Post by MSS Productions on May 19, 2020 4:20:12 GMT
Lana Winters: "Hello Everyone! This is Lana Winters and we have Bethany Kenyon joining us here, live via video call. She is appearing in the Morning Star Productions debut series, Afterlife as the lead Abigail Ryder. Thank you for joining us Bethany, or do you prefer Beth?"
Bethany Kenyon: "Thank you for having me and I don't mind either, so whichever is easier for you."
Lana Winters: "Alright, Beth it is! So, tell us all a little about yourself?"
Bethany Kenyon: "I'm from New Orleans, I've been a professional wrestler for six years now on a large scale. I started in the UWA where I was a triple crown champion. Now I wrestle for Hybrid Wrestling on their Unleashed Brand. Before that, I worked for my late mother's company helping people."
Lana winters: "Do you think being in front of the cameras as often as you have for as long as you have makes the transition into this new medium easier?"
Bethany Kenyon: "It made the camera part easier. I've never really acted off a script before so that was a bit different. When you're on TV getting ready for a fight or doing promotional work, it's more like this, where, nothing's really planned it's just stick a mic in your face, the little red light comes on and ok.. talk... and hope you don't make an idiot of yourself in the process."
Lana Winters: "And this new process is more stop and start. Reshoot and reshoot until it's perfect?"
Bethany Kenyon: "Yeah, everything I'd done before was one take, whatever you get, that's it. It's usually live and there is no safety net. Here, it's a lot of hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait, but the moments you get from all the preparation and all the artistry, it's magic. It's stunning to see the places and toys we get to play with and we get PAID for it too? Come on!"
Lana Winters: "That does sound like it could be a blast. So, tell us about this new project? It's called Afterlife, and is set...five years into the end of the world to a kind of zombie outbreak?"
Bethany Kenyon: "Yeah, it's been a lot of fun playing somebody in that environment. Obviously everybody there has seen some stuff by the point we come up to them so it was an interesting challenge. Asking yourself, how would you do in this situation and the usual musings of whether you'd be one of the ones totally screwed if this was real."
Lana Winters: "And you play Abigail Ryder? Tell us about her."
Bethany Kenyon: "She's... like that old song line "A walking contradiction, partly real and partly fiction." She's a loner and yet she's connected to some people, especially Madison. She's strong and yet vulnerable. She's a blessing."
Lana Winters: "Madison is her partner?"
Bethany Kenyon: "Yes. Lily does such a great job with her, it's incredible."
Lana Winters: "What do you think makes Abigail such a contradiction, as you say?"
Bethany Kenyon: "Well, she's a loner, so she doesn't really want to belong to any groups or factions or whatever but yet, she stands by Madison and holds that connection as if it's her life itself. And she's kind of like that with everything to some degree."
Lana Winters: "A lot of people will think that her and Madison have a romantic relationship, but I've heard that this isn't the case? that Abigail was married once?"
Bethany Kenyon: "She was, yes, and i think that relationship colors everything she does now."
Lana Winters: "How so?"
Bethany Kenyon: "Well, when you have a connection like that and then it's severed because the world has gone to hell, it's going to affect everything you do after."
Lana Winters: "So, what happened to her husband clouds everything she does now? That's an intense outlook for a person to have."
Bethany Kenyon: "It is and so is Abigail."
Lana Winters: Is there any specific moment you can think of that stands out as tough to shoot or intense?"
Bethany Kenyon: "I think it was all challenging, it was new, it was interesting and working with the people I was, some of which I'd never really met before, made things easier on me. I was told early on as the star I had to set the tone and they made it so easy, so collaborative, it was a joy to get into everything."
Lana Winters: Lilith told us about a scene inside a cave with bodies? She didn't go into full detail obviously, but she said that was a very unsettling scene to shoot."
Bethany Kenyon: "That was quite... the sight. The makeup they did made everything look so... it really was like, oh God... when you first walked in, you had to pinch yourself to remind yourself this is a TV show..."
Lana Winters: "Was there anything like that for you? Beyond that cave moment?"
Bethany Kenyon: "Any time we had to see anything like that, be it bodies, or the zombies or somebody being injured, it was always..whoa... that was... oh, right, it's the show. Whew."
Lana Winters: "Switching tacts a bit. What was it like shooting the flashback scenes with Anton Crowley?"
Bethany Kenyon: "It was interesting, he is a guy that is totally the definition of don't judge a book by it's cover. I'd never really properly met him before this so here's a guy I've heard things about and has that look to him and he's a good guy and we meshed way better than i thought we would. I was worried we wouldn't because i was worried I wouldn't be able to find it in myself to think of him as anybody but Anton, big scary wrestler guy. I didn't trust myself at first but then we got to the work and it worked out beautifully."
Lana Winters: "What about your partner? Did you two bond on the set? You and Lilith?"
Bethany Kenyon: "She's such a sweetheart! I didn't really know her before this either. I'd wrestled her before but that was the extent of things and then she turns out to be this really sweet woman. I was talking with my best friend and manager after the first couple of days and she joked that it sounded like "Mama Bethy" had found a new chick to care for."
Lana Winters: "Mama Bethy?"
Bethany Kenyon: "It's an old nickname. My friends, my sister, my cousins, they all say it's the role I tend to take with people, the den mother, the mama bear, so to speak. My brother says it started before our mama died and really took over after that and they all like to remind it of it all the time."
Lana Winters: "And would you say you take a role like this on set?"
Bethany Kenyon: "Probably, whether I want to or not."
Lana Winters: "Well, Mama Bethy, thank you for taking the time to join us."
Bethany Kenyon: "Thank you for having me!"