Gather round, folks, as we share hearty laughs and candid insights with the tremendously talented Stephanie Hodge. We weave through her fascinating journey, she shares an incredible story about how friendship bloomed between her and Brian Plaideau on Facebook. This leads to a compelling discussion about how she navigated her way in the film industry. With a twist of humor, she shares the moment she had to cold-read a script that marked her arrival in the industry. All while grappling comments on her appearance from agents, which she amusingly turned into stepping stones to prove herself.
Amid hearty laughter, we delve into the influence of her small-town upbringing. It's a poignant journey of how humor turned into her shield, her foray into prop comedy, and the priceless role her parents had in shaping her humor. But it's not all sunshine and roses, Stephanie recounts the arduous journey an unlikely allergy to cocaine discovered in the '80s - all with a chuckle, of course.
We dive into the hustle-bustle of acting auditions, the advent of self-taping, and the crucial role of Actors Access during the pandemic. We share our personal family tales, and Stephanie adds a dash of humor to her family's first encounter with Judaism. This episode is the perfect blend of hearty laughs, personal anecdotes, and invaluable insights into the enigmatic world of the film industry. Tune in, and prepare to be entertained and enlightened, all at the same time!
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U
Gather round, folks, as we share hearty laughs and candid insights with the tremendously talented Stephanie Hodge. We weave through her fascinating journey, she shares an incredible story about how friendship bloomed between her and Brian Plaideau on Facebook. This leads to a compelling discussion about how she navigated her way in the film industry. With a twist of humor, she shares the moment she had to cold-read a script that marked her arrival in the industry. All while grappling comments on her appearance from agents, which she amusingly turned into stepping stones to prove herself.
Amid hearty laughter, we delve into the influence of her small-town upbringing. It's a poignant journey of how humor turned into her shield, her foray into prop comedy, and the priceless role her parents had in shaping her humor. But it's not all sunshine and roses, Stephanie recounts the arduous journey an unlikely allergy to cocaine discovered in the '80s - all with a chuckle, of course.
We dive into the hustle-bustle of acting auditions, the advent of self-taping, and the crucial role of Actors Access during the pandemic. We share our personal family tales, and Stephanie adds a dash of humor to her family's first encounter with Judaism. This episode is the perfect blend of hearty laughs, personal anecdotes, and invaluable insights into the enigmatic world of the film industry. Tune in, and prepare to be entertained and enlightened, all at the same time!
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U
Hey, welcome to NoLa film scene. I'm Plato, I'm.
Speaker 2:TJ.
Speaker 1:You've already heard, our special guest is Stephanie Hodge, comedian actress extraordinaire.
Speaker 3:I'm so excited. I'm so excited to do this. Thank you for having me on this. I'm really excited.
Speaker 1:It's a thrill for me to let people know. Okay, stephanie and I met on Facebook, you know. I reached out and I said, hey, let's be friends.
Speaker 3:And she was like okay weirdo and then I was hopeful. I was hoping that that was a weirdo and yes, I'm glad I could deliver, I'm not disappointed at all.
Speaker 1:I tend to be a puppy dog in my enthusiasm about the projects that I'm doing, so I would send Stephanie hey, here's a clip from the time I worked background. Hey, here's a clip from this. You know, hey, I'm working on a podcast. Would you like to join us? And she's like hey, I can definitely say we sparked up a friendship almost immediately.
Speaker 3:Yes, I will say because I knew you forever, to. That's strange.
Speaker 2:But I think, I think Brian can make friends with a fence post Personally you say that, but that's a fence post out there.
Speaker 1:That's son of a bitch he was mean to you.
Speaker 2:He's just trying to crawl up as a has.
Speaker 3:Did I say that?
Speaker 1:Did I do that? No, that's a whole nother story. It wasn't a fence post, but anyway it was camp.
Speaker 3:What do you want?
Speaker 1:We've all been to camp, but it's camp been to you, but anyway. So I just tried to keep it myself on track, because we're gonna go out into the next atmosphere, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:Anything to keep me from talking to TJ, but you know, Well, I'm gonna read you something. I was gonna hold it off a little bit and this was an interaction. Anybody who knows me, I was in a Joe Badon film called the Wheel of Heaven and I played the character of death. But we had a Kickstarter going and I was reaching out to anybody to help us promote it Not that you're just anybody, but anybody I knew. Well, you gotta reach out to anybody. Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1:And when I say, ma'am, I've had people get mad at me from other parts of the country.
Speaker 2:I know Southern, southern thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've had ladies go. I'm not a ma'am yet, I'm like, true, but I'll call somebody younger than me ma'am, you know it's. You know, blah, blah, blah, I do it. I do it to women too Cool, which confuses them, excellent. So I had reached out to Stephanie. I said could you share this? She tried and then couldn't do it. So on a Facebook post I said oh, by the way, we raised our funding.
Speaker 1:This was like a month or so after and you said yay, I'm so glad. I tried to post what you sent me on Messenger but couldn't do it. Complain to Facebook, who ignores me unless I post famous news by famous artists. Facebook is an asshole. But yay, I said, thanks for trying. You replied with well, honey, and I mean that in a way I call my people who I really care about. I'm pissed off about it, but I appreciate how kind you are being. You're a good man. I responded I understand and I'm touched by what you said and when the police ask, I'll point you the doll and show them where you touched me. Your response was I am fucking screaming, my husband said. I went from an oh that's so sweet face to other blank to hysterical laughing and last, on the second. We've been friends ever since. Yes.
Speaker 3:And you're amazing. I mean the work, and you, TJ, you're doing it too. All this work that you're doing is so important.
Speaker 3:It's so important and I went to college for it and I went to graduate school for theater and acting and all that. And I didn't finish graduate school. I was one credit short because my master teacher said coming to school, to graduate school, for a master's degree is a good thing to do, but you're done, go be, go be and do. You don't need to spend the money, you don't need to hang out, go now. So I did One credit, one love. I should have stayed. No, but it's one of those things where you just you've decided this is what you're going to do and you're doing the work to do it. And I'm really impressed and I have no right to be proud of anybody but myself and my child, because you know everything she is because of me.
Speaker 2:She's good, but not to do for me.
Speaker 3:But I'm really, really proud just to see two people working this hard and doing all the right things and click it all the right boxes. Because the day is going to come when you're going to walk into an agents office and this happened to me and they're going to have a pillow on their sofa that says, dear Lord, send me an actor who can act. And that's not a good vibe to walk into by any stretch. And his office was probably the size of a single wide cut and half and stuffed with antique furniture, beautiful furniture. But I sat down and he looked at me and he said you don't look like anything. You don't look like anyone and I can't identify you as a wife, a girlfriend, a mother, a friend. I can't identify you as anything. And I looked at him and said well, what do you want me to look like and what do you want me to be? And as soon as I get direction, I have a tendency to do that and be that because I was not impressed by this at all. So he hands me a script.
Speaker 3:Cold read. This Doesn't tell me anything. It's a short scene. It's four pages long. I don't know what the title is. I don't know if it's a comedy, a tragedy, I know nothing, nothing. Except he hates the way I look. We know this. He's not expecting anything positive from this, because we know that from the pillow. And he's just a little picky you because he got a tiny ass office. Come on, better much. I've had offices in the past and I know they're smaller. They are the hardest things to go with. No disrespect to him, but that was my first taste was to cold read something that was a drama that I read as it didn't even let me read it. Before I read it, I didn't get to go over it.
Speaker 3:And these are the tests. These are the tests. And it's like I told a friend of mine as a writer, they just want you to cry. As an actress, they just want you to stomp out of the room and feel miserable for the next six months. So you can't let them do that. You can't let them do any of that to you, because they're not thinking. All they want is what they want and they can't see or hear anything else unless they don't know what they want. Which means you can change their mind. You can make them want you and nobody else.
Speaker 3:You can actually do that, but it just depends on where their mind is and what they're thinking about, and if their kid vomited in the car on the way to school or not, or if they got laid last night or the wife said no, you know, and it's all these things, and you guys know this. You already know all this. So you're way ahead. You are way ahead. I didn't expect anybody to be just plain mean to me, you know, and he was mean to me. Then, a couple of years later, he called me and said you know, I'm interested in you now. And I went. Oh my God, I'm sorry. The Lord sent me an agent who can agent. Yay me for being sarcastic and bitchy.
Speaker 2:I thought it was well said.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he deserved it. He was mean to me. He made me feel terrible about myself. You know, your hair is ridiculous. You look ridiculous. What are you trying to do? You have to be a blank canvas, and none of that is true. Clearly none of that is true. And you're doing the work, and that's what's important, and you're willing to shave the beard for the right thing, which is important, because no is the most powerful word in the business. Yeah, oh yeah. That's a good point, but I'm just amazed at the work that you're doing. You're going to do stunt work. Try, stunt, take the class. I've had to tap, dance on top of a moving trailer and how to use weapons Plenty of times. I really enjoy that, though. That's fun. I had to fall down a flight of stairs, oh wow. I've had to run like hell with someone chasing me. So you need to be physically able to do this stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm getting back into exercise again because I was like 300 pounds, got down like 175, sat around the pandemic worried that this acting thing was ever going to take off, didn't put any physical work and I'm up to about 290 again.
Speaker 3:So we're back on that they use the thing. That's as long as you can move, you're doing all right. It doesn't matter what size you are, it really does Right. And all along they will do this to women all the time. I'm too fat, I'm too fat, I'm too fat. I'm 66 years old. I am five foot three, damn it, and that's what it is I am a tower of power.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, I'll take your kneecaps off and the way I get told more often than anything I'm too fat, you're too heavy, you're too heavy, you're too heavy. They're not doing it as much now that I'm older. When I was younger, I was a zero and told I was too heavy, wow, crazy. So these, the physical images of ourselves that we have and the way that we look and the way that the good Lord made us, is good, it's fine, it's perfect. You just have to be able to use it when it's time to use it. And it was interesting because they tell you beforehand they were concerned about my ability to run because, lord, let me tell you, you ever had one of your knees? Just look at you. Go, fuck you.
Speaker 1:I'm going to run today, your knee says, oh hell, no.
Speaker 3:Nope my knees like I'm going to lay down here on the sidewalk. You do the best you can. I went into. I had a role on the glorious women of wrestling the glow on Netflix, which I really enjoyed that show I was so sad that they cook. They ended it. But the pandemic and I had gotten a role on that show and I had to take wrestling training. I trained with actual real life wrestlers, with a real life wrestlers Chaval Guerrero. Jr yeah no, none of these guys are still in the ring doing that.
Speaker 1:Right, right. No, I thought he was a trainer on that show.
Speaker 3:He was yeah, he was, and he was fun man. I could pick him up by the time he was done with me. Nice, and that was two weeks, two weeks. I had two weeks to get ready for that.
Speaker 2:That's all they gave. You was two weeks.
Speaker 3:Wow, I will, that's a lot of physicality in two weeks, Well it's interesting because they would have taken longer had it not been for the pandemic, but it had already started and we already knew about it. So protocols were new but we didn't weren't masking. I mean, the only protocol was do you have a fever, right? So I caught a couple during that process, but that's been. Everything shut down and we ended that show. But to go into wrestling training was the most fun thing I have done next to hanging with Reba and honestly it's amazing how you can. If you just stay in a modicum of shape, the ability to move, that's all you need to do is move. They'd have to breathe fast because they can fake everything. They can fake everything.
Speaker 1:I've known a few women who could do that too.
Speaker 3:But that you know good, let me cause you some pain, my friend. But that was, yeah, that shocked me because I hadn't done anything, that was, I hadn't been working out, I hadn't been doing anything. I did yoga, started doing yoga the minute I found out I got it so I could go in and train as a wrestler and not hurt myself and not frustrate them. You know, because I don't want to frustrate you, don't want to frustrate that guy. He's the nicest guy, oh my God, just the best, best man. But that was startling. To get this audition and to do the audition.
Speaker 3:And then you have this call and say you have to be dead honest, is there anything physically wrong with you? And you fight. You know, I'm 64 years old, can you fight? I can fight. I've taken fighting lessons. I've taken stunt lessons. You know you do this stuff so that you can do it when the opportunity arises. And if you can't do it when the opportunity arises and they want you, they will teach you how to do it. So when you're there learning, it's not just for that moment, it's not just for that role, it's something you're going to learn and take with you for the rest of your life that you've been applying so many different ways to so many different things, and you guys know that I'm so impressed with you.
Speaker 1:I've taken a theatrical combat class. I should like it. I loved it. I'm an old D&D nerd and they put a broad sword in my eye. Oh my God, I actually was a bastard, so it fit well with me. I've been rapiers and all that good stuff. What I was thinking about asking you is how did you get into comedy? I love watching back then. Now I can find the clips, but I always loved your comedy.
Speaker 3:Why, thank you, I actually quit doing stand-up because I had an experience that created a severe case of PTSD with me. So I'm working through that and I will return to it. I just not ready yet, gotcha, thank you. I started doing comedy because my friend Doreen King Nichols in Minneapolis, minnesota. I had bought into the comedy cabaret with these two guys and so there were three of us owning it and it was for stand-up and for variety shows and for jugglers and musicians and stuff like that. And we did sketch shows and my friend Doreen said to me you're funny, you're so funny, why don't you go out and try it? I said oh no, I can't do that. I can't come on. I can't do stand-up. I'm an actress. I have to pretend to be somebody else or I'll die. She said I got 50 cents, 50 bucks. It says you're just being a pussy. What did you call me? Are you? Are you thinking I'm chicken? What, and how much? So?
Speaker 3:That very night I grabbed a pair of really ugly shoes and a baby bonnet that was backstage and I cut the top of the baby bonnet out and I made that Mrs Jacques Cousteau on her wedding night. I could find it in my face and I was a prop comic. And first night I went up, I was a prop comic and I killed, I literally killed. It was the best night. And then for the next two years I kind of sucked. I had to find my niche and props, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:Right. So were you were you always funny before you started Like did I mean, did you realize you were funny?
Speaker 3:I knew that I could use. I knew that I could be funny and I used humor to deflect. When I was growing up I got you, you know because stuff, and just grew up in a tiny little town in southern Ohio with parents and my family's from the south that my folks moved, lived in Kentucky, were from Kentucky and they moved to Ohio and it's this tiny little town and it's just so tiny. When I was growing up, if you farted in bed early in the morning when the window was open by the time you got to school at nine o'clock, your neighbor told everybody that she farted when it was, how long it was, what it smelled like and the timber of the park. You couldn't do anything in that town without getting busted for it.
Speaker 1:That bitch hit an A-flat this morning. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 3:I said Mom's when I was in high school. If girls miss their curfew, we had moms taking their daughters to the doctor to check if they were still.
Speaker 2:Wow, we got it. I'm sorry, we got it to do it. That happened before we started recording and TJ and I looked at each other with if only we were had hit record.
Speaker 1:So we got it.
Speaker 3:Yay, I got it. Look it out, that's okay. I trust you. Oh God, I had people tell me that they put me in theater classes in high school because I was so painfully shy. Did you believe that I was painful? I had a small group of friends and I would just joke about everything, but then you separate me from those friends and I was just paralyzed, absolutely paralyzed. I have had anxiety my whole life and having PTSD on top of it is really fun, some things I find myself doing. Shit. This makes me go. Oh, girls, sit down and have a drink and quit freaking out. You know, and it's silly like the wind blows the curtains and I'm like what?
Speaker 1:No, nothing silly about it. You know, I get scared.
Speaker 3:But yeah, it was just whenever, since I was little, I was just always deflecting with humor or trying to get through stressful situations by saying crack in some joke, you know, and then they put me in theater because I was so shy, so painfully shy, that I used to get kidney infections because I wouldn't raise my hand to go to the bathroom. Yeah, that's sad.
Speaker 1:I feel for you. I didn't have the shyness, but just I don't even know if I want to call it childhood trauma, but just childhood.
Speaker 3:Childhood is traumatic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So these people that say they had perfect childhood, they're so happy, they're lying, they're hot and something.
Speaker 2:They have it in the eschew.
Speaker 1:They're hot and something.
Speaker 2:They're hot and something.
Speaker 1:I had a perfect childhood. Everything was okay. I don't remember a bad thing.
Speaker 3:Here's an example. My dad went to and I say why does mom hate me so much? And he said she doesn't hate you. She's just going through a really difficult period of time right now in her life. And I said, oh my God, she's going through a menopause. I don't know what he did. He looked at me and went no, honey, it's your adolescence, yeah.
Speaker 3:So yeah, my dad had a great sense of humor and so did my mother. Actually, they were both really funny people and I could see my mother, who was very opinionated and had absolutely no shyness about her whatsoever. In the face of God, she would tell him of his beard look good, you know. If there was a hair out of place, she'd say I'm sorry, holy father, but come here, let's do some spit. Just nothing shy about her.
Speaker 3:It was a really bizarre juxtaposition to be the daughter of a person who's so outgoing and known and appreciated and respected and funny. My dad was a college professor and an artist. He's this incredibly talented artist and a very funny man and an intellect. And there I was just feeling like, yeah, I don't know. Turd on a turd in a skillet, Laying next to a dead pig in the desert, that's pretty much it. I was a miserable child. I just never. I was everywhere. I was all over everything. I couldn't focus on anything, I couldn't decide what I wanted, and so when they stuck me in theater, that was the only place I felt comfortable.
Speaker 1:You find your groove, you find your people, yeah.
Speaker 3:That's right, and everybody in there pretty much felt the same way I did, so there was the good camaraderie of soul. Let's talk about tattoos. Do you guys have tattoos?
Speaker 1:I do not. I'm Christine in my virgin skin.
Speaker 3:You do. You're my man. Look at that. Got me some tattoos, nice. The thing about tattoos and actors is you're perfect. You guys are perfect the way you are. You're characters. Nobody's going to have to change the way you look. Nobody's going to have to cover up your tattoos. Somebody may have to draw some on you, though, because you don't have.
Speaker 1:I had a show do that and it's that stencil. Yeah, I got to walk around for a few days with a leg tattoo and I was all badass Look at this, did you like it? I did, but not enough to get a real. It's mostly because my mind changes so much.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, you know what I mean. It took me, I'd say, 30 years to finally decide on what I wanted and my daughter was very instrumental and get me to go through with it. But I was concerned. That's why they are where they are. This one, this is her eye, my daughter's eye, it's the same color. Oh, nice, sweet. It's up high so I can cover them with sleeves, which is fine, and they're also farther back I'm back of my arms more than the front or side, so that they can cover them and it won't be as noticeable, the makeup won't be as noticeable. And I also have the heart, the tribute heart, and the banner is blank for two reasons. One, if you put your loved ones name on your body in a tattoo, you're going to break up. That's just the curse, that's. You know. That left it blank because I get tattooed so often to be in shows, get the stencils and stuff. I thought, well, they could just write anybody's old name in there. They want it to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a fantastic idea. So that's right. The very first thing I did was background work and I had the right stall on my tattoos. I went to my tattooist and he signed affidavits. I own everything. They didn't care. They wanted it. They wanted it changed as a background. I don't know if it's different, being principal, I haven't had to change anything, but for that that one show. They wanted it modified and the makeup artist said oh, I love your ink, I don't want to change anything. So in one of the sales she just darkened like one of the lines. In one of the sales she said okay, your tattoos changed, you're good, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1:So the director didn't want it for aesthetic reasons, just they didn't want to deal with the ownership. You know having to get signatures even though you had a signature.
Speaker 2:It was a Somebody had gotten sued over. A lot tattoo artists sued a performer like Tyson face went on the hangover.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I probably so, probably so.
Speaker 2:And after that, after that, they didn't want to take any chances. Now, a big-name person, they're not gonna have to change anything, but I was a background guy. They just didn't want the headache, so they're like you got to change it. Yeah, it's, you know.
Speaker 3:They changed stuff on me a lot my hair, which I think is kind of interesting, because I just stopped being that crazy white blonde again. Mm-hmm, I was that for a while because that was requested. Let's see what you look. Like that again. Like you just go in and do it and it's nothing. You know, it's a couple hundred bucks and six hours in a chair.
Speaker 1:The person who asked you to change that was that show, or your agent. That was a show, so they had to pay you, okay.
Speaker 3:I was worried about. They take care of everything. Yeah, no, they take care of everything, and it was really. My hair was really long and I just had like four inches chopped off of it. Sometimes it's good to mix up how you look. Yeah, people expect you to look a certain way, and the only thing people expect me is blonde hair. For some reason, if I don't have blonde hair, they don't want even see me. But I'll go in with blonde hair and then they'll say, oh, let's dye it red, let's make you a brunette. So I don't understand that process of hair, but I just do whatever the hell they want. I don't care, it's just stuff that grows out of my head.
Speaker 1:I don't understand that process either.
Speaker 3:You don't need her. I know God gave you the most perfect skull. Oh thank you.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that and the pronunciation. I thank you for saying that. I'd confuse so many people. But what's funny to me is I remember you from your comedy. So it's the 80s, darker Curlier, wavy your hair, yeah, really black hair, yeah. So when I see you like this, it's not shocking, it's who you are, but it's like, oh no, that's not my stuff. Okay, it's my Stephanie, but you know what I mean. I just remember that.
Speaker 3:I miss that hair. I miss that dark, dark hair. I miss that a lot. My husband misses it. He says to me the other day, you know, the first time I saw you on set, I'm thinking look at that tan girl with that black, dark hair, and it was pretty blue eyes and they went. But I'm all white now and I have blonde hair anyway. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:He got out of range is what he did.
Speaker 3:Shit did it again.
Speaker 1:I got her to TJ.
Speaker 3:I'm allergic to cocaine. That's wonderful, isn't it? I found that out in the 80s.
Speaker 1:I never heard about that allergy, but that's great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hi, it's vomiting. Oh, wow, couldn't breathe. You know anaphylaxis the whole nine yards. Wow I was. I went to the ER and the guys. The guy said what have you been doing? I went just looking. When I snored a cocaine for the first time in my life. I'm never gonna do it again.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's like two lines you know, that's all I want from sag is to lunch. I brought us way down.
Speaker 3:You know what's weird about this business? You have to continually reinvent yourself. You breathe that, but you think it's just people going like up and down like a roller coaster with their interest in In other, the interest other people having you, I think, abs and flows as kind of a newcomer to this.
Speaker 1:I would watch like Tom Hanks would be in in a movie as a military person in a little clip and then the next movie. It's all military. You know what I mean. So how the public perceives you then affects casting. It seemed like just watching him.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's reinventing yourself again, because I'm just starting, but it is it's. I'm so new to that. I don't want to make a mistake saying, but what I'm thinking is you have to bring yourself to the rule At least that's what I'm being told. It has to be you, but at the same time you have to find out how it's not you and like play it up, shift the clay and right, become something else. So I thought, I think, without any experience, it's finding new ways to bring a truth out of you that fits into a different character. Yes, yeah, there's no truth.
Speaker 1:Then you're just the robot guy and we've seen so many crappy things and people go that sucks whatever level, but when you, when people on the other side of the camera that we used to be on civilians, if you will See someone like you know the greatest actresses in the world, you know like you. Or Meryl Streak, just Like. Wait, it's not insulting if I don't include no. But if you say, oh, they're not acting, or you don't think that they're acting, they're the best actors. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:So finding anybody ever said to me was riding danger field audition for one of those movies he was doing in the 80s. And he says stop, stop, I don't know what I'm, I don't know what you're doing, I can't tell if you're acting or not. I need to be able to tell that you're acting or I get confused. So I just looked at him and said you know what? I don't want to work with somebody who can't appreciate acting and what's Mactain on demand, because I'm not a smack to us, I'm an actress Smack. That's wonderful how to go. And I left. I walked out. Wow, I got a call from my agent later. Yeah, well done, but she's Steph. I.
Speaker 1:Was a good payday.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wouldn't. I wasn't gonna get it. Anyway. I got you because he kept saying everything you say I'd stop. Everything you say sounds real Looking at the people in the room and him going. Doesn't anybody ever talk to this guy is? He's got to be open to learning?
Speaker 1:No, no, no so many people.
Speaker 3:Oh wow. And he said to one of my friends you got to start talking about stuff in your act that you know about and the or that's the experience in your act that you've had. My friend didn't even went. Every experience I have had I talk about in my act and every experience of my act I've actually had and Rodney danger looks at him and goes you're fucked.
Speaker 3:No offense, no offense but yeah, he was something. Rodney, oh, scared the hell out of me. Young Italian, that's scary. And I'm auditioning for more straight stuff all the time. My Age, my managers, bohemia, the Bohemia entertainment group that I love and cherish and adore, are working with me.
Speaker 3:I'm in the process of reinvention from being a sitcom chick yeah, the big booby sitcom chick with a white, blonde hair, too An actress. So it's like all the stuff that I haven't been given a chance to do before, like put Perry Mason that was very straight, that was dead straight. I love that show and that was, that was such a beautiful character to play in, such a wonderful experience. So they're moving me more into these other types of characters, which is really fun, really fun. I fortunately thank you had not two auditions that I did yesterday. The self-taping thing is self frustrating in one hand, but on another hand it's really good because you can do it as many times as you feel you need to, right. But I really prefer having the director in the room. You know Casting directors somebody in the room. But I'm learning to do it all on my own and to watch me and not want to run screaming from the room, do it again and improve without feeling bad.
Speaker 1:And find a point where you can let go. Yes, you can do them all day, every day, like this is good. Let me try one more, and that's it. It's at the limit.
Speaker 3:Thank God for my husband, because he's an assistant director, film and television and we met at work gosh, I figure that he was. He told me what to do and I really liked it, so Nobody'd ever successfully completed that act before you know. Telling me what to do and I did.
Speaker 3:But he's great because he does the filming and he does the lights and he reads the other characters. For me, where there's a lot of Actors out there with nobody to do this with, yeah, so you have to call somebody up and hire them to do it with you on a computer and it's Frustrating that way. But I know there are a lot of actors who do other people's Auditions for them and film them for them and read with them and it's a minimal fee and that's it's great because it this aspect of it brings the acting community a little closer together in that respect, yeah, so that's cool about it, that part of it. But personally I just prefer having somebody in the room. I want to see their faces and hear those weird little noises that they make.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard without that connection.
Speaker 3:That again yeah did it start?
Speaker 2:did self tape and start for y'all when COVID started, or were y'all doing it before then?
Speaker 3:Yes, no, it was strictly COVID, it was all COVID.
Speaker 2:Are they gonna stay with it? Oh wow.
Speaker 3:It looks that way. It does look that way. The only difference is that now, instead of when you go through your callback, instead of doing it on Skype or FaceTime, they're talking about doing those in person, so they can put you through the paces, which is what they usually do anyway. So, yeah, and they can do it on Skype, but it's not, as it's not as effective and it's not as I don't think you don't have any connection. You just don't have the connection with people, right?
Speaker 1:You don't hear that little chuckle that makes gives you a little more energy. Yeah, you don't have that performance. You do what you do, yeah. You do what you don't, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I don't mind him, but I'm not mad at him, but I'm not in love with it. Yeah, y'all don't do those things down there, do you Self tape?
Speaker 1:Self tapes, blah. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's all we've stepped into since we both basically started auditioning this year. Right, tj's a little hit of me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, because I'm new to it. They were already doing self taping, so that's what I know, and my callbacks have been virtual. Mine have been through Actors Access, though. Actors Access, yeah, I use.
Speaker 3:Actors Access too. For people Like one of my agents use it. It's good it works.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say for people listening, Actors Access is a website you can pay to join and then you get your auditions through there. You don't need an agent to do that. So it's a good start and you submit for it and then if they like you, then you get to do a scene for them. Just to let people know a little bit inside.
Speaker 3:Thank you for doing that, because it's a good. It's a great site, it's really good, and more people should know about it.
Speaker 1:Right, it's essential People I love doing background. If I could support myself, I quit all my other jobs until I moved up into speaking parts. So people would you know say how do you do that? Oh, my casting filecom. Or go to Central Casting and I'd be like push it like a drug, you know? Yeah, and now I push improv. I loved it so much.
Speaker 3:Improv is great you guys. Doing improv is like the best thing. It's so great. You know how horrifying it is. I took improv classes for years and I taught improv and I was in an improv group and it's amazing how many times I've been in an audition or, you know, in a callback and they've said, well, why don't you just forget the lines and improvise that scene for us? And I think how horrified people must be if they don't know how you know, if they haven't got the basics of it all down. Yeah Right, that's a pretty scary moment. Just throw the script over your shoulder, throw it in the floor.
Speaker 1:The biggest thing you learn as improv is to not stress, just do whatever. You learn a structure as you get more into the craft. Who I can say craft, but it's removing that block of money. Okay, I've got to say the perfect thing, I've got to say the funniest thing and I can't say nothing. I can't, you know. So it's wonderful, I love it.
Speaker 3:It is. You know, it's funny, as I was just thinking today, what's the worst thing that's ever happened to me in this business? The number of people who told me I would never make it, I would never one job, I would never do anything at all. I just won't just give it up. Quit being a fool, go home. If I had listened to any one of them, my life would be miserable. Yeah, so you can't listen to anybody, don't even listen to me. All I know is what I've been through and that may or may not relate to you. I don't know. You scared me.
Speaker 1:I don't get that from people in the industry. I get it from friends and family. Oh, I got that, oh wow, from friends and family and it's not bad. No, go ahead. I can say it's not bad from them, but you're making any money yet. Well then, it's a nice hobby.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't have the big paychecks, I go okay, all right, you wait till you get the first big paycheck, though. Yeah, yeah, there'll be a whole lot of backpedaling and Thanksgiving dinner.
Speaker 1:That's right, it was Easter. It was Easter. What do you have?
Speaker 2:I hate the question have you been anything? I would have seen. That's the question. Have you been in anything? I would have seen. That's what I get.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, what's so funny is people ask you that and I always go probably Well, what have you been in? I don't know. What have you seen, nice, well, I can't name everything I've been in. I've seen, I'm like I can't name everything I've been in, so I guess we're just going to have to hang with probably.
Speaker 3:Love it, Love it, or yeah, I just recite my resume. Well, I started in 1974. I got my SAG card when I was 22. I had to go to Chicago and pick it up, though I was tapped hard lead. That's the waiver that you sign on your first professional job. That allows you to be paved union fees but not have to be union In your second job. You've got to join. That's the committee SAG eligible.
Speaker 1:That's right. We kind of struggle with that in Louisiana. It's a right to work state. Oh, that's a struggle, yeah. So background doesn't have to be a union. If you're in New York or LA, you get three vouchers on three different shows. I don't know if it's a total of nine or whatever, it is just for working background. On the SAG show, your SAG eligible. There's not many when it's up and running SAG auctions around here like that for a background. So once you get tapped hard lead, hard lead and you get that line or two, then you're SAG eligible. Or in the commercial, you know a union, yeah, yeah so that's weird.
Speaker 3:Nobody ever wants me for commercials.
Speaker 2:I had me neither.
Speaker 1:I got one. I got my first one. They filmed it. We're going to release it in August.
Speaker 3:Client is well, can you just say what it is?
Speaker 1:No, I'll tell you later, okay. But when I was like, oh, when's it coming up? Well, the client is tweaking. We don't know when it's going to come out, of course I say I hung up the phone I keep wanting to say that in the story, but I got off the email and then the imposter syndrome hits they're tweaking.
Speaker 1:Are they tweaking oh my God, oh, oh good, they're going to cut me out, they're going to hire somebody else. Okay, all right. No, I'm just going to wait and you get yourself. It's like a roller coaster.
Speaker 3:So it is. I'm constantly. I live with imposter syndrome, my imposter sitting right next to me, right, look at me going. Why are you talking to these people? You don't know anything. What's the matter with you? You never planned a goddamn thing in your life. It's all been luck and stupidity. Excellent, I'll take it.
Speaker 1:See what's holding me on. And a couple of people told me when I did my audition they changed the script because they liked what I did in the audition Wasn't a big thing. That's very cool. Yeah, that says a lot. That's good, thank you, and I will hold on to that even if they decide not to use it.
Speaker 3:Hold it though, because that's that's huge, that's big.
Speaker 1:We also took pictures for our billboard. I want to see that. It was so funny Anyway.
Speaker 3:I'm okay, that's the coolest thing. You're going to be like eight feet tall.
Speaker 1:Oh, looking down on highways If it's going to happen. So, instead of when it comes out, I, if it's not in my town, because they said they tell us where it is I'm taking a road trip and I'm going to be like with the iPhone. You know what's really cool? That's really cool.
Speaker 3:It's like all the pictures I have of me in big is standing under my sign Thousands. I was only there like four times.
Speaker 1:That's a draw with that Celebrate every victory. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, man, yeah, it's funny. People keep asking me do you have a specific goal for your career? I'm like length, longevity paychecks, that's my whole thing. Yeah, because I never. You know, I never. I didn't even know if this was going to work. I'm some little smarmy thing, little Quaker girl from some town in southern Ohio where everybody says pushy bushes and get nap on the roof, and I just was going to sashay my ass right into Hollywood and be an actress. Should have never happened. Should have never happened. Statistically, should have never happened.
Speaker 1:You're like a bumblebee. Bumblebee, you shouldn't be flying, but you is. Yes, exactly. And now that you've said Quaker, I'm going to have to write a script and cast you as a Quaker, because I want to see that. I don't know if I'm allowed to give you, oh, but you're balding yourself.
Speaker 3:I'm writing a script right now. I'm writing a script right now.
Speaker 2:Gentleman, can you tell, can you, can you give any, uh any hints? I got it.
Speaker 1:I don't know about hints, but the gentleman sounded like do you need an actor or two?
Speaker 3:I need a bunch of actors. Yeah, because it's an ensemble cast. Yay, you give me a call. The thing is it's going to take about three years before anybody probably even pays attention to it, because that's on average. You know We'll be around, but I got real good managers, I got a real good agent, so, and there's no beautiful people in it.
Speaker 1:Oh, then I'm in Nice.
Speaker 3:Just you know. No, none of those big butt cinched waist, eight pounds of makeup you love my wig people, none of them, only actors. No celebrities, just actors.
Speaker 1:Well, I think I need to read it first, but I'll I'll leave. No, just kidding you should. I don't know. You should read it first. You don't want beautiful people? How the hell am I going to be in it, darling?
Speaker 3:I want real people. That's what I want. Oh, then I'm out, I'm out, I'm fucked.
Speaker 1:No, that's like I say my first line. I'm a janitor, that's my day job and I really want to quit because I'm tired of dealing with shit. But you know, the first thing I'm going to get cast in that's going to make me sag. Eligible is a janitor. I didn't know. You hold them up, fuck you.
Speaker 3:Hey, I'll take it, you got to deal with shit, no matter what job you're in right. That's true. That is absolutely true. That's true. I'm just. You know, it's amazing. It's just such a. You're both just perfect. Look at you. No, you look great. You both look great. You both marvelous characters. Physicalities are beautiful. Thank you, love the beards.
Speaker 1:The beards too.
Speaker 3:So you love my beard I could have get it up.
Speaker 1:I just like how you're so serious. Thank you, I'm always serious.
Speaker 3:It's like my husband and I were talking last night and he said, wait, you know, just lately I think I've reached that point in life and I went, we looked at each other and went well, you just don't give a flying fuck. And it's like, yeah, it's such freedom Because you know the parents are gone, mine and his the holidays. No fussing, no fighting, no carrying on. There's no food you don't want to eat, that somebody's going to make you eat, otherwise you're just being rude. You know there's none of that stuff, none, it's just peaceful, it's very peaceful. No more negotiating just to get a biscuit tossed at you from across the table. You know, the bigger the family, the bigger the BF. I mean what? What Did I say that I have a small family? That's interesting. We have a little family. I got cousins and stuff spread out all over the place, but not a bunch of them anymore. I have cousins. I have goodness, I'm good cousins Lovely names like Pidden and George, and she's the girl.
Speaker 1:Another one, not to say, I got cousins here in Nolan, some of them in Maine. I'm half Yankee myself, so Ah, that's you know.
Speaker 3:That's what's so funny is my daughter, my sister during the DAR I don't know what that is Daughters of the American Revolution, and you have to have had a relative who fought in a revolution to be a member and we found out we had brothers fighting brothers.
Speaker 1:Eight, so that's. Have you seen the wrigger route? How dated. I'm not a rude or two. I'm not a rude or two. I'm not a rude or two. I'm not a rude or two. I went and we got a swamp ape. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's right. Stinky bigfoot Look, he's all sweating. He's. All he's wearing is fur coat.
Speaker 3:He's out there in the swamp, because it's the humidity yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we can relate Our heat shell. He probably just broke. For a few days we had some rain and it's kind of creeping up. So we're no longer in the hundreds, we're in the 90s, I think. So, yeah, yeah. So we've probably got about a month of the 90s and it'll come down late October, how it used to be. But last week in October you could smell the cold and a lot of people don't understand when I say that, and maybe it's just the stench of wallances and being cooked up, but you feel it. If I had hair it'd be one of those moons, it would be blowing, yeah, and hopefully not too strong, or just beard long enough, like.
Speaker 3:TJ. Look, you've got all that room, TJ.
Speaker 2:Just put flapping in the wind.
Speaker 3:I have things that flap in the wind. You want a motorcycle? Tj on a motorcycle.
Speaker 1:I have things that flap in the wind, but we really shouldn't discuss those in public. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:We made her lose an earbud. Yeah, I did.
Speaker 3:Oh, you know I get middle images and I carry those images to my grave, so just be cautious. You're welcome. You're welcome, thank you. See, I'm facing TJ on a motorcycle with that big wind blowing yeah. Hair flying, beard on one side Dancing in the breeze, on a calendar hey, why don't they do character after calendars and send them to every agent, you know.
Speaker 1:Yes, I was wondering if TJ's beard would split down the middle, though oh it might, I had to.
Speaker 2:So I actually had to wear a ball of cloth at one I rode, because it would flap and hit my glasses and the beard balm would like coat my glasses with oil and I couldn't see. And it's so, I'm told, dangerous to ride a motorcycle when you can't see. It's free, it's free, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Speaker 1:That's my advertising.
Speaker 2:It's a free sport episode she's holding her nose.
Speaker 3:Look, oh, oh, my god, I just got images.
Speaker 1:That's the name of this episode. Oh my god.
Speaker 3:I just got images you know what a horrible thing I did and I'm going to put this in a script somewhere. Ok, my husband's Jewish, not practicing, he says he says it down. We were visiting my family in Ohio and they picked us up at the airport and directly halfway between the airport, my mom and daddy's house was a cracker barrel. So we would always stop at cracker barrels for a chicken fried steak, so I could start the holiday off in the proper mood. And Lance walked in there and sat down with me. That's his name, lance. My mother seems over to Lance and she says do you eat this kind of food, honey? What do you say? He said could you ask her if they have any fresh baby in the back?
Speaker 3:My husband goes baby, what I get? To the farm. All the villagers are going. What does he eat? I'm like babies. My uncle says get in the truck, I'm going to take you out to the back acreage because it's 800 acres. My dad says don't take him to the onion field. My uncle says don't take him to the onion field, they're not coming back. Lance is not coming back. I can't stop. Everybody is asking him what do you eat? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? It was a sad moment for me to realize that my family had never met a Jewish person before in their entire life.
Speaker 1:At least they didn't go well, do you miss your foreskin?
Speaker 3:If they'd known they would have.
Speaker 1:CJ's just shaking the peg Force Norton to shake head, all right.
Speaker 3:I know that was kind of religion, but not really. No, no no, we're good, it was family story yeah, that's all good.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for doing this. Thank you, thank you.