Work in Progress with Sophia BushIt's no secret that Tony Award-winning actress Annaleigh Ashford is a versatile force to be reckoned with! From her captivating performances on Broadway in 'Legally Blonde' and 'Wicked' to her current role on the small screen in the true crime drama "Happy Place," she's proven she can do it all! Act, sing, and dance, but did you know she's also good at impressions?
Ever get together with a friend you're comfortable around, and you let loose and start making silly voices? That happens a lot when Annaleigh joins Sophia on the pod, and it's hilarious! Besides slipping into her 'puppet Judy Garland' character, the actress talks about her new series based on a real-life story and why it's different from other true crime drama shows, making the transition from stage to television, and why it's so easy to slip into people-pleasing mode on sets.
Plus, she opens up about working alongside the late great James Earl Jones on the Broadway revival of "You Can't Take It With You" and the surprising request he made near the end of their show's run that taught her an unforgettable lesson!
Hi everyone, It's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hello whip smarties. Today we are joined by an actress that I absolutely adore. I think she is one of the most talented people in my generation. From Broadway to film to TV, she is an absolute legend. She earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her performance as Irene in the Hula limited series Welcome to Chippendale's. She received her first Grammy nomination in the category Best Musical Theater Recording of Sweeney Todd and like I mentioned one a Tony in twenty fifteen. She is so funny, so charming and just so wise. And next up she is starring in the new series Happy Face, now streaming on Paramount Plus. It is a true crime story inspired by the true life story of Melissa G. Moore, a young woman who discovered that her beloved father was actually the prolific serial killer known as Happy Face. As an adult, she changed her name and guarded her secret, but eventually decided to start working in advocacy, supporting victims who have experience with this kind of crime. She's absolutely incredible, and today I'm going to ask Annalie all about what it's like to do this show what her favorite lessons are from Broadway, film and or television, and what Real Housewives series is her favorite. Let's dive in with Annalie Ashford.
Hi.
I'm so amped that you're here, and I'm also laughing because we've had the most ridiculous I don't know how long we've been doing this ten minutes of trying to get our audio things to work. I don't know if you folks at home are going to get any of that treat, but we've had a nice giggle.
It was really good. I feel really good about how I look my posture right now. My posture is not a result of me trying to have good posture or me trying to be good to my spine, but it's really just because my microphone set up as bizarre.
I was gonna say, did you get one of those chairs that like you put your you put your calves in, and then it's supposed to make you sit up straight.
I don't know if you can see my chair has ears? Can you see his like bunny ears?
No?
But maybe I should get one of those you put your calves in? It is that the real thing?
I think it's like an ergonomic thing. Is that the right word?
Do you get it in the magazine that you get on when you go on the plane?
Probably sky Mall? Yes, I'm it feels like something you could get on sky.
Have you seen a sky mall lately? I have not.
I haven't, but honestly, I think they should bring them.
Back in paper please. Yeah, that sounds like a very delightful treat when boarding an airplane.
Yes, I think we deserve more air traffic controllers and.
More hallelujah right invent to both as.
Two people talking about our travel schedules. I'm like, just please, please keep the planes in the air. That's all I want.
I've had a couple of rough landings recently, and I have prayed in a way that was different that will feel very uncomfortable.
Yeah, you're like, oh, this, this is what it means to strike terror into one's heart. It's happening to me. I understand that turn a phrase.
Now, Oh my god in so many ways like oh.
Yea yea, which is also a lot like people who do what we do, who you know, play in the circus for a living and try to pretend they're not anxious all the time. What are you talking about what are you talking about? To feel that kind of like gripping anxiety that's worse every once in a while. When when that happens to me, I'm like, oh, interesting, I didn't know it could go up from ten, but now we're at a twelve, and that's what a twelve feels like.
Yeah, we live in like a low level, constant pulse of anxiety and then you know, yeah, when it gets ramped up, you're like, oh, do I need a full xanax right now or just to send about would you like a rantl PAM or would you just like a propanel? Oh, I said the fancy name for beta blocker?
Is that what that is?
Yeah, propanol, it's a beta blocker. Have you dived into beta blockers?
Yeah? I had like a weird COVID thing almost two years ago, which was deeply scary and also really humbling because when I was like, no, I'm a very healthy person and I understand that, like, you know, a fourth COVID infection could probably be really bad for you, but also my job requires me to be in large theaters of people. What do you want from me? And then the doctor after a few weeks was like, I don't think you're taking this as seriously as.
You should be.
You do know that the number one horrible side effect of COVID for women between forty and fifty is cardiac issues. And I literally if I was like it was like he'd smacked me, like straight into gone with the wind. I was so offended and I was like, I'm barely forty. I'm forty. Oh no, And it was like this very rude awakening because I was like, no, but I have you know that sort of like trauma that freezes you a little bit stunted. And I think I'm perpetually twenty six and you're saying I need to like go to the doctor regularly to see what's up with this, and they were kind of like, welcome to adulthood, lady, and I really didn't like it.
You said, where's my recipim.
I was like, I guess I'll take all this heart medication and go sit next to Morty at the cardiac center. No, it was like me and a bunch of old dudes all summer long, and actually they were adorable. And I did have moments where my actor brain kicked in and I was like, this would be like such a cute little series of shorts. And then I was like, probably super inappropriate to ask all these people to violate their own hippa as well to be on camera with me. But if I could, it would just be so cute.
Yeah, and you could. I want to know their life stories already. I'm in. It was like it was me and the old guys, you and Morty. Did Morty take lorez pan?
I didn't ask him what he was taking, but he he walked with his little cane like he was in a little dance routine a lot, and I really was adorable.
To me, Marty sounds fantastic.
He had a great sense of humor.
Is he in show viz chovas adjacent?
I feel like probably showing going to like the nice hospital in the middle of La I bet like most of those guys were you have?
You had no idea? But he was the boom operator on taxi.
Right, He's like I was the one. I'm tod Robert and narrow hacked.
Wait did you take propinall? Was that? Why? I mean?
I like took all sorts of I had to get Like one of the worst things was the they would do these like contrast MRIs that I had to do, and those I really didn't like, because at least once I did the first one, I knew what was coming. But like when I first, you know, got back from this stage play I was doing in London, they were basically like, well, we've got to run all the tests again here to like go through the proper levels of insurance and whatever. And they were like, oh, and you haven't had a contrast MRI. We're going to give you this thing and we're just going to push this die. You're gonna give a little bit of a warm.
Flush in your pelvic region. Uh huh, I know.
And I was like a warm flush. I was like, I feel like someone just dumped a pot of almost boiling water, like up my crotch. What are you talking about a warm flush like this? I was like, I must be dying, and they were like, you're not dying. It'll pass in about ninety seconds.
It's such a weird feeling.
It's not great.
No. It's also like, why don't you just say you're gonna make it. It's gonna feel like you peed your pants but you didn't.
It's going to feel like you peed your pants with boiling water.
Yeah, I didn't feel like it felt as boiling. I'm sorry you had that experience.
I mean I was very unwell at the time. The next time I did it, like three months later to get my official like, you're in the clear. You can get on longer flights again, buddy, it wasn't as bad. But I also thought maybe that was just because I knew what was coming.
You know, it could have been a combo platter. It could have been a little it could have been a left leftover COVID in you pelvic pation.
It could have just been the high inflammation I was dealing with. It made like warm, feel like fire.
Do you know what else does that to you? Is magnesium pushes? Have you ever gotten a magnesium push? Wait?
No, but I got an NA D one.
How do you feel I have? That's the one thing I haven't done. What it feel like? Will you tell me?
Felt like someone put from like tit to tit ribcage like in a vice and went and I was like, oh my god, oh my god, the chest compression is so crazy. But also I went down a little bit of like a nerdy rabbit hole that whole fall like post being told I wasn't going to die because I was like, well, I have to figure out how to like not to be one of those crazy like guys who's changing out his blood with his kid's blood. I'm not like that nuts, Yeah, but I was like, there are there definitely have to be advances in versions of like biohacking or cell therapy or whatever, like the cool stuff they're doing in Switzerland. I was like, what are the things I could do here that won't bankrupt me but that might help me like recover from this. And I did a lot of research on NAD and was like, yeah, I'll give this thing a try. And then I was like, oh, this is why people say if if you feel like you're having a cardiac arrest, tell us and we'll slow down the trip. And I was like, I just don't know if I'm made for this stuff. You guys, Like, I was like, now I'm forty, I don't want to I don't want to touch it.
But it was surren I've taken it orally. Okay, I've taken it orally just the pills, you know, like uh.
With the lorazapammer separately, not at the same time. Okay.
You know, sometimes if nobody was around it take them at the same time. Lorazza pan is usually like a night before a bed situation when I'm having like bad anxiety and I can't sleep, I use it instead of like a sleeping aid. I take like a half of half like I take such a low dose, and if it's but I can tell if I'm really like really struggling, if I'm having like I'm gonna have a panic attack moment, then I'll take a full one and not pass out, which really means you needed it, wow, because.
Your your adrenaline is really burning through. Yeah.
And then but the NAD I didn't real I just was taking it for immune system stuff. But I've never gotten the drip. I've never gotten a push, I've never gotten the id.
And it was it was it was wild. Welcome to our medical show.
Everyw I know. I literally I could talk about the gut microbiome for the next hour if you want, got me too.
I have a friend who literally became a like an expert in it after a postpartum thing, and I started one of like the best health companies in the world because she was just like, there have to be better options for moms than this. She's the clost person I know. So yeah. I ask her like all my nerdy questions about what is legit?
Do I have candida? Do I have stable? Should I take probiotics? I should get a test? Right? What should I do? Yeah?
She's always like, hey, just remember that anybody who's trying to sell you like forty six supplements is trying to profit off of your checkout of forty six items.
I'm like, right, ray, Yeah. But also when you go to certain health food starts aka Airwan sometimes in that aisle, I get like lost in good packaging. Yeah, packaging for me, Oh god, I'll be like I need this colostrum because it's in a beautiful I'm.
Like, how gorgeous. Okay, if you love packaging. There's a show that came out on Netflix many years ago called Abstract. Have you ever seen it?
I've heard about it.
Oh, it is my favorite show. Every episode they profile an artist or a designer, and there's an episode on typography that literally it's it's like it's like someone scratching an itch that your brain has wanted scratched for your whole life. It's so soothing and pleasurable and gorgeous. To look at that. That is my that's my gift to you.
Okay, I can't for today I'm excited about I just was in DC for a day and I drove past a like a cleaning a cleaners. It was just like a laundromat, but the advertise, like their logo was so.
Clean, corgeous. Did you take a pig?
I I almost did, but I was like, what am I going to do with this? Like go start a cleaning company, like a brand of laundromats that just have really good logo. But really, Then I had a whole thought process of sometimes we do pick a place for their logo. Yeah, because you're like, that looks like a really clean, lovely logo, so the place must be clean and lovely.
Yeah. Well, it's like, look how much they care about the details. I want people who care less details to that level to care about my details.
Thank you for figuring that out for me.
Yeah, I understand it. I I'm one of those people who can't not take the picture and who also can't not take the screenshot, to the point that when I realized I'd hit over two hundred and fifty thousand screenshots on my phone, I was like I I sat with myself for a minute. I was like, is this the thing I should address with my therapist? I don't think Or is that the most insufferable question I've ever asked myself in a sort of self inventory.
You know what I think it means? You're an artist?
Thank you. Thank you for figuring that out for me.
It makes sense to me. I have screenshot stuff all the time. My husband does not, and he's sort of like bewildered by why that. I also, you know when you have to go somewhere and you need them for me, you have a flight and you don't want to open your email or open your app like eighteen hundred times just to shut it. Yet it Oh yeah, I always go right away.
Oh the boarding get way?
Do that? Yeah?
Done. I screenshot the boarding pass and then favored it and it's my last thing in my favorites album. Done, so I have it one touch and then when I get on the plane, I delete it.
Are your pictures organized?
They really go in waves? I will be the most organized person. And then also the to do to organize pile or cluster is also very overwhelming. Yeah, me too, But when I do it, I do it really well.
Good for you. I never do that part. Well, my mine's just a big mess. It's just kind of bad.
Okay, So this is the thing, and I will be honest. I haven't been doing it every day, but a friend of mine started this on January first, and she's really good. She's doing it every day. And she said, every single day, starting for New Year's search the date in your phone. Okay, so you know today is April fifteenth. Plug in April fifteenth in your eyephotos and it will bring up every photo from every April fifteenth in your entire photo album and then you can do a clean out.
That's a great way too clean, I know.
And she's been doing it every single day of the year, and I'm so enamored with it. But I was like, you know what, even if I do it twice a week, it's more than I've done in the last ten years.
Oh my god, that's a great hack. Okay, I'm gonna take that because that will help me. I also, I just had a baby. I have a six month old, which is very fun. She's really silly, sweet, and then I have an eight year old. But I have become that person that somebody's like, hey, let me see the baby, and I want to see you know, your let bloy jack. And then I go, okay, hold on, I have my friend in the picture. And I turn into you know, like a seventy five year old woman on my phone trying to find the picture and people waiting, you know, just right, because.
You also want to find the best picture.
Yeah, you know, I want to I want to really show off her little blonde roots that are coming in because she was born with dark hair and she has her hair. Usually their hair falls out and then they like have new hair that grows in. Hers did not fall out, and now she's got blonde roots.
She's got like a reverse dye job.
Yes, she looks like a guy who did like just for men and hasn't done his roots.
It's god, I loney.
So I'm always trying to find like the picture that really shows her blonde roots that.
Feels very spiritually aligned, because you are one of the funniest people in our universe. So for you to have a baby with a reverse dye job that's also natural is like it's chef's kiss to me. I love that.
It's so wacky.
You're like, oh, the universe really gave me a cookie hair.
It's so funny, and she also has no idea. You know, she's just like smiling and dream She's a baby, she's living baby dreams. It's really good. It's a look. I love it. She's funny.
And now a word from our sponsors who make the show possible. I hate when women get asked this question, but I'm also I mean it genuinely because I'm fascinated with all the things that you have going on, and especially like Broadway schedules. How do you how do you do the thing and have the family?
Well, you know it shows a week is like no joke.
No, it's it's like a crazy mission.
I would say, you know, when I go back into TV film land, you know when we have a big day or night, shoots are crazy. That is a raque thing. But I still always say, we don't have to sing, like, we don't have to like hit a note that everybody knows you hit or you didn't. There's something like really vulnerable about being on stage period because you can't say, can we try again? But also singing in particular and dancing is because it's it. It's also it's an athletic event. You know. And I've always loved the Olympics, but the older I get, the more I'm like really like, oh, I also you know enough when a kicker goes to make the field goal and like a really high pressure situation and it doesn't go well, I almost can't look like you know, it feels like Opening Night or something. It's like very uncomfortable.
That makes me so uncomfortable. Like Adam Sandler movies. I love him, but if I'm watching an Adam Sandler movie at home, I have to pause it and go for a walk around the house and then come back the secondhand embarrassment feeling. Yeah, just the whole point of that kind of comedy, right, is like you're supposed to feel embarrassed by everything going wrong. Yeah, it is so physically almost painful for me.
Yes, I hear you.
And I thought about this a lot when I because I hadn't done a stage play, you know, in my adult career, until I went and did this show I was telling you about on the West End, and I had days where I was like, I feel like I've been beaten. Yeah, it's like someone beat me in my sleep, from my head to my toes. I don't know what's happening, and I would think about people like you and be like, what would I have? How would I do this? And be singing because I was just talking and then you know, yelling and crying and having all sorts of insane physical experiences. But like I didn't have to sing.
They're all different, you know. I was just say, it's like being like a basketball player or baseball players have to play every day. Basketball players have to play every day, you know, the same kind of thing. But you get your endurance up, you train, and then there's also it's a marathon. It's not a sprint, you know, but and that's why your body hurts so bad. You're in this like long term event. You know. It's just sometimes it just feels like it goes on. It's such a gift. You have so much gratitude, you know, there's it's always coupled with immense gratitude and joy, and you know, the communion that you have with the audience every night is magic. But there's definitely an emotional hangover and physical hangover. Yeah you know what I mean. You wake up you're like, oh, you know.
What helps me kind of understand it, especially because you do feel like when you get to do this and you love your job so much, you always feel like anytime you voice about any truth of anything that's difficult, you're like, but I love it. Please don't think I just did it.
I literally just did it.
But it's like, I know what that is, and I think what I what has comforted me weirdly, And this is so revealing of the kind of nerd I was in school, is understanding like the scientific theory of how every action has an equal and opposite reaction, like the idea of a pendulum swing. So I think, if you're gonna get that much joy from the art and the danger of like what's gonna happen tonight and the experience like you're saying that you have with the audience, the equal and opposite reaction is like sometimes you wake up and you're like, who ran me over with a mac truck in my sleep last night?
Totally? You know the other part of it. My husband did this play Isn't It Twice Now where he plays a guy who hits rock bottom and then ultimately gets sober and it's about addiction, and it's this great play called The White Chip. And he played this really intense arc, you know, and also he spoke NonStop. He's just basically talking for ninety minutes straight. And one of our friends, who's a fantastic actress, Crystal Dickinson, she was like, Joe, you know that you're not playing that part, but your body doesn't know that you're not playing that part. So you know that great book, The Body keeps the Score. Yes, you know, that's actually like a great such a beautiful book. And sometimes I think it's a great book for actors to read because it's a really like healthy reminder that you do indeed need rest because you're putting your body through this marathon, not only physically, but like emotionally. I'm really steadfast, and like we leave it at the door when we leave, you know, leave it, leave it at your trigger when you walk you know, when you walk away. And I really believe in like the separation of it. Like I loved. One of the things I loved about Severance when it came out was that it helped me explain actor brain, you know really, and it's like kind of like Severance, you like, you become a different person for a little bit, and then you've got to be like and come back to you. You can't like lave in it. You can't sit in that, especially when you're playing the dark stuff totally.
But you're right, your body doesn't know the difference rents. So if you film a scene where your partner or your sibling dies for eight hours on set one day, like, it's in your body and you've got to figure out how to get it out of your body and also not apologize for how insane it sounds to say, oh, this trauma is in my body totally.
The certain scores too, and these people stay inside your bones in a way that you're like, why do I feel so heavy? Like when we were doing studying in the park with George. This score is one of the best scores that's ever been written, in my opinion, but it's also half of it's in minor. It doesn't really resolve until the last song. There's this beautiful chord that resolves, and it's kind of when the piece resolves, So the majority of the play you're kind of living in this there's a chord that's repeated over and over again, and it's a minor, so it's uncomfortable. It's like, sounds simple to just say it's sad, but it's like very it's like melancholy. And then the last song of the first act and the second act it's called Sunday and it's a it's the funeral March, which is also like beautiful, but you know it's melancholy. Yeah, sad, sad. So it stays in your bones, it stays in your guts.
It really does. How do you how do you work on processing that out? Like when you talk about the severance experience and you and your husband both you know, do this job. So thank god someone gets your your thing when you come home, But how have you kind of figured out in your personal life and your individual life how to shake all those cobwebs and chords out of your body.
I disassociate cool.
I did that for a really long time.
It's really a healthy no.
I used to sort of wear it as a badge of honor. I'd be like that it gets to me and and eventually I was like, this is deeply emotionally.
Unheathy, like I'm exploding. I don't know why.
That's so weird that I woke up and I don't know whose life I'm living or who lives in my house with me and I don't know why this happened.
I mean, you know, that's one way. I A long time ago, I watched this great interview that Emma Thompson did I Larry King, and she explained that she liked the game of being able to walk on and pop right in, like walk right on stage and be able to be right in, like do enough homework that you can slip in and slip out like really with ease, and so really like the goal is to have as much homework as you can done. And also flexibility, yeah have For me, I find that if all the homework is there and I in a safe environment, then I feel comfortable being really flexible and I can kind of slide in and out. And I make myself kind of slide in and out. So if we're doing something really dark, I kind of give the crew, like and everybody there like a breath to know that they can laugh, that we can joke around, like let's have some light. But that does not work for everybody. So I'm like really careful making sure kind of what the other actors need. But I sometimes need that because I'm such an mpath. Yeah, but I can feel the crew and I feel like what everybody else is kind of navigating, and I don't want them to like be in a state for five hours where they feel like they have to be like silent and walk on it. You know. I don't know, there's something kind of about the energy of the whole day that feels lighter and brighter if we can all laugh, like we need to be reverent of whatever we're working on in the moment. But I always think back to that amazing interview that i'm A Thompson did, and I just kind of want to be like her. So I kind of I like, this is going to sound insane, but I play like a little game with myself. I like, Okay, when can you slip out? Can you slip back in? Like how can you weave in and out of character? Like basically can you go through the severance elevator?
Yeah?
But that but that doesn't always like make sense for everybody, So I don't I kind of take a tip from whoever I'm working with and kind of navigate around them as well, what do you do?
Oh, that's really cool. I think I'm always kind of learning, you know. I feel like part of the goal right of being alive is to learn more and navigate better and like the thing I've really been so I'm kind of meditating on and I didn't have the language for it when I turned thirty. I think I discovered the language for it when I turned forty. And I realize it's been this exploration over the last ten years is how to hold more and more things to be true at the same time, so to be able to say the set I'm on. Let's say we're doing a movie together. Our set is incredibly safe and it's dangerous. Yeah, it has to be so we can be in the scene. You know, I am completely in control and I am completely out of control in this space. I've done all my homework so I can slip in. And also I don't know what the fuck's going on and I could be surprised, like yeah, And you know I can in my personal world in activism, I can hold things I know to be true to be true, I e. What makes democracy work and what doesn't. Social science data matters like kids do better when they have lunch at school. Defunding school lunches is psychotic, and I have to figure out why someone who is pro defunding school lunches got that way and I have to be able to listen to what they believe to be true so that I can then have a conversation with them rather than an argument, and maybe we come to a new thing instead of we get in a fight and then they never want to change their mind, you know. So it's like, yeah, there's something about that for me. And so the way I think about it is like every year, I want to feel like I've learned more and shifted my capability or expanded my opinion or tolerance or whatever. But also it's weird because it's like, yeah, sometimes I find that the interest in so many things and wanting to take a cue from my coworkers or my crew means that I start thinking about what everybody else is doing and what everybody else needs, and making sure everybody else has everything that is going to make their day go great. And then I realize I haven't done anything for myself. Yeah, And so it's like, I don't know, it's a bit like being in like the spin cycle, but I think if I can stay aware of it, at least I can sort of stay on top of.
The water totally. You know, As you were saying all of that, The first thing I thought of was my husband says, two things can be true at the same time all the time, and it's actually like, it's a great way to argue with somebody, as you said, it's a great way to resolve, it's a great way to reset, and it's also a great way to have common ground and also keep a conversation going. And then the other thing that you just said. As you were talking, I had a realization that my whole explanation was about people pleasing and just making everybody else feel good.
On the set.
Parents like, yeah, you know sometimes and the one thing about what we do for a living, which is super fun and all the things, but it is also navigating personalities constant. It's a really social profession, and sometimes it's just easier when everybody's happy, or it's easier when everybody is having a better day. It's easier when the vibe is good. I would say that that's true for any anybody's job. Yeah, and sometimes I think, unfortunately, when you should be able to just invest in the scene and be completely focused on that, sometimes you can't. You have to yeah, also be wearing other hats, and sometimes I think that that makes my job easier to make everybody else happy. But really, now that I'm listening to myself, I like, I'm just people placing and making people.
But I think it's both your thanks can be.
True at the same time.
Yeah, they sure. Again, I think the thing about it is my natural instinct is to make sure everybody else is good first. I'm trying to learn to also make sure I'm good in that first past.
Yeah.
And I think there's something interesting too, right, Like, the longer you do this job, the more gratitude you have for the you know, relative success you have. Then it's like if a new kid comes on set and isn't checking on every department head, nobody expects them to. They're like, do you even know what a department head is?
Yeah?
But when you've been doing this as long as we have, if you don't, it's kind of like actor with an attitude, and you're like, no, I'm just I have to deliver like a two page monologue today and I'm running my lines in my head. I'm so sorry. I'm not actually not thinking about what you need. I just don't want to waste your time. Yes, So again, it's likely it's spin cycle stuff. And I think a lot about when I thought about it a lot getting ready for today, because you have such an amazing career from like Broadway to film to TV. You know, it's crazy to think that you want a Tony in twenty fifteen, like talk about the spin cycle of You've got so many irons in the fire when you look back at sort of all these spaces you've worked in and different environments, like is there a mentor who stands out to you? Is there is there a kind of advice, you know, whether it's how to stay focused as an actor or I don't know, how to like not lose your mind on location, Like what what are the standouts for you when you kind of look back and you realize what your biggest sort of inspirations or maybe nuggets of wisdom are for the for the next chapter.
Well, that was really nice of you to talk about my career that way. Also, I like to say it in the mic like.
This amazing, Like you have had the really amazing career. Congratulations.
I'm just hey, I'm just really happy that I've gotten to work. You know, I always love when people are like, so, how did you choose this role? I'm always like, I don't know. Is that a like, you know, we answer that question a lot too, like we've chose it most of the time. Actors don't choose what they're doing most of the time. We really that's like the that would be the you know, well that is the dream some people do. And I think you, yes, you do choose the things you get to work on because you say yes or no. But you're the majority of your career is you seeking out work. And also I just think it's so rare that we get to go yes, I will bless you with my blessings. You know, it's usually like a collabor it's a collaborative art form, so I think it comes together as collaboration as well too.
Yeah, I like that.
So the few jobs that I have just been offered in my life, oh, it's felt like a miracle, you know. With the moment that I got to choose for the first time, it was like it also felt really scary. You're like, I get to choose, this feels crazy. But on that note, the people that I've learned from I learned from everybody that I ever work with, whether it's a good experience or a bad experience, because there's always something to learn. But I just recently got to go to James Earl Jones's memorial, which was like like theater church. It was so beautiful. It was really overwhelming, and you know, felt like the end of an era in so many ways. He felt like somebody who was just going to live forever to me, and he will live forever. The thing that he taught me while working was something that you said earlier is he was the forever student. He was always learning, he was always finding something new in the play. Up until the last weekend. He brought me and Christy Nilsen, who played my Mom, into his dressing room and he was like, I would like to try something new in the scene that comes right after you, and you know, I had an idea that he wanted to try, and we had four performances left. Wow. He would run scenes from Othello with my husband in his dressing room on Thursday afternoons that like halfway through the and he was like, I'd like to run these scenes with you. I always, you know, wanted to work on them again. I never quite cracked them. They've just always, you know, the poetry's always been a thorn in my side. There were things about that piece that he wanted to revisit, so he just like came in and worked on them. Talk about a forever student. And then the other person who also just recently passed and I thought would just live forever was Linda Lavin. She like was so such a dear friend and so funny and warm, and you know, she was such a such a legend but also such a pro And the way she would walk onto the set of a of a multicam was like ready or not, here comes mama. You know, that is her medium. And she knew like the back for hand, but she could make you laugh and still be honest at the same time. But what she taught me was, you know, I'd have a couple of rough moments here there, and I'd come in in her dressing room and we would talk about alan on together. She was a big allan on person and I'm an all on person, and we would talk about forgiveness and letting things go. And I think that's a forgiveness is something that we don't talk enough about in the workspace, whether it be our business that we're in or every workspace. You have to be able to like let go and let God and move on and forgive people and reset. You have to really be able to reset without holding on to resentment. So I would say, you know, those two were great teachers.
Wow, that's so cool. And now a word from our wonderful sponsors. What made you want to shift from all these mediums to come into this new space and do happy face?
Like?
Where did it come from?
When somebody says do you want to come to this drub?
Yeah, that's one of those I know.
You know, well, I'm so lucky. I've kind of been. Uh, I've been an actor who people often connect me with whatever they saw me in last which is actually like sort of the greatest gift, you know, they kind of just you know, some people think of me as Buddy and Masters of Sex, and some people are like, oh, I saw you play Missus love It and Sweeney Todd or you know, Dot and whatever. They saw me and Kikaboots or or they Sabby Positive whatever. But these are all like really different kinds of shows. Like they've all done really really different pieces tonally genre. You know, some are comedy, some are drama, and then yeah it's like a crime drama. There's levity. Michael Showalter directed it, and he's so funny and great. So he gave he really set the tone for us and gave us a breath of dark comedy, which I think was important for me. But yeah, I was, Hey, it's a fantastic true story with a great character with an incredible conflict. She's really vulnerable and cannot not be vulnerable. There's nothing better at playing a character that's just like the griven. Circumstances will just forever be complicated and uncomfortable for her. So she's going to be vulnerable.
Yeah, it's like she can't hold it back.
Yeah. I mean, if you had a father who was a serial killer, that would just be a conflict that just never ends.
I literally can't imagine. Okay, will you tell the folks at home who are like, what are they talking about? What is Happy Face? In case they've been living under a rock, can you give them the log line?
Yes, there was a real life serial killer in the nineties called the Happy Face Murderer, and his daughter came out as his daughter and has become an advocate for folks who've been touched by the trauma of true and so this is this is the telling of her story. Her story is all based on true events, but we've really wanted to be respectful of the victims involved in the real life crime. So the crime elements are fictionalized.
Okay, so they're inspired by things that have happened, but then fictionalized so that it doesn't drudge up sort of historical trauma for people who've survived or for surviving family.
Absolutely, And you know, one of the things that I think the show reminds us is not only are we unaware of all of the victims and the victims' families when we consume true crime, you know, of the you know, the way that we do in pop culture, me included, and why do we like to watch them? Like why do we like true crime?
Right?
If you think about it, it's mystery. We want to know who solved it, you know, like and who did it? And then we want to know why and how because it helps keep us safer, helps protect us from it happening to us. And then also I think one of the questions that my character and the real life Melissa grapples with is why and how and if it happened to somebody that is related to you, can it happen to you? You know? And yeah, she carries around this like bag of guilt and shame for the rest of her life because of something that her father did, not because of something she did.
Yeah, what has it been like to get to know Melissa more because she is the woman that you portray have have you two been able to just sit and kind of unpack those things together or does that feel too intimate to you? And are you like I want to have a dinner, but I don't want to know, so I don't drive myself crazy, Like how do you thread that needle as a performer.
Well, as you know most of the most of your information, you should hopefully be able to get from the script, and if you don't, that's when you go looking out elsewhere. So I really had everything I needed in the script. And so when we first started working, you know, our incredible showrunner jun Casicio, was like, do you want to talk to Melissa? And she's like, I also have letters. I have all the letters that her dad sent her, which are a big part of our story. Which side note, this is crazy. Jen had all of her letters, had all of Melissa's letters. Our showrunner had all of the real Melissa Moore's letters from her dad from prison in her house in Alta, Dina and her house burnt down. No, so when we started doing the press tour, she had to tell Melissa, I have to tell you all of your letters were in my house and they're gone. And Melissa was like, you know, that's actually a relief because I never knew what to do with him. This was such a conflict for me, which is really the inner struggle, the inner conflict of my character out you know, the series, not just this season is you know, what do you do when you love the memory of the man before he was the monster? You know, what do you do with that? That trauma? So how about that crazy? So anyways, I actually when I would look at those letters, I started to read some of them and I went, you know, I actually don't need to read this. It felt like I was like looking into somebody's drawers that I didn't need to look into it. And also Melissa and I actually didn't connect before, and I almost was relieved because I knew that we would connect on the other side. And during the press tour, I learned so much from her about the machine of true crime and how it affects real people and how every time one of these shows happens, how it can retraumatize, you know, families on both sides of the courthouse, and we just we learned so much from her. But I but I actually didn't need didn't need that before we started.
Oh well yeah, I almost imagine it allowed you to have your own journey and experience without the pressure of trying to also carry someone else's.
Yeah, I mean you know you also you feel a responsibility to to share their story with compassion, and her advocacy work was really important to us. Yeah, and also she's got great empathy in the way that she talks to victims, so that was really important. But uh, that's beautiful, Yeah, wild story.
Something I thought was so cool that you said talking about this was that, yes, it's a true crime show, but it's really a different kind of take. You said in another interview that it doesn't glorify the killer or show any acts of violence against women, and that was such a light bulb for me. I was like, that's so important because, whether we realize it or not, these things we show, these reenactments on so many shows, you know, in this genre, they they show things they normalize. By nature, you watch something and you become desensitized in a way, even if you're shocked or scared or whatever, do you think now that you know you're on the other side of so much of that press tour and everything. Has it made you think about the ways we approach these stories and maybe how we should think about the way we engage with true crime.
It has absolutely changed the way that I consume true crime. Wow, it has. You know, we know that it's real people, but we don't know it's real people. You're not really acknowledging it. It's just another way that we're consuming entertainment. And most of the shows in this genre are through the mail lens. There are oftentimes even from the serial killer's point of view. You know, we spend a lot of time with the killer, why, how, where? And we're never really with a female point of view in this world. And then the other thing that was really unique about the show is it's a show about violence with no violence. We don't see dead bodies all over the forest. That's always a relief to not have to see a dead girl in the in the forest. You know, you do not see that on our show. You hear about it, which is maybe even sometimes more uncomfortable in some ways, but I think that there's no way around that because it's a reminder that this person did these horrific things to women, and the way he talks about them is so flippant and disgusting. But again, it's I think it's a show that is trying to give back agency to women in a in a space where men have had it all. You know, they've been the detectives, they've been the killers, and really the women have just been the victims and the family.
And now for our sponsors, what was it like to unpack this stuff with Dennis Quaid because you know, he's got to play your father, which means he has to play this man you're talking about, you know, this person who speaks about women so flippantly and was so violent toward them. Like, were there ever days where he just said, I really hate this. You know, how do you as actors figure that out?
He was very clear right when we started working on this that he wanted to make sure that there would be no glorification of this man. Yeah, and I think that's why he was interested in working on it, because you know, it's her story, it's not his. He's very outspoken about that when we talk about the show, He's like, this is not my story, this is Melissa's story. Yeah, And I also think the two of us had a really natural, easy chemistry. You know, I keep saying, like we always talk about the chemistry that you have with actors when you're playing like romantic scenes with them, but we forget about like you need chemistry when you're playing friends with people, and you really need a unique chemistry to play family with somebody. And they have this totally complicated, uncomfortable father daughter relationship, but it was really easy for us. It's just like you could feel that there was love right away, which was great because that's the thing that she has to fight and that's the that's the conflict. So yeah, he was He's he was such a great casting choice because he's so like charming and naturally likable and he's still really vulnerable in moments. She could have just played it like a you know, like a psychopath, but psychopaths are also complicated. That's what I'm interesting to watch well, And how.
Cool to have an actor who really wanted to help an audience understand why people were charmed by this man, why it took so long probably to catch him. Why you know all of these things. It's like, weirdly, in order to do Melissa's story the service it deserves, her father has to be played well.
Absolutely, Yeah, you don't understand her conflict if you don't like him a little bit. Yeah, which is also you feel uncomfortable.
It makes me uncomfortab No, it makes me feel achy.
Really at the end of it, it makes you question what would you do if your parent, why you're sibling, or your spouse, or your child, or your friend. What would you do if somebody did something like this?
I can't imagine.
You would blame a part of yourself. You would forever live with shame, You would for ever live with guilt, and you would forever want to be of service to the people that he affected and the victims' families, you know, which is what this woman has done. She's become an advocate. Yes.
Absolutely, Wow, it's pretty amazing and I'm so glad that you know, despite what a strange world it is to dip into, it's been such a positive experience. I want to ask you something completely opposite for you know, our aforementioned need for levity. Yeah, it's a heavy chat.
Yeah, you want to take a left turn. Two things can be true at the same time.
Totally, we can be very vulnerable and also very silly. I getting away from true crime, but in the reality genre. I know you are a very big Bravo fan.
Yeah, what do you want to see about?
I just want to know, like what your favorite Bravo show.
Is right now? Well, Beverly Hills realis of Beverly Hills is all the highlight. But I would also say I think that Summerhouse is giving us a nice run right now because the Page and Craig breakup. We've been watching it play out both in Southern Charm and now in Summerhouse. To watch it from.
It goes across shows.
Yeah, Craig knew nothing was happening, and then you watch Summerhouse and you're like, Craig, how did you not know? Page was clearly like not doing well last summer and not happy with you, and you had no idea there were cracks that he did not see. Also, I love New Jersey. We'll always love New Jersey, and Salt Lake City has become one of the tops. Like Salt Lake City's kind of wild.
Everybody says that, but salt Lake City is so great.
No, that's okay, that's okay. It's not everybody's thing. Do you watch The Traders? No? Do you watch any reality TV?
I watch home shows.
I watch home shows too. Hey, it's not everybody's thing. It's how I disassociate.
Well, here's the thing. I it's one of those things that I know the world is so big that it feels daunting to start. I don't get it through friends. I know little bits and pieces of the drama. And then I do have a friend who will be like, you don't need to watch anything, but you need to watch this TikTok, so you understand what everyone on the internet is talking about.
Yeah, like vander Pump rules probably. Yeah.
So now I'm in this space where I'm like, but I want more. I'm scared to give it to myself because I think then I might really go down the rabbit hole. But I have a friend who's also a huge Bravo fan, who will just voice memo me catchphrases.
Amazing, so that you're just up today.
Yeah, on a random day, I get an in this town and it makes me laugh.
I mean, the one one I feel. Well, what I will say is that I think you should maybe go back and watch Vanda Pump Rules, like the last four seasons. Oh okay, so just the last four seasons. It's a delightful treat. And it's also now It's parts of it are like being in pop culture, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I did not want to watch The Traders, and then I was like, oh, now it's become a pop culture thing. Now I have to watch.
It's kind of everywhere.
Do you watch drag Race?
I do?
Okay, So drag Race is one that I would dip in and out of throughout the.
Years, so that I was that's what I was gonna say. I get I go. Sometimes I'm all in, and then there's seasons I haven't seen. I need to really fine.
I went back after I had Lucy. When you're nursing, you're kind of like stuck in one spot and sometimes you're just like, oh god, I get you. You can't really get anything done. So I was like, you know what I'm gonna get done. I'm going to watch every episode of drag Race. W that's ever happened?
Oh my god? How fun?
It was so so fun. It was a blast, and I'm like so up to date on drag race that I can really talk about anything related. But anyways, that was a fun one to go back and watch from the very beginning because also you know in twenty ten or nine, I don't when did it start, like two thousand and nine or something, that like glossy camera thing that they did on America's Next Top Model. It was empty at this time, so it still as MDV. You know, it's changed networks aro out the years, but uh, they have that funny like it's just so funny. And then everybody's caught like outfits that they were wearing, like their street wear was crazy.
You know.
Wow, fashion has changed and not that long of a time. And also it was like almost twenty years ago, what I.
Know, it feels like yesterday, and also like another millennia and it's upsetting.
It makes it's upsetting me, like I feel like I need to wear like low rise jeans with a with a tank top.
I just think I'm never going to go back I missed. I didn't know how much I missed the top half of my pants until I got it and then was like, oh, I'm never going to give this back to you.
Do you have a high butt crack?
I don't think so you would know.
I don't either. My best friend Craig has a very high butt crack.
Oh, so he could never wear the low rise chains.
It's not a good moment for him. He just always had butt crack out. Recently, I was like, your butt crack is hanging out and your pants are like you have the highest but crack of anybody I know.
Oh not in a low rise.
No, he just has a very high butt crack. That's just a fun thing to look out for. Do you have a high but crack or a low book crack?
It feels like a late night infomercial. You can sue.
You know, we should put it in We should put it in sky Mall. Some underwear for people with high butt cracks. Yes, do a high but crack. We've got some nich So Niche.
It's probably a billion dollar idea. You just did a Judy Garland puppet impression? Yes, and watch What Happens Live.
It's so weird.
How long have you been a puppeteer?
This was a character that was created in New World Plaza?
How did you do?
You know how it? Where it happened? Somehow? I was with my friends and we were like somebody was like, you do the worst impression of Liza Minelli I've ever seen, And I was like, I know, you know, my lies of Menelli impression is like if puppet Judy came back from the dead of Judy, that carlt came back from the dead as the puppet. That's my That's what my lies of Menelli is. It's really came from Liza. Really, the origin story of puppet Judy is.
Liza again, niche again. I know, I love it.
That's some game magic right there.
It sure is. Oh my god, I want to be in the room for the next one.
Well, Judy, Judy makes an appearance, loves to making appearance. She like she's had a rap.
I was just going to say, it sounds like Judy has really been hitting the watch what Happens Live bar back there mixing martinis for her.
Is sweet sweet? Was It was like it was like the Judy Garland show, Judy, you know, like last five years, Judy, Poor Judy, poor, poor sweet Judy, poor Judy. Oh I know it makes me the last five years Judy. What if Judy did the last five years? Nobody wants to see that.
Nobody wants to see it, put it away, put it away. Well, the show is amazing. There's so many wonderful things happening in your life. You probably have a million things coming down the pipeline. What when you kind of look around and think about the rest of the year, what feels like you're working progress.
My work in progress is I would say, I'm making sure that I say yes to myself and take care of myself. So I'm getting a second chance at being a mom with a newborn again. You know, I had my little boy eight years ago. And when you have a little person that you're taking care of, not just a little person, it can be any person in your life that you're taking care of. If you have a partner, if you have a you know, if you have a roommate. Like, we take a lot of care of a lot of people, but yeah, one of those people that doesn't take is good of care of myself. And what I mean by that is like, I'm good at taking my vitamins and drinking my water, but I don't always say what I need. And I just took something from our conversation about you saying, you know, I'm trying to learn, and I'm learning and learning every day and talking about James and talking about Sweet Linda and kind of the students of life not just our craft that they were. Like. The lesson that I take away from this conversation today was when you were asking me about my process and I said, well, I basically put everybody first and make sure that it feels good for everybody else before it feels good for myself. So that's something I'm working on. It's like telling people what I need and telling myself what I need because I think that's actually something I'm missing. So yeah, I think that's going to be kind of one of the goals of the year. You know, we've got to take care of mama.
You gotta take care of put your oxygen mask on before your neighbor.
Mama. Mama, Mama, Mama. We're seeing Gypsy this week. Actually, on that note, I know can't wait. It's so excited. It's my favorite. It's one of my favorite favorite shows. I think it's in my top five very favorite shows.
I have not seen it in so long that you're making me realize I should probably go see.
Yes new ress production is I can't wait to see awdre be Mama ready or not? Here come.
Oh, it's going to be amazing.
Well let's go see some theater and for you for the next year.
Oh my goodness. I don't totally No, it's like.
A you know, we're in there like I don't know what's happening moment.
Well we've been in the I don't know what's happened. I know, as in our like industry for so many years.
Now I'm like, oh, guys, try not to be in fear space.
Yeah, I'm trying to be in abundance. I have a thing in development with some friends. I am working on getting this like really funny queer rom com off the ground with a great comedian that I know. I have a movie coming out in June. And yeah, and I'm going to do like my favorite nerdy time. I'm guest directing a documentary film festival.
Memorial Dazing. Yeah. So cool.
So I'm like very amped about that. And yeah, just kind of leaning into the to your point, like to things that feel joyful and being excited about, like the rooms, the people, the learning. I think the thing I've begun learning about how obsessed with work and productivity I learned to be when it became a badge of honor because I was working on a show and like seventeen hour days were exhausting, so we had to be convinced they were amazing and like a proof of our dedication.
You know.
Now I'm starting to try to learn how to really love my days even when they're not like overly adrenalized and exhausting.
Yeah, and so.
I'm overwhelmed by all the things I'm doing in a way, but I also realize, you know, at six o'clock on many days now, I can turn it off, and I just have never had that before, And I'm trying to think of that as a privilege rather than to be worried that I'm not doing enough.
Amen. Yeah, Yes, enjoy six o'clock. Go to go on and buy fifty dollars worth of dinner.
Hottest club in La. Did you see that TikTok that went around about the twenty dollars strawberry single strawberry at Aralon in a plastic contention? I was like, we've jumped the shark.
You were like, this is crazy, We've jumped the shark. What's it?
Daste like, well, yeah, I was like, clearly I want one, but I'm not going to be that personal. It's like, I've also always wanted to go to space, but I'm not going for eleven minutes in the middle of a recession.
Totally agree with you. We get to the thank you too for claiming that. It's through that thank you, like, what are we doing?
What are we doing?
I completely agree. It feels like upside down world. Yes I do. There are times I love you Air One, but when I go to your produce section, I'm like, I'll see you later. I will go get the other things, but I will go get that weird key lime pie that's made out of coconut and I don't know how it tastes like key lime pie, but it has an aftertaste that reminds you that it's not key lime pie. But I will not buy your fifteen dollars grapes. I know.
It's like there are things that I really want from there. And then I also am the person that's like, I'm not going to pay that for blueberries. I'll go to the farmer's market on Sunday.
Yes, yeah, for sure, Yeah, I know.
And that's where my duty comes out. I'm not paying for those berries.
She would have been like bears, I don't even know what we have. Beers A beers is nineteen four defect.
I live on vodka and a prayer.
That's right.
Volcano my Canada day, Oh my god, I love it. Thank you for today, Congrats on the show. I'm amped for you.
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, thank you for inviting me into your magic space.
Oh you, sweet soul.
