Up next in 10
Jennifer Beals Talks Flashdance, The L Word, and Acting Origins | Fan Expo Dallas 2025 Q&A Panel
152 views
Jun 16, 2025
Jennifer Beals joined fans live at Fan Expo Dallas 2025 for an engaging and insightful Q&A panel! From discussing her early acting inspirations to reflecting on her iconic roles in Flashdance and The L Word, Jennifer opened up about the art of performance and connecting with characters that resonate. 🎤 Panel Highlights: Why Flashdance still holds cultural impact decades later Her journey into acting and how she finds authenticity in roles Stories from filming The L Word and its significance How fans inspire her work and choices Her thoughts on representation in media today 📍 Recorded live at Fan Expo Dallas 2025
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Applause] i mean you are absolutely deserving of
0:05
all the love and we are so appreciative of you joining us this morning how are you doing today i'm doing so great cuz
0:12
I'm here and look at all these sweet people i love it i love it
0:19
so we were discussing before all of this um how much of a fan of yours we actually are and we go deep okay like we
0:26
we cover a lot of things um and I just kind of want to start off with in terms of acting and finding a voice in that
0:33
field what made you kind of decide to look in that direction what for for
0:38
acting no reason to ask me that
0:47
in an odd way like the process of acting
0:52
is where I most feel like myself wow isn't that odd not odd but there's a
0:58
beauty to that you are discerning other characterizations characteristics and therefore better define yourself yes and
1:05
I have to before I play a character I have to figure out in what ways I'm
1:11
aligned with a character and what ways I'm not aligned with a character I have to discern a very strong point of view
1:18
um and in order to do that I need to know myself really well wow and so
1:24
through acting I've gotten to know myself really well and of course there's
1:30
always more to learn because you're always changing um and then there are certain characters that require you to
1:39
grow in ways that you thought you weren't ready to grow um and and maybe
1:45
you weren't in your day-to-day life but when you're acting you can expand into
1:51
that character and into their power and into their knowledge um and conversely like into maybe their
1:58
bad behavior it's all there so what you don't want to take with you you know is fun to let
2:05
that out every now and again that is amazing do we have any aspiring actors in the room at all okay
2:13
it's a define yes hear that truth i mean sometimes you will find you in the things that you bring to life um and
2:20
then it's really important to define what's not you so that it doesn't get in your way because I've seen sometimes
2:26
actors will go "Well I wouldn't do that." You know it's like "Well no you wouldn't do that but the character could
2:31
do that." And maybe that character is doing something that's really awful but you find a way to dive into that with as
2:39
much integrity as you can that's great make some noise for that
2:47
please i think one of the great things about that that sentiment is that there are so many things that we see you in
2:53
and we love the the portrayal the projection of what you brought to life but don't necessarily understand the
2:58
totality of the work that went behind it um now I would say the first era of Us
3:04
Loving You the 80s was such a powerful and prolific time here make some noise for the 80s
3:14
i mean we got to talk about flash dance it's got to happen but when when you have a movie like that in an era where
3:21
there's this new voice right it's kind of like the evolution of a of a feminism that says like I can be proud of who I
3:27
am as a woman i can be strong obviously in this movie you you balance so much of
3:33
what it means to be a woman was that something that you were aware of when you got the role
3:39
no not at all but I was aware of the strength i was aware of the sovereignty and um I remember uh Adrien
3:49
Line the director asked me to name my character and I love the name Alex
3:54
because it was it was one of my favorite names um but it was also feminine and
4:01
masculine so there was a sense of sort of stereotypical power in being
4:08
both in being able to have both things that have like a very feminine side but also a you know
4:17
stereotypical quote unquote stronger side in the 80s anyway of being able to stand up for yourself which frankly I
4:24
think is also very feminine yes um you know Kie is feminine so you know you
4:29
don't want to mess with Kie that's for sure if anybody's familiar with the Indian goddess that's right if you're
4:35
not go look her up oh you will learn you don't want to mess with ever that's right you know what I'm
4:41
talking about oh yes yeah yeah yeah i love that so when it comes to a role like this and you you have this
4:47
opportunity of portrayal were there any things that where you kind of challenged yourself when can I do this obviously as
4:53
a you know super every day was like can I do this because I was like 18 or 19
4:59
years old so it's every day can I do this like I don't know we'll find out and and there's the whole marathon of
5:06
being number one on the call sheet in a film like there's you know you're working 16our days you're maybe sleeping
5:14
and you're doing that for months at a time plus all the dance rehearsal and stuff like that and also dealing with
5:19
the shenanigans that were the 80s around you going "Huh why are they
5:25
behaving that way h they weren't like that before like even hours ago what was happening there at lunch i don't know."
5:33
Um so there's nothing to do with that such a very polite way of saying really
5:43
yeah yeah so um but it was a really great entree into the world and Adrian
5:49
was an amazing director is an amazing director and I I really cherish working
5:55
with him he's always again
6:00
now in terms of eraser I mean the '8s is a classic like change in cinema we we
6:06
went to movies more often we had home videos but what were some of your favorite movies of the8s not necessarily
6:12
that you read but just your favorite movie movies of the time period gosh um
6:17
I remember ET really important to me okay um because I was living in Paris i
6:25
was really young and it was right before I got the film and I was I didn't know
6:31
how homesick I was until I saw the movie i could cry just even thinking about it
6:36
right now you know sorry I'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry that
6:41
really got me and then I became friends with Melissa Mat who wrote the uh screenplay and she was just a stellar
6:50
human and teacher and she used to let me um she had this beautiful pool and she
6:55
would let me and I was training for the marath the triathlon and she would let me come over and train in her pool and
7:02
and afterwards we talk about writing and then I found out she was teaching a class at and writing I want to say at
7:09
the new school oh wow and I was like you're teaching i was like "What does that syllabus look like?" And then we
7:14
started talking about writing and then I started getting the courage to write a little bit and um it was just a really
7:21
beautiful relationship and so um ET is really meaningful to me do we have any
7:27
other ET fans in the room that's an early early ' 80s classic what
7:34
about moving deeper into the decade were there any u you know classic John Hughes movies because obviously flash dance
7:40
holds a space that is a part of that conversation where there is a female
7:46
protagonist and it's about discerning how life works sometimes how love works and overcoming any sort of particular
7:53
obstacles that have been put in her way um are there any other movies like that that you are gosh I you know I honestly
8:00
I was reading more i was like a really big reader put us on what were you reading like I was I love The Outsiders
8:06
like let's go and right around then I discovered Gilgamesh which is this epic if
8:13
anybody's ever read it here I'd be shocked um but it's really beautiful yes isn't it incredible it's a beautiful
8:19
treatise on friendship and death and how to get through grief it's gorgeous book
8:25
um but name some movies from from that period and I'll tell you okay i mean obviously we move a little bit for
8:30
forward uh Fish Wish Day Off is a classic um Pretty and Pink is a big one
8:35
yeah i I actually was um Don Steel talked to me about doing Pretty and Pink and I thought it was a really beautiful
8:42
script and I had just said as beautiful as this script is it's not mine
8:48
and um and I also knew that I had kind of sidestepped
8:54
uh playing a high schooler okay and and I didn't want to go back to that and I
8:59
think Molly Rald is so phenomenal like that's her movie that's I knew it wasn't mine so I think that goes back to what
9:06
you were saying about discerning who you are who you're not and kind of going "No I I'm beyond this point." Yeah it's not
9:13
even beyond it's It's not beyond it's like It's like a taste in my mouth and know something's mine like Book of Eli I
9:20
knew was mine devil in a blue dress and knew that was mine like it was mine and I had to work so hard to get that part
9:27
like I had to really turn the tables over but when I read it like I can it's
9:33
a taste in my mouth it's so weird i don't know there must be some scientific name for that maybe sesthesia i don't
9:40
know a little bit little bit maybe uh but I could feel it was mine and so I would I fought for it and Book of Eli
9:45
was very similar and um yeah yeah and the L word was one of those too come on
9:51
now come on it was like so many things i don't know
9:56
what to talk about first let's let's go devil in a blue dress um for this role as you said you you worked really hard
10:03
because you knew that it was yours what was something that was challenging once you got the role that might have ever
10:09
made you go "Okay do I really want this is this No no no no i wanted every minute of it." Like every
10:16
Are there children here they got every minute of it like every minute of it
10:22
even if I knew it was going to be hard like it was going to be hard in the most delicious way like like the way like
10:30
when you do hill repeats when you're running like that first hill is so ugly and then the second hill is kind of ugly
10:36
the third hill you're like "Yeah this hill loves me and this hill is trying to make me stronger." It was like that
10:42
that's awesome and you know it's Denzel and you know That's too bad and Carl Franklin you
10:48
know you know you you find reasons to get over right there i get it i get it i get it i love it i love it but I was
10:53
terrified i'm terrified every single day but why why did you It meant so much to me and Jenza was like if you're not if
10:59
you're not scared if you're not you know you're not in it like when I remember when I did the uh the audition I was so
11:06
like I was literally shaking until the action and then I sort of dropped in but
11:11
and and after we were done he was like "I'll see you in this frame." Wow i was like I don't believe you but I'll
11:17
believe it when my contract is signed but but I was He's like I just said I'm so nervous and he said well if you're
11:23
not don't have that feeling then you're not in it you know it's that feeling like when you're at the starting line of
11:29
a race and there's like a balance between that not anxiety but like not
11:35
quite fear but the not knowingness and then the dropped in of like yes I want
11:41
this yes I can do this yes I trained for this it's so fun and it's what makes me like
11:47
it's so hard now because I want to find something that's really great i want to find a project that's really great and I
11:53
read things that are it's like it's okay but I want something that I
11:58
can leap towards where I have to dive towards it you know that's what I want i
12:03
want to be afraid so I have the best way yes but I mean I have that I'm in therapy right now
12:09
obviously because in in that way of wanting to be afraid and challenged in such a way is it that
12:15
you have now hit a point where you're not going to be served a role like that but you'd have to create one no I think
12:23
they're I think they're there i just I don't know i think you also your
12:28
sensibility changes and so what frightens you and is maybe shifts and
12:34
what I read now maybe would have terrified me when I was 20 or something
12:39
okay now I go no I need something need something new like I need something different
12:45
to you know kind to be patient i have to be patient
12:52
that's one of the hardest things I think for any uh creative to get into is to understand how to wait for um those
12:59
opportunities to reveal themselves do you have a practice of meditation or anything that kind of helps you have an
13:05
understanding of patience of self so that you can use that i love your question so much can I just say that
13:12
like let's just you know travel together uh I meditate every day for sure um and
13:21
I been producing so I've started producing projects because it's like if I'm not and I don't need to be in it
13:27
like I just want to go see the story and Eileen Chen um who's the showrunner on the Lord she and I along with Pam
13:35
Drunker Man I started a company called Runuk that's a multidia production company and
13:43
which is artistled boundary breaking this is the whole point of the company multi- channelannel uh so I put a lot of
13:51
my energy into that and and writing every now and again while I'm while I'm being patient for the universe to serve
13:58
up where I'm supposed to be i love that again for any and I don't want to just put it in for actors any creative if you
14:04
heard what she said this the sermon here I don't know if y'all know this be patient but still be moving she says she
14:10
still writes while waiting so whatever that thing is that you want to do in life find some aspects to step forward
14:16
in it while you wait for the bigger opportunity keep moving on yes i think creativity begins creativity too yes
14:23
like I draw as well they're really not good but I still draw and I like I
14:29
joined a um a drawing class at a senior center which was really fun and the
14:35
teacher was so great and and I thought it was supposed to be a beginning drawing class and so I go in into the
14:42
senior center there's um Sid who's 90 there's like another person who's like 86 82 there's me and I think "Oh I'll
14:49
get this like if we're all beginners." And then I look around at their work and it's so extraordinary and they're all
14:55
like retired graphic designers and like I turn to the teacher I was such a baby i was I thought this
15:02
was supposed to be a video class she's like "It's okay." And like they were like "Oh we'll mentor you." And I was like "And that's what happened." And
15:07
they were all really sweet and and I was doing my watercolor goldfish you
15:13
know but it was really great like and and um and the teacher led me to so many
15:20
different techniques like I had written this short story and I want to make it I
15:26
want to animate it but I want to animate it in black and white and so she introduced me to all these different artists who do that very thing in
15:32
charcoal and so I have these fantasies of doing that and I'm trying but I I
15:37
don't know if that's you're getting it you're getting every step but this is the point like creativity begets
15:42
creativity absolutely i'm so proud of you for this journey like this is awesome i love that thank you doctor
15:51
so you mentioned the L word and
15:57
in an era the '9s we're in this era now of of change and and acceptance kind of
16:03
being a a growing norm um you're taking on this role truly iconic to the LGBTQ
16:09
plus community and kind of making a statement of feasibility of voices
16:16
when you get this role now obviously you know you've had you have time for acting things like that but now you have an
16:21
understanding of wait now I'm actually saying something very specifically with the roles that I take was that part of
16:28
your decision or was it just a great character in a great series that you were just happy to be a part of i think
16:35
it's all of those things together right like there was a very clear
16:41
um knowledge that I was saying something with Devil in a Blue Dress and and also
16:47
with Book of Eli for sure and lots of different parts but with the L
16:57
word I don't know it was really uh very clear like the message is very clear
17:04
that love is love and and sometimes um
17:09
you know the the best character can be misbehaved too sure
17:15
um and wanted to embrace that sort of messiness of B that she's not perfect at
17:22
all um but really trying trying her best to love as deeply as she can and
17:28
sometimes that gets her in trouble um for sure but uh but Isaac has always
17:35
been such an amazing creative partner and talking about how to go forward with that character like even from the very
17:41
first meeting um I mean I was given a script and and asked who did I respond
17:47
to more Bet and Tina or B or Tina and so I said that and when I met with Eileen I
17:53
said would you consider making the character biracial because as much as visibility really matters like I haven't
18:00
really seen myself represented in that way and um she was uh very open to that
18:08
and excited about you know exploring those themes of otherness within the
18:14
construct of of the story lines and I think that's absolutely great because
18:19
you're absolutely right in terms of true representation and bringing authenticity to the role bringing in the full
18:25
totality of who you are helps you know kind of propel that forward how exactly do you think that inclusion did change
18:32
the character from what you initially saw well I think that it it starts to talk about
18:38
intersectionality in in a way that we didn't we talk about it now but I don't know maybe I just was unaware that we
18:44
didn't I wasn't aware maybe but we didn't talk about it then
18:49
that I'm aware of anyway so so that was really interesting and um you
18:55
know as much as the lesbian community is not a monolith like biraciality is not a
19:01
monolith like people identify differently and and and Ben not aren't
19:06
necessarily on the exact same page but it was great to have those conversations with the writers and with the other
19:13
actors and it was it was really interesting i think it was really ahead of it time absolutely in that way as
19:20
well so because I'm doing my job um and there was an article that dropped yesterday
19:26
today today um that perhaps there is a return to the L word are you aware of
19:33
anything of the sort oh my gosh what okay well said well said and there's
19:38
your answer there you go okay i did what I did i told you um I mean
19:47
exactly exactly i just
19:53
I just think those people who want the Elward back should be messaging Showtime like 247 let's go tell them 247 tell
20:03
them tell them now okay um and every day every day three times a
20:10
day okay this is kind of important um but I think that's that's such a wonderful thing because again it also
20:16
speaks to the truth that the the conversation is not over and that the
20:21
reality of everyone from different walks of life is not just so concretely finite
20:26
in a season in a series we can keep going and see how that changes that's the most exciting thing so exciting and
20:34
it's so exciting to see how different generations well especially newer
20:40
generations younger generations are change language change pronouns change
20:46
like demanded to be addressed in the way they see themselves the way they
20:51
experience themselves rather than being dictated to like and and I just I love
20:58
the sovereignty in that you know who am I to tell you what your experience should be please tell me what is your
21:05
experience and how you want me to address you because I you know it doesn't affect me at all like it's I
21:11
just want everybody to have their own space where they feel fully themselves
21:16
because if everybody is feeling fully and authentically themselves it gives the next person permission to feel fully
21:24
and authentically themselves and then we just the possibility for evolution is
21:30
that much greater as a community that large does that make sense please make
21:35
noise the place that you're describing I want
21:41
to go to there and live there all the time it's called Canada [Applause]
21:51
realer words have never been spoken and on that note uh to kind of pivot
21:58
into the book of Eli because I guess we are kind of in a dangerous position of leading into a world that kind of is
22:04
like that um to get this role um you're you're pairing back up with Denzel
22:09
Washington by chance did he give you that same line I'll see you in the spring or was it a different sort of outcome for this audition yeah it was
22:16
different it was it wasn't as quite as many hoops okay um but I was just so thrilled like I was
22:24
every day was so I was so thrilled like I was made because you know in the story it's this post-apocalyptic story and and
22:31
my character is blind and uh but I we live in the desert um water
22:40
is at a premium um and I would and I decided I was playing this queen who had
22:46
lost her crown kind of and I was making my own jewelry like I made my own
22:52
jewelry i had such a great relationship with the costume designer um Gary Oldman is just the most delicious delightful
22:59
being you can possibly imagine you know in between scenes of him like
23:05
trying to beat me up we're singing songs from Shady Ging Bang Bang you know like
23:11
it's so it's really funny and and just a great group and Mila is wonderful and I
23:16
got to work with her again and Luckiest Girl Alive absolutely um and it was just heaven and you know I'm in New Mexico
23:22
like I love New Mexico it's I think one of my favorite states if not my favorite state so it was just an allaround good
23:29
time has anyone not seen the Book of Eli feel free to raise your hand like don't worry like nobody's going to judge you
23:35
okay okay yeah but watch it it's really like they're they're so good denzel's
23:40
amazing gary's amazing the Hugh brothers are so such great directors i have a
23:46
question i don't want to spoil the game in asking this question though clearly
23:52
Duba's Eli the protagonist of this story but I think at the end truly you Claudia
23:59
has the secret you win that that's my like when that happens I
24:05
was like that's what you get that's what you get right that's right that's right oh my god I love that what a great like
24:12
comeuppance of a power shift where in so much of what Gary's phenomenal portrayal
24:19
of just dastardly he is reduced and again a credit to him
24:25
as an actor to truly capture what that looks like to be on high and then be laid low but for you also to reflect a
24:33
person who seeming has been beat down done dirty but then you and my
24:39
daughter's done dirty like child mess so I was like "Oh no."
24:46
But the glow you you bring and just the subtlety of realizing what it is that he now needs in life yes it's absolutely
24:53
amazing oh so fun yeah watch it cuz the last movie was so fun it's so good it's
24:58
so good okay okay um I love this cuz I get to relive stuff too yeah it's fun
25:04
awesome um Book of Boba Fett you're about the books i love that you're about
25:11
Were you a Star Wars fan previously oh I love Star Wars like it's really I know
25:17
people some people in the audience have heard me say this but it's like where I like as a kid like I used to I wanted
25:23
to know who God was like I was obsessed with knowing who God was and I would read the Bible like when I as soon as I
25:29
could read basically I was like consumed by the Bible and my mom who had been raised Catholic um I asked her like if
25:35
first I asked her if I could go to Hebrew school because all my friends were Jewish and she's like no you're not Jewish you can't go to Hebrew school and
25:42
uh I was like "Well can I go to Sunday school?" And she goes "No I don't want you anywhere near the nuns." But I thought there was like a secret language
25:48
like I wanted to know this secret and because I could sense certain things you
25:54
know like especially because I spent a lot of time by myself when I was a kid and I' I'd be out in the you know the
26:00
field which was basically the nun's lawn across the street and uh but you can
26:06
sense something if you spend a lot of time in nature you can you sense something you don't you can't name it as
26:12
a kid and I don't even know if you can name it as an adult but when I heard about the force when I when they were
26:17
talking about the force I was like "That's it." Like that's this thing of course that's it and I got really
26:24
excited that's amazing yeah it was really fun okay so the opportunity comes to you you get to be a part of Star Wars
26:35
i remember that moment like I was just like "Oh my god I'm so excited i'll do whatever it is i'll do whatever it is i
26:42
don't care like I just want to be in that universe and then it's this great part for these amazing showrunners and
26:49
but I feel like it's a karmic honor to be in Star Wars like that's how I feel you've earned it absolutely you've
26:55
earned it but my my biggest question to you is in terms of of film making of sorts um there's a lot of changes that
27:02
have happened in the industry from when you started to getting on to book what was the most amazing piece of
27:07
technological advance that you got to experience well all the screens like you where you get to see the actual thing
27:14
like I thought oh we're going to be working with green screens and I will have to be imagining things that aren't
27:19
there that was untrue like everything was there that's right it was so cool that you worked in the volume is that
27:25
what Yes yes yeah so when you when you are acting and you get to actually experience things does that allow for
27:32
you in terms of craft to kind of turn off the we'll call it the imagination part where you just have to dream
27:37
something up you get to live in it a little deeper because it's right there well I think you could still live in it
27:44
deeply but it just it just takes one step away um and it allows you to react
27:51
to not something that's in your imagination but that you know is in the film making what the audience will
27:56
actually see and and so it makes it that much more specific but still you know
28:03
your main scene partner is that other human being that's not computerenerated
28:08
and it's still a human experience which is I love that
28:13
there are a few characters that you brought to life that are a little bit of rule breakers um I think I'd like to
28:19
break some rules right now if that's all right with you we are supposed to do presubmitted questions and not go to
28:26
live audience questions is it okay like three or four live audience questions
28:32
right yeah sure if somebody doesn't mind me saying I'm not going to answer them
28:37
okay you heard the word right you heard the word so we've got a microphone over here come up to the
28:45
microphone just be prepared be doesn't want to answer you get no answer
28:51
for have one on this side too we also have one on this side oh Barbara there's one over there excellent thank you
28:58
all right we'll start with you hello hi hi i was just wondering I know you probably hoped that the Lord would be a
29:06
meaningful big success but did you feel it did you know it or did you kind of be
29:11
more excited as it you know went along and were like I can't believe it's actually happened well I knew for me the
29:17
definition of success is if it was helpful to people you know and I knew it when I started getting fan letters that
29:26
where people were mirroring back to me what I had hoped for for the show and in my mind I
29:33
wanted to do it for the that queer young girl who was in the middle of nowhere
29:39
who had perhaps no access to her community and and could find some kind
29:45
of reflection back to herself even in a fictional piece of work and and when I
29:51
started getting letters to that effect I went "Okay all right so we've done something meaningful and we've done
29:57
something that can perhaps move the needle in culture and if nothing else be
30:03
helpful to people in their individual um exploration of identity and
30:10
understanding who they are great question
30:17
mine's not that deep i just want to know where is your dad from in Texas oh he's
30:23
from Orange Texas east Texas on the border of Louisiana
30:28
and have you gotten your Texas barbecue i have not and my friend's really mad at me i told her last night like I had I I
30:36
sent her a picture of like I had a watermelon you know I didn't have a knife which was interesting but I had
30:42
this gigantic half a watermelon and I was trying to Yes that's exactly what I did i broke it like it was a rock or
30:49
something and she says "I am so disappointed in you you need to go get some You need You should be in a food
30:55
coma right now like from Detect Barbecue here we go there we go hello hi
31:02
um I wanted to know if do you remember when you auditioned for Flashs do you remember the year or the Oh gosh I don't
31:10
remember the year but I remember the there were several auditions and the first one was in New York
31:17
City i want to say it was the summer of 82.2 that's I think so and I hadn't uh
31:25
eaten like I I flew in from Paris i was living in Paris and I flew in and they
31:31
my luggage was lost and I had just basically the clothes that I had on and I I was supposed to be seen the next I
31:39
stayed in the 92nd Street Y i think it was the 92nd Street Y there was a Y uptown i stayed in the Y i was supposed
31:45
to audition the next day and that's I had just enough money for that and and they were like "Oh can you come back in
31:51
a couple of days?" What am I going to do say no like I was 19 or 18 whatever it
31:56
was and so I remember I slept in the park and uh cuz I didn't have money for
32:03
rent i like literally had a pint of blueberries or something like why I chose blueberries i don't know i don't
32:10
know they were pretty um but yeah I have a funny story i was um a model at that
32:16
time in Tokyo okay in January of 84 and I was at my agency and I was looking
32:22
through a book of Polaroids and I looked at this is from Paris and I go that's
32:28
Jennifer Wheels the name of the agent um with I believe what's name is to she
32:34
goes yes her name is Jennifer I remember her but she hadn't accepted hadn't taken
32:39
you and I thought this was a blessing in disguise because you would not have been able to audition for the agency I think
32:46
it was called no Japan no I didn't I didn't I didn't
32:51
model in Japan at all I wish I had that been amazing they were looking for That's right yeah no but I mean it was I
32:58
was Zoe that's who it was cuz Zoie was the only one in the 80s who would take all the people who looked color you know
33:05
everybody else was um wanting you know like blonde blue-eyed and I did stay at
33:12
Eene Ford's house for a summer and she was really nice um but anyway but I just
33:18
want to say it was more to I hope you I hope you took the Polaroid i didn't she she felt really dumb that she hadn't
33:25
accepted you not accept you i mean no she shouldn't feel dumb everybody has
33:30
their whatever their thing is and I'm grateful she didn't cuz I wouldn't be here without you all exactly so thank
33:36
you for that that's awesome so hi there how you doing hi stranger
33:43
yeah I know i was This goes back a little ways so we're going to go backwards and then a
33:49
little bit of the upward um I watched again the other day for I don't know how many times Let It Be Me okay a little
33:57
film that I just happen to adore and one of the things that I adore the most is
34:02
the ending of the film where you dance with Camel Scott oh yeah yeah yeah yeah and you've made so many films with Camel
34:08
Scott that you clearly have some kind of chemistry like Roger Dodger as well but
34:14
you dance so well in that scene true well it's it's incredible and then that
34:20
makes me think of the Elward dance scene so you know I know we don't have to talk
34:26
about the whole flash dance thing but how long did it take to rehearse for something like that so let it be me let
34:33
it be okay well all right first of all I love Candle Scott i think he's so
34:38
beautiful and we've done a bunch of movies together and we communicate really well and there's just this
34:45
beautiful energy that flows between us but we have very different ways of
34:50
approaching the dance scene and I wanted to rehearse all the time and he's like
34:57
"Well I want to go be with my family in Connecticut." I was like "Okay well I'll rehearse over the weekend." And so I
35:04
would rehearse rehearse rehearse rehearse and I maybe rehearsed with him once and I was really nervous that day
35:10
because we hadn't rehearsed and I asked the AD during lunch "Where's Campbell
35:16
maybe we can do a little rehearsal um he's in his trailer
35:22
meditating okay I believe in meditation so what am I going to say like and he comes out and he's so perfect and so
35:31
soulful and such a good leader i mean I just fell in love with him all over again like I just am madly in love with
35:39
Camel Scott like oh 100% i would love to that's awesome yeah thank you hello
35:50
um I was wondering what film TV show movie was your favorite to be in oh
35:57
that's a really hard one because I love the totality of the
36:02
Lord um but there's a character named Margot Taft
36:09
um from The Last Tycoon that I really love she's really great and I loved being on
36:16
the Boba Fett set like there was just an expansiveness that was that I'd never
36:22
experienced before it's funny i don't even I don't think I have a favorite favorite like
36:30
it's there's this word the accretion the accretion of time like when time builds and builds and builds and builds on
36:37
itself like each each part is informed by the part before and and my love of
36:44
the present part is is informed by my love of this past part because this past
36:49
part has allowed me to do this current part so I don't know that I have a
36:55
favorite favorite but but I do love I have a very soft spot for Marot
37:01
thank you thank you thank you for the question hello hello okay I'm gonna try really
37:06
hard not to just refer to you as vets because knowing you as um but just
37:13
wanted to thank you for your representation and various aspects of the films that you've been a part of um
37:18
from Flash Dancing and all the way of course to me watching The L Word um you provided a space that allowed me to feel
37:25
inspired and hopeful for what the future could look like for me as a young scholar like I've gone through and got
37:31
my PhD and everything and
37:36
events in our listening okay i mean in some aspects but I'm curious to know
37:42
what in your experiences being in the role of being in a position of academia what was that like for you and aspects
37:49
of being in the art gallery working at the university like what I don't know just can you repeat that again i want to
37:55
make sure I understand the question yes so your experience as a role as vet in that position being in an aspect of like
38:00
academia in a university kind of art gallery setting right um just curious to know like what was that experience like
38:07
for you or was it a lot of research you had to do about being in in that part of that role or Yes definitely like I had
38:13
to understand that aspect of the art world i mean I had studied art history at school so I knew a was certain
38:21
lexicon around um talking about art but that specific kind of role I I had to
38:28
talk to other people like I talked to uh Annie Filman at the Hammer um and she
38:33
was really generous with her time so that was very very helpful and
38:39
um and and and having the AC academic aspect of looking art made me approach
38:48
the transgressive part of art in a different way it's not just spacious you
38:53
know there's something else that's at play which I think got back very excited to show that work well said
39:01
thank you we are like down to our last three minutes so we got to go like super fast can we like Thank you he's talking
39:07
to me like that's not you no no not you not you i would never hi I'm I'm Charlie
39:13
i'm profoundly down to like the interpreter but um how did you learn um
39:19
American Sign Language it was actually amazing to see you sign with Riley i
39:24
actually felt like I belonged like in society when you as a character and
39:32
charact but how did you learn sign language and to know it um thank you
39:40
unfortunately um I well but I had started learning a little bit beforehand
39:46
because Marley and I are friends so um we used to communicate with that tea
39:51
what is it called it's a tea oh I'm looking to you to help me translate it um but uh when we when we cast Marley
40:02
who I was like please cast Marley um I was hoping that she could be my
40:08
teacher but she's super impatient so Jack became her interpreter
40:14
became more of my teacher um and I just really loved acting with sign language
40:22
because it's so physical and and I just loved it it was it's incredibly freeing
40:27
and unfortunately I've forgotten a lot um but I would love to I'd love to get
40:34
another Yeah exactly i'd love to get another part with sign language it would be really fun and American Sign Language
40:41
because you know there's different dialects indeed yes indeed like you go to somebody in the UK and you start signing American Sign Languages and they
40:46
don't necessarily know what you're talking about absolutely thank you thank you thank you
40:54
this might be our last one but we'll see how fast we can get through hello hey how's it going wow thank you before you
41:01
prepare for a part is there some type of meditation process or like a like a
41:06
healing vortex or like a place that you like to visit to make sure that you're like ready for the role oh that's really
41:13
interesting some of that's a secret but um I do meditate and I'll ask a
41:21
question and see sometimes what comes up in the meditation but
41:26
uh I want to I approach it different i think different roles are diff I
41:31
approach differently sometimes but it's really about getting the text down
41:37
and and learning what I can from the text and then learning what I can from
41:43
my own imagination and whatever the universe wants to send my way um but sometimes dream
41:51
work i'll use some dream work some meditation writing um I'll write a lot
41:57
about the character through their voice um that's brilliant yeah drawings
42:03
sometimes I'll do drawings but like we were talking about before creativity
42:09
begets creativity and so they all like lead to one another absolutely yeah it's fun thank you for the question thank you
42:14
very much we have two left would you like to try to get through yeah sure hi
42:20
Jennifer my name is David i've been a fan since VL Word and I love you i adore you what are some of your favorite and
42:27
least favorite story lines in the show either revolving around your character
42:32
or some stories maybe that you wanted to have explored that that the show should
42:38
have explored or Oh I would never should i'm a writer um because I respect them
42:45
so much but I What do I What were my favorite story lines well you know their
42:51
second season where where Bet can't catch a break well and I and I realized
42:57
it was so painful at the time but I realized it was really smart writing because you know you got to beat up your
43:03
protagonist to make it interesting so I was really in retrospect really grateful for that for that time and I'm really
43:12
glad though having said that in Generation Q that Ben and Tina find a way back to
43:21
Because I think the community gets enough you know oh you know being gay is
43:27
hard and you will be punished kind of story like it's like there's okay joy is a radical thing joy is revolutionary joy
43:36
it's sovereignty is implicit in joy so I love that we were able to do that um
43:45
yeah i don't know what else is that satisfying yes it does thank you
43:52
our very last one oh Snuffy's dressed like somebody I know
43:58
hi hi how are you good good to see you this is a silly question so I'll be quick i know this is the year of the
44:04
witch with Wicked Agatha all along there's practical bandit uh coming up um
44:10
you said that you wanted to play a witch tell me everything um what
44:15
What sort of witch would you like to play
44:24
i I can see like a forest witch yeah for a warrior forest witch that's
44:30
like a little revenge would be good okay i see revenge i see writing wrongs
44:39
i see using the earth energy to write some wrongs
44:45
it has been truly honored to share this time with you gosh it's been such a pleasure thank you thanks Malice join me
44:52
one more time thank you all so much
#Acting & Theater
#Celebrities & Entertainment News
#Movies