Canadian actor Eric Hicks (Cardinal, Bad Blood, Schitt’s Creek) is back on our screens this weekend in Lifetime’s latest thriller, Girl Taken. The film dives into dark territory, telling the story of a teenage girl who runs away from home after a tough breakup and ends up getting abducted by a so-called family friend. It’s a psychological rollercoaster, and Hicks plays a key role in bringing the tension to life.
We caught up with the incredibly charming Hicks to chat about the movie, playing such a twisted character, and what it was like working alongside the amazing Erica Durance.
“It’s about this girl, Rose Morell, whose dad died a couple of years ago in a head-on collision,” Hicks tells PopWire. “She just kind of felt a little lost in her life without a father figure. So she was really seeking the attention of men, and her boyfriend ends up breaking up with her on her birthday. It just kind of puts her in her a really heavy space where she’s not having the best relationship with her mother. Their communication isn’t on par.
“My character, Perry, witnesses that firsthand and his heart opens up and he really feels like there’s a way that he can help her. My character sees an opportunity to bridge these two worlds of people who are suffering and maybe make a win-win situation. As we know in life, these ideas, this idealism we have of how we think we can make the best of a situation, things don’t go as planned. Al these curveballs come down the road and chaos ensues in a classic Lifetime thriller but it was just such a joy to make.”
It doesn’t take long in Girl Taken to realize that Perry, Hicks’ character, has some seriously disturbing intentions. When he picks up Rose, it’s clear he has no plans to let her go. What follows is an intense and chilling story, with Hicks nailing that tricky balance between seeming helpful and being totally unhinged.
“I’ve been trying to figure out this perfect dynamic of a charming, disarming kind of character with an undercurrent of a manipulative tendency, whether or not they’re aware of it or not as the character, but you as the actor have to be aware of it,” Hicks explains. “I’ve really been trying to dial that fine line for a long time. And this movie came along, I’m like perfect opportunity for me to play with.
“I took those two components as a framework of that balance of charming, but I wanted to make character and in a sense where he is able to experience guilt and shame,” he continues. “He’s really trying to control situations to craft the world that’s safe and secure around him because he’s afraid of being alone and losing love. And so he just becomes desperate to try to control the world around him, to keep that love in his life.”
Opposite Hicks is Erica Durance (Saving Hope, Smallville), who plays Rose’s mother, Anita. Her performance brings a ton of emotional depth to the film, and Hicks had nothing but praise for his co-star.
“Erica shows up and she can turn on the emotions,” he says with high praise about his co-star. “Like it’s just available to her. She’s worked that muscle so much. She just turns on the waterworks and I’m like, how? For me, it comes at such a deep cost to open yourself up. It really feels like suffering. But for her, she’s just able to act and just do it.
“Everyone has a different instrument that they’re working with. And her instrument is so well refined that you can trust that she’s going to give you something to play with opposite her. You don’t have to work very hard to act opposite Erica. I just kind of let her do her thing, and really the scene takes care of itself. [Working with her] was a dream, honestly. She’s amazing. She’s really talented and is such a sweetheart of a person.”
Girl Taken is a gripping, edge-of-your-seat watch—definitely one of the most intense Lifetime thrillers to hit in a while. Hicks shared why he thinks this one stands out from the crowd.
“It’s a different approach to the same type of storyline that we’ve seen again and again,” Eric Hicks says. “I really took a different approach to the character and gave it so many different colors that you don’t see. I put a lot of work into it and so did everyone else. We came up with something a little unique, our own unique version on this type of story that’s worth actually watching and checking out.”
Girl Taken airs Sunday, May 18 at 8/7c on available to stream the next day.
Rowell was born and raised on Maui, Hawai’i, and now lives in the almost-as-green Pacific Northwest. He’s obsessed with Cirque du Soleil, loves teen dramas (especially those with a supernatural element) and horror movies, and is addicted to sushi. Prior to PopWire, he created individual fan sites for the shows Friends, Hellcats, Nikita and others, which led to creating and working on OMFGTV.
