Mark: Do you have to live in Atlanta to film in Atlanta?
Carter: All the regulars live in LA and we come out or they come out to Atlanta. This is my first year but they come out every year and get a place.
Janine: Margaret Cho lives in Atlanta though right? I love her.
C: Yeah, I work with her a lot. She is great. She actually is living in Atlanta. She works so much. She is the hardest working woman in Hollywood because she did standup. She was in standup before she did any acting stuff. What she'll do is, she does the show, and then she will go out on tour. She will be heading out to Stockholm right after we wrap.
C: She does not have kids no.
J: But she's married now?
Margaret Cho
C: She is married.
J: Is it a man or a woman I don't know what she's into now.
C: A man yeah. She will tour and tour in Europe for like 4 or 5 months.
J: Does she have a big following in Europe?
C: I think she has a pretty good following everywhere.
Mark Baratelli and Katie Couric at WESH
J: Yeah and we were just as dumb as we are now.
M: We were a little more together for that.
J: No we were not.
C: She is awesome.
J: Sweetest little thing.
M: About this big (measures an inch)
C: Really?
J: She's Lilliputian
C: She's Lilliputian?
J: We didn't mean to name drop or anything.
C: Just call her KC
J: Is that what you call her?
C: That's what I call her. A personal friend. We were talking about Facebook earlier.
J: She won't friend you?
C: Well I barely even go on Facebook.
J: You don't? That's why you didn't recognize what this was. (Points to iphone) when you saw that.
C: I'm thinking about getting the new iPhone actually or the Android.
J: What, like the 6 or the 75?
C; The Galaxy S3 which is competing with the iPhone. It's supposed to beat it.
J: Yeah. Is your plan up though? They get you on that.
C: Well I have Sprint but they have Iphones now.
J: So they let Sprint have Iphones? Ok ok.
Carter MacIntyre, Janine Klein, Mark Baratelli
C; No but Margaret is great.
J: Is she like how she is in her standup? Is that how she always is? Is she always on? Is she always funny like that?
C; She actually... she's always funny just like her act, but she's always been a down to earth cool chic. Just a cool chic. Some comedy people have to be the center of attention, like doing their schtick all the time which gets kind of annoying.
J: It gets old.
C; It gets annoying quick but she is natural, she is always funny, always cool but she's not like "look at me, look at me!"
J: In the show does she? Because she always had issues, not with weight, she never had a weight problem in my opinion. But she talks about it in her standup about how that was a big deal. Do they ever bring that up on the show is that something that they touch on?
C: I don't know if they have in the past. I don't think so. This year I haven't seen it but I don't know if they have in the past.
J: The show you're in you mean? You haven't seen it?
C; I haven't seen every episode.
J: They don't make you do that? I would think that they would for your back story.
C: Well from my point of view honestly I like to be familiar with the tone but my character doesn't know everything that's going on.
J: Ok so you're being real method about it?
C: I want to be familiar with the tone but I haven't watched it before as much. I had seen it before, a few episodes, but I like to, as the character, know as much as they know.
J: That's cool.
M: Valerie Harper. Discuss.
C: Yeah she's cool. She plays a judge on the show.
Valerie Harper
M: But with her on the show were you nervous since she's a tv legend?
C: No I wasn't because she is so welcoming and friendly. We've had all these great guest stars on the show and everyone is so nice.
M: Looking at all the guest stars on the show it's just a crazy list. Like a David Letterman list.
C: Yeah, it's really like we are so lucky to have all these really cool guest stars.
M: Liza Minelli
C: Lia Minelli, Joan Rivers, Serena Williams.
J: How is Liza?
C: Brandy's on next week and Liza everyone is just so… they are real people you know. And Valerie Harper she is just so good you know? Patty Duke, she's on next week and she is the coolest, legendary actress that has been through so much. And a lot of the cast bought her book, knowing she was going to be on the show. You know her autobiography that came out years ago about all her trials and tribulations?
J: Her crazy childhood yeah.
C: And people bought the book and were trying to get it signed and she signed them all. She was so nice to everyone she was nice to our crew. Joan Rivers was amazing.
J: So funny.
C; I mean she can't speak without being hilarious, she is just a legend. We had a lot of fun with her. She was the same. John Ratzenberg from Cheers all these guys are not trying to be intimidating they are cool.
J: Glad to be working
C: Very gracious all of them. So it's been really cool.
J: What's the premise of the show?
C: It's basically like the pilot would start off and that's the ongoing premise about a vapid, somewhat shallow aspiring model who gets in a car wreck and is killed but then comes back immediately in a brilliant plus sized attorney. So she has narrative of some of her brains she is still the model kind of girly girl in that body. And then she deals with her life going forward. In the firm she starts working with her boyfriend when she was the model in her old life works in the firm and he can't know about her new life in her so there's that on-going thing. A push pull of their relationship. Then she deals with a new case every week and she has a guardian angel who makes sure she's kind of sticking to the right path and kind of doing what she needs to do to keep moving on with her life.
J: And your the guardian angel?
C: So that's my character right.
J: I want you to be my guardian angel.
Carter's Publicist Ilene: I know right?
C: The old guardian angel was this sweet, naive guy. My guy is kind of the antithesis of that. He would almost do just as well working for down below. He's very devilish.
Ilene: He's very sassy.
C: Yes very sassy, roguish, kind of goes after what he wants doesn't care if he makes enemies along the way. Loves wine, women and money.
I: He's so charming but you can't not like him.
J: Like life.
I: Like men.
J: Who was the lawyer that she embodies?
C: Brooke Elliot is the lead, she plays Jane.
M: She came from Broadway right?
C: Yeah she worked. Actually a lot of our actresses. Kate Levering who plays Kim. She has done some stuff on Broadway I think so has Josh Stranburg who plays Parker. So we have a pretty formidable crew of real Broadway actors.
M: Do they work differently than tv actors?
C: You know it is interesting working with different actors whenever you work on anything. (to Janine) It's a very personal thing as you know
J: MmmHmm.
C: Because in the end it's however you do the performance. Everyone has slight different ways but I wouldn't say just by being a stage actors are necessarily different.
J: Do they have to tone it down.
C: No they are all like seasoned at this point so they know what they are doing. I think if there was any of that with anybody they probably would have gotten it out of their system before they got a regular on the show or they probably wouldn't have got it. I think uh but I think there is a difference in doing tv and film, just the pace of it is so fast you don't have as many takes.
J: is that weird for you though? Are you a perfectionist? So when you don't feel it's right as long as the director thinks it right but your still kind of like-
C: Well no I mean if you really need another take and you ask them they are usually pretty good about letting you. But you know going in you don't have as much time so you go in there prepared in a way that you feel good.
J: What is your background? Did you train in theatre?
C: I actually came to acting later than a lot of people who I've met in LA or worked with. I didn't go to school for it and I came I took a couple of classes in college and than locally and than I basically came out to LA and started taking classes out there and studied there and got an agent and got into it.
M: Wow that's lucky.
J: I'm going to go take classes in L.A.
C: But I did. But it's not one of those deals where I was someone just taking classes. I mean I struggled, I worked very hard. I was really working trying to figure out the beast. Because I didn't know anyone. I didn't have any connections or anything like that so it took a lot of work and a lot of struggle.
I: He's talented.
J: He's gotta be.
C: But at the same time a lot of it is you have to be grateful for anything for any opportunity you get in the business because a lot of luck is associated with it. Maybe talent as well, I know a lot of talented people who are you know not getting the opportunity they deserve so I am just grateful to have the opportunity because it's a tough business.
M: Why do they film in Atlanta?
J: It's cheaper.
C: Atlanta is a great city with a great crew but I think a lot of it might be due to certain tax breaks in certain states.
M: Have we had any (tv shows) film here (in Orlando)?
I: We've had more reality tv shows, like about the boy bands.
C: We should have one about the theme park.
J: Underworld
C: Underworld
J: It's depressing, trust me it's depressing. I work in one. I mean what are you going to do when you are an actor? Because when you go there, my background was in theatre so I was (expecting) people to going to come up and do my makeup for me. And have a real stage manager and we had to work in like a trailer. And I was like 'What is this?' It says their titles are stage managers but none of them have stage management experience. It was a real eye opener.
C; Where do you work?
J: I do a few characters out of Universal. I play a witch I get to try to burn people up. I love it but it's theme park.
C: That sounds fun though, there's something about having a live audience.
J: I love that. I've done movies but I feel like I need acceptance from you, I need to hear that you love me.
C: I don't think there's anything like being on a stage and doing it live. Whatever it is. It's pretty different. The thing about film or tv.
A waiter interrupts. Ilene orders a dessert. Carter orders an espresso.
C: It's a different feeling in theater because you can take the journey of the whole thing. Beginning and end and you can take the whole journey with them versus tv and film where it's a very short moment. I always compare it to like a sprint. You've got to be 100 percent focused and in the moment.
J: And you have to repeat the same and really stay close to what you did?
C: Well you don't have to stay super close you have to still make it alive every time and be present in that little moment that you still may have to pick up at the same time but you have to find the life and the spontaneity.
J: It sounds completely different.
C: But with the theatre you can just let it all out.
J: Did you do theatre though.
C: I did a play actually I did two plays in college, and a couple of plays out of LA.
J: What was your first play?
C: My first play was Hedda Gabler actually.
J:Really??
C: I'm sure I was atrocious. I murdered it.
J: You played Hedda?
C: I played Hedda. I was George Testman, the somewhat nebbish husband of the lead. But it's basically this classic Ibsen play that you have no business doing if you are just starting out, where you could completely not do it justice which we didn't I'm sure. Our Hedda was pretty good.
J: What college did you go to?
C: Wake Forest
J: I went to North Carolina School of the Arts.
C: Oh that's a great school. Yeah yeah. I kind of wish I went there.
J: Did you go as an acting major?
C: No I didn't I was in business or something. I had no idea what I was doing.
J: Even in high school did you do any acting?
C; I ran the assemblies every morning and that was the only acting. I was always interested in acting and tv and film but I was into sports and everything.
J: Were you in North Carolina when you went to high school?
C: I was in Atlanta actually.
J: Do you live in LA now?
C; Yes when I'm not filming.
J: Is your family in Atlanta?
C: My family is actually in mostly South Carolina now.
J: All over the place
C: All over the place. I have a brother in Tampa.
(We talk about the food)
M: Is Atlanta a fun town?
C: Atlanta is fun actually, I mostly lived in an area like North of where I am now and it's a completely different town. Kind of hippy.
J: Like Little Five Points?
C: Yeah a lot more of. I was completely removed (sic).
(We discuss Janine's career some more)
M: Does Brook ever break out in song?
C: Yes Brook can sing, Brook can sing and so can Kate and Margaret. I can sing and make it funny. Margaret can sing, she plays guitar. Margaret sings in the show actually. Has little funny songs she does and Brook and Kate can sing that opera. I don't know how you guys do it. Do you have a big range?
J: MmmHmm.
C: My girlfriend sings.
J: Your girlfriend sings?
C: Not like opera or anything, but she can sing.
J : You like singers? You don't do it yourself but you like it in others?
C: It's an attractive quality in a person.
J: (Janine is very excited by this) Really? Do you think sooo? Is that true?
C: It's amazing. Vocal control. It's really cool.
I: That sounded pretty good.
J: Thank you.
C: You can sing I can tell.
J: There's some youtube videos... never mind.
C: I can swear I'm Bono in my mind.
J: Do you get to go to New York a lot?
C: Not a lot. I was there a couple of months ago but we were only there for the weekend. I would love to go see shows.
J: Do you like Broadway shows?
C: I haven't been as much as I like.
J: What is your schedule?
C: We are finishing up the next two weeks. We do 13 episodes in 4 months, four months and some change to shoot all those. February 28th to July 6th when we wrap.
J: And than the rest of the time are you out just promoting?
C: Going back to LA and trying to get a job doing something else.
J: It's not enough to do that? Is it like Broadway where you still have to have other work?
C: Well it's always good to have other work, you want to be working on something if you can. If it's something interesting or different.
J: Do you have more opportunities to do that because of the show?
C: Yeah in general. In the business, the more you work - it's never easy - but the more you work the better the opportunities. So definitely work begets work in that way. Do you work with Mark as well
(Carter asks about Janine some more than asks about The Daily City. Mark starts talking about himself non-stop.)
C: Josh Brobran the creator, smartest guy. Used to be a lawyer so he has the knowledge of the legal system and they pull a lot of these stories from actual news casescases.
J: Really? I was going to ask that.
C: Inspired by and it's pretty interesting because some times you might like this is impossible but then you will see something on the news and you will be like this is scary and similar.
I: The last episode there was a case of a business guy. So basically this man who was married had this app of this beautiful female.
C: Yes she was kind of like - created this app like a Siri type of thing and it was this image of a beautiful woman and he would ask questions and everything and he started to have a relationship with this app and the case was about that. Did he base it off of this woman he saw at the gym or maybe he based it on his wife in a weird way, so was he really cheating? Is it technically cheating all of these kind of quirky situations.
J: That's different.
C: You know it's not usually about someone who bloodily bludgeoned someone to death in a crime of passion. There usually more weird cases. There's that element and there's the ongoing element of the relationship with her and her current boyfriend and her old boyfriend who works with her in her old life. Who doesn't know about her as in the office kind of dymanic and then this guardian angel whose sitting around stirring things up all the time so it's interesting you know. The tone of it.
J: Quirky feel.
C: Yeah it's an interesting tone, it's not a dark drama it's kind of light. Like an Ally McBeal or like Boston Legal type feel. It has that fantasy element.
J: It seems to be going pretty strong.
C: Yeah. It's in it's fourth season. It's amazing these days to have a show last that long. It's pretty cool that's one of the things that you look for when you are an actor and you are in LA you make these pilots all the time and most of them don't make it even past the pilot.
M: I would love like a tv channel that just shows pilots that didn't make it.
C: That's interesting actually. You know there may be a website where you can get a bunch of them.
M: I bet there is.
C: I saw one once with a pilot with Jack Black with a motorcycle ala Night Rider and the motorcycle was Owen Wilson's voice. It didn't make it.
M: I bet that came up one day when Owen Wilson was like "I will make this, but I don't want to be there."
C; Right. And just do voice overs.
J: Do you do that?
C: Voice Overs? I would love to get into that. I just got a voice over agent.
J: That's a competitive market isn't it? Because you could look dog ass ugly and no one will know.
C: It's kind of like, it's really clicky, like once you're in that little group. Supposedly which I am not in. You can push, they are really talented. You could probably get into it since you have vocal control.
J: Mmmhmm, Mark also would be good. He was in Jesus Christ Super Star on tour.
C: Really?
J: What other characters did you play? Curly in Oklahoma?
C: Really?
M: What?
C: I bet you can sing.
J: He can. He sounds like Judy Garland when he sings.
C: Falsetto?
M; No. Why would you say Falsetto?
C: Because she just said Judy Garland.
J: He's really creative.
M: I'm embarrassed.
J: You should be.
C: Hey you gotta own it. You gotta go in there and own it.
J: What was Liza like?
C: Actually she was on before I was on it but they said she was like "Liza" you know like an icon. Very sweet and doing her Liza thing.
J: Whose been your favorite that you've gotten to be around?
C: Honestly all of the guest stars have been great. I knew Serena from before and she was great. Joan was awesome. I worked the closest with Patty Duke and she was amazing. So like had been through it and out the other end. And like kind of wise. She lives in Iowa with her husband.
J: Iowa?
C: I think it's Iowa and he was there. And she's so spunky, just spunky she has so much fire.
