The most alarming thing about Christa B. Allen is that – at least as far as the eye can see – she has no dark side.
When you factor in Christa’s line of work (she’s an actress on a hugely successful television drama) that absence of darkness becomes surprising. And when you throw in the things the character she plays has been through and done, it seems almost impossible that Christa is all sweetness. But that contradiction, that refusal to fit a stereotype, just may be the most refreshing thing about her.
Christa swears she has little in common with her onscreen alter ego. “We’ve grown up so differently,” she says of Charlotte Grayson, the character she plays on ABC’s Revenge. “Her family is just absolutely off their rockers and I’d like to think that my family – as dysfunctional as every family is – is quite loving and supportive and nobody is trying to beat each other down.”
On television Christa plays an intriguing mix of steel and honey. Her life is one of excruciating privilege, but there’s a great deal of pain that comes tied to that extravagance, and it drives the character to some dire actions. “I had quite a loving environment and I can’t say the same for Charlotte,” Christa, who grew up on the south side of LA says. For such a well-adjusted girl, playing a character whose indiscretions range from dating a boy from the “wrong side of the tracks” to overdosing on pills has to be a challenge. Yet Christa is all positivity when it comes to her job “She’s such a lovely and complicated character,” she says. “There are so many wonderful things to work with. I just feel really blessed that I’ve been given so many things to do on the show.”
The 21- year-old actress manages to stay in the media’s good graces – unlike many of her celebrity peers, she never seems to cross into indecent territory. Although Revenge is set in Hamptons, it films in Hollywood, and Christa has found a place for herself in that world. “I really love everyone I work with,” she says. She considers onscreen love interest Connor Paolo a close friend, but she has the most in common with her British costar Ashley Madekwe. “We’ve just got a lot in common. We love fashion and clothes and going out and having fun and dancing.”
When it comes to fashion, Christa has an eye for everything, from shoes to bags to clothes. “It’s terrible. If you’re going to be into designer you have to give some consideration into what will be your investment pieces,” she says. She tends to favor pieces by Dior, and she looks to fellow stars for inspiration. “I’ve always thought Olivia Palermo is flawless,” she says. “I still don’t know exactly who she is or what she does but the girl can dress.”
Christa, who describes herself as feminine, tends to appear onscreen in girly little dresses, and she sparkles in them. She describes her favorite onscreen look as “the pink and white Dior confection Charlotte wore in season one.” With her long brown locks, flawlessly clear skin and enviably huge eyes, Christa’s look is one of pure youthful vitality. Like everything else in her life, her beauty regime is free of fuss. She swears by the classic bits of advice: always wash your face and keep a good diet.
Christa credits her gig on Revenge as her biggest project to date. Despite the horror stories that abound about the Hollywood casting process, Christa calls her process of snagging the coveted role “strangely simple”. She had a one-day break while filming another project so she went to a ten-minute test for Revenge, and that was all it took. Perhaps it’s because she perfectly embodies the less apparent side of Charlotte’s character – the lovely, wide-eyed innocence that could easily get lost in moments of turmoil. Because of the actress who plays her, it’ easy to root for Charlotte Grayson, even when she develops a taste for rebellion.
There was nothing complicated about Christa’s path to small screen success, and her decision to pursue this career was equally simple. She’s wanted to be an actress since she was seven years old – the idea just struck and she went for it, guns blazing, from that point forward. In 2004, she landed a role in the popular film 13 Going on 30. She hasn’t looked back since. “For the most honest version of yourself, you can sometimes look to your childhood, before you were trained by society to think a certain way,” she says, and there’s wisdom beyond her years in that small statement.
Christa is full of the kind of optimism that only a girl who has realized her seven-year-old dreams so early in life can truly posses. “If you’re meant to do it, you won’t find it difficult at all,” she says. “I don’t have steady hands nor the patience to study for twelve years. But if I did, I would find being a brain surgeon very simple. If you’re going to find the trouble in everything, you should probably find something else to do. You have to love what you do.”
That’s the thing about Christa – instead of complaining about never having had a normal life or the burdens of fame or the stresses of long work days, she’s just grateful and – most amazing of all – she’s happy.