Exclusive Video Interview: Cast Members Talk The Conners & Performing Live Across Two Coasts

The ConnersLast week, for the first time, ABC aired The Conners live on two coasts. Cast members Emma Kenney, who plays Harris Conner-Healy, Ames McNamara, who plays Mark Conner-Healy, and Jayden Rey, who plays Mary Conner, talked to Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision in an exclusive interview about what it is like to perform as part of a live show, how working on The Conners has changed their lives, and more.

One of the things that the young actors find most difficult is when lines are added or changed in the script at the last minute. Kenney, however, looks at it like a brain puzzle. “Sometimes you'll kind of memorize a scene a certain way, and then the next day it'll be completely different, but it's also keeps us on our toes.”
 
McNamara, agreed the last-minute changes can be difficult, especially during a live show. On that night, his character called up people live to ask them questions and they added more of it. “The third call that we did on the on the eastern time show, it actually was not supposed to happen in the script, but we had time, so right before we [went] on, they said, “Oh, Ames let's do another call.”…That was definitely tricky, but it all worked out.”

The actor explained that people he called didn’t know what he was going to say. “What was really cool, for me, is that these people did not know that they were going to be on until I said “Hey, this is Mark Connor,” and they didn't know what questions I was going to ask them. It was completely natural, spur of the moment, which I think was also really cool, because…that was something that I thought was fun, for me, because I was getting to meet these people for the first time and ask them a question live, but I think that was also cool for the viewers, because it was this live aspect of it that I think was really awesome that we did.”

The actors were happy to get to have a live audience again, because it has been almost two years since they had one in the studio. According to Rey, “The vibe was really different. It was very nice to see the audience again, because we haven't done that in a while since COVID. It was just [had] a good feeling and a good vibe with it all.”

For the full interview, check out the video below, and be sure to catch The Conners tonight and every Wednesday on ABC.

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