October 15, 2025 • 56 mins
Want to connect with Tj & Plaideau? Send us a text message.
A meme tried to tell our story for us—so we brought in the person at the center of it. Ann Mahoney sits down with us to unpack a viral rumor about a Walking Dead scene, why it’s completely false, and what gets lost when the internet mistakes convincing acting for personal pain. From there, we zoom out to the bigger picture: how audiences conflate character with human, how body-shaming takes root in comment sections, and what it actually takes for an actor to cry at the exact beat the script calls for.
Sponsored by Jana McCaffery Attorney at Law. Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999 focusing on personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously and, if you are a fellow member of the Louisiana film industry and have been injured, she is happy to offer you a free consultation and a reduced fee to handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999, specializing in personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously. If you have been injured, Jana is offering a free consultation AND a reduced fee for fellow members of the Lousiana film industry, and she will handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at janamccaffery@gmail.com or 504-837-1234. Tell Her NOLA Film Scene sent you
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U . & check out our website: nolafilmscene.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Welcome to NOLA Film Scene with TJ Play-Doh.
(00:02):
I'm TJ.
And as always, I'm Play-Doh.
Okay, folks, we're live.
NOLA Film Scene with TJ andPlay-Doh.
He's TJ.
SPEAKER_00 (00:12):
He's Play-Doh.
And she's Anne.
SPEAKER_02 (00:15):
Hey Ann, how you doing?
SPEAKER_04 (00:16):
I'm good.
SPEAKER_00 (00:18):
Anne Mahoney.
Welcome back to the show.
SPEAKER_04 (00:21):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me back.
SPEAKER_02 (00:23):
Our teacher, our friend, soon-to-be co-star, if
we can have anything to sayabout it.
One day.
SPEAKER_01 (00:30):
One day.
I would love that.
SPEAKER_02 (00:33):
So we've been playing this since we saw Anne
at Nola Comic-Con.
Yeah.
And we love having her on.
We love talking to her.
And we had this whole range oftopics we were going to choose
from.
Until.
Until don't do a new internetrumor started between you and
Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
(00:54):
To put it dramatically.
SPEAKER_04 (00:56):
Yes.
Yes, a new new rumor.
SPEAKER_02 (01:01):
What is that rumor?
SPEAKER_04 (01:03):
So the rumor that was posted along with a little
clip from the scene where I slapJeffrey Dean Morgan.
The lines are, I'm trying toremember him.
It was like, um, he calls out,he says something about you
starving.
Um, and then he says, hepropositions me, basically.
(01:23):
He's like, I'm sorry for havingbeen.
So he says, sorry, he says, um,you starving, like, as if to say
you're you're fat, so you'reclearly not starving.
And then I cry.
And then he says, I'm sorry forhaving been so rude.
If you wouldn't mind, I'd liketo screw your brains out.
(01:45):
And that's when I slap him, andthat's the big, the big scene.
And the rumor was that one,Jeffrey D.
Morgan improvised that scene.
Two, that he felt so bad abouthis improvised line that he gave
me a bouquet of flowersafterwards.
And that three, that I wasactually crying because of the
(02:06):
improvised line and not reallycrying as an actress.
And um, I usually don't engageany kind of internet stuff,
especially like trolling.
But this was just a little bittoo enticing for me because one,
all of those things are untrue.
The script is the this thatscene is completely scripted.
(02:29):
Exactly what you hear is how itwas written.
The only difference is that wetaped a version where Jeffrey D
used the F word a lot and aversion where he didn't, because
you're only allowed so many Fwords per season in a show.
Um, that's the only difference.
All of it was scripted,including saying in the stage
(02:50):
notes, she cries, right?
So um, and Jeffrey D definitelydid not give me a bouquet of
flowers because there was noneed to.
We were just doing our jobs.
And so, and then what was sofunny about it and sad is that
that was one thing that therumors were untrue.
But the second part that waslike disconcerting, and I
(03:14):
definitely engaged with peopleon was then people felt the need
to comment underneath that postand say things like, he should
have given her a bouquet offlowers and a box of chocolates,
or she probably ate the flowerstoo, or should have given her a
McBurger, or just cut like abunch of other fat jokes
underneath it, which was like Iwould I usually don't engage
(03:35):
with that kind of stuff, but Iwas like, ah, I'm feeling I'm
feeling sparky tonight.
I'm gonna go ahead and writeback to these people in a very
diplomatic way, like, hi, it'sme.
I'm real, I'm a real person anda human with feelings.
Um, not only is this rumorincorrect, but also there are
people behind these roles thatthat are played on television,
(03:57):
and we do have feelings.
So yeah, there it is.
SPEAKER_00 (04:02):
Yeah, when I when I saw the comments when you sent
us the screenshots, I I was justutterly appalled, is the best
way to put it.
Did it did it first start out,did they use AI and recreate the
(04:23):
scene with fake dialogue, or wasit just still-shot memes?
SPEAKER_04 (04:27):
No, it was actually the still-shot memes.
That was the scene as it wasdone.
Yeah.
So that was correct.
It was how it was done and howit was scripted.
There was no improvisation.
In fact, I don't know.
I mean, I worked on threeseasons of the show.
I'm sure somewhere in therethere is some improvisation, but
that show in general is verymuch scripted.
We actually start every sceneshoot with what we call story
(04:50):
time, and everybody gathersaround with the script and we
talk it through.
And if anything's gonna change,it changes at that moment.
But there's there's not a lot ofimprovisation on Walking Dead
because we're shooting somepretty complex stuff, and we
shoot a lot of it's shot onfilm, some is digital, but some
is film.
So we're trying to get theseshots quickly.
(05:12):
So there's no like ample timefor people to just improvise and
make stuff up.
It's very much approved by thenetwork and approved by the
writers and the producers.
So that is completely false.
SPEAKER_00 (05:27):
I've kind of started slowing down on social media,
and I put myself on a little bitof a self-imposed time out for a
bit there because there's justso much toxicity.
I just don't want to see it.
Not so much directed at me, butjust in general.
(05:51):
Yeah.
And I it makes it even harderwhen it's one of my friends that
is being attacked for no reason.
It it doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_05 (06:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (06:03):
Except that people are just mean.
SPEAKER_04 (06:06):
Well, I think that you know, people forget the line
between reality and fiction alot, right?
It's like when people are likegiving death threats against
actors who killed their favoritecharacter on a show.
And like you do realize thatthis is fiction, right?
This is fiction.
Um, so it's the same thing withwith Olivia.
(06:27):
It's like she is who she is, andshe's the size that she is.
But the funny thing is, is I'mthe size of the majority of the
average American woman, right?
It's just we've gotten so usedto what we see on screen that
women are very, very, very, verythin in general, right?
That people who are the size ofan average American woman
(06:48):
suddenly become the butt of thejoke.
And it's one thing to have it inthe script, but it's another
thing entirely for people thenoutside to be like, I'm gonna
also go after this character,but it's like there's a person
behind that.
And would you say that to your,I know that somewhere in your
family there's someone who's asize 12.
unknown (07:08):
It's not that big.
SPEAKER_04 (07:09):
You know, not that it would matter, like I could be
a size 30, right?
Same problem, right?
So I I I dare you to look atyour aunt, your sister, your mom
in the face and say, should havegotten her a stairmaster
instead.
I dare you.
Anger.
SPEAKER_02 (07:31):
Yeah, but it it's not only the keyboard warrior
mentality of I can say anythingand because there's no nobody's
gonna get punched in the facebecause they're on the internet.
Yeah, but it's negativity driveslikes.
SPEAKER_03 (07:45):
Yes, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_04 (07:46):
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02 (07:47):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, there's also even forthis, I kind of alluded.
Go ahead.
SPEAKER_04 (07:52):
No, well, I mean, also just this this whole idea
of like one of the big rumorswas you know, Anne Mahoney, the
person, was crying because herfeelings were hurt.
Like, no, Ann Mahoney is anactress and a trained actress
for many years.
So if the script says cry, I'mgoing to cry.
And I will cry at the exactmoment you asked me to in the
(08:13):
script, because that's my job.
Right?
Am I drawing on personalexperiences?
Of course.
All we are is acting.
We're all drawing on personalexperiences because it's who we
are.
And I happened to start my lifeas a ballerina before I was an
actor.
So I definitely dealt with a lotof body shaming in my life.
But in that moment, I'm doing myjob.
If it says cry, I cry.
SPEAKER_00 (08:39):
What a lot of people tend to forget when they're
watching fiction, you know, youtalked about actors getting
death threats because theykilled somebody's favorite
character or whatever.
They're doing their job, and ifthey're getting it to that
level, they're doing it reallywell.
(09:00):
And I think people get sowrapped up in the story that
they forget that there's a humanon the other side of that
camera.
And from being in the industry,you talk to people, and a lot of
times they're completely,especially someone that's a
character actor, you're dealingwith somebody that's completely
different than what you see onscreen.
(09:21):
Some people are themselvesturned up, and other others are
completely different.
And I think folks lose sight ofthat, and then time and
distance, and like Brian said,keyboard warriors, they there's
no consequence when they justclack away on their keyboard and
not take people's feelings intoconsideration.
SPEAKER_04 (09:43):
That's exactly why I decided to engage.
I I generally don't, but Idecided to engage with these
people, and I I didn't call in,I wasn't mean, but I was like,
oh, that's an original one, orlike, oh wow, it's me, the
person you're talking about.
I'm right here and I'm a human,right?
Because I want you to rememberthat that's the truth.
I mean, to put it on the flipside, like when I was doing, I
(10:04):
don't know if you know themusical Sweet Charity, I played
Charity and Sweet Charity, andshe's this delightful character.
She's very funny and lively andkind.
And um, this is long.
I'm trying to make it short.
The bathrooms in the dressingroom were broken.
So I had to use the bathroomsthat the audience used, right?
And so I was in there using abathroom at intermission, and I
hear these two ladies talking,washing their hands, and they're
(10:28):
like, she's just great.
I love her.
And I bet in real life she'sactually a really nice person,
too, right?
And I'm like, you don't know.
I mean, I am, but like, youdon't know.
So it's so funny the way thatpeople attach qualities about
who a person is based on aperformance.
Like, that's our job, right?
That's that's just our job toembody the character.
(10:51):
So who we are, you don't know.
You think you know us becauseyou see us on camera, you see us
in in movies and on television,but you don't know.
SPEAKER_03 (11:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (11:02):
I thought some of your responses to them were
pretty clever.
They a couple of them made melaugh out loud.
And I want to address one not ofyours, but somebody replied to
your comment.
This one just totally set meback.
They said, in my defense, Ididn't know you would read this.
(11:28):
Something all right.
SPEAKER_04 (11:30):
In my defense, I would read this.
I'm sure you're a nice lady.
SPEAKER_02 (11:39):
Oh, you're you're gonna read my comment.
You're real.
My bad.
SPEAKER_05 (11:47):
It was just it was actually delightful.
I was like, yeah, I did readyour comment.
It's me right here, the realperson.
SPEAKER_01 (11:56):
Can I have your autograph?
SPEAKER_05 (11:58):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (11:58):
I'm sure you're a nice lady.
Can I get free tickets?
SPEAKER_04 (12:02):
Hilarious.
Thank you for talking about thisbecause it's just a really
hilarious moment.
SPEAKER_02 (12:08):
Yeah.
Oh, no problem.
It it's I think as a woman it'shighlighted more for you, and no
one's talking about my weight,but that is one of my not
self-doubts, my not even fears,but you know, one of my weak
points.
You know, I get defensive aboutit.
(12:29):
Not enough to do anything, butI'll get back to that soon.
But my voice attacks me morethan those keyboard warriors
ever attacked you.
You know what I mean?
And that's where I really haveto struggle with it.
But you're also talking aboutlike us people assign things to
(12:51):
us.
In real life, I'm a pretty niceguy, I'll admit that.
And I try to respect everybodyand I'll have fun and you know,
blah, blah, blah.
But I really enjoy playing someskeezy guys.
SPEAKER_03 (13:02):
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:02):
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03 (13:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:04):
And that's we have to access everybody could be
skeezy, everybody can be everyworst thing, it's all in us, and
you have to access that and letit go.
But things you wouldn't do inreal life, you know.
So we find the truths and sharethem with people, and like you
were saying, TJ, people getmesmerized.
I'm not saying by myperformances sometimes, but that
(13:28):
those emotions we share, thattruth touches people, and that's
what brings them in.
And so then when we hurt theircharacters, now they're pissed.
We've hurt their family.
You know, not that that appliesto the people who are attacking
you, but you know, we blur thelines of reality with reality.
SPEAKER_04 (13:46):
I always say when I teach that the truth, and this
is the absolute truth, and Ibelieve it in my heart.
You have everything that youneed to play any character you
will ever need to play in yourlife already inside of you.
It's just having the courage toaccess it.
And, you know, part of that istraining, right?
Like for me, like training andcontinuing to train was how I
(14:09):
keep myself ready to do whatevercomes across my way, right?
So if I can be prepared, theonly way I can really be
prepared is to train, to beavailable to the work and to be
courageous enough to go, I can Ican play this character who I
disagree with and then not judgethem, right?
Come from a place ofnon-judgment, which is really,
(14:29):
really critical, right?
Especially when you're playingsomeone who you like violently
disagree with, right?
If you if you come from a placeof playing that character, uh,
if you come from a place ofjudgment, you're sunk.
Because that person certainlyunderstands exactly why they are
the way they are, and they knowtheir history and why they've
become that way.
(14:49):
And their values are very clearto them, and you have to be on
their side, right?
SPEAKER_01 (14:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (14:55):
And I often find that, like, I was just talking
about this um on Saturday withmy Suzuki Method of Actor
Training class.
Um, I actually find that joy isharder for a lot of actors than
any DARF emotion to likerealistically play joy or
laughter is much, much harder.
Um, because in a way, we allkind of love the idea of digging
(15:19):
into these like characters whohave trauma or have um violence
or villains or have darkness.
And so we like to go to thoseplaces, but to access joy, true
joy and happiness and make ittruthful in the moment, I find a
lot of actors, myself included,really struggled with that.
SPEAKER_00 (15:40):
So I do, for sure.
I do.
That's the hard that's harderfor me than than getting angry
or getting sad.
SPEAKER_04 (15:48):
Yes.
Yes, and I think it's harderbecause in real life, a lot of
us have what we call, I thinkthis is a Brene Brown term, but
foreboding joy.
Like when good things are goingwell in our lives, we can't just
sit back and enjoy them.
We kind of have this like, okay,well, this is great, but when's
the other shoe gonna drop?
(16:08):
Right.
And so even in real life, wecan't invest fully in joy.
Um, and so then we have to playjoy.
It's it's it's hard to, it'sscarce, it's hard to attach to,
right?
So um foreboding joy.
So, like in all of your life asan actor, the best thing you can
do for yourself is to live yourlife fully and in the moment and
(16:31):
know that everything has acycle, you know, everything has
the praise and blame, you havejoy and sorrow, you have life
and death, and and and that toembrace those equally so they're
all available to you when youwhen the work comes to you to
draw from.
SPEAKER_02 (16:50):
Right.
Yeah.
When I took your virtual class,we would we would do a self-tape
and we would send it in andwould critique it and say, you
know, not not like meanly, butthis is good.
What about this point?
What were you thinking here?
Yada yada yada.
So one of the times I wasn'tgetting into it and I started
(17:10):
running in place to get my bodyinvolved.
And I remember your response tothat, and that kind of leads me
into the question, and I thinkit sure does.
Let's talk about your Suzukimethod of training.
Because I believe that kind offits in with that.
Is that correct?
SPEAKER_04 (17:22):
Absolutely, yeah.
So one of my favorite books inthe world is called The Body
Heaps the Score.
Um, so it's just something Italk about with class two.
So I'm I may get the numberscorrect here because I'm not
great with numbers, but I don'tknow if people know, but you
have the same thinking enzymesin your gut as you do in your
(17:42):
brain.
So, but your brain can onlyprocess 40 pieces of emotional
information at a time.
Your gut can process 11 millionat a time.
So the old adage of trust yourgut is very real.
And so to me, the Suzuki methodof after training specifically
addresses the gut, which isbeing in the body and the
(18:06):
breath, not in the cerebralplace.
Um, I think anytime you can getyourself into your body and your
breath and ground yourself therephysically, you're going to be
in a more real place as anactor.
How do we get there, right?
Because on camera, we can'tobviously be jumping all around.
We cannot push things out in theway we do on stage.
(18:29):
On stage, we project things foran audience that is far away to
be able to have them understandwhat we're feeling.
But the camera, the camera seeswhat you think, right?
It's close, the framing issmall, but the body is still
involved.
So if we can do the Suzukimethod of actor training was
created by Japanese theatermaster Shizu Suzuki in the
(18:51):
1960s, and my teacher at theUniversity of Connecticut
studied with him at that time.
What it does is it's a series ofexercises that are all focused
on centering yourself into yourgut by way of very difficult
physical and vocal training.
Um there's a lot more to it, butI have found, although
(19:16):
originally that training was uhpaired with Greek tragedy and
Shakespeare, I have found itindispensable as a film actress
because it also incorporates alot of stillness and centered in
the core.
And so I have been able toactually use that training as an
actress more than any othertraining I've had.
(19:37):
Um, because it instills corestrength, gut response,
instinct, and it also gives youcourage because you think like
if I could do this training,it's so difficult, I can do
anything.
I can access this, I can accessanything.
So anytime you can get yourselfphysically involved, and by that
(19:57):
I don't mean action, I mean youractual body and your gut being
attached to something instead ofyour cerebral brain, because the
brain can get very criticalabout a lot of things.
The brain sometimes heard mynose, sorry, the brain sometimes
stands outside of us and talksand says awful things, right?
I don't, I don't believe you.
Yeah, right.
(20:18):
What are you doing?
This is not what we practice,right?
The brain is great for research,it's great for memorizing lines,
it is terrible for being engagedone-on-one and shadow boxing
with that partner moment tomoment, because acting is what?
Living moment to moment inimaginary circumstances, living
(20:40):
truthfully with moment to momentwithin imaginary circumstances,
right?
And that is not of the brain,that's of the gut.
So, how do we memorize lines?
How do we know how the storyends, right?
But still live it moment tomoment and not project, still
allow it to unfold in real time.
(21:00):
That's when that's how you trainthe gut, because then the gut is
courageous and it does, it'savailable, it still knows all
the lines, it still is it's allavailable to you, but almost in
the subconscious, so you canactually live it moment to
moment, right?
Because if you walk on stage asJuliet in the beginning of Romeo
and Juliet, you're like, the waythis is gonna end is right, it's
(21:25):
gonna be a real bad day.
We're gonna all die, right?
Then you then you don't allowthe audience, the the beauty and
yourself as the actor thebeautiful experience of watching
how you get from point A topoint Z.
And there's so much beautifulstuff in there that cannot exist
if you're in a cerebral placeinstead of in the moment with
the people you're acting with,and and reacting literally off
(21:49):
of what is happening at thatmoment.
SPEAKER_02 (21:56):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (21:58):
You stunned me into silence, which is a real- I hope
not just like stunned you intosleepiness, but no, no, no, no,
no.
SPEAKER_00 (22:07):
Not even a little bit, no.
SPEAKER_02 (22:08):
It it was a beautiful thought, and I totally
agree with it, and I didn't wantto mess it up by talking.
So we will give some contactinformation.
So if people want to learn someacting from you at the end of
the show.
And one of the topics we haddiscussed at that con was the
current state of filming, notonly in the New Orleans area,
(22:29):
but kind of all over.
SPEAKER_04 (22:32):
Yes.
Discuss so um it's badeverywhere.
And you know, I love I love toread the articles about the
things that are coming and andand you know, uh what my
experience and the experience ofI have dear friends on major
shows out of LA and New York andAtlanta, it's not great anywhere
(22:54):
right now.
Um, and and you know, in a wayit's comforting because I'm
like, oh, I haven't had anaudition in a blank amount of
time.
And my friends who are like atthis moment more successful than
me in many ways, right, or likeme either.
So one of the things like I sawis that, you know, Louisiana is
the home of the indie film.
That was one of the articles Iread.
And I actually didn't know that.
(23:15):
So it shows you like my ownknowledge about the industry.
But I'm like, way back, I wantto say when I first started
doing film and televisionacting, because you know, I'm a
theater actor, classicallytrained.
I sing and dance too.
I never intended to do film andtelevision acting.
I straight up wanted to be onBroadway.
And then it happened to me.
And here I am.
(23:37):
So way back when I first starteddoing film and television acting
and understanding the film andtax credits, I said out loud so
many times, I said, we need tofigure out, we keep calling
ourselves Hollywood South, butwe need to figure out how to
invest in Hollywood South sothat we have our own TV
channels, TV stations, orstreaming services.
(23:58):
At that time, that wasn't athing back in like early 2000s,
but we need to have our ownmovies being made and
distributed.
Like I love that big stuff comesinto our state and takes
advantage of our attack credits.
I've worked on it.
I'm glad that I got thoseopportunities.
But on some level, if we don'tstart investing in our own
industry, we're gonna completelybe beholden to things coming
(24:22):
into the state.
So I was I've been saying thisfor years.
And I even said this as recentlyjust to to someone high up, like
in I want to say it was 2019,and things were good.
They were like, Yeah, we'regood, we're good.
There's all this stuff comingin.
Well, here we are.
Here we are.
Um, and I really wish that backand not like they should have
(24:45):
listened to me or anything likethat, but I wish we had gotten
more proactive about that as acommunity.
Because imagine if right now wehad our own version of like
SCTC, SCTB in Canada, right?
That that is like that's thehome of all kinds of people you
know, Catherine O'Hara fromShits Creek, um, Martin Short,
(25:07):
uh like Eugene Lee, John Candy.
All these people you know, theystarted in this dinky, dinky,
precious little studio inEdmonton, Canada.
And now you see them everywhere.
And if we had back in the early2000s bond, yeah, this is great,
this outside work is great, butwhat are we doing with the local
talent that we have?
(25:28):
And now we have an Indigenouswriter credit ever since the the
credits were revamped.
And what are we doing with it?
Right.
So something that I've beenpitching for years and would
like to pitch again is why don'twe have a board of people put
together that are some of themare local, um well-known people,
like maybe we ask a PatriciaClarkson, maybe we ask ask a
(25:52):
Brian Bat, maybe, and then themaybe the rest of the board is
made up of local folks who workin the industry.
And why don't we get, you know,Hancock Whitney and Gulf So Gulf
Coast Bank and Auctioner andwhoever to put money into a fund
that then local writers canpitch their projects to and get
at least starting funds for.
(26:13):
So that we start to put thatmoney really back into the state
where it where it really likeimagine trying to convince
legislature then when we'relike, look, we've got these 10
projects that are all written bylocal people that are that are
get going forward and they havefunding and they have
(26:33):
distribution.
So that's that's a big thing, isI think that we have not
invested in ourselves in the waythat we need to.
SPEAKER_02 (26:44):
That's awesome.
I like that idea.
SPEAKER_00 (26:46):
I need to interject for just a second.
Does my video look weird toy'all?
SPEAKER_02 (26:51):
You zoomed in for some reason when you came back.
SPEAKER_00 (26:54):
I don't know what is happening.
SPEAKER_02 (26:55):
Let me try to get that fixed, y'all.
Y'all keep going.
We'll just keep talking.
If we didn't have a techproblem, it wouldn't be our
show, folks.
SPEAKER_04 (27:05):
I could I didn't even I wasn't even sure how to
get on here, so I can appreciateall the technical issues with
everything.
SPEAKER_02 (27:11):
You shared the private link to promote the
episode.
SPEAKER_03 (27:14):
I was like, sorry, it's just like we almost had
anybody just walking in thestudio.
SPEAKER_02 (27:19):
So I I like that.
I think the United Artists ofthe last century will be what
you described, you know,independent filmmaking and
making their own streaming.
And I like the distributionlinks, like setting that up, not
just to like if we made astreaming service, but we create
the pathways because I've done acouple of indie movies.
(27:40):
I haven't been like thedirector, I have been like
producer because of Kickstarter,yada yada.
But I would not know how tocontact to get distribution to
the big boys, to the theaters.
SPEAKER_04 (27:50):
Precisely.
SPEAKER_02 (27:51):
So I like making the path so that we we if we were
the board and someone approachedus and we just went, boom, you
know.
That's uh TJ, I think you're onthere twice now.
SPEAKER_04 (28:03):
Got you on there twice, but hey, double the TJ,
double the fun.
SPEAKER_02 (28:08):
Uh well, now we got just oh wow, we've got technical
stuff.
I get distracted by all thebright and shiny things.
SPEAKER_04 (28:15):
Well, look, and I want to just say, like, I'm not
clueless about the fact thatthings have to make money.
So, so in my mind, if we hadthis pot of money, let's say$10
million, because let's justdream, you know, why don't we
make it a uh a selection ofthings?
Why don't we have a horrormovie, right?
So, so local writers, let'slet's have horror, a horror
movie because we know that thosegenerally make money.
(28:37):
Let's have like a holiday filmbecause those gener, so those
would be like if you want totalk stock stock market, those
would be your blue chips, right?
Like have five projects we'retrying to produce with$10
million, like two or three ofthem are blue chips, and then we
have like an indie film and atelevision series, right?
So that the risk is spreadaround as opposed to it just
being like all indie stuff thatlike we know it's tough for
(29:00):
indie stuff to take off and getdistribution, but let's let's
and then you know, maybe part ofthe cause is as the filmmaker,
if you get funding, you have toput two percent of what you make
back into this fund.
So it's so it feeds back intoitself.
And the people hearing thesepitches are people who are
experienced in the industry, butare local, right?
So I just think that there'sthere's a way to do it, and um I
(29:24):
I'd love to help do it, but Iyou know, I I I want to be
clear, I haven't been listeningto about this, and I've talked
to it, I've talked about it for20 20 years now.
SPEAKER_02 (29:38):
Yeah.
So what's the we listened.
Now let's see what we can doabout it.
Yeah, what's I mean, what's theanswer?
TJ?
TJ I'm here, I'm not sure whatthe problem is.
Are you muted?
Uh again, tech issues.
(30:03):
I didn't know if you want toflip off and come back on.
We're coming close to that time.
Keep going?
Okay.
I wasn't doing it because ofthat.
I was looking at the how longwe've been recording.
And it's just wearing me out.
Just all these big thoughts.
I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_04 (30:19):
I'm sorry.
I was like, it's um I have Idon't get to talk about this as
as much as I like to.
And I'm I'm passionate about it.
I'm passionate about I love my Ilove my state.
And I love our local talent.
And I think it's second to none.
I really, really do.
And I I want us to I want us tostart seeing opportunities that
are bigger for the local actors,for the crew, you know, for
(30:44):
people who want to produce.
Um, that's what I want to see.
So I'm I'm passionate about it.
And I if people hate me forsaying we need to do this, and
I've been saying it for 20years, then they're gonna hate
me.
SPEAKER_02 (30:56):
And yeah, I don't think they'll hate you, but the
uh the apathetic nature ofhumanity will we've got a lot of
light of fire under ourselvesand other people because I want
this to be my career.
Podcasting be alright, but I'mtalking about acting, you know.
Yeah, I'm tired of being ajanitor.
It's all right, but it's ashitty job.
SPEAKER_04 (31:17):
I understand.
Cool.
Oh, TJ, anger.
SPEAKER_00 (31:24):
The so unless Anne.
SPEAKER_01 (31:28):
I'm good.
We're back.
SPEAKER_00 (31:31):
Sorry, we slipped into the twilight.
Water glitch, time, uh, what'sit called?
Space-time continuum shiftdidn't.
SPEAKER_02 (31:38):
We actually had a freaky Friday and a time lapse,
so we all switched bodies, wentback to 1942, we're back and in
our own body, so let's continuethe show.
SPEAKER_04 (31:45):
You were saying something, TJ.
You had something to ask.
SPEAKER_00 (31:50):
I yeah, I was I I was asking, so how?
How do we how do we go fromthere?
SPEAKER_04 (31:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (32:00):
How do we kick that into gear?
SPEAKER_04 (32:04):
Um, I hate to say it this plainly, but I just need
someone to take me seriouslythat has some kind of influence,
right?
Someone to take me seriously andgo, oh, you want to do that?
Okay, let's do it.
And then someone who hasconnections to go, let's let's
create this board.
Let's approach, you know, theselocal banks, let's approach
(32:25):
these local businesses and belike, hey, there's a tax credit
for you too, right?
Like, let's put this pot ofmoney together and then let's
put the parameters together,right?
Just like any grant you wouldapply for as a theater artist,
for instance.
There's grants out there thatyou apply for to do projects.
So just create the, I'm like,just create the board.
(32:46):
But create the board, ask peoplethat you think are gonna really
have a good idea about what is aviable project, create the
board, get the money, set theparameters out there and have
people apply and have thempitch, right?
Set that up.
And then when the money's gone,the money's gone.
And then we move to the nextcycle, right?
(33:07):
But then I just think that itjust means someone has to
believe that this is importantenough to to help connect me and
other people and and get thatboard off the ground.
I can't do it myself, right?
I don't, funny enough, likeyou'd think I have the
connections, but I don't.
I don't have the connections tothe people who would who would a
(33:29):
Hancock Whitney, an auctioner, aGulf Coast Bank, uh, I keep
saying them because I can'tthink of other people.
Um, the Bensons, right?
Might go, oh, if the board ismade up of these people, I feel
very confident in investing mymoney in this and having them be
the go-between between me andthese projects so that I can
(33:50):
invest in something.
And most of them need a taxwrite-off anyway.
Right?
So it's just they just need totrust the people that are
vetting the projects.
It's much harder for, you know,I I do I have a lot of writing.
It's much harder for a writer togo to find these people and then
be like, hey, um, I want to makethis movie or this TV series.
(34:12):
Can I have some money?
It's much easier, I think, tohave a board of people who are
credible, who have connectionsto those people already to say,
hey, we're trying this thingwhere we're really gonna
grassroots launch Louisianafilm, actual Hollywood, frickin'
South film and television.
And these are the people who areon the board and the people who
(34:34):
are gonna take your money andlisten to these pitches and
invest it well.
That's what we need.
I I would be great at puttingtogether parameters and how to
apply in that, you know.
I think if you're applying, youneed to have not just a script,
you need to have a pitch deckand you need to have a budget,
right?
Because we don't want to investin things that they're like, I
(34:55):
think it's gonna cost.
It's like, no, what is it gonnacost?
Right?
Yeah.
So I think I would be great atthat part of it for sure.
But I need the people who haveconnections to people with money
to go, hey, we're gonna put thisboard together and we're really
gonna invest in Louisiana filmfor real.
For real.
SPEAKER_00 (35:14):
Yeah.
We need we need to bringtogether people that have the
skill set.
I I mean, I know people, we allknow people, we just need to
bring the right people together.
You know, if you're maybe not asgood at pitching maybe this
person is, and maybe this personhas the connections, and this
(35:37):
person has the scripts, and thisperson knows how to bring a
project together.
I I I think I'm seeing whatyou're putting down there.
SPEAKER_04 (35:48):
Well, like, what's the main problem that everybody
has with making a film?
What's the number one problem?
SPEAKER_02 (35:55):
Money.
SPEAKER_04 (35:56):
What's the number two problem?
Distribution.
Right?
So if we can like if you havemoney, and I won't say the film
that I worked on, but I workedon a film that was a first-time
director writer, okay?
Yeah, and got really famouspeople to do it.
(36:16):
Why?
They had their own money.
Right?
So, like, what do we all need toget distribution?
We need a couple ringers, weneed some famous people in some
roles, right?
How do we get famous people?
Money.
Right?
So if you have the money to dothe project, then you can reach
out to the agency and say, hey,I'm funded for this project.
(36:39):
Will you have Kristen Wig readit?
Will you have Sean Aston breedit?
Right?
But you can't even begin.
And then maybe the distributionpiece happens then, right?
Because you're like, we've gotKristen Wig and Sean Aston
starring.
And then the distribution peoplego, ooh, okay, right?
But you can't come in.
(37:00):
I know those names.
I know those names, right?
And then the rest of it ispopulated with local people.
We have that talent, right?
SPEAKER_00 (37:08):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (37:09):
So it's just a matter of someone taking me
seriously and going, yeah, wereally do, we really do want to
invest in Louisiana film andtelevision.
We want to invest in it.
We want to make it happen.
Um, yeah.
I I'm ready.
I'm ready for someone to take meseriously and be like, let's do
this.
And I've yet to find someone todo it.
SPEAKER_00 (37:31):
Do we do it as SAG or as indie?
SPEAKER_04 (37:36):
I mean, I think you would want to do it as SAG
because you know, the peoplethat would probably be on the
board would be in that industry.
SPEAKER_00 (37:42):
I mean, I want to like Because you would want you
would want the big SAG names.
SPEAKER_04 (37:46):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, like, look at what ReeseWitherspoon has been able to do
with like Geta Davis and her,right?
What I'm talking about is that,but on a local level, which is
like all those women know eachother and have worked together
and trust each other.
And so they bring projects toeach other and they are
producing this great stuff.
They also happen to have crocktons of money, right?
(38:07):
So why don't we locally findthose people who have
connections to people with moneyand bring crap tons of money in
and then distribute it toprojects that are ready, worthy,
pitch ready, so that then theycan go and get distribution.
They can get those star namesand we can bring more work here
(38:28):
ourselves instead of waiting forthings to land here.
I'm available for all thingsthat land here.
But I also want I want us tohave our own thing.
Because then when these, it'slike any business, right?
If you are relying on alloutsource stuff for your
business to run, when the worldtips, you tip.
(38:50):
If we are our own business thathas our own mechanisms in place
to continue the industry, we'renot gonna hit the, we're gonna
have like a slope instead ofdips.
Right?
If we're completely reliant onoutside projects coming here,
every time the industry has acrash, we're gonna crash.
And then eventually people aregonna leave the state.
(39:13):
And then eventually you're notgonna be able to promote the tax
credits because nothing'shappening.
SPEAKER_03 (39:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (39:20):
If it goes on for years and years, and I think for
the foreseeable next couple ofyears, we're gonna be in a tough
spot.
So now is the time.
Now's a great time.
I mean, five years ago wouldhave been a better time, but now
is a great time.
SPEAKER_00 (39:36):
So one of the one of the things I wanted to touch on,
what is your take on and youmight have covered it briefly
when I stepped away for asecond, but what why have we
gotten to this point?
What happened?
Uh people keep saying, well, itwas the strike.
I I don't think it was.
I I don't think it was just thestrike.
(39:59):
Something shifted and thingshave changed, and I've been
trying to wrap my head aroundit, and I can't figure out why.
SPEAKER_04 (40:07):
So um, again, I'm not gonna make any friends here.
I'm not gonna quote the exactperson, but a pretty well-known
casting director said back in2005, 2005, wow, that the whole
working as a local hire thingwas a slippery slope.
(40:29):
Right?
And I completely understand asan actor trying to get a leg up,
wanting to get a job.
I have done it.
No, that's not true.
I've only ever worked um SAGmodified local hire, which by
the way, it's not a realcontract, in case anyone didn't
know.
That's not a contract.
You are still working localhire, they're just paying you
per Diem hotel and travel.
(40:50):
Just so you know, it's not acontract.
That's something I didn't learnuntil I'd done it for several
years.
But I think that um increasinglywe have continued to travel to
wherever for whatever jobbecause we want to get the work,
right?
Simultaneously, producers havegravitated to that and are
(41:12):
trying to get the job donecheaply.
And they're not totally to blamebecause the industry wants the
jobs done more cheaply now, too.
The problem is the slipperyslope was it was cheaply done in
the United States, and now it'sbeing cheaply done overseas or
in other countries because it'salways going for the lowest bean
counter.
SPEAKER_00 (41:33):
And that's why a lot of stuff's gone to Canada.
SPEAKER_04 (41:36):
Yeah, like in the last year, I've been pinned for
a series in Hungary, Canada, andMexico, all of which I was
pinned for and they checked allmy availability and I didn't end
up booking.
Because I'm sure they foundsomeone in Canada or Mexico or
(41:56):
Hungary who could do a greatAmerican accent, and they did
that job.
And they should, because it'sgonna be cheaper than flying me
there and putting me up, right?
So um I think we've gotten herebecause of because of the
strikes, yes, but but alsobecause I think that the money
(42:18):
is not we're not putting moneyin our own communities.
It's exactly what I just said.
We're not investing in our ownfilm community.
If Atlanta did what I'm talkingabout, they would have their own
ecosystem.
If Louisiana did what I'mtalking about, you would have
our own ecosystem, right?
That would be able to weatherthe storm of the greater
(42:40):
Hollywood industry.
When I say to you, okay, I'mgonna, I'm I I'm trying to like
figure out how to say thiswithout revealing.
Uh, I was pinned for a series, Iwon't tell you which one, like
seriously pinned.
And um, the person that got castin the role of ultimately that I
was pinned for is very, veryfamous.
(43:00):
Did many, many seasons of a showon a network television station,
right?
And I thought to myself, poorthat actress.
She just came off of five yearsof being the star of a series
and she's playing this recurringcharacter on this television
series that she could do in hersleep, right?
And that's because there is solittle work.
(43:24):
And so now all of the people whoare more famous are coming into
the roles that more blue-collaractors like me traditionally
would do.
Because there's just not as muchwork for us here.
SPEAKER_00 (43:39):
So that makes sense.
SPEAKER_04 (43:40):
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know if that's agood idea.
SPEAKER_00 (43:42):
And that was the piece, that was the piece of the
puzzle that I missed was the thetraveling for the uh working for
local hire.
SPEAKER_04 (43:50):
Yeah.
I mean, it's it's wild becauseinstinctually, because I think I
was fortunate that I started infilm and television in 2005.
And so I hit some golden yearsthere where no one would ever
ask you to be a local hire ifyou weren't.
So when I booked some thingsthat I won't talk about, there
(44:11):
was a like, we won't even lookat your tape unless you work as
a local hire.
But because I had those goldenyears in the early part of my
career, I was like, I'm not alocal hire.
I don't live here.
And then suddenly I was cast andI got the better deal.
Right now it's like just assumethat you work local hire.
(44:32):
You must.
And um, and I think that thatweakens the union, right?
Because then when we'reeverybody can compete now,
right?
If I can, and and you know whocan really compete?
People with money.
If I'm a person who has is ofmeans, I can be local wherever I
want.
With me when they're like, youneed to be a local hire.
(44:54):
I'm like, this shoots in I'mmaking this up.
This shoots in New York.
I have two kids and I'm a singlemom.
I am not working local hire.
I'm not coming out of pocket,leaving my children at home to
come and work local hire.
I love what I do, but my kidsare more important.
I got to pay my mortgage, my mymortgage, my rent at the end of
the month.
(45:14):
And I can't do that if I workfull-full hire.
I'm gonna walk away from thiswith like$5,000 if I work a week
because you're also doing onlyscale, right?
And I'm gonna pay$600 to$800 inplane tickets in New York City.
This is not a real job, by theway.
And I'm gonna pay$1,500 for myhotel.
(45:34):
I can't do that.
I got I've got two kids.
One is about to go to college.
God bless me.
Right?
SPEAKER_03 (45:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (45:41):
So, and I'm not, I'm not at all like looking down on
actors who work global hire.
I get it.
I get needing to get the creditsand wanting to be available.
But the industry increasinglybends towards people who already
have the means to do it onwhatever terms.
So it's actuallysocioeconomically awful.
(46:05):
It's the opposite of what theAmerican dream is, right?
That if you have the talent, youcan do it.
Like, not anymore.
You better have talent and youbetter have money to get
yourself to and from set so thatthe money that you make doesn't
matter.
And that's boy, what are wemissing out on?
The actors that you think of inour lifetime who were not
(46:27):
wealthy, that we would havenever known if they were coming
through the industry at thismoment because they wouldn't
have been able to afford to beseen.
Anger, anger.
I don't like it.
Yeah, it's not cool.
SPEAKER_00 (46:45):
Well, but it's uh it's brilliant insights though,
and it's answers to questionsthat I've been having for months
uh of trying to figure out whatis happening all of a sudden.
But I I've got, I mean, justlike you, I've got friends that
are more successful than I atthis, and they're telling me the
(47:07):
same thing, it's slowing down,but then again, I also have
friends that are gettingauditions every week.
Uh a lot of it they're they'reself-submitting for, but still
they're they're at least gettingauditions.
And man, that's a lot of stuffthat's happening that's causing
this industry that we love totank.
SPEAKER_04 (47:29):
Yeah, and and and I'll just come full circle back
to the industry is tanking, andwe do have control if we invest
in ourselves.
We don't have control over whatHollywood's gonna do.
I have a feeling that's gonnatake some time for that cycle to
play itself out, right?
But what we do have control overin the in the current moment is
(47:51):
what we're doing about itlocally.
We do have control over that.
It's just a matter of peoplegoing.
I believe in us, I believe inour writers, I believe in our
stories, and I believe that if Iinvest money here with a good
board of people to oversee it,we can make some incredible
stuff happen while we're waitingfor Hollywood to figure out how
(48:13):
many AI actors they want tocast.
SPEAKER_01 (48:17):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (48:19):
That that's even a discussion is wild.
SPEAKER_02 (48:24):
I'm I'm biting my lip.
It's like they're not actors,but I know you're not gonna be
able to do it.
Oh, they're not actors.
SPEAKER_00 (48:28):
Like I saw Brian's face twitch.
SPEAKER_04 (48:30):
Yeah.
AI bots they're gonna use.
Let me correct myself becausethat's what it is.
Like while Hollywood decides howmany AI bots they're going to
use to replace real live,grieving people, why don't we
go, okay, y'all, y'all areclearly having a moment over
there.
We're gonna invest in Louisiana,my home, yeah, where I am a
(48:52):
native, surrounded by brilliantactors and actresses, brilliant
crew people, brilliant writers,brilliant directors, brilliant
producers, brilliant studioswith everything you need.
(49:13):
Unfriend, unfriend, unfriend,unfollow.
SPEAKER_02 (49:17):
That's all right.
I don't care.
Cut the week from the tenth.
Look, I'll be 50.
We don't need it.
SPEAKER_04 (49:21):
I'll be 50 in April.
And I don't know if you guyshave heard of the uh We Do Not
Care Club, the woman who's liketalks about being in
perimenopause and menopause andputting the world on notice that
we just do not care.
I'm just so there right now.
Just so like, I mean, it can'tget worse.
Like, it can't get worse than itis uh right now with like very
few auditions and everythinglocal higher and everything
(49:44):
scale, no matter if you're aguest star or recurring, or I'm
like, it can't get worse.
So I might as well just behonest.
And that's that's my policy.
I and I've always been very,very honest about this journey.
And don't I don't sugarcoat it.
I love it still too.
I love it deeply.
I love it from the bottom of myheart.
(50:04):
It's what I was born to do.
SPEAKER_00 (50:08):
I've heard there's there's no negotiating either.
Yeah.
If if you book something, ifit's scale, there's no
negotiating.
They will poop, they'll go rightto the next person.
They don't even they don't evencare anymore.
SPEAKER_04 (50:19):
Yep.
It's that baseline love ofintegrity that I feel is missing
so many places, like justintegrity of of the human spirit
and um love of other people andcare for other people.
I mean, going full circle backto the beginning of this
conversation of people feelinglike they can say awful things
(50:40):
about a real human.
Why?
Why are you why are we doingthat?
Well, to what end?
Right?
Are we gonna just like fighteach other until this this you
this team got this many, thisteam got this many, to what end,
right?
We've we've killed, we've hurt,you've maimed over here, we've
(51:01):
killed, we've hurt, you'vemaimed over here, and now let's
sit down at the table and talk.
That's not how it works.
We'll never be even.
We'll only ever love and carefor each other, speak to each
other everybody that you canthat isn't actively hurting you,
let me be clear.
(51:22):
With with the knowledge thatthey're a human with a with a
life and an experience that youdon't know.
SPEAKER_01 (51:31):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (51:38):
I think we're all spent after that.
SPEAKER_05 (51:40):
I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00 (51:41):
No, don't apologize.
We it needed it needed to besaid.
Yeah, it really did.
SPEAKER_04 (51:50):
You can stand for values and you can still we can
still promote ourselves, we canstill take care of ourselves
here in Louisiana.
We're an amazing, amazing placewith amazing people.
And I really believe in us.
I really do.
SPEAKER_02 (52:05):
Yeah.
Yeah, me too.
So if people want to take yourclass, how do they find you?
SPEAKER_04 (52:12):
So you can find me on all social media at at Andy
Moho, A-N-N-I-E-M-O-H-O.
Um, and if you just look, I'llI'll repost again.
But if you look at some of mypast Instagram posts, it has um
an email address that's veryhard to say on air, but I'll say
it.
It's a mahoney atplainairactingstudio.com.
(52:32):
Plainest bell P-L-E-I-N.
There's a long story behind thatname.
But if you look in my Instagramposts, you can find that email
address so that you don't haveto try to remember.
But Annie Moho.
SPEAKER_00 (52:44):
Um we'll pin it.
Great.
We'll pin it in the comments.
SPEAKER_04 (52:48):
Great.
And I have a wonderful classright now.
Um, 10 folks right now um doingthe Suzuki method of actor
training with me.
And I'm hoping to continuebooking for the foreseeable
future and teach every Saturdaybecause it's um I love teaching
it and I do it with the classtoo because it's it just grounds
me.
I call it my actor reset button.
(53:09):
It brings me back to home.
SPEAKER_00 (53:12):
Is it a series like you have to a course, like you
have to start start to finish,or is it are they standalone
classes?
How how is it set up?
SPEAKER_04 (53:22):
So it it it you can you can drop in and and take, I
would always can I would alwayssay don't just take one, right?
Sure.
Um obviously the more you take,the the better I can get at at
helping hone the things that youneed.
Um, but if you come in and we orthree classes in, I know how to
(53:44):
I've been teaching it for 20years.
So I know how to pull you asideand help you get caught up.
Also, um, there's a gal in myclass named Nicole Miller, who
is a student of mine at Loyola,who's been with me for 10 years,
who is taking the classes withme, and she's there to kind of
help with catching people upwhere they need to.
But the training is thetraining, and um, I'll always be
(54:05):
able to get somebody in thereand get them at their speed to
line up with the rest of thegroup.
So um my hope is just tocontinue and make it a little
culty, a little like culty, alittle bit every Saturday.
Everybody comes and does Suzuki,including me.
SPEAKER_00 (54:23):
Sweet.
Sounds good.
Well, Ann, thank you so much forjoining us.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_05 (54:29):
I feel like it's been like blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00 (54:33):
No, we like blah blah.
That's that way.
I don't blah blah.
Yeah, the these these podcastsare about the guest.
And yeah, you had a lot ofreally important things to pass
on, and I'm I'm grateful.
I'm grateful that you came onand cleared some stuff up.
(54:54):
I'm sorry that you had to gothrough uh uh trolls.
I hate that we had to addressthat, but I'm glad we did.
SPEAKER_04 (55:04):
Me too.
SPEAKER_00 (55:05):
So thank you so much for coming on, Ann.
SPEAKER_04 (55:08):
Thank you for having me, TJ and Brian.
You're doing really, reallyimportant work.
This is this is this is theepitome of Louisiana investing
in itself right now.
Yeah, I know.
I got scut.
This is Louisiana investing initself, right?
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (55:29):
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you for that.
SPEAKER_04 (55:30):
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (55:32):
All right, folks.
SPEAKER_02 (55:33):
I keep telling TJ how important we are, but he
doesn't believe.
SPEAKER_00 (55:39):
All right, we'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_03 (55:40):
All right.
Bye bye.
Welcome to NOLA Film Scene with TJ Play-Doh.
(00:02):
I'm TJ.
And as always, I'm Play-Doh.
Okay, folks, we're live.
NOLA Film Scene with TJ andPlay-Doh.
He's TJ.
SPEAKER_00 (00:12):
He's Play-Doh.
And she's Anne.
SPEAKER_02 (00:15):
Hey Ann, how you doing?
SPEAKER_04 (00:16):
I'm good.
SPEAKER_00 (00:18):
Anne Mahoney.
Welcome back to the show.
SPEAKER_04 (00:21):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me back.
SPEAKER_02 (00:23):
Our teacher, our friend, soon-to-be co-star, if
we can have anything to sayabout it.
One day.
SPEAKER_01 (00:30):
One day.
I would love that.
SPEAKER_02 (00:33):
So we've been playing this since we saw Anne
at Nola Comic-Con.
Yeah.
And we love having her on.
We love talking to her.
And we had this whole range oftopics we were going to choose
from.
Until.
Until don't do a new internetrumor started between you and
Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
(00:54):
To put it dramatically.
SPEAKER_04 (00:56):
Yes.
Yes, a new new rumor.
SPEAKER_02 (01:01):
What is that rumor?
SPEAKER_04 (01:03):
So the rumor that was posted along with a little
clip from the scene where I slapJeffrey Dean Morgan.
The lines are, I'm trying toremember him.
It was like, um, he calls out,he says something about you
starving.
Um, and then he says, hepropositions me, basically.
(01:23):
He's like, I'm sorry for havingbeen.
So he says, sorry, he says, um,you starving, like, as if to say
you're you're fat, so you'reclearly not starving.
And then I cry.
And then he says, I'm sorry forhaving been so rude.
If you wouldn't mind, I'd liketo screw your brains out.
(01:45):
And that's when I slap him, andthat's the big, the big scene.
And the rumor was that one,Jeffrey D.
Morgan improvised that scene.
Two, that he felt so bad abouthis improvised line that he gave
me a bouquet of flowersafterwards.
And that three, that I wasactually crying because of the
(02:06):
improvised line and not reallycrying as an actress.
And um, I usually don't engageany kind of internet stuff,
especially like trolling.
But this was just a little bittoo enticing for me because one,
all of those things are untrue.
The script is the this thatscene is completely scripted.
(02:29):
Exactly what you hear is how itwas written.
The only difference is that wetaped a version where Jeffrey D
used the F word a lot and aversion where he didn't, because
you're only allowed so many Fwords per season in a show.
Um, that's the only difference.
All of it was scripted,including saying in the stage
(02:50):
notes, she cries, right?
So um, and Jeffrey D definitelydid not give me a bouquet of
flowers because there was noneed to.
We were just doing our jobs.
And so, and then what was sofunny about it and sad is that
that was one thing that therumors were untrue.
But the second part that waslike disconcerting, and I
(03:14):
definitely engaged with peopleon was then people felt the need
to comment underneath that postand say things like, he should
have given her a bouquet offlowers and a box of chocolates,
or she probably ate the flowerstoo, or should have given her a
McBurger, or just cut like abunch of other fat jokes
underneath it, which was like Iwould I usually don't engage
(03:35):
with that kind of stuff, but Iwas like, ah, I'm feeling I'm
feeling sparky tonight.
I'm gonna go ahead and writeback to these people in a very
diplomatic way, like, hi, it'sme.
I'm real, I'm a real person anda human with feelings.
Um, not only is this rumorincorrect, but also there are
people behind these roles thatthat are played on television,
(03:57):
and we do have feelings.
So yeah, there it is.
SPEAKER_00 (04:02):
Yeah, when I when I saw the comments when you sent
us the screenshots, I I was justutterly appalled, is the best
way to put it.
Did it did it first start out,did they use AI and recreate the
(04:23):
scene with fake dialogue, or wasit just still-shot memes?
SPEAKER_04 (04:27):
No, it was actually the still-shot memes.
That was the scene as it wasdone.
Yeah.
So that was correct.
It was how it was done and howit was scripted.
There was no improvisation.
In fact, I don't know.
I mean, I worked on threeseasons of the show.
I'm sure somewhere in therethere is some improvisation, but
that show in general is verymuch scripted.
We actually start every sceneshoot with what we call story
(04:50):
time, and everybody gathersaround with the script and we
talk it through.
And if anything's gonna change,it changes at that moment.
But there's there's not a lot ofimprovisation on Walking Dead
because we're shooting somepretty complex stuff, and we
shoot a lot of it's shot onfilm, some is digital, but some
is film.
So we're trying to get theseshots quickly.
(05:12):
So there's no like ample timefor people to just improvise and
make stuff up.
It's very much approved by thenetwork and approved by the
writers and the producers.
So that is completely false.
SPEAKER_00 (05:27):
I've kind of started slowing down on social media,
and I put myself on a little bitof a self-imposed time out for a
bit there because there's justso much toxicity.
I just don't want to see it.
Not so much directed at me, butjust in general.
(05:51):
Yeah.
And I it makes it even harderwhen it's one of my friends that
is being attacked for no reason.
It it doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_05 (06:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (06:03):
Except that people are just mean.
SPEAKER_04 (06:06):
Well, I think that you know, people forget the line
between reality and fiction alot, right?
It's like when people are likegiving death threats against
actors who killed their favoritecharacter on a show.
And like you do realize thatthis is fiction, right?
This is fiction.
Um, so it's the same thing withwith Olivia.
(06:27):
It's like she is who she is, andshe's the size that she is.
But the funny thing is, is I'mthe size of the majority of the
average American woman, right?
It's just we've gotten so usedto what we see on screen that
women are very, very, very, verythin in general, right?
That people who are the size ofan average American woman
(06:48):
suddenly become the butt of thejoke.
And it's one thing to have it inthe script, but it's another
thing entirely for people thenoutside to be like, I'm gonna
also go after this character,but it's like there's a person
behind that.
And would you say that to your,I know that somewhere in your
family there's someone who's asize 12.
unknown (07:08):
It's not that big.
SPEAKER_04 (07:09):
You know, not that it would matter, like I could be
a size 30, right?
Same problem, right?
So I I I dare you to look atyour aunt, your sister, your mom
in the face and say, should havegotten her a stairmaster
instead.
I dare you.
Anger.
SPEAKER_02 (07:31):
Yeah, but it it's not only the keyboard warrior
mentality of I can say anythingand because there's no nobody's
gonna get punched in the facebecause they're on the internet.
Yeah, but it's negativity driveslikes.
SPEAKER_03 (07:45):
Yes, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_04 (07:46):
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02 (07:47):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, there's also even forthis, I kind of alluded.
Go ahead.
SPEAKER_04 (07:52):
No, well, I mean, also just this this whole idea
of like one of the big rumorswas you know, Anne Mahoney, the
person, was crying because herfeelings were hurt.
Like, no, Ann Mahoney is anactress and a trained actress
for many years.
So if the script says cry, I'mgoing to cry.
And I will cry at the exactmoment you asked me to in the
(08:13):
script, because that's my job.
Right?
Am I drawing on personalexperiences?
Of course.
All we are is acting.
We're all drawing on personalexperiences because it's who we
are.
And I happened to start my lifeas a ballerina before I was an
actor.
So I definitely dealt with a lotof body shaming in my life.
But in that moment, I'm doing myjob.
If it says cry, I cry.
SPEAKER_00 (08:39):
What a lot of people tend to forget when they're
watching fiction, you know, youtalked about actors getting
death threats because theykilled somebody's favorite
character or whatever.
They're doing their job, and ifthey're getting it to that
level, they're doing it reallywell.
(09:00):
And I think people get sowrapped up in the story that
they forget that there's a humanon the other side of that
camera.
And from being in the industry,you talk to people, and a lot of
times they're completely,especially someone that's a
character actor, you're dealingwith somebody that's completely
different than what you see onscreen.
(09:21):
Some people are themselvesturned up, and other others are
completely different.
And I think folks lose sight ofthat, and then time and
distance, and like Brian said,keyboard warriors, they there's
no consequence when they justclack away on their keyboard and
not take people's feelings intoconsideration.
SPEAKER_04 (09:43):
That's exactly why I decided to engage.
I I generally don't, but Idecided to engage with these
people, and I I didn't call in,I wasn't mean, but I was like,
oh, that's an original one, orlike, oh wow, it's me, the
person you're talking about.
I'm right here and I'm a human,right?
Because I want you to rememberthat that's the truth.
I mean, to put it on the flipside, like when I was doing, I
(10:04):
don't know if you know themusical Sweet Charity, I played
Charity and Sweet Charity, andshe's this delightful character.
She's very funny and lively andkind.
And um, this is long.
I'm trying to make it short.
The bathrooms in the dressingroom were broken.
So I had to use the bathroomsthat the audience used, right?
And so I was in there using abathroom at intermission, and I
hear these two ladies talking,washing their hands, and they're
(10:28):
like, she's just great.
I love her.
And I bet in real life she'sactually a really nice person,
too, right?
And I'm like, you don't know.
I mean, I am, but like, youdon't know.
So it's so funny the way thatpeople attach qualities about
who a person is based on aperformance.
Like, that's our job, right?
That's that's just our job toembody the character.
(10:51):
So who we are, you don't know.
You think you know us becauseyou see us on camera, you see us
in in movies and on television,but you don't know.
SPEAKER_03 (11:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (11:02):
I thought some of your responses to them were
pretty clever.
They a couple of them made melaugh out loud.
And I want to address one not ofyours, but somebody replied to
your comment.
This one just totally set meback.
They said, in my defense, Ididn't know you would read this.
(11:28):
Something all right.
SPEAKER_04 (11:30):
In my defense, I would read this.
I'm sure you're a nice lady.
SPEAKER_02 (11:39):
Oh, you're you're gonna read my comment.
You're real.
My bad.
SPEAKER_05 (11:47):
It was just it was actually delightful.
I was like, yeah, I did readyour comment.
It's me right here, the realperson.
SPEAKER_01 (11:56):
Can I have your autograph?
SPEAKER_05 (11:58):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (11:58):
I'm sure you're a nice lady.
Can I get free tickets?
SPEAKER_04 (12:02):
Hilarious.
Thank you for talking about thisbecause it's just a really
hilarious moment.
SPEAKER_02 (12:08):
Yeah.
Oh, no problem.
It it's I think as a woman it'shighlighted more for you, and no
one's talking about my weight,but that is one of my not
self-doubts, my not even fears,but you know, one of my weak
points.
You know, I get defensive aboutit.
(12:29):
Not enough to do anything, butI'll get back to that soon.
But my voice attacks me morethan those keyboard warriors
ever attacked you.
You know what I mean?
And that's where I really haveto struggle with it.
But you're also talking aboutlike us people assign things to
(12:51):
us.
In real life, I'm a pretty niceguy, I'll admit that.
And I try to respect everybodyand I'll have fun and you know,
blah, blah, blah.
But I really enjoy playing someskeezy guys.
SPEAKER_03 (13:02):
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:02):
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03 (13:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:04):
And that's we have to access everybody could be
skeezy, everybody can be everyworst thing, it's all in us, and
you have to access that and letit go.
But things you wouldn't do inreal life, you know.
So we find the truths and sharethem with people, and like you
were saying, TJ, people getmesmerized.
I'm not saying by myperformances sometimes, but that
(13:28):
those emotions we share, thattruth touches people, and that's
what brings them in.
And so then when we hurt theircharacters, now they're pissed.
We've hurt their family.
You know, not that that appliesto the people who are attacking
you, but you know, we blur thelines of reality with reality.
SPEAKER_04 (13:46):
I always say when I teach that the truth, and this
is the absolute truth, and Ibelieve it in my heart.
You have everything that youneed to play any character you
will ever need to play in yourlife already inside of you.
It's just having the courage toaccess it.
And, you know, part of that istraining, right?
Like for me, like training andcontinuing to train was how I
(14:09):
keep myself ready to do whatevercomes across my way, right?
So if I can be prepared, theonly way I can really be
prepared is to train, to beavailable to the work and to be
courageous enough to go, I can Ican play this character who I
disagree with and then not judgethem, right?
Come from a place ofnon-judgment, which is really,
(14:29):
really critical, right?
Especially when you're playingsomeone who you like violently
disagree with, right?
If you if you come from a placeof playing that character, uh,
if you come from a place ofjudgment, you're sunk.
Because that person certainlyunderstands exactly why they are
the way they are, and they knowtheir history and why they've
become that way.
(14:49):
And their values are very clearto them, and you have to be on
their side, right?
SPEAKER_01 (14:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (14:55):
And I often find that, like, I was just talking
about this um on Saturday withmy Suzuki Method of Actor
Training class.
Um, I actually find that joy isharder for a lot of actors than
any DARF emotion to likerealistically play joy or
laughter is much, much harder.
Um, because in a way, we allkind of love the idea of digging
(15:19):
into these like characters whohave trauma or have um violence
or villains or have darkness.
And so we like to go to thoseplaces, but to access joy, true
joy and happiness and make ittruthful in the moment, I find a
lot of actors, myself included,really struggled with that.
SPEAKER_00 (15:40):
So I do, for sure.
I do.
That's the hard that's harderfor me than than getting angry
or getting sad.
SPEAKER_04 (15:48):
Yes.
Yes, and I think it's harderbecause in real life, a lot of
us have what we call, I thinkthis is a Brene Brown term, but
foreboding joy.
Like when good things are goingwell in our lives, we can't just
sit back and enjoy them.
We kind of have this like, okay,well, this is great, but when's
the other shoe gonna drop?
(16:08):
Right.
And so even in real life, wecan't invest fully in joy.
Um, and so then we have to playjoy.
It's it's it's hard to, it'sscarce, it's hard to attach to,
right?
So um foreboding joy.
So, like in all of your life asan actor, the best thing you can
do for yourself is to live yourlife fully and in the moment and
(16:31):
know that everything has acycle, you know, everything has
the praise and blame, you havejoy and sorrow, you have life
and death, and and and that toembrace those equally so they're
all available to you when youwhen the work comes to you to
draw from.
SPEAKER_02 (16:50):
Right.
Yeah.
When I took your virtual class,we would we would do a self-tape
and we would send it in andwould critique it and say, you
know, not not like meanly, butthis is good.
What about this point?
What were you thinking here?
Yada yada yada.
So one of the times I wasn'tgetting into it and I started
(17:10):
running in place to get my bodyinvolved.
And I remember your response tothat, and that kind of leads me
into the question, and I thinkit sure does.
Let's talk about your Suzukimethod of training.
Because I believe that kind offits in with that.
Is that correct?
SPEAKER_04 (17:22):
Absolutely, yeah.
So one of my favorite books inthe world is called The Body
Heaps the Score.
Um, so it's just something Italk about with class two.
So I'm I may get the numberscorrect here because I'm not
great with numbers, but I don'tknow if people know, but you
have the same thinking enzymesin your gut as you do in your
(17:42):
brain.
So, but your brain can onlyprocess 40 pieces of emotional
information at a time.
Your gut can process 11 millionat a time.
So the old adage of trust yourgut is very real.
And so to me, the Suzuki methodof after training specifically
addresses the gut, which isbeing in the body and the
(18:06):
breath, not in the cerebralplace.
Um, I think anytime you can getyourself into your body and your
breath and ground yourself therephysically, you're going to be
in a more real place as anactor.
How do we get there, right?
Because on camera, we can'tobviously be jumping all around.
We cannot push things out in theway we do on stage.
(18:29):
On stage, we project things foran audience that is far away to
be able to have them understandwhat we're feeling.
But the camera, the camera seeswhat you think, right?
It's close, the framing issmall, but the body is still
involved.
So if we can do the Suzukimethod of actor training was
created by Japanese theatermaster Shizu Suzuki in the
(18:51):
1960s, and my teacher at theUniversity of Connecticut
studied with him at that time.
What it does is it's a series ofexercises that are all focused
on centering yourself into yourgut by way of very difficult
physical and vocal training.
Um there's a lot more to it, butI have found, although
(19:16):
originally that training was uhpaired with Greek tragedy and
Shakespeare, I have found itindispensable as a film actress
because it also incorporates alot of stillness and centered in
the core.
And so I have been able toactually use that training as an
actress more than any othertraining I've had.
(19:37):
Um, because it instills corestrength, gut response,
instinct, and it also gives youcourage because you think like
if I could do this training,it's so difficult, I can do
anything.
I can access this, I can accessanything.
So anytime you can get yourselfphysically involved, and by that
(19:57):
I don't mean action, I mean youractual body and your gut being
attached to something instead ofyour cerebral brain, because the
brain can get very criticalabout a lot of things.
The brain sometimes heard mynose, sorry, the brain sometimes
stands outside of us and talksand says awful things, right?
I don't, I don't believe you.
Yeah, right.
(20:18):
What are you doing?
This is not what we practice,right?
The brain is great for research,it's great for memorizing lines,
it is terrible for being engagedone-on-one and shadow boxing
with that partner moment tomoment, because acting is what?
Living moment to moment inimaginary circumstances, living
(20:40):
truthfully with moment to momentwithin imaginary circumstances,
right?
And that is not of the brain,that's of the gut.
So, how do we memorize lines?
How do we know how the storyends, right?
But still live it moment tomoment and not project, still
allow it to unfold in real time.
(21:00):
That's when that's how you trainthe gut, because then the gut is
courageous and it does, it'savailable, it still knows all
the lines, it still is it's allavailable to you, but almost in
the subconscious, so you canactually live it moment to
moment, right?
Because if you walk on stage asJuliet in the beginning of Romeo
and Juliet, you're like, the waythis is gonna end is right, it's
(21:25):
gonna be a real bad day.
We're gonna all die, right?
Then you then you don't allowthe audience, the the beauty and
yourself as the actor thebeautiful experience of watching
how you get from point A topoint Z.
And there's so much beautifulstuff in there that cannot exist
if you're in a cerebral placeinstead of in the moment with
the people you're acting with,and and reacting literally off
(21:49):
of what is happening at thatmoment.
SPEAKER_02 (21:56):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (21:58):
You stunned me into silence, which is a real- I hope
not just like stunned you intosleepiness, but no, no, no, no,
no.
SPEAKER_00 (22:07):
Not even a little bit, no.
SPEAKER_02 (22:08):
It it was a beautiful thought, and I totally
agree with it, and I didn't wantto mess it up by talking.
So we will give some contactinformation.
So if people want to learn someacting from you at the end of
the show.
And one of the topics we haddiscussed at that con was the
current state of filming, notonly in the New Orleans area,
(22:29):
but kind of all over.
SPEAKER_04 (22:32):
Yes.
Discuss so um it's badeverywhere.
And you know, I love I love toread the articles about the
things that are coming and andand you know, uh what my
experience and the experience ofI have dear friends on major
shows out of LA and New York andAtlanta, it's not great anywhere
(22:54):
right now.
Um, and and you know, in a wayit's comforting because I'm
like, oh, I haven't had anaudition in a blank amount of
time.
And my friends who are like atthis moment more successful than
me in many ways, right, or likeme either.
So one of the things like I sawis that, you know, Louisiana is
the home of the indie film.
That was one of the articles Iread.
And I actually didn't know that.
(23:15):
So it shows you like my ownknowledge about the industry.
But I'm like, way back, I wantto say when I first started
doing film and televisionacting, because you know, I'm a
theater actor, classicallytrained.
I sing and dance too.
I never intended to do film andtelevision acting.
I straight up wanted to be onBroadway.
And then it happened to me.
And here I am.
(23:37):
So way back when I first starteddoing film and television acting
and understanding the film andtax credits, I said out loud so
many times, I said, we need tofigure out, we keep calling
ourselves Hollywood South, butwe need to figure out how to
invest in Hollywood South sothat we have our own TV
channels, TV stations, orstreaming services.
(23:58):
At that time, that wasn't athing back in like early 2000s,
but we need to have our ownmovies being made and
distributed.
Like I love that big stuff comesinto our state and takes
advantage of our attack credits.
I've worked on it.
I'm glad that I got thoseopportunities.
But on some level, if we don'tstart investing in our own
industry, we're gonna completelybe beholden to things coming
(24:22):
into the state.
So I was I've been saying thisfor years.
And I even said this as recentlyjust to to someone high up, like
in I want to say it was 2019,and things were good.
They were like, Yeah, we'regood, we're good.
There's all this stuff comingin.
Well, here we are.
Here we are.
Um, and I really wish that backand not like they should have
(24:45):
listened to me or anything likethat, but I wish we had gotten
more proactive about that as acommunity.
Because imagine if right now wehad our own version of like
SCTC, SCTB in Canada, right?
That that is like that's thehome of all kinds of people you
know, Catherine O'Hara fromShits Creek, um, Martin Short,
(25:07):
uh like Eugene Lee, John Candy.
All these people you know, theystarted in this dinky, dinky,
precious little studio inEdmonton, Canada.
And now you see them everywhere.
And if we had back in the early2000s bond, yeah, this is great,
this outside work is great, butwhat are we doing with the local
talent that we have?
(25:28):
And now we have an Indigenouswriter credit ever since the the
credits were revamped.
And what are we doing with it?
Right.
So something that I've beenpitching for years and would
like to pitch again is why don'twe have a board of people put
together that are some of themare local, um well-known people,
like maybe we ask a PatriciaClarkson, maybe we ask ask a
(25:52):
Brian Bat, maybe, and then themaybe the rest of the board is
made up of local folks who workin the industry.
And why don't we get, you know,Hancock Whitney and Gulf So Gulf
Coast Bank and Auctioner andwhoever to put money into a fund
that then local writers canpitch their projects to and get
at least starting funds for.
(26:13):
So that we start to put thatmoney really back into the state
where it where it really likeimagine trying to convince
legislature then when we'relike, look, we've got these 10
projects that are all written bylocal people that are that are
get going forward and they havefunding and they have
(26:33):
distribution.
So that's that's a big thing, isI think that we have not
invested in ourselves in the waythat we need to.
SPEAKER_02 (26:44):
That's awesome.
I like that idea.
SPEAKER_00 (26:46):
I need to interject for just a second.
Does my video look weird toy'all?
SPEAKER_02 (26:51):
You zoomed in for some reason when you came back.
SPEAKER_00 (26:54):
I don't know what is happening.
SPEAKER_02 (26:55):
Let me try to get that fixed, y'all.
Y'all keep going.
We'll just keep talking.
If we didn't have a techproblem, it wouldn't be our
show, folks.
SPEAKER_04 (27:05):
I could I didn't even I wasn't even sure how to
get on here, so I can appreciateall the technical issues with
everything.
SPEAKER_02 (27:11):
You shared the private link to promote the
episode.
SPEAKER_03 (27:14):
I was like, sorry, it's just like we almost had
anybody just walking in thestudio.
SPEAKER_02 (27:19):
So I I like that.
I think the United Artists ofthe last century will be what
you described, you know,independent filmmaking and
making their own streaming.
And I like the distributionlinks, like setting that up, not
just to like if we made astreaming service, but we create
the pathways because I've done acouple of indie movies.
(27:40):
I haven't been like thedirector, I have been like
producer because of Kickstarter,yada yada.
But I would not know how tocontact to get distribution to
the big boys, to the theaters.
SPEAKER_04 (27:50):
Precisely.
SPEAKER_02 (27:51):
So I like making the path so that we we if we were
the board and someone approachedus and we just went, boom, you
know.
That's uh TJ, I think you're onthere twice now.
SPEAKER_04 (28:03):
Got you on there twice, but hey, double the TJ,
double the fun.
SPEAKER_02 (28:08):
Uh well, now we got just oh wow, we've got technical
stuff.
I get distracted by all thebright and shiny things.
SPEAKER_04 (28:15):
Well, look, and I want to just say, like, I'm not
clueless about the fact thatthings have to make money.
So, so in my mind, if we hadthis pot of money, let's say$10
million, because let's justdream, you know, why don't we
make it a uh a selection ofthings?
Why don't we have a horrormovie, right?
So, so local writers, let'slet's have horror, a horror
movie because we know that thosegenerally make money.
(28:37):
Let's have like a holiday filmbecause those gener, so those
would be like if you want totalk stock stock market, those
would be your blue chips, right?
Like have five projects we'retrying to produce with$10
million, like two or three ofthem are blue chips, and then we
have like an indie film and atelevision series, right?
So that the risk is spreadaround as opposed to it just
being like all indie stuff thatlike we know it's tough for
(29:00):
indie stuff to take off and getdistribution, but let's let's
and then you know, maybe part ofthe cause is as the filmmaker,
if you get funding, you have toput two percent of what you make
back into this fund.
So it's so it feeds back intoitself.
And the people hearing thesepitches are people who are
experienced in the industry, butare local, right?
So I just think that there'sthere's a way to do it, and um I
(29:24):
I'd love to help do it, but Iyou know, I I I want to be
clear, I haven't been listeningto about this, and I've talked
to it, I've talked about it for20 20 years now.
SPEAKER_02 (29:38):
Yeah.
So what's the we listened.
Now let's see what we can doabout it.
Yeah, what's I mean, what's theanswer?
TJ?
TJ I'm here, I'm not sure whatthe problem is.
Are you muted?
Uh again, tech issues.
(30:03):
I didn't know if you want toflip off and come back on.
We're coming close to that time.
Keep going?
Okay.
I wasn't doing it because ofthat.
I was looking at the how longwe've been recording.
And it's just wearing me out.
Just all these big thoughts.
I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_04 (30:19):
I'm sorry.
I was like, it's um I have Idon't get to talk about this as
as much as I like to.
And I'm I'm passionate about it.
I'm passionate about I love my Ilove my state.
And I love our local talent.
And I think it's second to none.
I really, really do.
And I I want us to I want us tostart seeing opportunities that
are bigger for the local actors,for the crew, you know, for
(30:44):
people who want to produce.
Um, that's what I want to see.
So I'm I'm passionate about it.
And I if people hate me forsaying we need to do this, and
I've been saying it for 20years, then they're gonna hate
me.
SPEAKER_02 (30:56):
And yeah, I don't think they'll hate you, but the
uh the apathetic nature ofhumanity will we've got a lot of
light of fire under ourselvesand other people because I want
this to be my career.
Podcasting be alright, but I'mtalking about acting, you know.
Yeah, I'm tired of being ajanitor.
It's all right, but it's ashitty job.
SPEAKER_04 (31:17):
I understand.
Cool.
Oh, TJ, anger.
SPEAKER_00 (31:24):
The so unless Anne.
SPEAKER_01 (31:28):
I'm good.
We're back.
SPEAKER_00 (31:31):
Sorry, we slipped into the twilight.
Water glitch, time, uh, what'sit called?
Space-time continuum shiftdidn't.
SPEAKER_02 (31:38):
We actually had a freaky Friday and a time lapse,
so we all switched bodies, wentback to 1942, we're back and in
our own body, so let's continuethe show.
SPEAKER_04 (31:45):
You were saying something, TJ.
You had something to ask.
SPEAKER_00 (31:50):
I yeah, I was I I was asking, so how?
How do we how do we go fromthere?
SPEAKER_04 (31:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (32:00):
How do we kick that into gear?
SPEAKER_04 (32:04):
Um, I hate to say it this plainly, but I just need
someone to take me seriouslythat has some kind of influence,
right?
Someone to take me seriously andgo, oh, you want to do that?
Okay, let's do it.
And then someone who hasconnections to go, let's let's
create this board.
Let's approach, you know, theselocal banks, let's approach
(32:25):
these local businesses and belike, hey, there's a tax credit
for you too, right?
Like, let's put this pot ofmoney together and then let's
put the parameters together,right?
Just like any grant you wouldapply for as a theater artist,
for instance.
There's grants out there thatyou apply for to do projects.
So just create the, I'm like,just create the board.
(32:46):
But create the board, ask peoplethat you think are gonna really
have a good idea about what is aviable project, create the
board, get the money, set theparameters out there and have
people apply and have thempitch, right?
Set that up.
And then when the money's gone,the money's gone.
And then we move to the nextcycle, right?
(33:07):
But then I just think that itjust means someone has to
believe that this is importantenough to to help connect me and
other people and and get thatboard off the ground.
I can't do it myself, right?
I don't, funny enough, likeyou'd think I have the
connections, but I don't.
I don't have the connections tothe people who would who would a
(33:29):
Hancock Whitney, an auctioner, aGulf Coast Bank, uh, I keep
saying them because I can'tthink of other people.
Um, the Bensons, right?
Might go, oh, if the board ismade up of these people, I feel
very confident in investing mymoney in this and having them be
the go-between between me andthese projects so that I can
(33:50):
invest in something.
And most of them need a taxwrite-off anyway.
Right?
So it's just they just need totrust the people that are
vetting the projects.
It's much harder for, you know,I I do I have a lot of writing.
It's much harder for a writer togo to find these people and then
be like, hey, um, I want to makethis movie or this TV series.
(34:12):
Can I have some money?
It's much easier, I think, tohave a board of people who are
credible, who have connectionsto those people already to say,
hey, we're trying this thingwhere we're really gonna
grassroots launch Louisianafilm, actual Hollywood, frickin'
South film and television.
And these are the people who areon the board and the people who
(34:34):
are gonna take your money andlisten to these pitches and
invest it well.
That's what we need.
I I would be great at puttingtogether parameters and how to
apply in that, you know.
I think if you're applying, youneed to have not just a script,
you need to have a pitch deckand you need to have a budget,
right?
Because we don't want to investin things that they're like, I
(34:55):
think it's gonna cost.
It's like, no, what is it gonnacost?
Right?
Yeah.
So I think I would be great atthat part of it for sure.
But I need the people who haveconnections to people with money
to go, hey, we're gonna put thisboard together and we're really
gonna invest in Louisiana filmfor real.
For real.
SPEAKER_00 (35:14):
Yeah.
We need we need to bringtogether people that have the
skill set.
I I mean, I know people, we allknow people, we just need to
bring the right people together.
You know, if you're maybe not asgood at pitching maybe this
person is, and maybe this personhas the connections, and this
(35:37):
person has the scripts, and thisperson knows how to bring a
project together.
I I I think I'm seeing whatyou're putting down there.
SPEAKER_04 (35:48):
Well, like, what's the main problem that everybody
has with making a film?
What's the number one problem?
SPEAKER_02 (35:55):
Money.
SPEAKER_04 (35:56):
What's the number two problem?
Distribution.
Right?
So if we can like if you havemoney, and I won't say the film
that I worked on, but I workedon a film that was a first-time
director writer, okay?
Yeah, and got really famouspeople to do it.
(36:16):
Why?
They had their own money.
Right?
So, like, what do we all need toget distribution?
We need a couple ringers, weneed some famous people in some
roles, right?
How do we get famous people?
Money.
Right?
So if you have the money to dothe project, then you can reach
out to the agency and say, hey,I'm funded for this project.
(36:39):
Will you have Kristen Wig readit?
Will you have Sean Aston breedit?
Right?
But you can't even begin.
And then maybe the distributionpiece happens then, right?
Because you're like, we've gotKristen Wig and Sean Aston
starring.
And then the distribution peoplego, ooh, okay, right?
But you can't come in.
(37:00):
I know those names.
I know those names, right?
And then the rest of it ispopulated with local people.
We have that talent, right?
SPEAKER_00 (37:08):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (37:09):
So it's just a matter of someone taking me
seriously and going, yeah, wereally do, we really do want to
invest in Louisiana film andtelevision.
We want to invest in it.
We want to make it happen.
Um, yeah.
I I'm ready.
I'm ready for someone to take meseriously and be like, let's do
this.
And I've yet to find someone todo it.
SPEAKER_00 (37:31):
Do we do it as SAG or as indie?
SPEAKER_04 (37:36):
I mean, I think you would want to do it as SAG
because you know, the peoplethat would probably be on the
board would be in that industry.
SPEAKER_00 (37:42):
I mean, I want to like Because you would want you
would want the big SAG names.
SPEAKER_04 (37:46):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, like, look at what ReeseWitherspoon has been able to do
with like Geta Davis and her,right?
What I'm talking about is that,but on a local level, which is
like all those women know eachother and have worked together
and trust each other.
And so they bring projects toeach other and they are
producing this great stuff.
They also happen to have crocktons of money, right?
(38:07):
So why don't we locally findthose people who have
connections to people with moneyand bring crap tons of money in
and then distribute it toprojects that are ready, worthy,
pitch ready, so that then theycan go and get distribution.
They can get those star namesand we can bring more work here
(38:28):
ourselves instead of waiting forthings to land here.
I'm available for all thingsthat land here.
But I also want I want us tohave our own thing.
Because then when these, it'slike any business, right?
If you are relying on alloutsource stuff for your
business to run, when the worldtips, you tip.
(38:50):
If we are our own business thathas our own mechanisms in place
to continue the industry, we'renot gonna hit the, we're gonna
have like a slope instead ofdips.
Right?
If we're completely reliant onoutside projects coming here,
every time the industry has acrash, we're gonna crash.
And then eventually people aregonna leave the state.
(39:13):
And then eventually you're notgonna be able to promote the tax
credits because nothing'shappening.
SPEAKER_03 (39:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (39:20):
If it goes on for years and years, and I think for
the foreseeable next couple ofyears, we're gonna be in a tough
spot.
So now is the time.
Now's a great time.
I mean, five years ago wouldhave been a better time, but now
is a great time.
SPEAKER_00 (39:36):
So one of the one of the things I wanted to touch on,
what is your take on and youmight have covered it briefly
when I stepped away for asecond, but what why have we
gotten to this point?
What happened?
Uh people keep saying, well, itwas the strike.
I I don't think it was.
I I don't think it was just thestrike.
(39:59):
Something shifted and thingshave changed, and I've been
trying to wrap my head aroundit, and I can't figure out why.
SPEAKER_04 (40:07):
So um, again, I'm not gonna make any friends here.
I'm not gonna quote the exactperson, but a pretty well-known
casting director said back in2005, 2005, wow, that the whole
working as a local hire thingwas a slippery slope.
(40:29):
Right?
And I completely understand asan actor trying to get a leg up,
wanting to get a job.
I have done it.
No, that's not true.
I've only ever worked um SAGmodified local hire, which by
the way, it's not a realcontract, in case anyone didn't
know.
That's not a contract.
You are still working localhire, they're just paying you
per Diem hotel and travel.
(40:50):
Just so you know, it's not acontract.
That's something I didn't learnuntil I'd done it for several
years.
But I think that um increasinglywe have continued to travel to
wherever for whatever jobbecause we want to get the work,
right?
Simultaneously, producers havegravitated to that and are
(41:12):
trying to get the job donecheaply.
And they're not totally to blamebecause the industry wants the
jobs done more cheaply now, too.
The problem is the slipperyslope was it was cheaply done in
the United States, and now it'sbeing cheaply done overseas or
in other countries because it'salways going for the lowest bean
counter.
SPEAKER_00 (41:33):
And that's why a lot of stuff's gone to Canada.
SPEAKER_04 (41:36):
Yeah, like in the last year, I've been pinned for
a series in Hungary, Canada, andMexico, all of which I was
pinned for and they checked allmy availability and I didn't end
up booking.
Because I'm sure they foundsomeone in Canada or Mexico or
(41:56):
Hungary who could do a greatAmerican accent, and they did
that job.
And they should, because it'sgonna be cheaper than flying me
there and putting me up, right?
So um I think we've gotten herebecause of because of the
strikes, yes, but but alsobecause I think that the money
(42:18):
is not we're not putting moneyin our own communities.
It's exactly what I just said.
We're not investing in our ownfilm community.
If Atlanta did what I'm talkingabout, they would have their own
ecosystem.
If Louisiana did what I'mtalking about, you would have
our own ecosystem, right?
That would be able to weatherthe storm of the greater
(42:40):
Hollywood industry.
When I say to you, okay, I'mgonna, I'm I I'm trying to like
figure out how to say thiswithout revealing.
Uh, I was pinned for a series, Iwon't tell you which one, like
seriously pinned.
And um, the person that got castin the role of ultimately that I
was pinned for is very, veryfamous.
(43:00):
Did many, many seasons of a showon a network television station,
right?
And I thought to myself, poorthat actress.
She just came off of five yearsof being the star of a series
and she's playing this recurringcharacter on this television
series that she could do in hersleep, right?
And that's because there is solittle work.
(43:24):
And so now all of the people whoare more famous are coming into
the roles that more blue-collaractors like me traditionally
would do.
Because there's just not as muchwork for us here.
SPEAKER_00 (43:39):
So that makes sense.
SPEAKER_04 (43:40):
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know if that's agood idea.
SPEAKER_00 (43:42):
And that was the piece, that was the piece of the
puzzle that I missed was the thetraveling for the uh working for
local hire.
SPEAKER_04 (43:50):
Yeah.
I mean, it's it's wild becauseinstinctually, because I think I
was fortunate that I started infilm and television in 2005.
And so I hit some golden yearsthere where no one would ever
ask you to be a local hire ifyou weren't.
So when I booked some thingsthat I won't talk about, there
(44:11):
was a like, we won't even lookat your tape unless you work as
a local hire.
But because I had those goldenyears in the early part of my
career, I was like, I'm not alocal hire.
I don't live here.
And then suddenly I was cast andI got the better deal.
Right now it's like just assumethat you work local hire.
(44:32):
You must.
And um, and I think that thatweakens the union, right?
Because then when we'reeverybody can compete now,
right?
If I can, and and you know whocan really compete?
People with money.
If I'm a person who has is ofmeans, I can be local wherever I
want.
With me when they're like, youneed to be a local hire.
(44:54):
I'm like, this shoots in I'mmaking this up.
This shoots in New York.
I have two kids and I'm a singlemom.
I am not working local hire.
I'm not coming out of pocket,leaving my children at home to
come and work local hire.
I love what I do, but my kidsare more important.
I got to pay my mortgage, my mymortgage, my rent at the end of
the month.
(45:14):
And I can't do that if I workfull-full hire.
I'm gonna walk away from thiswith like$5,000 if I work a week
because you're also doing onlyscale, right?
And I'm gonna pay$600 to$800 inplane tickets in New York City.
This is not a real job, by theway.
And I'm gonna pay$1,500 for myhotel.
(45:34):
I can't do that.
I got I've got two kids.
One is about to go to college.
God bless me.
Right?
SPEAKER_03 (45:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (45:41):
So, and I'm not, I'm not at all like looking down on
actors who work global hire.
I get it.
I get needing to get the creditsand wanting to be available.
But the industry increasinglybends towards people who already
have the means to do it onwhatever terms.
So it's actuallysocioeconomically awful.
(46:05):
It's the opposite of what theAmerican dream is, right?
That if you have the talent, youcan do it.
Like, not anymore.
You better have talent and youbetter have money to get
yourself to and from set so thatthe money that you make doesn't
matter.
And that's boy, what are wemissing out on?
The actors that you think of inour lifetime who were not
(46:27):
wealthy, that we would havenever known if they were coming
through the industry at thismoment because they wouldn't
have been able to afford to beseen.
Anger, anger.
I don't like it.
Yeah, it's not cool.
SPEAKER_00 (46:45):
Well, but it's uh it's brilliant insights though,
and it's answers to questionsthat I've been having for months
uh of trying to figure out whatis happening all of a sudden.
But I I've got, I mean, justlike you, I've got friends that
are more successful than I atthis, and they're telling me the
(47:07):
same thing, it's slowing down,but then again, I also have
friends that are gettingauditions every week.
Uh a lot of it they're they'reself-submitting for, but still
they're they're at least gettingauditions.
And man, that's a lot of stuffthat's happening that's causing
this industry that we love totank.
SPEAKER_04 (47:29):
Yeah, and and and I'll just come full circle back
to the industry is tanking, andwe do have control if we invest
in ourselves.
We don't have control over whatHollywood's gonna do.
I have a feeling that's gonnatake some time for that cycle to
play itself out, right?
But what we do have control overin the in the current moment is
(47:51):
what we're doing about itlocally.
We do have control over that.
It's just a matter of peoplegoing.
I believe in us, I believe inour writers, I believe in our
stories, and I believe that if Iinvest money here with a good
board of people to oversee it,we can make some incredible
stuff happen while we're waitingfor Hollywood to figure out how
(48:13):
many AI actors they want tocast.
SPEAKER_01 (48:17):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (48:19):
That that's even a discussion is wild.
SPEAKER_02 (48:24):
I'm I'm biting my lip.
It's like they're not actors,but I know you're not gonna be
able to do it.
Oh, they're not actors.
SPEAKER_00 (48:28):
Like I saw Brian's face twitch.
SPEAKER_04 (48:30):
Yeah.
AI bots they're gonna use.
Let me correct myself becausethat's what it is.
Like while Hollywood decides howmany AI bots they're going to
use to replace real live,grieving people, why don't we
go, okay, y'all, y'all areclearly having a moment over
there.
We're gonna invest in Louisiana,my home, yeah, where I am a
(48:52):
native, surrounded by brilliantactors and actresses, brilliant
crew people, brilliant writers,brilliant directors, brilliant
producers, brilliant studioswith everything you need.
(49:13):
Unfriend, unfriend, unfriend,unfollow.
SPEAKER_02 (49:17):
That's all right.
I don't care.
Cut the week from the tenth.
Look, I'll be 50.
We don't need it.
SPEAKER_04 (49:21):
I'll be 50 in April.
And I don't know if you guyshave heard of the uh We Do Not
Care Club, the woman who's liketalks about being in
perimenopause and menopause andputting the world on notice that
we just do not care.
I'm just so there right now.
Just so like, I mean, it can'tget worse.
Like, it can't get worse than itis uh right now with like very
few auditions and everythinglocal higher and everything
(49:44):
scale, no matter if you're aguest star or recurring, or I'm
like, it can't get worse.
So I might as well just behonest.
And that's that's my policy.
I and I've always been very,very honest about this journey.
And don't I don't sugarcoat it.
I love it still too.
I love it deeply.
I love it from the bottom of myheart.
(50:04):
It's what I was born to do.
SPEAKER_00 (50:08):
I've heard there's there's no negotiating either.
Yeah.
If if you book something, ifit's scale, there's no
negotiating.
They will poop, they'll go rightto the next person.
They don't even they don't evencare anymore.
SPEAKER_04 (50:19):
Yep.
It's that baseline love ofintegrity that I feel is missing
so many places, like justintegrity of of the human spirit
and um love of other people andcare for other people.
I mean, going full circle backto the beginning of this
conversation of people feelinglike they can say awful things
(50:40):
about a real human.
Why?
Why are you why are we doingthat?
Well, to what end?
Right?
Are we gonna just like fighteach other until this this you
this team got this many, thisteam got this many, to what end,
right?
We've we've killed, we've hurt,you've maimed over here, we've
(51:01):
killed, we've hurt, you'vemaimed over here, and now let's
sit down at the table and talk.
That's not how it works.
We'll never be even.
We'll only ever love and carefor each other, speak to each
other everybody that you canthat isn't actively hurting you,
let me be clear.
(51:22):
With with the knowledge thatthey're a human with a with a
life and an experience that youdon't know.
SPEAKER_01 (51:31):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (51:38):
I think we're all spent after that.
SPEAKER_05 (51:40):
I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00 (51:41):
No, don't apologize.
We it needed it needed to besaid.
Yeah, it really did.
SPEAKER_04 (51:50):
You can stand for values and you can still we can
still promote ourselves, we canstill take care of ourselves
here in Louisiana.
We're an amazing, amazing placewith amazing people.
And I really believe in us.
I really do.
SPEAKER_02 (52:05):
Yeah.
Yeah, me too.
So if people want to take yourclass, how do they find you?
SPEAKER_04 (52:12):
So you can find me on all social media at at Andy
Moho, A-N-N-I-E-M-O-H-O.
Um, and if you just look, I'llI'll repost again.
But if you look at some of mypast Instagram posts, it has um
an email address that's veryhard to say on air, but I'll say
it.
It's a mahoney atplainairactingstudio.com.
(52:32):
Plainest bell P-L-E-I-N.
There's a long story behind thatname.
But if you look in my Instagramposts, you can find that email
address so that you don't haveto try to remember.
But Annie Moho.
SPEAKER_00 (52:44):
Um we'll pin it.
Great.
We'll pin it in the comments.
SPEAKER_04 (52:48):
Great.
And I have a wonderful classright now.
Um, 10 folks right now um doingthe Suzuki method of actor
training with me.
And I'm hoping to continuebooking for the foreseeable
future and teach every Saturdaybecause it's um I love teaching
it and I do it with the classtoo because it's it just grounds
me.
I call it my actor reset button.
(53:09):
It brings me back to home.
SPEAKER_00 (53:12):
Is it a series like you have to a course, like you
have to start start to finish,or is it are they standalone
classes?
How how is it set up?
SPEAKER_04 (53:22):
So it it it you can you can drop in and and take, I
would always can I would alwayssay don't just take one, right?
Sure.
Um obviously the more you take,the the better I can get at at
helping hone the things that youneed.
Um, but if you come in and we orthree classes in, I know how to
(53:44):
I've been teaching it for 20years.
So I know how to pull you asideand help you get caught up.
Also, um, there's a gal in myclass named Nicole Miller, who
is a student of mine at Loyola,who's been with me for 10 years,
who is taking the classes withme, and she's there to kind of
help with catching people upwhere they need to.
But the training is thetraining, and um, I'll always be
(54:05):
able to get somebody in thereand get them at their speed to
line up with the rest of thegroup.
So um my hope is just tocontinue and make it a little
culty, a little like culty, alittle bit every Saturday.
Everybody comes and does Suzuki,including me.
SPEAKER_00 (54:23):
Sweet.
Sounds good.
Well, Ann, thank you so much forjoining us.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_05 (54:29):
I feel like it's been like blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00 (54:33):
No, we like blah blah.
That's that way.
I don't blah blah.
Yeah, the these these podcastsare about the guest.
And yeah, you had a lot ofreally important things to pass
on, and I'm I'm grateful.
I'm grateful that you came onand cleared some stuff up.
(54:54):
I'm sorry that you had to gothrough uh uh trolls.
I hate that we had to addressthat, but I'm glad we did.
SPEAKER_04 (55:04):
Me too.
SPEAKER_00 (55:05):
So thank you so much for coming on, Ann.
SPEAKER_04 (55:08):
Thank you for having me, TJ and Brian.
You're doing really, reallyimportant work.
This is this is this is theepitome of Louisiana investing
in itself right now.
Yeah, I know.
I got scut.
This is Louisiana investing initself, right?
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (55:29):
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you for that.
SPEAKER_04 (55:30):
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (55:32):
All right, folks.
SPEAKER_02 (55:33):
I keep telling TJ how important we are, but he
doesn't believe.
SPEAKER_00 (55:39):
All right, we'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_03 (55:40):
All right.
Bye bye.
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