- The acting career of this Bono, Arkansas native has taken her from the stages of Memphis to the sets of critically acclaimed comedy series, like "The Righteous Gemstones" and "Kevin Can F Himself."

Back home to live, work, and perform during the actor's strike, she's here to talk to me, Tony Isbell, about the acting life.

This is a Conversation with Mary Hollis Inboden.

[upbeat music] Well, Mary Hollis Inboden.

- Tony, Tony, Tony.

- How are you?

- I'm great.

How are you?

- I'm wonderful.

I mean, we just closed a play together and it was super successful and everything's coming up roses, so I'm great.

- I know.

I'm so excited to be here too.

They've put together this beautiful, like, backstage set.

It's making me feel like we didn't leave on Sunday.

- I know.

- That the show didn't actually close.

- I know.

It's still, we can look forward to it again, but at last it did close.

- Yes.

- It did close.

- It was, I think, truly a highlight of my career.

And I've been fortunate enough to be on a lot of different sets, and I'm going on, you know, 20, 25 years in some capacity on stage or last 10 years in TV.

And I think that this show and the experience with you in "The Wasp" at Quark really provided some life this year.

We're in the middle of a strike, Screen Actors Guild strike.

And it was just so nice to have a place to hang my hat and get creative and- - Right.

As we shoot this, there is a strike going on, so you haven't been able to work.

- No.

Not in the way that I was working in the last 10 years.

- Right.

Right.

- You know, being a part of the Screen Actors Guild has been so wonderful for me as a TV actor.

It's how I get my health insurance.

It's how I've made my living and really can consider myself now a working actor.

But in June, we went on strike, and so the opportunities, the jobs, you know, I'm not about crossing that picket line so.

- Well, no, of course not.

- So this show with you at Quark, you and Megan Lisi Lewis sort of magically appeared and.

- Oh my gosh, it was kind of magic.

We won't go into all the details, but so many dominoes had to be in the right place and fall in the right way for this even happening.

I mean, you could not have done the show had you not been on strike with SAG.

- No.

Right.

- I mean, you would've had other things to do.

And the window- - Well, we hope.

[chuckles] - You would.

And the window of opportunity was just right there at that perfect moment when we were doing the show.

- Yes.

- You know, and so you've been doing TV for about 10 years.

- Yes.

- When did you start doing theater though?

How old were you?

- I mean, I started in summer camps in and around Bono, Arkansas, where I'm from... at five, you know, - Really?

- Started going to like, whatever, you know, the Jonesboro has a great community theater called the Foundation of Arts that I participated in.

At the time when I was growing up, there was this great hundred seat community theater in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas called the Front Street.

And my parents, I mean, just as quickly as we could be classified as country people, my parents are amazing and exposed my big brother and I to so much art and theater.

It was an interest of theirs, even though they've made their living mostly in, you know, agriculture.

- Right, right.

- But, I did, I had access really, really young, around the age of five, and I went to summer camp.

I got to see people in shows up on stage.

And I don't know that my parents thought I'd ever do it full time or wanna pursue it for a career, but I sure did.

And the fact that they were able to raise my brother who has stayed very focused on agriculture and now runs a cotton gin in Monet, Arkansas, and I have gone on to, you know, Memphis, Chicago, Los Angeles, and back again.

I think that that's part of the reason of my success is supportive parents.

- Well, I'm sure it is.

Your parents are lovely people.

I had the chance to meet both of them.

And I think your mom came to see the show three times.

- Yes.

[laughs] - Yes.

And liked it every time.

So you started about five.

Did you know that you wanted to be an actress at age five or did that just kind of creep up on you?

- I think I just, I liked being up in front of people and I liked, you know, I think a lot of actors start out, I don't know if this is your story too, but when you're young, it's like, I love the validation.

I like the attention.

I love being up in the spotlight and understanding at a young age that not everybody can do that physically, mentally.

I mean, it's, you know, if public speaking is the number one fear and you don't have that, how exciting is it that you can exercise that?

I learned that at a young age.

And they're just along the way.

And this is still true to this day, there has been nothing that I have done or been exposed to or had experience with as far as a career that I ever wanted to do more.

This is the thing that I want to do more.

- That's the thing that you wanted to do.

- I wanna make characters.

- And you got to do it.

- I want to entertain people.

And that there was a shift that's happened somewhere along the way from, you know, wanting to be the center of attention or like getting bitten by the theater bug.

Or loving, you know, being up in front of people, making people laugh to also understanding that what we do as actors is like sociology.

It's the study of, you know, empaths and observing people.

And that has become the kind of thing that excites me most.

- And bringing all that to your work whether it be on the stage or in film or TV or whatever.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

So you started young.

You know, I didn't really begin until I was in high school.

- Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

- I didn't really get that acting bug that early.

I was not exposed to it so.

My exposure was to television.

And I always wondered, how did those people know what to say?

And I remember asking that.

I said, "How do they know what to say?"

Because my parents told me, well, this isn't real.

This is just a show.

- Yeah.

- They'd be like, somebody writes it for 'em.

And I was like, "Somebody writes that?"

I was amazed it's a story.

- It's a story.

- I didn't understand.

- Yes.

- So when you got older, then you started at five, were you still doing it when you were in high school?

I assume you were, like high school plays and things like that.

- Even more so.

I mean, there's a, as idyllic as my childhood was, there's also a traumatic event in my childhood.

I survived a shooting at my middle school in 1998.

And, you know, I had always kind of been acting.

I got so much, you know, positive reinforcement from that.

It was, you know, this sort of gift.

And I loved participating in the community theaters around town.

But post the shooting and this traumatic event at 12 years old, I think that what theater then became was not only a great escape for me apart from school, but in the years after junior high, high school.

up to like my early 20s, theater also was a place where I could go and try to find answers to questions, you know, answers I'll never have, right?

The shooting happened and nobody can tell me why.

And nobody, you know, and that search I think was always, I got to like dip in and put on other people's shoes in the theater and try to walk around as them.

And, you know, I was just coming up with all these answers to questions for other experiences, funny or tragic.

And I think that that really, like, emboldened me.

I think it's also part of the reason why I clung to it so much, you know?

After that moment, I was only doing theater.

I also did try to play volleyball for a second, and I was very, very bad at that, so, [chuckles] - Okay.

Well, it's a good thing you chose theater then.

Yes, I'm kind of the same way.

I didn't have a trauma like you described, but the ability to kind of become these other characters in a safe environment and do extreme things sometimes in a safe environment and see how that feels you and get makes you feel and search out answers to life like you said.

- The shooting also of, maybe interesting note, occurred on my playground.

So where children play, where we played, me and my friends.

- You're supposed to be safe.

- Yes.

The theater became my new playground, and it has been, I mean, even as recently as our experience at the, you know, at Quark in "The Wasp."

- At Quark Theatre.

That's right.

- This year, it also was my playground.

- Well, so how did you, you're from Bono, Jonesboro, right?

Bono, but you, you know, Jonesboro's a big town.

- Yeah, Bono, Jonesboro.

- Yeah, Bono is Jonesboro adjacent.

- Okay.

[both laughing] So how or why did you end up coming to Memphis to do theater?

I've always been curious.

- I think, you know, probably partly because of the shooting and kind of growing up in the aftermath of that with my classmates who are lovely and beautiful souls who will always sort of be on that playground, surviving that thing with me.

I think as I got older, two things were happening.

One, I had sort of done the work that I thought I needed to do on the sort of community level, and I wanted a different challenge.

I also wanted a different scene.

I think something that I've always been sort of conscious of starting out very early on, was watching the people that I was working with.

And, you know, someone say stealing from them, but also I think just learning in that capacity, being backstage, being in a rehearsal process.

And so when I had kind of felt like I was ready for the next challenge, I went to Memphis.

And I also probably found Memphis because it was far away from, you know, being kind of tagged as this little kid from the playground.

So I got to kind of go on my own merit.

I was kind of proving that I wasn't perhaps special or needed to be, you know, tenderly taken care of in our community.

And the challenge was, can I actually do this and can I do it around people who I found in the Memphis theater community to be completely iconic and so talented?

I got to watch so much good stuff as a 16-year-old.

I came over to work at summer camp at Playhouse.

And I auditioned for a show and I bumped out one of the Playhouse interns.

I'm still very sorry about that.

- I won't ask who.

[both laughing] - And I do remember I lied to Brian Mott, who was the director of that project, and I told him, I was 16 at the time, but I told him I was 18.

And I also told him that I lived in Memphis, because I didn't want driving from Jonesboro to be a deterrent, like, I wouldn't be committed to that, you know, that project.

And he cast me.

And, you know, my character said a lot of really colorful things.

That's continued in my career actually.

- What show was this?

- It's called "Anton in Show Business" at the then Circuit Playhouse.

- Right, right.

- But Anton, I played this, you know, young elementary school teacher who was just having her first theater experience.

And so many of those things were so in line for me on stage during opening night, you know?

And the end of the monologue that she gives with just her and a ghost light on stage, she says, "Someday," I might get choked up, she said, "Someday I'd like to be in a play like that."

- Aw, yeah.

- "Well, you came tonight anyway."

And then the ghost light goes out and she leaves the stage.

And I was, you know, at 16 years old, having, having this experience with, again, such talented people.

And I thought, and they were clapping, and then they were on their feet.

And I thought, "Maybe I can really do this.

Maybe I can really pursue this as a profession," you know?

- I think it was at the end of that show, I just remember Brian Mott was talking about you to me after I had seen you.

I can't remember if it was that show or he directed you in something else too, didn't he?

Maybe not.

- Brian directed me in several things while he was here.

- Well, at the end of one show I said, "Boy, she was really good."

And he said, "Yeah, and she's only 16."

And I was like, "What?"

- For our audience, I did finally tell him that I had lied to him.

- Yeah.

- But it was all just, you know, 'cause I had this dream and I didn't wanna be counted out, you know?

- And so after that, after you made your debut in Memphis, then you went on, did many other shows here for about five years, six years, or was it even that long?

- Not even that long.

I started at 16 and I was done, and that was in 2002 "Anton".

So, yes, I mean, you're not far off.

I left in the summer of 2006.

I chop it up to like three and a half years.

- Okay.

Okay.

- And I did, I worked all around.

I worked at Theatre Memphis.

You and I never worked together then, but I- - We never worked together.

- But I knew you and I was a huge fan back then, so that made circling back to you all the more, like, reasonable and exciting.

- In fact, when you and I talked about doing the "The Wasp", I think I even said, "Do you remember me?"

[laughs] And you said, "Yes, of course, I remember."

And then later when we were rehearsing, I said, "Do you remember we had one conversation?"

And you didn't even remember it.

I just remember us at a party after some show.

It may have been one I directed, and you were there and we had about a 10-minute conversation on a balcony and outside at somebody's house.

- Yeah.

- And I was not in a very good mood and you were kind of trying to cheer me up or something.

And I always remembered it, but you forgot it, so I guess it didn't mean that much to you.

[Mary laughs] - You reminded me of that and I couldn't help but think to kind of go back in the Rolodex and something was coming to mind.

Like, I think that you might've been working on a show or directing a show, or it was just not, I think it was in the context of work, you know?

And I've sort of remember, like, I don't remember it as a pep talk, I just remember going like, this cool actor is talking to me about being frustrated about the work.

And again, one of those moments where I was like, I'm doing it, I can hang, you know?

- I can hang.

Well, so you were here for like three and a half years, whatever, four years.

- Yes.

- And then you decided to move to Chicago.

- Yes.

- When you did that, did you have in mind at that time transitioning to TV, or were you going up there for theater or what?

- Only theater, and I followed a couple of really talented Playhouse interns up there.

Some people might know Michael and Angela Ingersoll from back in the day.

And I was, you know, a big fan of their work, but also they were just, so many of those interns who came through were just like 8 to 10 years older, big brothers and big sisters to me.

And Michael and Angela said, "Chicago?"

And I hadn't been thinking about even leaving Memphis, but I also thought, I guess I always saw myself in theater.

And if I was gonna pursue it professionally, New York is the place that you go, you know?

It's like that pipeline.

It's just like from near tiny town, you're a small, small community, go straight to New York.

And they mentioned Chicago, and then they started talking about it as they were doing their own research.

And I just sort of absorbed that as like this theater community where you could have a day job and maybe not starve to death, and then also go and do your work at night.

And it's this stamina that only like somebody in their early 20s, I think, can handle, But I did it.

- And not starving to death is always a concern for actors so [laughs] - Yes.

Yes, but I did.

But I, to answer your question about the TV experience, because I grew up in the '90s and my mom actually worked for our local ABC affiliate in Jonesboro, our tiny, you know, TV station.

She was the program director.

- Okay.

- My mom has always been an avid TV watcher.

- Okay.

- We watched everything except for like, you know, I had to go to bed before, you know, Twin Peaks came on at a young age.

But I remember watching these women on the TV shows and feeling so completely, like, I'll never be on TV because I don't look like Ally McBeal.

There was no like sort of world in which a girl like me, who's, you know, round faced and dark headed gets this spot on TV that just, that wasn't crossing my mind.

And as I came up in theater, I kept hearing over and over again this thing, which I hope we're getting out of, which is in, you know, training.

It's like, you won't work, you're a character actress.

You won't work until you're 40 or 50 years old.

And I think that's so stunting, right?

- Right.

- But I believed that.

And so I thought I can go spend some years in Chicago really cutting my teeth some more, again, another challenge in a different group, you know, learning from these actors.

And then someday I'll go to New York and I'll be old enough to be on stage, you know, finally I'll be the character actor.

Yes, yeah.

- Right.

- So I didn't expect the TV thing at all.

- So you just kind of fell into that because they were shooting all these shows in Chicago at that time?

- Yes.

- Like Chicago Hope and Chicago Fire or whatever.

- Yes.

- So you're incredibly talented, but also I'm sure a big part of it was just good luck.

- It was.

I mean, and I understand that word luck being like, also luck has to, you know, intersect with being ready and having some skill.

So like that's, you know, luck is not, yes, I got lucky, but I was also ready for the opportunity because I had been, I mean, I don't have many great qualities, but one of them is that I just, I love this so much that I practice and I worked hard and I showed up on time and I was prepared and I had ideas and questions, and I've done that 'cause it's the thing that I like to do.

It's like it's my cello, you know?

- I would disagree that you don't have many good qualities, but I will take you at your word for now.

So you got started in Chicago and you decided to go to Los Angeles?

- Yeah.

So, I mean, Chicago was a place where I got my first TV gig.

I'm mostly convinced that it was because intern at a casting office had seen me in a play, liked that performance in that play, then brought me in for an audition where I didn't have any representation at the time.

This was I was just going in alone, and in Chicago you could do that.

You could walk into a room without having a rep. - Yeah.

- And they cast me and I convinced that they cast me because I seemed like a normal kind down to earth person that they could send to set to deliver maybe one line, that I wouldn't get in anybody's way, you know?

And I did, and I shot the Chicago Code and it was one line.

And I opened the door for Jennifer Beals over and over again, and didn't get in anybody's way and didn't move any furniture around, because that's some, you know, crew guy's job.

And you can get into a lot of trouble for that.

And kind of only spoke when spoken to, I think, and did my job.

It wasn't about me.

I was an actor in this scene.

And so much of that I learned in theater.

- Right.

- Which is like, you come out and you deliver this thing.

- You do this and then let everybody else do their thing.

- Yes.

Right.

- So from there, you went to Los Angeles and you got on some bigger shows like The Righteous Gemstones and Kevin Can F Himself and The Real O'Neals, and lots of other guest starring things.

So you've just had, I've heard you say that you've had a very fortunate career.

- Yes.

Yes.

- And I think you have.

- Yes.

- And you alluded earlier to the fact that you've been able to make a living doing this now.

- Yes.

Yes.

- And even though you're a wonderful actress and people might recognize you, you're not like somebody whose name they might, if we didn't know you, we might not know your name.

We might be, oh, that woman who's on, you know, Righteous Gemstones.

So how does that compare to working with people like, oh, I don't know, John Goodman or something like that.

- Oh, yeah, right.

Yes.

- Do you find that you're treated differently on set?

Do you find that it's... - The majority of sets I've been on, Good Fortune comes to mind, is that I've always been treated really, really well on those sets whether I had a really small part or I was, you know, number two on the call sheet, which would be a starring role.

My experience though as a working actor can, I have always understood the difference between like what I wanted to accomplish, and what I wanted to accomplish was to make a living being an actor.

It was never, you know what, with the rise of Instagram and social media, I'm now going to be an influencer, you know, or I wanna be a celebrity like, you know, so many reality stars.

I freeze, honestly.

- Not interested.

- When a camera comes on and they're like, "Talk about your day."

I'm just like, I don't.. [both laughing] - I got enough.

- No, no.

My skill is, give me a script, let me empathize, let me get to the bottom of why this person is acting this way.

Let me try to make it funny in more occasions than one.

I've just always known that acting was the thing.

And so I understand that when you're a working actor, the job is auditioning.

It is not actually booking the show.

That is just like icing on the cake.

- You gotta get cast before anything.

- I am still somebody who doesn't get recognized.

But certainly when I'm walking around, people think that we went to college together.

There's like a familiarity that's like, "Hey, wait a minute."

And so much of that right now is coming from Righteous Gemstones 'cause it's such a popular show.

- Right, right, right, right.

So let me ask you this hypothetically.

Say there was no financial consideration.

- Yeah.

- You can make a living doing theater as just as well as you do doing TV.

Would you, if you had to pick one or the other, would you pick theater?

Would you pick TV?

Maybe I'm putting you on the spot and that's not fair.

- Gosh, no.

I think it's a great question.

I just, I haven't thought about it in any real way recently.

Probably because I'm fortunate to have recently had a theater experience that was so exciting that's making me lean like back into, hey, why did I ever give up on that New York thing?

You know?

But then also I've had such a good time morphing into a TV actor, which does it does provide a different sort of technical expertise than, you know, my theater training.

- And I think it requires, they share skills, but it requires different skills too.

- Yes.

Yeah.

- Of course.

- So I have learned, I mean, I just really enjoy both of them.

I love the beating heart of a live performance.

I love that it's not really a play if you didn't perform it in some front of somebody, you know?

- That's right.

- Did it really happen?

It takes all of us in that room, you know?

It takes your reaction as an audience member.

I loved having that reminder.

- And getting that.

Yeah.

Because we had some really good reactions to that show.

- Yes.

- Laughter and gasps.

- Yes.

And in a time when I kind of needed to be built up a little bit, it was so nice to have like a room full of people when they were enjoying our show, reminding me and Megan and you that it was working.

And on a TV show, it can feel sort of isolating.

- Because people can't react until the sound and cameras are cut.

- And they call it don't tickle the bear, you know?

- Yeah.

Oh, is that.

- Don't tickle the bear.

Also, I think any sort of reaction, just from the technical aspect, you don't want sound to be interfered with- - Exactly.

- You know, distracting the actors.

But also because technically, while it's still performing on camera, the camera is so smart and can see what you're thinking.

So something I had to learn as a theater actor to a TV actor is something we've heard before, which is like you've gotta bring all of that in and focus all of that energy into just the thoughts in your head.

And if you don't have them, the camera can see that.

- Because you said when you first started auditioning in Los Angeles, people would instantly say, "Oh, you're from the theater."

Because they could you were too theatrical.

- No, I mean, those hairdos, after I got done with a casting session, we're just completely blown back.

But I, you know, I learned that way.

I learned that, you know, you have to perform for everybody in that room.

You have to make sure that the last row and whatever type of theater you're in can hear you, see you understand with, you know, sometimes some lack of being able to actually see your face well so you're using your whole body.

And then when you're not doing that, you know, when I get in front of a camera and I can't move from where that box is- - Right, you have to stay right there.

- All of a sudden you're going, okay, this is not about the movement or the performance.

This is about all the thoughts in my head and making them truly as subtle as possible has been something that I'm still working at, you know?

And some of the projects too that I keep getting called to do in comedy, big broad.

- A little more, yeah.

- Comedy are like, "Hey, could you bring some of that back out?"

You know that, "Would you fall on this potato salad?"

And I'm like, this feels like theater.

Take me back.

- Yeah.

- So, I don't know.

- Okay.

There also, as I get older, two different levels of stamina and energy.

One, we've just come off this run and it was, you know, it's a 90 minute show.

And some other actors might go, "Easy, easy peasy."

Well, I've aged 10 years since the last live performance I did.

We took 'em on a ride.

- Plus it was very emotional and very intense and so it takes a lot.

- Yes, I came off stage and I wanted a cheeseburger and I wanted a bed.

And you know, I think when you get on set, you're doing a whole bunch of like managing your stamina and preserving your energy in a way that's like, we might be doing three pages of dialogue on camera, but I have to be ready to go like cry right now, cut, go back and wait in your chair for an hour and a half.

- Oh my gosh, yeah.

- And trying to keep that like, you know, trying to keep sort of engaged but not burn yourself out by the end of the day.

It's just interesting.

- So I guess the answer to my question would be, you'd like to be able to do both of them.

- Do both, yes.

Just whenever you can.

- Yes.

The lofty Broadway dreams are, and while there's, you know, definitely room for everybody, I think that Broadway, in order to survive, or even off Broadway now, in order to survive, is having to take in some familiar faces.

So perhaps the more familiar my face gets on TV, maybe an invite will come.

- Maybe we'll get an invite and you'll be on Broadway someday.

I hope so.

If you do, I just ask for a couple of comps for opening-- - Yes.

[laughs] - Can I get that?

- You got them.

- Well, listen, Mary Hollis, this has just been delightful to sit here and talk with you.

And it was very delightful to get to work with you on stage.

- Thank you.

I feel the same.

- 'Cause we just sort of knew each other and now I feel like we're friends for life, so.

- That's right.

I'm a big fan of yours, Tony Isbell.

- Well, I'm a big fan of yours, Mary Hollis Inboden.

- You got another I-name just like me.

We would've sat next together in school.

- That's right, we would have, except I'm old enough to be your daddy so.

Other than that, we would've sat right next to each other.

- I'm a fan for life, Tony.

- Okay, me too.

Thank you Mary Hollis.

- Thank you.

[bright jazzy music] [acoustic guitar chords]