Bridgett McCarthy
@somethingwittyplease on her door mat waiting so patiently to go camping.
-Theatre-
My second interview for the project taught me the value of timing and how predestined this project was. Imagine: I’m walking into an apartment building and turn a corner toward the door I need to knock on and I’m accosted by two young women and an energetic pup. We all froze Scooby-Doo style as I slowly said, “Bridgett?”
At the very moment I turned the corner, they were headed out on a camping trip. If I had been one minute later I would have missed them.
And I’m so glad I caught them because, even though I delayed their getaway for a half hour, it showed me how fast this project makes friends out of strangers. I hadn’t really known Bridgett before. I’d seen her at auditions but getting to talk to her gave me so much hope for what I was trying to do. And for that I am very grateful.
Interviewed 5.12.20
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Casey: OK. So hello!
Bridgett: Hello Casey.
Casey: Ok, so I've just got a couple of questions, but I think we obviously need to start with you're going on a camping trip?
Bridgett: Yeah. I am. It's beautiful outside. And I love being outside. I did the foothills trail in northern South Carolina right at the beginning of quarantine, which is a seventy-seven-mile trail. And I did that alone. And now I surprised her this morning. I found a drive-in way of doing it. And so we're going to drive into Virginia Hawkins Falls and just spend a day and a night there. I'm very excited about it.
Casey: So you like camping generally? Do you go hiking?
Bridgett: Yeah. I'm more of a backpacker. So I like the challenge of having to work really hard for camping. So normally, I've always gone by myself or with my dog and this will be our first time doing like a combination of her style of camping, which is drive up and chairs and... She likes "camping" camping. I like backpacking. So we are doing a combination of the two.
Casey: So "I'll walk until I'm tired and then I sleep" but she's like, "Let's set up camp. Let's have a cocktail.”
Bridgett: Yes. Yes. She is the smarter one. She's the one that does it the more fun version.
Casey: So have you been hiking and walking a lot during quarantine?
Bridgett: Yes. It is the only way I've stayed sane. And it actually has been really interesting because I have never had time because I've always been in a show. And so the universe being like, "Nope, you're done with that for a hot minute" was at first really like, "Wait. If no one's hiring me for things, who am I?" That weird thing of like, "I don't have an identity if I'm not doing the thing. And other people are telling me I can't do the things.” So it's been a really great way of being like, "What are the things I actually enjoy doing that no one has to give me permission to do?" And this is one of those things that I've always loved but never had time to take two weeks and go be in the woods with my dog. I've never had that. And now it's like no one cares about you for two weeks. It's great. So it's been a deepening of that love for that sport since we started.
Casey: I'm glad that you're like sane and you found this new thing to do. Besides work, is there anything that you miss? Anything about your old life like, either going to work or going to get coffee or just going to target? Are there any things that you just like, “This is so silly. But I'm this."
Bridgett: I think I didn't realize how much of my social cup was filled by passing people that I love sitting down for fifteen minutes on breaks and then going on our merry way. And it's people that I've never had to be super intentional with because I just see them three times a week and I'm like, "Amazing. Are you on lunch? I'm on lunch too! Let's do this thing."
And so missing those really casual yet really intimate interactions with people that I deeply care about and having to learn the skill of like, "Wait, I haven't talked to this person in six weeks and this person is really important to me. I should probably make an effort with this person." So I miss that luxury of not having to be super intentional. Of my social cup being filled because of my location. I miss hugs. I just want to hold everyone. I just want hold them to my body and squeeze em.
I miss wandering around Target.
I miss the casualness of everyday simple adventures.
Casey: Like what kind of a simple adventure?
Bridgett: Like a simple adventure like calling my friends and saying, "We're going to see Little Women at seven o'clock. You want to come?" And putting that message out on social media and showing up at North Dekalb and there being five people there and being like, "I haven't seen you in a couple weeks. How's it going?" I miss those simple adventures. Those simple, simple connections that just happen. I miss that so much because it's so much more work.
Casey: You don't realize how much you miss people until they are not around.
Bridgett: Yeah.
Casey: So you talked about how you're going out and you're hiking and stuff. Do you have any new sacred routines or new things that you're doing that you will want to take into whatever the future is?
Bridgett: My dude, my dude, I don't smoke. And I just recently discovered that the things that I love about what cigarette smokers do is in a high-stress situation, they say "I need a smoke break", which is that they go outside and they breathe deeply for about two minutes, which is a thing that I think I never got before now.
And so my roommate and I have been calling them “cigarette breaks” because we just, every once in a while, things just get really overwhelming. And I'm like, "I need a smoke break". So I go outside and I just breathe deeply for two minutes. And it's this brand new ritual of stopping everything. Just everything can stop for two minutes. If something bad is going to happen if you stop for two minutes, you have much bigger problems. So I think that's the biggest part that has started to become sacred to me is the ability to stop things.
Casey: That's a pretty advanced meditation. I love the idea of calling it a smoke break. But you're actually just like, "I need to go outside and breathe."
Bridgett: Well, it started cause I used to work in restaurants and for some reason the bitches that smoked got breaks. So I used to pretend that I smoked cigarettes so I could take breaks.
Casey: You'll go to work and you'll be like, "I need a smoke break." "Wait, you took up smoking?" It's like, no no no no no let me tell you about my advanced meditation practice that I am now participating in.
Bridgett: It's like smoking, but make it fashion.
Casey: That's hilarious. So are you creating at all during quarantine or are you like "I hate everything I'm not motivated"?
Bridgett: I'm working with AARF quite a bit. I'm on that brain trust team with them and I'm not creating, but I'm doing a lot of community resource connection and I am loving it. It scratches a different but similar itch. Like the need to be scrappy and solve problems and all those things. I'm not miserable like I thought that I would be. I'm really enjoying this chapter of learning how to, I don't know, I'm really enjoying connecting with people and trying to get creative about what their problems are.
I think there's so much of a rat race involved in what we do. And I know that I personally have done the thing where I have to focus on jumping from thing to thing to thing to thing in order to stay afloat. And I don't always love what I'm doing when I'm working artistically. And of course, this is a very privileged statement, but we have the privilege to stop and re-examine “What do I actually want to be doing?”
I miss being in rehearsal. I miss my friends. I miss my coworkers. I miss my family. I miss all of that. I don't miss running from audition to audition, begging for someone to like me enough to hire me. And living and dying on whether or not I get a callback for something. I don't think I'm going to go back to that. I want to continue to work professionally as an actor. But I realized how much I was living and dying on the email of like, “Thank you so much for coming out. We'd love to see you read for this role.” And being like, “Yes approval. I get to stay in this business!” I don't need to do that. I don't need to live like that. We don't need to live like that. It's a horrible way to live.
I'm really excited to see the cultural shifts that take place afterwards when this is done. I think we're going to move toward five-day workweeks. I think we're going to move toward a better work-life balance because I think this is the first time I've experienced a big life balance. I've had a lot of work balance, but not a lot of life balance. And I don't want to go back to what I was doing before.
Casey: What do you like about what you're doing now? What does the balance look like?
Bridgett: I'm talking to my family so much, my extended family. I'm just calling my aunt for no reason whatsoever just because I have time and I can. I'm talking to my grandma like three times a week, which I never did.
Investing in our neighborhood has been really fun because we all know each other and we love each other, and we now do socially distance picnics once a week and things like that that we never have time for. I want to make time for these things. This enriches my life in such a special way. Yeah, I think it's those things.
Casey: I'm so excited that so many people are mentally much healthier than they were before. Is there anything else that you feel like you would want to share? Is there anything else that you feel like you've learned or that you're experiencing that would be helpful for others to hear?
Bridgett: Oh, I've never felt more grateful for the core character of who the Atlanta artist community is.
Casey: Really?
Bridgett: No. I just moved back to the city about a year ago after hopping around to a lot of different markets. And one of the reasons I moved back is because I have a tribe here that I love, but I didn't understand until this shit hit the fan. Atlanta artists just showed the country who we are as people because we gathered and made some really cool shit happen out of a shit storm. And it makes me emotional thinking about it. The core integrity of who this community is so special. And I know that because I've lived in six different markets and it's unlike anything I've experienced. And it took this crisis to show me that I made the right decision moving back here because this tribe is so special,
Casey: They're strong.
Bridgett: Oh, stupid strong.
