Kate McKiernan

I Survived Theatre School

We talk to Kate McKiernan
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT (unedited):
1 (8s):
I'm Jen Bosworth from me this and I'm Gina . We went to theater school together. We survived it, but we didn't quite understand it. 20 years later, we're digging deep talking to our guests about their experiences and trying to make sense of it all. We survived theater school and you will too. Are we famous yet In computer? Let me see your sweatshirt. Oh, it says don't now. Listen, I love it. It is not my mood of the day. Oh, usually I like to dress according to my mood. Okay. My mood is not don't because it's Virgo season and Friday, Friday.

1 (53s):
Yeah. Also Kelly McAdam's birthday and the same birthday. Same exact birthday. And Russell's is I think it's like on the 19th. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I love Virgos Libras and Virgos get along splendidly. Okay. Do you have any other Virgos in your life? My old boss used to be a Virgo that the one that I actually really liked at Lutheran social services and a lot of my work people have been Virgos just like coworkers and we get along really good. So Virgos to me are like, if Scorpios took their medication and Scorpios hate, I hate when, I mean like I've, I've gotten so much flack for like, I have such trouble with Scorpio women, such trouble.

1 (1m 45s):
I mean, doesn't everybody. Well, I don't know. Some people love them. A Scorpio. I Scorpio women are like, for me as if I would rather be trapped in an elevator with a monster than a Scorpio woman, you know what I'm saying? Like I just, my, my, my old roommate from way back was a Scorpio and she did some really crazy shit. Like the most aggressive shit I have ever seen in a human being in my life. And I was like, and then subsequently I've met Scorpio women who I'm like, oh, this is all the same.

1 (2m 30s):
You're all the same person. What is happening here? So like things that are just kryptonite to me and also things I need to work on, but like passive aggressiveness in terms of like dealing with a passive aggressive person, some people like don't take passive aggressive people. Seriously. They're able to be like, oh, that person's passive aggressive. I'm like, oh my God, they're gonna kill me. Yeah. Like I have to run for my life. And then their feedback is really hard for me to take. And yeah, I just, I have, I have a real fear and it's, and, and I remember I was in a play and we were talking about that and I said out loud, like, oh my God, I have not thinking someone.

1 (3m 17s):
Who's probably a Scorpio. I feel like I have such problem with Scorpio women. And this Scorpio woman goes, what's your problem? And I was like, oh, you're a Scorpio woman. This is, and I want it to be like, this is my problem. But I was just like, oh, I just, I really find you terrifying. She was like, what? Why? And I was like, well, there's the tone. That's the tone. That's what I'm talking about. So anyway, Virgos, not that. So Virgos have this for me. The same kind of, they're more okay. Like Scorpios, the control issue seems so great. And Ruggles, the control issue. They, in my, in my experience, they use the control issue to get organized rather than terrorize other people.

1 (4m 3s):
Right. So wait, was your mother? No, they were all my mom and dad were Aquarians and like, just know my mother might know, you would think my mother, she was maybe her rising or her moon was Scorpio because she was so Scorpio. She was not, they were neither of that. My dad was more of an Aquarian. But in any case, it's your birthday week? It's Virgo. It's Virgo season. It's my birthday week. The big four. Sick. Are you, are you? I always, I thought I've been for six. So there you go. What are you, are you going to do something, anything, a party like dinner with your family.

1 (4m 43s):
I'm going to do a party, but I'm sure we'll have dinner or something. I mean, Friday's a nice day and actually Aaron's taking the day off, so that'll be good. So we'll do something. I was going to ask you, how did your kiddos self-tape go? Oh, it went just fine. Yeah. Thank you for your help with that. Yeah. For those of you listening. Yeah. I called boss because we had to do a self-tape with no dialogue and not only no dialogue, he was supposed to be in a fist fight with a bunch of people. It just seems like really? I mean, my thing is like, why you could either just ask for a full body slate at which they did too, or have him read something else.

1 (5m 27s):
That's not for the part. I just don't understand. Like, everybody looks stupid punching the air. It's not, it you're so right. And I think all that is needed there. And this is just like my, you know, soap box about the industry. All that's needed is a little extra attention to detail. One sentence in there. Please give us a shot of facial reactions as if this person was watching or afraid or in a fight watching a fist fight. Because that's really what they're looking for is to, you said it a full body slate to see what their body looks like and their facial reactions. I mean, all that's needed is a sentence, like all that.

1 (6m 10s):
And I feel like that a lot about, I feel like I'm not an actor anymore, which is a whole nother, which is okay. But like, when I cause now talking about it, I'm like, I, I haven't had an audition a really long time, but like, I just, it's true. You have auditions all the time. Wow. I mean, you've had you had an audition couple of weeks ago, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. I guess in my head, I sort of have like, I mean, when I talk to other actors, they're like, since the pandemic I've had too much. Oh, okay. Yeah. No, that's not my experience. Okay. So good perspective. Good perspective. But like, I, I, when I listened to, when I think about acting and casting and stuff like that, now I'm like, okay, like how can we make it easier for the actors?

1 (6m 54s):
And how can we, so when you and I are writing something that gets produced or when I'm doing something else, like, I don't know, writing in a writer's room or something, it's like, how can we make people's jobs easier and not harder and more, you know, because I guess what if you make anybody's job easier, everybody's job is easier, I think is so fundamentally true that we are just missing. And I think it's, end-stage capitalism again of like, no, no, no, no, no. Actually, if you, if, if you help one person, the whole, the whole team thrives, this is not what capitalism is, is based on.

1 (7m 35s):
So, so yeah. And, and miles was talking about, you know, my husband was talking about the like elections and things like that. And I, and, and global, we were talking about a global warming crisis. And I just said, you know, like, it always comes down to like, we tried, like some of us tried and some of us are trapped, but like humans on planet earth, especially in the west, gave it a shot. And maybe, maybe the, you know, the planet is kicking us off and we're how long can you stick around in a place and treat it so poorly on so many levels before you're kicked out of the club, you know, like we're getting kicked out of the club here. So, yeah.

1 (8m 14s):
Yeah. And this is the part of the whole Handmaid's tale story, which is so wild to think about because the premise, the conceit that they've adopted in the movie, which is not in the book or the television show, which is not in the book, is that all of this was done in part, in an effort to heal the planet. Like they did actually successfully reverse the impacts of climate change, at least from the Gilliad. Right. But at what cost, and I hope it's not trying to say, I hope it's trying to make that complicated and not say, Hey, if you want the climate to get better, everybody has to go into sexual servitude.

1 (9m 3s):
I don't think they're trying to say that, but I don't either, but it ends up feeling...