Speaker 1: And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2: And Kevin An iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Welcome to and that's what you really miss podcasts. The
Speaker 1: guest too. Oh, let's know, Alex just finish Shocked on Broadway.
Speaker 1: They just recently closed, and Alex has a concert coming
Speaker 1: up at the Polladium and in London doing Pippin. I
Speaker 1: would love to see that, I know. Yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff we talked about the Glee projects.
Speaker 2: And then Alex's memory is unmatched.
Speaker 1: It's a vault. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I hurt from laughing. My side's hurt, my cheeks hurt.
Speaker 1: Just be prepared. Here is the.
Speaker 2: Maybe funniest thing that's ever happened on the show thus far.
Speaker 2: This is Alex Noble.
Speaker 1: How are you? How is? How was the closing of Shocked?
Speaker 1: Congrats on that beautiful.
Speaker 3: I almost hemorrhaged my chords after Thanksgiving and so I
Speaker 3: was out of the show all of December.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, and.
Speaker 3: My Auntie cleared me to the very last one and
Speaker 3: then sat in the audience just in case something went wrong.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's crazy. That must have been hard,
Speaker 1: you know, No, just a nice break.
Speaker 3: My body was exhausted, that was a lot. I mean,
Speaker 3: if there was the morning show, I did it. If
Speaker 3: there was a TV show that had the in front
Speaker 3: of it, I did it.
Speaker 1: All across the country too, and then also eh show
Speaker 1: truly and.
Speaker 3: Then eight shows a week. I think my body was
Speaker 3: just like, uh, you're done.
Speaker 1: Sit down, please, yes, please God, I'm glad you got
Speaker 1: to sit down.
Speaker 2: Then same and I'm glad Beyonce has followed your lead
Speaker 2: and started putting out country music.
Speaker 3: Honestly, just stunt on the whole. She just said, look over.
Speaker 2: There, said Alex is doing it so good.
Speaker 3: Honestly, Beyonce should play Lulu in the movie. It would
Speaker 3: be a success, and I would gladly bow out.
Speaker 2: Whoa, no, no, no, you have to do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think Beyonce would be better.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, Beyonce can cover it on the soundtrack.
Speaker 3: Okay, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly need to see you on that screen, Oh
Speaker 2: my god, as much as I love Beyonce.
Speaker 1: Beyonce Knowles, yeah, sacred. Okay. So the last time we
Speaker 1: talked to you on this podcast, we were just talking
Speaker 1: about your Tony and all things Tony. Congrats on the Tony.
Speaker 1: You're a Tony Winner. You're still a Tony Winner forever.
Speaker 1: So this one I would love to talk about because
Speaker 1: we've had like Damien on and we've had Sam on
Speaker 1: and so I'm just curious, like how that whole thing
Speaker 1: one for you because you won like a two episode
Speaker 1: arc and then you ended up being on our show
Speaker 1: for a very for a very long time.
Speaker 3: My experience was traumatic, to say the least. Kevin called
Speaker 3: me lazy and I pulled up.
Speaker 1: Kevin called you lazy.
Speaker 3: I will never let Kevin live it down for the
Speaker 3: rest of his life and mine. Whoever goes first put
Speaker 3: it on my tombstone.
Speaker 1: Kevin, what did you say?
Speaker 3: It's Kevin, Remind the people what you said.
Speaker 2: Look, and I grew up watching American Idol, right, and
Speaker 2: you watch these judges. Simon mostly was like he was mean,
Speaker 2: but a lot of the time he was right. Yes,
Speaker 2: and I always I mean, we're all the same in
Speaker 2: this way. We're like, if you give me, if you
Speaker 2: put me in the position to be that person, oh
Speaker 2: let me. However, when you when I got on set,
Speaker 2: because that was my mind set going into the Glee project,
Speaker 2: I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna be
Speaker 2: a bitch. Yeah, but when you get there and you
Speaker 2: see all like everyone talented children, everyone's living under these
Speaker 2: conditions that I wasn't even sure about, right, and you're
Speaker 2: not Like I can't do that to these kids and
Speaker 2: I don't know where they come from if they can
Speaker 2: handle it, Like who am I?
Speaker 1: I also just got hired on this random show. However,
Speaker 1: I looked at Alex.
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, this bitch is good, and
Speaker 2: guess who knows it? Alex does, and I could something
Speaker 2: jumped out of me. Oh it was because like I
Speaker 2: can't let how I felt was we all know how
Speaker 2: good you are, like please shut them down, like you
Speaker 2: can't phone it in, yeah, because it's easy for you.
Speaker 2: Like I feel like your resting is better than most
Speaker 2: peop people. Was going full out, and so it was
Speaker 2: like I didn't know like where you were in your
Speaker 2: head during that time, like what was going on at all?
Speaker 2: So like who am I to go up and be
Speaker 2: like you need to do more like my dad? But
Speaker 2: it was just something I just was.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, this is good.
Speaker 3: I mean we all knew and not even to cheat
Speaker 3: my own horn. It was just like I I really
Speaker 3: just was different than everybody, and not to like brag
Speaker 3: about it, Like the mechanism that I have was just
Speaker 3: so different than everybody there. It's like, you want to sing.
Speaker 3: I know how to sing. I've been singing for my
Speaker 3: life and bread and butter since I was two.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I have like a when I hear people
Speaker 2: sing like that, I have, you know, like all the
Speaker 2: already hands like going up and that's just me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like I can't, I can't help it. It jumps out
Speaker 2: of my body. And so when I saw you sing
Speaker 2: for the first time, that's what happened. And I was
Speaker 2: just like I need, like I want to selfishly, like
Speaker 2: I want to hear this on a ten right now.
Speaker 2: And I know you're just like cruising out of six.
Speaker 3: Cruised out of six, But you know, it's also the
Speaker 3: scared the scarcity of not the scarcity of the scaredness
Speaker 3: of it all of being eighteen and thrown into this
Speaker 3: wild circumstance with this myriad of different talents from everywhere
Speaker 3: and trying to figure out one how you last and
Speaker 3: one how you shine at the same time. And somehow
Speaker 3: I was trying to play nice to everybody, but it
Speaker 3: wasn't really working, and we love a good editor, because
Speaker 3: between me and Lindsay had a peers we were the
Speaker 3: bitches of the season. It's because we always I mean
Speaker 3: in theater you have to know, like you're going to
Speaker 3: hear a lot of nose and you have to create
Speaker 3: this thick skin around that. And I think we come
Speaker 3: in knowing that we're very confident, but then that doesn't
Speaker 3: read well even if you're being nice and trying to
Speaker 3: just coast on die.
Speaker 1: No, it's an immediate villain edit for you.
Speaker 3: Yes, right, which is crazy?
Speaker 2: Yeah, which was And you both come in there like
Speaker 2: trained can seeing your faces off. And we talked to
Speaker 2: Damien and Damien was like, I didn't know what I
Speaker 2: was doing in that. Damien also has a very different voice,
Speaker 2: but had been on tour station in a different way,
Speaker 2: and so it was like all these people were like
Speaker 2: why why are we here with these people? And why
Speaker 2: are we here with those people?
Speaker 3: It's just the different people that we're around. And also
Speaker 3: seep sleep deprivation. I mean we were woken up to
Speaker 3: just lights being on, like it's pitch black darkness, and
Speaker 3: then all of a sudden you hear the ripcord of
Speaker 3: the generator and then like studio lights come on and
Speaker 3: you're just like, ah, okay.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, well you have to just shoot in
Speaker 1: the school, right, So it was like at the odd
Speaker 1: hours of when they were not no, sorry.
Speaker 3: We shot on a campsite.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were like in the woods.
Speaker 3: We were in the woods in a campsite in Glendale.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like dusty.
Speaker 3: Like the boys had their own uh what do they
Speaker 3: call it, little turret, not a turret, little cabin, and
Speaker 3: the girls had their own little turret cabin over here,
Speaker 3: and then there was like a bathroom cabin in the middle.
Speaker 3: So like to get to the girl's turret, I don't
Speaker 3: know why that word sounds so wonderful right now, we
Speaker 3: had to like walk outside. But also every elimination day
Speaker 3: it chowse like it wanted to rain. I don't know
Speaker 3: what was happening in La when I got when I
Speaker 3: moved to La and they were like, I was like,
Speaker 3: it was raining every Friday last year for like two
Speaker 3: solid months. But like you're in these like these dirty
Speaker 3: conditions and you're outside in the mud because it's raining
Speaker 3: every day, you're in your boots. And then on top
Speaker 3: of that, it was like, y'all, can we have like
Speaker 3: a housekeeper come and clean the bathrooms because it's a
Speaker 3: free for all. It's a shared bathroom, and it's a
Speaker 3: free for all. Yeahs is a bathroom for a good
Speaker 3: week and a half. Yeah, like tears, like actual tears
Speaker 3: where Emily who's on the show, she's like, baby, you.
Speaker 1: Need to go, oh my god.
Speaker 2: And then you have an asshole like me show and
Speaker 2: be like you're not doing enough.
Speaker 3: Well, we also had nicky Anders kicking our asses every.
Speaker 1: Every week, right, every week?
Speaker 3: Right, And it's still jarring that. Like Ryan was told
Speaker 3: me that I was the first person that didn't win
Speaker 3: the Glee Project and then got on the show and
Speaker 3: never left. Well, I eventually left.
Speaker 1: So you and Lindsay both won?
Speaker 3: Are we both won consolation prizes of two episodes and
Speaker 3: a song on the Christmas album?
Speaker 1: Right? Right?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: And then what was it like getting a call? Who
Speaker 1: called you?
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure it was just my agent being like, hey, bitch,
Speaker 3: you're flying out. And I was also in my high
Speaker 3: school mind you, yeah, and it came at this No,
Speaker 3: I'm very just very experienced. No, I was my junior
Speaker 3: years when I filmed the Glee Project, and then my
Speaker 3: senior year is when I did my first episode of Glee,
Speaker 3: the Glee Project couldn't tell anybody about it until it
Speaker 3: started airing or until like so, so we finished. We
Speaker 3: finished filming in February of my junior year, which is
Speaker 3: what twenty eleven, and then it aired that same summer.
Speaker 3: So I came into my senior year a star, very fame,
Speaker 3: very famous. I was already famous because I was only
Speaker 3: a black kid in my school, but like very even
Speaker 3: more famous. But no, my agent just called, She's like,
Speaker 3: you're leaving, and I remember because I had just booked
Speaker 3: what did I book Chicago at my theater for first
Speaker 3: senior year musical and couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: It was very straight, it's done to Hollywood.
Speaker 2: We so when you got to Glee, we just watched
Speaker 2: your episode. Let me tell you, thank god you ended
Speaker 2: up on the show. I know because you're like Wade's
Speaker 2: first interaction and also just the pairing of like Chris
Speaker 2: and Amber together that whole magical that was absolutely right.
Speaker 2: And then when you show up as you need and
Speaker 2: that fully realized, and it was also just I don't
Speaker 2: know the contrast to seeing you as Wade and then
Speaker 2: Unique and then performing boogie Shoes was just like, yeah,
Speaker 2: ship on.
Speaker 1: Them, right, what was boogy Shoes?
Speaker 3: Like that song? It's so ingrained in my brain now
Speaker 3: if anything else is that one right there. I remember
Speaker 3: every ounce of it. I remember even hearing Tiffany's guide
Speaker 3: vocal for the first time. I was like sitting in
Speaker 3: a hotel in West Hollywood because I had flown out
Speaker 3: the night before recording and they sent it to me
Speaker 3: and I literally started sobbing. I was like, this is
Speaker 3: so good. And then I get into the studio and
Speaker 3: just fully go unhinged singing. And then I'm in the
Speaker 3: Powerhouse with Zach and Brook when all these gorgeous, gorgeous dancers,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, I can't keep up. I can't keep up.
Speaker 3: And then the shoe was walking and I said, I
Speaker 3: definitely can't keep up. And there were some tallest seals
Speaker 3: because I I just kept pushing myself and pushing myself
Speaker 3: because I really wanted it, and I really wanted it
Speaker 3: to make a splash, because I was the last one.
Speaker 3: Damien had started, Sam had started, Lindsay had already done
Speaker 3: her thing, Danny Go was tapping the house down boots
Speaker 3: and it was just like the run of the group
Speaker 3: me just trying to make it up as you go,
Speaker 3: because I mean here hearing that you weren't the win
Speaker 3: of the Glee Project and then dealing with all like
Speaker 3: the backlash from the fans that watch the Glee Project
Speaker 3: where you're not the forerunner and nobody likes you and
Speaker 3: everybody likes the the Irish brogue or the outcast for
Speaker 3: the Dreadlocks or the Broadway princess like Lindsay, and then
Speaker 3: here you come. You're just like, ah, I know how
Speaker 3: to say, I know what I say pretty well. But
Speaker 3: it was very nice you do enlightening seeing it for
Speaker 3: the first time, and like just in englfing what that
Speaker 3: experience was. It was very cathartic at that time. I mean, like,
Speaker 3: who would know that you were just a teenager in
Speaker 3: your freshman year and your boyfriend at the time like
Speaker 3: tells you about this magical television show and you watched
Speaker 3: a pilot on the YouTube, and then you become a
Speaker 3: fan of all these lovely people on the lovely Glee
Speaker 3: Show and then you're on it. It's stupid. It doesn't
Speaker 3: happen that way, right, and honestly shouldn't happen that way.
Speaker 3: It was wild. I mean, I remember Brooke walking up
Speaker 3: to me and she's like, I know what you're doing
Speaker 3: with your face. Stop it smile And I said.
Speaker 1: Okay, Oh my god, I said, sure.
Speaker 3: Babe, I can smile. And then you know, then you're
Speaker 3: called back to do another episode that you weren't supposing.
Speaker 3: You're like, well, that's it. They're like, no, this isn't it.
Speaker 3: You're gonna do another one as well. But then this
Speaker 3: one is just like a cutaway. We just put you
Speaker 3: in the script. Put you in the script, and I
Speaker 3: said okay, and then you're lifted up by all the
Speaker 3: gorge gorgeous boy dancers and a split lift. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: might have a hamstring, but like, yeah, and you got
Speaker 3: to work with Jay Groff. Yes, my babies.
Speaker 1: Amazing.
Speaker 3: It's crazy to think even to think how I kind
Speaker 3: of just fit into this world back then?
Speaker 1: Yeah you did? How did you?
Speaker 2: How did it feel coming on to set with everyone?
Speaker 2: And I mean because in that episode you we didn't
Speaker 2: really get to work with you at all. You you worked
Speaker 2: with Amber and Chris, Amber and Chris the best and Sean.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The first person to greet me when I got
Speaker 3: to uh uh base camp was Leah. Hm. The very
Speaker 3: first one. She was very warm, she was very inviting.
Speaker 3: She welcomed me with open arms, and I can hold
Speaker 3: that to be true. Yeah, I had no qualms back then.
Speaker 1: Hm.
Speaker 3: I was like, work, bitch, this is your show. I'm
Speaker 3: just here for a few I'm just for a little pal.
Speaker 3: I'm not even near your little show choir yet.
Speaker 1: I haven't touched it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, hebby, I'm at a whole other school. I don't
Speaker 3: know what from me, baby girl.
Speaker 1: When you did come over, though, it did feel like
Speaker 1: you just fit in.
Speaker 3: I don't know why that was though.
Speaker 2: It's just a personality that wasn't it like we all have.
Speaker 2: I like, I don't know a world in which we
Speaker 2: don't get along.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Same, And maybe that's it.
Speaker 3: I think it was just and I mean we weren't
Speaker 3: around each other outside before we started doing everything, even
Speaker 3: before I even walked in, because I was at the
Speaker 3: Little Glee movie premiere. Come on three D, right, come
Speaker 3: on three D? I have a three D film. I
Speaker 3: still understand where the three D came in at Was
Speaker 3: it they that came in at the Green? I don't
Speaker 3: know where three D was.
Speaker 1: It had to be three D that was real and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you were around. I was around, Now were you? Like
Speaker 1: most people newcast members who came in were week to
Speaker 1: week where a script would show up on their door
Speaker 1: and they'd say, oh, wow, I guess I'm doing another episode.
Speaker 1: Was that the same for you?
Speaker 3: I think so?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Were you flying back to school like in between episodes?
Speaker 3: No, because I graduated high school after season three, got
Speaker 3: it okay, and I was on my way to Berkeley
Speaker 3: School of Music on my little scholarship to you know,
Speaker 3: ooh and and struggles as a college kid and being
Speaker 3: did and then my agent called us, Ryan said, to
Speaker 3: you on the show next season, So bringing the Last
Speaker 3: to Hollywood. We'll give you this little ten thousand relocation fee,
Speaker 3: and you better make it. Wow, better make it work,
Speaker 3: Make it work.
Speaker 1: Some of my favorite memories. You were in that newer
Speaker 1: class like one, Jacob and Becca and Melissa and everybody
Speaker 1: joined us and we created like our new group of people. Yea,
Speaker 1: and boy did we have fun.
Speaker 3: Oh we had too much fun.
Speaker 2: It was so much fun. And it was I was
Speaker 2: worried too, because it was like everyone that we knew
Speaker 2: that we had like going away. Yeah, like half of
Speaker 2: them left and like, oh, thank God.
Speaker 1: Like all of you are so cool.
Speaker 3: It's what you said about personality. It's I think that
Speaker 3: it was like a good group of people that did
Speaker 3: mesh well together or knew what like the greater good
Speaker 3: of making a sixteen hour day less shitt.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. We really, I mean really did
Speaker 1: some ridiculous things.
Speaker 3: Like I'll never forget that Christmas episode Becus boy Child,
Speaker 3: my God, and Jenna looking at me and listening like
Speaker 3: drink chugging mountain dew. Oh my god, we're not worried
Speaker 3: about our sperm count, ladies, And I said help.
Speaker 1: That's that's right, I said help. In our white outfits
Speaker 1: were our wipe arrays like talking.
Speaker 3: It was like, but seeing Mary's boy Child, I will
Speaker 3: always go back and look at that thing and look
Speaker 3: at the one mistake that haunts me for the rest
Speaker 3: of my life.
Speaker 1: What is that one?
Speaker 3: I don't know what I was where I was. I
Speaker 3: was in the white room, and we were doing one
Speaker 3: piece of choreography, like a little gyration, and somehow it
Speaker 3: just snuck up on me.
Speaker 1: And I just say, oh shit, I gotta go watch
Speaker 1: just like looking it made it, you know, broke in
Speaker 1: the front of the stage doing it for us too,
Speaker 1: like we had somebody to watch.
Speaker 3: I mean, Britney Parks was doing Divas right while filming.
Speaker 3: I said, hey, I don't know what this is. You
Speaker 3: taught this in ten seconds.
Speaker 1: I mean, roar, We're like, you know, trap across the stage.
Speaker 3: I've never thought in my life I would see a
Speaker 3: man in a wheelchair heeded across the stage.
Speaker 1: I was like, please fall, I could collect an insurance check.
Speaker 3: I mean, there were some dark times in that show,
Speaker 3: but like somehow I wanted to be there most days.
Speaker 2: Yes, you got me through too. Like I looked at
Speaker 2: during that Christmas episode. I hit a wall one night
Speaker 2: and I was like, I don't have to do half
Speaker 2: the shit Alex is doing this episode like you had
Speaker 2: to do some crazy shit.
Speaker 3: I gave birth to black baby Jesus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you came up to me and you're like,
Speaker 2: we're just we're just don't make belief.
Speaker 1: It's like I needed to hear that, thank you.
Speaker 3: It is adult. Make believe. It can't be that serious
Speaker 3: all the time. We're not curing cancer, all right, We're
Speaker 3: changing lives sometimes, yes, but me giving birth to black
Speaker 3: baby Jesus and a glitter diaper not changing lives.
Speaker 1: That was a Saturday too when we shot that number,
Speaker 1: wasn't it though?
Speaker 3: It was?
Speaker 1: I remember vividly those sequins scratching the side of my
Speaker 1: armpits so badly.
Speaker 3: The City Hawkins dress that Vanessa wore was like she
Speaker 3: was bleeding for her art and I said, it shouldn't
Speaker 3: be this.
Speaker 1: Deep, literally, it should not be this deep for her art.
Speaker 1: I was like, and she had like all across her
Speaker 1: and she never complained. It was a sweet little thing,
Speaker 1: like the blood cloth.
Speaker 3: I was like, couldn't be me.
Speaker 2: No, she think she had been like physically abused in
Speaker 2: front of us.
Speaker 3: Tell me I was perfectly always good to walk into
Speaker 3: the wardrobe trailer and make my new costume and walk
Speaker 3: on set. Did you do that all the time they
Speaker 3: would send They would set an outfit and I'd be like,
Speaker 3: absolutely not, and I'll just walk in and I'd look
Speaker 3: at Jen and be like, baby, we're not doing this.
Speaker 3: Hand me this, because you know, they the whole premise
Speaker 3: of like Unique. I almost said, Monique, Wow, racism is real.
Speaker 3: Unique was like she was wearing her mother's clothes. So
Speaker 3: I was just in, like the finest of Lane Bryant
Speaker 3: like the finest of Lane Bryant and like the top
Speaker 3: tier of tour Rid and you know, they got dark
Speaker 3: real fast, so where everything was just like falling off
Speaker 3: of me. The entire time. I was just like, I'm
Speaker 3: really not that fat.
Speaker 1: Everything are coming into like the classroom with kids Drenk.
Speaker 3: Looking like I didn't belong to I'm like, everybody.
Speaker 1: Gets to wear like gap, like what are you wearing today?
Speaker 1: You're like, I don't know. I have no idea.
Speaker 3: And then there were days that I'd be wigless and
Speaker 3: I'd like, I really don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1: Those were the days, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Was like, I have no idea. What was this person
Speaker 3: talking about? A character with like identity crisis? I mean yes,
Speaker 3: but still.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I.
Speaker 2: Didn't see you like that aspect of it was like
Speaker 2: thoughtful to you, like the identity of it all because
Speaker 2: it was one of them.
Speaker 3: No, I think I just made it in my own delulu.
Speaker 3: I made it.
Speaker 1: Thoughtful, Okay.
Speaker 3: I'd be like, oh, so this is what it is,
Speaker 3: because remember that time, they did not tell any of
Speaker 3: us who the catfish was.
Speaker 1: But it's me. I forgot it.
Speaker 3: Everybody to sit here, I guess and I was like, no, it's.
Speaker 1: Me, and we're wondering why we got along.
Speaker 3: I was like, thank y'all, y'all are not dance? Like
Speaker 3: who else is going to be the person who's never
Speaker 3: had a scene with this person? Who else is it
Speaker 3: gonna be?
Speaker 1: I remember we were all sitting around in the choir
Speaker 1: room talking about it in between setups, and You're like.
Speaker 3: Like, we can me stop calling a kid kater, like
Speaker 3: we know it's me. They were like what really, yes, yes,
Speaker 3: so right, like it is the obvious tell story right.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, the catfish story.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, that was I mean, there were a
Speaker 3: lot of unhinged. The shooting story. I'm still unwell from
Speaker 3: crying real tears.
Speaker 1: I wasn't even there. I didn't need to be with you.
Speaker 1: You you how is that?
Speaker 2: As someone who watched the show and was a fan
Speaker 2: of this show and then you end up on the show.
Speaker 3: And you watch what the show is, it.
Speaker 4: Starts becoming really crazy, unhinged, unhinged.
Speaker 3: It was strange, but like then you really just I mean,
Speaker 3: by season five, I was just like, well, y'all, come on,
Speaker 3: from all of us, play my dress on, come on,
Speaker 3: we ain't got to traumise too much happened to just
Speaker 3: do it, just say a little, We're gonna get through it.
Speaker 3: Brad is gonna eat a yam.
Speaker 2: Right, you learn quickly. You saw how we were like, okay,
Speaker 2: come on.
Speaker 3: But that's why I was so quiet most of season
Speaker 3: for quiet Esque, because I was just watching.
Speaker 1: I was just absorbing. When did I walk out of
Speaker 1: with the porter potty? Do you remember that one? Uh
Speaker 1: if I.
Speaker 3: Were a boy episode? Oh?
Speaker 1: That was ad episode that was.
Speaker 3: The end of work is good?
Speaker 1: It's really good, good, Alex. I didn't remember that, thank you.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it's great.
Speaker 3: The end of work where a wig was thrown down.
Speaker 3: You know the shittiest part about that scene where the
Speaker 3: wig was thrown off. I sat there on the Glee
Speaker 3: set for about three hours trying to make the peak
Speaker 3: contraption because I was supposed to be so scared that
Speaker 3: I peed on myself. It eventually got cut because it
Speaker 3: was just like I was giving birth to a child.
Speaker 3: Because it wasn't just this gorgeous cinematic stream coming down
Speaker 3: my leg. It was just like what it was just
Speaker 3: like ah, and I was like, this is not cute.
Speaker 1: We were going for It's.
Speaker 3: Like I don't think y'all gonna use this, but there
Speaker 3: I am just standing there singing if I were born
Speaker 3: wet for three dates.
Speaker 1: Al just just oh god, oh my god.
Speaker 3: What I do remember that episode was I had a
Speaker 3: breakdown because you know who wouldn't be triggered and traumatically
Speaker 3: stressed by being bullied in the bathroom. And Wendy looked
Speaker 3: at me and said, what do you need? And I
Speaker 3: was just like, smoothie. I got that damn smoothie.
Speaker 1: Both and then I spilled it on myself on that
Speaker 1: white top. Oh my god, sweet Wendy, Sweet Wendy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sweet, sweet Wendy.
Speaker 1: That was a big storyline for you.
Speaker 3: That was the That was the biggest one. O than
Speaker 3: the catfish one, Darling. Oh my god, oh the cat
Speaker 3: I was put to the ringer. They were like underdog,
Speaker 3: where can we put the underdog? And what's beneath the underdog?
Speaker 2: Cat fish?
Speaker 3: Truly in the toilet? What a time. And then just
Speaker 3: rolling around on a star bus.
Speaker 1: That was fun, unhinged.
Speaker 3: But very fun.
Speaker 2: It was fully school like field trip schooled out. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Becca and I got drunk.
Speaker 1: Brooks hiding in the back of the on the top
Speaker 1: of the truck laying down always we're on the top
Speaker 1: of the bus right and you're going down like towards
Speaker 1: the Hollywood sign. By way, that bus was rickety as hell.
Speaker 1: But the trees when they were like, dump, the trees
Speaker 1: are going to hit the branches are going to hit you,
Speaker 1: we were like, we've made it. We really made it.
Speaker 3: Top tier work.
Speaker 2: Also, at that point, the headlines we were all talking
Speaker 2: about like could you imagine this show was like the
Speaker 2: biggest thing on the planet, and then during production just
Speaker 2: wiped out.
Speaker 3: Branches. Well, and that's what you really missed. Yeah, they
Speaker 3: all they all got to capitate it, honey.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: But nope, we stayed alive to make it to Pink's
Speaker 2: Hot Dogs.
Speaker 3: Honestly, the fact that we made that day is quite stunning.
Speaker 1: Every day felt like that, really, yes, exactly, astonishing that
Speaker 1: we made our day or just seeing wrong.
Speaker 3: Ryan didn't come down and say, I didn't improve this,
Speaker 3: I didn't I don't know what you're wearing.
Speaker 1: Get it off. Uh.
Speaker 3: I remember they filmed that whole entire rooftop scene. Uh,
Speaker 3: Heather and Darren and then Ryan came down and said, nope,
Speaker 3: I don't like to set.
Speaker 1: I remember when we're hearing about that, right.
Speaker 3: Oh, so can I go home because I have to
Speaker 3: see it? I can go, Okay, bye, I'll see y'all later.
Speaker 2: It was I wish people could understand how it was
Speaker 2: so high school, oh, because we would it was fully
Speaker 2: just games of telephone all day long, because Alex would
Speaker 2: hear that then for example, like might text us and
Speaker 2: be like, oh my god, I saw this thing, Like oh,
Speaker 2: so then we're not getting called in later, so then
Speaker 2: like we might have tonight off, and so we were
Speaker 2: all just God, we were assuming.
Speaker 3: Planning our days because you know when you work that
Speaker 3: long of hours, which I never understood the term friturday
Speaker 3: until I'm sitting at a circus in the middle of paramount.
Speaker 1: Pictures on a tilt whirl the tilted worl scare for
Speaker 1: my life.
Speaker 3: I'm still that wheelchair should be in the Smithsonian because
Speaker 3: how they rigged that bitch? Oh no, no, no, they
Speaker 3: just made you because the wheelchair was on there for
Speaker 3: a second. I was like, insurance check again.
Speaker 1: No, No, that wouldn't have worked.
Speaker 3: That wouldn't have worked. That that is a liability because
Speaker 3: had it come flying at me, I would own a lot.
Speaker 1: Of things, Yes, and it was like, physics tells me
Speaker 1: that for.
Speaker 3: Trifical force is not going to keep that metal hunka
Speaker 3: hunkah down.
Speaker 1: How many times did we do that until the world
Speaker 1: thing I got sick.
Speaker 3: I think we only did it like a handful of
Speaker 3: times because that's enough.
Speaker 1: That was enough.
Speaker 3: They couldn't stop it midway. So it was like a
Speaker 3: minute ride.
Speaker 2: Each and it was the only time I've ever done
Speaker 2: that in real life until to Worl. I think probably
Speaker 2: like any of those carnival rites, because I think it
Speaker 2: was like, well, this should be safe, right because they
Speaker 2: have to protect this.
Speaker 3: Why would you think that, I don't know, why would
Speaker 3: you think that naive?
Speaker 2: I was even nice?
Speaker 3: Both the cars alone could have broken somebody. Oh, because
Speaker 3: there was there was a camera on each one of them.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's when Mandy Moore was choreographing. Right, Yes,
Speaker 1: we need a different choreographer for a little bit.
Speaker 3: That's Cod's collaborators, cohorts.
Speaker 1: One might say, that's right, now, can you on this show?
Speaker 3: I thought I was just acting, Jenna, Well.
Speaker 1: Call it what you will. What was it? Do you
Speaker 1: have a favorite song or a song that you loath singing?
Speaker 1: What does a fox say to this day, you and
Speaker 1: Kevin with my fist up my likeness and image right, yes,
Speaker 1: somebody they offered to like.
Speaker 3: Us to buy them at the end of the season.
Speaker 1: Five thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: Mine was ten.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, she's more expensive. Wow. I was like that
Speaker 1: wig better be made from my own.
Speaker 3: God, damn here, just just cut off. Oh that was
Speaker 3: my least favorite. My favorite, I mean coming rising like
Speaker 3: a phoenix out of the ashes was Diamonds Are Girl's
Speaker 3: Best Friend, only because the day before I had a
Speaker 3: fever beyond fevers, like I should not have been standing.
Speaker 3: That's when they brought the set medican and said, please
Speaker 3: go home. Oh really, I'm always filmed that scene in
Speaker 3: the bathroom right before the song.
Speaker 1: I was dead, just like printed primming and right, that's right, And.
Speaker 3: I literally was dead.
Speaker 1: I was deaf, I was hot death mmmm fever.
Speaker 3: I should have been in the hospital, I probably, but no,
Speaker 3: you know, I didn't know, didn't feel like it. I
Speaker 3: wanted to be there and I wanted to be a
Speaker 3: team player. Didn't speak in the scene glorified extra.
Speaker 1: That's always the worst one when you're like, I don't
Speaker 1: need to be here. And I also shouldn't be here glorified.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that was most of season four.
Speaker 1: It was most of our tour.
Speaker 3: I'm just like, y'all are really paying me a lot
Speaker 3: of money to sit here. I'm not going to and
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna let you know that. I know that,
Speaker 3: right because I'm smarter than that, and I have bills
Speaker 3: to pay because I'm eighteen.
Speaker 1: You came in like you were thirty guys.
Speaker 3: Imagine me having to come in with these veterans and
Speaker 3: acting like a child. Y'all did that enough?
Speaker 1: See?
Speaker 2: But that mentality, that perspective alone, It's like, not everybody's
Speaker 2: coming in with this.
Speaker 3: They couldn't. I was happy to be there, but I
Speaker 3: also knew that I had to task at hand.
Speaker 2: Was there any time do you remember like I have,
Speaker 2: I don't know handfuls of stories where I either loved
Speaker 2: being in the recording studio or like, had a terrible
Speaker 2: time in your quarter studio. Because you are a vocalist,
Speaker 2: did you enjoy the recording process?
Speaker 3: Sometimes yes, sometimes yes, sometimes no. I think.
Speaker 2: Alex God scooping to the note.
Speaker 3: I would never want to scoop to anybody's note. I
Speaker 3: was like, I just sang it. It was kitch person,
Speaker 3: what do you mean scoop up to? Okay? It's not okay.
Speaker 3: But Alex got very meticulous because I am a vocalist
Speaker 3: and he's like, honey, I'm not going to sit here
Speaker 3: and edit these vocals. You don't sing it perfectly.
Speaker 1: He brought out the best. He really did. He was
Speaker 1: so it was so infuriating at the time. Yes, he
Speaker 1: really did push you though, to the point where you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess I can do it if I needed to.
Speaker 3: I mean I sang I sang Sergeant Pepper's Only Heart
Speaker 3: Club band that Top Harmony until I was actually just screaming.
Speaker 3: I was like, sir, I don't get nothing else in me.
Speaker 2: The thing is that you go back and it's like
Speaker 2: nobody's getting a cleaner vocal.
Speaker 1: No way, no.
Speaker 3: But I mean I was the hollers, the holeration, like
Speaker 3: it's still iconic. It's still iconic, Like it's stuck in
Speaker 3: my brain and I can't listen to Katy Carry's Wide
Speaker 3: Away without thinking.
Speaker 1: About me God wide Away.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of songs that I can't listen
Speaker 3: to without thinking of the versions of Glee.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, the amount of times that we would also
Speaker 2: just do them like they are pounded into our brains. Yes,
Speaker 2: because you do them for an hour in the recording studio,
Speaker 2: then you do them for eight hours on set.
Speaker 1: And then you wake up the next day thinking about it.
Speaker 1: Oh no, or the crew member would be singing it
Speaker 1: the next day.
Speaker 2: You're like, pay if you see me out in Like
Speaker 2: I have been in public at bars or something and
Speaker 2: somebody to leve will come on and I'll be in
Speaker 2: the corner by myself just doing the background.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: So then Alex, then you did another musical TV show.
Speaker 3: I've done three Darling Okay, I did one episode of Empire.
Speaker 3: That's right, honey. Listen. Every meeting it's like, so, what's
Speaker 3: your next musical project? I'm like, can I not? I've
Speaker 3: been singing for my supper since i was eighteen?
Speaker 1: BIB What were those like after doing Glee? And then
Speaker 1: also were they similar or were they different?
Speaker 3: I mean, coming back and coming off of Glee, anything
Speaker 3: was possible, right, I mean doing Zoe's was such a
Speaker 3: walk in the park, mainly because it was a minute
Speaker 3: steady cam maybe like three to four takes and you're done.
Speaker 3: But I also didn't I sang a lot on that show,
Speaker 3: but I didn't do so there was the concept of
Speaker 3: like her hearing heart songs and that kind of thing.
Speaker 3: A majority of the time that I sang on the show,
Speaker 3: it was like out in real life, like they just
Speaker 3: made the character a singer. So I didn't do that
Speaker 3: many heart songs. I think over like the the seasons,
Speaker 3: I did like six and I like did five other
Speaker 3: or something. Got it, But it's like it's it was
Speaker 3: always just so easy because like I'm also not doing
Speaker 3: multiple camera angles and takes and we didn't get it.
Speaker 3: And also we weren't filming with film. It was digital.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that sound so nice? Like three or four of
Speaker 1: the steady cam and then you're done with a radical
Speaker 1: number and then it's over. That was like the last
Speaker 1: setup for us. I I don't get it what it was.
Speaker 3: But also like the scenes, I didn't have to act
Speaker 3: with seventeen other people in the room.
Speaker 1: It was like two barely.
Speaker 3: I was always attached to her hip, so there was
Speaker 3: always two cameras on either of us.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Is this what TV is? Like? Is this what people
Speaker 3: keep coming back to? Right without like truly like yeah,
Speaker 3: sitting there for hours upon end because you think about
Speaker 3: sitting in a choir room full of twelve people. You
Speaker 3: have to get everybody's reaction to every minute detail and
Speaker 3: then turn it.
Speaker 1: Around right and then do something weird with it, and
Speaker 1: then have a directors put their little spin on it.
Speaker 1: And costumes Katy Perry costume, cupcake costumes, you know.
Speaker 3: Yes, put us in the largest costumes and then say
Speaker 3: walk to the door. I don't fit right, Oh you
Speaker 3: don't fit. Nope. You do some of that raffle down
Speaker 3: on TV match.
Speaker 2: Cut cut, and then it's at delay to figure out
Speaker 2: how we work the person out.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm wow.
Speaker 3: But Zoe, it was so easy. Like I was just like, okay,
Speaker 3: what do you want me to do? Oh, we're done
Speaker 3: for the day. The sun is still up.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Like I would go to work with the sun up,
Speaker 3: and then I would get out of work with the
Speaker 3: sun sun still up.
Speaker 1: That was always the weirdest part where we'd be on
Speaker 1: the soundstage for hours and then you come outside and
Speaker 1: it's just pitch black and you're like, that.
Speaker 2: Is pitch back.
Speaker 1: It's like eleven pm, I've missed it. Just the light
Speaker 1: of the Paramount New York City Street.
Speaker 2: You're like Okay, oh, here heard the text from my
Speaker 2: friends who are out.
Speaker 1: They are their home now you Oh they're drunk. Okay,
Speaker 1: so yes, exactly, exactly, Yes, I definitely can come out.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be easy to There's only one scene with
Speaker 3: like two people, so definitely gonna make No, we'll be there.
Speaker 3: But for Zoe's was just like I would always make
Speaker 3: my plans wow constantly. I know you guys really missed out.
Speaker 1: Yeah we did next my next one. Literally, you just
Speaker 1: tell us which one and we'll join you.
Speaker 3: I'm just out here doing musical television for the rest
Speaker 3: of my life. Who would have thought that little reality
Speaker 3: competition would have got me that far? Yes, I will
Speaker 3: give you all the credit I would give you out.
Speaker 2: I deserve no credit, but I will secretly take it.
Speaker 3: He said.
Speaker 1: Don't be lazy.
Speaker 3: Said okay, don't you sit in a chair all day?
Speaker 1: I do the guilt.
Speaker 2: I felt like that leapt out of my mouth.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, does it keep you up? And
Speaker 1: is it one of those that you replay in your mind, Kevin?
Speaker 1: Or you don feel that at all?
Speaker 3: Okay? But who asked you? You know what? I think
Speaker 3: I partially owned Jenna's first Tony.
Speaker 5: You do Yes, it was the whistle tone on the
Speaker 5: Tony performance that actually did win that They were like, well,
Speaker 5: let's change the envelope.
Speaker 1: Bitch this one. It's this one, just screaming into the
Speaker 1: either like, hey, remember who didn't get nominated the whistletone,
Speaker 1: I screamed.
Speaker 3: I mean, I was on so much, so many drugs
Speaker 3: that night, not like bad ones, like roided out of
Speaker 3: my mind and I had at least a whole milligram
Speaker 3: of Xanax in my system. My body was.
Speaker 1: Relaxed as a possible through trendizone.
Speaker 3: Thretnos own alone, the Lord that strengthens me, because let
Speaker 3: me tell you, that was the tone came out from
Speaker 3: my my dreams and hopes and aspirations.
Speaker 1: In life, and it was I felt that it was.
Speaker 3: I have never done a whistletone directly in the center
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: It was just you. Just I threw my remote. It
Speaker 1: just said, it's like I hit a button on a keyboard.
Speaker 1: It was strepid. And I've watched a lot of bootlegs
Speaker 1: of you, and.
Speaker 3: Chones never came out that way on stage. I mean
Speaker 3: there was one that it was just so flat on
Speaker 3: the bootleg. I said, baby, you don't have to be impressive.
Speaker 3: These people are from Middle America. They don't give a damn.
Speaker 1: But it's just one time to do it properly televised.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. It was.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Well, Kevin will take credit for Alex, Alex will take
Speaker 1: credit for my Tony. We'll just all take credit for
Speaker 1: each other.
Speaker 3: I think that's the best way. That's a functional healthy.
Speaker 1: H I think I think.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, as long as you're good with it. I
Speaker 2: in the back of my head, I'm like, I can't
Speaker 2: be that story of like Brandy tells. You know, if
Speaker 2: Brandy's like a teacher told me that I will never
Speaker 2: be anything, it's like.
Speaker 3: Oh I did that to my middle school math teacher,
Speaker 3: English teacher. She literally looked at me one day and said, oh,
Speaker 3: your work ethic will never amount to much. Wow.
Speaker 2: Can I tell the people something? On that note? Though,
Speaker 2: On that note, anytime I've seen Alex in New York postally, nobody,
Speaker 2: nobody works more and harder.
Speaker 1: Than Alex. She's ever on a stage set, always no
Speaker 1: happy medium.
Speaker 2: Oh let's let's do we forget the like independent musical
Speaker 2: artists career.
Speaker 3: I did that one of my songs, just my silver Oh,
Speaker 3: like I would be.
Speaker 2: In the streets like of London and like that's Alex
Speaker 2: r Just I'm going.
Speaker 3: There to do Pippen next. I can't wait to meet
Speaker 3: my public concert at the Palladium. It's going to be lovely.
Speaker 1: Oh my goshing leading player. I love that for you.
Speaker 3: I am a full fledged wore in both ways. I'm
Speaker 3: always working and I.
Speaker 1: Was let yeah, knew this is key. Okay, before we
Speaker 1: let you go, can you tell us what the feeling
Speaker 1: that Glee, your experience or the show leaves you with.
Speaker 3: What it leaves me with? You know, the show brought
Speaker 3: me so much, like it as a whole Glee project,
Speaker 3: and Glee, the word Glee and itself and the brand
Speaker 3: that it was. It gave me everything that I have today,
Speaker 3: all the relationships that I cherish, of the experience that
Speaker 3: I got to learn. I mean, I did that first
Speaker 3: episode and I was truly never anybody's actor, and then
Speaker 3: I learned what it was to be an actor, which
Speaker 3: is so much. You don't get that experience if you
Speaker 3: go to school and learn how to do it. And
Speaker 3: I'm so happy that I got to have that experience
Speaker 3: and just even was the good, the bad, and the ugly,
Speaker 3: and there was some really ugly ugly. It's something that
Speaker 3: I look back on and very fondly wouldn't do it again,
Speaker 3: would never do it again, but I loved what it
Speaker 3: gave me.
Speaker 1: Hmm, that's great, beautiful.
Speaker 3: I don't think I could do it again. Now I'm
Speaker 3: your age when you guys started to do it.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, Now i'm.
Speaker 3: Your age when like my body, just I applaud you
Speaker 3: both for all of you, really, every last one of you,
Speaker 3: for really pushing yourselves at that age. Because let me
Speaker 3: tell you, oh, my niece, my knees quick every time
Speaker 3: I stand.
Speaker 1: Up well after bleeve, my knees really do Chris.
Speaker 3: I look at a pair of heels now daily.
Speaker 1: And just no, no, not today.
Speaker 3: After wearing them from the years eighteen to twenty one.
Speaker 3: You plus, that's right every day? No thank you that
Speaker 3: I almost cussed jakeob out for it, yelling about my shoes.
Speaker 1: I remember you picked me up, Fuck I didn't. You
Speaker 1: really did have the craziest platforms and heels like in
Speaker 1: part of your costume everything.
Speaker 3: But I don't understand the hell I was wearing my
Speaker 3: mother's clothing, but her shoes magically.
Speaker 1: Just fit there. Right, it's the jeans, and they were
Speaker 1: they were good, better shoes than Lane Bryant. So I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: I have somewhere. Well. Well, thank you Tony One winner
Speaker 1: Alex Nowell for coming on and sharing your experience. We
Speaker 1: love you so much, so much. You're just I love you.
Speaker 1: I love you both, miss you. Enjoy Hopefully I have
Speaker 1: a great concert. But also I hope you're getting some
Speaker 1: time downtime.
Speaker 3: Oh I'm not doing anything but drinking every day. It's
Speaker 3: wonder for my skin. But whatever.
Speaker 1: Make you happy, it's not depressed. When is your show
Speaker 1: with the Pladium.
Speaker 3: The first and second of April? I do have some time.
Speaker 3: I go out the fifteenth.
Speaker 1: Of March, so everyone needs to go see that ship one.
Speaker 3: It's almost sold out.
Speaker 1: Yes it is, Yes it is, and that's so fun.
Speaker 1: I love you. You're the best.
Speaker 2: Thank you here again.
Speaker 3: All right now, I'm gonna go put makeup on and
Speaker 3: be an actual human. I love you both, and I
Speaker 3: love you.
Speaker 4: Oh god, I haven't. I don't even think I talked, okay,
Speaker 4: so ask me questions. I mean, the last time I
Speaker 4: smiled and laughed like that was actually when we were
Speaker 4: with Alex when we saw Shucked, Well we didn't see Shocked.
Speaker 4: We were out there for iHeart, for the event and
Speaker 4: for the podcast event, and then we went and we
Speaker 4: saw Alex afterwards after his show, and we went and
Speaker 4: hung out and had some drinks and like laughed and reminisced.
Speaker 1: And my cheeks hurt just like that. So always a
Speaker 1: good time with Alex. And this is good. Maybe my
Speaker 1: six sec will come back after this. So many memories,
Speaker 1: Like It's funny, some of my more like vivid memories
Speaker 1: are when like it's towards the end of the season.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's because it was sooner and there was like
Speaker 1: less going on, right, like there was more the noise,
Speaker 1: like less press less all of the stuff and just
Speaker 1: more work. But I don't know. Anyway, Thanks Alex for
Speaker 1: coming and chatting with us and share all the funny
Speaker 1: funny things. Unke that memory, Yes, very good. It was
Speaker 1: literally I said Porter Potty and she like there you
Speaker 1: got everything trapped up there? Oh my gosh. That Christmas
Speaker 1: episode is wildly unhinged and I can't wait to wader.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait for it because it is a crazy
Speaker 1: blacked out during it. Yeah, Kitty had a lot in
Speaker 1: that one. It was a lot. It was a lot
Speaker 1: o god. All right, well, we love the Alex. Thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on.
Speaker 2: Thank you Alex, and damn, that's what you really missed.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening and follow us on Instagram at and
Speaker 2: that's what you really miss pod. Make sure to write
Speaker 2: us a review and leave us five stars.
Speaker 1: See you next time.