WEBVTT - Bellamy Young 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.960 I think no, I think changing a tire sewing at least, 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.360 I'm not talking about making a dress or a pair 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:10.360 of pants, But I mean, like just getting a button 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:12.960 back on. It seems like a skill you should have, 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:15.880 I think, right, I think that's something you can't accomplish. 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.200 Will work on this. Oh yeah, it's a big year, 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:25.440 I feel it for on. You're gonna put buttons on everything, on, 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:30.840 just on everything, just no snaps, too easy. You gotta 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:33.879 work for it and then you really love it. All right. 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.120 Hey there, I'm Fella me Young, and I'm Brian's friends 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:54.040 from work. Hi there, listeners, Welcome back to another brand 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:59.760 spanking new episode of Off the Beat. As always, I'm 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:04.759 your host, Brian Baumgartner, and you just heard from the wonderful, 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:11.360 the delightful, the hilarious Bellamy Young. You probably know Bellamy 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.559 from her role as President of the United States, Melly 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:21.440 Grant in Scandal, or for playing Jessica Whitley in Prodigal Son, 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:26.200 or maybe Margaret Honeycroft in Promised Land. Whatever you saw 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.840 her in, I can only promise you this, she was excellent. 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.880 And Bellamy has had well, she's had an incredible journey 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:41.560 which somehow includes being North Carolina's Junior Miss, becoming spokesperson 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:46.720 for the Humane Society, and winning celebrity Jeopardy. Oh and 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:52.720 also going to Yale to study physics. That's right, Bellamy 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:57.720 seems to be very good at well, just about everything, 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:02.400 and now her journey will include being a guest on 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:06.040 Off the Beat, a title. Well, I'm sure she's going 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.760 to add this to her long list of accomplishments. I'm 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.680 excited to dive into her story. It has taken her 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.640 from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Gulf Stream Waters, 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.440 to Broadway and back. I'm not going to make you 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:28.200 wait here. She is Bellamy Young, Bubble and Squeak. I 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:35.160 love Bubble and Squeak on Bubble and Squeaker Cookie every 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:51.280 month left over from the nutby Hi. What, I'm so 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:54.600 happy to see you. I miss you. I am so 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:59.440 happy to see you. What's going on? You know? It's 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.799 just a rain a day in New York City trying 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:09.919 to make meet its possibility? How about you? What is 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.040 is that? An? I love New York? Fuck it is? 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:17.760 Can we curse on your show? Yes? It is? Wow? 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:21.560 I mean that is I know that you live there, 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.359 but that mug is a cliche. I love it. I'm 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.120 a cliche. It's just how it happens. Be It's like 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.960 how I roll. I literally got this apartment. I was 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.560 here after college for like a decade and then I 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.200 was you know, l A was so good to me, 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.320 and I'm so grateful to her, but she and I 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.120 do not understand each other. And so when I got back, 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.920 I literally went downstairs to the choky shop and got 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:47.560 this mug and it is the only thing I drink 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:52.920 out of the only thing. Oh, I love that. That 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.440 is so that is amazing, the big apple and everything. 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:01.360 It's just perfect. Um, here is a well, first off, 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.760 we should mention we have just worked together. And do 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:08.360 you know what's crazy is we may have worked together 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:12.320 before you worked Did we work together? We were never 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:18.279 appeared on Criminal Minds. Oh yes, I did recur upon that, 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:20.800 So there is a bit of a chance I was 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:27.280 hotches woman. Right, Maybe maybe it wasn't this Did you 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:32.080 kill people? Or did I killed people? Did you kill them? What? What? 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.760 Tell me more? Well? I was a serial killer? You 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:40.599 know that show. It's the craziest show where the lead 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:46.080 of every episode is the guest star. Yeah, so it's 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:50.320 like you you literally show up and you don't know 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.120 where anything is or who anybody is, and it's like, Okay, 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.800 it's your show. It's all resting on your shoulder. It's 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.919 all on you. And then every and he comes and 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.040 you know, arrest you at the end and all that. 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:07.240 But yeah, no, it's a crazy show. It is a 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.920 crazy show. And I I will swear those fans are 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.880 so devoted of the time that anyone notices me and 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:17.360 I you know, I'm very grateful for any of it, 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.080 and but usually it's scandal, but no, forty percent of 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.280 the time it's criminal minds. And I couldn't have done 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.520 six episodes. I mean, I was a blip on that radar, 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:27.760 but that's a throw. You know they're back. They're making 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:32.279 shows again, are they? Oh? They surely are. I think 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:37.119 he said you can creak out. I think I'm in jail. 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:39.640 I think I'm not. I don't think I'm coming back. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.920 They didn't call me about the about the reboot, then 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.720 call me yet. Um, but we should mention, being very 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:50.680 careful not to say too much. Bellamy and I are 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.279 working together on a new show. Do you want to 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:57.560 tell us about it? In Atlanta, Georgia? Oh, yeah, and 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.440 actually show we are doing a show h called The 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.240 Other Black Girl, which was a book that came out 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.599 I think last year by Zekia Delilah Harris, and she 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:10.839 and Rashida Jones have made it into a series, like 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:13.400 the most interesting thing to me, because I don't want 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:15.080 people to feel like, oh, I can't read the book, 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:16.920 I don't want to spoil the show, or I don't 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:18.520 watch I don't want to watch the show. I read 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:24.240 the book. It's a second swing at this, I p 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:28.000 where we've really diverged from the book. Uh. There's some, 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:32.240 of course, amazing similarities and parallel paths, but it's it's 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.279 a really cool project to be a part of. On 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.880 our sweet Sinclair Daniels is our very leading, beautiful work. 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.760 And I don't know that hack Eric McCormick. He hangs 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:47.719 around sometimes, he's around occasionally. Well, it's been so much 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.839 fun getting to know you and working with you. I've 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.440 loved it. It's been so much fun, and back in 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:59.160 in my hometown, which I'm going to transition like seamlessly to. 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:04.120 I think maybe the greatest similarity between you and I 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:08.000 is this is what I would say that no one 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.560 on first meeting us would guess that we're from the South. 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.480 Do you think that's true? I think that's true. I 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:19.760 think we re give it. You do. I think we're 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.960 there's a kind openness to both of us. Tell me, 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.480 you know, you can have a conversation with a plastic bowl, 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:31.960 and so can I. And that's definitely like a Southern superpower, 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:34.720 you know. I mean, no one, no one would think 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.040 we're from the Bronx and no one would think we're 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:42.920 like Silicon Valley. Where where would you peg us? I? No, see, 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:46.120 I would peg you New York. I would You're just 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:52.480 flirting with me, now, No, I would. And maybe that's 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:56.280 because I know how much you love it. Maybe that's it. 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.000 Maybe that's it. I don't know. Yeah I would. I 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:03.000 would put you there for sure. Well that's really very kind, 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:05.840 but I don't think I merit that. But you're not 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:14.080 your Carolina Ashville, North Carolina, ash Vegas to those in 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:18.640 the KNOWE whatever, I don't know Asheville, home of the 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:27.280 I'm gonna screw it up. Pig Nut Chicken Farm, Hot 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:33.839 pig Chicken Chicken nut Farm. You don't know what I'm 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:38.680 talking about? No, all right, what are you talking about? No? 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:43.960 There's a big farm there in Ashville, ash by the 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:48.720 way Asheville without the end, not Nashville Ashville in case 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.280 I'm not Yeah, it's a totally different place. We have 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:55.200 to build more house the Vanderbilt estate, right. We have 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.440 a growth park in we have the parkway. I'm sure 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:01.480 we have a lot of beauty, full and scenic farms. 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.640 I am not aware of this one of which you speak. 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:07.600 We have twelve Bones, which is the big barbecue place, 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:13.480 so Vegan, I don't know how many bones there are. 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:19.319 You don't count the ball you no, no, no, I'm 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.720 want to leave that one alone too. Um. How do 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:26.840 you think that shaped you? Oh? My goodness, what a 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:31.000 beautiful question, because I really can feel, particularly in people's 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:35.760 singing voices, I feel like I can feel the topography 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:40.000 that shaped them. So I feel the mountains inside of me, 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:42.880 like the places to hide and then the places of 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:47.240 wide open wonder and um, you know, home life was 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:49.280 not the best. So that shaped you too, because you're like, hey, 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:51.600 I'm going to leave here. But but then once you 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:56.480 get out, then you know, just knowing that you've come 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.720 from a place of such beauty and art and food, 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:05.040 and you know, like really um culture. Yeah, I love 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.880 I love my hometown. I really do. I feel it 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:13.200 with me always. Oh that's awesome. You started singing early. 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:19.600 I did three. Wow, Santa Celle has been chatting you up. 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:24.520 Wait is that three? Like professionally? Is that when you 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:29.400 did your first album? I think we were still you know, 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:33.280 pressing things into vinyl in the seventies. But um, yeah, 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:38.560 I'm adopted, and UM, they at the hospital, you know, 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:40.360 I was in foster care for like two months, and 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:42.840 so some wires must have gotten crossed. But the papers 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:46.559 that were given to my adopted parents, UM, I had 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.079 like two lines on My father had like a paragraph 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.920 on my birth mother and um, and it said she 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.960 like just so and singing, and you know, she was 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.480 an English major. And so my parents who had opted me, 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:02.880 we're like, oh, we gotta, we gotta follow up on this, 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:05.960 you know, in case we are not supplying what she 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.880 needs genetically, you know. And uh, come to find out 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:15.079 it was none of it true. It was none of true. 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:20.680 She didn't I was so pretty in pink in high school, 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:26.280 assoed everything war and I sang everywhere and I did 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:28.199 all those things. Yeah yeah, yeah no, but I mean 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.040 it turned out to be right for me, but just 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:35.600 not necessarily true in the abstract. So they encouraged you 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.600 to sew, and well, they just sort of were like, 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.079 here are some things you might turn we hear that 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:46.160 you might be into. And honey, I loved it. Oh sing, 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:48.840 and my goodness, I would definitely be in jail somewhere 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:53.360 if I couldn't sing. It is absolutely my personal freedom. 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:58.840 Can Catharsis and joy and I'll be fussy, you know, 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:01.280 I'll be cranky and I'll not know what's going on, 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.160 but I'll get a song like going in my head 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.440 and I'll be like, oh really, like literally, it's just 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:11.640 how my body deals with being alive. But then they, 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.040 you know, put me in dance. I was never quite 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.920 as good at that, but I love still loved to sew. 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:20.280 Oh yeah, I love all that stuff. Interesting, did you 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:25.080 ever sew? No, I still can't sew. I'm gonna watch 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:33.680 season two. That's our goal that I learned to sew. Yeah, No, 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.400 I don't sew. I think I should. There are a 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:39.840 few things I think I should know how to do. 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:46.319 And well, I mean I tried recently and I failed 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:50.079 at trying to change attire the first thing I said 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.440 to we really need to do that. No, I know 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.240 I couldn't get the nuts. I couldn't get the nuts off. 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:01.200 And I'm not just saying that to try to sound 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:05.000 like I'm being perverse. I could not get I could 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.719 not get the the lug nuts off of the off 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:12.000 the tire. Turns out I called someone who also couldn't, 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:15.199 so there I think there was an issue. But um, 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:19.120 I think no. I think changing a tire sewing at least. 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.520 I'm not talking about making a dress or a pair 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.520 of pants. But I mean, like just getting a button 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.120 back on. It seems like a skill you should have, 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.000 I think, right, I think that's something you can accomplish. 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.320 Will work on this. Oh yeah, it's a big year. 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:39.080 I feel it. For buttons on. You're gonna put buttons 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:45.600 on everything, on, just on everything, just no snaps, too easy. 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:47.320 You gotta work for it. And then you really love it? 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:53.600 All right? So singing was cathartic for you? Did you 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:58.560 enjoy the act of performing? Was that a part of it? 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.280 I've always loved to not be me, like the chance 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:03.480 to not be me, for if it's three minutes, if 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.240 it's three hours, if it's three years, what a delight? 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:09.959 What what of? What of rest? Getting a job is 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.680 always like getting a vacation. I love it so much. 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:17.480 And but even then, yeah, I know you feel similarly. 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:19.880 I think you must like the story telling the story. 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:25.440 It's such a joy. I'm not a person like I 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.240 don't want to be the center of attention at parties 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:32.200 scare me. Like Pedro and I got married and it 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.200 was just us, you know, like I'm not ever going 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.360 to be like a look at me if human. But 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:41.920 I love to escape into something and deliver it and 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.680 have it, you know, have an effect on people. That's 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:46.680 fun and so on. Songs are the best because you 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:48.600 can feel like you can feel the energy in a 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.360 room change. You know, it's magical to go on that 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:54.960 with somebody. But they you know. It was the seventies 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.480 and eighties in North Carolina and so most of the 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:03.080 places you had to perform were pageants. And so that 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:07.480 was my next question, because that that feels like like 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:11.280 one would think that that's about being the center of attention. 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:13.240 By the way, I totally get you. I feel like 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.600 I'm the same way. It's something actually my I think 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:22.360 my especially my mom doesn't understand the difference between acting 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.400 and doing that in front of people, but actually wanting 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:29.440 that attention. That's not something that that I ever felt 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.280 like or you know, that I wanted. But being a 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:38.280 pageant now you North Carolina Junior miss sure, Now that's 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.960 a scholarship program, Brian. It's a very different feat. Oh 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:46.160 it is. I did pay for most of my freshman 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.960 year at college, so yeah, it did. So were you singing? 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.560 Was that your talent? Did you? Oh? That was I 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.240 mean that's a that's a thing though, because you have to, um, 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:59.360 they look at your academics and your interview and your 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.400 you know whatever pageant dress walking around stuff. Then you 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:10.400 do your talent and wait for it, athletics, which is 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:17.320 not something I've ever excelled at. So what kind of athletics? Honey. 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.240 We had to do a little, like you know, a 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.240 little Jane Fonda routine, and I mean little. It was 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.920 really really, really hard, and they assessed us because it's 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:30.960 really clear who was good good at that? Wait a 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:36.480 second second, you had to like like do I almost 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:38.960 said jumping jacks, but no, like push up there? Yea. 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.160 It was like a five minute routine and you had 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:43.800 to hold one of those v things. I can't even 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:44.880 do it. I was going to do it for you, 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:46.520 but I can't. You know, like where your abs hold 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:48.800 your whole body in the shape of a V and 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:50.400 you have to do push ups and you have to 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:57.040 do jumping jacks and run around and fitness fitness, why wow, 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:02.000 this was a part of it. But you but you 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.280 in North Carolina, I didn't win in at Nationals. They 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:09.959 they liked my singing. I had a talent award at Nationals. 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.320 But but I stress. But I when I was little, 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:17.560 because you know, this all starts. It starts in nineteen 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.399 seventy five, which was bicentennial year. My mother made this 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:28.080 spectacular long dress hoop skirt bicentennial on PSMB but complete 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:33.440 with bicentennial parasol. And you gott you know, five years old, 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.800 and like walk around with your parasol and your hoop 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:39.680 skirt and yeah, but I very quickly. I am not 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:44.240 at all competitive except with like myself, I mean mean 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:46.719 inside to myself. But I'm always like, you should get this, 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.400 or you know, I hope you went. So I started 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.399 in seeing really she had all her friends were there, 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:54.119 My mom's friends were there. So we're still gonna have 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.399 to go, but I just like I would say, you know, 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.159 Scarlet's in a beautiful future dressed to to lighter shield 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.120 tap forest while twirling her baton. I'd say, climb every 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:08.560 mountain while they tabulated the boats. And your southern accent 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.760 just came out when you were chick channeling that. It 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:16.760 must it must. How big was your hair? Oh? Higher, 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:21.520 the hair closer to God? That's right, as big as 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:25.560 it could get. Yes, Wait, I have to ask, did 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:31.400 you ever have to in Atlanta pageantify yourself? No, well 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:35.200 there wasn't. I don't. I don't think there are pagets 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:40.120 for boys. I don't know there was like cotillion respect 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.400 as well. Alright, I'm gonna need it when I see 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:47.600 your next I must see those pictures. Okay, I don't know, 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.360 I don't know how much still be all right, we'll 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:55.119 see um. Also probably google bule and be to everyone listening, 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:20.960 I hope not. Okay, So this is insane. You basically 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:26.080 you're doing padgets and then you decide you want to 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:30.639 go to Yale for physics. Now you want to be 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:35.120 a scientist. Yeah, yeah, it was most and you're giving 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:37.639 up performing. You're like that. That isn't a thing that 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:40.840 you think you're gonna wait so talk to me. You 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.680 think you're really not gonna you enjoy performing, but then 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:46.679 you decide you you want to be a scientist. Is 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.919 this what happens? Well, I wanted to leave North Carolina, 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:55.679 and I UM don't know how. Honestly, I don't know 0:19:55.760 --> 0:20:00.800 how Yale even came into my sphere of knowledge. But 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:03.719 somehow I heard that you could. They had singing groups, 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.240 um acapella singing groups, and I was like, oh I 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:09.520 could still sing. I was like, if I could get 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:12.320 in there, my mom cannot say no, right, Like that's 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.719 a good enough reason to leave North Carolina. So I 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.520 applied early, and I loved physics. I was never I 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:21.960 got to Catholic school and then like public school and 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:26.120 like I never caught onto the like an exclusionary God, 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.679 but like physics and science made me feel like I 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:31.520 was seeing the face of God, like the truth, like 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:34.520 you could really work to the truth. And oh, I 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:38.160 just loved it. But again, just I wasn't. I didn't. 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:39.679 I didn't turn out to being great at it on 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:41.920 the world stage, but I was good at it where 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:47.640 I was. Um. So I applied early and they put 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:49.800 me on the wait list. But I'm Southern, so you know, 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.160 I thought they were just being polite and that they 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:54.960 would tell me no later and just let me get used. 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:57.919 To the know. I applied to twelve other schools and 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:01.639 got really good at applications. Re submitted an entire application 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.760 to y'all, and likely they thought, dear God, just to 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:08.960 hush her up. Just let her in, Just let her in. 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:13.879 So you might be the only person in history that 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.239 went to Yale for physics. But really, because they had 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.840 an acapella singing group. You don't know that. Maybe you 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:23.119 don't know. I think you are. I'm going to go 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:26.320 out on a room. Let's say. Let's say that's it. 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.439 So you started, you started singing, You get there, and 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.760 you you discover you might not be a scientist after all. 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:36.840 But but the singing you enjoyed. I loved it. I 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:38.840 loved it so much. And we I was in like 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:41.800 the funny singing group that like co ed funny singing 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.480 group because there's like you know, single sex and serious 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:46.000 ones and all that kind of stuff, and I wanted 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:49.159 to be I wanted to laughs and to sing that 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:51.800 like you know, Todd Rundgren and like you know, stuff 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:54.480 that I thought was cool, and I had a really 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:58.080 good time. But then it all, like those last few 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:01.239 years in North Carolina kind caught up with me, and 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:07.719 so my beginning of college was extraordinary and diverse and thriving, 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:10.520 and by the end I was a bit of a 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:15.040 wallflower and just going through stuff. Right, you do start 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:18.480 taking theater classes. I do. I finished with a double 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:23.040 major English and theater. Are you career committed? Then? At 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:25.320 that point, what a what a fun way to ask that? 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:28.760 Thank you? I think that's it's such a great I 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:31.840 was committed to staying out in the world. I didn't 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:34.680 want to go home. I was game for whatever I 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:37.680 was going to do. Ah Actor's Theater of Louisville had 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:40.800 this internship program that everybody was always in the hospital. 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:43.479 I mean, they worked you horribly, I think, but I 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:46.199 was like, yes, I'm gonna do that. Um, and my 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:50.560 friend Mike Zimmer, who was now real Marshall's like homeless partner, 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:54.639 you know second hand. Um, Michael was like, calm down 0:22:54.760 --> 0:22:58.040 to New York with me today. I'm an audition for 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:00.320 a tour of meeting in St. Louis And like I 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:02.959 should write my paper, but of course, I'm not going 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:05.120 to write my paper. So I go down and got 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:06.919 the job. And so I did the first national let 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:12.280 me meet St. Louis instead unbelievable and that and that's 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:17.040 and that's how your career began. Yeah, and then that, 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:19.760 you know, after the tour, I got a little apartment 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:24.000 on the like where was it, I guess, and between 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:26.919 second and third and just start going to the calls 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:30.160 and doing summer stock and doing regional theater and doing 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:34.280 stuff off Broadway, and but musical musical, musical, musical, and 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:38.679 you know, a couple of law and orders as you do. Okay, 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:42.400 so you so you were dipping, you were dipping your 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:47.040 toes into some film and television stuff as you were 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:50.760 auditioning for theater. I mean, you really have the stink 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:53.720 of musical theater on you, and like, especially back then 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.560 New York was pretty bifurcated, you know, so I feel 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:00.840 lucky I got in there, right. I do want to 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:04.800 mention In nine you make your Broadway debut as Mary 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:09.200 in the original cast of psy Coleman's The Life. Did 0:24:09.200 --> 0:24:12.200 that feel like a dream come true? Yeah? It really did, 0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:16.080 And it came out of nowhere, and I just moved 0:24:16.119 --> 0:24:18.840 to my apartment on Sunday six between Broadway and West End, 0:24:19.280 --> 0:24:22.560 and my mom was actually here and we were unloading boxes. 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:24.800 I got a super last minute audition. I wasn't gonna 0:24:24.840 --> 0:24:28.399 go because we're moving, and she's like, just go. And 0:24:28.800 --> 0:24:32.320 I don't even take like dance clothes. I have to 0:24:32.359 --> 0:24:36.479 pull sheet music out of the file cabinet at the 0:24:36.480 --> 0:24:39.320 casting offices. Um, they kept me a long time, but 0:24:39.400 --> 0:24:42.600 then they're like, okay, thank you. And I walked from 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:45.600 forty three to seventy six because I was like, my 0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:47.359 mother is gonna be so mad at me because I 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:51.359 like left her unpacking. And then I tanked this audition 0:24:51.560 --> 0:24:54.439 and I swear as I walked into the apartment, my 0:24:54.680 --> 0:24:58.920 landline telephone rang and my son my mom was there 0:24:58.960 --> 0:25:02.800 for me to get my Broadway show. That's amazing, I know. 0:25:03.040 --> 0:25:05.080 And then we got the sewing machine out and we 0:25:05.119 --> 0:25:12.320 made some curtains, not kidding at all. Oh my god, 0:25:12.840 --> 0:25:18.800 that's amazing. Um, so you you decide, because you're a 0:25:18.880 --> 0:25:21.479 musical theater actor. And at this point, merrily we roll 0:25:21.560 --> 0:25:24.840 a long fous book of days. You've done all this theater. 0:25:25.040 --> 0:25:27.359 You're gonna move to l A now, this is true. 0:25:27.680 --> 0:25:30.200 Your agent said you're too old. Yeah yeah, oh yeah, 0:25:30.240 --> 0:25:33.280 oh yeah, I was twenty nine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I 0:25:33.320 --> 0:25:37.040 moved like right before I turned to thirty. And of 0:25:37.080 --> 0:25:39.200 course that there was a guy. There's always a guy. 0:25:39.359 --> 0:25:41.480 So there was a guy. We've done a little movie. 0:25:42.440 --> 0:25:45.520 But so I went with very low expectations and I 0:25:46.040 --> 0:25:47.960 you know, the stuff I'd been sent out, but I 0:25:48.040 --> 0:25:49.800