- Maddie, how would you describe the plot of our show,
'Teenage Bounty Hunters?'
- Great question, Anjelica.
(laughing)
I would describe our show as a
hilarious,
real story
of two fraternal twin sisters,
Sterling and Blair,
who fall (beep)-backwards into a life of bounty hunting,
while trying to navigate their journey of
becoming a young woman in a buttoned-up,
Southern community.
- I love the image of (beep)-backwards.
(laughing)
Like, you just wanna go--
(laughing)
What? Where does it-- which way?
(laughing)
- What does it take to be a good bounty hunter?
- Oh gosh. I think you need to be
fierce, strong-willed,
you need to have tunnel vision,
you focus only on the guy you're trying to get.
The uh-- what do you call it?
- Tar-jay?
(laughs)
- Tar-jay? The target.
I think what Bowser, or Kadeem, teaches us,
the twins, is that you really can't judge the bail-- bounty?
The bounty on the crime--
- The skip.
- The skip! There it is! Yeah, that's the word.
I was like, "Where did it go?"
(laughing)
You can't judge the script, the skipt--
ay yi yi.
(laughing)
On their crime.
My motto is, "Catch a skip,
"bring 'em in."
(laughing)
- Way to go.
- Thanks, I can make an impression, eh?
- Anjelica, would you describe our dynamic
as twin-like on set?
- Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, we had a couple like,
people who worked on the set, the crew,
ask us if we were actually twins.
- There were quite a few moments
where we were definitely very in sync.
There was one extremely memorable moment
when we were doing the pilot,
when we were in the yogurt shop,
and Anjelica and I improvised a line
at the exact same time.
We like, had the exact same amount of like, comedic pause
and then came in with the line at the exact same time.
And we were both so excited that we had just done this
because, you know, we hadn't really
got to act much together too much
because it was the pilot.
And so we freaked out and like,
jumped on each other and hugged.
And then we were like,
"Oh, now they can't use that."
- Yeah, we totally ruined the take.
(laughing)
- Totally ruined the take 'cause we were so excited,
but it's in the blooper reel
so it's OK.
But there were definitely moments like that
when we would, you know, say the same thing
at the same time,
and like, skip into set,
you know, with one earbud in one ear
and the other in the other ear,
and stuff like that.
It was cute.
- We would listen to hype music to get us ready for the day,
or sad music.
- Yeah, yeah, totally.
- The Olsen twins were something that me and Maddie
ended up like, accidentally looking like?
Like, we have a photo where I'm draped over Maddie
like this, and it looks exactly like the Olsen twins.
Like, I have my hair back.
Oh my gosh, Maddie!
Remember this?
In the audition, I wore my Metallica shirt.
- Oh! Why haven't we talked about that more in interviews?
- We haven't talked about it at all!
- Oh my god. I totally forgot.
OK, tell it, tell it, tell it, tell it, tell it.
- Wait, what movie is it? What movie is it? 'In Manhattan?'
- It's 'New York Minute.'
2004. Mary-Kate and Ashley.
(laughing)
Ugh. Best movie ever.
- This is more Maddie's domain,
like actually knowing about the twins--
- Yeah.
- Because she sends me a clip from 'New York Minute'
like, right after our callback.
And I ended up watching the clip
and she was like, "This is totally B and S."
And I was like, "Oh my god, absolutely."
And then I'm like, watching--
Mary-Kate is wearing a Metallica shirt
and I was like, "Maddie,
"that's the shirt I wore for Blair in the callback."
And she was like,
"Ah!" And we just like, had this crazy moment
"that we were like, "Oh my god.
"This is-- We're manifesting this.
"This is like, totally amazing, so."
- Yeah, seriously.
I actually just got chills listening to that again.
Yeah, it's so true.
- Oh my god.
- Those two characters were so similar to
Blair and Sterling-- to "Blerling." - Yeah.
(laughing) You know,
one's like more, and the other one's more like-- you know?
But anyway, yeah.
We didn't really-- I didn't really
think about them going into it,
but we kind of discovered similarities
as we went along,
and it was very exciting.
- Maddie, who's the best couple in the show
and why?
- Oh.
Um. Blair and Miles.
- Thank god!
(laughing)
- For sure!
No, I mean, yeah,
I do think they are so cute.
I really love their journey,
and they have a journey that starts from
the very beginning to the very end,
and I think that's so cool.
And they're so cute,
and you just want them to work out so bad.
And just, ugh, how could you not love Miles?
What do you think about the show
having themes of policing
considering the times that we're in right now?
- I'm genuinely honored to get a chance to answer
a question like this, given
I don't really feel qualified.
There are so many other people that are qualified to answer
a question like this.
But, I think what's great about our show
is that our showrunner, Kathleen Jordan,
you know, wrote this show truthfully
about like, her experience growing up in the South.
And she really just tried to tell it
through a truthful lens,
and without much commentary on whether or not
she believes it could be, or should be, eradicated.
The state of our country right now--
I mean, I think that a lot of people can agree that
defunding the police and investing it into communities
is a fantastic idea.
And I hope to see policies put into place that
put more money back into communities,
certainly communities that need it.
A lot of communities in the South
that need, you know,
to have the things invested like that,
so that, you know,
property taxes don't affect how good schools are.
I would love to say that we could scrub it
and just do a redo.
And again, it's not really where I thrive
and have the qualifications to answer a question like that,
but I do believe that the show is
a nice reprieve from our time,
while also getting a taste of,
kind of, what it's like in the South right now.
Maddie, I wanted to ask you,
personally, what it was like to explore being a young woman
who explores her sexuality in the show?
- Oh, yes. What a great question.
Ah, what a freeing experience it was, honestly.
You don't come across scripts with such a
authentic look into what it's like to discover
who you are, who you thought you were.
And Kathleen--
I remember just weeping when I heard--
When I read the episode
where Sterling discovers that
there's a little bit more to her than she thought
and I just felt like, such an honor to get to play that.
And I remember saying to her in the pilot,
I was like, "Kathleen, like,
"can you imagine if Sterling was bi?
"Like, can you imagine like, how amazing would that be?
"Like, she's been with her boyfriend for so many years.
"Like, can you imagine? That would be so great."
- She said, "Nope."
- And she was like, "Oh yeah, no.
"That's not part of the journey for Sterling
right now," or whatever.
(laughing)
And then I was like, trying to go to sleep one night
and then Kathleen emails me,
and she's just like, "Maddie,
"I got something to tell you.
"I had to lie to you before.
"And, uh, surprise!
"Here it is!"
And I was just like, so overcome.
I was just like,
ugh, the fact that I get to do this,
what an honor. Like, what an honor.
So, that was a really freeing experience for me,
as an actor and as just like, a person.
So, Anjelica,
I know that you relate to Blair in a lot of ways.
Is there anything that you would say to Blair
as maybe like, an older version of her?
Like, an older sister?
Like, is there anything you might want--
I know, I'm sorry.
Is there anything that you would want to say to her?
- I think that you know that, personally,
this year the idea of forgiveness
has been such a big theme in my life
because life is really too short--
I'm crying.
- I think that if I could tell Blair
to sort of start incorporating forgiveness
into her mind,
and the idea of it, and--
I think it branches out beyond, you know,
when the girls have a fight.
But, I think that coming up now, particularly,
I wonder how this news of her sister
is going to affect her family life.
And so, I think coming into Blair now, with me
and this forgiveness theme,
I'm curious to see how
she will forgive or hold grudges, too.
And what I would say was, "Girl, forgive!"
(laughing)
"Girl, do a forgive!"
(laughing)
Maddie, what do you hope young viewers
take away from our show?
- I was quite an insecure teenager growing up.
I had a lot of confidence in a lot of areas,
but I really struggled in some with
finding my voice and, you know,
being honest about what I wanted,
and what I felt comfortable with,
and just who I was.
And I really hope that if there are other
young kids out there,
teenagers, young adults, who feel the same,
I really hope that they can look at these girls
and feel like they have a safe space there,
and feel like they don't
need to be-- If they're, you know,
if they're hard on themselves
in this, you know, tumultuous journey of growing up,
I hope that they're maybe a little less hard on themselves
because no one really knows what we're doing
at the end of the day, you know?
We're all just trying our best
and wanting to do the right thing.
And I hope that people take away,
you know, just the idea that
we're not perfect,
and that mistakes are made,
and we learn and we grow.
And if we're not growing,
we're dying, really. So, yeah.
That's what I would have to say.
- Yeah. That's what she said.
She said what she said.