1
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- Out of the gate, you
think the Vicki Ellis

2
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is this b-i-t-c-h.
- You can say it.

3
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- Bitch.

4
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- Why do I (panting) have to wear

5
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(panting) the crown right now?

6
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- To remind you who you're gonna be

7
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when you wake up tomorrow.

8
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- Miss Oklahoma!

9
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- Amen.

10
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- I'm curious to know,
how did you prepare?

11
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Not necessarily for the role itself,

12
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but how to talk about this role

13
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and the world that it inhabits,

14
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because it's a show that's happening

15
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in a very specific time for women.

16
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- For me, it was finding
the reality in a world that,

17
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for me, I don't know anything about.

18
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That whole beauty pageant world.

19
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But what I do know is that
we are bombarded every day

20
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with images of perfection
or fake perfection.

21
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It deals with very, very current questions

22
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and tries to understand
that through the facade

23
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of someone who has it all pulled together,

24
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who has that desire for
perfection, whatever that is,

25
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is that we all are human,
and there's vulnerabilities,

26
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and there's fractures, and
there's cracks in the surface.

27
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- I know that you weren't
necessarily a pageant queen,

28
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but you were a dancer for years.

29
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That industry still demands
that same level of perfection.

30
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So what, from your past, did you pull in

31
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to give this role some authenticity?

32
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- Absolutely right.

33
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My dancing years of competitive dance,

34
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being a dancer, being on
stage, being in the chorus,

35
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you know, it's a very competitive world.

36
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This is not a new story.

37
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It's about, you know, taking a young girl

38
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and making her into a star.

39
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It happened to me.

40
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I was the second
understudy in 42nd Street.

41
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The lead role, Peggy
Sawyer, she hurt her knee.

42
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The first understudy was on vacation,

43
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and I was thrown on.

44
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And David Merrick, who
was the biggest producer

45
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on Broadway at the time,
the owner of the show,

46
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happened to be in London,
checking out his show,

47
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was in the audience, and cast me,

48
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and I played it for two
years, and I became a star.

49
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- There you go.

50
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- So that story, that is
the story of 42nd Street,

51
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of little Peggy Sawyer becoming the star,

52
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happened to me.

53
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And it's a story that
Judy Garland's played,

54
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it's a story that,

55
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it never gets old, because we love,

56
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we inherently love those feel-good,

57
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feel-good factor of,
"It could happen to me."

58
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- It's still billed as a TV show,

59
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but it's on a social platform,

60
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it's on Facebook Watch.

61
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What was your thought process
going into this project,

62
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knowing that you were
about to do a project

63
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in an unfamiliar space, really, for you?

64
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- Totally unfamiliar space.

65
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The process of making the
show, exactly the same.

66
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We shot this as a five
hour movie, basically.

67
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We didn't do episodic TV-making.

68
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Like, oh, episode one's wrapped, and yeah!

69
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No, this is a five hour film.

70
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But the pleasure of that,

71
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the beauty of television,
and to have that time,

72
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is that you can really spend the time

73
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to find out those moments,

74
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I always call it my acting graph.

75
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We wanna love to hate
her and hate to love her.

76
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I wanted people to, by the end of it,

77
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be really rooting for Vicki,

78
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and I've seen all the 10 episodes,

79
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so you do.

80
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You want to be in her gang.