One on One: Olivia Hack

Published Oct 13, 2022, 4:26 AM

She's Rory's suitemate...She's Cindy Brady...She's a voiceover star!
 
We loveee Tanna Schrick, who doesn't!   Olivia Hack aka Tanna is telling us eveyrthing. 

I Am all In. Let's Kiss You, I Am all In with Scott Patterson and I Heart Radio podcast Everybody. Scott Patterson aim all on podcast We're Gonna Talk to Olivia Hack, who portrayed Rory Gilmour's Yale sweet mate, Tanna Shrick. She first appeared in season four episode two, The Laurelize First Day at Yale, and last appearance was season four episode one, Last Week Fights, This Week Tights. Tanna is one of Rory's three sweet mates during her freshman year at Yale. She's somewhat socially awkward and not good at conversing without topics prepared beforehand. She's an adopted child, and she was a fifteen year old when she first started it Yale. She also appears exceptionally bright, able to focus a great deal and in rich detail on task, perhaps a more mathematical and logical mind than social and emotional. She's born in Beverly Hills at a pretty young age. You gotta start as an actress role as Captain mccard's daughter and star Trek Generations followed up by Cindy Brady in the first two films based in the nineteen sixties sitcom The Brady Bunch, among other things. Let's bring her in Olivia, Hack, Olivia. Hi, Hi, how's it going good? How are you doing? I'm good, Thanks for coming on, Thanks for having me. Where are you? I'm in Laguna Beach, baby, Oh man, that's the place to be. I'm in a Nova, Scotia shooting a TV series. Well that's not so bad either, not not too bad. But I don't think it's going to beach. But it's not too bad. Um, So how are you doing. It's been it's been a long time. I don't think I ever met you. I have no We like cross paths briefly at that what do they call it, Gilmore Girls fan fest or something? In Toronto? And did that? Yeah, I was there, you know, I did a I did a bunch of stuff one day and I flew in and I flew out. It was real fast, and yeah, I just I just remember it was just a blurb the whole it was because it's so funny because I tell people about it, because I know they changed the location every year, and I'm like, I can never remember where that actually was. So we were in Toronto, Yes, it was in Unionville. They did it in union Union where we shot where we shot the pilot. Yeah, ok um, you joined season four as Rory's Yale sweet mate ton of and you have been watching the show? Had you been watching the show before? I had, like I was the right age because I think I was twenty when I did that, and so I don't think I was completely caught up, but I definitely seen like seasons one and two, So I was excited, you know. Um, and uh, you know, did the audition, did all that stuff, and weirdly enough, like I had, uh kind of dated Slash, been a roommate to a guy who was on that show as an a D as an assistant director and he had done Alias as well, which was a show where you know, night shoots and they blew stuff up and he would come home and have way worse hours on Gilmore Girls than he than he did, you know, on this action show. Um, so I kind of knew what I was getting into in terms of of that, you know, but it had really no idea, right right, Well, tell us about the audition process, you know. I don't, I can't, I don't know. I mean, I I remember it just being an audition like any other you know, you're an actor in l A. You go to two auditions a day and and hope one hits and that one did right, so you know, you go in a room and they laugh or they don't laugh, and it means nothing, you know, um, and then I got it. But but yeah, so that was kind of that. So you you portrayed a fifteen year old she was fifteen. How old were you when you were filming? Yeah, fifteen or sixteen. I was twenty, And that was like the source of so much drama. So basically, I I did my first day, you know, I was feeling good about it. I went home and a few days later I got a call at like six o'clock at night and they said, how quick can you get to Warner Brothers. We want to do a wardrobe test. And I lived right around the corner from Warner Brothers at the time, and I said, I can get I can get there, you know. So so I got there and and they went, oh, we didn't like how you looked in that first episode. You look too old next to Alexis. Now Alexis in that scene, and Alexis and I talked about this later. They had put her in this like French brain that she never wore again, but it made her look incredibly young, Like, standing next to me, we look at the same age. So they dressed me up and they did that thing where they kind of cut you out in front of ten people and and they're all looking at you, but not at you in the eye. You know, you're just like a piece of meat, your circus animal, and they're staring at you. And they put you another outfit, and so they went, okay, yeah, this is this is the outfit we like, this is how we're going to do it. They put my hair up and they said, okay, now, let's shoot it. And I went It's like eight o'clock at night at this point, right, I didn't know I was gonna shoot anything that day. I'd already shot the damn scene. And I went shoot it and they go, yeah, we're gonna reshoot all your your first your first scene, all right now. I went, oh, so okay. So I go in there and and I go, what about this this first scene where I'm kind of walking in this room where there was a ton of extras and a ton of stuff going on. They go, oh, we're just gonna leave that. So if you watch that first scene when I before I enter the room, I'm in a group of people dressed totally different with totally different hair, and they just kind of let that slide and then I walk in whatever, and so I shoot this scene and Alexis and Lauren they've already been there all day long, so they kind of shot their establishing group stuff and then left. So I did all my stuff with some stand in and and weirdly enough, I I love that scene. I love how it turned out. But I think it's probably you know, she was chaotic and nervous and all that stuff I hadn't probably just resonated from me because that's exactly what I was feeling, like, what is going on? Yeah? Wow, Yeah, well yeah, sometimes that happens. Yeah, you know that. That's that's TV production right there in a nutshell. You gotta you gotta be you gotta be very nimble. Um uh yeah, it just happened to me. Actually, it just happened to me. Yes, we they called me on an off day. I did a big emotional scene and they just wanted to get a close up of me that they forgot to get and I had to go back in and we didn't have to redo it, but it was like, God, how am I supposed to do this again? Because you on that mindset no no, no, no no no no, once you, once you, once you get off that highway, you're gone, man, just like I can't revisit that the next day emotionally speaking, right, with no warning preparation, right exactly? I know. Well anyway, so, um uh, you started booking roles at a very young age, and what made you want to get into acting in the first place. You know, I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and say it was like an active choice because I started at like three, so I was. I grew up in l A, right, and so when you're a kid in l A, you're precocious, you're cute enough, whatever, they go, Oh, let's stick you in some commercials, right. Um. So it just kind of started like that, as it does for all kids. We all kind of starting commercials and then it just went from there. So it wasn't like a mom I want to be on TV thing. Um, but I also didn't not want to be what not want to be doing it once I started, So you know, it was always an option to quit right right, right, which is good because some trial. Actors don't have that option. No, they do not. So you were in eight episodes when you got the role, did they tell you how many episodes you would be in. No. I think it was just kind of a Rory's Roommate at Yale thing, right, Um, so yeah, I just kept They just kept doing episodes, and then in the for the finale, I think it was like the second to last episode of the series, they brought me and Katie Walter, who played Janet, who I talked to her she wants to be on the show. Um, oh Katie, sure, um. But they brought us both back and they didn't ask me, like nobody asked my age. And it's been a few years, like if I look different, And at the time, I had cut off all my hair. I had this like pixie cut. It was like bleach blonde. And I showed up on set and I just the collective like face drop where they were just like oh no, um, And so they cut it all out. They cut out all of our stuff, and Katie was like, this is your fault, this is on you, you know. But we shot it, but it just never it never made it. And I think it's because I just looked completely different. Um, what do you think of working with Alexis? What? How did you like it? She's great. I mean I think Alexis, um, you know, I don't know her personally, but like she's very at least with me, and we got along well. Um, you know, she's shy and reserved, and I think she kind of was, Um, you know, I've been doing the doing the actor dance for twenty years at that point, and uh, you know, she kind of got plucked out of college and rust yeah, and rust into that, and so I think it was all just an adjustment, you know. Um. I do remember her driving like the most beat to car and just really kind of loving that. I was like, Oh, you're on like season four of you know and or TV show and you're driving this old like sedan and and I don't know. I always think it's cool when actors are a little low key like that. Lauren Alexis share that they both were sort of car challenged. I had to give Lauren a pep talk. It's like, like, you know, you're projecting an image here and not not Alexis's car. I don't remember her car. I do, I do remember the collection of cars. Lauren had and they just weren't up to snuff and I had to I had to sit her down and talk to her. That's nice of you. Yeah, good, Look at how Scott. I think I got it with a deduction argument. You know it deduction if you lease it, there's a lot of dialogue, even in your first scene. How do you approach memorizing everything? Wasn't it was a nightmare? I mean so. I it's funny because after Gilmore Girls, I kind of segued into primarily voice acting. And one of the wonderful things about voice acting I always say, it's like you don't have to memorize lines, right um, And Gilmore Girls was so and I don't know if I don't know if they just did if they did this a series regulars too. I imagine they did, but maybe you were handled with kid gloves. But they were so word perfect with it, and you know, you'd get these big chunks of of dialogue. And I do remember someone at one point going, because you know, Gilmore Girls has that certain kind of like it has its own little patois and it's really fast and this, and someone was like, that's editing, so don't worry. So much about that, but it they really wanted it were perfect. So I remember doing a scene once and they came back and they were like, that was all great, but don't change it is too it's you know and usually m No'll give you that sort of you know, leniency. And there was one scene talk about how they would change scheduling and stuff, and I had this real big monologu, which is crazy because I it's the Scott. It is the only thing to this day that I still remember, like word perfect um. And I showed up and I had it. I'd like memorized. It was like a medical jargon. And I was like ready, it was I was game. And then they went, oh it's ten am. Yeah, we've moved this to like six pm. So I sat around all day and by the time I got around to it, it was gone. It was just term memory. Yes, And I mean I've done a lot of TV, I've done movies, I've done stuff. And it was one of two times that I in my career that I ever just lost something to the point where they came up and they were like, would you like cue car, which is to me like the biggest It's an the more you can't get it. The more you're right out of your mind, like so, yeah, so are you Scott? You're ready? This is Are you ready? His father was instrumental in conducting research showing that neurons in the brain fire actively during rem sleep with the exception of serotonin and report effort. To this day, I can remember it perfectly because I was like so shamed in my head by it. You know, it was awful to this day. Um, but yeah, it was just it was yeah, it was hard. It wasn't tough. I can't lie. I mean Gilmore girls was tough, like they you know, have a vision and and obviously it was correct and right and that's why the show is everlasting and all that. Um, but you know, wasn't it wasn't George Bell available to you? He was. He was the one. He's like now now see the line is instrument and conduct so remember that's like music and you can I mean, I like remember his notes he was giving me during this monologue and like no, so George Bow, Yeah it was the dialogue coach. But didn't he come to your trailer and just run it and run it? I mean even at six pm when you were going to do it. Didn't he come and run it and run and run it with it. I thought I had it. I thought I had it right because I had it that morning. I didn't know by the until I got to set that it was gone, just gone. You know what. That dialogue was tough. I don't care. You're right it was. It doesn't matter how prepared you were. It was still challenging to execute. It really was. Yeah, And just the fact that it had to be like to the to the letter right is a whole other sort of exageration. Yeah, it was hard for you to um sometimes not, I mean after I don't know, the first couple of episodes, it was just kind of there that you developed that muscle, and I think we all did simultaneously, and it just got easier and easier because and we we started getting jaded, started playing games with ourselves about how much time it would take to memorize it before we went and did it. It's like, cut it really close before the scene. Did they change it a lot before as it was going on, or like, did did they kind of release the script and that it was kind of done. We didn't get scripts until sometimes, you know, not even twenty four hours before you get it at your house kind of coming in the next thing that was, but they were they were always perfecting it. Amy and her team were always and and Dan they were always perfecting it. You're always we got listen, we got pages. I think on the very first episode we did, which was after shooting a pilot, we started up and Warner Brothers and Laura and I were sitting in six AM five third Dame in the makeup trailer and it was we hadn't even shot anything yet, and they threw a ten page scene at us. They've just written We're gonna do this. We panicked, we worked on it, we did it, and after that we had the confidence like, Okay, we can handle this, we can do this. Yeah. Well, especially you guys were such a good team together, which matters, you know with dialogue. But it's but it's doing it right. You got to do it over and over and over again, and we had we kind of had that confidence. So confidence has allowed to do with it. And it's totally just a muscle memory. Like even being a voice actor now when I do sometimes have to memorize lines, it's like, oh, it's just not as crispy and easy as it once was. And you didn't start out as an actor, right, weren't you like you were like a baseball player, right I was. Yeah, so I didn't have to memorize anything, just some hand signals, right, I didn't even get those? Right. Um, the fans recognize you from you know, yes, occasionally it's so weird. I mean, I am it's the voice, isn't it well? And I've aged like fine wine if I do have to say so, so I'm just kidding you have no but so I don't look too far off, you know. And yeah, well also too, I think because the show is so this literally happened to me last week. I had an interview with somebody and they said, oh, before we start, I just have to tell you my fourteen year old daughter is a big Gilmore Girls fan. So I've I've seen you in that, and so it's I get recognized because the show is everlasting, right like it's still like as you know, like there's a whole group of you know, ten to sixteen year old girls who love it and are rediscovering it all over again, which always kind of blows my mind because to me, the show and the writing, which is so sharp, and the jokes are all very topical, so I feel like some of that stuff must go over their heads. But there's an everlasting I don't know. I think it's it's very rare that that mother daughter dynamic is seen on TV and isn't really represented all that much, So that in itself is unique and has I think staying power as well. You know, Um, you do a lot of voice of work, from Hey Arnold to Bratt's Last Airbender more. Do you prefer that kind of acting over any other. I feel very fortunate with my voiceover career because, like I said, I don't have to memorize lines, there's no blocking, there's no Um. I get to go to comic cons, which I enjoy immensely. Um Yeah, I got there. I literally booked into like August of next year. Yeah. So you're doing You're doing the Galaxy cons you Yeah? Every were you? Were you at Raleigh Darham? No? I almost. Yeah, I'm doing all these Fanboy Expo ones right now. And yeah, it's a whole it's a whole circuit. So that's great. I love it. Yeah, And I'm on a I mean, I do a lot of cartoons, but there was a cartoon that during the pandemic. I did called Avatar Last Airbender that blew up, that was fifteen years old and blew up. And so it's immensely popular are right now and it's affording me to be able to I love travel, so to travel and meet everybody, and and you know, you meet a lot of people who are disenfranchised and don't always belong and you get to meet them on their best day, right, and everyone's having a good time, and you hear how your work has touched people, and it's like I didn't write this stuff. You did write this stuff, but it means so but they act like you did, right, and it means so much to them, and it's a privilege. So yeah, I just feel I feel so lucky. So I'll see you on the circuit. Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm on that circuit. You know, I'm going to Germany and December for Lucky that for that German German Comic Con and dortmun Oh that's gonna be fun. Well December that's gonna be freezing, right, But I mean I went. I went a couple of Decembers to go to Berlin and it was fantastic. Oh my god. So you, it's More Girls big in Germany's it's kind of big everywhere. Everywhere that's a lot, there's lines of people. It's it's amazing. And you know, Gilmore Girls is not what you mean what you do with the Last Airbender and and the rats and the voiceover stuff that's big At comic cons, I mean, they love it, they love it, but Gilmore Girls, the promoters are like, I don't get it. You know, it's not really our thing. We don't book people like that. But the fans come out they do, and it's the last con I was at like two weekends ago in Orlando. I had a woman come over and she said, uh, she said what because the only thing I really have at my table that's on camera that I signed is Cindy Brady. I was in the Brady Bunch with so I have. I have like one eight by ten of that and the rest of the animation. And she came over and she said, what else have you done like this? And she pointed to the Brady Bunch, like with your face? What else have you done with your face? And I said, I don't know. I said Gilmore Girls, and she went, that's it. That's it. Okay, um, but I have people come up all the time and they go, where's the eight by tens of Gilmore girls design? And I go, I don't have any. But it's a it's a thing, you know, it's a thing. It lives. Sean and I do cons together. We do our panels together. And the places that standing room only. I mean they the fans come out. They love it. And they're not necessarily convention people, but they love it. They just come out and they say, hello, Yeah, it's fantastic. Um uh yeah. So Brady Bunch, So you worked with Deborah Kaplan? Was she on set? Yeah? Because I did a movie in ninety four called Little Big League. Oh I remember a Little Big She was an assistant to the director and scheinman, and she was talking about Brady Bunch deals she was making and this kind of thing. So and she turned out to be this fantastic comedy writer. Yeah, fantastic, And she has a partner, I know that. So you worked with her, worked with her, and yeah, that script is so it really set the kind of tone for a lot of like fish out of Water comedies later on, you know. Um so yeah, I mean they did a fantastic job at that And yeah, that movie is fun to watch because we all had a lot of fun making it. And I think sometimes you can tell that when you watch certain things, you're like they're having a good time, and we had a really really good time. Yeah, great concept, you know, putting it in the present day, it was just like brilliant, brilliant. Um. Would you want to get back in front of the camera anytime soon? Or do you really like the voiceover because it sounds like you you really firmly entrenched in that world and you love it. I do, and I do love it, but I love all acting, you know. And and to me, it's funny because people come up all the time, which they never did when I was strictly an on camera actor, and they say, I want to get into voice acting because for them, for some reason, there's a line there and they don't have to be good looking or they just have to use their voice. But voice acting always say like, you know, a little V big a right, so like voice acting is still acting, right, and so yeah, so I would love to be in front of the camera and all that, because I just what I do in general. So you know, I did I did a god what was it a Warner Brothers thing, Gotham Batman, Gotham by Gaslight? And I was two characters. I was Commissioner Gordon and Jack the rip you were that's so cool and it and it took you know how long it took. It took maybe three or four hours. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, six months later or nine months later, I got a call as at, Oh, you know, a car is gonna pick up. We're gonna do a premier in Washington, d CE this the Smithsonian or whatever, and it was a whole big deal. And I was like, I just did this for a couple of hours. What is happening? And there's a there's a whole world people. I mean, it was just and people want to come and talk to you about it, like, oh, I just did this thing for three hours. I don't even I kind of don't even remember it, you know, And you can kind of see their face drop. You're like, I better make up a story about recording this or something. But yeah, no, it's it's a it's a it's nice work if you can get it, it's a good you're it's really everybody wants to do it. Everybody wants to do this because it doesn't take very much time, and it's like it's great, pay very little time, you know, it's it's it's and plus plus you get on the car the comic con circuit. Yeah, hello, you'll be doing that for years and years and years. I I hope, So, I hope. So I love the cons and and yeah, they've been good to me for sure. How many conventions you do a year, I've done I think nineteen this year. And yeah, I know, I know. Well again, this show before I was doing two or three, you know, and this show literally it's still the number one. It's the longest running show in the top ten on Netflix still and so uh, just like shattered some records and stuff, and so yeah, so I'm just and they're making a live action film and a live action movie and all sorts of things. So I'm they're trying to create a whole kind of Star Wars universe out of avatars, and you're gonna you're gonna be involved in all that. I don't know. They're rebooting the animation and so we're all just kind of waiting to hear. We hope we're going to get our jobs back. We don't know. Um, so you know, as actors were always the last to know, right, Well, I hope it works out for it because that's just what a what a very special gig to get. You know, those are hard to get. Everybody wants to do this. It's all luck right. You could do five d animated series or five TV shows, but but it has to be the one, right, the one that hits people in their heart strings and the one that affects people, and the one that's in the right genre to do comic cons and so that's all just luck right. That is so good. Um, So what's next for you? Uh well, let's see um doing more brats Right now, We're making a whole series for TikTok. I've got a new Harry Potter video game coming out where I get to play a cute little British girl. Uh, and I do a video game called Persona ve So we're waiting for announcements for Persona six and uh yeah, I just and then more cons all the cons. You're busy. You are busy, You're in demand. That's from trying all right. You ready for rapid Fire. We're gonna play rapid Fire I'm gonna I'm gonna fire questions that you gotta fireback the answer to fast you can ready? How many comes to coffees do you have in a day? Zero? Are your team Logan, Team Jess, Team Dean, Milovna Meglean? Which one is that? That's Jess? Who is your favorite Gilmore girl's character? Oh? Uh? Sorry? What would you like to order it? Luke's Diner? Oh? Tune them out? Would you rather go on a road trip with Taylor or Michelle? Taylor? Finish the lyric and where you lead? I will follow dot dot dot anywhere that you tell me to write. Nailed it. You're the first one. You're the first one. You're the first one. I love Carol King. So people get people get close to it, but they'll always flub one word or two. Yeah, fantic congratulations. I feel like Convetti should be dropping down people showing up at your house with ribbons and large scissors. I don't uh. Jackson's vegetables are Suki's baked goods? Oh? Vegetables? Would you rather listen to Drella's Harper, the Troubadours cover songs? So children, Prepper stars hollow Hi? Oh uh stars? Hi? Yeah? I didn't think you were going to go there. Wow. Anyway, Olivia, it's been a delight. Um. Thank you so very very very much, and I hope you come back and tell us about your adventures on the comic con circuit and as a very popular anime actress voice actress. Absolutely thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. And really try to get through the days in Laguna Beach. I know it's rough stuff. It's a struggle. You know that beach can get the waves can get loud when they pound pound pound, right, so you gotta be careful. Just kidding. All the best to you and uh and good luck and we'll see you soon. Okay. Do you have fun in Canada? Thank you, bye bye, hey everybody, and don't forget follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore at I heart radio dot com. Oh you gil More fans. If you're looking for the best cup of coffee in the world, go to my website for my company scott EP dot com, s C O T. T y P dot com, scott EP dot com Grade one Specialty Coffee. Yeah,