Devin Kessler

On this week's episode I sit down with the incredibly talented Devin Kessler. We discuss everything from her work on Godfather of Harlem and the new Crystal Lake TV series to her childhood desires of being "the first at..."

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Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

Alice, can you come in here?

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Brad, why do you need me in there?

SPEAKER_06 0:05

Chancellor our cat our cat Chancellor has been pooping all over the the the apartment and look, this is your cat. I I don't want to like say it's your responsibility, but I kind of feel like it is your responsibility to clean up after Chancellor. So if you could help with that, that would be great.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Do you think that I would clean up after Chancellor after I just got my nails done?

SPEAKER_06 0:38

Uh uh Yeah. I would expect that. I mean, I mean it's Frankly, fuck off.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

I'm not doing that.

SPEAKER_06 0:49

God, that seems very rude to say right now.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Ha ha, kidding.

SPEAKER_05 0:58

I believe that. I believe that's the hardest part of doing the alphabet.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Uh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Just so you know, I did use your credit card for the manicure and it cost 200, but I will absolutely clean up after Chancer, our cat, Brad, said Alice.

SPEAKER_06 1:25

Okay. Um now this is another issue. You're using my credit card to pay for your manicures.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Love. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:39

You're right. I should be more forgiving and more. We're a teen. I need to remember that.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Nascent is a word that I need to remember to use. I was reading the word of the day dictionary and I have no idea how to use nascent organically. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:00

You're learning new words. That's that's great. That's great.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

That is great. Particularly the word that starts with the letter N that is also something I sort of said. No.

SPEAKER_06 2:16

Quite frankly, I think that's great. That you're learning new words.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Really?

SPEAKER_06 2:22

Seriously?

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Thanks.

SPEAKER_05 2:27

You got it.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Vikings are landing in New Amsterdam.

SPEAKER_06 2:39

Whoa, the news has gotten crazy recently.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

X.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

X marks the spot where the docks once stood in New Amsterdam since the Vikings.

SPEAKER_06 2:58

You okay, Alice? We could turn the news off if you want.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Definitely not. Definitely not.

SPEAKER_06 3:04

Ah. And that is how you play. Alphabet gay. Alice and Brad have some issues with their cat chancellor.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah, Alice, um Alice has issues, actually.

SPEAKER_06 3:19

Well, Brad's a Brad's not very kind to who I presume is now is his uh partner. It felt like partner.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Yeah, I feel like, but I feel like Brad was just extra patient. And Alice might have been going on several trips at once.

SPEAKER_06 3:35

Fair enough, fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

You know, I think that Alice manicure trips. Manicure trips. I think she also may have eaten something on the way to the manicurist and then eaten something on the way back.

SPEAKER_05 3:46

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

And then forgot that she had a cat. That was her responsibility.

SPEAKER_05 3:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Um, remembered that she had a goal a long time ago to be more literate. There you go. And and articulate.

SPEAKER_06 3:59

So she I love how deeply you are now thinking about Alice's backstory.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Brad, Brad, you just, you know, you were there.

SPEAKER_06 4:06

Brad's a homebody. He's, you know, he's at home. He doesn't like the smell of the cat, but I mean This is furthest from the truth for me. I love cats. I and I'm though I'm allergic.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

I'm allergic to cats.

SPEAKER_06 4:17

Are you allergic too?

SPEAKER_02 4:18

I am. I want to love cats so badly.

SPEAKER_06 4:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

But I can't.

SPEAKER_06 4:23

Oh, but you you don't love them.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

I I can't because I'm allergic to them, but I do.

SPEAKER_06 4:26

But a hypoallergenic one. I had a hypoallergenic one. Here he is. My sweet boy, Ari. There he is. That's a I love that painting.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Ari was in the last apartment.

SPEAKER_06 4:36

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

I actually never had a problem with Ari when I was over there.

SPEAKER_06 4:41

Did you ever you never saw him there? No, I did. I never had a problem. Oh yeah, he's chill. Yeah, hypoallergenic. Russian blues. Welcome to Working Class Acts. Welcome everyone to the Working Class Acts podcast. I am your host, John Matalone. I always do a little pause. I do a jazz hands. I am joined today by a superb actress. She's a New York-based artist and a true DMV girly. She can currently be seen in MGM Plus's award-winning series, Godfather of Harlem, as a Fenny Shakur. And starring in A24 and Peacock's upcoming series, Crystal Lake, which I believe is a prequel to the Friday the 13th series. Oh my God, so exciting. I am here with Devin Kessler. There's your phone back.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Devin, how are you doing? I'm good. Good. I'm good. I'm well rested today, which is fantastic. Yeah, it is fantastic. Honestly. Honestly.

SPEAKER_06 6:02

After the years of NYU not sleeping much, it's great to sleep a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

You know, I think my favorite one of my favorite memories is one, going to the floor all the time and having a specific room. Like my room was 521, the music room. Oh, sure. Yeah. Always in there. That's because that's the only room where the heater worked and it worked so well. I would I love a hot space. Yeah. Crank it up and it's my space. I love it. Plus, I can do it like everything. Yeah. Um, but some of my other classmates that would work on the floor after hours would also have their assigned rooms. Sure. And one day for um bar talk, specifically the bar. Yeah. That was a specific project we were working on. Um I posted up in 521 to do everything that I needed to do. And then one of my classmates was in the next room. Uh-huh. Same study room. And then one of my clo classmates was in the circus room. And I think it was like 2 a.m. when I finally emerged. Oh my goodness. One of my other classmates emerged and we looked at each other and we were like, sleepover? Sleepover. And we did you sleep over on the floor? We did. We worked all night.

SPEAKER_06 7:11

I always wanted to do that. It is wait, did security come along at any point?

unknown 7:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:16

Did they see you?

SPEAKER_02 7:17

I don't know if they saw me. Probably not. I I guess not. I mean, effort to hide.

SPEAKER_06 7:24

I mean, like you just happen to be walking everywhere they weren't.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

I guess. Well, I was like, my bar talk music was blasting. So like there's no effort. And then like halfway through, I was like, oh, I gotta work on my songs. And then like now I'm so now you gotta sing, yeah. And then we're going back and forth between the circus room and the uh music room, just making sure that our bar like we're catching each other's beats. And honestly, I think that was the day before the bar talk presentation.

SPEAKER_06 7:51

That's always how bar talk comes together. That was uh oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

I I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_06 7:57

I actually loved Bar Talk. Like I although I have oh my god, when we did Bar Talk. So for those who don't know what Bar Talk is, Bar Talk is this is something we do at NYU. It's a part of a a class in which you have to sync your movements to very complicated music by the composer Bar Talk, and it has to look naturalistic but sync to the music in rhythm. It's a really i I learned a lot from it, but boy howdy was it the most fucking frustrating thing in the world. Very frustrating. Um but I I highly recommend anybody try doing that. I just look up some Bar Talk music and and try and do some normal stuff to it.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

I concur. I just it was one of those moments when I can be such a perfectionist, yeah, yeah, um, which is hilarious because of the way that my brain has been wired and then rewired itself after grad school. Um but I just remember Barta, I was like so anal about certain things, and then doing the project, and literally that night I was like, I can't catch every beat. There's not I'm not gonna catch every beat. There's too many things going on at once, too. And like I know music, so I had the score in front of me, and I had written on the score and I had practiced, and then I was just like, I'm gonna fuck up. I I am like I know my. Yeah, and then we did the presentation, and I know that Mark was like, Oh, you know, you could have hit this spot beat and you miss that.

SPEAKER_06 9:37

And is that really You didn't hear that timpany five miles in the distance.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

It's not really. I remember he goes, it's not really what you do to your hair. I don't know, it's not realistic. And then we don't scratch your hair like that. No, no, I was like putting pomade or a hair curl in. And he was like, We don't, I don't do that. Well, that's because you have straight hair, Mark. You don't have curly hair. Devin, John.

SPEAKER_06 10:01

Where are you originally from?

SPEAKER_02 10:03

I'm from the DMV. I am a DMV girl. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:06

So wait, I read that and went, what's DMV?

SPEAKER_02 10:08

DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Oh, there you go. Okay. I am a DMV girl.

SPEAKER_06 10:11

Because you're okay, okay, okay. Because so you were you grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, essentially. So that's the sort of shorthand I've got. That's a shorthand.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

I was born in Virginia. I was raised in Chevy Chase, but that's the Rockville, Maryland. Uh-huh. And then I went to high school and spent, I want to say like four or five years in DC. But everything is so close together. At least my radius of life was so close together that I spent a lot of time in all three sections of the DMV.

SPEAKER_06 10:44

So I'm like, that's my move you were moving a lot then during that time, or just like same spot but different activities.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Same spot, different activities. Like I I was a dancer at the Washington School of Ballet, so I was in DC for that. You know, I did the um the acting program at Studio Theater, so I was in DC for that when I was a kid. But then I also did like Grother Strathmore, which is in Rockville. And we moved, I think, once when I was a kid to like upper Rockville area, which is called Durwood. It's such a cute little community. And then we moved again to DC for high school. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 11:22

Sounds like you were involved in a lot of like artistic pursuits when you were younger. Yes. So did you get the bug pretty young or were you? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

I think um I I joke all the time that I am host to someone who has been on this earth before and also someone who is experiencing life at the first time. There you go. And at the same both at the same time. So I think when I came to consciousness as as Devin, I was like, yeah, I know what I'm doing. Yeah. I'm I'm gonna do this. Which is what I'd like to think, but actually that's not true. Um I wanted to be an astronaut first. Oh, yeah. Um, I went because I went to the school called Sally K Ride. So I wanted to be the astronaut an astronaut and I wanted to be the first female astronaut, which is actually impossible if I go to a school called Sally K Ride, which is named after the first female astronaut. You're like, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Yeah, it's happened already.

SPEAKER_05 12:19

Yeah, actually, that when I found that out, the dream was literally immediately killed.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

I was like, oh. Exactly. Like, what can I do? I was like, oh, okay, I'll be a writer. And then I realized I'll be the first writer, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:34

I'll be the first writer.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Boom, boom.

SPEAKER_04 12:36

Okay, let me just write this down. Wait a second, damn it.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Someone's already done this. And it's like later on when I went to Catholic school, I was like, my one and only good friend from Catholic school. We were like, we're gonna be presidents of the United States. And I was like, I'm gonna be the first female. And she was like, I'm a year older than you, so I'll be the first female. And I was like, you bitch.

SPEAKER_06 12:59

Just the first female or the first female president?

SPEAKER_02 13:02

First female president. Oh, there you go. Yeah, yeah. Right. I should I should be very specific.

SPEAKER_06 13:05

Just first female. I'm gonna be Eve.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

I'm gonna be Eve and go to.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Maybe that was your previous life.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

I think, oh, you're Eve. Then I would like to apologize on behalf of you've done it.

SPEAKER_06 13:19

Maybe that's why you want that you want to be the first because you're like, I was the first back then.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

My obsession at a young age for wanting to be the first is hilarious.

SPEAKER_04 13:31

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

It's hilarious, and then the realization that it was like 2001, 2002 because I was coming into like actually understanding that I'm a human being. Sure. And realizing, oh wait, we're 2001, two, three years into life. Like there's no first of anything. I'm just hearing existence, which was like a really wonderful way of like opening myself up to like, okay, so what am I gonna do? Yeah. And the story goes with my family. I have no remember memory of this, but the story goes in my family that when I was around like six or seven, I sat everyone down. And like on like a summer that I used to be. Like family meeting. Family meeting. Yeah, because I used to spend some summers between New York and St. Louis. And so, like the summer that I was in St. Louis, I sat everyone down. Uh-huh. And I was like, I'm gonna be an actor. Done.

SPEAKER_06 14:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

That was it. I have no memory of it. I have no memory. I have memories of me wanting to be everything else, but no memory of the day that I decided to be there.

SPEAKER_06 14:31

You know, it's funny they say that because when I was a kid and I was like going through that whole thing of like, what do I want to be? I was like, I want to be a cartoonist, I want to be a whatever this, this, this. And then I saw, you know, I I went to go see movies a lot, and then I would like me and my brother used to make spoofs of like these movies or whatever. And then after a while, I was just like, I think I want to be all of these things because I actually want to just perform that, you know. Like I I want to be seen as those things. I don't want to actually do them. That's way too much work.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

The work?

SPEAKER_06 15:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

Oh my gosh, like, shout out to everybody, like, shout out to political science major.

SPEAKER_06 15:08

Oh my god, astronauts, doctors, I like I I it is crazy to me, like the amount of information they need to keep at their in at the forefront of their mind.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Insane.

SPEAKER_06 15:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Insane.

SPEAKER_06 15:20

I I'm like, I just give me a script.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

I'll remember those words and that in and of itself is really hard, but I just got a memory where I I remember on those monkey. Do you remember those dome monkey bars that you would like climb up to the top? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and they had just like a bunch of mulch at the bottom, and you never wanted to fall that way first, which I did multiple times. Um, I I just had a memory of me hanging upside down because I knew that that's what you had to do. You had to defy gravity before Alphaba did it. I was like, here comes a wicked joke, it's coming. I know it. I know. Oh, chie girly. No, I love it. I love it. But yeah, I have a memory of me hanging upside down, trying to be an astronaut. Oh my god. Wow, thank you for that.

SPEAKER_06 16:03

You're like, this is part of my training. Yeah. Getting all the blood to rest to your head. I I think this is what I was thinking in kindergarten. Like, you're like, if I can do this, then I can do space. You could do that thing that like spins in a circle really fast. Yeah, yeah. Like the G Force uh thing. Yeah, yeah.

unknown 16:17

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, I was a kid.

SPEAKER_06 16:20

I would throw up.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

But I started as a dancer. Yeah, you would I didn't know that. I did. Were you you you said ballet or it I I did ballet, I did tap, um I did hip hop came later. I did ballet tap, jazz, and then modern flamenco a little bit, then hip-hop came in, then um then African, West African dance specifically, is what they called the class West African dance. Uh-huh. Um but that yeah, I I danced for fourteen, fifteen years of my life. Whoa, I did not know that.

SPEAKER_06 16:56

Yeah, and then I learned something about you today, Devin.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

I was a dance.

SPEAKER_06 17:00

And also the DMV.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

And then the DMV. I was a I was a little, you know, to be ray.

SPEAKER_06 17:06

Was that was that something you wanted to pursue the the dance, or was that something your parents were like, try this out and you just did it for a long time?

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Or I don't I have no memory of starting dance. My mom obviously has a memory of me being asked to leave the class because I was so enamored by the tap shoes that I wasn't focusing. Um, which I mean, start a three-year-old off with tap class.

SPEAKER_06 17:29

I'm sorry, if you put like metal on the bottom of a shoe and tippity tap tap tap, yeah, kids are gonna go crazy.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

I went crazy, apparently. I mean, it's tap shoes. I've never had that before. Thank you very much. Are you a good tapper? I am I was, I am not now. Oh, okay. It is it is very much a skill that you need.

SPEAKER_06 17:47

It's you need to keep up with you need to keep up with. I tried getting into it a couple of years ago because I was like, I think I could be in Book of Mormon, but I need some tap experience. I just I'm like, hire me in any other role that with that doesn't have tap, but like, good lord, it's it's very difficult.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

The the dexterity that you need, but also the flexibility that you need in your ankles. Your ankles need to really be able to move so loosely. Like, what is that? Um I just learned about um what is it, tenderism, that whole thing. I don't I don't know too much about social media, but there was this whole uh thing for the best. Trust me. It's the worst. Like the the idea of like the meat falling off the bone that's that's kind of what your ankles have to be. They have to be like really meat. They have to be falling off the bone. Because then you're able to like move. It's it's crazy. But yeah, but it's true.

SPEAKER_06 18:41

Like, I have I guess I have a lot of tension in my ankle because I would try to do what they were saying, and I'm just like, I don't know that I can do it.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

It was hard. I am a shuffle, changed, girly, and I can get there, but now I don't think I've tapped in years. So now it would take a minute, but I was strictly on ballet and jazz and modern for so long that my whole ankles are.

SPEAKER_06 19:03

I was gonna say that's a lot of different types of movement. Like ballet in particular is so it's such a it's so hard on the body.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

I mean, I love ballet.

SPEAKER_06 19:14

Yeah, she was smiling just then, not not throwing up. But it's like it sounds like you did so many different things. And so you grew up in the DMV. You got your driver's license from the DMV.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

I didn't get the DMV. It did get it we don't call it the DMV. Oh, I think yeah, I don't know what we call it because I didn't get my driver's license in DC. I didn't.

SPEAKER_06 19:39

The rest of the country calls it the DMV. The rest of the country in the DMV.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

In the DMV, we don't. I think we call it like M something. It starts with an M Metro train. I don't know. Oh, interesting. But we do not call it the DMV. Because we're the DMV.

SPEAKER_05 19:51

Yeah, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

It when I went to North Carolina, which is where I got my license, yeah. Um, shout out to North Carolina, where you have to answer a question about do cows have the right of way to get your license? Really? Yes. Do they? I didn't get that question right. You're like, there's a reason I don't have my driver's license. I got a 90% on the written test. That's good enough.

SPEAKER_06 20:15

You'll hit a couple cows, but you'll you're good.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Move out the way.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

That's all I can say.

SPEAKER_06 20:20

I love it. Did you go to school in North Carolina?

SPEAKER_02 20:25

I did. I did.

SPEAKER_06 20:26

Perfect segue.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

I went to North Carolina School of the Arts.

SPEAKER_06 20:29

North Carolina School of the Arts is excellent. It is. It is a fantastic uh theater program. Great program. I saw a really wonderful production of Henry Five there. Uh really? Yeah. Or yeah, Henry, was it Henry Five? Yeah. Henry, no, no, no. Henry Four anyway. One of the Henries. Wes Taylor was in it, and he played Falstaff.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Yeah. And he is incredible. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna ask if you saw that production because I think that's the last time you and CSA had done um Henry before I graduated. Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_06 21:00

My my one of my closest friends in high school. Amazing. Oh my god, he's such such a talented, such talented human being. Um, but uh yeah, I was there because my friend's brother went there as a designer and he designed that set, and it was like a really interesting set. And now he works for Disney.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Amazing.

SPEAKER_06 21:19

He designed Toy Storyland.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

No way. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 21:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

I love it.

SPEAKER_06 21:25

Brian Weiniger, that's his name.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Thank you, Ron.

SPEAKER_06 21:27

And Garrett was his it was his brother, my friend.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Oh my god. Toy Storyland is amazing.

SPEAKER_06 21:32

I haven't been there yet. I want to go so badly. I've heard it's incredible. Amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

The next the next land I need designed is Monsters Inc. Land. Ooh, that'd be a good one. Because I mean the roller coaster for the doors alone. Hell yeah. Yeah, needs to be done. Yeah, that would be very much we would like that now as a double.

SPEAKER_06 21:48

And there'd be so many opportunities to have like you're just walking along and you can open doors and it's like different people's rooms or like different places. Oh, come on, Disney College. We got ideas.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

We have ideas, please. Hey yes. Hey guys. I'm only asking for a hundred. We're not set designers in any way. Not at all. No. We got ideas. I am 100% down, not the girly to call to set design, but I do have great designer friends. The design program at UNCSA is like stellar. Yeah. And I still don't know anyone that comes out of that program who was not not only immensely talented, but immensely gifted at being able to follow through.

SPEAKER_03 22:29

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

It's crazy. I yeah, I have so much respect for the design program. For all of you in CSA, really.

SPEAKER_06 22:37

That's why I went there. Did you did you like your time there?

SPEAKER_02 22:40

I had a time.

SPEAKER_06 22:42

Had a time.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

I had a time.

SPEAKER_06 22:44

Ah, okay. So it was it was a little half and half, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

Yeah, and that was mainly because not that it was like awful. No, sure, sure. I would never not tell someone to go there. Um, absolutely go there. Um I went during a transitionary period, sure, which is why I needed to go to grad school. Because I I want to say my freshman year was when we were supposed to get text analysis class. Yeah. But the teacher that we had that taught text analysis for years was gravely sick. Oh no. So then we didn't get text analysis class.

SPEAKER_06 23:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

And then we got like a little workshop, which is not a good idea.

SPEAKER_06 23:19

But that's not the same as like, yeah, that's not the same as having yearly classes.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Like being able to really learn how to excavate. Yeah. I never say that word right, but you know.

SPEAKER_06 23:28

No, I think that's that was perfectly used. Yeah. Yes. Excavate. Like dig up what's really in the text.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

We don't we didn't get that training. Um at least I didn't feel like my class did, or at least I didn't feel like I did. Sure. But yeah, because it was such a transitionary time. Yeah. I realized like when I was graduating, I was like, I'm missing some things. Yeah. And if I want to be the actor that I want to be, the artist that I really want to be, I do need to get more training somewhere else, whether that be like HB Studios in New York or if I actually go to a grad school program. Yeah. I I need more. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:03

Yeah. Did you end up going to HB Studios at any point? I did not.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

No, no, no. I came, I graduated in 2018. Oh, okay. And then took a year, uh did some um at UNCSA is not a musical theater. I I will say this, it's not a musical theater program. Sure. But we have great musical theater teachers. Oh, great. And therefore we have great people that graduate from UNCSA who are great at musical theaters.

SPEAKER_06 24:27

I mean Wes Taylor, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

Wes Taylor, Isaac Powell, Rebecca Naomi Jones. Nice. Like they're all amazing. And I was geared up to be one of those people because they were like, I literally came in, they're like, you sing. You sing. Interesting.

SPEAKER_06 24:41

So but was musicals like the the the thing you were looking to do?

SPEAKER_02 24:45

No, I noticed that I was in my family can sing. No I sing. It's an anomaly. No one in my family sings. Yeah. Oh, interesting. So I did not think that I could sing. Yeah. And then even then, when I I did choir in high school, I was just like, oh, okay. I didn't really know that I was like a good singer until I got to UNCSA. And the entire we do this thing, you know, like sharings. Like we do it. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. And we were supposed to do a monologue, which I was like, okay with. And then a song, which I sang pretty ambitiously, Don't Raid on My Parade. Oh, hell yeah. Just hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Because I was a gleek. Just let I mean God.

SPEAKER_06 25:30

I love it. Yeah, that was a huge song for a little while. They sang it on Glee. Yeah. So you gotta do it.

SPEAKER_05 25:37

Rachel Barry. She gets it.

SPEAKER_06 25:38

But I did the same stuff though. I did when I was at a Delphi university, my undergrad, I did the same thing where I was like when we had um we we had like uh a little musical theater class that they had like sort of devised for us because there was a uh a group of us in our class who were who liked musical theater. And every time Glee came out, I was just doing whatever song was on there because I was just like, it's in my head. Yeah, and they do it well. They do it well. I want to see what if I can do with it.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

And they gave us a good range of voice ranges, vocal ranges, yeah, like tones and such. So I could listen to someone like Santana and be like, rest in peace. Yeah, my God. I could listen to Santana and say, like, oh, I can sing, I can sing Don't Rain on My Parade in Santana's voice, except I didn't know um the words to say that. So I just sang it in the original key, and that is when I learned via everyone else's response that I could sing Babs. Kinda. I dare not even. Um, but I left UNCSA as a musical theater girly. I did a year of musical theater around the country, really. And then I ended up at a dinner theater in Indiana. Oh wow. Yeah. Don't sound too excited. I mean, it was dinner theater is tough. It was the turning point for me, Vida. It was the moment we were singing hairspray, and we're in the middle of I Know Where I've Been.

SPEAKER_06 27:16

Oh shit, okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

And we're like deep in it. And if y'all don't know what the structure of dinner theater is, it's you come in as a guest and you get dinner first. And then the show starts about like 45 minutes to an hour after you've had your dinner, right?

SPEAKER_06 27:32

Wow, is it really that long after? I guess I guess the clinking of stuff might interrupt the show or something.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

I I'm not paying attention, but like you get dinner first, and then like maybe about maybe 30 minutes to an hour after. I really don't know the timeline. Um, but it's not either.

SPEAKER_05 27:47

It's not your responsibility.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

It's not, it's not my responsibility. But you the the thing is, the thing that I'm trying to drive is that you don't immediately start the show while they're eating. There has been some time because we're singing I know where I've been. Oh, okay. And I'm I'm literally in the middle of there's a ruh. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:09

So it's such a powerful song. It's like really supposed to hit home. It is the core theme of the musical.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

The core theme of the musical. And I look out, and there is this rotund man sitting there sawing aggressively at his stake.

SPEAKER_06 28:27

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

If you don't know Hairspray, I know where I've been is like close to the penultimate number. It is deep in the musical. It is not the first act, it is deep in the second act. And so he is sawing aggressively at his stake, which I know now is probably frigid.

SPEAKER_06 28:43

I was just gonna say, if you're saying it started 45 minutes, they start the show 45 minutes, that means his steak has just been chilling there.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

And he's in the front, like right there. I can see him, and I can see him like oh god.

SPEAKER_06 28:58

Oh my god, that's one of the sounds I did. So sorry. And it's recorded forever. So sorry.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

But he's like chewing, and his kid is kind of like getting up and running around the table, and I literally am singing, and I go, This can't be my life.

SPEAKER_06 29:14

You said that out loud.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

I said it to myself.

SPEAKER_06 29:17

I would have loved if you just stopped the whole show. You're like, this can't be my life.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

No, but I literally I said it to myself and I was like, We all get that moment. Yeah, that was it. And then I very shortly after got a vocal hemorrhage and had to perform on top of it because of my contract. And I I was on a non-et contract at the time, so I had to sing on top of it. The worst. And because I sung on top of a hemorrhage, I damaged my voice. And then me as a musical theater girly, the career not ended, but because of the my voice literally changed.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

And so I was like, oh, I don't know how to sing the same anymore. And so I just kind of put the musical theater dreams to bed for a little bit. Sure. But then was like, I'm gonna go to grad school because no matter what, there are other ways to tell a story. Yeah. I can I can write one, I can direct, I can act, I can do whatever I need to do to make sure that the truth gets out somehow. So, grad school, I went to Williamstown.

SPEAKER_06 30:21

You did Williamstown too? I did you? I did in 2011. Oh, really? I was an apprentice. Wait, when you did it, me too. Oh yeah? So you've been through that's so funny. I had Lucas Iverson here uh just a couple of days ago. Yeah, yeah. Uh and we were talking about Williamstown. Oh, so many more people that I than I realize have have gone there and been a part of the apprenticeship. Uh it was well, they don't have the apprenticeship. They don't, rest in peace of the apprenticeship. Um but that it's a it was a special. I don't want to call it a special hell, but but kind of was there was a lot you had to do as an apprentice. Yes. And that's why they don't have it anymore because it was it was a lot.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

They um I will be very honest and say, God favored me. I um I got a full riot scholarship. Um thank you. Good for you. I didn't I didn't have to pay that thing. Yeah, the apprentices had to pay 5,000, I think it was.

SPEAKER_06 31:14

I did.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

John, I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_06 31:17

I will say it was worth it. I did I met a lot of really nice people there, and I got to sing in the cabaret, which was. Oh, you did cabaret too? Yes. Yeah, yeah. That was that was the the saving grace of it for that makes the cabaret. I had a blast with the cabaret.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

Yeah. Um that makes the apprentice, that made the apprenticeship. If you weren't in the cabaret, it was really fun, then I have no idea what that was like for you.

SPEAKER_06 31:36

But because the opportunities to perform were kind of like slim. Slim. Yeah. Like you had to audition for everything. Yes. It wasn't like you you got classes and stuff, which were were good and they were fun, but like there was without that, those other things, I was so grateful to have the cabaret because it was like I get to do this every week, I'll have something to do.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Um otherwise, I I won't say that I won't say cavalierly that I don't know what that was like for them. I I have friends who are apprentice apprentices who like I would see going back to back on like overnights, yeah. Literally laying the overlap. The fucking overnight. Yeah. There's a picture of me somewhere sleeping on the one overnight that I did while we were laying the floor for um this is actually how I met Jesse Tyler Ferguson for the play. We were laying the carpet for that play, and I fell asleep. Ah, the one and only overnight that I'd ever get and and everyone else around was like, Devin, come on. We've been on like four or five overnights, and I was like, I'm trying. But also, you're getting paid for it.

SPEAKER_06 32:48

Or were these the other apprentices?

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Oh, I see, so and then the people that were getting paid were like Devin, come on. And I was like, I I tried my very best, but then they it's hard, and then the next day they put me on scenic freaking morning or some crazy literal overnight, yeah, yeah. And then sometimes the schedule would have been like overnight to a 10 a.m. class.

SPEAKER_06 33:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

And that's insane.

SPEAKER_06 33:11

Yeah. And I never really understood the uh the why they did an overnight. I think it was just because they like their schedules were so packed, yeah, that it was the only way to get it done. But I was like, just have a day in between. A day, really? I'm sure that would have been fine.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Really, just just for them to rest, which made the parties at Williamstown even more crazier because that was like the only time tourists.

SPEAKER_06 33:35

Well, see, there's the thing. I wasn't a party person back then, and not really a party person now, but I wasn't drinking or anything.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

You're not.

SPEAKER_06 33:43

You're like, you're not. You really aren't. Uh but it's the truth. Um, I if I'm not in bed by 11, I'm I'm mad.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

And funnily enough, like, I love being inside my house. I will only go out for a birthday or like a play. You have to convince me to go out. Otherwise, I'm in Sim City.

SPEAKER_06 34:02

It's like how worth it.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Sim City? I'm playing The Sims. I love it.

SPEAKER_06 34:06

You need to talk to Gillian Bolt. She also loves The Sims. Really? Yes. Oh my god. We were playing The Sims like in our third year together as like just like a crappy sorry, Sims, but like there's an app version of The Sims that we were playing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

No, the computer is much better.

SPEAKER_06 34:22

After a while, I was just like, I have to stop this.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Um it is taking away my ability to live my life. But yeah. I love that. You play Sims. I love it.

SPEAKER_06 34:31

I love it. Um, so so you you went to NYU. Um, you got some great successes right out of school. Yeah. Because you went and did a show with the public, yes? Jordan's, correct? Yes, yeah. Yeah, yeah. How was that experience?

SPEAKER_02 34:43

That was amazing. And I did, I loved my time at NYU. I oh yeah, do you want to talk more about NYU, please? I mean, I I will say very briefly because I think Jim was right. I know Jim was right when he said like sometime Jim called her.

SPEAKER_06 34:58

He's mentioned maybe every single episode, with maybe the exception of the last one I just did. But because he's amazing. He's incredible. And he's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

He's such a gift to the training. I I wanna I I thank him honestly a lot when I think about the osmosis that he he mentioned in first year. He was like, listen, you're not gonna get it. Yeah. And then one day you'll get it. And so I think around like second year, despite what I think other people might think, I understood other people meaning the teachers. I I understood what he meant by like you're not gonna get it. And it was like a slow release of me trying to be perfect and trying to be this idea of what um I needed to be in order to achieve my dream.

SPEAKER_06 35:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:42

And that just like that slow release of that into realizing now in 2026 that's 2026. It's 2026. That I'm like, oh, now I get it. Yeah, okay. Okay. I'm I'm here, I'm here and I'm present, and now I understand what Mark was talking about with just observing life, yeah, and how that teaches you way more than you know you ever could think that it would. And now, like just sitting here going, like, oh great, yeah, yeah, I can just breathe, and that teaches me a lot. I can just put a sometimes I'll still do that Mark exercise where I'll put a camera up and I'll just record myself doing something. Oh nice and just forget that I'm being recorded and then I'll watch it back like months later when I'm gonna do that. Oh, fascinating.

SPEAKER_06 36:29

I don't know that we ever did that. That that that must be maybe something he developed through the pandemic sort of uh teaching that we had.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

It was because it was uh an another way of doing the um exercise.

SPEAKER_06 36:41

Oh, the bar talk?

SPEAKER_02 36:42

Not the bar talk, the first thing that we do with him is. Oh, the toolbox. Toolbox, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 36:46

Toolboxes also.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

And how to like toolbox myself, which is interesting really yeah, because you I I learned so much about just like observing like the moment that I I realized that I forgot the camera was there and then I kind of relaxed versus like when I was there's a camera in front of me.

SPEAKER_06 37:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:03

But that is something you have to get used to, uh as especially if you want to do film and television. Yeah. Um, and honestly, we because we both went through the program during a time during the pandemic.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

The pandemic classes.

SPEAKER_06 37:16

Which yeah, which really changed the curriculum of the program a lot. Um, and there were some classes that we had to do online. Um my god, the fur when we first went into it, it was hell. It was utter hell. Um, I hated it.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

You all pioneered that.

SPEAKER_06 37:33

I don't know if we pioneered more than like we were just like every day felt like how do we do the most with the restrictions we have available to us? And each year it got better because the world was learning to live with COVID. Yeah. Um, but I would that's but all this to say that the amount of time that we had to spend on camera did get me into a headspace of just forgetting that it was there. Yeah. Um this is the perfect segue into you you did Godfather of Harlem. I did Godfather of Harlem. Oh, wait, I wanted to mention this because someone else that I'm uh I interviewed on here, JJ O'Neill. Yeah, was uh he was I never had him as a teacher, but he was one of the teachers at Adelphi University, and I interviewed him for the show. And I know you had several scenes with him. He's like a horribly racist cop. Um and uh how was your time on Godfather? Yeah, he's such a sweetheart. That's the thing.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

It would go cut, he'd be like, I'm so sorry. Are you okay? Yeah. And I would be like, he's the best. It's fine. Yeah, yeah. We also had the experience in the floor, too, and it'd be like, Can I say this word? If it says it in the script, please just say it. Yeah. I mean we've all read the read the script.

SPEAKER_06 38:43

Um, we've agreed who here.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

Yeah, I know you're not a bad person. Yeah. I know that you don't regularly go skipping around going like, Yes, today I'm gonna be a bad person. I'm gonna say terrible words. I'm gonna say terrible words and do terrible things, and this makes me happy. I pray that you're not that person when you're entering an artistic space. Um, but he's he's so sweet. And I loved all of my scenes with him. Yeah, he's so sweet.

SPEAKER_06 39:10

It's speaking of this, because I think this is an interesting conversation, uh, then that notion of like when characters have to say racist things or say things that are, you know, not socially acceptable and difficult. Um do you do you as an actress need that other person to come up like JJ did and be like, I'm so sorry? Or do you find it's like we've accepted that we're doing this script, so I think just continue professionally, or what?

SPEAKER_02 39:37

I think for me, and and it was something that I had to learn through grad school. I found like at first I got really annoyed by it.

SPEAKER_06 39:44

People saying I'm so sorry, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Because I was like, well, also to be fair, we were in the middle of like 2020 post everything. And I was in a headspace of like burn it, burn it all to the ground. Yeah. I I I think we started our training there. That's yeah, that's where my class started. And I think everyone in my class um slowly came to the realization that I was very much a burn it all to the ground person. Uh-huh. And it just it just got intense for me after. So for a while, I was very much in that headspace of like, I'm sorry, I don't need it. I just I believe in your humanity and I believe in your ability to separate between character, story, and yourself. And now I've learned that some people need to do that so that they can ensure the character, so they can begin that separation process. So for me as an artist and for me as a person, I've learned that it's fruitful, but also something I want to make uh uh I want to allow for the the space to be safe for people to do what they need to do in order to tell the story as truthfully as I can. So like a lot less about me now, which is which is fun, you know? It's it's a lot less about what I need in particular to to tell a very difficult story, and more about like okay, what do you also need? How what do we need together and how can we move forward? Like, I I know what I need. Yeah, but I don't know this other person. Yeah. And so what we're about to do is very difficult. Yeah, it makes us uncomfortable, it might make the audience divisive, it might cause conversations. A la shaw when he wrote Mrs. Warren's Profession and the entire theater got burned down. Um, I'm like, it might do that. So how do we protect each other? Yeah. Like how do we hold space for each other? And so I think, yeah, that is that's an excellent no, that's an excellent answer.

SPEAKER_06 41:41

I think that's very intriguing. It's like knowing thyself, and it's like, well, yeah, if this is what this person needs, then that's what they need. Yeah. I I But I also understand the other side of it too. I'm just being like, it feels like maybe you it's labor on your part to be like it is fine.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Yeah, it it did at the time, but that's because the time was so um laborious and it was charged, and I'm I'm an empath, and I I wanted to be um when I was indecisive about whether I was gonna actually be an actor um from external forces and internal forces as well. I was just like, oh okay, maybe I will follow a law career because that's what I had been setting on the side, and yeah, I was either gonna go into environmental law or civil rights law or like international law. It was like one of the three. And I I it like reinvigorated that spirit that I had.

SPEAKER_03 42:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

And I was just doing all this research and I was going down rabbit holes after rabbit holes, and I everything was like awakening for me in a new way. Yeah. Because before it was just like studied, but now I was really living it.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

And so I was just like, I I don't it's like it's I'm gonna butcher the quote from For Color Girls, but it's like one thing I don't need is another apology. I did not need another apology. I was like, I get it. Yeah, I I can I can tell when someone and I I do believe this, I I can tell when someone means it, when they mean to be mean spirited and when they just it just happens. Yeah. And and then it's becomes like a whole thing, and then I have to take care of you, and then I'm like, no, baby, baby.

SPEAKER_06 43:20

Yeah, that's when it's like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 43:21

Yeah, and I I didn't have the ability or capacity at that time to do that. Yeah. Now I do. Nice. So now I feel like I'm a better partner. I live at 23 years old.

SPEAKER_06 43:36

No, no, no. It's hey, we're all growing and learning. I had a camp counselor when I was younger that, and I I still think about this. This is like so long ago, um, like a solid 20 years ago. Um, but he would always say if we were doing something that he didn't like uh and we would apologize, he would always he would almost always say, Don't say sorry, just do better.

SPEAKER_02 43:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:00

I'm like fair.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

Yeah. Fair. I also I also grew up being taught that. Yeah. Don't say sorry unless you mean it.

SPEAKER_06 44:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Really. Yeah. Yeah. And and so you kind of learn how to either say I'm sorry for social races.

SPEAKER_03 44:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:14

Or say I'm sorry with the intent of actually changing the behavior behind the I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_06 44:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:21

And yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:22

And in our instance, it was us continuingly to do the thing that annoyed him. And we just kept saying sorry. And so he was like, I know you don't mean it. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe you do, but you're not learning from it.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

Yeah. And there's the there's the the levels of awareness of like, I know that some people say I'm sorry and they genuinely mean it, but they haven't learned the lesson yet. So now they're like, because I I've been there. So like I'll say, like, I'm sorry, but I haven't learned that lesson, and then I do it again. I'm like, no, but I I am sorry. You're still sorry. Like, I'm I'm not less sorry. Yeah. It just becomes a cycle until you finally get to a point where like, uh, oh, this oh, they don't want me to do that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:02

That thing they said 15 times.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

Um so sorry, mother. I get it.

SPEAKER_06 45:09

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

You wanted me to thaw the chicken. I'm so sorry. I get it. But yeah, yeah, yeah. Godfather was a great experience. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:17

Please, if you want to let's talk a little about that before her final segment.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

I remembered the segment, uh, the the thing that got us on the tangent. Oh, please. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:26

Yeah. It all started from JJ. It all started from JJ. It's still JJ's fault, no.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

No, he um he had to punch me in one scene. Oh shit, did he really? He did. It was so funny. Because one day, like one take rather, um, he punched me in the back. Yeah. And then he was like, oh, did I actually hit you?

SPEAKER_06 45:46

And I was like, no, I'm I'm sure I'm just a great actress.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

I'm I'm good at what I do, I think. I I like to think that I am, I hope. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 45:56

Was that something on the day that they had to like that they just put together? Or did you have like some sort of like on the day, you know. Really? Just block it on the day. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

On the day. I'm on at least on the TV set it was like on the day. Sure. Same thing actually with Crystal Lake as the whole on the day. Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 46:11

Oh, and you and you filmed Crystal Lake already? Can you you can't talk about it?

SPEAKER_02 46:16

I can tell you that if you are a horror fan, there will be rivers of blood.

SPEAKER_06 46:20

Oh exclusive. A WCA exclusive. Rivers of blood in Crystal Lake.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

If you like Friday the 13th, if you love horror, if that's like your your genre and you love that, I I believe that all fans will be pleasantly surprised. Oh, I'm excited. Excited, and I think you'll love the series and what Brad and all the other writers on the team were able to do with Pam's story, because it followed this spoils nothing, but it follows Pam's um story before the uh initial movie. Gotcha. So what they've been able to do in terms of expanding Pam's story and expanding the world of Crystal Lake is truly amazing and inventive, and I'm in awe of what they were able to do with this franchise that people love. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:06

There are so many Friday the 13th movies, yes.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

And I I didn't watch any of them because I admittedly am a I love blood, but I am a scaredy cat. I am a serial killer down girl. Like I know all about them, but I am a scaredy cat. Yeah, yeah. And so I don't watch all the horror films that when I was cast in this, I was like, okay, well, I should go watch some of this to get a sense of it. Like I should watch Halloween, I should watch Friday the 13th, just so I can understand the genre and get a better appreciation for it. And I have a huge appreciation for it. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:43

It's very difficult to make a good horror film. It is. That's like ri truly scary. Yeah. Because there's so many tropes that we're used to now that like sometimes you can sort of uh you can guess when they're gonna happen. Like if a jump scare is gonna happen or something.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

I get jump scared easily, so you're you're gonna, it's an easy target.

SPEAKER_06 48:01

A loud, abrupt thing is always gonna be like god damn it.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I went in the editor's room because the um Brad had Brad is the showrunner. He invited me to the editor's room and we were just watching. Cool. And it was it's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

And um just watching, and there was a jump scare, and I was like, ah!

SPEAKER_02 48:20

Cool, we're gonna keep that. Yeah, he literally goes, Well, we know that's effective.

SPEAKER_06 48:29

I haven't done deeper questions for a while. I didn't do I don't think I did one all of last season because I was trying new stuff. It's guess what, folks? It's some of the same questions from the first season because I didn't update anything, but I think they are still good questions. Pick a number one through eight. Five. Five. This is a classic. Oh god. This is a good one. This is a good one. I I would say this was this is one of the easier? No, I don't know. I'll just say it. What does making it look like to you? And do you fear failure in a business where so few make it, quote unquote, in the traditional understanding, i.e. money, fame, yeah, what have you. Yeah, yeah. So essentially the question is what does success in this industry look like to you? Or what would it look like to you?

SPEAKER_02 49:23

I had a very clear image of what it looked like when I was younger. Yeah. Um, and then my mom who love you, but I will admit did not always want me to be an actor. Sure. Um, I don't know if you remember that, but I definitely remember that mom. Um anytime I said I wanted to be famous, because that's what my idea was of making it, uh, she'd be like, yeah, but famous for what? And that was always the the question that followed. And I would always like go because I knew that she knew what I meant. And when I was younger, I thought it was her questioning what I wanted to do with my life.

SPEAKER_05 50:07

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 50:07

And now as I'm older, it I realize it was a prompt and uh and uh desire for me, an invitation rather for me to really visualize and define what I wanted to do. Absolutely. So when I was younger, it was like Disney Channel, duh.

SPEAKER_06 50:27

Yeah, duh. Who didn't? I wanted to be on one of those Disney Channel shows. I wanted to be on all that.

SPEAKER_02 50:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:32

Remember all that?

SPEAKER_02 50:33

I do. I wanted to all that. I wanted to do that so Raven. Hell yeah. That's so Raven's show. My entire personality was shaped by Raven Simone, um Raven Simone Doctor Who.

SPEAKER_06 50:45

Um you ever watched Smart Guy?

SPEAKER_02 50:47

I didn't actually watch it.

SPEAKER_06 50:48

Smart Guy was, oh my god, one of my favorites. It's a good movie now. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 50:52

I I watched it now, but I didn't when I was younger. Uh, who was the oh um bouquet Residence Lady of the House speaking of hyphen. Oh, I've never even heard of that one. Oh, it's keeping up appearances, it's a British television show. Oh, okay, okay, got you.

SPEAKER_06 51:07

I thought it was still Disney.

SPEAKER_02 51:08

Oh no, no, you were like, what is this?

SPEAKER_06 51:10

I was like, that's a Disney one?

SPEAKER_02 51:12

It's a 90s British sitcom. Oh, keeping up appearances. Okay, yes, I've definitely heard that one. It's it's iconic and I loved it, but I I wanted to do that. That was my idea of making it. And then 2018, actually, right after I graduated undergrad, I packed up all my stuff. This is in June, Tony Sunday. I had gotten tickets to Tony Sunday. Tony Sunday. Who's Tony Sunday? Tony, like the Tony's. It was the Tony Sunday. No, you don't know who Tony is? John! Tony Sunday.

SPEAKER_05 51:42

Tony! I know who's Tony Sunday.

SPEAKER_06 51:47

I was just picturing this hunk. Oh, Tony Sunday. You know Tony Sunday? Yeah, he's a total he's a total ice cream.

SPEAKER_02 51:56

Ice cream? That sounds good.

SPEAKER_06 51:58

Um Tony Sunday. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

I yeah, it was Tony's Sun, Tony's Sunday. And long story short, I I tell the story to to sh answer the question, but long story short, I had packed up my stuff from North Carolina. My mom was in one car, I was in my my car. Okay. Um, that I loved ever so much, and we were in Virginia driving up to New York so that I could because I had to move out that day. Yeah, yeah. Um, so that I can make it to the Tony's by that night. And everything was fine, but like very, very randomly, um, I was driving and someone cut me off, and I ended up in a like a near fatal car accident. Like it was very bad. Holy shit. Um, like the car wrapped around a tree. The engine was a- It wasn't your car. Oh my god. The engine was touching the trunk, and I remember waking, kind of waking up to that. Wait, I'm sorry, I'm just processing what you just said.

SPEAKER_06 52:55

Engine was touching the trunk.

SPEAKER_02 52:57

Yeah, like like the car was literally wrapped around it.

SPEAKER_06 53:00

Yeah, I know. That's whoa, that is terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

I had my Tony's dress, I had two dresses for the Tony's in the backseat. I had like all my precious, like the things that mattered most to me in the car, and then my mom had her the other stuff. And she was exits ahead. Exits ahead. Because she's a fast driver, and I am a very much speed limit driver. Because you are one thing I know about Virginia, you are not gonna give me a ticket in Virginia. They love to give tickets, and you are not gonna give me one. So I was driving very much speed limit, and I just remember waking up in that moment and going through the initial scan of like, okay, can I move my appendages? Can I move my like my fingers, my toes, that or the night? And then I realized, like, oh okay, I am alive, I just gotta get out of here. Yeah. And then there was a thought that came across that like maybe I'm not, and that that was it.

SPEAKER_06 53:51

And you were in some sort of like limbo of just like watching, some sort of ethereal space.

SPEAKER_02 53:56

Yeah, I literally was like, Well, that's if that was my life, and this was when I was 21. So like yeah, 21. So if I was like, if that was my life, I didn't do anything that I wanted to do when I was younger, slash I didn't like what I did do. So then obviously, end of that story, I am physically fine. That's also why I stopped dancing.

SPEAKER_06 54:25

Or I'm talking to a ghost.

SPEAKER_02 54:27

Oh shit. That's the horror story.

SPEAKER_06 54:29

That's actually across the lake.

SPEAKER_02 54:30

She merged too. No, but I like that's actually why I had to stop dancing because I had to relearn how to walk and everything was a whole thing. Oh goodness. But when I came to and I realized, like, okay, other tangent. I did make it to the Tonies that night. Did you? I did. Oh my god. I did. I did. Um, I got to the hospital and I was like, I'm trying to get to the Tonies. And I think they thought I was nominated.

SPEAKER_06 54:56

This is not the Tonies. This is the hospital.

SPEAKER_02 54:58

They were like, you're not okay. And I think one of the doctors thought I was nominated for the Tonies. So they put me up and they bumped me ahead of every other thing that was happening, and they rushed me through to then get me. I somebody, I don't know. I think it was either my mom or like someone, somebody paid for me to get on a flight from Virginia to New York, and then I got ready in the car. All of this is adrenaline. It's one hell of a natural drug shit because the next day I could not walk.

SPEAKER_06 55:25

I was gonna say, wait, I'm like, you had the we learned to walk, but you were fine there. I was fine.

SPEAKER_02 55:30

Yeah. I mean, they did wheelchair me around, sure, but the next day I couldn't walk. Oh my god. Couldn't walk. All of it was adrenaline. It is one hell of a thing. If do like absolutely believe it. But um, I then realized, like, oh I just want to be honest. That's what making it would be for me. Yeah. I just wanna I just wanna like what I've done. Yeah. That's it. I want to like the stories that I put out. I want those stories and the the characters that I embody to move the needle forward. Um, it doesn't, I don't have to be the first anymore. Sure. I don't have the first to have to be the first to do anything. Well, you know what? I just have to be. Yeah. And that's what making it became for me. Um I am I do like materialistic things, so I do want money. Yeah. Um but I I no longer need to be like a billionaire. I just want to have money to be able to live comfortably here, um, be able to provide a life for my family, not be burdened down by the lack of money or the abundance of it. I just want to have enough that I'm fine, that my children are fine, that my grandchild children will be fine. I want to be able to like be a part of integral pieces of theater and film. Um I want to make people laugh. I want to make people leave a theater and go like, oh that that touched me here. I just that that's what making it means. Like if somebody ten years after I pass away goes, Oh, do you s did you see that film that Devin did where she did X, Y, and Z and and I really like she really helped me change the way that I approach myself. Yeah, then I'm fine.

SPEAKER_06 57:23

That's what matters.

SPEAKER_02 57:24

That is literally the only thing that matters. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. But also, if I end up on Disney Channel, little Devin would be very happy. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. She'd be ecstatic. She'd be like, You saw the mouse? What?

SPEAKER_06 57:40

That's that's wonderful, Devin. But you know what? You are the first person to probably get in a car crash and then go to a hospital and say you need to be at the Tony's, someone bought you a ticket, then you got to the Tony's that night. John, I'm actually crazy. You might be the first person ever where that has happened.

SPEAKER_02 58:03

Yeah, I'm actually crazy. I've I've I've come to yes. And then I will say that we all have our own special brand of crazy, and mine is highly ambitious with very little understanding of the limitations that I should be working in, such as maybe go through the CAT scan again. Maybe just let them look at your brain to make sure you're fine. Um, maybe just sit down, breathe for a second. Yeah. I see if you can walk. See see if you can walk.

SPEAKER_06 58:40

Like truly walk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Devin, thank you so much for coming on to this show. This was so much fun. It was so lovely to get to know you better. It's a weird thing on the floor. You don't really get I know. It was such a good on the but when you're on the floor, you don't really get the time to really get to know everybody. Like in other classes. Yeah. It's a lot harder to get to know people. Yeah. Um, because you just go, go, go all the time.

SPEAKER_02 59:06

And we we went to school at a time when we literally weren't allowed to have a class, like multiple on the floor.

SPEAKER_06 59:11

Yeah, exactly. We weren't even on the same floor at the same time. Never. Um, but this is so lovely, Devin. Uh, what do you want to plug? Anything else?

SPEAKER_02 59:19

I mean, we've um oh yeah. Uh yeah. If tune in to not even if, tune in to Crystal Lake. When does it come out?

SPEAKER_06 59:26

Oh tune in. Oh, you don't know yet?

SPEAKER_02 59:29

I have no idea. Oh I have no idea. It is coming out. It will be coming out. Yeah, later in 2026. There you go. It is coming out, and you all will love it. It's a fantastic job. I'm I'm obsessed with the cast and obsessed with the writers, the editor. Like everyone did a fantastic job on the show, and it's it's great. I'm so excited, Devin. Really is great.

SPEAKER_06 59:50

Oh my god. Thank you so much again, Devin. Thank you. All right, y'all. That's this week's episode. We'll catch you next week.

SPEAKER_01 59:58

Bye. Bye.