Okay, hi everyone, It's Nat Mundell, the founder of Voyage. I am super excited and honored and thrilled to be connecting with Catherine Bell, acclaimed actor. She's recently performed in our very normni series Red Meat Village. You probably know Catherine from her roles in Jag and more recently The Good Witch, which is having a really great run among a bunch of other things. And Catherine, I'm just so excited to meet you and con back with you,
and thank you so much for joining us my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. I really had a blast doing this with you guys. It's been it's been really fun. Is it your first podcast? Have you
done an audio drama before? I've never done one before, and I was so excited when this came up. I've always wanted to and it was just so much fun to just sit and like just let your voice do all the work, you know, I mean it's very similar, you still do the same work as an actor, but um, it was just it was just different and fun. Me in a dark room with a cool microphone, noir vibe. Yeah, that's awesome. And so the prep work was similar and
the experience was similar or what? Did you find some pretty significant differences in doing just an audio only performance? You know? Interesting? The prep work was the same, you know, you still want to work on the character the same and kind of break down the scenes and what's going on and what you know, what am I trying to do or say? There's like always the underlying meaning beyond just the words, of course, so that part was
the same. But then I found, um, you know, because I wasn't reading it with the other you know, the other actors, so you kind of just skip their parts and then you say your own. So I had to actually read it to myself, read their lines and then do the read liric. And that's kind of actually how I That's how I rehearse, That's how I work on a project. Got it, And kind of yeah, I've learned a new technique that's kind of really fun. You just you
say their lines and what does that mean? Oh why did you say that? Oh wow? And then you say your line and you know there's all these different exercises you can do. So it's kind of like doing that right on, right on now? Now, why Red Meat Village. Are you a Noir fan or just you oh my god, so much. I'm such
a noir fan. I think one of my first really fun like you know, sink my teeth into kind of roles in my acting class that started everything ages ago that then led to JAG was there were some noir scenes that I did, just some cool like fatwel just you know that whole And I love the genre, the era to where where it all start at the forties and
um, so yeah, it was absolutely right at my alley. I love yeah, and it's it's fun to take that era but bring it into a contemporary setting right exactly and tell us about your character, like, um, you know, she takes quite a turn in the show. Were you surprised by that turn? Definitely? I loved reading the first time I read through the script, I was like, it's going to happen because you could tell she has secrets and you could tell that she was not being totally straightforward and
who is she? Is she good? Is she bad? Where? You know, what is her motivation? And in trying to find her sister and you know, the whole thing was just so intriguing and a total page turner for sure. Right on. Yeah, and do you when you prep for that knowing that there's a big turn, do you have to sort of throttle performance, you know, when you're in the earlier phases to knowing that that turn is coming, is there? What do you do for that? Yeah?
I think, I mean that's that's the stuff that's the most fun to play because there's there's such a great arc in the story, and any great story always has that. So where does this person start and where do they go? What's the climax and where do they end up? And um, you know again, as an actor, you kind of map all that out
before you start recording or filming or whatever. So that was that was really fun because she starts a certain way, like, you know, for me, help me, and then you're like, wait a minute, what's what's going on under that? And then how much do you play? How much you hide? How much do you showed? And again harder with voice only, right, I can't do a little look that shows that you're you've got a secret. You have to deal with your voice. So that was a
bit more challenge in a good way. Wow, very cool. Now inquiring minds want to know you have had such a range of characters and genres that you played in over the years. Personally, do you have a preference for the lighter or the darker? Oh, the darker, no question. I mean good which is a blast to play. And she's this, you know, amazing character that has just you know, made a lot of people very
happy, including myself, my family, whatever. But like, to me, it's just so much more fun as an actor to just sink your teeth in and be be bad or maybe be bad or I love the action stuff too. That's like I'm such a tomboy that I love playing that stuff. Yeah, I you right there with you in terms of preferences of what I what I watch. Well, what's next for you? What do you want your fans and our listeners to know, What's what's what's coming down the pike.
Oh my goodness. I have a few things that are that are brewing for this year. At the end of last year, I did a lifetime movie that the name is going to change. It hasn't been totally announced yet, but I'm super excited about because it's based on a true story and I get to play a character very different than anything I've ever played before. So that's going to be exciting. And yeah, we'll see what else is on
the horizon. We're wonderful. Well, we can't wait. And and thanks so much for sharing your perspective and some of your inner working with our listeners. I think they find it fascinating and from you guys out there. Red Meat Village is available. Will be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And Catherine, thank you so much again for joining us my pleasure, thanks for having me absolutely. This is Nat Mundell signing off everyone