Why Erica Wilson From Resort To Love Looks So Familiar

The new movie "Resort to Love," featuring a singer who's down on her luck and then goes to sing at a resort in Mauritius where her ex turns out to be getting married, is currently in Netflix's Top 10. And if you love the sweetness of a happy ending, this might be the show you're planning to watch over the weekend. When you do, you're going to see an actress that you might recognize playing the lead character, Erica Wilson.

Christina Milian is an actress with a long list of credits to her name, but she's also a singer and performer and may be better known for her vocal stylings than her TV or movie work. She was even nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2004. If you were a certain age in 2002-2007, for example, you might have encountered her song, "Call Me, Beep Me," which was the theme song for Disney's animated series "Kim Possible." She's done animated series, video games, and was a Def Jam recording artist during that era as well. And, as a veteran in the music business, she's also been part of shows like "The Voice," where she interacted with fans as its social media correspondent, and "Dancing with the Stars," in which she was a contestant during Season 13. On-screen, her roles have also often utilized her singing and dancing talent.

If none of these ring a bell, perhaps you've encountered her in the many TV shows or movies she's done since she arrived on the scene in the mid-1990s. 

In the 2005 movie "Be Cool," which was based on the sequel to "Get Shorty" by Elmore Leonard, Milian plays pop star Linda Moon. She's a major part of the story in which Chili (John Travolta) enters the music industry, helping her with her dealings with her manager Raji (Vince Vaughn) and record executives like Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel) and Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer), along with the Russian mob. That's so can use her talents to save Edie Athens' (Uma Thurman) business. 

Although it had an amazing cast, director F. Gary Gray has said (via Deadline) that he was told to get the film a PG-13 rating at the last minute, a condition that meant the movie lost all its edge. Despite never getting as good traction as its predecessor, the film was a wonderful opportunity for Milian. She reportedly auditioned along with hundreds of other women, including some big names, to get the role, in which she also performs with Aerosmith. Despite having two records under her belt and another movie in theaters at the time ("Man of the House"), Milian said she was starstruck. "It's hard to stay in character when you're standing next to John Travolta. Or Vince Vaughn is joking with you, and I'm like, 'I'm in a conversation with you? This is nuts,'" she told the Spokane Spokesman-Review. 

"Bring It On, the fun 2000 flick starring Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku, spawned a low-budget franchise featuring different sets of cheerleaders, with most of the sequels going direct-to-video or airing on ABC Family. Milian was the star of the fifth movie, "Bring It On: Fight to the Finish," which came out in 2009. "I think the fact that I'm a little more petite and compact, somehow early on my life I must have been meant to be a cheerleader in some way or some form. Maybe not in real life, but I got to do it in movies. It was pretty perfect for this film," she told Fitzness.com. She said they did a month of intense training for the movie and she had to learn 20 different routines. 

Milian played Lina Cruz, who moves from East Los Angeles to a Malibu school where she quickly becomes captain of the Sea Lions, their not-particularly inspiring cheer squad. She faces off with Avery (Rachele Brooke Smith), head of the much more solid Jaguars squad, and drama ensues — especially when she falls for Avery's brother Evan (Cody Longo). The film gave fans what they wanted from the more formulaic sequels to the original film: namely, a beat you can dance to and the choreo to go with it.

For the record, this wasn't Milian's first time playing such a role. She also played a popular cheerleader in the 2003 movie "Love Don't Cost a Thing," a remake of 1987's teen comedy "Can't Buy Me Love."

You may recall that in 2016, Fox decided to do a remake of/tribute to the iconic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" from 1975. It had the same plot, but featured some additional wrap-around scenes designed to help introduce the fan audience interaction elements that have been incorporated into the midnight theater showings of the film. While you might think something like this would be a great live production, such as with the network's "Grease: Live," it was not for some reason. It received mixed to negative reviews (with a 27 percent Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes) overall. The production featured Tim Curry, the original "sweet transvestite," and was directed by Kenny Ortega ("Xanadu," "High School Musical"). 

It turns out, Christina Milian is a fan of the original. "At the end of the day to be standing side by side in a film that I've grown up watching, my Mom has, it's a big deal, and it's an honor and a pleasure to be able to work with such great talent," she revealed to Broadway World. Her version of Magenta is actually more manipulative and malignant than the original character.

More recently, Christina Milian has apparently found her niche in warm and fuzzy romantic comedies set in distant locations, like "Resort to Love." Her last Netflix rom-com was 2019's "Falling Inn Love," a hit for the streaming service that had her in a similar situation. She plays Gabriela Diaz, who wins a fixer-upper inn in New Zealand. She goes there and teams up with local restorer Jake Taylor (Adam Demos) to put the hotel back into shape. Milian, discussing why the script appealed to her with Refinery 29, said, "It was a feel-good script when I read it. There were so many funny moments that I found myself giggling out loud. It didn't feel like a sappy rom-com. Whenever you want more goat, it pops up out of nowhere."

Goat? Yep, there are goats in this movie. And the two leads apparently shared a ton of chemistry, which helped sell the film to Netflix viewers everywhere. But Milian has done other similar films, like the Hallmark Channel's "Memories of Christmas" from 2018. She plays a San Francisco financier, who returns to Michigan — not as exotic as her Netflix rom-com locations, but very picturesque during the winter season — to attend an annual Christmas charity gala established by her late mother and to sell her childhood home. She experiences joy coming home and finding a new love, played by Mark Taylor. 

So don't be surprised if you see her in roles like this in the future: she's perfect for them, and if they keep doing well for Netflix, you can definitely expect more.