This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:01] Karis Anderson: My name's Karis, and you're listening to Eleven, the official theatre podcast.

[0:15] William J Connolly: Hello, and welcome to Eleven, the official theatre podcast that brings the biggest stars and creatives together in one place to discuss life in the arts. She's London's brightest star that's currently leading the West End company of Tina, the Tina Turner musical, as the show enters its seventh anniversary year. But what's it like telling her story and bringing one of the greatest music legends of all time to life each night on stage? Well, let's find out as it's an honor of a lifetime for this musical star. So here, in an exclusive conversation direct from her home, just hours before she steps on stage, we talk all things Tina, the Tina Turner musical, as the show enters this seventh remarkable year, filling the spirit and legacy of the icon herself and why everything that happens on stage each night is for Tina and for the fans that love her so.

Also, how showing up for Tina each night on stage has been one of the key parts of her own personal life, naming it as the biggest healer. We also dive into some of the key recognizable characteristics of playing someone like Tina, including the voice and the legs, and why there's no feeling in the world like performing the encore megamix of the show. Plus, why her alter ego is aptly named Tina. It is the gorgeous human that is Karis Anderson here now on this, the next episode of Eleven, the official theatre podcast.

[1:41] William J Connolly: Please let me welcome to this, the next episode of Eleven. She's the West End leading lady that's currently taking on playing one of the greatest artists and icons of all time, and I will take no exception to this. She actually is, and you're about to hear how truly obsessed I am with not just her, but the lady herself. So I'm thrilled to say hello Karis Anderson. How are you?

[1:58] Karis Anderson: Hello, I'm great.

[1:59] William J Connolly: How are you?

[2:01] Karis Anderson: I'm so happy to be here.

[2:03] William J Connolly: I am fine. I'm so so so excited for this to talk about all things iconed legend, Miss Tina Turner and this extraordinary, extraordinary show. Has this become normal? Because not many people in the world actually get to play Tina Turner. Like this is like mega, right?

[2:16] Karis Anderson: It will never be normal. Every day is pinch me, I'll be honest, like every single day, or there's some kind of moment in the day where I'm like, How is this my life? Do you know what I mean? And but also I'm like split between how is this my life and also I'm exactly where I'm meant to be, you know, because I'm queen manifesta, like I'm very much words of spells. Like I believe that what you see for yourself, you can achieve it. And I always wanted to do this role from the show opened, and I always knew I wanted to be in musical theater. I always knew I'd be a West End leading lady at some point. I might have been, you know, 70, but here we are. We got there early, so I'm great. I'm grateful.

Honestly, every single day I just have to count my blessings because not only am I getting to live my dream, I'm getting to spread, you know, this wonderful woman's story to thousands of people every single time I'm on that stage. And I can't tell you what a blessing that is because it's such an important story, as you know. Um, yeah, it's way more than a concert that people might think they're coming to.

[3:15] William J Connolly: And it's a mega mega mega show, but there's also the added edition of the fact that she does have that icon status. So are you like, Oh yeah, of course I want to play her and make her mine, or are you like, no, actually, that's kind of the stupidest, craziest, most ridiculous ask of me ever. Yeah, sure, of course I'll still do it anyway. But like, how do you actually make it make sense when you go, right? This is me saying yes, I'm committing to doing this. Because I'm not gonna lie, I if I could, I still wouldn't. The Tina has to take over because if it's too much Karis, she'll just be like a giggly little thing on stage, just like, what am I doing?

[3:47] Karis Anderson: Oh it's definitely like the Tina spirit takes over. I'm like, it's uh it's an alter ego for me. I think after the show, when it finishes at some point, please never close. But you know, at some point I'm gonna move on to something else. But I feel like my alter ego will always be Tina. That's I think I'm gonna have to name her Tina. I keep having to think of names like who is my alter ego. It's literally just Tina takes over, she takes over like most molecules in my body, and that is what gives me the confidence and the um I guess the it's mixed with adrenaline, and that's what keeps you going. But in terms of the strength, that mental strength is Tina. Her spirit is I genuinely believe her spirit is like through me when I'm on that stage.

[4:29] William J Connolly: Do you find then that there are parts of your life as Karis that Tina not comes to you, maybe that's a bit too much, but where you feel like, oh, I feel like this is a Tina thing to do, or a Tina response. That she actually almost helps you day to day.

[4:41] Karis Anderson: Absolutely. She's taught me so much. It's been so much more than just a role and just a job. You know, it's never just a job with what we do. You always do make it out like this is there's a reason you're in this, and this is meant to be, and you know, every world is aligned for you to be in this role right now, which it probably is very true. But this this role for me, it's changed my life completely. It's healed me in in the ways that therapy couldn't. I've been to therapy, I actually've gone back to therapy while being in this role because it brought up so much of my own crap that I needed to heal from because I've been in domestic violence relationships, I've you know, had my share of abuse and all mental abuse, physical abuse.

So for me, I didn't ever really person, and I and that can become you can kind of like play down the things that happened to you when you're such a positive person. It's great to be like that because you are kind of healing yourself with showing up for yourself and just being that forward-fronted, like just always just taking life as it comes, and every day is a new day. But you do have to heal at some point because it is gonna it's gonna slap you in the face at some point in life. And I feel like this show slapped it in my face, quite literally, because I was living as much as I'm living Tina's life, I was living moments of my own life on stage every day. So the healing that I've got from this, because not only do you go through what you've been through on stage, you then go through how Tina got over that thing.

So you have to live that, and that's in three hours every day, and you do that every single, you know, I do four up to five shows a week now. But it's it's just the the biggest healer. I can't even explain how it's just wonderful. It's honestly it's like therapy every single day, it's the best thing ever.

[6:17] William J Connolly: One thing that this show does, and I think it's incredibly brave, but also incredibly important, is it doesn't shy away from some of the great successes of her life, but also the great challenges of her life, and I think it actually almost leads with the challenges first, which I think puts into sort of perspective of just how extraordinary Tina Turner was. So for you to then have to, you know, obviously, it is pretend you are playing a character and following a script and doing the same thing, but your body doesn't necessarily know that. So, how do you create a difference between you know the emotional trauma of your experience versus her experience? Because they will eventually, and maybe they do, maybe they don't, but I would imagine they do come pretty close at some point for you as a vessel, sort of doing both.

[6:55] Karis Anderson: Absolutely, and that's what exactly what we are. We're a vessel for this woman's story, and it's so traumatizing and triggering so many moments. Even you know, the other day, we had, as you know, the things that are going on in the UK at the moment and all around the world all the time, but especially in the UK with these riots, it's really, it's a really difficult time. I spoke about it on stage. I said this is the first time I was ever scared to come into work because of the colour of my skin, you know. It's it's wild for me because that is I relate to Tina in so many ways, but that is one way I'm very, very fortunate to have never actually had just okay, to have never actually had any racial encounters myself.

I know that it happens, I'm very aware that it happens, and I'm very aware of my privileges, but I've never actually experienced any direct issues in that way, you know. I've been very, very blessed. But on stage, as you know, there's moments where she experiences racism quite frequently, and it was of course 50s, 50s, it was rife in those times. So this was last week Wednesday. I was like, I'm have this is happening now to me. I'm scared to come into work because I'm scared that I might get jumped outside my workplace. And we showed this kind of thing on stage, so that was like a complete parallel that I felt exactly how I presume those they would feel at the time. So there wasn't really a difference, and I couldn't really take myself out of that a moment like that.

But in the moments where you know they're really heavy, I genuinely just throw myself into them because I feel like I know how to take myself out of it after. But it's taken me a while to have that strength because as much as you throw yourself into it as an actor, you have to know you have to have safe, you have to have your own safety, you have to be able to ground yourself. Um, and having a beautiful cast really helps also. I can't shout enough about how much of a difference it makes when you're supported by the people that are on stage with you. And this year, especially creme de la creme. I have to just shout out everybody in Tina year six because I feel so so safe, and I feel like I can throw myself into the trauma because I know I'm safe, you know. But you have to, you have to tell, you have to kind of be mindful about how you do that, and it just depends on you as a person whether you can do that or not, really.

[9:03] William J Connolly: If you refer it to the sort of the linear narrative of her life, it took until I believe, and you're probably gonna correct me, but like into her 50s for anything truly mega, like the the level that we know her now to really sort of kick in. So it proves that while it's the age-old classic, if you've got to keep going, she's such a great example of you know, greatness will come if you principally believe in yourself, number one. And I imagine that's something that you connect to, which is actually, as you sort of joked at the start, but like you knew this was going to happen for you. You've just got to be willing to stick it through to the point of which it actually happens, right?

[9:36] Karis Anderson: Absolutely. And I always say to myself and to people that if you could zoom out on your life and just see everything in chronological order, you would see exactly why that thing is happening. And that is faith. That is knowing something that you don't know. It's like if you believe in a God, if you believe in something that you can't see that isn't tangible, that's what faith is. It's having that knowing inside of you, regardless of whether you can see the end goal or not. So for me, it's about just knowing, you know, Tina, not only does she start again over and over, she lost everything. Like she literally, we literally say in the show, she has 39 cents, 39 dollars to her name. I might even be getting that number wrong, even though I say it every night.

But um, 39 cents, 39 cents to her name. That is after Proud Mary. That is after all the I can Tina Turner review hits. That is, you think she's at the prime of her career, and she started again, and all she wanted to take was her name. And for me, that is something that I really do lean towards in life. No matter what, you can take everything from me, but you're never gonna take my dignity, you're never gonna take me, my identity. You can take everything clothes, hair, makeup, house, cars, all the things that I bought in the world, but you can never take me from me. Do you know what I mean? So that was Tina's faith in herself, and that is what carried her through. And I think this is just the most beautiful thing.

When I see people have that faith, I'm like, yes, you're living in your purpose. You know that no matter what happens in life, it's not happening to you, it's happening for you. And no matter that little dull moment, there's always going to be a better time, you know? So she's she's a real icon, she's just that icons. She really is the best.

[11:11] William J Connolly: And I'm not quitting a very cheap joke there, but no, genuinely she is. And also I love the fact that whenever you watch, particularly the videos when the success is peaked. Like, I do live next to Wembley Stadium, so I do feel like I have a real kinship to that that DVD sort of recording, but like that final show when she's doing it, when there is an element of like job done, like you can see that she's like, I actually can't believe I'm doing this. And I actually feel a similar thing with the finale of the show, which is like just when you think, you know, this poor actress has not been through enough, they're like, oh, but they're gonna put on absolute conk in begamics at the end to basically be like, oh, and then more.

But is there an element for you where you're like, I know this obviously, you know this is coming, you can do it. But when you've done it, you're like, and then I've got to do that on top. Is there an element of like maybe you're actually greater than even you think sometimes because you know you've got a mountain to climb, plus probably a little bit more as well?

[12:03] Karis Anderson: Yeah, every single time you can ask my dresser and my wiggies, every single time I come off stage. It never gets easier, by the way. I mean, my third year, it never it doesn't get easier. Um, but you just get better. Do you know what I mean? You get better at doing it. It doesn't get easier because you're challenging yourself. I I looked at my video from my from my opening in in 2022 to now, and I'm like, who was that person? And I thought I was killing it, but do you know what I mean? But there is a sense of when I come off stage, I genuinely feel like I can do anything in the world. I can lift a mountain because I've just done something that I didn't think at some point in that show, I was like, gosh, how am I gonna get through this?

[12:41] Karis Anderson: You know, you do have that doubt. We have, we're human, we have vocal problems, we have body problems, things happen, we have mental problems, you know. There is, there's a lot of the times there's a moment where you doubt yourself, but then when you do get through it, it's just the biggest accomplishment. But you never want to get complacent. You never want to be like, yes, I've completed it because you've never completed anything in life, really. Do you know what I mean? There's always something to learn. Um, so for me, it's just being better than yesterday. It's being better than yesterday's show, doing better, even if it's just the slightest inflection, like literally the tiniest little thing that was a bit better than the last show.

That's what I pride myself on for sure. And also, there's a real truth to the genius of the writing of this show. It's like if Tina had, you know, not necessarily given up, but if Tina had not fought so hard, and there are certain bits where she kind of went, well, you know, I like four out of five, not five out of five. This wouldn't have happened. Do you know what I mean? Like, it really is down to genuine commitment. And I think that's often sometimes quite challenging. She thinks, well, I could do four, but actually, do you know what? You know, if I put five out of five into something, actually, you know, I will get probably ten out of it. You know, it's great writing. Oh, Katori Hall, it's just the writing on this show.

You literally, everyone's like, well, you know, they gushed and they give you so many beautiful compliments. All of you know, Zoe Burkett, we have now who I'm alongside doing the show, where they have to give her a shout out because she's, I literally feel like she's my soul sister. Love you, Zoe Bo. Like the alignment of me and her doing this show together is wonderful. And I always, we always speak about how the writing of the show, and you know, people are always giving us beautiful compliments, and it's so lovely what everybody says, but the show makes us look really good. Like, I have to, I know that we, you know, we put our all into it, and I do give 150% every single show, and I do my best for me.

But this show is written so well, and honestly, it's not I'm not saying anyone can come on stage and just say the lines and you've, you know, cracked it, but you have to really give credit to everything else. You know, we get a lot of the praise as the leading ladies and the leading actresses, we always get all the praise for everything, and I just really want to like shine a light on everything else that goes on creatively, especially the writing, especially the production and directing and the lighting, the, you know, the cast, the wiggies, the wardrobe, like everybody works so hard. If I just stood up there like this reading the scripts, it wouldn't be very interesting. But there's so much that goes into it.

I give ten out of ten, but everybody else also gives ten out of ten, and that's what makes it. And yeah, the writing is just crème de la crème. Yeah, it feels so real. I just feel like I'm just, I feel like I'm being me through Tina, like I'm saying what I would say, you know. It's, there's no grandiose, silly, random things, you know, it's, it's all aligned, it's all combined. The songs are her songs and they fit into the show. Do you know how crazy that is? Like, usually songs are written for shows, you know, and it's, but you just start like a prisoner of and it doesn't make sense. I'm like, what this is so cheesy, but not cheesy. Like, how does this work? It's not cheesy at all. Like, it's not, it's not.

I do think, and maybe this is just this again, just a nobody having an opinion, but like I do think that that's because Tina was involved. I do think, like, from the beginning, like because she would be like, yeah, fuck this, this ain't what I do. Like, don't, yeah. Absolutely. Even down, I was talking yesterday about this, literally yesterday, to my dresser about the fact that we don't wear Capezio tights. You know, you go to shows and you see the girls in shiny tights, and you're like, just get your legs out, girls. Like, what do you know? I mean, I've been in shows, and I'm just like, why are we wearing these tights? Like, even for a black girl, they don't, the colours don't match. You just, you look like you've got pink legs.

Tina was like, the girls aren't wearing tights, and they had to, they were trying to make her convince her to say like the girls should be wearing tights. She'd be like, no, we didn't wear tights back then, even down to things like that. The details, like the step, everything is Tina. And I think people don't even maybe realize that. But there's a clip online by Sha Joando, previous Tina, my good friend, also, she posted when Tina passed, um saying, and she was just saying to the girls, you know, you haven't got it yet, but you'll get it. The steps aren't there, but you'll get it, you know. She's so raw, but like so loving. And Tina told me that you can be firm but kind. Yeah, it's the world, the world that we live in is Tina's world.

Honey, trust me, I'm happy to live there. I'm happy to live there. But I remember I actually was very, very, very privileged, and it would go down as one of the great just honors of my life to actually attend when Tina came to London, the press launch, and I was there, and she was, she what I mean. She walked past me and I genuinely was like, oh look, my heart just stops. But yeah, I can imagine. And there was a part of me actually that genuinely didn't want that to happen because I was like, I don't want this to be in any way not what I want it to be. And it was so perfect, and it felt so, you know, like sometimes when people write musicals and you can tell that they genuinely don't want it to happen, and you're like, I really don't. I okay, yeah.

She's like it's my name, sure. But you could tell that she was there, like with obviously with Adrian at the beginning, being like, I want you to be good. I want this to be good. I want people to care about this. And I think care is principally why this is a great show. Absolutely. And I know something about Tina that the reason why she was so fond of this show is because she cared about her fans so deeply, genuinely. She really cared about all of her supporters because she's a Buddhist, she knows that we're all one, we're all equal. So as much as people are idolizing her, she understands she has a duty of care to these people that are looking at her for some kind of healing and some kind of they have a, you're bonded with people that support you in a way, you know.

And she always said that the reason that she was felt so strongly about the musical is because it gives her fans somewhere to go where she passes, and you know, she, this is something that she said, knowing or not knowing, but knowing that one day she's not gonna be here, but not thinking that she's not gonna be here anytime soon. But it's, she said it with such grace and care. She genuinely built this thing, this musical, this hub, which is all around the world now, and her fans can come and see her still in a way and feel her spirit and feel her energy because she was very strong on no tributes, she doesn't like the tributes. There's the Tina tribute is all over the world, and she does not like them.

And even Irvin, Irvin came to the show, her husband, and yeah, that was the unreal moment. And I didn't get to meet Tina, so that was like maybe the closest I'd ever get to her. And the way that he was looking at me, it was so strange because he hadn't seen the show since she passed, and he was just like in awe of me. And I was like, this man is in awe of me because of Tina, it was just the weirdest ever feeling ever. But she, he said he doesn't like the wigs because it feels, it makes it feel like it's fake, but it's so not fake, but because we have to dress it up, you know, we have to. But the essence of the show is so real, and that is what the, that is why the fans come. That is why people come together and to see the show, because the spirit of Tina is there.

Yes, the wigs are fake, yes, the dresses are made to look like Tina. Yes, we, you know, it's, it's all we're all playing and playing dress up, right? But I tell you, the spirit of Tina is in that, in that Aldridge Theatre. Trust me, it's right there.

[19:39] Karis Anderson: Have you seen that clip from the opening on Broadway of like Gail and Oprah and with when is it Oprah? Or maybe it might be Gail that films Tina watching the show. Do you know which one I mean?

[19:48] William J Connolly: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[19:50] Karis Anderson: Yeah. And then obviously there's that famous clip of her walking on to greet Adrian and like I just think what must that be like? It's not a, it's not a comfortable experience for an audience member who adores her, even if you're just a sort of a casual fan. But to watch your life like that, I do I do sometimes wonder what it must be like, not just for her, but like you mentioned that her partner and stuff to to have it exist. It must be a must be almost a blessing in disguise in a way.

[20:15] Karis Anderson: A massive blessing. But again, Tina was so is. I speak is because I feel like she's still here, her spirit is here. Tina's so um just sure of everything that she does. So she's just like, yep, this is happening. She's not overwhelmed, she's not underwhelmed, she just is, and she's just so comfortable and confident in everything, even things that even when she speaks about Ike, she's like, you know, Ike it happened, and I'm very grateful for everything that he's done for me. I'm never gonna stand here and talk bad about him because I'm very blessed to have had him in my life, and he was a troubled man. And then the really exciting things, you don't see her get all like, do you know what I mean? She's just so consistent and so constant and so grounded that even when she's watching her show, she's so excited and so happy. But it's just a sense of just calm.

[21:05] William J Connolly: Yeah, beautiful, beautiful woman. Unreal.

[21:07] Karis Anderson: Oh, I'm utterly obsessed now.

[21:09] William J Connolly: I do.

[21:09] Karis Anderson: I know. I think we're equally obsessed.

[21:12] William J Connolly: I've met my match with you do.

[21:13] Karis Anderson: Um, but one thing that I've been very insistent on before this interview, which breaks all of my usual rules and has driven God bless some your PR team wild is that I didn't want to see you in the show before we had this conversation. And the reason why was because I have so many questions about how you embody Tina that I was like, I want to find out the whys, and then I want to see it happen.

[21:32] William J Connolly: So then you want to see Tina speaks so much about not being an impersonation, but a characterization and a version of her. Where did you, where did you begin your journey to finding her? Was it about listening and learning? Was it about doing what you could and, and I guess emulating that? I guess how did you first find the voice?

[21:47] Karis Anderson: And I know a lot of the ladies that I've interviewed that have played her say actually, unlike most things, this starts with a physicality.

[21:53] Karis Anderson: 100% it does, but also you don't realise how long it's gonna take. And I'm so grateful that I'm able to be in this show for now, my third year, because if I'd have left up for the first year, I would have been quite underwhelmed with how I left um that role because Tina's a journey, Tina is a process, it's not something you can just snap into overnight. It's not a, it's not that kind of character. She's, she grew from anime, she grew from, you know, from being in that bush to get, you know, meeting I can find her voice through I can find in the steps. It wasn't, you can never just do that overnight. So for me, it was definitely watching her over and over, obviously practicing. I worked with Simone, who was the most wonderful um choreographer and I would say creative director in in our world of Tina.

She spent a lot of time with um Tina. Sorry, her name's Simone Mystery Palmer. Um, but she I did a lot of one on one-on-one classes with her, which really really helped me ground myself as Tina. Um, but it was just watching her, it was watching her, it was watching Adrian also, because it's one thing watching Tina, but it's another thing doing it in a musical every night. Tina does what she does, she's an artist, but being an actress and doing the same exactly the same thing and having it taught to you by is in choreography and notes, it's but it's a bit different to being free as an artist, you know.

[23:12] Karis Anderson: So, like the slickness of it. I probably learned a lot from Adrian, to be honest with you, watching her process becoming Tina in the music in the musical theatre world because I respect her so much as a performer. Um, and obviously the teen is that came before me because I've had the privilege of watching a lot of them, but it's just it's a process, and it's, you know, reading the books, finding out about her life. It's not just showing up about showing up and doing the steps, it's why that step, why that voice, why that, why does she react that way? Why is she so calm? Why is she so non-reactive? Why is she this way? You know, what happened with her mum? How did that affect her? And then in turn, how does that affect her performances?

Where did that growl come from? Like it's not just a throw, it comes from your gut and your soul. So it's, it's a for me, Tina is a process. I truly believe they should have like, you know how they do the boot camps, like the Billy Elliott boot camp. They should have a Tina boot camp because it's I'm still not, I've still not got my teeth into it, put it that way. I'm still getting my teeth into it. I really hope that you know they used to do those like finding Maria, and I really would love them to do it. I mean, I'm not kicking you out of a job, don't worry, but I was like, no.

[24:18] William J Connolly: I'll be on the panel, I'll be on the panel.

[24:20] Karis Anderson: Oh my god, then her partner could come and we could genuinely make, oh no, don't, don't, don't.

[24:25] William J Connolly: We could do it.

[24:25] Karis Anderson: Me, you, Irvin, William, like me, yeah.

[24:28] William J Connolly: Like, come on, we have to make it happen.

[24:30] Karis Anderson: We have to make it happen. I'm just an obsessive fan.

[24:32] William J Connolly: I well, a non-stalkery obsessive love, love fan, not a not, yeah.

[24:36] Karis Anderson: Anyway, I don't think I'm an expert in anyway.

[24:38] William J Connolly: You're a supporter, you're a supporter.

[24:39] Karis Anderson: Yeah, yeah.

[24:45] Karis Anderson: But also, very famously and rather iconically, Beyonce. Like Beyonce said there is no Queen B without Tina Turner, and there is that video when they when they perform together and they on and then she comes running in, and she I love the fact she clears like 10 securities. She's like, I think it's like a publisher. She's like, I'm like, ah, like she screams and it's like literally, I know.

[25:04] Karis Anderson: So um, I went to see Tina, I went to see Beyonce. Sorry, I wish I went to see Tina, but I went to see Beyonce um shortly after Tina passed, and I had no idea that Beyonce was performing.

[25:14] Karis Anderson: She started performing some Tina songs, and when we got there, I think we just missed the first song, and she was singing "River Deep Mountain High" as I walked into the stadium, and I was like, Beyoncé, who's somebody I obviously look up to as a performer, is singing the song of the woman who she looks up to as a performer, who I also look up to as a performer, who I play every night. I'm like, this is and it's my favorite song. And I'm just like, this is it was such an overwhelming feeling for me. I was like, this is just thank the universe for aligning everything for me because you realize the power that she has when you see someone like Beyoncé idolizing Tina, and also the performance when Tina and Beyoncé actually performed together.

I know you're like, yeah. But just I mean, how they even did that is crazy. But also, I love the fact that Tina's being Tina, and then Beyoncé is being Beyoncé, but I'm not gonna there are moments with like famously with her leg and like the extended arm all the way out and then over, where you're like, only proper Tina fans would know, but she's doing it with her, and I'm like, do you know you're doing it with her? I know, I know, and even like everybody looks at Beyoncé, and a lot of people, even the younger fans, they don't realize how much of it is Tina and how much of the wildness and the growl when she growls, and that I'm like, she's you can tell how much of a you know of inspi how inspired by Tina she is. But when you really know, you're like, Wow, this woman this woman created Beyoncé, honey. She created Beyoncé.

[26:42] You reference the growl, but like is it what's the technical phrase like by the way is it like a screlch or something? Like a screamy high like what I've never heard scroll. Is that is that it's like a screamy belty high. Maybe I just made that up, though I didn't. We just say growl. We kind of say the Tina growl. Um but is that good? It rasp, the Tina rasp, that's what it's like. Okay, yeah, sorry. Yeah, Tina's gonna be like, I do not screlch or whatever. Do they teach you that? Like and how is that vocally to do? Because I it I'm not I mean it's a nice one, but like it sounds like it feels like it looks. Do you know what I mean? I feel like it might be painful, but maybe it's not. Um, no, it's not anymore.

It used to be so when I started, I was like empty, clean, pops singer babe. Like there was no growl or rasp in my voice. Do you know what I mean? So I was like, how am I gonna do this? And you just slowly, slowly, as it doesn't come natural for me, it does come natural for a lot of people. Um for some people it just come like it just happens, but for me it was something that I had to teach myself how to do safely because it's one thing being able to rasp, but it's another thing doing it in musical theatre every day. So now it's just part of my voice. It's so crazy that it's just part of my voice. Slowly, like every show, I push it a little bit more, but it just has to come from down here. The minute it comes from here, sometimes when I'm ill, when I'm not 100% and I've got a sore throat, it automatically comes from here because everything like is like kind of tight in your throat.

So that's just where the wrath comes from. But most days it comes from the pits of my soul. And as Tina says, there's no top and no bottom to her voice, and that's kind of what I feel has happened to my voice. It's slowly extended my range, which I'm very grateful for. There's lots of pros to this to this role.

[28:25] William J Connolly: Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you for that. My body's battered, but thank you, Range. Obviously, as I mentioned, I I've purposely not seen you in the show yet. So these are like questions that I'll probably get answered singing it. But very famously, the "River Deep Mountain High" like bit is cray cray. It's like crazy high. AJ Moran probably went lol, yeah. Let's just do something that's totally impossible for any other girl to do. Do you go, yeah, I'm gonna do that? Or are you like, yeah, I ain't doing that.

[28:46] Karis Anderson: No, I did it, I do it. And I'm like, you know what it is? Do you know what it was? When someone tells me, can you do this? I don't ever want to say no. Do you know what I mean? And if I do say no, it's uh no, but I will, I will, I'll learn how to do it. So our main MD on the show, Nick, he I did it, I did my audition with him. And I just remember him saying, Can you do that? That top note, can you do it? And I was like, I'm fair, like, no, I know that I can't do it, but I'm just gonna do it. And I just tried it in the audition, it was a bit screechy, like, but we did it, and just over time, it's it's such basically what he wanted it to be. It what he wanted it to sound unsafe, but be safe. You know what note I'm talking about.

That top note of the in the end of the middle eight, and it's like a it's like a scream, but uh a wrath. It's like the weirdest thing that's happening, but yeah, I've managed to master it. I do it most shows. If I'm not feeling a hundred percent, she she does take it a few um few notes down, but but it's still sky high, honey. I don't think anybody's going, Well, I had a lovely time, but she didn't do that. But I mean, you didn't do that hot tea.

[29:53] William J Connolly: No, it's it's wild, and the fact that you like also consecutively, like with also the acting, like even Tina didn't do all of those songs, plus the acting. Do you know what I mean? So it's uh it's a very, very, very tall order. And the songs are, you know, you can't. This is the great joy, but also I guess the great hindrance of doing a jukebox is you can't underperform any song. Like everyone, like TV doesn't record it like half assed, you know what I mean? So because you've you you came in and you've got a musical data voice now, but you obviously have your pop voice as well, and then you've got this beautiful mix of the two. Does that therefore mean that you can make it sound like it without doing it, or is it literally a balls out? I know I've got to do it. There's no tricks to it, where like how do you approach singing these epic songs that you know everybody knows?

[30:33] Karis Anderson: There's no tricks. My voice has been trained now to sing like Tina. And if I was to go back, I would probably have to have a little bit of time off to recondition my muscles in my throat, my larynx today, and start auditioning again to start singing MT. Because right now, if I was to go and sing another song, I'd try to sing the song from the notebook the other day. But I want to buy, and I was like, I can't do it in the cable. I was getting really annoyed with myself. But I was just rasping all over the place. It just happened. The muscles are you know, the the voice is the muscle, and you do have to train it. So I've kind of trained it as a thing Tina right now. I'm very lucky to be able to sing different styles of songs, but to sing something healthily for a long time, I would have to kind of go back, go back in the vocal gym, and then we go again, you know.

[31:22] You referenced some of the songs there in terms of in the show. I do think that, and I know this is like the cheesy question of like what's your favorite song? But I think songs mean different things to everybody, but because songs have emotional attachments. Like I'm very, very open about the fact I think "Private Dancer" was my favorite song of all time, the album, everything. And in the show, it's very interesting how it's placed because it's very much like the live version of her, where you're like, Oh, but it's not like the album version. So it's so interesting where you're like, Oh, you're fucking with me. Okay, I like it. Fine. You're gonna and also there's dialogue in the middle where she is to be quite frank, quite pissed off with her children.

Like, she's like, Don't try it with me. So I feel like there's so many other things to do. Is there a particular song that you're like, that's the one I want to do, or like that's my favorite for the reason? Because like open arms, I think is even more beautiful in the show. Actually, Tina, don't kill me for this, than actually it is in the slightly more poppy, you know, like you know, which it we do love, we do stand, no one's saying that. But so is there a particular thing you're like, I actually love singing this song?

[32:19] Karis Anderson: Because I imagine the end of act one's probably pretty high because that setup as well is is out the water. It's insane. I mean, yeah, the end of act one is a beautiful is beautiful because we we are singing "Fight No More," but it's again, it's completely different to the single, it's completely different to how she even performs it because we're it's like a chant and we're like meditating, and it's uh it's actually showing a little spoiler, but it's during the scene. If you have seen the film, although we don't reference the film, but I know that a lot of people have that as the A and B. If you have seen the film, we visually it's the moment where she's had the fight with Ike and she, you know, runs for her life and comes to the hotel asking for a key when she has no money and when she's bloodied and bruised.

So we combine that moment with "Fight No More" and "Fight No More" is yeah, an uplifting song. It's like I don't want to fight anymore, but it's like you know, let's get through this, let's let's keep going, let's find the next thing. And it's a really beautiful, like upbeat kind of beat in real in in the actual single. But in the show, it's so heavy and spiritual, and we we've just seen her have the fight of her life, and she's literally found spirituality through this song and through her band mate Robbie who gives her the beads but you'll see this in the show but it it you're right we do it's such a juxtaposition from what the songs are in real life to how we present them in the show and for me I think I think my favorite song is "River Deep" just because the beginning she comes into that song with anime and she leaves Tina and she also for me I everyone plays it differently but I I'm in a trance in that song I'm like it's just me and the and maybe Phil Spector and the and the microphone in that moment in my mind and when I am coming up to that big no it literally is like it's like I'm high on this song like the song has made me high literally and something comes out of my body and I don't even know how it does.

It just screech it's just like a roar of every emotion I'm feeling and then she's Tina like it's like it's like a spell happens you know in that moment for me but everyone plays it very differently so it would be that song and "Disco Inferno" because every Tina trick that I have in the box honey I'm using it every head every knee every kick every shoulder I'm like oh you want Tina I'm gonna give you some Tina but that's why I I love performing that because I've worked so hard on so many moments and so many nuances to her but I get to show every single one in that song.

[34:48] I generally feel like you could pick any song like I generally feel you could be like that's cool that's cool. Because I love the mega mix also I I do this I say two and then I'm like oh and I love that one oh and I love that one but those are my strongest for personal you know reasons and how mind body soul but performance wise then we have the mega mix and it's like unreal and like you say you've you think the show's done then we've got another 20 minutes of performing and it's so electric and I feel I guess I feel the most you know there's different moments where I feel the most like Tina but in that performance at the end of the show when we give that mega mix it just literally is like a Tina concert you know and it's yeah everyone's just faces lit up the energy in the theatre at that moment is just roaring and it's just the best feeling about what's it like when and again I think people might be able to figure this out but like I don't want to spoil anything but the end of the show is the start of the show and the start of the end is the end you know there's some synergy between the two.

[35:43] Karis Anderson: Yeah but when you hear the I obviously I know it's not real but like the crowd noise of Tina and then you're going up the stairs because that like that genuinely happened. That was like genuinely what somebody did. When we when we're in rehearsals um so the same chants we see them at different moments in the show so them chants that you hear in the beginning and the end are also the same chants that we hear at the end of "Fight No More." And when we hear those chants we have the cast singing it on stage with us as well as like off stage um and in rehearsals we have a we have like a practice or like a like a exercise where Simone gets the Tina to sing a you know a cappella and she just gets all the casts to just shout Tina Tina Tina and I can't it's I just cry every every year but for the first time this year balling my eyes out because that's I feel like I'm connected to Tina and I feel like I'm feeling what she felt and I feel like I'm feeling it from my cast also it's not just you know the 100,000 people that's out there, strangers.

It's the people that I get to work with, and they're they're giving me their energy, they're on stage, giving me that energy. Tina, Tina, literally now. I could cry just saying it. It's it's the most it's so special. Uh it's like the word support or the word like puddle, or the word family or the word grounding, like all these things, it will be safety, things that feel make you feel safe. It's like the feeling of all those words together, even though Tina, those people that were chanting it were strangers, you would still feel that same support and to feel all those people there for you. Oh my god, just unreal. And I get to pay her. Like, what the hell is my life?

[37:24] Karis Anderson: This is probably a very strange question. But being a Tina Turner super nerd, I know that this is something that she cared very deeply about, which is how much everybody loved Tina Turner's legs. And when you play character and you're taking on a character, they can the team can give you props and they can give you certain like in if you need to be green, we'll paint you green, you know. The literal, but their legs are like an extra character being like there's no team without so. How does it how does it work? And I know that people can be like, well, she's got two legs, but yeah, I understand that.

[37:51] Karis Anderson: But like, do they like take you to Tina boot camp to walk like her? Like, I don't know what happens. The funny thing is, you don't get taught at all how to be Tina. There's no teachings of how to be Tina, it's just I guess they must pick us based on what we look like. They're keeping us, and hopefully, when we do go over that, you know, when we do get the job, the legs are somewhat appropriate to being Tina. Um, but it is a big thing, and even you know, she says in the show, I might be jumping at the sun, but I've got long legs, and everybody's like, whoop, and everybody talks about my legs on Instagram, and I'm like, Yeah, they're just my legs, but because now I'm playing Tina, everyone wants to talk about my legs. Oh, look at your legs. Now I've spoken about my legs as well as playing Tina. You didn't care about my legs back then. But it is it is it is a whole thing, and I'm sure she had them insured.

[38:40] William J Connolly: She did.

[38:41] Karis Anderson: Did she? Were they priceless? Isn't that true? They were priceless, yeah, yeah. And I think, yeah, there's a few people that have done the same thing, but I think Tina, yeah, she was well within her rights to get her legs insured infinitely. I'm not gonna lie, if there's any part of me that I'm happy for someone to objectify it, go for it. I feel like it's a great company. I don't know, don't know.

[39:01] I think also, like I think of it how I I don't even I don't think of it as a sexualized thing. I think of it as like an animal, like, because I know Tina, she would um compare herself to a horse, a stallion, and that is what it is. It's like it's funny because I spent some time with an a previous team the other day she came to the show, and she was like, I saw the way that you feel your lungs, you put your chest out, and that's the only way that you can be Tina because the voice comes from all of you that you have to make so much space in your chest, and we're only little, we're not big girls, you know what I mean. Like you have to tap out your chest and elongate your legs. It's just it's a posture, but it's the posture comes from like a horse, it really does, and that's what Tina like you would see her, it's the pony, it's a pony step, how she how she walks, how she dances.

There's a lot of references to ponies and horses, so and it's like a gallop, and it's like the way that she can fly across the stage, it is animalistic, it really is, and that's what I feel happens. It is Tina, but it's like there's this spirit animal that's taken over, and I'm gonna say it's a horse because that's what Tina did. So she's a horse and she's Tina, basically.

[40:18] People who's not come for us for the horse, but also the legs, and I'm not gonna take the front of a newspaper as or a magazine, even as gospel because the things some people do write. But I did want to show you this very special thing, which I I do own, which is from October the 11th, 1984, which is the original Rolling Stone magazine cover, which has a reference to Tina's legs on it.

[40:36] William J Connolly: So before people come for me, it's easy to find that.

[40:39] Karis Anderson: I do, yeah. It's gonna be amazing for a podcast, I'm sure. I'll post it on my Instagram. But sorry that you can't see this, guys. But wow. It's it's very, very yellow because obviously it's but all goodness. Yeah, I dare I don't know if I dare open it.

[40:52] William J Connolly: I think I can.

[40:53] Karis Anderson: Don't do it, don't do it. Keep it. But look at this picture. Imagine the legs. And you know what? What I love about her, she didn't care about being sexy. It wasn't about being sexy, but it's hot, that's hot. But it's so sexy. Like it's so sexy. It's but she's her legs are in tight, she's got a baggy shirt on.

[41:10] William J Connolly: Yeah, but she's so hot.

[41:12] Karis Anderson: Oh my goodness. I love how the shoes are always the same as well. The shoes are always the same. So I've tell you a little thing about me and the shoes. I've asked for higher heels like every single year. So the first the first year you saw out, I think it's like two and a half inch, and like I'm like, no, no, no, that's not high enough. Like, and obviously in musical theater, you have the standard, like you know, we get fitted by a Ladooka, it's all very lovely, but I'm like, they're not Tina heels. Like, I need to, and I've asked for new shoes, like, and every year I'm like, no, they're not high enough. So now I'm like, I think I'm at like a four and a half inch or maybe five. I'm at the highest possible Ladoca. Like it, but you have to have it. How can you walk around in a kitten heel being Tina? Like, it just doesn't like you saying the prop for the props, you know.

[41:52] William J Connolly: So she needs the high heel, honey.

[41:54] Karis Anderson: She needs the high heel. When people have such a legacy with Tina, and when people are very protective of her, I do think there's a nervousness about experiencing her in any other way. So for you, talk to me about what it's been like understanding the legacy of her in terms of what she means emotionally to people's lives, about the fact certain songs relate to certain chapters of people's lives and how that's actually, I think, and maybe you disagree, but I'm sure you don't like beneficial to why this show has become so successful because people feel safe in this space, and that this is about this is about the future, right? This is about legacy. I think, as you said, that Tina said she wanted the show to be. Talk to me about what it's been like having those conversations with the fans that I think, and you know, very fairly do feel protective over and do have a little bit of ownership over her because she was so much to them.

[42:42] Karis Anderson: Absolutely. And that so that duty that Tina felt and feels, I automatically feel like it's passed on to us as a performer, as Tina. It's by this show is made by Tina. So these fans are coming, and we meet them at stage door, and they say, Oh, some of them got the t shirts on, they're dressed up, but and I'm like, Oh, it's nice to meet you, and they're like, We saw Tina in this year, and I'm like, automatically, I go like I get scared because I'm like, what are you gonna say? Automatically, like something just happens, and I'm like, Like, oh my gosh, please be nice, please be nice. And then they're just that even though I get scared every time, they are always so lovely, and they're like, We feel like we've just seen Tina again.

I need you to know what this means to us. Then what I always say is Tina, people come from all over the world. Tina is universal. Tina is she's like a smile. That's what I say. Tina is like a smile, you know what she means, and you know you feel her no matter where you're from. And I see people and meet people from all over the world, and that feeling is the same. That that fondness of her, it's not like it's it is idolization, but it's not, it's just knowing what she did for this world and knowing how important she is for this world, for the future, for the past, for the present. It's timeless what she does through her music, it's literally through her legacy, which is her music and her story.

What she has done to touch people is just out of this world and the pressure that we do feel. It is a pressure, and it is like it's a pressure, but it's also an honour because Tina can't do it anymore. All she can do is through the music and the story, and we're here as a vessel. And I just some of the conversations that I've had with people and just how she's touched people's lives and changed people's lives, changed my life. There's just we always say there's no one like Tina, but that's why.

[44:35] Karis Anderson: Apart from maybe Michael Jackson.

[44:37] William J Connolly: This may be a big question, but do you is there ever a part of you that wishes she saw you do it?

[44:42] Karis Anderson: No, I wish she saw me. I wish I wish I could have met her for sure. That's always something that it, you know. I believe that everything happens at the right time, and I know that she can see me. Like I know she's seen it, and I believe when I auditioned, all the all the tapes would go to her. So it was vetted by her in a way. But I wish she saw me now, you know, because I understand it's to another degree now. Before I was just like excited and really wanted the role and really wanted to be Tina and all the things that you want to do as an actor, but now it's different. I want her to know, which she does, but I really I want to see her in knowing that she knows how much she's touched my life and changed my life and healed Tina has healed me from things that I like.

I said, I've spent thousands of pounds on therapy, and I come out like, hmm, I still feel that thing, but she's allowed me to transcend my pain into power. She's allowed me to my she says, you know, you turn your poison into medicine, and that is exactly what she's done for me because I've been able to live through her and heal the same way that she did in like a rapid time. It took her a little while, you know, it's taken her a lifetime. But I'm so grateful that I get to just play her life in three hours. And every time I'm on that stage, it's healing. So I do wish I could tell her that for sure.

[45:57] William J Connolly: Yeah. And very finally, we've spoken so much about everything happens for a reason, which I've always obsessed with anyway. But when you think back to the beginning of your career, to ask that charis back then, what would she think of the person that's been sat talking to me for the last sort of 40-45 minutes?

[46:12] Karis Anderson: Oh gosh. I would think I would never have been able to get to that point, especially not in the time that I have, because it's really been the last two years. You know, life has happened. There's been things you you rapidly change, things change you, you know, good and bad, sometimes overnight. But this process, I never ever thought that I would reach this um sense of calm. I'm chaos everywhere, William, like chaos. It's just who I am. Like, but I'm now able to have that other side of I guess it's a bit of retrospective and just reflection, just acknowledgement and not no blame, and all these things that you you look everywhere except for yourself, and I was looking everywhere, every single place, like under every bloody rock.

But it was just me that I needed to look inside of, and it I didn't realise that journey to me would be via Tina, but it makes perfect sense because she's the only woman that I know in the limelight who I relate to in terms of life, you know. I've been in situations where I've been beaten up before I've gone on stage and had to cover a black eye with makeup, which is exactly literally we are playing these moments. Do you know what I mean? And I didn't that would be enough we'll have a coffee about all that other stuff, babe. But you know, I I just can't believe that all the things that I've gone through, if the charis a few years ago was to see me now you i would i just know that i wouldn't believe that it would be this that would be the thing that would change my life and allow me to just ground me and just turn into the be the woman that I know I could be but I just didn't know how you know and to show up for myself and be confident but kind and you know soft but hard you know bit of a bit duality in life just finding that balance between every extreme I think that is the biggest and most beautiful lesson that Tina has given me and Caris a few years ago would be very shocked.

[48:06] William J Connolly: Are you proud of yourself?

[48:08] Karis Anderson: I'm so proud of myself I'm so proud of myself and my life is now a testament to just believing in myself and being proud because now I'm feeling like I'm reaping all the beautiful benefits not things feelings and love and like real relationships even this year like people that have I've let go of but then all these like beautiful friendships and like real friendships and people from the past that I've lost contact with they've just all found me again and I'm like that's because I wasn't aligned with them before now I'm back aligned with who I am doing this even I just have to big up Zoe again because that woman I just being nobody knows what Tina as an actor has to go through on that stage except for another Tina and like I found such a sisterhood in my fellow Tina now.

[48:55] Karis Anderson: So even before like you know I I say now you're literally spoiled for choice when you come see the show I'm like don't worry if you don't see me. How's just come just book? You're it's pick a mix, then you're good. Trust me. So just those important relationships. You know, things are lovely. Things and holidays and houses, they're all very, very lovely. But the relationships, the people, who you affect, who you inspire, who you leave, and who you leave. I just feel you should always, when you meet people, you should always leave them better than when you found them. And I believe that I used to say it, but I didn't act on it. And now I feel like I say it less and I act on it more. So yeah, thanks.

[49:30] William J Connolly: Thanks, Tina.

[49:32] Karis Anderson: Thank you, Tina. And most importantly, Caris, thank you to you. This has been such a pleasure. We have talked so much. I'm so sorry I've taken up so much of your time. You're such an angel.

[49:40] William J Connolly: You're such an angel. Thank you so much. Most importantly, I am so excited to say because I never get to say this at the end because I've already done it, but I'm so excited to see you play this role to come. And I'll be on the front row mouthing all the words.

[49:50] Karis Anderson: Did you be like to say that? I'm so excited. I can't wait to see you out there, my darling.

[49:54] William J Connolly: I'm so excited. Thank you so much. Enjoy this ride. It's so special. It sounds like it's just extraordinary for you.

[50:01] Karis Anderson: And I'm so grateful that it found you. I really am. So thank you so much for your time. And I'll see you in person very soon.

[50:04] William J Connolly: Thank you.

[50:05] Karis Anderson: I'll see you soon, my darling. Thank you for having me.

[50:10] William J Connolly: You've been listening to Eleven, the official theatre podcast. Find out more about Eleven at elevenpodcast.com or via the Broadway Podcast Network.