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@ItaliaRicci Dishes on @ChasingLifeABCF’s Fall Finale and More – Read Our Q&A! (#ChasingLife #RenewChasingLife @SEANSMITH74)

ITALIA RICCI

April Carver has been put through the wringer in this second season of Chasing Life.

She got married, she lost her husband, she discovered the truth behind her father’s death, she found out her best friend is pregnant and she’s still in a battle for her life.

What can we expect from tonight’s fall finale?

CelebSecrets4U caught up with Italia Ricci, who plays April Carver, to get you the answer!

“We can expect some baby daddy drama,” Italia said. “We can expect another love triangle, sort of, for Brenna. We can expect some more dad secrets from the Carver family. We can expect some vicious Olivia scenes. We can expect some Dapril drama and we can expect to see April in a mind frame that you’ve never seen her before.”

The actress also told us what it’s been like channeling the character of April this season, what she would title her own memoir and what is was like having her fiancé, Robbie Amell guest star on the show. She also shares some wedding details and her idea of a perfect day off set — make sure to check out the full interview below!

In tonight’s finale “La Dolce Vita,” all signs point April to Rome — from the Italian honeymoon that never happened to the unchecked item on her bucket list. Caught up in the midst of family drama, April faces too many distractions that keep her from making progress on her book. Will April find the inspiration she seeks in Rome or will this trip lead her down another path?

Meanwhile, Brenna receives devastating news from Finn.

Chasing Life airs Monday, September 28th at 9PM ET/PT on ABC Family.

Check out some clips and stills from tonight’s episode below.

CS4U: You are absolutely phenomenal in this role. How have you been channeling April’s character this season. Have you had to approach her differently than you did in season one?

Italia Ricci: “I feel like I didn’t really change her too much until the loss of Leo. Then I sort of had to make her, I felt like I wanted to harden her a little bit, you know. Take away, or build up I guess, a wall a little bit because she was so devastated and it just sort of like kind of paralyzed her a little bit as far as emotional development. I didn’t know that was coming up in the season so I just sort of continued playing April in her new adventures in the first half of the season and once that happened I sort of, I just had to focus on hardening all of her moments and her reactions and her scenes just to make it, you know, because the pain doesn’t just go away. It just slowly, you can chip away at it by continuing to live your life and so that was the hardest part about the second part of the season was to just maintain having this wall because before it was more like me just being me in April’s universe and then having to consciously sort of like flex every time I was performing just to keep it from being the same lovable, personable April because even though you’re not talking about that moment I feel like that’s something that just doesn’t go away. That’s something that stays with you for a very long time.”

CS4U: April just revealed in this week’s episode the title of her memoir, which is going to be called “Chasing Life.” If you were to write your own memoir, what would you title it?

Italia Ricci: “Chasing Cheese.”

CS4U: I like that a lot. 

Italia Ricci: (Laughs)

CS4U: So you’re fiancé, Robbie Amell, guest starred on the show. How much fun was it to have him on set? 

Italia Ricci: “Oh my god, yes (laughs). It was so funny. Oh my god. It was actually, so we always kind of like cameo in each other’s stuff when we can like just because we’re always visiting and if there’s a little role it’s like hey jump in there sort of thing, like I did a little piece of The Duff that you would only know if you were paying attention to it, and he had done some pieces on Unnatural History, which was a show I was on a while ago and I did some True Jackson, so we always kind of try and do little things here and there, but this was our first scene where we actually had to speak together. We met on a movie but we only had to kiss in the movie. We didn’t actually have to speak to each other so this was our first scene where we actually got to exchange words. It was really fun.”

CS4U: You guys have also live tweeted together, so I know he watches the show. Does he like the show? Has that ever gotten awkward for you, especially with the love scenes?

Italia Ricci: “Oh totally. I try to cover his eyes and then we sort of just growl at each other and then eat another slice of pizza and we’re fine.”

CS4U: You’re planning a wedding right now and we know you got your dress when you were filming the episode with the wedding dresses. Have you made any more decisions? How’s the planning going?

Italia Ricci: “I have the venue. I have the dress and I have the guy. Everything else is still sort of up in the air (laughs). It’s probably going to be the big fairytale sort of wedding that I pretended that I didn’t want but this nine-year-old girl inside me is super excited to have.”

CS4U: How do you leverage your visibility to inspire others or bring awareness to all of the issues the show addresses, including cancer?

Italia Ricci: “Well, I feel like the show on its own really does that. I don’t really think that there’s very much I can do as far as teaching anybody anything because my experience sort of extends as far as the show and into some of my volunteering and advocacy work, but I think the show does a really good job of showing every role within a world where somebody is fighting, you know caretaker and the siblings and the friends and the co-workers and then the person itself and the doctors, the doctor side of the situation, you know, so I feel like somebody who needs to understand or to see somebody dealing with what they’re dealing with there’s somebody representing them on the show. The best work that I could be doing is just spreading awareness and, you know, make sure you’re getting checked. Make sure you’re never assuming that something is what it is. Always go to the doctor. Always get a second opinion. Spread awareness about the types of cancers that are out there, how to avoid them, preventative measures and then, you know, I do a lot of fundraising. I work primarily with Stand Up to Cancer and Stupid Cancer and I’m right now collaborating with this clothing line called Good Human to design a couple of pieces that are going to launch this fall so they’ll be pieces by me that will benefit Stand Up to Cancer. Little things that I can do that like and there’s always the telethon. I still feel like I’m not doing anything like I’m not doing enough. I should always be doing more.”

CS4U: What would your perfect day off of work be like?

Italia Ricci: “Hmm…pizza and my backyard with my dogs and my fiancé and maybe the pool. I’m a really big fan of not doing anything. If I could stay in bed all day with Netflix and have somebody deliver pizza to my bed, I would be very happy.”

CS4U: Since we are CelebSecrets4U, can you tell us a secret about yourself that the fans may not know or maybe something that happened on set this past season?

Italia Ricci: “A secret…oooh okay so it’s not really a secret. Okay, so it’s no secret that I’m a big fan of McDonald’s, so when we were filming the episode with the funeral I was so upset on set that I actually had a couple of my crew felt so bad that I couldn’t stop crying in between scenes so much that they brought me McDonald’s and tried to like cheer me up by bringing me my favorite foods and I couldn’t even eat them. That’s how hard that episode was to film.”

CS4U: Aww, that was very sweet of your crew.

Italia Ricci: “Yeah, they’re the best.”

Photos: Adam Taylor/ABC Family

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