Episode #133 — Actor Kimie Muroya

Why isn’t there a category at the Oscars for Best Baked Good Inspired by a Motion Picture or Television Miniseries? If there were, Heidi would have won, hands down, for her ‘80s-era cake inspired by “North and South.” As long-time listeners/blog readers know, we mean the American miniseries, not any BBC adaptations of Elizabeth Gaskell’s classic British novel. Ironically, the aforementioned cake was baked in England. What a world. Not to cast any shade on Heidi’s cake depiction of Gettysburg, but if you’re going to choose a Patrick Swayze vehicle to encase in frosting, the clear choice should be “Point Break.” A Nixon mask in fondant would be epic.

You’ll excuse us if we’ve got the Oscars on the brain, but between our chat with Bruce Vilanch and the outstanding performance by this week’s guest, awards season naturally comes to mind. For this week’s episode we spoke with actor Kimie Muroya, star of the movie, “Antarctica.” We were already predisposed to like her because the movie is excellent and her acting is superb. But after chatting with her, we like her even more and can’t wait to see what Kimie’s acting future holds.

Kimie is a talented stage actor, but “Antarctica” is her first movie gig. She shared with us how a chance mention by a friend — and a message sitting in an inbox for the better part of a year — led her to audition for the movie. There are a lot of steps between trying to get an audition and beginning to film a movie, and Kimie happily walked us through them to get a better sense of what making her first film was like. Though we have a feeling she isn’t a typical first-time movie actress. She detailed the process she used to prepare for her role and it’s extensive, impressive, and definitely shows in her performance!

“Antarctica” isn’t a typical coming-of-age movie. It’s one-of-a-kind and occasionally trippy. Kimie filled us in on how they tackled some really unique scenes. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you’ll definitely want to after listening to her interview. If heads in microwaves for one scene and floating on boards in warehouses while having to wash her hair between takes doesn’t grab your attention, there’s not much we can do for you.

One of the most interesting aspects of our conversation was Kimie’s take on how different it is to film a movie versus act in a play. Let’s just say it takes a certain kind of person to be okay with a camera right up against their face. It’s all about nuance rather than playing to the back of the house. (Side note: Some movies don’t worry about nuance. The actors are still directed to play for the back of the house, even with cameras in their faces. Those are not good movies.)

Be sure to tune in and find out why Kimie Muroya is one to watch. And it’s not just because she’s based in Philadelphia. (Though that certainly helps!) “Antarctica” is now available on Amazon Prime. Check out Kimie on her website or on Instagram.

We’re off to try and think of a good miniseries about the American Revolution. No, “John Adams” doesn’t count since the revolution is just part of it. And “Hamilton” doesn’t fit the criteria of being several episodes long. The world isn’t ready for us to produce our very own miniseries, so maybe we’ll just create a TV show where people bake different moments in American history instead. We challenge anyone to find more compelling television than depicting the moon landing on a cheese danish — both a cheese danish with the landing depicted on it, and a depiction of a moon landing upon the danish.