With Season 3 of Anyone But Me officially greenlit, DCTV creator Daryn Strauss grabbed Rachael Hip-Flores for a little pow-wow on Season 3, crazy New York City weather, high school cliques, and who really runs the set — Susan Miller or Tina Cesa Ward.
DARYN: First of all, congratulations on the fundraising efforts. Season 3 is greenlit! Yay! Are you excited to get back to work on Anyone But Me?
RACHAEL: Oh God yes! The outpouring of good energy and support from the fans has been brought to a whole new level this year – it’s been incredibly galvanizing, and I don’t think any of us can wait to get back to work! We can’t just leave all the characters where they are!
DARYN: Exactly! The season finale was very surprising! One of my favorite behind-the-scenes ABM videos was “Writers on the Lam”, where you and Jessy Hodges placed a spy in Susan Miller and Tina Cesa Ward’s writing room to get the scoop on Season 2. So I ask you, how is your spy doing on scooping Season 3?
RACHAEL: Both Miss Hodges and I disavow any knowledge of this alleged “spy.” Next question.
DARYN: Note to self: contact spy directly. The show goes back into production in January. What do you have up your sleeve until then?
RACHAEL: Well, I’m totally excited to be shooting a guest spot on The Temp Life at the end of this month. That is what’s up MY sleeve!! Also, in November, I’m set to record the voice over for the trailer for the documentary One Voice, Many Faces which explores the lives of LGBTQ homeless youth. [Shameless plug: please help it win a Pepsi grant by clicking HERE] And then there’s another secret project… which will be AWESOME. But I don’t want to say anything just yet!!!
DARYN: Note to self: harass Rachael about said secret project. OK, as a New Yorker, where were you for those two batches of crazy weather we had recently?
RACHAEL: Dude! So, I was in Borders in the Financial District for the tornado. Now, the Borders down there has a glass store front, so I looked out the window from the café and just figured it was, y’know, a Really Bad Rain Storm. So it passes, and I leave, and there’s only one subway line that goes through my neighborhood, which of course is out of commission! Took me three hours to get home, no cabs would stop – and when someone asked me about the tornado, I went on and on about how inconvenient it was not to have a subway and how long it took me to get home, and then I realized that there had actually been some pretty extensive damage and I should probably just shut the hell up about the cab situation! This last storm, I was watching Where The Wild Things Are with my boyfriend and was crying so much that I, again, just figured it was a Really Bad Rain Storm until I saw #Hailing was trending for NYC on Twitter, which at this point, seems to be the way I find out about curious weather and celebrity deaths. I freak out a little every time I see Betty White trending.
DARYN: So, one of the many things I love about Anyone But Me is that Vivian is a pretty well-adjusted teen who happens to be a lesbian. She has relatively normal teenage struggles, and I think that’s really important for kids of this generation who are still facing persecution for being gay. Is that something you’re conscious of when playing the role?
RACHAEL: Thank you! Mmm…I would say not while I’m acting it. I’m not sure anyone, much less any teen, feels like their struggles are normal, and certainly Vivian is acutely aware that her specific struggle is not like anyone else’s around her. So from that point of view, I would say No, that’s not a thing I take into consideration while I’m playing her. On days when I don’t have a script in my hand though, I am extremely proud to tell a story that Yes, does embrace an alternative sexuality as normal. Especially now, as you said, with the recent horrors occurring in the gay community. Yes, I am extremely conscious of and proud of the message the show sends out.
DARYN: And one of Vivian’s struggles is being a city kid in suburbia. Were you a city kid or suburban kid?
RACHAEL: Oh lord. I grew up in a very large, very ethnically diverse suburb, so I would technically say I suburban kid, even though Piscataway doesn’t quite fit the suburban stereotype. But ever since I took my first trip to New York when I was 9, I knew, with absolute certainty, that I had to live there because finally, there was this place that was as big as I felt the world to be. My soul lived in New York – does that count? If I tell people I’m from New York when I go abroad… or y’know, just when I’m asked…
DARYN: What crowd were you into in high school?
RACHAEL: That’s a harder question to answer. Like I said, my town was big, so my high school was too, thankfully. Cliques weren’t particularly clearly defined… I was in the honors classes, so I was mostly one of the brains, but wasn’t quite masochistic enough to go into the chem league or robotics club. And I also did all the plays, so I was a drama geek too, but too much of a goody good to be a Wild High School Artist and Rebel… I guess if Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy had a Breakfast Club baby, that’d be me.
DARYN: That was me as well. I was a floater in high school. I didn’t have a clique. You actually dreamed of being a writer when you were a kid. Do you still write? Plays? Poetry? Fiction? Screenplays?
RACHAEL: Ah well… No and yes, and mostly no. Part of me thinks I enjoyed getting A’s more than I actually enjoyed writing, and truth be told if I don’t have a reason to write or a deadline to meet, I’m not gonna do it. I’ve recently started journaling again…sporadically… It was so strange, looking back on it. It was such a rush to break an idea open and tinker around with it on a page, to see how far I could push it – it was a rush and also extremely stressful. On the other hand, most of the actors I admire – Emma Thompson, Tina Fey, the wonderful women of the web! They’re all writers, too! So, at the moment, I’m not writing, but later, who knows? Oh, but when I did, yes – plays, poetry, screenplays, teleplays, personal essays, impersonal essays, other people’s essays…
DARYN: Did you have any teachers that had a big effect on you?
RACHAEL: Oh God yes! I loved my teachers! I’m Facebook friends with quite a few of them, and that is not at all weird! That’s how much I loved them! I would say easily every teacher I had through 8th grade had enormous and specific and hugely positive impacts on me. They taught me to love learning, to love ideas and language, to keep working even when I was frustrated and angry– those would be the math teachers. Maureen McVeigh-Berzok, though, my 10th grade English teacher, was this – is this force of light. Loved the arts, loved her students, was full of compassion and humor. I was very lucky to have been taught by her and to continue to have her in my life.
DARYN: As most fans know, you love Shakespeare and you’ve also done a great deal of Shakespeare plays. What’s your favorite Shakespeare play and role?
RACHAEL: SQUEE!!! Oh lord! Well, Lady M, I think, takes home top honors for role… I wish I could be more creative about it, but goddamn, that woman…(sigh) one day… Weirdly enough, though, I think my favorite play doesn’t actually have any of my favorite characters in it. I really love Tempest, and I really love Julie Taymor, so my heart’s a bit a-flutter for her adaptation of it. It’s bittersweet (at least to me, Prospero’s “Ye elves of hills” speech is his renunciation of magic, so even though it’s technically a good thing within the story of the play, it still makes me a little sad) and hilarious (three dudes smashed out of their minds, attempting an assassination), and the language is so beautiful it’s heartbreaking – “We are such stuff as dreams are made on”? Come on! Shit, the phrase “Brave New World” originated in Act 5 scene 1! Yes. I have to go with Tempest for favorite play.
DARYN: Alright, last question and perhaps the most important, who’s the real boss? Susan Miller or Tina Cesa Ward?
RACHAEL: Woman, there is no way I can safely answer that question. Susan is more directly involved in what food gets purchased for the cast and crew, but Tina is more directly involved in not letting me make a fool of myself on camera. Therefore, they are both REALLY the boss of me, at very least.
DARYN: I’m so going with the food purchaser. Craft service rules the set. Director-shmerector.
Watch the unexpected Season 2 Finale here:
You can actually feel Rachael geeking out as you read this!
Am I to believe I am now being known as craft services? Hmm. Miss Hip-Flores has a lot of explaining to do!!
Rachael is truly one of the very Finest women that I have had the honor to work with.
She is going to go quite far and definitely continue to make this World a much better place!