Speaker 1: I think no, I think changing a tire sewing at least,
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about making a dress or a pair
Speaker 1: of pants, But I mean, like just getting a button
Speaker 1: back on. It seems like a skill you should have,
Speaker 1: I think, right, I think that's something you can't accomplish.
Speaker 1: Will work on this. Oh yeah, it's a big year,
Speaker 1: I feel it for on. You're gonna put buttons on everything, on,
Speaker 1: just on everything, just no snaps, too easy. You gotta
Speaker 1: work for it and then you really love it. All right.
Speaker 1: Hey there, I'm Fella me Young, and I'm Brian's friends
Speaker 1: from work. Hi there, listeners, Welcome back to another brand
Speaker 1: spanking new episode of Off the Beat. As always, I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Brian Baumgartner, and you just heard from the wonderful,
Speaker 1: the delightful, the hilarious Bellamy Young. You probably know Bellamy
Speaker 1: from her role as President of the United States, Melly
Speaker 1: Grant in Scandal, or for playing Jessica Whitley in Prodigal Son,
Speaker 1: or maybe Margaret Honeycroft in Promised Land. Whatever you saw
Speaker 1: her in, I can only promise you this, she was excellent.
Speaker 1: And Bellamy has had well, she's had an incredible journey
Speaker 1: which somehow includes being North Carolina's Junior Miss, becoming spokesperson
Speaker 1: for the Humane Society, and winning celebrity Jeopardy. Oh and
Speaker 1: also going to Yale to study physics. That's right, Bellamy
Speaker 1: seems to be very good at well, just about everything,
Speaker 1: and now her journey will include being a guest on
Speaker 1: Off the Beat, a title. Well, I'm sure she's going
Speaker 1: to add this to her long list of accomplishments. I'm
Speaker 1: excited to dive into her story. It has taken her
Speaker 1: from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Gulf Stream Waters,
Speaker 1: to Broadway and back. I'm not going to make you
Speaker 1: wait here. She is Bellamy Young, Bubble and Squeak. I
Speaker 1: love Bubble and Squeak on Bubble and Squeaker Cookie every
Speaker 1: month left over from the nutby Hi. What, I'm so
Speaker 1: happy to see you. I miss you. I am so
Speaker 1: happy to see you. What's going on? You know? It's
Speaker 1: just a rain a day in New York City trying
Speaker 1: to make meet its possibility? How about you? What is
Speaker 1: is that? An? I love New York? Fuck it is?
Speaker 1: Can we curse on your show? Yes? It is? Wow?
Speaker 1: I mean that is I know that you live there,
Speaker 1: but that mug is a cliche. I love it. I'm
Speaker 1: a cliche. It's just how it happens. Be It's like
Speaker 1: how I roll. I literally got this apartment. I was
Speaker 1: here after college for like a decade and then I
Speaker 1: was you know, l A was so good to me,
Speaker 1: and I'm so grateful to her, but she and I
Speaker 1: do not understand each other. And so when I got back,
Speaker 1: I literally went downstairs to the choky shop and got
Speaker 1: this mug and it is the only thing I drink
Speaker 1: out of the only thing. Oh, I love that. That
Speaker 1: is so that is amazing, the big apple and everything.
Speaker 1: It's just perfect. Um, here is a well, first off,
Speaker 1: we should mention we have just worked together. And do
Speaker 1: you know what's crazy is we may have worked together
Speaker 1: before you worked Did we work together? We were never
Speaker 1: appeared on Criminal Minds. Oh yes, I did recur upon that,
Speaker 1: So there is a bit of a chance I was
Speaker 1: hotches woman. Right, Maybe maybe it wasn't this Did you
Speaker 1: kill people? Or did I killed people? Did you kill them? What? What?
Speaker 1: Tell me more? Well? I was a serial killer? You
Speaker 1: know that show. It's the craziest show where the lead
Speaker 1: of every episode is the guest star. Yeah, so it's
Speaker 1: like you you literally show up and you don't know
Speaker 1: where anything is or who anybody is, and it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's your show. It's all resting on your shoulder. It's
Speaker 1: all on you. And then every and he comes and
Speaker 1: you know, arrest you at the end and all that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, no, it's a crazy show. It is a
Speaker 1: crazy show. And I I will swear those fans are
Speaker 1: so devoted of the time that anyone notices me and
Speaker 1: I you know, I'm very grateful for any of it,
Speaker 1: and but usually it's scandal, but no, forty percent of
Speaker 1: the time it's criminal minds. And I couldn't have done
Speaker 1: six episodes. I mean, I was a blip on that radar,
Speaker 1: but that's a throw. You know they're back. They're making
Speaker 1: shows again, are they? Oh? They surely are. I think
Speaker 1: he said you can creak out. I think I'm in jail.
Speaker 1: I think I'm not. I don't think I'm coming back.
Speaker 1: They didn't call me about the about the reboot, then
Speaker 1: call me yet. Um, but we should mention, being very
Speaker 1: careful not to say too much. Bellamy and I are
Speaker 1: working together on a new show. Do you want to
Speaker 1: tell us about it? In Atlanta, Georgia? Oh, yeah, and
Speaker 1: actually show we are doing a show h called The
Speaker 1: Other Black Girl, which was a book that came out
Speaker 1: I think last year by Zekia Delilah Harris, and she
Speaker 1: and Rashida Jones have made it into a series, like
Speaker 1: the most interesting thing to me, because I don't want
Speaker 1: people to feel like, oh, I can't read the book,
Speaker 1: I don't want to spoil the show, or I don't
Speaker 1: watch I don't want to watch the show. I read
Speaker 1: the book. It's a second swing at this, I p
Speaker 1: where we've really diverged from the book. Uh. There's some,
Speaker 1: of course, amazing similarities and parallel paths, but it's it's
Speaker 1: a really cool project to be a part of. On
Speaker 1: our sweet Sinclair Daniels is our very leading, beautiful work.
Speaker 1: And I don't know that hack Eric McCormick. He hangs
Speaker 1: around sometimes, he's around occasionally. Well, it's been so much
Speaker 1: fun getting to know you and working with you. I've
Speaker 1: loved it. It's been so much fun, and back in
Speaker 1: in my hometown, which I'm going to transition like seamlessly to.
Speaker 1: I think maybe the greatest similarity between you and I
Speaker 1: is this is what I would say that no one
Speaker 1: on first meeting us would guess that we're from the South.
Speaker 1: Do you think that's true? I think that's true. I
Speaker 1: think we re give it. You do. I think we're
Speaker 1: there's a kind openness to both of us. Tell me,
Speaker 1: you know, you can have a conversation with a plastic bowl,
Speaker 1: and so can I. And that's definitely like a Southern superpower,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, no one, no one would think
Speaker 1: we're from the Bronx and no one would think we're
Speaker 1: like Silicon Valley. Where where would you peg us? I? No, see,
Speaker 1: I would peg you New York. I would You're just
Speaker 1: flirting with me, now, No, I would. And maybe that's
Speaker 1: because I know how much you love it. Maybe that's it.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's it. I don't know. Yeah I would. I
Speaker 1: would put you there for sure. Well that's really very kind,
Speaker 1: but I don't think I merit that. But you're not
Speaker 1: your Carolina Ashville, North Carolina, ash Vegas to those in
Speaker 1: the KNOWE whatever, I don't know Asheville, home of the
Speaker 1: I'm gonna screw it up. Pig Nut Chicken Farm, Hot
Speaker 1: pig Chicken Chicken nut Farm. You don't know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about? No, all right, what are you talking about? No?
Speaker 1: There's a big farm there in Ashville, ash by the
Speaker 1: way Asheville without the end, not Nashville Ashville in case
Speaker 1: I'm not Yeah, it's a totally different place. We have
Speaker 1: to build more house the Vanderbilt estate, right. We have
Speaker 1: a growth park in we have the parkway. I'm sure
Speaker 1: we have a lot of beauty, full and scenic farms.
Speaker 1: I am not aware of this one of which you speak.
Speaker 1: We have twelve Bones, which is the big barbecue place,
Speaker 1: so Vegan, I don't know how many bones there are.
Speaker 1: You don't count the ball you no, no, no, I'm
Speaker 1: want to leave that one alone too. Um. How do
Speaker 1: you think that shaped you? Oh? My goodness, what a
Speaker 1: beautiful question, because I really can feel, particularly in people's
Speaker 1: singing voices, I feel like I can feel the topography
Speaker 1: that shaped them. So I feel the mountains inside of me,
Speaker 1: like the places to hide and then the places of
Speaker 1: wide open wonder and um, you know, home life was
Speaker 1: not the best. So that shaped you too, because you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going to leave here. But but then once you
Speaker 1: get out, then you know, just knowing that you've come
Speaker 1: from a place of such beauty and art and food,
Speaker 1: and you know, like really um culture. Yeah, I love
Speaker 1: I love my hometown. I really do. I feel it
Speaker 1: with me always. Oh that's awesome. You started singing early.
Speaker 1: I did three. Wow, Santa Celle has been chatting you up.
Speaker 1: Wait is that three? Like professionally? Is that when you
Speaker 1: did your first album? I think we were still you know,
Speaker 1: pressing things into vinyl in the seventies. But um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm adopted, and UM, they at the hospital, you know,
Speaker 1: I was in foster care for like two months, and
Speaker 1: so some wires must have gotten crossed. But the papers
Speaker 1: that were given to my adopted parents, UM, I had
Speaker 1: like two lines on My father had like a paragraph
Speaker 1: on my birth mother and um, and it said she
Speaker 1: like just so and singing, and you know, she was
Speaker 1: an English major. And so my parents who had opted me,
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, we gotta, we gotta follow up on this,
Speaker 1: you know, in case we are not supplying what she
Speaker 1: needs genetically, you know. And uh, come to find out
Speaker 1: it was none of it true. It was none of true.
Speaker 1: She didn't I was so pretty in pink in high school,
Speaker 1: assoed everything war and I sang everywhere and I did
Speaker 1: all those things. Yeah yeah, yeah no, but I mean
Speaker 1: it turned out to be right for me, but just
Speaker 1: not necessarily true in the abstract. So they encouraged you
Speaker 1: to sew, and well, they just sort of were like,
Speaker 1: here are some things you might turn we hear that
Speaker 1: you might be into. And honey, I loved it. Oh sing,
Speaker 1: and my goodness, I would definitely be in jail somewhere
Speaker 1: if I couldn't sing. It is absolutely my personal freedom.
Speaker 1: Can Catharsis and joy and I'll be fussy, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll be cranky and I'll not know what's going on,
Speaker 1: but I'll get a song like going in my head
Speaker 1: and I'll be like, oh really, like literally, it's just
Speaker 1: how my body deals with being alive. But then they,
Speaker 1: you know, put me in dance. I was never quite
Speaker 1: as good at that, but I love still loved to sew.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I love all that stuff. Interesting, did you
Speaker 1: ever sew? No, I still can't sew. I'm gonna watch
Speaker 1: season two. That's our goal that I learned to sew. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I don't sew. I think I should. There are a
Speaker 1: few things I think I should know how to do.
Speaker 1: And well, I mean I tried recently and I failed
Speaker 1: at trying to change attire the first thing I said
Speaker 1: to we really need to do that. No, I know
Speaker 1: I couldn't get the nuts. I couldn't get the nuts off.
Speaker 1: And I'm not just saying that to try to sound
Speaker 1: like I'm being perverse. I could not get I could
Speaker 1: not get the the lug nuts off of the off
Speaker 1: the tire. Turns out I called someone who also couldn't,
Speaker 1: so there I think there was an issue. But um,
Speaker 1: I think no. I think changing a tire sewing at least.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about making a dress or a pair
Speaker 1: of pants. But I mean, like just getting a button
Speaker 1: back on. It seems like a skill you should have,
Speaker 1: I think, right, I think that's something you can accomplish.
Speaker 1: Will work on this. Oh yeah, it's a big year.
Speaker 1: I feel it. For buttons on. You're gonna put buttons
Speaker 1: on everything, on, just on everything, just no snaps, too easy.
Speaker 1: You gotta work for it. And then you really love it?
Speaker 1: All right? So singing was cathartic for you? Did you
Speaker 1: enjoy the act of performing? Was that a part of it?
Speaker 1: I've always loved to not be me, like the chance
Speaker 1: to not be me, for if it's three minutes, if
Speaker 1: it's three hours, if it's three years, what a delight?
Speaker 1: What what of? What of rest? Getting a job is
Speaker 1: always like getting a vacation. I love it so much.
Speaker 1: And but even then, yeah, I know you feel similarly.
Speaker 1: I think you must like the story telling the story.
Speaker 1: It's such a joy. I'm not a person like I
Speaker 1: don't want to be the center of attention at parties
Speaker 1: scare me. Like Pedro and I got married and it
Speaker 1: was just us, you know, like I'm not ever going
Speaker 1: to be like a look at me if human. But
Speaker 1: I love to escape into something and deliver it and
Speaker 1: have it, you know, have an effect on people. That's
Speaker 1: fun and so on. Songs are the best because you
Speaker 1: can feel like you can feel the energy in a
Speaker 1: room change. You know, it's magical to go on that
Speaker 1: with somebody. But they you know. It was the seventies
Speaker 1: and eighties in North Carolina and so most of the
Speaker 1: places you had to perform were pageants. And so that
Speaker 1: was my next question, because that that feels like like
Speaker 1: one would think that that's about being the center of attention.
Speaker 1: By the way, I totally get you. I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm the same way. It's something actually my I think
Speaker 1: my especially my mom doesn't understand the difference between acting
Speaker 1: and doing that in front of people, but actually wanting
Speaker 1: that attention. That's not something that that I ever felt
Speaker 1: like or you know, that I wanted. But being a
Speaker 1: pageant now you North Carolina Junior miss sure, Now that's
Speaker 1: a scholarship program, Brian. It's a very different feat. Oh
Speaker 1: it is. I did pay for most of my freshman
Speaker 1: year at college, so yeah, it did. So were you singing?
Speaker 1: Was that your talent? Did you? Oh? That was I
Speaker 1: mean that's a that's a thing though, because you have to, um,
Speaker 1: they look at your academics and your interview and your
Speaker 1: you know whatever pageant dress walking around stuff. Then you
Speaker 1: do your talent and wait for it, athletics, which is
Speaker 1: not something I've ever excelled at. So what kind of athletics? Honey.
Speaker 1: We had to do a little, like you know, a
Speaker 1: little Jane Fonda routine, and I mean little. It was
Speaker 1: really really, really hard, and they assessed us because it's
Speaker 1: really clear who was good good at that? Wait a
Speaker 1: second second, you had to like like do I almost
Speaker 1: said jumping jacks, but no, like push up there? Yea.
Speaker 1: It was like a five minute routine and you had
Speaker 1: to hold one of those v things. I can't even
Speaker 1: do it. I was going to do it for you,
Speaker 1: but I can't. You know, like where your abs hold
Speaker 1: your whole body in the shape of a V and
Speaker 1: you have to do push ups and you have to
Speaker 1: do jumping jacks and run around and fitness fitness, why wow,
Speaker 1: this was a part of it. But you but you
Speaker 1: in North Carolina, I didn't win in at Nationals. They
Speaker 1: they liked my singing. I had a talent award at Nationals.
Speaker 1: But but I stress. But I when I was little,
Speaker 1: because you know, this all starts. It starts in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy five, which was bicentennial year. My mother made this
Speaker 1: spectacular long dress hoop skirt bicentennial on PSMB but complete
Speaker 1: with bicentennial parasol. And you gott you know, five years old,
Speaker 1: and like walk around with your parasol and your hoop
Speaker 1: skirt and yeah, but I very quickly. I am not
Speaker 1: at all competitive except with like myself, I mean mean
Speaker 1: inside to myself. But I'm always like, you should get this,
Speaker 1: or you know, I hope you went. So I started
Speaker 1: in seeing really she had all her friends were there,
Speaker 1: My mom's friends were there. So we're still gonna have
Speaker 1: to go, but I just like I would say, you know,
Speaker 1: Scarlet's in a beautiful future dressed to to lighter shield
Speaker 1: tap forest while twirling her baton. I'd say, climb every
Speaker 1: mountain while they tabulated the boats. And your southern accent
Speaker 1: just came out when you were chick channeling that. It
Speaker 1: must it must. How big was your hair? Oh? Higher,
Speaker 1: the hair closer to God? That's right, as big as
Speaker 1: it could get. Yes, Wait, I have to ask, did
Speaker 1: you ever have to in Atlanta pageantify yourself? No, well
Speaker 1: there wasn't. I don't. I don't think there are pagets
Speaker 1: for boys. I don't know there was like cotillion respect
Speaker 1: as well. Alright, I'm gonna need it when I see
Speaker 1: your next I must see those pictures. Okay, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know how much still be all right, we'll
Speaker 1: see um. Also probably google bule and be to everyone listening,
Speaker 1: I hope not. Okay, So this is insane. You basically
Speaker 1: you're doing padgets and then you decide you want to
Speaker 1: go to Yale for physics. Now you want to be
Speaker 1: a scientist. Yeah, yeah, it was most and you're giving
Speaker 1: up performing. You're like that. That isn't a thing that
Speaker 1: you think you're gonna wait so talk to me. You
Speaker 1: think you're really not gonna you enjoy performing, but then
Speaker 1: you decide you you want to be a scientist. Is
Speaker 1: this what happens? Well, I wanted to leave North Carolina,
Speaker 1: and I UM don't know how. Honestly, I don't know
Speaker 1: how Yale even came into my sphere of knowledge. But
Speaker 1: somehow I heard that you could. They had singing groups,
Speaker 1: um acapella singing groups, and I was like, oh I
Speaker 1: could still sing. I was like, if I could get
Speaker 1: in there, my mom cannot say no, right, Like that's
Speaker 1: a good enough reason to leave North Carolina. So I
Speaker 1: applied early, and I loved physics. I was never I
Speaker 1: got to Catholic school and then like public school and
Speaker 1: like I never caught onto the like an exclusionary God,
Speaker 1: but like physics and science made me feel like I
Speaker 1: was seeing the face of God, like the truth, like
Speaker 1: you could really work to the truth. And oh, I
Speaker 1: just loved it. But again, just I wasn't. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't turn out to being great at it on
Speaker 1: the world stage, but I was good at it where
Speaker 1: I was. Um. So I applied early and they put
Speaker 1: me on the wait list. But I'm Southern, so you know,
Speaker 1: I thought they were just being polite and that they
Speaker 1: would tell me no later and just let me get used.
Speaker 1: To the know. I applied to twelve other schools and
Speaker 1: got really good at applications. Re submitted an entire application
Speaker 1: to y'all, and likely they thought, dear God, just to
Speaker 1: hush her up. Just let her in, Just let her in.
Speaker 1: So you might be the only person in history that
Speaker 1: went to Yale for physics. But really, because they had
Speaker 1: an acapella singing group. You don't know that. Maybe you
Speaker 1: don't know. I think you are. I'm going to go
Speaker 1: out on a room. Let's say. Let's say that's it.
Speaker 1: So you started, you started singing, You get there, and
Speaker 1: you you discover you might not be a scientist after all.
Speaker 1: But but the singing you enjoyed. I loved it. I
Speaker 1: loved it so much. And we I was in like
Speaker 1: the funny singing group that like co ed funny singing
Speaker 1: group because there's like you know, single sex and serious
Speaker 1: ones and all that kind of stuff, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to be I wanted to laughs and to sing that
Speaker 1: like you know, Todd Rundgren and like you know, stuff
Speaker 1: that I thought was cool, and I had a really
Speaker 1: good time. But then it all, like those last few
Speaker 1: years in North Carolina kind caught up with me, and
Speaker 1: so my beginning of college was extraordinary and diverse and thriving,
Speaker 1: and by the end I was a bit of a
Speaker 1: wallflower and just going through stuff. Right, you do start
Speaker 1: taking theater classes. I do. I finished with a double
Speaker 1: major English and theater. Are you career committed? Then? At
Speaker 1: that point, what a what a fun way to ask that?
Speaker 1: Thank you? I think that's it's such a great I
Speaker 1: was committed to staying out in the world. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to go home. I was game for whatever I
Speaker 1: was going to do. Ah Actor's Theater of Louisville had
Speaker 1: this internship program that everybody was always in the hospital.
Speaker 1: I mean, they worked you horribly, I think, but I
Speaker 1: was like, yes, I'm gonna do that. Um, and my
Speaker 1: friend Mike Zimmer, who was now real Marshall's like homeless partner,
Speaker 1: you know second hand. Um, Michael was like, calm down
Speaker 1: to New York with me today. I'm an audition for
Speaker 1: a tour of meeting in St. Louis And like I
Speaker 1: should write my paper, but of course, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to write my paper. So I go down and got
Speaker 1: the job. And so I did the first national let
Speaker 1: me meet St. Louis instead unbelievable and that and that's
Speaker 1: and that's how your career began. Yeah, and then that,
Speaker 1: you know, after the tour, I got a little apartment
Speaker 1: on the like where was it, I guess, and between
Speaker 1: second and third and just start going to the calls
Speaker 1: and doing summer stock and doing regional theater and doing
Speaker 1: stuff off Broadway, and but musical musical, musical, musical, and
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of law and orders as you do. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you so you were dipping, you were dipping your
Speaker 1: toes into some film and television stuff as you were
Speaker 1: auditioning for theater. I mean, you really have the stink
Speaker 1: of musical theater on you, and like, especially back then
Speaker 1: New York was pretty bifurcated, you know, so I feel
Speaker 1: lucky I got in there, right. I do want to
Speaker 1: mention In nine you make your Broadway debut as Mary
Speaker 1: in the original cast of psy Coleman's The Life. Did
Speaker 1: that feel like a dream come true? Yeah? It really did,
Speaker 1: And it came out of nowhere, and I just moved
Speaker 1: to my apartment on Sunday six between Broadway and West End,
Speaker 1: and my mom was actually here and we were unloading boxes.
Speaker 1: I got a super last minute audition. I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: go because we're moving, and she's like, just go. And
Speaker 1: I don't even take like dance clothes. I have to
Speaker 1: pull sheet music out of the file cabinet at the
Speaker 1: casting offices. Um, they kept me a long time, but
Speaker 1: then they're like, okay, thank you. And I walked from
Speaker 1: forty three to seventy six because I was like, my
Speaker 1: mother is gonna be so mad at me because I
Speaker 1: like left her unpacking. And then I tanked this audition
Speaker 1: and I swear as I walked into the apartment, my
Speaker 1: landline telephone rang and my son my mom was there
Speaker 1: for me to get my Broadway show. That's amazing, I know.
Speaker 1: And then we got the sewing machine out and we
Speaker 1: made some curtains, not kidding at all. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: that's amazing. Um, so you you decide, because you're a
Speaker 1: musical theater actor. And at this point, merrily we roll
Speaker 1: a long fous book of days. You've done all this theater.
Speaker 1: You're gonna move to l A now, this is true.
Speaker 1: Your agent said you're too old. Yeah yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I was twenty nine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I
Speaker 1: moved like right before I turned to thirty. And of
Speaker 1: course that there was a guy. There's always a guy.
Speaker 1: So there was a guy. We've done a little movie.
Speaker 1: But so I went with very low expectations and I
Speaker 1: you know, the stuff I'd been sent out, but I
Speaker 1: was with Garish at that point, and the stuff they
Speaker 1: were sending me out on wasn't that interesting. And I
Speaker 1: had absolutely no concept of Los Angeles, either it's physical
Speaker 1: geographical scope or like because there's a lot of work
Speaker 1: um or there was at that point, and um, I
Speaker 1: just got really lucky, really fast, not in terms of
Speaker 1: a big break that put me on the map, but
Speaker 1: just you know, working after, which is the thing that
Speaker 1: makes me the happiest of all. You know. Now it's
Speaker 1: at a little bit at different level, but all I
Speaker 1: want is like to get to work. I love it.
Speaker 1: So I was l A was always very kind to
Speaker 1: me in that regard, and yet we were both LA
Speaker 1: and I would look at each other like total side.
Speaker 1: I like, really, you are you gonna wear that? And
Speaker 1: I'd be like, are you judging? Me. So it's always
Speaker 1: it was very much square peg, round hole, and I'm
Speaker 1: grateful for every minute. I mean, this is not exaggerating, truly.
Speaker 1: During this time, you begin guest starring on literally the
Speaker 1: biggest shows in television. I never did Friends. I really
Speaker 1: regret that I never got to do Friends. I never
Speaker 1: did The Office either. Whatever. Okay, well, first all, sorry
Speaker 1: I misspoke. You start doing guest stars during this time
Speaker 1: on literally the biggest dramas in television. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: X Files, E Er, West, Wing, n C, I S.
Speaker 1: Gray's Anatomy, Private Practice. Yeah, there was a Fraser but
Speaker 1: I no, But I mean that. I mean you were
Speaker 1: getting amazing experience on huge shows at the time, and
Speaker 1: you're loving you and you're loving it, loving it because
Speaker 1: you learn everything you know, from how people treat each other,
Speaker 1: to like what's expected of you, to all the things
Speaker 1: that they didn't cover. All my acting classes were very like,
Speaker 1: let's you know, are we going to read the scene cold?
Speaker 1: Or should we rehearse it? But it wasn't like how
Speaker 1: to deal with a line producer or you know, get
Speaker 1: there early enough so that you're in the makeup chair
Speaker 1: at your call time, not ten minutes after your called,
Speaker 1: you know, like just how to work, and then you
Speaker 1: see who you want to be like and who you don't,
Speaker 1: and it's the best, you know, grad school of my life.
Speaker 1: Just a job around and eavesdrop on everyone. And they
Speaker 1: were always like, Okay, David Crusoe, did you ever go
Speaker 1: over there and do those Miami whatever c s? I'm like,
Speaker 1: what that? There's plenty of you know, you're just like
Speaker 1: draw on the floor behavior from Caruso on those days.
Speaker 1: He's maybe he's a wonderful human now and I have
Speaker 1: no way of knowing that, but you know, there was
Speaker 1: a time at an APEX moment where they were just like, wow,
Speaker 1: that's not what I want to be, you know, other
Speaker 1: than other than employed and a franchise that's gonna go forever.
Speaker 1: I'm a happy girl. I'm not the girl that's like
Speaker 1: another season. I'm like five more. She's I just I
Speaker 1: just want to show up, right. Um. I don't want
Speaker 1: to bore people because I have discussed this before, but
Speaker 1: I want your impression of this because you seem so
Speaker 1: so positive. I have said many times the hardest job
Speaker 1: is the guest start job, you know, and I think
Speaker 1: it teaches you one as you said who you want
Speaker 1: to be, but two really teaches you how to work
Speaker 1: and adapt in different settings because as a guest starre
Speaker 1: often you don't know the crew, You don't know anyone's name.
Speaker 1: I mean, did you find that to be challenging as well?
Speaker 1: Every time? Because every time it's different, and you know,
Speaker 1: it helps you practice humility because you just have to
Speaker 1: ask questions. The hardest part for me is always the
Speaker 1: crew because you don't know how they're used, like how
Speaker 1: fast or solo they're used to running. You don't know
Speaker 1: are they going to do thirty five takes? Or do
Speaker 1: I need to do this in one? And asking every
Speaker 1: question that comes to mind just wastes everybody's time. So
Speaker 1: that that's sixth sense of trying to mind read and
Speaker 1: into it. You know, it's like those child of alcoholic days,
Speaker 1: sort of like walking on eggshells all the time. It's
Speaker 1: those like it's that sixth sense that you kind of
Speaker 1: pull into play and it's different on a on a
Speaker 1: one hour than it is on a half hour, And
Speaker 1: like those are big lessons, but I always just sort
Speaker 1: of stepped to it from the like it was school.
Speaker 1: School was always something I was good at, Like I could.
Speaker 1: I understood that paradigm, and so I just sort of
Speaker 1: always stayed in that paradigm for all those years, like, ooh,
Speaker 1: what am I going to learn it? Oh? That's really interesting.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm not gonna put my chair there. Okay, alright,
Speaker 1: you know, but it's so hard, and it never gets easier.
Speaker 1: You're always other. So it's it's humbling, it's it's instructive,
Speaker 1: but it's hard. Yeah. A couple of shows I mentioned,
Speaker 1: Gray's Anatomy, Private Practice, they have a little something in
Speaker 1: common under rhymes. While you were working on those shows,
Speaker 1: did you have any direct contact with her or did
Speaker 1: you get to know her for her team a lot
Speaker 1: as you're working on those shows. Sweet Linda Lowey cast
Speaker 1: for Shanda for a hundred years, and I auditioned for
Speaker 1: Linda a lot. So it's Linda that I knew and
Speaker 1: all of her beautiful team. And I was in the
Speaker 1: Private Practice world as they spun off from Gray's Anatomy,
Speaker 1: so it was like a two hour Grays but I
Speaker 1: was within the womb of the national little private practice. Um,
Speaker 1: so I wasn't with her then at all, And the
Speaker 1: first time I met her was in my audition and
Speaker 1: my audition was, I mean, quicker than you can, you know,
Speaker 1: drink adver. No, I had two lines three lines in
Speaker 1: the pilot, and I was going to work the next
Speaker 1: day for Scandal, and so they brought like five of
Speaker 1: us it and I go in and there's only so
Speaker 1: many ways you can say two lines, and so it's
Speaker 1: all very fast, and it's also a little intimidating because
Speaker 1: she's there and also her producing partner Betsy. Everybody's sort
Speaker 1: of playing the room, but Shonda this time to give
Speaker 1: the adjustment, and all I could think about Tony. I
Speaker 1: just worked with Tony Goldwin. He just directed me on
Speaker 1: Dirty Sexy Money, and so I was just thinking about
Speaker 1: like like standing beside him. He was just always sort
Speaker 1: of beside me in the room in my mind, and
Speaker 1: those were sort of informing it. And then they you know,
Speaker 1: I I was the one that day they got the
Speaker 1: call and worked the next day and was supposed to
Speaker 1: just be on a couple of shows, and then they
Speaker 1: let me stay the whole damn time. So I got
Speaker 1: to know Shawn pretty well. But no, I think at
Speaker 1: that point not a bit in the world. So really,
Speaker 1: you don't have any idea this is going to exist
Speaker 1: beyond a couple of three episodes. And now that you're
Speaker 1: telling me this story, it sure sounds like it. Because
Speaker 1: when you go in and you're working the next day
Speaker 1: or two days later whatever, like this is not they're
Speaker 1: not taking their time with it because they don't think
Speaker 1: that they need to. No, that's crazy. And then you
Speaker 1: just stayed. You just put your name on the trailer.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not leaving. Well, they I dressed up
Speaker 1: for that second table read honey, there's a Southern there's
Speaker 1: another Southern superpower. I dressed up. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: we got picked up the series and um shan we
Speaker 1: read this script and Shawna came around and sort of
Speaker 1: told everybody what they'd be doing. That first season was
Speaker 1: only seven episodes, so she kind of went around. She
Speaker 1: got to me and she's like, and I want to
Speaker 1: write a presidential divorce, and so I think you'll be
Speaker 1: here to maybe three episodes. And my heart like tried
Speaker 1: to keep smiling, but my heart like went through the floor.
Speaker 1: I was so sad. I think they just I don't know,
Speaker 1: they just let me fight with people. They were like, hey,
Speaker 1: that kid does out to fight with people. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: let me do it. I'm do it. But they didn't
Speaker 1: buy me a wig till that second season. That was
Speaker 1: just my thel Bins. So that's how that's how you
Speaker 1: know they're not taking you seriously. Wow, what do you
Speaker 1: think it was about the character or you that the
Speaker 1: writers started to latch onto the fight? I think they
Speaker 1: I don't It's not me. I think they started to
Speaker 1: realize them they could attenuate the leverage of the love
Speaker 1: triangle like that. There was there was more to explore
Speaker 1: there than just to like make it so easy and
Speaker 1: get rid of the wife. And you know, not that
Speaker 1: it would have been easy in that scenario with those characters,
Speaker 1: but it was messier to keep the other woman around,
Speaker 1: the other woman being the wife. Right when did you
Speaker 1: find out that you were going to be sticking around?
Speaker 1: They called? I went to India with my friend Jules,
Speaker 1: who's great production designer, and I reckon I didn't have
Speaker 1: a phone that worked out of the country, and so
Speaker 1: I got back in the country and my manager was like,
Speaker 1: I've been trying to call you, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh no, thinking I've done something wrong or you know,
Speaker 1: I was going to get fired from a job. I
Speaker 1: didn't have or it's like the making you a series
Speaker 1: regular on Scandal, and I was like, I wish I
Speaker 1: bought that ring in Jaipor. I've gone so super budged
Speaker 1: India and I was like, Oh, I find only known
Speaker 1: we could have slept in a hotel that night. It
Speaker 1: would have been great. How did you find out that
Speaker 1: eventually you were going to become president? I don't even remember.
Speaker 1: I think it was something you were expecting, not at all.
Speaker 1: I think Jeffy was supposed to be president. I mean
Speaker 1: he gets voted president destiny. Do you find that you
Speaker 1: don't really remember what happened on shows that you've done,
Speaker 1: because I just consistently we also we like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'll see you there, though we also shot a lot
Speaker 1: of alternate stories, like I still don't really Lena Donald
Speaker 1: was on Scandal at one point, and either she lives
Speaker 1: or dies, but we shot at both ways. And I
Speaker 1: don't remember at any rate. Jeffy was supposed to win,
Speaker 1: which if I think he still did and then something
Speaker 1: happened we shot him or had a hardttorthing. But everyone
Speaker 1: thought Hillary was going to win, and Shanda had put
Speaker 1: a lot of sweat equity into that in that direction,
Speaker 1: and I think was really gutted as some of the
Speaker 1: rest of us about that that that you know that
Speaker 1: it went another way, And so I think it is
Speaker 1: only because she did not win that Melli became president.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've never had a long conversation with Shunda
Speaker 1: about this, and I don't know that she's ever gone
Speaker 1: on record, but I don't think it was ever the plan.
Speaker 1: Interesting you shoot scandal, I mean Awards Critics Choice Television
Speaker 1: Award for your role there, beloved character on an amazing show,
Speaker 1: seven year run? How was that for you? Having to
Speaker 1: say goodbye when it was over? It was um, I
Speaker 1: think everybody was tired and understood because she had She
Speaker 1: had been very forthright from the beginning about saying that
Speaker 1: this was a story to juxtapose with Gray's Anatomy, which
Speaker 1: can and probably will go forever. She was like, this
Speaker 1: is a story. I know where it starts and I
Speaker 1: know where it is. So we always knew we were
Speaker 1: on borrowed time, uh, and so we were grateful for
Speaker 1: every season. Every season was a different number of episodes,
Speaker 1: Like everything was very fluid, and every time we get
Speaker 1: another season would be like yeah, and then when she
Speaker 1: was like, we're finishing, we were like copy. Um Josh,
Speaker 1: Milena was like, but my daughter still in college, and
Speaker 1: he was like sorry. But also at that point I
Speaker 1: was sweet Buckers, I love them so much, like we
Speaker 1: were a family. There was no way, like we weren't
Speaker 1: going to be together every day, but there was no
Speaker 1: way we were not going to always be together. So
Speaker 1: it didn't feel so um grievous because we get to
Speaker 1: watch everybody do magical other things. What do you think
Speaker 1: it was about that group that makes it because it's
Speaker 1: not always like that. What do you think it was
Speaker 1: about that ensemble that made you all so close? I mean,
Speaker 1: I think Carrie, I think she's just a wonderful, humble,
Speaker 1: big hearted leader. She was like the quarterback of the
Speaker 1: team when she still is. Like it was just very
Speaker 1: clear from the beginning that it was, you know, nobody
Speaker 1: left behind sort of situation. Even when we renegotiated. You know,
Speaker 1: so often there's a squeaky wheel somewhere, or just people
Speaker 1: who are super young and think they're now is there forever,
Speaker 1: or you know, so many different dynamics that can sort
Speaker 1: of pull you apart. But we were all old enough
Speaker 1: to be grateful and and if Carrie wasn't gonna remember
Speaker 1: day Today's Show, like Season five Today Show wanted to
Speaker 1: do something live about the premiere, and we were all like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to get a bit one thirty to
Speaker 1: be ready for Hamera three thirty, but you know, like complaining.
Speaker 1: You know, Carrie's just sitting in the makeup chair and
Speaker 1: listening to us all. She's like, well, I'm going to
Speaker 1: be here. I think it's amazing. A season five shows
Speaker 1: should get attention like this, And we were all like,
Speaker 1: you know, just yeah, that's right, you're right, right, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: that's fun, You're right. What am I thinking? So? And
Speaker 1: everybody's just also family people, So it's been nice to
Speaker 1: see everybody's kids grow up, and it's a long time
Speaker 1: to share. You have that, You have that with your
Speaker 1: PiZZ Yes, no, we do, and it's special and you
Speaker 1: you bring up age. I think is a part of it.
Speaker 1: People who have diverse experience in the industry and know
Speaker 1: how difficult it can be and feel very lucky to
Speaker 1: have found a show that you feel good about and
Speaker 1: a collection of people that you're lucky to be with.
Speaker 1: I think that brings appreciation exactly what you said. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and nobody was ignored. Everybody had heavy lifting to do.
Speaker 1: Everybody got great monologues, everybody gets a great storyline. So
Speaker 1: everybody felt like they left it on the field and
Speaker 1: it was time to go take a shower. When you leave,
Speaker 1: you immediately have another show. Now it was a pilot
Speaker 1: that didn't get picked up, and then you take a
Speaker 1: little personal hiatus, do I I probably just didn't have
Speaker 1: a job. What did I do? You you went traveling? Oh? Well, yes,
Speaker 1: oh I did. I did. I went my suite. Now,
Speaker 1: husband he performs a lot, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't have anything to do. I'm gonna go be
Speaker 1: his groupie. But then sweet Scott Foley was doing Whiskey
Speaker 1: Cavalier and so he let you do a job with
Speaker 1: him in Prague while I was over there, and so
Speaker 1: there we know, we've got a little bit of working
Speaker 1: here and there. But yeah, I did. I saw a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff. How long were you traveling? As long
Speaker 1: as they'd let me. I don't even remember. I mean
Speaker 1: I feel like I was gone a couple of months.
Speaker 1: I went to Okay, like eight places maybe remember, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Brevnick and Warsaw and Prague and Stockholm and then just
Speaker 1: all over the place. Um, you begin in twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: working on Prodigal Son, a procedural show that I've heard
Speaker 1: you talk a little bit about. To me, that is
Speaker 1: a got to be a challenge as an actor to
Speaker 1: work on a procedural show where there is kind of
Speaker 1: a reset. There was more of a continuing storyline in
Speaker 1: that than on most But talk to me about Jessica. Well,
Speaker 1: the good I can say. I hear you about the
Speaker 1: procedural and it's tricky when you're with a cod within
Speaker 1: that was part of the machine. But Jessica was so
Speaker 1: on the periphery of that and uh, such a nutbar
Speaker 1: and like a real character that is never boring. And
Speaker 1: it brought me back to New York. You know. They
Speaker 1: were like the show, but it's in New York. I
Speaker 1: was like, I'll do it, and I said, you want
Speaker 1: to know what it is? No, not really, but do
Speaker 1: we know? But it's Tom Payne and Michael Shane and
Speaker 1: just lose Sweet Loue Diamond Phillips and you know, not
Speaker 1: everybody was easy on that show to juxtapose it with scandal,
Speaker 1: but um, but the people I love is still love really,
Speaker 1: really deeply, and the work was always like a masterclass,
Speaker 1: so that I never had to be like, you know
Speaker 1: who we who we killed this week, and how we
Speaker 1: can figure it out. I never had to do any
Speaker 1: of that. I just had to spar with like really
Speaker 1: great actors and be this fantastic I mean a character.
Speaker 1: I would just never that sort of love about our jobs. Brian.
Speaker 1: We get to live so many lives in one lifetime,
Speaker 1: and that life was so fun. Drunk sucking Upper east
Speaker 1: Side Jessica. I miss her horribly. I missed her a
Speaker 1: little snark. I missed that she was really in on
Speaker 1: her own joke, like I really missed her. She was
Speaker 1: a ball of fun. Did the darkness of the show
Speaker 1: get you down? I was mostly safe from it, I
Speaker 1: really was. I wouldn't have wanted to, you know, like
Speaker 1: have to spend all days staring at someone locked in
Speaker 1: a box or you know, like all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: I look at people who do years and years of
Speaker 1: like vampire shows or something, and I think I think
Speaker 1: that would really that's hard, especially because I mean I
Speaker 1: get a little higher at work. It makes me real happy,
Speaker 1: and I get joyful. They have to call me down
Speaker 1: you know. So I know it's hard, but Jessica didn't
Speaker 1: have to mess with any of that. She just and
Speaker 1: if she was around it, she was drunk and so
Speaker 1: checked out. So in that way she was baked from
Speaker 1: it all. What's the darkest thing you ever did? Oh? Boy? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean we were referring to be playing
Speaker 1: a serial killer, so I don't know, by inherent definition
Speaker 1: if you can be darker than that. I do get
Speaker 1: more comments from my family about playing a pedophile. Deep. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: that's fairly dark. That's that. That's definitely dark. That's no
Speaker 1: fairly about it. Yeah, no, that's well. The character was
Speaker 1: that was oh that was the law and order, Law
Speaker 1: and order s vu that. The thing about that one
Speaker 1: to me is it wasn't It was not a large role.
Speaker 1: It was not a whole lot of exploring to have
Speaker 1: been done. So it didn't I didn't really have to
Speaker 1: like get internal right, Yeah, I didn't have to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was um killer. I did a lot of darkness,
Speaker 1: and we were the opposite in that in theater, I
Speaker 1: was it was dark. There was a lot of darkness,
Speaker 1: whereas you were like merely we roll along happy. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean I was a hooker who I mean a
Speaker 1: stripper who became a hooker who went to l A
Speaker 1: to be a porn star. So it's not all Leven. Fine,
Speaker 1: that's true. What's the darkest you've ever played? Oh? You know,
Speaker 1: the deepest I went on prepping darkness was Lou Diamond
Speaker 1: Phillips and I did a movie about Richard Ramirez, The
Speaker 1: night Stalker, and that was I feel like that was
Speaker 1: the time that I got scared the most. That's the
Speaker 1: project because it was a film, and so it was
Speaker 1: it happened from a very long amount of time. It
Speaker 1: was a slee a two hander, so a lot of
Speaker 1: it was just me and Lou and oh it was
Speaker 1: really tricky. It was really tricky. It was a rewarding work.
Speaker 1: We had a great director. Um Lou is obviously a
Speaker 1: wonderful man, and I adore working with him, and I
Speaker 1: adore um he just he takes care of you in
Speaker 1: a lot of wonderful ways. Um. But I just that
Speaker 1: was a to get like to go inside that world,
Speaker 1: that mind. I don't want to call it to me.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be near it. You know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just scares me. Do you want to go back and
Speaker 1: do theater. Yes, I do. Oh my god. I did
Speaker 1: a play this fall, just a fundraiser for a new
Speaker 1: UM beautiful like called Bonded, And it was very hard work.
Speaker 1: It was very deep issue, but it felt so rewarding.
Speaker 1: And again just to be in the room and to
Speaker 1: feel to right, it's like surfing, right, It's like emotional surfing.
Speaker 1: You just have the You just go on the ride
Speaker 1: with people. Do you ever think about it going back? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've started two more. Is there a role that you're
Speaker 1: just like, I've got to do? Well, here's the here's
Speaker 1: the crazy thing, like of the like American cannon. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to mention any role specifically. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to do that, but I will say this that a
Speaker 1: lot that I played, I'm now more of the age
Speaker 1: four correctly understand. I understand so that that intrigues me.
Speaker 1: That intrigues me. Um, you released an album speaking of
Speaker 1: Far Away So Close about growing up in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: It's just all songs I love and songs that have stories.
Speaker 1: I had sung the national anthem at a Dodgers game
Speaker 1: we like scandal went and like did the whole somebody
Speaker 1: throughout the pitch and like Carrie called the names and
Speaker 1: I saying that, you know, it's like the whole thing,
Speaker 1: and then are very very kind gladiators. Uh, We're like
Speaker 1: start really started, and I mean like you need to
Speaker 1: make an album. And I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm never gonna have this chance again.
Speaker 1: I better do that. They're so right, and I'm so good.
Speaker 1: I did. I loved every second of it. And yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm still proud of it. Yeah, congratulations, You're You're amazing.
Speaker 1: All right, talk to me about the other black girl.
Speaker 1: Are you having fun? I'm having the best time. Oh
Speaker 1: my god. I got to work with this guy named Brian.
Speaker 1: He's sort of fun. I don't know if you know him,
Speaker 1: but he like he raises, He like raises every scene.
Speaker 1: It's just it's like they're on the page. And then
Speaker 1: Bryan and then Sinclair. Oh my god. I love her
Speaker 1: so much. We've had real we've had really beautiful times,
Speaker 1: she and I. But I've loved all of our directors.
Speaker 1: I'm interested in the story. This is the character I'm playing.
Speaker 1: In particular, I wasn't so much flux Um, Like they
Speaker 1: really didn't know who she was. They wanted to change
Speaker 1: so much from the book, but then they didn't want
Speaker 1: to go too far and is she going to be
Speaker 1: super comedic or is she going to be super dry?
Speaker 1: And just to this wig, no to that wig, use
Speaker 1: your own hair, don't wear this clothes, don't wear that.
Speaker 1: It was really existentially disorienting. So that challenge was also fraught,
Speaker 1: but um rewarding, Like I feel like we came out
Speaker 1: the other side of it. But yeah, it's been wild.
Speaker 1: I love our show runners. Do you love our showrunners?
Speaker 1: Don't say no, I too. I uh, yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: very interesting. Tonally, I think it's really interesting. And I
Speaker 1: you know, I get nervous because I don't ever want
Speaker 1: to say something that I'm not supposed to say. I've
Speaker 1: been accused of that, of saying the wrong thing in
Speaker 1: the past. So I can't really say much about it.
Speaker 1: But here's what I think we should do. What is
Speaker 1: I think when it I think when it comes out,
Speaker 1: then we should we should reconvene again, maybe get maybe
Speaker 1: get that guy Eric and Sinclair and the whole gang.
Speaker 1: Let's do that. It's such a good group of people.
Speaker 1: And then and then we can really talk about it. Yes,
Speaker 1: we can tell we can tell the stories that we
Speaker 1: can't tell. Now, Okay, it's a deal. It's a deal. Listen.
Speaker 1: I am so glad to have met you. You are
Speaker 1: so you are so one talented and funny and genuine
Speaker 1: and just. I mean, let me tell you guys something. Amy.
Speaker 1: By the way, Amy is her real name. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: a secret, but it's not a secret. I don't actually
Speaker 1: tell tell the tell the story. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know if people know this. You in the history of Hollywood,
Speaker 1: there can only be one person with your name, that's right.
Speaker 1: And some little girl took Amy on thought it was
Speaker 1: gonna perhaps be sort of like Rose at the end
Speaker 1: of Titanic or something, right, and I go to her
Speaker 1: like and pay, like, oh my should be like please,
Speaker 1: may I use my name now? And she would give
Speaker 1: me your blessing. But now it's some child, and so
Speaker 1: it was impossible for me to be Amy. I could
Speaker 1: be Amy in Young in Equity the Theater Union, But sang,
Speaker 1: that's why you have so many weird named actors is
Speaker 1: because she can only be one person. I think the
Speaker 1: asterisk is Vanessa Williams. Because the other Vanessa Williams had
Speaker 1: the name first, but then we knew Vanessa from Miss
Speaker 1: America and from her singing and everything, so that they
Speaker 1: sort of like maybe did make her use her middle
Speaker 1: and I don't know anyway, grandfather grandfather her in. She's
Speaker 1: the only person I know of that has a name
Speaker 1: that is another person's name. How did you come up
Speaker 1: with Bellamy? I mean, just tragic. I was trying to
Speaker 1: be Amanda or I am a realist or anything that
Speaker 1: I could still be Amy, and they were all not
Speaker 1: am Else wasn't taken. But you can see why. But
Speaker 1: my dad's best friend sort of did all the dad's
Speaker 1: stuff like a tillion when he passed away, And um,
Speaker 1: so it's like a mushing of our names sounds like
Speaker 1: I'm Southern, so I thought people I kind of called
Speaker 1: myself Tennessee or Raleigh. Raleigh was on the list, young,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you honestly, I just told Pedro, does I
Speaker 1: know it is? But then I couldn't get back to Amy.
Speaker 1: The name I wanted was Susannah Grant. That's the name
Speaker 1: I wanted. She's already a very famous producer and good
Speaker 1: at what she does, and so I couldn't have that
Speaker 1: name either, but I got to be Melly Grant, so
Speaker 1: I think it's close Susannah. So you were just making
Speaker 1: that out of thin air, making things up. But Raleigh
Speaker 1: Young was on the list. Raleigh Young. Oh wait a minute,
Speaker 1: but what was Susannah Grant something you considered or were
Speaker 1: you going to keep Young? I was just making a list,
Speaker 1: just a spirt desperate list. Yeah. I mean that's a
Speaker 1: crazy thing, right, is like like if you have to change,
Speaker 1: there's no rules, and it was I was like, I
Speaker 1: want to not make people uncomfortable. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: but I could be this whole violent boat regard or
Speaker 1: whatever you know. So yeah, but then I just tried
Speaker 1: to fix something that had Amy at it, so people
Speaker 1: can still call me Amy. All right, Well, whatever your
Speaker 1: name is, you're delightful. No no, no, Like seriously, I
Speaker 1: can be a curmudgeon and people get scared of me.
Speaker 1: You're a light yours. I don't believe it. I am
Speaker 1: just reflecting back your son. You're a delight and I'm
Speaker 1: so happy to know you now I am, And thanks
Speaker 1: for inviting me on for this fun. Well I'm gonna
Speaker 1: come to New York and I want a mug, I
Speaker 1: want to I want a mum. No, no, I want
Speaker 1: to I want to have a Okay, okay, sorry, sorry,
Speaker 1: I thought you all yours. Oh it's too much. Luck
Speaker 1: now it's too much. Loving it all right? Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. I love you too that Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for coming on the podcast. And I'm with you.
Speaker 1: I am not a guy who says another season. No,
Speaker 1: I'm with you five more seasons of the Other Black Girl.
Speaker 1: That sounds just fine to me. To all of you
Speaker 1: out there listening, thanks for stopping by, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: back next week, same time, same place, with another phenomenal guest. Also,
Speaker 1: make sure to follow us on Instagram if you haven't
Speaker 1: already at Off the Beat and uh leave us a
Speaker 1: review on Apple podcast. Please all right, subscribe to the show.
Speaker 1: I cannot tell you how important that is. Thank you
Speaker 1: for all your support and we will see you next week.
Speaker 1: Off the Beat is hosted an executive produced by me
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our senior producer
Speaker 1: is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris,
Speaker 1: and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary
Speaker 1: and our intern is Sammy Cats. Our theme song Bubble
Speaker 1: and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton