By Moonah Ellison
photography: Nathan Johnson @ Drift Studio NYC
Dual threat. It’s a term thrown around Hollywood faster than the hashtag of the moment, or more common than Donald Trump tweeting. It’s something most actors want to become, be a part of, add it to their resume. Dual. He’s a serious actor as well as comedic. Dual. She can do film, television… theater. Triple? Hey now. Better than Dual. And so here we have Beth Behrs, a co-star (with Kat Dennings) on the CBS hit comedy 2 Broke Girls, who also happens to be starring alongside Sally Field in the Michael Showalter-directed Hello, My Name is Doris, all the while making her New York theater debut in the Off-Broadway world premiere of Halley Feiffer’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York City set to open in June at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. So we have television, film, theater. One-two-three. Triple. And with an inner drive and will to succeed, Beth wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’ve always had to audition, I mean nothing’s ever been handed to me, which I enjoy because I’m proving to them that I’m not just one role [2 Broke Girls]. That’s my favorite part about acting is being a chameleon and playing roles that are so different than myself and it’s exciting and exhilarating and creatively fulfilling in its own way.”
For as long as Beth can remember, she’s always wanted to do theater. “Ever since I was five years old or even younger, I used to watch The Sound of Music over and over and act it out, and my parents put me in a local church theater camp situation when I was like four, and from that point on that was my first love and I did it, literally, until I went to college for it [acting] at UCLA and then kind of had to put it on the backburner when I moved to Los Angeles because there’s not a lot of theater that was available to me while I was trying to make ends meet and auditioning. And yeah, here I am. Finally full circle in New York.”
And coming full circle means coming knee-deep in the New York Primary during and election year, that special time on the every New yorkers calendar when they cast their vote for their political party’s potential presidential nominee. Beth has an affinity for a certain former New York State Senator as well as possessing an everyday outtake on life I think we could and should all subscribe to. “Basically, I’ve been a big Hillary supporter forever so I’d actually be happy with her—her or Bernie [Sanders]—but I’m definitely going to vote for Hillary. I think our candidates are quite exceptional, however, I mean it’s just pretty crazy. Hence being closer to yourself, and just trying to be kind to other people, and just trying to live day-to-day as a good person. I feel like that’s all we can do: Love one another and be kind with everything that’s going on in our world right now.”
Love one another and be kind. It’s kind of hard to find that in today’s political climate but there’s one place that Beth can find that, and it’s in the animal kingdom: horses. “We lived in Virginia and we never had horses, but our neighbors did so I was always around them and friends had them, and I had the opportunity to ride a little bit, but my parents could never afford it. Riding lessons were so expensive so I never got to actually enter the horse world, until actually on the show.” Yes, 2 Broke Girls has an actual horse on set. “I just noticed how much happier and calmer I was when I was doing a scene with him, and I just became really close with the horse trainer, Scott, who is incredible and has a ranch of horses… I went out and rode with him and then I just from there found a great woman who has a rescue facility… there’s a lot of connections I’ve found between horse interactions and acting, because you have to be your most truthful vulnerable self around a horse. Like, you can’t fake any emotion or they won’t respond, that’s why animal therapy has become such a beautiful practice for people. I rescued my first horse, so I’ve been super involved with the ASPCA and hope to have a farm someday with a bunch of rescue animals.”
Although she’s currently starring in three creative mediums—television, film, theater—there’s an area Beth is experimenting in that will sure enough get the creative juices flowing: producing. “I’ve been kind of beginning to dabble in finding projects as a producer,” says Beth. “So that whole world of creating content and developing content, and working with great writers on content, is something that’s really exciting for me as my career goes on. I obviously love acting, but I really enjoy story-telling in general, so however that decides to manifest over the years. I’m not sure I’m a writer, but I definitely feel I have the brain to develop as a producer, so yeah that as far as the business goes.”
BLANK NYC jacket
Silence + Noise clothes
Vans shoes
Clothing provided by Urban Outfitters
photography by Nathan Johnson
stylist Kassidy Nagy
hair Brian Magallones for exclusive artists
management using leonor greyl and amika tools
makeup Natasha Smee for exclusive artists
management using charlotte tilbury