On November 4, 2010, I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with real-life married couple Jonathan Walker and Jennifer Van Dyck after seeing them in hilarious new Charles Busch show The Divine Sister at the SoHo Playhouse. This was my very first joint couple interview (Thank You James Valletti for the idea!) and it was thrilling! With impeccable comedic timing, Jonathan and Jennifer bring the house down while on stage both together and separately.

You can see both Jonathan and Jennifer shine in The Divine Sister at SoHo Playhouse (15 Van Dam Street) along with fellow Call Me Adam participants Charles Busch, Julie Halston, Alison Fraser, and upcoming participant Amy Rutberg! This show is a MUST SEE! Enjoy an afternoon or evening in heaven...

In this interview, Jonathan and Jennifer answered my call to share:

• Their inspirations to being performers
• What it’s like to be married and work together
• Favorite place to rehearse
• Their unusual talents
• So much more

Connect with Jennifer: Website

Connect with Jonathan: Website

From left to right:
Jennifer Van Dyck, Call Me Adam/Adam Rothenberg, Jonathan Walker
At their interview, Soho Playhouse, New York City, 2010
Charles Busch’s The Divine Sister

1. Who or what inspired you to become a performer?

Jennifer: I always wanted to be an actress. There was never any question. It really began growing up...my friend and I would always put on productions of The Wizard of Oz and she played "Dorothy," of course, and I played "The Scarecrow." As far as people who inspired me, Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett. I was completely mesmerized by I Love Lucy reruns growing up.

Jonathan: A number of the guys I gleaned for this show, and I mean this in a good way, the cheesy leading men in the 60s/70s who I admired growing up, like Chad Everett who was on a show called Medical Center (who was actually in the Singing Nun), Charlton Heston, Dick Van Dyke, and Dick York.

Also as a child, we were church going (look how it all blends with this show) and a troupe came to our church called the Alpha and Omega Players (who still exist today) and they travel around in a van and put on religious-themed (but not evangelical) shows. They came into our church, I must have been 6, and they transformed it into a performance space. They did a shortened version of St. Joan and I was undone.

To see that space I was in three days a week turned into this thing and I have a distinct memory of standing out front of the church as the van pulled away, bursting into tears and saying to my father "I wanna go with them," (you know instead of running away to the circus). So from Bewitched to St. Joan was the real early inspirations for me.

Jennifer: The other side of that for me was The Paperbag Players. My parents took me to that when I was very young and they terrified me. I remember they were doing Grimm's Fairytales and people's fingers were being cut off and people were being locked in cellars, but I was utterly transported to another world. I remember being both terrified and thrilled by the whole thing and remember saying "I want to do that."

2. Who's the one person you haven't worked with that you would like to?

Jennifer: Mike Leigh, the filmmaker (he's directed Topsy Turvy, Happy-Go-Lucky, Vera Drake, etc), who comes from a theatre background. I just read his book and I'm just so in awe of him. I love his films. He does like six months of rehearsal with his actors, so by the time they shoot the film, the actors really know their characters inside and out. It sounds like a terrifying prospect, but I've always been fascinated by rehearsing as if you were living a character. Then getting to do it for film, which normally has no rehearsal, but his way you seem like you get the best of both worlds with theatre and film combined.

Jonathan: I would have to say it's always been Vanessa Redgrave. I put out feelers for Driving Miss Daisy you know when they were casting it and I heard with in two days that Boyd (Gaines) was getting it and I was like "Yes, of course he is."

3. If you couldn't be doing what you are doing now, what career would you choose?

Jonathan: We were just talking about that with our friend Matt. You know the actor Matt McGrath, well Matt is always talking about "Drop out dream #whatever, opening a candle shop" because it's so up and down in our profession. You go through a 2-3 month foul period and you're like "I stink," "They stink," "It all stinks." Then you go okay, Surfboard shop, masseuse, priest, baker...I always wanted to be a UPS delivery man. They have those lovely brown outfits with the shorts and the socks and I see them on the street and I go "Oh, oh, I'd love to do that, wouldn't that be fun delivering packages all day." (no, no that would be terrible). All jobs are difficult, all jobs are hard, that's why they call it jobs!

In all seriousness, I'd like to work with a not-for-profit group. I do a lot of volunteer work and now I'm working with a group called Transportation Alternatives. It's a cycling, pedestrian, and mass transit advocacy group. I worked for the Green Gorillas for a while and God's Love We Deliver. They're just great because people are there for a reason. That is something I would probably do because they do good work so if I could get job with one of them full time, I would.

Jennifer: I guess I would be a teacher. I have no experience teaching, I know nothing. My mom's a teacher and my dad's a minister, so that's what I've seen (they've seen this show many times already and love it, the irreverence and all).

4. How did you meet each other?

Jennifer: Doing a play...we did a production of Hamlet at the Old Globe, directed by Jack O'Brien. Jonathan was "Laertes" and I was "Ophelia" and Campbell Scott was our "Hamlet."

5. What's it like to work together and live together? How does the whole dynamic work?

Jonathan: We spend 23 hours a day together and that 1 hour apart is if you add up all the bathroom time, okay, so maybe we spend 22 hours out of the day together, if we're including gym time. (Jennifer laughs)

Jennifer: It's great. When we worked with Jack at The Globe, we did a couple of seasons there doing plays, but then we didn't work together, other than readings, for like 15 years, before Charles (Busch) put us both in The Third Story by sheer accident...We did that in La Jolla and then that came here and all the while we got to know Charles and then he wrote this play for us...

Jonathan: We've been in like four plays together with Charles (2 productions of The Third Story and 2 productions of The Divine Sister (the previous one being the limited run in March '10 at Theater for the New City). So, we really like it. You know, we're married, we live together, we love each other, but really like each other too and respect each other's work...

Jennifer: I'm always amazed when actors marry civilians because schedule wise, you have no weekends, you can not plan ahead, you can't do anything when you're working because you're so focused on the show...

Jonathan: (not in reference to Jennifer) But you're also a nut job, you know, you're out of your mind, you've got opening night and you're like "Blahhh," but the other person understands...

Jennifer: Right, so we get it, and it's been amazing with The Divine Sister because it's not just understanding one of us is in a play, we're in the same play, so we go home and we're like "oh that sucked" or "wow, that was great" or "what about that..."

Jonathan: Or we go "oh you had a great show, no I had a rotten show, you had a great show...."

Jennifer: We have some of that.

Jonathan: When we were opening, I was thinking maybe it would be interesting to come home to someone who has no connection to the show, because, it's hard to come home and just detach. We're always dissecting the show, but we don't senor that cause it's actually nice, even on our night off or on Sunday nights we'll often go out to dinner and we kind of refrain for 20 minutes or so from talking about the show and then we just give into it...

Me (Adam): You both, the whole cast, work so well together. I really feel like it's such an ensemble piece.

Jennifer: It's a great bunch and we all work great together. You know, Charles wrote this show for all of us and we've been together since the beginning and there is a real sense of comfort and ease with each other.

Jonathan: You know it's not a lie, we really all get along and like each other. It's really a cooperative thing, like tonight, the audience is really part of the ensemble. It's not like Long Days Journey Into Night which drags you along, but the audience goes through something too and that's part of Charles' charm, and talent, and genius. He comes right out and puts you in his hand and he's kind of taught us to do that a little bit and be there for the audience, and say "Come on, let's go, let's go do a dirty nun's story." (everyone laughs).

The cast of Charles Busch’s The Divine Sister
Left to Right: Amy Rutberg, Alison Fraser, Charles Busch
Jonathan Walker, Jennifer Van Dyck, Julie Halston

6. Favorite place to rehearse on your own?

Jennifer: In our building, our dear friend Richard Easton lives upstairs from us (as does Julie and her husband) and he was away during the time we were rehearsing The Divine Sister for the first time and we would take turns going up to his place to learn our lines because in our one bedroom apartment there is only a door that you can close, which usually isn't enough to learn the lines separately....

Jonathan: It worked out great, one in his apartment and one in our apartment. The street is another good place to rehearse on your own. John Gielgud who lived in the country, used to talk about walking the roads saying lines to himself and thinking all his neighbors thought he was crazy.

Jennifer: I do learn plays when I run. Once the lines are starting to go in, I do them on the run and then I add on to what I've already learned. I make faces and sometimes I think other runners are like what the hell is going on. That is sort of a very meditative time for me to learn my lines.

7. What's the best advice you've ever received?

Jennifer: The first professional job I had was at Trinity Rep and Richard Jenkins was directing me in a production of The Crucible and he basically said to me "There is no clear path how one goes through this life (for a career). One step does not lead to another. There are side steps and vertical steps and horizontal steps. Let the unknown be your compass."

Jonathan: I was working a lot in LA doing television and there's a famous story that someone asked Estelle Getty "What advice do you have for a young actor trying to make it in LA?" She said, "Take Fountain" (that's a street in LA that cuts below Sunset Blvd). You know, she's absolutely right, you were able to get right across town, the lights worked, you were out of traffic. In LA, all you do is drive from audition to audition and I would drive down Fountain and be like, "She's right, Estelle Getty was right."

But in line with what Jennifer said, Richard Easton gave me a piece of advice "Say, Yes" and he means that in all senses. If someone calls you up and says do you want to do a reading, say yes, because work leads to work.

The cast of Charles Busch’s The Divine Sister
Left to Right: Jonathan Walker, Alison Fraser, Charles Busch
Amy Rutberg, Jennifer Van Dyck, Julie Halston

8. Favorite way to spend your day off?

Jennifer: It would be to be together...

Jonathan: Often. I would say, "There ain't enough hours in the day for the nothing I want to do."

Both: Being in Vermont, walking in the woods.

9. Favorite website?

Jennifer: BBC News, Merriam Webster Dictionary (because I do a lot audio books and they have a pronouncing key where you can type in a word and then hear how it's pronounced.

Jonathan: There's a website called Chowhound.com which is an amazing resource for food. It's a place for people who like food and like to talk about food, give recipes, restaurant suggestions, etc. There was also a website called Loronix.com, it's a Brazilian music website and you can download all this music legally.

10. Superman or Wonder Woman?

Jennifer: Wonder Woman

Jonathan: Superdog, for me, but if I had to answer the question exactly, I would say Superman because I never quite got Wonder Woman with the rope and the bracelets. But I also love Richie Rich, Scrooge McDuck, and Baby Huey.

BONUS QUESTIONS:

11. Do you have any strange or unusual talent that nobody knows about?

Jennifer: I'm a ferocious burper. I don't know if I'd call that a talent, but I got it from my mother and I can really let 'em rip...

Jonathan: You can really let 'em rip...I think that your portrayal of "Timmy" in The Divine Sister was a hidden talent. It wasn't "Timmy" per say, but she's very, very silly at home and pulled "Timmy" out of a hat and I've never seen anything like that before from her in my life...

Jennifer: (to Jonathan) What's your secret talent?

Jonathan: I used cage drinks doing this...I can take 2 toothpicks and put them in my mouth, in my lower lip, and actually cross them, and then put them up my nose without touching them and then move my lower lip and make my nose go up and down. I know, it's totally a stupid human trick. It's vile and creepy and it's odd and very few people can do it.

12. If you could dream about anyone while you sleep, who would it be?

Both laugh...

Jennifer: You (meaning Jonathan)

Jonathan: and I'll have to say Kate Winslet, but seriously the happiest dreams I have are when Jennifer's in them.

More Jennifer Van Dyck Interviews:

2016 (Read Here): Joint Interview with the Cast of Charles Busch’s The Divine Sister at Bucks County Playhouse

2022 (Read Here): Slaying The Lady Hamlet in Provincetown

Jonathan Walker

More on Jonathan Walker:

Jonathan has delighted audiences on Broadway in 20th Century and After the Fall, while Off-Broadway audiences saw him in Charles Busch's The Third Story, The Divine Sister at Theater for the New City as well as numerous productions at The Public Theater, MCC, MTC, Women's Project, The New Group, Playwrights Horizons, Roudabout Theatre Company, La MaMa, and P.S. 122.

Jonathan has lit up the big screen in such feature films as Far From Heaven, People I Know, Heights, Michael Clayton, and Malevolence 2.

Television audiences have seen Jonathan in The Big C, The Good Wife, Eli Stone, Sex and the City, Chapelle's Show, and lots of Law & Order.

Jennifer Van Dyck

More on Jennifer Van Dyck:

Jennifer has dazzled Broadway audiences in Hedda Gabbler, Dancing at Lughnasa, Two Shakespearean Actors, and The Secret Rapture.

Her many Off-Broadway credits include Charles Busch's The Third Story and The Divine Sister at Theater for the New City as well as plays by Austin Pendleton, Bathsheba Doran, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Douglas Post.

Film/TV audiences have seen Jennifer in Across the Universe, Michael Clayton, Stealing Martin Lane, Series 7, States of Control, numerous Law & Order episodes, Fringe, and New Amsterdam.