Tonight on Showtime’s hit series SHAMELESS, Mandy Milkovich gets a call that her sister Molly, guest star Madison Moellers, needs her help.  Lip and Mandy set out on a road trip to change this little girl’s life, and what follows is nothing short of scandalous.  Earlier this week, I had the chance to talk with soon-to-be-ten-year-old Maddie Moellers, the brains behind the fantastic Influential Women of Hollywood, about what’s coming for her character Molly, and what she hopes to do next!

Really enjoying this season of SHAMELESS and I love the instant drama that your character brings to the table!
I’m really excited.  I’m not allowed to see it until I’m 17.

That has to be difficult to play a character where you can’t really watch everything else is going on!
My mom has cut up and fast forwarded to my scenes.

Talk about the role – was it a standard audition, or a script you read and really liked?
I got called in for an audition for it.  I went in – in the script, I can’t go into depth about it, obviously, but in the script, she has a bag that just has a few things in it.  It listed the few things in it, but I came into the audition holding a bag that has the exact things that they said were in it, and everyone else in the audition room looked at me like “what?”  I went into the audition and I got a call back and about two days or so after I got back to the house, and I got a call, and I screened.

It’s such an interesting character – talk a bit about who Molly is, how she’s introduced, without giving too much away?
Somethings about her – she is a really funny, but crazy, crazy girl.  I just loved playing her.  She’s a crazy, awesome character.  Playing with Emma Greenwell, my stage sister, was such a fun time. Playing all of that, really fun.  She’s kind of shy, but once she gets to know you, she’s nice and open.

Everybody on the show is so distinctive – immediately right away, we can see that Molly is going to be different than what we’ve seen.
Being to able to fly to Chicago and film that?  Little inside secret – all of our interiors are filmed in LA and our exteriors are filmed in Chicago.

It gives it a real sense of where the show is based – it gives you the sense that they’re living in the bad side of town.
My mom grew up on the south side of Chicago so she was able to tell me what had happened there.

Talk about getting into acting – was there one thing or moment where you said “Okay, this is what I want to do, let’s do this” or were you just bit with the bug early on?
I got into acting because 1, my mom is a model agent, and she took me on all of her business trips.  I’ve been on over 200 different planes.  We’d have dinner with managers and stuff, and ever since I was about 5 or so, my mom had been asked by different managers and actors about taking me out to California, but we never did.  But then one time, a manager asked, and he said, you really need to bring your kid to California, and my mom said, I guess we should try it.  We went out, found an agency, had some meetings, and I was going on auditions.  Just a really awesome thing.  Ever since I was really, really, really young, I’d always sing.  I would put on heels and stuff.  Me and my dad actually filmed a fake commercial one time.  I took one of my mom’s scouts, and I sat him down at a table, decked out in my little suit and stuff, and I had a meeting with him, and I discussed my acting future.  I really hope that I can make it, and just yeah, I love it out here.  I feel like this is where home is now!

Are there actors or actresses who you think, “that’s a career that I want to follow” or are there favorite roles?
Yes, actually, I love Jodie Foster.  Jodie Foster is such a role model to me.  I like getting out of the box roles, not every day roles you see all the time.  Obviously, Jodie Foster has that.  She is such a big mentor to me, and I loved her speech at the Golden Globes.  She is just such an amazing person.  And OBVIOUSLY, Miss Emmy Rossum is such an amazing person.  I just love those two.

How many episodes of SHAMELESS will we see you in?
I’m going to be in two episodes, Episodes 4 and 5.  This Sunday, 9:00, Showtime.  I’m just doing two.  I really that my character has a future in that show.  I just would love to be on it again.  I just had such a great time, and I really hope they bring my character back!

You say that you want to play characters that are a little out of the box, and this character definitely is.  Give us a little tease about why Episodes 4 and 5 are two that people should be watching?
Definitely, I can’t give away anything, but I definitely think you should watch to see the big secret surprise!  I loved being on that show, and I really want to do it again, and OBVIOUSLY, they are definitely looking for an audience response, so I’d love to get a good audience response [laughs].  It’s crazy – originally, my episode was set to air last Sunday and the next episode was set to air on this Sunday.  Now my first episode is this Sunday, and my next episode is the Sunday after that, anyway, but it was like, oh great, my first episode is the Super Bowl, and my second episode is The Grammys!  We were glad though because we realized if you watch SHAMELESS, you probably have a DVR [laughs].

Do you have other things coming up that we can look forward to?  What else are you working on?
I’m coming out soon on the show that based off the UK version, that’s coming out in the US, called MISTRESSES, and I have a recurring guest star on that.  And I do some voiceover, and I’m just going on auditions a lot.  I also Influential Women of Hollywood, which is my blog, and I’m doing some voice over for MONSTERS UNIVERSITY which is a sequel to MONSTERS, INC.  I just love doing my blog!

Talk about Influential Women of Hollywood – it’s so interesting that someone so young is exploring such a big topic!  Why did you want to do that?
They way that my blog started up, is that I was doing a school report on Laura Ziskin who was an amazing producer before she passed away from cancer.  So I did my school report on her, and I decided that I really wanted her to see this, and we talked to my agents and they said, you’re never going to get that to Laura Ziskin.  But my mom looked online, and surprisingly, the number that she called was Laura’s assistant.  We got her to look at it, and then Laura called me, and I said, I want to interview you for my blog, Influential Women of Hollywood, and my mom was in the background like, you have a blog?  [laughs]  I had realized that only 15% of executives, producers, directors, in Hollywood, is women.  Only 15%.  Then afterwards, I decided I was going to interview her.  It was so fun, so I decided to keep doing it!  Every time I interview someone, I do a written report about them!

Who is next on your list, or who is someone that you’d love to talk to?
I really want to do Amy Pascal, with Sony.  She has been awesome.  She was friends with Laura Ziskin when they threw Laura’s ashes onto Santa Monica Beach, and she told a story of that in one of her speeches.  She said that when she, and Laura’s daughter and husband went to throw the ashes, that all the dolphins jumped up and welcomed her!  I really want to do her for my third anniversary for my blog.  Laura was my very first interview and I was her last.  Laura has the same birthday, and we did the interview on her birthday.  Me and Laura and Lady Gaga all have the same birthday.  We did the interview on my birthday, and at the end of the interview, we had cupcakes on camera while we filmed singing Happy Birthday.  At the end of the video, we said Happy Birthday, Lady Gaga!  After Laura blew out her candle on her cupcake, her assistant brought over a mug full of frosting and a spoon.  Every year on her birthday, she doesn’t eat the cupcake; she just ate the frosting!  My interview with Sue Naegle with the president of HBO Entertainment is going to be posting this week.

Keep your eye on this girl – she is going places!