You and I have worked together Boom nailed It, What You're Gonna Laugh?
And Celebrity Jeopardy.
Rumble I was in Rumble Stop It?
Who did you play in Rumble?
Clonk? I was a wrestler. Wow, Yep, yep, we worked together.
This is why I don't like when, you know, with the voice acting, they put you in a room by yourself.
You don't put you in a room by yourself.
I think, especially when it's the middle of a global pandemic and they put you in a room by yourself. You literally don't know, don't know anyone. I really don't have anything else to say about that except that we did work together. So I'm just I'm just closing the loop on that. I'm just closing I'm just closing the loop on that.
It's so good to know.
Hi.
Hey, I'm Susan Kiletchi Watson and I am happy.
Welcome dear listeners. You know last week I asked you to come back, and so I'm very glad that you did. Thank you. This is Off the Beat and I am your host, Brian Baumgartner. Today this is us, and by us, of course, I mean me and Susan Colecchi Watson. That's right, I have the Beth Pearson from one of the most watch shows in recent memory on television or streaming. This is Us. But she is so much more than just an excellent actor on a highly acclaimed and beloved show.
She is also an Oxford trained thespian, a producer who can call names like Angela Davis and Oprah, and an absolutely radiant person that I was so happy to get to know today. So let's talk about her childhood in Brooklyn, her impeccable resume, and her new life in the White House. That's right on the upcoming Shonda Rhime's murder mystery series The Residents. Listen up, everybody. I think you're gonna have a lot to learn from my well, my new best friend, the brilliant Susan Colecchi Watson.
Burblon Squeak, I love it, Burblon Squeak, Burble and Squeaker Cook get every more lift over.
From the night before. Hi, Susan, Hi, how's it going?
Pretty good? How's it going?
Uh know what, I have no complaints and if I did not, many people would care anyway, So I'm just good. Keep it to myself. Where where am I talking to you from today?
I am coming to live from the borough of Brooklyn.
Coming to you live. Well, that was a question for me if you ever made the move over to Los Angeles. So are you so you're still in uh mainly in New York.
I'm mainly well, you know, I cannot say mainly. I could say that I have a home base in New York, Okay, but I would say I am not here all the time. I just need I need to have someplace I call home.
So this this is it, you know, you know, you know what we call that, Susan, we call that.
I know, I keep your b words to yourself. I'm trying to like not do you know what I'm saying, Like, I don't know, I don't know, but I think recently, like I just got back from LA two days ago, Brian no litter, and like I think for the first time, like I shot a whole series for like six years, and this is the first time I said to myself, I might be by coastal.
Is uh we're going to talk about uh, your your news series. I'm very excited about that. But are you uh so you're done with that now?
I literally Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we just wrapped it after probably a year, a year and two months. Oh god, it was. Yeah, it's about that long for eight episodes, I mean mostly due to two strikes mostly why it took that long.
Yeah, I read something about I heard.
That that that.
Yeah, I heard.
Yeah, it's kind of major.
It was.
It was in the news. Uh, for sure. I'm so excited to talk to you.
I'm even more excited after after doing a little research on you. I've been a fan of yours for quite a while really not yes now, and just after reading about you, I think I'm an even bigger fan. You grew up You grew up there in the borough of Brooklyn.
I did. I grew up here and Long Island. So it was like first eight years I was born in Brooklyn, of course, and then raised half of my childhood in Long Island. Then the second half, sorry half of my childhood in Brooklyn. Then second half was in Long Island, and then after college I moved back to Brooklyn. So I've been in Brooklyn for the majority of my life.
That's home.
That's it. Yeah, it's been home. I'm you know, people somewhat of a New Yorker, but as I travel more, I think that that's shifting a bit. I think, I just I'm always going to be that in my heart, and I'm always a Brooklyn girl in my heart no matter where I roam. I just I think that I'll tell you a funny story. I remember we were leaving. I grew up in Section in East New York and in Start City, right and I remember when we were leaving,
and I like eight years old. I was the last person to walk out of the apartment door and I was helping my mother sweep okay, yeah, And she walked out and I walked out behind her, and as dramatic as I was at eight, I turned around and I said, I'll be back, and I want so. I just think, in my heart, it's just who I be.
Well, I mean, I you know you you gave me some news about the strike. I hadn't heard about that. I don't know if you've heard this or not. Brooklyn's changed quite a bit. I don't know, I don't know if you've noticed. But Brooklyn, I mean when I started going, and I am not a New Yorker, but I was there quite a lot that was never a place, that was never a visitor's destination.
Now it's like you have to go there.
That's where, That's where's where everything everything is now.
Yeah, so true. It's like I knew when I saw like I was living kind of deep and ben Stye and Stuyvesant Heights and Bedstye a beautiful area. And I knew when I started seeing like whole families from like Europe like wheeling bags behind them and like looking on their phone for like an address, I was like, wait, wait, what's that mean? I was like, this is too far to just have missed the stop, you know, off the A train, you know what I'm saying. So it really
did start to to it had shifted. I mean, there are some times that I even don't recognize certain areas, which is you know, for me, if I'm being honest, it's there's a lot of heartbreak that comes along with that, and also a lot of things that make me think, well, gosh, why couldn't it have been like this, you know, why couldn't there have been attention paid to you know, the streets and keeping up buildings and you know, making sure, you know, keeping crime low and just all these things
that I feel like could have had that same attention had the money been invested before that, and so those type of things, those are the things that I think about, especially as a black woman growing up here and have been here all my life and child of immigrants, you know, and so much of that population comes to Brooklyn to build lives for themselves, and so many of them are entrepreneurial. Like if you come into Flatbush and you know, there are areas in East New York, you just see such
a thriving Caribbean community. These are people who come and they build and make away from themselves, like my parents did. My parents came and they had four kids together, and they worked a job and went to school, and they made sure they got like their masters so that they could go and you know, do the things that they wanted to do. And my dad became an engineer, and
my mom is like a psychiatric nurse, you know. So they do all these things to like better than leaves and better their kids, and they want their kids to go to college and all this kind of stuff. So there's so many hard working, really great, great people in this borough that I feel like tried and deserved better than what it came. The eighties and nineties but like you know what I'm saying, You know, that's that's like gentrification for me. I see both sides of it. But
I also, you know, love New York. I love my city, and I know that there are a lot of things that we can enjoy now that benefit everybody, right, you know, And that's impossible not to see as well.
So given that your parents were immigrants, moved there were there are things that you feel like you were exposed to, either culturally or in terms of your extended family. I always say extended family slash friend group that gave you something there in Brooklyn that you feel like was unique.
Oh wow, there isn't. I don't know if it's just a sort of an organic energy that is here, but there is this unique sense of cool in Brooklyn, do you know what I mean? That's specifically a Brooklyn thing, you know, And maybe that's the thing that I've always It's something that when you experienced it, it's like you kind of always want it or long for it or whatever it is. But it's the sense of being comfortable, comfortable in your authenticity that is kind of lovely about Brooklyn.
Like I just find that these people are my people are so in their skin, you know, in a really cool way and sort of unafraid of the uniqueness of whatever that is, but also kind of very much identified with the ones around them that have you know, been a part of this culture well.
But grounded and secure.
It feels very grounded. Yeah, it feels very ground Everybody has their stuff, you know, if we dug in, we find some things, you know what I'm saying. But like, but just overall I think that that's it's very I think unique to this borough. I each borough has its own thing. Long Island has its own thing that is very unique and special about the vibe there as well. But I found that it's quite identifiable even outside of the borough, Like people can kind of sense if you're from there, you know.
That's yeah, no, absolutely. What were you interested in as a kid? Were you interested in the arts or performing?
I was from the time I think I was three, I was interested in performing. I remember my mom took me to a modeling agency. You know, Moms was trying to help me. She was trying you know what I mean. She's you know, just Jamaican woman coming hair and making her way. My mom is a very strong, you know, independent woman, who was fierce in terms of like forging a life for herself and very successful at it. And so what she saw, you know, her little girl wanted
to be a part of something. And she took me to a modeling agency and I took I remember actually taking these pictures. Yeah, these little sad, lonely girl picture. I don't know why they maybe looks so sad in the day, gonna picture brow but I'm like, my head is like leaning on the back of a chair with my two hands under knee that just longingly looking up
into a light. And I remember we came out and the guy said to my mom her stomach sticks out in her butts to be and I remember it, yeah, yeah, curiously seriously, and my mother the okay, was like, and we're done here. Nobody's gonna talk to my kid like that. And but it's sort of like never it never died
in me. But I appreciated the fact maybe that didn't start so young, because the way I am in the business at this stage in my life is different because I entered into it, you know, as an adult young adult. But I entered into it as an adult.
Right were you did you were you seeing? I mean obviously New York again spoiler alert. New York has a lot of theater and it's a thriving ARTSYE were you going and seeing shows at a fairly young age. Was that something you were interested in doing?
No, But I remember my parents like if somebody came up to visit, if somebody came up from Jamaica to visit, or something like that. I remember them getting all just stuff and going to Broadway, right, you know, and it was a big deal. They had gotten these tickets and I mean, honey, the first came out. I mean, it was like a thing to go to Broadway. So I had this imagination of Manhattan and what it would be like to go to school in Manhattan and you know, go be on stage. I mean I just had this
imagine the nation about it. But I did not go until and it was my mom who took me and my younger brother to see Five Guys named Mo. I think it was that it was on Broadway, and I remember there it was like a review type of show, and I remember watching it and there was a moment where they say they invited the audience of one stay. Anybody who wanted to be up on stage could come up for this for this for the song, and I think it was called pus Okay, all right, it's fine,
it's foe. And I remember I was like ooh me and I jumped up and I was one of the people who got to like dance across the stage. And that was sort of me. Like any opportunity I got, I took it. If the opportunity was there, or I was at home kind of creating dances and singing and waiting for an opportunity to like do it at a talent show, and you know, I went a little money here and there, you know what I mean, and that
type of thing. And I grew up dancing, so there was performance with dancing and competitions with dancing, so there was there was that I kept it as a part of my of my life, and I think there was like the tiny little secret within myself that that's what I wanted to do. But I think to sound realistic in any way, I came up with like, oh, I want to be you know, when I was young, I wanted to be a waitress, and when I was older, I wanted to be a lawyer or maybe a writer.
You know, it's these things, but deep down underneath, I was like, I really want to do this. I just don't. I don't know if that's the thing to say, or or maybe I didn't fully know how to do that, you know.
Yeah, I mean I think in a way and I don't want to put words in your mouth.
I mean that I was the same like I will.
I've defined it now for myself, like that was an activity that I did, you know, like theater and in school and stuff like that. But I never, like my brain never went to, oh, that's what I want to do when I grow up. I think, right, yeah, and a lawyer.
That's a funny thing.
And I think, you know, my parents will say now like, well that was because that was another way to perform. And I don't know if they're thinking about lawyer like like on TV.
I don't know.
My sister's a lawyer. I don't know how much performing she actually does. It seems like she pushes a lot of paper. But for me, it was more of an activity. Now, you you went to Howard, I read and got a BFA.
At that point were you were you studying theater?
Yeah? So that I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts and I started off writing so I started off as like an English major, okay, and I'd never been more depressed in my life. Everything I couldn't, you know. I saw so many ces. It was terrible, and so I just like go back to my dorm and just curl them in my bed. I just wasn't enjoying it. And then one day I just walked across the yard, which
is like the middle of Howard. It's sort of this iconic space at Howard where all students gather, and at the top of the yard at one end is like our huge library, I believe it's moreland spring guard at the top of the yard, and then at the other end it's the College of Fine Arts, which is now the CHAT was in the College of Fine Arts, and I remember I was in. I was I was sort of on the right side of the yard, and I was in this building. I don't even know what it's called,
because that's how much I committed that to memory. And I walked out of the class one day and I just literally walked diagonally across the yard to the College of Fine Arts. And I just walked in and I was like, can I just do this? And they were like, yeah, you want to change you major. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. And I remember Miss Janet, Miss Janet, who might still be there. I love you, Miss Janet. She
was just like, yeah, yeah, you can do that. And I think I may have said in my classes whatever, but I changed my major and I did not tell my parents. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. The padres were not necessarily feeling me being an acting major, so I didn't
tell them. I just did it. And then I don't know, it was a while before I told them, but I invited them to come see a show that I was in and they came down and they saw it and they were like, okay, you know, and I told them that I had switched my major and they're like, okay, as long as you have English as your minor, so you have a backup. And I said, yes, great, I'll be fine. And then I started taking so many dance classes that I had an acting major and a dance miner.
So good luck parents. The Immigrant dream.
It's so funny. I can't even believe this is coming up.
This was not This is gonna sound like a weird humble brag, but I will tell you this, Okay that because you're talking about writing. And I right now, at this moment, it'll be by the time this airs, it'll be over, so I won't get in trouble with anybody. I am delivering the commencement address at my college.
Wow, in just a couple of days.
I'm very proud of you, and let.
Me well, no, but let me say this.
It's it doesn't that doesn't involve performing that that involves writing. Yeah, and so it's me now like I feel like I'm back in college. I'm back in college with a deadline to finish this paper that I then am going to read in front of my class.
Oh my gosh, I.
Don't remember being more.
And I've written books by in the way Susan, I've written books. But there's something about this that has transported me back to those days.
And I took some.
English courses as well. But yeah, trans has transported me back. And I'm not I'm not feeling overly comforted. I'm wishing that I could change my major or what you like an interpretive dance of somebody else's words right now?
What what college are you doing this at?
S m U Southern Methodist University there in Dallas, Texas.
Okay, fantastic. Listen, here you go. All you need I think is like once you find I don't know if you've written this yet.
Yeah right, I'm in it.
Yeah, okay, I feel like once you find your theme or like your little thesis.
Whatever, there you go.
That's college. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm talking about. That's yeah.
Okay. Something they didn't have we're in college was chat dpts.
Oh, I can't use that.
I wouldn't want you to, but yeah, it is. That isn't it. It's crazy and they're all you know, all the teachers, they're going to be just in you.
Oh of course are you kidding me? Especially me? Like there is there is? Why is this guy here? And what is you talking about?
So you obviously dove in once you changed your majors. So at what point there did you say like this is what I'm going to do, this is this.
Is my path.
Yeah, I got you, and I.
Know eventually you went back, you went got your master's at Tish, So by then I know he had decided.
Decided for well, I never I never even wanted to do that. I thought I was done with school until I found out that I just it was Ron van Lou who kind of showed me I could be a way better actor than I actually thought I was. But I I decided that. I think that was when I just everything in me at that point turned on and you just know, we know that feeling of when you
just know there's no other way around that. You know, you just know, like everything that was dead a minute ago came to life and you're like, and this is it. And so that's what happened to me. And it was probably in that way. I mean, I it's like the way of the world lifted off me and I felt like, oh, this is my tribe. I'm home. I found my people who are like me, and it just made me come alive in a way. I started, really I actually started enjoying my time at school.
Then that's awesome.
Uh you go to Tish, Are you thinking about film and television at Such.
A good question, Such a good question. I think we focused so much on theater. Yeah, me too, that it was like, okay, I I think my focus honestly was becoming the best actor I could be. Like it was such a time to like focus fully on art, on the art right, and so I just thought, oh, man, I want to be like the dopest, like leading character actress I can be, you know. And I wanted to
be the type of actor who was quite transformative. So if I I could do one thing and then do something completely different and be seen completely differently, and that was success to me. So if that came on stage, and I thought it was going to be like, oh, you know, I'll come out and I'll do stage and film,
you know. And then I came out and then I was successful in television, I said, okay, television is And then it's like I didn't do as much theater as I thought I was going to do, or I didn't do as much film, and it just the business just started to who I wasn't. It took on its own life, and so I loved that. And then TV started to change and it felt it felt more like really great short films and it felt more you know. So yeah,
just this dynamic started to shift and happen. It's so funny how you just don't know, right, you just and it's hard to go, well, this is what I want to do as soon as I come out, because nobody knows, you they don't know what you can do. They you know, it's hard to prove yourself, especially at a time where I feel like they weren't seeing all the ethnicities, and they weren't seeing like, you know, women for like these
major roles, or black women in certain ways. And so it was it really was staying consistent and sort of not buying into how they felt about me. They jart of the you know out there, whoever they are. It was, yeah, the them, It was like, well, I know, I'm supposed to be doing this, and I'm just going to go through the doors that open for me, knock down some that won't, and you know, just kind of keep it moving, but not let that thing take over my drive or anything. Like.
I never let it. I guess in a way I could say I did not let it get under my skin.
Yeah.
I just kind of continue to love what I do and just keep doing it.
You spoke about having early success in television. I see a number of shows. Of course, the requirement for anyone in New York is lawn.
The law in order. How early on was that for you?
Oh? Super? So I was just out of school. Yeah, yeah, yeah, most of them that I did, I think I was like I think I was like a year out or something like that, but it was but you know, it was like it was really cool. It was it was so iconic. It's so New York and like for New York, it's like we don't have we didn't have anything else
shooting right here. So it was really fantastic to do. Well, it's like you graduated, you know what I'm saying, and you got to do the commencement speech at your college.
Yeah.
I I was not a New York actor. I had the opportunity to do one the s you know, I don't know always it's always SUV, but yeah, because of your brain. But SVU, I remember this, and I've heard this is true on all of them, the most well oiled machines maybe in the industry period.
Was that your experience as well?
Yeah, yeah, they got you in and got you out and they and they knew what they wanted.
They knew what they wanted, their organized together on time, no farting around. And so I wonder, because for me that experience was way later. I was brought into it, But I wonder for you one was that helpful for you in terms of your career? Your development you're sort of getting I mean, it feels like, on the one hand, like having your feet under you when everybody else very clearly knows what they're doing is helpful.
Or what? Did it end up being.
More problematic as you continue to move on and maybe did not have those same experiences on other shows immediately following.
It takes your training wheels off. I think, you know, it's like, okay, now, you know, I'm a little wobbly, but I got it. You know, I'm on the two wheels now. And then you move on to the next thing and you have that under your belt, and as we know in this business, anything that you could get under your belt, it just gives you a little bit
more wind under your wings, you know. And so it was like that, and I don't think I speak alone, and you know, so many of my friends who have gone through that you feel like, oh, I have that TV experience. Now I've been on it. You know, I've done the thing where you gather with your friends and you watch your one scene. You know what I'm saying, and like, yeah, you're like, you know, it's.
Seven emails out exactly.
I found some of those emails a while back I was like, oh my god, I'm so obnoxious.
It's all the same.
Yeah.
So I'm wondering if if there's you know, you begin to go into some recurring stuff, so you know, if there's something before that. I mean, I saw a list of shows. I know this from a lot of different times, but and you know, big shows, The Good Wife, n Cis,
Royal Pains, the following VEEP Blacklist. Was there a show or an experience that you had early on, either because of the people that you were working with or the show or the role that you had that you feel like really propelled you forward and either gave you confidence or changed something for you early on.
Hmmm, that's so good. Let's see something that gave me confidence. Well, I feel like when I started to get recurrings, Well, here's what gave me confidence. No, I'll be honest with you. And I remember you were saying like, you don't mean to sound like you're humble bragging, right, And I don't either,
But this gave me confidence. I would go in for roles that I was absolutely not right for, you know, but I went in and I was like, all right, you know, and or maybe I could have played it, but they would say, you know what, go out and read this, and I would come back in and booked
the role. They told me to go out and read four and come back and it was like, Oh, it's just going to be on for maybe like once or twice, and they would become recurrence nice and those were the ones that I was really proud of, and those gave me confidence. Like even when I did Louis back in the day and that started, like, you know, he was like, I'm not gonna have my wife on this show, you know what I mean? First of all, it started where I was like, how did I get his wife? You
know what I'm saying? Like, I just was like, the two children have been established. This is like a big Like I was really surprised that I would even get that. And it started again. It was like one or two episodes and it became I was on it for two seasons or there was things that I was able to create certain characters just because they felt like they saw something and they were like, you know, what can you do? Oh can you give her Jamaican accent? Great, We'll put
her on. And then it was like, great, should be on for the rest of this season and So those were the moments that I got that there was confidence. Not only it's you know, it's not just because of what you think the obvious reason would be. It was mostly because it was like, oh, you can get an
opportunity in so many different ways. Like it's not just like, oh, it's this particular part, this audition, this thing, it's it could be that's just your entry point, and then it becomes something completely different that actually had a lot more life than the original thing you went in for. So that's I love that. I love when this business is not so black and white and there's so many ways that you can cultivate like a really cool career.
I'm glad you brought up Louis. The show was super celebrated, well received, and really I think was groundbreaking in terms of its format in the comedy space.
How was that for you working on something that you have to be aware is so different than anything else was on television. Did you enjoy that aspect of it and working with him?
I enjoyed that. I loved that they gave Louis basically two hundred and fifty thousand an episode to do what he wanted to do, and the creativity that was allowed to come from that, and he taught me, you know, the camera and things like that, Like any questions I had, like were answered and I was allowed to learn by watching directing and the playfulness and the I love comedy, so comedy is like one of my favorite loves in
the world. And to do a comedy, to do something that felt very like off the beat and path, and to be so unexpected in it, like nobody is looking for me to play his wife and have these very white children. None of that made sense. But he hired me because he went off of his instinct and what he saw when he watched audition tapes, and so that worked in my favor at that particular time. And I felt like I dig that. I dig when people are
just like, yeah, I get it. Yeah, no, she's not any of the checklist things, but like what she go out to it, Yeah, let's go there. Like I again, it's that area of like it's not black and white, and I really I dig that. And it showed to me a lot of creativity in the way that the show was being thought about and developed in a very creative.
Way based on what happened in the news.
I don't know that's a weird way to say it.
You know, I feel like the show is not respected or has talked about now as maybe it should be in terms of how groundbreaking it truly was. Does what's happened after color for you the experience in any way or make you not able to enjoy it or tainted it in some way?
No, But I also understand the importance of what needed to be expressed, do you know, And so there was this balance. You have to have this balance of knowing when to stand down and which voices need to arise at what time. You know what I'm saying, And so it's just negotiating and still having gratitude for what I got to experience at the same time having respect for what other people had to experience. So it's a balance. I know that I can say things that would would
be on the opposite end. That was my experience. So at the time, when you know all was being said, I just I understood my place at that time, and I understood that there was a space, there needed to be a space for those voices to be heard. And that's I can give all.
Respect to that good well said.
Knowing I was going to talk to you and look, not only was I watching, I feel like everybody was watching. You began a little show called This Is Us on NBC, And as I was thinking about it today, this is what I was going to say. I feel like it was, in a lot of ways, or at least my memory, sort of the first big blockbuster hit show on NBC after US, after not after the Office, Like there was a period of time, and there was a couple of years in there, and again if I'm forgetting some show.
It was like seven to ten. Yeah, it was a whole Yeah.
Well you well you were you started in U in sixteen, right, sixteen? Yes, yeah, so yeah, so like there were two or three years there in between US.
But that's my memory, right, And I chose not.
To look at that drama maybe go ahead, sorry.
Yeah no, no, no, Like like in terms of just like tent pole shows on NBC that they were building their slate around, This is Us came out of the gate like Gangbusters and was a hit sort of immediately.
First off, how did you how did you get the role of Beth.
I auditioned like it was a normal, normal, super duper normal audition, but I got two sides, you know, and I went in during like a weird you know, sort of like there was no more pilot season really, you know, just like all over the place, and I auditioned with a probably a casting associate, you know, and in one of the little back rooms that tells and one of the smaller rooms. Let me stop making this story extra, but it was.
It was it was. It was pedestrian.
Yeah, it was just very so soups Cash. Yeah, nothing nothing stood out to me, you know, yeah, it was very much that.
You know, sometime and sometimes it's it's who's doing a show? I mean, you know, I don't have to tell you this. It's like who's producing a show or you know what their legacy is, you know, Shondaland, or it's you know, Chuck Lori, or it's Greg Daniels or it's whatever. Did you you You're like when the show is coming here, like, oh, this is important to the network, not necessary even necessary, they're going to pick it up to series or whatever.
Did you feel that early on, like that this was going to be a big show or no, this was another pilot you were doing.
No, I just it was another pilot. Well here's the thing, also, Brian, I didn't read it the full pilot until they were
ready to test me. Okay, so I didn't know the specialness of it till like the day before I tested, And when I read it, they were asking me if I wanted to fly out to la or stay in New York and just have them keep my producers session tape because by that point I had now auditioned for it again with like some of the executive producers who were directing the first episode, John and Glenn, and I had, you know, So they were like, do you want to just keep the tape that you did with John and
Glenn or do you want to come out and do it sort of in person? And they're like, well, how do you feel about the script? And I was like, did y'all send me the script? And they were like, oh my god, I read this. So I went and read the script and then I was like, oh, this is I'm going to be on a plane. I am definitely going into the room for this, you know. So that's when I knew that it was special, But beyond that,
it wasn't necessarily about the team. And I knew that Dan had done crazy stupid love, so I knew that, you know, there was a quality there that's gonna be there and and so I didn't know much else but I but I read that script and that script was insane. I was like that first episode got me like there was no doubt in my mind, like you have to be on a plane, right, So, yeah.
We could have been co workers. They talked to me about that show, tell me yeah they I mean, they obviously made a way better choice with Chris Sullivan who.
Played to.
There were conversations that happened, and I don't remember how serious they got. I don't remember. I don't remember any of it at this point. I don't think it was a serious regular thing at that point.
It wasn't. It wasn't. It actually wasn't. And I think they were kind of deciding as the show went because I feel like I remember hearing some kind of rumors, like at some point in the first season when when Chris's character has the heart attack, Untoby has a heart attack, like they weren't sure if he was going to come back from that, right, and I think there was going to be like too much with like William and then I don't know, you know what I'm saying then, or
maybe it's one of those things where Chris just turned it into, you know, what it wanted to be for him, and so I but I do remember that. I do remember him saying like he wasn't a regular and I was so I had never been a regular on anything. So I was very wet behind my ears when it came to that, to that, and I was in this space of like, oh, damn, I'm gonna be on TV every week, you know what I mean? You know, So some of the stuff was, you know, it's all very new.
Every every stage you get to it's all new, and you know, And so hearing that about Chris was it felt like, Oh, I thought you were already a regular, So when the transition happened, it felt kind of seamless. But I do remember us having discussions in that first year or so that he wasn't a regular yet.
You guys came out of the bat and suddenly it becomes a huge, huge hit. As you just said, it's your first show that you're a serious regular on. It's become like the most important show for NBC and everybody is watching it. How does that? How does that feel for you? And did you feel the change happen very quickly or again, was it more gradual for you?
I think I felt it. It did happen fast. It happened after the first episode, yeah, aired, and then it didn't slow down the show. Yeah. Just very grateful anytime I say this, but it's stayed number one for the entire time it was on, you know, and it just did not slow down. And so the great thing about it was how grounded we all were about it. I dig that. I just love when really wild stuff could be happening and everybody is just everybody's calm, you know
what I mean. Everybody's like, we're all here, it's all fine. You were still, you know, having our lives with our families and our things and enjoying it, enjoying the mess out of it. But like there's a perspective on it. And I think we had that and maintained that throughout the six years we were on.
You've said, the show opened a lot of doors for you, gave you a lot of opportunities. You got to direct, you were allowed to be in the writer's room.
I didn't it's a direct, but I didn't want to direct, but I had the opportunity to.
I will get that, Okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't, but I want. I had the opportunity to. They gave it to me many times. If I wanted to direct but I wanted to write, I went back to the writing thing. Who knewressede.
Here's the thing.
I chose the directing and not the writing. What was the best thing out of that show that you were able to do or accomplish. And it could be in terms of specific performance or storyline, or or an outside something that you were given to do there that you feel grateful for and that you feel like has changed you as an artist moving forward.
I love that I was able to write on an episode because also when you write it, you end up like it. Yes, And I love producing, and I've produced other projects, so like for me, that comes like second nature behind the camera, the way acting feels like sort of first nature in front of the camera, you know. And so I really really credit Dan with that. He was so generous about making sure that we all got what we needed out of the show other than the acting part of it. Always had an open door policy.
We could always be in the writer's room, We could always sort of be chiming in. They were specific about this stories It's not like I'm going in the writer's room and changing minds and hearts. But there was a thing where it was an open door. We could hear what was going on and give them any information that we felt like about ourselves might feel relevant to the character and things like that, and we could always talk to him about stuff, and he was just really very
very good about that. It took so much out of me just producing that one episode and writing it and acting in it. I had such an appreciation for like what we do. I loved it. I really loved it on every level, being able to have a hand in it, all of it. And then I realized how much goes
on per episode. You know, there's so much that goes on, you know, from anything from casting every little part to what the location is going to be, what the wardrobe is going to be, what the hair is going to be, what the props are going to be, what the you know, and then it's the redoing of all those things, and
it's daily. There's meetings that we had in getting with the director and doing the director's past and going through the script with the director to get the tone quality, and I mean, there was just so much stuff that I was like, damn, this is happening every episode, you know, it was so full. It was so full, but so fulfilling. So yeah, that was great.
I noted earlier when you when you talked about comedy being your love, and look, you had some serious storylines.
By the way, again.
Spoiler alert, a lot of the characters went through a lot of things in your show.
A lot of stuff.
However, and this isn't really a question, it's more just a comment. I always felt like you were a breath of fresh air and to call you like comedic relief not fair, not fair or right, But there was an ease that you had that you showed that was part
of the personality of the character for sure. But also I know now you that you brought a lightness to it where I feel like the shows like that have a tendency to they can they can sit down in that morass of like the horrible things that are going on, and you were, uh, you were a fresh light throughout the run of that show. Obviously things going on as well.
But it made sense to me earlier when you were when you said, like, comedy is my first love, like sometimes playing against those significant moments that are going on and using some some lightness can give it equal or more impact. So anyway, that's just my way of saying kudos to you. I'm sure it was difficult after six years, one hundred and six episodes to to say goodbye. The fans obviously had a difficult time when it was over. For you, did tough when it when it was over?
Or for you? Was it was it time?
It was? I wouldn't say tough, It was said sad, but it was time because we had never imagined it going longer. It's Dan had from the beginning at least, you know, I'd always known that he wanted to five season, and they, the network, as for us to do six, and so we did six. And I saw the end always coming, and there was this story that was happening
within that, but it had it had an ending. It always had an ending, and you know, with Rebecca's passing, it was like, that's we've now told this chapter, you know what I mean, And we've told so many chapters within that. The sadness started coming to me. It started February of twenty twenty two and we wrapped in May. So I remember things like, oh, this is the last oh, shuttle ride, We're gonna take to more pray aluh, you
know what I mean, like all that stuff. And I remember walking behind Miguel Miguel John Quertas and Mandy Moore one day and I just knew, like us was getting ready to kind of wrap up his storyline, and I was like, Yo, this is actually the last time I'm
gonna see them do that. And so there was a great consciousness about all of the last and all of the moments that I knew were in their final you know run, And I was getting very nostalgic and very sad, but I was happy I did it because I started to metabolize it early so that by the time May hit, I was all right, you know what I mean, Like I got the show. I had about fall months, you know, to get my little self together. So I was it helped me. It really worked for me.
Good for you.
It does take time, and you do start thinking about those very small moments that you would never think about before, right that this is the last Yeah, I played, this played the same game.
You and I have worked together. Boom nailed it. What you're gonna laugh?
And we had never met celebrity Jeopardy.
Rumble, I was in Rumble stop it?
Who did you play in Rumble?
Clonk I was a wrestler, nip wow, yep, yep. We work together.
This is why I don't like when, you know, with the voice acting, they put you in a room by yourself.
You don't know a room by yourself.
I think, especially when it's the middle of a global pandemic and they put you in a room by yourself. You literally don't know, don't know anyone. I really don't have anything else to say about that except that we did work together. So I'm just I'm just closing the loop on that. I'm just closing I'm just closing the loop on that.
It's so good to know.
Yes, so you mentioned before you enjoy producing. Yes, you have produced at least a couple of projects, and that, as you said, gives you something that just just acting doesn't. Are you you want to continue to do that in the future.
Yeah, and I am doing it. Yeah, I just I've really I enjoy putting stuff together. I enjoy connecting people. I like putting all the right people in the room. I like yeah right, I like seeing something lift off the ground. I love a great idea. I love. I love when I have an idea and I can get the right people to help me to make it happen. And I love helping other people execute an idea, you know. So it's it's just part of how I like to exist in this whole business that we're in. Outside of
you know, the acting in front of the camera. I just kind of adore it, Like I really love being boots on the ground as a producer. It is fun, really fun, and it's so freeing.
You know, really hard, but fun hard.
And people, you know, they're like, oh, you don't want to direct, but producing is like direct, and I was like, it kind of is, but it's not. And there's something about direct producing that is different for me. And even when it's hard, I enjoy it, which is how I know it's something that I should be doing.
Yeah, something that you have done, which I have not yet. You know.
I did theater for years and years and years, and then I feel like I and I call it like I changed my career, like for me because it was an abrupt it was all I did was theater, and then for me it was boom and sort of changed careers into film and television, you a couple of years ago, Shakespeare in the Park, Mary Wives. It's a groulic show. You're outdoors, you're in the park, you're in well, at least your hometown adjacent in New York performing. Did you enjoy it?
I enjoyed the mess out of it, like we had.
I didn't know what you were going to do it most fun, It was so, it was so.
I love those people, you understand, eighteen people that I just adore and love, and our director Sahima Lee and are our writer Jocelyn Bio who's now nominated for a Tony fora ja Ja's hand Brating that was on Broadway, but she translated Mary Wives of Windsor into Mary Wives and placed it in Harlem among the Nigerian Ghanaian community and various communities you know that come from the African diaspora. And when I tell you like, I'm telling you like it is criminal to have as much fun as we
had in the middle of coming back from COVID. We were the first show, first theater play to come back from COVID, the first.
And were outside.
Yeah, and it was nuts and we had we fought monsoons and just whole tropical storms and sets coming down and everything thundering, enlightening, and we I mean it was out of They made documentary about it. It's on HBO. Y'all could watch it. I ain't lying, and I tell you, like I sad you. The things we went through was, you know, preposterous, but like one of my favorite experiences of all time at one thousand percent. I would do it over exactly the same way in a heartbeat.
Stop it, student, you're gonna make me do it, and then I'm gonna don't.
I think they're adding the re renovating the delacors right now. I believe they're adding a retractable roof. So what happened to you? What happens? That's what happens. I think it might have been because of us. We missed so many shows, including our opening night, not our opening night, but our first show, our first preview, second preview, no no, no, rain Thune, the light Raccoons, oh god, you name it. We did. It's fantastic, fantastic.
Uh.
Well, you have a very very big show just wrapped up production. You've heard it here first exclusively reporting.
You.
You just wrapped several years ago. Infact, in two thousand and seven, you were a guest star on an episode of Private Practice, a show sure in the Shondaland universe. Now you are back a much bigger role in a very very eight I one might call it not the same as this is Us that a highly anticipated new show in the Shondaland universe the Residents. Any connection between your guest spot in two thousand and seven and this is there? Is there a line there or no.
Just that I'm I'm just me as a person, as an individual.
But in terms of like your work with them, No.
No, I don't think I mean no, it was no one said anything.
No.
But guess what when I was like when I heard about the role, I was like, O, can you tell Shata I was Private cra Remember she has said that she liked all of my cuts. I mean, let I listen, you go there right? But I know it was this was like a whole new, whole new game.
Uza Aduba, Andre Brower, Gian Carlo Esposito, you, of course, Jason Lee, Ken Marino, and many many more fantastic actors working on the new show. A. If you haven't read the book or know the story, the log line is simply a murder mystery set in the White House. Uh, now you read it. You wanted to do it. You asked if if if if she remembered your takes from two thou seven. Now, Uh, first season is shot. Yes, we are you still excited about us?
I am so so excited about it. I I you.
Know, you can't say anything else, I know, but anyway, God, no, I know.
I'm so excited. It's it's you know, I just talked about how much I love working on Marywise. I gotta tell you this right here. Same feelings, same feelings. I mean, the most fun, the most amazing people to work with, like just comedy. It was just comedy and plus the most I hung out with this cast like you would believe. Like we've we've karaoke, We've gone to Rod Show, We've done all things. You know, We've gone, we've traveled together.
I mean, it's incredible. And you know, we lost our dear Andre Brower, you know, as we all did the world, did you know, sort of in the center of it, and John Carlos Posito came in and you know, just with open arms, and it's been really, really incredible. It's yeah, I can't say too much about you know, the story itself. But I will say it's not anything like the book. I mean no, he completely made this. He read the book and was like, can I do this with it?
You know, this book is just about the White It's not just about This book is about the White House, and there's the White House staff. So that's what people need to know. This is not something that takes place in the West Wing. This is very upstairs, downstairs. This is very like the ushers, the butlers, the engineers, the painters,
the housekeeping. This is that, and it happens this murder happens amongst them during a state dinner, and so what unfolds after that is absolutely But the way I felt about that script is very similar, Like when I first read this is Us. I read the first fifteen pages of this script and I call my people and was like, yes, I would like to do this. Can we make that happen? So it was that for me, and I just could not be happier and prouder of coming through it after
you know the many you know, just big girls. Yeah, yeah, like there was some there's some rough stuff we had to deal with unfortunately, but here we are and we could not be happier, prouder.
Yeah, did you like this is us?
Did you audition in a tiny.
Well, listen, this is this might be that this is as effect right, every every different you know, every job has a different story. So this one, you know, was not an audition, so I was able to enjoy just say, yeah, would you like to be this? And I said I would love to be this, and so yeah, so you know it's it's not graduation, you know.
Congratulations to you. I breaking news from the internet. There's no date yet, expected first quarter of twenty twenty five, so still you're gonna have to wait. But the Resident's coming out. Susan, thank you so much for joining me today. I can't tell you what a pleasure it was for me to get to know you a little bit and to hear your story. And I promise I will be looking ahead to not just the Residents, but whatever comes, whatever comes next for you.
Thank you so much, Brian, and I would like to see a link to your speech.
Well, Well you know what, here's the thing.
No pressure, but go ahead major in English too much.
If it goes really well or really bad.
Yeah, and I'm sure you'll.
See it about it.
One way or the other Susan. Thanks so much, Susan.
Amazing to get to know you and your work today. I can't wait to watch the Residents. I'll be keeping an eye out for that and truly anything you do in the future. Listeners, you know what I'm gonna do next. I'm going to bring you another great guest for this podcast.
I might even do it next Tuesday. You never know, so check back.
In and until then, have a great week. Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer, Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is Ali Amir Sahim. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton,