Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to episode eight of Montecito. After Sunset.
We are going behind the scenes of your favorite new
audio soap opera with the creator and executive producer Grant Rudder.
Speaker 2: Hey, Grant, Hey Christy, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: So good to have you here. And we also have
joining us a very special guest today, a two time
Emmy Award winner starring on the hot new daytime drama
Beyond the Gates. He's been recognized for performances touching on
themes of sexuality, religion, and civil rights, and is a
respected activist himself. He is the truly dynamic voice of
JJ Roman on Montecito. Welcome Mike Manning, Thank you for
having me. Yes, there's that iconic voice of JJ Roman.
We love to hear. Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3: I'm excited to talk about JJ and Monasita and catch
up with everybody.
Speaker 1: That's good and you guys got to work together so much.
I imagine it's nice to say hello.
Speaker 2: It's been a while. We requarded this show well over
a year ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I've interacted with Grant a lot through email
and phone, but I don't really get to see him often,
and actually it's interesting that you bring that up. That's
the first thing we're talking about, because all of these
other actors I've interacted with on audio, but I haven't
actually met some of them in person. That's specific to
this project. Usually when you do a show, obviously you're
face to face with people. We recorded Monacito in spring
of last year, and since then I run into some
of the actors on the show and they're.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, hey, Mike, you're Mike.
Speaker 3: You played Jjaba and it's weird that's never happened to
me before where it's an audio only project. And then
I meet the actors after after Yeah, you needs so.
Speaker 1: Much fun, and I can imagine part of it is, hey,
great performance over there in Monacito that you're here. Yeah.
Speaker 3: People seem to be liking what I did with JJ
and liking the episodes. I was on YouTube earlier today
and I was looking at some of the comments, specifically
on episode eight, and everybody was like, JJ's finally standing
up for himself, JJ, good job, jj W. We didn't
expect this, and they're really engaged. And so obviously it's
always nice when you're part of a project that is
being seen and being talked about and fans are engaging
with and they seem to have some very strong opinions
about JJ and Mina and Beth, Andy, Gina and everybody
on the show.
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit more about that here Episode
eight Hostile Environments. JJ is really going through it, and
I have to say, as one of the listeners, you
really made me feel empathetic for him. And I'm wondering
if that's because you had some empathy for JJ, or
how was it that you approached that to give us
so many of the feels.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, great question.
Speaker 3: When I first talked to Grant about JJ, I loved
the fact that you have everything that a typical soap,
powerful soap figure from a powerful soap family would have.
He's the CEO of this conglomerate company. He was raised
with a silver spoon, he hasn't really had to work
for anything. He probably looks good in a suit. He
probably lives this care free, luxurious lifestyle. And so I
was like, Okay, cool, I get it. I get that archetype.
But then on the flip side, he's clearly struggling with
addiction issues, and he's clearly an alcoholic, has a drinking problem,
and he clearly is letting this woman Mina walk all
over him and control him, which usually comes from a
place of missing something in your life, You're needing something,
And so I really wanted to explore as much as
I could, obviously through audio, but explore those real world
issues and what addiction means to people, and what being
an alcoholic means, and what when they're trying to balance
life and love and relationships with succeeding in the corporate world,
really what that means. And so I tried to bring
humanity to him, and I'm glad that seems to be
coming a crushed I would say.
Speaker 4: So I think JJ on paper could be more two
dimensional figure, where he's an alcoholic, he's a nepo baby,
and he doesn't get along with his sister. But Mike
brought a lot to it, and like you really dug
deeper into, like really.
Speaker 2: The struggle that this man has going on in his head.
Speaker 4: Obviously he's highly manipulated by Mina. He also could be
considered like that dumb soap lead where like it's strung
along by the women in your life. But there's a
vulnerability to the character and we see that in eight
and we're going to see more of that in episode nine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I've never really said this out loud,
but I think that i've I've been acting now professionally
for I've lived in Las Angelus for fifteen sixteen years
and then I moved. I'm in Atlanta right now for
a show. And early on in my career I was
cast a lot as like what you said, dumb frat
guy or dumb jock or two dimensional white male character
number one, which is just a lot of those, and
so I think early on I started to always try
to dig a little deeper and find those other dimensions
of the characters, to try to not have them just
be whatever was on paper. With this project, obviously the
writing was much better than some of those early things
I've done that I hope never see the light of day.
But yeah, but I think I always try to create
as actors. I think anybody does this, but we always
try to create different levels in different humanity, and that's
what audiences connect with. The comments today a lot of
them were like, Oh, I didn't see I've never seen
JJ's vulnerable side like this, or I'm proud of JJ
for standing up for and trying to resist the addiction
and everything. And the reason behind that is that there's
probably a lot of audience members that can relate to that,
that can relate to controlling relationships, that can relate to
some sort of vice or addiction, that can relate to
having somebody that tries to manipulate that. I'm happy that
they're engaging, and that's exactly what we wanted with this character.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we want these people complicated and unpredictable.
Speaker 1: Amen, tell me about writing these kind of touching sees.
Speaker 4: For JJ, this is really rooted in family and the
passing of their father and the passing of the batad
that JJ was the male figure that was born, even
though he's arguably not the best fit for the position,
and they both are very self involved, but they both
also are really trying to prove themselves that they're worthy
of this title and the family legacy and the business.
And it helps that it's set in Montecitos, so it's
a little bit more high stakes where these are people
with actual big bank accounts and big companies and they
they're worried about how it's gonna look. And Bethany Gina
went to the press and made that come. She would
deny this, but you know she made the comment about
hitting the frat boy ceo and.
Speaker 2: So there's those real stakes for these people.
Speaker 4: But they're very self involved and JJ, I think really
just ultimately is just lets to like f around with
Nina and have thought and.
Speaker 2: Not have the pressure of this business.
Speaker 4: But it's his identity and he sees that Bethany Gina
wants it and he's gonna hold on to it. But
also doesn't help that Mina's in his ear as we've heard,
and I'd love their dynamic because she's always finding a
way to maneuver and win.
Speaker 2: But she is a support to him.
Speaker 4: She's gonna put her claws out and protect JJ. And
as she says to him, so I can do whatever,
I can do whatever I want. I mean, we can
do whatever we want. So she knows that they both
are using each other basically.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mina is really trying to tempt JJ.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 1: Mike, I want to hear about recording these scenes with
Chelsea and with Crystal. What was that like for you?
Speaker 3: Chelsea and Crystal are both phenomenal and they gave so
much and it was really easy to close my eyes
while we were recording because the nice things we recorded
all together. It wasn't like, Oh, you're going to record
your parts and hopefully it meshes with everybody. Grant was
really good at getting everybody together to record in real
time so you can hear the inflection, you can hear
the emotion. And for the first couple of minutes, because
it's a format I haven't worked in before, an audio soap,
I was like, Oh, how is this going to go?
And within a couple minutes, I'm getting lost in the
characters and I'm imagining everything and all the actors are
just giving so much that that it was great. I
had a great time working with them. Yeah, and it
was great. I felt like I was talking to a
crazy ex girlfriend. I felt like I was talking to
my sister. I felt like I was talking to all
these characters in a real way. And Yeah, I would
work with them in a heart.
Speaker 1: Just sounds like so much fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, when Grant reached out, I was like, I've never
thought about doing an audio soap before. And I was
talking to some friends about it and they're like, yeah, Mike,
that soap operas started with the audio format back in
like the nineteen thirties, they were like these little fifteen
minute episodes, and how nice it must have been for
everybody to be able to close their eyes and imagine
these scenarios and everything else. And it wasn't until the
fifties where soaps actually became television shows switched to a
thirty minute format. So I was like, you know what,
I'll just give it a try, and I will tell
you this. And I'm not just saying this because the
grant is in the interview right now. But I had
so much more fun that I thought I would, and
it came out much better than I thought. I had
no expectations. I had no idea what it was going
to sound like, what it was going to feel like,
and I'm really pleased with the final product.
Speaker 2: It's great to hear. Yeah, I appreciate that.
Speaker 4: There was a reason why I recorded a year ago
and it took so long to make it to the world,
because I had to be a certain quality standard and
it had to sound a certain way, and I want
to do things right the first time, and so I'm
glad that it was well received because that was very
important that everything was correct.
Speaker 1: We're starting to see a little bit of a resolve
for some characters. While JJ is having his breakdown, Helena
and Bradley seem to be like they've gotten to a
good place. I'm thinking as a listener, we'reun episode eight now,
but everything could fall apart yet are characters like them?
Does the cycle just ge to keep continuing or are
we starting to get some resolve here with some of
the montesdo folks?
Speaker 2: Great question?
Speaker 4: Yes, it was a cast of nine people here, so
eventually at some point things need to come down to
earth a little bit though. With I talked last week
about really wanting to tell more stories with Bradley and
Helena and their relationship, and.
Speaker 2: We just we use the time that we had, but
it was short.
Speaker 4: So this scene that we hear in this episode is
putting a nice little bow on their dynamic. We see
that they were kind of relationship cycle can use. They
have their family drama and then they come back together
and then Helena moves on with the marriage and she
really puts up with a lot to keep taking Bradley.
Speaker 2: Back into her life. That she does.
Speaker 4: But that's we're seeing that kind of cycle continue in
this moment, and it puts a period at the end
of the sentence for them for now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're rooting for JJ to be good. We're
also rooting for Deacon and Geo's romance. I personally would
love it to work out. I don't know, Mike how
you feel when you're listening about Deacon and Geo.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, why would you not want it to
work out. It's people coming into each other's lives at
exactly the time that they should to teach them something
about themselves and to bring out the best in each other.
And obviously there's conflict because it wouldn't be a drama
without it. But yeah, of course I'm rooting for them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna see now how like they can proceed.
It's different.
Speaker 4: They were really hot fast like they got they were
really quick, and then things happen and that's hold on.
Speaker 2: So now there's a course correction happening.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, and Grant, I want to hear about what's
coming up ahead on Montescito. But first, Mike, you were,
of course starring now on Beyond the Gates, which has
been a phenomenal hit, huge, mega, major, big time. Did
you know that it was going to be such a
big deal?
Speaker 3: No, not at all. In fact, when we recorded Montecito
in spring of last year of twenty twenty four, I
did not know about Beyond the Gates at all. I
had no idea and that I hadn't They hadn't even
started talking about characters. They weren't even casting the show.
And so the short answer is no, I am very
proud of the show, the first brand new soap opera
in twenty five years. CBS is putting a lot of
firepower behind the show in terms of press, in terms
of talking about it. It's the first ever show, our
long soap network show that has centered around a black
family from its inception, and I'm playing a one half
of a gay marriage with adopted kids, and it's the
first time biracial marriage and it's the first time that's
ever happened in the history of daytime. So it's a
lot of firsts for me and for the show, and
I'm really proud that that people seem to be responding
to it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Mike, you're doing a great job on that show.
By the way, we haven't talked, but you're doing great.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Grant, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Yes, And I'm wondering if the role was as big
as it's becoming now when you first signed on, or
is it because you've played it so beautifully and it's
really touched the viewer so much that your role has increased.
Speaker 3: I was a contract character right from the start, but
I like to think that they're writing more for me
because I'm doing such a great job. So I can say,
without giving any spoilers away, that we have some really big,
big stuff coming up for Firstmittee for my character on
Beyond the Gates. The next month is going to be
a really pivotal month, just like episode nine is going
to be a pivotal episode for JJ. The next month
is going to be a pivotal month for Smitty and
Beyond the Gates. So I hope people tune in.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine playing both Smitty and JJ Rowman for
decades to come?
Speaker 3: Why not? On one hand, I'm a trust fun baby
CEO of Eagleton struggling with alcoholism with a controlling girlfriend.
Speaker 2: And on the other hand, I'm.
Speaker 3: A ex journalist married to a congressman with adopted kids.
They couldn't be more polar opposite, honestly, But that's the
fun of being an actor. That's the fun of getting
to embody the human experience and really try to find
moments that audiences can connect with. And then you grow
the baby, you release the baby into the world. You
hope people like it, and I'm truly grateful that both
with Montecito and with Beyond the Gates, people seem to
be liking it.
Speaker 1: We love it, we love it. We've got two more
episodes left, Grant, and what do we have to look
forward to? On Montecito?
Speaker 4: Episode nine has a lot of heart to it, especially
with JJ and Bethany Gina.
Speaker 2: I want to flag those seeds.
Speaker 4: As always, there's a twist, but episode nine has the
drama and the heart to it. There's a lot that
goes down with Deacon Diego and Bradley. It's an intense
couple of moments, and I want everyone to vocal up
for that. But I'm happy with nine. Nine really packs
of function. It leads us right into the finale of
episode ten, and that's when really everything explodes. But I
will say that episode nine is where we leave Bethany,
Gina and JJ, so we're leaving them for the time being.
So that's the penultimate episode. Is gig moment for those two.
Speaker 1: Wow, Wow, what you guys have put onto tape. However,
we want to say it is truly a fantastic show.
Everybody watched Mike on Beyond the Gate. Check out one
of his zarest causes, the Thirst Project. He is at
Mike Underscore manning Underscore on Instagram. Mike, thank you so
much for joining us. It was so great to hear
from JJ Roman.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Christy, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: And you can submit your questions for the after show
here right below on YouTube, leave a comment, or check
us out on Facebook at Montecito Series. Make sure that
you subscribe so you never miss the next hot episode.
I can't wait. Thank you guys so much for watching
Montecito after Sunset. We'll see you next time.