We were lucky to catch up with Bethany Watson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Bethany, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I can remember the singular moment where I realized I wanted to be a performer for the rest of my life. I was young – maybe 7 or 8 – and my parents had enrolled me in a theatre day program. It was one of those programs where you learn some acting exercises in the morning and by the end of the day, you’re putting on a short play for the parents. Our class was performing Sleeping Beauty, and I was cast as the evil queen. The final scene required the prince to defeat me, but because we were all kids, the director decided that the prince would just punch me out instead of brutally killing me. We learned how to fake the punch and the director taught me how to fall safely. When we performed that scene and I fell to the ground with my eyes closed, I heard the audience erupt in laughter as soon as I hit the stage. (Well, they’re erupting in laughter in my memory. In reality, I’m sure it was just a few chuckles.) Hearing the audience respond favorable to something I’d taken part in was profound to child me! As a shy, unathletic kid, this was the first time I’d done something that strangers saw value in, and it changed my life.
Bethany, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m an actor, podcaster, and producer originally from Wisconsin. (Yes, I’m too friendly to strangers and cheese is incredibly important to me!) Although I trained in theatre and improv, I started my professional life in radio at 101.3 KDWB in Minneapolis, as “Lena Svenson” on the Dave Ryan in the Morning Show. Staying in radio, I then moved to NYC in 2012 to co-host the nationally syndicated Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, based at the legendary Z100. After five years, I left to pursue my own creative projects full time and discover who I was outside of the morning radio world.
This self-discovery intensified after my podcast An Acquired Taste wrapped its 7th and final season. Leaving behind my last tie to radio (this podcast had started during my time at Z100), I realized that I could fully step into who I truly feel I am, which is basically a friendly, spooky, kinda goth chick who loves and creates horror content! I’ve always been this person at my core, but I can finally embrace it publicly, which is scary and liberating at the same time!
My boyfriend, Dennis Cahlo, and I now create horror content together. Our 2019 horror short “Lonely Hearts” won multiple awards on the festival circuit and is about a socially-awkward woman who turns to a dating app to find a connection unlike any she could have predicted. We shot a 4-minute film during Covid lockdown called “Doors,” which shows what happens when a woman starts hearing knocks at her various apartment doors. And we’re currently working on a project that’s under wraps right now but that we can hopefully announce soon! We also host a comedy podcast together called The Check-In which chronicles our lives living and working together, and basically affords us the opportunity to make fun of each other in public.
I’m incredibly proud of the work we do together. I’m also proud of the work I’m doing in finding the courage to truly be who I am, because I think a lot of people struggle with this. We all face the expectations and assumptions placed on us by family, work, our faith, our society, etc. It feels like there’s this huge possibility of loss when we step into who we truly, TRULY are. I’m hoping that me inching my way towards my real identity can help others do the same!
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
I wish I had understood the importance of having a mentor. I always had the assumption that I had to do everything myself and figure everything out on my own. Not to say I didn’t get help along the way; I obviously did! But having someone more experienced to guide and advise you is priceless and can speed up your career progress, and I didn’t understand that early on.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
This goes hand-in-hand with my mentorship response: you’re allowed to collaborate! I always figured that, while performance often involved working with others, the driving force had to come from me or it didn’t “count.” Growing up, I was always a perfectionist (still am!) and that led me to the conclusion that any help I received somehow nullified the project; it wasn’t *mine.” But I’ve come to learn that I actually work better in a collaborative environment, and my best ideas come when I’m building off of someone else’s spark. Plus, I think it can help creatives be even MORE creative when they’re not feeling the burden of having to do everything themselves! Collaboration with the right people can bring your work to a place it never would have arrived at alone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bethanywatson.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msbethanywatson/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethanywatsonactress/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RadioBethany
- Other: https://www.bewitchyourwardrobe.com/
Image Credits
Dennis Cahlo, Brian Friedman