S1: Hey, I'm Jenny Curtis. You know, at this.
S2: Point that I directed and produced Zola alongside creator Chris
S2: Porter and also I voiced the character of.
S1: Be honest. She's her favorite.
S2: Chris and I got to chat through the development of
S2: thematic elements and overall creation of Ali. And here we're
S2: jumping into a discussion about finding her voice and as
S2: Chris puts it, the heart inside the programming.
S1: But Ali was her own type of really exciting challenge
S1: because we worked really hard to find how a computer
S1: could be emotional.
S3: That's right. What did you feel that you could bring
S3: to the role that you didn't find immediately on the page?
S3: What was unique and fulfilling for you as an actress
S3: about this project?
S1: The thing in a sideways way to answer this the
S1: gift of being on the creative team of this show
S1: and having so much time developing it is that we
S1: had time to get to know Ali. And I didn't
S1: have to come in and jump into a rehearsal immediately
S1: and get one take at like, okay, that's her voice
S1: and then let's go. There was so much time where
S1: we had the table reads. We had the rehearsals with
S1: the other actors as we were developing the project. I
S1: was acting opposite them when they were recording and I
S1: feel like where everybody else got a rehearsal or a
S1: table read at most. Besides the obvious, John, who we've
S1: already talked about coming in often, I had time with
S1: her to find her voice, and I think that was
S1: the most exciting and fulfilling part. And I'm going to
S1: keep saying this word all the time and I know,
S1: you know, I love it. But the time to play
S1: because we wanted her to be different and it's really
S1: hard to find what is different about a technological character.
S3: Can you share some of the ways that Ali evolved,
S3: both in pre-production and throughout the story, to have a
S3: heart inside the programming?
S1: Our first table read when we had, I think 12
S1: actors come in and sit around a table and this
S1: was pre-pandemic and we all read the first four episodes
S1: of the show, and I knew I enjoyed Ali, but
S1: we started reading and people were cracking up.
S3: She has great comedic timing for me.
S1: She has great comedic timing. Yes. Tyler Davis, if you
S1: go on this mission, we will get along.
S3: Can you keep it secret?
S1: No. I think are open by anyone would. Having that
S1: live feedback was so hugely helpful to know this is
S1: where we can lean in and this is where we
S1: can develop her and this is where she can have
S1: a personality.
S3: You had mentioned that you were directing these people and
S3: you were reading all the lines to have the actors
S3: respond to them. Did that experience of having to read
S3: and perform with this while listening to the other people's performances,
S3: did that lead you to reconsider how you were performing?
S3: Ali Once you got to the other side of the window.
S1: Reconsidered. No, but talking about how it took time to
S1: develop her, I performed very much on intuition and how
S1: things feel. So the more I got to play outside
S1: of the recording studio, the more I was able to
S1: comfortably drop in. Once I was and I say comfortably
S1: with a big asterisk on it, because as you know,
S1: it took a little while originally. I don't know if
S1: you were going to go here, but originally we weren't
S1: going to record Ali in the studio because it was
S1: just you and I and I have a mic at
S1: home and we knew Ali was going to have a
S1: treatment to her, so it didn't have to sound as
S1: clear as everybody else. We were going to try to
S1: record her in the studio we're in now, which I
S1: don't know if anyone can hear what just happened, but
S1: motorcycles just went by us and that was a challenge.
S1: And so then we were like, Well, what if we
S1: record her in my apartment? And I had a really
S1: nice mic in my apartment and I set it up
S1: on top of a jewelry case next to my closet,
S1: and I tried to make myself a little sound booth.
S1: And everything in my being is so anxious. I have
S1: to have things be perfect. I definitely overthink. And finally,
S1: we were like, You know what? Screw this. We're going
S1: to go into the studio.
S3: We talked about it with John when he was here
S3: in a previous solar panel, that there's a certain level
S3: of physicality that allows you to drop into that role.
S3: And I think you had even mentioned like squeezing a
S3: part of your hand at some point. What what did
S3: you have to do to drop into Ali? And I
S3: know one of the things you had to do because
S3: we heard it all, all the time.
S1: Okay. So, yeah, the hand thing was not an alley thing.
S1: The hand in case anybody didn't go back and listen
S1: to last week's conversation with John. That's an emotional trigger
S1: for me. And obviously, Ali, I'm doing it now and
S1: I'm going to get teary.
S3: Oh, don't do it. Don't stop it. Stop it. We're
S3: having a fun interview. Oh.
S1: So it's an emotional trigger for me to dig my
S1: thumbnail into the center of my palm, which is just
S1: an actor thing I have in my tool kit. And Ali,
S1: I would often do this. Oh, and to warm up
S1: my voice. And then I would go back to Ali's
S1: main line. Searching for mission control. Searching for mission control.
S1: And she would immediately drop into my chest and immediately, like,
S1: come right here in the sort of front of my
S1: soft palate.
S3: She's gesturing kind of to like the top of her
S3: mouth and nasal sinus region.
S1: But nobody really.
S3: Kind of on.
S1: Their mouth in that.
S3: Way. Usually not. It's a soft palate.
S1: And that's how I would find out.
S3: Now, in its creation, I always knew that the ship
S3: was going to be a major character. And the story
S3: is about dealing with trauma, both physical and mental. And honestly,
S3: I could think of no better metaphor than have a
S3: ship with a hole literally ripped through it. How much
S3: of your humanness did you have to remove and how
S3: much did you have to put in to thread that needle?
S1: That wasn't an active choice, whatever it was. I tried
S1: really hard to remove all humanness. You know this. I
S1: would get really, really mad that I would have to breathe.
S1: It bothered me. Ali doesn't breathe, and I was pissed
S1: that I couldn't make it all the way through the
S1: temperature readings without taking a breath. Which, you know, the
S1: magic of editing. Just stop and breathe. The crazy lady,
S1: the humanness. And Ali, I mean, there were a couple
S1: of days, though, like when I would direct obviously we've
S1: talked about this. I'm on the other side of the glass.
S1: I'm reading across the actors and performing with them and blah, blah, blah.
S1: And when I would go into the booth, we would
S1: do one line at a time, because Ali doesn't really
S1: need to react to people because she has her cadence.
S1: But there would be some lines where you would be like,
S1: where are we going to find the emotion here? And
S1: then you would feed me a line and I would react.
S1: And it it was helpful in that those moments where
S1: we needed to find her humanity. Then you became the
S1: reader on the other side where I was actually acting
S1: with someone rather than just checking off the lines as
S1: we go. Right. God, that was fun. Let's do this again.
S3: From the start.
S1: And there's some.
S2: Background on the eighth on language interface. I could talk
S2: about Ali all day and in fact, you can hear
S2: more of our discussion about her on the solar panel
S2: available on our Apple Podcasts premium channel.
S1: Thanks for.
S2: Listening. And till next time searching for mission control.