Q) So how did you get involved with the episode?
A) I took some time off when I finished One Tree Hill and spent some time at home I decided to move out to L.A. and just really continue working which is something I was on the fence about. Especially since I’ve had my daughter. So now that I decided to move back to L.A. and so after some projects that were strategically designed to move my career in a direction that was not quite just doing the same thing as I was doing in One Tree Hill, which I loved doing, but I wanted to explore some parts of my abilities as an artist that I haven’t done in a long time. Especially comedy since I started doing comedy when I was young and doing sitcoms and then I stopped for a long time doing drama. Because I was doing drama. And so when Men at Work was one of the auditions that came up and I told my manager I really, really want to get this because I would have the opportunity to jump into some sitcom work again and get my feet wet and see how that feels. And see if I still enjoy it. And lucky me I won the job.
Q) What a great comedy to be on!
A) Yes it’s a great set. It was a great show. I had seen a couple of episodes and I just really thought this would be such a perfect place for me to do my comedy experiment and see if it works. And I hope it did. I had a great time.
Q) What did you find the most difficult aspect about filming the show? There’s so many good looking men.
A) The first three days, the first two and a half days were really difficult for me because, like I said I hadn’t done comedy in a long – especially sitcoms. A very, very long time probably ten or eleven years. And walking back onto a completely new set that didn’t feel like home to me, it didn’t feel the comforts that you feel after you’ve been on a series for ten years and you know everyone there. It was a completely new environment and I have so much respect for artist’s environment and everybody does it differently. And so not only was I walking on to a brand new set trying to – desperately hoping that I would be able to really contribute something to this show that I respected but also trying to navigate everyone’s energy and everyone’s vibe and like how does everybody work here. That’s probably the best way to answer that question. I think the first few days were just difficult in getting my feet wet.
Q) Are there any funny moments during filming where you just couldn’t keep a straight face?
A) Yes I think for me that happened when we we’re filming live because everything is so unpredictable. After the first few takes you really start listening out and then you find your energy with the audience and I could really tell the guys were so used to this and they really had their own routine with the audience and with each other. There wasn’t a particular story of a moment but there were lots of little things that happened throughout the filming that were surprising and fun.
Q) I was wondering when you got the job did they tell you anything particularly about your role to help you out or just give you the script?
A) I pretty much just got the script. That’s something that like I was saying before, every environment is different. Everyone involved from producers to the other actors are very collaborative on the character work and on wanting to get facts, story and information, but I’m not sure that in TV there’s a lot of time for that. I think it’s more you get what’s on the page. The writers are pretty clear about the character and what they want to say and who they want you to be. In terms of the producing and directing they were great about steering me. If there was something in particular they wanted they’d just come up to me and talk to me about it and we’d make an adjustment. And the writers are always rewriting especially on sitcoms. There constantly rewriting even the moment you’re filming they rewrite something.
Q) Danny Masterson said they were kind of flexible there about like if you wanted to try out new jokes and stuff. Did you do that kind of thing?
A) Oh no I didn’t. If I had been there for maybe a few episodes and was really comfortable — I think that’s another thing about coming into someone else’s set, someone else’s show is that you or I have a tendency to hold back a little bit first because – I don’t know. I just want to be respectful of the environment and let everybody else kind of do their thing and figure where I fit in. Maybe that’s something I need to talk to my therapist about. Maybe I need to be more present and bring more to the table. I don’t know.
Q) So you played a mother on One Tree Hill for quite some time and then I understand that on Men at Work you’re also playing a mother. How does it differ from being a mother in real life to playing one on screen and do you feel more prepared for this role now after One Tree Hill and your own child?
A) Well I think if there had been a lot real intense interaction with the kids that the answer might be yes, but there was no interaction. There were no actual kid scenes in the episodes. It was more adult shenanigans. I’m not sure that an actress who is not a mother would be able to contribute in her own way just as much. But I did play a mom on One Tree Hill and that did help I think having my own child. I’ve always had a real heart for kids and I love children. So I don’t know maybe it did.
Q) And then you said it was kind of a more comedy based show than you’ve done on One Tree Hill. How is it different working on a set that’s live and interacting with an audience more than kind of the drama One Tree Hill set?
A) I think one of my weakest points as an artist is comedy impulse. I can do dramatic with no problem but comedy, I’m funny but not — like I’m funny in my real life with my friends, people that are expecting me to be funny and they’re looking to me like boom make a joke! I kind of freeze up but I’m like “Ah I can’t handle the pressure!” So that was challenging for me, which is another reason why I really wanted to do it. There’s only one way to get better at something and that’s just to do it. That’s probably how it was different for me. I was just used to One Tree Hill there’s not a lot of improvisation. Well I’m sure the writers would disagree with me about that because I was constantly changing the lines. I was probably the bane of their existence for ten years. They never said that, but yes I think that would probably be the major difference and just being in front of a live audience and you’re feeling energy from them. And that’s what’s so great for comedy is you get to hear the immediate laugh and you feel relieved like oh God. Thank God they like me. It was funny. Oh good. It’s working.
Q) You’re weren’t the only guest star on that episode. You also had Ben McKenzie there. Did having someone else there who was dealing with the same issues you were as far as the new set working with new people, did that help at all? Did you enjoy interacting with him?
A) I did! He was a lovely person. He was very funny. I think he also is close friends with one or a few of the guys on the show and so they already had a rapport and there was a comfort level there to just sort of spitball ideas and play. And he was great, and it did help. I think it was encouraging for me to see another quote unquote dramatic actor on the show. He was very funny. He was really impressed with his instincts.
Q) You were talking so much about how you were really trying to get into comedy, but it looks like coming up you’re going to be in a much more dramatic role on Dexter. I’m just curious to see or hear more about how that decision came along, too.
A) Yes well I should clarify. Not trying to change my career into a comedy career. I just want to be able to explore. As an artist, as an actor we have so many different sides and so many different ways of expressing ourselves especially after one thing for so long. Sometimes it just feels really good to just kind of break out of that mode for a while. But yes the decision of Dexter was “Will you be on Dexter?” Yes I will. So it’s not hard at all.
Q) I know you got your start on soaps and the state of soaps these days is kind of a flux and now they’re starting to move to cable or online, stuff like that. What do you think about that? Do you think that’s a smart move?
A) What a great question! I’ve got so much nostalgia around soaps. I mean I would come home from school when I was a kid and my mom had All My Children on and I watched All My Children for years and years. I don’t know how many of you guys watched that show, but like I was watching it when Natalie was thrown down the well by her crazy sister Janet. It makes me really sad that they’re kind of dwindling and disappearing. The bell shows, he’s really figured them out Bold & Young & the Restless. Yes, maybe it will jump over to cable. I don’t know I mean I guess programming has to evolve but now we have what nine thousand channels? The average person probably has about five hundred. But it’s still a lot and it’s not like it used to be when the soaps were on and we were kids and we had to walk up to the TV and turn a dial and you had like a channel. I think that now with Reality TV and people are so much less apt to sit and follow a story line and just to have noise on in the background, which is disheartening, disillusioning for me regarding our culture because I don’t know.
Q) Did it really kind of teach you the ropes?
A) Oh yes. Yes it really, really, really did. I would recommended it to most young actors. It’s like a boot camp for actors and it really hawed my dramatic improve skill. Because you’re getting, sometimes fifteen to thirty pages of dialogue a day that you have to learn. Some of people – a lot of actors would sit and they prepare for days in advance. I got into the habit of sitting in the hair chair and learning thirty pages of dialogue in an hour and a half. That’s why when I got up to set of course I wasn’t going to get all the lines right. I do have a photographic memory so that helps me, but I couldn’t get a line that you just kind of go with the feeling of the scene and just how it feels. And that helped so much to be able to be in touch with your instincts as an actor. With soaps there’s so many wonderful theatre actors and really well-trained actors in that feel that you can play with and who are prepared to play off of you. And there’s not kind of the same pressure that I have found in Prime Time to get it exactly right. There’s a lot more room to play and its fun. I really loved it. I loved being on a Soap.
One Tree Hill fans, rejoice! And be a little scared. TV Guide Magazine has learned exclusively that the fabulous OTH vet Bethany Joy Lenz will be recurring on Dexter’s eighth season, which is set to premiere on June 30 at 9/8c.
