Myrna Velasco - Green Lantern Jessica Cruz on DC Super Hero Girls!

Myrna Velasco Interivew Part 1

 

Casey: All right, everybody. Welcome again, to another episode of spoiler country today on the show we have mirin of Alaska mierda has been on so many television programs and movies. You’ve seen her on star Wars resistance playing Torra. Doza you have seen her playing green lantern on DC superhero girls, which my five-year-old really [00:01:00] enjoys.

You have seen her on. Sydney to the max. You’ve seen her on Elena of Avalor. You have seen her. In a enough room, which is a short list. She just did recently. Mina, how are you doing

Myrna Velasco: Casey? Thank you. How are you?

Casey: I’m doing better after that terrible intro. It can only go up from here when you start from the bottom.

When you start from the bottom things, start looking up just by default,

Myrna Velasco: dig a little deeper.

Casey: Oh, don’t tell me that.

Myrna Velasco: It’s all good. It’s all good. Yeah, I I am an actress. That’s a little bit all over the place, but you have definitely heard me in DC superhero girls as green lantern and star Wars resistance is toward those.

So those are my.

Casey: Yeah. And you’ve been in so many fun roles. You’ve, you’ve been on desperate Housewives in an episode. You’ve you’ve done all these [00:02:00] little, just fun things. You, you were in descendants, which my 10 year old loves. So

Myrna Velasco: yeah, that’s, I mean, that’s kind of the really fun experience of being an actor is like, we create these little pieces of work, a little pieces of entertainment or art, and we don’t know where they’re going to end up and.

Years later. Yeah. It’s like, Oh, I remember that. I did re descendants that’s that’s still cool. Oh, cool.

Casey: Oh my gosh. Yeah. So my, my 10 year old would sing those songs with her cousins, like nonstop, which is cute for a little while. And then Ad nauseum is like, Oh, wow. Let’s find, let’s find another song for you to sing, sweetie.

Myrna Velasco: The, the power of the child’s brain to be able to just like, keep loving that same. Song that [00:03:00] toy, that same chicken nugget to like, it’s just to be that like passionately in love with the song. Yeah. Yeah. And as the adult you’re like, wait, I can’t I feel that, yeah. Yeah. Kids are great though.

Casey: How did you get into

Myrna Velasco: acting?

Well, I grew up in Los Angeles. So I was always just kind of a weirdo traveling to and from the city. And it soon became this thing that I love doing theater. And you know, we were so close to LA that it seemed like the limelight was something I wanted to be a part of and like, You know, maybe I just watched a lot of singing in the rain too much as a kid.

And in my head, I was like, well, I live right there, so I should just try it. So yeah, right, right after high school and a little bit of college, I was like, you know what, I’m going to go be an actor now. And I just started auditioning and I I’m glad that I did at the time, because. You’re just so brave when [00:04:00] you’re a kid and I, yeah, it took a long time and it took a lot of like maybe singing in the rain, stumbling and slapstick comedy of me just running around Los Angeles.

But I, yeah, I found my place with With animation and and, and doing children’s programming is like one of my favorite things to do, because we got to give it forward. And along the way of just finding what kind of actor I wanted to be I got these really awesome live action. In the via world, we call them live action.

But in, in the on-camera world, they call it on-camera. So yeah, so I got to do a couple of really cool on camera stuff that was like, it’s like totally different from my children’s animation. Like one of the films that I did confessions of a gangster is like a really like adult only movie and not. Not too much.

So, but like there’s a lot of violence in that. Yeah. Yeah. And then the, the, the piece that I had just finished yeah. Working on now enough [00:05:00] room was just this really great, like grownup conversation about, you know, what is racism even, and, and saying that out loud and being able to tell someone, like, I don’t think you’re a bad person because you have biases, but I do think we all need to think about that more.

It’s like totally different. Totally, totally different than being like on Elena of Avalor and singing with Lou diamond Phillips. Yeah, exactly. Which is also a great show. It’s an Emmy nominated show doing it.

Casey: Oh yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s great. But, and that’s one thing that Just by virtue of your versatility as an actor and your ability to kind of exist in both worlds for, for a lot of the people in the VO world is one or the other.

It seems, it seems like I could very well be talking out of my room. I’m keeping it PG by the way. God forbid you wanna like drop off. The bomb or something by all means. Oh yeah. [00:06:00] Yeah.

Myrna Velasco: Oh, cool. Yeah, what’s really funny. Is that a podcast that I had been on recently? It was with the, the host was a ten-year-old girl, so

yeah. But if I can just like, yeah, be my weirdo self, I would, I will be more than happy to do.

Casey: Yeah, no, no filters. It doesn’t matter. I mean, it’s not required, but I mean, if God forbid you slip or whatever,

 

Awful and it’s like, Yeah,

Myrna Velasco: it’s all good. We’re all, we’re all garbage people. We’re all a garbage species.

It’s just a matter of how much we recognize how garbage we really are. Oh yeah.

Casey: Oh yeah. Yeah. But on the, on the brighter side of things, on the brighter side of things, Just by virtue of your ability to exist in both worlds enacting You have been able [00:07:00] to be, you know, to represent and be that person, that little girls look and see go, Oh my goodness.

She looks like me and she’s doing this. This is, you know, so that’s so important. Representation is so important and it’s amazing. And first I’m sure for some girls, you were their first superhero or the person that is. Making them go, Oh my gosh, I want to buy those comic books. Oh my gosh. I want a t-shirt with her face on it or whatever.

So and that is, is cool in and of itself. Yeah.

Myrna Velasco: It’s, it’s a very heavy burden to bear. So but yeah, no, I mean, I, yeah, I didn’t know. You can tell I’m from LA. Uh I’ve I’ve I love saying that like Torra Doza and Jessica Cruz are my superheroes too. Like. I never dreamed that I would have the responsibility [00:08:00] and the utmost pleasure to carry the words that are spoken by any superhero, but through the voice of a Latina, through the voice of a first-generation immigrant child and like, Yeah.

It’s and yeah, just being a little quirky and a little weird and knowing that these characters are written so that girls can see themselves in three dimension and that it’s not just like, got to wait for a superhero wide

Casey: as a father of two girls. Thank you.

Myrna Velasco: Oh, yes. Gosh, my pleasure. Yeah.

Casey: Yeah, it, it gets old.

And I don’t know. It seemed like frozen was such a bad kind of a bad example in a way.

Myrna Velasco: Oh, it’s an interesting example. It is a weird, yeah. Tell me why, tell me why you think it’s a bad example and

Casey: then I’ll tell [00:09:00] you that. And like a lot of the The way that the action happened, kinda was contingent on some of the male people to actually participate.

Myrna Velasco: So

Casey: yeah. Yeah. Whereas in Rapunzel, Rapunzel kicks ass. She saves the day. So but yeah, yeah,

Myrna Velasco: yeah, no, I think that’s interesting because like, I, I do, I’m trying to think back between one and two of frozen,

Casey: I thought two was a little better on,

Myrna Velasco: yeah.

A two was a little bit better on like, making it more about making it clear that this is a girl’s story. This is a sister story. You’re my personal favorite song. Your love cannot be fragile. If you’re going to try to like uplift me and try to help me love my sister more and help me love my family more.

That’s that’s what we’re here for, for each other. And I wonder often just because like my brain now does go into, like, what was the whole process of [00:10:00] creating this piece of animation that like there’s so many levels there’s like, you know, there there’s yes. The voice acting involved, but there’s also the directing of the animation.

There’s the conceptualizing of the end. Yeah. There’s the people that put together the world, the background, and it’s like, Oh, and not to forget the writers and the sound effects. I was like, there’s so much involved that I often think about like with frozen, was it. Was it during a process where people were like, yes, it’s a girl story, but are people going to get mad if we just tell a girl story?

So should we also throw in all of the snowflakes and throw in a boyfriend and should we throw in a sled blowing up? Because what if it’s not good enough? Just being a girl’s story, which like as a dad, how do you feel about that

Casey: as a dad? Fully aware, like not everything is going to be for me. And I’m totally cool with that.

[00:11:00] I love that. I want for my girls to have movies that they relate to maybe, you know, and I’ll gladly take them to see them. I I think it is important now, especially for, just for like white dudes to know like, Hey man, not everything’s for you is cool. Chill, chill out. Stop being an asshole.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah, I agree.

Well, here’s the thing, here’s the thing. I first I want to ask a followup question. Are you a white dude?

Casey: I’m an ugly white dude from the South. Yes. Ma’am.

Myrna Velasco: How do you know you’re ugly?

Casey: I mean, I have a hot wife, however yeah, I have a mirror on, I know things are great.

Myrna Velasco: Here’s the thing, here’s the thing people need to be able to be okay.

Especially men. Okay. Here’s the thing that I want to say to your gender. Shit.

Casey: Drop some truth. I’m ready for it. Let’s hear [00:12:00] this.

Myrna Velasco: Think about this as Jessica Cruz telling you this, not because I am mad at you or I hate you, but because I see such good in you, I want you to do better. And I think that you are, are such beautiful people, especially Southern people because like, Oh my gosh, you guys, you called me, man.

That’s lovely. Thank you. But, okay, so first of all, you guys have to be more okay with finding beauty in yourself. Like in your physical body, in your emotional body, in your, in your life, you gotta be able to say like, yes, I am a beautiful dad and that’s good. Not like I’m beautiful and that’s scary. Or that’s like inappropriate because beautiful is gendered.

So think about that white dudes

Casey: that is totally valid thing. I’m actually reading. An autobiography or excuse me, an, a biography of Oscar Wilde, because I’m, I’m writing [00:13:00] a thing about Oscar Wilde right now, and I’m kind of trying to get as try to soak up as much as I can.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. And he’s so fascinating as a character himself.

Wow.

Casey: He’s a total CAD, but he really fascinating

Myrna Velasco: because he wasn’t afraid to show his feminine. And especially in a time where he, he went to prison and I don’t want to spoil anything for anybody, but we’re kind of on the show, right? Like he died. Yay. And, and that’s crazy. Like that’s why. Yeah, so, so there’s that get in touch with your femininity and I’m so glad that you are with Oscar Wilde.

Casey: Well, have you ever read about him going out West?

Myrna Velasco: Only briefly. Yeah. Yeah. Tell me about it.

Casey: It fascinates me because he would go around to like the, the mining camps and talk about [00:14:00] asceticism and why beauty is important. And it just fascinates me that there were a, you know, a group of Haggard. Gold miners gathered around this very fancy looking dude who was then telling them, you know, art roses, beautiful,

Myrna Velasco: or they maybe want to put a Rose.

Casey: Have you guys thought about bathing? There’s water out here. You can do

Myrna Velasco: that. We’ll do a day.

Casey: It, it fascinates me.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. Yeah.

Casey: Yeah. So some stuff like that is a fun, endlessly. Interesting. What, what. What right now are, you’ve had a lot of time I’m sure. To reflect and kind of read or watch TV. What have you been getting into?

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. Oh, great question. Due to COVID. Yeah. Yeah. It’s strictly due to COVID.

So this is actually, maybe my [00:15:00] second month where I’m like, Oh, I can indulge in a hobby. Yeah. Yeah. So the, the, the first few months of COVID were really intense for me because I work and live in LA. And what that typically meant is that we would go to professional sound, studios and record, or you know, go onto the Hollywood lots and film there, or, you know, it just, it, it’s a very mobile life where jumping in the car and driving it all weird hours of the day.

And then. COVID happened. And there was this like brief moment of our wheel dead. Are we dead right now? Did I die already? Do I have COVID? And then after about a week of that voiceover basically said, we’re not closing. You have to keep working dancing cartoon monkey.

Casey: Hey, Hey, you’re getting paid notes.

So that’s

Myrna Velasco: exactly, which is why I was like,

[00:16:00] Casey: you sound like you’re on a, kind of a nice setup right now. Is that where you record for your.

Myrna Velasco: Yes. Yes. I yeah. Yeah. I went through a lot of renditions and I’m still like, nah, I got to get a new monitor. Now I got to plug in hardcore. I, and I don’t really even know what that means because I studied theater and I, you know, worked at acting and learning how to cry and stuff.

So it was like, Oh,

Casey: You’re going to be such a tech geek.

Myrna Velasco: I hope so. Is my answer to that. Yeah. Yeah. It, it, it had been a lot of trial and error and I was like on a Mac air, like that was like, Eight years old that I used mostly as like a TV. So yeah, it was a tough couple of months of just getting all of my equipment, getting my preamps, getting my microphone, [00:17:00] and then ultimately like soundproofing a closet, then soundproofing a hallway, then soundproofing myself.

And like finally, I’m going to, yeah, I’m in a good sitch now I’m in a good situation. Yeah. Yeah. We’ve got a little local booth to go up in here.

Casey: I can hear the fidelity. It sounds coming out clear. I’m hiding upstairs while my kids and wife are downstairs.

Myrna Velasco: I mean, I, yeah. I still live in an apartment building.

So there’s always like a girl doing dance Pilates upstairs. Yeah. Yeah. Construction across the street. And I’m like, I just missed the sound studios. So yeah, we all pray to the VO gods that someday soon we can, we can go back and work in the professional studios because you really, you know, you just.

You sit down and they give you a nice tea, nice hot tea. And they, they, they almost even like turn the page for you if, if you really asked for it. And then you just get to say, your [00:18:00] words

Casey: you done got spoke is I would say

when you’re you get spoiled,

Myrna Velasco: Very much. Yes, you’re absolutely right. I was very spoiled.

Casey: Yeah. Say it Southern ma’am.

Myrna Velasco: Yes.

Casey: Yes. So what conversely, like while you’re recording, And you have to get loud, you have to get emotional, you have to scream. What do you do? Do you, do you warn people ahead of time? Like, Hey, it’s going to sound like I’m getting murdered, but it’s okay because it’s in star Wars.

It’s okay. Don’t worry.

Myrna Velasco: Now, now what’s really kind of, so, so this is like a two-parter answer. What’s kind of fascinating is that the booth that I’m in right now, which looks almost essentially like a 1960s phone booth. So if

Casey: you’re a nerd like proof.

[00:19:00] Myrna Velasco: It is, and it is the tartest. Yeah. So I’m in a Tardis.

So like they can’t hear me. It’s fine. I just closed the door. It just gets really warm in here. And I’m like, I’m screaming and like messing with my levels. I do. I do feel like I am time traveling in here. It’s pretty awesome. So, so there’s like the, I don’t worry about what my neighbors think because they can’t hear me.

I’m playing pretend. Whatever. But there’s also the cultural experience of in LA, especially now with COVID like, we’ve all been shut in. So. Even if we meet each other in the hallways, it’s kind of like, we’re, we’re like a good 18 feet away in, in this like indoor hallway. It can feel a little spooky, especially now in October with like scary movies and everything.

And it’s just like, you don’t want to get too close, but if you try to cross each other’s paths, you might give each other the COVID. [00:20:00] So we don’t go outside is what I’m trying to tell you.

Casey: I’m glad that it is harrowing is that sounds kind of like kind of a bummer, maybe just having shut yourself inside and all that.

As much as that seems, it seems infinitely safer than. The situation here in Birmingham, Alabama, where I’m at? , my kids are doing so nobody hardly anyone is wearing masks? Yes. Oh yeah. Yeah. My, my daughters both take dance and they. I saw like they, they spread everyone out, like a good six feet.

Everyone wears masks in the studios. However, the parents that carry their kids out are not wearing masks. And I’m like, it’s still the, the very least you could do.

Myrna Velasco: So I’ll wait

Casey: until

Myrna Velasco: yeah, no, that’s smart. That’s [00:21:00] smart.

Casey: It’s ridiculous. But yeah, like I. It’s the one thing they do where it’s social. Cause everything else is we’re, we’re keeping them on remote school rather than having them going into school.

But it’s like the one social thing they do.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. And they need it. And it’s really, it’s really tough on kids right now and yeah. Which is, you know, why we were like, we can’t stop because kids need things that they can connect with and they need each other, like to grow and understand. And how to develop friendships and stuff.

Like we, we take that for granted as adults and. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just such a bummer that, yeah. I mean, even here, there are plenty of people not wearing masks either. And it’s like guys, 3000 of us got this sickness this already, you know, like, can we can we not? But yeah, it’s, it’s also like you just we, if we think about them more and I think if we really thought about like, [00:22:00] maybe you’re right, maybe you don’t have it, but.

What if, you know, I just, I think of germs is like this boogeyman. Like what if it’s on your shoes? What if it’s on your coat? Oh yeah. Yeah. You just don’t know. You just don’t know. And because of it, if you can put something on that makes us all a little bit safer, make us feel a little bit safer than maybe why not, you know, and.

Okay.

Casey: I work in the medical field. So when I get home, especially at the, at the start of all this, my wife would make me go like walk around the house onto the deck.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. I spray down, like

Casey: I had a bin outside where I could deposit my clothes. So now, now like, Just spray the shoes when I come in and all that.

So we’re not too weird about stuff now,

Myrna Velasco: but [00:23:00] your guys’ cases have gotten down though. Haven’t they?

Casey: We have, because our state is the only state we’re surrounded by States that have already lifted all their mask orders. We did. We went on a camping trip, actually, Tennessee still has, well, they just lifted it.

But we went on a camping trip in, in Tennessee a few weeks ago. They still had their mass quarter, which was great. But we had to kind of cross over into Georgia. Nobody was wearing masks and We haven’t let our kids go into stores or anything like that. And so anytime we had to do something, it was like, you stay in the car with kids, I’ll go in and get it.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. Zombie apocalypse. Yeah. Never know who’s going to have it. And yeah. And then they’re like, smashing your car window while you run out of the gas station.

[00:24:00] Casey: Can you tell me a little bit about your education in I did you do theater? What type of

Myrna Velasco: Oh, thanks for asking. So it is a really funny story and it could go two ways. So, so the audience is going to receive it one of two ways, but I’ll tell you the story anyway, and we’ll see where they land. So I, yeah, I grew up in.

Santa Clarita, which is a suburb right outside of Los Angeles. And we were really extracurricular kind of suburban area of, so football’s big. Cheerleading’s huge. And so were the arts now? Us arts kids were just a little bit odd or a little weirder. At the time I was the only Mexican American in the neighborhood, like a, like a fooled bread, first generation immigrant, Mexican American.

That yeah, so, [00:25:00] so I spoke Spanish and English at home, and that made me odd in a sense at school,

Casey: were you an ESL kid when you first started?

Myrna Velasco: I was not, but my big sister was so, yeah. Yeah. And we were born here, but it’s it, you know, we grew up from parents that were speaking Spanish. So it is kind of, ESL is kind of a really interesting.

Thing about the United States and, and our education system, as it stands as it was back then, as it were then I will say so. So yeah, we, we became very affected and, and you know, kind of like weirdo kids. And we watched a lot of cartoons that maybe just weren’t appropriate for our age at the time.

Because my parents were like, I don’t know, they’re learning English with that cartoon thing. So why not? So yeah, we grew up, I grew up on like Ren and Stimpy at like five years old. And so I was [00:26:00] always kind of crazy because of that. It’s so that seems like the art seemed like, well, that’s where we’ll funnel our children’s.

Weirdness. So my sister got really into painting and I got really into theater by way of like, I just loved spinning around in circles and I too wanted to just be a dancer. So it started that way. And then I was like, wait, there’s this thing called musical theater where you can sing. And, but like, yes.

So did that. And then yeah, we, I was very fortunate to, to have gone to a really great Just a regular public school, but it was a really great public school in that it hired the teachers that genuinely wanted to teach their subject, you know, and, and they wanted to cultivate children that understood that subject as well as they could.

So I found a couple of theater teachers in high [00:27:00] school and I was like, I’m crazy enough that I could. Take my dad’s truck and I could drive down to Hollywood so far. I’m crazy like that. What do you think I should do with this center? Yeah. And they were like, you should be in play as kid. You’re very weird.

So I did a lot of children’s theater, which almost kind of directly correlates with the animation world. It’s, that’s just mask work. You’re just very big and excited and it really funneled me into like, Actually doing homework because I couldn’t be in the place if I didn’t do homework. And yeah.

And after that because in part first-generation Mexican kid, maybe not because, but my dad was a gardener, so we were also kind of a little bit poor little polo folk as well. And I couldn’t. Go to a four year university for theater. That seemed crazy and no one would pay for that. So instead I just went to community college cause I was like, I’m [00:28:00] still wanting to just do the LA thing.

And I know it like makes us more artistic as theater students to go to New York and be on Broadway because I didn’t want to do musical theater. But then I started getting into film and I started getting into Animation through my sister and my brother who are artists. And I was like, you know, I just, I’m just going to stay here.

And I saw all of my friends get on planes and go to New York. And I was like, miss you guys. Goodbye. And then after that, I just, I asked. One actor, an actor friend, like, Hey, what does one do to be a Hollywood actor? And she was like, well, you gotta take a class and get an agent. And that was, you know, I was like 19 years old and that was like my only.

Instruction. And I was like, well, better make it work well. Yeah. Yeah. I was very fortunate enough that like, again, I lived so close to LA and my parents were like, we don’t really like you living [00:29:00] here, but I guess if you are working towards something, you can stay. So yeah. Yeah. It was a lot of the really interesting.

Trial and error and like finding the community of actors that I wanted to be a part of. And then in part, finding community of directors and agents, agents are a thing even now in COVID world. Yeah. Yeah. And just trying to navigate the business, which is really complicated. And it’s like a, it’s like a labyrinth chore.

Casey: So that, that kind of brings me to another question I have. As you know, business is still going, even though COVID is still, still, still a region, thanks to terrible, terrible policies by our elected leaders. Hopefully, yeah, that changes soon.

Yeah.

Myrna Velasco: Let’s keep talking.

[00:30:00] Casey: How do you, how do you navigate like funding more work now? Did they have auditions of resume or doing auditions? Is that even happening?

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. Oh yeah. The auditions never left, baby. They, yeah. Yeah. On camera auditions are. Are through zoom most of the time they’ll have you do, what’s called a self-tape.

So you’ll like call your friend on zoom or on the phone and be like, Hey, I need you to act with me like right now. And they’ll be like, okay, cool. Yeah. Just text me your, your script and I’ll say some words. At you. And you’re like, okay, great. I’m pressing play on my phone. And I did all the makeup thing.

And you were like out of breath, at least I feel like I am at the time I do that audition. And yeah. And then you like send it in and you have to know how to use your email account, which is frustrating because we used to just jump in the car and drive. And it used to be easy and we were split, as you say.

[00:31:00] And yeah, so it’s, it’s a lot of tech work now. I, I think I was prepared for voiceover because as even before COVID we were already transitioning away from doing. Auditions on location. It just for a voiceover experience, it just doesn’t cost as much to tell someone to like, yeah, record your voice in your phone and send it over.

So I was already kind of, yeah. Building my, my setup for a recording studio, but not necessarily understanding that that’s what I was doing and not necessarily understanding that in my brain. That’s what I needed to do as well. So. Yeah, we were always recording from home for auditions. Wow. That’s a lot of force.

We were always recording home auditions for voiceover there. Use that one, use both. It’s okay. Yeah. Anyway, so [00:32:00] yeah, so it’s, it’s, it’s a little bit different now in, in the way that like you, you’re not going outside today, like you, yeah. I had to buy lights. So I had to buy a, you know, a tripod for my iPhone, that ring light.

I need that now, you know, and it sits a lot of scrounging and a lot of hoping for work so that you can pay off the stuff as well.

Casey: My wife is a kindergarten teacher and she is teaching remotely. She, she ha she’s teaching both kindergarten and first grade because they combined the rest of the students who decided to go remote rather than go into the school.

So she has about like almost 30 kids,

Myrna Velasco: but

Casey: she recently. Bought a ring light. And she’s been kind of like putting lipstick on so that they can see her mouth when she moves, when she enunciates, this is the letter B, this is the [00:33:00] way your lips move and just little things like that. That makes it big difference.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. We’re all going to be actors by the end of this. But it’s, it’s really exciting as well, because like, I love having zoom chats with my girlfriends, one of my best friends. Like she doesn’t live very far from me and theoretically we could pod up, but yeah, it’s just still kind of like, yeah, it’s okay.

If we don’t have to leave our house, like it’s. So we, I really love zoom chatting with there because then it like, lets me open up my, my zoom window really wide. And I can like look at her face and be like, all right. I am like listening and looking and experiencing this conversation with you in a way that I might not have.

If we were just. Sitting at a ho at a restaurant. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it’s really interesting. Like it’s, it’s, it is double-sided in that, like this sucks and I can’t, I feel so bad for you. I kind of imagine that your wife has to [00:34:00] go through that when it’s like, she didn’t go to school to look at 30 kids on an iPad and be like, ah, wait, Johnny, what are you doing over there?

And like, you got to scroll two pages down. Cause you got. 30 kids on your screen. Like we need to get her one of those really big, I don’t know, like Batman screens where they’re like, or something like that. That’s what teachers need to have right now. What are we doing? Gosh.

Casey: And she she’s heard so much stuff.

Like, you know, Hey, I don’t really feel like doing this today. Can I go outside Ms. Allen?  Just random stuff, so, and she’s like, yeah, I feel you, baby.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you guys are down to earth. That’s so great. That’s great.

Casey: What do you do to. Give yourself a break, especially you have to be so high energy, sometimes doing voice acting because, because you’re projecting the story with your [00:35:00] voice, you can’t rely on your physical attributes.

You can’t rely on, you know, moving your arms around or whatever you have to it’s all in your voice. When your voice starts going, what do you do? Do you have any secrets? Do you have any tips?

Myrna Velasco: Oh w when I’m working it, it’s, it’s funny that you say that, because I think there is this interesting perception that You know where some of us, yeah.

It’s not, some of us are sitting down then and we’re all very like tranquil and it’s this experience, but it’s just watching them. But it is a full body experience for me and that like, I’m, you know, I’m standing right now and I don’t, I don’t intend to never not stand in this booth, like sitting down, it’ll be an easy day, but Yeah, for me, like it is, it is acting with my whole body.

It’s moving my hands. It’s it’s experiencing the story entirely through my body and in turn my voice interacts [00:36:00] with the story as well. And yeah, the training that I did get was this like weird artistic black box training, where we literally were like playing pretend. And my teacher was like, All right.

Walk up the staircase. And I was like, we’re literally, there’s no staircase here, lady. What? Like you just, you have to make that up

Casey: a staircase.

Myrna Velasco: Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is, you know exactly what you, you were. We’re playing pretend we’re essentially being kids for pretend and you have to just believe it for yourself.

So yeah, I walk out of this booth and it’s fucking hot in here. I mean, I gotta like turn on that fan, take a shower. And it’s like, yeah, it does kind of feel like the end of a basketball game almost or something where I’m just like, hi, Fiving myself, like, yeah, I did it.

Casey: And I’m sure like you can’t have the AC on while you’re

Myrna Velasco: yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no.

I [00:37:00] got in trouble when I had actually, Oh shoot. My fan is on right now, but maybe

Casey: fun is fun. No worries. I have my AC on because we live in Alabama and it’s still like,

Myrna Velasco: yeah. It’s steamy. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s like yeah, I’ve gotten in trouble with With fans on and stuff. And I’m like, it just, I’m sorry.

It’s really, it’s warm in here. And that’s of the only downside of a booth at home. Is that yeah, like we, we could, I could try to run AC in here, but you can’t have it on all the time. And it had had a professional studio they’ve. You know, treated every single wall, every floor panel they’ve treated even the air conditioning unit.

So it can go on it’s it’s fine. Yeah. Yeah. But at home. Yeah, I, yeah, I give myself a high five and I, I do a lot of yoga at home, which is like very. Very LA I guess

Casey: I would actually like to ask you about that because you, you have like a few videos about [00:38:00] yoga.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. Yeah. They’re, they’re all on like Facebook or something.

Casey: What have you carried over from yoga that you, that you’ve applied in your acting?

Myrna Velasco: Ah, thank you for asking. I, I think it has really let me connect with my body in a way that. The industry, the Hollywood industry can really take it out of a working actor and like by, by working actor, I mean, like those of us that are on TV shows a couple episodes at a time.

And those of us that are working voiceover and commercials and short films, like there’s a lot of different type of acting here in LA and. It can be really hard to navigate the industry of it. So, and again, like we’re driving all day and so like, I’m like, my body is a car seat. So, so just having like this slow, almost escape for me, [00:39:00] it took me a long time to recognize that like, I may need a nap right now and.

Yoga was this great incentive of like, I’ll pay a $20 lady. If you let me lay down on your floor and take a nap it’s good for my mental health. So I do that. And yeah, it’s slowly evolved into this really exciting, like, cause you, you know, you learn how to like do a handstand and you learn how to like, do like a 45 minute plank or something and yoga too.

So it’s, it’s kind of, it can be really addictive in the extreme way you. Experience your body again. And that like, yeah, like we’re inside of this vessel, that is a body. And sometimes when, especially when we’re zoom-in and working, I, yeah, I feel like I’m just like this tiny little alien thing and my brain is swollen and hurting all the time.

So. Yoga kind of lets me connect with the rest of, of me. Even though yeah. [00:40:00] And lets my brain take a break if you

Casey: will. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I mean you’re, you’re hustling. You’re constantly.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Casey: I yeah, stuff like that really, really fascinates me and I don’t know. I always thought it was kinda cool.

Myrna Velasco: What do you think school about yoga

Casey: being able to kind of almost separate your body from your mind?

Myrna Velasco: Because you’re, you’re,

Casey: you’re kind of, you’re putting yourself into a different space.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s both it’s it’s it’s also like redirecting your mind to no longer think about your thoughts, but to think about just like your physical.

Body and that you’re actually taking up space here on planet earth. And like, what do your feet feel like? Can it just be as simple as that, to ask yourself a question to take a break from, from all of the society?

Casey: Oh yeah. Yeah. And you’re kind of, [00:41:00] you’re, you’re forcibly breaking yourself from Twitter and.

All the other BS that, that comes across your plate.

Myrna Velasco: So yeah.

Casey: Yeah, I can, I can totally see how how that, the appeal in that

Myrna Velasco: for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And what’s really cool about it right now. Is that like, for people who’ve never practiced before. What safer space than your own home. And yeah, it might need to require like you push the couch out of the way for this class.

And you’re like, I don’t want to take the class for Myrna. I’ll take the class. And then yeah, you just lay down on your ground and you do weird stretches. Like that’s how I learned how to do yoga. I was 15 and. I couldn’t go to school. I had like a really bad kidney infection because when I was 15, I just drank mountain Dew, I guess.

And so so I was home for like two weeks. And by that second week, I was just like lying [00:42:00] there and just. I couldn’t sleep because I was just watching TV and I, you know, wasn’t really doing homework at all because I was sick. And then like this hilarious TV show came on where it was this guy He was an older man who was like, now I’m going to teach you yoga.

And I was like, what? And it was like on the beach. And there were like, it was like a really slow workout class from the early two thousands, the late nineties where like, everyone was very attractive and you’re like, well, I guess I’ll watch this for a minute. Why not? And, and Yeah. And then they were, yeah, they were doing yoga and it was like nice and slow.

And it was just really like ambient music by day three. I finally was like, all right, I’m going to do this. I’m going to, I’m going to do some yoga. Why not? And yeah, it took me two episodes to watch it and be like, this is bizarre. All right. Oh, man, I’ll try your down dog. And yeah, by the third day, when I had just kind of stretched my [00:43:00] body and consciously thought about my body I was more relaxed and more prepared to do my schoolwork and more prepared to go back to school.

Then I would have been if I had just like laid there and been. Kind of okay. With like being sickly and being like, well, I didn’t, you know, I was sick, so I couldn’t go to, I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to is what it comes down to me anyway

Casey: years ago. In Alabama, they, they banned yoga from the, the public school curriculums because it’s okay.

This is how moronic they are. It’s an Eastern religion. Can you think of any other Eastern religions that Might be, they might want to have a little bit of, you know, familiarity.

Myrna Velasco: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s just bananas to ban anything at a school because like [00:44:00] the school is there for you to learn. And if you come across something like Eastern religion at school, I sure hope that you would have a teacher that knows that too.

And like, if you ban it, then you’re also kind of saying like, there’s no teacher for this. So

Casey: near it in their argument negates anything that would be Christian because Christianity came from

Myrna Velasco: first of all. Yeah. Christianity cable runs. Yes.

Casey: I mean, perhaps it was popular as in the West, however,

Myrna Velasco: yeah. Yeah.

Furthermore, Separation of church and state. If your kid’s going to a private Christian school, then I would understand if they would want to stay within their curriculum. That encompasses the learnings of that Christianity experience. However, I will also attest that here schools, private schools, private Christian schools in LA do hire yoga instructors [00:45:00] because it helps cultivate the sense of mindfulness, which makes people nicer students, more attuned to, and more focused to their work.

And it, it. Yeah. The more mindful you are, the more likely you are to develop empathy so that you can empathize with your particular religious savior and so that you can then empathize with the people around you because you are all having those similar experiences. So Alabama gets his shit together.

Casey: Oh, for real, for real.