Creativity, Resilience & Caffeine: Interview with Thresa Richardson
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In this episode, Jess and Heather explore the multifaceted career of Thresa Richardson, a true multi-hyphenate creative. Thresa shares her journey through various artistic roles, her experiences in the evolving landscape of vertical dramas, and the hard work that underpins her success. The discussion delves into themes of fearlessness, the importance of storytelling, and the realities of navigating the gig economy in the creative industry. Thresa emphasizes the need for resilience, the value of collaboration, and the excitement surrounding new narratives in the arts.
About Thresa Richardson
T (Thresa) is a multi-hyphenated creative force whose career spans acting, writing, directing, producing, radio, and music. She’s been immersed in the arts since childhood — from piano and choir to professional training in Hollywood. Over the years, she’s worked as an actress and lifestyle model, session vocalist, advice columnist, radio personality, filmmaker, and children’s book author.
Her work ethic was forged in indie productions, where wearing every hat taught her to be fearless and resourceful. She has written screenplays, published children’s books, directed short films, and is now developing feature films. As a radio host, “Afternoon T.,” she became known for her wit, adaptability, and connection with audiences.
Through every pivot — auditions, rejection letters, stunts, singing backup for a hair metal band, or producing documentaries — T has embodied resilience, creativity, and joy. She’s proof that a career doesn’t have to be linear, and that owning your identity as a “multi-hyphenated, slightly caffeinated” artist can lead to a life of constant reinvention.
Takeaways
Thresa Richardson embodies the spirit of a multi-hyphenate creative.
Vertical dramas are changing the landscape of storytelling.
Hard work is essential; luck is just preparation meeting opportunity.
Fearlessness is crucial in the creative industry.
Storytelling connects us and reflects the human experience.
The gig economy requires adaptability and resilience.
There's room for everyone in the creative space.
Sacrifice is often necessary to pursue your passion.
The future of the industry is bright with new stories to tell.
Collaboration is key to creating impactful narratives.
T’s Links
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Jess (00:02)
Jess for Heather.
Heather (00:03)
Go for Heather.
Jess (00:04)
Can you switch to two?
Heather (00:05)
Switching. Hey, I'm Heather. We're two multi-hyphenate creatives figuring it out in real time.
Jess (00:07)
and I'm Jess.
from on set and in the studio to deadlines, pivots, side hustles, and starting over.
Heather (00:17)
We talk about the messy, brilliant, behind-the-scenes reality of working in production, broadcast content, and everything in between.
Jess (00:24)
Tune in for fresh tea, hot takes, industry guests, and the occasional chaos.
Heather (00:29)
This is switching to the side channel for creative conversations. All right, we're on to.
Jess (00:33)
We're glad you're here.
Hi Heather. Welcome to the pod.
Heather (00:36)
Hi Jess.
Welcome to the pod.
Can I welcome you and you welcome me? that how this works? Welcome to the pod, Jess.
Jess (00:42)
Yeah, welcome me. Welcome me.
Thank you so much. I'm honored to be here today. I'm excited to be here today because we have somebody on today that is a person I've known for a long time and also somebody that is a mentor to me. Absolutely. Her name is Teresa Richardson. She is a multi hyphenated creative force whose career spans acting, writing, directing, producing,
Heather (00:50)
Yeah.
Jess (01:09)
radio and music. She's been involved in a lot of things. She's been immersed in the arts since childhood from piano and choir to professional training in Hollywood. Over the years, she's worked as an actress and lifestyle model, session vocalist, advice columnist, radio personality, filmmaker and children's book author.
Her work ethic was forged in indie productions where wearing every hat taught her to be fearless and resourceful. She's written screenplays, published children's books, directed short films, and is now developing feature radio host, afternoon tea, she became known for her wit, adaptability, and connection with audiences. Through every pivot, auditions, rejection letters, stunts, singing backup for a hair metal band or producing documentaries,
T has embodied resilience, creativity, and joy. She's proof that a career doesn't have to be linear and that owning your identity as a multi-hyphenate, slightly caffeinated artist can lead to a life of constant reinvention.
Heather (02:07)
Tea is truly a force. Like, she is the epitome of multi-hyphenate for sure. And I think just as such an inspiration to, you know, just do all of the things. Like, you don't have to limit yourself. And you can be so many different things and have different facets of your career and just keep going.
Jess (02:29)
Yeah, we're going to talk about how luck isn't always luck, it's hard work. And we're going to talk about fearlessness, we're going to talk about vertical productions.
Heather (02:38)
Article
productions, yes. We are going to chat with her with some, she just came back from a very exciting trip that we're going to chat with her about as well.
Jess (02:47)
Yeah, well, let's get into it.
Heather (02:49)
Let's do it.
Jess (02:49)
Welcome to the podcast, Teresa Richardson, better known as T in my world, but...
Thresa Richardson (02:54)
Yes, yes, which
Heather (02:55)
Welcome.
Thresa Richardson (02:57)
is as I say to everybody, it's easier because I'm a walking talking type. If you go to look my name up and it's just easier to say T. So I love that. That's how you know me.
Jess (03:06)
Yeah, it's really hard to say your full name because I've known you for, gosh, what, 12, 13 years as T. So...
Thresa Richardson (03:13)
Yes, yes.
And it's usually a salesperson that calls me and asks for me by name. So T is that's my friends. That's how I know.
Jess (03:21)
That's how you know. I tell people that too.
I'm like, my friends call me Jess. My government name and my I'm in trouble name is Jessica.
Thresa Richardson (03:30)
Yes. Yes.
Heather (03:30)
Then you know someone who's
not part of the inner circle. You're like, wait, who is this?
Thresa Richardson (03:35)
Hahaha
Jess (03:35)
Yes, yes. Well, T, we're so happy to have you on the podcast today. And before we get started, I'm so excited for all the things that we're to talk about. But I'd love for you to give a brief introduction for about who you are.
Thresa Richardson (03:47)
Yeah.
I tell everyone it's exactly what's on my business card. I'm multi hyphenated, slightly caffeinated because I've been in a creative world from the time I was a kid and I started with acting and singing and went into production and animation production first, television production. And then years later,
kind of gravitated towards some other things. You know me from radio being on microphone afternoon tea, radio personality. And then I continued in production and got involved in music videos. And I'm super proud to be a woman of a certain age who got to feature films, pushed out into the world by other ⁓ children.
And I'm also continuing on as an actress. So I wear a lot of hats. I do a lot of things. I work really hard to do them well. But so yeah, multi hyphenated, slightly caffeinated and all things creative. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. ⁓
Jess (04:57)
I love that tagline. Multi hyphenated, slightly caffeinated.
Heather (04:58)
That's so cute. Your branding is so spot on, which is great.
Jess (05:04)
And we're going to talk about your branding in a little bit because it is so good. But I want to
start, I want to start with your most recent project. You just got back from China and I, yes. And I saw your post on Instagram. I think a lot of people saw your post and a lot of people were really excited for you. There were a lot of likes, a lot of comments, and I couldn't wait to talk to you about this project. Can you, can you just, can you just tell us?
Thresa Richardson (05:15)
I did two weeks in China.
Yeah,
I'm super happy to tell you what it was, why I went. And I actually had a meeting today with an actress who said to me, what exactly did you do and how do I get involved? As an actress, I've done stage, I've done musicals, I've done television commercials, is sort of how I reintroduced myself back to the acting world. When I was young,
and you wanted a casting call at the time, a cattle call they called it, when you'd want a petite brown eyed brunette, 50,000 of us, me and my doppelgangers would show up for it, and that became very frustrating for me as an actress. So I kind of veered into production and doing other things because I just wasn't gonna keep beating my head against a wall and earn just enough money to have.
Well, ramen used to be cheap when I was young. Now it's fancy. But I used to buy a case of ramen for five bucks and I earned enough money to do that. So ⁓ when my hair turned white, I had already been doing stage and musicals and whatnot. And I was encouraged to go back to acting. So I was doing a lot of commercials. I was doing a lot of indie films. And a handful of years ago, my manager
said, hey, I'm going to send you out on something. It's a $4 billion industry in China and in South America and these other markets. I'd love for you to go out and try. They're dishy, they're soapy, they're nighttime television crazy where people are smacking one another and the storylines are someone's brother-in-law.
went with his sister and their meddling mother just wanted the baby. They're crazy, crazy soap opera storylines, but they're vertical dramas. And when people say, exactly is that? I say, well, it's sort of like a hulu in your hand. You don't have to watch it frozen to your television set. don't, but the industry's changing by the way, but you can watch it on your phone. They're serialized. Yeah.
Jess (07:36)
I see ads on TikTok all the
time and I see ripped ones on TikTok and I fall into the hole of like, I want to keep watching this.
Thresa Richardson (07:40)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Yes,
and they're cliffhangers, you know. Back in the day when film was first a thing, everybody made fun of it. ⁓ no, this is horrible and it's gonna kill live theater and they were serialized and you would go and then you'd see the end where the cowboys hanging off the cliff and you'd have to come back in a few days and they hooked you with that cliffhanger and that is what these are and they make advertisers very happy.
because print magazines and newspapers have sort of gone away. Marketing people realize that people just zip past ads or click off on their computer, et cetera, or they zone out and go to another device. These are advertisement driven. If you don't wanna pay, and people do, man, they do pay tremendous amounts to watch these programs that are broken up into anywhere from one to five minute episodes.
They get you watch a handful of ads and then you can watch content for free. And so they are a they're an interesting world in that they're shot literally vertically. This is your framing typically three two to three cameras. But the business is changing. America is getting involved. And if you Google vertical drama and look for news, you'll find articles in Rolling Stone variety.
Hollywood Reporter, Forbes and Bloomberg have started reporting on vertical dramas because they are, of all, so popular moneymakers and where a lot of people, you know, they look at it and go, it's the wicked stepchild of film and television. Well, so was so were the movies when they first started.
Everyone thought it was a horrible, horrible, shameful thing. And I've had a blast. And going to China, I went for two weeks. It was a Chinese production company. I could not have asked for a better situation. I was treated like I was the artist I believed myself to be. I've worked very hard to do and be who I am, but I also worked very hard. And today,
The person I was speaking to, said something about 12 hour days without overtime and she went, I don't want to work that. I don't want to work 12 hour days. And I go, well, then this probably isn't the world for you. You have to be willing to have a very serious mindset. You have to have a very serious work ethic. And the film crews that I've worked with, they're graduates from USC Film School, Chattanooga University, San Francisco, they're very serious.
about what they're doing, but with a sense of humor. And you have to kind of come at that as an artist too. You have to come into it saying, yeah, there's gonna be some mudslinging. I got cake thrown at me this last time because my character was, you know, humiliated. But what I love about them, for the most part, there's a handful, I've seen them, but for the most part, I've done about 14 of these. The bad guys,
In the end, do not prevail. The good guys, if they don't win, they learn a lesson. And you cheer for the people that you perceive to be the good guy or the noble person or the person with a deep moral center. And I'm not gonna lie, the ladies love the men with the shirts off playing the alpha werewolves and whatever else and gorgeous.
you know, settings and homes and clothing. It's very much like in the, I'm gonna go back even further, not just the 70s and 80s late night television where it was Nolan Miller gowns and everyone was dressed in Halston, but going back even further when film was, you'd go to the movies and you wouldn't have enough money to barely get in because of the Great Depression.
Jess (11:13)
Yeah.
Thresa Richardson (11:35)
but you watched as movie stars would glide across the screen in beautiful Rolls Royce and gowns and drinking champagne and having martinis and living this high life. And I feel like that's a lot of what people now, life is tough. The world is a dumpster fire. But look, I get to watch people wear beautiful clothes in big mansions and kind of fantasize. So that's...
in a very large nutshell is what a vertical is.
Jess (12:06)
Yeah,
verticals are so cool. I mean, I was just like, and they're making a lot of gear. I was on DJI's website this morning and they were like literally a lot of the drones are set up to film vertical, whether it's for social media or, you know, vertical dramas. Sorry, Heather, were you gonna?
Thresa Richardson (12:12)
Yes.
Yes.
Heather (12:25)
I have questions. I have questions. Okay, so you go to China to film this vertical. Are you I assume it's in English and is this for an Asian market or is this for US market?
Thresa Richardson (12:30)
Yes.
Yes, ⁓ it's
for around the world. And yes, many of them are subtitled for whatever market they're going to. Yes, it was English. The actors, by the way, were from all over. The antagonist is this lovely woman who is British, but she's been living in Istanbul for the last, I believe she said 20 years.
and they brought her in from Turkey. And there was another gentleman who was, he's originally French, he's living in Seoul, Korea. They brought him in. They brought in a phenomenal actress that I've worked with before from the United States and another actress who playing my adopted daughter, also from the US. But talent came from everywhere. It's an international production.
with a Chinese production company. The parent company was ByteDance, who owns TikTok. The production company was brought in by them and another company, their name escapes me at the moment. But I tell everyone.
I flew 20 some hours there and 20 some hours back and I could have been filming in Duarte. I could have been down in Torrance. I never saw anything except the hotel, the inside of a car, a soundstage, a location, a car, a hotel for the entire time I was there. My other actor friends who weren't on every page of a 94 page script.
They had days to go see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. And I mean, they had a blast. I'll go again. I know this is not my last visit and I was told that, and I look forward to returning and going anywhere else they film.
Jess (14:23)
⁓
Heather (14:24)
So cool.
Jess (14:25)
That's
something I tell people now. You know, I do, I've been doing a lot of traveling this year. I've been working on some projects with Heather and we've been doing a lot of traveling. And I had somebody the other day ask me, they're like, my gosh, how was, we were in Toronto. I went to Toronto and Heather had another job. So it was me and this other crew. And this person texted me and they're like, how was Toronto? And I was like,
I saw the job site, the airport, and a ⁓ Mexican restaurant. That is what I, and the hotel. Like I didn't explore. No.
Heather (14:48)
Airport.
Thresa Richardson (14:50)
Yeah, airport. It's airports. Yeah.
Yeah.
My husband and I, yeah, you don't get a chance when you're working,
it is literally nose to the grindstone. And my husband and I did a visit Napa spot and I never saw Napa. I saw the inside of my car. I saw the location. I didn't even get a real glass of wine and I had Taco Bell for dinner because we didn't wrap till 10 PM and nothing was open.
Jess (15:03)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Thresa Richardson (15:22)
and I never saw Napa, but I'm representing Napa and everyone else should visit Napa.
Jess (15:26)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Heather (15:28)
So interesting. So are you ⁓ a vertical celebrity T? Is that what I'm hearing?
Thresa Richardson (15:34)
⁓ man, you know, that would be so glorious to be known for this new art form. I actually would be very happy to rep that. I am in one of the most popular verticals on DramaBox, which is a very large platform. And we were number one for months and months. It's called the long lost heiresses return. And my husband likes to say,
Jess (15:54)
What's the film called?
Thresa Richardson (16:00)
that my character was Liam Neeson in a skirt. I was looking for my long lost daughter. She didn't know who she was. And I was willing to kick some booty to make it happen. And no one, no one was going to humiliate my daughter once I showed up on the scene. And it was wonderful. It was a wonderful, fun, crazy, silly, lots of, again, slapping, smacking, humiliation. But when it all came down to brass tacks, spoiler alert, the good guys won.
And it's currently over 200 million views right now. I believe 205 every couple of days I check and it's up a million, up a million. And I'm on a couple of other titles on Drama Box and I'm on a lot of different platforms, apps. Flare Flow is another one. It's a brand new one that merged with Serial Plus, Real Shorts.
Jess (16:36)
Wow.
Yeah.
Thresa Richardson (16:53)
I mean, a lot of different ones. So I don't, I don't know if I'm a celebrity, but I know that I work hard and I'm on a, my face is in a lot of places and I've had, yeah.
Jess (17:00)
200 million is
impressive.
Heather (17:03)
That's so, I'm like trying to do math in my head going,
okay, so, because I know different ones when it first kind of was coming on the scene, you paid for tokens or something, or you paid per, but maybe now it's more subscription based or...
Thresa Richardson (17:05)
Hahaha!
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
No, ⁓
it's both. It's token subscription and ad base. can do any or all three and people often get frustrated and then the next thing you know, they're buying the tokens to see the thing. And a lot of people I have heard from fans who cut the cord with their television and they're doing this. And so again, if you go into your search engine and you put vertical drama and look at the news,
You'll also see there are a couple of brand new ⁓ reports that some American production companies, yes Netflix, but Netflix is doing their, they're cutting their current IP to match a vertical format so you can watch Netflix in your hand. But there are production companies that are now here in America saying, hey, we wanna be a part of this. And all of the apps, for the most part, many that I work for,
They're now not just shooting vertically, they are also shooting horizontally because they are going to eventually roll out so you can see it on your iPad or your computer and ultimately on your television set. So they're going to grow it and build it. And again, I'm happy to be a part of this brand new medium in a medium that has
really been struggling. have so many friends above the line, below the line who are looking for work, looking for projects to be creative. And just like the Duplass brothers are known for, they're like, you know what? Go out and make stuff. Go out and do stuff. But the problem is you don't have everybody who's willing.
I don't wanna work that hard. I don't wanna put in the 12 hour, 14 hour, 16 hour day. it's like, you know, if you build it, I think Quibi was on the right path, but too soon, too soon. think what's happening now is people are getting a little amuse-bouche. They're getting a little appetizer of what this is.
Heather (19:06)
See
Thresa Richardson (19:16)
and this is the way to grow something. Here, taste this. Do you like it? it's good? All right, let me make you something else. you liked that? Let me try to make a main dish now. And so I think it'll grow like that.
Jess (19:27)
I think so too. think it's going to be a huge, I mean, it's already huge. 200 million, 200 million. Like think, think about a venue. Think about it. Yeah. Think about a venue that 200 people, 200 million people can sit in. Like I dare you.
Thresa Richardson (19:31)
It's already huge. It is. Yeah.
Heather (19:32)
Yeah. Just one piece of content. Yeah.
Thresa Richardson (19:41)
That's, that's, can't, can't
even comprehend that. But
Jess (19:45)
And NT,
you are, I want to talk about hard work because you are one of the hardest workers I know. And whatever anybody asks, whenever you are on a project, whether you're a volunteer or you're working on it, I mean, you helped me for over a year on a passion project that all culminated and it was into this amazing event and.
I'm forever grateful for that. I just, whenever I think of you, I think of a hard worker. And, and I think we were talking the other day about how you had posted about this Instagram post. You had this Instagram post about your project and you were going to China and somebody posted that you were lucky.
Thresa Richardson (20:13)
Thank you.
Yeah. Yeah, I read that and I went, ⁓ man, this is one of those moments where you want to respond and go, that's cute that you think that, but I've worked hard for this. I am lucky in that, again, that famous phrase, ⁓ luck is preparation meets opportunity.
And I have been working and preparing and putting in the hours and the sweat and the tears, lots and lots and lots of tears to get to do the things that I am working on. I think I have on my desk, I have every audition in a year that I've done so that I
Jess (21:12)
Bring out the binder.
Bring out the binder. Bring it out.
Thresa Richardson (21:13)
bring out the binder. right,
so here's one of the binders. So this is my commercial binder.
Jess (21:21)
For anybody who's listening and can't see the video, this binder, it's like a three inch thick binder, four inch thick binder, it's huge.
Heather (21:24)
It's huge. It's-
Thresa Richardson (21:26)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Heather (21:29)
also love that you turned
Thresa Richardson (21:29)
And it's full.
Heather (21:30)
it out because a lot of actors just put it in a spreadsheet, but I feel like the tangible nature of it, like you can actually see, ⁓ the work.
Thresa Richardson (21:34)
Yeah
I have both
and the reason I have the printout is because when I'm doing my auditions, I do like having the paper in front of me. What's the synopsis? What's my character? Even for commercial, that's my commercial binder, but my theatrical binder, I make notes to myself and I do character prep even for a commercial where I know that.
My husband laughs. There are many commercials where you're not asked to do dialogue. You're not a spokesperson. You're not coming up going, hey, I'm going to be the next Flo. You literally get an audition that says, we want you to stare at the camera for three seconds. Give us a smile, no teeth. Give us a smile with teeth. Give us warm. My favorite one to date was we would like to see warm joy and then take a moment.
and give us warm pride. Wait, what? well, okay, warm joy and warm pride. Those are my two choices. And I had to like basically do this, no dialogue. That's it, that was my audition. So I have to sit down and I have to say to myself, well, what does that even look like? I've got two kids. What would be a moment of warm joy? Not exhilarated joy, not...
just straight up joy joy, but warm joy. Warm pride was easier. So I make notes, I do this. It also gives me an opportunity to say, I did that. Now I don't get all of those jobs. I surely don't get all those jobs, but there are a lot that I do. And it helps me appreciate how hard I had to work for the handful of jobs I got.
Same thing with vertical. I have a three inch binder of theatricals. I audition for television shows. I audition for indie films. I audition for big films and I audition a lot for verticals. So I go through and I write down my notes. I write down my character thoughts. I write down clothing, you know. So I work really hard for each and every single thing I do. And then when I get the job,
If you thought I worked hard for the audition, I show up with a smile on my face and I don't care how long the hours are. I don't care how awful the, I think the outfits are or ill-fitting the wardrobe is. I don't care if they put me in a wig. I don't care if I look ridiculous. If I pass a mirror and go, holy crap. All right, you know, let's put that out into the world.
And I joke, my husband will say, well, you'll look good for the award ceremonies. You'll look good for the screening. I look good for my husband. I look good for my images with my family. I don't care what I look like when I'm working as an actress. And I bring to the table everything I've ever done and prepared for. So luck.
is just that the right director or the right casting director pulled me in because my manager thought I should be submitted for that. Then it's the director says, yes, I would like to work with this woman. And then sometimes it's the client with verticals. It's not just the director. The client has to like me too. So yes, I was lucky in that all of the fates came together that I was that person.
But I never think of it as glib or flip, and maybe this person didn't mean it like that. But I never think I'm lucky. I think I was just fortunate to be the right person for that particular job. And then I go into it going, ⁓ man, I hope I can deliver what they want. And then I, and every minute, every moment, I'm listening, I'm...
hearing about the camera turnarounds. I'm listening to, and in China that was challenging. And at one point the DP came over to me and he said, you speak Chinese? And I said, no, but I speak camera angles and I am never not listening to hear what I think the next setup is. Okay, where am I going to be? I'm never not working when I'm working. That's critically important to me. I'm not off looking at my phone. I'm not off checking out crafty table, mostly because the pants need to fit. That's a thing.
but I just am never not working. And that's important to me. your statement means a lot to me because it is what I base my reputation and who I am as a person and how I make my way in the world that's critically important. So thank you for recognizing that and making the comment.
Jess (26:22)
Absolutely. And I
mean, I have so much respect for you. And you've been a person who has supported me through all of my pivots. And I know that you're a person who's done a lot of pivots. And also, you're a person who
Thresa Richardson (26:31)
Yeah
And pivots are important! Yeah.
Jess (26:47)
We were talking the other day about fearlessness and I was thinking about it as I was writing our questions and I was thinking about the times when the word fearlessness came to mind. And I remember times when when I was in Pivot and and you were there and I was like, T, I don't know what to do. Like you, you'd give me advice. You'd support me through it. And I was thinking about it this morning. I was
Thresa Richardson (26:57)
Mm.
Jess (27:11)
interviewing for with a new client. And I was so nervous. And I was like, just be fearless, like T just it's fine. Just be fearless, figure it out. Like I want you to talk I know fearless list. Fearlessness is a theme for you. So can can you talk a little bit about that?
Thresa Richardson (27:16)
you
⁓ just yeah.
It is, yeah.
Yeah, you know, I equate it, I tell people I am fearless, but it doesn't mean I'm not frightened. There are things that I absolutely am, I'm frightened that I'm not gonna be able to learn as much as I need to know. I'm not gonna be able to do the thing. And I once heard a man speak, it was probably 20,
maybe 30 years ago, he was an author and he was speaking and he said he went into an animation company and interviewed for a job and then he realized, I'm not the right person for this job. But he was already there and they were asking him things like, can you do this? And he said, and I needed a job. And I just said, yes. He said, but he was taking copious notes and that was on a Friday, Thursday or Friday.
And then he went to the Los Angeles library downtown and he stayed there from opening until closing. And then he took books home and he studied in a way he had never crammed before in his life. So that when he showed up on Monday, he knew just enough to be dangerous. And he learned on the job. And I thought, well, one that took some major like guts and, and, and.
How arrogant are you? But then I thought, it's also really brilliant. And I've said over and over and over, I surround myself with people who are smarter than me, but I will never be the dumbest person in the room. And I will go and I will learn. And my God, the internet has been such a godsend because much like that man, I'd go to the library. When my son was diagnosed with autism, you've never met a person more frightened than that.
than that mother who got that diagnosis and thought, well, I've never done this before. And I went to the library because the internet was still kind of a baby. And I read until my eyes bled. And I learned as much as I could about everything I could about this neurological disorder. And as a result, I became very well versed in what was happening with my son. And I take that into everything I do.
Yes, I'm a little bit afraid. Yes, I'm terribly nervous, but I am fearless in that I say, you know what? I'm doing this. And I also have a little bit of a one of my favorite memes I've ever read was, underestimate me. That'll be fun because I'm not going to be the person with egg on her face. I'll learn as much as I can to bring as much of it as I can to the table. So I...
I'm fearless in that I don't fully care what other people, other people's opinion of me is not my business. I don't care if they think I'm not tall enough, thin enough, pretty enough, whatever the labels they wanna put on me so that I can't do a job or a thing. All right, let me prove you wrong. And I think my fearlessness comes a little bit from that is I refuse to not
try and I can be afraid later. Let me just try and I just have to go past it and I do. go head first into the buzzsaw on many occasions because it's like, well, like my husband says, honey, all they can do is tell you no, they can't eat you. All right, then let me try. Let me try.
Heather (30:47)
That's incredible. I think there's so many things that we conjure up in our minds of like, like you just said, well, what are, what are you afraid of? What are they going to do? And then we really logically think about it, go tell us no. you know, we sort of were this, this unknown thing that could, could happen. And I think to also to your point of like, what are we actually afraid of? Because I think in many instances we're actually maybe more afraid of
What if this does go right? What if this person says yes? What if I get this job? my god. I think that sometimes there is fear within that. And that's what keeps us sometimes, it's comfy to stay where we are.
Thresa Richardson (31:15)
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Jess (31:17)
Yeah.
Thresa Richardson (31:24)
yes.
It is
so comfy to not risk everything that you think you know about you and your existence. And I hear like a lot of actresses that I know, they lose jobs because they don't wanna say no to the birthday party or they don't wanna say, ooh, or they don't wanna wear that outfit. There's also fear.
Heather (31:34)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Thresa Richardson (31:54)
of literally being outside of your physical comfort zone because they're going to make you look different than you are. And you have to be prepared for that. And you have to be willing to say, I am okay with this. I will own whatever this is and whatever you've done to me. Yeah, I'm doing this. And you can't be that afraid. And to what you said, what are we really afraid of?
that job in China. It's a very thin edge that I'm perched upon. If I don't get it, yeah, I'm afraid of failure. ⁓ man, I came this far and I didn't get it. But on the other side of that was, what if I do get this job? I gotta make plans now for someone to watch my animals. I have to be on an airplane for 20 plus hours and I don't even know the last time I...
I did something even that adventurous. And then I'm going someplace where I do not speak the language and I do not... The success was just as scary, really, as the failure. They both had equal weight. And then when it was all said and done...
I sat in the car with my son driving me home going, I can't believe I was just in China, because that happened. I was so busy, I almost didn't really get to appreciate, pardon me, what had happened. But it was, both were frightening, both. But you just say yes, as my husband says, say yes to the dress. Let them tell you no. Just say yes, try. Okay, here we are, I did it.
Heather (33:35)
you're saying all this to you and it's, you know, making me like, we really have to, I think, remind ourselves constantly. I don't know if you have to, of like, why am I doing this? Like, what is, through all of this, what is the thing for you that keeps you coming back to this? Because at the end of the day, you know, you can't care about what other people think and you can't care about if someone tells you no, it's all just opinions.
Thresa Richardson (33:45)
Yes.
⁓
Yes.
Heather (34:00)
What's
the thing that keeps you coming back? Because I think all artists have it.
Thresa Richardson (34:05)
What drives me is one, it's multi-pronged. One is you're only as good as your next job. And my husband will tell you that about day two after I come off a project, I am despondent. Well, now what am I gonna do? I don't have anything on the books. I can't stand that sensation. Busy is my favorite gear. The other thing is there is something,
I love people and I love the human experience. A friend, one of my closest friends made me a necklace that says it's about the story. Every moment I am awake, every heartbeat I have is about a story. It's about learning someone else's story. It's about, and I get that opportunity when I'm on set, whether I'm in front of the camera or behind the camera.
everyone who is there from the person doing crafty to the person who's directing. I kind of want to know their story. Who are you? Why are you here? You're fascinating. You know, what was it? How far did you drive today? I love the stories. I think at the top of the mountain, the thing that drives me is I like inhabiting other characters.
I like doing the thing that elicits either a laugh or an emotional response or even if it's a negative response. I helped do that through the huge organism that is a production from the person who conceptualized
the person who wrote the script and came up with the dialogue, to the person who did the set design and saw that writer's image in their heart, in their eyes, the person who directs it because this is what he hears. And it's amazing to me when you get a good director who really likes the material, even in a vertical man, my last director was a master of pulling out the meaning behind the words and it was a joy.
to be his vessel and all of these other people. Telling the story, telling, and again, changing someone's heart or mind about something. If I can be a part of that, I wanna do that. I am maybe not the person to get up at a podium and tell someone, hey, I'm gonna give you my beliefs. I'm gonna give you my opinions. I don't know that.
That is where I see myself. But if I can do that through a character, even if it's those few moments in that crazy commercial, expressing warm joy and warm pride and someone watches that commercial, even that story. In fact, my favorite, I told someone one of my favorite commercials many, years ago, they called me and I was at home and I was crying and they go, what's happening? And I go.
Someone's grandpa is working at McDonald's. It was a 30 second commercial. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end. And the story was that someone's grandpa got a job working at McDonald's and it wrecked me. And I thought that is the beauty of storytelling, whether it's a short, tiny snippet, if it's a meme on Instagram, I got to be a part of that story. got, and so that's what drives me.
is the human condition and everyone's experience because everyone is different. We're not. So I tell my kids when I was little, I never understood race being an issue or color because if you've ever peeled away your skin, you know what we are underneath? We're all little, you know, pink planets. We're these very,
easy to destroy pink planets. And we bring that every day. And we all are basically the same with some differences. And isn't that the best story ever?
Jess (37:59)
Speaking of story, I want to talk a little bit more about your story getting to the point where you are today. So you've been in the arts since you were a kid and you play multiple instruments. You've taken acting classes singing and you've taught classes. Do you remember the first time you thought?
Thresa Richardson (38:05)
Yeah. Yeah.
do.
Yeah.
Jess (38:19)
This isn't just like a hobby. is who I am. This is who I wanna be.
Thresa Richardson (38:24)
Yeah, as a child, I have sort of a very, like many, I'm not special, but I have a very complicated story. I was adopted into a family that I was kind of a black market baby. I was paid for, private adoption. And then they were divorced, that couple, by the time I was a year and a half old.
She went and remarried and theirs was a very tumultuous, insane relationship. And my adopted mother's husband had a sister that went, we'll take the baby. You don't need a baby. And she became involved in my life from the time I was two. And I used to go visit them every summer vacation, winter vacation, Easter vacation, sometimes on weekends, because my grandpa.
was also part of that time in my life. And they were, I started playing piano at three. I went into a mall and they were selling an organ called the octagon. And I went up and I knew just a little bit about music and I started playing it and a crowd gathered around me and I thought at three, well, this was fun. And then I started taking piano lessons.
And then I started singing. And then when I went to visit those relatives in LA every summer vacation, winter vacation, they were busy and they didn't always have time for me. So they took me to the Lee Strasburg Institute and they had a youth program and they put me in classes. And it was very intense. But it was then that I thought, people do this.
for more than just gathering the crowd at the mall around the octagon. But I like the way this feels. And then I went to the High School of Performing Arts. It was a place called the Hollywood Professional School, which is no longer. And after that came Laksa, but this is before there was such a thing. We were the sister school to the one in New York. And I took music, continued music, voice lessons, acting, dance.
And then I studied with private teachers. I studied opera and was told that I really, was a lyric soprano. I should be doing that. Well, that's very competitive, but I started doing session work while I was still in high school. Commercials, songwriters demos, publishing demos, et cetera. And then I got just enough in my life where I, like I said, I earned enough money to have
⁓ ramen in my fridge or in my cabinets and I thought, I'd like to do something else. And then I got into production, animation production. And then we pivoted to do some television, game show type stuff and a pilot for a series. And then that company ultimately closed.
and I was licensing person before we ended and that was amazing. And again, I learned everything I could so that I could be part of the licensing team. And then I don't know, production. love organization. And again, the story that comes from being organized and production really, really, really spoke to me. And I think that's why as an actress, I still, I'm listening to everything production lies. So I did that.
And then I had my daughter and I was playing piano here at home. I'd stopped working a couple, just literally a couple of months before and a neighbor came by and knocked on the door and said, is that you playing? And I said, yes. She goes, will you teach my daughters? And I go, well, I'm not really a teacher. And she goes, well, that's okay. You know how to play. And I said, well, yes. She goes, well, you should be able to tell them what you know.
⁓ Okay, so I started with two piano students and again it was the kind of thing where I went down to the library and I thought, okay, how do I do this? How do I structure this? How do I, I know how to teach, I know how to make music interesting, I know how to convey my knowledge, but how do I do that for a child? And then over a 20 year span, I worked with kids as their piano coach. I told every parent I know, hey listen,
I'm not making a conservatory student out of your child. You need to hear my words. I can teach them Beethoven. I can teach them. play classical. But what I will promise is that I can give your child a love and appreciation of music. But if you want conservatory kids and you want kids that are going to go on to Carnegie Hall, good night and good luck. I'm not your person. And I had a really amazing 20 years.
of working with these kids, everything from piano to guitar. That's my other favorite story. had a mom go, can you play guitar? And I said, well, yeah, rudimentary guitar. And she's like, can you teach my son? And I said, I, no, I'm not that good of a guitarist. I played a lot of things. I played violin, I played flute, I played a lot of instruments. I'm not a guitar teacher. And she's like, well, I'll tell you what.
I'll pay for you to go to guitar lessons and as long as you are two lessons ahead of my son, you're his teacher. And I thought, well, why don't you just take him to the guitar teacher and not me? And she says, well, we like you. And I said, that's a heck of a testimony. yeah, so I taught that and musical theater and acting.
Jess (43:47)
Aww. Hey T, T I'm gonna
Thresa Richardson (43:50)
But so I taught kids for 20 years, music, piano, guitar. I worked with them in musical theater and then with actually, with acting. And then I was doing musical theater myself. I did a lot of ⁓ shows. I did Hairspray where I was Velma Von Tussle. I did Footloose. I did...
some Annie being a Hanigan. did You're in Town the musical where I was Pennywise, best little whorehouse in Texas. As I was doing theater, I got involved in an immersive theater production and one of my favorite actresses was a woman in her eighties, her early eighties. And she says, who's representing you, darling? And I said, nobody. She's like, you're coming with me to meet my agent. Who does that? Nobody does that.
People in Hollywood, I asked somebody once, hey, who's your husband's representative? And I know that she wasn't going to share that. It's like, we're not going after the same jobs. just, I'm curious. I can look him up on IMDB, you know? people don't do that. And yet she was so gracious and giving. And that was another big lesson for me is that I know this inherently.
but she was the embodiment of there's room for everybody at the table. And I try to do the same now as an actress, if people wanna know anything about what I do, who reps me, what class is, what I'm involved in, come on, I'll go to, that's the caffeinated part of me. I say, come, let's go to coffee or tea and I'll tell you everything you wanna know. Because there's room for everybody at the table.
Jess (45:23)
I want to talk about, you've had so many accomplishments. You were so successful. You're an actress, you're a writer, you're a director, you're a producer, are a radio personality, a vocalist, a musician. You are multi-hyphenated and slightly caffeinated.
Thresa Richardson (45:27)
Ha
you
And I get bored easily.
I get bored easily because even when I'm in between things, I am always working on something, a new production, a new whatever. I do get bored easily, but ⁓ successes.
Jess (45:50)
Yeah.
How did you,
yeah, how did you not, I guess you answered my question, which is like, how did you not pick one lane? Because I think so many people, you and I were talking about this, what, six months ago? I was like, I don't know what I'm doing with my life, to be super blunt and honest. I was like, you know, a lot of people are asking me, what is my next career step?
Thresa Richardson (46:02)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah,
Jess (46:15)
What like who are you working for? You should apply for
Thresa Richardson (46:15)
you know what? It's... Yeah.
Jess (46:18)
this. You should apply for that and
Thresa Richardson (46:19)
You know,
I can tell you just that if you look at any career of some of the greatest men in Hollywood, nobody told them to pick a lane. One of our actors went on to become a president. And I have noticed in my long life that nobody ever tells the men.
you were an actor and you did this. now you want to produce. You can't do that. Yeah, but he's doing it. you produced and you were an actor and now you want to direct. You can't do that. Nobody told him that. He's doing it. you want to move on and be a teacher or a speaker or go on tour to tell people what you've done. You can't do that. Nobody told him that. And I feel like I wasn't going to be that.
Jess (46:54)
Yeah.
Well, the other thing that,
yeah, and I was so grateful for that, that you passed down that advice to me. And the other thing that you advised me was how hard it is for so many people that are not in this industry to understand what gig work is like.
Thresa Richardson (47:22)
No, no. And they want stability and they want you to have the 401k. And I have a very, very dear friend. She and her husband are in the industry and in different capacities for decades upon decades. And that is for them too. They had relatives who were like, I don't know, I think you should do this, that and the other.
I feel like the gig mentality is the closest I can give it to some people. It's like if you're a salesman and you're a really good salesman and then you decide you don't want to sell widgets anymore because they're pennies on the dollar and you decide, okay, well, you know what, maybe I'll try selling clothing.
And that's great. But now you're only making a little more money. And then you decide, you know what? I'm going to become a realtor because I can make really big money on a house. Yeah, but how many houses do you sell in a year? Yet there's tremendous respect for someone who's in the realty game. Okay, great. But I feel like gig mentality is like being a salesman. And ultimately, I tell people
Well, you don't look sideways at the person who sold you your house, do you? They don't do that every day. They don't do that every week. They don't do that even sometimes every month. I do what I do because I love it. And yeah, eventually I'll have another project and then I'll have another project. And I'm always, always willing. I'm also not the actress, by the way. I know I have other peers.
who will say things like, no, I'll only do a co-star or starring role. I worked too hard to do anything less than that. I'm like, nah, not me. I love what I do. And I will be the non-talking woman in the commercial and I will be the day player who comes in and says two lines and changes everyone's life. I'm just happy to be there. I'm happy to be a new character. And I'm not always gonna sell a house. Maybe today I sell a condo.
So, it is very hard, but this is also paramount to the concept that you don't live your life to please other people. You can't. You just can't because you're always going to let them down. But when you go to bed at night and you put your head on the pillow, whether someone's there or not, you're about to close your eyes and you have to ask yourself,
Was I a good person? Did I try to make somebody's life happier or better today that I smile at the person who checked out my groceries? Did I wish them the best day ever? And was I as successful as I can be in the endeavors I was able to take on today? Even though I might've missed some of the, I didn't get everything done. Yeah, but I got a lot done and I feel good about that. That's it, you're done. You're spending the next.
Hopefully eight hours, four hours, whatever you get with you, not them. The sooner you learn to turn the volume down on other people's opinions and they're allowed to have them. Mel Robbins says it best, let them, but then you, what do you do with that? Yeah, you wanna have an opinion about me? Go ahead, but I'm kinda gonna tune you out. You don't need to tell them that, but you need to tell yourself.
It doesn't matter what they think because someday it's not going to be the pillow on my bed. It'll be the pillow and a casket. And will I have lived my life with their opinion? You cannot do that. So start with your pillow and tell yourself, I feel good about who I was today, what I did, and I'm going to face tomorrow with such enthusiasm and maybe a second cup of coffee.
and maybe talk to my friends who get me. That's the other thing. You've got to have a support system, whether that's your girlfriends, your partner, your therapist, your barista. If somebody in your life supports you and what you do, seek them out. I'm having kind of a crappy day. I don't really know.
how to get past this feeling. You know what? I love you and I think you're great and I think you're perfect and you just do you boo boo. And maybe you look at that five times in a day and go, somebody believes in me. I gotta believe in myself as much as they believe in me. And I think that's important.
Heather (51:48)
That's so important. This is like so wild to me to think about all of this because I think in our society, there are so many of these like norms of, well, you have to do the safe thing or the sure thing. we saw during, so unfortunately during the pandemic, people who were at jobs for 10, 20, 30 years, they were let go. know Jim Carrey says in the sort of like famous speech,
I know if you guys have heard it where he says, I guess his father wanted to be a comedian. And he said, well, he could have given a great comedian, but he didn't believe that that was possible for him. So he made the choice to be an accountant. And then when Jim was 12 years old, he was let go from that job. And he told Jim, know, and so their family had to do whatever they needed to do to survive. And obviously we know where Jim Carrey ended up, but it's do the thing that makes you happy because there is no sure thing, right? So the only sure thing is to make yourself.
Thresa Richardson (52:41)
Yeah
Heather (52:43)
Happy and fulfilled.
Thresa Richardson (52:43)
And
do the thing that makes you happy, but you have to be really brutally honest with yourself. Are you good at the thing that makes you happy? Are you willing to do the work to be better at the thing that makes you happy? Are you willing to sacrifice and eat the cheap food until you are able to pay for something better to do the thing?
Heather (52:54)
That's true.
Thresa Richardson (53:10)
that makes you happy? Are you willing to sacrifice the birthday parties, the anniversaries, the vacations, the whatever it is, fill in the blank that everyone's pressuring you to do so that you can do the thing that makes you happy? Because if you do the thing that everyone else expects of you and you go to the birthday party, you do the vacation, it's like, ⁓ you missed the opportunity.
to a thing that makes you happy. If you are not willing to sacrifice to eat scraps or go hungry, then no, you're not doing the thing that makes you happy because there's not a lot of money in the thing. I think sometimes you hear the phrase, do what you love and the money will follow. Yeah, somebody left out a really big chapter about do what you love, do it every day.
until your fingers bleed. It's like playing guitar. Guitar is not an easy instrument. No instrument is easy, but guitar in particular, as far as I am concerned, is a torture device because you have to play for at least a month of calluses and bleeding before you can play guitar. It's hard. And I think that is a perfect metaphor for do what you love and the money will follow. Be prepared, man, for the rest of that drama.
that's going to follow.
Jess (54:35)
And I think that was just, that was beautiful, T. Everything that you just said right now was beautiful. And I'm just kind of simmering on it. And I'm wondering, before we wrap, just want to know, are there any projects that are upcoming for you that you want to share or anything that you're really excited about with our industry right now?
Thresa Richardson (54:38)
Hahaha
Aww.
Ew.
⁓ as far as projects, I heard someone very wise, wiser than me and half my age, say, no, I'm not going to tell you what project I'm working on in case it doesn't happen. So I do have a couple of, irons in the fire of projects that I are personal projects that I'm working on. so the better, the better question to answer is what am I excited about for our industry?
I am excited about the idea that the industry is being challenged to open its mind. I'm excited about the stories that need to be told that are maybe just now being written because of what's happening in our world all around us. This is where things happen, where hearts are
and minds are changed through the stories more than everything else we could possibly do. I'm excited about the songs that are going to be written by people who are cracked open raw from a lot of things that have occurred. I'm excited about the collaborations that are going to happen for people who didn't think they'd be working together.
but they're going to come together to tell the stories that need to be told. I'm really excited about certain groups of people that I am seeing more and more of their stories rising to the top. And I'm thrilled for that. So I think I'm just, excited for, I know there's a lot to be afraid of, but all right, great. We're always going to be afraid because fear sells.
but there's also a lot to look forward to.
Jess (56:38)
On that note, thank you so much, T, for being on our podcast today. We appreciate you so much.
Thresa Richardson (56:41)
Thank you for it.
Heather (56:42)
Thank you, T. Where can people
find you? Are you on Instagram, your website? Like, where can people connect with you?
Thresa Richardson (56:47)
Yeah,
I'm on Instagram, but the fastest way to find me because my name is a typo is my website, is afternoon tea, just the letter, not the drink, not the car, just tea, afternoontea.co.
Jess (57:04)
Fantastic. Thank you so much, T. We appreciate you being on the podcast today.
Thresa Richardson (57:07)
Thank you ladies.
Thank you so much.
Jess (57:11)
All right, that's the show for today. But before we switch back, we want to remind you.
Heather (57:16)
Subscribe to the pod, very important. We say this again, subscribe, subscribe, please. It helps us a lot. And you're going to be the first to know about new episodes and all of the things. Follow us on social and get on our mailing list.
Jess (57:30)
Thanks for listening to Switching Two. It's hosted and edited by Heather Kate Duncan and Jess Boyer. Original music by Top Flow courtesy of the Pixabay Royalty Free Music Library. Recorded on location in Los Angeles, California. Follow us on social at SwitchingTwoPod.
Heather (57:47)
Show notes and transcripts can be found at SwitchingTwoPod.com.
