Las Vegan's Acting Career Gains Power With New Role As A Ranger

From: Las Vegas Review- Journal
Tuesday March 23, 1999
By: John Przybys

Cerina Vincent left Las Vegas about a year-and-a-half ago to try her hand as an actress in Los Angeles. It's been working out well. Vincent has done a few commercials, she's filmed a part in a not-yet-released movie, and she landed a guest spot on a popular teen TV show. Vincent is flirting with not just mere stardom, but status as a full-fledged TV icon: She's become an actual, authentic Power Ranger. Vincent plays Maya, the Yellow Ranger, in "Power Rangers Lost Galaxy," the latest chapter of the long-running Mighty Morphin Power Rangers saga, which airs at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on the Fox Kids Network and, in Las Vegas, KVVU-TV, Channel 5. Talking about her newfound fame during a recent telephone interview, it's obvious -- even though the occasional hint of exhaustion that crept into her voice at the end of a day that began at 4 a.m. -- Vincent is enjoying it ll immensely.
Vincent, 20, was born in Las Vegas and has been performing since she was a kid. "My mom's a dance teacher, so I've always loved performing," she explains. In fact, one of her earliest roles was in a production at Diskin Elementary School. "It was a little Christmas play, and I memorized everyone's lines in the play," Vincent recalls, laughing. "My parents thought that was bizarre. I loved it so much that my mom was, like, 'Maybe you should try this.' " From sixth-grade through her freshman year of high school, Vincent appeared in Rainbow Company productions and, she says, "I did a little acting and modeling." At 16, Vincent won the Miss Nevada Teen USA pageant, an experience she says reaffirmed her desire to pursue a career in entertainment. "That was always in the back of my mind," she admits, "but I never told anyone about it but my mom."
After graduating from Durango High School in 1997, Vincent moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at Marymount College in Palos Verdes on a scholarship. She fit almost-daily auditions in between her classes, but still ended her freshman year with a 4.0 grade point average. "I didn't sleep much," she explains. Vincent found an agent during her freshman year and did commercials for MTV, a hair care product and Honda. She also landed her first speaking television role, as a flirtatious high school student on the USA cable network series "USA High."
"It was very exciting," Vincent says. "I came out here to see if this was what I wanted to do and, after I did that, I realized that this is exactly what I want to do." Vincent also won a role in a movie, "Fear Runs Silent," a teen-oriented thriller starring Billy Dee Williams and Stacy Keach. "I'm kind of the bratty, snotty one," she says with a laugh. "I was really lucky," Vincent says. "Out of 100 auditions, you get, maybe, one part. So you really have to stick with it, which was hard with school." "When I was filmed the movie, it was at the end of the school year last year and it was during finals, but I wasn't going to turn down this movie. And even though I had straight A's in all my classes, I didn't want to fail." The movie was filmed in Big Bear, Calif., often at night, Vincent says, and, on a few nights, "I had to drive home at 4 in the morning to take a test at 7 a.m."
Last fall, Vincent transferred to Santa Monica College. "It was less expensive," she says. "and it's a better location for auditions." Vincent was scheduled to begin winter term classes Jan. 4. Instead, she spent the day on the set of "Power Rangers Lost Galaxy." Vincent originally auditioned for the series last fall. After a few subsequent auditions, she learned late last year that she won the role of the Yellow Ranger. The series' plot places the new Power Rangers on a space colony called Terra Venture. Vincent plays an alien from, series publicity materials explain, "a distant planet outside the universe." When Scorpius -- the bad guy of the piece -- turns her planet into stone, Maya joins the Power Rangers. "I'm this jungle girl stuck on the Terra Venture ship," Vincent explains. "Somewhere along the line we pull swords from a stone and all become Power Rangers." "Actually, playing the part of a jungle girl isn't that easy," Vincent adds with a laugh. "On an upcoming episode, I devour a cake, and I do things I'd never do. It's good, though, because I'm usually playing the part of a high school girl. It's a challenge." Still, Vincent has found that playing a superhero isn't exactly like playing the typical teen-ager. "We'll be on location and I'll be running through the forest, and they're, like, 'No, run like you're a superhero!'" she says, laughing. "I'm, like, 'Oh. That's right.' It's so much fun. It's like a game." Vincent admits that she hadn't watched previous versions of the Power Rangers series. "I wonder sometimes if that's better, because you really don't want to have any preconceived ideas," she says. "When you go to auditions, you give them what you have to offer, not comparing yourself to, 'Oh, what did the other rangers do?'"
Nor did Vincent truly appreciate the Power Rangers' popularity and fans' devotion to the series. Shortly after "Power Rangers Lost Galaxy" premiered Feb. 6, Vincent began to receive fan mail. "I didn't know what to expect at all," Vincent says. "Every day, I'm more and more amazed when they hand me all the mail -- 'Here's your fan mail,' like it's no big deal. I'm, like, 'Are you kidding? You're kidding me.'" "I've been getting some fan mail from little kids. And, actually, what's amazing is, it's not even little kids. Some of them are 22 years old, and Power Rangers is directed to kids 2 to 8 or something like that." However, Vincent hasn't yet had to deal with being recognized on the street. As Maya, "they put a wig on me so I have really long, ratty jungle hair," Vincent explains. "And, I wear this jungle outfit and not a whole lot of makeup, so I look like a nature girl. In real life I have shorter hair. I went to Disneyland and nobody recognized me."
Vincent works some long days -- 12 hours a day, five days a week isn't unusual, she says -- and, for now, has put college on hold. But she enjoys working on the show and says she's excited about the opportunities that may result from it. "It's fun," she says. "Since I left Las Vegas, I swear, each month my life is changing, Before Christmas, I was telling my mom my goal before the year 2000 is, hopefully, to get a series. That's what I wanted to do in '99, and I got (this part), I think, Jan. 1." What's next? "I don't know," Vincent answers. "I just know I want to keep going. I'm just hoping things will move to films and whatever. Who knows? In another two years (when her Power Rangers contract is up) maybe I'll want to go back to school." But, for now, "it's kind of like it's a dream," Vincent says. "This is too good to be true. I'm having so much fun, everybody's so great and we're all such friends that I love going to work." Vincent laughs. "I don't even care if I have to get up at 4 a.m."