B.C. teen lands in middle of Sheen circus
Cast as actor’s daughter in new sitcom
There’s some Canadian content in Charlie Sheen’s new series, Anger Management. And some Mexican content, from the same source.
Daniela Bobadilla was born in Mexico City, but grew up in North Vancouver and Coquitlam. Two years ago she moved to Los Angeles, where she landed a role in the NBC series Awake. Before it had even aired, the 19-year-old was cast as Sheen’s daughter in Anger Management.
Now she finds herself in the midst of a media frenzy surrounding the series. But not because Sheen has done anything wacky.
No, the intense media interest in Anger Management is because it’s a big hit, reportedly scoring the largest audience ever for a sitcom on an American cable network.
Down south, it airs on FX, a cable wing of FOX. But in Canada it will be shown on CTV, and will make its debut Sunday. (Six episodes have already aired in the States.)
Bobadilla says working with Sheen has been great.
“He is the nicest guy ever,” she says. “Initially I thought ‘Hey, he could be a diva, you never know what he’s going to say.’ But he was just so human, and unlike any other actor I’ve met.”
How? Many stars put themselves on a pedestal, but Sheen “holds himself lower than everybody else, he’s just completely human. He took on the fatherly role (with me) immediately. He’s like ‘Where are you going this weekend? When my boyfriend came on set, he said ‘What are your intentions with my daughter?’ ”
The family vibe is enhanced because Charlie’s dad, Martin, has joined the cast. “Martin is awesome, he’s just a hoot,” says Bobadilla. “He tried to improv every single scene he was in. He even started singing Oklahoma. Of course we couldn’t get the rights to it, but every take he’ll try it after they yell cut.
“Charlie gets so mad at him,” she says with a laugh. “I don’t know why, but Charlie really does not like his dad’s singing.”
Bobadilla’s character
Much of the trouble she gets into stems from the fact she has OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) DANIELA BOBADILLA
was originally supposed to be 13, but “once we shot it, they upped it so I’m 14 going on 15. They want her to grow up a little faster, so she can get into a little more trouble.” Much of the trouble she gets into stems from the fact she has OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). She carries around good luck charms, and she has to check and re-check to make sure the doors are locked.
“Her other thing is that she take things that she hears and (spins) them as her own,” she relates.
“Let’s just say it gets her in a lot of trouble.”
It’s a fun role to play, but then, Bobadilla’s been having fun since she took up acting at Summit middle school in Coquitlam (her first role was in Newsies). She studied at Tarlington Training, a school for child actors, and won the Port Moody Idol competition in 2008 (she sang Good Morning, Baltimore, from Hairspray). Her first big role was in the Nickelodeon TV movie Mr. Troop Mom, then she got a bit part in Smallville.
One of the producers of Mr. Troop Mom encouraged her to head to Los Angeles for “pilot season,” where pilots for TV series are shot and pitched to the networks. “There’s audi- tions from left to right, you can have up to 10 a week,” she notes. “It’s really, really intense.”
She was only supposed to be in L.A. for three months, but two-and-a-half years later she’s still there. Besides her roles in Anger Management and Awake, she did two episodes of Desperate Housewives. “I played Eva Longoria’s longlost stepsister, who she definitely did not know about,” she recounts.
“That was amazing. My mom has been a fan of it, and my best friend has seen every episode at least three times. Just to audition for it was a little surreal, because you audition right on Wisteria Lane, you do it inside the Universal lot.
“I had to pinch myself a few times, acting with Teri Hatcher or Eva. I’d be staring at them like I was watching the show, and when it came time for my line and I was ‘Oh-oh, I’m in it. Whoa!’ ”
It looks like she’ll be working full-time on Anger Management for the next couple of years.
“We’re on a 10-90, which means instead of doing one episode as a pilot we’re doing 10,” she explains.