Megalyn Echikunwoke stars in the new comedy "Damsels in Distress" along Analeigh Tipton, Greta Gerwig, Ryan Metcalf, and more, which premieres this Friday. Echikunwoke let us into her gorgeous home, where the sun seems to happily shine on.
A day in the life of the Mega…oh my goodness. Well it changes kind of every day because you know, we actors don’t have your average job. So you know it depends on whether I’m working or what I’m doing at the moment.
On a day off, when I’m home in LA, I’m probably doing some sort of exercise, like hike or a dance class. Most likely a dance class and I try to practice my guitar every day. I have musical hour every day. I sing a little bit and I practice my guitar. I try to get some good reading in, try to read the paper, try to read two hours a day.
I’ve always been a singer, but I never sang professionally. I sung a little bit professionally in various TV shows or projects. But it wasn’t until recently. I just started a band. A friend of mine, he’s extremely talented, he and I joined forces. The sound is folk-pop if you will. Kind of like a Mumford and Sons meets someone more up tempo, kind of poppy. I mostly sing and play a tambourine.
I have a movie coming out called Damsels in Distress with Adam Brody, coming out April 6th. I play a college student and have an English accent. It’s a dark comedy, very dark and very funny, actually.
I always obsessed with doing accents as a little kid and the English accent is one I’ve always messed around with. When I went into the audition for this role, they asked if I could do any interesting accents. The character is kind of a little uptight and a little rigid and I thought it would be interesting to do an English accent.
I’m also shooting a pilot for NBC called Beautiful People written by Michael McDonald (“Cougar Town” and “MadTV”). It’s set in the future and it kind of deals with the same themes as Blade Runner and Battlestar Gallactica, not quite that far in the future and not so science fiction-y. It’s set in a world where we have created a subservient race of eight percent robot or mechanical and 92 percent human. It deals with the same themes that we are dealing with as a society right now, the kind of stuff that’s current. I’m really excited to be on what I think is a really great show. It’s a sci-fi show but not sci-fi. The way it’s going to be executed and the people working on it…it’s really exciting.
My guilty pleasure is Glee, mostly the earlier seasons because I love musical theater and I love all of the characters. It’s kind of like, it’s silly, it’s cheesy and very camp. My favorite character is Mercedes. Amber Riley—her voice is so gorgeous. I want her to come out with an album. She is fabulous and needs to come out with movies. She is sensational!
Bored to Death is also another show I love. It was on HBO and just got canceled. My boyfriend and I adore that show. It has Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson and Zack Galifianakis and Heather Burns. It has really funny guest stars.
It’s not just that I’m on the show, but I really like House of Lies, with Kristen Bell, Don Cheadle and Ben Shwartz. It’s really a smart, funny, sexy show. The writing is so good. It’s so smart, so really engaging.
I cannot live without music. Music is a pretty big part of my life and any time I haven’t been listening to music or singing or seeing music live, my life is just not as good. It’s as soon as I incorporate that in my life, any time my energy’s low, I know I can cheer myself if I can do a little bit of singing. It’s miraculous! I can come away feeling like another person. It’s fantastic.
Interviewed by Michelle Chang Photographed by Vince Trupsin Hair and Makeup by Amber Bruehl