In Conversation With Betty Gabriel
Interview by Alison Engstrom
It’s great to connect again! Last time we chatted you were in Athens filming the new season of ‘Jack Ryan’. Before we get into that, I’d love to learn more about your background. What type of a child were you and what were your dreams back when you were little?
I was pretty quiet, I am an only child so I definitely lived a solitary life. I would have moments where I’d be living with cousins, since I had a pretty transient lifestyle growing up. I did feel like I had a sibling experience but most of the time it was just me. I was pretty expressive, I danced around a lot but it was always about the animals for me from a young age. It was like, of course, I am going to be an animal doctor because I love animals so much. It never occurred to me that it was possible to pursue acting, dancing, or any creative field because no one I knew was doing that. I had an uncle who was a reggae musician but he was the weird one (laughs). When I was in college, I was working at an autopsy lab for animals and I thought more and more, I don’t know if I could handle performing surgery on an animal and having them die.
I actually wanted to be a vet too, but I didn’t think I could handle that either. I’m fascinated by your transition from receiving a bachelor's degree in Animal Science/Pre-Vet, to becoming a modern dancer to studying at Juilliard. Would you say you are someone who follows their heart and makes changes based upon that?
I took an elective dance class and I didn’t take it that seriously but I found myself taking more and more classes. I joined the dance club and by the time I graduated—I did graduate with an animal science degree—I found myself so entrenched in the dance world. A dance teacher of mine had suggested doing a work-study program and I thought, that would be awesome. I said yes to that and figured I could always come back to veterinary medicine.
You obviously had a talent for dance! I would like to dance on stage but I don’t have the skill set necessarily.
You do need to have a good foundation to be a professional dancer. I was coming across a lot of hurdles and I didn’t realize it was going to be such a challenging road. It’s a hard profession and you have to have so much discipline and I didn’t have it. I didn’t realize how much of an undertaking it was because I didn’t start at a young age. It’s so hard on the body, something was always sprained or torn. Acting was always in the background when I started dance but it felt so alien to me and not something I was comfortable or familiar with, at least with dancing it was familiar. I did take acting classes in college because it’s where you get to explore yourself and come into your own. I went back and forth with dancing but then I said it was too hard. I started taking more acting classes, I don’t know why I thought it would be easier (laughs).
Yes, these are all hard professions you are exploring! They aren’t 9 to 5 roles.
There is always this trade-off, you can live this easy professional life but you will probably have less freedom, in some regard, or you can have this whole unpredictable and untethered existence with creative expression, where you won’t have any sense of security. You also have to pay to do it, I payed a lot of money for classes, but then fast forward, I met someone who went to Juilliard—in a conservatory that I went to in Chicago—he encouraged me to apply.
I really applaud you for taking so many leaps and chances, it’s very admirable. So often we get scared to try new things, if we want to do something, we feed ourselves with negative self-talk and we don’t even try or we give up.
It might be easier perhaps when you are young and you feel like you are going to live forever. I lived such a repressed Christian life growing up so when I was out on my own, I just went with it.
What would you say was your first defining career moment?
Getting accepted into Juilliard made it more serious and concrete. I was taking classes in Chicago, which is a very serious theater town, but it’s not the sort of game changing place as New York. When I finished, I got tiny little microscopic roles, I think The Purge: Election Year, which was my first movie that I had more than two lines (laughs).
What intrigues you the most when you receive a script?
Lines (laughs). I remember a few times where I would think, I have two scenes! Other than that, I want to be challenged dramatically and to play characters who are complex, morally ambiguous, and don’t fit into black and white boxes.
Congratulations on the success of Clickbait. It’s such a mind-bending series that keeps you on your toes. For those who haven’t tuned in yet, what can you say about the series without giving too much away? Can you also share more about your character Sophie Brewer?
The series centers around this one event which is the kidnapping of the patriarchal figure of this family (played by Adrian Grenier) and I play his wife. There is a video of him showing up online where he’s holding a card saying he abuses women and at 5 million views he will die. It’s putting an onus on the public at large to kill or not kill this man by not watching it, and of course, people watch. What the series does so well is that it has this mystery element about solving the case but within and around that you get to have a view of people in the case. It’s kaleidoscopic where you get to see all of these different stories fed into this big story. As things get revealed about the case, you discover things about my character.
Is there a message you hope viewers will take away from it?
Yes and no; I think messages and pedantic storytelling can almost create an adverse reaction to the message. I don’t like to be spoon-fed things. But I do believe there are some harsh truths and disturbing realities to our world, particularly with social media. I think we need to shed light on that and reflect it in our stories.
I’d love to get your opinion on social media?
I don’t engage in it. I found myself over the quarantine getting really anxious about everything especially my persona in the social media realm.
I respect that! Now to talk about Jack Ryan, I am so jealous of all of the traveling you have done for the series. Where else in the world did you shoot besides Athens? Can you share more about your role?
Budapest primarily, even though it was set in Rome (laughs). I play the station chief at the Rome station where I bring on Jack Ryan—I play his boss.
Since November is a month where we give thanks. What you are most grateful for in your life?
I’m grateful that we are hopefully, potentially beyond covid. I feel like we are able to breathe a bit more and we can go on living our life like we used to. I feel like I have been in this corner of a room for two years, but I finally feel like I can walk around the room. I’m glad to be able to expand and maybe even go to a yoga class.