'Monk' actress Emmy Clarke

Raise your hand if you watch Monk (the holiday episode, by the way, airs Friday, December 7th). Okay, my hand is high, high in the air right now, and I'm sure recent Good Prattle fixture Halley Feiffer is raising her hand too. It's a clever show with fantastic characters—not least among them Julie Teeger, the teenaged daughter of Monk's assistant Natalie Teeger, who is intelligent and fun to watch and perhaps the best teen character on TV today. Well, I got to chat recently with Emmy Clarke, who plays Julie, and she's just like her character: down-to-earth and instantly likeable. Emmy talked with us about Julie's many talents, about juggling a career and high school, and about just going with the flow and enjoying the ride.

Hi, Emmy, how are you?
I'm good, how are you?

I'm good! Are you filming right now?
Well, we just did an episode, and I think we're done filming for a while. That was the last episode we're filming for now.

You've been with the show and you've grown up with it for about two years, right?
Yeah.

You're the same age as your character; you're going through a lot of the same things—has acting as Julie helped you deal with these things in real life, or vice versa?
Yeah, I think acting as Julie really has helped me. I mean, I'm not like her in that I'm not a model, and I'm not very good at basketball, but—I think she's a very good role model, the way the writers portray her, so I know that she's setting a good example, so I sort of follow her in a way.

Right. Yeah, Julie does all sorts of things: basketball, modeling… are these at all based on things that you know how to do or that you do in real life?
No, not at all! I'm really bad at basketball, sports aren't really my thing; I mean, I enjoy them, I'm just not that great at them, but it doesn't really matter. So, not really, but I mean they're really fun. All the storylines that they come up with are really fun for me, like the basketball—and the modeling was so fun! I was really nervous, but it turned out being really great.

How has it been having a TV family in addition to your regular family? Is it kind like having a second family?
Well… yes and no. It's sometimes kind of hard to relate to her family situation because, for example, her father is not in her life at this point and I have my whole family here… but I do think the love that her mom and everybody around her has for her does in some ways reflect upon my family because my family's really close and we're generally really happy. Except when my sister's stealing my clothes!

A younger sister or older sister?
Younger sister. She's 13. You know, she's just starting to get into that stuff and it's really frustrating!

You go to school when you're not working, too, so how has it been balancing a career with high school?
It's really hard, I have to admit, because I hate to admit it but teenagers are kind of self-centered! And I try hard not to be, but—and it's hard because sometimes I have to miss things, like a friend's birthday party or an important trip, so it stinks, but being able to do this is amazing, and I stop and laugh because, wow, I'm actually getting upset that I have to go and film a show! And the school part is actually not that bad, I just get the work from my teachers and then I go over to the west coast and get it done. It's not that bad—I mean, it can be really hard, especially this year, because I'm a sophomore and it's getting harder, but I've been able to balance it. It's just every single day my day revolves around it—when I'm not acting, it's school, all the time! But I really want to do well because school and acting are really important to me.

Yeah, and I imagine it would be hard, because school takes up so much time.
Yeah, it really does, but I really, really, really want to be able to balance both of them, and I want them to be equal in priority because I really want to go to go to a good college and I want to study the arts and English and history, so I'm thinking about the future a lot!

You said when you have an episode to film you go out to the west coast; are you east coast-based?
Yeah, I am. I live in Connecticut, and a lot of people ask me, "So when are you moving to the west coast," and I'm like "Well… never…"

That's understandable. But it probably makes managing your career a lot more difficult to coordinate with the rest of your life.
It really, really is, yeah.

What do you do when you're on set and you're not filming or working on homework?—which is probably not a lot of time, but nevertheless!
Well, actually, I'm kind of a procrastinator, so I really try to avoid doing schoolwork if I can, but when I'm not acting or doing schoolwork I love the makeup ladies and the hair ladies, so I always go into the makeup trailer if I'm not doing schoolwork or acting, and everybody knows where to find me because I'm always there talking to them!

You've also done movies before—your last movie was Fur, which was about Diane Arbus—and working on a movie is very different from working on a TV show. What do you prefer about each?
First of all, I love doing Monk shows, because you get to go back, and I love knowing that I get to go back to Monk. It's not like one specific block of time and then you complete something—I'm always going to go back, as long as the show is running. And film, I like film because you get to be a different person and switch things up, I like doing it. I don't know, I love both of them, so I don't know which one I like better. For both, it just depends on the character and stuff like that.

You've worked alongside a wide variety of actors who are really seasoned in their craft. How does it feel to work alongside people who have been doing what they do for years and know a lot about the craft?
It really is great, but it's so weird because I don't really think of them in that way, so when people say that I'm like, "Oh. Oh, oh yeah!" And once you get to know these people it's just so different from what you read about them in magazines, which is really weird. But it's so great, though, and I've learned so much I can't even explain it. It's amazing. These people have taught me so many things that I am so changed by them and all of them are great people. A lot of people say, "Well, you know, people like that are stuck up," and it's really reassuring to know that none of them were really stuck up or anything.

On Monk you're really the main teenage character, so you spend a lot of time around adults when you're working, and when you're not you go to school. Do you ever feel a difference when jumping from one to the other?
Really, no. I'm a very talkative person, so I like having, you know, intense and sophisticated conversations with adults… and the thing that's actually good about having them so close together is when I go back to school it makes me a more mature person in a way, because if somebody's being obnoxious or saying something it's easy to figure out the right thing do to because I spend a lot of time with adults. But obviously I need to be with my friends, because it's people your age that you're going to be healthiest spending the majority of your time with. But I love all the people that I meet during doing the show and filming and stuff, and the adults are always really nice. But I think they're both really good for me!

As far as being a part of Monk for so long and growing up with the show for the past two years, have you gotten to work with the writers and directors in developing the character of Julie?
You know, I love seeing the new things they come up with for me to do, but Andy Breckman came down to the set a few weeks ago and he's always open to my ideas, and he asked me, "What do you think you could see Julie doing in the future?" and I'm very bad at thinking of things like that, but always love seeing what they come up with, because I love being surprised and seeing what crazy things they come up with. But I feel like I do have an input, but I've never really asked for anything, I just kind of go with the flow, and I like hearing their ideas and if they want me to contribute them I will.

So tell me about the episode you just finished filming. That's going to be in the season starting in January, right?
Yeah. Yeah, I believe so. That one was actually really, really fun, because I got to do something new—it's actually something that I'm starting to learn how to do right now, I'm in the process of learning… so I don't know how much I'm allowed to say!

How about the Christmas episode?
That one? Oh my gosh, it's great. It reflects a lot on love and family and friendship and how ultimately you always know that there are all these people that are there for you, and it's such a great message, and I really like that one, and I can't wait to see it and have people see it.

One episode in which you played a really important part was 'Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees', which was from the most recent season, and a lot of this episode was really about your character and it dealt more with teenagers than most of the other episodes ever really have, so was that fun to do?
Oh, yeah, it was great to do! It was really fun and funny, and I love how Julie got to maintain her… innocence, kind of, because kids grow up and a lot of the kids on TV now are 18 and totally making fools out of themselves, and Julie seems to maintain her innocence, and that way she can do things kind of gracefully, which is great, and I love how the writers are able to craft that situation without me losing some part of Julie, because Julie's very witty and smart and I think she's a great person and I like how she was able to maintain that.

So, when an episode of Monk that you're in comes on and you turn on the TV, do you go "Oh hey, it's me!" or "Oh no, it's me!"?
Well, kind of that! Well, it's kind of a mix, because I—no, well, it's not, because I never get really scared when I see myself on TV, I'm kind of like, "Oh. Oh, that's fun. Which one is this?" and then I go do something else! But I don't want to spend my time watching it. I mean, I do, but I don't watch the episodes that have me in it because I get very, very critical of myself, and you can ask my mom, I'm always like, "Oh, I hated the way I said that!" I get so intense, so I just can't watch it! I might see part of it; I used to when I was younger, but now I'm a little—and with my friends, especially, I don't want to make them watch me on TV when they're with me!

Do you watch episodes that you're not in?
Yeah, once in a while. My parents watch it a lot, so if they're watching it, and I'm there, then, you know, I'll watch it. But I don't go out of my way to find the episodes, because I don't really watch TV that much.

Are you looking forward to the holidays?
Yeah, I'm so excited! My favorite holiday's Thanksgiving [this interview was conducted the day before Thanksgiving]. I don't know why, I like Christmas, but I love Thanksgiving because I love all my family coming by and spending time with them, so I'm really, really excited.

And the food, of course!
Yeah, yeah! And I love winter too, because we get a lot of—well, not a lot of snow, but we get the four seasons here in Connecticut.

Yeah. Here in New York too.
Oh, you're in New York!

Yeah! Do you come into New York a lot?
Oh, yeah, all the time. I was actually there last weekend because I went to the Boys Like Girls concert with my friends. I come sometimes to go shopping with my friends, and I do come sometimes for auditions or something, or eating! Stuff like that. But on the weekends I'll come in with my friends, and see what's going on, go shopping usually… I don't really go to any concerts, so it was really exciting to see that band.

Thank you so much, Julie!
Thank you!

Emmy Clarke can be seen as Julie Teeger on 'Monk', which airs on Fridays at 9 PM. Right now the show is not airing new episodes but the holiday episode is this Friday, December 7th, and the season will resume in January 2008. Find out more about the show at the official website.