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Five-0 Redux

Elizabeth a class act

For someone who grew up wanting to join Doctor’s Without Borders rather than dreaming of television stardom, actress Keiko Elizabeth seems to have definitely found a bit of limelight in her life.

Former Hilo, Hawaii resident, actress Keiko Elizabeth. (Courtesy Keiko Elizabeth)
Former Hilo resident Keiko Elizabeth. (Courtesy photo)

Many “Hawaii Five-0” fans were introduced to Elizabeth when she guest-starred as Principal Ann Fiske in “Nā hala a ka makua” (“Sins of the Father”). Her scene with Scott Caan and Teilor Grubbs let Elizabeth show off her former life as a tough teacher — her character had to inform protective Daddy Danno (Caan) that his sweet Gracie (Grubbs) punched another student — and she was spot-on as an effective, yet nurturing administrator.

Elizabeth is no stranger to troubled kids — she taught middle school students in San Francisco as they transitioned out of juvenile hall.

For several years, Elizabeth lived in Hawaii, where she worked at the University of Hawaii at Hilo as well as the locally famous Two Ladies Kitchen. It was there she started acting, with her first role at Palace Theatre in a production of “The Wizard of Oz.”

“From the moment of the first rehearsal I knew I wanted to pursue acting professionally,” said Elizabeth. After receiving a MFA in Acting from California State University-Fullerton, she has been fortunate to have worked on “Days of our Lives” and guest-starred on TV Land comedy “Hot in Cleveland” alongside Betty White and Valerie Bertinelli. She also is a member of Theatre of NOTE, a theatre company in Los Angeles where she is producing “Disassembly,” which opened this week.

Elizabeth was kind enough to share her experiences on the ‘Five-0’ set, as well as her reaction to working with Caan and Grubbs and director Peter Weller.

“My scene was the first scene of the day to be shot, which meant that I was in hair and makeup super early,” she said. “We shot at Sacred Hearts Academy. The students were in school that day, so we wanted to shoot in the morning while all the girls were in class.

“We used the actual headmaster’s office, wood paneling and everything. I thought it was a great location. The desk was very big; they actually had to give me an apple box to put my feet on so (they) could reach the ground!

Actress Keiko Elizabeth on the "Hawaii Five-0" set. (Courtesy Keiko Elizabeth)
Keiko Elizabeth on the “Hawaii Five-0” set. (Courtesy photo)

“They were shooting so many location shots that day, so at the school location it was just me, Scott, Teilor, and the woman playing the secretary, Jackie Tufa-Marques.

“In between takes we talked story a lot; Scott is pretty funny and loves to joke around. He and Teilor have a great relationship and are so cute together.

“Between camera set-ups they would bring in our stand-ins and had us wait in a music room. I brought spam musubis and Teilor and I tried to get Scott to eat one.

“Scott brought his dog, Dot, to set and had her do tricks for us while we were waiting. I’ve never seen a dog jump so high! We had a good time,” she said.

Elizabeth also talked a lot about working with director Peter Weller.

“Going into the shoot, I was a big fan of Peter Weller, who is a fantastic actor in his own right,” she said.“He was ‘RoboCop!’ I was such a fan girl when I met him, but I was trying to be cool. He was so kind, and even though they were on a very tight schedule he made everyone feel like they were the most important person in the room.”  

The Stanford University graduate was definitely a pro when it came to her performance on “Hawaii Five-0.” I thought it was funny how she scolded Danny for trying to “excuse” violence. Elizabeth is definitely a class act, on screen and off. I asked how she was cast and she shared a bit about her experience in Los Angeles.

“I got a call from my agent the evening before to go in and read for (casting director) Jennifer Cooper,” Elizabeth said. “I was actually running from another audition to their office, so I was a little late. And you know, as an actor you just never know what the audition will be like, what the waiting room will be like.

“For this particular role, producers clearly wanted to see a bunch of different types — there was a 50-year-old African-American man in the waiting room, an older Asian man, an Indian woman, and me, all … at the same time! I found out I was ‘on avail’ for the part the next day (i.e. you are on the short list for the role), but didn’t hear officially until the following week that they wanted to book me.”

If nothing else, it was a good choice to pick Elizabeth, since she looked like an educator — and definitely like someone from Hawaii.

"Hawaii Five-0" star Scott Caan on location with guest actress Keiko Elizabeth. (Courtesy Keiko Elizabeth)
Scott Caan and Keiko Elizabeth. (Courtesy photo)

While Elizabeth may have looked and acted the part of Principal Fiske perfectly, she has had some great experiences on other productions. She has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 2011 and her first TV gig was a small — but very educational — role on “Days of our Lives.”

“It was a really great first experience,” she said. “Daytime television actors work their tails off. They shoot so many pages a day, sometimes very emotionally grueling scenes, and they are so focused and hard working. I learned a lot from watching them.”

Elizabeth said working with Betty White on “Hot in Cleveland” was “a fantastic experience as well.”

“It was my first time doing a show that is taped in front of a live studio audience, so it was like the best of television and the best of theatre rolled up into one fun experience. Betty White was charming, welcoming, and so hilarious. The writers actually had to cut her from most of the scenes in that episode because she got very sick at the beginning of the week. But she was there for the taping and of course the audience just loved her.

“It was really interesting throughout the week to see how the script would change. The writers would gather together after each run through and add lines, remove bits and hone the funny until Friday night (when) the script was just crackling! I was getting rewrites of my lines until a few hours before taping, and it really kept me fresh and on my toes,” Elizabeth said.

Right now, Elizabeth is working on a 10-episode webseries called “Manny in Real Life” with award-winning filmmaker Salvador Paniagua.

“I’m producing the series with (Paniagua) and I have a guest appearance in one of the episodes as well,” she said. “We’ll begin releasing episodes in mid-March.”

Follow Elizabeth via her website and on Twitter.

REDUX SIDE NOTE

While there was no “Hawaii Five-0” replay this week on CBS, there is a new episode on Feb. 28. “Pale ʻia” will feature Melanie Griffith as Danny’s mother, Clara Williams.
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Wendie Burbridge is a published author, playwright and teacher. Reach her via Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

12 responses to “Elizabeth a class act”

  1. Angela Gerstner says:

    While I must admit that Keiko Elizabeth’s character on H50 (even though she definitely did a fantastic job!) did not leave the kind of lasting impression or memory that did Kainulu Hecomovich’s performance as the “crazy guy” (I’m referring to a former episode and blog about a guest actor), she got my full attention when I read on her website that she wanted to change the world and join the terrific organization “Doctors without borders” when she was younger. It speaks in favor of her to have had this kind of objective in life – even though she ultimately decided to become an actress after realizing that acting is where her true talent lies and what she enjoys doing the most.

    I always love getting a behind-the-scenes look at my favorite show when actors tell us about their experiences at working for H50 and with the main cast – in this case the humorful “dog daddy” Scott.
    But I also loved to hear what she said about her work with Betty White because Mrs. White is absolutely wonderful and so much fun to watch. Actually, I’d love to see her on “Hawaii Five-0” – She would be perfect as Danno’s aunt or a female version of Ed Asner’s August March 😉
    I wished Peter would read this 🙂

    Mahalo for another great blog, Wendie – and lots of success to Keiko Elizabeth for her career!

  2. Dina says:

    I love when you get the inside scoops!!! thanks so much Wendie and thank you to Keiko ;=)

  3. LindaStein says:

    Thanks for another great inside look at Five-0 and their guest stars. Can’t leave a long comment this time as I’m doing this on my cell phone with my goofy thumbs but it was so great to hear about this actress and her ambitions and decisions to go into acting. Nice to hear about the interaction between she and Scott, Teilor, Peter Weller and, of course, Dot. Funny how she and Teilor tried to get Scott to eat the spam musubis. When I was on Oahu our friend Lisa gave me one of those. I found all kinds of wonderful foods while I was there that I had never tried before that I LOVED but I have to admit, after a couple of bites, I can safely say spam musubis aren’t for me either! LOL

    Thanks again for the wonderful article. Better than the morning paper every Saturday morning! Aloha!

  4. Terry FiveOs says:

    I KNEW she’d been an educator! LOL. She had so much authority in the role.

  5. AGREED !!!! *sigh* mwah Linda !

  6. thank you thank you thank you Wendie !! 🙂
    love reading it !
    XO

  7. joesmith10280 says:

    Yes it was. Anytime i see his name i will state same. Bet I know where you take it.

    • LindaStein says:

      You have no idea where I take anything, sir! And I have no desire to continue interacting with you at all.

    • painkills2 says:

      Tsk, tsk, Mr. Smith, are you getting yourself into trouble again? Being all personal, and up in people’s business.

      What, did Mr. Caan turn down your offer to sleep with him? Look, there are plenty of other fish in the sea — no need to throw a hissy fit.

  8. pauldunn1 says:

    Wendie,
    Thank you again for a great post with additional background insight to our show. According to our local paper, there is a new ep for this coming Friday (say good by to the Olympics).
    Paul

  9. painkills2 says:

    Let’s see, I had two posts “removed” from this website for no reason whatsoever. I will post this one and see if the same things happens…

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