All Shook Up (Episode 1 Discussion)

"I'm always good, always good."

"I'm always very happy." "I'm always happy." "I'm always happy." Hello, everybody, and welcome to Hulu's official Paradise Companion podcast, episode 1. Here we go.

Straven, 'cause here we go. I am your host, Ryan Michelle Bethe, and today we are starting off our podcast with... My husband, Sterling. - What's up? - Why are you here? - What are you talking about? - You're not even in the episode.

What are you doing here? - I'm not in the show. - I'm even not in the episode, and we're talking about episode 1. You need to go. We don't need you here. Are you serious?

- You are some parfluous to this whole operation right now. - You're kidding, right? - I am not. Get out! - It's the rootest shit. - You're wrong.

“- I take a couple of run the rest of the podcast, right?”

- Are you sure? - You already are. I don't think it breaks up on the way out. - It's good. - Here it is. - How are you going out here? - Shit.

- So high, everybody.

I'm always excited with every single guest.

So I don't want any guests to feel like I'm not very, very, very excited to see them. But I'm very, very, very, very excited. Well, I mean, just, okay, I know technically we already kick things off with a look back. I'm so to get everyone up to speed for season 2. So if for some reason you haven't watched season 1, go do that.

The whole season is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu, one Disney Plus. But it's time to really get this podcast started, because you guys, we have the one. The only shaling would leave with us, the star of what we can only call what paradise

“the season 2 short film, because that's what it feels like, right?”

- I felt like a, I felt like a full film. - Oh, we're making it. - Yeah. - No, I mean, you guys are so much, I mean, what an incredible way to start

the season and what an incredible way for us to, I mean, my gosh, we're starting this whole thing

off with you and, oh, my God, what you gave us. So shaling, welcome, welcome, welcome. - Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. - I'm a body, there's like an audience here. - But there should be, because I feel like so much happened and I don't even know where to start. So everybody's sitting down at home and they turn on the television and there you are. And I know their second thought is, honey, I thought we were watching paradise.

- Yeah, yeah, I bet you that, everyone, because I did. If I had known what I was watching, I was like, especially knowing how season one ended. We expect to see strolling in a plane. - Yeah. - You don't mean that's how we left off. Yeah, I mean, we know we jump through time, but like, we don't know who you are. We don't know where we are. It's one thing to start with that little scene with you with the mom and the little girl and that whole thing, but then we keep

with that. It's not just then we keep keeping. - Keep keeping. - Right. It's like, it's like, by the middle of the episode, you're like, well, this is it. I mean, it's just riveting. Like, everything about it. Like, and for, you know, five seconds, you're like, what's she doing here? And then within those five seconds, you can just feel like kind of melt away. And then you're there and you're in it. And you don't know why we don't see

strolling. You don't know why we're not in Colorado. You don't know why we're not looking for, you know, anybody in Atlanta, but I just know that I don't want to take my eyes off what's happening, because I'm watching so many profound moments. We start with you. You drive to Graceland. She drives the Graceland. She meets Gale. He's wonderful. It's a wonderful security guard at Graceland. - Sorry, but we're not having any more visitors today.

I'm Gale Edwards. I'm Graceland's security. You can't park here. - Okay. Okay. You okay? - No, I'm not.

“I think speaking to the humanity that you were to talk about with Annie, Gale sees this woman”

who's also experiencing an emotional complexity. And even if she can't relate to her, she doesn't understand that she offers her a hand and she offers her her heart and she offers her a job. - The old ass tour guides here. Keep dropping it. You know anything about Elvis? Too much.

- Why? - Long distance, right? - All right, welcome. And through her job at Graceland, Annie finds purpose that I think she didn't find in medical school, and she couldn't find with her mother, and she couldn't find with herself. And I think that Annie is someone who really thrives being of service, because in a way, it's all she's ever known. She only ever knew as a child how to take care of

the parent to her mother in some ways, because her mother was incapable of doing certain things.

“And I think at Graceland, she finds that she has a role in life and society. She finds her,”

I don't use the word purpose, but she does. She finds her purpose, and it gives her a reason to experience self pride, self respect, self love. And then when the world comes crashing down,

it's a really powerful moment where you see human will. Just come up from the depths of her soul.

I think she surprises herself with what she is capable of. And because for so long, she's when before the disaster happened, Annie was in a state of constantly having to stay calm and constantly also having to think 10 steps ahead. And so in an odd way, all of the difficulties and challenges of her childhood and of her upbringing ended up being the gifts that saved her in the end and gave her that resiliency and gave her that ability to stay in the eye of the storm, despite

the chaos was high and literally, despite the chaos that the world was experiencing around her, she was able to have this internal center that I would hope to have in that situation, who knows if I would have the ability to, but I found it remarkable that this person didn't need accolade, she didn't need to be told good job for doing what so many of us want to tell her good job for you know, she did it because it was just what you do. She wasn't in a state of

needing to impress, she was in a state of true survival and she made it work. Let's go back to Gale because she's played by a wonderful actress.

“She's so wonderful. She wonderful. Wow. What do you think makes Annie go?”

I can trust this person. That's a great question. I think it's probably a mix of all of it. I think there's the aspect of being so desperate and broken. There's the aspect of Gale and then there's also the aspect of Elvis and Graceland, which Annie as a child, it was kind of the only place that made sense to her. It was the link that brought her back to her mom. She knew that if she had something to offer her mom, then there would be a connection there.

I think Annie could sense that Gale was offering her this opportunity not from a place of people pleasing because I actually don't think that Annie, I think she's kind of, she can sniff out of people pleaser and she's like, I don't trust you because I know this is not coming from a pure place. I think she saw that Gale was approaching her with kind of a sympathy in her heart but not a pity. She wasn't coming to her sort of saver. She was like,

actually we could use someone and you look like you need something to do with your life. And I think that she really respected the directness along with the compassion that Gale was offering her. What do you think it was like for Annie, someone who has been so close to Lose that,

because we ultimately get you to being alone. So talk about that transition from having someone to

being alone. Yeah. Anyway, so you want to cry now. To Lose her mother, I think left such a massive print on her heart and I think that Gale was the second, losing Gale was like losing her mom all over again. How is Gale so smart, Gale? My mom was for smart one. She's watching you. She's so proud of you.

Gale is a friend, a sister, like a kind of mom, mother figure. She's been alone and in a weird way, like there isn't intimacy. There isn't romance. There isn't physical intimacy. There's deep emotional intimacy between Annie and Gale. And to Lose that and be alone again,

“I think just reinforces Annie's walls and reinforces like, how could I ever trust anyone again?”

Like you've taken my mother and now you've taken the closest thing I've ever had in my life apart from my mother as an adult. How am I ever going to trust? And I think that is why she makes certain decisions later in the episode. Well, let's get to that because for me,

when those men come a knock-in, it was the first time ever. And the history of me watching television

film, I was like, good girl. You know what I mean? Usually I'm like you, and every moment, every move you made, I was like, good job.

When we filmed it, I was like, you guys, this is a woman alone with a group that's what I've been talking about. Like, yes, big men walking in with weapons. And I, yeah, the first thing she's

“thinking ain't these are my friends. No, at some point as an actor, you have to make a decision.”

Then, okay, they're not going to, I'm going to trust them now. Yeah.

I kind of feel like you never really do that. I don't have a really true, like until,

if we, until we got to the bitter end. So it was, was there a point in episode one that you trusted just enough or let your guard down enough or I felt me like it was up the whole, my, my guard was up the whole time. Let's put it that way. Her guard is up the whole time, but I think she starts noticing that maybe these guys were okay and decent human beings with real and nice and kind intentions when she sees them playing football. I think when she sees them playing,

there's, there's a thing about seeing play that I think invites us to recognize the humanity and someone else. And I think when Annie sees that she recognizes, like, she can tell these guys are laughing and smiling and playing together. They actually enjoy each other's company and they're not just in the survival mission. There's like a boyishness and a tenderness and a levity to them

that I think in the beginning when they first enter her home, there is no levity at all.

No, it's pure fighter flight. So I think that's the first moment that she starts deciding that maybe these guys aren't who she thought they were, but she yeah, that guard stays up. But I do think that she recognizes that maybe there is some safety to be had. Even if she doesn't show them. Was that in the script? Because so often, you know, you're looking at this girl and you're like, don't do that. That's stupid. Yeah, that's stupid. It literally felt like it was written from the

point of view of like a woman who really would be alone. Did you help that or was it already there? And you were like, good job, guys. I think it was there, but there was definitely, I mean,

we had conversations that first day when Thomas and all of the guys come into the house with

all of the men on set, I was like, look, she's not thinking they're going to kill me. She's not thinking they're going to ransack the house. She's thinking like they're going to physically

“violate her. That's just what she's thinking because that's what every woman thinks in that situation.”

It's like worse than even death at that moment. Your brain immediately goes to, oh my God, I'm not going to be able to survive the situation and I'm a woman and there's five men, six men who are now in my domain and there's nothing I can do about it. And so I was like, we have to treat this with a lot of tenderness and a lot of care because this is a situation that every woman around the world will relate to when they watch the show. And everybody was an agreement

and we all talked about it and I think that was the beginning of how we navigated it was from that place of like how do we physically represent the threat there as well more than just like the emotional danger and the threat of death. How do we represent the threat of being a woman in the world and being a woman alone in a home in that world? At the end of the day, you have such vulnerability

“and then you get even more vulnerable because like literally the worst thing you can be”

in an apocalypse is pregnant. How does anyone's going to be pregnant in an apocalypse? It should be any because of her medical school experience. But yeah, I imagine the shock of going months without having a period and recognizing that she's pregnant, there's obviously no sticks, she can be on. Yeah, so she's just recognizing that she's pregnant from her physical symptoms and I think it would be terrifying and I think it was terrifying for her to look around and go,

all right, I have barely enough food for myself. Right. And they really, you know, they had to speed up the montage and they had to speed up the time. We actually filmed a lot more than what's in the episode. But we did show the progression of her getting pregnant and as an actor to be able to go through that and know what that experience was like for her, the fear of am I going to die here alone as a pregnant woman? Am I going to survive this? Am I going to have a

healthy baby? Am I going to be able to keep myself healthy enough to provide for this baby with this baby deserves like all of the questions that go through her head very lonely. But I think also builds a strength and a more strength and more resiliency in this woman. I find her to just be an extraordinarily courageous and brave and remarkable person. You know, so she takes two step forward

right? And then when it comes to the do our die moment, she takes literally as many steps back

as she can and she barricades herself in the room. Yeah. Hey, Annie, it's me, you in there. The guys are saying that we have to go. But I can tell them that you need another minute to get your

“things. Annie, I know this is hard, and I know that it's scary, but I really think that you should”

come with us. I really, really want you to come with me. I can't. What was going through Annie's mind when she was like absolutely not? Was it terror? Was it fear? It was actually, it was really hard for me to figure out because I was just like, why would she not go with him? Like, I was mad at her, you know, right? But I think the only thing that I could come up with that made sense for me for her was that she'd lost your mom, she'd lost scale, and she wasn't about

to lose Link. So if she chose to lose him, at least she was the one in control, because Annie's entire life was her being out of control. And I think actually living and surviving alone in Grayson, gave her an agency, same as being a tour guide, a gave her a purpose, a gave her an agency. She was in control, therefore nothing could hurt her. And if she went with Link and something happened to him, it would be way too much to bear. So at least if she let him go, she would know there was only one

person to blame and it would be herself. And it would keep her safe because she wouldn't have to be available to a challenge or an obstacle that she didn't choose. I just, I don't think I've ever seen an episode of television like that. I really haven't, and I know you're going to say it as the writer, as I know you're going to say it's all these things, but I lay it at your feet, my dear. I lay it at your feet. Wonderful time. Damn glad. Well, the guy we've got coming

up next, the lovely and talented Thomas. Don't you? I said it wrong again. I'll keep practicing. He plays Link. I just met him and he is just, he's so great. He's so great. He's just like a ball of life. I feel like he walks in the room and everything gets better. It did. It did. Thank you.

“And I think we're going to see you a little bit later. I don't know a rumor. We just scratched the surface.”

So I hope you do get to come back and talk to us. I'd love it. Wow. Wow. You are. You're really pretty. Oh, thank you. So what do you think? I, I, I was wronging in the spirit. One for the prettiest boy at the table. Thank you. All right. All right. Big thank you to her, lovely host. Cheers. Hi, everyone. I'm just over here practicing my, um, Irish, my Irish, I'm pretending to be so good. I got my score. No, that was very, you know what? I'm going to keep

practicing and I'm going to welcome you guys back to the official Paradise podcast where we're kicking off the new season this episode and who better to join us. Then one of the seasons most, I'm going to say mysterious, but I'm also going to say lovely because we've just been getting to know each

other and what a lovely addition to this season. The incredible Thomas Dachterie. No, I did it wrong.

Dachterie. Dachterie. You know, if you whisper it, no one knows. No one knows exactly. Yeah. Actually, it took me a while to learn how to pronounce it. I'm sorry, God, I didn't know how to do. You can have a lesson. Is your parents just tutoring lessons? Yeah. Oh, my own learning. I started

“seeing docker tea. Docker tea. It's just easier. I've avoided all of this. Oh, no, you have to say your”

name as someone who is like my mother made up my name. It's a very long story, but it's pronounced Betha. And so sometimes you get to the point where people call you all kinds of things. And it's just Betha. So you would think, they're like, baby, Bethaida. But, and I'm like, you're just saying it's kind of a good one. I like Bethaida. Thank you, Bethaida. Yeah. I'm going to tell people it's Dachterie and Bethaida. You just whisper it, no one knows. See? Wait, you play Link. And I want to

welcome you to this show. Thank you. Well, everyone kept me in the office and it started on twice and I was like, I met stones. Pretend wife. Can't remember if I met his real one, but he has several pretend lives. He has some pretend wife. He has a pretend mistress. He's

all kind of a children. I'm a children. The first thing I do want to ask you is how did you end up

fashion, your agents are like, yeah, but you're auditioning for paradise. And you're like, okay, not quite quite a quiet period in my work and I was auditioning a lot and paradise came up for the character of Burley Man. Burley Man. And I was like, guys, come on. I'd love to be, but that's, I'm just not a Burley Man. I mean, I got a little dangly you. I don't know how to do it, it's for paradise. And I don't, and no one paradise. And so I went in

and then I met with John and Glenn. And I was like, really? I wanted to do Burley Man and so I did it.

“And I think it was John was like, if you don't lot theater, did you like train doing theater work?”

And I was like, yeah, which might sound like a compliment. I know like over here in America,

it's like other breaths. They do their theater training. But to me, that's basically just like,

you're overacted. Oh, no. So I was like, I've done it. And then I met them again. And then I flew it to to Ellie to the paramount lot. And it was my first time there. No. I'd been from Scotland going into the paramount lot and going to the art. It's all very, it's very fun. Yes, I just have to paint the picture. Paramount is one of those lots that is the most. And if you're not from LA, you're not in theater. I mean, you're not in film and television. If you close your eyes and

imagine what driving on to a lot is. Yeah. Right. So just to paint the picture of you like, whoa, it's like your quintessential life. Like it says Paramount, you're right and has these big, beautiful arches and like the water towers. And yeah, yeah. I was very on cue. I was like, going around the buggy. It's like face time in the moment. That was actually quite cool. And then yeah, went over to Ellie and went down. And Tiffany was there and

yeah, got the part. Your facial hair plays a lot in these episodes, right? It's a big sort of thing.

Right. So what did you audition with their facial hair? Was it always a part of the, of the

character or did it become a part of the character? Because you really did it. It was always, it was always burning in the hands. Always burning in my head. So I probably had a five o'clock shadow when I auditioned. So I was the more to my point to my team to be like, guys, come on. And I'm like, no, no. And you couldn't grow one overnight. I can do one overnight. It's okay. You know, some people can cry on cue and some people can grow hair overnight. That's, you know, you don't have to have a

talent. And then yeah, whether they wanted to see me on Ellie and I, uh, what team was like, do not shave. Don't cut your hair. So I looked, I looked like a mess. And then even when we're in the middle of the film, and I went to someone's birthday party. And I just met someone and they're like, you look homeless. No. And I left. I left the party. Okay. Well, boo on them. You did not look

“homeless. And listen, I'm no casting director yet. But I think that there was something in an all seriousness,”

yes, when we first meet link, there is a burly man quality. But then in the next moment, it's like safety. But then the whole episode at every moment, there's nothing that you're doing that is making her feel unsafe. But it's just the general idea of her being alone with burly man. Yeah, and all of his friends. And all of his friends, all of his friends. Like, so when you were filming it, was that something that was top of mind for you, not just your given circumstances as an actor,

but her circumstances as the character and how she must feel in this, in this moment. So obviously, when I first come into Graceland, I mean, for the audiences, well, you have this cowboy, all these cowboys pull up. It's very scary. You're sent in this scene. We're in the house. Obviously, I can't play link as who he is. And also for link, he's been surviving for years and years. He's out in the wilderness. He's in survival mode. He's come across all of these on savory characters and

had to survive. So he himself is going into a situation where he doesn't know if he's in danger.

And so he has to do this. I always say he puts on this frontless mask of fear and intimidation.

“'Cause that's protective, it protects him, it keeps him safe. And I think once he realizes it is just”

Annie in the house. That's when the empathy starts to flood in, that's when the compassion, that's when they understand it. And that's when he's like, okay, she's just, she's not fair. It's okay. And there's a little bit of guilt there as well. Because he is self-aware. He's aware how intimidate and they all look. I mean, look at Big Poppy. Yeah, no. I mean, I thought about that so much of what I think

Do you know what I mean? Just like you said, like the idea of like,

“I think that's everything. I say we're all the best things exists, you know?”

Yeah, but it doesn't always. It doesn't always try. But that's what life is. I feel like I agree.

Even like we're sitting down here. We just met. And it's all like, but we're still like getting to know each other. We're still in like a unfamiliar situation. You know, and so that's like the best things in life lie. It's things aren't said. I want to give you your flowers in that it may seem not basic to you, but it doesn't always translate. You don't always get to see that that lived in quality of work, of things living off the page, of things singing between you.

And the relationship between you and Shane Lee and just starts to, oh, Annie, just starts to just percolate for us. I mean, you could almost hear it. You know what I mean? And at the same time, the entire episode, I'm still thinking of danger. The whole thing's existing at the same time. Yeah, I mean, literally, you don't listen. It's a TV show. And it's just a well-written TV show. And it's a TV show that anything can happen at any moment because we're in an apocalyptic situation.

Right? I mean, she loses her friend. She'll be all of these things so we don't know. But at every moment, it could turn. I don't think it wasn't till, even the moment when you guys are finally alone, it wasn't until she starts to cry. You guys kiss. It's been a while. That was our first scene. No! Yes. You're mine. I'm not lying. So we're not okay with the painting picture again. Yes. We lied from Edinburgh,

pirate, law, and Ellie, holy would sign there. I'm sorry, Julie. I'm going to do this. I always get asked.

Who are your top three actors? And who's the reason thing? And always say, "Reef fines." Standly to cheer. And cheerly with me. I know. And so I, when I find out that she was going to be Annie, because I read with the bunch of Annie's. Yeah. The real fantastic. When I refined that it was her, I cannot sleep. I can't believe it. I couldn't believe it. And

“obviously you have to play the kill. Yeah. But I, yes, this is just, this is just someone”

an actor. Yeah. I've just looked up to for so many years. Oh, she's extended. She is just extraordinary. I've never seen anyone sinking to a character and an instant. And it's like I'm having a conversation with She-Lean. And they'll be like, "Ready?" And there's something happened. And it's not She-Lean. It's, it's the most beautiful, incredible, inspiring thing. And I don't even know who you teach that. You don't. I don't know how I could learn how to do that.

I, well, well, you kind of do it too, sir. I mean, I've never had the pleasure of working with you,

but I've had the pleasure of seeing your work. And it was- Well, it's because I was working with her. I was so lucky. So I was, yeah, so I was walking in, and I was like, wow. And that was the first scene. I had one of my favorite actors in the world. The first two takes. I was like, wow. What did you do? Did you do anything? Did you do anything?

“Did you have to do anything before I was having to keep now stuff together?”

Because like, what would you do after meetings? Like, you can do this. You're enough. You can do this. You're enough. I mean, you know yourself. First day on set, and the self is petrified. You got the exact, you got the directors, you got this new character. Yeah. And I think you want to do is get in your car and drive away, but I guess it's going to stay tight. Yeah. You guys mean it was day. It's okay. We all make a, and then having working with this.

Artists is, it was, yeah, it was intense. What was the question again? No, we, you were telling me that was the first scene. And I was saying that that scene was the first time that I thought she's safe because we know how guarded any is the entire time, right? Which is I think what makes us come to love her so much because we see at the very beginning why she's so guarded. It has nothing to do with the apocalypse. She was guarded from the very beginning, right?

So we see her in this moment and we see her break down. And I think because at this point, we are any any is us, right? Like, the whole episode, I'm like, she's safe. Oh, she's safe. She's like the whole episode, right? And so when she finally cries in your arms, that's the

first thing you guys shot because it felt so I keep using the word lived in but it felt so incredibly lived in at that moment. My next question is, how did you feel as link when she gives you that

or when she when she's that vulnerable with you? There's always such a tragedy with people having to

become something to survive and I think with link, he was living so and authentically

“to who he was because that's what he had to do to survive and I think after all these years”

for link, this was the first time where he could let that down finally and he felt safe. And that intimacy and that touch, he's not had that touch for so long and that for him was his journey of it all. You didn't make me cry? Oh my god. Okay, hold on, hold on. I can't ruin this makeup. Okay, okay, all right, let's dial it back. So yes, so that moment where you guys have that sense of physical touch, you know, and she lets her guard down. Yeah, what was the moment that

and maybe it's several moments, but what was the moment that link fell in love with Annie? Was it?

I mean, I don't know if it was love it's first sight because it's a lot going on at first sight,

but what do you think those moments were? I think he falls in love with her from that touch.

“That first touch, because you can't love with a mask up. That's what I've learned for myself.”

You know, you can be lost and you can do all these things. You can't be in love. You can be truly vulnerable.

And love requires vulnerability. So yeah, it was that very first touch. Like I say,

it's touched and it just went all through thinking it was, it kind of fell apart. I love that. That's how we felt. Like, that's how I felt watching it. No, you know, like,

“I, that's how I felt watching it. And then, you know, he just went to the right end as well and”

done and you're not done with me. And I'm not done with you. So we will figure out what we can talk about when we can talk about it. And I just want to know all the secrets. And you probably shouldn't tell me. So I want to thank you for joining us. And thank you all for listening and watching and we are really just getting started here. So strap in, buckle up and stay with us next time for the second episode of season two, where I think we may finally have a reason to talk to Sterling. I don't know

who cares. But after the hate crazy season premiere, who knows what kind of surprises they've got up their sleeves for this season. Paradise, the official podcast is now streaming and stream the new season of Paradise on Ho Ho and Ho Ho and Disney Plus for bundles subscribers, Terms Apply. I don't know how to stay on it. Stay on a leard it. Save. With visa steuere.