Interview: Brenda Strong (Pt. 2)
Welcome back to my conversation with Brenda Strong, who was kind enough to accept the offer to do an interview for THAT THING THEY DID after one of our very valuable paid subscribers suggested her as someone they’d like for me to have a chat with. Given the substantial size of her back catalog, it should come as not surprise to anyone that this ended up needing to be a two-parter.
We talked about some of Ms. Strong’s past accomplishments in Pt. 1 of our conversation—and if you missed it, you can check it out by clicking right here—and this time around we talk about even more of them, including Sports Night, auditioning for Desperate Housewives with Marc Cherry’s eyes closed, teasing Paul Verhoeven on Starship Troopers, the deliciousness of playing a Luthor in Supergirl, her on-camera and behind-the-camera evolution on 13 Reasons Why, her connection to the late host of Tattletales, and more.
Read on!
How was the experience of doing Sports Night with Aaron Sorkin?
Phenomenal. You know, it's funny, because I auditioned for Felicity [Huffman's] role of Dana, and during the audition Aaron was looking down through my resume, and he goes, "Wait a minute: you did a movie I wrote! You were in Malice?" I said, "Yeah!" He said, "Well, who did you play?" [Laughs.] I said, "I was Peter [Gallagher's] legal secretary!" And he goes, "Oh, yeah!" I said, "Yeah, unfortunately, a lot of the stuff I did ended up on the cutting room floor, but I was still there for three or four weeks, however long it took to film." And so he ended up writing Sally Sasser for me. He actually wrote it for me.
Tommy Schlamme, who was his executive producer / director at the time, ended up deciding that I wasn't tall enough and wanted to put me in, like, 5" heels, so I would tower over Felicity and everybody, and I would wear all of these tailored suits. I had such a good time. You know, whenever you work with Aaron, you really have to step up your game, because there are no pauses, the dialogue is just right on top of each other, and you just have to be ready for anything.
Anyway, it was really fun doing it, and he kept writing amazing scenes, and Peter Krause and I worked really well together. That's where Felicity and I first worked together. I got to work with Bill Macy as well, because he came on, so that was kind of a precursor to the whole Desperate Housewives connection. Yeah, it was wonderful. I'm a huge fan of Aaron's, not only for what he has added to the zeitgeist of content, but just his integrity and his political stance and how he is a truth-teller. A Few Good Men is extraordinary. I've seen his work on Broadway a few times. I'd do anything that he'd write for me, and I'd do it with honor.
Oh, one last Sports Night question: I'm to ask you, "Do those legs go all the way to the floor?"
Um, according to the writing, yes. [Laughs.] My husband often jokes that if you undid my button, my neck would be there, that I'm all legs.
There are worse things.
[Laughs.] I only have what God gave me, so I can't really claim any ownership. It's just my job to take care of it!
You mentioned Desperate Housewives. How did you find your way into that ensemble? Did they come looking for you, or was it an audition situation?
You know, I was late to the party because I had been working on a Warner Brothers series. It was short-lived, we only did six episodes, it was called The Help.
It was a challenging role. It was a hard role for me to step into. There are some roles that you just step into and you are that person, and then there are others that you have to build from the ground up and you really have to work to be them. This was one of those for me, and I was exhausted. I went, "I have to go do some Shakespeare." [Laughs.] "I have to just clean my palate and go do some Shakespeare." So a friend of mine who was one of my acting professors in college ran the Montana Shakespeare Company, so I went up with my family to do a couple of Shakespeare plays that summer with him and his wife. They were co-artistic directors of the company.
And I got the call for Desperate Housewives, and they said, "We need you to fly back to L.A. for this audition." This is before Zoom auditions. And I said, "Well, I happen to be going back there to film this movie The Kid and I, so I could organize things so that, as long as they can see me during these days when I'm off in between filming, I can definitely do that." So they arranged for me to meet with Marc Cherry, and...because I was working with Shakespearean language at the time, I approached Mary Alice kind of in that epic way. And it was funny because, when they called, they said, "Look, this show is getting a lot of buzz. They've cast all of the roles, except they're recasting the role of the narrator, Mary Alice Young, so it's the only role available right now. You weren't available because you were doing the series when they were casting all the other roles."
So I came in, and Marc - in his funny way - said, "I hope you don't mind, but I'm not going to look at you. I'm just going to close my eyes and listen." And I went, "Okay!" The irony is that I knew that's what was going to happen, because one of the girls who went in before me said, "Oh, they're so nice! Just go in, don't even worry about having it memorized. You can just read it off the page. They all have their eyes closed!" [Laughs.] And I thought to myself, "Oh, no, I'm not going to read. I need to do a performance. They need to hear a story." So it was the epic... [Intoning.] "My name is Mary Alice Young..." And it just went on from there.
And Marc opened his eyes and said, "I understand you're doing Shakespeare in Montana. Can you get out of that contract?" And I said, "Well, technically, it's not a contract, because they're not paying me. I'm just working with friends. And I did tell them that they really needed to get an understudy in case I got work, so...I think we could work something out!" And he said, "Look into that." And the next thing I know, they're flying me down to test. So that's what happened!
I know I've already bounced past it chronologically, but I have to ask you about the experience of working on Starship Troopers.
Right!
And I'll just say that I revisited it recently, and I was extremely pleased with how well it holds up.
Yeah, it really does, doesn't it? But I think it's because Paul Verhoeven is a master storyteller, and I don't think people really understood at the time all the underpinnings of that film. I think over time they finally realized what it was, but at the time when it came out, if you took it at face value, it's, like, "Bugs? Really?" No, there were all sorts of metaphors going on with that film - obviously Nazi Germany and all sorts of things. But it was hard for me to watch the film, because...I'm a sci-fi fan, but I'm not good with gore. So when I saw the premiere at the studio, I was, like, "Oh, my God, this is what I'm in?!" [Laughs.]
I remember during the audition, Paul...isn't facile with the English language. I mean, he's good, but he's not fluent. So he was kind of trying to describe to me what I was going to be reacting to as Captain Deladier, with the ship going down, and he's doing all these sound effects... [Imitates a flurry of random explosive noises.] You know, he's trying to describe what I'm reacting to. And I just looked at him deadpan and I went, "Is that a line reading?" [Laughs.] And he cast me!
So when we were on set and we had the green screen up... It was this huge, massive green screen, the biggest I've ever seen. And there's this tennis ball that's going across the space that we're supposed to be reacting to, these different points where the ships are colliding in front of us and people are falling out or whatever. And I just looked at Paul and I said, "If your special effects don't match my reactions, I'm coming for you." [Laughs.] "I don't want to have egg on my face at all!" I really enjoyed working with him. I gave him a hard time. I teased him a lot.
This may be the first time you've ever been asked about this film, but I remember reviewing it when it first came out on video several years ago. How did you enjoy working on A Plumm Summer?
Oh, you know, I was just talking about Henry [Winkler] the other day...
He is literally the reason I wanted to ask about the experience.
Actually, the film that I was filming when I got Desperate Housewives was the first film I worked on with Henry. It was called The Kid and I, with Tom Arnold, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Henry and I.
So when they came in with the offer for A Plumm Summer, A) I was going to Montana, which is where my Shakespeare friends were, and B) it was Henry and Billy Baldwin. And I knew Billy from Creative Coalition and liked him very much. And I thought, "Well, these are good people. If I have to sit in Montana in the summer with a group of people, I wouldn't mind doing it with them."
And because I was playing Henry's wife, and we were kind of this early television couple, with Henry playing someone a la Captain Kangaroo or something like that... I don't know, it just felt nostalgic to me, and I thought, "I will have so much fun hiking and playing this role." And we had a great costume designer, Nola Roller... I just ended up enjoying it so much. And it was so wholesome and sweet, and it was based on a true story. And the filmmakers, they were newer filmmakers, but they really wanted to do it right, and they treated us very well. So sometimes when you take risks and you do smaller films, well, that one ended up getting a lot of wonderful reviews and ended up playing at some of the more family-oriented film festivals, which was great.
And Henry Winkler is, by all accounts, one of the nicest guys in show business.
The nicest guy in show business. [Laughs.] I was just telling my husband that. I said, "I really think that Henry has a corner on making people feel seen and loved."
Okay, so at least one more obscurity: do you remember anything in particular about the experience of doing Teddy Bears' Picnic?
[Bursts out laughing.] These are coming out of the woodwork!
Look, I'm only asking because that cast is so insane.
[If you click on the below video, it should be set to the beginning of the closing credits of the film, just so that you can see the murderer’s row of comedians who are in this thing. If it doesn’t take you there, though, jump to 1:16:04 and sit awestruck as the familiar faces flow by.]
I'll say that I would actually love to see that again. I don't even remember what role I was playing.
The character's name was Jackie Sloan, but as far as who she was, it's been so long since I've actually watched the film that I couldn't tell you.
Yeah, I feel like I was an organizer or something like that? But it's based on an actual place that a friend of mine has performed before. It was fun. It was just a who's who of comedians, and being in that kind of company, you always learn something from people who have been doing it a long time. Timing is always something that you can hone. But when you're watching masters, it's really nice to be able to learn from them.
I feel really blessed. I've actually worked with a lot of really amazing veteran actors. Even just The Gambler, Part III was just chock full of ‘em.
Charles Durning was one of the people that I learned how to be on set from, because he was the nicest, most humble person I'd ever worked with. This man did vaudeville. He had been around. He'd been on Broadway, done feature film after feature film, and he just couldn't have been nicer. And I thought, "That's how I need to be. That's who I want to model myself after when I'm on set." It's good to learn from people who've done it before you and learn how to do it right, rather than, you know, "I'll be in my trailer!" and the whole craziness that sometimes this industry can invoke.
I was just looking through your filmography, and it's pretty amazing how many legends you worked with over the years. You worked with Tom Bosley on Father Dowling Mysteries, you did an episode of Matlock with Andy Griffith... Just a flurry of immediately recognizable names.
Yep. And that's how you learn when you're coming up. I hope to be in a position where someone coming up at some point goes, "Yeah, I got to work with Brenda Strong!" Wouldn't that be great? To be able to be a role model that people aspire to be? That would be amazing!
Okay, I promised we'd go higher profile, so how did you enjoy working on Fear the Walking Dead?
That was great! I loved working with Colman Domingo and Kim Dickens. And Alycia [Debham-Carey]! Alycia and I had done The 100 together, and we were arch-rivals in The 100. I remember going down to get the van early one morning—it was, like, 5 a.m.—and I'm standing there, and Alycia turns around, and she goes, "Hello, I'm...AAAAAAAAAAA!" [Laughs.] She just screamed. "BRENDA!" And she gave me this huge hug, and it was such a nice welcome.
You know, I didn't really know where they were going to go with this character. I think they weren't quite sure, either. It was early on in season two, we had just landed in Mexico, it was a new writers room, there were a lot of moving pieces. So I was just kind of going with the flow on that one. But I built some really solid relationships with Kim and Colman. And they're still going strong! I think Alycia just left. I don't think you ever got to see me be a full zombie, but I was able to do the walk, and that was really fun. I had a tutorial of how not to do it. They said, "Don't do this, and don't do that, but you can do anything else in-between!"
Okay, as a superhero fan, I've waited long enough to ask you about playing Lillian Luthor on Supergirl.
Oh, well, that is just deliciousness. [Laughs.] She's just delicious! She just loves to make people squirm. So it was really fun to be part of that kind of...history, I guess. The DC History. To be part of the family of DC characters. And Lillian Luthor... You know, there's not really a lot known about her in the lexicon of DC characters, so I had a lot of room to create her, which was wonderful. And working with Katie McGrath was one of the greatest joys I've had in my career, because I adore her a) as an actress, and b) as a person. And Melissa (Benoist) is just the best of us. She's just an incredibly decent human being, and she led that cast with such grace under pressure.
So it was a delight. And I always love going to Vancouver to film, because I'm a naturalist at heart. So being up in the Pacific Northwest, even though it's a little above where I'm from, it feels like coming home to me. So it was always a delight. And working with Robert Rovner again—and Jessica (Queller)—on that, because Robert was one of our executive producers on Dallas. So it's nice when you kind of come back to these families that know your work and know how to write for you.
I was actually hoping to get your son Lex to join us on this call...
Oh! That would've been fun!
Unfortunately, he's busy with a pilot right now, otherwise I have no doubt that he would've popped on.
I've got to text him, because he called me right before Christmas, and he said, "Brenda, I have a present for you! It's a joke present, but it's a present!" And I'm, like, "Well, bring it over!" But he was, like, "I can't, I'm on my way to New York!" And we've been playing phone tag ever since. So if he'd popped on, I would've said, "Hey, where's my present?" [Laughs.]
Well, I know he had a ball working on the show.
Talk about chewing the scenery. He came in and just knocked it out of the park, and everybody loved working with him. It was so gleeful for all of the geeks in the writers room to have him there. Yeah, that was fun.
I think he blew a lot of people away with that performance. Not everyone was prepared for Jon Cryer to come in and just destroy as Lex Luthor.
Oh, he's so talented! So talented. If you go back to his early work, he's a gifted comedic actor from way back. I mean, his timing is phenomenal. He's got it in his genes.
On to another more recent—and more serious—series, you were part of 13 Reasons Why. I cannot claim to have watched it myself, but my 16-year-old daughter did.
Well, you know, it's funny, because it's one of those shows that we actually encourage parents to watch with their kids, because there's always such rich conversation that gets stimulated from the subject matter. And I know for me, that's been one of those gifts. Brian Yorkey cast me as Bryce's mother, not really knowing where it was going to go, and I think just as we started to build the familial relationships onscreen, he just started to see the richness of what could be investigated. You know, I think it's so easy to villainize people who perform horrific acts, but he wanted to explore the inherited family trauma and what would make somebody do that. And I think he was really open to exploring that with me, and I felt really blessed that he not only wrote this character in such a deep way, but that he was continually open to going deeper.
It ended up being such a beautiful evolution for me, because season two I would just go up and do an episode here, an episode there, and they'd fly me in and fly me out. For season three, I ended up moving to Napa to be part of the film crew, and then season four I ended up getting to direct two episodes, because they had seen the short film that my husband had written and went, "Oh! You could really handle this!" And I ended up shadowing Kevin Dowling in season three, one of my favorite directors that I've worked with before, who is just such a seasoned vet. And his mentors are Bob Altman, Sidney Lumet, and on and on, so he carries this lineage of depth of artistry with him that I just wanted to be a fly on the wall with. And he was so generous with me. So I got to go to production meetings and scouting and sit in on how he would prep and work with actors... It was a real education. And then, because the actors had come to trust me as a fellow actor, they really brought everything to their work and really went deep with me. So I was really grateful for that opportunity.
Lastly, to go all the way back to the very beginning, do you remember anything at all about the making of Weekend Warriors?
I remember that it's where I got my SAG card. I remember that it's where I established a relationship with a phenomenal casting director named Junie Lowery Johnson, who went on to cast me in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and who went on to cast me in Desperate Housewives, along with Scott Genkinger. And she ended up casting me in The Gambler Part III with her brother, Dick, who directed that. So she has been singlehandedly a positive force in my career, so I'm really grateful to her.
I was actually doing a play at Beverly Hills Playhouse, because that's all I knew how to do coming off college - doing plays - because that's all I did! So I auditioned for this play... It was a one-man show with Doug Warhit and his best friend, Matthew McCoy, who ended up being on Seinfeld as well as Silicon Valley and Gambler III, etc. They were friends with Junie. So Junie came to see Doug in his one-man show and saw me in it and said, "I think I have a role for you. Who's your agent?" And I said, "I don't have one." And she said, "Oh, well, uh..." And a friend of mine at the time had an agent, and I said, "If I get this role, will your agent negotiate it for me?" And he said, "Okay!" So I walked into the audition...and it was Bert Convy!
Now, this is where you start to go, "Is there divine providence somewhere?" Because what are the odds that Bert Convy is directing this movie, and I actually went to school with Jennifer Convy, his daughter? And I did A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with her as the very first role that I ever did in college. And when I told Bert that I knew Jennifer and that we had danced together and went to ASU together, etc., I ended up getting cast. That was the best part of the story. The rest of it I don't need to talk to you about. [Laughs.]
That's way better than I was ever expecting anyway. That's amazing.
Yeah, I always try to look on the bright side of things, so...I'll end the story there!
