Speaker 1: I am all in. That's kiss you. I am all
Speaker 1: in with Scott Patterson and I heart radio podcast. Everybody,
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk with Beth Kennedy. Um, who's gonna come
Speaker 1: in and join us for a one on one interview?
Speaker 1: And uh. She has some credits to her name. She
Speaker 1: received l A Drama Critics Natalie Shaffer Award for Emerging
Speaker 1: Comic Actress. She has appeared in the film New yor Z,
Speaker 1: E Valentine's State, George Rule, all directed by Gary Marshall.
Speaker 1: Tons of television appearances We Can't wait to talk to her,
Speaker 1: plus tons of theater and tons of commercials, and she
Speaker 1: played Mrs O'Malley for five episode. First appearance she was
Speaker 1: at the children Teacher. Yes, she was in this Hi everybody,
Speaker 1: Hi Beth, Hello, Hello, right, come Hi? Yeah, alright, alright, happening.
Speaker 1: I literally tried to do my hair. How it was
Speaker 1: in the episode that I just watched for the first
Speaker 1: time last night, Oh my goodness, it was. It was
Speaker 1: a great episode. Tell us, first of all, welcome, nice
Speaker 1: to meet you, Thank you so nice. Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 1: And tell us what it was like getting cast? Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, what was it like to be a co star.
Speaker 1: It was it was it was you guys know what
Speaker 1: it's like. You come in, there's an amazing I was
Speaker 1: looking on. I literally had an IMDb myself and I
Speaker 1: was like, was I on the Kilmer? I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I was no. But it was so cool.
Speaker 1: You know Jamie and Mara the casting people. Of course, um,
Speaker 1: I actually knew them both. I was friends with them,
Speaker 1: and they were like, b K. Everyone called me b K.
Speaker 1: You know there's this new show. Um I think I
Speaker 1: looked in the first time I did, it was like
Speaker 1: two thousand and one. When was the first episode? Let
Speaker 1: me see it was a season two episode five? Nick
Speaker 1: and Norris did Nancy, So yeah, that was so. I
Speaker 1: was in season two. Season two is two thousand and one.
Speaker 1: Last appearance season seven, so that's two thousand six. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I basically played every teacher at children. It was yeah.
Speaker 1: I played like the debate person, you know, the debate
Speaker 1: coach and the yearbook later. So it was it was
Speaker 1: so much fun. Did you guys know you had to
Speaker 1: talk really fast, So Jamie and Morris had just talk
Speaker 1: really fast, Buka talk really fast, no problem, and then
Speaker 1: you know, working on it was. It was cool, just
Speaker 1: trying to get all those It's like, I think it's
Speaker 1: harder to be a co star than actually have like
Speaker 1: a larger part on the show, as you know, because
Speaker 1: you're just so used to it. You know, everybody you're
Speaker 1: coming in as a co star and you're just like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, don't screw this up. Everybody's got this
Speaker 1: so wired. Totally agree. So how did you get started?
Speaker 1: How did you get started with your acting career. I
Speaker 1: went to Loyola Marymount. I graduated in the eighties. I
Speaker 1: was a business major. My now husband was my theater
Speaker 1: school roommates girlfriend. So my roommate again was in the
Speaker 1: theater school. She was dating my husband. I was about
Speaker 1: to graduate from Loyola, and my husband back then wasn't
Speaker 1: my husband, but he was in the theater school. He
Speaker 1: wanted to direct non actors. He was like, I'm just
Speaker 1: kind of sick of all the actors and all their
Speaker 1: bags of tricks and this and that. I want to
Speaker 1: work with somebody, you know. He had this vision of
Speaker 1: like that they don't know anything, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: teach them and try to keep them real and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. I didn't know what I was
Speaker 1: getting into, and I said, sure, yeah, this sounds fun.
Speaker 1: So he cast me in a two person play with
Speaker 1: another guy who was a stage hand at Loyal, who
Speaker 1: also had never done any acting, and um, So it
Speaker 1: then came to me graduating and all the business school,
Speaker 1: you know, all the companies come. You're supposed to go
Speaker 1: and interview and get your business job, and I was
Speaker 1: just thinking, I just can't do it. This is not me.
Speaker 1: So I then went to cal Arts. Um, I got
Speaker 1: my masters in theater there. It was so much fun,
Speaker 1: and I think in graduated. You know, I've had a
Speaker 1: great run. I've always had tons of other jobs. I
Speaker 1: never put my eggs in one basket. It's kind of
Speaker 1: how I was brought up. So I've had a great
Speaker 1: one run with commercials, done a lot of TV stuff,
Speaker 1: movies here and there. Gary Marshall put me in for
Speaker 1: his movies. You know. Gilmore Girls was so great. You
Speaker 1: know you did those checks even today, like a hundred
Speaker 1: bucks Gilmore Girls and stuff like. Yeah. So, had you've
Speaker 1: already been watching the show of before your first appearance
Speaker 1: in season two? Did you? Were you aware of not
Speaker 1: a huge TV watcher, and still to this day I'm
Speaker 1: not a huge TV watcher, so I went back and
Speaker 1: watched it last night, and so many people and obviously
Speaker 1: how it's had a you know, uh, just a whole redo,
Speaker 1: and now younger people have got onto the Gilmer Girls train.
Speaker 1: So I'll just be at some of my you know,
Speaker 1: one of my jobs is a tech job right now.
Speaker 1: In these twenty some things. Oh my god, it's the
Speaker 1: cutest thing. So I went I've watched them over the years,
Speaker 1: of course, but I want I was like, I just
Speaker 1: want to watch it last night, so thanks for having
Speaker 1: it made me and watching and it was it's so good,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, yeah, I get it. I see
Speaker 1: why this is a cult classic. And I was just thinking,
Speaker 1: I don't know how you guys learned your lines. I
Speaker 1: have a question for you, but how did you guys
Speaker 1: do it? Scott Um, I don't there are so many lines,
Speaker 1: especially the mom and the daughter. Obviously, honestly, I just
Speaker 1: you know, I'd had a little uh training and a
Speaker 1: little experience with Shakespeare so that there's nothing really is
Speaker 1: daunting after that, you know, I mean, if you can
Speaker 1: memorize like I memorize Hamlet in a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks, but because it made sense
Speaker 1: to me, it was and I was as intimidated as
Speaker 1: anybody else, Don't get me wrong. I was like, good Lord,
Speaker 1: how the hell am I ever going to do this? Um?
Speaker 1: But once you start, it becomes easier because of the
Speaker 1: emotional logic of the writing. If the writing is good,
Speaker 1: it's it's not like your memorizing words. You're memorizing emotions.
Speaker 1: You're memorizing scenarios, You're memorizing other people. So it's it
Speaker 1: just got easier the more I did it. So you know,
Speaker 1: this was not difficult. It really wasn't difficult. And I
Speaker 1: don't think it was terribly difficult for Laura either, because
Speaker 1: I think she has a photographic memory, must because like
Speaker 1: she didn't miss it brings. Yeah, I mean the Shakespeare
Speaker 1: right there. I have that training too, and I've done
Speaker 1: tons of Shakespeare, and I love Shakespeare. And the only
Speaker 1: way you can really learn Shakespeare, like you're saying, Scott,
Speaker 1: is you you have to think about. You can't just
Speaker 1: be like by rote memorizing lines in an order. The
Speaker 1: iambic pentameter, though, completely help when you're memorizing con coo,
Speaker 1: don't so that helps a lot, but you have to
Speaker 1: think of it more like emotions and I'm really in
Speaker 1: a dialogue and what do I want from this person
Speaker 1: and all that stuff, and then it becomes like a story.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not just these random words that you're
Speaker 1: shoving together in your right. It has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with that. Yeah, it's it's really just being in the
Speaker 1: scene and and expressing what you have to express. It's
Speaker 1: it's there's there's no other choice but to say these things.
Speaker 1: And that's easy to remember. I mean if you have
Speaker 1: like an affinity for it and the story strikes you
Speaker 1: on on a deep level, and and it always did.
Speaker 1: I mean it was just like devastating for me to
Speaker 1: read that play. Um So anyway, um so, what do
Speaker 1: you remember of your time on Gilmore Girls? Give us
Speaker 1: some of your your top what are your top three
Speaker 1: memories of working on that show? Okay, the top three memories?
Speaker 1: Um what did you remember? What did you did? You
Speaker 1: feed you? I fed you well as a young actor,
Speaker 1: but I was thirty eight when I did that. I
Speaker 1: looked back and I literally thought I looked like I
Speaker 1: was fourteen, But I was almost fourty years old when
Speaker 1: I did that. And you know, you're a working actor
Speaker 1: and you're just like they're feeding you. Someone's coming over
Speaker 1: and asking you what you want for breck and that's
Speaker 1: amazing and that that was a beautiful and I always, um,
Speaker 1: I just I also thought that set, that crew everyone
Speaker 1: was just cool. They were just good. You know, I've
Speaker 1: been on when you're doing like guest stars and co stars,
Speaker 1: you go on so many different sets and some of
Speaker 1: them are like, yeah, you get like maybe a vibe.
Speaker 1: I'm very much like an Ari's oldest child of nine,
Speaker 1: so I'm pretty much like no one's gonna talk to me.
Speaker 1: I'm just going straight up to people anyways. It's just
Speaker 1: kind of how I'm built. But you didn't have to
Speaker 1: do that on that set, so and which is why
Speaker 1: to like coming back five times and people would all, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, Amy just so cool and everybody like it's
Speaker 1: so great to have you back, and like is it
Speaker 1: weird that I'm this teacher now They're like, note makes
Speaker 1: total sense. So you know, even like trying to talk
Speaker 1: myself out of a job, and um, but just good people,
Speaker 1: good food. And I do remember. I think it just
Speaker 1: helped me so much to uh, like what you were saying,
Speaker 1: really think about what you're saying, even you just have
Speaker 1: like a mouthful in that little scene where I'm telling people, Okay,
Speaker 1: your last midterm and everyone's going to go to college,
Speaker 1: don't worry, and someone I know has been accepted to Harvard, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So just spitting out a whole bunch of lines when
Speaker 1: everyone staring at you, there's the boom, there's a camera,
Speaker 1: it's like, don't screw this up. Co starring, just like
Speaker 1: shoot it and move. But I probably did stumble and
Speaker 1: everybody was probably super cool about it. So I just
Speaker 1: came out of there with like a great vibe about everybody.
Speaker 1: Do you remember what subject you taught at Chilton? Did
Speaker 1: they tell you? Do you know? Well? I know because
Speaker 1: I was watching that one. Well. When I was the
Speaker 1: yearbook coordinator or the debate coach, those were obvious what
Speaker 1: I was doing. But for this I looked to my
Speaker 1: husband and like, what was I teaching? So I would
Speaker 1: think last night, I probably I am sure I did
Speaker 1: all my homework and like came up with a full
Speaker 1: backstory for myself, right, Scott, I was just like just line,
Speaker 1: But don't I think I was probably some kind of
Speaker 1: a literature teacher definitely, because we're talking. You know, that's
Speaker 1: usually who you would work on, like with your college
Speaker 1: essays and stuff like that. Yeah, and then I remember
Speaker 1: another episode actually this is not this episode, but you
Speaker 1: know Dacian Matthews, um and being a theater actor, right,
Speaker 1: we know who Dagon Matthews is. Like even way before this,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my gosh, because he was a principle,
Speaker 1: I guess, And there was like some kind of a flashback,
Speaker 1: but that's for another episode. I'll come back and I'll
Speaker 1: dress like um, but I bet it was literature definitely
Speaker 1: something English. So what was your experience like filming with
Speaker 1: those children girls? And I think you know who I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. Yeah, I was super impressed, like she just
Speaker 1: had to have She wasn't in that scene. She was
Speaker 1: in another episode of probably Yearbook one where I actually
Speaker 1: got to have a little gut down with her. Now, Paris,
Speaker 1: you know, slow down, watch what you're doing whatever, but
Speaker 1: all those girls, um, Rory Alexis is her first thing, right,
Speaker 1: But again I was just so how old were they? Probably?
Speaker 1: I mean at that time I had eighteen, right, I
Speaker 1: think I think Alexis at that time. Season two was nineteen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were also sweet. She was a sweetheart, every one
Speaker 1: of them. Because you're right, there was a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of girls sitting in that classroom and they were they
Speaker 1: were just so on it, so on, it had all
Speaker 1: of their lines memorized, such professionals. Again, just raising the
Speaker 1: bar for me seeing like we're just going in, we're
Speaker 1: shooting this, we're out, and they obviously were moving so fast.
Speaker 1: And they let me hang around too, because I love
Speaker 1: watching other people doing their stuff and even hanging around
Speaker 1: when I'm done, and people were very cool about letting
Speaker 1: me do that. But I was definitely like the professionalism
Speaker 1: and just really authentic, genuine people. Nobody I felt like
Speaker 1: I had a big head about this or that. You know,
Speaker 1: we're not doing brain surgery here, just gonna trying to
Speaker 1: people laugh on TV and also feel the fields and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. So now, so now that Netflix has
Speaker 1: uh uh done their thing two thousand and sixteen, new
Speaker 1: generation of fans have emerged. Obviously, do you get recognized
Speaker 1: by any of them? Now? These this new wave of fans, Well,
Speaker 1: it's so interesting because it work. I think someone told
Speaker 1: someone and then they kind of piece it together. But
Speaker 1: I'm not in costco getting recognized. For sure. If someone
Speaker 1: walked up to me, you know, I'm just like, were
Speaker 1: you the Literature Teacher season three? You know I would
Speaker 1: actually give them a giant hug and be so how
Speaker 1: perceptive they are once or maybe twice, you know, you,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've got a lot of them where you'd
Speaker 1: get the eight by ten envelopes and Manila's with the
Speaker 1: pictures in there, and they want you to sign them
Speaker 1: and send them back, and people will be like, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get every head shot signed from this particular episode.
Speaker 1: So I definitely got a lot of those. I was present.
Speaker 1: You know, they found me, probably through my agent or whatever.
Speaker 1: But like the people that I know where I work
Speaker 1: that have recognized me, then they'll tell this other girl
Speaker 1: they're on like twenties thirties fish and then there they
Speaker 1: just completely recognized me and they put it together. But
Speaker 1: not like, yeah, right off the street, I haven't had that,
Speaker 1: But oftentimes though here it is you look familiar. I've
Speaker 1: seen you in something. There has been that, But I've
Speaker 1: also done many commercials and other things over the years.
Speaker 1: So I was like, well, I have one of those faces,
Speaker 1: but a lot of times they don't actually put it together. Hey,
Speaker 1: this is Bobby Brown and I'm relaunching my podcast The
Speaker 1: Important Things. What's important to me is everything from how
Speaker 1: to live my life, how to run my business, what
Speaker 1: to do if I feel and what to do if
Speaker 1: I'm overwhelmed. Certainly I will tackle a lot of the
Speaker 1: issues about getting older. I will tackle with curiosity a
Speaker 1: lot of the issues about what should we be eating,
Speaker 1: because everyone tells us something different and I'm just curious
Speaker 1: how other really busy, interesting women get things done. My
Speaker 1: first episode is Giada de Laurentis, who is adorable and
Speaker 1: gave such great information. Talked to Jenna Elfman, Gabby Reese.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, the woman knows everything. Talk to
Speaker 1: Jillian Michael's and that's going to be a great one.
Speaker 1: I hope that you will come along for the ride
Speaker 1: because it's been really fun to do this. So listen
Speaker 1: to the Important Things with Bobby Brown wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to podcasts. How long has it been since you watched
Speaker 1: the series? Back before last night you hadn't, well, you
Speaker 1: had not seen the show at all, and then last
Speaker 1: night you watched because you're the episode because you were
Speaker 1: coming I'm pretty sure because you know, I'm human. I
Speaker 1: probably watched the episode that I was in, right, but
Speaker 1: I and after watching it last night, uh, and my
Speaker 1: husband liked it too, and he can be so picky.
Speaker 1: We both are like, this is actually super good and smart,
Speaker 1: like Edgar Allen Poe stuff. You know, it's it's not shallow,
Speaker 1: it's there's heart to it and there's it's smart too.
Speaker 1: So I actually I would probably go and watch it now,
Speaker 1: but I know I have not watched all of the
Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls. Well let me ask you this, have you Scott?
Speaker 1: Or is that part of this podcast? I never I
Speaker 1: mean I never watched the episodes though, right because Scott.
Speaker 1: I was almost like, who's Scott? Because I wasn't even
Speaker 1: in with you? So this is like one layer back
Speaker 1: from you. So you've never watched him and I eat.
Speaker 1: So the guy who's like interviewing me, I'm like, I
Speaker 1: had better figure out who this guy because I never
Speaker 1: watched them. But yeah, I do remember the cute guy.
Speaker 1: Just still are you got a little this going on
Speaker 1: now with the backwards hat? So you didn't watch him?
Speaker 1: How did you get away with that? Well? I was
Speaker 1: working on them all the time. I don't want to
Speaker 1: come home and watch them, you know, Like I I
Speaker 1: knew people who were on series and they would invite
Speaker 1: you over to their apartments of their houses because they
Speaker 1: were getting all their friends together watching the episode. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, that is so strange. Why would anyone do that?
Speaker 1: I would be I'm not a huge fan of watching. No,
Speaker 1: I'm not either. I mean, I would be horrified to.
Speaker 1: I would never. I would never. I would have That's
Speaker 1: like torture. I would never even think of doing something
Speaker 1: like that, because why would you put yourself through that.
Speaker 1: You had friends that actually did that, they'd be like, guys,
Speaker 1: it's my weekly episode, let's all come over and watch.
Speaker 1: I remember dating a girl before I was involved in
Speaker 1: in acting who did that. She was on a series,
Speaker 1: and and she would do that. She would invite all
Speaker 1: her friends over and then she would, you know, they
Speaker 1: compliment her, and they'd leave, and I'd be sitting there
Speaker 1: kind of dumb struck about what that whole process was
Speaker 1: all about. I mean, I kind of got that she
Speaker 1: wanted to watch the show, but I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's just not I just was never and I don't
Speaker 1: like watching myself. It's it makes me very uncomfortable. Um,
Speaker 1: I never have anything good to say. I'm twenty two
Speaker 1: years removed from this show, though, and I feel a
Speaker 1: little better about watching it. Doesn't it doesn't it doesn't
Speaker 1: it skive me out so much. I mean I can
Speaker 1: stomach it. Um. I think I remember even back then
Speaker 1: watching and I was like, oh, I look like I'm
Speaker 1: looking so skinny. It was always something it looked like
Speaker 1: I'm amazingaated. That's not what I sell. My hair is
Speaker 1: cues straight, like because I usually my hair is kind
Speaker 1: of straightened it, but it's usually like full on be cruly,
Speaker 1: and I always just even my commercial agent was always
Speaker 1: no straight in your hair, but that's what the moms are.
Speaker 1: So it was just like I was like, oh man,
Speaker 1: that's not me. But it was fun to go back,
Speaker 1: obviously twenty two years later and be like can be like,
Speaker 1: you know, like you can kind of appreciate your younger self.
Speaker 1: I think when it's not like a month after you
Speaker 1: shot it exactly. Um. Yeah, so you've act, you've acted
Speaker 1: in another TV series since then, So what are you
Speaker 1: up to now? Uh? Well, one thing I've done, Um,
Speaker 1: I've been doing theater pretty hardcore for all these years,
Speaker 1: and um, that's how I met Jamie and Marr. Like
Speaker 1: always doing theater, always doing l A theater, which is
Speaker 1: hard to do because there's not a lot of l
Speaker 1: A theater. But I've been part of a troop let's
Speaker 1: call it since was my first show with them, and
Speaker 1: you guys can google it if you want. UM the
Speaker 1: company so it's called Troubadour Theater Company or Troub's t
Speaker 1: r O U B I E S dot com. So
Speaker 1: we have done so many mash ups over the years.
Speaker 1: We've done Shakespeare mashups. We do iconic holiday film mash ups.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you, like just a couple of ideas
Speaker 1: of the Shakespeare so as you to like it. Fleetwood Macbeth.
Speaker 1: Our Hamlet show is Hamlet the artist formally known as
Speaker 1: Prince of Denmark. UM. Some of our holiday shows, It's
Speaker 1: a Stevie Wonderful Life. Dana Claus is coming to Motown.
Speaker 1: We recently did Julius Wheezer, and our new holiday show
Speaker 1: is um. We haven't announced it yet but we will soon.
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter. But so some people think, do you think
Speaker 1: die Hard is a Christmas movie? You know, there's some
Speaker 1: people that are like on the Friends of It takes
Speaker 1: place during the holidays, so we're calling it a Christmas
Speaker 1: movie because we've been doing Christmas shows for twenty years
Speaker 1: and we're kind of running out of them or not
Speaker 1: Christmas Holiday. So die Hard to the music of Heart,
Speaker 1: Die Heart? Are you working like Barracuda? Can you imagine
Speaker 1: all those you know? Um, is there a writer working
Speaker 1: with your troop? Name Spencer? By any chance? Is that
Speaker 1: the first name? You don't have a Spencer working with you? Okay, alright,
Speaker 1: because it's because Rick, Rick Battia and Matt Walker. Matt
Speaker 1: Walker founded it years ago. But if you look on
Speaker 1: our website and Gary Marshall was a huge champion for us,
Speaker 1: so many of us were in his movies over the
Speaker 1: years we performed, you know how he had the Falcon
Speaker 1: Theater into Luca Way. It's now the Gary Marshall Theater.
Speaker 1: Goodness performing over there for over twenty years, so, you know,
Speaker 1: always doing like commercials here and there, but theater. Once
Speaker 1: I went to CalArts saying, you know, learned about theater,
Speaker 1: it truly was like my love and I've I've been
Speaker 1: working with these guys for years and I usually like
Speaker 1: I'm on still, I play very much character parts. Let's
Speaker 1: or that I'm even a woman, like I'm a warlock,
Speaker 1: or I'm a man. I'm an old man. I have
Speaker 1: like a character face, so that you must be having
Speaker 1: a brow my voice around a lot. Yeah, we're having
Speaker 1: a good time. Good for you, good for you? So
Speaker 1: um yeah. All right. So now we've reached the point
Speaker 1: in the interview where we are entering into a section
Speaker 1: called rapid fire. I'm going to fire questions that you
Speaker 1: know I want you to fire answers back at me.
Speaker 1: You ready, there you go? How many cups of coffee
Speaker 1: have you had? Do you have a day? I don't drink?
Speaker 1: Are your team Logan, Team Jeser, Team Dean um the
Speaker 1: my love is your favorite Kimbiger's character. I did like, Oh,
Speaker 1: Melissa McCarthy. I mean, what would you order Luke's diner pancake?
Speaker 1: Would you rather go on a road trip with Taylor
Speaker 1: or Michelle? Both of them? Because I can't remember that.
Speaker 1: Finish the lyric, and where you lead, I will follow
Speaker 1: dot dot where you leave, I will follow everywhere. I
Speaker 1: will go to you anywhere that you tell me to.
Speaker 1: Jackson's vegetables are Suki's Baked Goods. There you go. Would
Speaker 1: you rather listen to Dreller's Harp or the Troupadours cover songs?
Speaker 1: Sheldon Prepper Stars Hollow Hi, there you go. Beth. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your time. It was it was fun.
Speaker 1: We will have you back for sure. There's much more.
Speaker 1: There is much more here, let me tell you there
Speaker 1: we can go on or just scratching the service here.
Speaker 1: Thank you so very much, Beth Kennedy. All the best,
Speaker 1: All the best, Scott Patterson, j Hey, everybody, and don't
Speaker 1: forget Follow us on Instagram at I Am All In
Speaker 1: podcast and email us at Gilmore at I heart radio
Speaker 1: dot com. Oh you gil More fans. If you're looking
Speaker 1: for the best cup of coffee in the world, go
Speaker 1: to my website for my company scott EP dot com,
Speaker 1: s C O T T y P dot com, scott
Speaker 1: ep dot com Grade one Specialty Coffee