Speaker 1: You're listening to a MoMA Maya podcast.
Speaker 2: Mama Maya acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
Speaker 2: that this podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 1: I contend to this day that had I had to
Speaker 1: go in and test for that role with like the
Speaker 1: executives at EBC and with Patrick Dempsey, I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: gotten the part because basically I'm Pat's hate without healing
Speaker 1: and there with heels. I'm taller than him and he
Speaker 1: had a bit of a he loves me that we
Speaker 1: love each other, but he was like, what ye asking me?
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, here, I am enjoying me.
Speaker 2: From Mamma Maya. You're listening to no filter. I'm Kate Langebrook.
Speaker 2: When actor Kate Walsh thought she might die from the
Speaker 2: brain tumor she'd been diagnosed with, she promised herself that
Speaker 2: if she lived, she changed her life. Well she did live,
Speaker 2: praise b and she did change her life, which included
Speaker 2: leaving Hollywood for perth in Wa almost five years ago
Speaker 2: after finding love with an Aussie man. I can't imagine
Speaker 2: not knowing who Kate whal she is, but she is
Speaker 2: a highly transformative actor, so know this. Kate is best
Speaker 2: known from her career defining role as Addison Montgomery Shepherd
Speaker 2: in Grey's Anatomy, making what's arguably one of the most
Speaker 2: iconic entrances in television history.
Speaker 3: Hey, I'm Adison.
Speaker 1: Shepherd and you must be the woman who's been screwing
Speaker 1: her husband.
Speaker 2: In recent years, Kate's been splitting her time between Perth
Speaker 2: and LA filming shows like Emily in Paris, The Umbrella Academy,
Speaker 2: and her infamous return to Gray's Now the Australian film
Speaker 2: When TV industry has captured her heart, with Kate taking
Speaker 2: on a comedic role in the ABC series Optics, where
Speaker 2: she revisits the comedy routs she first explored alongside Amy
Speaker 2: Poehler and Tina Fay. I couldn't wait to start this conversation,
Speaker 2: Kate Walsh. I'm Kate Lanebrook. Welcome to No Filter.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Kate, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Well, it's such a delight to have you because you
Speaker 2: are so known to us in so many incarnations twofold.
Speaker 2: You're an actor whose choices I've realized I can really trust.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's an amazing if I and I have traveled
Speaker 2: with you through the journey of your career to a
Speaker 2: large extent. But now my daughter is also traveling with
Speaker 2: you through your body of work, and that is quite incredible.
Speaker 2: She's non tame.
Speaker 1: It is this is like, you know what's interesting about
Speaker 1: that first five I'm easy to tears these days, so
Speaker 1: I might just cry because that it just is so
Speaker 1: touching to me. But it was it was also the
Speaker 1: theme of starting with grace that that was one of
Speaker 1: the beautiful things about the show when it first came
Speaker 1: on is that mothers and daughters families, I mean mothers.
Speaker 1: I'm going to genderize and say they you know, club
Speaker 1: their husbands on the head and made them watch initially
Speaker 1: until they have you know, our boyfriends or whatever.
Speaker 3: And it was.
Speaker 1: Something that was a show that at the time before that,
Speaker 1: before it was ever streaming, before there was the Worldwide
Speaker 1: Internet and all Instagram and and all the things. They
Speaker 1: you know, you watched it every Thursday night in America,
Speaker 1: and it was a multi generational show and things that
Speaker 1: would you know, mothers and daughters could bond over and
Speaker 1: sit and have really meaningful time and watching this this
Speaker 1: show together. So it was meaningful then and now there
Speaker 1: just keeps going. Like I remember when it first happened
Speaker 1: that a kid that was definitely.
Speaker 3: Not born I show.
Speaker 1: They're like, I love your regrets. Yeah Netflix, Oh yeah, yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: I got it. Yeah, And now it just keeps going,
Speaker 1: which is so cool. I'm so grateful.
Speaker 2: Well, I know that will you say you're grateful, but
Speaker 2: it is also a testament to choices that you've made
Speaker 2: and the way that you have inhabited the roles. And
Speaker 2: for instance, when Grays started, which was two thousand and five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we shot that in four two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah.
Speaker 2: And you made an entrance at the end of that
Speaker 2: first series, right, yeah, one of the most iconic character entrances.
Speaker 3: I know. It's so good. That's Shonda Rhymes.
Speaker 1: She just wrote that she wrote thirty seconds of television
Speaker 1: that I got more attention for than anything I'd ever done,
Speaker 1: probably in my entire career, even up til now.
Speaker 2: Did she know when she wrote that that that was
Speaker 2: going to be you? For instance, when they started filming
Speaker 2: the series, were you already cost to bail Addison?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: Now, I was shooting other stuff I had. But Linda Lowe,
Speaker 1: the great Lynda Lowe, who was cast so many things,
Speaker 1: but she cast pretty much all of shondaland she knew me.
Speaker 3: She had cast me in under the Tusk and Son.
Speaker 1: This was back in the day before actors self taped
Speaker 1: or any of that. You went into casting offices or
Speaker 1: if you went on tape, it's because you were in
Speaker 1: New York and the show is in LA and you
Speaker 1: were always with a casting director. So you had the
Speaker 1: luxury of casting directors that really taught you how to act,
Speaker 1: that really were patient, that were really like, oh you
Speaker 1: didn't you might not get this one, but I believe
Speaker 1: in you. I'm going to bring you back, and I
Speaker 1: to bring you back and going to bring you back.
Speaker 1: And so she cast me none of the Tuscan Son
Speaker 1: and then was like, I have something for you. It's
Speaker 1: a recurring role on this new show. It's your perfect
Speaker 1: for it. And I was shooting something else. I was
Speaker 1: out of town. I was actually shooting something with Tim Daley,
Speaker 1: who I later worked with our private practice.
Speaker 3: I was shooting his show, The Fugitive, and so I
Speaker 3: was in Seattle.
Speaker 1: And then I came back to LA and went in
Speaker 1: the room to read, you know, for Shonda, for Linda,
Speaker 1: for her casting assistant John Brace.
Speaker 3: I think it was done.
Speaker 1: And then Peter Horton was written to Betsy Bears and
Speaker 1: then I got it.
Speaker 3: I was in those sides were like, oh, this is me.
Speaker 1: It's the perfect threading the needle of She wrote such intelligent,
Speaker 1: witty like it was a very quick like almost and
Speaker 1: the wit was almost like this kind of forties banter.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you read momcom like William Wyler movie or something,
Speaker 3: and I.
Speaker 2: Had, yeah, yeah, a bit of rabitat tat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it had and so then that helped that
Speaker 1: like the character, and that's where it starts, and then
Speaker 1: you're like oh. And then I went into Linda Bass,
Speaker 1: who was the costume designer. We're like, let's make this
Speaker 1: woman like above him, and she put me all in.
Speaker 1: She's was like Gucci and something. I was just all,
Speaker 1: you know, the all the bitch and black from the East.
Speaker 1: We went to the East and came in and I
Speaker 1: tell you, yeah, I got cast. And I contend to
Speaker 1: this day that had I had to go in and
Speaker 1: test for that that role with like the executives at
Speaker 1: ABC and with Patrick Dempsey, I wouldn't have gotten the
Speaker 1: part because I'm basically I'm Pat's height without healing on
Speaker 1: and then with heels I'm taller than him, and he
Speaker 1: had a bit of a he loves me, we love
Speaker 1: each other.
Speaker 3: But he was like what.
Speaker 2: Asking me?
Speaker 3: I was like, here, I am enjoying me.
Speaker 2: Can you dig a ditch for her so that she
Speaker 2: walks in the ditch beside me so she's sure of them?
Speaker 3: And Ellen? Then they looked so perfect together. They were
Speaker 3: like both like, she's a little pocket pal and yeah.
Speaker 1: I was like, Hi, I'm a giant dress from back East.
Speaker 1: I'm here to ruin your life.
Speaker 2: Because you've got a comedic background, which I don't know
Speaker 2: how many people know that I mean, but it knowing
Speaker 2: that about you and how it kind of informs your work,
Speaker 2: that you have a real physicality with your work, like
Speaker 2: even in Umbrella Academy, which is she's so arch and
Speaker 2: you know powerful. When you're approaching a character, are you
Speaker 2: working with a coach, are you working on the on
Speaker 2: the physicality at the time, Like when you're about to
Speaker 2: come in and you're you're going to be the mythical
Speaker 2: Addison suddenly appearing. Had you worked in your mind how
Speaker 2: that was going to feel for you or how that
Speaker 2: was going to look for you?
Speaker 3: No NDS.
Speaker 1: So here's the short answer is for Addison, I just
Speaker 1: it was all on the page and then I'd go
Speaker 1: and create with you know, the costume designers have always
Speaker 1: been super important to me. I think I had classic
Speaker 1: training of you know, Santai Slavskian method and emotional memory
Speaker 1: and sense memory and all this stuff, and then I
Speaker 1: have had so much train like then improv a lot
Speaker 1: of improva. We talked about comedy in Chicago, I did
Speaker 1: both straight theater and then comedy improv at Second City,
Speaker 1: at Improv Olympic, at the Annoyance Theater. Chicago was a
Speaker 1: great bastion of theater and comedy. I mean there was
Speaker 1: a mass exodus when I left Chicago in ninety five.
Speaker 1: It was like with Adam McKay and Will Ferrell was coming,
Speaker 1: Amy Poehler was in like co right, Cizens Jug They all, okay,
Speaker 1: there's this mass exodus, Matt Walsh, all these great comedic
Speaker 1: actors and writers coming to New York at the time.
Speaker 1: So anyway, that being said, I did a lot of
Speaker 1: comedia del arte too, in modern form with Tim Robbins
Speaker 1: Theater come the actors being in la and in Chicago
Speaker 1: Johnny Cusack's New Crime Company, and that was all about
Speaker 1: working on an image from the outside in as well.
Speaker 1: So I feel like once I have this now and
Speaker 1: I feel like at my age, there's a lot to
Speaker 1: cry about. There's a lot, there's a lot of I
Speaker 1: don't have to work on emotional moments, that's there. So
Speaker 1: all the stuff, unlike theater, it's like when you were
Speaker 1: seeing a player, like when can I get my shoes?
Speaker 3: Because it changes the way you walk?
Speaker 1: Yes, you know, And so I love costumes and hair
Speaker 1: and makeup, and so Linda Bass was like, first of
Speaker 1: all the script boom, and then secondly that you work
Speaker 1: with a costume. I've always been very collaborative and they
Speaker 1: have been collaborative because I love it. And so we
Speaker 1: came up and you have this armor and you have
Speaker 1: this I mean this crazy. I just remember that callar
Speaker 1: and you just walk a certain way in these heels,
Speaker 1: and so it was you just fall into it. For me,
Speaker 1: that's easy. And the same with the handler. That was
Speaker 1: really fun for Umbrella Academy because Steve Blackman, who used
Speaker 1: to run the writer's room on Private Practice and then
Speaker 1: also wrote for two or three seasons on Fargo, which
Speaker 1: I did season one of, he called me it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: we wrote this character. It was like, meant the handler.
Speaker 1: It's not the original graphic novel.
Speaker 3: I added it. It's like a John Hamm type. We're
Speaker 3: not going to get John. She's like, do you want
Speaker 3: to do it.
Speaker 1: I'm like that's a first and like, let me read it.
Speaker 1: And then I read it, I'm like, I love it.
Speaker 1: And because it was the same thing, it was like
Speaker 1: over the top, but it was like so funny and
Speaker 1: so weird and specific and so Steve Blackman that I
Speaker 1: was like, don't if you don't genderize it, don't change anything.
Speaker 1: And I want and I was like, do you have
Speaker 1: They had no money at that time, and again I
Speaker 1: was only supposed to do a few episodes, just like Addison,
Speaker 1: but they had to win a costume budget.
Speaker 3: I was like, great, let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's okay, and then we like then that was Christopher
Speaker 1: Harkin and the costume designer and we made these iconic,
Speaker 1: insane beautiful and the milliner's on.
Speaker 3: That project were sane, like the hats and all the things.
Speaker 3: Was like, so's fun.
Speaker 2: Coming up. Kate tells me more about her incredible career,
Speaker 2: how she's faced rejection, which is an inevitable part of
Speaker 2: being an actor and where the success has changed how
Speaker 2: she handles it over the years. Stay with us. I'm
Speaker 2: struck by as as we're having this conversation, how good
Speaker 2: you are at relationships and you know you're talking about
Speaker 2: don't you think like so you talk about these people
Speaker 2: who are I mean, everything seems self evident in retrospects.
Speaker 2: So you go Shonda Rhymes and when I know her
Speaker 2: as a legend, but she wasn't a legend then starting
Speaker 2: as h Yeah, and these are all all the people
Speaker 2: that you're mentioning then were starting out in Amy Poehler
Speaker 2: and that whole generation are your create relationships seem to
Speaker 2: have laid you through this thrade of one thing going
Speaker 2: to another, even getting this spin off to private practice.
Speaker 2: He's a great compliment to an actor.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it was massive. I was. It was.
Speaker 1: I was very surprised, and because I had done almost
Speaker 1: two and a half because I came at the end
Speaker 1: of season one and it was meant to only do
Speaker 1: five episodes, so I had already shot the five, but
Speaker 1: they aired it mid season, so that finale episode of
Speaker 1: season one was my first of the five. And then
Speaker 1: I had done another pilot for ABC, a half hour
Speaker 1: sitcom comedy that was meant to go and it didn't.
Speaker 1: I was like what oh, And then they asked me
Speaker 1: back to Grace to be a series regular. It's like yes,
Speaker 1: So that's often been the way for me. It's like, I,
Speaker 1: you know, would go in just as a guest and
Speaker 1: then guess what, I'm here to stay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so getting rid of me. Yeah, but it is
Speaker 2: it's a great compliment, thank you, isn't it? And as
Speaker 2: an it feels really good because the nature of acting
Speaker 2: is often it's an insecure profession because you're dependent on
Speaker 2: writers and other people to create the work for you.
Speaker 2: So I think that a lot of actors inhibit this
Speaker 2: space of insecurity, and yet your choice.
Speaker 3: Is like masochistic.
Speaker 1: It's a very Yeah, you have to really have a
Speaker 1: lot of there's a little bit of a sociopathy to it.
Speaker 1: I think it's like you have to really believe in yourself.
Speaker 1: I'm almost I used to say that I would go
Speaker 1: into audition rooms and I would honestly that was weird.
Speaker 3: Where it's like something's weird with me.
Speaker 1: Where I'd sign in is when you have to go
Speaker 1: into audition and I'd be like, what are all these.
Speaker 3: Other people here for my part, do you know what
Speaker 3: I mean? It wasn't conscious, but I was literally kind
Speaker 3: of surprised.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, I thought this was just for me,
Speaker 1: you know, and then you get so much rejection that
Speaker 1: you really have to love it and want it. And
Speaker 1: then thankfully, gratefully, I've at a place where I don't
Speaker 1: choose to say pick me. And you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: a lot of people I work with, people I've known,
Speaker 1: or people come to me and they're like, hey, we
Speaker 1: have this idea or we won't.
Speaker 3: You know, it's like this sounds fun, let's do it,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but even in like in your private life
Speaker 2: to leave the United States and come to Australia and
Speaker 2: now you are officially, but that's a really bold choice.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean that was crazy. I mean it's a
Speaker 1: massive geographic change. I came here for to visit and
Speaker 1: stayed for a relationship because I.
Speaker 2: Mean, I think only love, only love would engender. Is
Speaker 2: really what must have seemed to a lot of people
Speaker 2: like madness at the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then the crazy timing of it, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was a guy here two days before the borders
Speaker 1: locked for COVID. I mean I got here on a Saturday,
Speaker 1: March fourteen of twenty twenty, and then really and then
Speaker 1: the borders lot they close the borders on Monday. I
Speaker 1: left New York City on Thursday, March twelfth, and I
Speaker 1: was literally calling on the way the airport, like is
Speaker 1: that plane actually taking off? Or if they shut down JFK.
Speaker 1: And it was just at the beginning of crazy COVID.
Speaker 1: So and then here I am almost five years later.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know you loving it?
Speaker 3: Love it for me.
Speaker 1: I love the thing that's I mean, I have a
Speaker 1: great community of friends here now. But I also loved
Speaker 1: I just loved right at the beach in the Indian Ocean.
Speaker 1: I love the pace. I love that nature sort of
Speaker 1: eclipses everything. I like that I can kind of design
Speaker 1: my day somewhat by Oh what's the wind doing?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: Oh I got a south West. I was an easterly.
Speaker 1: Oh well, cancel that, mediu, I'm going for a swim.
Speaker 1: But to some extent, but I also, yeah, I needed that,
Speaker 1: Like my business is such an artificial time frame and
Speaker 1: form and unhealthy way to work, largely like to get
Speaker 1: that Gray's Anatomy product that was seventeen hour days, ten
Speaker 1: months a year, yeah, plus press plus you know, and
Speaker 1: that's really great when you're younger, but that that can't
Speaker 1: it's not sustainable. And then even when it goes, you know,
Speaker 1: a thirteen hour day, it's just like it's it's taxing.
Speaker 1: I did that for the better part of a decade,
Speaker 1: nine years between private practice and grays and it's a lot.
Speaker 1: And you don't you get so used to not having
Speaker 1: any you're just scheduled so totally. I always call it
Speaker 1: like you're like a high end mental patient, like someone's
Speaker 1: tracking your everyone. Yeah, you're in the bathroom when you
Speaker 1: get dressed, Wendy.
Speaker 2: You've got a hand, you've got a handle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, wonder I'm like, take this.
Speaker 2: I can't.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then also I imagine that when you have a profile,
Speaker 2: the price that you pay for having a profile when
Speaker 2: you're in this day is that you're always getting snapparazzied.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that culture has, uh, that certainly shifted a lot.
Speaker 3: I mean that was my whole life.
Speaker 1: I mean that was the other thing about Gray's We
Speaker 1: all sort of came up together, even though Patrick had
Speaker 1: had a career before, and you know, Jim Pickens had
Speaker 1: a career before, but none of us had that kind
Speaker 1: of exposure that Gray's provided, and then we were all
Speaker 1: like whoa.
Speaker 3: So that was the.
Speaker 1: Whole change everything. Yeah, having paparazzi follow you around and
Speaker 1: you know that was really crazy.
Speaker 2: I can you do an old striding accent now.
Speaker 3: Not? I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I can only did if it's like a characater. I
Speaker 1: don't think so. I don't even have the courage to
Speaker 1: say I can. I definitely didn't do it in optics
Speaker 1: I did it. I was like, I can't handle it,
Speaker 1: like I I it's so much pressure. It's easier to
Speaker 1: do an English accent for me than the roster I
Speaker 1: would have to have a I mean, I think I
Speaker 1: can imitate someone, but I can't, like I think, authentically
Speaker 1: do it. I think I have some total inflection at
Speaker 1: the end.
Speaker 3: It's going up now.
Speaker 1: Like or hey saying hey a lot or yaana like that.
Speaker 1: Definitely some expressions, but.
Speaker 2: Because you know, you know, it thrills us, struandings more
Speaker 2: than anything else when people mimic our accent.
Speaker 1: Oh no, okay, it's terrible, Like you can't and the
Speaker 1: thing is like Ausie's and I'm not blowing spoke. There's
Speaker 1: such I've said it before saying they're such great actors
Speaker 1: and I don't know if it's because they have to train.
Speaker 1: Like I'm impressed by everything here and it tells you
Speaker 1: kind of how American centric I was. I was like,
Speaker 1: how'd you guys get that? Like, how'd you get that
Speaker 1: good design? How did you get that great restaurant? Like
Speaker 1: how'd you get that? Like you have that because we
Speaker 1: don't even have that. So I feel like people here,
Speaker 1: whatever this island nation is, it is obviously so massive
Speaker 1: and expansive, and there's a massive myriad differences between Sydney
Speaker 1: and Brisbane and Melbourne and Perth. But that people to
Speaker 1: compete internationally have to be They just train and they're
Speaker 1: so good. So I all that is to say, in
Speaker 1: Australia doing an American accent is much better, I reckon
Speaker 1: than an America.
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, sure, but the time will come for you.
Speaker 2: So it's not enough which is.
Speaker 3: Your but it will come and I'll do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well I can't wait to hear it. I mean, in fact,
Speaker 2: because now that you are around as well, in any incarnation,
Speaker 2: you wish to bring yourself to us. So you're you've
Speaker 2: got more Umbrella Academy coming Umbrella Academy.
Speaker 1: No, that's done. That, it's done, That series is done.
Speaker 1: I'm done pretty much with everything. Emily in Paris is
Speaker 1: going back to shoot their next season, but I'm finished
Speaker 1: with that unless they call me up and say they
Speaker 1: want Meddling back.
Speaker 3: But they have me.
Speaker 2: How herroneous to have to go to Paris.
Speaker 3: I mean, I love that.
Speaker 1: It's such a delay that again was supposed to be
Speaker 1: one episode and they're like, come back, and so that
Speaker 1: was great and I'm like, can I come back again?
Speaker 1: But They're like, we played out that storyline.
Speaker 2: Culture. That must have been very interesting working in Paris. Also,
Speaker 2: now you've now worked in Australia. What are the differences
Speaker 2: in terms of how crews work or actors work?
Speaker 1: Well, the cruise are phenomenal. The cruise for Emily and
Speaker 1: Paris are phenomenal, and the same with Australia. With Optics,
Speaker 1: it was amazing, especially Vic and Jenna their genius. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're they're this show is going to be very very
Speaker 1: big kind of and they're already they're just and so
Speaker 1: multi talented. They're writing, acting, just editing, producing, they just
Speaker 1: are in it and on it. That crew is amazing.
Speaker 1: There work so hard so quickly. You know we're in
Speaker 1: a culture now that they're it's now called content, which
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, but it's a show. It's a TV show,
Speaker 1: it's a comedy, it's a drama. But because of the aspect,
Speaker 1: the nature of the consumptive nature of ya TV and film,
Speaker 1: now I'm binging.
Speaker 2: You're feeding the monster.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's a little unfortunate, I think, but I
Speaker 1: also participate. I just being American Primeval. Peter Berg's new
Speaker 1: series amazing, but you know it makes shooting in Emily
Speaker 1: in Paris too, and even Umbrella Academy and I love Netflix.
Speaker 3: I've done so much work for them, but it makes it.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh my god, we go faster faster, so
Speaker 1: you get like one and a half takes or something
Speaker 1: and then you're moving on. Or an Umbrella Academy with
Speaker 1: so much green screen and tech that you're often just
Speaker 1: doing a scene with the screen. But with the French
Speaker 1: Cruise and with the Aussie Cruz, they're so incredible. First
Speaker 1: of all, I like the schedule. It's so much healthier
Speaker 1: because they are like ten hour days, so I think
Speaker 1: they're ten yeah, and.
Speaker 3: Then really there Yeah, so that's a union thing.
Speaker 1: That's just different in Europe and England and France, and
Speaker 1: I don't know about Germany. In Italy too because I
Speaker 1: worked there, there are ten hour days and they're just like, nah,
Speaker 1: that's it. And because as an actor you're coming in
Speaker 1: at you're getting a bit four thirty to get to
Speaker 1: the set at five thirty, and then so the crew
Speaker 1: do is if the crew starts at seven and then
Speaker 1: we're you know, done it, they're done at five, that's
Speaker 1: better because it's still you know, twelve or thirteen or
Speaker 1: fourteen hour day for actors. So it's just so much
Speaker 1: healthier and everyone, even though we're moving fast, it felt,
Speaker 1: particularly on this show on Optics, we're not moving too
Speaker 1: fast like you're we're efficient, but there's so much freedom,
Speaker 1: so much love, a lot of joy on that show.
Speaker 1: I think it's also it's so funny that the crew.
Speaker 1: It's very fun to see people trying to hold in
Speaker 1: their laughter until you hear.
Speaker 3: Cut oh laughing. So that's really that's nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And do you think more comedy for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I miss it.
Speaker 1: I always say that, and then I end up doing
Speaker 1: these heavy dramas because there's both exist to me, I've
Speaker 1: always done both, but I definitely love both and this
Speaker 1: was really fun to do this role on objects.
Speaker 2: After this short break, we dive into her journey with
Speaker 2: a tumor, the surreal irony of being a fake doctor
Speaker 2: facing a real medical crisis, and what life looks like
Speaker 2: for her here in Australia. Don't go anywhere. Do you
Speaker 2: think that when you had your medical scare or you
Speaker 2: had the Yeah, it's a.
Speaker 1: Very movie of the week. It's very much kind of
Speaker 1: actress gets brain tumor.
Speaker 3: It was very well, it was strawdinary.
Speaker 2: And then you then did a play in wa Last
Speaker 2: gr Was it Last g where the character I think
Speaker 2: she has a brain?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, no, she had dementia. That was the other place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was in Gosh when I first got here. So
Speaker 1: that was actually in twenty twenty. It was a play
Speaker 1: written by shar Waite called The Other Place that Joe
Speaker 1: Mantello had done on Broadway, New York in twenty fourteen
Speaker 1: with Laurie Metcalf who who shar wrote it for. And
Speaker 1: I had just done a reading of it for Broadway
Speaker 1: dot Com to raise money for out of work theater
Speaker 1: crew and actors and workers during COVID they were doing
Speaker 1: these online zoom reading series and for fundraising, and I
Speaker 1: love the play so much. I'm like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: we should do this here because why not? And we're
Speaker 1: in Perth and we only had like a six week
Speaker 1: sort of you know quarantine if you will. It was
Speaker 1: like six theater, but you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: after six weeks people were we were living kind of
Speaker 1: like a real We were in a totally different matrix here.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like Sydney or Melbourne with constant like you know,
Speaker 1: we were really fortunate. So we were able to do
Speaker 1: this play and we did it in I think it
Speaker 1: was October. We have twenty twenty and the little theaters
Speaker 1: to open this little start, this little theater with We're
Speaker 1: not off a bready a Freemantle theater company, and did
Speaker 1: this play for like, you know, very intimate, like I
Speaker 1: think it was probably like one hundred people, audienced.
Speaker 2: And so local. So obviously there are people who are
Speaker 2: into theater. Would they like, oh my god, yes, do
Speaker 2: you get that response when you're out and about her.
Speaker 3: Like you live here? Why are you here? What are
Speaker 3: you doing, yeah right, yeah.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. And what do you say? What do you say?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do?
Speaker 1: I live here, you know, partner and I were here
Speaker 1: and then I you know, I still have my place
Speaker 1: in New York, my apartment there, So I go, we
Speaker 1: were just there for the holidays, and I have it
Speaker 1: sublet and then delayful subla. She agrees graciously to sort
Speaker 1: of go in and out when I need to be there.
Speaker 2: You need to. Oh that's great. So you you love Australia,
Speaker 2: You love an Australian?
Speaker 3: Yes, I do.
Speaker 2: Very you did say, I think accidentally an interview once
Speaker 2: you referred to him as your fiance.
Speaker 3: We are engaged. We are engaged.
Speaker 2: We're in which means there'll be a wedding, and Australian wedding.
Speaker 2: Have you seen Muriel's Wedding? Have you watched that film?
Speaker 4: I mean, of course, iconic, that's like one of my
Speaker 4: favorite all time films. Like such such a great I
Speaker 4: mean that's what in the States, how we were introduced
Speaker 4: to Tony Collette and Rachel who are these genius Yeah, like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, yeah, just beautiful.
Speaker 2: So I'm just putting it out there in case you're
Speaker 2: looking for a thing I want to go to Pope.
Speaker 2: I know what your plans are. I know you're a
Speaker 2: very elegant, glamorous woman.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: We'll see, but yeah, so I'm here and I'm loving it,
Speaker 1: loving it.
Speaker 2: Well, you know what, we're loving you for a myriad
Speaker 2: of reasons.
Speaker 3: Thanks. Well, I'm hoping to do more work here.
Speaker 1: We're hoping to bring a show to you know, we
Speaker 1: did all this big push to get a studio built
Speaker 1: here in Western Australia in Perth, which is happening, and
Speaker 1: then I'm hoping to do a show here.
Speaker 3: We're hoping to.
Speaker 1: Shoot something, uh when it may or may not be
Speaker 1: with with you know, big syrups and geno and so
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well it must ingen to some curiosity amongst your colleagues
Speaker 2: and your peace back in the States.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're envious. I'll tell you what it is. It's
Speaker 1: more like, why didn't we do that? We wish we
Speaker 1: could live there, especially with everything that's going on. I
Speaker 1: mean Los Angeles has had a time of it, oh my,
Speaker 1: between between all of everything politically, between that, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: everything and COVID and then the strikes and then now
Speaker 1: there's fires. It's been devastating and uh yeah, so it
Speaker 1: has it's going to be a long time before that
Speaker 1: community recovers.
Speaker 3: It will, but a really long time just madness and
Speaker 3: a lot of it.
Speaker 1: The last place I lived in La Malibu was gone,
Speaker 1: So it's uh, it's crazy.
Speaker 2: The recovery proces. This is not just like that. That's
Speaker 2: this is going to be decades, really, I.
Speaker 1: Think so, and it will reshape the whole business and
Speaker 1: reshape I mean already people it was impossible to get
Speaker 1: insurance for fire and people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's really yeah.
Speaker 2: Hey, speaking of decades. One thing that I'm struck by
Speaker 2: is when you're reading any sort of retrospective or article
Speaker 2: about your career, and it's always like, oh my god.
Speaker 2: Kate Walsh is an example of starting a career later
Speaker 2: in life, and I'm like, what what you were? Really?
Speaker 2: I mean, you were working the whole way through. You
Speaker 2: really probably came to us to real sort of worldwide prominence.
Speaker 2: But you're in your thirties, So how do you feel
Speaker 2: about that as a descriptor.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't mind. First of all, I really don't care.
Speaker 1: Secondly, it's like, I have a lot of empathy or
Speaker 1: I understand why people would have that perception because I
Speaker 1: wasn't really in the zegos as sort of you know,
Speaker 1: we're alluding to until Grays. That's what sort of put
Speaker 1: me on a map in a massive way. And most actors,
Speaker 1: that's the story is that you're quietly working, working really hard.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been acting since I was a kid,
Speaker 1: but professionally on like since I was you know, nineteen twenty,
Speaker 1: but in little ways, but always then, Oh it was
Speaker 1: like working, waitressing, working, waitressing working, and then like I
Speaker 1: did my first big comedy it was Drew Carey, and
Speaker 1: then I did. But even when I moved to LA
Speaker 1: from New York, finally I was I became aware of
Speaker 1: this community of actors and writers and directors that had
Speaker 1: been that make a really great loop. There's they were
Speaker 1: sort of known like this middle class like actors and
Speaker 1: writers and directors, but that half the writers that their
Speaker 1: movies were never made, but they get paid.
Speaker 3: For making these movies.
Speaker 1: Directors they get paid for making these pilots that they
Speaker 1: shot but were never actually picked up the TV series.
Speaker 1: So I was making doing a lot of stuff. It
Speaker 1: just was more shown in America or you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't a global thing, and now it's. The business is
Speaker 1: so different because as soon as you do anything, it's
Speaker 1: pretty much global, you know. It's not like because of
Speaker 1: the streaming services.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: So I don't mind it because I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, you.
Speaker 3: Guys are how do you make it a living? I've
Speaker 3: never seen your show.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, yeah, we make all these things and
Speaker 1: half of them don't get seen, and then that's how
Speaker 1: we make our living. So yeah, that's I think that's
Speaker 1: always a common misperception. And along the way there were
Speaker 1: all these gorgeous stepping stones were like, yay, I got
Speaker 1: the first, you know, studio film with Will Ferrell.
Speaker 3: Oh my, that's so exciting. I got my first comedy
Speaker 3: of the Drue Carrier. That's really fun. And oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: that's my first. You know, a lot of firsts.
Speaker 2: Do you feel secure in your place now?
Speaker 3: You mean as an actor or.
Speaker 2: Oh well, because they kind of commence your ith, aren't they.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I meant as an actor and artist. Yes, I
Speaker 1: think it's more existential now that I'm like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I just lost my mom, you know,
Speaker 1: and that is massive. And also I think part of
Speaker 1: you asked why I why I live here?
Speaker 3: Or is it weird? People like what are you doing?
Speaker 1: There's also a lot of other life to live, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of I have a lot of other
Speaker 1: interests and a lot of a lot of other things
Speaker 1: that give me great joy, simple things like cooking, like swimming,
Speaker 1: like traveling and diving, and conservation and my cats, three.
Speaker 3: Cats, and love. But so there's a lot.
Speaker 1: And then it becomes as essentially you're just like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, who knows how much time I have left?
Speaker 1: There's been you know, like I said, you get to
Speaker 1: be a lot of life has been lived, and you're like, whoa,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of loss.
Speaker 2: And you had the brush with mortality.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: That was before brand tour and after brand tumor, and
Speaker 1: it was very cliche. But I didn't know what No
Speaker 1: one knew what it was going to be. Whether I
Speaker 1: just remember the week before I went into brain surgery
Speaker 1: or a week and a half to bo Biden had
Speaker 1: just had died of raincou So it was like, who
Speaker 1: knows If this is it, I've had a good run.
Speaker 1: If not, I'm going to make a lot of changes
Speaker 1: and I kept that promise to myself. I mean a
Speaker 1: lot of the changes were I want to spend more
Speaker 1: time with all the cliche things, my friends, my family,
Speaker 1: and my loved ones, living life, not making work the
Speaker 1: sole focus, which it was. I used to say to people,
Speaker 1: if you want to see me, come work with me,
Speaker 1: Helbie working.
Speaker 3: You know. So I changed all that.
Speaker 2: You change all that, and the world has risen to
Speaker 2: meet you, isn't it interesting?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Very very That's just given me goose bumps. Actually, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: because I love the I love the thought that you
Speaker 2: can change your own narrative motivated by being in service
Speaker 2: to yourself, the way we often let ourselves be in
Speaker 2: service to other people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it has to start, everyone says, but your own
Speaker 1: oxygen has gone first, you start here. And then I
Speaker 1: also think in this global community that we're so aware of,
Speaker 1: and I would argue, like we have too much information,
Speaker 1: like ninety nine percent of it. We're powerless over that
Speaker 1: to be able to, you know, take good care of yourself.
Speaker 1: And I still that's a daily thing, like oh wait,
Speaker 1: because I get like that, I get wrapped up in
Speaker 1: somebody else's energy or problems or whatever I want to
Speaker 1: But even with that, just doing what I can right here,
Speaker 1: very simply to help people worry or whatever whatever the
Speaker 1: day calls. And that's one of the things I love.
Speaker 1: The luxury of living in Australia for me. You know,
Speaker 1: there's this expression make your plans and then God laughs
Speaker 1: or you know, or life happens. But here it's like
Speaker 1: life happens and then I make my plans. It really
Speaker 1: is like, oh what is so I kind of leave
Speaker 1: a ventilated schedule, if you know, if you will, for
Speaker 1: as much as I can, because then when I still
Speaker 1: go back to work, it's not that, but I leave
Speaker 1: some space to go what is life going to bring me?
Speaker 3: And what are the magic?
Speaker 2: And you know, yeah, yes, when you're being rewarded tenfold
Speaker 2: as you deserve to be for the joy that you
Speaker 2: have provided to others and that you actually know how
Speaker 2: to look after yourself like a grown up, which actors
Speaker 2: always hard necessarily.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, it's a very yeah, you have to consciously
Speaker 1: decide you want to grow up.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 2: A message for all of us. Kate Walsh, thank you
Speaker 2: for sharing yourself with us. Thank you, Kate, and I
Speaker 2: wish you every joy.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thanks Darling Chi Bella. We did squeeze a few more
Speaker 2: questions into our time that we had with Kate. If
Speaker 2: you can keep an eye on our beauty podcast, You Beauty,
Speaker 2: there's a special episode coming out all about Kate's perfume boyfriend,
Speaker 2: So keep an eye on the You Beauty feed. With
Speaker 2: popped a link in the show notes to make it easy,
Speaker 2: And if you want to see more of Kate's work,
Speaker 2: you can watch Optics on ABC I View. The executive
Speaker 2: producer of No Filter is Naima Brown and the senior
Speaker 2: producer is Grace Rufray. Audio production is by Jacob Brown
Speaker 2: and I'm your host, kateline Brook. Thanks for listening.