Dale Dickey on her Emmy nominated performance in 'Widow's Bay'

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:20)
Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of maximumfun.org and is distributed by NPR.

**Jesse Thorn** (0:40)
It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorn. Dale Dickey always wanted to be an actor, but it took a while for Hollywood to figure out that it wanted her. So she had job jobs, waitressing in New York, desk jobs in downtown LA, parties where she would dress as Shrek or Barney. Yes, we will discuss that.
And then she would book the occasional part on Law and Order or whatever.
Things didn't really pick up for Dale until she was in her mid-40s. Then she got a recurring role on the sitcom My Name is Earl. A few years after that, she was cast in a movie called Winter's Bone, a noir set in Appalachia. She played the wife of a local drug dealer called Thump. When you see her in that film, she is fending off a teenage Jennifer Lawrence. Dale Dickey's performance is empathetic and warm and, at the same time, absolutely terrifying.

**Dale Dickey** (1:38)
You ain't likely to have time for your child. I've got to talk to him.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:43)
If he don't know, nobody does.

**Jesse Thorn** (1:44)
Nope.

**Dale Dickey** (1:45)
Talking just causes witnesses and he don't want any of those.

**Jesse Thorn** (1:50)
That role in Winter's Bone earned Dale Dickey an Independent Spirit Award nomination. And I mean, obviously, I'm not in charge of these things, though some have argued I should be. But it should have gotten her an Oscar nod as well.
Dale Dickey is a consummate character actor with an unforgettable face and a flexible voice that travels across the United States.
And a voice that can sound Appalachian or Southern or, as is the case recently, New England-y, the spookiest, loneliest corners of New England. Dickey plays Rosemary on Widow's Bay, the critically acclaimed horror comedy on Apple TV. She's actually up for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series at this year's Emmys. Widow's Bay, if you haven't seen it, well, first of all, go see it. Widow's Bay is a sleepy New England town and island. The ferry runs once or twice a day. Most of the teenagers on the island are bored out of their minds. And the mayor, played by Matthew Rees, dreams of making it the next Martha's Vineyard.
Because why not? It's beautiful, it's laid back, it's got great seafood. But also, it's cursed. To locals like Rosemary, this isn't news, she's seen a lot of weird stuff on the island. And as the town's leading genealogist and historian, she has a keen insight into the why and how of the island's curse.
In the later part of the show's first season, Dale Dickey gets her real chance to shine. How? Does Rosemary rally the troops with an inspiring speech to defeat the thing that cursed the island? No, does she confess a dark, personal, hidden secret or struggle with some awful wasting disease and have some touching final last words from her hospital bed? Also no.
Instead, at the height of the action in the show, as a terrifying storm rages outside, Rosemary gives a genealogy presentation on an overhead projector.

**Dale Dickey** (3:53)
Now, here's where we reach a few ends that are dead. Dead baby, dead baby, lesbian. Sophia the heretic marries Byron Fairclaw.
These jackrabbits had six kids and some of them have a few of their own, but you know what they say, family that swims together, drowns together, and so the inaugural swim was born.

**Jesse Thorn** (4:19)
That's not a scene.

**Dale Dickey** (4:20)
Well, I guess I don't know what I'm talking about and should just stop.

**Jesse Thorn** (4:25)
Dale Dickey, welcome to Bullseye. I'm so happy to have you here and have you on the show.

**Dale Dickey** (4:28)
Thank you and thank you for having me.

**Jesse Thorn** (4:31)
So on Widow's Bay, you have a monologue that is over 10 minutes long.

**Dale Dickey** (4:41)
I think they kept the whole damn thing.

**Jesse Thorn** (4:43)
And there's a 30 minute show, you know what I mean? So that means in one of the episodes of the show, you are talking for 35 percent of the runtime.

**Dale Dickey** (4:52)
Yeah, I'm so sorry.

**Jesse Thorn** (4:54)
Did they shoot it all at once?

**Dale Dickey** (4:56)
Pretty much. It was a blur. I know we were there all day. I think it took two days. Maybe one day on my stuff and then turning around. But yeah, it was a beast. And Rosemary is in and out of the episodes before that. She has a few lines here, a couple of episodes, she has one line. And then Katie came to me like two weeks before and went, by the way, you might want to see this early.