Amanda Schull

First of all, you don't know me.

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All right, everybody, welcome in. We have a very special fun one today, a bit of a two parter, which is very appropriate considering our guest, because she was so good that we had to bring her back twice in that beautiful soap opera style where we slapped a wig on her for an episode and hope the audience would buy it. And thankfully, not because of the wig, but because of her performance we did. Ladies and gents, please welcome Amanda Schule.

That's probably my favorite intro ever.

Oh clip it.

Hi, Hi, my friends. I'm so happy to see you from Afar. I wish it were less Afar.

You too, Where are you now? You're in a You're in a fabulous tucked away little library at your parents house, you said, or somewhere where.

And then my parents' house in Honolulu.

Oh wow, okay wow, is it six eleven am right now? Okay, So this is a perfect example snapshot of just how professional and amazing Amanda is. Because it's eight am where I am, and I didn't have the time. I put on a hat that was about professionals I could get for you all, Amanda looks like she just stepped out of hair and makeup. It's all done, she's all dulled up. It's six eleven, the roosters haven't even woken up yet, and Amanda is on her Mark wardrobe, regular job.

But you are very kind.

That's that's that is the exact reason I showed up, buddy.

Let me tell you something, just to prove it all. I always we don't get to see each other often. We got to see each other at convention recently Wilmington, and it was a blast because it was just a reminder of how much I enjoy your company. But I haven't. I left the show and I didn't ever revisit it.

You're very kind.

Wouldn't we all rather be crazy and mean than nice on camera?

I mean, this is our opportunity, right.

Right, Yes, all the moments in real life where we just want to be horrible and cheer not to because we're civilized, kind human beings, we can let it all out.

Yeah.

No, I mean the opportunities to just be like Cracker Jacks is you know, one of the funnest parts of our job, you know, so absolutely, I would you know, just jump in the chance to have that opportunity any day of the week.

Yeah, you It's we were saying this last week that I think actors, most actors enjoy playing the opposite of who they are in real life, Like nice people love playing villains because they get to access and act on a side of themselves that is very foreign you know, and what you just said in mind, it's like Katie's so funny because there is no high road, like you're

Yeah, she knew what she wanted. Listen, she's a professional act plate.

She knew what she wanted, and she was dedicated and she went after her goal.

I mean, I love this.

I love the psychology of it too. That makes sense. I wish I knew more about how Katie was that unhinged as you say, and managed to make it that far in her career without.

Having them the best one dudes.

I guess Clay was just the one that pushed her over the edge.

Right, and then to look at that face and that hat.

Oh guys, stop give me more. Feed my ego and this right here, we're just going to kind of do like a Q and A to talk about your experience in the show. But I do want to say, speaking of this the unhinged nature, it is funny that when Katie clearly is starting to go cuckoo for cocoa puffs and she's talking to her roommate played by Candae.

Pats more food analogies.

Okay, go on, yes, this is all I do. By the way, is I riff? And it's either eighties references or food references, so welcome to the party. It's funny that because when we see the roommate meet Clay, she's like, hey, bud heads off her lithium and it's about to get bad. I once I heard that piece of information, I wanted to go back in time to the scene where Katie's like doing her hair and she's like, he will be mine and it will be great. I'm like, hey, roommate, and.

The roommate was it, like this is weird.

Yeah, you didn't smell what she was cooking.

Are you on your lithium or are you off it?

One hundred percent when someone when your roommate is looking at the obituary of a guy she's met for six minutes going he will be mine, Yeah, there's like a million red flags that should get your attention.

And how did she just wait for you to come to her? Why was she not proactive? Like what is this roommate busy doing with her life that she doesn't have.

Joy boundaries, classic enabler behavior.

But this also might not be the first time she's had to be like, oh this again.

You know, well clearly not, because when Clay goes how bad does it get? She looks and dead serious and goes, it gets bad? You should be careful.

I'm so curious how you you know, before you started playing cuckoo Katie, you came in and did such a beautiful job as Sarah. You ripped our hearts out and made us laugh and made us cry and feel all the things that we needed to feel in order to be invested in Clay and Sarah's storyline, and in Clay's storyline. As he continued like the two right right, that che mystery was.

Yes, it's to facilitate the regular you know, he was this new character stepping onto the show, and the whole point is to give his backstory in just like a flash of the pan, you know, super fast. But we need to care about him, We need to care about his journey, and we need the audiences to understand who he is going forward based on who he was frier to meeting him. I wasn't told that I was dead. When I what when?

I yeah, shot Sarah no way real. Yeah, I wasn't told I was dead.

So Rob, you and I had a scene looking over like a balcony.

I was wearing like an orange kind of top.

My hair kept going to my face with windy and I kept like touching you with my hand and they were like no, no, no, no, no, can't touch And I was like, oh, interesting, and so I kept like, I kept my finger. They were like, you can have it just sort of close. And then I think it was maybe shooting a second episode. I can't remember exactly when I was told, oh, bt dubs, you're dead.

That is so surprising that they just didn't tell you ahead of time. I would have been so confused as an actor, like I can't touch my husband.

Well, I think it's more just that it they wanted it. It was a figment of his imagination and it was very real to him, so so we wanted it. We I wasn't part of the decision making. They wanted it to be as realistic as possible. And I don't know if somebody would go in and be like Clay with their live you know, I don't know what the what the other choices would have been, but I think it was just they wanted it to be as grounded as possible and that was the reasoning.

M hmmm. When you auditioned, do you remember, was there any material that would have foreshadowed the Katie arc? No?

No, no, no, Katie wasn't in the picture at all.

They after the three it was it was just a three episode contract and Sarah for Sarah, correct for Sarah, and after three episodes, I think they liked what they saw and.

They yeah, they did. Well I'm not just meaning like you know haha.

Like from my perspective, of course, they liked the idea of, you know, something going forward with it and how can we do that.

We'll put a wig on there we go.

They did like it.

They saw they you know, to are the credit of our producers. I think they could recognize when there was somebody who had real talent and came on the show and had something to offer and filled a void that it's like you filled a void we didn't know we were missing. And it's hard to define that, especially when you've got a show with such a huge cast. You think you know everybody's sort of playing a part. But when somebody comes in and you're like, oh, this is

I think we ran a little bit of a course of flashbacks and you know, fast times at Ridge one hind and what we needed to do with Sarah, and so we moved forward. Speaking of the cast of thousands, so many storylines.

Did this episode have? Fully moly, Yeah, there were a lot of stories.

When I was watching it back, I was like, good grief.

But everyone seemed.

To get their share, Like, how was it even impossible? With like forty three storylines? You felt like you got enough of a taste of every single one of them.

But yeah, when you think about an ensemble, if you have forty two minutes of content and you have let's say seven main characters, you were really only given six minutes. It's per character to tell a whole episode's worth of story. And when you look at it like that, that's nothing.

Well, was that math that you did just now?

I started last night, I finished a couple of minutes ago. Took me out.

Why was the hat right?

Yes, yeah, but yeah that's a challenge six minutes, you know, and it's and you don't get just one crack at it, your breaking it. So it's it's a difficult balancing act. But I agree with you. I thought the episode did it well. But before we get into the episode, let's let's walk it back, because your trajectory is crazy in that you did not come into acting as traditionally as

And thank you. I was a dancer. I mean I started ballet at the age of three, and I knew that I wasn't ready to stop dancing when I when I.

Graduated from high school.

But I also didn't know whether I wanted to dance professionally or whether anybody wanted me, and so I went to college, which is I guess different from from a lot of professional dancers because it's it's a finite career and a lot of people started a lot younger professionally.

Than I did. And so I went.

I went to went to school for a couple of years, and I went to the summer program at San Francisco Ballet and at the end of the summer program they offered me a scholarship to say for the year. So I went for the year as a student and took college classes at USF in the morning and performed with

And that's amazing, No, it is to have that foresight and that like instead of feeling nervous to just be like, oh yeah, I got this.

Yeah, no, But I mean as a dancer, it's like you're you're only as good as your performance, right. So, and I had done musical theater growing up, and so again I had no idea what this person was coming to, see, who they were coming to, see, what they were looking for.

But I jumped higher, I kicked higher. I performed for the mirror like I did.

Everything to razzle dazzle that I thought would get me attention, and somehow it worked. And she had she had gone across she was an ex professional dancer herself, and she had gone across the country looking for a dancer who could act. And I just happened to be in the right place, desperately in the right place of it right now.

Wow, But so hold on, she needed a dancer who can act well. So she saw you dance, but I'm assuming the next step was her asking can you act right?

Correct? So the next step was I am.

The company assistant came to me in the hall and she gave me the.

Script like a it was.

It was a Sony Pictures movie, so it was like a full, you know, beautifully put together, full script. And I had never seen one of those before, and in sides, and she said that that person wanted you wants you to read audition, and I was like, got it, it's happening. So I went home read the script and like in True Dancer, I memorized all of my lines and everything so I would not need the pages going in.

I was going to perform.

Wait the whole script or did she tell you like this scene?

I had three scenes I believe as Jodie Sawyer who which is the role I ended up getting? And so the next day I didn't know when they were going to ask me to go audition. The next day between rehearsals, excuse me, she pulled me in to and I was like beat red and sweaty and just you know, in my leotard and tights. And I went into this tiny little rehearsal room and did the sides and afterwards she said, great, okay,

Yeah, yeah, that's kind of sweet though.

So I went into the hall and I worked on it. And she told me later that the reason she had done that was because she called her boss when I was out in the hall and she said, I found her. I found Jody. Sorry, I'm just going to get a little more of her on tape for you. And so I came in and I read a little bit more and then then you know, not natural natural next steps where they sent me down to La to meet the director, Sir Nicholas Heitner and the producers, and then I did a screen test and that.

It's one of those classic Hollywood stories. It's it's just discovery and and you get swept up and somebody recognizes the star power and they go okay, let's go, and you're just swept along for the ride. It's magic.

And it's also just one of those classic like explanations of I mean, I always I was in the right place at the right time, and a little bit of you know of luck is operation meeting opportunity, Yes.

And.

I feel like I was perfectly prepared for that role, not necessarily for anything going forward. I had never done screen acting before, so I wasn't prepared for the roles that came afterward. I really needed to work on those and study and work with coaches and all of that. But for that role for a dance student in a highly competitive dance school, check, yes done, I was ready for that.

Had you ever taken acting classes? Did you have an interest in acting prior to this?

I had an interest.

I had never taken I mean maybe a couple of like musical theater like after school things when I was really little. And like I said, I had done some musical theater performances here community theater and here being Hawaii where I am right now, But I had never done like screen acting anything of any sort like that, which is it's very different obviously.

Wow, that is so wild man. Well, we so we asked fans for questions for you, and we were flooded with them. So do you mind if we fire a couple at you please? Okay, So I liked this one. May asks did you prefer playing Sweet Sarah or Psycho Katie?

Well, Sweet Sarah, you and I Rob had some really lovely moments. You know, I'm thinking in particular about the scenes. Well, most of the scenes, the death scene, that whole all of that whole storyline was really quite lovely, just establishing their romance. But again, I like being crazy.

Well, speaking of that, our next question is from Hennessy Nicole, another nickname we have coming in here. She's asking, what is your favorite psycho movie?

Care?

Did you take any inspiration from anyone?

Oh?

I didn't take any inspiration that I can think of from from a movie or anything.

Oh you know what this? I mean, this is sort of strange that I don't know why this came to Maybe because of the location. Did you I'm sure you both have seen Cape Fear.

I have not. I know I watched the first like twenty minutes of it and he started biting somebody's cheek and I was like, I gotta go. I can't.

Okay, yeah, no, figure out, I don't even remember that. You know what is like.

Kind of the best movie with a turn with a character turn, Primal Fear with any movie?

Yeah, Oh yeah, that's such a great movie.

I haven't seen.

I haven't seen Primal Fear.

And here's the problem is that because of the Internet. No, it's okay, because I have seen none of that movie. Except for the turns. Oh, of course, it was like best turns like on Instagram are real, like best turns of a character.

I'm like, oh, man, I tried to watch what was it called The Usual Sasa the other day. I try to show it to my boyfriend and he had never seen it, and like, I was like, oh, you got to see it cause you're so saying, well, it's so great. I got to say that the movie does not hold up very well, Like it's really slow, and it's by the end you're just kind of like, I don't even care. I was so surprised because I have this memory, and I guess maybe our attention span has just changed over

I don't know, man, interesting, Yeah, well, the Primal Fear from my memory again, I haven't seen it in decades.

He is so good, he is so so good.

He's terrifying.

Yeah, he's committed.

Uncomfortable, yeah, committed.

I mean that's the thing. I think that's what makes your performance so believable too, is there's the mustache twisting version of being a villain. And then there's the version where you've really genuinely believe what this character is believing, the psychosis, the break with reality that they're having. It's the only way to make it. There was a compassion like watching this episode, I felt and I know we're going to get into the episode later, but I felt

She's not doing these things to like upset any kind of a bounce.

She's doing these things because she needs to write. Yeah, bad people don't know they're bad people. You know.

They everyone does something for a reason, and usually it's you know, even if it's a selfish reason or no, you know, in their mind, a noble reason. It's it's not for evil, mustache twisting reasons, right.

You know.

And and I appreciate that because I your comments, thank you, because I mean, you have to care about her. You can't be like, oh this storyline again these six minutes it's oh, you know, let's actually empathize with this person because and Clay does, right, and that's sort of you know that's his humanity.

Too, And when you tap into that, it sort of when there is a human element to a villain, it muddies the water, and I think those are the more interesting villain same thing with heroes. It's like you want someone who you there's like a piece of you going like, oh, but I get that the same way with your heroes.

Yeah, you can't reduce someone down to a moment or an issue in their life. You can't dehumanize them if they're very, very real and human.

I mean, I think that's also kind of human nature's flaw at least mine, is reducing people down to an instant or a moment or an experience, right, And that's something that like, for instance, I'm guilty of when somebody cuts you off in traffic, all they are is that one thing that one maneuver, right, But the reason that they did that could be that they're they're rushing to pick their kid up from school or you know.

They they're distracted because they have a family member who's ill, or you know, whatever it is. Everyone is.

Is the sum of all of their experiences, not just that one that you meet them in. And I'm not sure how I got guarded on this tangent, but it's like, nobody is just one thing, and villain shouldn't be that one thing. She you know, Katie might have had a really rough upbringing. Yeah, something could have happened to her at the age of six or seven that just damaged her so deeply that she's looking for love in all of these misguided places.

Yeah, and that the ability that you have to see that, and the intelligence you apply to your character in spite of the circumstances that are on the page and everything that seems so wild and soapy and silly, it makes all of those things work because you are so smart and so real about who she is. So you know it's true though it would not have worked without it wouldn't have worked without your insight and ability to convey that.

Thank you, Thank you so much.

Cammi asks what were the challenges of playing a second character that wanted to be the first one? And I kind of have a follow up, which was when they called you and said we want you to come back and play basically the identical twin of his dead wife. What was your initial reaction to that?

Okay, yeah, yeah.

Did you have any trepidation about, oh, is this gonna work? What will people think? No, the fact that they're like, we're going to put a wig on you and everyone's gonna buy it. Like you didn't balk at that at all, walk at that, no, look at you go.

Okay, so it's a different person. Yeah, it's a completely different person.

So you just you you create a different person. And and they also waded her into the water. I mean, she doesn't start off as cuckoo, you know, she's she's We meet her in your episode that you directed joy, just like that little tiny flash, and then we we get deeper and deeper and deeper, just as she goes deeper and deeper, you know, into this obsession.

But no, I mean she's a totally different person.

But fair enough, she she's playing act Sarah.

She's not.

She's she's only able to be what she's read in that journal, right, or what she's she's learned about.

So she's playing Yeah.

Yeah, it's not like she knew Sarah, and then you had to try and pretend to you had to play a version of yourself, pretending to be a version of yourself. Right, No, that would have been really hard.

Right.

It's just just this is what I've read, and this is what he likes, and so I'm going to be exactly what he wants and what he needs.

You know, it's it's it's plain make believe she's acting.

Yeah, so she got it. She got a very thorough breakdown in backstory and was like, great, I'm going to.

Run with it. Yeah, I know the breakdown services was strong for her.

Yeah.

Okay.

So the next question is from Stu Frank and he's asking was the Storm episode difficult to film? So you know, this is ahead of where we're at right now, but since we have you, I am curious how that went because I remember stopping by the set when you guys were filming all the stuff with the house inside, and it was like, I don't know, I feel like the storm stuff was all shot on the stage, right, Am

I don't remember ever filming on the stage. That could be my own memory.

The storm stuff, that's where Quinn and Katie fight and go over the Yes, that's the episode you're speaking of. Yes, that was all filmed on location.

Inside the house too.

Inside the house.

Oh, inside the house, and there was a rain machine, just like one of those huge rain towers blasting ice.

Cold rain, always ice cold.

How could they not have figured out a way to just run the water through a little heater. I mean, we all can get electric heaters in our homes. Like why why is it always freezing?

I mean those towers are pretty big. That might have cost a little bit.

Of a pretty penny to ye back then go see that water up for us. But we filmed that was like that particular, the stuff that between Quinn and Katie.

We filmed that for the most part, all in one day, with the fight stuff and then going over and there were two beautiful stunt performers who obviously did the dramatic stuff.

But what I.

Remember about that that episode is because we were filming all day and well into the night.

I mean it was.

Probably like four. We were facing sunrise. We were right up against sunrise when we were doing a lot.

Of that stuff.

At the end, I fell asleep in like a little nook when they were doing Chantal's coverage. And I fell asleep in like a little nook and they had like dead asleep and someone came and woke me up to make me go outside and stand in the rain and like just be menacing staring into the window.

Was like so was still asleep, and.

They just kind of like propped me up outside and I was in the ice cold water, and it was such a shock to me. I remember just crying because I had like.

Like so so, but you couldn't tell.

You couldn't tell that I was crying because I was like like wet rat drenched and like the tears are and I was like, just don't quiver your mouth, Just don't quiver your mouth, just like stare straight ahead.

But I was like it.

Would have worked even if you did.

Though, Yes, that's an interesting take, Commander, Let's try being less cry baby.

That we had the same pumped in rain thing in a scene A couple episodes or several episodes prior with Clang Quinn and we had it was it was the scene where Clay tells Quinn about Sarah, and when Chantona I read the script, we we lobbied hard for the whole conversation to happen in the rain because we thought that we're so powerful, and luckily the director just kept saying, no, trust it, you don't want that. And then I did

It's always brute. Do they have a hot tub for you?

No?

They maybe they figured that. No, they figured that out later. Because James and I used to have to do scenes in the rain all the time. That just became like as a.

Guest star sing your status.

I didn't mean to.

They're like, oh, are you going to be difficult? We'll kill you off again.

No, that's not Okay, they should have had a hot tub or warming tent or something.

Oh my gosh, I'm sure they slapped the blanket on me.

It would be incredible should the show go on to do more more seasons, that you come back as a third character, because has that ever been done in television history? Someone plays on a non soap opera.

Oh I was going to say, I'm sure. On the soap opera, I'm so sure.

But on non soap opera programming, I think.

You Marea's twin sister. Yeah, that she never knew about separated at birth. We can tell your hair red.

Yeah, Oh you're Katie's twin sister. Oh, just be great, all the colors of the race.

Yes, speaking of Rob, what you just said about more episodes? Did you guys know that there is this there's AI technology I've heard that's being developed or maybe it exists already.

This is going to make me mad.

I know you can input, like you could upload every episode of One Tree Hill. It scans for storyline, it scans our faces, it scans it basically, it creates. It could create new episodes in perpetuity, just any any character you want to see, any storyline, any anything, it would just create an entirely new episode based on our performances and what exists already.

That makes me upset.

Yeah, me too, I have heard what you're referring to. There was a kind of a tech panel with some people from the industry, and one of them was saying, how AI is kind of a will be sort of at best, like a complimentary good. It won't be replacing actors or writers because at what it does kind of at its best, it's like it's mimicry, it's copying. It's sort of a summation of everything, an aggregator of everything, like visual effects may take a hit because that work

Okay, Like you write your own episode basically and ask them yes, weird, all right?

Lily g asks what's your favorite memory from being on the show?

Oh, I had fun with you, Rob.

It's interesting because for all those storylines that we discussed before. I only interacted with with.

You and Chantal. You were the only people I worked with.

Yeah, like I passed you in the hair and makeup trailer in the hallways.

You directed the very first thing, that's right, Yes, a Katie, that's it.

But other than that, like we never we never crosspaths.

No, I didn't cross paths with anyone.

On on set, you know, obviously off camera. It's a beautiful location to be able to film out there, and I had a lot of fun. Just I remember one day you and I Rob were working out at the beach house and I looked out and I don't know if it was like the Fast Times bikini stuff, because that part wouldn't have been my absolute face, but they were just butterflies everywhere, just butterflies, just these like rainbows

You know, my magic in Wilmington.

Yes, yes, it was beautiful.

That's so great. Well, friends, that's the end of the Q and A episode, But I want you to come back because We have Amanda for episode seven twenty one, What's in the Ground Belongs to You, and she's gonna walk us through more of playing Katie and we'll talk more about all the multi storylines that we had going on. Hey, thanks for listening.

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