NOLA Film Scene with Tj & Plaideau
A podcast about acting, filmmaking, and the improv scene in New Orleans.
NOLA Film Scene with Tj & Plaideau
Susan LaBrecque: From Choreographer to Actor
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Susan Lebrecht's creative journey defies conventional artistic paths, weaving together dance, choreography, and acting into a rich tapestry of expression. Her earliest artistic memories revolve around musical theater and watching West Side Story as a child, sparking a passion that would evolve throughout her life.
Voiced by Brian Plaideau
Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999, specializing in personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously. If you have been injured, Jana is offering a free consultation AND a reduced fee for fellow members of the Lousiana film industry, and she will handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at janamccaffery@gmail.com or 504-837-1234. Tell Her NOLA Film Scene sent you
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Meeting Susan Lebrecht
Speaker 1Hi, I'm Susan Lebrecht. I'm an actor, dancer, choreographer, mom of a teenager and I'm stupid excited but a little nervous to be on NOLA Film Scene.
Speaker 2Welcome to NOLA Film Scene with TJ Plato. I'm TJ and, as always, I'm Plato.
Speaker 3Yay, yay, excellent Susan, we're so excited to have you on. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you. You are a dancer and a choreographer. I don't want to ask you how long you've been doing that, but you can, I mean really you can. Was that like a childhood?
Speaker 1thing you started dancing in childhood and and just kept going with it. I yes, I didn't start formally taking classes until I was the ripe old age of 13, which is kind of late, honestly, as dancers go as far as ballet technique. I had been in musical theater in our community so I had had some dance training just within, you know, in Annie and shows like that as a little kid. So I always wanted to. I was always fascinated by especially musical you know. I remember the first time I saw West Side Story on TV I was like that is what I want to do. So, yeah, that really was one of my first inspirations.
Speaker 3That's always been a weakness for me is dancing and seeing everything that goes into the choreography and the timing, and it seems very challenging.
Speaker 1I honestly love it. I don't know if you know anything about this, but I grew up in this activity called Drum and Duel Corps, which do you know? Anything about Okay.
Early Dance Career and Influences
Speaker 1I do, starting at the age of seven. So I kind of had the best instructors in the area I grew up in Boston or right outside of Boston and it was sort of the birthplace of all that. So, like I had the most experienced choreographers and instructors, did it and what they did and and watch them and learn from them. And then I still teach it. I still teach marching band, the color guard, after all these years it's been like 40 something years, so, um, but I love that.
Speaker 1I love there's a, there's a creative way to, you know, get the newbies, the new dancers, to look as good as the more experienced dancers, and that it's almost like directing a film where you're like, ok, this has to be the focus over here and don't watch over there, you know, and try to get everybody on the same level and the same emotional quality and the same. You know I just there's. It's really exciting and I do a lot of it. I teach a bunch of groups and I teach six dance classes a week. I have six recital pieces and the Nutcracker and yeah, there's a lot, but it's fun.
Speaker 3My teenage daughter is in the Nutcracker. She goes to a place over in Hammond and I think this is her third year with that group doing that and she didn't take a lot of dance. Growing up didn't take a lot of ballet and she didn't take a lot of dance. Growing up didn't take a lot of ballet. She loves it and she seems to be pretty good at it. She also does regular theater as well. Oh good, it's just something to behold, especially a group as large as that, when there's 50 or 60 kids that come together and they're learning all these routines and they're learning all of these routines and some of them don't have ballet experience but they still find things for them to be able to do. It's very fascinating to me to watch.
Speaker 1We host the Nutcracker for the area. There's a couple in our area in Gulfport, Biloxi, but we have been this is probably year 25, 26, somewhere around there and so we have kids audition from other dance schools and we try to find a place for everybody, whether they have you know, whether they're on point or not on point, whether they have a lot of experience or whether they're gymnasts at heart, really, and and kind of plug them in everywhere and make sure everybody enjoys themselves.
Speaker 3And too much rehearsal, because I know people are crazy busy. But what's your daughter's role she is in? I think it's a dragon. She's one of the pieces of a. I think it's a dragon.
Speaker 1Nice. Well, I'm going to be a braggy mom here for a second. My daughter is a senior and she's Clara this year. Nicegy mom, go ahead, that's that's great but she is. She's a better dancer than I ever was oh, wow she just has such a love for it.
Speaker 1You know that just makes her continue to strive for being better and better. And she wants to keep dancing. You know, in college probably not as a dance as a major, she wants to be a film major film dance. You know, in college, probably not as a dance as a major, she wants to be a film major film dance. You know it's all real risky, whatever.
Speaker 3With the drum and bugle core and the stuff that you teach. Are you teaching the choreography of the band, as they're, say, performing in an athletic event, or what do you teach them with that?
Speaker 1I teach like the flags and the rifles and sabers and dancers, and there is usually an overall kind of stage or choreographer and then you work within that, or sometimes we'll work together and create a moment. You know, so they get audience response or points, or you know if they're in competition, but usually it's.
Speaker 1There's a large staff of people and and you just kind of work within what the show idea is and what you're given staging wise, so gotcha sometimes it's really cool hard because your vision is completely different from what the person who you know stage it is, but then other times it just works out beautifully yeah, I played trombone in high school, so I understand all those marching, days after days of doing the same routine.
Speaker 2Don't lock your legs so you don't pass out. I've heard somebody talk about like why would that do this? Like it just does man, just trust me.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2I don't know. I almost was drum and bugle core, but when it came up my schedule was full and I was like so I almost joined your world back in the 80s With who? It was like I don't remember the full name, but just like a Louisiana drama oh the stars. It could be. Yeah, I think Now I could totally be wrong too, because I'm an old man and I forget everything. Oh, stop it.
Speaker 1You're younger than I am.
Speaker 2I'm. I'm 54. 56. Ok, you're the one guest who's ever been old and we'll cut that out. We won't tell anybody.
Speaker 3That's fine. Yeah, we won't put that there.
Teaching and Choreography Experience
Speaker 2I thought I had you trumped. No, so I don't know if you said in the beginning I might have missed it, and I know you said you started with. Did you say you went into musical theater like that? I was wondering how we get from dancing and instructing to the actress you are now.
Speaker 1I kind of stayed with community theater for a while until until those two things didn't. You know, one drum bugle corps, my two older brothers as well. So my mom like packed us all up and, you know, go on tour for the summer.
Speaker 2Mom's like one trip, oh, and I get to get rid of you, you're going Right, right.
Speaker 1So she was no dummy. I get to get rid of you. You're going Right, right. So she was no dummy. I always wanted to keep going with it and I was a theater major in college so and that kind of came out of the blue for a lot of my family because I hadn't done theater in so long. But I, you know, I just always wanted to do it and I always wanted to be in musical theater and I ended up actually choreographing the theater's version of West Side Story when I was there. And again, a challenge with people who've never danced before you know that are fabulous singers, or you know, just the theater students, which was a great challenge.
Speaker 1And you know, it's just one of those things that's like puzzle and you just try to make it all fit and make it all work and sometimes you have to jam that one piece in there. Look, it's fabulous, so yeah. So after, actually during college, then I went out into like the Boston scene, film-wise and commercial-wise, did a few things. There was a, and still is, a company called Boston Casting and they were the nicest people and really kind of you know. You know you, you find those casting directors that they really, when they say they like you and they think of you, they really do like you and think of you and put you in places that you could never get in before. So that was, that was a nice introduction into.
Speaker 1So and then after college, out to LA. I loved LA but it is expensive and challenging and luckily I went out with three of my college friends. So we had, you know, we had some people to talk to and support and, you know, financial and emotional support, yeah, yeah. So while we had really great times, we had some really hard times, but I wouldn't change a thing. I'd love to eventually get back there in some capacity. Honestly, I just like the mountains and the water and the desert and this and there's so much to do and see and Vegas.
Speaker 2And I'm a Disney adult, so we've been to Disneyland once, oh nice, and I went to the Clerks 3 premiere out in LA. So I've been there a couple of times. I don't want to move, it's wide open, but it felt claustrophobic on the streets to me, maybe because of the mountains and everything's kind of up and it felt closer. But that's just my own. If they fly me out to do a project, traffic is hideous Fly me out to do.
Speaker 1Yeah, a lot of people have said man, it has changed so much over the years. You know, because I haven't been there a long time. But you know, when you're of that formative age I was, I think I was like 22 or 23 and just ready to do it all. And I was. I was teaching and choreographing and working with Drum Corps and Color Garden, so I was driving everywhere and I was catering set. So I got to. Yeah, we were on um the lot with seinfeld and er and, uh, third rock from the sun. So I got, you know, we got to meet a lot of people and it was kind of fun. You know, when you're not part of the cast but you're bringing them food, you know they tend to be nice to you.
Speaker 2Yeah, I've always said you were crafty.
Speaker 1Yeah, oh yeah. So crafty.
Speaker 3Always be nice to the people that handle your food.
Speaker 1Exactly Now. I've been yelled at by some people, but it's fine.
Speaker 3I lived in San Diego for five years and I went back a couple of years later to visit some friends, go to the old stomping grounds and even in that short period of time and being back in Mississippi, it was night and day. And at that point I realized, yeah, I don't, I don't ever want to live there again. The weather in San Diego was always nice year round. It was always just really good no humidity. I don't think I ever used the air conditioner in my vehicle, Hardly ever. Yeah, Because it was just so nice. I didn't even have air condition in a living space until the very last apartment I had, and that's because I was living further inland in El Cajon and it got really hot there. But living closer to the beach, I never had AC. You have a couple of fans and you're, I mean it's good. And I went back 15 years ago I don't know, 10 or so years after I had left, and at that point I realized never live, never live here again. The traffic, it's worse than New Orleans to me.
From Theater to Film Acting
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean I did learn really quickly like how to get around without getting on the freeway and you know all those back roads and but that helps you decide like where you want to live and where you. You know what your next step is and where you're going and where all the studios are and where your auditions are going to be, so that I mean I guess I'm a shopper. There's really nowhere to shop here. I'd be in trouble if I was back shopping.
Speaker 3No, Rodeo drive here, right yeah but it's okay.
Speaker 1I don't know. I kind of miss the hustle and bustle. I'm like quickly getting into the next phase of my life where my daughter's going to graduate. There are no more kids here. She wants to go to NYU to be a film student at NYU. I have a stepdaughter that is a second AD in New York, so that would be with me because at least she would have again family and friends and and my family is still in Massachusetts so they would be close by. But then I'm here, you know, really far away.
Speaker 2Biting your nails. What's going on?
Speaker 1Yeah, and also for me it's almost like, hmm, like, maybe this is my chance to get an agent in New York and try, try, you know, conquering that area and see what at least make make some kind of connections in that area and I can throw my Boston accent on whenever I want. Oh my God, I'm wicked hot.
Speaker 3I was actually just about to ask you about that. I'm going to circle back to it in a second. Okay, we had a guest on recently that Brian and I both are friends with from class, and she's a dancer and she moved. She was from New York originally and moved back to New York and is doing a lot of musical theater up there. She gave us the ins and outs of what that's like Going to auditions when you're not part of Equity and having to wait in line hopefully to get seen, and we haven't really had someone that gave us a lot of insight of what the acting scene is like up there.
Speaker 3To me it feels like a very different world. There's a much bigger mix of people that are doing theater and film and television. My wife's late aunt lived in New York City and she was in the theater scene for years up there, but she also did some film and television work and there's a lot of opportunities up there. There's not much. No, I'm not going to go down that road. I think I'd be scared to live in New York, just because I don't understand it, you know.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1I mean, I think it'd just be a matter of just getting used to the subway system and knowing where to go and where not to go and just being aware, because my stepdaughter's been there actually both my stepdaughters have lived there at one point and they're pretty good, pretty solid.
Speaker 1And, as you know, olivia is her name she's a second ad and she started as a pa and she was in california and then she moved to new york and she much prefers new york and because we're all theater, musical theater, nerds, you know, so she gets the opportunity of going and watching. But also she works on the Gilded Age, which is just filled with theater people, you know, like Christine Baranski, you know they're all theater people that are on that show. So she's working and meeting all her idols, you know from the theater, which would be hard to do, I think, but she's smart and she has. She has really grown into somebody you could talk, anybody can talk to and she can talk to anybody and she she's very respectful and knows that. You know, and I feel like I'm the same way. There's something you can learn from a lot of people most everybody that you meet, you know, on a set or it's good to like if you can sit down and talk to them.
Speaker 2I didn't want to throw this one in the podcast. It's not that it's real bad. My first time marching in a parade, archbishop Rummel, if you're familiar with that and it was the Metairie parade. So we step out of Clearview parking lot and it's Chabalettes, the dance squad, the drums and then trombones have to be in the front because of the slot Freshman's. My first time we step out of the party lot and the urge hits me, rummel, is the pants that you have to wear with suspenders, you know white shoes and then one of those big jackets right in the hat.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I'm like, what do I do? And we're first band, so that means we are trucking. So yeah, and we get to a point and I'm thinking about the parade I said, okay, I know there's a portalette by Burger King, I passed the burn, I don't know what I'm going to do. And then every time we were at a good clip, not stopping, we hit parade rest and TJ, I don't know you probably know from military but that leg goes out kept things together. We get close to where that porta potty is. They stopped for a second and I look at it and I think no, and then they kept going again. It's like, all right, we get to the end of the parade route. Then this has been like seven miles. All right, get on the bus. We get on the bus, we get back to Rummel. Okay, I'll use the Shabaleta All changing to go out that night. I layers of material and leotard snap underneath.
Speaker 1And under that we had a unitard, so a full body suit, and under the unitard we had tights, and so if you had to go to the bathroom, man, it was a whole production huh, oh my.
Speaker 2God, it's almost as bad. I was death photo double and my hands were painted white, which made everything difficult. It was pre-COVID, so if it was a 10-1, it was a simple spray of disinfectant. I didn't eat. I didn't eat much before any day going to set, to make sure that I didn't have to deal with it, I spaced that out, that's funny.
Speaker 3So I think I mentioned before I'm a Shriner. You know the New Orleans parades. They have the green and yellow Shriner motorcycles that lead, that escort all the parades. I rode green and yellows for several years and we were there. I mean we'd have to get there and line up, you know, an hour and a half, two hours before the parade would start, and then you start the parade and we were always at the front. It was just a New Orleans tradition. Plus, we're not having to ride behind horses. That's a bonus. Yeah, some of the routes, so the Metairie routes, they have porta potties along there and you can ride up ahead and stop and find one. It's not a problem In the New Orleans routes, especially down through the French Quarter, they don't put porta potties out and you just ride along and you find people partying like standing outside their house waiting for it to come by. Hey, can I, can I use your bathroom? They're like yeah, man, come on in, you want a beer?
Parade Stories and Performance Challenges
Speaker 1yeah, like no, I mean, I remember when I first started, you know we were little kids and so there was, there was like a junior core and then the older groups, sometimes there were three. So I'm seven years old and we're sandwiched in between the horses that are right in front of us. You know there's like 12 of us, the horns are playing. It's just a bunch of little tiny kids, and right behind us is this huge drum and viola core that you know. They're just loud and they're all like semi-professional players and it's like stepping on the horse. But it was crazy. And there were things like the Bunker Day Parade, which is Bunker Hill, and so, again, being a seven year old, going straight, it's like San Francisco. Ok, wow, we can make it, yeah. And then going down, oh yeah, yeah. And then going down, oh yeah, yeah, and the drum beat would get faster because you were basically running down there.
Speaker 2You can always tell an out-of-town band in a New Orleans parade because their tubas are not covered, which makes them targets for beads and doubloons and all the other things oh yeah, yeah, coconuts, whatever else.
Speaker 1beer cans yeah, oh yeah, yeah, coconuts, whatever else beer cans.
Speaker 3Yeah, how much of a hassle is that if somebody gets a set of beads inside a tuba? I mean, is that like pull off to the side and do surgery to get it back going, or will it come out easy? I think?
Speaker 2they can go through with it. It might give you a little rattle. At the end of the parade the guys had to turn their tubas.
Speaker 1Sousaphones to be technical, the ones that you wrap around yourself the marching ones, and then we'd turn it upside down and start shaking, yeah, or even like take that top off.
Speaker 2Yeah, the big part of the horn comes off. That's where it separates. It'll get in all the grooves and, yeah, it's not good.
Speaker 3Now did you have a cover on your?
Speaker 2trombone, no, only time you do this it's called a mute, so at first you've seen them hold like a plunger, or there's something that sticks in which gives you a different sound. Usually don't do that when you're marching Gotcha. And because of the trombone no one ever threw it at me, but you have more mobility than a tuba, you know what I mean, which is kind of fun.
Speaker 1You know, as a color guard person, I was mostly a rifle and so you know somebody would try to cross in front of you or cross through you. You know breaking ranks You're like oh sorry, oh yeah, no, don't, why don't you wait?
Speaker 2We had guys marching along with us and God help the guys who tried to touch the shop a lot. Oh, I mean, oh they try to reach up and pinch the girls and all that stuff and they might not have brought back that hand. You know what I mean. Yeah, they were hurting. Yeah, somebody actually grabbed the tuba player, grabbed his butt. He didn't get beat too much. But hey, man, it's New Orleans and it's a parade and people are drinking.
Speaker 1It's a friendly city. Yeah, hey, how are you Right? Well, hey, how are you Right? Wah, I get it. Yeah, so it's, there's some fantastic memories involved and some not so fantastic memories. But you know, I think anytime you can laugh about I don't know just adversity is always good, because then you think okay, that's not really a problem.
Speaker 2You know, those were just funny moments. We've gotten you from Boston to LA. How do we get you to louisiana? How did you make it here?
Speaker 1I married a mississippi guy who also was in drum veal core and he when he aged out he went the judge route and and he still teaches. He teaches a group. That's from wisconsin. But I was kind of guest choreographer in a bunch of different core circuits. So I had a group in Canada, I had a group, a couple of groups in Boston, I had a group in LA, I had a group in Fort Walton Beach, florida, and so and I still teach there 30 plus years later, and so he was a judge in that circuit and really one of the people that had more history than a lot of the other judges.
Speaker 1So when we met each other he made some snide comment it looks like 1976, whatever I goes, oh, who are you? You know my Boston girl came out like what do you know? All right, and we were fast friends right away. And so years and years and years of just being friends, years and years and years of just being friends, and he sort of helped me when I was in LA as far as just keeping my mental stability and, you know, working through being really poor and trying to have a career and all that he really did help me through all that. Just I can't even tell you how much just exponentially helped me through all that. And then I moved back to Boston, started a little working there a little bit more, and then finally, you know, moved down here and married child. The rest is history. Nice, so I hear.
Speaker 3I hear it just a little bit. I hear the Boston just a little bit every now and then when you talk, let's hear it, pull it out.
Speaker 1What do you want to hear? You want to. You want the typical down by the Harbor that you talk. Let's hear it. Pull it out. What do you want to hear? You want the typical down by the harbor that you know that is, Are you?
Speaker 1going to the park? You going to the park? Oh, I'm definitely going to the park. I'm going to go to the park first and get a beer and then I'm going to meet up with Sully Right, and yeah, that accent is not hard because you hear it. You hear some of it in New Orleans. Really, it's more Brooklyn than New Orleans, but that kind of short real quick accent. When I met Matt Carroll I was like, oh my God, where are you from the parish? Yeah Well, and he sounds like he's from.
Speaker 1Chicago, really, yeah, it's so weird.
Speaker 2Yeah, we're going to tell him. You said that?
Speaker 1No, I'm just kidding. Let me have a moment for matt carroll, because I really he is one of the most incredible people I've ever met talent wise, like the way he like cranks out a film, you know, which is like fully flushed out in a night. You know, some of the short films are incredible, the ones that you guys you know. Some of the short films are incredible, the ones that you guys did, you know, those were really.
Speaker 3Thank you.
Speaker 1Yeah, so yeah, I have only the highest praise for him. I just love him. He's fantastic. There you go If you want to tell him that.
Speaker 2I'll tell him. I'll tell him.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And we just recorded with him. Oh, you did Awesome, yeah, just a couple days ago or yesterday, don't tell anybody, but it looks like the trailer for the soldier's heart will come out Monday. Really, yeah. Finally there's editor finally has a through line, though. Cross our fingers and at least there's emotion. Yeah, you know what?
Speaker 3I mean.
Speaker 2I just talked to a friend of mine. I did a movie called death trip and I play six different characters. Wow, it was my first. Yeah, called Death Trip, and I play six different characters. It was my first, yeah, first role in any movie, saturday, march 14th 2020. First line in his movie, first line in any movie got it done. And then the world broke and then I and I was a cop. I was skinny and didn't have a beard. It's been so long I play another cop with a beard and we put glasses on to make sure people know. And I've been a clown and, wow, he is. Finally, it's just him. There's no budget. They are halfway done with the sound edit and that was 29 2020 and we're almost done. You know what I mean. So, yeah, there's motion and then there's so yeah, so just doing good yeah.
Speaker 1So much of me is like I I sort of lead with nerves a lot. When you said you know the trailer is going to come out, I'm like, oh my God, I'm nervous. But then, yeah, but it, you know it subsides into oh, totally Excited about it.
Speaker 2You know Shattered Justice, the one I did, where I look like Fidel yeah, just release the trailer. I don't have any sound, I don't have any music, which always drives crazy, and they're in las las vegas at the film thing trying to sell it, to get a distribution. So I'm with you like, did I make it? Oh no, yeah, oh, they're gonna sell it. And then indigo I saw a little bit of it because they had the premiere in texas and I play a evil businessman who's using the psychic. I've seen clips and I hate my. Oh well, I mean.
Speaker 1But I haven't seen the whole thing.
Speaker 2So I'm holding off. So yeah, hyper critical of myself and no mercy, and the hell was I thinking.
Speaker 1So I understand the nerves and everything. I get that there. There are things I don't that I have, that I've seen, that I don't hate my performance, but I always, I'm always like I don't understand why they pulled that as opposed to, you know, something that was a little bit more dramatic. You know, I always feel like the stuff that gets out there is sort of flat and it's all the things that you're told in class not to be. You know, the one note and so it's. It's just interesting to me.
Film Projects and Acting Process
Speaker 2I mean always happy that I actually make it, because I've, I've been for sure and a little bit of sound bed to add to the drama, takes your flatness and gives it that tweak, because you kind of sometimes want to be reserved. Yeah, and the director wants you. I did a student film for Tulane and I'm on a porch and the girl she picks up nails out of potholes and I pay her money. She has no money. The character is supposed to be gruff and then nice to her, so he wanted level. I need to be meaner when you first see me. What do you want? I need to be meaner when you first see me. What do you want? Oh no, we don't want that. And then I saw it and it's flat. I'm like do you listen to me?
Speaker 1So you get yeah, but you know sometimes all the time you have to go with their choice. But yes, but sometimes it makes more sense because you know you're not the main character and right.
Speaker 1You know you don't necessarily want to be the one that's. You'll be swell, you'll be great. You know, like what is she doing? I always want that. They may not want it, right, right, yeah, of course, of course I. I luckily had I worked on a student film for Loyola last week and I love first, again nervous to do you know something for the first time and it was my first time doing like blood and getting stabbed. I got stabbed in the neck.
Speaker 2If you know Kimberly Coburn, love her to death. She and I have done improv for years together. She is, she talks more than me, but she also repeated herself, you know what I mean, kept saying the same thing over and over. So I had to go through that episode with a fine tooth razor and got it, and you know what I mean. And I got her label, you know. And then if the thing is a, b, c, d, e, f, g, when I hit a button it went a, f, c, d, like it was all. I had to go back and re and like piece through, oh, but it came out very nice. I mean, her thoughts were great and I love it. Or death some people. You got to help some people, you don't. Yours is going to be fine yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3So I was on this film. It's called visage. It's loyal to film students or death. Some people you got to help, some people you don't. Yours is going to be fine, you're good, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1So I was on this film. It's called Visage. It's a story of a film student and Anne Mahoney, who I don't know personally. I just big admire her and we know her. I listen to her Okay cool.
Speaker 1You know your podcast with her and I've listened with Brian's and I just I find her fascinating and again, somebody that you can just really learn from, even just listening to her speak. So she sent me a message and said hey, I have these students. They need a mother character, would you? Yes, it took me like four seconds. I can't hit the button fast enough, right? Yeah, yeah. And then I found out Miles Doliak was going to be playing the father who?
Speaker 2I don't really know.
Speaker 1But again, you know, I know what he's done and you know I respect him as an artist and as a teacher and so another Mississippian, yeah, and I was absolutely, absolutely. I will do that and I had a big long scene with him. That was just great. I will do that and I had a big long scene with him, that was just great. It was just so much. You know how are you it doesn't happen all the time how you have those moments you're acting and you're like like you can feel that you can feel either the tension or the love or whatever is supposed to be happening. Uh, yeah, I had a blast and then my daughter stabbed me in the neck. So that moment I'm sure you've done all kinds of blood and stuff like that. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit, a little bit. I'd never done anything like that. So I was so nervous because I know it's basically one and done Once you get blood all over that white shirt you're screwed, you better focus.
Speaker 1So we did a hundred rehearsals with the air spouting out and you know I'm like, can we do it again, can we rehearse again? And the, the poor girl who, she was nervous too. I will say that. And then, when we did it, it was just so great. Oh, I want to do that again. So I'm looking forward to the next time I get stabbed or shot or something like that on film.
Speaker 2Yeah, I haven't. I haven't done the spurting blood. I had a blood capsule and then I had green blood cause I was a mutant cannibal from the future, but that's a whole nother story, oh nice. So I was thinking while we were talking and we're getting close to the end. So last question, no pressure, pressure on me, just to ask it listening to you talk and a little bit of knowledge I have about band, about directing and choreography and how to make that work, and then thinking about acting and breaking down a script, can you compare and contrast how those? What does that spark? What does that hit your brain with that idea? Compare and contrast.
Speaker 1You know I teach a bunch of different styles of dance and so my love really is like contemporary and modern, because there are no rules. You know there's, you could do whatever you want, and so it allows me to like be real physical, to get the emotion across, because you can't talk, you can't sing, you can't. You know it's like guttural and, I think, breaking down the script, especially now I play a lot of doctors and lawyers. There's not a lot of, you know, emotional highs and lows, but as I've gotten into my mid-50s I've been lucky enough to get a little meatier roles. Like I did a short film a couple of years ago, the Dead Driver, and it was rough, I mean it was. So I was able to like put some of that physicality into and know that's how dance has helped me and choreography has helped me.
Speaker 1As an actor. I'm also very much a realist, you know, and I've listened to a lot of casting people, a lot of actors. You know podcasts and I've taken a lot of workshops and I think the older I get, the more I go. I don't really subscribe to one technique or the other. I used to say, oh, chubbuck is so. You know, it's so much, it's too much work. I kind of thought of that recently. I don't. I guess it's just my age and the roles that I'm getting that it's almost easier to do all that replacement and put yourself in that situation. And that dead driver movie was so. It was hard, but it was because I have a teenage daughter and to the premise of that was me watching my teenage daughter die, and so that wasn't hard, that wasn't a stretch, you know as far as getting to that emotion.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1Had like two days on set, so it was a little hard to maintain that. But yeah, when you have that right, there it was, it was good, it was cathartic, honestly. Yeah, I didn't cry for a long time after that.
Speaker 2Would you say, the emotions get into that point is like tightening a rubber band. Yeah, seeing that we're cut, you're relaxed. You've purged it. Okay, we got to do it again. Now you've got to find that rubber band.
Speaker 1Yeah, there were a couple of times it felt like, okay, but Rachel was so great about letting me, like, step back. Okay, let me try that again, because I didn't really care for that one. You know, that's a lovely thing when they're not just like, oh, that's great, good, let's move on. You know, where they really do listen to your instincts. I was really super grateful for all that.
Speaker 2And I haven't had the chance to work with you yet. Listening to her describe her time budgeting her schedule is superb, because I've worked on a couple of student films, some indie films and people who are just learning and things that go wrong on set Time goes crazy. So that she's the goal. She's the gold standard to be like that. You know, yeah, and a budget helps on that too. I don't know what she had, but I'm doing things with no budget, so obviously they're like trying to get everything done and we dropped this.
Creative Collaboration and Family
Speaker 1Yeah, we had a decent budget. It was a 22 minute film, but she was so. I mean, it really helps when the director's really organized and it's not like just a shot in the dark here. Let's try it on this angle, you know, instead of this is what I want here's. I think you can get that for me, and we're going to do it three times, you know, and if you're happy with it, we'll move on from there. If you're not happy, we'll do it one more time. Really, we didn't do like 17 hours it was.
Speaker 3I think the most was like 10. Yeah, that was one of the things that she mentioned when we were talking to her is that she tries to stick to that. She sets that goal. I like that. I like not being there just to be there. Be productive as much as you can while you're there, but after a certain point everybody burns out and I feel like productivity goes.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3The whole project will suffer for it. Fortunately I haven't had that experience where it's been long, miserable and shouldn't have happened the way it did, you know. But I'm still coming up and learning and still doing pretty small projects, but so far it's been pretty great.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's. I just think it's the area. I love meeting new people in the area too, because there's a lot of young people that are doing really wonderful things too. It's family-ish, you know Matt, I know Matt. You know this person. I know that you know it's family ish. You know mad. I know mad. You know this person. I know that you know it it's, and I don't think I've really never run across anybody that I thought I don't care for them. I just think it's a really nice family atmosphere anytime I've been on set.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's me yeah, yeah, there's one or two people who I'm good, but mostly it's people who want to be there, who want to work, who are gracious, who are that way, my kind of people, and nice, no divas. You know, but we'll speak up and, hey, this might go better, yeah, but we all and we quote our 48 like we flowed in one direction, seven or eight people and it was beautiful.
Speaker 3It felt like no wasted time at all Moving, moving, moving.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's brilliant Really.
Speaker 2And like you say, matt, when he starts writing.
Speaker 3He's crazy his time on set as a director, behind the camera, you know, after the writing is done he still has that whole storyboard in his head of where he wants the scene to go and he knows and he just laser focused and on that scene and moves it forward.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, I think that's where a budget would help him, where we can get PAs and sound people and lighting people and have people doing the job around him. Or we did the seven and seven. No, we did the Louisiana Film Prize up in Shreveport and, like I went and broke down a set, I went and set up that we need a crew so that things could flow. Yes, it's incredible.
Speaker 1Yeah, but you would never know. I mean, the production value on all of those things that I've seen has been really pretty stellar, and that comes from creative people like you and knowing that, okay, this is what I have to do to make this. You know, I do that with Color Guard all the time too. There's not a whole bunch of money, so we get the costumes that we can get that work, and we get the scenery, the backdrops and all that that we can get that work. You just have to be flexible and make it happen. A lot of things like that.
Speaker 2Agreed, Susan. I don't know about TJ, but I have really enjoyed our time together Me too, thank you.
Speaker 1TJ, I was looking forward to you coming on, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2It was incredible. We were friends for about a year on social media, finally met at that actor's summit. Yeah, like, hey, I know you, I know you. This is in person, so now we've had a longer conversation right, right, and I love that you take all the pictures.
Speaker 1There's so many of us that are like damn, I wish I took pictures I don't understand that you take all the pictures.
Speaker 2There's so many of us that are like, damn, I wish I took pictures. I don't understand that. You know my dad had a dark room outside, you know. So pictures have always been part of my life and it's just fun. You know what I mean. I didn't get to go to a premiere of one of my indie films that I just and. People took some pictures, but not one of them took a selfie. I'm like what are you doing? Your life choices? What are they? Yeah, one of my selfies on set for that action movie where I play. I look like Fidel Castro, but I am not playing a Hispanic person, just a gringo in South America doing bad things. And I took a selfie and instead of smiling, just to be in a tough guy. That made it into the movie, and it's one. It's my poster for the movie they've released digitally, so I love taking pictures.
Speaker 1So thank you, I love, I got to tell you, I love the commercial you just did and the painting that they made of you.
Speaker 2That is so great, thank you, thank you. Oh my gosh, we'll put a link in this on our website. We're going to link it to it. And what we did? They asked for a picture, which was a headshot I just took for another short film, when I was an evil mayor, or corrupt mayor at least, and I'm kind of standing kind of haughty. And then they took that computer wise and put me in like revolutionary times, you know, in this old fancy get up like 1700s. So funny, that's computer generated.
Speaker 3That's not painted.
Speaker 2On the painting you can see the cracks. You can't see it on my post. But people have asked me did they give me a copy? When I booked the role and started talking to them about scheduling, I was like, can I have a copy? And they go, we can do that. So they gave me a print. I've mounted it. It's flat, it's in cardboard protected, but I have to do a frame that matches the time period. Yeah, you can't do that in modern frame and it's like 40 by 38.
Speaker 2Oh, my gosh, it's like $500 to frame it at a frame shop. So I'm going to DIY it with some molding and some techniques that I'm finding online. For sure, I think it should be right behind me on the podcast, but TJ said, no, we'll see, I'll set up my own little place. Yeah Cool, I'll set up my own little place. Yeah cool. But thank you, that was a lot of fun yeah, it looked like a lot of fun.
Speaker 1I love David. I think he's hysterical.
Speaker 2David is the lucky buck from the Mississippi lottery commercial and Holly Burns she's been in one, britton Webb, he's been in one, so I'm in some high quality room now. Huh, yeah, and David was great. Yeah, everybody, because I shared a few pictures with people like you wanted to be in that costume. Yeah, I did, I did.
Speaker 3He did.
Speaker 2He did. Oh, very cool. Thank you very much, Susan.
Speaker 3thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1Thank you. Thank you, Thanks for having me. It was fun. Bye buddy.
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