Annabel O'Hagan's Transformation into 'Steph Harper' in 'Fallout

[00:00:00] Annabelle, thank you for joining me today on Pop Culture Unplugged.

[00:00:13] Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm honored.

[00:00:17] It's a great time. Your life must be going crazy with the whole fallout and everything.

[00:00:22] Well, yeah, no, I mean it's been it's been overwhelmingly positive to see that everyone is enjoying the show as much as we hoped they would.

[00:00:34] I mean you spend, you know, months and years working on this project and hoping that the jokes hit and hoping that the fans of the game appreciate all of the world making and the effort we put in and it's been just, yeah, like it really has warmed my heart just to see everyone enjoy it.

[00:00:51] And I believe it was the number two highest rating show on Prime Video.

[00:00:55] Yeah, I was reading an article saying it's number one in the US ever highest rated highest views in the US.

[00:01:04] But yeah, like second globally that's crazy.

[00:01:09] That's great. That's great for you guys.

[00:01:11] It's exceeded our expectations and of course we knew it was special when we were making it.

[00:01:17] But you're so biased, you know you spend so much time working on a project and I loved every bit of the process.

[00:01:26] But it is pretty cool to see the world like it too.

[00:01:30] I'm going to jump more into the show in a little while but you know like when I, when I have guests on I'd like to know more about them to like you know your journey to the entertainment industry and I mentioned earlier I'm from Massachusetts you went to Harvard but let's start from the beginning

[00:01:41] like what caught you, like what made you get into the industry. What made you, what made you fall in love with acting.

[00:01:47] The beginning. Well, I was really good at playing pretend on the playground.

[00:01:54] But truly, I began just like, like any other kid right I did the plays I was a ballet dancer growing up so I was always interested in the arts and in performing and I was also very realistic kid I was for a long time I wanted to be a doctor I wanted to be an OBGYN

[00:02:13] And eventually I had enough folks tell me, hey you know you're really good on the on stage you should consider doing this professionally. And I just really really supportive community and family the whole way through and I, I was, I decided to not do the BFA conservatory route because I still just wanted to continue to learn about everything that makes us humans so I studied psychology

[00:02:42] And then I moved to New York, and it was a total crapshoot right like every other actor. Very often the journey is is rocky and you show up in New York City or or LA if that's where you go and, and you just start from the bottom and you work your way up and fallout has just been the, the highlight of my career so far, for sure.

[00:03:07] So now why New York, instead of LA.

[00:03:10] Yeah, well I I've always loved New York City I think I think New York has an energy for artists and a community.

[00:03:21] That's just different from LA.

[00:03:23] To me, I actually moved to New York I wanted to be a Broadway star.

[00:03:29] When I first moved to the city, I didn't really have any connections and Harvard doesn't give you a showcase, like a lot of other theater programs would so I had to, I had sort of someone who had seen me in a show I was in college connect me to my representation.

[00:03:45] And and they've sort of encouraged me towards TV and film and so that's sort of where my, my journey has taken me but I hope someday to to be able to go back and do do some theater as well.

[00:03:57] Yeah.

[00:03:58] What about your time at Harvard How was it living in Boston for all I mean you do four years there or did you do six what I did I did all four years.

[00:04:07] They say the most successful Harvard kids don't make it all four years because they're already out and starting their fortune 500 company.

[00:04:15] No, I, I grew up in North Carolina and Virginia so sort of a southerner heart.

[00:04:21] And I was always like, I'm going to go north for school you know I'm, I felt like I could handle it and then I moved to Boston and my first day in Boston I was like making eye contact with people on the street and saying like hey good morning, and people thought I was.

[00:04:36] Insane like truly like you, people don't do that here, like you probably should you know you're going to get some unwanted attention I was like oh my god.

[00:04:44] But besides the first week I loved, I loved living in Boston shout out to mass, it's, it's so great it's where I met, like some of my best friends for life.

[00:04:55] I still go up and visit anytime I can and I nothing beats a New England autumnal day.

[00:05:02] Truly and yeah it was, it was the right place for me I really needed to, to leave sort of like small town North Carolina and Virginia, and it was a great place for me to grow and, and I, I just did.

[00:05:17] I, I studied psychology and I did theater because I wanted to study what it meant to be a human being from all the angles right because I think to be an actor.

[00:05:32] You have to know about humanity and in a deeper way than just, you know, I know what faces to make on camera when it's more than that it's about developing empathy and I found studying characters from a scientific and an artistic and empathic view to be really, really helpful.

[00:05:55] And I was also going to school with some of the smartest people I've ever met and they challenged me and yeah, it's a great place to push yourself that is for sure the imposter syndrome was real every single day.

[00:06:06] But then I started to realize that everyone that was there was feeling the same thing I was being around a bunch of nerds is just, yeah, pretty much my favorite place so it was pretty cool.

[00:06:18] While you're like studying even like the theater and acting in Boston, did you end up one of those little underground improv places because I know they're hitting all over Boston.

[00:06:26] I have been I was not a part of one myself. But yes, I have been.

[00:06:33] I was a part of some improv groups while I was on like in Harvard sort of bubble.

[00:06:39] I think improv is the most valuable skill to have as an actor truly, whether it's improv comedy, you should always say through improv comedy because I think comedy is so much harder than drama.

[00:06:53] Truly, if you can do improv comedy I think everything else becomes easy right it's such a good base.

[00:06:59] But I was a part of a group called the hasty putting the actor theatricals on Harvard's campus which for about 200 years it's like this drag slightly improv musical that they put on every year and for 200 years was only men.

[00:07:17] And then finally my senior year they let women on the cast.

[00:07:20] So it was pretty cool to be a part of that my senior year I finally squeezed onto the cast and now you know they let they let women on every year now thank God, but yeah it was a really cool experience truly.

[00:07:34] Now so you've had a little bit of taste a little bit of everything what's like the what's the goal now like what's the, the one thing you want to accomplish in your life in the acting world.

[00:07:44] The one thing oh there's so many things I want to have a career that spans genres. I want to play a lot of different kinds of characters and people and I want to tell different stories I think, I think to me the, the coolest thing about being an actor is that you get to play somebody other than yourself.

[00:08:04] And Steph was definitely different from who I am as a person.

[00:08:10] But it just allows you a chance to grow empathy for someone who is different from you right and so I hope that throughout my career I get to tell stories that make an impact that maybe touch people in the audience and and teach them about what it means to be a human in a different way but I also like, I had so much fun doing fallout.

[00:08:37] It's after this project, it's part of me just wants to do sci fi and action films for the rest of my life because it's at the scale of it is so fun and.

[00:08:48] And I got really excited and nerdy about the games and make and and all of the lore attached and so yeah hopefully there's more of that in my future.

[00:09:00] Yeah, well they're well they announced fall season two.

[00:09:04] So excited. I can't wait to get back with the whole crew and and tell some more crazy Fallout stories.

[00:09:13] Because just let's jump into follow you Stephanie Harper.

[00:09:16] Tell us a little about your audition and how were you like was it on addition where you approach for this how did it go. It was an audition.

[00:09:25] Early 2022 I had first heard about the project and I was like, please can I audition for this project my managers they're amazing.

[00:09:31] They reached out to casting and at first they're like oh we're not so sure she's right and I said please.

[00:09:37] And they were like all right fine and so I sent in a tape.

[00:09:43] And when I first read the script, which was attached the whole audition product packet.

[00:09:49] I was like I would give an arm or a leg to be a part of this show it was like one of those things where I was instantly like obsessed with it and I only ended up having to lose an eye in the end which is great pretty good deal.

[00:10:04] And the audition process I had only received the audition for Steph originally was just one scene.

[00:10:12] So I was pretty convinced it was just a one scene character and I didn't care I stayed up until three in the morning and I did the scene over and over and over and over and it's actually the hallway scene where I'm walking down with Lucy and I'm talking about what my experience was like.

[00:10:31] When I was not to put it totally in an antiquated way but like when we were consummating my marriage and it's a sort of comedic scene and I did it over and over and sent it in and as I always do whenever I submit the audition I just forget about it because if you were to actually like hang on to all these auditions.

[00:10:51] It's not good for your mental health you have to just let it go.

[00:10:54] But then I let it go and I was on a trip in Italy when my managers called me and they said you got the part and I freaked out I was running around like a crazy American tourist and they said and it's better news it's actually a recurring character and you're going to be seeing more of her than just one scene.

[00:11:15] It was better than I could have imagined and meeting Jonah on that first day on set and shaking his hand and he was like so we have a surprise for you and I said sure he goes well so you're going to lose an eye to a fork.

[00:11:31] How do you feel about that and I was like what a gift this is the best character ever she's like this stuff is my like psycho housewife dream girl like she's like a 1950s you know housewife but kind of messed up and quirky and with an eye patch and sprays of machine gun I mean she's she's a little bit of everything which has just been such a joy to play her and I can't wait to see her.

[00:12:02] Bring her back in season two.

[00:12:04] So when you booked the part have you played the games at all like I don't play the I don't really play those type of games but I like the shows are great obviously like I like watching the shows but did you get to play the game just to see your character what kind of research did you do?

[00:12:19] So I tried to play the games I'm not very good at video games so it was taking me way too long to get past certain levels.

[00:12:27] I would play with my two younger brothers and so I earned a lot of big sister points being in the show and they would play with me and they would get so frustrated because I would accidentally press some button that would make us go back to the beginning of the level.

[00:12:43] So instead I ended up watching a lot of very good gamers play the games on YouTube which was so fun I now understand why people watch the gameplay it's like so fun to watch someone play it and know everything about the game and tell you about the ins and the outs.

[00:13:03] So that was most of my research and there's no Steph character in the games right and the majority of the majority of the characters in the series are not spitting images of the game and I think that's what's so cool about it is we were able to capture the true essence of the games and add to the lore without taking away from anything that's already happened, which I think is really fun.

[00:13:31] But you get the dark comedy from the game right I was like all of a sudden by watching those gameplays I understood the tone of the script, and I knew a little bit more of what I need, and then we have the best writers of Geneva and Graham there.

[00:13:45] They're so funny and smart and every time I'd get a new scene for stuff I would just be like so excited good writing makes it easy.

[00:13:55] And what's great about like this character to it's like like since they're not in the game that you can like put your own little spin to it also.

[00:14:02] Yeah, totally. She, you know I played stuff, whenever we would be filming each scene I feel like sometimes I would, I would do a couple takes of different versions of her and I was always so curious to see what the editors chosen the end and I liked that they chose the takes of her.

[00:14:20] I think just sort of being bright, but just a little spooky just a little bit off.

[00:14:26] Because at the beginning I, I didn't know where she was going I was getting the scripts episode by episode so I really didn't know who she was going to end up as in the end.

[00:14:37] And I still have a lot of questions about who she is and I'll keep finding out more information as it comes right but I always try to at least play her a couple different ways whenever we'd be filming each scene just they had options.

[00:14:51] And I was really glad that they chose all of the spookiest versions of her because that's fun. That's really fun. Yeah.

[00:15:00] Is there anything you would change about Stephanie if you could.

[00:15:04] Oh, that's such an interesting question I don't know.

[00:15:10] My first gut impulse would be to stay, say that I hope she I just want her to always be pregnant.

[00:15:17] Because I think when they told me that I was going to be having the baby I was like, Oh great a birth scene like how hilarious. But then I was like, oh, but the bump is part of who she is right it's like some part of what's so funny about stuff is that she's this like motherly cute little plump belly lady who, you know, has something under the surface that you don't trust.

[00:15:43] And I felt like I was worried that once I would lose the belly, people would be less interested in the comedy of her and. And that's not the case I don't think but anything I would change about her.

[00:15:55] I hope I know nothing about season two, by the way.

[00:15:59] I hope that she gets a full villain track.

[00:16:04] My hope. But I don't know she could end up being redeemed. She could end up being best friends with Lucy again who knows right and I think that's what's so great about where they left her is that there's so much possibility and I've really enjoyed reading fan theories online and I have.

[00:16:23] I can't confirm or deny any I don't know myself. So, I was doing actually you said the fans I was actually doing some digging around to see what they're saying and they love your character though.

[00:16:34] We have like a big fan base when it comes to Stephanie Harper, which is great. It's great. I my favorite comments that people being like, I love her I love her and then someone going, I hate her I don't trust her.

[00:16:45] You're doing your job.

[00:16:46] Good. That means I'm doing my job right. If everyone is just like, oh, she's nice like that's boring. It's not the kind of impact you want to leave I love that people are are intrigued by her, and that there's some arguments back and forth over what what her backstory is and who she will be going forward I mean that's everything you could hope for so you know I'm really glad that I was able to tell her story.

[00:17:13] Yeah, amazing. You mentioned Lucy how would you describe like the Stephanie's bond with Lucy and like the in their friendship throughout this throughout this first season.

[00:17:24] You know, it's interesting. I, the funny thing we filmed those first, those first scenes of the episode, which are me and Ella.

[00:17:37] You know, me and Lucy or Steph and Lucy, Annabelle and Ella walking through the vault and preparing her for the wedding and I truly do believe that their friendship is genuine.

[00:17:49] I think when you live in a vault, you're incredibly close with those with right and everyone feels like family, everyone pretty much is family right.

[00:18:01] And I would say that maybe nothing would supersede. If I had to guess and this is just my guesses of stuff right because there's so much I still need to know about her.

[00:18:15] I would guess that her loyalty to the vault and the mission is perhaps, perhaps stronger than her friendship with Lucy, but I hope as Annabelle that it's the reverse.

[00:18:32] I hope that her relationship with Lucy in some ways is stronger or, you know, there's just two different ways Steph could go and if it's good guy Steph then I hope then you know it's a reuniting with Lucy.

[00:18:49] And if it's bad, bad guy Steph, I mean, who knows.

[00:18:54] We'll see right. There's also with Stephanie I've noticed you know like you had a, there's a pivotal moments in her storyline and emotions about losing her husband.

[00:19:05] Tell us a little bit about like those scenes like how did you like, how did you get into those scenes?

[00:19:10] Oh, well, so the, the scene where I am holding my dead husband in my arms and then I snap. And then it proceeds into the fork and the machine gun and all of that.

[00:19:26] I think she is very territorial. I think Steph likes for things to go the way they should go and losing her husband is not a part of the plan.

[00:19:41] Do I think she's deeply in love with Burt? Maybe not. But I do feel, know that she felt for him and she valued what he brought to her in the vault which was security, which was a baby, which was a partner.

[00:20:00] And I think part of why she then in episode four say dresses up Chet in her dead husband's clothes and, and claims him is because she craves that security.

[00:20:14] And I think she craves the status and the, the ability for her to have someone to co-parent to. Something that I think is so funny is in, in the subsequent episodes, you very rarely see Steph holding her own baby.

[00:20:33] Very often it's Chet holding her baby. And I think she's sort of like a, you know, instead of a hold my bear, it's hold my baby because she's got other things to do. She's, you know, she's now spoiler elected right overseer of 32 and, and she understands that like she needs to maintain that status.

[00:20:56] And I think Chet is a part of that. Yeah. I can see that. Right. I mean, how, how much do you really love your husband if a day after you're done, you know, going after some other guy? I think so much of it is, I don't think she's unfeeling, but I think she is very smart and she is a very aware of her positionality within the vault.

[00:21:22] Speaking of the vault, I was told to ask you, I didn't want to forget this. Yeah. Was it, what kind of a vault was it for the set that you guys were in? Was it actually like an actual vault or what was there?

[00:21:32] Yes. I mean, people don't even believe me when I tell them how much of this set is practical effects. Like they truly did build us a vault. And the amount of detail that went into the, the details of the vault, like they, they would spritz pipes at exactly the right moment to meet.

[00:21:53] Like, so they would drip at the exact right times. And, and the door, the vault door that like pops out and then wheels that big gear, it actually does that. That is not like, you know, something that they edited in. Someone had to engineer a giant vault door that wheels out and has to look and feel authentic.

[00:22:17] And it's so hard to do that. And so, I mean, everyone on the set and prop and costume design team, like made it so easy for us because I wasn't in front of a green screen almost ever. I was always in the setting where, where Stephanie was. And as an actor, that is a huge gift and not one that you should ever like take for granted.

[00:22:40] What do you think was like the biggest challenge for you about filming this series?

[00:22:44] You know, something that I really learned a lot of while I was filming was camera angles. I mean, I'm newer in my career and you know, when you're shooting a scene for six plus hours at the beginning of a scene, I mean, it's really hard to be an actor, do your scene, make sure that you're present and that you're listening to your scene part time.

[00:23:14] And being, you know, making sure you're timing all the emotional moments correctly and also being aware that there are cameras here and here. And if you turn your face just slightly, the light will catch you. If you turn it down slightly, you're out of your lighting. You look kind of funny. So there's so many things to think about.

[00:23:30] So I think the hardest thing for me was multitasking, especially at the beginning was allowing my brain to both focus on the action of the scene and understand where cameras are. But I got really, I was really thankful for one of our camera operators, Soup.

[00:23:50] You know, I became close and we started out just he would always find a funny way to include the belly in a shot. So I'd always be like, Hey, Annabelle, come here, like just stick the pregnant belly just ever so slightly over here. And he would always start a scene on the belly and then pan out. And even then, you know, and then it developed into, Hey, Annabelle, he'd be like from behind the camera, he'd just be like, he'd just go like that. And I'd be like this. And he'd be like, yes.

[00:24:16] And then I started to understand where cameras were and how to best work them because they're your audience. There's no one like, you know, on set being like, Oh, like, ha ha ha, like laughing at your joke in the middle of the scene. So you have to use your camera as part of your scene partner as well.

[00:24:37] Yeah.

[00:24:38] How long did it take you to get used to like with the eye patch too?

[00:24:40] Oh my gosh, the, that I would say the second thing is just having an eye patch. I had no depth perception when they asked me like, Hey, so you're going to have an eye patch. Do you care which eye? And I was trying to be like easy. And I said, No, I don't care whatever eye you want to fork. Let's do it.

[00:24:58] And I very quickly realized I have a dominant eye. It is my right eye and it is the eye that is covered the entire season. So I can't see anything. The first scene that I did with it, I was like, I was like accidentally it was with Moises Arias and I was accidentally like talking like really close to him.

[00:25:19] And then like, Hey, Annabelle, like this is becoming a very different kind of scene. You want to just back up a little bit? And I was like, Oh, I had no idea because my depth perception was way off. But I got used to it. And the costume team kept working with me and they're actually, there's actually multiple iterations of the eye patch that we went through because we wanted to be able to have it bubble out just enough so that I could keep my eye open underneath it.

[00:25:45] So I didn't have to like close one eye and try to talk like this because it does weird things to your face. So after a while, I was able to just have both eyes open. Patch would cover the whole eye. I could blink. But yeah, very disorienting. I feel like I need to do some eye patch training again before season two to get used to it. It's weird.

[00:26:05] How many months were you on set for this season?

[00:26:08] On and off for about eight months.

[00:26:11] Wow. Yeah, it was a long time. It was a long shoot, but we took some breaks and I wasn't on set every day. And, you know, but it was so fun because we all, it was a long shoot, but we all got really close. And so the whole team were all like good friends. And it's really, really, really lovely. Yeah.

[00:26:30] When's, have they told you when you're starting season two filming?

[00:26:32] They haven't. I won't know. I won't know for a little while. I don't think, but I know that they're, they're work. They're making preparations for it. So hope that day is soon for all of our sakes. I would love to go back to work. And I know people would love to see a season two sometime soon. So hopefully.

[00:26:52] So what's next for you now? Now that you're done with this, do you have anything coming up or that you want to tell us about?

[00:26:57] Yeah. Right now I am just back to auditioning. So I'm looking for my next project. I, during the, the strike, the SAG after strike, I received a waiver to do a micro budget independent film with some of my friends from college and we made it and it was great.

[00:27:19] And it actually received a Tribeca premiere. So we're going to be premiering a film called rent free at the Tribeca film festival. I think it, I think it premieres on July.

[00:27:32] No, June 8th or something. So it'll be really exciting to see that come out. And then I'm just hoping that there's another exciting project on the horizon soon.

[00:27:44] Amazing. That's great. And about how can the, now the list of the viewers find you on social media to keep up with you for season two. And I know, I know you've been posting pictures of fall throughout the days.

[00:27:54] Yeah. You can find me on Instagram. I'm just an Instagram girly. You can't really find me anywhere else. I find social media overwhelming, but you can find me on social media, Instagram. It's Annabelle O'Hagan just spelled the way my name is spelled. You can find me there. And then I'm on IMDB too.

[00:28:14] But yeah.

[00:28:15] Annabelle, I want to thank you for giving me a few minutes today. Hopefully we see a season. Well, we are going to see a season two, so let's get you back on. We continue on. Hopefully the journey of Stephanie continues.

[00:28:24] Yes. I hope so too. It was so nice chatting with you. Thank you so much for having me on the show.