Finding her voice: Susanne Sulby

Susanne Sulby grew up in a prison, an environment few of us can imagine. In this episode, dialect coach and actress Susanne Sulby shares her extraordinary journey from a childhood spent living at a correctional facility to her work now— helping shape unforgettable performances for actors like Kate Winslet and Jean Smart. She reminds us that when a small voice inside says "there’s more for you," you should definitely listen. 

Check out Susanne's website and her instagram. 

For more, visit She What? on Instagram.

Brought to you by Capital Health

Credits:

Producer and Host: Jess Downey

Producer and Host: Maureen Petrosky

Producer and Editor: Leigh Iacobucci

Artwork: Peter Yates Design

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Transcript

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Susanne Sulby (00:02):

There was a small voice inside of me that said, there's more for you. You can do better than this.

Jess (00:17):

I'm Jess Downey. You might know me as Editor-in-Chief of Real Woman and Thriving Magazines for Capital Health.

Maureen (00:23):

And I'm Maureen Petrosky. You might have seen me on the Today Show or CBS mornings as an entertaining expert or know some of my books like Wine Club and Zero Proof Drinks...

Jess (00:32):

and we're two friends who created She What?

Maureen (00:35):

<laugh> a podcast that digs into the personal and often surprising stories of women who inspire

Jess (00:41):

Us and they get real about the wins, the fails, and everything in between.

Maureen (00:47):

Here we invite her to tell the whole story, the pain she endured, the triumph she celebrated, the friend she made along the way, and maybe even how she reinvented herself.

Jess (00:58):

These are the kinds of stories that make us think. They make us laugh, they keep us going.

Maureen (01:03):

Need a dose of inspiration? It's here. Need a fresh perspective? We got that too.

Jess (01:16):

Hi Maureen.

Maureen (01:17):

Hi Jess.

Jess (01:18):

Oh my God. Are you obsessed with The Pitt yet? It keeps racking up all the awards,

Maureen (01:23):

Every award, yes. Every time an episode ends, I just wish it were longer.

Jess (01:27):

That's how I felt when Mare of Easttown came out a few years ago. I binged it and then I immediately wanted to watch it again. <laugh>, that's

Maureen (01:33):

Not even a show you would watch again, it's so intense. But also Task. We could go on and on. Those shows are all amazing for so many reasons, including the incredible accents and dialects. I mean, Pittsburgh, Philly, Delco...

Jess (01:47):

Delco -. SNL did a whole skit about Mare of Easttown and the insane Delco accents.

Maureen (01:52):

And don't forget Baby Jane Doe

Jess (01:55):

<laugh>. Well, whether or not you're hooked on those shows, today's guest, Susanne Sulby, is one of the most respected voice and dialect coaches. Not to mention a talented actress, writer and producer.

Maureen (02:07):

She takes us into two worlds that most of us have never been in and that could not be more different from each other. She ends up working in Hollywood, but that couldn't be further from where she began.

Jess (02:18):

And she digs deep.

Maureen (02:20):

Yes, it was fascinating fun and totally unforgettable. So stick around.

Jess (02:28):

Suzanne Sobe. Welcome to She What? She What? She What? Maureen told me. And I had to Google it to believe it, that you were born and grew up in a prison.

Susanne Sulby (02:42):

I did.

Maureen (02:43):

Not in the prison, Jess at the prison

Jess (02:45):

<laugh>. Oh, sorry. I had my prepositions wrong.

Susanne Sulby (02:48):

Well, I was in the prison. I was in the prison. It was real. Yeah. My dad was the warden of the Bucks County Prison from like 1962 to about 1975. And we lived there. I was born and brought home there. So I lived there till I was about 13. She what? <laugh>. It was something else. Yeah.

Maureen (03:10):

Seriously. Is that the biggest She what? I mean Suzanne, we have had a million like dynamic, amazing women and your current situation is also amazing. But when I think about that story you told me years ago, I still can't get it out of my head because we're in Bucks County, Jess and I And you're joining us from the west coast today, correct?

Susanne Sulby (03:27):

Yes. I'm in Marina Del Rey's, honey Marina Delrey.

Maureen (03:31):

Oh, lucky you. We're freezing

Jess (03:33):

Two degrees here.

Maureen (03:34):

Growing up in a prison, sounds like the thing of movies, which might have paved the way for your future, but Right. Give us a little bit of information on what that looked like. Well,

Susanne Sulby (03:45):

I'll tell you a little about it. It is now the James a Mitchner Museum for the Arts. So it's still there. So you can go in. I'm writing a book about my life living there, which of course gets put on the back burner when I get these jobs that take forever <laugh>. But I'm like halfway through. So I have six older brothers and sisters. My dad was in the military. He was a major in the Marine Corps and once he left the Marine Corps, he got a job as the warden of a prison. And it was, I think as lore is told, was the last contract where housing was provided for the warden and his family. So we lived inside of that prison. If you go to the Mitchner Museum, you'll see like a big castle looking building with walls that come out and parapets at the corner. We lived in that building that's in the middle. And I had prisoners that took care of me in the morning and the afternoon and my mother had to become a prison guard as part of the contract. In fact, the contract actually said that she was supposed to cook for the inmates. So the inmates were supposed to be so few that a female, like a lady, could be cooking their meals.

Jess (04:57):

Susanne, you're blowing my mind. <laugh>.

Susanne Sulby (04:59):

Seriously,.

Maureen (05:00):

I'm speechless.

Susanne Sulby (05:00):

I know the kind of insanity that went on at this place was just shocking.

Jess (05:07):

Did you get to handpick, which prisoners would take care of you?

Susanne Sulby (05:09):

<laugh>? No, I didn't. No, no. I think that was my dad. Yeah, my dad probably made that decision. And you know, I have some stories that I tell about that, some stories that will be in this book, but there were a couple that were notable. One guy in particular, his name was Tony and I had gotten a pony for Christmas, like a, a shetland pony, he was a very mean little pony...

Maureen (05:32):

That lived on the grounds?

Susanne Sulby (05:33):

That lived on the grounds.

Jess (05:34):

Like, She what?

Susanne Sulby (05:36):

God, it's so strange when I start telling this story, it's insane. So we got this pony. I mean I just had it really. It's funny and it's interesting. It was terrible. And I'm still in therapy, so yes, we, we feel you. There's a lot of bad things.

Maureen (05:52):

Yes, therapy is good.

Susanne Sulby (05:53):

But there were a lot of interesting things that happened and they make for great stories. So Texas was his name because he had like big patches that looked like the shapes of states to me. And there was a big field where the library is right now and there was a little pen and he lived there and this guy, Tony would take me out, take me out for a ride. He would race the pony. Supposedly he was there because he didn't pay child support. I don't know if he was lying about that. I'm skeptical about that. <laugh>. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, it was a minimum security prison, but he was very kind to me at a time when I was very, very isolated. So he was like my friend. How much older are your siblings? I have a sibling that's 18 years older than me.

Susanne Sulby (06:39):

So she's the oldest and I have, they're all different ages in between there. And um, he would just hang out with me. He'd make me snacks after school and you know, he, his kindness kind of helped me through that time period because who's gonna send their kids over to hang out with?

Jess (06:59):

Yeah, you're not having a play date.

Susanne Sulby (07:00):

Yeah. Play dates were an anomaly. People would come as a sort of sideshow kind of thing, but I was pretty isolated and my siblings moved out kind of as quickly as they could. That 18-year-old sibling got married and left immediately. I mean, you know, I didn't realize how strange it was till many years later when I would talk about it and people would have that reaction. I learned a lot there, which is what I'm writing the book about, which is that people who are in prison got caught on their worst day.

Susanne Sulby (07:31):

Now they may be criminals on the regular, but they're human beings and we have a responsibility towards people who are incarcerated. In fact, my father taught me that he was responsible for their physical safety. One of the stories of this is a terrible story, <laugh>. So there was a guy who was on my dad's first day. There was a big hullabaloo happening inside the prison and all the guards were like running over to this one cell on my dad's first day. And he goes over and he's like, what's going on? And he's like, looks in. And there's a guy who is standing at one end of the cell and running and smashing his head against the, the cell on the other side. 'cause he's so disturbed. Oh geez. And no one's doing anything. And he's like, why are you guys not doing anything? And they're like, oh, I'm not dealing with him.

Susanne Sulby (08:25):

He was a big, huge guy. My dad's six five. And he, he got really upset and wrestled the guy to the ground and sat on him till medics could come and give him some sedation. But what that story illustrated to us was, and his message was, I am responsible for their lives. So I have to make sure even if they're trying to hurt themselves, that they don't. And you know, it's just humanized those kinds of things that are not normally in people's lives. So, yeah. Um, and I had prisoners who took care of me, who were like nice to me. And

Maureen (09:04):

I know when I met you, you said you were gonna write a book and as an author, people tell me all the time, I'm gonna write a book. I'm gonna write a book. You are the only person I have met that I'm dying for this book to come out. Like, I really believe your story is so unique, but also you just said the word humanize the humanity that's there I think is shocking to anyone that would think of a prison, first of all. And then also just the dichotomy of growing up in beautiful Bucks County. When you tell people that and then you say in a prison. I mean, it's just unheard of.

Susanne Sulby (09:38):

Well, you know, I didn't realize it that it was that wild. Yeah. Until many, many years later I was actually in therapy and you know, I didn't know what to do with all of this stuff. And it's not that living in prison put me in a situation to be in therapy. It's that not for nothing. A guy that would move his seven children and his wife into a prison even in the sixties should have known better. You know what I mean? And there was a lot of isolation that happened. So it adds to the mystery in the sort of trauma sounding of it. So I was in therapy and this guy was like, you know, you're talking about this like, it's normal. And I'm like, yeah, it was normal for me. And he's like, that's not normal. And it basically what he talked about was the isolation, the abandonment, and all of those things, which happens to everyone who are a lot of different people. And I think that in telling this story, it actually draws people in and where people can relate even though it's kind of odd. Mm-hmm. You know, it's a strange place. So it's both sensational and very every day. Yeah. Is kind of the way that I look at it.

Jess (10:51):

The only experience I have to relate to what you're saying, I spent two days in a women's prison for a story I wrote for yoga journal. They were doing a, a yoga teacher training in this prison. And I found in doing yoga next to these 14 women who were there for all different reasons, including murder, that it is amazing how they're just people. And like you said about they got caught on their worst day. I mean, their worst day might be different than your worst day. But I think yeah, as a level set for a child, that must be a really beautiful thing in a lot of ways where outside of the trauma you can see people on a different plane than maybe, maybe others. No judgment, no or less judgment, more open-mindedness, would you say?

Susanne Sulby (11:40):

God, there's such a complicated layered topic and discussion. So I left the prison and became an alcoholic and drug addict. So I started doing drugs at the age of 11 when I was still living at the prison. So again, this is a lot of information that, you know, may or not be of interest to your listeners, but, and that I'm not the only one in my family or the people that work at these places. So the line between someone who is in the prison and someone who is running the prison or working at the prison is a very fine line. And we talk about that culturally, like police officers may actually break the law themselves too. So there was this sense of understanding that some people get away with it and some people don't. Then there's also an understanding of when people commit crimes, they need to be separated from society in some way, especially if those crimes are violent or, uh, chronic.

Susanne Sulby (12:45):

My father was a reformer of the prison system, so he was the first warden to lobby and start programs where people could go into treatment facilities as opposed to go directly to prison. He started the first work release program. He tried to bring, you know, GED programs and education into the penal system. He tried to bring therapeutic systems into the penal system and he was touted as a great guy in his field. And of course, I don't know if any of those things are still happening, but his observation was that people are people and they are not going to probably be in jail the whole time. If they have the opportunity to have more resources and to learn maybe why they're doing these things and resolve them, find better avenues for their outlets, we will all as a society be better off. And it, one of the other things he said was, you know, 90% of the people in my prison, he had mostly a minimum security prison. Are there because of drugs or alcohol, something they did to get while on or after the influence of the use of those substances. So, and it's a pretty common and and prevalent problem in our society. I certainly had that problem. Other people in my family have that problem. So it, it gave me an insight into that as well.

Maureen (14:11):

Susanne, I have to say my like whole body cringed when you said you were 11 when you first Yeah. Used alcohol or drugs at 11 years old. Can I ask how you were exposed to that? Was that in the prison? Was that outside of the prison? Was that from your siblings? Because you mentioned other people in your family.

Susanne Sulby (14:31):

It wasn't from my siblings, but my, my father was an alcoholic who ended up getting sober many years later. So there was alcohol in the house and I was exposed to alcohol, but I think that maybe it was worse then. I don't know. My kids didn't quite have that same experience where we live, you know? But it was everywhere when I was, was growing up in beautiful bucolic Doylestown. There was tons of drugs, all kinds of drugs, every hard drug that you wanted to get in 19, I think I probably started using drugs when I was, uh, 11. That would be 1974, 1975, about, you know, it is a big business in our country. It's everywhere.

Jess (15:15):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Maureen (15:15):

That's for sure. Yeah.

Susanne Sulby (15:17):

You know, my, my observation at least in my generation, there was nobody watching the store in my house. So <laugh> there was nobody, the prisoners didn't care, you know, they didn't notice. In fact, at some points I was in that circle of people who I had just had working in my house, you know?

Jess (15:43):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Susanne Sulby (15:43):

An inmate who was in the prison taking care of me at one point was someone who later on I was partaking in recreational, um, substances, you know.

Maureen (15:57):

So were you in the prison until you graduated high school?

Susanne Sulby (16:00):

No, till I was 13, but after that he, you know, I mean it's, it's a long, there's a lot, there's a lot of layers.

Maureen (16:07):

<laugh> Lots unpack here. Yeah.

Susanne Sulby (16:09):

Yeah.

Jess (16:10):

Well, we have, we have obviously so many questions for you about your career, but can you sort of tell us then how you transitioned from this situation being 13, dealing with drugs and alcohol into a safer space?

Susanne Sulby (16:27):

I was a really troubled teen and I was using all of those chemicals, including alcohol, to reconcile my thoughts. I mean, when people use drugs and alcohol, for the most part, they are doing it to exit uncomfortable feelings or find a way to get through situations or mental health issues as a result of usually things that are going on in life or the world that feel too difficult, even though they don't, might not make that connection. Right. Yeah. I ended up getting sober when I was 19. My, a couple of other people in my family got sober, including my dad. And I watched them and I realized like, oh, I got that same thing. So eventually I did get sober. I had dropped out of high school. I was 16 and walked home and asked my mom to sign me out. She immediately did because she didn't know what to do with me.

Susanne Sulby (17:25):

You know, it was incorrigible. And about 19, I just thought I'm gonna die or I'm gonna be homeless and none of that sounds very possible. And I see these other people who are recovering through 12 step programs and through going to treatment facilities in my family. And there was a small voice inside of me that said, there's more for you. You know, you can do better than this there. And all of these feelings that I had were so much about shame and self-loathing and not necessarily because of things that happened or things that I did. It's, it's that if you don't have the world reflecting back to you that you are valuable, that you are lovable, uh, kind, valuable soul in this planet, you begin to turn that on yourself and go, well, I must be worthless. And of course then, you know, with all of that stuff happening, a lot of bad things happened. You know, so I started getting sober and one of the things that was fun for me was watching old movies with my mother. I would come home drunk and at 16 or 17 and my mom would be watching films at night, black and whites. And I would watch suddenly last summer, or I'd watch Eugene O'Neill's film or Tennessee Williams cat on a hot tin roof with my mother and um, Jess,

Maureen (18:58):

Can you imagine Elliot coming home drunk and watching movies together, <laugh> like, Jess and I both have sons that are of age that they could definitely be coming home drunk.

Susanne Sulby (19:08):

I think that we, our generation as adult parents are much different than my parents were.

Maureen (19:16):

It's not normal.

Susanne Sulby (19:17):

No, no. I didn't do that with my children. I spent my whole life trying not to recreate that madness. At 19, I started to get sober. And I don't know what caused me to keep thinking this, but I was like, I really like acting. I wanna be an actor. I really like acting. I wanna be an actor. And I auditioned for the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts and was accepted on the spot.

Jess (19:41):

What was your audition?

Susanne Sulby (19:43):

I think I did Tennessee Williams. God, I forget the name of the play, but I think it was, I remember the line like live, live, live. And I can't remember what the play was, but you nailed it. The guy was heard my story. 'cause when you're new to recovery, there's no filters. Like here I'm being interviewed. Yes, I could talk about it, but I don't need to bring this up every time I talk to somebody. But yeah, at that point I had no like sense of like, this is appropriate first meeting conversation <laugh>. You know what I mean? Like, I just was like, I am this, you dive right in. Yeah. I think also I sort of had to explain why I was applying for college but had dropped out of high school at 16 and how did I think that I would get through that? I think he asked me about that.

Jess (20:32):

So Susanne, what, what do you think he saw in you?

Susanne Sulby (20:34):

I think he probably saw a hunger, a desire for life and a desire for truth. Because a lot of what my addiction was about was what was happening inside of me. And my pain and my anxiety was not reconciled with the world outside of me with the language. People talk about, you know, your parents should be this and life should be this and you should have that, and this is how, how you should be cared for. And then none of that was happening. So I was looking for people to tell the truth in life and to be who they said they were, which I think is pretty important right now too, for people to stop pretending authenticity. Yeah. Which is hard to do. I get it. You know, that's hard to do. But I think there was that, and there's a sense of of recreating myself once I got sober and that, that acting sort of lent itself to that.

Susanne Sulby (21:33):

And I would watch television and I would repeat, I mean the movies, they were on tv, but I would repeat the lines after that and I would feel those things. So, so there's a, an intrinsic connection that I can reference now as an adult many years later between therapy, theology, and theater, which is anything having to do with performance and television and now it's in our phone and, and sports and all of those things. That stuff came out of what we reenacted around the fire. Right. And there's a sense of trying to reconcile life through storytelling. That was an integral part of my drive. And it's also sort of a, a model for how to behave. I had to figure out how to be mm-hmm <affirmative>. So

Maureen (22:26):

You've come a long way, you've done a lot of different things until now I'm seeing you winning Emmys and seeing you all over the place. Like with this work that you're doing, which is very interesting and unique in the world of theater and movies and film. You are a dialect coach, so mm-hmm <affirmative>. How do you go from being an actor, which I'm assuming you're studying dialects. Is it something you're exposed to in your, in your studies and your training, and then you just realize you're awesome at it? How does that happen?

Susanne Sulby (23:01):

It's something that's fascinating and fun and entertaining to people. People love it when you pull voices and you're like talking in Russian accent and, or you're like, talk like you're from Philadelphia, you know what I'm saying? And you go from one thing to, and it's like fun at parties, right? So I guess that's how it started in college. We had four years of voice and speech, which included accents and understanding, you know, where our voices come from, the way that we sound and how to transform that with character. I was good at that when I went to college and then I started teaching when I was still in school. So by the time I was a junior, I was teaching all the freshman classes almost. So I taught there for 10 years. And at that time it wasn't such a huge industry. Like, you know, people, audiences were not as sophisticated.

Susanne Sulby (23:51):

So there were not as many dialect coaches. And, and I would be the person that people called, which is what happens now. And then I would start doing research, which is by the way, much easier now Thank you to <laugh> social media because people need to talk YouTube. Yeah. So yeah, YouTube, it's a word of mouth thing. Like I don't advertise it. People call me and say, you know, I need to do x, y, z kind of accent or can you do this? Show? Some of the more public things have been things like Mayor of East Town. I worked on Babylon with Jean Smart. I worked on, um, task most recently.

Jess (24:26):

The list of stars you've worked with or, or many of them are literally on the list of the women. I most like to meet. Like Kate Winslet, Jean Smart. I mean, you've, you've really, and specifically you've helped them nail that Delco accent, which is so hard and it's made the roles they played and often won awards for so authentic and believable.

Susanne Sulby (24:47):

Thank you so much. Something like Mare of Easttown or Jean Smart in Babylon, mayor of East Town. Let's talk about that. Or task. I'm looking at the whole world, right? So I'm bringing in sample speakers, I'm accosting people on the street and saying, Hey, oh, I hear you have a great accent. Can I record you? Can we have a conversation? 'cause that's the best way to get people to talk, start talking about themselves or like, or things they like. And then you hear the idiosyncrasies and the cadences, which is really the best. And then it's painstakingly sitting with someone and saying, okay, in, in Delaware County, the accent is pretty strong. So, and the sound kind of lands right here, like in this area. And they don't say area, they say area the back of the tongue is up a little. Like, it's very, very technical, right? Yeah, yeah. So you're going through all these little things.

Jess (25:43):

It's dissecting all the aspects of

Susanne Sulby (25:45):

Yeah. It's phonetics. So people come into that job as a dialect coach, either through phonetics or through acting typically.

Maureen (25:52):

And is it like something like when you're just, you have a natural affinity to being good for picking up languages, like, or a natural affinity to a sport. Like do you think naturally you just had this ability to be s so in tune with it?

Susanne Sulby (26:06):

I think so, yeah. I mean, and there are other people who I think, well, I look at and I'm like, oh my God, that's amazing.

Maureen (26:12):

You mean other dialect coaches?

Susanne Sulby (26:14):

Yeah, I just consulted with another dialect coach or Susan Haggerty who I think is amazing. Or, you know, it's, it's such a specialized thing. I have had the grace of being able to do a bunch of different things. So I don't just dialect coach. I am a link later voice teacher, which I think is really amazing work for free. It's called freeing the natural voice is her technique. And it's about connecting to your thinking, feeling impulses, and getting the body to relax and let go. And there's a series of very specific exercises that help with that. It's really great for working with classical text or teaching actors to be more consistent and connected to their impulses, which is what actors need to have in order to have a great performance and to use their whole voice like we are as human beings conditioned not to use our voice, to not reveal ourselves, right?

Susanne Sulby (27:11):

So like, to be guarded, keep a stiff upper lip bite your tongue. Children should be seen and not heard. Those kinds of things. That's fine if you're gonna be an accountant. But if you're going to be an actor, you go into your acting class and you're doing some amazing, tragic, classic piece and you're like smiling the whole time and your teacher's like, why are you smiling? And you have no idea. That's one of your, you know, escapes your, your body's going like, I know what to do with this emotion. We just smile through it. Or we have no affect at all.

Maureen (27:46):

There's so many layers. Jess, have you ever thought about all of the things that go into acting? I mean, we're not from that world, Suzanne. So it's fascinating to hear, like you said, how technical it is and how layered it is. And I feel like your job is one of those like unsung hero kind of things in the movies when people don't realize, we only see the beautiful actors and actresses, but the people like you who work with them behind the scenes to give them that skillset. So are you on set? Like, what does that look like at a like a day at work?

Susanne Sulby (28:18):

Uh, for many things, I am on set, like I'm working on a couple of projects right now I don't think I can quite talk about yet. But those I'm doing remotely through Zoom. But on some projects I'm lucky enough that the production company understands that actors really need to have this support on set, whether they're great at it or not. Some people are like, no, I I need to have a dialect coach on set with me. In fact, being on set is a lot. I just finished a job in Pittsburgh where I was there for six months, 12 hours a day, five days a week. And it was a lot.

Jess (28:51):

The Pitt, right? The Pitt?

Susanne Sulby (28:53):

No, it's not the Pitt.

Jess (28:54):

Oh, I'm sorry.

Susanne Sulby (28:54):

It's another show. The Pitt doesn't shoot in Pittsburgh. They, they do some exteriors, but they shoot in L.A. which is great. I love that they're shooting out here.

Susanne Sulby (29:03):

So I would like to sing the praises of actors because actors get a lot of grief because they're public and they're human beings and they, whatever people think they should be accountable to the regular ge general public. But acting is not easy. It's physically demanding, really demanding hours. I liken it to being on a, an emotional tightrope. You have to do the thing that most people are afraid to do. Like getting up in front of other people and taking a risk to use your voice, whether it be in a public speaking setting or acting is the biggest fear that people have. It's usually ranked above death. Right? <laugh>? I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding.

Jess (29:54):

I believe you. I believe you. Yeah.

Susanne Sulby (29:56):

And what I see when I work with actors is their incredible earnestness, their bravery, their desire to tell stories, and they're taking risks every time they get in front of the camera. And you have to be willing to fail in order to be a good actor. Like you have to be willing to stink at it in order to be great. So I just have to say, when I'm working with people, they're taking risks with me. And I'm like, okay, let's go for it. This is how you do this accent and here are the sounds. And in the moment then they have to, to take thoughts that are not their own, right? So they've taken the thoughts from the film or the play or the TV script, and they have to create that character, take those thoughts and turn them into an impulse and the whole world that they live in.

Susanne Sulby (30:52):

And then they're asked to speak it outside of their natural pathways of speech. Like you and I are not thinking, oh, I put my tongue between my teeth for the th thinking, my K is my tongue back of my tongue. We're not thinking that. We're just saying those things. And if we're mad, we're like, what are you thinking? And it's just gotta come out with that impulse. Now you gotta go, what are you thinking? You know? Or what are you thinking? You know? So it's understanding that they have to build a whole set of neuro pathways for what is not even initially their own thought. So it's, it's a big leap.

Jess (31:33):

Yeah. And an incredible amount of work, right? Because like you're, you think about it like, oh, you're running lines, you're running lines, you're memorizing lines. But of course you're like you say, you're adding in all of these layers, many of them very technical and precise. Yeah.

Susanne Sulby (31:46):

And, and maybe you're fighting and now you've gotta serve dinner or you're in the chef or something and you've gotta be ex excellent at some skill that you've never done before. It's pretty amazing. Yeah.

Jess (31:59):

Who are some of the actors that are excellent at it that you admire? Either that you've worked with or just that you think are exceptional at hearing that?

Susanne Sulby (32:05):

Well, I think Gary Oldman is amazing. I love him.

Maureen (32:10):

Yes. He does a good vampire. Yeah.

Susanne Sulby (32:12):

<laugh>. Well he's, you know, watch Slow Horses. He's fantastic.

Maureen (32:16):

So good.

Susanne Sulby (32:16):

Yes. Who do I love? Well, Kate Winslet's amazing. Evan Peters was delightful to work with. He is just an amazing actor and was so game full. Let's talk about task. That was the last, I can't really talk about some of the other shows that I've worked on right now, <laugh>. So it's hard to do. 'cause I, I want to talk about them, but I don't know if I'm allowed, so I don't wanna get in trouble. But like, task Mark Ruffalo, who has a very slight and subtle change to his speech, more bringing him down to the Pennsylvania area as opposed to being a New Yorker or somebody like Amelia Jones, who is quite British, very beautiful accent and just nails the Delco sound.

Maureen (32:59):

I didn't even know she was British when I watched that show. That's what blows my mind. And then I saw -

Susanne Sulby (33:04):

I know she's amazing.

Maureen (33:05):

- her doing like an outtake on social media and I was like, she's British. I, I mean, yeah, she was so good.

Susanne Sulby (33:11):

There were so many British people in that show, so, or Irish and South, south African, Allison Oliver, who did an amazing character and, and Delco accent, Sam Keeley, who plays one of the bikers who's from Ireland, he stayed in his accent the whole time and at the end he was like, okay, I can relax a little bit now. And people were like, oh my God, you're from Ireland. I didn't know. You know? So it takes a whole lot of commitment and a willing, because actors get a whole system of acting that doesn't really have the added layer of an actor obstacle of accent. So I just love them all. I mean, I work with people when I'm doing a show like that. My goal is also to talk to the guy who's playing the girl's father who's kidnapped or playing the waitress. Or in this last show I worked with a girl who was one of the Rita Ice girls who was at the Rita's Water ice water, ice Rita Water, ice. Yeah. Yeah. And she didn't have the accent, but she did have a connection to it. So came easily for her. She had a few lines and she did great. And what that does is it, it fleshes out the whole story. Like, it's like having a deep bench is what I like to call it. It's like if you have just three people at the top who are doing an accent from a local area, nobody else sounds like that. It's gonna be a little odd.

Maureen (34:34):

Can we do something a little bit fun if you'll humor us? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Can we do like a little quick fire and we'll say a place and you give us the accent?

Susanne Sulby (34:42):

Oh, dear God, I don't know if I can do that. <laugh>. No. So I will do some accents for you, but let's be careful because I am not Henry Higgins. Like I said, I don't do accents all day, every day. All right, well give us some of your favorites then. My favorites. Well, like an Irish accents. That's a lot of fun to do. Like that feels like it's far forward in the front of the mouth. Uh, Scottish accents smarter in the back of the throat like that, right? If you're talking about rp, quite British, very beautiful crisp tea dropped oz or say Philadelphia, like South Philly. They don't say o like the rest of the area does. Or Delco Delco, come on, it's Delco. Let's go who we're gonna go home and get a Hogie and a Coke. You know, that those are all pretty extreme. Extreme, you know what I'm saying? So good. And then there's things like, um, Southern accent, you know, like a little bit Appalachian. You know,

Jess (35:43):

If I close my eyes, there's like eight different people in front of me <laugh>.

Susanne Sulby (35:47):

It's, it's fun.

Maureen (35:49):

That's amazing. It's just like one vowel and it changes everything. I mean, you are a master of the craft, not just of, you know, dialects, but you can see your acting skills just in that little 30 seconds that you did. It's fascinating.

Susanne Sulby (36:04):

It's so much easier to add a little thought into it. Like it makes it much better. And the fact that's one of the things that when you're doing an accent, you have to make sure that you do is that I, the way I say it is toggle back and forth from the technical to the intentional or to your point of view to the acting moment. Because what happens when you're doing an accent in a Delco accent, you're saying, I don't, I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna do that. And then you go, and in the moment when the director says, well, uh, you know, you really love this person, so you're not that mean to them, you know, well, IDI didn't wanna do that now, you know, as a, as opposed to being mean about it, like you're crotchety or something, you know? So you have to be able to, to live within those choices.

Maureen (36:58):

We both have sons at University of Pittsburgh, so the pit is like a, you know, a hot topic right now, the show. And you are working on that show, correct? Or is that one you can't talk about?

Susanne Sulby (37:07):

I'm only working with one person on that show. They do not. Katherine do a lot of, yeah, Katherine LaNasa,

Maureen (37:13):

She's fabulous.

Susanne Sulby (37:14):

She's such a good actress, like amazing. I love her so much. And she's so nice.

Jess (37:19):

You can also tell even in just how you're talking about this, not only do you bring so much pride and skill to this job, but you also seem like you absolutely love it.

Susanne Sulby (37:29):

I do love it. I love it. I love the diversity of my work. You know, I taught at Cal Arts a couple of years ago for a semester. I teach privately, I coach individuals, I do some executive coaching. I will work with people who call me to improve their voice or to acting coaching. And then I also get to do this thing where sometimes I go on set and I immerse myself in this work with really incredible actors doing great work. So

Jess (37:58):

That's amazing. You've had such a varied life with so many different experiences. I'm just wondering if there's like a mantra or, or a piece of advice that sticks with you.

Susanne Sulby (38:08):

Do what you wanna do, you know, you're allowed to want what you want. Uh, you don't have to please anybody else. You don't have to be famous. You don't have to even be good at what you're doing. If you love it, just do it and you'll get better. You know what I mean? Like,

Maureen (38:26):

I love it.

Susanne Sulby (38:27):

Here's something about my experience. I'll say, oh, this is what I do. I'm an actor and I write and I coach people, and they're like, oh, that's so cool. And then you get the phrase, I used to blah, blah, blah. I used to be a dancer. I used to play the guitar, I used to play the piano. I used to compose music. I used to be an actor. I used to do improv. If I had a nickel for every time somebody said I used to do something that they set aside because it wasn't going to be a profession for them. And how longingly they talk about it, how fondly they make that phrase, ah, that's so cool. I used to paint. Go do that. Whether you are 60 and you haven't touched it in 40 years, or if you are 25 and you're hearing this, do the thing that fills you with bliss. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. That fill you with excitement, a longing or an energy for life. So keep doing those things. That's my advice.

Jess (39:30):

Doesn't get better than that.

Maureen (39:32):

Yeah. Excellent. Excellent advice. Well, this has been an incredible She what she what she what? Interview <laugh>. I'm definitely not as talented. Yes. She what? Or even close. She what interview. Suzanne, thank you for being so generous and kind and giving with your time as well and sharing that amazing story. We know you've got a lot more stories in you. We can't wait for that book to come out, but thank you so much for being with us today, and we cannot wait to see what you do next.

Susanne Sulby (40:00):

Thank you so much.

Maureen (40:03):

Well, that was a wild ride <laugh> . Were you expecting that?

Jess (40:08):

Uh, no, I was not expecting that <laugh>. Oh my God, I, my head is spinning. That was incredible and fascinating.

Maureen (40:16):

Definitely.

Jess (40:17):

She has one of the most amazingly wild and varied and diverse stories I've ever heard. And that's saying something <laugh>.

Maureen (40:25):

Yes. That is saying something. We've been doing this a minute and you've been interviewing a lot of people, but I think that we should end with what she said was, do things that fill you with

Jess (40:35):

Bliss. What's something that fills you with bliss?

Maureen (40:38):

Um, this I love She What?

Jess (40:40):

<laugh>,

Maureen (40:41):

What's something that fills you with bliss?

Jess (40:43):

I mean, hearing these women's stories, it always brings me bliss. I get to this place where I just am, I'm inspired by them. I'm proud of them. Yeah. I wanna be as good and as vulnerable and as courageous as they are. And that feels like bliss.

Maureen (40:58):

Yeah. She What? Is bliss.

Jess (41:00):

She What comes to you from Real Woman Magazine, a product of Capital Health. This episode was produced by Leigh Iacobucci, with Music by Epidemic Sound.

Maureen (41:11):

Please, please leave us a rating and review. We want the show to be so great and we need you to help us do that. So follow, subscribe, and next time bring your friends too. Until then, I'm Maureen Petrosky.

Jess (41:23):

And I'm Jess Downey.