Behind The Scenes With Catherine Bell

Voyage CEO Nat Mundel talks with Catherine Bell about her role as the femme-fatale of Red Meat Village, her preference for darker characters, her preparation for audio-only acting, and what she's got coming out next in her career.

The novel this series is based on has been published and is available on Amazon, here: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Meat-Village-Crime-Thriller/dp/B0DYP2DRJ5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XXR35BASP3U7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Uj7dmdgVs7md8Qt3597vMQ.1KGFa38PJMCP5InjoiKJ0D9YJ086g80ajz6Sfh_fGyU&dib_tag=se&keywords=tris+power+red+meat+village&qid=1742329315&s=books&sprefix=tris+power+red+meat+village+%2Cstripbooks%2C83&sr=1-1

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Okay, hi everyone, It's NatMundell, the founder of Voyage. I
am super excited and honored and thrilledto be connecting with Catherine Bell, acclaimed
actor. She's recently performed in ourvery normni series Red Meat Village. You
probably know Catherine from her roles inJag and more recently The Good Witch,

(00:25):
which is having a really great runamong a bunch of other things. And
Catherine, I'm just so excited tomeet you and con back with you,
and thank you so much for joiningus my pleasure. Thank you so much
for having me. I really hada blast doing this with you guys.
It's been it's been really fun.Is it your first podcast? Have you
done an audio drama before? I'venever done one before, and I was

(00:49):
so excited when this came up.I've always wanted to and it was just
so much fun to just sit andlike just let your voice do all the
work, you know, I meanit's very similar, you still do the
same work as an actor, butum, it was just it was just
different and fun. Me in adark room with a cool microphone, noir
vibe. Yeah, that's awesome.And so the prep work was similar and

(01:14):
the experience was similar or what?Did you find some pretty significant differences in
doing just an audio only performance?You know? Interesting? The prep work
was the same, you know,you still want to work on the character
the same and kind of break downthe scenes and what's going on and what
you know, what am I tryingto do or say? There's like always
the underlying meaning beyond just the words, of course, so that part was

(01:36):
the same. But then I found, um, you know, because I
wasn't reading it with the other youknow, the other actors, so you
kind of just skip their parts andthen you say your own. So I
had to actually read it to myself, read their lines and then do the
read liric. And that's kind ofactually how I That's how I rehearse,
That's how I work on a project. Got it, And kind of yeah,

(01:57):
I've learned a new technique that's kindof really fun. You just you
say their lines and what does thatmean? Oh why did you say that?
Oh wow? And then you sayyour line and you know there's all
these different exercises you can do.So it's kind of like doing that right
on, right on now? Now, why Red Meat Village. Are you
a Noir fan or just you ohmy god, so much. I'm such
a noir fan. I think oneof my first really fun like you know,

(02:21):
sink my teeth into kind of rolesin my acting class that started everything
ages ago that then led to JAGwas there were some noir scenes that I
did, just some cool like fatweljust you know that whole And I love
the genre, the era to wherewhere it all start at the forties and
um, so yeah, it wasabsolutely right at my alley. I love

(02:42):
yeah, and it's it's fun totake that era but bring it into a
contemporary setting right exactly and tell usabout your character, like, um,
you know, she takes quite aturn in the show. Were you surprised
by that turn? Definitely? Iloved reading the first time I read through
the script, I was like,it's going to happen because you could tell
she has secrets and you could tellthat she was not being totally straightforward and

(03:06):
who is she? Is she good? Is she bad? Where? You
know, what is her motivation?And in trying to find her sister and
you know, the whole thing wasjust so intriguing and a total page turner
for sure. Right on. Yeah, and do you when you prep for
that knowing that there's a big turn, do you have to sort of throttle
performance, you know, when you'rein the earlier phases to knowing that that

(03:30):
turn is coming, is there?What do you do for that? Yeah?
I think, I mean that's that'sthe stuff that's the most fun to
play because there's there's such a greatarc in the story, and any great
story always has that. So wheredoes this person start and where do they
go? What's the climax and wheredo they end up? And um,
you know again, as an actor, you kind of map all that out

(03:51):
before you start recording or filming orwhatever. So that was that was really
fun because she starts a certain way, like, you know, for me,
help me, and then you're like, wait a minute, what's what's
going on under that? And thenhow much do you play? How much
you hide? How much do youshowed? And again harder with voice only,
right, I can't do a littlelook that shows that you're you've got
a secret. You have to dealwith your voice. So that was a

(04:13):
bit more challenge in a good way. Wow, very cool. Now inquiring
minds want to know you have hadsuch a range of characters and genres that
you played in over the years.Personally, do you have a preference for
the lighter or the darker? Oh, the darker, no question. I

(04:33):
mean good which is a blast toplay. And she's this, you know,
amazing character that has just you know, made a lot of people very
happy, including myself, my family, whatever. But like, to me,
it's just so much more fun asan actor to just sink your teeth
in and be be bad or maybebe bad or I love the action stuff
too. That's like I'm such atomboy that I love playing that stuff.

(04:58):
Yeah, I you right there withyou in terms of preferences of what I
what I watch. Well, what'snext for you? What do you want
your fans and our listeners to know, What's what's what's coming down the pike.
Oh my goodness. I have afew things that are that are brewing
for this year. At the endof last year, I did a lifetime
movie that the name is going tochange. It hasn't been totally announced yet,

(05:20):
but I'm super excited about because it'sbased on a true story and I
get to play a character very differentthan anything I've ever played before. So
that's going to be exciting. Andyeah, we'll see what else is on
the horizon. We're wonderful. Well, we can't wait. And and thanks
so much for sharing your perspective andsome of your inner working with our listeners.

(05:41):
I think they find it fascinating andfrom you guys out there. Red
Meat Village is available. Will beavailable on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere
you listen to podcasts. And Catherine, thank you so much again for joining
us my pleasure, thanks for havingme absolutely. This is Nat Mundell signing off everyone