No… That last tape night, I don’t think any of us thought it would be our last. What was the atmosphere like on set during that last tape night? Did everyone have a sense that this was probably going to be the last one for a while? TVLINE | You only got to shoot 21 of 22 episodes this season due to the production shutdown. We’ve grown to embrace the more silly the more outlandish they make him, and it was really fun to play that. You’re in for a treat, for sure, because takes it and runs with it. However you would imagine Ryan would react to being called not chill. How does he react when he gets the results? TVLINE | In the episode, Ryan takes a psych test administered by brother-in-law Kyle. I would go back and relive that night over and over again if I could. In this case, I had to put on a pregnancy belly because I already had my baby, and Kristin has not, so it was quite the quick change, and it was a thrill. I was worried they were going to write me out, or have me in just one scene that was pre-shot and I wouldn’t have to do anything during the live taping. I was happy that I at least had a couple scenes. I love a challenge… If anything, the prospect of having to run back and forth excited me. TVLINE | Did you find it difficult to switch back and forth between directing and acting on tape night? is a very specific look and feel, so I tried to honor that as much as possible. It was more like a math equation than anything, just kind of retraining my brain to work like that. With all the stuff I’ve ever done on my own, I’m the DP, I’m the camera operator, I’m doing everything, so for me the challenge was to multi-cam, which is four cameras at all times and getting all of the coverage. But I learned so much from watching other directors, especially in this format. My biggest takeaway from doing this was to not try and be Victor Gonzalez when directing, but to figure out my own way of communicating with these actors who are my family, and the camera crew who are family to me but never had me in this position before. I learned by shadowing, versus actually doing it, is that you can shadow as much as you want, but your own style and your own methods are going to be so different from whoever you study. TVLINE | Did you find it helpful to see how Gonzalez and Cardiff operated? It was challenging with a baby, because any time that I wasn’t on set, I wanted to be with him - especially the last couple weeks prior to my episode when I launched into full-time prep mode, and I called my husband. Primarily I shadowed Victor Gonzalez, but I also shadowed Andy Cadiff. TVLINE | Give me a sense of what prep looked like for you. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago on Last Man that I thought, “What better place to start doing it professionally than here?” I loved acting so much… My biggest hobby was photography, so I’ve always been behind the lens taking photos, and I realized that directing is just an extension of that, and combines it with all of the other things that I’ve been trained to do my entire life with acting. I was not the kind of actor growing up that was like, “What I really want to do is direct.” That wasn’t my focus. I’ve been directing stuff for my own pleasure for the better part of a decade - short films, web series, passion projects of my own - and I never really thought of pursuing it professionally. Was that something you’ve been itching to do? TVLINE | This is the first episode of Last Man Standing that you’ve had the privilege to direct.
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