This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome back to The Theatre Podcast, intimate, personal conversations with the industry's biggest names. This episode is with Susan Kelechi Watson, who you may know from her amazing, amazing role on This Is Us, but she also made her Broadway debut back in 2005, and then her TV and film career just exploded from there. We actually get into why she went that route more than theatre, because as we were talking, she was saying that she just can't let theatre go. She always comes back. She's always doing as much theatre as she can, and she's obviously on stage right now through September 18th in the Shakespeare in the Park comedy, Merry Wives. But as she puts it, she just got more yeses than nos in the TV and film space, so that's where she went, and it's a great example of making the best of every opportunity that's presented to you.

And she's a first-generation Jamaican. She has a great thought on how she feels responsible for maintaining the accurate representation of her culture, and we had a wonderful conversation about all of that. Make sure to find me on Instagram and Twitter at Theatre Underscore Podcast on Facebook, slash Official Theatre Podcast. Please leave a rating and a review before you start listening, and now, everybody, please enjoy this episode with Susan Kelechi Watson.

[1:22] Alan Seales: Here you go. One, two, three. My guest today is helping us feel great about live theatre again. She may be best known for her role as Beth Pearson in This Is Us, but she made her Broadway debut in 2005 in A Naked Girl on the Appian Way before moving into an amazing TV and film career, including Law & Order, The Good Wife, Louie, Veep, Billions, and The Blacklist, among many others. Additional off-Broadway credits include Twelfth Night and A Raisin in the Sun. She starred as Andrea Vogel in the Fred Rogers biopic A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, alongside this little guy known as Tom Hanks. And she can now be seen in the amazing Shakespeare in the Park comedy Merry Wives, playing now through September 18th. Susan Kelechi Watson, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:18] Susan Kelechi Watson: Wow, thank you, thank you. I need to walk around with you just wherever I go. You could get me a free cup of coffee or something, I mean. Thank you.

[2:28] Alan Seales: Wait, wait, wait. Do you notice how to pronounce your middle name? Give this lady a cup of coffee. You don't know what she's got.

[2:36] Susan Kelechi Watson: Thank you, thank you. So good to be here.

[2:39] Alan Seales: Thank you for joining us. I'm a big fan, and reviews for Merry Wives are, I don't normally talk about reviews, but they're great. You are getting so much praise for this role.

[2:49] Susan Kelechi Watson: Thank you.

[2:50] Alan Seales: And you are helping bring live theatre back. And that's actually, I think, where we should start here, because we're coming out of COVID. I put in air quotes, because who knows what's going to happen tomorrow. But it looks like theatre's returning. It looks like Broadway's reopening. All these things are happening. And then you're in the midst of this wonderful production outside of Shakespeare in the Park. I guess, how are you feeling coming back into the scene? Because you're primarily TV and film in the first place, but also you're coming back into the theatre scene after not having any theatre. What is this like for you?

[3:27] Susan Kelechi Watson: It's the best feeling. I've done this now with film, television, and now theatre, because last summer, during the height of the pandemic, we shot a film based on Ta-Nehisi Coates' book with HBO called Between the World and Me. And then I did a TV show that I've been on for a while now, This Is Us. And that was one of the first shows to come back. After the pandemic, that was literally one of the first shows to come back. And now, this is the first theatre back. So I'm like, okay. I felt okay. I felt like, all right, I've done this twice now. I think I know how to stay as safe as I can. New York is my love. He's my boyfriend. And so to be able to bring theatre back, and having missed it so much, it's so much a part of my life.

Not just in acting, but it's like a hobby to go to the theatre. It's like what we do. It's part of the conversation of being a New York artist. And to have that completely be eliminated in a live presence in the way that it was for the past, you know, for 15 and a half months, 16 months, was crazy to me. Because I've said this before, but I'll say it again. It's like, in that industry, it's like the show must go on. Like nothing, nothing stops theatre. Like nothing. I mean, like you could be on, you know, desk door, and maybe you call your understudy. So it's just, it was very, you know, strange place to be. And every night, we do this little opening to the show for those of you who's going to join us, who have already joined us, you've seen it.

But there's this call and response section with the drummer comes out and does this whole thing. And then afterwards, we say, you know, what's up, New York? We're so happy you're here as we usher in live theatre back to New York City. And it gets this huge applause. And we're on stage cheering too. And it's amazing because you could feel the people in the crowd are just like, yes, this is my first theatre. You know, in a year plus, this is their first theatre. That's their first time coming back. And it just feels like amazing to be a part of.

[5:50] Alan Seales: Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah, I went to the premiere of the show must go on that movie premiere inside the Majestic recently. It was the first time first time in 16, 17, 18 months, I don't even know how long it is anymore at this point, that I've set foot inside a real theatre like this. And just that feeling and that energy and you know, you get that little smell. Maybe it's a little bit musty, but undeniably, New York theatre.

[6:19] Susan Kelechi Watson: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's that's the good stuff. That's the good must. Being outside, Merry Wives. It's, I think it's kind of a different experience too. Because I mean, you're outside anyway. And it's it's you're in the heat and whatnot. But I think I would be more comfortable as an actor being outside, of course, in the midst of COVID and all this stuff. But I'm going inside is a different, a completely different animal. Do you have any, I guess, anxiety? Or did you have any hesitation about kind of getting back into the into the swing of things? And just being in front of all of these people that I mean, now, now, right? You know, the mandate is you can't get in unless you're you're you prove that you're vaccinated. But I suspect when you were in talks to start joining the cast and even rehearsals, maybe that hadn't even come out yet. Right.

[7:17] Susan Kelechi Watson: So yeah, Alan, the crazy thing is that when we were first starting, they only we could, we started with the audience had to be only 428 people. So the capacity just to give you an idea of that theater is about close to 1900. Okay, so for less than a fourth, right? And we thought, you know, okay, at least we get that, like, I remember thinking, All right, well, at least we get that. And, and I was kind of sad about it, because it was at the moment where things were opening back up. This is before the delta variant, and things were kind of opening back up. And they were like, you could take off your mask, everybody was getting vaccinated. And, and I kept thinking, man, I wish we could like open it up, you know, I mean, it's like, there's like 1500 more seats, you know.

And then we got the news that they were going to fully open the theater, and we could have at least 1500 people in there. And I promise you, I ran across the rehearsal room floor, I did a full lap, because I was so excited, because I just felt so excited for the show. And, you know, and at that stage, I didn't even know how I would, you know, I, I needed so much more rehearsal at that point. I, you know, I mean, I couldn't see the beginning from the end in terms of what my performance was going to be. But I felt so strongly about the show. I felt so strongly about the people in the room, and what we were doing, and the energy that we're bringing to it. I just wanted, I really wanted the opportunity to share it with as many people as we could.

So I don't think I had the anxiety, I do all the things, you know, I've, I've been vaccinated, I do the masking, I do the sanitizing, I wipe things down, I'm not all up in people's faces, I still kind of distance, I'm not a big hugger anymore. I'm not so much on the handshakes, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I, I come from like, a very medically steeped family. My brother's a doctor of emergency medicine, my mom's a nurse, you know, cousins, and all this kind of stuff. So I kind of get firsthand information about this stuff and, and have come really familiar with testing myself, you know, before people were testing themselves, I was testing myself, I had that kind of access. So I just didn't have necessarily the same anxiety about doing it that way.

And we were outside. So I felt like this is great. And they did this, they have distance seating for people who haven't been vaccinated. And everyone has to mask regardless of vaccination status. So, you know, they're doing really the best they can to make sure that this that this happens. And as we know, in our show, it might happen anyway. But there's so many backup plans now that are in place, because COVID is such a real possibility, that it's not necessarily knocking people off their feet anymore, because they have a plan B in place if it does happen. And of course, we want everybody to be healthy, and everybody to stay safe. So it's not taking it lightly. But it's finding a way through this that the show can once again, still go on, you know?

[10:22] Alan Seales: Yeah, I was gonna say too, I'm glad that you didn't have to open to 400 people, because a comedy in a space that big with that few people, that few number of people, I think that would have been more depressing to me. On any given night, not everybody laughs, right? So there's going to be at least 400 people who did not laugh at that joke. Imagine if it was like that set of 400 people.

[10:46] Susan Kelechi Watson: Like you got the one set that's like, there's real ones like, no, we didn't get that one. It's like, yeah.

[10:55] Alan Seales: I love it. And the show, the show is different, too. It's a it's a different take on the show. It's set in South Harlem. I'm going to read the bio here. Set in South Harlem amidst a vibrant and eclectic community of West African immigrants. Merry Wives is a New York story about the tricks and of the heart performed in the heart of cities, Central Park's magical Delacorte Theater.

[11:16] Susan Kelechi Watson: Yeah. A spinoff featuring the Bard's most beloved comic characters. Like this is it's set in Harlem. Shakespeare set in Harlem.

[11:24] Alan Seales: Yeah. Right. Love it.

[11:26] Susan Kelechi Watson: Yeah. It's amazing.

[11:28] Alan Seales: Yeah. It's on 116th Street really is where it's set. And the set actually is heavily influenced by a street on 116th Street. So a lot of the, you know, my niece and nephew came, I'd say the most beautiful thing. Jalen and John came and they were like, they loved it. Auntie Sue, we love this. No, this was amazing. Like, this was it, you know. And I thought, wow, my niece and nephew get to experience Shakespeare for the first time in a laundromat. Like the set, part of the set is in a laundromat, you know, a hair braiding salon, like, you know, a doctor's, doctors in Harlem's clinic. Like that's how they get to encounter Shakespeare with somebody riding across on a city bike. I was like, you know, you gotta love that. You gotta love the ability to adapt it to the times, which is how Shakespeare wrote. He wrote very much in the time, in the moment. And Jocelyn's beautiful, hysterical adaptation does the same thing.

[12:35] Alan Seales: I love it, because I sort of equate this, the scenario to what Hamilton's doing for a lot of people who potentially wouldn't have ever gotten into theatre or even musical theatre specifically, right? So when you bring something as, I guess, reputationally stuffy as a Shakespeare play, right? So you're like, oh, God, Shakespeare, I don't want to learn Shakespeare. But then you set it, you reimagine it, set it in Harlem, like you said, set it in a laundromat, you got your city bikes, you've got your 116th Street references. I think it makes theatre and the arts so much more accessible to people that are, I guess, interesting, accessible and interesting to a group of people that may have never even given it a second thought, right?

[13:22] Susan Kelechi Watson: Yeah, yeah. Isn't that, like, that's the fun of theatre. I feel like that's what theatre does. It's like, let's bring this moment in life that you may not normally access, you may not have that much experience with, let's just put it in front of you for a little while and then ask you to, like, what do you identify with? Like, what do you connect with? Like, you know, where does this speak to you? And then it's like that communal thing of like, oh, we're all in this together. Like, we all have, like, something that ties us and that we can feel like is similar in each other. And that's why we missed it so much, because, you know, you can, you do that the best in person, right? It's kind of, it's such a communal thing.

And I remember Saheem Ali, our amazing director who put this whole thing together, this was his concept, his idea, brought these beautiful, generous people into this room. So, you know, he's like a really extraordinary leader. He said, he was like, I just can't wait to hear people laugh all together. Like, you know, we've been laughing alone, you know what I mean? Maybe one person next to you, whatever. But like the chorus of people.

[14:59] Alan Seales: And so you're, you're with this group of people that you laugh together, you cry together, you bond over this stuff. And I mean, it's, it's kind of a micro example, I think, of, you know, you always say, like, New York strong, right? But like, New Yorkers all hate each other, New Yorkers can't stand each other. And then as soon as something happens, it's like, Oh, new, everybody's got each other's back, right?

[15:20] Because it's a shared experience. And that's what theater brings. And God, I missed it so much. I cannot wait for all this stuff to come back to. And, and I can, I mean, I, I always ask people like yourself, who have a strong TV and film focus, you know, why do you keep coming back to theater? But I think I should stop asking that. Because I know why, right?

[15:43] Like, you're, you can't, what we were just talking about, you can't beat this experience of rehearsing and putting up a show. And you're doing something once a night that will never, ever be done exactly like that.

[15:59] Susan Kelechi Watson: Right? Yeah, never with the same people exactly in that same way. Timing again. I love that. It's like Snapchat or something. I don't know. It disappears. You know what I mean? Like, I love that life.

[16:13] Alan Seales: Right? Well, how do you how do you compare it then to like, to This Is Us, right? So you've been fortunate enough to be five seasons on this amazing show that is deeply touching, deeply emotional. And, and the show, you know, the show was amazingly successful. A lot of people don't get that kind of success. They don't get to experience that. So you've been, you know, successful on the TV side. And you've done this great, you know, great movie stuff as well. You've worked with Tom Hanks, which I mean, who's that guy?

[16:42] Susan Kelechi Watson: He's going places. Keep your eye on him. Work with Tom Hanks. And then, but you come back to theater, right? And so I guess. And so did Tom Hanks. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But what is it? What is it for you, specifically, that speaks to you that, that keeps you coming back to this sort of thing?

[17:02] Susan Kelechi Watson: Hmm. It's just one of my loves. I just love it. There's no real explanation or anything that I can point to. I just love it. I love the work of it. I love the figuring out of it. I love that you really don't know, even though this will piss me off at one point in rehearsal or another, like that. I don't know how it's going to like how my performance is going to like I'm finding it. You know what I mean? And that's, that's, that's not so lovely when you first start out, you know, just find it. You know what I mean?

[17:32] And then you're into rehearsal. You're like, why ain't I found it yet? You know what I mean? Like, what, what is this? You know, can I still do this? You know, but all of that stuff is like such a great part of it. Um, how God, I don't know. It's magic. I don't know something about it. It's like forever sprinkled with like some kind of, you know, pixie dust or, you know, it's just, it's a blessing to me. I honestly, I, um, I don't know.

[18:02] I don't know how else to say it. And the funny thing is, I feel like, you know, God bless them. I feel like nobody was like calling me or hiring me for theater. You know what I mean? So I kind of, in a way it's, I just got more yeses in TV, you know, in the beginning I just did. And so I don't know, you know, what was the reasoning behind that, but that's just the way it was.

[18:27] And so people assume like, maybe I didn't want to do it or they assume that, you know, Hollywood sort of took over, but I think that was just an assumption. I've always loved it and always want to do it and continue to want to do it. And, you know, this, this summer, uh, we've had so many different setbacks and obstacles. We've had a cast injury. We've had COVID, a COVID case that sent a few people home.

[18:51] Uh, we've had rain, like you would not believe, uh, throughout a tech. We couldn't even finish tech. We had to keep teching into previews. You know, it was like, we've had so many of these obstacles and I was so tired. We all were because we're working in 95 degree heat and then doing a show at night and sometimes postponing it because of the rain. And so we're doing it later. And it's all these things. And I remember, you know, coming home, uh, visiting my parents and my brothers there and I'm beat down.

[19:21] You know, and I knew it, but I wanted to see everybody and say hi. And they were like, Ooh, you look tired. And I was like, yeah. And they were like, I bet you won't do this again. Kind of thing. You won't go. You know? And I said, no, I definitely will.

[19:35] Susan Kelechi Watson: Yeah. No, no, no. I'm for sure. I will. So maybe, you know, actors, I'm speaking for myself, just a glutton for punishment. I I'm in it. I'm like, Oh man, I, I cannot wait to get past the rehearsal or get into the routine so I can relax a little bit. And then when it all leaves, when it's all over, I just miss every single minute of it.

[20:01] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[20:31] Susan Kelechi Watson: I agree. Listen, pot kettle, you know, choir preacher, whatever you want to say. I agree. I'm with you on it. 150%.

[20:50] Alan Seales: So you are first generation Jamaican born in Brooklyn. I'm in, I'm in Boreham Hill. Are you, were you born close to me?

[20:57] Susan Kelechi Watson: No, I was born in East New York, Brooklyn. Well, I'm from East New York, Brooklyn. Born in Coney Island, actually. Yeah. So, you know, all of that. And, you know, spent part of my life growing up in Brooklyn and then Long Island. And then I moved back to Brooklyn and have been here pretty much ever since.

[21:19] I mean, I still, you know, shoot in LA and I spend time in LA or when I'm on location somewhere, I go and do that. Of course, I went away to college and all that kind of stuff. But Brooklyn has been my home base, you know, for 20 years. So.

[21:32] Alan Seales: Yeah, I was going to ask about that because This Is Us is shot in LA. And then, but I was thinking you were, you know, more New York based and more. There's something about when I was researching the things you did, I was like, yeah, this lady, she's definitely, she's not leaving. You can't take the New York out of that.

[21:51] Susan Kelechi Watson: Absolutely.

[21:53] Alan Seales: But your parents, so they immigrated from Jamaica?

[21:58] Susan Kelechi Watson: Yeah, they did. And funny thing is that they actually had planned to go back. And they were buying a house. And when my mom was pregnant with me, the plan was to go back. They actually, yeah. And I still don't quite get the story of why they stayed. I think I've asked that. And it never quite seems clear. It always just kind of ended up like, I guess we just kind of ended up staying.

[22:23] It was like a reason because I know they were buying a house and all this kind of stuff. So my two older brothers are born in Jamaica. My younger brother and I are born here in Brooklyn. And so it's, it's very, you know, I always think like, you know, I could have been Jamaican born. But it just kind of turned out that way. So I'm first generation.

[22:46] I'm a first generation kid, you know, first generation of Americans to come. So it's a special thing, though. It's so special. I love, you know, my homeland. I love being Jamaican. I really wouldn't pick any other ethnicity. I think it's so special.

[23:02] But it does. Also, because I'm first generation, I know how important it is for people's culture to be reflected in a very kind of specific way and for it to be really kind of taken care of. Like, you know, when you represent people, you want to take care of that responsibility.

[23:24] Susan Kelechi Watson: And so it was I wouldn't say it's an added pressure. I wouldn't say it was a pressure. Responsibility is a better word. It felt like my responsibility for this to do that, being that I probably have relatives descended from Nigeria because, you know, the Igbo tribe was very present in Jamaica.

[23:43] So I'm sure if I did that research, I met my grandmother who was from my great grandmother, who was from Africa, and I did not remember where she's from or if I even specifically asked that because I met her so long ago.

[23:56] But it was important to like, it's important to get all that stuff right. But because I'm from somewhere that is so specific and I've had people try to represent that and not do the best job of it, to be quite honest with you.

[24:12] You know, it felt like I, you know, it brought me closer to that, to that, to the Nigerian culture, because I wanted to make sure I at least was getting some of the stuff right, you know.

[24:26] Alan Seales: Isn't your character in Merry Wives, that's the Nigerian, she has to have a Nigerian accent, right?

[24:31] Susan Kelechi Watson: Yeah.

[24:32] Alan Seales: Yeah. So I was, I heard you talking about something in another interview, specifically about representing the culture and representing the accent and not getting it wrong because so many people just do these things so poorly.

[24:47] And what was the story that you sent your script to some friends with a Nigerian accent? You were like, read this for me.

[24:54] Susan Kelechi Watson: I did. I sure did. I sent it to Kay Oyegun, who's one of the writers on This Is Us. And I sent it to Yvonne Orji, who you may know from Insecure, her stand up comedy.

[25:07] And, you know, I was like, hey, y'all, I'm doing this thing. And I was like, okay, so I'm gonna send you the script. Can you read it and record and send it back to me? And they're like, wait, how much script we read?

[25:23] You know, and I said, you know, I gave it to them, you know, and they they were so good about it. Like they read it and they reread it. They give a little different take on it. They take a breath. And so everything that they read for me, they read a few times, you know.

[25:40] And there is still this line reading that I have taken from exactly the way that Kay said it. And it just says she also gave me this thing, Oya, which they say is like a I don't know if you call it colloquialism or whatever.

[25:55] And when I brought that to rehearsal, Benga Akinabe, who plays Mr. Ford, my husband, he said when I said Oya, he said he couldn't believe it. He was like, oh, my gosh, how does she know that? That's not in the script. You know what I mean?

[26:10] So they kind of gave me a cheat sheet. You know, I went in there like extra Nigerian, you know what I mean? And there's this line that Kay said, it's like, give me what you say, give me some console, you know. And I said that crazy right now because I need to rev up.

[26:24] But it was the way, the rhythm of it. And I kept the rhythm of it. And things like that gave me that I kept the rhythm of because I could hear that was their natural rhythm. And then we had Dawn Alene, who was the vocal, I'm sorry, the dialect coach for our show.

[26:44] And she's fantastic. She started with me early before we started rehearsals. She said, one day you won't need me anymore. And I never thought that day would come, but it came. So that was a testimony to everybody who helped me. And watching a million Nigerian movies a night, I was Naui wooded out.

[27:04] I was telling Jocelyn about movies they hadn't heard of. I was like, listen, yeah, every night for about a month and a half. The only thing I watched was something Nigerian.

[27:14] Alan Seales: I love that you committed yourself to that because you could have easily just been like, all right, I got the part. Obviously, you're going to give me a dialect coach and I'll figure it out. But you took it one step further and just committed yourself more than I think maybe a lot of people would. We're going to take a short break. Stay tuned for more of the episode.

[27:44] Susan Kelechi Watson: You represent this culture because, again, going back to being first generation Nigerian, you don't want to lose – I'm putting words in your mouth a little bit, but you don't want to lose that Jamaican culture here in the US, right?

[27:57] Susan Kelechi Watson: Yeah, well, I, for all intents and purposes, grew up Jamaican, like in my household. I don't think – except that we were American, we're in America. But my great grandmother also was very instrumental in raising me as well.

[28:12] So my mom, my dad, and my great grandmother, who also raised my mom. And so all I heard was the Jamaican dialect. All I heard was patois or a Jamaican dialect or Jamaican accent.

[28:27] The music we listened to was of West Indian descent. Part of my family is Trinidadian, so it was either reggae, soca, calypso type situation. When we did listen to American music, it was probably like whatever was kind of popping in the 80s.

[28:47] But I didn't listen to a lot of soul music, I guess, until later in college when I got around Americans, who, if you were doing a throwback, you would listen to a lot of soul music.

[28:57] Susan Kelechi Watson: The relevance of representing it the best that we can is that, you know, it kind of makes it last longer in a way. Like, if we get super unspecific about it so quick, then it gets really watered down, and you never really encounter the experience of that culture. You never really encounter it if we keep watering it down, you know? Especially if you're not, you know, directly from there. It's like, you kind of have to do your due diligence and make sure, you know, you're giving it the best that you got. Because some people, that might be their only encounter with it. You know, for those that it is their culture, you want to make sure they come away and feel like, yes, that was my culture. Being representative, you're not just pimping my name and saying this is going to be something Nigerian and just, you know, have a hook.

You know what I'm saying? Like, you have to really go there because the purpose is so that people will encounter it, and there might be a generosity of spirit the next time they, you know, meet somebody from that culture. They might feel a little bit more connected. We all feel a little bit more connected when we do that, and there's accuracy to it, and people appreciate that.

[30:29] Alan Seales: Oh, I love that. And when, at what point of your life then did theater come into play, right? When did you start having the desire to perform?

[30:35] Susan Kelechi Watson: I've lived my whole life on stage. I've always wanted to be one of those divas. I'm not that, trust me. But I'm the least dramatic person you want to know in life. I'm just not. I think I actually really do save it all for the stage and not the most, I don't know, emotionally expressive. I don't know that I'm those things, you know? And so maybe theater is like my expression and my way of kind of encountering that, you know, in a more visceral way. But I started doing it in high school, I want to say, and then when I went to college, I started, I thought I was going to be an English major, and then I quickly switched to acting because I was so depressed, you know? I was like, oh my god, I'm too depressed, you know what I mean?

Something's wrong. And I switched over to being an acting major, and that's when it started. And even then, you kind of had to wait to be on the stage if you're a freshman. We weren't able to take stage, so we created our own productions and things like that to fulfill our longing to be on stage. So I've always trained in theater. I trained in theater way more than anything. I don't think I trained in film or TV, like any formal training, but all my formal training came in theater.

[32:06] Alan Seales: Wow. So you went to college, that's interesting to me, that you went to college as an English major, and then you said your freshman year, so it was right away that you decided that being an English major wasn't for you. It wouldn't work out. Would you think, do you think you were actually clinically depressed at that time or just kind of using that hyperbole as something wasn't right?

[32:20] Susan Kelechi Watson: I don't know. I wouldn't know what the chemical balance was at that time, but I was in the bed. I didn't want to come out, you know what I mean? I can remember that. I can remember feeling really down and like, this isn't right. And to this day, I encourage young people, I encourage my nieces, my nephews, make sure if you're going to dedicate time to something, it's something that you want to do. And if you feel like it's not, it's okay to change it. I really try to alleviate people that pressure because it's crazy to tell your parents like, okay, I'm being an acting major, and by the way, my minor is like dance. You know what I'm saying? It's like Jamaica, you know what I mean? I'm the daughter of immigrants, like no, you know what I'm saying?

What is that going to do? But bless my parents, once they saw me do it, they were like, oh, yeah, go ahead and do that. There is something about doing the thing that you love that all that serotonin and stuff that you were talking about and all the things that make us feel good that you and I are not going to quote because we're not the scientists. We don't lead after the science. We're the actors. It's like the endorphins and all that, that's the stuff that's being given off, and it makes a difference in what you do. And if you're going to dedicate time to something, even if it stresses you, it can still be a joy. It can still be something that you look forward to doing. It's not like I do this without stress.

The rehearsal process, the tech process, you're saying you were doing tech into previews for Merry Wives. That's stressful, but I'm sure you still just enjoyed the shit out of it and looked forward to it because it makes us whole, I think. There are so many ways to get lost and distracted, especially now when you're just walking around looking down at this little computer in your pocket, right?

[34:17] Susan Kelechi Watson: Exactly. And just to put it all away and experience one of the oldest traditions that truly makes us human as a species, right? That is something to me that's immeasurable. You cannot beat this experience. Our brains are evolved to tell stories. That's who we are as a herd. I'll tell you what, Alan, if you said that before the pandemic, people would have thought you were talking in hyperbole, right? But now the pandemic happened and it's a true fact. When we say that, we weren't lying. It's like life without the arts is not living. You know what I mean? You got to have that there. You have to have that communal experience there. I mean, what did everybody do? Our essential workers? Absolutely.

We needed groceries, we needed toilet paper, and we needed Netflix. You tell me. You know what I'm saying? You tell me that we weren't on the essential list. I feel like I was on the essential list. So I don't think that we can deny that anymore. It's really a real part of it.

[35:42] Alan Seales: You have an industry, I agree with you, you have an industry, especially in New York City, that is a multi-billion with a B dollar industry to bring in tourists and for the theater and the hotels and the shows and the carriage rides and the museums and everything people do when they come in just for theater, right? They're doing other things while they're here and they're eating and they're sleeping and whatever. I was going to say it's an immeasurable sort of thing, but that's a lie. It is definitely measurable because literally we're like billions with a B. It's a measurable industry that people have to have. People come from all over the world to come to the mecca of theater, which is New York City.

And then you just have these actors getting blamed. I saw so many threads on Twitter, one of the most heinous places on the planet, and yes, I'm on Twitter. That is just like, I saw someone going after an actor, a Broadway actor friend of mine that was saying something about, why can't you guys just go back to work? You're choosing not to work. You guys are all just lazy actors. It's just mean and spiteful kind of stuff that is complete lack of understanding of how little choice actors actually get about how and when they work. You know what I mean?

[37:19] Susan Kelechi Watson: Right. Wow. Shots are fired, you know what I mean, on Twitter. When people don't understand things and don't understand the true nature of things, like I told you, I'm not big into the drama offstage. So for me, I'd have had to be like, delete, I'm moving on. But it's because there's a certain amount of, you can tell that person just doesn't know. They just don't know. They don't have the knowledge or they're trying to start something you never know. But I do think that people really don't, they look at it like, but you guys are just having fun. Like your job is fun. You know what I mean? And people don't know it's work. It's a real job. It's a whole experience. You have to get a job, you know. You have to train for the job.

[38:05] Alan Seales: You have to train for the job. And you have to get a job more times in life than any other person in this life. You know what I mean? Most people get a job and they keep a job for five years or for 10 years. People retire after 35 years from that one job. You know what I mean? We got to get a job. For theater folks, every couple months, you got to get a job. And you're looking for your next job while you're in your current job.

[38:25] Susan Kelechi Watson: While you're in your current job. So there should be an award for that, Mr. Twitter man, wherever he's at.

[38:36] Alan Seales: Yeah, you hear that Mr. Twitter man?

[38:37] Susan Kelechi Watson: Right.

[38:39] Alan Seales: Seriously. No, it's funny. And yeah, you just assume, these people just assume they're like, yeah, I'm just going to show up and I'm doing my thing. And no, I just choose not to work because of pandemic. You think Olympians just show up and they're like, I'm going to run fast today.

[38:54] Susan Kelechi Watson: Right. Right. Like you're doing nothing in downtime. Do you think actors are just choosing, yeah, health insurance in a pandemic? Nah, I don't need it. They have to work for health insurance, good sir. You know what I'm saying? And all these things that come along with it are there. So like I said, some people just, they don't know, man. They don't know.

[39:15] Alan Seales: I know. I know. Well, let's wrap up with the three standard closing questions that I ask everyone on these episodes. The first one just very simply is what motivates you?

[39:25] Susan Kelechi Watson: Wow. What motivates me? In what? Like just period in life? Or like for acting?

[39:34] Alan Seales: No, in life. Like why do you wake up in the morning?

[39:36] Susan Kelechi Watson: Oh, oh, deep philosophical. Okay. Let's see. I have not really, I think the chance to another, another shot. I think hope, hope motivates me to tell you the truth.

[39:50] Alan Seales: I like that.

[39:51] Susan Kelechi Watson: You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm a very spiritual person. So like, you know, I get my, my prayer on my, you know, meditation and, and all that stuff. And I make sure I try to fill myself with the good things in the morning, but the hope of something, another possibility of something else wonderful happening or something else that is part of my purpose happening that motivates me.

[40:14] Alan Seales: Oh yeah. The excitement of the unknown. I like that. All right. So the next question is, what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[40:24] Susan Kelechi Watson: Be easy on yourself. Be easy on yourself and do it. Do what makes you feel joy, like discover your superpower. Like, what is the thing that when you are in that sweet spot, you, you, you're just, you're, you're in your groove. Like for me, it's when I have joy, right? I've seen other people, you know, it can be different from one person to the next, but discover your superpower and lean into it and relish it. Know that it's special. Know that it's unique. Know that, you know, the world needs whatever you're trying to give.

[40:58] Alan Seales: What is your superpower?

[41:00] Susan Kelechi Watson: Mine is joy.

[41:03] Alan Seales: All right. Mine is joy.

[41:04] Susan Kelechi Watson: No, not bringing it. It's when I have it, there is a different energy. So it's sort of that thing that you have that gives you the strength to do the thing that you do in the most optimal way, in your most unique, special way. And for me, when I inhabit joy on the inside, the thing that I'm doing comes out in only a way that I feel that I can do it. That feels like the energy behind it is the best energy I can give it. And so for, you know, from person to person, that could be something different. But I would just say to people like, especially if you're young, discover what it is so that you can carry it with you into a room and know wherever you go, you can carry that thing with you.

[41:45] Alan Seales: I love that. So the last question, and this is super hard. If you could only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[41:49] Susan Kelechi Watson: And is this one play?

[41:56] Alan Seales: Anything you would like.

[41:57] Susan Kelechi Watson: Oh, wow. One?

[42:01] Alan Seales: One show. You're stuck on a desert island with power and a DVD player. What are you watching?

[42:06] Susan Kelechi Watson: Oh, man. Well, I know it's going to be one of these Eddie Murphy films. It's either going to be Boomerang or Coming to America.

[42:14] Alan Seales: I was going to say Coming to America is one of my favorites.

[42:20] Susan Kelechi Watson: Yeah. Yeah. The first one. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be one of those. They're just fantastic classics. I'm going to go with a classic and say that. Yes.

[42:30] Alan Seales: I like it. All right. So everyone check the show notes for the link to get tickets and more information for Merry Wives. And then where else can we connect with you? Where can we find you on social media?

[42:39] Susan Kelechi Watson: Okay. On Twitter, which is our favorite, right, Alan? I'm going to be at Skelechi Watson. S-K-E-L-E-C-H-I Watson. And on Instagram, I'm Susan Kelechi Watson. And I am Susan Kelechi Watson on Facebook.

[42:57] Alan Seales: Wonderful. And I am online at thetheaterpodcast.com. I'm on Instagram and Twitter at theater underscore podcast on Facebook slash official theater podcast. Please leave a rating and a review wherever you're listening now. And thank you to Jukebox the Ghost for the intro and outro music. And Susan, thank you most of all. I have really enjoyed this chat.

[43:17] Susan Kelechi Watson: Me too. Thanks, Alan.