedies here and there, but for movies I like to watch a lot of comedies.

Well maybe one day in a Judd movie!
Yes! I have to remind him we worked together a long time ago. I’m just happy to have his credit on my resume.

More on These Topics: Erica Hubbard | Lincoln Heights