This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Hey Odd Squad, it's me, Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo, your host of Odd Woman Out, a podcast where we talk to women artists about what it is like to be a woman in the entertainment industry, how to embrace our odd, and how we can hold space to lift one another up.

[0:17] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Please enjoy this episode. Tell your friends to tune in, like, subscribe, and follow, and reach out to a woman in your life today and give her some love. Enjoy this episode.

[0:30] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Hi, Katie Lowes. Welcome to Odd Woman Out.

[0:34] Katie Lowes: Hello, thank you so much for having me.

[0:36] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I am so happy to have you. We were just saying you are our first virtual odd woman guest, so you're making history.

[0:42] Katie Lowes: Let's keep our fingers crossed that Mercury is not in the microwave and all of our technological possibilities will be endless today and not completely messed up.

[0:54] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Is it right now in the microwave?

[0:56] Katie Lowes: I actually don't know. I feel like at the time of this recording, we are all obsessed about the year of the horse, the fire horse, the shedding of the snake. So I feel like no one's even mentioned Mercury.

[1:06] Katie Lowes: No one's even mentioned Mercury. Everyone's only obsessed with other shit. Um, we have so much to talk about. Your career is so wide and amazing. Obviously, we have to touch on all of those things. But first, we have to talk about the woman of it all and being an odd woman and a woman in the industry, but I want to take it back to the beginning when you first discovered you wanted to be an artist and an actress. Was there a woman influence in your life, either personally, or somebody that was working professionally that you looked up to?

[1:42] Katie Lowes: Absolutely. Um both. And I was really, really lucky that I went to a great public school in Port Washington, Long Island that had a very robust art. Shout out P dubs.

[1:56] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Shout out P dubs.

[1:57] Katie Lowes: It's exit 36 on the LIE. It is the Port Washington Red Line stop on the Long Island Railroad. Love it from Penn Station. But I was really lucky. Um, you know, Mrs. Mayer, Barbara Mayer cast me in the Wizard of Oz in the fourth grade.

[2:17] Katie Lowes: Yes.

[2:18] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: What part were you?

[2:21] Katie Lowes: I was Dorothy, which was a little bit of a bigger one.

[2:22] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Okay, obviously, obviously, obviously.

[2:24] Katie Lowes: I was gonna say, obviously, you were Dorothy, but the competition was fierce, though. Like Rachel Berman was the scarecrow, Lauren Braun was the tin man. Um, Toto. I mean, we had a—I mean, the talent was—it was a tough role to get. So but anyway, Mrs. Mayer, you know, she, you know, I always think, you know, your first foray into doing something scary, even if it's challenging. She was, you know, she just was very maternal and very, um, it was a great, like, you could do no wrong. You know what I mean? Like everyone, you know, and it's the fourth grade. Yeah, what wrong could you do? But so that was wonderful.

[3:06] Katie Lowes: And then again, as I was saying, like my public school education, that sort of continued through junior high and high school with um Marty Braun and Cam Geld, who were the two women who choreographed and directed uh every musical that I did pretty much in junior high and high school. And they themselves, you know, were actors and dancers, and um their kids were also in all the plays, and they just—that's where things started to get a little harsher. I would say they weren't as hand-holdy as Barbara Mayer was. So I was getting pushed into a little bit of a, you know, more um, come on, a five, six, seven, eight, you know. But take your leg higher. They cared so much.

[3:53] Katie Lowes: And when I look back and I think, like, what in the world could they possibly have been getting paid for that? Like, like, and these absolute hormonal challenging 12 to 16, 17-year-olds, do you want to hang out with them from three to five every day and teach them steps and harmonies? Like, this is insane. But what they gave me was a community, a group of people, and I knew from a very young age that the theater nerds and the theater kids were my people. Um, and led by these amazing teachers who were essentially, for all intents and purposes, again, I don't know what the payment was, but I feel like they were volunteering. I mean, like basically they probably weren't any adequate enough stipend or whatever that could have gone into this.

[4:48] Katie Lowes: Um and then also my dad was a fashion photographer. Um and he did mail order catalogs, so like J. Crew, LL Bean, a lot. You remember how we used to shop at magazines?

[5:02] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yes.

[5:02] Katie Lowes: Okay, yes. That for anyone listening who doesn't remember that time, congratulations, you're really young.

[5:04] Katie Lowes: Um, congratulations, you're a Gen Z.

[5:10] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah, exactly. But my dad, a lot of the models, some of them were also actresses, and I had to do—I can't remember, like some sort of project when I was 13. And he just like I interviewed a bunch of them, and they took me through what a regular working actor in New York City is like going to auditions, not getting things, putting a number on your chest, doing a dance call, and I thought it sounded extraordinary. I was like sign me up. That is for me.

[5:45] Katie Lowes: So I don't remember choosing it. I don't ever remember there being this sort of aha moment of like it just was since I was little, I was in dance classes from a very young age, and then I just had a lot of like regular people who probably were figuring out ways to make a living that weren't being paid through acting, but they loved the art and they got involved with doing it with kids and changed my life.

[6:12] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love that so much. Shout out, I feel like teachers and these people who show us the ropes when we're children are just so informative to who we are as people, and so I always love to talk about that, especially the women, the underpaid women artists, the underpaid women who are showing—and they were all—they were all women, they were all um, yeah, it was just really—it was wonderful. I look back on—I mean, I'm still in touch with their kids. Um, when Adam and I got to go back and do Broadway, Mrs. Mayer came. It was so emotional. I was like, That is so—you know, I was just beside myself, you know.

[6:51] Katie Lowes: Yes, very, very cool cyclical moment, right?

[6:54] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah, I love that she's still supporting you all these years later. Um, okay. So now think about a professional acting job you've had. Maybe earlier on, was there a situation of like a woman uplifting you and showing you the ropes?

[7:08] Katie Lowes: You know, I like this question because I feel like there's a lot of chatter of like women are catty in the industry, and like, you know, their role is so bananas. I've heard of—I've heard tales of this.

[7:22] Katie Lowes: Yes. And I have been so—when I was 28, I booked Scandal. And I don't know if you wanted earlier than that, but I can't—like at 28 I booked Scandal, and for about 15 years up until this moment, so longer, 28. What am I now? 43. I can't do math.

[7:42] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I can't either.

[7:42] Katie Lowes: I have been in the Shondaland verse. Which it is a place where women hold each other up. There's that expression, shit rolls downhill. And if the people at the top, especially the women at the top are setting the example in—and I'm talking about Shonda Rhimes, I'm talking about Carrie Washington. I never—and since I've never seen this like catty bad behavior. I've never seen it. I've heard of it. I've heard of like friends on other shows where, you know, there's a call sheet and women have different numbers of how big their role is. And I've heard these stories of like women fighting each other for who gets to sit in the front seat of the van on the way to set.

[8:26] Katie Lowes: I never—I mean, Carrie Washington is the most gracious and graceful and professional and caring and supportive number one in the business, full stop. It's amazing. And then I had Shonda Rhimes above her, who just—I don't know, but it was just—and I know you've talked to Bellamy Young and she probably dreams about Carrie being like the best number one you could ever like dream of.

[8:41] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: The best number one ever.

[8:57] Katie Lowes: And so they really, you know, I feel like um Scandal was sort of like my grad school, you know, just for the first time ever having um a real amount of time logged in front of a camera, you know, like every day you show up to this job for eight years, and we all really grew up together. It was a very um influential—it was a big time in a lot of our lives on the show. Some people bought their first home. People got married, people had babies, there were deaths, we got close with all of each other's family. Carrie and Shonda held my hand. That's what that was the mentorship.

[9:35] Katie Lowes: Yeah, not only about being on a hit show and Carrie being like, you know, I remember I had a bad experience with a photographer, the first Scandal ABC photo shoot. And he was saying things about like you should stand like this because your hips are big and you—you know, you could change your position to look like this. And I was really upset by it and I—or it made me feel insecure, and I told Carrie about it. And, but you know, remember like the business in this way has changed, I think, hopefully for the better. But um I can remember talking to Carrie about it, and then I felt insecure. And then every photo shoot after that, Carrie was like by my side, literally like side coaching, like just like telling me that I was beautiful, like who does that?

[10:23] Katie Lowes: Or like I couldn't find an outfit, let's say for a red carpet. She'd be like, instead of these stories I hear of other women like don't wear the same color I'm wearing, or I don't want you to look as good as me. She'd be like, Oh, I have the people at Donna Karan. Let me just call them right now and see if there's anything for you to borrow. Like, endless in that regard, and then really held my hand through becoming a mother.

[10:45] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: That is so amazing to hear because when you see somebody at that level, you—you don't always know what's the—what do they always say? Don't meet your idols.

[10:53] Katie Lowes: Feel me your idols, heroes or whatever.

[10:57] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: And it's so cool when you hear these amazing stories. And I also heard you in an interview say, and you correct me because I'm gonna—but I'm gonna butcher it. About Shonda was like, Hey, are you—do you want to have a baby? Because do it now, do it while you're on my watch and I'll support you. Like that is so.

[11:17] Katie Lowes: Yeah, she said two things. When I booked the job too, she also was like, stay exactly as you are, because there's also this thing I had heard of happening where you know, women book a big part and then all of a sudden they like drop a lot of weight.

[11:29] Katie Lowes: Um, because all of a sudden they're gonna be on camera. And Shonda, in so many words, was like, please don't do that. Like, I she was like, I have three daughters, like, just know I hired you for you. Like, please don't like go and like try to change what makes you you and what you look like and who you are, like you're who I want. Um, so that was beautiful. And yes, the in you know, when I we were coming up on the last season of Scandal, and Adam and I had been married for a hot minute at that point. Let's just shout out to Shappy Shops and his pretzels, real quick. Shappy Shaps, Shappy Please. We have a little you can order them on the website or at Gold Belly, and we ship across the country.

There you go. Um, so yeah, she called me in. I mean, Shawn and I are dear dear friends. We like travel together. I mean, we're all good friends, yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, Bellamy said the same. She's like, these people are my family forever. We text like every day. We're on a WhatsApp chain of every regular on the show and all of our significant other. It's the best. So yeah, Adam calls it the Scandal Wives Club. So different than the hunting wives. Different. Well, he has hunting husbands for that show, which is like Jamie Ray Newman's husband who played Callie. It's Ma it's uh Mollin's husband, it's Brittany's guy, everybody's guy is also dear dear friends. Yeah. Um, anyway, yeah, Shauna called me in and said, you know, what's your deal?

Like, do you want to have a family? And I said, Yeah, I'm really thinking about it. And she said, Well, you know, I've taken a lot of actresses through it. Um, there were a bunch of Grays and obviously Carrie twice. And she was like, So if I were you, she was like, you know, you I I she was basically like, get it done on my watch because I'm gonna take care of you, and you're and I don't know who your bosses will be after me or what they'll be like. And I ran home to Adam and I was like, take off your pants. She's gonna take care of me. And she did. Like, if I could even explain to you, like, yeah, I I had a PA assigned to me. I mean, life was better on set pregnant than anywhere else. Like, there was a PA, like, what can I get you?

I'm like, I need hummus and pickles, I need another peanut butter jelly sandwich. Like, I had a zero gravity chair delivered because my feet were so swollen, so my like feet could be up high. They built me a porch off of my trailer because the steps were too inclined and everyone was scared I was gonna slip. So they built these like special ramps so that I could get. I mean, it was like that's amazing, honestly, unbelievable. Um, and then when I went back to work, in both instances, Scandal and Inventing Anna, I went back to work with little babies, and um it was incredible. We had something called, you know, like you know, there's usually like 10-1 if you have to have a pea break, but they would have a break for me every three hours to breastfeed to go back to see my son, to see my daughter.

They they gave me another side of a trailer where there was a nursery set up. I mean, guys, first of all, it should it, we should not this should not be shocking. This should just be how it's how it is, right? And it's not, which is why it's like such a big conversation point because bosses don't don't do that. They're not like, yeah, go get pregnant while you're filming my show on my dad. And then when you come back, we're gonna shut down production every time you need to breastfeed. We're gonna have you all set up where your baby can be with you so that you can do your job and also be a mother. No, it's it's like it's also so possible. Now that I've seen that it is so possible, it's such a gift, and I know Bellamy feels this way too, because you go on to other sets and you pay it forward.

You're like, oh no, no, I've already worked in an in like a beautiful environment. So that's the stand, that's the standard to which I hold myself and everybody else. Right. So like you don't tolerate any. We all treat each other kindly. We think about other people. We're like grateful to be here, you know. Like if there is an issue, you speak about it as an adult, you know, in a respectful manner. I mean, it's like not it's not rocket science, right? Neither no, but I have heard that there's horrible behavior. Horrible behavior. And it's like we we all chose this life because we love it. So why not make it the most enjoyable and the most supportive? Correct. Spaces to the world. And there's so many other hard things about it.

Like, there's so many other hard things about it. It's so hard to book a job. It's so hard to be an artist. It's so hard to be an emotional artist walking around in the world. It's like at least when you go to your place of work, if you could be supported and treat each other nicely, I feel like that's the easiest additive. Yeah. The most simple, obvious thing to do, right?

[16:19] Katie Lowes: Yeah. Um, since we're like in the scandal combo, let's keep talking about it. I love, love, love this video you've posted about when you book the role. I just want to like, I don't even have a question. My most viral video. I think it's like millions of times. I don't even know. All I know is Lynn Manuel Miranda watched it, and I almost fell over death. Shout out to Lynn. Hey, Lynn Manuel, if you're listening. We love you, Lynn Manuel Miranda. Yeah, I don't even have a question about that. I just love that video so much and that you've shared it. I had already tested for ABC. She's for you guys listening. She's you can go to my Instagram, KTQ Lowe's because Quinn is actually my real middle name, which was totally just coincidental.

And when I auditioned for the role, I was like, Oh my god, you know that my real middle name was Quinn, and maybe it's a sign that I'm gonna get this part. I love that. It was it was we love Quinn Perkins. Yes, so do I. Um so I had auditioned for Shonda a bunch. This is the other thing I tell actors like I have been in for Shonda lots of times. I had got she had a show the year before scandal called Off the Map, which was like a Grey's Anatomy Doctor show without borders. They shot it in Hawaii. Oh wow, and it only lasted 13 episodes and then it got canceled. But I got close to all the female doctors on that show. Um, Mamie Gummer ended up getting one, um, Rachel Lefebvre ended up getting one.

Great actresses, but I didn't. And I was babysitting at the time, and I had to go back in so many times to audition and not get it. And then my babysitting job was pissed off and I was broke and it was a shit show. But I'd been on private practice and I had gone in for Linda Lowy, who cast it, who's married to Jeff Perry. She also cast Friday Night Lights, which I'd been in for a bunch of times. Anyway, the the office was obviously fans. Yeah. And when I went in to read for Quinn Perkins, I read it once, and Shauna was in the room, and she was like, Okay, can you do it again just this time much faster? Which I've never been told to speak faster my whole life. I speak so fast. I'm from New York.

I've always been told to slow the fuck down. And um, I did it again, and she was like, Yep. And I felt like okay, I think I did okay. And like that afternoon, they were like, they're gonna screen test you. You know, you're you're gonna go in with a bunch of other girls, and they call me in for two weeks later, which I think is the screen test, and I have my sides, and I'm wearing the same outfit I wore last time because like, oh my god, you don't want to do anything differently. Yeah, and they're shooting it, and I'm like, okay, like where are we gonna start? Thank you so much for calling me in again. And then you see the video, Shauna just says, um, you know, we called you in today, and we actually were not gonna test you.

And she says, because I've already shown your last tape to the studio and network, and I'm just gonna give you the part. Like, those things don't happen. Like, that's not real. But it is real, it happened. Never. First of all, you have to have a powerful enough showrunner, which she already was because of Gray's Anatomy in private, that she would go to ABC and say, you know, I want Katie Lowes's for this role. And it and that's that's the only person I'm gonna show you. Yeah. For ABC to not say, No, no, no, no, no, go back and get us some more options. We want to weigh in. So that didn't happen. So she needed to be powerful enough, which she was, and then for whatever reason, we were just connected, and now we're friends for life, and she's stuck with me for life.

[19:43] Katie Lowes: Yeah, shout out to Shonda Rhimes. What an absolute fucking queen. Oh, fucking queen and brilliant, and oh, she's just the best. Yeah, she's the best. I mean, I've watched interviews of her and I'm like best. You're so cool for being as smart and successful. You're just she just seems like a girl's girl, and that's what and she she loves girls. She's dear friend, like she's an amazing friend, and also she's so inspiring because she's the opposite. Like I feel the need, as you can tell, to like fill empty space with words or make everybody, you know, what I'm practicing in my 43rd year, is like I don't need to make anyone else feel comfortable like I don't need to make decisions to make other people feel comfortable, you know.

Like I, but I'm such a people pleaser and a caretaker, and because she's had to be a boss for I think Gray's just got picked up for its 23rd season. That's crazy. She doesn't do that, she doesn't feel the need to like fill pauses with like on like she's just so like confident in her space. Like I'm just like, oh my god, I love being around it. Shout out to Shonda. Um, we gotta talk a little bit about Quinn Perkins. I love this character, I love Scandal. I am like psycho scandal. I told Bellmy, I'm like, it makes me feel weird that like Scandal's one of my comfort shows because it's so kind of it is for a lot of people right now, and even though people are getting murdered, political, the political world is uh absolute shit.

You wouldn't think that, but I you're not alone because it's it's on Netflix, and I'm it's like a whole new generation. Like I'm I get a like I'm getting accosted now in a healthy way. I'm sure from from all like college students who are just starting the show and binging it and um maybe because it's I I don't know why, but honestly, the show does hold up. It does. It does. It's just like it absolutely does. And everybody is like so perfect. It's just it's just perfect with a capital P. But Quinn, I feel has so many different chapters through the show, right? It does. I know they really put me through the ringer. They I got to do so many different things. Every week I'd come to a table read and be like, what crazy shit am I gonna get to do now?

Like it was the best. Yeah. Like, do you remember the hundredth episode sliding door episode where I become a a contestant on the bachelorette? Yes. And I show up at Tony Goldwyn's dressing room. I mean, yeah. It's iconic. Like that I got to do the craziest, get my teeth pulled out, torture people, yeah, drill knee drill kneecaps. Yeah, yeah. And then at the end, OPA turns into QPA. As it should. As it should. So what's your favorite? What was your favorite version of Quinn if you had to pick? Oh, all of the coming up under Huck is my jam. I mean, first of all, Guillermo Diaz is my soulmate. Shout out to your podcasts as well. Yeah, yes. Go stream past us. Unpacking the tool. Yes, unpacking the toolbox is a scandal rewatch podcast, and you just can hear how in love Guillermo Diaz, who plays Huck and I are with each other. I love the Quinn Huck chapter as well.

[23:00] Katie Lowes: It's the best. It's the absolute best. Although I do love like I love Charlie too. I mean, I just love that whole B613 arena and Quinn getting her like her come up in. But I just like love her like growing into this badass. For real. Like capital B, capital A, badass. Yes. We love it. If you're listening and you haven't watched Scandal, I'm shocked. So please go stream it on Netflix from episode one. And then you'll binge it a ton of times like my psychotic self. Let's talk about your time on Broadway and Waitress. Because we're talking about women. There, I don't think there's a better woman-focused show telling my favorite women's stories that I've ever seen on Broadway. You're now our fourth guest from Waitress. Is that right?

[23:52] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Who else?

[23:52] Katie Lowes: Well, we had Caitlin Hoolihan, who also was.

[23:54] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Oh god, she's amazing.

[23:55] Katie Lowes: Diane Paulis.

[23:57] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Oh my god.

[23:58] Katie Lowes: Shoshana Bean.

[23:59] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: And yeah.

[24:00] Katie Lowes: Ah! Iconic waitress. You're really getting close to Sara Bareilles.

[24:05] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: You're really getting close to the screen.

[24:07] Katie Lowes: Listen, we're trying. We're trying. If you look at my guests, it's like, what does this girl like? Scandal, Waitress, Broadway.

[24:14] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Well, Waitress was amazing. I mean, it's weird. I'd sort of written off like ever doing a Broadway musical. I thought maybe someday I would do a Broadway play, and I've yet to do that. And I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really want to. Let's put that out. Fire horse, Broadway play.

[24:29] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Hello, we're gonna get you on Broadway.

[24:30] Katie Lowes: We'll have some, we'll just yeah we'll just post this social clip right now of like I want that. Everybody Katie wants to be on a Broadway play. Let's do that. I want that so badly. Um, I thought the musical had sort of ship had sailed only because I had been on a TV show for so long, and so that muscle was sort of not as worked up.

[24:38] Katie Lowes: Did you try for Broadway first and then?

[24:38] Katie Lowes: Oh yeah. I mean I spent because I went to Tish School of the Arts for college. So I just assumed that I'd always be in New York. I mean LA was never on my radar. TV wasn't on my radar. Movies. Like I just thought I was gonna do theater for the rest of my life. I mean I majored in theater at school.

[25:08] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[25:09] Katie Lowes: Um and then when I graduated college I got my equity card doing two shows in rotating rep at the Mint Theater company which I don't think exists anymore. Um maybe I'm living in maybe I'm living in past I don't know but I that's how I got my equity card and I auditioned for plays and I was doing a bunch of like off off Broadway with friends and bizarre experimental theater shit in parks and all that stuff and still waitressing a ton um at a theater district restaurant called Cafe Cello, which doesn't exist anymore but I loved working there because the rush was before the theater it was on eighth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd.

[25:53] Katie Lowes: Um but anyway I just spent two years like that and I did get like a line on the Sopranos. I got a line in a pilot you know starring Marsha Gay Harden that didn't go I got a line on Rescue Me starring Dennis Leary or is that who it was um but I got this like little gnawing feeling, like, oh my god, maybe if I move to Los Angeles, I'll waitress less and I'll get like more paid acting work. Uh but I really didn't intend to stay, and I didn't intend to do TV to this extent, but it was simultaneously what was happening was TV was becoming the thing.

[26:36] Katie Lowes: Like at the same time, like, you know, movies were getting to be not the thing that everybody did. It was like, oh my god, all of a sudden, you know, Homeland and the surprise, like all these like TV was all of a sudden where it was at in terms of storytelling and in terms of where great actors went to work. But then I also met Al Shapiro and I fell in love and he loved LA before Scandal.

[27:02] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[27:02] Katie Lowes: Oh, and then you guys got to work together on Scandal.

[27:05] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah, I got him the job.

[27:07] Katie Lowes: Oh, fun. No, I mean he had to audition, but don't read everything you see on the internet because I read that you guys met on Scandal and fell in love on Scandal because he played your boyfriend.

[27:15] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: That's insane.

[27:16] Katie Lowes: I don't know where I saw that in my 24 years old. I booked Scandal 28. My bullshit reporting research was wrong.

[27:23] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: See, don't trust everything you read.

[27:25] Katie Lowes: Don't trust everything you read on the internet. Um, I got him the job here. I mean, like, you know, he had to audition, but they were like, wouldn't it be so cute if Katie's real-life boyfriend who's an incredible actor also um plays twins' boyfriend on the TV show.

[27:41] Katie Lowes: Anyway, when we were out here, we were friends with Sara Bareilles. Like we would see her play concerts, like at the hotel cafe with like not that many people.

[27:51] Katie Lowes: Yeah, because she used to play very small spaces. I remember going to see her at Highline Ballroom, and like I was a young child, correct year old. So we would see that we became friends with her. We had a lot of mutual friends. And so we were huge Waitress fans ourselves. Like we went to go see it when it opened because our friend had written the musical.

[28:10] Katie Lowes: Then when Sara Bareilles was starring in it, we were like, Oh my god, we are gonna go see it again a bunch of times because our dear friend who wrote a musical is also starring in it. Um, and then she texted us and said, How would you guys like to make your Broadway debuts together in Waitress as Dawn and Ogi? And we were like, Wait, wait, what?

[28:30] Katie Lowes: And then she was like, Of course, you have to audition like a million times, which we did, and it was rigorous and terrifying. And I nailed that audition, and then I thought, I'm so fucked because I can a hundred percent sing's song once, but I don't know if I can sing it eight times.

[28:47] Katie Lowes: Like, I literally don't know if my voice it's a hard song. It's impossible because it's right in the break, and Sara Bareilles doesn't have a break, and you need to be like getting lifted.

[28:58] Katie Lowes: I stick with real things, usually facts and figures when information's in it, play some and it's my guessing game.

[29:05] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Guess what?

[29:06] Katie Lowes: Yeah, what?

[29:08] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Oh my god, I don't like Waitress.

[29:12] Katie Lowes: Oh my god, or when it feels things.

[29:15] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Whoa, that is very good.

[29:16] Katie Lowes: And I haven't thought about that song in a hot minute because I it goes into like some special place where I'm like, I just start sweating and having like a panic attack.

[29:24] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Okay, okay, so it was offer only, and then you guys did it.

[29:26] Katie Lowes: And how long did you do the rest of the stuff?

[29:28] Katie Lowes: Well, we had to audition a bunch of times, and then they kind of they were like, Okay, fine, these TV actors from LA will let them slide in and sort of do this.

[29:36] Katie Lowes: Yeah, I think we did it for four months.

[29:39] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: You guys were great.

[29:39] Katie Lowes: Oh my god, thank you.

[29:42] Katie Lowes: I literally saw Adam I was okay. Adam was fucking fancy.

[29:48] Katie Lowes: He was great, and he had to take over that part from Chris Fitzgerald's, which is basically impossible and insane. He was great, you guys were both great. Adam absolutely killed it.

[30:00] Katie Lowes: Who was your Janus?

[30:01] Katie Lowes: And we had Kat McVeigh.

[30:04] Katie Lowes: And then we had Nicolette Robinson, who has now become a I mean, her and Leslie Odom Jr. are like very, very good friends of ours. We and it was so nice because they had a baby and we had a baby.

[30:17] Katie Lowes: And um it just felt like holy shit, we're making our Broadway debuts, and we have tiny, tiny babies, and this is absolut our hormones are still absolutely crazy, and we're doing this thing we've always wanted to do.

[30:34] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[30:35] Katie Lowes: Like it was really wonderful.

[30:37] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love that too.

[30:38] Katie Lowes: And I love talking about, you know, being a mom, a new mom and a mom and a working artist because you can, and and there is a different level for women experiencing hormones and whatever the hell else women have to explain.

[30:51] Katie Lowes: I pumped every intermission.

[30:52] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: And you're like getting lifted.

[30:54] Katie Lowes: I would pump every intermission. The first run we did, I was like, should I I honestly remember thinking to myself, should I wear depends? Because I honestly, like eight months ago, I had an eight-month-old, I a seven-month-old. I was like, I mean, I've been through like a car accident in my vagina, and literally now I'm being lifted up and I'm placed on like a baking cart, and I'm scared.

[31:20] Katie Lowes: You know, like what happens if I cough on stage or sneeze and I just pee because my muscles haven't even returned back to the trauma that they have been through, you know?

[31:32] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[31:33] Katie Lowes: Um, so yeah, that's just crazy. I remember hitting like Dawn's top note uh in her song, and like m like my boobs like lighting up and milk just like pouring out.

[31:45] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[31:46] Katie Lowes: It's amazing. You're like, that's some real shit.

[31:49] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: That is some real shit.

[31:52] Katie Lowes: And you know what? This is why I love this podcast. Because you know what? We're women and we're odd women, and we could do whatever the fuck we want, even if our boobs are lacked. Like, it's amazing. Like, it was so beautiful. It's on my photos I have of like Albie coming down on two show days so that I could see in between the shows, or you know, we would get home at like two o'clock in the morning because Adam and I just like to rage, and we had so many family and friends come see the show, and then you know, for us to be in a Broadway show, and this was pre-COVID, so they would all come back and we would tour them around like what a Broadway, you know, dressing room was like and yes, exactly.

[32:30] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Then we'd go out, and then I'll be right back. Where would you guys go? What was your Broadway bar?

[32:34] Katie Lowes: Oh Class House? We we would lived at Class House.

[32:37] Katie Lowes: It's very different. Dutch Fred's, Glasshouse, Bar Central, you know, all this shit.

[32:43] Katie Lowes: And then I'd get home and my son would wake me up at 6 a.m. to breastfeed while Adam would just be like snoring away.

[32:50] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Preparing to be Ogi for the next day.

[32:52] Katie Lowes: Yeah. And I'm like, you rest, honey.

[32:54] Katie Lowes: Yeah, no worries, don't worry. You know, women are like uh we're we're incredible.

[32:58] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[32:58] Katie Lowes: I agree. I really, really agree.

[33:01] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Um, congratulations on Waitress, and we can't wait to see you back on Broadway. What is your dream Broadway role?

[33:07] Katie Lowes: So you said you want to be in a play, so we're gonna shout it out. Katie Lowes is gonna star in a Broadway play and win a Tony Award, everyone.

[33:13] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: So come on.

[33:14] Katie Lowes: Come on. Could you imagine?

[33:15] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I can't do.

[33:16] Katie Lowes: I see we have to imagine these things. Otherwise, how will they be real?

[33:19] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I agree.

[33:20] Katie Lowes: So, what is your dream role?

[33:22] Katie Lowes: I always want to do anything, period.

[33:26] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Love.

[33:26] Katie Lowes: Like you're like, I'll take whatever.

[33:29] Katie Lowes: I just can't be on. I mean, I want to do Broadway, but like, why I can't be in Bridgerton, I just don't understand.

[33:33] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I know they don't hire Americans, but fine.

[33:35] Katie Lowes: Okay. Because it's like a whole union thing. They have like different unions.

[33:39] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: They it's a whole different situation.

[33:40] Katie Lowes: Don't worry. I've asked Sean to everybody at Shondaland only like a thousand times.

[33:44] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Okay.

[33:45] Katie Lowes: Broadway play, I would die to do.

[33:47] Katie Lowes: Or musical. Dream role. I mean, I'm he I know people don't believe this of me, but like I love Tennessee Williams.

[33:55] Katie Lowes: I love I'm sorry. I just do. Like I love it. But I also love a comedy.

[34:00] Katie Lowes: Like, I just like love I don't care. To be honest, I can do it.

[34:04] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Okay.

[34:05] Katie Lowes: And here's the other crazy thing.

[34:06] Katie Lowes: Tell us about my career, if you can call it that.

[34:09] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Oh my god, what do you mean if you can call it that?

[34:11] Katie Lowes: I'm not even gonna get to half the questions that I have because we're just having a great time chatting.

[34:15] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah, okay.

[34:17] Katie Lowes: That's how it should go.

[34:18] Katie Lowes: I I I it's like I you gotta surround yourself with people who dream bigger for you than you do.

[34:25] Katie Lowes: I would die to do Shakespeare.

[34:27] Katie Lowes: Because I didn't even know that a musical was gonna come my way, you know?

[34:31] Katie Lowes: And it did. Or, you know, I got to do a multicam sitcom with Pete Holmes for a season. Like I didn't know that was gonna come my way. Hunting Wives, like what someone allowed and paid and hired me to play a preacher's wife in East Texas. Like, I'm from New York. Like my mother talks like this. Like, I don't I cannot even believe. So it's almost like I'd like to tell you what play I would do on Broadway, what musical. But honestly, I feel kind of com like I've gotten to do so many different things that people were just like, Katie, Katie Lowes can do it. And I'm just like, yeah. Yeah, so I'm gonna do it and see what's gonna come. Hello, everyone listening. Send it. Send her some scripts. She's available.

Like I just love theater. I love the theater community. I have a theater company in LA. I love that. Yeah. Called I Am a Theater Company. It's 18 years old. We had two shows on Broadway this year that originated at our company in LA Cult of Love, written by Leslie Headland that was starring Zach Quinto and Rebecca Henderson and Shailen Woodley. So iconic. Our theater company did that in 2018. Congratulations. And then the two-hander job was also written in the I Am a Emerging Playwrights Lab. Um dead that you're like my career, if you can even call it that you're like, just rattled off all these TV shows you did. My theater company, you're iconic and amazing. Well, the theater company is important for anybody listening because you can't control this shit.

But if you can be a part of something that's like so much bigger than yourself with all your friends like making art, like my theater company still feels like college to me. I love that. I feel like my whole life feels like college, so which is like I'm here for I'm I think I'm just keep it up, just keep doing that. Thank you so much. Tell me about a time in the industry where you've have felt like the odd woman out. We just talked about all these amazing times in your career and these amazing things. Yes. You're the odd woman in. Where I've been the odd woman in. Yes. Let's see. Odd woman out, like every single time you don't get an acting job. Right. Right. No, no, no. I mean, well, we kind of like touched on it.

Like, you know, I started the show t mainly because I was being so mean to myself and and on camera shit. And also, there's so much about, I mean, look, everyone has a story like this. Look, this job is so much about your own mental health and fortitude and perseverance. So, whatever you need to do to keep that, whether that's surrounding yourself with people support you, weekly therapy, yes, some sort of spiritual practice, like whatever you can do, because every day is not easy, and the job is so much about how do you pick yourself up from failure and from no's, right? Um, because that's a huge part of it. And I can remember my first agent right out of college, who will remain nameless because she's still doing it.

Um, you know, asked me to join Weight Watchers and told me that I was too fat for TV, that I would never work in television, like unquote. And I was 21 years old and not in any way, shape, form obese. Um, and I went, I fucking joined Weight Watchers and Weight Watchers when you had to go in person. You had to go in person, you had to get on a scale, and they weighed you. And they said to me, You're gonna have to bring in a doctor's note because you're not we don't even recommend you losing weight. And then I told this to my agent, and she said, Well, just keep going, it's done wonders for me. And also don't ever wear hoop earrings because you already have a really round face, and I mean, not to say, like, boo-hoo-hoo on me, like uh look, horrible things have happened to women in this business.

Correct. And I have skirted, I have had no sexual assault, like people women have had horrible casting couch stories, and um there are horrible, horrible things. But this is just like a tiny, like, I'm a little baby Katie at the start of trying to do this professionally. Also, you trust this person, right? You're like just you're getting into the industry, you trust this lady. But it's how do you pick yourself up? How do you pick yourself up and say, oh no, no, no, no. Like, I'm gonna work and I'm gonna fire you. Right. And that's exactly what I did. This is like um the course of the thing. You know, like I I got my own, I did my own industry showcase. I put it on myself. I invited innovative artists, they poached me from the other place.

Love that will remain nameless. But like I it be it lit a fire, like it's like, what do you do? Do you let that take you down? Fine, you can be taken down for a day, and then you fucking pick yourself up. It lights a fire under your ass. You use your voice, you use your talent and your skill set, and you just dig yourself out and you jump on that fucking horse again. Like that's what acting to me is. I mean so you're the odd woman out all the I mean, I didn't get two parts I went out for last week that I cared for deeply. That I'm too old, I'm too young, I'm too this, I'm too that. Okay. On to the next. And big shout out that you're wearing the hoop earrings today. Fuck that lady. Fuck her. I fucking love a hoop.

I love a hoop. I wear a fucking hoop all the time. Fuck that lady. I know. I love a hoop as well. Shout out. I don't have a hoop today. It's hard. There was only one time I was doing a um, oh maybe I shouldn't even tell the story, but I was doing a big blockbuster movie. I had a few lines in it, and um, and it's not super eight because JJ Abrams is the best, most kindest director ever. Shout out. So I was doing a different big budget movie with a big budget director, and they came into my dressing room and they were like, Okay, like here's your huge padded bra, and here's your mini skirt, and like you're gonna come out for the director and do like a circle, and he's not even gonna introduce himself to you, and he's either gonna approve you or he's not.

And that I had I had made it that's like the one time, yeah. So I feel fucking lucky because for real, there are girls that have been put through crazy shit in that arena, and I just never played those parts. And then, like I said at the beginning of the podcast, because I got into the Chandelin verse so early on, I feel like I was I was protected. Yeah, like I just was like stuck in a the best utopia, right? Utopia. And now, and like you said, now you know, like you will not tolerate bullshit because you know that it is normal for it to be good. Correct. This has been amazing. I'm so so honored that you agreed to come on the show. Like I said, we're gonna be still new, and like we're a little podcasting.

What made you start it? Well, I I was just like doing a lot of live coverage on opening nights and like crying and saying I'm ugly and fat and like terrible things. And I was like, if I'm if I'm like this saying these things, other other women are experiencing crazy shit too. Like go to Weight Watchers when you are perfect. Do you know what I mean? Like dumb dumb shit. Can you imagine? Like, that's crazy, so crazy. That's crazy, and even if you're it wouldn't be crazy to say that in any size. What are you just saying? Like, even if you were, you know, a thicker girl, like fuck off fuck you. This is my body. Well, I was for Hollywood standards, I was an eight, and it people were like, No, I'm not kidding.

That's because you know what, also, the industry has changed in some ways, but like 20 years ago, it was still not, we weren't seeing Gray's Anatomy hadn't hit yet. We weren't seeing Chandra Wilson, we weren't seeing, you know, Katie Heigel as like a, you know, we weren't seeing not that Katie Heigel's thick at all, but I'm saying, like, you know, we weren't seeing women, like we just weren't. We weren't seeing um women of different colors and sizes and ages. I mean, good lord, like what the hell. And they exactly what the hell. Um, what advice do you have to any of the odd women listening to the odd squad to stay true to them? Yeah, what's your advice? Well, I think I touched on it briefly, but I think, you know, your support system is so important to really surround yourself with friends and family and therapists and trainers or gurus and whoever it is for you that makes you feel good.

Yeah. And also the people who don't, the toxic relationships, the toxic friends, the people who don't want what's best for you. It's like arms distance. You can hold that friendship at a further distance and and not, you know, it's like just really, I'm really sensitive to the people in the energy who are around me because the business is hard and life is hard. So like I just really am with people who are so psyched when I succeed. And I and I feel the same way for my dearest friends and family. Like I'm just like, I only want to for us all to like, you know, there's a saying, I think Jonathan Groff said it on um, or maybe Amy Polar said it when she was interviewing Jonathan Graff, but it's like um, oh shit, they messed it up too.

They couldn't think of it either. That episode is so good. All boats rise with a rising tide or whatever, you know. So, like if you're the right if you're on a boat that's like rising and you can, you know, take the tide to rise, everybody around you. Like, that's that's so Kerry Washington. That's so Shonda Rhimes. Like, um and now it's you paying it forward. Here we go. Katie, we're gonna get kicked out of the studio soon. So I have to wrap this up, even though I could talk to you for three more hours. Oh my god, we're getting kicked out of the studio. Oh my god. Okay, thank you so much for having me. I woman out. Odd squad, I love you. Thank you for listening. Oh my god, please let us know when you're when you're gonna be in New York.

We can do a follow-up. I didn't even ask one thing about Hunting Wives, and I have so many questions. Everybody watch Hunting Wives. It's on Netflix, it's the most fucking fun ever. I had no idea it was gonna be the huge smashing success. Smash best group of girls, similar Rebecca Cutter, showrunner. You know, like just no bad behavior, nothing but female support. I love we all lived in the same freaking apartment building with a pool in the middle where we were it was amazing and really supportive. Like mom, like Mollin has a kid and Jane Renumanov who has two kids, and me and Brittany was down the hall, and Chrissy Metz was the floor below us, and we all carried each other and had an absolute fucking blast.

And that's making the way it should be. Just rattling off all these like iconic women women names, all supported. They're the best. Great group. Great group. Everybody go follow Katie, watch the Hunting Wives, watch Scandal, watch Inventing Anna, all of the fucking things. She's an icon, and she's now an odd woman. That's correct. Forever. Hey Odd Squad, it's me again, Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. Please like, subscribe, and follow. We will be releasing new episodes on most Fridays. So follow us on social media to keep up at Odd Woman Show on Instagram and TikTok. And you can follow me at Sammy Tutz. And I'm done.