From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   https://tv.avclub.com/emma-caulfield-ford-on-dottie-s-secrets-an   
   -the-brillia-1846131498   
      
      
   INTERVIEW   
      
   Emma Caulfield Ford on Dottie’s secrets and the brilliance of Kathryn Hahn   
   in WandaVision   
      
   There’s nothing quite like diving into the deep end of the MCU’s new   
   flagship TV series to make a splash. After her stint as Anya on beloved   
   series Buffy The Vampire Slayer came to an end, the actor carved out a solid   
   career alternating between steady gigs in film (Darkness Falls, Timer) and   
   TV series (Gigantic, Once Upon A Time). For the last few years, she’s taken   
   a step back to focus on raising her now-4-year-old daughter, save for the   
   odd guest appearance here and there. But with Marvel’s WandaVision,   
   Caulfield Ford has returned to TV in a big way with the seemingly sinister   
   role of Dottie, a type-A housewife in the old-school sitcoms that have   
   currently been filling out the universe of Wanda Maximoff. But as with   
   everything in the series, Dottie (or should we speculate… Mephisto?) is not   
   all that she seems at first glance.   
      
   The actor can’t say much about her character’s eventual arc (yet, anyway),   
   but she filled The A.V. Club in on the process of joining a top-secret   
   Marvel series, learning to act for the retro style of old TV shows, and   
   trying to jump back into Dottie’s shoes after months of   
   pandemic-necessitated isolation.   
      
   The A.V. Club: One of the most fascinating things about this show is that   
   you’re playing this character, Dottie, but she’s also playing a role right   
   in the world of these old-school sitcoms. As an actor, did it feel like   
   having to flex a new set of muscles to meet the rhythms and styles of these   
   old formats of TV shows?   
      
   Emma Caulfield Ford: Yeah, definitely. I mean, it’s a style, it’s a way of   
   speaking, of sitting—the tone of your voice, just all of that. In the early   
   episodes, especially, just getting all the technical aspects down, making   
   sure you get it right, because, as anything, when you’re portraying   
   something you want it to be as authentic as possible. You don’t want to give   
   any reason for anybody to start complaining right out of the gate, like,   
   “What’s that accent?” or whatever. You definitely want to make sure it   
   all   
   comes together and is believable.   
      
   AVC: How much did they tell you going in? Did you get an overview or were   
   you just sort of learning more about your character week to week?   
      
   ECF: I knew nothing when I got it. [Showrunner] Jac Schaeffer, who wrote it,   
   she wrote and directed 'Timer', which I was in years ago. And then we stayed   
   very close. And we’ve been trying to work together for years, but nothing   
   really panned out. And then she asked if I wanted to come play on   
   WandaVision, I said of course, and then Kevin Feige approved me and that was   
   that. And I went to Atlanta and really had nothing. Jac was very limited as   
   to what she could say—even though it was her show!—she said, “I just   
   can’t   
   talk about it; you gotta get hired and then you’ll know more.” So then when   
   I got to Atlanta, and did the table read and got the full script, then I was   
   like, “Okay, all right.” And then I had a million more questions, you know?   
   So the prep for it was really just learning and research and understanding,   
   not just the technical aspects of it, but getting the accent and working out   
   the character from the outside in, and just understanding all the the shifts   
   and variations within the show itself.   
      
   I really wanted to talk about it because I just thought the whole thing was   
   so cool. I couldn’t say anything about it to anybody except my husband and   
   my agent or whatever. No, forget my agent! I fired him. My manager.   
   [Laughs.] I’m kidding.   
      
   AVC: Marvel’s famous for its secrecy. Did they blindfold you and take you to   
   an underground bunker to read your pages, or...?   
      
   ECF: They might as well have. It wasn’t anything quite like that, but yeah,   
   it was very intense. It’s a whole other level of, you know, double-spy   
   intrigue.   
      
   AVC: Was it sort of a sequestered feeling once you were on set, shut off   
   from the outside world?   
      
   ECF: Yeah. I mean you’re on a lot, you’re protected in that way, and   
   everybody’s in the same boat. Everybody knows that it’s in everybody’s   
   best   
   interest to keep everything very quiet. And then COVID happened and we got   
   shut down for a while. So everything just kind of went out of our sphere.   
   For months, we all were focused on very different things. I was   
   home-schooling my 4-year-old, or at that time she wasn’t 4 yet. So I was   
   just wearing a teacher hat, you know? I was not even thinking about work.   
      
   And then got the order to go back. I was like, okay, time to put that on.   
   And I literally told Jac, “I’ve got to have a talk with you before I go   
   back   
   to work. Like, I really kind of lost track of who Dottie is. I know, but I’ve   
   been so removed from her that my brain just moved on. It’s just shifted.”   
   Like, “Help. Bring me back again.” She just went, “Okay, so let’s   
   recap, and   
   blah blah blah, and then there’s this and there’s this. You remember all   
   these emotions we were talking about?” and I said, “Right. Got it. Okay,”   
   and then I was able to go back to work but I was really kind of freaked out.   
   Thinking, “I don’t know if I’m going to remember what I did,” or how to   
   recreate it or elaborate on it.   
      
   AVC: Dottie is introduced like she’s being set up as this villain in the   
   reality of the sitcom world. But then you start to see the ways that it’s   
   almost this red herring, that she might be playing a role as much as   
   everyone else seems to be. For all the secrecy or intensity of this project,   
   was there a sense of playfulness for you as an actor, knowing that you’re   
   getting to portray these different levels of the characters’ awareness and   
   teasing out these little clues?   
      
   ECF: It was always fun—and really important to keep track of where I am all   
   the time. You know, “Wait. Where are we right now?” Because we didn’t   
   shoot   
   in order, obviously. So you’re doing things, and you’re thinking, “Wait a   
   minute, I just want to make sure. What do I know? What does the audience   
   know?” Obviously, if I as an actor knows something—which always happens,   
   you   
   read a script, you know something your character doesn’t—you have to forget   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)