This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome to another episode of The Theatre Podcast. Intimate, personal conversations with theatre's biggest names. I am Alan Seales. And I'm Gillian Hoffman. And we are online.

[0:15] Alan Seales: In case you haven't followed us on Instagram or Twitter, we're Theatre Underscore Podcast on Facebook.com slash Official Theatre Podcast. And as always, you can contact us, feedback at thetheatrepodcast.com. This episode is featuring Loren Lott, who I most recently saw on Broadway in Once on this Island.

[0:35] Gillian Hoffman: Yeah, she's so good.

[0:36] Alan Seales: Oh, she was so good. That was a great show. That was a great performance. Sometimes when you go see a show and there's the understudy or the swinger or somebody on, you're like, oh, I want to see the star. She was the star. She was amazing.

[0:52] Gillian Hoffman: I loved chatting with her and apologies in advance for a subpar audio quality. You may not be used to on this podcast because we did record while she was in LA. She's actually got a regular role now on The Young and the Restless. So she lives out there now, moved out away from New York a while ago, but we remain in contact. And gosh, she is so unapologetically transparent about who she is.

[1:19] Alan Seales: Yeah, I love that. She has this vibe of this is me. This is what I like. And maybe my hair is not real and I like wigs and maybe I wear contacts, but this is still me and this is part of who I am.

[1:31] Gillian Hoffman: But I loved how you said that she wears wigs, but originally it wasn't by choice because she gets deep into this, like some secrets of American Idol, which...

[1:42] Alan Seales: Don't spoil it.

[1:43] Gillian Hoffman: Gosh. Yeah, she's obviously probably... She got on the internet radar from being on American Idol. But gosh, yeah, the stress of that just... I'm not going to spoil it, but I am so, I guess, enamored is not the right word. I admire her for just telling it like it is.

[2:09] Gillian Hoffman: Yeah. You don't always get that from people, especially in this industry. And she's just like, I'm here. This is what it is. Let's do it.

[2:15] Alan Seales: Yeah. And even if you follow her on Instagram, too, she's just, this is what it is. Here's what I'm doing. And she is just one of the most interesting people that I've actually talked to. And she's made this amazing transition from theater to TV. And it's a very well-established soap opera that she's going to probably be on for a very long time, unless they decide to kill her off for some reason.

[2:40] Gillian Hoffman: We're going to see good things from her. I'm excited.

[2:43] Alan Seales: Yes. Everybody, please enjoy this episode with Loren Lott.

[2:54] Alan Seales: Today I have the pleasure of speaking with a uniquely talented individual. She's appeared on Broadway in Motown the Musical and Once on this Island after making it to the top 16 in American Idol season 14. Now playing the character of Ana Hamilton in The Young and the Restless, star of Stage and Screen, and a twin, if I understand correctly. Loren Lott, thank you for taking the time to chat with me today.

[3:17] Loren Lott: Hey, thank you for having me.

[3:19] Alan Seales: No problem. So you are a twin, right? I got that right?

[3:23] Loren Lott: Yeah. Yeah, I'm totally a twin.

[3:25] Alan Seales: Are you the older or younger twin?

[3:26] Loren Lott: I'm the older twin.

[3:28] Alan Seales: So younger brother or sister?

[3:31] Loren Lott: It's a brother.

[3:32] Alan Seales: Brother. And do you beat up on him all the time like an older sister should?

[3:36] Loren Lott: Yes, of course I do. Mind you, he's like nine feet taller than me now. He had like a crazy growth spurt when we were in like middle school. So he's he's like massive. He's like actually a very big man. And I'm a very small lady.

[3:48] Alan Seales: Well, you're you're like, what, five, four, five, five?

[3:51] Loren Lott: Oh, thank you. I'm five, three and a half. Exactly.

[3:55] Alan Seales: How tall is your brother then?

[3:57] Loren Lott: I don't know. He's got to be like six, two, six, three.

[4:00] Alan Seales: Geez. Are your parents tall?

[4:03] Loren Lott: Yeah, my mother is not, but all the men in the family are tall.

[4:07] Alan Seales: So nice. Well, that's actually a perfect segue, because on the podcast here, we like to go back to your humble beginnings and talk about what made you who you are and where you got to where you are right now. So let's let's just rewind the clock a little bit and tell me about what you were like as a kid. When did you when did you start performing and singing?

[4:27] Loren Lott: Well, I started singing in church when I was one years old, around around 12 months, my grandmother started putting me on stage to sing or, you know, whatever version of singing that is, you can do it one. That's what that's what I started doing. And I started performing at certain events that my my grandmother is. She was a politician. She's not really anymore, but she she's still like very active. But she was the first African-American president of the San Diego school board. So they're so kidding. Yeah. So I went to a lot of events and I spoke a lot of things, saying a lot of things. So I started getting comfortable in front of, you know, the an audience. And then I definitely became like the look at me type of girl.

Like, look at me. Watch me. Watch me dance. Watch me create a play that I just pulled out my armpit and just like, watch me do it. And I was always that that girl until I turned 15 and got stage fright for the very first time. Changed everything. I was still like, look at me, but I was still also like, can you like look at me like after I'm confident that I'm killing it and then then turn around again? I guess, you know, those are the impressionable years when all of a sudden you just you want everybody to like you regardless.

[5:52] Loren Lott: Oh yes. Yes. But so you grew up in San Diego, right?

[5:59] Loren Lott: Yes. And how long how long were you in San Diego then?

[6:09] Loren Lott: I was in San Diego for until I was about 17. I left for college when I was 17.

[6:17] Alan Seales: Okay, so you were there until 17. But I remember I was reading a story about you online that that you you submitted yourself to auditions out there on the West Coast when you were 13. But before that, I was around what age six or seven or something you wanted to go somewhere and your mom said you couldn't because you'd be famous or something.

[6:26] Loren Lott: Yes. So I wanted to be a star like early. I was like, Mom, I want to I want to act like this is what I want to do. And she was like, no, because you won't have a normal childhood now when you have a childhood and you won't be able to like go to the bathroom by yourself. Because people won't bathroom and you won't be able to go to Knott's Berry Farm. Because people will be like following you into the bathroom. And I thought about like personal but like, you know, when you have a twin, you don't really use the bathroom alone anyway, because they come with you, you know, you do everything together. So the thought of more people in the bathroom seemed horrible. So I was like, No, I'm not gonna do it to myself.

I'll wait. And she said, Ask me again when you're 13. And I didn't totally remember it and asked her when I was 13. But before that, for sure, she was like, you know, you'll get followed. And we had watched it. We had watched like the mic. She showed me like the American Dream story, the Michael Jackson movie where he was like had a horrible childhood. And then we watched some about like full house where the girl tried to go to the bathroom at Disneyland and people were following her into the bathroom. Like she didn't traumatize me with it. And I was like, Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, that's for the birds. I'm not doing any of that. So I was smart for I guess, but then on your 13th birthday, like literally on your birthday, you asked for a copy of Backstage magazine. Is that what it was?

[7:51] Loren Lott: I think? Um, I mean, she definitely remembers better than I do. I like to remember this. But I remember being 13. I don't know. I don't remember if it was on my birthday. But it was, it was what I wanted for a gift. So maybe it was my birthday. But I did ask her if she would get me a subscription to backstage calm. Because I had heard a lot of directors talking about it and saying that that was where they were finding talent or where they were, where people, a lot of agencies were looking there and they had they put auditions up there. And at the time, that was the only like casting that place that I knew of. So I wanted to be on it immediately.

[8:27] Alan Seales: And how did you get yourself in there? Obviously, I mean, it sounds like you've been doing some research ahead of time. But like, did you have headshots? How did you submit yourself?

[8:38] Loren Lott: Oh, okay. So my mother like went outside with a digital camera as you as like most of our mothers do when we like our friends, whatever, when we're like, I want to do this. They're like, oh, you need headshots here. Here's my my iPhone. Here's a here's a picture. But we went out and with like a digital camera and took pictures. They were tacky. But somehow they got people interested. Oh, and I also had a teacher. Oh, I went to a media arts high school. And I learned Photoshop and video editing there. And all of our teachers were like experts in mass media. And one of my teachers took a couple of pictures for me. Again, they were tacky. But somehow they got me in the door. And after sending about 300 emails or whatever submissions to all these casting people with these bold messages to I was like, I was like, my name is Loren. I'm a star. And I would like to be in your agency. So either either get involved now or watch it happen.

[9:42] Alan Seales: Wow, that is bold.

[9:42] Loren Lott: I know, like, you can't get away with that stuff as an adult as a child. That's cute. As an adult, it's like, Oh, disgusting. But as a child, I just knew what I wanted. And I was like, you know, either do it or watch it happen.

[9:51] Alan Seales: Yeah, and I got somebody I got one response. And that ended up being my first agent in LA.

[9:59] Loren Lott: So you landed your one agent, your manager, your agent.

[10:05] Loren Lott: I landed my agent. And then after my agent put me on his website, I landed my first manager after that.

[10:11] Alan Seales: Wonderful. And then so you worked in Hollywood for a while, what were you doing?

[10:15] Loren Lott: In Hollywood, I was auditioning, auditioning, auditioning. I used to drive up from San Diego, I would just my mother would just come up to school and like take me out for every audition. And then finally, I booked my first one, which was a Disney commercial. And it was my first national commercial that ended up being a national commercial on accident. Because it was just supposed to be an internet commercial. And then I guess whatever it got picked up by something. And then it ended up being a national commercial. And I didn't even get paid as if it were a national commercial. I got paid once for the internet thing. And then end up being a...

[10:44] Alan Seales: Wait, isn't that like, like there's union rules against that? Or I guess...

[10:54] Loren Lott: I was non union. I didn't join the union until the young and the restless.

[11:02] Alan Seales: Which we will. I had joined the union before that, but I didn't have to join it because in Atlanta, it's it's like half of a union. And so you get to LA and then they're like, pay the rest.

[11:15] Alan Seales: Then Atlanta, you went to you went to Clark, Clark Atlanta University, right?

[11:21] Loren Lott: Yes. Yes. So you got a Bachelor of Arts in degree in mass media, mass media arts with a focus in radio and TV and film.

[11:26] Alan Seales: What is that?

[11:30] Loren Lott: Okay, so that is basically the behind the scenes of creating media. So that is the news that's reporting that's video editing, camera work, camera work, coming up with a with a story that's the research of, you know, black people in media this from from, you know, a long time ago. Yeah, there was all of it. Yeah, reporting, video editing, shooting. Yeah, everything behind the scenes of media.

[12:01] Alan Seales: Is that what you originally thought you wanted to do is be behind the camera?

[12:08] Loren Lott: No, I did that because I love making videos. I love video editing. But I really also wanted to have a backup plan. And I didn't want to study musical theater, or any type of acting because I was already doing that. So I wanted to more so learn about something that I wasn't getting like a firsthand experience in. Because even when I was in college, I was I had just done like Shrek the musical at this big theater out there called the Alliance Theater. And I was I was working a lot in Atlanta. So I wanted something else. Like I didn't want I didn't want that to become I didn't want to work in that and come in like do it and then be frustrated if I wasn't doing enough in the class. You know, I just wanted to I wanted something that I wasn't already learning.

And I figured if anything, I would be able to go behind the scenes and become a producer or an editor, or something like that. But I really didn't think anything would fail. I really got a degree so that I could tell people I had one so people wouldn't bother me in the future.

[13:07] Alan Seales: Were you performing all throughout that time, though? Like when you were getting a degree?

[13:13] Loren Lott: Yes. And my school gave me such a hard time. I love them, though. But I remember I failed the test one day because I had to shoot for four days for this show called Fatal Attraction. It was my first leading role on a TV show. And my teacher was like, well, you need to get your priorities straight because you can't miss this test. And I had to I missed it anyway, which I'm so glad I did. I did now because that's on my resume. Whereas like nobody cares about this grade that I didn't get on this test.

[13:41] Alan Seales: You know, that is a really tricky part, though, because there are people that I've interviewed and people that I've talked to, like Ariana DeBose. And, you know, she was one of the earliest episodes that I've, earliest people I've interviewed. And she dropped out of college to pursue performing and moved up to New York. And Michaela Diamond, I've read, like she's in The Cher Show now. She's talked about not going to school yet either because she got this Broadway gig. And, I mean, if you were to give advice to somebody, like, obviously you made the right choice. It's worked for you. But in general, are you like pro or against this sort of thing? I mean, I don't want to get out of the game, but don't go to school.

[14:21] Loren Lott: Yeah, that's hard also, because I think that you should always be studying acting and studying voice and all of that. I think that the school system is actually kind of set up to box you anyway. Though, I do think people should go so that you know how to play the game, because that's really what school did for me. I definitely, I think, just learned how to play the game and then learned a lot of stuff is not that important, you know. And there's no, and there's nothing anybody can ever say to me because I do have a degree, you know. I did actually go and get it. I have no regrets. I have nothing that's left over. I have nothing where in the future I'll be like, oh, maybe I should go back. And, you know, like I got it over with.

And I did it early. Like I did. I started at 17, finished it, finished by 21, I think, 21, 22. So I was like that now that that's a whole chapter behind me and I can move off into my career. I do believe I would be much further had I just jumped, jumped into it. And I still and I would have been just fine, you know, jumping, jumping right into it. Because college, that's, that's more for people who are going to study, you know, other things. Whereas I feel like actors, if the system was really set up to cater to, you know, what, what each of us wanted to do, then we would all be in acting school, not going to college to learn all these extra things that don't actually, we're never going to use. They don't actually matter in the future.

[15:45] Alan Seales: Yeah. But isn't part of being a successful actor. I mean, you have to know to market yourself. You have to know that you are your own product and you are, you are a business of one. And I feel there's a lot of kids that come out of conservatories that they can act and sing beautifully and they have no idea how to find a job.

[16:06] Loren Lott: Oh, why, why not? Because they don't know the business side of it. They don't know how to market themselves or, or how to follow up. Or, I mean, now, gosh, I've been out of college for such a while now, but like how to play the social media game. There's just so much that you need to do to be seen and to be heard and get yourself out there that I feel like that. I mean, do you agree that acting and singing, knowing how to act and sing is only part of the, part of the whole puzzle?

[16:30] Loren Lott: Oh, 100%. I, so what I started doing was, cause I was taking all of these classes. I was taking so many acting classes. I was doing workshops, all these things. There is an art to auditioning that I think is so important. And a lot of actors need to be studying if you want to get a job because you can be an incredible actor, go into an audition and an audition isn't like what it was actually going to be when you're on set at all. You know, it's a, it's an art to me in itself. And a lot of people naturally can be great actors and great auditioners, but a lot of us don't connect the two, you know, to doing like a small little, little like two page snippet versus doing a full scene, you know, and like the setup and all of these things, it's totally different. So I think it is, I think it's important to learn the arts of auditioning as well.

[17:21] Alan Seales: Right. Yeah. And for me still, you, I think maybe what I'm trying to get out here is, is inherently instinctively, you knew the hustle. Like you said, at 13, you sent out 300 emails and you got one response. That's playing the game. That's playing the numbers.

[17:35] Loren Lott: Oh yes. I always played. I always played the game. I always realized that, especially I'm black, you know, so I had to, I had to maneuver a lot of things being a black woman because I always knew that my competition, people were so honest with me. Um, and I think I, I don't think it's that way anymore, but when I was growing up, people would straight up say, you know, for this role where you're going to be, where you're going to sing, um, we would need you to be fatter if you're cause you're dark skin and you sing. And that's the image that you're, that we're going for, or for a while I was too thin for a lot of things. Cause they were like, no, for this role, we wanted to be dark. We wanted to be fat.

And I was like, so the only black girl on the show, on your entire show has to be fat. You know? And then I started, I started picking up little pieces of that. So I started trying to, trying to figure out different ways to, um, fix my look or all of these things that would get me in the door. Because for a while, um, it's kind of a, it's, it's definitely a game with, with black women in itself, with booking, with how your hair looks with, if your hair is, I had, I had one casting director who I will, whose name I will never mention, but I went into his workshop. One day I went in, my hair was pulled back into a curly ponytail and it was a big fluffy ponytail attachment. Hey, but, um, he, he looked at me and he said, yeah, I would definitely cast you as a hooker or, um, a maid, the help, you know, maybe a prostitute.

And I was like, okay. You know, like thought nothing of it. The next day I came in with my hair straight with a little bit of wave in it, like some, like I bumped some curls in it. And he said, I would cast you as a businesswoman or a lawyer. And he, I didn't make it a big thing. He didn't, he, he thought nothing of it. This was just his view of black women, one with curly hair and one with straight. I was literally the same exact person. It was a white man. Yeah. And that, that taught me so much with playing the game that that changed my whole perspective on playing the game. Because then I started doing my research. If I'm going in for this casting director, I need to have more of this look.

If I'm going in for these people in there and they cast for more of a show with white teenage girls, I'm going to go on with my hair looking like that. You know, like I just started maneuvering the game that way.

[19:58] Alan Seales: Yeah, that's unfortunate, I guess, unfortunately a necessary evil, but you seem to be doing, doing rather well.

[20:07] Loren Lott: Oh yes. I look, I feel like I've gotten it. I've got it down pretty well. I'm still, I'm definitely still learning, but I, I, it's kind of, it's, it's a little bit of an obsession.

[20:19] Alan Seales: Well, yeah, that's, that's kind of crazy. I mean, that explains a little bit and I, I I'll touch on this now. I want to get into a lot later about your, your Instagram persona, about like the, the being true to yourself and putting yourself out there in a way that I, that I haven't seen a lot of other people. No, you've got at the time of this recording, you've got almost a hundred thousand Instagram followers and, and you put yourself out there in a way that people with that many eyes on them don't necessarily do. And it's, it's very respectful.

[20:47] Loren Lott: Oh yeah. With, with like what? My silliness?

[20:52] Alan Seales: Yeah, just being a goofball while at the same time, like you've got two sides of the coin. It's like a total goofball total, like on one side you're just, you just like to have fun and it shows through. But on the other hand, you're like, you know, stand up for what you believe in. And, and, you know, you were promote, you do a little bit of activism and you talk about.

[21:09] Loren Lott: Oh, definitely.

[21:10] Alan Seales: Yeah. So it's, it's, it's very, it's a very wide ranging spectrum, but you put yourself out there in a way that I just wanted to applaud you for it. Cause it's, like I said, it's very respectable.

[21:18] Loren Lott: Oh, thank you so much.

[21:22] Alan Seales: We'll get, we'll get, we'll get back to Instagram in a bit. I want to shift gears right now to, to American Idol.

[21:26] Loren Lott: Yeah. So what, how old were you when you auditioned? What was that audition process like?

[21:34] Loren Lott: So the audition process was like, first of all, I was, I was pretty casted for the show. I, um, I posted a video and I got a phone call from my agent. Um, I got, I got a, I got a message from a woman saying, hi, who represents you? And, um, I, I, I sent her my agent at the times information. And then she, um, I got a phone call from my agent saying that they wanted to cast me for the season of American Idol. And I was like, excuse me, cast me for this season. What? I didn't know. Well, they don't cast everybody, but, um, sometimes they want people who will be genuinely entertaining. So, and there were about 20 of us or maybe more who they, who they found and casted to, to legit just to be talented and, and, and entertaining.

Cause I think the issue was a lot of people who were still auditioning for idol. Um, they were, they were having an issue, not producing stars. So they still, they, they went on a hunt specifically for quotations stars. So they got, um, people who they thought were funny people who were like entertaining and people who could obviously sing. We all had to be able to sing, but, um, yeah, we all went in, like got casted. So we didn't, I didn't have to go and do the, like the big audition in any type of stadium or anything like that. I just like, I went to the city I was told to go to that they picked it for me to go to. And then, yeah. And the judges didn't even say yes to me the first time they said no, but they, um, they aired it as if they said yes.

Cause they had me go on a second time. And when I was about to leave, they were like, please wait around. And then I did. And then they said, yes, but someone had pulled me aside before I even went in and was like, yeah, so just keep doing what you're doing. You're going to make it through. And I was like, okay, cool. I think you just pulled back the curtain on, on some shady, some shady American idol stuff right there. I don't know. That's incredible.

[23:47] Loren Lott: If you want, we can cut it out. It's fine. You can keep some of it.

[23:54] Alan Seales: Was it stressful for you at any point?

[23:57] Loren Lott: Man, it was the worst experience ever. It is so, oh my gosh, it is gut-wrenchingly stressful. Like there's stress and then there's that. Oh my gosh. They never tell you what's going on. You can't leave the hotel. You can't do all of these things. And then if you can, you have to let all these people know what you're doing, where you are. It's, it's overwhelming. And then you're also in this little bubble where it seems like you matter so much. There's people screaming outside when you walk outside. And then when you're off the show, none of that mattered. Nobody cares. Millions of people stopped watching Idol after Adam Lambert. Like it's like a totally different world. And I recently saw a thing on E where they mentioned that most people who were on American Idol had PTSD.

And that is so true. Yes. When I hear that now, I used to like, my heart sinks, like it gives me anxiety and I have not been able to watch American Idol, the voice, um, even before any of these, because I know how it really goes, um, behind the scenes.

[25:04] Alan Seales: Wow. I had no idea. It's like, it's very stressful. And did I read correctly that after American Idol, your hair started to come out?

[25:10] Loren Lott: Oh my gosh. Yes. Well, during American Idol, I was losing tons of hair, like just coming out shedding in, in balls because we were, we were all so stressed. It was so stressful. Yeah. And there's so many people in your ear. Like it's very, it's very overwhelming. Especially when I, when I said no, the first time that they asked me to be on the show, I said no to my agent. I said, no, I'm, I have no interest in being on that show. Cause I knew that it would be a lot, you know, you're standing in front of America saying, judge me, standing in front of anywhere you get judged anyway. So to, so to open your arms to it, it's overwhelming.

[25:51] Alan Seales: Huh? Yeah, it was a lot. I don't, God, I don't even know where to, what to say with this. This is, this is, this is a side of the show business that I guess, you know, we know it's there. They're not going to sit here and tell you, but they had, they had a psychiatrist on deck for us because they knew how, how stressful and like rough it is. Plus they didn't even like warn us that as soon as this starts, oh, can you hear me still? Hello? Can you still hear me?

[26:17] Loren Lott: Oh, they didn't even warn us that as soon as this starts, um, you know, all these blogs and everything start coming out and then your life literally changes overnight and they didn't.

[26:27] Alan Seales: How did you change?

[26:34] Loren Lott: Well, people, all these people were now starting to talk about me and people weren't very positive either. It was just like, immediately I was getting like, there were like hundreds of pictures all around and, um, on social media and, and social media was, uh, like, I mean, it was still like popping, but it's not what it is now. I mean, I feel like every year it gets crazier, but this was in, this was like 20, 26, 15. Yeah. Yeah. So social media was definitely, um, it was different. I just had my Instagram, like it was just, it was a little, it was, it was different and I just wasn't, I was not prepared at all for everything that we were going to, um, we were going to go through. It was, it was very stressful.

[27:53] Alan Seales: Remember if I used them really. That's a pretty damn good boy. So then obviously, I think recently I was looking on your Instagram last night to prep for this and I think you were saying or you posted a video recently that your hair is just now growing back. Is that right?

[28:11] Loren Lott: Oh my gosh. I didn't, first of all, I didn't know I had hair. I thought it would had all fallen out. So I was very happy to see that I had hair and I've now been like wearing it and stuff and I love it. But no, I had no, I did not know that my hair had grown back by any means. No.

[28:30] Alan Seales: Wow, and so you're big into wigs obviously.

[28:37] Loren Lott: Yeah, you got some nice ones too, thank you so much.

[28:41] Alan Seales: Thanks.

[28:45] Loren Lott: But I love it though, like again going back to like how you present yourself you don't hide that you wear wigs. You're like this is what I do. This is what I like and check this out. Isn't this wig like the shit? It's amazing.

[28:56] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah, that's me. That's me all day.

[28:59] Loren Lott: I kind of think it's dumb when you hide things like I wear contacts sometimes and I think it's dumb to say like, oh, no, these are like if someone's like, oh what contact what where'd you get your contacts? I think I should let you know so you can win as well if you like mine. But most people are like, oh no, these are my real eyes and it's like no, they're not or if I was dumb enough to be like, no, this is my real hair. It's like it's not like I can just accept that this isn't me that I added on and I enjoy adding it on and then if I say something then other people will put maybe feel more comfortable because I didn't, I didn't like a lot of things about myself. I was so teased about my skin and not my skin color. I mean that too, but I never cared about being teased with my same color. I always love my skin color, but I developed acne really, really young because I had such horrible eczema.

[29:48] So I just started finding things to make me still love myself and one of those was like makeup because then when I looked in the mirror I could still see I could see me and not just my spots and if I didn't like my hair if I was having a bad hair day, then I learned to add hair so that I would never sit and be like, oh I hate this about me and that about me. I was like, well, I don't like this. Oh, I like it now. Well, I don't love this. Oh, love it now.

[30:16] Alan Seales: That's so, it's a good way. It's very mindful of taking a positive approach versus a negative approach to an issue I guess when it's presented to you and I feel a lot of people just they're like, oh gosh Eeyore this got me down. Womp womp. Whereas, you know you, I mean I met you in person and I get this vibe from you in general anyway but you're just like I'm not gonna let that get that down get me down. I'll go fix that.

[30:40] Loren Lott: Yeah, a lot of things don't actually bother me, you know in America. We let a lot of things stress us out that don't matter and I try to be cognitive of that so that I'm not, you know, a first world brat.

[30:54] Alan Seales: Mm-hmm and after American Idol then when did you or I guess how did you make your way under the on into New York and the Broadway scene?

[31:05] Loren Lott: So after American Idol I did, didn't do they did an independent film but also I was a lot of my friends were sending me auditions. They were sending me things that needed a singer. I was getting tagged in a lot of things all over the internet from people in Atlanta who knew that I like lived live there now and stuff and they were, they would tell me like, oh this is happening right here or this is this is whatever and one of them was an audition for this show called born for this. So this was in like 2016.

[31:42] Loren Lott: Wow, is it 2016 maybe 25th? Yeah, Oh 2015 no, yes 20 for ya 2015. Oh my gosh. Yes. Alright, so I got, I went in for an audition to to understudy Diana. So no, it's a yes. I'm just a Diana Ross and I went in for, I taped that audition and then when I went into the edition for born for this I killed it and then the director was like so I want you to know I'm the same direct director who did Motown and I actually want to get you in for Diana. So then they ended up doing born for this at the time. They sent me out to do Diana and then when I was in, well we don't have to connect that there but I went, I went out for that and I booked my first national tour and then the national tour took me to Broadway.

[32:38] Loren Lott: After the tour was done. They took me with them to Broadway and then after that I took a break for a long time because Bradley was traumatic or touring was was traumatic. I hate it or so after that I was like, yeah, we can't I'm good off this for a while and I wouldn't, um the inconsistent life of touring I was not a fan of now a lot of my friends love it. They've been on tour for years. They love it. I was just not that person.

[33:03] Alan Seales: I don't know. I just didn't, I didn't.

[33:11] Loren Lott: Person that that is mentioned like the first person in their 20s without children who has mentioned that they dislike touring because it's a free, it's a free tour across the country.

[33:23] Loren Lott: I had a boyfriend and I hated leaving him at the time and then also like I just felt really lonely on tour. The most times are a lot of people weren't that weren't that happy? Because I guess they've been touring for a while. We had, you know, I don't, I don't know. It just wasn't, it just wasn't always a fun environment.

[34:06] Loren Lott: Oh, everybody was already aged. Also, so it wasn't like an exciting new like because there's a young cast a young cast are like happy they're grateful for a job. Sorry, they're like vibrant and stuff that wasn't that wasn't Motown they were these were like veterans who were there to like get their money and go home.

[34:12] Alan Seales: Wow.

[34:15] Loren Lott: Yeah, this is these are the sides of theater that I just want to be honest because I know so many people were coming up to me like do you love Broadway? Like what do you what do you think about this? How what what's your advice for me and all of that stuff like all of these kids who just like have a dream? And I just I'm always honest because I don't want anybody to get into this and not love it anymore because they find out now.

[34:35] Loren Lott: I feel like maybe the 100 show now you're kind of starting to get a little bored or you know all the things that come with this. I just want people to know right.

[34:50] Alan Seales: So then you came back to New York and how did you get into?

[34:54] Loren Lott: Okay, so I was in Atlanta and I decided randomly that I was ready to go back. I had been auditioning for a while in Atlanta, but a lot of the roles that I was going they wanted me to be a little bit more blacker and talk a little blacker and do all these things that I just was not good at and I was kind of tired of being in that box and just getting close to it. I got close to leading to like big roles. I think three times and each time I got beat out by someone in LA or New York and I was like, yeah, you know, I'm ready to like really get back into Broadway then.

[35:37] Loren Lott: So after about, oh, I got a Broadway agent I got with clear talent and then after maybe about four auditions with them it had only been two weeks when I booked once on this island.

[35:55] Alan Seales: Wow.

[35:58] Loren Lott: Mm-hmm.

[36:00] Alan Seales: No, um, I booked it after two weeks of being with my agent.

[36:05] Loren Lott: Oh, right. How long were you back in New York at that point? I still hadn't, I hadn't moved.

[36:14] Alan Seales: And so you get cast as as the swing and how many?

[36:21] Loren Lott: Six but my favorite at first it was T moon but then it was a soccer because man that that was a snack track for me. I went insane a song and I went and sat down.

[36:42] Alan Seales: I've never heard that phrase before.

[36:45] Loren Lott: Where you going you steal the show and then go flop in your chair and you're a principal.

[36:53] Alan Seales: That's not bad.

[36:56] Loren Lott: So, I remember I remember watching the first I believe it was the first time you ever sang mama will provide publicly yes, and you nailed it in front of the producers nonetheless.

[37:17] Alan Seales: Wow, thank you.

[37:20] Loren Lott: We've never seen you do that. Exciting that was so exciting. They were so happy for me when we have it all on video. I'm grateful forever for that.

[37:29] Alan Seales: The clip of you performing is on your YouTube channel.

[37:31] Loren Lott: Mm-hmm, so you were a swing you were swinging and left the show and then came back as T moon full-time.

[37:36] Loren Lott: Oh my gosh, so I was a swing and I booked born for this that came back around.

[37:44] Loren Lott: Um, so I booked boring for this and I was still trying to keep my swing job so I just come back to it. I was only gonna be gone for two months.

[37:54] Alan Seales: What ones on this island? I mean when you're a swing for six tracks, that's a big thing to lose.

[37:59] Loren Lott: Yeah, no, you gotta know that's what that's a lot. So and they weren't able to have me back. They needed to recast a whole nother person, which I was like, okay, it was fine and then Haley broke her leg.

[38:16] Alan Seales: She broke her leg?

[38:19] Loren Lott: Yeah.

[38:23] Alan Seales: Goals though, because then she got that workers come.

[38:29] Loren Lott: But yeah, she broke it in the show and then I had seen that the under juggies were on a lot because I felt so left out because that's my like my family and over there so I was like why like what's going on? And then I saw Haley post that she was in a boot and I was like, oh dang so I guess they're just gonna have the old bit them alternating a lot like dang that Lord.

[38:53] Loren Lott: Wow. So then my final weekend in born for this I get a phone call that they would they would like me to come back and be T moon and I thought it was so incredible how God worked that out because if I had stayed they would have asked me to to now be the beachy moon because I was doing all the other tracks right. It was just crazy how it worked out for all of us really that they didn't have to like do this big recast and it was just I was so grateful and had the show announced it was closing at that point I can't remember.

[39:23] Alan Seales: No, no it closed months later.

[39:26] Loren Lott: Once after I left how long did you get to play t-moon then I got to play team in for about I think maybe two and a half months two months.

[39:41] Alan Seales: That's a solid run.

[39:46] Loren Lott: Yeah, it's a stint. That's what the article say said when they cast me for the young and the restless they called it um, she did a stint on Broadway as team and I love that word. So now I can now I use it I'm like, yeah, I did a stint.

[40:00] Alan Seales: You ended that the show closed it was a great show, by the way, I absolutely loved it. And then is that when you moved into the young and the restless?

[40:11] Loren Lott: No, so after my after I finished my contract with um, Once on this island, I was like well this time for me to move to LA because why not? I didn't have a job in New York and I was like ready to go. So I was like, let me let me just try LA because I had wanted I wanted to be in LA anyway that it was beautiful weather and I'm just more of an LA girl so I was like, let's try it out. I came here and everything I started feeling having a feeling that it was where God wanted me because everything started falling into place.

[40:45] Loren Lott: So I switched over to my LA LA agency from my New York agency. They had a branch so that was perfect and then my managers had LA branch so then I just switched on over to them. So that was perfect. I went in and I had all of this money that I'd saved up from Broadway. So I was able to afford to.

[41:04] Loren Lott: Live well, so even if I didn't have a job for a long time, I could still live off of my savings. So there was that. I got an apartment that was very affordable and in a super, super cute building, super safe, and that was in like right where I wanted to be in Hollywood. I was like, well, this is great. And then my first audition, I made it all the way to the director's session and I was like, okay, what's going on? So then my second audition, again I made it to the, I made it, I think that when I made it to producers or directors. And then my fifth was a tape for The Young and the Restless and all the black girls in LA were going out for it, so I didn't really think much of it. And then I got the call that they wanted me to come into a screen test for The Young and the Restless and I was like, what?

Okay. And this was about my third or fourth week in LA, like officially moved into my place and stuff. It was like about my third and fourth week in LA. And I went into the screen test with eight other girls, did my chemistry read with the boy who now plays my brother, and I got the phone call literally that I left. I left the screen test and they said, my manager said, well, give it about a week before we hear anything. And then I think an hour later, I got the phone call that I booked the job.

[42:43] Alan Seales: They must have really wanted you.

[42:47] Loren Lott: It was crazy and this all happened so fast. Like it was like I left and I had only been off-Broadway for a month.

[42:54] Alan Seales: Then when did you start filming?

[42:57] Loren Lott: Seven days later.

[43:01] Alan Seales: Wow. What's it like on the soap opera set? Is it like a sitcom where you're in front of people and you have only two to three takes or do you get to go in and improvise at all or how is that? How's that compared to the other film work or TV work that you're used to?

[43:09] Loren Lott: So you only do you only have about two, one or two takes to get it. We usually only do one, but sometimes we do, sometimes we do two. Majority of the time though, it's usually about one or one or two though. I can't think of many times when I've ever done three. We do, if we move very, very fast, we film a whole episode in a day, so it's a lot of memorizing.

[43:38] Alan Seales: Wow, yeah, so it's a lot for sure.

[43:42] Loren Lott: That's a lot. Drop a line or change the line. Do they stop you, make you do it?

[43:47] Alan Seales: Oh no, because it's so many scripts. They you don't have to be word perfect, but you do have to tell the story, but I like to be word perfect. I don't think I've earned the right yet to not be word perfect. I haven't been there long enough. My boy plays my brother. He's been there for 15 years. He changes everything. He lives his life. I'm not at that place yet. I still need to study and make sure that I say everything exactly how it needs to be said and have the flow right and stuff. I don't feel as free just yet, but I'm also still getting used to how fast this moves because I would sometimes like at least four takes to get comfortable. And so I get it in your body and you know, I like rehearse, you know.

But you got it. You just have to kill it. You have to kill it immediately because that's really like the only time that you get and you know, the whole day is basically first-come, first-served. So if you mess up and you keep someone, if you keep people holding, that's now trickling into everybody else's work, you know. Now they're going to have to be there for longer than they would have needed to if you would just come faster, so.

[44:54] Alan Seales: Yeah. Wow, and you said that the guy who plays your brother has been there 15 years?

[45:00] Loren Lott: Yes, 15 years.

[45:02] Alan Seales: So some people make their entire career on a soap opera. Do you have any sort of plans to leave one day or do you think this is it for a while or what?

[45:11] Loren Lott: What I would love is for this to be my home base, so to be able to go off and do other projects and always come back here because I've seen that that's what some other people do. Or some people go and they book other like completely other shows and then they don't ever come back. But what I really want is I want to be a movie star. I want to play a Disney princess. But I want to do, I mean, TV is great. Primetime is great consistent check, especially on a show like This Is Us, you know, it's great. But I really do want to be in movies and, you know, movies, movies in primetime wouldn't make me mad either. But I do want to do my dream. I still, I've never seen myself on the big screen still. Like that's just still a huge dream of mine is just to make a lot of movies.

I want to book a trilogy and like, you know, like it's like a Twilight where you do like several and then like you'll just be at home and get the phone call like, hey, we're doing another movie. Here's another three million, you know, I mean.

[46:21] Alan Seales: Right.

[46:24] Loren Lott: Immediately after my audition, I get in a private email. It wasn't to my agents or anything. It was just to me from Marvel and they said, how tall are you? And I was like, they didn't have going with me obviously, but like no, that's a dream.

[46:45] Alan Seales: Wow. You're a couple inches off from making your mark on the...

[46:50] Loren Lott: Everything. I'm like, shorten and stout, not literally stout, but you know, I'm working on my bottle figure because right now, you know, I'm more of a sprite.

[47:04] Alan Seales: But the coke bottles.

[47:11] Loren Lott: That's funny. So we've been talking for quite a while. We'll wrap this up here. But before we go, I want to ask you three standard questions that I ask everybody on the podcast here.

[47:22] Alan Seales: So standard question number one. What motivates you?

[47:28] Loren Lott: What motivates me? Truly my grandparents because I have this, I want to do all of these things while they're still alive because they've been so much help in everything in raising me and in giving me cars to drive up to LA and in taking and helping my mother out with anything that she needs. And they are so proud of me now. It took a while to get them on board because they were like, you want to be an actress? That's not a real job, you know? So now that I'm making it, they're like so excited and like they're always proud and I just want them to be able to see me do so many things and see because they made, they're the ones who made all the sacrifices for us to be where we are now. So I just want them to see that everything that they've done, all of their sacrifices, all the discrimination that they went through, you know, and now for me to be on a soap and be the darkest one on the show, you know, like just all of these things.

I want them to be able to keep being able to see me win and to see me continue to praise God and I want them to be there for all of that. So that really motivates me to just keep going and get it done and, you know, be patient, but at the same time not be afraid to hurry up so while they're here.

[48:56] Alan Seales: All right, next question is what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out on a cell?

[49:02] Loren Lott: My younger self, I would tell my younger self to cut out gluten early so I wouldn't have to deal with it later. Frickin Lauren and cut out milk and cheese, doggone it. I mean just with that Lauren, I would tell myself to use concealer early and not think that the black eyeliner running is cute. I would also tell myself, I would also tell myself to start taking care of my hair early, start, stop perming it at a young age and start embracing my natural beauty so that I didn't have to be a slave to wigs later in life because I just now in my late 20s have learned to not be a slave to my hair. And that has affected everything in my life, you know, being a black, when you're black in your hair, that's a huge relationship.

And if I had just learned that sooner, I think it would have changed a lot of things, my confidence, a lot of relationships that I had, a lot of things. I think that would change a lot of things. What the advice that I would give to other people would be not to, and it's so hard to say it because we're already ingrained in who and like how we think, but I would just say don't stress over all these little things and to trust in the process because I can think of so many times being 16 years old, so having friends that I audition with who made it, who booked these Disney shows and all these things and then we get 20, they're not working anymore. Those shows are done and now they're back in the same grind that I am and then a few years later, nobody remembers them at all.

No one remembers their name. No one can remember that they even saw them in anything. Their money is dried up, all of that stuff. Whereas like me now, I'm like finally starting, but it's so slow, but I'm also learning so many lessons. I'm not being slapped in the face with fame immediately. I get to learn how to manage my money. I get to learn how to give money. I get to learn how to be compassionate for other people and not just be a diva because I think sometimes, especially when everything is all about you, it is easy to get lost in that and to be a diva because you do that, you talk about yourself all day like it's just you, you, you. But I've gotten to now watch other people have their you, you, you moments and see how people lose themselves and now I won't. And I've gotten to see people go crazy on drugs and now I won't. I get to, I just get to watch other people.

I don't want to say fail, but I want, I get to watch other people's processes and then get to like shape my own. And now I would tell them also to just see their career more as a garden. I mean as a tree because a lot of people will have these garden careers where they come and go really fast while yours is over there, you know, getting the roots and still growing. And you know, you're looking at this garden that's coming and going and you're not having anything. You know, you're still like underground. No one can see it. But as soon as you sprout and you grow, that tree lasts for like, that you can last forever. I want my mind to be a redwood tree that lasts for like ever and ever and last every garden.

It will outlast me, you know? That's what I want my career, my legacy to be instead of these garden careers. But that takes time and that's a process that's not going to be fast like these tomatoes and all of these other things. So I would just say trust in the process, trust in the time. If you don't get something, start saying thank you because you don't know what that was saving you from that you were going to book in the future that would have hindered you from booking that in the future that's actually going to change your life and your financial blessings, you know? So I would just say that, trust the process, pray a lot.

[53:02] Alan Seales: Okay, so last question. If you can only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what show would you see?

[53:09] Loren Lott: That is such a good question. Oh my gosh, one show. You know what? I just gotta go with The Lion King. I'm so basic. I love The Lion King. I am such a Disney fan, man. Doggone it. It's always a feel-good. It ruptures my heart and then it puts it back together again and those men be looking so fine with the tights on and the muscles out and I just see a lot of beautiful booties. And there's kids in the show and they're beautiful and adorable and that's, I love seeing kids in a show. So if I saw that forever, there'd always be a different kid, so I'll pick that.

[54:00] Alan Seales: All right, so we can find you online at Loren Sharice on Instagram and Twitter, Facebook.com/LorenSharice, and you can get more of me at Theatre_Podcast on Instagram and Twitter, Facebook.com/OfficialTheatrePodcast. Listen and subscribe via TheTheatrePodcast.com or everywhere you find podcasts today. This is produced by Jillian Hochman. And thank you as always to Jukebox the Ghost for our lovely intro and outro music. Loren, thank you so much. You're a beautiful person inside and out.

[54:29] Loren Lott: Thank you so much. You're awesome for this conversation. This has been great.

[54:41] Alan Seales: Take a deep breath, make the world a little colorful.