She dished about her role on the show and how women need to be represented more
Miriam Shor is a talented actress who has played many roles in the theater world, T.V., and in movies. She is currently on the TVLand series Younger and on Feb. 29 she attended first meeting of the first US chapter of #WakingTheFeminists in New York City. Their goal is to include women playwrights in more theatre opportunities. Check out our exclusive interview below:
Q: Can you talk about what we could expect from this season finale that’s coming up?
Miriam Shor: Oh my God. The season finale of Younger? Yeah a lot happens in the end of this season that is shocking like when we were reading the script on set and we were all in our dressing rooms and you can just hear when people had gotten the scripts like shouts were coming from the dressing rooms. Crazy, crazy things happen at the end of the show that I actually can not tell you. It will shock you. Pretty shocking things will happen on this show they went for it with the second season I’m really excited about that.
Q: Can you talk about some of your favorite moments from shooting this season?
Miriam Shor: I have this great story line with David Wain who is a writer, director, actor, producer, extraordinary human being. He plays the male feminist character in the show that my character has a little tryst with and ends awkwardly to say the least. Yeah so it ends with a broken penis like so many love stories. I’ve known David for many, many years and so he’s amazing and was really really fun to get to play. I thought the story line was great I thought the character is great I really loved that whole journey that I got to go on and also to see a little bit more of Diana’s personal life that does not seem to work out so well.
Q: Can you talk about some of your dynamics with some of your cast mates more in depth?
Miriam Shor: You know I really love how much thought the writers put into the characters and the relationships, each character has with each other character. I love all of my relationships that my character has. Picture it as a friendship but it’s developing and has developed between Liza, Sutton’s character, and Diana because it could easily be just the one note of she’s the peon and I torture her and that’s it so you clearly see that there is a bond with these two women and like a friendship– a true relationship that’s happening between them that you know is comforting, but at the same time somewhat troubling to Diana you know. She doesn’t quite understand why she’s clicking with this millennial person which is obviously because she’s not a millennial because she has a lot to offer as a human being. I really love that. I think there’s a lot of little moments in there where like you see a true connection between these two people and you get to see the chinks in the armor of Diana Trout. And Diana and Charles, you know just that unrequited love. Who wouldn’t fall in love with Charles first of all like he’s a perfect man in every way? Diana has such control and such power and such ability in every part of her life except her personal life it’s just so heart breaking to watch and hilarious.
Q: Can you talk about some of the relationships with your cast mates off camera then?
Miriam Shor: I love them; I love them all I love the entire cast and the crew. We had so much fun we have so much fun whenever we hang out it’s just like going to work and making each other laugh all day long which is insane that at the end of the day we get a paycheck. We’re really lucky and I know a lot of people say that a lot on shows, but it’s actually true. I went to college with Hunter Foster, who is Sutton’s brother so I’ve known Sutton since she was like seventeen years old, and I was a couple years older like twenty or nineteen. I’ve known her for years and then now to finally get to work with her, she is just a delight. She really is such a kind, thoughtful, hilarious, real person and the same can be said about everybody. I mean Hilary Duff, I remember meeting Hilary Duff and realizing what a huge ginormous star she was and then realizing she has not been completely screwed up by Hollywood that she’s a genuinely sweet, kind, down to earth human being which was just a bit of a shocker. I always say I want to be Debi Mazar when I grew up … I’ve always had a talent crush on her for years and years. Molly Bernard who on the show as a season regular is undeniably a force of a human being and as an actor as well, and all the men on the show Nico and Dan and Peter beside all being ridiculously beautiful to look at they’re all fantastic human beings. I know I’m going over the top with this, but it actually 100% genuinely true I have made friends with these people and I love them all.
Q: I know you’re participating in the #WakingtheFeminists movement coming to New York. Can you talk about that and what it means for you and participating in it?
Miriam Short: My friend Lisa Tierney-Keogh who’s an Irish playwright –my husband was an actor in a play that she wrote. She is a part of the movement in Ireland because the National Theatre in Ireland had a season they were announcing when they were doing 10 plays and only one of them was written by woman and it’s shocking when you think that a size of the population can be widdled down to one play in a period of ten. And there was a reaction to this and the reaction created a kind of movement the meeting and The Abbey the theater there became #WakingtheFeminists which is a fabulous name because Waking the Feminist, WTF was just kind of awesome. She called and said look I’m doing this at the arts center it’s an event and there’s going to be a speech that is going to be given, a talk and then an open forum to voice opinions and would you want to come, would you want to say a few words. Nobody really has to ask me to talk, when I’m around I’m just a talker. So I was like oh you want me to speak about something I’m completely passionate about, yes. Then it turns out that all types of other playwrights and actresses and people who I respect to run projects and theaters are going to be there as well. Julia Jordan who’s done a lot of that same work here who I’ve worked with, a play she wrote called ‘Boy’ is going to be there, my friend Emily Bergl who’s an actress will be there and just all these exciting women who I admire are going to be there are also speaking. All of these incredibly intelligent writers are going to be there giving speeches and then you want me to talk as well? Great, I’ll be like are there actresses working? What? I’ll probably come up with something somewhat intelligent to say. Basically what Lisa, my friend who sort of organized it has said is she would just like people to come and give their experience and come talk about what their experience in the arts as a women and their perspective on it on this whole issue of women’s treatment in the arts and just I’m curious to see what other woman have to say about it because it’s shocking to me. I feel like I have this feeling myself that it’s not that isn’t as big an issue but when you really look at statistics of it it’s a huge issue and we can feel whatever we want about it but the facts are women are underrepresented as writers, as directors, and creators in the arts community and that’s kind of bizarre. The pervasive emotion and feeling is that can’t be true and yet statistically it is so it’s an event we can together and talk about this, and lots of leaders popping up trying to bring them all together under one large umbrella and really create change. That’s what it is. You’ll get to see a lot of fantastic ladies saying fantastic things. Like yeah I’ll be part of that count me in.
Q: You come from a theater background right? Can you talk about what you hope to see in the future from the theater world and what you want to see changed?
Miriam Shor: I feel like and I know that when stories are written by and about women they are considered not as compelling, not as interesting, and not as important and that’s just unfortunately statistically true. When you have a season on Broadway where thirteen new plays are written by thirteen male playwrights it is kind of undeniable. Then you have 22% of all plays in the theaters in the United States being written by women and that’s much smaller percentage than should be. I would like to see that change. I would just like to see theater leaders statistics change cause that would reflect that people are taking the plays written by and about women seriously. It is still bizarre to me that they aren’t. And I don’t think it’s necessarily a conscience thing you know because it’s women themselves who are female artistic directors are also making the choice to put on plays written by men and about men. It’s a pervasive, invisible sometimes problem and I think the louder we talk about it the more we talk about it the more it’s visible and the more that it can change. Not only that, it helps with development for young female writers and directors. Often times a young male director who shows promise is kind of swooped up and taken on this track to get them to more opportunities and that same track doesn’t necessarily happen for women writers and women directors. Obviously as an actress you know because you see that there are more roles for men and it is true. If you just look there are more roles for men, and it’s not about saying—well personally you’re saying ‘I’d like to work more’ but also why? Women comprise half the population so it would be logical that half the characters would be women, which is just not the case. You come across that more and more and I’ve been really, really lucky because my experience in the theater has been so profoundly positive in so many ways and gender has often played a large part in a lot of the theatrical experiences that I’ve had in a good way in that it’s been explored. My first show that I did in New York City was Hedwig and the Angry Inch in which I played a man and gender was very much explored in that. That was so exciting to me and it really blew my mind, but then it gave me a lens to look through with the other experience I’ve had and it couldn’t measure up. I’ve worked with Julia Jordan and had a great experience with her and I’ve worked with fabulous female directors as well and female writers and that’s been really, really exciting for me. And then there’s stuff I would try. I’ve really tried looking through my life and tried to use my experiences and bringing them up and holding them up into the light so I can think about them and talk about them and what is disappointing to me is how little I knew that I came up with sexism and how quickly I didn’t even really bat an eye about it and how I was like ‘oh well that’s just kind of what you get.’ Even me, and I’ve always considered myself a feminist who has a lot to say about feminism so I find that interesting that I would even buy into that ‘well that’s just the way it is, what are you going to do’ and the answer is a lot more than nothing.
Q: Are there any roles you’d want to play in the future that you’ve always wanted to play but kind of never thought of yourself as playing?
Miriam Shor: The thing that I’ve noticed about why I feel so lucky with the year that I’ve had is that I’ve worked on a lot of new things. So what I’ve had the experience and pleasure of getting to do is being presented with a brand new role, a human that I have to pretend I am. I’ve never considered until it literally came in front of me because of this new play that I was working on or T.V. show or movie or what have you. I’ve been really lucky that I have gotten to create characters. Not that I don’t love doing classic plays as well, I do, but the excitement of being a part of creating and telling a new story is unparalleled in my career and my life. So it’s so fun for me to be a part of that process with the writer, director, and everybody involved in trying to tell this story. The greatest role I look forward to are the ones that don’t even exist yet.
Q: Is there anyone that you would want to work with in the future that you haven’t worked with yet?
Miriam Shore: A million people. There are so many actresses I would love to act opposite of. I love Lisa Kron I think she is fantastic I love her writing. I love Jeanine Tesori, the creators of Fun Home and I got the chance to work with Janine briefly last summer at Encores! I’d love to work with her again I think she’s terrifyingly brilliant. There is so many it’s really hard for me to just list like one or two. And then again the thing that’s most exciting thing about being in a world of the arts is the discovery– that just working with someone you don’t really know, you weren’t really aware of and you together get to create this whole new thing because of the people who were involved in it. Right now there’s some twenty year old young playwright who when I’m eighty is going to write the best role I’ve ever done. Then there are all my favorite stage actresses and there’s Judi Dench and all these fabulous woman and there’s obviously Meryl Streep and other fabulous people too. Every day I feel like there are so many places to watch stories now, there are so many plays to go see, there are so many T.V. shows, so many short films, so many ways to see what new pieces people have created. It’s just shocking everyday you see some person that you didn’t know existed who has created something that just blows your mind. Jill Soloway I’ve always thought she was fantastic and then you see what she created because of what she was finally allowed to create. For me to be able to see it, someone had to give her a platform for her art and that’s happening more and more I feel like. I feel like if more female playwrights and storytellers and directors are given a chance you’re going to see that more and more and more. I love when people are shocked like the Kristin Wiig movie Bridesmaids came out and people were like ‘oh my god it’s so funny’ and everybody loved it. I cannot understand why this was shocking to people. I’ve been surrounded by hilarious creators, fantastic women and it’s not shocking that they made something that people would want to see, but it’s fun when people finally discover and use it as a marketing tool so that’s amazing.
Q: Are you looking forward to the new Ghostbusters then?
Miriam Shor: Oh my god yes! It’s so exciting. I would pay just to see all those talented woman. As someone who has done a lot of comedy roles, it is interesting being in this business and being told constantly … to your face that there are just not a lot of funny women who are pretty. I just want to diagram that in to so many different ways to tell you why that is so terrifyingly wrong on so many different levels. First of all, there are so many funny women. Never has that been true. There have always been funny women. And that pretty has anything to do with it is shocking as well. And I can’t tell you how many times that phrase has came to me in this business. You get used to it … everybody’s like ‘oh sure’. What’s nice about this movement that’s happening right now is that it makes you feel like women are not only talking about it, but they’re being listened to and that it makes you reexamine that you’ve been slightly complacent about certain things. And it is good to talk and get it out there so that people could get informed and can really start to look at the world with eyes that are little bit more open.
Q: Besides the season finale of Younger and you going to this event is there anything else coming up for you that you would like to share with us?
Miriam Shor: Younger starts its third season in June so we have a slight hiatus and then go back to see what the writers are going to pick up for the Younger story line which is really interesting. I just did an episode of Elementary which was really fun cause it shoots in New York and I’m all about like getting to play pretend with my friends and to shoot in New York City and it’s a great show with a great cast. I just finished shooting, that was pretty fun. Then we’ll see. I have something up and coming that I’m not supposed to talk about yet and then always looking for another project that I could fit into my Younger schedule. I feel really lucky right now to be able to be doing lots of different types of things.
