Written By: Jayme Face

You’ve seen him In QuaranTeaTime with Moira Rose impersonating the lovable characters from Schitt’s Creek and now he has a new feature film coming called Milkwater!

upfrontNY: First of all, how did QuaranTeaTime with Moira Rose come about?

Michael Judson Berry: I’ve always done goofy voices, accents and impressions my whole life. I guess they come naturally to me. I had done Moira and the other characters just jokingly with friends. Then right before shut down I did Moira rose at an improv jam at this place called The Pit in New York as if she was the manager of a Sephora. It was ridiculous. It was very much like ‘Are you sure that makeup blends?’ and people thought it was funny. Then we went into lockdown and I was looking for something to do. All my friends who were writers and creators were all creating podcasts and shows and things so I had this idea. My roommate has this old wig on the floor of his closet and she [Moira} always drinks tea on the show. So, what if we did sort of a semiweekly tea time with Moira Rose and she would give out perspective on life in quarantine. I thought it was just something to do when I was bored one day. I thought it would be a fun little inside joke basically for my roommate and a couple of my friends and inexplicably it went well.

upfrontNY: Where do you find your wardrobe?

Michael Judson Berry: Yes, it’s definitely evolved. I just put on one of my black sweaters and he [my roommate] had a couple of wigs from old Halloween costumes in a pile on the bottom of his closet. I did the first one and I remember my mom called me and she’s like ‘Michael if you’re going to do these little videos try and keep them positive and uplifting because that’s what we need’. I was like okay. Then a friend who does drag texted me and was like ‘Michael if you’re going to wear a wig brush your hair.’ So, I started with the four wigs that my roommate had in his closet and I brushed them. Then I came up to visit my parents and some of my mom’s friends had seen the videos and they told her I needed more wigs. So, we went wig shopping at this place called BSW and my mom bought me a couple of wigs as a gift. Now pretty much all my stuff is from BSW Beauty in Syracuse, New York. When I come home to visit my parents I get a couple more so I think I’m up to 31 wigs. I’m not as good about naming them as she is. People will comment and they’ll be like what’s that one’s name and I’ll be like what do you think it should be so pretty much all of them have been named by random people in the comments.

 

upfrontNY: How did you find out about her approval and how did you feel about it?

Michael Judson Berry: Yes, it was incredible because I’ve been a fan of hers before Schitt’s Creek; you know Home Alone, Beetlejuice all the Christopher Guest movies. I would go on YouTube binges of SC TV. Very much was a huge fan before Schitt’s Creek. I was walking to get coffee and she was doing an interview leading up to the Emmys. The interviewer just asked her about the accent and used me as a reference as people parroting it. She went off and she said ‘I’ve seen him and his writing is really good, he’s really good’. It was incredible and a friend sent me the interview and said you should know about this. Yeah, I almost walked into traffic! I’m pretty sure I dropped my phone and nearly got hit by a truck! It was incredible because she’s been a comedy hero of mine for so long! I like to say it would be like Einstein telling you you’re good at math to hear her say especially about a character that she created. For once in my life there were no words and as you can see I ramble a lot so it’s a rare occurrence when I’m speechless!

 

upfrontNY: You hope to someday be on SNL. Will Moira rose be in your set of impressions?

Michael Judson Berry: Oh, yes! it’s been a dream of mine for a long time to be on SNL or like Mad TV or something like that; SNL is really the dream. Oh, I would love to bring Moira to SNL if it was legally okay as long as they gave me permission. I think Moira Rose as part of weekend update would be amazing. I just think that would be perfect. I would totally use her in my audition.

 

upfrontNY: Who is your favorite SNL alum?

Michael Judson Berry:  That’s a tough one because there are so many great people who have been on. The first one that springs to mind though is Molly Shannon. I love Molly Shannon so much and that whole group when she was on the show- Cheri Oteri, Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan and Ana Gasteyer. That was my introduction to SNL was that cast and so they all have a very special place in my heart because that was when I really learned to love comedy was watching them. Her or Cheri Oteri. I got to meet Cheri Oteri once and it was like ‘You’re a real person and you’re nice!’ But I think Molly Shannon springs to mind, all of her sketches are so brilliant.

 

upfrontNY: You recently talked to Entrepreneur about imposter syndrome, can you tell us a little about how you battle with it?

Michael Judson Berry: Sure. This is how bad it is where I’m a person working in social media now. I’m so sort of out of my element that when they wanted me to talk about imposter syndrome I didn’t even know what the term meant. That’s how out of it I was, like tell me what imposter syndrome is first. They were like you are the definition of it in asking that question. How I battle with it is truly just staying true to my own voice and staying true to who I am. I think for me because social media is so not my world. I can barely turn my phone on let alone use it before I started doing all of this. I’ve had to learn how Tik Tok works, how Twitter works, how to hashtag, how to film edit and post them. So, this is all a whole new world for me. I think I’ve never fully understood trends and cool, whatever the cool trendy thing is right now. So, instead of trying to shorn myself into that world and try to be like everyone else I just sort of did what felt good and fun and honest to me. Somehow it still works in this world. When this first started I had a friend that works in marketing and he told me ‘You’re doing Tik Tok wrong Michael because you’re not doing the challenges, you’re not doing the trends’, but I was like that’s not who I am. I’m not with it enough. I’m an old man with a whole bunch of cardigans. So, I just do what I think is funny. I think that’s how I deal with it even though I feel out of place and it sometimes feels a bit wonky if I do what feels natural and feels right for me I feel good.

 

upfrontNY: Since you also worked on the business side of the industry what made you go back and has it changed your perspective as a performer?

Michael Judson Berry: Oh, yeah because I was really lucky I studied acting at Boston University. They had this program where as soon as you graduated if you wanted to you could go to Los Angeles for an extra “semester” and work at CBS as an intern. The head of CBS at the time was a BU alum and it was a way to learn about the industry because most drama schools don’t teach you about that. I interned at the casting office of CSI Miami with one of my best friends who was the assistant who’s now like an award winning casting director. It was wonderful because then when I went to audition after that I had a much better perspective on how auditions work. It’s like when you don’t get a role you take it less personally because you see how many factors go into it. Sometimes an actor is too tall or their voice is too deep or the creator wants to hire their friend. So, it makes you feel so much better and you realize just how badly casting directors want actors to succeed. The best problem a casting director can have is to have too many good choices. It makes me feel so much better going into an audition knowing that the casting director is rooting for me as much as I am. If I don’t get it there are a zillion reasons why and I shouldn’t take it too personally. I loved casting and I think casting directors are wonderful people in general. Since I’ve always gone back and forth between acting and casting, but I got back into acting because I think I get too fidgety sitting behind a computer and make my bosses crazy.

 

upfrontNY: Can you tell us about your latest feature Milkwater?

Michael Judson Berry: My first proper feature film because I’ve mostly done theatre. It was really fun working on my first movie. It’s this lovely film about this young woman named Milo played by Molly Bernard from TV’s Younger. She’s this young woman in her early 30s that’s lost and is looking for meaning in her life. She meets this older gay man at a bar and she just sort of rashly decides to be a surrogate for him. She finds out his dream in life has always been to have a child so she decides to be a surrogate. You follow her over the course of the pregnancy to see how it does change her life, how it doesn’t, and how it affects her relationships with her close friends. It’s a really interesting journey of a young surrogate. It’s very funny and it’s funnier than I’m making it sound. It’s very light too because Molly’s hilarious so it’s definitely a dramedy. Robin de Jesus plays one of her good friends and I play his tinder date who becomes his boyfriend. I sort of get sucked into the mix. My character’s name is Teddy. Teddy is sort of this sweet oblivious guy. He’s a lot like Ted on Schitt’s Creek where he’s just kind of happy to be there. They’re all kind of bickering and going through their things and Ted’s just in very short shorts on the sidelines just watching. I had a lot of fun playing that guy. He’s just sort of a lovely character. I had fun and the whole cast and crew is wonderful.

 

upfrontNY: You are an avid traveler and have been to all seven continents, what brought you to Antarctica?

Michael Judson Berry: Yes, I’m really lucky to have parents, especially my mom, is very intrepid. She made it a goal of hers to visit every continent. So, between family trips and my own travels I’ve been to the normal six and then my Mom wanted to cross Antarctica off her list. She said let’s take a family vacation to Antarctica. It was probably my favorite place I’ve ever been. It’s amazing. It’s like another planet. It’s beautiful. Our boat went through a hurricane and it almost capsized. At one point, someone almost got attacked by a seal and someone else’s small boat got a whale breached and almost landed on them. It was a very exciting trip, but it is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. I highly recommend it for people who could get down there. We went through this company called Quark. You stay on a boat, but it’s not like a cruise, it’s like an expedition boat. They take you around places for two weeks. It was great. All the guides were amazing; it was fantastic.

 

upfrontNY: Us being upfrontNY have to ask what is something you love about the area?

Michael Judson Berry: Well I grew up in Syracuse, New York in upstate and then moved out to the city. I’ve been all over, but I love how you do have very clear all four seasons. There is a solid winter, solid summer, but then have a beautiful spring and a beautiful fall. My favorite thing about living in New York is my dad used to race motorcycles so my sister and I grew up riding motorcycles with him. We grew up close to the Adirondacks and there’s nothing like going for a motorcycle ride at the end of summer/early fall and the air is just getting crisp. Going on a motorcycle ride through the Adirondacks and the smell of the leaves and the trees is just gorgeous. They look beautiful. I think that’s my favorite thing about growing up in this region.

 

upfrontNY: Is there anything you’d like to let our readers know?

Michael Judson Berry: Milkwater should be streaming soon. I just talked to the director the other day so within the next couple months it should be streaming!

 

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