CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST

[music plays]

Hilarie Burton: Hi guys, it’s Hilarie Burton, and you have tuned in to the Southern Gothic Productions Podcast! It’s our weekly look into the inner workings of a production company. So sit back, hang out, and enjoy a sneak peek into our journey.

Denise Gideon: This is Denise Gideon and I want to welcome you to another edition of the Southern Gothic Productions Podcast. We’re here wrapping up our 3 week segment, of course, talking to the director and screen writer of Southern Gothic Production’s web series, ‘Friendship Union Community Theater,’ Nicholas Gray. The previous week we talked to the lead actress, Rachel Sutton, who of course plays Clarisse Birdsong, and this week we’re going to be catching up with Taylor Kowalski, who plays Walter the Stage Manager. So it was a lot of fun to be able to bring all these interviews to you to kind of give you a behind-the-scenes look at how the web series came to fruition and the two lead actors in the web series. Everyone’s been all over the place, very busy, so they’ve kind of left me to be in charge of doing the introductions for the last 3 weeks, and it’s been a really big honor to be able to introduce these 3 interviews to you guys that we were able to put together from my visit down to Wilmington. So that was a lot of fun to be able to do that. I just want to share a couple more stories with you about my trip down to Wilmington and being on set and being able to see the filming of the web series firsthand. One of the things that I waned to share with you is: be careful when you hang around because you never know what you’re going to be doing. I think that Hilarie Burton mentioned this in one of our previous podcasts about Steven Howe. Steven Howe plays Parker J. Parker in the web series, or you may just know him as the guy that takes his shirt off, that may be helpful visually. Steven had finished filming the first day, and Hilarie had mentioned that he was a guy that just kind of wanted to learn the process, the inside outs of filming and acting, so he hung around the second day, and he was outside in the open bar area, because we were at the top floor of a building, and Hilarie and Kelly and myself were getting ready to record a segment of the podcast we were doing. I’d been taking photos the last couple of days, and of course if I’m doing the podcast with Hilarie and Kelly, then I can’t take photos. So Steven was at the bar area looking at something and I said, ‘Hey, Steven, can you do me a favor?’ ‘Of course.’ Everyone was amazing there, was willing to do whatever needed to be done to get the web series filmed, so he looked at me and said, ‘What do you need?’ and I handed him my camera and said, ‘While we’re talking, just snap a few photos.’ So if anybody has seen the photos of myself, Hilarie, and Kelly sitting at a table doing a podcast, those photos are taken by Mr. Steven Howell. So, there’s an inside bit of information you didn’t know. Also, of course everyone, I hope, has seen the web series, and noticed the scenes with Walter the Stage Manager holding the sugar shaker, and it was the first day, and they were getting ready to shoot a scene with him with the sugar shaker, and then they all look around, and they don’t have one! So the sugar shaker is borrowed from a local restaurant down in downtown Wilmington, and it’s just like that, just picking up props where they could, and trying to make a great product from what they had. Also, when the web series wrapped, we went down to a local restaurant and kind of had a little wrap party, and it was fun. So when we got there, you know, I’m the kind of person who just sits in the background, and so I sat on the end of the table by the wall. So here I am pushed up against there and on the other side of the table is a booth type, so everyone is squeezing in through that way as well. I sat across from Rachael Sutton, who plays Clarisse Birdsong in the web series, and had a really nice conversation with her. She’s a great person. Whatever you guys heard on her interview last week, it’s even better to be able to speak with her in person. Great person, great personality, a lot of great stories, and one of my favorite parts of the evening was… we were sitting across from each other, Rachael and I were, and I’m not sure how the conversation got to that point, but somebody was talking about how if Hilarie was upset at somebody, or mad at them, that they’d like to know. I looked across, and she was kind of sitting, kind of, catty-corner across the table from me, and I looked across and said, ‘Hey Hilarie, if you ever get mad at me, or you’re about to get mad at me, kind of… would you give me a head up? Because my devastation factor level is pretty low.’ And Rachel looks across at her as well and says, ‘You know, that goes double for me.’ And everybody started laughing, and Hilarie was like, ‘I really like that term!’ And we’re like, ‘Yeah, just make sure you don’t make us use it.’ So, it was a cute little story, and I had a lot of fun kind of being involved in a wrap party, and seeing everybody just take a big sigh of relief, and say, ‘Well, we finished it and now we gotta go do all the other stuff.’ And now you guys have seen the finished product and, like I said last week, I really hope you enjoyed seeing the finished product. One last thing before we close out, as we bring our interview with Taylor Kowalski who plays Walter the Stage Manager as Hilarie Burton and I got to sit down and chat with him a bit. In this week, I’ll be going down to Dragon-Con. I don’t know if you guys remember us talking about this in a podcast a few weeks ago, but Dragon-Con is Comic-Con-like. It’s in the South. It’s in Atlanta, Georgia. Comic-con is like, the pinnacle of where everybody needs to be, and needs to be seen, and Dragon-Con is like a smaller version of that, but it’s getting to be pretty big itself. A lot of things that go on down there that is kind of like, almost, a smaller version, but I don’t know, would you call 60,000 people in 5 hotels in downtown Atlanta small? I don’t know, but I’ve been charged with going down there, and not only making my yearly trek down there, but to also bring some information about Southern Gothic Productions, and hand out swag, and flyers, and just kind of get to a new segment of people at a target market interested in Southern Gothic Productions, so it’s a lot of fun to be able to go down there and share the ideas and what’s going on with Southern Gothic Productions to a whole new fan base, so hopefully, when I get back, you guys will be seeing some new people and some new names and faces on the website! Well, you know, that’s our hope, at least, so kind of, if you see somebody new, just say ‘Welcome!’ and welcome them in, and tell them it’s a great place to be, and stick around for a while. But for now, sit back and listen to this really great interview with Taylor Kowalski, Hilarie Burton, and myself.

Nicholas Gray: Hey guys! This is Nick Gray, and you are listening to the Southern Gothic Productions podcast.

DG: We’re here talking with Hilarie Burton and Taylor Kowalski, who plays the character of Walter. What do you think, Hilarie? What do you think about Taylor and Walter?

HB: Dude, I’ve known Taylor since he was, what, like 14 or 15? [Taylor agrees] I’ve known you since you were just a wee thing! You’re a big, strong, weird man playing big, strong, weird men now.

Taylor Kowalski: Correct.

HB: Correct. You like playing weirdos!

TK: I do like playing weirdos. They’re more fun that the straight characters.

HB: That’s true, and the thing that is weird is that Taylor is a beautiful, beautiful man, and would be offered all the leading man parts but doesn’t want them because he wants to play the creep! It’s so true, dude! You would audition for stuff in town here, and they’d be like, ‘Oh, oh! He’s beautiful!’ 

TK: Yeah…

HB: And then you’d go in, and frighten them!

TK: I guess so. I mean, I’d like to play some leading roles at some point, but I just… it’s fun playing the weirdos because you get to do more stuff, and there aren’t a lot of rules when you play those guys.

HB: You have too big of an imagination to get cornered into that little pocket, you know, that most people our age do. You know, when you’re in your 20s, everybody wants you to be just like cute and next door, and I don’t know, maybe that’s why we get along so well, because we’re both the creeps in the corner like, ‘Yeah, let’s be that guy! Let’s weird out!’

TK: Yeah, in the corner in the bar, not talking to anybody.

HB: [laughs] Glaring.

DG: They tend to have stuffed you in weird places, too.

TK: Oh, yeah!

DG: I mean, literally, popping up everywhere.

TK: Yeah, that kind of happened organically, just kind of like a pop-up book now in this.

HB: Yeah, well, I mean, your character has a crush on Clarisse, the lead girl.

TK: Right.

HB: I have to imagine you’ve cooked up some back-story to that.

TK: It’s a bit of an obsession that he has with her. The only back-story that I could really think of is her uncle ran the theatre for a long time, and she probably lived in rural Florida with them at some point, and she left and went to New York City and became this kind of famous off-Broadway director, and I imagine that he kept up with all her news articles and all her interviews and all her stardom, and has been kind of waiting for this moment for her to return all this time, and that he probably knew all along that Mel was going to give her the theater, so he’s been in preparation to impress Clarisse for a long time, and he goes out of his way to show that he is a very talented [Hilarie laughs] impersonator, and that he’s more than just a stage manger.

HB: He is more than just a stage manager, you know. You are the ring master of this entire thing. I think, as we introduce more characters, it’s going to be fun to watch you interact with them, because it is… that’s Nick’s forte, writing characters, and so, you know, he wrote the part with you in mind. He’s known you… you guys have known each other a long time, too. When did you meet Nick?

TK: Well, I’ve known Nick… Nick and I did a play together called ‘Pot Mom’ not too far back, and he kind of helped direct that, and we met then, and actually one of the first things he said to me when we were rehearsing. We were just doing a scene…

HB: [laughing] Say it like he says it.

TK: Okay, I’ll do it like he says it. [impersonating Nick] ‘Okay, you’re kind of creepy, so [Hilarie laughs] what we’re going to do here…’ So that was like one of the first moments we had together, and then, you know, we got along really well, and he’s a very fun person to work with, bottom line.

HB: Yeah, he’s a good egg, man! You’re alright too, I guess. I guess….

TK: I guess.

HB: Yeah, I mean, you’re in school right now. You actually… did you skip school?

TK: I did skip school to…

DG: Uh oh.

HB: Yeah!

TK: Yeah, I just kind of… I get two freebies according to my teachers, and then they take credit off.

HB: Oh no, did you already use your freebies?

TK: No, this is my first freebie.

HB: Oh, good! You think ahead! You know, you plan for…

TK: I try.

HB: You plan for a rainy day!

TK: Yeah so, school’s fun. I have homework. I have to read 3 plays: ‘Richard III’, ‘Titus’, and ‘The Comedy of Heirs’ and write a report on each one, and then I have to do this behavior journal for my P.E. class. [all laugh] I’m supposed to, like, stand chronologically…

HB: You have P.E. in college?

TK: Yes! It’s a requirement!

HB: What? I dropped out. I don’t know, and I went to art school in New York. We didn’t have P.E., you know, we were lucky if we walked to class.

TK: My P.E. teacher is amazing. He’s a character who should probably be in a show. He basically… his advice to us is to ‘Feel good! You just got to feel good and then you live good!’ That’s what he says to us every day.

HB: [laughs] That’s a really beautiful piece of advice.

TK: That’s all he says.

HB: Maybe we should make us t-shirts that say that: ‘Just feel good, man!’

TK: And he’s coined another term called: he doesn’t like ‘frown-y brownies.’ [Hilarie and Denise laugh]

HB: Can we script that in for you?

TK: [laughing] Frown-y Brownies.

HB: I don’t want no frown-y brownies hanging out around here!

TK: Yeah, I’ll ask him.

HB: No, that would be… yeah, if you get permission from him for that, that would be totally awesome.

DG: Well, Taylor, tell me what it’s been like for you to work on this webisode, this new media.

TK: It’s great! You know, I don’t really know how different it is from working on film or anything. I still do the same thing I would do, but it’s just great working with Hilarie and Nick and a bunch of the crew are guys that I know.

HB: Well, you’ve done a lot of stuff locally. I mean, you did that… that Ben Stiller movie you did.

TK: Yeah. ‘Mark Pease Experience.’

HB: What else have you done? Give them the list, give them the list! Give them the resume, kid.

TK: The stuff I’ve done around town is ‘The Mark Pease Experience’, ‘Cabin Fever 2’ which is… I don’t know when that’s coming out.

HB: ‘Surface’ you were on.

TK: ‘Surface.’ I did a thing on ‘One Tree Hill,’ a stunt, and a little part. [Hilarie laughs] And I did ‘The Secret Life of Bees,’ small part in that.

HB: Oh, we did that together!

TK: Yes, we did.

HB: We do everything together!

TK: I went to New Orleans, did something down there for the Lifetime Movie Network.

HB: Get out of town! Were you like a boyfriend that beat up his girlfriend or… [everyone laughs]

TK: Well, I was more on the stalker side. I was definitely more on the stalker side.

HB: [gasps] You are a creep, honey! [Denise laughs]

TK: Thanks, Hil.

HB: Yeah, so you’ve done a bunch of stuff. So, I mean, he’s been working in this town a long time. I mean, Taylor is a staple here.

TK: A staple.

HB: You are a staple, and so yeah, we were really excited to have him be one of the anchors for this web series, you know. We knew you could handle the responsibility, and the size of the part, and would be funny doing it. The thing about Taylor is he understands that comedy is funnier when it’s sincere. You know, if you’re laughing at your own joke, so it’s not funny. So he understands how to deliver that dry wit that is kind of what we’re after.

DG: There’s some things that you get to do that, you know, most people, you know, in the normal, would say you can’t do that.

TK: Right.

DG: So what’s it like to go outside the box, a little bit?

TK: It’s wonderful. That’s what’s so fun about acting, and this job, is that you can do things you wouldn’t normally do and get away with it, and make people laugh, and make a fool out of yourself, pretty much.

HB: You love shock value.

TK: I kind of like shock value.

HB: You love it!

TK: I mean, if it’s necessary. [laughs]

HB: You’re like the kid that shows up in the Halloween costume on, like, Easter. ‘What are you doing?’

TK: Yeah, I just usually forget the holidays a lot.

HB: ‘Oh, I forget!’ [laughs] No, I mean, I feel like, when you’re acting that is your one time to really be liberated and try anything you want, and that’s the kind of freedom we want to give our actors on this show.

TK: And that… Yeah, that’s exactly what’s so great, is that they give us that freedom to just have fun, and make a fool out of ourselves, and Nick is there to say, ‘You know, Taylor, don’t do that. That’s stupid. Don’t do that.’ And then he’s also there to be like, ‘This is stupid, do this.’

HB: [laughing] This is stupider, do it again!

DG: Well I asked Rachael, and I’m going to ask you too, because I want to get the different sides of it, how’s Hilarie as boss?

HB: God.

TK: I don’t really want to talk about that.

HB: Yeah…

TK: … with the rest of the public here. No, Hilarie’s great. She’s, like I said, we’ve known eachother for a while. She’s a friend. I hope she tells me if I’m being dumb.

HB: [laughs] Taylor, you’re being dumb.

TK: Yeah, I’m being dumb right now. [Hilarie laughs] And she’s fun! She’s great.

DG: How much fun was it to work on this? Everyone we’ve talked about… you know, there was some tense moments, of course, getting things started, but it’s just been very relaxed and very fun to do.

TK: Definitely relaxed, but it’s a very small crew, but everybody’s adequate at what they’re doing, and we’re all kind of here just making each other laugh, really, and hopefully other people laugh too when they see it.

HB: We’ve widened our circle, and we have a lot of really talented, awesome people that are now part of the extended family of Southern Gothic Productions. It’s an experience that we’re looking forward to sharing, so we decided to share with our family and then put it out there for everybody on the web.

DG: I just want to remind everyone to continue to send your fan questions to the Southern Gothic Productions Podcast. We’d love to hear from you and love to hear your questions and be able to answer them. You can do so by emailing your question to sogopropodcast@gmail.com. That’s sogopropodcast@gmail.com. And we’re also offering another way. If you want to leave an audio comment, instead of just a comment on the website, about anything whether it be this podcast or the web series, future projects for Southern Gothic Productions, we would love to hear from you. And we’re opening up our Southern Gothic Productions voicemail for that, and you can do so at 828-398-0310. That’s 828-398-0310 and at some point, we’ll be able to try to incorporate some of your comments or questions voicemail-wise into the podcast, or Twitter them on our Twitter site, so make sure to keep listening and stay involved and give us questions and comments.

HB: Thank you guys so much for listening to the Southern Gothic Productions Podcast. We hang out on Wednesdays so be sure to check us out! See you next Wednesday.

[music plays till fade out]