Welcome And Guest Introduction

Greg Staffa 0:00

You're listening to the Staffa Corner Podcast, a Staffatarian look at entertainment and life with your host, Greg Staffa. I'm joined today by actress, singer, and voice artist Carrie Gibson, whose credit includes Barry, Superstore, The Politician, King Richard, and Weapons. Her career also spans theater and video games with a background in psychology that gives us plenty to explore and the people behind the character. Carrie, thank you for joining us today.

Carrie Gibson 0:52

Thanks, Greg. Thanks for having me here.

Growing Up And Finding Theater

Greg Staffa 0:54

So tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, and what was your childhood and upbringing like?

Carrie Gibson 0:59

Okay, I was born in Washington, DC, and I lived in a part of town that was kind of sheltered from the main part of the city in a way. So it took me a while. I had to get older to explore and really sort of see what DC was about and all the interesting facets of it. I got, I was in high school and ended up going to a boarding school and did that whole drill. And slowly but surely in college, I went to Amherst College, got a degree in English literature there by way of taking some sort of more alternative courses, one on imagination and empathy, because I was taking courses in the Black Studies Department at UMass, because at Amherst you could do that. And that was when I started saying I want to imagine how it feels to be other people. I'd wanted to be an actor my whole life, but I decided I was going to take play the safe route and you know get a degree in college and do something else. But I did do a course that I um with a professor named Julius Lester about imagining how it feels to be people who are in suffering situations. And that has inspired a lot of my work since. So I, short story, I guess, long story. I left college and I started a theater company after doing a lot of odd, interesting things. And it was called the Gap Theater Company Growth and Prevention. And the idea was we'd do shows dealing with different kinds of diversity issues and get people in the audience to imagine how it feels to be those people. And we'd use real words and real people's experiences. Um, actually, in Gap we didn't, we fictionalized it, but we we created real situations. And then I had another company that did the same thing, and we ended up called Had to Be Productions with my co-writer and actor Tony Curry. And he and I did shows all around the country for government agencies like the FBI and the Pentagon and corporations like Hewlett Packard and Microsoft and you name and Boeing. And we did shows based on interviews with people, using their words, putting them together in a way that tells a whole story. And then we would become all kinds of different people that we were not. And we'd say, we don't know how it feels to be these people, but we have to try to imagine to prevent suffering. And that's sort of been my motivation behind being an actor. And finally, I said, why don't I just be an actor and not try to always put social value behind it? And that's what I'm doing now. And sometimes that's the challenge, and sometimes I do see the clear social value in what I do. But it's it's being willing to do almost anything is why my acting career started taking off more, was when I realized I can't be picky and choosy about things. I just got to go for it and love being an actor in its own right. So that's what takes me to today. I lived on the West Coast for 40 years, 20 in Seattle, 20 in LA. And I am now back on the East Coast outside of New York City, because we have two daughters in New York, in Brooklyn. And I am pretty much act in three markets in Los Angeles, in New York, and Atlanta, where I can be local hire in all three. So I think that takes me to today.

Early Performing And Beating Fear

Greg Staffa 3:59

As a child, was there signs of you know, you created your own little plays in your head or you performed in front of your parents? Looking back, did you see a lot of that not realizing that that was kind of your your destiny?

Carrie Gibson 4:14

100%. I remember in third and fourth grade, we would go down to the basement and do little commercials and do all that kind of stuff. So we would we would perform that way. And then what was interesting in school plays, I didn't get very good roles, and I think I might have been shy way back then. And then in high in ninth grade, the my sister who went before me had a really bad reputation. So the person who was casting the play hated her, hence, she didn't even cast me in the play. And that made me say, okay, that's it. I am gonna make it in this. My mother was an actor too, so it was in my blood. But by the time I got to high school after that experience, I was ready to do anything. And I started playing really fun, big, broad comic roles and getting a lot of notice and people, you know, saying, Oh my God, you're great. You should do more with this. So that's sort of what happened. I also in ninth grade started a little theater company with some friends called the Lemon Peel Players, because we saw a lemon peel in my parents' refrigerator. And we did a summer show, Thurber Carnival. So, yeah, there was a lot of wanting to start theater companies, wanting to, which I ended up actually doing in my adult life, and a lot of loving to pretend to be other people or pretending we're on commercials or whatever it is. So absolutely from a pretty young age. But I think fear in actual performing stopped me from bursting through until high school. And I've done a lot of work on fear, so there's not a scared bone of my body about acting now. I'll do anything.

Empathy As The Core Craft

Greg Staffa 5:44

Now, I want to forgo some of my questions and and touch on something that you had said that I found fascinating. It sounds like, and I don't mean this in a in a negative way, but it sounds like you as a person are very empathetic and wanting to understand how people click and and that, and a lot of your work is was based on understanding people that you might not be in a position to understand, uh culturally, you know, religiously, or or whatnot.

Carrie Gibson 6:16

Yeah.

Greg Staffa 6:17

And that is uh, you know, an aspect that we don't see in a lot of people. Whereas acting as an actor, when I think of someone that is on superstore or Barry, that is a performance for entertainment. And I wonder, was there a kind of a mental or emotional clash to go from focusing on one and doing the acting there to being a character on a superstore? Is there because you it's it it's the same type of thing. You're you're both acting and you're both, you know, developing a character, but one is so emotional and trying to understand, or the other one is uh a performance. Was there a degree in that you had to kind of adjust your own personal thinking and stuff?

Carrie Gibson 7:03

Well, I think all of it requires imagining how it feels to be someone else. Even if I'm that person in superstore, that that employee who was reading a book instead of checking out stuff or dealing with someone kind of sexually harassing her, but in a very light comic way in that story when that was possible back then. You still have to completely put yourself in that person's shoes. So the muscle is absolutely the same. I love acting, and so I needed to challenge myself and find out if I could make it in things that I didn't create. So there was a strong urge to say, can I go into TV and film? Which is a really delicious medium in the sense I love theater. I love the relationship you have with the audience. But TV and film is so internal that if you're not completely real on the inside, the camera's gonna pick it up. And so that feeling really compelled me into doing it. Um, that said, I do miss the obvious social justice connections that I used to have in the work that I did prior. And so I actually look for meaning, you know, I love the acting. When I get an acting job, I don't care what it is, I love it. I really enjoy it. I feel really lucky to be doing it. And even and if it doesn't have a social justice component, that's fine. What's important for me now is to find ways I can do that in my life in other ways, whether it's working to get people out to vote or I do funerals for people who aren't religious. I'm a celebrant, you know, I'm I'm just trained to be a death doula. So I find things to do in the in-between that brings back that meaning. Because I there is a part of me that misses when it was totally integrated. The art was integrated into the social justice piece. But I love just the pure being in the zone when I'm actually in the scene or in a doing an audition at home as a self-tape, you know, making my little mini film. When I totally hit the zone, I'm totally that person, I'm doing that empathy thing really strongly, you know, whether it's comedy or drama or whatever it is. But it is important to find ways to give back and put meaning into the world if if I feel like maybe the role I was doing wasn't. But I also think if I'm in a comedy, it's making people laugh. I'm changing their life on some level. Or if I'm in a drama, that I'm taking them out of where they are, and that can change you. So that's how I justify all of it, I think.

Roles, Values, And Real Boundaries

Greg Staffa 9:22

And now, would I mean I would like to believe that all of us or a majority of us have that social justice, you know, want or desire, but you have really put it to the forefront of of what you do, and but I mean there's no judgment there or anything like that, but has it ever clashed with a role? I mean, if you were, you know, your publicist came to you and said, you know, we have this role where you're gonna be this, you know, racist Karen, you know, is that something that you could do, or is that conflict with your own? Because you know, a lot of us believe, you know, in you know, right and wrong and stuff like that, but you have put it so much as your core belief and put it out there. Does that ever conflict with roles that you may be offered?

Carrie Gibson 10:09

I got to play a Karen on Matlock, a sort of self-righteous neighbor who was judging everybody for not being as as politically correct as she was, and she was really off. So I love playing any kind of role. If I'm playing an extreme racist, I think it's really important to portray that person authentically so that we can imagine what that's like and sort of get to the other side and have a dialogue with that person and hopefully shift them. So there's never been a role I won't do. I think the closest maybe was when I had to audition for a cigarette commercial, and I had a number of people that have died of cancer-related smoke-related diseases. And that I didn't want to do. So I just boldly said, I won't smoke on camera, I won't be around smoking. I pretty much eliminated myself before I got there. But in terms of theatrical roles, film and TV, any aspect of any issue that I'm playing, I think is gonna move the needle on some level in the right direction. If if, you know, unless it was a bold campaign promoting white supremacy, then obviously I wouldn't do it. But if it's if I'm playing a white supremacist in order to show the opposition to that, then I've got to do that as deeply as I can and as real as I can. So yeah, there's now I don't have a lot of rules for what I won't do. If I do, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't have gotten a lot. I mean, there's most of the roles I've done haven't been controversial. But if I started telling my agents I won't do this, I won't do that, then there's a thousand people behind me who will. And so I want to do it and I want to do it as best I can and really uh use the tool of empathy to do it and all my acting tools and things. But yeah, I think that answers that.

Greg Staffa 11:49

I don't want to harp on the question, but I have to wonder because I I find the psychology element that you bring is something that's so unique to acting, as at least in my conversations. But I have to wonder, you know, you you have these performances where you you brought about empathy and you helped other people understand and identify, you know, things that other people might be going through from building a character and playing, you know, a character like on Matlock, did that help you understand their behavior and not not necessarily understand or appreciate or respect them more? But did that help uh guide your perception of the opposite end as well? And you know, what was that like for you?

Carrie Gibson 12:35

The opposite end, you mean playing great different than me?

Greg Staffa 12:39

You were playing a Karen that might have been racist, whereas before when you were in your your group, you were trying to help understand what other people were going through. Did playing not necessarily a bad character, but well, I guess she was racist, it is.

Carrie Gibson 12:55

Well, she wasn't she wasn't blatantly racist, she was very self-righteous in trying to protect the people she she was sort of uh um, you know, I'm gonna protect my person of color neighbor because that's the right thing to do, but just you know, over the top.

Greg Staffa 13:10

Gotcha. So does that does that help with the psychology help you understand the opposite side that you were trying to also educate as well?

Carrie Gibson 13:20

Sure, it does. I mean, it I think as a therapist, and I worked with a lot of people with a lot of painful situations in their lives, and I had to really imagine what they were going through in order to connect with them. And that's the muscle that works no matter where you are. It's just I had a lot of practice as a therapist. I also had a lot of practice seeing a lot of extreme emotion and you know how people handle that. So I've seen a lot, and all of that certainly helps. And I think empathy ultimately, I don't know any actors that aren't empathic. I mean, that I think it's really hard to be a really good actor and not have a overdose of empathy on some level. Um, it doesn't mean I'm always as empathetic as I want to be in my real life. I mean, I would like to be that way all the time, to really be getting in the other person's shoes and trying to make a connection that way. But there are times when, you know, the natural judgmentalness gets in the way. But as as an actor, it doesn't. As an actor, it it's I that all that really helps me.

Greg Staffa 14:23

You

Solo Shows And Borrowed Voices

Greg Staffa 14:24

do my research on you. I read about a play that you did, and I want to describe what you went through and did, uh, but I'm gonna leave it up to you because this is too interesting and fascinating for me to have to try to explain it. But tell us a little bit about a fly in the buttermilk.

Carrie Gibson 14:46

A fly in the oh, that's a long time ago.

Greg Staffa 14:51

You played 14 different characters?

Carrie Gibson 14:54

Yeah. So I I guess there's a couple plays that are all sort of in that vein. I actually did something called The Perfect Sister, which was my solo show. And there's been a lot of sort of mental illness and different odd things in my family overlaid with my mother wanting us to never air our dirty linen. So there was always this tension of my mother, my mother who would talk like this, and she was very into keeping everything just looking just so. And so it was that tension. And I played probably 20 characters in that. And I just I love flipping from character to character. Fly in the buttermilk, I think was my first attempt at the show that I ended up doing as a two-person show. But yeah, I played, I played an 80-year-old African-American man, a woman with cerebral palsy, cerebral palsy, a lot of really different kinds of people that I I cannot rightfully play. So the context would be I am not saying I know how any of these people feel. I'm using their words to try to imagine what it's like to be them. And I'll never know what it's like to be them, but I have to try to imagine. And and the goal would be to get the audience to do the same thing. So if they say something that may be hurtful or discriminatory, they can actually imagine how it feels to be on the receiving end of that. And I so I did those plays and a fly in the buttermilk being one of them, with that idea in mind that I was going to use partly my own story. I did use my relationship with my mother, and I interviewed her, and she talked about the slaves Star family owned many, you know, hundreds of years a not hundreds of years ago, not that long ago, and and how she felt like, you know, she she wasn't, she didn't react the same way I would, obviously. And I had to imagine how it felt to be her describing that. And that actually gave me an insight into my mother that was really interesting. So in doing that play, I had to cross a lot of lines that were uncomfortable and lines that don't sound correct, because obviously, if you're casting a show, you'd cast an you know, an African-American man to play an African-American man. But if you're casting a show where you're trying to get people to imagine how it feels to be someone who they are not, then having one or two actors continuing to cross that line in front of you without, you know, disrespecting that character, but maybe maybe portraying a couple mannerisms of that person specifically, nothing stereotypical. It really can be transformative for everybody. And we we constantly got feedback from people. They said they thought they weren't going to like this. We had a show in disabilities called not just ramps, me and my writing partner. And here were two people who did not have any apparent disability going in front of audiences, some with lots of disabilities, portraying all these different characters we interviewed with different kinds of disabilities, someone who was blind, someone who um had ALS, somebody who had cerebral palsy. And they thought they were going to hate it, and then they realized you can carry a message that we can't. You can show what it's like to imagine how it feels, which helps helps us cross a bridge. I actually have a book called Crossing the Bridge about that. So so it it's it's controversial in one sense, but when we were doing it, it it every single time people in the audience said, Oh wow, I never realized I I could make some connection, even though I know that's not me. We really, really emphasize the point that you'll never know how it feels to be any of these people. But if you can try to imagine and even use those words in conversation, like I just said something, you looked hurt. I want to try to imagine how it feels to be you. When I said that, the person will they'll they'll open up, they won't close up, they'll want to see what that is, and then there's a dialogue there. So it's all about the dialogue those shows were.

Cancel Culture And Lost Dialogue

Greg Staffa 18:45

And you mentioned, I mean, these were in the past, those were something that you did years ago, and I have to wonder, do you think they would have performed as well? These days we live in such a canceled culture where everyone's tension and um you know feelings are are right front and center. Is that something that you could do today? And how does that make you feel that you know the times have changed so much that we can't tell these stories or convey these messages? Where you said that a lot of people were nervous going in, but they came out of it feeling like they had better understanding, at least it I mean, it almost feels like we've lost the ability to communicate with people that don't share their same beliefs that are exact as ours, that debate is no longer out there. What how does that feel to have that performance in your your wheelhouse, but yet probably not be able to do it today, I would assume?

Carrie Gibson 19:43

Well, that's a really interesting question, and it's really sad because have we gone backwards? I think 100%. People say, well, it's always been there. It has always been there, the extreme prejudice, but it's never been condoned, it's never been fanned, it's never been used as a way to get votes. So we are in a whole different era now, and in a lot of ways, a lot of the progress where they were where every corporation had a really healthy diversity department, and they weren't scared of controversy. So they invite us in. As I said, like Wells Fargo Bank, Boeing, all these people invited us in to stir up dialogue, to, to, to, to bring this into people's faces. And we had incredible conversations. And I think now not only are you right that maybe people wouldn't even be open to it because it's it's maybe not the correct thing to do on paper, but also those diverse departments don't exist anymore. No one even wants to have those uncomfortable moments, and we want to avoid anything uncomfortable, so we'd rather cancel it than talk about it. And and I think, you know, we'd always say the change only happens when you're in that uncomfortable place, when you're suddenly, you know, out of your normal response. And so it makes me sad. And it is, it's wild to think that what I was doing in the 1990s and then in the 2000s, I had another theater company that toured schools called the Gap Theater Company Growth and Prevention. We got on the Christian Coalition Enemy List in the 90s because we were dealing with homophobia in the 90s and blatantly in schools, and we had protests and bomb scares and things because of the shows we do. They were fictional shows that always co-write with people and they'd have music entwined in them. But they deal with controversial issues. And, you know, we we got through a lot of those battles, and now a lot of that wouldn't be allowed in a school. So it's really weird to know that this whole thing that I did do probably wouldn't be able to do be done now, and certainly would not be invited into a lot of environments where it used to be welcomed. People understood that we were going to get uncomfortable, and that's part of the dialogue and part of the change. So yeah, it's it's a very strange time that we're in now. It's it's really Sad, and I'm hoping we come out of it in a big

Groundlings, Second City, And Comedy

Carrie Gibson 22:02

way.

Greg Staffa 22:02

You've done a lot of training too. I see you did Groundlings and Second City.

Carrie Gibson 22:07

Yeah.

Greg Staffa 22:07

What I mean, those are both well-known, well-established groups out there. What was that like?

Carrie Gibson 22:16

They're great. Groundlings was really um, they have really high standards, and they don't pass you from one level to the next unless you really get what they're teaching you and they're there a lot of bold, really funny character work. And I got all the way to writer's lab, which is pretty cool. It's like through all the improv levels and on your way to writing sketch. And I I really enjoyed that process. It was it was great and it was challenging. And Second City, I'm actually I did it once in LA and got to a certain point in the conservatory, and now I'm in that again, and we're a couple months away from doing an eight-show run with sketches. And I have a great group of people I'm working with in terms of the other actors. It's funny. I'll tell you what it's like. I'm older by maybe 20 to 30 years than everybody else. So they can stay out late and socialize and do all those things, and I will not. I'm on my way home. So it's it's kind of funny now, but I do love the muscle. I love comedy. It's there's nothing better when you do something and the audience laughs. It's just so fun because then you you're in relationship with them. That's the difference with comedy and drama, is you actually hear their reaction. And sketch is really fun. So I I'm really enjoying it. Sometimes it can be really uncomfortable, and much of the time it's just really fun and really nice working with a great group of younger people. I guess it keeps me young.

Superstore, Chanting, And Booking Work

Greg Staffa 23:40

And what was it like going? I mean, you done all of your performances that was based on you know empathy and understanding, but then you made that switch a little bit. I mean, not a switch, but you made that transition into doing more entertainment productions. What was that like doing a show like Superstore?

Carrie Gibson 24:01

Totally fun. It all depends on who's on the set and who you talk to. And that was a really friendly, lovely set. Actually, Linda, who was the one who played the oldest employee on the set, was a neighbor of mine. And strangely enough, I actually have an interesting story about Buddhism. I had someone introduce me to chanting, SGI. It was the same Buddhism that Tina Turner practiced. And they say, chant for something you want in the first hundred days really hard, because it that makes you chant and it makes you elevate your life condition. So I said, I want to be, I want to have the biggest role in a show I've had yet. And I was on a scooter back then, living in LA on a Vespa, and I saw a billboard for Superstore. And I looked at that and I said, That looks like a funny show. I want to be on that. I hadn't even watched it yet. And I was chanting really hard. And then that Sunday I went to my neighbor who I know is a chanter, and I said, Hey, I'm also part of SGI USA. She goes, Oh my God, it's changed my life. Now I'm a regular on Superstore. And I went, huh, that's funny. That's the show I want to be on. Next morning I got an audition for Superstore. And then I, because of this chanting practice, you do your best, best, best. And so I hired a coach, even though it was a small role, and I went for it. And a day after that, I was booked on the show for three days, which was the longest I'd had. That was quite a while back on a set. And it sure made me a chanter. And it was wonderful being on the set because she was there and just the director was really accessible, and everyone on there was really strong ensemble. So people really were lovely, lovely to work with. It was super fun. It just, as an actor, when you land a role, it is just so fun. It's such an honor, it's such a gift. And you're working that, you know, there wasn't a, I didn't wonder about what its value was or anything. I was just having a ball on set.

Greg Staffa 25:51

Was that tough for you to kind of, I don't want to say turn off emotion, but it I mean, and again, I don't, I don't want to judge or I want to, but it sounds like that was such a crucial part in your life that that was uh a value that you enjoyed sharing, that you enjoyed, you know, helping others educate up about. Uh, but Hollywood can be a very different kind of beast and burden. Was that you know tough to turn that off, or was it just something that felt natural because this is this environment, and I accept that.

Carrie Gibson 26:26

Um, well, again, you don't turn off the empathy muscle. And it was hard sometimes not having the obvious social justice piece. There are times where that's hard, where you you you sacrifice everything for a role, and then the role is you know not going to change someone's life necessarily. But again, that's where you have to find other ways to fill that in. You have to find other meaning. And and that it's the in-between is really hard. The not working is really hard. I mean, thank God for auditions. Because when I was doing that work, I never questioned the in-between because you know, I I knew what the meaning was. So it it's when I'm working, I don't have those questions. It's it's the in-between when you're hoping you get booked on the next job that those those beasts come up saying, is this really of social value? Is this really worth this? All that kind of stuff. But you know, you you act because you can't not act. And I've always found a way to act, and I found it with social justice before, and now I'm doing it in TV and film and occasional theater readings here and there where I live. And and and I I have to do it. However, whatever form it's in, it it fulfills a part of me. And I know I've done a lot of good things in my life, and there's more good things to come, but I don't always have to have that as the top requirement. It's just I need to be doing what I meant to do, which is to be part of a story, to tell a story.

Meaning Between Gigs And Death Work

Greg Staffa 27:45

Now, when I was doing my research of you, my main focus was your acting, but I kept on running across Carrie Gibson, and it was for other things. And I thought for a while, there must be four very popular Carrie Gibbs that looked like you. Would the real Carrie Gibson please stand up and tell us a little bit about the other stuff that because it's I mean, you have a career and basically like three or four different things that would be enough for a lot of people. You you talked about your the the things that you do for helping people that have experienced or death in their family. Uh, you do some wedding stuff. Tell us a little bit about those aspects and how do you find that balance and what gets you interested in those kind of things?

Carrie Gibson 28:34

Well, it's it's the in-between. It's like what am what is what is my value when I'm not acting or coaching? I also coach other actors, which I love doing on We Audition, which is a great platform. I'll plug that. It's a great way to get someone to coach or read with you. My first priority, I'll drop everything for an audition for a job, whatever it is. And and so that that is the most important thing to me right now is to listen to what you know, where what I'm in the zone with, and that's acting for sure. And then occasionally I get funerals that I do for people who aren't religious, and that is really satisfying because you're telling someone's story in a big way and bringing it to life for people. Um, so that requires all those same empathic muscles, and I get to present that, you know, deliver it. So that that's pretty wonderful. And all the other aspects, you know, I write, I write screenplays with my writing partner, and that that allows me to act while I'm writing a screenplay because we get to play all the roles. When I was a therapist, I was missing not being an actor, but I was, you know, pretty full-time into doing that. And then I started one day like sneaking out to an audition in between sessions, and I'd come into the office dressed as one thing and come out dressed as something else. And I realized finally I'm I'm helping all these other people reach their dreams. What's my dream? And my dream is to to be an actor. I I love being other people, I love that that muscle. So I've done a lot of other things, but I I my priorities are clear. And but you know, I I do believe that actors can have a lot of time in between. And and I think taking classes, all that stuff is really good. And at the same time, I I want to be a little bit at this point in my life. I feel like my training, every time I get an audition, I get a coach and I I keep getting better that way. And I I really believe in that, but I don't necessarily need to devote class time to that. So I can do other things with value, like be a celebrant, like do people's funerals or or be a death doula, or I'm gonna work with hospice, you know, that looking for things that have a lot of meaning. And clearly when you work with things with death, you think a lot about life and its meaning. So that's a good thing. So yeah, my priorities are clear of what I want to do and what I will do if if you know, if an acting job comes up, that's the most important thing. And that's what you have to do to make it as an actor. You can't say, oh, darn it, I'm gonna go on vacation next week. It's really hard, but you for a good long period, you have to say, I will pass on the vacation. And that's painful sometimes. And I have done it. I've left several vacations early for last-minute bookings. But that's the kind of you have to, that's what makes it hard to be an actor, is you have to make it the priority, even when it's not happening much of the time. And then suddenly it happens and you have to say, Okay, that's it. That's what I'm doing. So it makes it hard to get too deeply into other things. But that's what's nice about doing funerals, they're usually on the weekends, and I can write the service somewhere during whether I'm on set or whatever. It's a nice kind of balance.

The Emerald Turtle Dream Film

Greg Staffa 31:33

Interesting. Now, if Steven Spielberg came to you with Steven Spielberg money and says, You know, I love the work that you do both inside and outside of acting. I'm looking for a story to tell, but I'm just I'm out of ideas. What's something that you would want to tell that you might want to act in? What is what would be a project that you would love to have that kind of backing to tell?

Carrie Gibson 31:57

Well, right now, my writing partner and I, we've written five or six screenplays. We love them all. But the one that's risen to the top, we had a possibility of producers getting investments, but that fell through. But we're still working with another producer. And I love it because it's actually about a transformation that happened to me. It's called the Emerald Turtle, and it was inspired by the fact that I, so this is what I pitched to Steven Spielberg. When I was in my early 20s and thought I was going to come back and be a teacher on the East Coast, I kind of mistakenly jumped on what I thought was a tour, but it was kind of a hippie bus called the Green Tortoise. And so I jumped on the bus thinking I was one person. And by the end of the 10 days, it was a bus that would rip out the seats and have like a mattress where we would all sleep, and there are musicians, and we'd we'd stop at these interesting hot springs or canyons or whatever. And you slowly like drop all your defenses and find out who you really are. And I came out, I went in sort of the semi, not conservative in the political sense, but sort of cautious person and came out the other side saying, I'm gonna be an actor, I'm gonna do a whole lot of things, even though I became a therapist after that first. So the Emerald Turtle takes that and just exaggerates it, but it's got all these incredible characters, some of whom I met. It has people very much like the family I grew up in. It's about a woman who starts out as a Nixonian, you know, like she's working as an intern, and then he resigns, and her, she's got the worst day of her life. She finds her fiance in bread with her brother, and she mistakenly jumps on this tour and comes out the other side a completely different person. Um, it's really fun. Um, so it's a comedy, but it's also about, you know, those moments in your life that that transform you and just being open to that. And it's so it's called the Emerald Turtle, and I would pitch that to him in a heartbeat because I've got some wonderful people who are involved already. And I would love to get a movie made. It would be so fun. So there you go. There you go.

What’s Next And Who She Sees

Greg Staffa 33:53

Wrapping things up, I just have two quick questions left, and I appreciate you coming on. Uh, the first is what do you have in store for the future? Is there anything that you can share that you're working on that fans of yours might be looking forward to seeing you in?

Carrie Gibson 34:07

I was I'm not sure if I'm even allowed to say what it was called. I was just on a big budget horror movie that was fun that uh just shot. I know Lincoln Lawyer, I shot an episode and it's not coming out till like I shot it last year. It's not coming out till January 2027, but a nice judge role in there.

Greg Staffa 34:24

Um that's a great show.

Carrie Gibson 34:26

Yeah. Um, and this other one should be great, but I shouldn't even say the title right now because we signed NDAs all over the place. And I've shot a couple other little things here and there. I was in a great movie called 21 Down. I had a small little role, but it's a great movie about a kid with Down syndrome who wants to be a pro football player. It's a lovely movie. But uh, in terms of anything that's coming up that I haven't shot yet, I'm just on the edge of my chair for a couple auditions that I really want to hear back from, which is the story we're always in, right? I who knows what the next one will be, but I had you know five or six auditions for one show that was really great, and five or six for another, and I'm hoping that one of those turn into something. You just don't know. Greg, I wish I knew the answer to that because I want something soon and I wanted to have a lot of days on a set. So I'm I'm plugging that I'll be like a recurring guest star on something in the near future. I just don't know what it is yet. But it's there, I feel it coming.

Greg Staffa 35:20

There you go. Final question I asked this of all my guests, but so often when we say Carrie Gibson, we talk about, you know, we'll mention Barry, or we'll talk about Superstore, you know, Carrie Gibson in Superstore, or Carrie Gibson's psychology and stuff like that. But when you get up in the morning, you go into the bathroom, splash a little water in your face, and look in the mirror for the first time, who is it that you see?

Carrie Gibson 35:48

That's a very interesting question. I'm not always sure. I see someone who loves to connect with other people. I I'm very athletic, I'm very into health. So I see someone who's really, you know, I play pickleball and I do stretching every morning and I go for a walk and play with my dog and do all those fun things. I'm very curious about people. So I see that person who wants to learn about other people. And and I do see myself as someone who's pursuing her dream as an actor and who's willing to do almost anything to get there. And I'm a, you know, I have a partner and I have a daughter, I have two daughters, and so I'm someone who tries to be there for my family as much as I can. I get very distracted by being an actor, though, I'll tell you that. It's very, it's a very interesting thing to juggle. Because when you get an audition, a lot of words to memorize, everything else goes out the window. So I guess I see all those things. I see someone who's older in one sense but still feels younger. I see that too. I was the youngest in my family. I'll never get over that.

Greg Staffa 36:53

Well, Carrie Gibson, thank you so much for coming on. I look forward to seeing what the future has for you. And uh, I will be sure to check out Lincoln Lawyer because that's one of my favorite shows. Although this season will be the last season, is my understanding. So uh little disappointed in that, but I appreciate you coming on and wish you the best of luck.

Carrie Gibson 37:13

Great. Thank you. Your questions are wonderful. It's been a really interesting experience talking with you about all this. I love it. I'll come back anytime. It was great.

Greg Staffa 37:20

Thank you.