THE BEAUTY: Official Podcast Episode 9: Jessica Alexander

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Welcome back to The Beauty: Official Podcast and Evan Ross Katz and I am overheating with excitement to dish with our next guest about her latest role in FX’s is the Beauty. Welcome, Jessica Alexander.

Jess, I'm so excited to have you here.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Thank you.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Now you are back in New York right now. You were last here filming The Beauty. How is it being back on the scene of the show? We call it a crime.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: (Laughs) No, it's been so. It's so nice being back. Like I was telling you, it is my first time ever working in America, and I got the job, so I got a visa just for this and came over here. And I really, really wanted to spend some time living and working in New York. So it was like such a blessing to be able to do it.

And it was like a very fun, transformative experience for me, like doing all this for the first time. So yeah, good memories on every corner.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: You gave me a nice transition there by saying transformative because, you are on the other side of some transformation that takes place. I guess I want to begin by talking about the physical transformation that we see.

You really. You burst onto the scene.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Love.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: In a big way. Can you talk about filming that scene and. Yeah, I as much detail as you want to share.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Oh my God. Yeah. The scene was crazy. I had heard about the sacks. Like, there was so much talking about the sacks. Like, everyone was like, have you seen the sacks? Or have you been in the sacks? I was just covered in fake pus and goo and blood. And those sacks are heavy. The heavy, they're hot. You can't hear anything and you're naked.

And then you got to tear your way out. So it was. It was fun, though.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Yeah. It's nice what you're saying. It's like it's your first time in the States, and then you come here and it's like, here's a bunch of goo, and we're just going to have you emerge from the sack and welcome to America.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Yeah. Totally. Yeah, absolutely.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: We were talking off mic and you mentioned another story because, you know, there's a sex scene that takes place. And I think people have this idea that sex scenes must be really hot to shoot. It's like hot people making love. But it sounds like...

JESSICA ALEXANDER: super sexy having, like, 30 people watch you fake an orgasm.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: You're like, I'm not so sexy. But it sounds like in your case, not just the 30 person crew. Did something else strange happen while you're shooting sex scene?

JESSICA ALEXANDER: I won't say his name, bless him, we at the time, I'm, like, lying on the bed. I'm, you know, talking to our intimacy coordinator. Like, getting myself psyched up to do this. It's quite intimidating. I find it very exposing. And so I'm lying there, and we get. The cameras are going up, and I just said it's like (pfft) I'll say, what was that?

What was that? Anthony. Anthony can do a really good fake fart noise. I can't do it. But I heard it, And honestly, like, actually, something like that happening is kind of good, though. I feel like I approach all awkward situations and acting with just a lot of humor, because I feel like it relaxes me. So actually that happening, I think was a good thing.

But no one really addressed at the time. Like, I wish, I wish I'd had the courage to be like, I want to just let out a fart.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Talk to me about how this role, how you found yourself to this role, how this role found itself to you because it's your first time in the Ryan Murphy universe, which is incredibly exciting. And it's a strange role, right? It's like you're playing a character that has already existed on the show in the form of another actor.

And so how is it pitch to you?

JESSICA ALEXANDER: I did a self-tape. It just said, like, it's an FBI agent, like five nine and above. I was like, I'm five five, but I'll just lie on my slate.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Big heels.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Yeah. Big heels. And I wore big heels to my screen test too. I was like, huge heels with like, trousers that, cover the bottom because Rebecca is really tall. Right? And I was like, the beauty. Would it make you shorter? Probably not. But whatever. Movie magic. So I did, I did a tape and yeah, I just said, like, FBI agent, and it didn't have anything at all about it being, you know, like, transformed version of Rebecca's character or anything.

I didn't even really know that. That's what it was until, like, a few weeks before I went for my screen test. So I got a call, and they were like, Ryan Murphy loved your self-tape. And they want to fly you to New York and test you with Evan. and obviously I was yeah, I freaked out. I mean, I've, I've been a fan of Ryan's work for so long, like, I went through my teen years watching American Horror Story, like, under my bed sheets on my dad's iPad and my first, like, concert I ever went to at the O2 in London was Glee Live.

So, like.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: You've been in the trenches?

JESSICA ALEXANDER: I have. When I got the call for the screen test, I was like, I have to get this part. Like it's filming in New York, it's Ryan, it's Evan, like a huge fan of Evan's work always. So I went to New York, did the screen test, and Ryan explained to me, like what the character really was and like everything that was happening in her storyline.

So I kind of found out most of the details, just like in the room with Ryan, like on camera.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Well, it's interesting because I feel like there's a version of that where like, it could have brought out a lot of nerves. But I can also see that kind of being exciting as an actor to be fed this information and just kind of like go, go, go.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Yeah, totally.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Right. Like just submerge yourself. And I feel like from talking to a lot of the actors that Ryan works with, I think that it's sort of like innate to his process, which is kind of just like put the person, submerge them and see what happens.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Yeah. He seems like. Yeah, very instinctual. Yeah. I guess with the way that he casts and he's an intense listener, like he really was like sat there asking me a lot of questions like, can you cry on cue? How do you got there? What song, what song do you get there with? Like, you know, quite specific, questions.

I didn't really act in the audition at all. Like, I did the scene once with Evan and Ryan said, I, I don't need to see you do like the scene, like, let's just talk kind of thing.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Wow.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Which was a throw me off massively, because obviously I had been preparing my lines for like weeks.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Like I care. Ready?

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Yeah. I was like, oh. Okay.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: You talk about the fact that you're a fan of Ryan's. You get on this Ryan Murphy's set, you're in Venice, you're in New York City. It's your first time in America. There's so much newness to this. However, as you're talking about it, there's also this sort of like buildup of anticipation in knowing some of what you can imagine this experience to be from the fan side of things, what is it like to be on the set and say, you're no longer the fan, right, like you've earned your place within the canon of Ryan's work?

JESSICA ALEXANDER: I definitely had like, a lot of, yeah, pinch me moments. Like, I would wake up in Venice for like, oh shit! I can't believe this is my life, right now, you know?

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Yeah. And it's like you're not only in Venice, but you're playing an alternate version of Rebecca Hall.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Yeah. Which is intimidating, by the way, because she's stunning.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: She is.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: And, fabulous. And I was just like, it's just insane to. Yeah. I mean, someone like, Rebecca. Gets the beauty. I mean, come on, come on. Be so for real. Like, if she doesn't need it! so. Yeah.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Well, that is the question of this series though. Does anyone need the beauty?

JESSICA ALEXANDER: No. Well, no. Exactly. No. I sure as hell wouldn't take it. Have you seen the side effect?

EVAN ROSS KATZ: I was going to say at plain sight. It's like maybe then you learn about those side effects and you're like, I don't know about this.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Would do though? Would you?

EVAN ROSS KATZ: I wouldn't. But what I'm curious about is, I think the answer that everyone's going to give is no. And I would.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: That’s the politically correct answer.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Exactly. Because I would, to talk to someone who could at least like weigh some of the pros because like, there are some pros.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: You know, there are definitely some pros, like I have a really dodgy lower back on my left. Would love for that, to be fixed.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Well, I wonder if there's like, you know, a way to dose it, right? So that rather than like getting like the full beauty, it's like maybe you're getting like.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: You just do like a baby. Botox for

EVAN ROSS KATZ: like a baby botox.

Yeah. Season two. Season two.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Yeah, exactly.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: I want to talk about working with Evan and the scene I’m thinking about specifically is when Jordan first knocks at the door.

EVAN PETERS: Can I help you

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Cooper?

EVAN PETERS: I'm sorry, do I know you?

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Cooper, it’s me.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Can you talk about your approach to that scene?

JESSICA ALEXANDER: I mean, it's weird, like you're asking a lot of an audience to get on board with the idea that he accepts that this is her very quickly. So, to be honest, like, when we were filming the scene, it was it was kind of difficult. We were like, trying to find it. We were like, this feels a little weird.

And our director was like, I promise you, like, it looks and feels right. And sometimes that's just one of those things that happens. Sometimes with acting, it's like you're just trusting the people behind the monitors that it is working, because Evan and I didn't really know each other like that was. I think my second scene, it.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Kind of sounds like it works nicely, though, because though these characters do know each other.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Right, they sort of don't.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: They sort of don’t.

So I think that energy might have like, helped inform the direction of the scene.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Like the distance between you a little bit like a tentativeness. Hesitancy. Yeah, definitely. I mean, Evan is obviously a phenomenal actor. I'm such a great scene partner. Like the stakes of our show and the plot, it's so outlandish, like it's insane and it's sci fi and it's high concept, but he just brings a groundedness to everything he does, really.

That is allowed me to just, like, be on that plane with him. You know, at the end of the day, between these two people I have, we have to look at it like it's a tragedy. It's a love story. It's a tragedy. It's a partnership. You know, take over sci fi out of a and, Yeah, he's just it's a very delicate performer, you know, everything's so natural.

So. Yeah, we just kind of slid into it, really. And actually, I think we worked really well together Evan and I.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: I want to get your reaction to the end of the episode. So we have, you know, we were talking about your transformation. We have Cooper's transformation. Yeah. I'm wondering your reaction to, I mean, I guess both from like, the reading it in the script, but then also.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Go reading it in the script. I said, I actually didn't get center. I, I actually walked into the makeup trailer and everyone was like, hey, I said hi, have you read episode nine? I was like, no, do we have it? And they said, yeah, yeah, it's here. So I sat and I read it in the makeup chair.

And yeah, my initial reaction was, Holy shit, this is just so Ryan Murphy. Like, what a curveball. I mean, it's kind of genius, but it's obviously also like a little messed up and weird. And I was like, okay. How do I pivot this? Like, this is supposed to be the man that she's in love with and now,

Okay. Yeah. Let me find a way into this, you know? So I think I just kind of played it with, like, a great deal of inner conflict. There's hopefully what sort of emerged there. Yeah. But yeah, my reaction was, yeah, it was. that

Yeah, it's pretty crazy.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: when you obviously you were talking about nine today, but talking about the, the first nine episodes that have aired as a viewer, when you were watching those first nine episodes, were there any moments where you just were like, this is unbelievable, or I can't get this scene out of my head?

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Yeah. Honestly, so many, like I said, all the all the transformations I just think are epic, so, so good and a lot of Jeremy and Anthony's scenes like their scenes are some of my favorite in the show. Like they're dynamic. It's quite funny to me because I honestly feel like they're in a different show to me, and even like, they're in this like, weird, fucked up, I don't know, buddy comedy kind of thing.

And then like behind Avenue in this, like, brooding, like super grounded, like crime drama.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Yeah. But it's fun in a way. I mean, I don't want to spoil, but it's fun because I feel like I totally agree with you. And I think watching

JESSICA ALEXANDER: I was like, I want to be in that show.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: But watching these worlds kind of perhaps converge down the line is also quite fun too, because you got these different styles throughout the show.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah. And it's very and again, it's very Ryan Murphy. I mean, I think this show is like quintessential Ryan Murphy. And I mean, that's kind of camp, right? Like that's a lot of my favorite kind of stuff you get in TV, especially of this nature, is the colliding of what feels like lots of different genres.

And our show definitely has that, you know, it's calm, it doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's also got loads of great action and, it's got loads of really grounded performances in it. Like, I really think everyone is acting their socks off.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: To wrap up, when you sort of zoom out and look at the entire process from, you know, first finding out that you were going to be on the show, you're finally working with Ryan Murphy, you're coming to the States. What does this experience mean to you?

JESSICA ALEXANDER: Oh, gosh. Yeah. This experience means so much to me. I just feel so grateful and I feel like I learned so much, you know? Yeah, I would do it all over again, like, a thousand times. Like. Yeah, it changed my life in a lot of ways. You know, I feel like I grew so much as a person, like moving to a new city and being on a big set like this for the first time and working with all these incredible people and working with Eva and I just I felt like I definitely, yeah, learned a lot.

And yeah, I'm just really happy. I'm excited for people to see it.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Me too.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: it's a great it's a great time, you know? It's fun.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: So anyway, Jess, thank you so much for being here.

JESSICA ALEXANDER: I really appreciate thank you, thank you. Evan.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: That's all for this time. On the next podcast, actors Ashton Kutcher and Ari Graynor share hot details about their contentious roles in FX's The Beauty. Watch new episodes of The Beauty on FX or stream on Hulu or Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers, be sure to rate, review, and follow the beauty official podcast wherever you watch or listen.

I'm Evan Ross Katz, and I'll see you next time.