November 18, 2020 • 50 mins
No one hustles harder than Megan Hilty. She’s conquered Broadway, released hit albums and voiced a ton of animated characters. But Wells goes deep with Megan to discover the true life lessons that led her to success.
Plus, Megan reveals what REALLY happened at “opera camp”!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What is Twitter's new, Instagram's new? I don't I can't
keep up roll it. This is a Wells cast with
Wells atoms and I heart radio podcast podcast people just
(00:20):
about Twitter and Twitter has now got something called fleet,
which I don't know what that is. It looks like
stories from Instagram. Everyone's just copying everybody else. Instagram was like,
you know what, we like what TikTok's doing, so we're
gonna do reels. Everyone's at these kitchy little names for things.
It's getting too complicated. I don't even know. I just
did so. I just did a fleet. Is that what
(00:42):
we call it? There's a tweet and there's a fleet.
There's a fleet of tweets on Twitter. All right, I
just did one. I don't even know if I did
it right. I sell it my mother. It's like I
don't even know how to play the Nintendo. It's called Nintendo, Mom,
How old are you? But now that's what I sound like.
I think I just put out a fleet. I don't
know if I did it right, though, And then Instagram
now just looks like Etsy and listen, I'll be the
(01:05):
first to admit that I've made some money off Instagram.
But now there's like the marketplace, and I don't know, guys,
can we just go back to a simpler time when
we were all just trying to get over eleven likes?
Remember those days when you take down an Instagram post
because eleven people didn't like it, so you couldn't go
from like the names of the people that liked it
(01:27):
to twelve people liked it. I'm gonna send out a
fleet later and then have a nip of scotch. If
you go to the vans, could you pick me up
some preparation h some of don't depends and some Milanta.
I'm too busy putting out fleets. Pumped for the show today, though, guys,
(01:47):
but not as pumped as my fiancee Sarah. When she
found out that I was doing this, she was like,
wait what? I actually almost got her to host it,
no joke. I almost got her to come and do
this show because she was so excited. Why don't you
do the interview? And She's like, no way, I don't
know how to interview people. What are you talking about?
You know how to talk to people? Don't you? Let's
go talk? But seriously, I think a lot of you
(02:08):
guys are gonna be super pumped about today's guest, whose
first TV role was on The X Files. The Truth
is out There, Mulder and Scully. She voiced snow White
in Shrek the Third Stop It. She released her first
solo album back in Back at a Simpler Time with
the wordo fleets. Oh, she was on a little show
called Smash. What was she on Broadway in Wicked? She was?
(02:35):
She was Glinda? Okay, no big deal. Has she been
on TV shows like Bones, The Closer, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty?
Uh yeah, I'm telling you guys, this is an episode
that's going to blow her mind. Oh and by the way,
she's got a new show out called Trolls Topia, which
is gonna be available on NBC, Peacock and Hulu coming
(02:56):
up Thursday at November nineteen. Alright, boys and girls, ladies
and gents, buckling, send out all the fleets you can,
throw up a reels, do a TikTok dance, because on
the Wells Cast today we have none other then Megan Hilty.
This one, dude, you do not want to miss. Seriously,
(03:17):
I promise you. All right, welcome back to the Wells Cast.
Very excited about today's episode, But I have to be
honest with you. My fiance was actually more excited about
this episode than me because she is a huge Broadway fan.
(03:38):
Welcome to the Wells cast, Megan Hilty, how are you hey,
how's it going? It's going good? Yeah, you know, there's
a hold on. Here's the thing, silver lining glass half
full of this bitch. Apparently there's a vaccine somewhere. I
know there's two, right, so Speiser and Maderna? Am I
saying that? I don't know? I may have completely said
(04:00):
that incorrectly, but yes, there's there's a glimmer of hope
on the horizon. Yes, exactly, So it can't be all bad.
I'm so excited to have you on the show. But
like I was saying, my fiancee when she heard that
I was doing this interview, she was like, shut up,
you are not you are not having Oh I'm so
excited to totally disappoint her. That is fantastic. Will be like,
(04:25):
oh that was a worring. Oh she's the worst. I
was this close, this close to getting her to do
the show for me because she was so punched about.
I was like, you go do it, do it, and
she was like no, I don't know. I don't I'm
not good at interviewing. I know. Oh man, that just
made my day. Thank you. There's a lot to talk about.
We could talk Smash, we could talk snow White, we
(04:45):
could talk Wicked. But I think what we need to
start with is Trolls Topia. Trolls Topia, I know, it's
so fun. So it's coming out very soon. So NBC,
Peacock and Hulu are going to be hosting Trolls Topia.
So just tell me and everyone out there what this is.
For all of the people who saw Trolls World Tour,
(05:08):
the film that came out this past summer, I believe
it basically takes that theme and runs with it. It
acknowledges that the pop trolls find out that there are
more music genres out there, and so they call for
the ambassadors of each music tribe to come and live
with them and create this utopia, hence the title Trolls Topia.
(05:31):
And I play Holly Darlin, who is the ambassador of
the country Western tribe. She is delightful. I sing all
the time. This genius Alanna d wrote all of the music,
and there is like NonStop, like super catchy, really wonderful,
(05:52):
Like every time we record these songs, were all so
happy that we have these songs stuck in our heads
for the rest of the week. But yeah, and that's it.
It's it's a bunch of people from different parts of
the their little troll world, and they're coming together and
making something beautiful. I've often said that if I could ever, like,
a dream job for me would be to do some
(06:12):
sort of cartoon animation because you get to do a
TV show. You get to do all the fun things
that a TV show or a movie like that brings you,
but you don't have to get into hair and makeup ever. Yes,
although if you're me, I always get into hair and makeup.
(06:33):
The the The thing is that you have to remember
is that with animation, most of the time they're filming
you in the booth to give to the animators so
that they can they have an idea how to give
the like what gestures to give the character and how
their face would move when they're saying these things. Um
so so somebody is watching. Yeah, but yeah, it is
(06:56):
a dream job. It's something that about twelve years ago
I really made a real active pursuit of I really
wanted to be in the voice over world animation specifically
and um and about four years ago it started really
paying off. It's a tough industry to get into, but
once you do it, then people start trusting you and
(07:17):
it's just awesome, so much fun. I have a sound
bite from the show that I wanted to play for
everyone out there. Is that? Okay? Sure? Yeah? What is
your character's name again? Holly Darlin? Holly Darlin? She of
course it is, Yeah, dag Navit, that's Harley Darlin. We'll
just love her, bless her heart. Here she is on
(07:38):
trolls Topia and nothing like litterine and down from up above,
nothing but like whey to deliver the party up. Now
we go, Son, there's a bore that I have ever
seen in where that came from the hardy Okay? I
(08:15):
love that, uh for a lot of reasons. One, it's
so ridiculous that it's amazing too. I lived in Nashville
for twelve years and did radio in Nashville, so I
was surrounded by hockey tongs and music row and half
of my friends there are either writers or performers and stuff.
(08:36):
So I guess my question to you is because you
were a Broadway lady. Was it hard to like kind
of pivot from I guess I don't know classic classical singing,
and I know you have a background opera to like,
you know, singing some contra tunes, some country. Well it's
really bizarre. Um, I am from Seattle, Washington. It doesn't
(08:58):
get much further north unless you're going to like Alaska
or like like Canada. But people constantly assume that I
am from Texas, like very specifically from Dallas. I don't
know what it is, Um, they just think I'm from there,
like me as a person, and I have been cast
to play country singers a lot um and so when
(09:21):
the audition came up for this, it was like, oh, yeah,
that's I mean, that's right in my wheelhouse, even though
I'm a Seattle girl. But I love it. I love
I love playing these amazing dynamic southern women and singing
in that genre. I just I think it's really fun. Yeah,
it's got to be kind of like a pleasant departure
(09:42):
from what I guess you're generally used to. Um I am.
You know you were cast for this specific role, but
it was there another troll that's doing a different genre
that you're like man, that would have been fun to do. Oh. Um, well,
it's kind of funny because even though I play Holly Darlin, I, um,
I voice a lot of the other like incidental trolls,
(10:05):
like in the groups and stuff like that. So it's
really fun because I get to play a lot of
different genres. You know, they're like, okay, so what what
would a rocker troll you know say? And like so
I get to like, I get to pretend like I'm
all the different types of trolls in um in all
(10:26):
of these different scenes. Um. So, I don't know, maybe
maybe the rock stuff I didn't or maybe classical I
don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It's it's
all fun. Are all musical genres represented here? Or is
there going to be like a strongly worded letter from
like the Amalgamation of Polka enthusiasts for not being included
(10:49):
in you know what, I didn't think of the Polka
in enthusiasts. They might take issue with this. I don't know,
but maybe there's something that maybe I'm just not remembering correctly.
Maybe there is something in there, you know that that
gives a nod to the polka community. Um. That I'm
just unaware of. But yeah, that's an interesting issue you
(11:11):
bring up. Yeah, and there's always season two. And if
you had asked me this morning if I was gonna
work in the amalgamation of Polkland enthusiasts into one of
my shows, I would have said, I'm also stoned. So
that is amazing that we were able to work that
in there. I remember the movie, Love the movie, and
I right to say that timber Lake had like some
(11:31):
hand in some of the music in the movie. Oh yeah,
I think I mean both of them, right, like in
the Um the first Trolls movie and Trolls to Are
Not Trolls, T'll be a Trolls World Tour. I believe
he he did a lot of the music. He may
have even overseen the whole thing. I don't know, but
there's a lot of really great stuff in that movie. Well,
(11:52):
what I remember loving about the movie was it's similar
to like a lot of those like you know, Pixar
DreamWorks and that kind of stuff where it's it's for
young people, but like adults still can like totally get
down with it and and appreciate it. Is that kind
of what this is. Absolutely, it's so especially like gosh,
(12:15):
there's so many episodes that I just remember. I we
had so much fun recording in the studio. We were
just laughing so hard a lot of before everything shut down.
I was lucky enough to um record with Amanda for
several sessions. Who does Poppy and um and um gosh,
I don't know every everybody on the creative team, Like,
(12:36):
we just have a really really fun time, and we
just always keep saying, how great is it that not
only will kids like this? Like, for sure, my kids
are obsessed with it. They've seen several episodes and they're
like they can't get enough um and but the parents,
this is one of those special cartoons that the parents
(12:57):
are really going to enjoy too. And even if you
don't have kids, you're gonna enjoy it. Yeah. I I
love the idea of I don't have kids, But at
some point my kids are gonna see like the stuff
that I've done on television, and they're gonna be so
embarrassed by their father, Like do do your kids have
an understanding that that's you? Yes? So my daughter six
(13:22):
and um, she I do several other animated projects too,
and uh and she always gets a kick out of
like she knows which ones I am, and then when
I pop up as different characters, she'd be like, is
that you too? And we've kind of taught her to listen.
She's very aware that they're people voicing these characters and
(13:42):
that they do several different shows, and so we're always like,
does that sound familiar to you? Like, and she's really
good at placing people. She's like, oh, yeah, that's the
same voice as Donkey and Trek or something, you know,
Like she'll she doesn't know the actor's names, but she
knows that it's the same voice doing those characters. It's
that's really funny. Very excited for Trolls, Topia, NBC, Peacock
(14:06):
and Hulu November nineteen. Is there anything that you want
to talk about the show that I didn't even ask
you about? We covered that it's fun. Yeah, we covered
that you're definitely gonna want to watch it and that
the music is really fun. I think that's it, and
that you're pissing off a lot of Polkland enthusiasts. I
(14:26):
mean not, I don't know that for certain. I don't
know for sure. There might be something that I that
I'm unaware of, but it is a possibility. All right, well, everyone,
make sure you you go watch Trolls Topia NBC, Peacock
and Hulu November nineteenth. Fot what were you gonna say? Okay, okay, um,
I want to take a quick break. And I don't
(14:47):
know if anyone told you, but the idea for this
show is origin stories, and I like to find out
how successful people became so successful. And so when we
come back, are you down for hanging out with me
a little bit and telling me your story and how
the hell got on this show on this day today? Sure?
I mean, do you have a minute? Sure? Yeah, yeah, totally. Alright, quick,
(15:08):
right we come back. It's Megan Hilthy right here on
the Wells Cast. Alright, we're back on the Wells Cast.
Very excited to have Megan Hilthy on this show. The
new animated show is called Trolls Topia, and it's on NBC,
(15:31):
Peacock and Hulu. Starts November nineteen. Fun for all ages,
and you get to bring the Southern twang to the show,
which has gotta be so much fun, so much fun. Yeah. No,
I'm every time I get to play a Southern, a
sassy Southern lady, I'm I'm all in. I'm so excited
to talk to you about your career. We were going
(15:52):
through it in the kind of the pre show meeting,
and your resume is ridiculous, Like just like pre eighteen
years old, your resume was more robust, weird? Is it
kind of all over the place? It is? But I
also think that, you know, a lot of this show
is like what's the blueprint for success? That's the idea, right,
(16:14):
like how do you get to be Megan Hilty? And
I think a common denomina that we found is that
a lot of really successful people kind of have a
lot of irons in the fire. They're really good at
a lot of things because you never know what's gonna hit,
you know, you never know what's gonna work. I imagine
that when you started out, you weren't like I'm going
into animation and I'm gonna be doing a Southern troll
(16:35):
and it's gonna be a country star even though i'mrom Seattle.
You know, like it's so far removed from what you
probably set out to do. And I think that that's
a really good thing for a lot of those listeners
out there to remember, is that, like you got to
try a lot of things before you realize what hits you. Know,
So let's go to the beginning. You mentioned that you
were from the Pacific Northwest. Did you grow up in Seattle? Yes, yeah,
(16:57):
just outside in Bellevue. Yeah. Where you from? Like entertainer's family,
musical family? How did it start? Not at all. My
My dad was an engineer and in sales, and my
mom is an incredible businesswoman. Yeah she's amazing. Um, but
not not a musical family, but super supportive. My mom
(17:17):
was always of the mindset that no matter what me
and my sisters wanted to do, she was going to
support us no matter what. And um, as long as
we had a passion and a drive for it, then
she was. She was all in. From an early age,
I was just singing all the time, and it was
something that I clearly like. I knew that I wanted
to be a part of the arts in some way.
(17:38):
I didn't know in what capacity. And once I started
taking voice lessons, my voice teacher took me down the
path of classical music and very specifically opera. I would
do all kinds of um uh competitions and um. I
went to an opera camp with the San Francisco Opera,
which is which tells you a lot about how many
(17:59):
friends I at growing up, and that's kind of where
I thought my life was going to go. I I
thought I was going to be an opera singer and
and it wasn't until I went to that opera. I
shouldn't call it an opera camp. They get really upset
when it go. It's a it's an apprentice ship program
that the San Francisco. It's very prestigious, and I'm very
grateful for it, but it's an opera camp. I mean, like,
(18:20):
like we we came from all over the place, and
like anyway, I found out that we weren't going to
like work until we were in our mid thirties, because
that's when a woman's voice really matures. And I was like,
I was like sixteen years old, going huh that that
doesn't I can't wait that long, and so I started
I went into musical theater instead. Um bold move on
(18:43):
the camp counselors by the way to be like, hey,
welcome to opera camp, where you won't get to do
this thing for another fifteen years. So yeah, it was
really the opera stars that were coming and talking to
us like giving us like the low down and the
real deal. And it was like, oh, oh, I don't
know if this is the life that I really want.
(19:05):
I have a deep respect for it, but it just didn't.
It was it became very clear that that wasn't the
life that I was going to. I remember when I
was in a I was in a class. It was
some sort of like media training class in college because
I was I was a journalism major. I was a
(19:25):
broadcast junalism major. And I remember I was doing TV
and I was doing radio the time. Um, And I
remember someone came in there like, okay, so right out
of college, if you go work like a news station, um,
you'll make like two dollars. Uh, and like right out
of college for a radio station to like thirty dollars,
And I was like radio, that's six. Yeah. First of all,
(19:49):
hold on, opera camp. Do you sing an opera camp
or is it like a bunch of panels of opera singers? Oh? Yeah, No,
it's a it's it's it was a whole lot of stuff.
Every day. We started out with ballet class, and we
had all these like workshops and seminars. We had a
lot of like opera singers come and speak to us.
And at the end we had this big performance that
(20:09):
we were leading up to, so we had rehearsals and
stuff like that. It was it was a big deal,
Like it was. I I really should stop calling it operacamp.
It just makes it just makes me egal to to
think of it that way. Um uh yeah. And so
it was a lot. It was really intense and I
really loved it, but it really kind of showed me
(20:30):
that it is probably not not for me. Okay, so
you get back from quote unquote opera camp. Um, and
then so that what are you doing? You're like, okay,
so I want to focus more on like the theatrical
side than rather the singing or what happened? Yeah, I um.
I was going to a performing arts high school and
(20:51):
found out that wasn't going to be accredited by the
time I graduated. So I quickly like did like an
independent study and graduated it early. And my mom was
really supportive of the gap year, you know, like taking
time off between high school and and uh in college,
and so I took. I took two years off, and
(21:13):
I moved from Seattle to southern Oregon to do theater.
I did community theater I did. I did dinner theater
and every terrible job you can imagine during the day
to support my theater habit. And I kind of was
kind of doing it to see if that's really what
I wanted to do. Was kind of trying to prove
it to myself before I went and dedicated four years
(21:35):
of my life to a conservatory program and potentially went
into hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt in
the student loans. I wanted to be really sure that
that's what I wanted to do. And uh and and
after that, I was like, yeah, look, turns turns out
that's what I want to do. So what were you
were you await chriss? Were you a bartender? What were
you doing during that time? I was. I worked a
(21:58):
bunch of different retail job bobs. I also, uh like
took care of people's houses. I was a um why
can't I think of the name hostess and um in
a restaurant and I was trying desperately to like work
up to server. I wasn't really I was an amazing hostess.
I sat everybody really evenly, I kept everybody really happy.
(22:22):
I was a terrible server. It was a terrible, terrible,
terrible server, but I wanted it so bad, um because
I wanted to make more money anyway. Um, So I
do all that during the day and then I do
my shows at night. Um and yeah, until I went
to school. I ended up going to Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So that's obviously like a very well
(22:44):
known school for drama, right, Like it's it's like a
big deal. Yeah, I mean yeah, I mean yeah, it's
a really big Okay. So so you you take two
years off and you're like hustling like crazy on the side,
and then you get in. Are you so pumped or
(23:06):
are you a little terrified because of like the being
in debt and all that kind of stuff. No, I mean,
um uh no. I actually auditioned for it a year
after I moved down to Southern Oregon. So the first
year I auditioned and I got in, and I kind
of thought to myself, I'm not done with doing this,
(23:28):
so I deferred for a year and they let me
do it. I was like, I have these really cool
roles that I want to do at this dinner theater
like that, and I really wanted that time to like
live by myself and like support myself and figure out
all that stuff. And I'm really glad that it did
it because by the time I got to see him, you,
(23:49):
I was fully capable of taking care of myself. I
had lived on my own for two years. I was
not doing that typical freshman thing where I was trying
to figure out how to feed myself and do laundry
and go to classes. No. I was there to like,
I was there to work. I was not messing around.
I was Um. I was fully capable of taking care
(24:11):
of all of the other things. So I'm really glad
that I did it. Okay, So you get there, are
your parents so proud of you? Or they like, I
can't believe he's still doing this whole thing? Like what
was really proud of me? They're really supportive. Um. They
were like the perfect parents for somebody who wanted to
go into the arts because they weren't pushy at all.
(24:33):
They were never like, here's you know, driving me to
auditions and like prepping me for things and getting in
my face about stuff. But they were totally cool with
whatever I was doing. I figured out how to get
scholarships to help me pay for this program that was
crazy expensive. So they were really happy that I had
figured out a lot of that out. Yeah, No, they
(24:53):
were super They were always really supportive and really happy
for me. You're definitely an outlier when it comes to
actors who have been on this show. For the most part,
a lot of actors don't go to school, they don't
go to college. They like either go straight to New
York or straight to l A. And then they just
like you know, hustle like crazy until they get their
(25:14):
big break. But you did, I guess, like the traditional
thing where you went and got a bachelor's degree in theater. Yeah,
and ultimately like, yes, I was. I was in it
for the training. I which is really why I did
not want to be in New York or Los Angeles.
I didn't want to be like tempted to or distracted
by anything. I was in Pittsburgh like that. I wasn't
(25:35):
doing anything else, um and uh. I really wanted to
like focus on on the training and really the the
other major component to that is the showcase that Carnegie
Mellon has at the end of those four years. There's
a huge it's basically like a huge audition for agents,
(25:56):
casting directors, managers, like anybody that's looking for new talent
um to come to. It's a very CMU has a
really respected showcase. There are tons of showcases to go to.
So I was really one of the reasons why I
wanted to go to CMU was because they were able
to open all of those doors for me at the
end of those four years, in addition to the training.
(26:19):
And it like, that's exactly what happened. So you received
CMUs Charles Willard Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Musical Theater.
Oh my gosh, you did a deep dive. Yes, and
then I guess you have this showcase at the end
of your fourth year. Is that how you landed Wicked?
(26:40):
Basically in a very dramatic and roundabout way. I mean,
how much time do we have. I'll try to keep
it short, but I um. They basically called me in
for a totally different show. Um Little Shop of Hors
was about to go out on the road, and they
knew I was still in school. This was about two
months before I graduated it and they kind of put
me through the ringer for that. I ended up getting it,
(27:03):
um and then the job fell through, Like I got
my first agents because of this other job to negotiate
this contract, and then it fell apart for the reasons
that happened in this business all the time, you know. Um,
it was devastating, and I think the casting directors felt
really bad for me. So they were like, Hey, we're
doing it as Kristin chenowis replacement audition for this the
(27:26):
show Wicked. It just opened last October. You know, will
you come back to New York and an audition for
I was still in school and I was like, yeah,
I've been hearing about it. Yeah, So, um, I ended
up going. And I think because they knew I was
still in school. I was at the final, final, final, callback.
It was me and the person who took over for
(27:47):
Kristen and a couple other people that did not get it,
and um uh and I was. I went there for
the entire creative team. I had no idea they were
going to be in there. I was. It was so
otherwise I probably wouldn't I would have panicked. Um. But yeah,
And I ended up going into Wicket and spending four
and a half years in the New York in l
(28:08):
A and a little bit of the touring company too,
and that story, I think is a good one to
remember because you book a little shop, which I love
that love. So it's a perfect show. Yeah, but it's
a bit older. If you love musical theory, you've probably
seen it. And then Wicked comes along, which is like
the biggest freaking thing on Broadway, and so you don't
(28:30):
get the thing that you think that you want, but
then you end up getting the thing that like you
really really wanted, but you didn't know you wanted, right, Yeah,
And that's how the casting director remembers it too. He
remembers it that I just got these two offers at
the same time, and I chose one, and I was like, no, no,
it was it was a lot more dramatic. The highs
(28:53):
and the lows of this career are just staggering. I mean,
I'm constantly thinking to myself, like what why why do
I do this to myself? But then I don't know
what else I would do, honestly, like, I don't know, Well,
you seem to be doing pretty good. Um, okay, so
hold on. I also want to know, like, were there
other people in your class? Are you like the badass
(29:16):
that came out of your class? No? No, no, And
First of all, the class that I was supposed to
be in was with like Josh Gad and Leodom Jr.
And you know, like that was and they were all
my friends in school anyway. It's not like there was
a big separation of classes. Um uh and Roryomalley, you know,
like these are all like they're all just the people
(29:38):
that I there's a lot of badasses that that came
from of um CMU at that time. I am low
on the totem pole, all right. I just liked the
idea of like a bunch of people like that. Megan
Hilthy really thinks that she is the bees. Yeah, you
land wicked. You do that for how long? Four and
(30:01):
a half years? I did it on Broadway for a year,
two years, two years, and two years in l A
and then six months on the road. They were nice
enough to let me and my friend do the Pacific
Northwest because they knew that's where we were from. So
um so yeah and a long time. Yeah, that's a
great run. So then what happens next? The director Joe
(30:22):
Mantello was doing a new show UM and he asked
me to be a part of UM the workshops. While
I was doing Wicked, and he was doing nine to
five the musical, and so he asked if I would
play the Dolly part and role dore Ly, and I
just kept doing these workshops like that. They just I
just kept hanging on. I guess I didn't like make
(30:42):
anybody mad or anything. I didn't. I ended up not
getting replaced along the way, and then ended up doing
that um out of town in l a and then
opening on Broadway for a for a short stint, And
when that was over, I came running back to Los
Angeles because I just love it here so much. So
do you channel some Dolly into this trolls Topia role? Oh? Sure? Yeah?
(31:06):
Oh absolutely? Her Southern charm, her positivity, her energy. Sure
she's I mean, if you listen to her, that's not
Dolly Parton at all. But I'm always trying to We
should all be trying to channel Dolly at all times.
The world would be a better place if we all
did that. She's an icon in the world for someone
like me who lived and worked in the music industry
(31:27):
in Nashville. She is like there's God and then like
right below God, it's Sally Parton right right, right right.
I mean she is the economy in the Smoky Mountains, right,
I mean she's and she's literacy in Tennessee. You know,
she's like with her teaching kids to read with her
(31:47):
free book program. I mean like she's there are so
many different levels to her to why she is just
the greatest. I was talking about her this morning with somebody. Yeah,
she's she is everything wonderful that that everybody's ever heard there,
it's all true. If you've heard anything else that's not true,
(32:08):
because she's She's just the greatest there is. Okay. So
then after nine to five, what happens. We closed abruptly
and very sadly. It was very sad um and confusing
time because we we were playing to like sold out
crowds and stuff, and all of a sudden we were
we got our clothing, notice, you know. It was it
(32:29):
was really confusing, and I was really sad and burnt
out on Broadway and stuff. So I was like, I'm
gonna go back. I may never work again, but I'm
going to go back to l A. And I'm gonna
try to bust into the television world and the animation world,
because that the animation in particular was something that I
had always wanted since I was a kid, and I
(32:50):
knew you had to really at that time, you had
to be out here and meeting people to get into it.
So UM, I was like, I'm gonna put I'm going
all in in these two areas and um and and
I did um. The first voiceover, uh like animated job
I did was the Tinkerbell series for Disney, and I
(33:14):
played Rosetta um for many of the movies and television
programs and then uh it started getting my feet wet
in the television world until Smash came along. Okay, how
dare you gloss over your uncredited role in the X Files.
I wasn't in the X Files, so it's on my
(33:35):
IMDb and I can't take it off. I'm not in it.
It's not me. I don't know why it's still there,
Like we've had so many campaigns to like, so I
am dB to take that off. I'm not in the
X Files. That's why I never talked about because it's
not I don't know what that first of all, if
just roll with it now, I mean, maybe I should
(33:56):
just pick something and say, oh, yeah, that was a
crazy time. I was Molder's love interest in season four,
Episode nine, Me and Jillian Anderson got in a really
big fight on set. It was a really big thing
just to start some rumors. Yes, Scully gotten because she
wanted Molder and then there was a ghost And I
(34:19):
think I would have been the date that they say
that I was on it. I think I would have
been like twelve or something like that. I like, I'm
with nowhere close to I gotta be honest with you.
The only reason why I accepted doing this interview because
I want to talk to you about the X Files
and now find this thing was over. We're done, We're done.
We're done here. Um, okay, So you did a bunch
(34:40):
of like guest appearances and stuff before Smash came out, right, Yeah,
So was it just was it a lot of like
forward momentum, positive momentum leading up to that or was
it kind of the typical l a feast or famine
type of deal. Snash kind of came at a at
a real tough time because I was I was doing
(35:01):
really well getting the guest stars and a little recurring
things and stuff like that. Um, and I gosh, I
got that script and I was like, this is crazy,
this is like my world on television, you know, like
this is this seems wait too good to be true? Um, yeah,
I don't know. I so yeah, I I have been
(35:22):
doing well, but like not well enough to I don't know.
I would have loved to have been at a better
place at that point. But thank goodness, Smash game along
And that was dramatic too. It's all dramatic. Nothing nothing
ever comes easily or without any issues. You know, that
(35:45):
was no different. You guys make make your money on
being dramatic, so of course it's it's you know, it's
surrounds you, for better or for worse. I guess just
touched on what Smash meant to you, what you think
it meant to like the fan and your disappointment of
it not lasting as long as I think a lot
of people thought it was going to write Yeah no, yeah,
(36:07):
And it was one of the greatest things that's ever
happened to me. I mean, I got to do everything
that I've ever wanted to do in one job, and
I got to play this really dynamic, complicated person. I
got to sing this incredible music all the time. I mean,
and now people think I'm a danswer, which I am not.
Because Josh for Goss is so great at his job choreographing.
(36:30):
He made it it looked like I knew what I
was doing. Um yeah, and I loved everybody that I
was working with. I mean it was like every amazing thing.
What were your other questions? Your questions were like the
disappointment of it not lasting. I guess I don't really
I don't really look at it that way. I I
know that, Um, there is so much that has to happen, Like,
(36:54):
there's so much magic that has to happen in order
for a show to get picked up, for you to
be recast to you know, it's to continue to get
a second season. I mean, there's so many things that
are way beyond my control, way beyond my pay grade. Um,
And the way I look at it is I'm just
so grateful to be a part of a show that
(37:17):
got two full, like long seasons, and we brought a
little piece of Broadway into people's homes every week. Like
even if some of the storylines weren't like things that
would actually happen on Broadway, the musical numbers certainly were,
and they were filled with Broadway dancers, not people like
(37:38):
pretending to be Broadway dancers like I am. I still
am approached by strangers saying, hey, I did not like
musical theater until I watched Smash, and it completely introduced
me to this whole new world. So um, so, I'm
just really proud to be a part of something like that.
You know how they have they'll say like, uh, they're
really a musicians musician musicians like his music or her music,
(38:02):
that's how, that's how good of a musician. Elliott Smith
was a musician. Everyone loved me, you know, even though
he never really made it whatever. And I feel like
it's it's a little bit of that. I know a
lot of actors and a lot of musical theater junkies
who are like that show was the musician musicians like
they were obsessed with that show. Yeah. No, I again, like,
(38:23):
I'm just so I'm so happy to be a part
of that because I agree like I think, um and
it was it was kind of disappointing to hear some
of the backlash of people going like, well, that would
never happen and this would And then I'd just be like, guys,
we're not doing a reality show. We're doing a drama,
you know, And I doubt I doubt like doctors like
(38:48):
flocked to Twitter going that would never happen. The things
that happened on Chicago and like M D r p
D or Firehouse or whatever like that would never happen.
It's like, well, no, this is not a documentary, Like
it's yeah, I'm from Monterey and I'm not mad at
(39:11):
Reese Witherspoon for improperly depicting rich housewives and killing their husbands,
because that never happens, never happens, but it could and
if it did, it would look amazing, definitely, And my
mom would definitely be involved somehow, but not wouldn't be
the murderer, but she would definitely know. She definitely go
(39:32):
to that like coffee place like that frequent that place. Yeah,
after Smash, what happens next? You've put out solo records?
Oh yeah, yeah, those happened. I moved out to l
A because I was doing a sitcom with Shawn Hayes,
who is a delight. He U was a recurring guest
star on on Smash and we I did all I
(39:56):
got to work with the greatest, like all the really
awesome guest stars that is great um and he was
one of them. We had such a great time, and
then after smash ended, they were like, will you come
audition for this for this sitcom? And I ended up
getting it and moved out to l A with my
then boyfriend now he's my husband. We got married on
(40:17):
one of our hiatus. Is like we've we found out
that uh, not found out. We we just kind of
had this discussion like we're like, this is kind of
silly that we're boyfriend and girlfriend. We should probably be married,
and then we were talking about like what nothing, this
was not romantic at and um, and then we're like, well,
we don't really want a big wedding, you know, we
(40:38):
don't want to so we were like, well, let's just
go to Vegas. We've got a hiatus next week, let's go.
Let's go. Then so we ended up going to Vegas
and then yeah, and now seven years later, here we are, Okay,
so I want to just this is more selfish because
me and my fiance we're supposed to get married this year,
but then COVID um, so we're sorry, that's okay, I mean,
(41:01):
but we've been talking about let's just go to Vegas
and let's just do this. So I want to know
first of all, Ryan's also like a Broadway guy, right,
and you guys met like a yoga class. Well, I
mean yeah, we shook hands at a at a like
a gym without a lot of Broadway people went to
and and it was on my birthday. And then that
weekend that Jim was having a party at a bar
(41:24):
in Midtown and he asked one of my friends. He
was like, Hey, what's her deal? And she was like,
oh yeah, go sit down next to her, like this
makes sense, and then like that was it, Like game over. Um,
so tell me about this wedding though, I need to know, like,
did you guys have Like in my mind, if I'm
doing a Vegas wedding, like Elvis is definitely officiating, I'm
(41:46):
wearing a powder blue suit, there needs to be like
some crazy cousin who's definitely like for some reason brought
a stripper to the function. Like, is this what happened?
This all sounds perfect, This is not what happened for us.
We um uh, we ended up we got married at
(42:08):
the Venetian and they have uh they have like a
little chapels in like downstairs. They're really beautiful. Like we
actually were hoping for it to be tackier than it
than it was, UM, And it was we we only
had our immediate family. We didn't tell anybody else. We
just had our parents and our siblings and that was it. UM.
(42:31):
And we had this suite upstairs, and we took everybody's
room service UM orders, and they knew we were getting married,
and they while we were getting married downstairs, they were
setting up everybody's dinner and arcake and all the champagne
and stuff upstairs. After we got married downstairs, UM, in
(42:51):
this really like lovely ceremony, UM, we went upstairs, everybody
got in their pajamas and we had a pajama party
and it was it was the best decision I've ever made.
I borrowed my dress. I sent it back the day after.
I mean like, because for us it was like, you know,
(43:11):
we have we have a lot of pomp and circumstance
and our life, you know, for our jobs and stuff.
So UM, I totally understand people's desire for having their
big day and stuff like that, but for us, it
was more like I just I just want to be
your partner, Like I wanted to be legal, and I
want our family to see it, and I just wanted
to be done. I don't want to call you my
(43:33):
boyfriend anymore or my girlfriend or whatever you know. Um,
so it was more about just being married and it
ended up being really lovely because we had no we
had no expectations, we had no like massive investments in anything.
Nothing if something went wrong. We also were all like
that makes it awesome and memorable and unique and um,
(43:56):
and yeah it was. It was dreamy. It was just
like a really fun couple of days in Vegas with
our family. That sounds awesome. I need to write down
the Venetian Uh. I like the idea of having everyone
just choose their own room service order, and then then
you get it's not you get to choose between the
chicken or the salmon, you know, like you get whatever
(44:17):
you want. Yeah, good, whatever you want. Um, listen, I'm
running out of time with you. I feel like I
could talk to you for for hours on end. What
do you think you are? Key to success? Is? What's
like the one thing that you try to hammer home
and someone's like, I want to do what you do?
How do I go do it? Well? I guess that
kind of depends on your definition of success, right, I mean, like, um,
(44:39):
and mine was longevity. Mine was never like fame or
lots of money or you know, I just I genuinely
just like working and I like doing a lot of
different things at the same time. In the beginning, after
I graduated from school, it was you know, Broadway, and
that's it. Like that, I didn't really see much else,
(45:03):
even though I had these like dreams in my head
about doing animation. And it wasn't until I came out
to l A and I started thinking about what I
really wanted my career to look like, and like, whose
career could I look at and to try to try
to emulate the shape of at least like I knew
I couldn't like have somebody else's career, that's like impossible.
(45:24):
But like my heroes like Bernadette Peter's, you look at
her career and or anyone in that vicinity, I guess
because you can't say like her and there's nobody like her.
They seem to crack the code to longevity, and that's
doing diversifying and doing as much as you can do
in every kind of genre and um. And so that's
when I started to push myself into television. Even though
(45:46):
it was like that's I kept telling myself, this is
not what I do, this is out of my um
my comfort zone. But then I started to realize that
that actually makes me better in other areas, like like
learning how to perform for a camera actually makes me
better on stage too, Like learning all of these different
(46:06):
things oddly makes the other stuff better too. Um And
so I got super ambitious and I was like, well, yeah,
I want to do all of it. I want to record,
I want to, I want to do concerts, I want
to do voice over, I want to. I want to
do as much as people will let me. And so,
(46:27):
to me, that's what success is is is being able
to support myself and my family by doing the stuff
that I love. And so far, so good. We'll see,
we'll see. Time will tell if that continues. But but
I'm very grateful. That's so far that seems to have
been the case. Is there anything that you haven't done
(46:50):
in your entertainment career that you would like to try
or pursue. I mean I think I would. I'm I
don't know if I want to host anything. I don't think.
I don't think I want to do that. Take it
for me. You don't want to do it. No, I
don't think I do. I don't. I don't. I think
I get too nervous about like, I don't know. I'm
(47:11):
I'm so much better using other people's words and interpreting
other people's words instead of like coming up with stuff myself.
So I don't know. That seems like a like maybe
something if I really wanted to like push myself in
the future before I let you go to Yes some
time for rapid fire questions. Oh sure, trying to to panic? Okay,
(47:34):
don't panic, and don't worry. If you do, I'll just
edit it to make it seemly seamless anyway. Okay, great,
very good at that, alright. Rapid Fire Questions The Wells
cast of the Bag and Hilty Number one. What's your
favorite pizza topping? Pepperoni and olives? Can I have to? Yeah?
That's two? Okay, favorite book talking to strangers, Malcolm glad Well.
Who's your first kiss? Oh? It was a little boy
who played Oliver when I did all of her and yeah,
(47:57):
I played Bit and I had to kiss him in
the play. Yeah, I don't remember his name, Harper something.
What's the first concert you went to? I don't remember
the first concert. But I remember the first musical. It
was Jacquelin Hyde when it came through Seattle. What was
the first job you ever had? I worked, No, I
was a wedding singer. When I was like, did you
(48:19):
have a poster hanging on your bedroom wall? Yes? Um,
I had. Well, I was in love with Fred Savage.
I mean, who was it? I mean, I still kind
of am. He's really wonderful. He's really really talented. But
like Princess Bride Fred Savage or like Wonder Years, when I, oh, well,
I mean, aren't they kind of the same thing. There's that.
(48:40):
I mean, it was probably the Wonder Year. I don't know,
it could have been either, but I was. He was
my first like big time crush. I was like, oh yeah,
Fred Savage is everything. What was your first record? Cat CD?
I had those little um was it Amy Grant? The
little do you remember those like pocket Rockers, which is
(49:03):
a terrible name, really terrible name, but they had these like, uh,
they weren't even like cassette tapes. They were like mini
cassette tapes. They had a really terrible name like that,
And it was like I had an Amy Grant. Debbie
Gibson That's what it was. I had a Debbie Gibson
pocket rocket, pocket rocker, pocket rocket. Yea. Of all the
(49:28):
options for the egot, which one would you like to
win the most? Uh? Maybe an oscar? That's only because
that seems so crazy and far away like that. It's
like that. Yeah, let's say an oscar. Okay, last one?
If you want an oscar, whould be the first person?
You think in your speech? Oh, my mom would want
(49:51):
it to be her. I had it would be a
toss up between my mom and my husband. Yeah. Yeah,
boring answers. I love it. Megan, thank you so much
for being on the Wells cast. Your delight, your story
is so cool. Everyone out there needs to go watch
Strolls Topia, NBC, Peacock and Hulu November nineteen. Thank you
so much. If people want to follow you, If people
(50:14):
want to follow you or like learn more about you,
where where do they go and do that? Megan Hilty
has my Twitter handle on my Instagram. I don't do
Facebook that much. I like it all, I haven't been
on it in years, So Instagram, Twitter, Megan Hilty, stay
away from Facebook. It's a lot of crazy aunts and
uncles with some weird political beliefs that it's not good
(50:36):
for anybody. I'm not not not too into that. But
the other stuff where I can just stay stuff and
walk away. This great exactly. Megan, Thank you so much.
You've been a delight. Thank you. This is awesome, all right, Hi,
Subscribe to Wells cast on I Heart Radio, Apple podcasts,
or anywhere you get your podcasts. It's the Internet.
What is Twitter's new, Instagram's new? I don't I can't
keep up roll it. This is a Wells cast with
Wells atoms and I heart radio podcast podcast people just
(00:20):
about Twitter and Twitter has now got something called fleet,
which I don't know what that is. It looks like
stories from Instagram. Everyone's just copying everybody else. Instagram was like,
you know what, we like what TikTok's doing, so we're
gonna do reels. Everyone's at these kitchy little names for things.
It's getting too complicated. I don't even know. I just
did so. I just did a fleet. Is that what
(00:42):
we call it? There's a tweet and there's a fleet.
There's a fleet of tweets on Twitter. All right, I
just did one. I don't even know if I did
it right. I sell it my mother. It's like I
don't even know how to play the Nintendo. It's called Nintendo, Mom,
How old are you? But now that's what I sound like.
I think I just put out a fleet. I don't
know if I did it right, though, And then Instagram
now just looks like Etsy and listen, I'll be the
(01:05):
first to admit that I've made some money off Instagram.
But now there's like the marketplace, and I don't know, guys,
can we just go back to a simpler time when
we were all just trying to get over eleven likes?
Remember those days when you take down an Instagram post
because eleven people didn't like it, so you couldn't go
from like the names of the people that liked it
(01:27):
to twelve people liked it. I'm gonna send out a
fleet later and then have a nip of scotch. If
you go to the vans, could you pick me up
some preparation h some of don't depends and some Milanta.
I'm too busy putting out fleets. Pumped for the show today, though, guys,
(01:47):
but not as pumped as my fiancee Sarah. When she
found out that I was doing this, she was like,
wait what? I actually almost got her to host it,
no joke. I almost got her to come and do
this show because she was so excited. Why don't you
do the interview? And She's like, no way, I don't
know how to interview people. What are you talking about?
You know how to talk to people? Don't you? Let's
go talk? But seriously, I think a lot of you
(02:08):
guys are gonna be super pumped about today's guest, whose
first TV role was on The X Files. The Truth
is out There, Mulder and Scully. She voiced snow White
in Shrek the Third Stop It. She released her first
solo album back in Back at a Simpler Time with
the wordo fleets. Oh, she was on a little show
called Smash. What was she on Broadway in Wicked? She was?
(02:35):
She was Glinda? Okay, no big deal. Has she been
on TV shows like Bones, The Closer, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty?
Uh yeah, I'm telling you guys, this is an episode
that's going to blow her mind. Oh and by the way,
she's got a new show out called Trolls Topia, which
is gonna be available on NBC, Peacock and Hulu coming
(02:56):
up Thursday at November nineteen. Alright, boys and girls, ladies
and gents, buckling, send out all the fleets you can,
throw up a reels, do a TikTok dance, because on
the Wells Cast today we have none other then Megan Hilty.
This one, dude, you do not want to miss. Seriously,
(03:17):
I promise you. All right, welcome back to the Wells Cast.
Very excited about today's episode, But I have to be
honest with you. My fiance was actually more excited about
this episode than me because she is a huge Broadway fan.
(03:38):
Welcome to the Wells cast, Megan Hilty, how are you hey,
how's it going? It's going good? Yeah, you know, there's
a hold on. Here's the thing, silver lining glass half
full of this bitch. Apparently there's a vaccine somewhere. I
know there's two, right, so Speiser and Maderna? Am I
saying that? I don't know? I may have completely said
(04:00):
that incorrectly, but yes, there's there's a glimmer of hope
on the horizon. Yes, exactly, So it can't be all bad.
I'm so excited to have you on the show. But
like I was saying, my fiancee when she heard that
I was doing this interview, she was like, shut up,
you are not you are not having Oh I'm so
excited to totally disappoint her. That is fantastic. Will be like,
(04:25):
oh that was a worring. Oh she's the worst. I
was this close, this close to getting her to do
the show for me because she was so punched about.
I was like, you go do it, do it, and
she was like no, I don't know. I don't I'm
not good at interviewing. I know. Oh man, that just
made my day. Thank you. There's a lot to talk about.
We could talk Smash, we could talk snow White, we
(04:45):
could talk Wicked. But I think what we need to
start with is Trolls Topia. Trolls Topia, I know, it's
so fun. So it's coming out very soon. So NBC,
Peacock and Hulu are going to be hosting Trolls Topia.
So just tell me and everyone out there what this is.
For all of the people who saw Trolls World Tour,
(05:08):
the film that came out this past summer, I believe
it basically takes that theme and runs with it. It
acknowledges that the pop trolls find out that there are
more music genres out there, and so they call for
the ambassadors of each music tribe to come and live
with them and create this utopia, hence the title Trolls Topia.
(05:31):
And I play Holly Darlin, who is the ambassador of
the country Western tribe. She is delightful. I sing all
the time. This genius Alanna d wrote all of the music,
and there is like NonStop, like super catchy, really wonderful,
(05:52):
Like every time we record these songs, were all so
happy that we have these songs stuck in our heads
for the rest of the week. But yeah, and that's it.
It's it's a bunch of people from different parts of
the their little troll world, and they're coming together and
making something beautiful. I've often said that if I could ever, like,
a dream job for me would be to do some
(06:12):
sort of cartoon animation because you get to do a
TV show. You get to do all the fun things
that a TV show or a movie like that brings you,
but you don't have to get into hair and makeup ever. Yes,
although if you're me, I always get into hair and makeup.
(06:33):
The the The thing is that you have to remember
is that with animation, most of the time they're filming
you in the booth to give to the animators so
that they can they have an idea how to give
the like what gestures to give the character and how
their face would move when they're saying these things. Um
so so somebody is watching. Yeah, but yeah, it is
(06:56):
a dream job. It's something that about twelve years ago
I really made a real active pursuit of I really
wanted to be in the voice over world animation specifically
and um and about four years ago it started really
paying off. It's a tough industry to get into, but
once you do it, then people start trusting you and
(07:17):
it's just awesome, so much fun. I have a sound
bite from the show that I wanted to play for
everyone out there. Is that? Okay? Sure? Yeah? What is
your character's name again? Holly Darlin? Holly Darlin? She of
course it is, Yeah, dag Navit, that's Harley Darlin. We'll
just love her, bless her heart. Here she is on
(07:38):
trolls Topia and nothing like litterine and down from up above,
nothing but like whey to deliver the party up. Now
we go, Son, there's a bore that I have ever
seen in where that came from the hardy Okay? I
(08:15):
love that, uh for a lot of reasons. One, it's
so ridiculous that it's amazing too. I lived in Nashville
for twelve years and did radio in Nashville, so I
was surrounded by hockey tongs and music row and half
of my friends there are either writers or performers and stuff.
(08:36):
So I guess my question to you is because you
were a Broadway lady. Was it hard to like kind
of pivot from I guess I don't know classic classical singing,
and I know you have a background opera to like,
you know, singing some contra tunes, some country. Well it's
really bizarre. Um, I am from Seattle, Washington. It doesn't
(08:58):
get much further north unless you're going to like Alaska
or like like Canada. But people constantly assume that I
am from Texas, like very specifically from Dallas. I don't
know what it is, Um, they just think I'm from there,
like me as a person, and I have been cast
to play country singers a lot um and so when
(09:21):
the audition came up for this, it was like, oh, yeah,
that's I mean, that's right in my wheelhouse, even though
I'm a Seattle girl. But I love it. I love
I love playing these amazing dynamic southern women and singing
in that genre. I just I think it's really fun. Yeah,
it's got to be kind of like a pleasant departure
(09:42):
from what I guess you're generally used to. Um I am.
You know you were cast for this specific role, but
it was there another troll that's doing a different genre
that you're like man, that would have been fun to do. Oh. Um, well,
it's kind of funny because even though I play Holly Darlin, I, um,
I voice a lot of the other like incidental trolls,
(10:05):
like in the groups and stuff like that. So it's
really fun because I get to play a lot of
different genres. You know, they're like, okay, so what what
would a rocker troll you know say? And like so
I get to like, I get to pretend like I'm
all the different types of trolls in um in all
(10:26):
of these different scenes. Um. So, I don't know, maybe
maybe the rock stuff I didn't or maybe classical I
don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It's it's
all fun. Are all musical genres represented here? Or is
there going to be like a strongly worded letter from
like the Amalgamation of Polka enthusiasts for not being included
(10:49):
in you know what, I didn't think of the Polka
in enthusiasts. They might take issue with this. I don't know,
but maybe there's something that maybe I'm just not remembering correctly.
Maybe there is something in there, you know that that
gives a nod to the polka community. Um. That I'm
just unaware of. But yeah, that's an interesting issue you
(11:11):
bring up. Yeah, and there's always season two. And if
you had asked me this morning if I was gonna
work in the amalgamation of Polkland enthusiasts into one of
my shows, I would have said, I'm also stoned. So
that is amazing that we were able to work that
in there. I remember the movie, Love the movie, and
I right to say that timber Lake had like some
(11:31):
hand in some of the music in the movie. Oh yeah,
I think I mean both of them, right, like in
the Um the first Trolls movie and Trolls to Are
Not Trolls, T'll be a Trolls World Tour. I believe
he he did a lot of the music. He may
have even overseen the whole thing. I don't know, but
there's a lot of really great stuff in that movie. Well,
(11:52):
what I remember loving about the movie was it's similar
to like a lot of those like you know, Pixar
DreamWorks and that kind of stuff where it's it's for
young people, but like adults still can like totally get
down with it and and appreciate it. Is that kind
of what this is. Absolutely, it's so especially like gosh,
(12:15):
there's so many episodes that I just remember. I we
had so much fun recording in the studio. We were
just laughing so hard a lot of before everything shut down.
I was lucky enough to um record with Amanda for
several sessions. Who does Poppy and um and um gosh,
I don't know every everybody on the creative team, Like,
(12:36):
we just have a really really fun time, and we
just always keep saying, how great is it that not
only will kids like this? Like, for sure, my kids
are obsessed with it. They've seen several episodes and they're
like they can't get enough um and but the parents,
this is one of those special cartoons that the parents
(12:57):
are really going to enjoy too. And even if you
don't have kids, you're gonna enjoy it. Yeah. I I
love the idea of I don't have kids, But at
some point my kids are gonna see like the stuff
that I've done on television, and they're gonna be so
embarrassed by their father, Like do do your kids have
an understanding that that's you? Yes? So my daughter six
(13:22):
and um, she I do several other animated projects too,
and uh and she always gets a kick out of
like she knows which ones I am, and then when
I pop up as different characters, she'd be like, is
that you too? And we've kind of taught her to listen.
She's very aware that they're people voicing these characters and
(13:42):
that they do several different shows, and so we're always like,
does that sound familiar to you? Like, and she's really
good at placing people. She's like, oh, yeah, that's the
same voice as Donkey and Trek or something, you know,
Like she'll she doesn't know the actor's names, but she
knows that it's the same voice doing those characters. It's
that's really funny. Very excited for Trolls, Topia, NBC, Peacock
(14:06):
and Hulu November nineteen. Is there anything that you want
to talk about the show that I didn't even ask
you about? We covered that it's fun. Yeah, we covered
that you're definitely gonna want to watch it and that
the music is really fun. I think that's it, and
that you're pissing off a lot of Polkland enthusiasts. I
(14:26):
mean not, I don't know that for certain. I don't
know for sure. There might be something that I that
I'm unaware of, but it is a possibility. All right, well, everyone,
make sure you you go watch Trolls Topia NBC, Peacock
and Hulu November nineteenth. Fot what were you gonna say? Okay, okay, um,
I want to take a quick break. And I don't
(14:47):
know if anyone told you, but the idea for this
show is origin stories, and I like to find out
how successful people became so successful. And so when we
come back, are you down for hanging out with me
a little bit and telling me your story and how
the hell got on this show on this day today? Sure?
I mean, do you have a minute? Sure? Yeah, yeah, totally. Alright, quick,
(15:08):
right we come back. It's Megan Hilthy right here on
the Wells Cast. Alright, we're back on the Wells Cast.
Very excited to have Megan Hilthy on this show. The
new animated show is called Trolls Topia, and it's on NBC,
(15:31):
Peacock and Hulu. Starts November nineteen. Fun for all ages,
and you get to bring the Southern twang to the show,
which has gotta be so much fun, so much fun. Yeah. No,
I'm every time I get to play a Southern, a
sassy Southern lady, I'm I'm all in. I'm so excited
to talk to you about your career. We were going
(15:52):
through it in the kind of the pre show meeting,
and your resume is ridiculous, Like just like pre eighteen
years old, your resume was more robust, weird? Is it
kind of all over the place? It is? But I
also think that, you know, a lot of this show
is like what's the blueprint for success? That's the idea, right,
(16:14):
like how do you get to be Megan Hilty? And
I think a common denomina that we found is that
a lot of really successful people kind of have a
lot of irons in the fire. They're really good at
a lot of things because you never know what's gonna hit,
you know, you never know what's gonna work. I imagine
that when you started out, you weren't like I'm going
into animation and I'm gonna be doing a Southern troll
(16:35):
and it's gonna be a country star even though i'mrom Seattle.
You know, like it's so far removed from what you
probably set out to do. And I think that that's
a really good thing for a lot of those listeners
out there to remember, is that, like you got to
try a lot of things before you realize what hits you. Know,
So let's go to the beginning. You mentioned that you
were from the Pacific Northwest. Did you grow up in Seattle? Yes, yeah,
(16:57):
just outside in Bellevue. Yeah. Where you from? Like entertainer's family,
musical family? How did it start? Not at all. My
My dad was an engineer and in sales, and my
mom is an incredible businesswoman. Yeah she's amazing. Um, but
not not a musical family, but super supportive. My mom
(17:17):
was always of the mindset that no matter what me
and my sisters wanted to do, she was going to
support us no matter what. And um, as long as
we had a passion and a drive for it, then
she was. She was all in. From an early age,
I was just singing all the time, and it was
something that I clearly like. I knew that I wanted
to be a part of the arts in some way.
(17:38):
I didn't know in what capacity. And once I started
taking voice lessons, my voice teacher took me down the
path of classical music and very specifically opera. I would
do all kinds of um uh competitions and um. I
went to an opera camp with the San Francisco Opera,
which is which tells you a lot about how many
(17:59):
friends I at growing up, and that's kind of where
I thought my life was going to go. I I
thought I was going to be an opera singer and
and it wasn't until I went to that opera. I
shouldn't call it an opera camp. They get really upset
when it go. It's a it's an apprentice ship program
that the San Francisco. It's very prestigious, and I'm very
grateful for it, but it's an opera camp. I mean, like,
(18:20):
like we we came from all over the place, and
like anyway, I found out that we weren't going to
like work until we were in our mid thirties, because
that's when a woman's voice really matures. And I was like,
I was like sixteen years old, going huh that that
doesn't I can't wait that long, and so I started
I went into musical theater instead. Um bold move on
(18:43):
the camp counselors by the way to be like, hey,
welcome to opera camp, where you won't get to do
this thing for another fifteen years. So yeah, it was
really the opera stars that were coming and talking to
us like giving us like the low down and the
real deal. And it was like, oh, oh, I don't
know if this is the life that I really want.
(19:05):
I have a deep respect for it, but it just didn't.
It was it became very clear that that wasn't the
life that I was going to. I remember when I
was in a I was in a class. It was
some sort of like media training class in college because
I was I was a journalism major. I was a
(19:25):
broadcast junalism major. And I remember I was doing TV
and I was doing radio the time. Um, And I
remember someone came in there like, okay, so right out
of college, if you go work like a news station, um,
you'll make like two dollars. Uh, and like right out
of college for a radio station to like thirty dollars,
And I was like radio, that's six. Yeah. First of all,
(19:49):
hold on, opera camp. Do you sing an opera camp
or is it like a bunch of panels of opera singers? Oh? Yeah, No,
it's a it's it's it was a whole lot of stuff.
Every day. We started out with ballet class, and we
had all these like workshops and seminars. We had a
lot of like opera singers come and speak to us.
And at the end we had this big performance that
(20:09):
we were leading up to, so we had rehearsals and
stuff like that. It was it was a big deal,
Like it was. I I really should stop calling it operacamp.
It just makes it just makes me egal to to
think of it that way. Um uh yeah. And so
it was a lot. It was really intense and I
really loved it, but it really kind of showed me
(20:30):
that it is probably not not for me. Okay, so
you get back from quote unquote opera camp. Um, and
then so that what are you doing? You're like, okay,
so I want to focus more on like the theatrical
side than rather the singing or what happened? Yeah, I um.
I was going to a performing arts high school and
(20:51):
found out that wasn't going to be accredited by the
time I graduated. So I quickly like did like an
independent study and graduated it early. And my mom was
really supportive of the gap year, you know, like taking
time off between high school and and uh in college,
and so I took. I took two years off, and
(21:13):
I moved from Seattle to southern Oregon to do theater.
I did community theater I did. I did dinner theater
and every terrible job you can imagine during the day
to support my theater habit. And I kind of was
kind of doing it to see if that's really what
I wanted to do. Was kind of trying to prove
it to myself before I went and dedicated four years
(21:35):
of my life to a conservatory program and potentially went
into hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt in
the student loans. I wanted to be really sure that
that's what I wanted to do. And uh and and
after that, I was like, yeah, look, turns turns out
that's what I want to do. So what were you
were you await chriss? Were you a bartender? What were
you doing during that time? I was. I worked a
(21:58):
bunch of different retail job bobs. I also, uh like
took care of people's houses. I was a um why
can't I think of the name hostess and um in
a restaurant and I was trying desperately to like work
up to server. I wasn't really I was an amazing hostess.
I sat everybody really evenly, I kept everybody really happy.
(22:22):
I was a terrible server. It was a terrible, terrible,
terrible server, but I wanted it so bad, um because
I wanted to make more money anyway. Um, So I
do all that during the day and then I do
my shows at night. Um and yeah, until I went
to school. I ended up going to Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So that's obviously like a very well
(22:44):
known school for drama, right, Like it's it's like a
big deal. Yeah, I mean yeah, I mean yeah, it's
a really big Okay. So so you you take two
years off and you're like hustling like crazy on the side,
and then you get in. Are you so pumped or
(23:06):
are you a little terrified because of like the being
in debt and all that kind of stuff. No, I mean,
um uh no. I actually auditioned for it a year
after I moved down to Southern Oregon. So the first
year I auditioned and I got in, and I kind
of thought to myself, I'm not done with doing this,
(23:28):
so I deferred for a year and they let me
do it. I was like, I have these really cool
roles that I want to do at this dinner theater
like that, and I really wanted that time to like
live by myself and like support myself and figure out
all that stuff. And I'm really glad that it did
it because by the time I got to see him, you,
(23:49):
I was fully capable of taking care of myself. I
had lived on my own for two years. I was
not doing that typical freshman thing where I was trying
to figure out how to feed myself and do laundry
and go to classes. No. I was there to like,
I was there to work. I was not messing around.
I was Um. I was fully capable of taking care
(24:11):
of all of the other things. So I'm really glad
that I did it. Okay, So you get there, are
your parents so proud of you? Or they like, I
can't believe he's still doing this whole thing? Like what
was really proud of me? They're really supportive. Um. They
were like the perfect parents for somebody who wanted to
go into the arts because they weren't pushy at all.
(24:33):
They were never like, here's you know, driving me to
auditions and like prepping me for things and getting in
my face about stuff. But they were totally cool with
whatever I was doing. I figured out how to get
scholarships to help me pay for this program that was
crazy expensive. So they were really happy that I had
figured out a lot of that out. Yeah, No, they
(24:53):
were super They were always really supportive and really happy
for me. You're definitely an outlier when it comes to
actors who have been on this show. For the most part,
a lot of actors don't go to school, they don't
go to college. They like either go straight to New
York or straight to l A. And then they just
like you know, hustle like crazy until they get their
(25:14):
big break. But you did, I guess, like the traditional
thing where you went and got a bachelor's degree in theater. Yeah,
and ultimately like, yes, I was. I was in it
for the training. I which is really why I did
not want to be in New York or Los Angeles.
I didn't want to be like tempted to or distracted
by anything. I was in Pittsburgh like that. I wasn't
(25:35):
doing anything else, um and uh. I really wanted to
like focus on on the training and really the the
other major component to that is the showcase that Carnegie
Mellon has at the end of those four years. There's
a huge it's basically like a huge audition for agents,
(25:56):
casting directors, managers, like anybody that's looking for new talent
um to come to. It's a very CMU has a
really respected showcase. There are tons of showcases to go to.
So I was really one of the reasons why I
wanted to go to CMU was because they were able
to open all of those doors for me at the
end of those four years, in addition to the training.
(26:19):
And it like, that's exactly what happened. So you received
CMUs Charles Willard Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Musical Theater.
Oh my gosh, you did a deep dive. Yes, and
then I guess you have this showcase at the end
of your fourth year. Is that how you landed Wicked?
(26:40):
Basically in a very dramatic and roundabout way. I mean,
how much time do we have. I'll try to keep
it short, but I um. They basically called me in
for a totally different show. Um Little Shop of Hors
was about to go out on the road, and they
knew I was still in school. This was about two
months before I graduated it and they kind of put
me through the ringer for that. I ended up getting it,
(27:03):
um and then the job fell through, Like I got
my first agents because of this other job to negotiate
this contract, and then it fell apart for the reasons
that happened in this business all the time, you know. Um,
it was devastating, and I think the casting directors felt
really bad for me. So they were like, Hey, we're
doing it as Kristin chenowis replacement audition for this the
(27:26):
show Wicked. It just opened last October. You know, will
you come back to New York and an audition for
I was still in school and I was like, yeah,
I've been hearing about it. Yeah, So, um, I ended
up going. And I think because they knew I was
still in school. I was at the final, final, final, callback.
It was me and the person who took over for
(27:47):
Kristen and a couple other people that did not get it,
and um uh and I was. I went there for
the entire creative team. I had no idea they were
going to be in there. I was. It was so
otherwise I probably wouldn't I would have panicked. Um. But yeah,
And I ended up going into Wicket and spending four
and a half years in the New York in l
(28:08):
A and a little bit of the touring company too,
and that story, I think is a good one to
remember because you book a little shop, which I love
that love. So it's a perfect show. Yeah, but it's
a bit older. If you love musical theory, you've probably
seen it. And then Wicked comes along, which is like
the biggest freaking thing on Broadway, and so you don't
(28:30):
get the thing that you think that you want, but
then you end up getting the thing that like you
really really wanted, but you didn't know you wanted, right, Yeah,
And that's how the casting director remembers it too. He
remembers it that I just got these two offers at
the same time, and I chose one, and I was like, no, no,
it was it was a lot more dramatic. The highs
(28:53):
and the lows of this career are just staggering. I mean,
I'm constantly thinking to myself, like what why why do
I do this to myself? But then I don't know
what else I would do, honestly, like, I don't know, Well,
you seem to be doing pretty good. Um, okay, so
hold on. I also want to know, like, were there
other people in your class? Are you like the badass
(29:16):
that came out of your class? No? No, no, And
First of all, the class that I was supposed to
be in was with like Josh Gad and Leodom Jr.
And you know, like that was and they were all
my friends in school anyway. It's not like there was
a big separation of classes. Um uh and Roryomalley, you know,
like these are all like they're all just the people
(29:38):
that I there's a lot of badasses that that came
from of um CMU at that time. I am low
on the totem pole, all right. I just liked the
idea of like a bunch of people like that. Megan
Hilthy really thinks that she is the bees. Yeah, you
land wicked. You do that for how long? Four and
(30:01):
a half years? I did it on Broadway for a year,
two years, two years, and two years in l A
and then six months on the road. They were nice
enough to let me and my friend do the Pacific
Northwest because they knew that's where we were from. So
um so yeah and a long time. Yeah, that's a
great run. So then what happens next? The director Joe
(30:22):
Mantello was doing a new show UM and he asked
me to be a part of UM the workshops. While
I was doing Wicked, and he was doing nine to
five the musical, and so he asked if I would
play the Dolly part and role dore Ly, and I
just kept doing these workshops like that. They just I
just kept hanging on. I guess I didn't like make
(30:42):
anybody mad or anything. I didn't. I ended up not
getting replaced along the way, and then ended up doing
that um out of town in l a and then
opening on Broadway for a for a short stint, And
when that was over, I came running back to Los
Angeles because I just love it here so much. So
do you channel some Dolly into this trolls Topia role? Oh? Sure? Yeah?
(31:06):
Oh absolutely? Her Southern charm, her positivity, her energy. Sure
she's I mean, if you listen to her, that's not
Dolly Parton at all. But I'm always trying to We
should all be trying to channel Dolly at all times.
The world would be a better place if we all
did that. She's an icon in the world for someone
like me who lived and worked in the music industry
(31:27):
in Nashville. She is like there's God and then like
right below God, it's Sally Parton right right, right right.
I mean she is the economy in the Smoky Mountains, right,
I mean she's and she's literacy in Tennessee. You know,
she's like with her teaching kids to read with her
(31:47):
free book program. I mean like she's there are so
many different levels to her to why she is just
the greatest. I was talking about her this morning with somebody. Yeah,
she's she is everything wonderful that that everybody's ever heard there,
it's all true. If you've heard anything else that's not true,
(32:08):
because she's She's just the greatest there is. Okay. So
then after nine to five, what happens. We closed abruptly
and very sadly. It was very sad um and confusing
time because we we were playing to like sold out
crowds and stuff, and all of a sudden we were
we got our clothing, notice, you know. It was it
(32:29):
was really confusing, and I was really sad and burnt
out on Broadway and stuff. So I was like, I'm
gonna go back. I may never work again, but I'm
going to go back to l A. And I'm gonna
try to bust into the television world and the animation world,
because that the animation in particular was something that I
had always wanted since I was a kid, and I
(32:50):
knew you had to really at that time, you had
to be out here and meeting people to get into it.
So UM, I was like, I'm gonna put I'm going
all in in these two areas and um and and
I did um. The first voiceover, uh like animated job
I did was the Tinkerbell series for Disney, and I
(33:14):
played Rosetta um for many of the movies and television
programs and then uh it started getting my feet wet
in the television world until Smash came along. Okay, how
dare you gloss over your uncredited role in the X Files.
I wasn't in the X Files, so it's on my
(33:35):
IMDb and I can't take it off. I'm not in it.
It's not me. I don't know why it's still there,
Like we've had so many campaigns to like, so I
am dB to take that off. I'm not in the
X Files. That's why I never talked about because it's
not I don't know what that first of all, if
just roll with it now, I mean, maybe I should
(33:56):
just pick something and say, oh, yeah, that was a
crazy time. I was Molder's love interest in season four,
Episode nine, Me and Jillian Anderson got in a really
big fight on set. It was a really big thing
just to start some rumors. Yes, Scully gotten because she
wanted Molder and then there was a ghost And I
(34:19):
think I would have been the date that they say
that I was on it. I think I would have
been like twelve or something like that. I like, I'm
with nowhere close to I gotta be honest with you.
The only reason why I accepted doing this interview because
I want to talk to you about the X Files
and now find this thing was over. We're done, We're done.
We're done here. Um, okay, So you did a bunch
(34:40):
of like guest appearances and stuff before Smash came out, right, Yeah,
So was it just was it a lot of like
forward momentum, positive momentum leading up to that or was
it kind of the typical l a feast or famine
type of deal. Snash kind of came at a at
a real tough time because I was I was doing
(35:01):
really well getting the guest stars and a little recurring
things and stuff like that. Um, and I gosh, I
got that script and I was like, this is crazy,
this is like my world on television, you know, like
this is this seems wait too good to be true? Um, yeah,
I don't know. I so yeah, I I have been
(35:22):
doing well, but like not well enough to I don't know.
I would have loved to have been at a better
place at that point. But thank goodness, Smash game along
And that was dramatic too. It's all dramatic. Nothing nothing
ever comes easily or without any issues. You know, that
(35:45):
was no different. You guys make make your money on
being dramatic, so of course it's it's you know, it's
surrounds you, for better or for worse. I guess just
touched on what Smash meant to you, what you think
it meant to like the fan and your disappointment of
it not lasting as long as I think a lot
of people thought it was going to write Yeah no, yeah,
(36:07):
And it was one of the greatest things that's ever
happened to me. I mean, I got to do everything
that I've ever wanted to do in one job, and
I got to play this really dynamic, complicated person. I
got to sing this incredible music all the time. I mean,
and now people think I'm a danswer, which I am not.
Because Josh for Goss is so great at his job choreographing.
(36:30):
He made it it looked like I knew what I
was doing. Um yeah, and I loved everybody that I
was working with. I mean it was like every amazing thing.
What were your other questions? Your questions were like the
disappointment of it not lasting. I guess I don't really
I don't really look at it that way. I I
know that, Um, there is so much that has to happen, Like,
(36:54):
there's so much magic that has to happen in order
for a show to get picked up, for you to
be recast to you know, it's to continue to get
a second season. I mean, there's so many things that
are way beyond my control, way beyond my pay grade. Um,
And the way I look at it is I'm just
so grateful to be a part of a show that
(37:17):
got two full, like long seasons, and we brought a
little piece of Broadway into people's homes every week. Like
even if some of the storylines weren't like things that
would actually happen on Broadway, the musical numbers certainly were,
and they were filled with Broadway dancers, not people like
(37:38):
pretending to be Broadway dancers like I am. I still
am approached by strangers saying, hey, I did not like
musical theater until I watched Smash, and it completely introduced
me to this whole new world. So um, so, I'm
just really proud to be a part of something like that.
You know how they have they'll say like, uh, they're
really a musicians musician musicians like his music or her music,
(38:02):
that's how, that's how good of a musician. Elliott Smith
was a musician. Everyone loved me, you know, even though
he never really made it whatever. And I feel like
it's it's a little bit of that. I know a
lot of actors and a lot of musical theater junkies
who are like that show was the musician musicians like
they were obsessed with that show. Yeah. No, I again, like,
(38:23):
I'm just so I'm so happy to be a part
of that because I agree like I think, um and
it was it was kind of disappointing to hear some
of the backlash of people going like, well, that would
never happen and this would And then I'd just be like, guys,
we're not doing a reality show. We're doing a drama,
you know, And I doubt I doubt like doctors like
(38:48):
flocked to Twitter going that would never happen. The things
that happened on Chicago and like M D r p
D or Firehouse or whatever like that would never happen.
It's like, well, no, this is not a documentary, Like
it's yeah, I'm from Monterey and I'm not mad at
(39:11):
Reese Witherspoon for improperly depicting rich housewives and killing their husbands,
because that never happens, never happens, but it could and
if it did, it would look amazing, definitely, And my
mom would definitely be involved somehow, but not wouldn't be
the murderer, but she would definitely know. She definitely go
(39:32):
to that like coffee place like that frequent that place. Yeah,
after Smash, what happens next? You've put out solo records?
Oh yeah, yeah, those happened. I moved out to l
A because I was doing a sitcom with Shawn Hayes,
who is a delight. He U was a recurring guest
star on on Smash and we I did all I
(39:56):
got to work with the greatest, like all the really
awesome guest stars that is great um and he was
one of them. We had such a great time, and
then after smash ended, they were like, will you come
audition for this for this sitcom? And I ended up
getting it and moved out to l A with my
then boyfriend now he's my husband. We got married on
(40:17):
one of our hiatus. Is like we've we found out
that uh, not found out. We we just kind of
had this discussion like we're like, this is kind of
silly that we're boyfriend and girlfriend. We should probably be married,
and then we were talking about like what nothing, this
was not romantic at and um, and then we're like, well,
we don't really want a big wedding, you know, we
(40:38):
don't want to so we were like, well, let's just
go to Vegas. We've got a hiatus next week, let's go.
Let's go. Then so we ended up going to Vegas
and then yeah, and now seven years later, here we are, Okay,
so I want to just this is more selfish because
me and my fiance we're supposed to get married this year,
but then COVID um, so we're sorry, that's okay, I mean,
(41:01):
but we've been talking about let's just go to Vegas
and let's just do this. So I want to know
first of all, Ryan's also like a Broadway guy, right,
and you guys met like a yoga class. Well, I
mean yeah, we shook hands at a at a like
a gym without a lot of Broadway people went to
and and it was on my birthday. And then that
weekend that Jim was having a party at a bar
(41:24):
in Midtown and he asked one of my friends. He
was like, Hey, what's her deal? And she was like,
oh yeah, go sit down next to her, like this
makes sense, and then like that was it, Like game over. Um,
so tell me about this wedding though, I need to know, like,
did you guys have Like in my mind, if I'm
doing a Vegas wedding, like Elvis is definitely officiating, I'm
(41:46):
wearing a powder blue suit, there needs to be like
some crazy cousin who's definitely like for some reason brought
a stripper to the function. Like, is this what happened?
This all sounds perfect, This is not what happened for us.
We um uh, we ended up we got married at
(42:08):
the Venetian and they have uh they have like a
little chapels in like downstairs. They're really beautiful. Like we
actually were hoping for it to be tackier than it
than it was, UM, And it was we we only
had our immediate family. We didn't tell anybody else. We
just had our parents and our siblings and that was it. UM.
(42:31):
And we had this suite upstairs, and we took everybody's
room service UM orders, and they knew we were getting married,
and they while we were getting married downstairs, they were
setting up everybody's dinner and arcake and all the champagne
and stuff upstairs. After we got married downstairs, UM, in
(42:51):
this really like lovely ceremony, UM, we went upstairs, everybody
got in their pajamas and we had a pajama party
and it was it was the best decision I've ever made.
I borrowed my dress. I sent it back the day after.
I mean like, because for us it was like, you know,
(43:11):
we have we have a lot of pomp and circumstance
and our life, you know, for our jobs and stuff.
So UM, I totally understand people's desire for having their
big day and stuff like that, but for us, it
was more like I just I just want to be
your partner, Like I wanted to be legal, and I
want our family to see it, and I just wanted
to be done. I don't want to call you my
(43:33):
boyfriend anymore or my girlfriend or whatever you know. Um,
so it was more about just being married and it
ended up being really lovely because we had no we
had no expectations, we had no like massive investments in anything.
Nothing if something went wrong. We also were all like
that makes it awesome and memorable and unique and um,
(43:56):
and yeah it was. It was dreamy. It was just
like a really fun couple of days in Vegas with
our family. That sounds awesome. I need to write down
the Venetian Uh. I like the idea of having everyone
just choose their own room service order, and then then
you get it's not you get to choose between the
chicken or the salmon, you know, like you get whatever
(44:17):
you want. Yeah, good, whatever you want. Um, listen, I'm
running out of time with you. I feel like I
could talk to you for for hours on end. What
do you think you are? Key to success? Is? What's
like the one thing that you try to hammer home
and someone's like, I want to do what you do?
How do I go do it? Well? I guess that
kind of depends on your definition of success, right, I mean, like, um,
(44:39):
and mine was longevity. Mine was never like fame or
lots of money or you know, I just I genuinely
just like working and I like doing a lot of
different things at the same time. In the beginning, after
I graduated from school, it was you know, Broadway, and
that's it. Like that, I didn't really see much else,
(45:03):
even though I had these like dreams in my head
about doing animation. And it wasn't until I came out
to l A and I started thinking about what I
really wanted my career to look like, and like, whose
career could I look at and to try to try
to emulate the shape of at least like I knew
I couldn't like have somebody else's career, that's like impossible.
(45:24):
But like my heroes like Bernadette Peter's, you look at
her career and or anyone in that vicinity, I guess
because you can't say like her and there's nobody like her.
They seem to crack the code to longevity, and that's
doing diversifying and doing as much as you can do
in every kind of genre and um. And so that's
when I started to push myself into television. Even though
(45:46):
it was like that's I kept telling myself, this is
not what I do, this is out of my um
my comfort zone. But then I started to realize that
that actually makes me better in other areas, like like
learning how to perform for a camera actually makes me
better on stage too, Like learning all of these different
(46:06):
things oddly makes the other stuff better too. Um And
so I got super ambitious and I was like, well, yeah,
I want to do all of it. I want to record,
I want to, I want to do concerts, I want
to do voice over, I want to. I want to
do as much as people will let me. And so,
(46:27):
to me, that's what success is is is being able
to support myself and my family by doing the stuff
that I love. And so far, so good. We'll see,
we'll see. Time will tell if that continues. But but
I'm very grateful. That's so far that seems to have
been the case. Is there anything that you haven't done
(46:50):
in your entertainment career that you would like to try
or pursue. I mean I think I would. I'm I
don't know if I want to host anything. I don't think.
I don't think I want to do that. Take it
for me. You don't want to do it. No, I
don't think I do. I don't. I don't. I think
I get too nervous about like, I don't know. I'm
(47:11):
I'm so much better using other people's words and interpreting
other people's words instead of like coming up with stuff myself.
So I don't know. That seems like a like maybe
something if I really wanted to like push myself in
the future before I let you go to Yes some
time for rapid fire questions. Oh sure, trying to to panic? Okay,
(47:34):
don't panic, and don't worry. If you do, I'll just
edit it to make it seemly seamless anyway. Okay, great,
very good at that, alright. Rapid Fire Questions The Wells
cast of the Bag and Hilty Number one. What's your
favorite pizza topping? Pepperoni and olives? Can I have to? Yeah?
That's two? Okay, favorite book talking to strangers, Malcolm glad Well.
Who's your first kiss? Oh? It was a little boy
who played Oliver when I did all of her and yeah,
(47:57):
I played Bit and I had to kiss him in
the play. Yeah, I don't remember his name, Harper something.
What's the first concert you went to? I don't remember
the first concert. But I remember the first musical. It
was Jacquelin Hyde when it came through Seattle. What was
the first job you ever had? I worked, No, I
was a wedding singer. When I was like, did you
(48:19):
have a poster hanging on your bedroom wall? Yes? Um,
I had. Well, I was in love with Fred Savage.
I mean, who was it? I mean, I still kind
of am. He's really wonderful. He's really really talented. But
like Princess Bride Fred Savage or like Wonder Years, when I, oh, well,
I mean, aren't they kind of the same thing. There's that.
(48:40):
I mean, it was probably the Wonder Year. I don't know,
it could have been either, but I was. He was
my first like big time crush. I was like, oh yeah,
Fred Savage is everything. What was your first record? Cat CD?
I had those little um was it Amy Grant? The
little do you remember those like pocket Rockers, which is
(49:03):
a terrible name, really terrible name, but they had these like, uh,
they weren't even like cassette tapes. They were like mini
cassette tapes. They had a really terrible name like that,
And it was like I had an Amy Grant. Debbie
Gibson That's what it was. I had a Debbie Gibson
pocket rocket, pocket rocker, pocket rocket. Yea. Of all the
(49:28):
options for the egot, which one would you like to
win the most? Uh? Maybe an oscar? That's only because
that seems so crazy and far away like that. It's
like that. Yeah, let's say an oscar. Okay, last one?
If you want an oscar, whould be the first person?
You think in your speech? Oh, my mom would want
(49:51):
it to be her. I had it would be a
toss up between my mom and my husband. Yeah. Yeah,
boring answers. I love it. Megan, thank you so much
for being on the Wells cast. Your delight, your story
is so cool. Everyone out there needs to go watch
Strolls Topia, NBC, Peacock and Hulu November nineteen. Thank you
so much. If people want to follow you, If people
(50:14):
want to follow you or like learn more about you,
where where do they go and do that? Megan Hilty
has my Twitter handle on my Instagram. I don't do
Facebook that much. I like it all, I haven't been
on it in years, So Instagram, Twitter, Megan Hilty, stay
away from Facebook. It's a lot of crazy aunts and
uncles with some weird political beliefs that it's not good
(50:36):
for anybody. I'm not not not too into that. But
the other stuff where I can just stay stuff and
walk away. This great exactly. Megan, Thank you so much.
You've been a delight. Thank you. This is awesome, all right, Hi,
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