Ann Dowd Behind The Scenes Interview

Emmy-winning actress Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale) discusses her performance as Susan in the My Forever Love episode of ALLEGEDLY with Voyage CEO Nat Mundel.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, listeners, this is NatMundel, founder of Voyage. I am
beyond excited to introduce you all toAnne Dowd, who stars in our allegedly
episode My Forever Love I. Annehas been nominated for four Emmys in her
storied career, and she won forher portrayal of aunt Lydia in The Handmaid

(00:24):
Stale. You probably can really visualizeand in that role. You may also
know her from her Emmy nominated performancein The Leftovers and then countless other credits
as well. So, Anne,it's my greatest honor. Thank you so
much. Thank you for having mein my disheveled appearance. I'll be to
see you. That's the beauty ofpodcasting right now. There you go.

(00:46):
That's that's it. So on thatnote, is this your first podcast voiceover?
Is it is? Are you alsoa listener of podcasts? Well?
Yes, occasionally if I drive along distance then I have the pleasure of
listening. So yes, not ahuge amount. But this was very very

(01:07):
interesting to be the first that I'velooked at in a different way, so
to speak. Yeah, and whytake the role. What is interesting about
it for you? Well, whenI can't read something twice because it's so
upsetting that I think, oh,this is very interesting. M Ah,
that poor woman, because what canyou say? Yeah to her? She

(01:30):
was aware of all of it,and she was lonely. Yeah, and
how life and how the connection andhow familiar were you prior with this sort
of online world of catfishing. I'vecertainly heard about it and read a little
about it, and I oh god. And when you're from the outside,

(01:51):
you think, Okay, couldn't bemore obvious, like this is weird,
don't get involved. But then that'sjudging, isn't it, particularly in this
story, where at the heart ofit is a loneliness for human contact of
whatever kind that brings some joy tothe heart, some sense of I'm alive
for a reason. So as shewas taking the money out, I think,

(02:14):
oh, honey, what could yoube thinking? Well, as I
read the you know, as Iread it a few times, I realized,
you can't make a judgment here.It's too personal, too yeah,
too real. Yeah, And it'sinteresting. You know. I thought a
little bit about this because it's socommonplace today and it and it exploits the

(02:37):
most vulnerable, and it really appealsto the most sort of base and persuasive
aspects of our psychology, and Iin some respects I think that, you
know, sort of, these professionalcat fishers are the world's greatest marketers in
that they really have a deep understanding, obviously of what drives people to make

(03:00):
decisions. They can read, youknow, reminded me a little of compliance.
Did you ever see compliance? Ihave not. It was based on
a true story, but the characterplay is running a fast food restaurant on
a Friday night. She gets acall from a detective and what it leads
to is full blown sexual assault.But she doesn't even know she's complicit in

(03:23):
all of this because she just believedhim right away. And so it's once
you get in that door and thenstarting to read people, what are the
vulnerabilities this poor woman in this story? Profound loneliness? Yeah, yeah,
And that word desire to connection,the desire for a companion to walk on

(03:43):
or that word yeah, that wordcompliance. That's actually one of the most
persuasive. You know, when youwhen you start with an authority and you
get that first agreement to comply,then all of the other compliances that follow
become that much more easy and insidious. You know, It's and that's a
skill they possess, these scammers.Ah. I see The difference here,

(04:09):
of course, is the woman tellsus I know how how this sounds.
I know this. She completely outsherself in terms of awareness. That waits
complete fake. And how are youfinding m You know, what are you
drawing on in in in you know, to get access and empathy with this

(04:29):
character? Well, you know,I think it's very clear in the writing,
and so I reminded myself and afew times I've rehearsed it, which
is not even really the word.Remove all judgment, remove all skepticism,
and just listen to the words,and just let her be who she is.
Wow. I mean that's a rulefor actors in the first place,

(04:53):
because the minute judgment comes in thedoors closed. Correct with her, because
sometimes I literally pulled back, No, no, honey, come on,
now, you know better than this. But then again you realize what well
is it worth it? Did sheget something from this? And then that
last sentence that she gets another messagegot to be kiddy, Yeah exactly,

(05:15):
very compelling. Yeah, well,we're so thrilled you've chosen to play with
us in this in this universe.Um, but tell us what else is
going on for you, Like,what's next? What do you want your
fans to know? What are youworking on? That's kind of you.
Well, I head back next week. We're in the middle of the sea.
Well, we're into the last statethird and I'll be there for the

(05:39):
better part of five weeks just forall of us to you know, to
the end. We are doing tenepisodes, so that's always very exciting.
And then the hope is to goto Europe to shoot a very interesting film
called The Undertaker's Children, which takesplace in the war Second War in East
Germany. Very very story, sovery fortunate, how exciting, and can't

(06:02):
wait for season You got some workto do there, buddy, you got
to catch up. Well, Iknow what what what you said? There's
hopefully two more seasons coming of theHandmade season five and then season six,
and then we go on to theTestaments. I was listeners. I was
telling Anne earlier how much I Ibasically bought Hulu four that and then canceled

(06:26):
it, not knowing there was anotherseasons more seasons coming. So now that
I know, I have to gobuy Hulu again to jump off, because
I've watched all four start to finish. Oh you did all? Oh yeah,
no, I mean that was likemaybe five days of work for me.
That's it. And I mean it'shard to watch these, you know,

(06:46):
one after another. You know,space is helpful, so yeah,
well, um, you know II have a tendency toward the dark,
so um, you know it's alittle unfortunately a little easy for me to
getting crows. Well, here weare with open arms, so darkness comes
to us. Well, thank youagain so much for joining us and for

(07:08):
joining us today. Listeners please tunein. You can find allegedly on Apple
Podcasts, Spotify, anywhere you listento podcasts. And I want to thank
our star and OWD for Voyage Media. I'm Nat Mundel. I'm signing off
pleasure. Thank you,