Interview: English Bernhardt

English Bernhardt didn’t expect to be called up from a standby for the roles of Cady Heron, Regina George, or Janis Sarkisian, but she was absolutely prepared to be. 

The actor has been performing since she was a young girl, with her first lead role being Annie at Raleigh’s North Carolina Theatre. Many characters later (Natalie in Next to Normal; Eponine in Les Miserables; and Evita in Mistress), she’s returning to the spotlight, this time as protagonist Cady in Mean Girls, which runs Tuesday, May 24-Sunday, May 29, at the Peace Center.

Being Bernhardt’s first national tour, Asheville Stages was delighted to chat with her about the surprise promotion, the differences between behind-the-scenes roles, theater connections coming around in unexpected ways, and her history with the film on which her current production is based.

…on her early memories of Mean Girls

I have one older brother, Chase, and he loved it. He thought it was so funny and so smart and well-written, and it just always made me laugh. My brother is very much into sci-fi movies and these ones that just bend your brain in ways that you don't understand, o I remember being like, “OK, great! Let's watch it.” It felt like one thing on TV that we could agree on. Normally, I would want to watch the rom-coms and he would roll his eyes. For him to love Mean Girls seems so funny to me because it's such a different dynamic and category of film, but he loved it. 

My first memory is watching it with him. But then it's one of those that I feel was always in everyone's lives, and you don't even realize it but you can quote it. I'll cook dinner and just keep it on in the background.

…on the film’s influence in our culture 

I think it speaks to Tina Fey's talent and how brilliant the writing is and how it still holds up. It's so funny, and the way she wrote this musical and adapted it to be a little bit more modern and use technology like we do in this day and age is really incredible to see. 

The fan base who still come out and still wear their pink and still just die for this show is incredible, because it makes you realize it was a part of all of our lives and we did all watch this movie — and still do. And it still makes you laugh and teaches you a lesson at the end. It has heartbreak, love, conflict, and it's really incredible to see how it’s stood the test of time and people still love it. We all feel the same in the cast.

…on her favorite lines in the show 

“She doesn't even go here,” always gets a lot of attention. The crowd loves it. I love that. It's just so dry. It's so Damien. It's so short, but it’s so funny and the timing and the way that Eric [Huffman], who plays Damien, delivers it is just brilliant.

…on which characters she would have been friends with

I always would get assigned a buddy to the new student and I would kind of show them around school and take them to their classes. So, I definitely would have been friends with Cady.

I really think that I would have been friends with Janice and Damien, because you know they're kind of artistic. I would have been in choir, Glee Club, and dance team, which is very Damien. And in terms of The Plastics, I wouldn't necessarily say I was the big popular girl, by any means. I tried to kind of hang with everyone and do a little sports and do a little dance, and just hang with all the groups. But I was certainly not Regina George. 

I think I'm realizing that my casting for Cady is probably quite right. In terms of some of the jocks and the sports people, I probably would not have been as tight with them, but, you know, I can't win them all.

…on how she would have differed from Cady

The only thing that I will say is a little bit off is that there is no world in which I would have been a Mathlete competing in math competitions. I am terrible at math in real life, so that's really the only hard, hard “no” about Cady.

 …on her connections to Asheville 

I actually grew up going to summer camp close to Asheville, kind of near Black Mountain. And, oh my gosh, we love Asheville! I was actually supposed to go with my family this past Christmas to the Biltmore [Estate] and the whole thing. Plans kind of changed last-minute, but I love Asheville and the artsy vibe, and the restaurants. It's stunning being in the mountains in North Carolina. We're just spoiled. I feel like you get the mountains and the beaches. I got so excited when I saw that you were Asheville Stages. I was like, “This has to be North Carolina's [Asheville,] right?”

…on her first leading role as a child, acting alongside a Broadway legend

It was such an unbelievable experience. I was so young, and it was really the first big lead role I had ever played in a show of that level. And we're very fortunate to have an incredible theater program in Raleigh. I’d done shows before but never had been “the girl.” 

And it was incredible because they actually got Andrea McArdle, who was the original Annie on Broadway. She came and played Miss Hannigan. This was the first time she had done the show again since being on Broadway — I believe that's correct. So it was also this kind of incredible, like, “passing of the torch” and getting to see her legacy, because she's obviously such an icon. The Today Show came down and interviewed us and it was a whole thing. It was so neat! But I don't even think I realized the magnitude of it. It was an incredible experience, and I will certainly never forget it.

…on connecting her past and present

Casey Hushion [associate director of Mean Girls] and I have known each other for years, since Annie, when I was 12 or 13. I don't remember her specific title — artistic director or something of that nature — but she was always around. 

She also directed me in a production of [the rock musical] Next to Normal, and she's just one of the most talented directors and associate directors, but also one of the most wonderful humans and mothers that you will know. So we always kept in touch, but then I moved to New York [City] and I went on tour with a different show, and she was in the city, so we hadn't really crossed paths in a while. And then I walked into my Mean Girls audition and I had not seen her in years, and I'm now a full-grown adult walking in, and our jaws are both on the floor. We talk about that all the time because I just feel so grateful to have her out here and be in this chapter with me, given that we’ve kind of come along this whole journey together. So, it's very full circle. It's special.

It’s a very similar parallel in taking over being Annie and also stepping into Cady Heron and being very nervous that this is really my first big lead of a big principal production contract of this nature. It's exciting and it's nerve-wracking. I felt like we were having a flashback, you know? It was the same conversation from years before of her being like, “You can do this! I believe in you!” So, it really is very, very cool.

…on the difference between a swing, standby, and understudy

A swing is someone who is off stage and they cover multiple tracks in the ensemble. So, our swings will know eight or nine tracks. They could go on for any of the guys, any of the girls in the ensemble. They can step in at any time, but they're off stage. That's a swing. 

An understudy is someone who is in the ensemble every night, who understudies a principal role. So, they're in the show, but if something happens and they needed to go on for a principal, they would move up to that principal and one of the swings would step into their ensemble track for the night. 

A standby is someone who stands by, is not on stage every night, and is specifically off stage to cover principles only. They are the first to go on. So, not every show has a standby because it's really meant for roles that are so intense and demanding that they feel like they need someone there that that's their whole job. For whatever reason — the person, vocally, is fatigued or gets sick or gets injured — it’s such a big role that it's more helpful to have a person that is always there on call to step into that.

[Mean Girls is] also an incredibly challenging show, dance-wise, for ensemble members. So by having a standby, they can utilize their swings to cover their dancers more, and so on and so forth. The standby is generally always the first to go on. And then if, for whatever reason, the standby is on for someone and someone else goes down, or they're on vacation or they're injured, then the understudy would go on. 

…on keeping the complex position of standby straight 

I did cover all three of them [Cady, Regina and Janice], so you have to know all three. It’s a crazy gig because you know it feels a little bit like split personality. You're like, “How am I going to just shift like a chameleon and do all these three different roles that are so different?” But when you get the costumes on, when you're in the zone, when you're in the show, when you're in the makeup, you just kind of transform by nature. 

The learning process was the biggest thing. I didn't know what to do, or how to do it, and no one tells you how to do it. It's up to you — however you want to learn and how you learn best. So, I had reached out to some friends of mine and people I knew who had been standbys before to kind of get tips. 

What I ended up doing was I got three different scripts and had them spiral-bound, so you don't have to deal with binders. You could just flip it over and hold it easily. Everyone in the cast makes fun of me because I called them “my Bibles.” So, I had a Regina one, a Katie one, and a Janice one because, a lot of times, all three of them are on stage at the same time. If you're trying to write notes about where you stand, it's like, well, who are we talking about? So, I made three different Bibles and lived in them. I watched the show constantly. Sitting in the theater, you hear it through the monitor and speakers every night. So, half of it is also just learning it from osmosis. And you kind of know more than you even realize.

…on her first impromptu call to the stage before the pandemic hit

My Cady debut, surprisingly enough, on the tour 1.0 — as we like to say before the COVID[-19 pandemic] shutdown — actually happened mid-performance, and I had not had a single rehearsal, and they threw me on. I remember thinking, first of all, “Is this allowed?” Like, this is crazy! I haven't been in a rehearsal!

They had never put me into rehearsal because they were getting the main cast up first, and then we were going to start on understudies. And then I just remember thinking, “Do I even know it?” But with adrenaline, nerves, and excitement, and having listened to it and watched it and soaked it up so many times, it was fine. 

That being said, I do think I blacked out a little bit, because it was a crazy night! I cannot even explain to you. But as I went on, you know, you just start to get more and more comfortable. It definitely gets a little bit challenging in moments where they're mirroring each other. Sometimes, Cady and Janice are doing the same pose but on opposite sides of the stage, so that'll be a moment where your brain is saying, “Uh-oh! Which one am I?” So you really have to just do your homework. You have to be so prepared, but just kind of trust your gut at the end of the day and know that you've done it and hope that it's there and your cast will show up with love and get you there.

…on Hugh Jackman’s viral speech, praising understudies 

To my knowledge, Kathy Voytko stepped in with, I think, one day of rehearsal and just killed it! [Jackman] made this unbelievable speech at the curtain call after bows; stopped the audience, explained to everyone [the situation], like, “You don't realize what the performance was that you just saw! This woman did not find out she was going on until, you know, five hours ago,” and it just gave me chills and almost brought tears in my eyes because it is such a special job and it is more and more being talked about and celebrated and appreciated, but it's not always that way. 

We're very fortunate in our company that our understudies, swings, and standbys are so valued. It can be easy to let them fall in the shadows a little bit because they're not on stage every night, but at the end of the day, these people have the smartest brains and nerves of steel and are ready to step up at any moment. And on top of it, [they] don't always get the praise. So for someone that has such accolades like Hugh Jackman does, to give her that moment that she's so deserved and just kind of speak for all understudies and standbys, especially in this time when it feels like we've really had to step up with COVID still being very much around, it was so special and absolutely impacted me. It just made me proud to be a standby and have that job because it is an honor. It was really wonderful and really special. I don't know Hugh, but he just seems like a class act.

Anyway, it was so fun to play all three of these incredible characters, especially because I hadn't thought that I would get a chance to play roles like that — or I hadn't up until now. 

Mean Girls runs May 24-29 at the Peace Center. For details and tickets, visit peacecenter.org.

(Photos courtesy of Mean Girls)