Speaker 1: But I was I was like really trying to downplay
Speaker 1: that at the time because at the time there was
Speaker 1: no kind of crossover model turned out, you know, like
Speaker 1: model turned act. It was kind of a bad thing,
Speaker 1: and it's like you can't You're probably not going to
Speaker 1: be able to act if you're a model type thing. So, right,
Speaker 1: I really did downplay it a lot.
Speaker 2: How do you downplay I don't I mean, what like you,
Speaker 2: I don't wash your hair for a week or like
Speaker 2: what like you.
Speaker 3: I would always go in with like, well, you know
Speaker 3: it does.
Speaker 1: It has hurt me in many ways my height because
Speaker 1: I'm almost six week tall.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm five eleve so that I'm taller, don't don't
Speaker 2: get braggy, I'm taller.
Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Trisha Halfer and I am certifiably the mother
Speaker 1: of cats and goats, and I'm moonlight as an actor
Speaker 1: and a model.
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody, welcome back here to another episode of Off
Speaker 2: the Beat. I am once again your host, Brian Bumgartner.
Speaker 2: Now you've probably heard that classic Hollywood story about someone
Speaker 2: being discovered while just going about their daily life. Right,
Speaker 2: They're at a grocery store and an agent comes up
Speaker 2: and says, hey, there we've got to get you to
Speaker 2: Hollywood be in the movies. My experience, this is many
Speaker 2: years of meetings and interviewing many many actors. That doesn't happen. Okay,
Speaker 2: it's just it is just not how things work. You
Speaker 2: do not get noticed at a grocery store. It's a
Speaker 2: fairy tale. It's a myth. But I guess fairy tales
Speaker 2: do come true, because it did happen for my guest today,
Speaker 2: Tricia Helfer, at a movie theater in Canada, mind you,
Speaker 2: so there you go, And whoever discovered her at that
Speaker 2: movie theater was either very perceptive or very lucky, because
Speaker 2: guess what, Tricia is a true talent. She's gone on
Speaker 2: to have a very successful modeling career on runways all
Speaker 2: over the world, then moved on to acting, where she
Speaker 2: has played favorites like Number six on Battlestar Galactica, Dracula
Speaker 2: in the sci fi series Van Helsing, and many more. So, Yes,
Speaker 2: pat Scout got lucky when they saw her at the
Speaker 2: movie theater, But now we're all lucky because we get
Speaker 2: to see her perform in all of her spectacular roles.
Speaker 2: And guess what, I feel lucky to have her here. Today.
Speaker 2: Here she is my new friend, Tricia Helfer Bubblin Squeak.
Speaker 4: I love it bubblin squea gano, bubble and squeaker, cooking
Speaker 4: every move over from the.
Speaker 2: Ninefo Hi, Tricia, Hello, how are you?
Speaker 3: I'm doing good? Thank you. I'm pleased to be here
Speaker 3: with you.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much for coming in and having
Speaker 2: a little chat with me today. Where are you where? Like?
Speaker 2: What city are you in?
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not in a city actually, and you're from Georgia.
Speaker 1: You're from Georgia, right, you might you might go, you
Speaker 1: might know where I am. Then?
Speaker 3: Actually I'm in Chattahoochee.
Speaker 2: Hills Chatahoochie Hills. Yeah, so I lived well that's an exaggeration.
Speaker 2: I was a like two minute walk down the hill
Speaker 2: from the Chatahoochee River. So the Chattahooche Hills. What is
Speaker 2: that like north Atlanta? North of Atlanta?
Speaker 3: That south?
Speaker 1: Actually is it's south like an hour south of city,
Speaker 1: so like twenty five minutes south of the airport.
Speaker 2: Are do you live there now?
Speaker 3: I do?
Speaker 1: I think I had a midlife crisis in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one and just backed up and without even thinking about
Speaker 1: anything and moved. So yes, since since fall of twenty
Speaker 1: one live. I live here now, but I'm I'm hoping
Speaker 1: to come back to.
Speaker 2: La Okay, But but do you like it?
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 3: It's it's not to start off a fun and negative.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, no, that's fine.
Speaker 3: No, it's been a I do love it. I mean,
Speaker 3: I live out on twenty five acres.
Speaker 1: I like, I literally just changed lifestyle and and it's
Speaker 1: been you know, it's it's great.
Speaker 3: I missed my friends, I miss being you know.
Speaker 1: I moved here not knowing anyone, right, So, and then
Speaker 1: I moved here and my mom died and my dad
Speaker 1: got Alzheimer's and I uninjured my knee and was out
Speaker 1: of work for a year and hobbling around and Jesus, no,
Speaker 1: it couldn't be physical, couldn't go hiking, couldn't do anything
Speaker 1: like that. And then the strike happened, and then now
Speaker 1: here we are.
Speaker 3: It's like, you move and just your life goes to shit.
Speaker 2: I don't know, Oh I got you could say whatever
Speaker 2: you want. Oh my god, that's terrible.
Speaker 3: It's hard to not base it off of like the move,
Speaker 3: like that's what made everything go bad. Oh god, logically
Speaker 3: I know that's not.
Speaker 2: The case, but well, It's very interesting. I mean, you've
Speaker 2: kind of written a perfect transition for me, because now
Speaker 2: you're there in rural Georgia, twenty five acres sounds like
Speaker 2: a farm to me. You grew up on a farm.
Speaker 3: I did in rural.
Speaker 2: Rural, by the way, is one of the hardest words
Speaker 2: for me to say personally, and the fact that I
Speaker 2: just did it twice in the same sentence is unbelievable.
Speaker 2: Uh in Canada.
Speaker 3: A I did?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Get it? A get it? Yeah? Yeah? All right, So
Speaker 2: you worked on a farm when you were a kid,
Speaker 2: earned some money working on a farm, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I absolutely did. I was.
Speaker 1: I was actually just there visiting my family last week.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I grew up on a farm, working farm.
Speaker 1: My grand my grandparents started the farm, and my father
Speaker 1: was born and raised on a farm, and so that
Speaker 1: was my I never had an after school job aside
Speaker 1: from being a farm hand, so I grew up driving
Speaker 1: tractors and fixing farm machinery and all of that.
Speaker 2: Do you do you have animals? Now? Do you have
Speaker 2: a garden.
Speaker 3: I do have a garden.
Speaker 1: I have six cats, which I brought with me from
Speaker 1: la and I have two goats.
Speaker 2: Goats that qualifies as a farm. If you have a goat,
Speaker 2: then that equals farm. Like do you, I don't know,
Speaker 2: do you milk the goats? Like what are the goats do?
Speaker 2: Do the goats help keep the grass down? Do they
Speaker 2: do you play with them? Like? What what do you
Speaker 2: do with the goats?
Speaker 3: They're boys, so milking them would be a different thing.
Speaker 2: All right, that's awkward. Okay, I took I took a gamble.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Do people milk goats if they have goats?
Speaker 3: They do. There's a neighbor's mine.
Speaker 1: She has a bunch of goats and she milks them,
Speaker 1: and she has a little farm stand and she makes okay,
Speaker 1: goat cheese and all the all the stuff that is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's way too much work for me. Mine are just spoiled,
Speaker 1: little you know. They get their fresh apple in the
Speaker 1: morning and carrots in the evening, and they're you know,
Speaker 1: yesterday I got the hoofs trimmed, and yeah, they're they're
Speaker 1: kind of just a little spoiled rescues.
Speaker 2: Well, now, when you go back to LA, are you
Speaker 2: going to bring the goats?
Speaker 3: That's my plan?
Speaker 1: Okay, you know, I'm actually thinking of looking at places
Speaker 1: like Woodland Hills, or even carts. Mensino are zoned for
Speaker 1: farm animals, so goat friendly.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think i'd be smacked at in Beverly Hills,
Speaker 3: where I was before.
Speaker 1: You know, I went from studios, I went, I'm like
Speaker 1: Laurel Canyon to Beverly Hills like a Coldwater Canyon to
Speaker 1: Sherman Oaks Canyon in my many years there, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think they do very well there.
Speaker 2: No, probably not. So you were you did farm work?
Speaker 2: What were you interested in as a kid?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Were you watching movies? Television? I know you're in Canada,
Speaker 2: but you must have access to American shows there or
Speaker 2: not so much?
Speaker 3: Actually, no, they do.
Speaker 1: I mean it's not it is the Great White North,
Speaker 1: but it's not so far removed that it doesn't have
Speaker 1: you know, you can't get all all the American shows
Speaker 1: because they do certainly limit different stations, right yea, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I had no TV growing up, so I really
Speaker 1: did not grow up with any access to movies or
Speaker 1: television or anything like that. So we saw very few
Speaker 1: movies and I was I was allowed to go over
Speaker 1: and watch hockey games. My grandparents had a TV that
Speaker 1: had like four stations and I was allowed to go
Speaker 1: over and watch hockey games because I was a big
Speaker 1: Edmonton Olers fan.
Speaker 2: Last nights congratulations, Yes, very good. Yes, I'm happy for them.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I didn't really you know, I was I
Speaker 1: was interested in volleyball and school and so sports.
Speaker 2: More stories. Yeah, okay, Now rumor has it that you
Speaker 2: were approached at a movie theater? Now was this in
Speaker 2: Canada about being a model? Is this right?
Speaker 3: That that is correct?
Speaker 1: Yes, I was in the nearest town that had a
Speaker 1: movie theater, like a one room theater, Stetler, Alberta. And
Speaker 1: I think the town has about forty five hundred people
Speaker 1: something like that.
Speaker 3: And yeah, so I was there.
Speaker 1: And it was actually a girl that had gone to
Speaker 1: school with my older sister, and she was doing some
Speaker 1: local modeling for this agent, Kelly Strait, who was who
Speaker 1: was only twenty four himself when he started, and he
Speaker 1: used to scout for Ford models in New York and everything.
Speaker 1: And so she asked, and I said, absolutely not. You know,
Speaker 1: this is obviously pre cell phones and pre right, you know,
Speaker 1: Google and everything.
Speaker 3: But she gave him my parents' number.
Speaker 1: Because of course there's the Yellow Pages, and so he
Speaker 1: called and I was goaded on by my volleyball teammates,
Speaker 1: okay to go see him the next time I was
Speaker 1: in the city, and so I did, and like literally
Speaker 1: about a month or two later, I was in New
Speaker 1: York City.
Speaker 2: So okay, So wait a second. So I'm so this
Speaker 2: is so interesting to me because you're saying it like
Speaker 2: this is a matter of fact. But there are talent
Speaker 2: there's talent scouts in Stetler, Alberta, Canada that are like
Speaker 2: legit recruiting for like legit modeling jobs in New York City. Well,
Speaker 2: this is surprising. This would be like Atlanta back in
Speaker 2: the day. Now Atlanta is different. But if it was like, hey,
Speaker 2: do you want to be a model? I would think
Speaker 2: you know that that would that would well they wouldn't
Speaker 2: ask me. But you know what I'm saying, like that
Speaker 2: that I wouldn't have thought that was legit.
Speaker 3: Well I did. Again, it wasn't him that was there.
Speaker 1: Although he is also from a small town, he lives
Speaker 1: in Calgary now, so he has just always wanted to
Speaker 1: stay in Alberta. He could have gone to any of
Speaker 1: the you know, New York, he could have been an
Speaker 1: agent anywhere, and he's just always been partial to staying
Speaker 1: where he grew up.
Speaker 3: But he did.
Speaker 1: He he really was. He's an interesting guy. He's got
Speaker 1: a very good eye for the modeling business right and
Speaker 1: and what is working and everything at the time, and
Speaker 1: just but he if he had probably approached me, I
Speaker 1: would have been way too shy, and because he's quite
Speaker 1: he's quite energetic and quite quite a personality.
Speaker 3: But it was a girl that went to school with
Speaker 3: my older sister.
Speaker 1: So I knew her okay, and you know, i'd known
Speaker 1: her for years. And she said she was in Calgary
Speaker 1: doing you know, at university and had met and was
Speaker 1: doing some local modeling and that type of thing.
Speaker 3: So it might have been a different story if he
Speaker 3: had approached me.
Speaker 2: So within a couple of months, you're in You're in
Speaker 2: New York City m hm, and you're so what are
Speaker 2: you doing, like you're immediately starting to get jobs.
Speaker 3: Well, this was between grade eleven and grade twelve. So
Speaker 3: I went.
Speaker 1: He set me up to go, and I actually stayed
Speaker 1: at Eileen Ford's house or her apartment, and I went
Speaker 1: to New York for five days to get some pictures
Speaker 1: so they they he had he took some pictures of
Speaker 1: me and he sent them to for New York and
Speaker 1: they said we want her, and so I went there
Speaker 1: and did some test.
Speaker 3: Shoots they had set up.
Speaker 1: You know, you have to get photos r right to
Speaker 1: be able to show. And then he had organized me
Speaker 1: to be with an agency in Montreal. So I was
Speaker 1: only in New York the first time for five days
Speaker 1: and I went from there to Montreal, where an agency
Speaker 1: started putting me out in the Montreal market for three weeks.
Speaker 1: So I was gone for like for a month basically.
Speaker 1: And I remember, I just I did all these like
Speaker 1: Bridal magazines.
Speaker 3: I was six sixteen seventeen.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, yeah, I was young for.
Speaker 1: That seventeen and just doing all these Bridal magazines and
Speaker 1: I look at them now, and my mom has them
Speaker 1: all still and.
Speaker 3: Or had them all still, and.
Speaker 1: I just it's they're so funny to see that time
Speaker 1: period and the Bridal magazines. But yeah, So I went
Speaker 1: there and with the guys of kind of just with
Speaker 1: the idea of just kind of seeing what it was,
Speaker 1: what it was like and then going back to grade twelve.
Speaker 1: So I went, and I remember specifically I made thirty
Speaker 1: six thousand dollars in three weeks. And I went back
Speaker 1: to grade twelve, and then I was like, maybe I should.
Speaker 3: Give this a track. I liked it to go to Milan.
Speaker 1: They want me to go to Paris, Like, maybe I
Speaker 1: should try this, and so I did my first semester
Speaker 1: and then and then I packed up and I left.
Speaker 3: I left before graduating.
Speaker 2: And you were based then in New York or you
Speaker 2: just went wherever you had to go.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I went to Milan first for a couple
Speaker 1: of months, and then I went to Paris, and then
Speaker 1: very quickly moved my base, like within a year, moved
Speaker 1: my base to New York. I just I'm much more
Speaker 1: of a kind of New York mentality than living in Paris.
Speaker 3: I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't like living in Paris at that time. So okay,
Speaker 1: love it, love visiting it now, but I didn't like
Speaker 1: it as a seventeen eighteen year old. I found it
Speaker 1: very kind of difficult to get to get by in
Speaker 1: many ways.
Speaker 2: Nineteen ninety two, you won the Ford Supermodel of the
Speaker 2: World contest. Supermodel of the World is I mean that's.
Speaker 3: A title, it's a statement.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a kind of I kind of just glazed
Speaker 1: right over that. That was between Milan and Paris.
Speaker 2: They uh, oh so even before oh so, just based
Speaker 2: on your first time and then going to Milan, you're
Speaker 2: now the supermodel of the year, says Ford.
Speaker 1: Well, they hazy right back in the back in the
Speaker 1: early nineties. I think in the eighties and nineties, they
Speaker 1: had these things, these these I mean, for lack of
Speaker 1: a better word, pageant. I've never been a pageant person,
Speaker 1: but it is a modeling competition, right. It's it's a
Speaker 1: you do runway and you do photo shoots and everything.
Speaker 1: But they had these two hour specials on TV, so
Speaker 1: it was a thing, you know, and they Ford had
Speaker 1: kind of I lean forward, had just chosen me the
Speaker 1: winner of Canada instead of doing it a search, but
Speaker 1: they just chose out of a bunch of people and
Speaker 1: announced me as the Canadian winner. When I was in
Speaker 1: Milan the first time, when I first left home to
Speaker 1: really get this try, and I didn't even know like
Speaker 1: I was, I didn't enter myself. So I then went
Speaker 1: to la to do the international competition and it's like
Speaker 1: a two week you tape for two weeks, you know,
Speaker 1: all this type of stuff, and I won that. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it was that title was a blessing and a curse,
Speaker 1: because it definitely helped kickstart. You know, I went straight
Speaker 1: from their Paris for fashion Week, and I remember meeting
Speaker 1: Carl Lagerfeld at Chanel for the first time, and I
Speaker 1: had a camera crew with me because I had just won,
Speaker 1: so there was a you know, camera crew following me,
Speaker 1: and I'm you know, I've just turned eighteen and I'm
Speaker 1: this shy Canadian farm girl, and but I had a
Speaker 1: camera crew, which is probably the only reason he hired
Speaker 1: me for the show.
Speaker 3: But then, you know, so things like that helped.
Speaker 1: But then other times I remember meeting I can't remember
Speaker 1: who it was, but it was somebody at Vogue and
Speaker 1: I walked in and of course on your card, your
Speaker 1: composite card, it says forts new Fall of the World.
Speaker 1: And they just look at me and like, oh, so
Speaker 1: you're a supermodel, Like you have no pictures. Basically you're
Speaker 1: brand new. You're a supermodel.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, I didn't name it and.
Speaker 3: I did not get that job. So it was a
Speaker 3: blessing and accurse.
Speaker 2: I mean the I mean basically, any top fashion outlet
Speaker 2: that I have heard of you have either done shows
Speaker 2: for or ads for. How long were you intensive and
Speaker 2: more specifically, what made you begin to think about doing
Speaker 2: something else, I e.
Speaker 3: Acting at the time.
Speaker 1: I mean I probably did it for ten years, okay,
Speaker 1: seventeen to twenty seven. I think I moved to La
Speaker 1: around I have to do the math, but around twenty
Speaker 1: seven or twenty eight, and it had been a couple
Speaker 1: of years before that where I could start. I had
Speaker 1: started to see my career starting to be, like I
Speaker 1: wasn't getting booked for the top fashion shows anymore, and
Speaker 1: that there's much more diversity in all ranges, but also
Speaker 1: age in the modeling business now, not at the for
Speaker 1: the regular editorials and things, but for the campaigns, and
Speaker 1: you will see some of the older models, even older
Speaker 1: than me, having a resurgence and that type of thing.
Speaker 1: At the time, you really there really was an expiration day.
Speaker 1: Hollywood has a bit of that as well, but more
Speaker 1: so in the modeling business at the time. So it
Speaker 1: really was because it hadn't been it hadn't been a
Speaker 1: dream of mine. It turned out to be a wonderful career,
Speaker 1: an amazing opportunity that I'm really lucky, you know, fortunate
Speaker 1: to have had. But it wasn't It wasn't like I
Speaker 1: didn't grow up with reading fashion magazines and wanting to
Speaker 1: be you know, so to me, it was always a business.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's why I was able to see a
Speaker 1: little bit early on like Okay, I have to I
Speaker 1: have to figure out how to set myself up for
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't want a family. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to get married and have a family and go down
Speaker 1: that route.
Speaker 3: So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna have to figure
Speaker 3: out something else to do.
Speaker 2: Okay. I mean your math I think is pretty spot on.
Speaker 2: Because you moved to Los Angeles and you pretty much
Speaker 2: immediately begin booking some television jobs. What did you do
Speaker 2: to prepare for that? Was it just like, oh, this
Speaker 2: is something else that I want to do, or was
Speaker 2: there something specifically about acting that you wanted to give
Speaker 2: a try, and then what did you do to prepare
Speaker 2: yourself for it?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 1: I I thought for a while that I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: what about like reporting.
Speaker 3: I had done some kind of correspondent report, hosting or
Speaker 3: a fashion file that type of thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so I had done a few segments and things,
Speaker 1: and then I just realized, even you're in front of
Speaker 1: the camera there, I kind of like being the you know,
Speaker 1: maybe this is a little selfish or narcissistic, but I
Speaker 1: kind of like being the topic, you know.
Speaker 2: Right right, right, right right, Tell me it wasn't.
Speaker 1: And that I'm kind of making fun of myself there.
Speaker 1: I don't mean it necessarily like that, but it wasn't.
Speaker 3: I just didn't.
Speaker 1: It didn't catch me right, And so I was like,
Speaker 1: why don't I take an acting class. I had never
Speaker 1: done anything like that again, grew up without watching really anything.
Speaker 1: But I thought, even if it helps me with commercial auditions.
Speaker 1: Most of the only commercial editions I did at the
Speaker 1: time were beauty beauty commercials, right, I wasn't going out
Speaker 1: for anything else, but maybe it'll help me in that
Speaker 1: in that respect, And I got into an acting class.
Speaker 1: My my commercial agent suggested some places and I called
Speaker 1: around and nobody answered the phone. And one place answered
Speaker 1: the phone, and this was a Friday, and they said, well,
Speaker 1: we have an advanced on camera on Monday that somebody
Speaker 1: just dropped out of because they got a play. So
Speaker 1: if you come in Monday afternoon, read this little you know,
Speaker 1: one page script, we'll see and the class starts that night.
Speaker 1: So I went in and I think probably because they
Speaker 1: had the space available and that was it. But they
Speaker 1: took me and I started class that night, and I
Speaker 1: just remember I went home to my I lived with
Speaker 1: my boyfriend at the time, and I just went home
Speaker 1: and I went.
Speaker 3: I love this.
Speaker 1: I was terrified, right, and I had never been through therapy,
Speaker 1: but I remember saying walking in, going.
Speaker 3: I feel like I've just had a therapy session. I
Speaker 3: just feel like I've like I've been terrified, but I.
Speaker 1: Feel like I've released some stuff, right, And that's what
Speaker 1: started it. It was Penny Templeton Studios in New York,
Speaker 1: and I just I took her on camera class and
Speaker 1: then I took her ongoing and wanted me to take
Speaker 1: their masterclass, and I took that while I continue to model.
Speaker 1: I think I did that for about a year and
Speaker 1: a half and then I was like, okay, I'm moving
Speaker 1: to LA and I just packed up and moved to LA.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about you, not having met you, but
Speaker 2: sort of looking over your history before and there's something
Speaker 2: like you had such a career and although not as
Speaker 2: an actor, it was forward facing in a way. And
Speaker 2: there's so much in our business that is about being relaxed,
Speaker 2: being poised, that you're comfortable in an environment and the
Speaker 2: fact that you had so many years on the biggest
Speaker 2: stages in the world performing in some way, it seems
Speaker 2: to me, so tell me if I'm right or wrong
Speaker 2: that that had to have prepared you in a certain way.
Speaker 2: You didn't know how to create characters, maybe in terms of,
Speaker 2: you know, taking a script and analyzing it and figuring
Speaker 2: out what the character is doing, but in terms of
Speaker 2: those like exterior things which so many gifted trained actors
Speaker 2: miss out on. That on just being comfortable enough to
Speaker 2: be let the person know that you know what you're doing.
Speaker 2: Does this make any sense at all to you?
Speaker 3: It does, And I think.
Speaker 1: There's different elements I think to it, right, Like, definitely
Speaker 1: I was a very shy kid, so modeling and being
Speaker 1: in that world and being in front of the camera
Speaker 1: even though your crews are much smaller, you know, a
Speaker 1: few people, five to ten people maximum, right, compared to
Speaker 1: or maybe sometimes down to two or three or a
Speaker 1: or a you know Vasaci fashion show where you're in
Speaker 1: front of a lot of people. But you definitely had
Speaker 1: to become more comfortable being in front of people and
Speaker 1: that helped one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: Right, There's parts.
Speaker 1: Of me that have always felt like a little bit
Speaker 1: of a not a fraud, but it's like I do
Speaker 1: still walk into some job sometimes like a very apprehensive
Speaker 1: and then it's it's usually until the first take or
Speaker 1: two and then you're it just kicks in or everything
Speaker 1: makes sense or or something. But because I didn't go
Speaker 1: to act, you know, I really didn't go to a
Speaker 1: big acting school. I haven't done plays, I haven't you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't grow up watching TV.
Speaker 3: I didn't it or movies. I'm not well versed in
Speaker 3: that way.
Speaker 1: I've always felt like I don't know a lot about
Speaker 1: you know, people. People talk about all these different old
Speaker 1: movies and things like that, and it's.
Speaker 3: Just over my head.
Speaker 1: But I've just had and granted, I could go and
Speaker 1: study more, and I could go and obviously watch things
Speaker 1: more than I do, but then I fall back on
Speaker 1: the well, sometimes it's just about people watching and some
Speaker 1: sort of natural abilities maybe the wrong word, but natural
Speaker 1: something too.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 3: You know, when I was a kid, I was going
Speaker 3: to go into psychology.
Speaker 1: So that's what gets me about about our business, is
Speaker 1: getting into the psychology.
Speaker 3: Of the character.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it didn't really answer your question.
Speaker 2: Sorry, No, no, I mean I mean it sort of did.
Speaker 2: I mean in terms of what interests you, which is
Speaker 2: that you know, that's what's interesting to me. I just
Speaker 2: I don't know, there's something about and look you're talking
Speaker 2: to I mean, I literally don't know anything about high fashion,
Speaker 2: but I know enough to know it's got to be
Speaker 2: exposing in a way. And again not just physically, I mean,
Speaker 2: but you're putting yourself out there. You're presenting, you know,
Speaker 2: in your case, a lot of of high fashion, and
Speaker 2: there's so much scrutiny, and there's so much judgment, and
Speaker 2: there's so much physical hands on manipulating garment. That just
Speaker 2: had to have given you an advantage starting out, just
Speaker 2: just being who you are in the place, having done
Speaker 2: what you did, because those things are the are some
Speaker 2: of the most difficult things when you're starting out, like
Speaker 2: hitting your hitting your mark, suddenly performing with I mean
Speaker 2: you say your crew was smaller when you're doing a
Speaker 2: shoot or whatever, but doing it in front of twenty
Speaker 2: five people, thirty people, fifty people, you know, whatever it
Speaker 2: is that's on a set. I don't know. There's just
Speaker 2: something fascinating to me about that. And I haven't really
Speaker 2: engaged in that conversation with someone before, but that just
Speaker 2: had to have given you an advantage.
Speaker 1: It did, because you're used to being in front of
Speaker 1: the camera's or having people's attention on you. Right, the
Speaker 1: whole room is looking at you, and that can be
Speaker 1: very disconcerting. Yes, And it was when I first started modeling,
Speaker 1: when you know, when I was seventeen eighteen, I was
Speaker 1: it was terrifying to have everybody look at me. Yes,
Speaker 1: and then you know, you're like and you're not quite sure,
Speaker 1: you know, like a gawky teenager. Still well, you're not
Speaker 1: quite sure what you're supposed to be doing with your body.
Speaker 1: You're not really right, you learn, you know, modeling is
Speaker 1: performing as well. Like you said earlier, it is. You
Speaker 1: can have the most beautiful woman, so to speak, that
Speaker 1: walks down the street, but she can't translate that in
Speaker 1: front of a camera, right, So it doesn't it's not
Speaker 1: just about beauty or society's beauty or whatever that is, right.
Speaker 3: Kelly, My old modeling age we call a bone structure,
Speaker 3: whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But you have to be able to translate that and
Speaker 1: and be able to translate the tone that the photographer
Speaker 1: and the magazine or whatever is looking for. And that's
Speaker 1: also in film, right, because you have different tones. Be
Speaker 1: within comedy, you have different tones. Within drama, you have
Speaker 1: different tones. And also just having being used to having
Speaker 1: the eyeballs all focused on you, and a lot of
Speaker 1: them not sometimes not happy with what you're doing necessarily
Speaker 1: of course, all the time. You know, you you don't
Speaker 1: perform the best all the time or every take or
Speaker 1: every snap of the camera.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, so you have to.
Speaker 1: Be willing to mess up and be willing to make
Speaker 1: an ass of yourself and not let it destroy you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Shortly after you move to LA, you take your
Speaker 2: acting classes, you move to LA, you get a role
Speaker 2: on Showtime's Jeremiah. What was it like being on set
Speaker 2: for the first time?
Speaker 3: Uh, it was awful. I got fired from that job.
Speaker 1: You did, so my first ever acting job I got
Speaker 1: fired from.
Speaker 2: That's happened. It happens everybody.
Speaker 3: I was still modeling at the time.
Speaker 1: I was still living in New York, and I remember,
Speaker 1: I think it was summer of two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: and I had was in LA for a modeling job
Speaker 1: and my commercial agent knew that I had wanted to start,
Speaker 1: you know, I was acting classes and I had planned
Speaker 1: on moving at the end of the year. I think
Speaker 1: I looked at houses and everything, and so they said, oh,
Speaker 1: there's this audition. Stay an extra day and go in
Speaker 1: on this audition. So I did, and it was Jeremiah
Speaker 1: and it was for the lead female role.
Speaker 3: And flew back to New York and they wanted to
Speaker 3: test me.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know what a studio test was, right,
Speaker 1: So they fly me back out.
Speaker 3: I test. They don't take any of us.
Speaker 1: There's four four women similar look whatever, they didn't take
Speaker 1: any of us. Cut to I'm back in New York.
Speaker 1: Nine to eleven happens. I drive down after about a week.
Speaker 1: I had a place in Jupiter au On in Florida.
Speaker 1: I'm down in Florida and I get the call, You're
Speaker 1: You're hired. You have to be in Vancouver in like
Speaker 1: two days for four months.
Speaker 3: Now. I got to get on my get on a plane.
Speaker 3: That I'm terrified.
Speaker 1: You know, I've just watched the towers fall from my apartment.
Speaker 1: You know, I've driven down with two cats, and I've
Speaker 1: got to get by myself with two cats, back up
Speaker 1: and pack up.
Speaker 3: And leave for four months. That all happens.
Speaker 1: And I get to Vancouver and it was Luke Perry
Speaker 1: and Malcolm Jamal Warner and they were lovely. My character
Speaker 1: is introduced at the very end of a two hour
Speaker 1: pilot to then be part of the series, right right.
Speaker 1: They're searching for this valhalla, this this place, and they
Speaker 1: finally find it at the end of the two hour pilot.
Speaker 1: I get there and the showrunner won't even like look
Speaker 1: at me. He's so unhappy that the studio has.
Speaker 2: Forced you on all.
Speaker 3: Yes, and this was my first introduction to the business.
Speaker 1: Like he wanted nothing of my type at all, you know,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to explain what he wanted, but
Speaker 1: something that I could not be.
Speaker 3: Ever okay, right, yes, and they ended up.
Speaker 1: I remember he said that I was nerve. I had
Speaker 1: one scene and the scene was fine, Like we used
Speaker 1: it on my reel.
Speaker 3: It was good, there was nothing wrong with it, right,
Speaker 3: and Luke Perry.
Speaker 1: Years later, I ran into Luke Perry at like comic
Speaker 1: Con Warner Brothers party and.
Speaker 3: He was like, yeah, that was so mess you know,
Speaker 3: messed up and whatever.
Speaker 1: But he used the fact that I was off in
Speaker 1: the corner prepping, as I had been told in Penny
Speaker 1: Templeton studio was like prepping to do an emotional scene,
Speaker 1: and he said that I was I was just way
Speaker 1: too nervous and whatever. But I was like I and
Speaker 1: she's like off in the corner whatever, and I was
Speaker 1: I was preparing the scene was fine, and but I
Speaker 1: get fed and they don't replace me, they just can
Speaker 1: the character completely and then lo and behold, he gets
Speaker 1: what he wants.
Speaker 3: Like a few episodes later, I watched it and there
Speaker 3: was a character that he was wanting.
Speaker 1: So it all worked out fine. But you know things,
Speaker 1: at the time, it was very hard to take and
Speaker 1: to accept. But if I had done that, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have then been available to do Battlestar Galactica. That went
Speaker 1: two seasons, and I wouldn't have been able to do
Speaker 1: it because it crossed over a year. Yeah, so I'm
Speaker 1: trying to tell my sell myself now that that same thing,
Speaker 1: when my career is in the crapper and I'm am
Speaker 1: I ever gonna work again, I'm trying to remind myself
Speaker 1: of that.
Speaker 2: Well. Yeah, I mean, look, you did get and you
Speaker 2: said went a couple of seasons Battlestar Galactica, your character
Speaker 2: number six, not only Battlestar Galactica becomes a huge epic
Speaker 2: press getting show of various incarnations across what do they
Speaker 2: call it, across the in perpetuity throughout the universe. There
Speaker 2: you go, I finally got it. That's the phrase they
Speaker 2: always use. Not just that, but you play a character
Speaker 2: that gets to play different variations of themselves, which is
Speaker 2: literally an actor's dream. Talk to me a little bit
Speaker 2: about well, first off, getting that, so after you go
Speaker 2: from the disappointment of Jeremiah to get to landing this
Speaker 2: this role of number six on Battlestar Galactica.
Speaker 1: I had been in La about a year at that point,
Speaker 1: so it was and it was, you know, I had
Speaker 1: done a couple of things. I had done a couple
Speaker 1: of guest stars and you know, right, and in an
Speaker 1: indie movie and yeah, I just it was I think
Speaker 1: I had done a guest star for CSI Vegas season two,
Speaker 1: that's how long ago was and the finale.
Speaker 3: And it was.
Speaker 1: The casting director that remembered me from that show that
Speaker 1: then pulled me in to read for the producers of Battlestar.
Speaker 2: Wait a second, it's uh cher Dean. Yes, I was
Speaker 2: on CSIS. You said, CSI Vegas. That's just CSI.
Speaker 3: That's the original.
Speaker 2: Yes, the og the O G. Yes, what did you
Speaker 2: play on there?
Speaker 1: I played a model, so I was the victim and
Speaker 1: I actually auditioned. There was this two sisters, the model
Speaker 1: and her sister, and I auditioned for the sister and
Speaker 1: I remember they called me back in and they said, look,
Speaker 1: there's two that's we want you these two. But you
Speaker 1: look like you could be a model. She doesn't, so
Speaker 1: at least at that time, that sounds true.
Speaker 3: I didn't mean it.
Speaker 1: They said it, so we need you to play the
Speaker 1: role that has no lines.
Speaker 2: Well, no, but the fact that they the fact that
Speaker 2: they said it looks like you could be a model,
Speaker 2: were you were exactly?
Speaker 3: But I was.
Speaker 1: I was like really trying to downplay that at the
Speaker 1: time because at the time there was no kind of
Speaker 1: crossover model turned out, you know, like model turned act.
Speaker 1: It was kind of a bad thing, and it's like
Speaker 1: you can't you're probably not going to be able to
Speaker 1: act if you're a model type thing. So, right, I
Speaker 1: really did downplay it a lot.
Speaker 2: How do you downplay I don't, I mean, what like you,
Speaker 2: I don't wash your hair for a week or like
Speaker 2: what like you.
Speaker 1: I would always go in with like, well, you know
Speaker 1: it does it has hurt me in many ways my
Speaker 1: height because I'm almost six feet tall, right.
Speaker 2: I'm five le so that I'm taller, don't don't get braggy,
Speaker 2: I'm taller.
Speaker 3: I love when somebody's taller.
Speaker 1: But I don't know for men, if it ever hurts
Speaker 1: you that you're tall. But you know, we all get
Speaker 1: we all get put in boxes of what you can
Speaker 1: play in which you couldn't play.
Speaker 3: But this was actually quite a difficult role.
Speaker 1: Because even though yeah, she was a model and she
Speaker 1: didn't have any lines, she had body dysmorphic disorder. Okay,
Speaker 1: so there was quite a few scenes and and she
Speaker 1: ultimately gets toxic shocks in Rome from like cutting herself
Speaker 1: and that type of thing, and and nobody killed her.
Speaker 3: She died herself. But okay, yeah, so what did you play?
Speaker 2: Dog Man?
Speaker 3: Dog Man? Dog walker dressed up as a furry.
Speaker 2: That's it right there, that's it. Yes, I didn't even
Speaker 2: know what it was at the time, I'll be honest
Speaker 2: with you, but it was explained to me in great
Speaker 2: detail what a furry is and likes to be. Uh, yeah,
Speaker 2: that was it, all right? He got totally off topic.
Speaker 2: I just love I just I just love comparing CSI stories.
Speaker 2: And actually before we move on, because I do want
Speaker 2: to talk about Star Galactica, but I do want to
Speaker 2: what what were you in? Uh? I didn't I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: I didn't watch the episode. What were you in? Criminal Minds?
Speaker 2: Were you a killer or are you a victim? There too?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 1: It was a two episode bank robbing. I was an
Speaker 1: international uh, internationally sought criminal okay, and I and I yeah,
Speaker 1: held a bank hostage.
Speaker 2: Okay. Well so then so there you go. So I
Speaker 2: do want to talk about this before we talk about
Speaker 2: you actually like being a star on a serious regular part.
Speaker 2: I often talk about for pragmatic reasons that Criminal Minds
Speaker 2: was one of the hardest jobs I ever did in
Speaker 2: television because because you're a guest star, right, But it
Speaker 2: sounds like you had the same situation that I did,
Speaker 2: where you go in and and functionally like you are
Speaker 2: the lead. It's your story, Yes, you or the protagonist.
Speaker 2: That's the word I was looking for for those episodes.
Speaker 2: And so you're your energy sort of is guiding the
Speaker 2: whole thing. Yet everybody else has been there for like
Speaker 2: fourteen years or whatever it is, and the crew knows
Speaker 2: them and they don't know you it's just a very
Speaker 2: odd feeling thing. And also my very first day was
Speaker 2: like we shot the final scene and it was on
Speaker 2: the docks in Long Beach Harbor from eight pm to
Speaker 2: seven am. Oh yes, and I was like, what is
Speaker 2: going on here? It was like crazy. But anyway, it's tough, right,
Speaker 2: That is a tough job.
Speaker 1: Yes, Guest starring is a tough job, because you're right,
Speaker 1: you come into a well oiled machine where everybody knows
Speaker 1: each other and you know you're in the business long enough,
Speaker 1: hopefully you know. It's more often that when you do
Speaker 1: come on and guests are on something, you end up
Speaker 1: knowing crew you've worked with before, and that starts to
Speaker 1: really change everything. And it also depends on the cast
Speaker 1: you're with, because there I've gone on a guest starret
Speaker 1: on some things where it's just I've had the most
Speaker 1: amazing experience, and then I've had gone in and guest
Speaker 1: starred where You're like, Okay, I'm clearly made to feel
Speaker 1: like I'm the odd met.
Speaker 2: Out like lunch in my trailer today, please lunch? Yeah?
Speaker 2: All right. So back to Battlestar Galacticat you auditioned for
Speaker 2: number six, was this an exhaustive audition process. Did you
Speaker 2: have multiple steps or was this was this easier?
Speaker 3: You know, I had multiple steps.
Speaker 1: I remember specifically it was January sixth that I went
Speaker 1: in because I was given the script right before Christmas
Speaker 1: and I took it home with me and it was
Speaker 1: for the miniseries.
Speaker 3: It was a big script.
Speaker 1: And I came back and I auditioned and then they
Speaker 1: said it went really well, but you know, they're not
Speaker 1: making up any minds, and I was still really like
Speaker 1: almost no credits, right, So I think they were looking
Speaker 1: for a name or they were you know, and I
Speaker 1: think i'd also heard it some points they were thinking
Speaker 1: of maybe having this character kind of CGI, which in
Speaker 1: that time period also was a little bit newer, harder
Speaker 1: to do, and and it wasn't. It was like two
Speaker 1: months later that they came back. So I just thought
Speaker 1: it was gone. Poof, it's one of you know, it's
Speaker 1: one you didn't get. But it was one of those
Speaker 1: I just couldn't get rid of the script. The script
Speaker 1: was still you know, I'm I'm I could be a
Speaker 1: little bit petty if I don't get something. It's like
Speaker 1: I might not watch the show, or I might you know,
Speaker 1: throw out the script whatever.
Speaker 3: I can be a little petty, but.
Speaker 1: I just couldn't just sat there on the corner of
Speaker 1: my desk and cut to I think it was two
Speaker 1: months later, it was in March, and they called me
Speaker 1: back in and I went back in, and then they
Speaker 1: said the next day I was going to test for it,
Speaker 1: and I had to do a work and maybe it
Speaker 1: wasn't the next day, but I had to do a
Speaker 1: work session, which I'd never done a work session before,
Speaker 1: and went through that process and then tested and it
Speaker 1: was a full like, oh gosh, at least half to
Speaker 1: I think we got there at eight thirty in the
Speaker 1: morning and I don't think we were released till about
Speaker 1: two pm.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: And I remember, you know, just pairing. It was probably
Speaker 1: like eight or nine guys and gals and for the
Speaker 1: number six in baltar role, and I don't I don't
Speaker 1: remember much of it. We all went in separately, and
Speaker 1: then they got rid of some people, which is.
Speaker 2: So awkward, so awkward.
Speaker 1: And then they started pairing us up and I remember
Speaker 1: James and I James Callus, who played balltar, went in
Speaker 1: and he remembers this. He remembers hearing somebody in the
Speaker 1: room say that's it, but I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't remember that.
Speaker 1: I just remember thinking, well, now I'm definitely not going
Speaker 1: to get it because I tower above him, and at
Speaker 1: this point.
Speaker 3: I had no idea what I've done.
Speaker 1: At one point, I think it was I think it
Speaker 1: was Robert all Right came up to me and he's like,
Speaker 1: just because they keep giving everybody gives you notes and
Speaker 1: everybody and by the time you go back in, it's
Speaker 1: like fifteen people have given you notes. You're going back
Speaker 1: in for the fourth time. And it must have just
Speaker 1: shone on my face, like I was like a deer
Speaker 1: in the headlights. And he just took me aside in
Speaker 1: the hallway and just said, just go back to what
Speaker 1: you did in.
Speaker 3: The room when you came in to see me.
Speaker 1: Just forget about everything and just go back to what
Speaker 1: you came in here with. And I guess that's what
Speaker 1: I attempted to do. But I remember thinking, I tower
Speaker 1: over James. I'm never going to.
Speaker 2: Get this for ale. So it started as a mini series.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a We shot him for our mini
Speaker 1: series in the spring of two thousand and three, and
Speaker 1: then we didn't go back to start filming the series,
Speaker 1: which started with an episode called thirty three in until
Speaker 1: two thousand and four.
Speaker 2: Wow full series movies, on and on and on. Have
Speaker 2: you ever heard the phrase bears.
Speaker 1: Big Battlestar Galactica. Yes, from the office.
Speaker 2: Well we have a little kinship there from the show
Speaker 2: because as it sounds like, you know, our good friend
Speaker 2: Rain Wilson aka Dwight was a big Battlestar Galactica fan.
Speaker 2: I hope everybody considered that to be endearing. I mean
Speaker 2: it was Dwight absolutely.
Speaker 3: Did you hear that?
Speaker 1: Was that the same episode or was there another Was
Speaker 1: there another place where something about you watch Battlestar galacticat
Speaker 1: know what you're dumb or something like that, there was
Speaker 1: another Yeah, or was that from the same episode.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think that was different. But I
Speaker 2: think he had that, he had the T shirt. He
Speaker 2: was very clearly a big uh. So it got a
Speaker 2: lot of discussion I will say on our real live
Speaker 2: set at the time as well. It was It was
Speaker 2: a big It was a big show on our set.
Speaker 2: What are you most thankful for out of that experience?
Speaker 2: I mean, your first big time show multiple years but
Speaker 2: really sort of launches you. But what for you is
Speaker 2: your sort of memory.
Speaker 1: I know it's going to sound kind of corny to say,
Speaker 1: but the people, you know, I had moved to LA
Speaker 1: and really didn't know. I moved there not knowing anybody,
Speaker 1: and a year later got Battle Star and it was
Speaker 1: just one of those experiences where it was such a
Speaker 1: collaborative group of people and such an amazing group of
Speaker 1: people that really formed a family. And they are, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty years later, they're still they're my family. And
Speaker 1: you know when I said at the beginning that I
Speaker 1: missed La, it's I miss them.
Speaker 3: I miss my family.
Speaker 1: It's Edward James almost Mary McDonald and Katie Sagoff and
Speaker 1: Michael truccau and like James call like they they are
Speaker 1: my nearest and dearest, and so I know it sounds corny,
Speaker 1: but there. You don't always have that experience where you know,
Speaker 1: you get together and you may have some fun experiences,
Speaker 1: but then you all go in your separate ways, and
Speaker 1: we didn't.
Speaker 3: We just really became a family.
Speaker 1: And I know they'll be with me for the rest
Speaker 1: of my life and they have my back, and so that.
Speaker 3: To me is is the biggest thing that I took
Speaker 3: out of it.
Speaker 2: But you know.
Speaker 1: The other thing would be, you know, more specific to
Speaker 1: the actual show, would be it's kind of longevity and
Speaker 1: the quality of the writing and this subject matter that
Speaker 1: we got to deal with is something that I think
Speaker 1: it has already lived on and I think will continue to.
Speaker 1: So it has a longevity that even though you know,
Speaker 1: I also said I feel like I'm definitely a lull
Speaker 1: in my career right now, it is it is something
Speaker 1: that has helped me throughout my career in terms of
Speaker 1: other job voiceover jobs and things like that, that it
Speaker 1: is kind of the gift.
Speaker 3: That keeps on giving.
Speaker 2: Are you a gamer?
Speaker 1: I've never actually played a game in my life, but
Speaker 1: I've voiced like about eight different games.
Speaker 2: Well, no, that's why I was going to ask, because
Speaker 2: you brought up the voiceover and you, I mean, that's
Speaker 2: been a large chunk of work that you have done.
Speaker 2: I mean, from international model to television star and now
Speaker 2: do you enjoy doing the voiceovers?
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 1: I mean, if I had to choose one, I would
Speaker 1: choose on camera, just because you actually have the interaction
Speaker 1: with other people. You know, You're not just in a
Speaker 1: sound booth by yourself, and depending on the job, sometimes
Speaker 1: you really don't have a lot of you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not a Hanks area, I'm not a Dan Castelnetto where
Speaker 1: I can do eight million different voices and accents.
Speaker 3: I can do.
Speaker 1: I can do a slight version of my own voice
Speaker 1: and accent. You know, I can sound I can sound
Speaker 1: a little bit different. But it is I really enjoy
Speaker 1: doing it. But between the two, I prefer on.
Speaker 2: Camera another show that you had the opportunity to work on.
Speaker 2: I mean there have been many that has gotten a
Speaker 2: lot of attention. Is Lucifer. Talk to me about that,
Speaker 2: the world of that show and why you enjoyed playing
Speaker 2: in it.
Speaker 1: It was another experience, was a really great group of people,
Speaker 1: a different tone of a show, much more I call
Speaker 1: it a popcorn show.
Speaker 3: You know, it's much much lighter, fair sure, even.
Speaker 1: Though it's you know, show about the devil and uh
Speaker 1: it's based off of a graphic novel comic book tongue
Speaker 1: in cheek, but with heart and certainly some some definitely
Speaker 1: heartfelt moments. And and Tom Ellis, who played Lucifer, was
Speaker 1: just such is such a lovely person and fantastic actor
Speaker 1: and so so focused and professional and everything. So it
Speaker 1: was a great experience. It was another show where I
Speaker 1: got to play multiple character, two characters, because I was
Speaker 1: originally just cast as as the mother for one season
Speaker 1: and then they ended up devising coming up with a
Speaker 1: plan to have my character the body that the celestial
Speaker 1: mother of all.
Speaker 2: Creation, goddess of all creation is like that is a name,
Speaker 2: that mean from the name from from from Ford supermodel
Speaker 2: of the World. Now you're the goddess of all creation.
Speaker 2: This is like an This is an upgrade. I mean
Speaker 2: at what's next? I don't even know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's all downhill from there.
Speaker 2: No, there's got something.
Speaker 3: I played Dracula next.
Speaker 2: So well, I yes, I that's actually an upgrade. That's
Speaker 2: pretty pretty. Yeah that did you enjoy that? I mean
Speaker 2: that is an archetype. I mean that is an archetype
Speaker 2: of I don't know, I mean it is had so
Speaker 2: many iterations, but I just thought it was so interesting
Speaker 2: and your work at it was so so interesting. What
Speaker 2: did you what did you pull from for creating that character?
Speaker 2: Did you did you go back in time looking at
Speaker 2: prior history or was this more your own interpretation for Dracula? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I gosh, I can't remember at the
Speaker 1: time i'd gone back and I'd read a book about
Speaker 1: Dracula through Hall in Hollywood, like all the different kind
Speaker 1: of mood, and there'd never been a female Dracula.
Speaker 3: There had been.
Speaker 1: Brides of Dracula and things, so I was a little
Speaker 1: nervous about that.
Speaker 3: But it wasn't not a hugely watched show, so.
Speaker 1: But it was you know, like similar to I would say,
Speaker 1: Van Housing was similar to like a walking walking Dead,
Speaker 1: but vampires instead of zombies, right apocalyptic type thing, and
Speaker 1: their their slant was female. But you know, the van
Speaker 1: Helsing was a female, and I did I didn't want
Speaker 1: to copy someone, right, So I did go back and
Speaker 1: watch a couple of things. I was big into the
Speaker 1: Anne Riis books, interview with a vampire and all those
Speaker 1: type of things. I just want I wanted to sink
Speaker 1: my teeth into somebody so badly. I was really excited
Speaker 1: for those scenes. But no, I just kind of I
Speaker 1: didn't want to try and copy someone, and so I
Speaker 1: didn't specifically like go and watch like right before filming.
Speaker 1: I did more a little bit recent searched on on
Speaker 1: just the different types.
Speaker 3: Of Draculas, and you know, there's all different types.
Speaker 1: Of tones of Dracula as well, from more campy to
Speaker 1: scarier and more serious and that type of thing, and
Speaker 1: Van Helsing was definitely a little bit more on the
Speaker 1: serious side than super campy, right right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Just kind of want Is it bad to say I
Speaker 3: just kind of wung it?
Speaker 2: No? Is that the right wung it? Did you did it?
Speaker 3: I wong it?
Speaker 2: Can you say that?
Speaker 3: I don't that's a word. I don't think it.
Speaker 2: I just wung it. I just winged it. I don't know.
Speaker 2: This is a great question. I didn't research that either. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, you're the variety. I envy you for the
Speaker 2: variety of say, genres that you've been able to play in.
Speaker 2: I mean, right, so there's sci fi, fantasy, some horror,
Speaker 2: even some procedural that we've discussed as well, video games,
Speaker 2: rom coms. Is there anything that you that appeals to you,
Speaker 2: Tricia the most?
Speaker 1: Yeah, in terms of what I want to play or
Speaker 1: what I want to I mean, I again, I because
Speaker 1: I didn't grow up with the TV, I often find
Speaker 1: myself just not even watching anything like I'll I'll it
Speaker 1: sounds awful, but I'll.
Speaker 3: Sometimes just sit there and stare.
Speaker 1: At a wall before I'll like reflok or watch TV
Speaker 1: as I just sometimes need quiet. But I would love
Speaker 1: like to find a show like you know, I like
Speaker 1: shows like Ozark or Breaking Bad or that ting where
Speaker 1: you're actually playing just some you know. I've often played
Speaker 1: bigger than life characters, you know, and or the you know,
Speaker 1: I've played lawyers or but they're always the tough, bitchy
Speaker 1: one or the you know that I try and infuse
Speaker 1: with the vulnerability because I think everybody has there, you know,
Speaker 1: even if they're the antagonist, they have their own thing.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a serial killer role that I want
Speaker 1: to play so badly and I'm trying to get made.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of layers to this character, right,
Speaker 1: but she would be a pretty bigger than life character
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 3: But I just really want to.
Speaker 1: And I don't get it that often to play more
Speaker 1: your every every woman, every person type thing and a
Speaker 1: story about whatever the story is.
Speaker 3: Am I making any sense?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think? I mean, I mean how I interpret
Speaker 2: what you're saying so I don't want to put words
Speaker 2: in your mouth is like ultra realism, which actually makes
Speaker 2: sense to me because of Yeah, there's been a lot
Speaker 2: that has been stylized for you so far, in your career.
Speaker 2: And so when I think about like Ozark, Breaking Bad
Speaker 2: had its own sort of sensibility. But I but but ultimately, yeah,
Speaker 2: sort of ultra realism. That's how I would kind of
Speaker 2: define that.
Speaker 1: I now have a word for or for what it
Speaker 1: is I haven't I tell I just told my guy
Speaker 1: the other day. I was like, I'm better when words
Speaker 1: are written for me and then I make them pun
Speaker 1: to life.
Speaker 3: Like I'm not very good on my own. I can't.
Speaker 1: I'm not a good improver, not good thinker on my feet.
Speaker 1: So thank you for giving me the word for that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, and I had a slice of it. This year,
Speaker 1: I've done two indie films and I played played a
Speaker 1: character version of a real woman that has a breast
Speaker 1: cancer survivor story. And I played off a book called
Speaker 1: Walk Beside Me by Christine Handy and I did that
Speaker 1: this the beginning of the year, and that was but
Speaker 1: and that was ultra realism. I'm telling this woman's story
Speaker 1: and that was really interesting for me to be able
Speaker 1: to do because I don't I haven't really gotten that
Speaker 1: opportunity that often.
Speaker 2: The other movie, I believe you're referring to the Great
Speaker 2: sail Ish tell me about the film. It's a it's
Speaker 2: a comedy, right it is.
Speaker 1: It's I actually haven't even seen it yet. That's not
Speaker 1: the one I was talking about. I just the other
Speaker 1: one I was talking about was called Primitive War that
Speaker 1: I just came back from filming in Australia, but it's
Speaker 1: not out yet.
Speaker 3: But it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: But The Great Salish Heist was Actually it's a small,
Speaker 1: small movie. I played a very small role in it.
Speaker 1: I play a museum curator. That it is a comedy.
Speaker 1: Dennis Daryl wrote and produced it, and it's it's really
Speaker 1: about the First Nations and their struggle throughout throughout history
Speaker 1: of recovering their artifacts and their land.
Speaker 3: And certain things like that.
Speaker 1: And so so there's there's a museum exhibit that they
Speaker 1: are sending off. So I play the museum curator that
Speaker 1: thinks that she she's not malicious, she doesn't come from it.
Speaker 1: You know, she comes from a mindset of let's show
Speaker 1: these artifacts to the world as a to they wanted,
Speaker 1: you know, Dennis's Carroll character wants to keep the artifacts
Speaker 1: for themselves, right and you.
Speaker 3: You know, you could see both sides.
Speaker 1: But I play a very small role in but it's
Speaker 1: it's there. It's a heist movie, so it's their plan
Speaker 1: of reclaiming the artifacts.
Speaker 2: Got it? Is it going to be available and wide release?
Speaker 2: Do you know what the plan is? You haven't seen
Speaker 2: it yet.
Speaker 3: I have not seen it yet.
Speaker 1: No, it's a At this point, it's just doing kind
Speaker 1: of the festival circuit up in Canada, so I have
Speaker 1: not seen that yet.
Speaker 2: But all right, Well do you do comic cons?
Speaker 3: I do? I have it. I don't do a lot
Speaker 3: of them.
Speaker 1: I with Battlestar and Lucifer and Ben Helsing and things
Speaker 1: like that. I was at San Diego quite a bit
Speaker 1: when those were airing, but I haven't. I did the
Speaker 1: OD I just did one in Perth, Australia on the
Speaker 1: way back from from filming Primitive War on the Gold Coast.
Speaker 2: Really yeah, So I.
Speaker 1: Do them every once in a while. I've got I've
Speaker 1: got two coming up this year. I've got a Battlestar
Speaker 1: Galactica reunion coming up in Chicago, which will be really fun,
Speaker 1: and then I've got to loose for one coming up
Speaker 1: in September in Birmingham, England.
Speaker 2: I mean the fact that I was supposed to do
Speaker 2: that one time the fact that you have these three
Speaker 2: shows that are so big in that world. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's that's what I mean. Yeah, we need to get
Speaker 2: you on something ultra realistic because like you have like
Speaker 2: spanned the like large scale comic DC world.
Speaker 3: But I've never been in a superhero.
Speaker 1: I've never been in a big movie, like a big
Speaker 1: Marvel or anything like that type of movie.
Speaker 3: I've never been. I've never been in a big movie.
Speaker 2: We don't changed that.
Speaker 1: I was in Bombshell, but I was in a tiny
Speaker 1: role I actually played. I listened to your episode and
Speaker 1: Cameronda today.
Speaker 2: God, I was supposed to. I was supposed to say
Speaker 2: that it's here in my papers. Yes, how delightful is hurt?
Speaker 2: Do you know her? Have you met her? No?
Speaker 1: I have not, And but she was absolutely Yeah. I
Speaker 1: used to watch her on CNN years ago. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think she's delightful. But I've never met her in person.
Speaker 1: But I specifically was.
Speaker 3: Like, oh, I want to listen to this one.
Speaker 1: So but yeah, I played her in Bombshell, so a
Speaker 1: couple of couple of scenes, very small scenes.
Speaker 2: Well, she's interesting. At least she didn't she didn't send
Speaker 2: you a hate mail?
Speaker 1: No, no, not at all. I think we corresponded over
Speaker 1: Twitter briefly or DMed each other briefly. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was before, before the movie came out
Speaker 1: or after, but but the director had said he thinks
Speaker 1: she'll like my performance, So that's what I went on.
Speaker 2: Is it fun for you? The fanaticism with which people
Speaker 2: hold I mean, you just mentioned three shows, but I'll
Speaker 2: stick very specifically to Battlestar Galactica because even with Lucifer
Speaker 2: and Van helsing and all that, I mean, Battlestar Galactica
Speaker 2: is just well, I mean, it's it's a it's a cultural,
Speaker 2: pop culture iconic show. Does the fanaticism with which people,
Speaker 2: uh celebrate that show? Is that fun for you? Always?
Speaker 2: Is that? Is that difficult for you?
Speaker 3: It is? I don't. I don't find it difficult because
Speaker 3: I look at it in.
Speaker 1: A few ways that like, you know, we're describing comic
Speaker 1: cons that type of thing I've described it is.
Speaker 3: What's the difference of going to.
Speaker 1: See a you know, I watched the hockey game last
Speaker 1: night and people were dressed up with their favorite jersey
Speaker 1: and yeah, their faces painted the colors of the team.
Speaker 1: What's the difference of going to a comicon and people
Speaker 1: are dressed up as their favorite character or something like that.
Speaker 1: There's really no it's it's a coming together of a
Speaker 1: like minded enjoyment.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: But I don't often get recognized in public for number six,
Speaker 1: So it's not like it affects me too much personally
Speaker 1: out on the street, so to speak, because I don't
Speaker 1: I don't walk around, you know, I don't have the
Speaker 1: white hair that was more iconic with the character. I
Speaker 1: had versions of the character that had my own hair
Speaker 1: color in later seasons. But right but the you know,
Speaker 1: the the one that people think of is the white
Speaker 1: the platinum haired one, and I look different. I mean
Speaker 1: I kind of sometimes it gets self conscious about it
Speaker 1: because unless I'm all dulled up, it's almost like I
Speaker 1: disappoint people in person, like.
Speaker 2: They like that you don't look like Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: this is a whole other We could have a huge
Speaker 2: conversation about just this topic alone. You know. I think
Speaker 2: it's and I'm saying this from a like a culture again,
Speaker 2: like a cultural standpoint. I think that the beautiful people
Speaker 2: in our business get recognized less. Don't know why I
Speaker 2: have been sitting this is the story I always tell,
Speaker 2: which is a totally true story. Sitting at a sushi
Speaker 2: restaurant with myself and Mandy Moore and John Krasinski, people
Speaker 2: would come up to the table for me and not
Speaker 2: even noticed that they were there. Just it's it's und
Speaker 2: you can't even figure this out. I mean, I do
Speaker 2: have a distinctive head, but I'm probably wearing a hat.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the crazy thing. I know. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: I always thought, like I look at it too, is
Speaker 1: like often I changed hair and makeup or whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like I'm a.
Speaker 1: Little bit of a chameleon in that way, Like different
Speaker 1: hair and makeup really changes me. And I know that
Speaker 1: from my modeling days. I can look different with a
Speaker 1: soft makeup or a dramatic makeup or dark hair. Like
Speaker 1: even people I know if I changed my hair color
Speaker 1: don't recognize being off the top.
Speaker 3: So I don't know. Maybe there's something to that. Did
Speaker 3: you just call me a pretty person now again?
Speaker 2: I said culturally? I said culturally the idea of attracted.
Speaker 2: What did I say pretty? I don't think I said pretty,
Speaker 2: I don't. Somebody checked the tape Trasa.
Speaker 1: Well, if you did, I appreciate it, because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm fifty now, and that's kind of has an expiration
Speaker 1: date in Hollywood.
Speaker 2: So you don't you don't look you don't look a
Speaker 2: day over fifty. I mean, thank you.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm a day in maybe a month, month
Speaker 1: and a half over fifty.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me. I wish you
Speaker 2: all success. I mean, listen, here's here's the sum total
Speaker 2: of what I heard. Okay, you discussed having a career lull,
Speaker 2: and you've shot two movies this year. Okay, and we're
Speaker 2: only in June. So let's just say I think you're
Speaker 2: doing just fine. Enjoy your cats, Enjoy Chattahoochee City, and hey,
Speaker 2: I'll be down there. My family's still there. I'll look
Speaker 2: you up and we'll go to a hockey game.
Speaker 3: Come visit.
Speaker 2: Loved it, all right, all right, thank you so much.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Bryan, Thank you Tricia.
Speaker 2: I am so glad that we got to catch up.
Speaker 2: Thank you for that conversation and to hear your amazing story.
Speaker 2: I don't think that I can advise young actors to
Speaker 2: go standing around outside movie theaters waiting for their big break.
Speaker 2: But the world is a better place now because you did. Listeners.
Speaker 2: I look forward to seeing you all here again next week.
Speaker 2: It's summer. Get outside, but keep me in your ears
Speaker 2: while you do it. Have a great week. Off the
Speaker 2: Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
Speaker 2: alongside our executive producer Ling Lee. Our senior producer is
Speaker 2: Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and
Speaker 2: Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and
Speaker 2: our intern is Ali Amir Sahem. Our theme song Bubble
Speaker 2: and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton.