Kimberly Hawthorne – Lucky Lady

Q) What are the current projects you are working on?

A) I am just auditioning for things. My contract with the show “Lucky Louie” sort of limits things. I can audition for movies and guest spots on some network shows. So, that’s all I’ve been doing is auditioning and that’s it. Also, I am designing jewelry. It’s not a television or movie project, but that’s a project of mine. That’s been taking up a lot of time, as well as raising my son.

Q) Please tell us about your character Ellen on the show “Lucky Louie.”

A) I would describe Ellen as a pretty much straight-laced woman. She has a child who is six-years-old, a little daughter named Lisa. She is married to Walter [played by Jerry Minor] and they are very family oriented. She goes to church and I think she’s doing the best she can raising her daughter and being a wife to Walter. She kind of thinks that Louie and his family are a little out there and crazy. They try her patience on a regular basis on the show. She’s constantly trying to have a certain kind of life and her wacky neighbors next door always seem to remind her that she doesn’t have that kind of life, such as she’s not in the neighborhood she wants to be in. I like her. I like Ellen. I think she’s a respectable woman.

Q) What is it like working with comedian Louie C.K.?

A) He’s a very loyal person. He’s very creative. He knows how to share the spotlight. He’s very intense, meaning he’s serious about what he’s doing and he definitely has a vision for the show. I like working with Louie. I like Louie. I think he’s an honorable man, at least towards me he has been. He puts his money where his mouth is. If he says something, he follows through on that. I appreciate that.

Q) What is a day of filming like for you on the show?

A) Filming is brutal! I would say I probably get up at 6am and spend some time with my son before I go to the studio. I have to be there at around 9am and from then on out we go in and have rehearsals, read throughs and then rehearsals again. Eventually, during the course of the week, we’ll put things on tape. They call it a live feed so that the producers and the writers can see. They’ll come in or watch the live feed and then change the script. A lot of times the script we start with at the beginning of the week does not even resemble anything that we finish with, even up to the day of actually taping. Monday it is rehearsal and read through. For the rest of the week we have blocking and by Friday we’re taping in front of the live audience. It is 9am to 6pm of nonstop rehearsing. It’s really hard work, five days a week for a sitcom. Then, we have Saturdays and Sundays off. I enjoy it. I enjoy taping in front of a live audience because it reminds me of doing theater, which is what I have my degree in. It’s a lot more fulfilling for me in some ways then just doing a drama for TV or even a film. There is that live audience so you get immediate feedback, recognition and appreciation for the work you’ve done by the audience coming and, hopefully, laughing where they should.

Q) Why should viewers take the time to tune into “Lucky Louie?”

A) It’s a good show. It’s not mainstream. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it’s definitely different from all other sitcoms out there. Our cast is amazing! We have an incredible ensemble. We’re all strong actors, whether we’re straight actors (which I am) or comedians like some of the other performers on the show like Louie or Jim Norton. The stories are good. I think people need to watch the show so that they can learn more about the characters. I believe that they’ll grow to like the characters and want to watch the show. As a mater of fact, there are people that I know who know me peripherally, not close friends of mine, who like watching the show. The more they watch it, the more they want to watch it. I think it’s definitely something worth watching. The writing is unique and it’s good. It’s a good show. I would watch it if I weren’t on it!

Q) What has been your favorite project to work on?

A) That’s a tough question! It’s kind of easy to ask, “What was the least favorite project to work on,” which I won’t answer. Every project is different. I love “Lucky Louie” because it’s a sitcom and I’ve done lots of drama. People would probably look at my resume and my reel and say, “She doesn’t do sitcoms!” I had problems getting sitcom auditions. I love “Lucky Louie” because of that. I also did a children’s program called The Voyage of the Unicorn, where I was a sphinx. I had furry legs and wings. It was a kid’s program and it was very animated acting. I got to fly around and had a harness on. It was very fun because of that! That was very challenging. I had a fear of heights and had to get over that really quick! Going to the premiere of that and seeing the children’s reaction to the whole movie was fantastic since it was a film with a lot of special effects. That was awesome! In Canada, I worked on a show called “Da Vinci’s Inquest,” where I was Rose Williams. I was a homicide detective. It was great because it was an African American female lead on a show where I had to be a serious straightforward homicide detective. It was very challenging doing that. There were lot of things that I loved doing and then there were one or two odd projects that weren’t enjoyable for me. Those projects are the ones where I feel I had been hired for the job and for whatever reason, the director didn’t trust my choices. We analyze the script and read the entire script to see what other people are saying about our characters. We decide how we want our characters to act, to stand and what to wear. I think that directors should trust us more about making those choices and that we’ve done our homework. Sometimes we work on projects and you can tell right away if the director is not trusting you or trusting your choices. Those have been more stressful projects for me and disheartening. I feel like I just need to show up, hit my mark, say my lines the way they want me to say it and I don’t get to have any input. That’s what crushes me, as an artist, when I don’t have that creative input. Part of what we do is interpretation and that’s one of the things that I look forward to doing, is interpreting a script.

Q) Who would you most like to work with in the future?

A) That’s a good question. The person I most wanted to work with I have been fortunate enough to already work with and that was Morgan Freeman. I got to work with him on the movie Along Came a Spider and that was a dream come true! Other people that I really admire would be Gene Hackman, Cecily Tyson, Susan Sarandon and Sidney Poirtier. Those are people that I would love to work with. Spencer Tracy, if he were still living, I would have loved to work with him.

Q) What do you do in your spare time?

A) Like I said, I am working on my jewelry line. My jewelry company is called Julian Bailey Designs and it’s named after my children. I am doing that a lot. A lot of my spare time is dedicated to raising my son, Julian. I spend a lot of time with my mom. I love to play golf and I love to bowl. I do those things in my spare time and I, also, love to read.  That’s where most of my spare time goes.

Q) What is your latest obsession? A book? A movie? A sport?s

A) My latest obsession is organizing things. I have been obsessed with organizing my apartment and de-cluttering. I am obsessed with it! Every day I am either cleaning out the refrigerator, it’s the bedroom or the linen closet. I’ve just become obsessed with it! I really want to lighten the load here. I just feel like I am bogged down with a lot of things that I am not using that are just stored up, are hiding in dark spaces and have cobwebs crawling on them and things like that. I want to get all of that stuff out so I can think!