Geneva Carr stole the hearts of Broadway-goers (and nabbed a 2015 Tony nomination) as single mother Margery in Robert Askins’ pitch-black comedy “Hand to God.” Now she’s front and center as Marissa Morgan on CBS’ hit procedural “Bull,” starring Michael Weatherly. She came by Backstage HQ Sept. 19 to chat Season 2 and her unlikely start in New York’s acting scene.
READ: ‘Hand to God’ Star Geneva Carr on Never Giving Up
On her character-driven CBS series.
“Our showrunner this year is a gentleman named Glenn Gordon Caron. He created ‘Moonlighting’ and ‘Medium.’ He knows what he’s doing in the sense that both of those shows, they were crime-driven, [but] you don’t remember a single crime, do you? You remember the people. And so that’s what he wants people to remember. We’re solving cases, but the case isn’t what makes us. We make the case.”
Carr’s N.Y. theater roots makes her popular on the ‘Bull’ set.
“Michael makes fun of me because I pretty much know everybody [on set]. I know a lot of the extras, a lot of the stand-ins, co-stars, guest stars. The crew likes to call me ‘the most popular woman in television’ because the guest stars are people from the New York theater world.”
Backstage got Carr into SAG.
“When I first became an actor at 30 and [I was] trying to figure out what to do, Backstage was one of the first resources that somebody mentioned. And [the] casting calls.... I can’t tell you how many things I got. I got a short film that paid, I got a commercial that paid. So I can pretty much tell you that I got my SAG card from Backstage. [And] there are amazing articles for people who just don’t know how to get the information about what it’s like to be an actor.”
READ: Bully for Michael Weatherly
On how she went from banking to Broadway.
“[Working on Wall Street], I was a cog in an enormous wheel.... But I ended up working [in banking] in Paris, and then I worked in New York. And then I saw a play at EST [Ensemble Studio Theatre] on their sixth floor, and it so blew my mind that I thought, What is this? What is live theater? And I naively, brazenly decided to pursue it. I think if I had any idea at the time how hard it was going to be, I could’ve talked myself out of it....”
Passion will get you far.
“As far as actors are concerned, I’m living proof that it can happen at any age. To be a lead in a series at this age is a thrill. You know, my career didn’t happen until after 40. Women are told that it’s not going to happen, that everything’s about youth. I just don’t think that’s true.... The great thing about this business is there’s no traditional [route]. There’s a million ways to skin a cat, and the only thing that matters is passion. And if you’re not passionate, don’t do it.”
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