Page 5 - MidWeek Kauai - Sep 1 2021

Actress Takes Her ‘Shot In The Dark’ With Podcast
SEPTEMBER 1, 2021
KAUA‘I MIDWEEK 5
preppers, indigenous activ- ists and a utopian cult, all of whom arrive in this new locale demanding their piece of the land.
control of their lands — and she found no better example of that than right here in Ha- wai‘i. Early on in the writing process, Callies insisted the script include a character that shows up on the new island, plants an unfurled Hawaiian flag in the ground, and de- clares, “I claim this island in the name of the Hawaiian nation!”
eral Express to the actors’ homes or wherever they happened to be at the time. (Gabrielle, in fact, finished her recordings from 5,000 miles away in Germany.)
If anything, choosing a mysterious island as the setting for the series was a major selling point for the Honolulu-raised Callies.
“It was such a circus and it took us months,” explains Callies of the drawn-out re- cording process. “I’ d send the mic to their house and we’d do a sound check. Then I’d say, ‘OK, you’re going to have to be in some place where the sound isn’t going to bounce around, so go in your closet, but lay all the pillows down and put a comforter over your head.’
(Inset) Sarah Wayne Callies and another former Hawai‘i resident, Janel Parrish, flash shakas after completing a recording session for Aftershock. (Above) Callies and good friend David Harbour, share leading roles in the scripted podcast.
ent,” says the actor, who grad- uated from Punahou School in 1995. “I mean I got to grow up in a place with malasadas and Spam musubi. That in and of itself is a win.”
Although she still makes frequent visits to Hawai‘i with her husband, Josh Win- terhalt, and their two children, Callies confesses to missing the islands terribly. Thankful- ly, she hasn’t lost her pidgin accent — “Eh, Russell! You get pen?” she cracks while reminiscing about growing up in the era of comedians Rap Reiplinger and Frank De Lima — neither has she for- gotten how Hawai‘i was the fertile ground upon which she grew her talents in the performing arts (even though she didn’t seriously consider becoming a professional ac- tor until she was at Dartmouth College).
“I remember thinking when this kernel of an idea was first brought to me (by executive producers Ben Haber and Patrick Carman), well, I’ve lived on islands and oceans my whole life. I grew up in Hawai‘i, I live on Vancouver Island right now, and there’s something very specific about living on an island,” explains Callies, who not only has the lead role in the scripted pod- cast, but juggles co-creator, di- rector and executive producer duties as well.
The show’s other execu- tive producers immediately balked at the idea.
for a bit there. I don’t think we still are, but we were for a couple of weeks and that was cool,” gushes Callies.
really wasn’t until my senior year in college that I realized I was going to be really sad without the arts in my life.
“It also seemed to me that it would be an opportunity to tell stories that I’ ve known
Ultimately, Callies won the debate and Parrish, a for- mer Kāne‘ohe resident, got the role of Hawaiian activist.
Amazingly, some cast members were willing to go to even greater lengths to ensure the job was done right. For example, Rockmond Dunbar (Prison Break, Sons of Anar- chy) chose to do his recordings from the trunk of his car.
Omy whole life that I haven’t seen very often in pop cul-
To complete the pod- cast’s recordings, sessions were held in New York and LA. Most recordings, however, had to be done remotely due to coronavi- rus restrictions and actors’ schedules. To work around these issues, Callies would send a microphone via Fed-
“Rockmond has four young children and they’ re all homeschooling, so he chose to lock himself in the car because it was the only place where he could get peace and quiet,” recalls a chuckling Callies. “When we were done, he said, ‘Now I gotta text my wife and have her pop the trunk!’”
“But scripted podcasts are much more of a niche thing ... almost underground,” she continues. “I think the experi- ence is new for a lot of people. Hopefully, it continues to pro- vide that level of escapism and joy for people.”
She pauses momentarily to think about her current status before quipping, “I guess I never really grew up.”
ture.”
ne of the storylines she desperately wanted included
Not that the accomplished actress is complaining about a career that not only pays the bills, but allows her to experiment in new fields of entertainment such as script- ed podcasts.
was the plight of indigenous peoples and their fight for
C
lands with her parents (Val- erie Wayne and David Cal- lies, who were English and law professors, respectively, at University of Hawai‘i-Mā- noa) when she was 1. After her parents split up, Callies — who first lived in Mānoa, and later in Kāhala — moved into an apartment in Makiki with her mother, who still re- sides there till this day.
“They were like, ‘That’s ridiculous!’ ” Callies recalls. “I said ‘Yeah, I know.’ They were like, ‘That would never happen.’ I said, ‘Oh, no-no- no! It’s simultaneously ridic- ulous and that’s exactly what happened in Hawai‘i!’”
“It really was the most ri- diculous thing!”
“To be honest, I didn’t re- ally know if anybody would listen. It was kind of a shot in the dark. I think the thing that people seem to be respond- ing to is how immersive it is. Often when you say podcast to people, they think, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a couple of people chatting in my ear and I’m just listening in on a con- versation.’
“So, I made an agreement with myself that I would try to fail at the arts, and then I could be happy settling for something else. But I had to try first; I had to say I swung and I missed, and now I’ m ready to go and be a grown- up.”
One of the actors who signed on for the project is Austin Amelio, shown here trading lines with Sarah Wayne Callies in a studio. The 10-part series of Aftershock wraps up Sept. 15, and can be listened to on iHeartRadio. PHOTOS COURTESY SARAH WAYNE CALLIES
“We were the No. 1 drama podcast of all time on Apple
“In some ways, I feel like Hawai‘i was like my third par-
Aftershock is available on iHeartRadio and all major podcast platforms.
Despite the production challenges, Callies is proud that she and her star-stud- ded cast of unpaid actors were able to put out a quality scripted podcast in what she calls “an emerging form of entertainment.” As proof that the team’s efforts have not been in vain, she notes that feedback from Aftershock fans has been “better than I expected.”
allies was born in Il- linois, but relocated to the Hawaiian Is-
“I definitely started acting in junior high and then took it a little bit more seriously when I got to high school, but it didn’t seem practical as a way to make a living,” says Callies, whose first profes- sional starring role came in 2003 as Det. Jane Porter on The WB series Tarzan.
“Every day I get to say I’m a working artist is a good day,” says the extremely con- tent Callies. “It’s more than I ever thought. I got a great life and it’s not real complicated. You do something you love. You have good kids. Your spouse is your best friend. You live in a beautiful place.
“Initially, I sort of thought that I would follow in my mom’s footsteps, get a Ph.D. and become a professor. But it
“If there’s something more than that out there, I don’t re- ally care.”