Written By: Jayme Face
New York’s own Ellen Adair does it all! She runs a theatre company, she has a book of poetry coming out this fall and you can see her on this season of the very popular show The Sinner!
Photo Credit: Ambe J. Photography
upfrontNY: Can you tell us about season 2 of The Sinner and your character Bess Mcteer?
Ellen Adair: The second season is similarly built around a murder. You find out quickly in the first episode that that happened, you know who did it, but you just don’t know why. So, Bess is one of the two people who dies in the very first episode of the second season and then this season is sort of about revealing why that is.
upfrontNY: Now, Bess is a complete shift from your character on Homeland, what is it like going from opposite characters and how do you prepare for each?
Ellen Adair: Oh, it was the most fun that I’ve had in my life going from two really fun shows and two really different characters. The one way I always prepare is I watch the show, as much of it as there is to watch. I sort of figure out what is the world of this show, what is the pace like and what are the kind of human beings who populate that show. So, when I was thinking about Janet I was definitely excited about the fact that Homeland is sort of a world built upon women who are very powerful, know what they want and don’t mind breaking some rules to go after that. I felt that I could step into the role of Janet as a powerful person who knew what she wanted. She has strong opinions about it and didn’t have to have any kind apologies for it. That was really fun.
I re-watched the first season of The Sinner around the audition and then again when I found out I was lucky enough to get to do the show and what struck me was the pace and how much everybody had to say that they can’t say. Everything can take as much time as it wants to take and that was something that I was thinking about going into the audition because of course the audition sides were really only a small chunk of who Bess actually was. We had a day of rehearsal, which you don’t always have, before we ever started shooting. It was partly to figure out what we were going to do for the death scene which is like a dance number and also to just talk about who are we actually and how did we get here. Some of that information I still can’t share because it will still be revealed in the second half of the episodes that haven’t aired yet. However, we already know that Bess and Adam are not Julian’s parents as it appears, but that they all live together at this commune that is led by Vera, Carrie Coon’s character. We have found out already that Bess has been at the commune for a really long time. It was her home so that was something that I was thinking about a lot. Antonio Campos, the director and one of the masterminds behind seasons one and two, and I were constantly in conversation about the fact that I was really leaving my home. I was leaving this place where I had belonged for a while.
upfrontNY: You run a theatre company here in New York, can you tell us more about that?
Ellen Adair: Yeah! I’d love to! So, this is just a few years ago I kind of felt like I’ve been doing this long enough that I have some opinions on how to make theatre, not just sort of participate in it. That was my personal reason, but very much the idea behind the theatre is that it is a very actor driven company. The first production that we did was As You Like It and it was just a seven-person production so there was a lot of doubling. We didn’t have an outside director so it was very much about the ensemble working together. Because we had a shorter rehearsal process, two of the members and my husband sort of took the lead on doing the dirty work, basically the stuff that was less fun, but also doing stuff like setting the parameters of the world and what we’re trying to tell. We wanted to be able to create a space in which the actors have a larger voice, actors are collaborative and hear what ideas the actors have and what the actors have to say. We are creating a space where the actors are driving the productions.
upfrontNY: Do you still take the stage?
Ellen Adair: I love to take the stage. I have not done a play in 2018, but I did two in 2017. I did a production of Constellations at the St. Louis Repertory Theatre with my husband; that was fun. And then I did a world premiere of some uncovered works by this Irish playwright Teresa Deevy at the Mint Theatre, off- Broadway. I love to do theatre as well, but I’m not leaving town as often to do theatre anymore. I have been focusing on TV; more TV opportunities have been coming my way recently than theatre.
upfrontNY: What direction do you see New York film and theatre going in the future?
Ellen Adair: There has been a lot more television in New York. When I first moved to New York there was a good deal, but there is so much more now. There’s just been so much more television produced in general. I feel like TV is like taking over the world. That said we see fewer film productions than television at this point and tons of theatre. I feel New York is one of the theatre capitals of the country and arguably the world. It is always going to be a good experience for human beings. The more the world becomes digital to sit down in a room with other people communally witnessing an event, it’s not something that can be replaced. Sports are kind of the same, it’s different when you are in that place seeing that event.
upfrontNY: Speaking of sports, where did your love of baseball come from?
Ellen Adair: It’s unhealthy. My parents are both big baseball fans, so I was raised on the religion of baseball. I love and will watch any baseball game. I will totally nerd out about players that I love on any given team, but I always say that the Phillies are my life partner. Which is true. I actually went to a game last night and it was the nineteenth game I went to this year. That gives you some idea on the level of my unhealthy love of baseball. It was great because I got to see Aaron Nola who is just one of my favorites. I got to see him pitch three times this year which is superb because he is the best in my opinion. He is the best baseball player in major league baseball according to Wins Above Replacements as of right now. And I have a huge crush on Rhys Hoskins!
upfrontNY: Can you tell us about your short Sins of the Son?
Ellen Adair: Sins of the Son is basically about a boxer kind of coming to terms with his relationship with his father. I play the sort of an unorthodox therapist, not extremely unorthodox, but you know she’s a little feisty. That was really fun, a lot of talented people involved in that project and that was just in May we shot that.
upfrontNY: Can you tell us about Domestic Partners?
Ellen Adair: Domestic Partnersis sort of a romantic comedy web series. It’s about the relationship between two roommates. One of the roommates decides they should go to couples’ therapy because they’ll get paid to be part of some couples’ therapy study. The man in this is an actor, he’s broke and he needs the money. They do this thing where they pretend to be married for the therapist, plus you know work on their relationship issues. It’s a very funny series. It was a blast to work on.
upfrontNY: You have a book of poetry coming out this fall called Curtain Speech, how did that come about and can you tell us a bit about it?
Ellen Adair: I think I just started in college. I have a B.A. in English and Theatre. I read a lot of poetry as part of my English major. I think it just came out as a natural byproduct. When I started, I thought my focus would be something kind of theatrical. I took a bunch of Shakespeare classes. I had a wonderful professor; shout out to Professor Stauffer who made me love the English romantic poets. So, I ended up focusing on them and ended up writing a bunch of poetry on them in college. That’s actually how I got connected to my publisher. It’s a press in Boston so, it’s through the literary community at Boston University that I sort of made that connection which is lucky and lovely. The book itself are poems about being an actor and the theatre, but they’re mostly about the relationship between the actor and the character. A lot of them I would say are love poems that I wrote to some of my characters.
NYC FAVORITES
New York restaurant: So, the place I go the most often is OBAO. There’s one in Hell’s Kitchen and one on the East Side. I could just eat Vietnamese food every day!
New York City spot: Citi Field
Favorite season in New York City: Summer
Favorite place in New York City for inspiration: Central Park. It’s amazing that it exists, the green heart in the machine of New York. And I love taking the Staten Island Ferry!
Favorite thing about New York City: Humanity, the people. I love the diversity of New York that’s what makes New York feel like home. I grew up traveling a lot. New York feeling like it belongs to the world makes it feel like home to me. I love being in the middle of people. Sitting on the train, seeing people. Like I don’t know this person and I’m never going to see them again, but they have a whole life and I wonder what that is.
Follow Ellen Adair!
Instagram: @ellenadairg
Twitter: @ellen_adair
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