Pheaturing Lenore Zann And Alison Sealy-Smith from "X-Men: The Animated Series"

 

Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Monday. How are you? You really can’t make this shit up. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas... yes, the one who just went viral for fleeing his home state for Cancun during a deadly blizzard... is now getting roasted online again. This time for, inexplicably, blaming Joe Biden for the current sauce shortage at Chick-Fil-A. Blame aside, is it really any surprise that Cruz loves the chicken chain infamous for donating to anti-LGBTQ charities? But then again so do I... Oh, Ted. One thing’s for sure Sen. Ted Cruz knows how to stay trending. Maybe after four years of fan-girling over Donald Trump, he’s finally taken a page out of the how-to-troll book. On May 12th, the Republican lawmaker tweeted the link to a Breitbart article which described a shortage of sauce at Chick-Fil-A, entitled “Chick-Fil-A Limits Sauces Per Order Due To Shortage” with the simple caption “Joe Biden is destroying America.” Questions abound. Since the hack of the Colonial Pipeline, the country’s widespread gas shortage has dominated the news cycle… but it seems there’s another serious shortage receiving little attention: Chick-Fil-A sauce! You know it: those plastic, rectangular receptacles full of creamy orange goodness. Just a little tangy. Just right: it makes the sandwich. So when issues in the supply chain, resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, caused Chick-Fil-A locations to limit their dipping sauce to one-per-customer, people were going to get upset. We’ve seen Chick-Fil-A brawls before. And it’s also no surprise that Ted Cruz is one of them. I mean that guy definitely seems like he asks for extra sauce. But how does President Joe Biden factor into it? Well, lately industry-wide supply chain issues have affected Chick-Fil-A and several other chicken restaurants including KFC, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Wingstop. Demand remains high, even as other stops in the supply chain are hindered by other pandemic snafus… namely, in enough hiring workers. Throughout the pandemic, employment at fast food restaurants has taken a severe hit. With lower wages than other industries, many workers who found themselves laid off during the pandemic have yet to return back. As COVID-19 vaccines have allowed the country to open up again, reports on America’s labor looming shortage are gaining more attention. Additionally, there is a ketchup shortage due to the increased need for individually wrapped ketchup packets. A more sanitary option than sharing any communal ketchup bottle, Heinz has been in crisis-mode to keep up and reported a 25% increase in production over the past year. We can assume that these systemic problems are what Cruz was referring to in his pithy (and petty) tweet. The brief Breitbart article made no mention of them, however. And who knows? Maybe Cruz’s comment will become like the next “Thanks, Obama.” I honestly hope that by today, Fox News is running 24-coverage determining Biden’s exact role in the Chick-Fil-A’s dry poultry debacle. Marjorie Taylor Greene might have a conniption. As you can imagine, Ted Cruz’s public dedication to any fast food chain would make for some late night comedy fodder. “If you’re looking for a president to blame for your dipping sauce shortage, this is your guy,” Kimmel announced, laughing. 

Talk about a real-life horror story. A woman in El Paso, Texas was woken up in the middle of the night by something dripping onto her face. At first, she thought it was rain… but when she turned on the lights, she saw red splatter across her apartment ceiling, walls, bed, and body. Ana Cardenas then made the horrifying discovery that the red splatter, was in fact, blood. In Spanish, Cardenas explained, “It grossed me out, I was in shock, I thought this isn’t real this is a dream, wake up. I called maintenance and they said are you sure and I said blood is falling on me,” describing how the blood painted parts of her bed, walls, furniture, and even her hair. She then added how it was the blood of her upstairs neighbor, a man who had died right on top of where her ceiling fan was. And according to KTSM, while she was sleeping, his blood had seeped through, while her ceiling fan was on, explaining why the blood was splattered across her entire body and hair. Cardenas also said that the police stated that her late upstairs neighbor had died of natural causes, but that didn’t give her much comfort in her situation. “The firefighters knocked down his door and the body was laying exactly where my fan is underneath. He had carpet but the blood seeped through to my ceiling. They took the fan down and a pool of blood came down,” Cardenas detailed, but her troubles didn’t end there. Although her apartment is now completely disinfected, the ceiling has been removed, and flies and a foul smell still linger. Although Cardenas had stayed in a hotel for a few nights, she is now currently battling Cielo Vista Apartment management for compensation for the damaged property. She said, “I told them my bed is covered in blood and they told me they’re sorry but the insurance won’t pay it.” It’s safe to say she won’t be renewing her lease at that apartment complex after living there for almost two years. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up to help the poor woman recover from this traumatic situation, and hopefully she’ll get a new apartment soon. 

Alright, so lesson learned folks, especially all you cigarette smokers out there... don’t light a cigarette and then use hand sanitizer after. This should make sense considering most generic hand sanitizers are disinfectants that contain alcohol. So if you do the math, alcohol, and fire make for quite the explosive result. But this poor driver in Rockville, Maryland, probably didn’t think about that little equation, as he accidentally set his own car on fire. On Thursday evening, the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service responded to the bizarre case at the Federal Plaza shopping center. A man had lit his cigarette in his car, and then proceeded to use some hand sanitizer. When the sanitizer ignited, hence our little equation of what alcohol and fire equal, it set his whole car on fire. Although the incident resulted in a total loss when it came to his car, the driver thankfully only sustained minor burns and non-life-threatening injuries, as he was taken to the hospital. Fire officials told ABC 7, “using hand sanitizer and smoking a cigarette is a bad combo in unventilated areas like a car,” so you don’t need to take my word for it as to why you shouldn’t probably have the two near each other. I truly feel bad for this guy. With the coronavirus pandemic, even though everyone’s getting vaccinated, this man was probably habitually sanitizing his hands after a shopping trip of some sort. How was he supposed to realize that it would be quite the ignition source that would cause a vehicle fire? It’s not like he was thinking about how the disinfectant that would help save lives would also cause open flames. But on the bright side, it might help him quit smoking those cancer sticks anyways. I know I’d be a little traumatized to smoke if I went through that. 

We never learn from past mistakes, do we? Our history has been riddled with necessity shortages, dating back to even when Johnny Carson was around, because people become so scared, they make these mild shortages even worse than they should’ve been. It’s unbelievable how many toilet paper shortages we’ve had in the last couple of years, and this recent gas “shortage” isn’t unfamiliar either. But at least with every public frenzy that surfaces in the media, we get to enjoy the many hilarious videos of people overly freaking out that come with them. Take this one for example by Mike Johnson from the Bmr Twins. This guy is clearly scraping to store extra gas. 

People who are panic buying extra gas are usually storing them in extra big containers or plastic bags. The panic in this recent gas shortage stems from the Colonial Pipeline hack by Russian criminals, which supplies 45% of the East Coast’s total fuel, according to CBS News. Officials had to warn people not to pour gas into plastic bags, as social media has been blowing up with videos of people bulking up on the gas at gas stations, causing long lines. Now you would think that some of this was common sense, but you can’t tell me you haven’t surfed the Internet lately without seeing a meme of some crazed couple over-loading on gas. I mean, it’s super dangerous to even be holding that much gas in your car like that, as the owner of a Hummer found out. The Hummer was found with four five-gallon containers of gasoline when it burst into flames. And what’s even more comical about the situation (one person was injured, but refused to get treatment according to WFLA), is that this was in Tampa Bay, Florida, where the gas shortage isn’t affecting the area as Florida gets 90% of its gas supply from cargo ships. Make sure you get your information right guys, and don’t be one of these people. Or do be one of these people if you’re trying to find a quick way to become famous online. Who knows what people’s intentions are anymore. 

For the first time since Trump declared the novel coronavirus pandemic a national emergency last March, Americans can safely smile, frown, and even blow air kisses (from a distance) at strangers without the shroud of a face covering... as long as both parties are in a non-crowded outdoor space. That’s according to new guidance released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “If you are fully vaccinated you can start doing many things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” the new CDC guidance says. “Fully vaccinated” status is achieved two weeks after your second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccination. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky elaborated on the development Tuesday during a White House briefing, “If you are vaccinated, things are much safer for you.” The health official continued, elaborating on the updated mask guidelines, “If you are fully vaccinated and want to attend a small outdoor gathering... with people who are vaccinated and unvaccinated... or dine at an outdoor restaurant with friends from multiple households, the science shows you can do so safely, unmasked.” The CDC is very clear when it is (and is not) safe to not wear masks outdoors. CDC-sanctioned, safe outdoor settings include: Small, outdoor gatherings with a mixture of vaccinated and unvaccinated people, outdoor restaurants with friends and members of your household, outdoor spaces when walking, running, cycling, rollerblading, flying kites, unicycling, doing the macarena, etc. The aforementioned outdoor settings are so low risk that even those without a coronavirus vaccine may participate without wearing a face mask, according to the CDC. Whether you have received a COVID-19 vaccine or not, there are certain settings where you should wear a mask, according to the CDC. The CDC recommends that both vaccinated people and unvaccinated people should continue to wear masks in the following scenarios where social distancing may be difficult: Crowded outdoor events, like concerts, sporting events, and parades, indoor settings, including barbershops and hair salons, indoor malls and museums, movie theaters, and full-capacity churches, public transportation. The CDC is relaxing mask mandates now that more than 50 percent of American adults have obtained at least one dose of the vaccine. Even before the new guidelines, public health experts have long noted the low likelihood of becoming infected with an infectious disease while outdoors. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief infectious disease expert in the U.S., has called the risk of spread in outdoor settings “minuscule.” “Virus just cannot accumulate in the air outdoors,” Linsey Marr, a researcher at Virginia Tech, told NPR, “It’s like putting a drop of dye into the ocean. If you happen to be right next to it, then maybe you’ll get a whiff of it. But it’s going to become diluted rapidly into the huge atmosphere.” President Joe Biden has hailed the relaxation of mask requirements as a way to dispel vaccine hesitancy, urging unvaccinated citizens to do so... not just to protect themselves and those around them, but so they can begin returning to normalcy by “getting together with friends, going to the park for a picnic without needing a mask.”

Instead of doing this blog thing I should be listening to this album...

Nah. Maybe not. They say at Walmart I would see some weird sites and I didn't believe it until I saw this...

Sometimes I like to go on Twitter and look up certain words. One of those words is "Foghat" and this is a tweet I saw quite a few yeas ago... 

Any stroll through a store would have you believe that "pink is for girls" and "blue is for boys" are the associated gender roles are the very backbone of our society. Products from nail clippers to hand lotion are assigned genders when last time I checked, inanimate objects don't have gender identities. Like the beauty industry for example...

If I had a TARDIS I would go and try to meet Hitler to stop him but knowing my luck he'd be having a meeting with Czech President Emil Hácha telling him of the imminent German invasion of Czechoslovakia on March 15th, 1939 in Berlin. 

Hácha suffered a heart attack during the meeting, and had to be kept awake by medical staff, eventually giving in and accepting Hitler’s surrender terms. In the evening of March 14th 1939, Hitler invited President Hácha to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Hitler deliberately kept him waiting for hours, while Hitler watched a film. Finally, at 1:30 a.m., on March 15th 1939, Hitler saw the President. He told Hácha that as they were speaking, the German army was about to invade Czechoslovakia. All of Czechoslovakia’s defenses were now under German control following the Munich Agreement in September of the previous year. The country was virtually surrounded by Germany on three fronts. Hitler now gave the President two options: cooperate with Germany, in which case the “entry of German troops would take place in a tolerable manner” and “permit Czechoslovakia a generous life of her own, autonomy and a degree of national freedom…” or face a scenario in which “resistance would be broken by force of arms, using all means.” By four o’clock, after suffering a heart attack induced by Göring’s threat to bomb the capital, Hácha contacted Prague, effectively “signing Czechoslovakia away” to Germany. French Ambassador Robert Coulondre reported that by half past four, Hácha was “in a state of total collapse, and kept going only by means of injections.” Keeping up with the youngins and their lingo is tough. Kids these days like to use "emoji," which use small pictures to communicate how they're feeling... kind of like hyroglyphics. When using emoji, it's easy to confuse laugh-crying for just regular-crying, and these boomers and old folks made the unfortunate mistake of using the wrong face at the wrongest possible times.  

You have to laugh or else you cry. I was thinking of getting a new tattoo but someone had the same ideas I had...

Picking a bridesmaid dress to flatter the bodies of everyone in a wedding party can be tough. And one bride is asking if she's in the wrong for telling her bridesmaid that if she doesn't size the dress up, she's out of the wedding. The bride emailed the Phile to ask if she was in the wrong for setting the ultimatum after her bridesmaid pointed out that the dress wouldn't fit her chest. 

"I am getting married in the fall and LOVE the bridesmaid dresses I picked out with my sisters. They fit them well, and show a little cleavage but not too much. I’m pretty conservative and my wedding will probably represent that. Anyway. One of my cousins is also a bridesmaid. She is super short and skinny, but big chested. Anyway. She chose a size that is really small, so it fits her body well, but her boobs are literally falling out of it. She originally tried it on with a bra and over half the bra cups were showing. Then she took off the bra and we are about 1 cm away from a nip slip. Anyway. I told her that the color looked really good on her, but that I was worried about how the dress would hold up during dancing and the reception. I suggested she get a larger size. I also suggested getting the dress altered so it would fit both her body and her boobs. Well, she refused. She said she loves how the dress looks on her and she wants to feel confident when she is standing up there with me. Now I don't know what to do. Am I wrong for telling her she HAS to fix the dress or not be in the wedding?" I think the ultimatum isn't fair... unless you pay for alterations. If the size dress she’s wearing is her size then it sounds like you picked a style of dress that shows boobies when someone has big breasts. Why would you make her buy a size that’s too big because you didn’t think about how different body types would fit a low cut dress? Tale as old as time... bride demands everyone wear the same style and then is grumpy when it doesn't look great on everyone. Your bridal party can look totally uniform OR it can look good and just be the same color or whatever, choose one (unless you pick your friends based on body type, which is gross). You picked a dress that “shows a little cleavage." Dresses that “show a little cleavage” for small to average size boobs tend to show a LOT of cleavage when worn by women with large chests, since they have a lot more to show. You should have considered everyone’s body type when picking the dress. That being said, your cousin picked the wrong size dress... it’s well-known in fashion that you need to pick the size to fit the largest part of your body and then tailor “down” to fit smaller parts, not the other way around. However, unless you’re paying for the dress and alterations, you don’t really have a say in how it fits her... you picked the style and have to live with the choice. So there you have it. If you want your bridesmaids' dresses to fit a certain way, you might need to fork out for the alterations. Sorry, bride! If you have a problem you want my advice on then email me at thepeverettphile@gmail.com. Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York here is...

Top Phive Things Said About Ricky Schroder Harassing A Costco Employee Over Mask Policy

5. Ricky Schroder, who obviously has a huge "silver ppoon" up his arrogant ass, is bitching at a Costco employee about having to wear a mask. But he has no problem joining the My Pillow guy to bail out murder Kyle Rittenhouse. 

4. The Costco doorman is AWESOME. 

3. Costco Jason now has a bigger fan base than Ricky Schroder. 

2. Ricky Schroder looks like he plays in a Nickelback cover band on weekends. 

And the number one thing said about Ricky Schroder harassing a Costco employee over the mask policy is...

1. Now that Ricky Schroder is all grown up, I think we can start calling him “dick.” 

If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, let's take a live look at Port Jeff, shall we?

It's 70°F thee today... looks like a nice day. I wish I was thee. 

Now here's a story from...

In Tampa, Florida, a Dunkin’ Donuts customer was harassing employees, and even used a racial slur after complaining about the lack of service. The 77-year-old man was then punched by a Dunkin’ employee… and died due to injuries sustained. That employee, Corey Pujols, is now facing a manslaughter charge. On May 4th, an unidentified Florida man was waiting in the drive-thru of a Dunkin’ store of a Marathon gas station. After feeling the service was inadequate, this Dunkin’ customer began to complain and was asked to leave. Instead, he parked his car, entered the Dunkin’ store, and continued to argue with the employees. According to the report, the 77-year-old customer... who remains unnamed... is a regular customer but was being “extremely rude” that day. He then used a racial slur when speaking to Corey Pujols, a 27-year-old Dunkin’ employee, who is black. Pujols asked the man to repeat the slur, which he did, and Pujols responded by punching him square in the face. The exact slur is not included in the report. That quick attack proved fatal. After receiving a blow to the face, the irate man fell and hit his head on the concrete floor of the store. He never regained consciousness and after days in the intensive care unit, was pronounced dead on Friday, May 7th, at Tampa General Hospital. An autopsy revealed the victim had a skull fracture and brain contusions resulting from blunt trauma to the head. The medical examiner said the death would be ruled as a homicide. A Dunkin’s spokesperson released this statement, “We are deeply saddened by the incident at our franchised restaurant in Tampa. The franchisee, who independently owns and operates this restaurant, is fully cooperating with the local authorities. As this is an ongoing investigation, we defer any additional questions to the police.” Pujols was arrested by Tampa police immediately following the violence in the Dunkin’ Donuts, on battery charges. Once the man died, however, that charge was upgraded to aggravated manslaughter of a person older than 65: a first-degree offense that carries a sentence of up to 30 years, according to The Tampa Bay Times. For now, jail records indicate that Pujols is being held without bail and will be represented by a public defender in court.

The 151st book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...

Richard will be on the Phile in a few weeks. Now for some tax...

Phact 1. Just to show that they are one of the largest taxpayers in the United States, ExxonMobil adds the taxes you pay at the gas pump and its employee payroll taxes to the amount they actually pay in taxes to the government. 

Phact 2. In 1987, about 7 million American children vanished. The only cause was that IRS started requiring taxpayers to list the Social Security Numbers of their children on tax forms.

Phact 3. The U.S. is the world’s only industrialized nation that taxes citizens who live overseas, even if their income is generated in a foreign country and they never intend to return to America. 

Phact 4. In 1935 when Roosevelt raised the top tax rate to 79% for those making over $5 million, it only applied to one person in the United States, John D. Rockefeller. 

Phact 5. In 1864, a cult leader once deeded 600 acres of land to “God,” but the State of Pennsylvania took possession and sold it because the Almighty didn’t pay His taxes.

Today's guests are two voice-actors, one is is a Barbados-born Canadian actress, who voiced characters in various animated series such as Storm on the 1990s "X-Men" and the other is a Canadian actress and politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Cumberland—Colchester in the House of Commons of Canada as a member of the Liberal Party since 2019 and as an actor As an actor, she is best known for providing the voice of Rogue on the "X-Men." Please welcome to the Phile... Lenore Zann and Alison Sealy-Smith.

Me: Hello, ladies, welcome to the Phile. How are you? 

Alison: Hello, Jason. I'm doing wonderful. I should warn you my memory is blurry at best so you can ask me things and my response might be "oh, shoot, I don't remember." We'll see. 

Lenore: Hello, Jason.

Me: I loved "X-Men: The Animated Series." I used to have all the VHS's when they came out. Now the show could see seen on Disney+ which is cool. Lenore, Rogue was always one of my favorite characters.

Lenore: Thank you very much. I'm happy to hear that. What was it about Rogue that you liked so much? 

Me: I liked her powers and I liked her voice and accent. Gambit is also a great character, right? 

Lenore: Yeah, and they loved each other but they could never be a couple in a way. 

Me: Alison, I also liked Storm's accent... are you still able to do Storm's voice? 

Alison: I don't know. I don't know if I could call her up. I know she sits in my chest somewhere. There's a sentence I used to say which is, "Professor Xavier, Zoran has manipulated Rogue's mind. She's not herself." It was just kind of bad Stratford acting because I was doing Shakespeare out at Stratford at the same time. 

Me: I know Stratford's Shakespeare festivals from Barenaked Ladies. They did a whole Shakespeare show there and CD called "As You Like It." Anyway, did you have theater background? 

Alison: Yes, I'm a creature of the theater and like I said at the same time I was doing Storm I was doing Shakespeare out at the Stratford theater festival in Ontario. 

Me: So, did you work with any of the other cast members from the X-Men cartoon in the past? Were they theater people as well? 

Alison: No. No, and the shock of it for me when I did this not only did I not know most of the other actors but we very seldom got a chance to see each other. I've been used to radio drama, I did quite a bit of CBC/BBC co-productions, the big epic things. I'm what they call a "large size," not physically, I'm actually quite short but I take up a lot of space... acting speak. So I've done a lot of these radio dramas and I expected the same type of thing... a bunch of actors in a room where we all play off each other except we'll all be on microphones. I would say about 80% of the work that I did on the X-Men I was by myself. We didn't work together, it was just going down a list of cues on a paper which was really weird to me.

Me: So would you record at the same time though or just play off what they had already recorded? 

Alison: I was on my own. I heard nothing. 

Me: Did you have anything to go by like a storyboard? 

Alison: No, nothing. There was no storyboard, there were no actors... there was a script and a director for most of the time. It was strange for me because I wasn't really a cartoon watcher. I wasn't used to this whole thing but what I had going was this really rich theatrical background and a lot of work in radio dramas when I played with a microphone. The wonderful thing about acting is I'm doing a one person show then there's always someone to play off of. It's action and reaction and this was imply going down cues, there was nobody else in the room. Like I said we didn't even see storyboard. I knew what she looked like and occasionally every now and then if I were stuck, but as they animate to voice I don't know, they just didn't have storyboards around. It was real acting, it was just following direction. It was going in with some feel for the character and then being able to stay open and take direction. I guess from the director's point of view casting would've been everything. There just weren't any other triggers in the environment. The person just had to sound right. 

Me: So, what was your audition like for Rogue, Lenore? 

Lenore: I only auditioned once and I came in at the end because my agent at the time kelp telling me "it's a kids show, it's a cartoon show. They're looking for someone with a sexy and husky southern voice and I think you're the one. You gotta go down for an audition." I've never done animation at that point, I was doing television and movies and theater. I did play a lot of American characters on here different Canadian shows, and I did play a southern character so she just thought I was right for this part. But I don't know, for one reason or another I kept blowing off the audition and not going. I didn't really care too much and cartoons at that time weren't as cool as they've since become. In a way our show has made them become really cool. So I kept missing the auditions and not really caring. I was a bit more lazy back in those days. Then she called me and said, "Look. They're having call backs to that show. They still haven't found the right person to that character and I know because it's you. So get your ass over there and do the audition because I'm sure you'll book it and it'll be good money and all that." I went and I walked into the sound booth and out the headphones on and these guys were on the other end in Los Angeles and they were Fox Network and Saban Entertainment and I did one little paragraph that they had there written down for us. At the end of it I heard these guys go, "Oh my God! Where did she come from? Get that girl! Don't let her leave the studio! That's the voice! That's the one we've been looking for!" That's how I got the part in "X-Men."

Me: So, you said you were alone 80% of the time, Alison.  Who did you record with the other 20%? 

Alison: Um, I don't remember the other actors names at all except Lenore. I remember a scene or a session and Wolverine was there, Xavier was there. I don't really remember any of them, we were hardly ever together. I did another one, "Delilah and Julius" and that was a COMPLETELY different thing. It was in a lot of ways much more enjoyable because we were standing there and it was a whole bunch of really, really good Canadian actors and we played, we were in our own world but they were right there... four of us, five of us, six of us on mics. All we had to do at that point was just technical and try not to step on each others lines. But apart from that we were playing, I didn't play with the X-Men. There was no other energy really. I said 80 but now that you made me think the sessions that we were together it's more like 98%. I do remember two sessions when there were other people in the room but that wasn't the rule on the X-Men. This might've been me... I was out in Stratford and had one day off a week. Theaters was six days a week and I just recorded on Monday's. I was doing "Street Legal" which was episodic TV and I got this. I was still out in Stratford so it was only Monday's so I guess they worked around me. If the actors weren't available they just got into the habit of recording me by myself. It was a trip. 

Me: So, how did you become cast as Storm? 

Alison: Okay, that one I do remember even with my spotty memory. It was the very first time, I went to the audition and there were lots of actresses there. We were given the character breakdown and description and so on. She was from north Africa and I'm looking around and thinking this isn't going to go well. I have no idea what a freaking north African sounds like. There were a lot of actresses there that I recognized and worked with. Some of them were from the continent, various countries within. It was strange was it was actually sound, there was either a CD or a cassette player, it was the first time I'd ever been to an audition there was a way to play back the previous actress sounded like. We don't do that, I go to an audition and it's all about me but they basically said if we wanted to, they told me I didn't have to but there was this device and there was this recording of the American actress playing Storm. 

Me: What do you mean previous actress? 

Alison: All of us Canadians were replacements, I was the last one to be replaced... I think. I listened to it and tried to prepare to go in there and I've got a choice, I could go in there and try to do a so-called genetic African continental accent or I could hear what the actress did. I say Africa which sounds so stupid considering the size and diversity of the continent but you know what I mean. It was an American actress doing a plummy mid-Atlantic thing. Rounded, it was deep, it was sophisticated, that's all I took away from that, I certainly don't pick up an African accent. I thought that do I do, they're telling me this character was from north Africa so do I do that, do I do something ethnic or do I go with that I heard? I thought the only reason they got the woman's voice there is because they actually do want me to sound something like that, which had nothing to do with Africa. So I just did what I heard and I got it. My instinct was right. The other thing that tipped me off with a lot of the actresses it was their second and sometimes third call back, which meant they weren't finding what they wanted, they hadn't called me first because I think they went with the actresses who had some kind of accent from the continent from Africa and that's not what the American producers wanted. 

Me: Why do you think that is? Storm is African after all. 

Alison: It would've been what they were doing, it was far too ethnic for 1990s America. The sort of rather plummy Stratford mid-atlantic thing of just the rounding of the sounds seemed to be what they wanted. I was just lucky that I went with that rather than doing searching what would have been a north African accent. 

Me: Besides her place of origin what did you know about Storm when you first signed on? 

Alison: Not much. I would've read whatever they described her. I don't think "weather witch" would've been a word that they used. That's what I thought she was, a weather witch. 

Me: Weather Witch is a cool name though. Hahaha. What did they say about her? 

Alison: That she commanded the elements. There were other things I learnt as I went through it. 

Me: Like what? 

Alison: I remember a big one was her claustrophobia. I remember that being her weakness. Really, Jason, it was about the sound. It was about the ability to commit the words on the paper. I know there are actors who do the whole "this is my background, my parents, my this, my psychological underpinnings, this is what I eat for breakfast in the morning." I'm not really a method actor. I like playing in the moment. That's why I do prefer being with people to feed because it's about what I'm feeling. That's what I brought to the role was to feel each moment it was happening and to be able to throw myself in it completely whatever was happening at the time without a lot of the background details. I needed to know my voice was in the right place. Once I knew my voice was in the right place the rest of it was reacting in the moment. 

Me: Cool. So, Lenore, where are you from? 

Lenore: I was born in Sydney, Australia but emigrated to Canada when I was about 9-years-old. 

Me: Nice, So, why do you think you got the part of Rogue? 

Lenore: It was the thing they were looking for. 

Me: You have done some other voice over stuff since then, right? 

Lenore: Yeah, that was my first animation and it became one of many characters that I ended up doing. But Rogue, I have to say, is my favorite. 

Me: Was Storm a fun character to play, Alison? 

Alison: Oh, yes. Me; What was the favorite thing about playing her? 

Alison: I'm a word actress so I reveled in words and that's what I loved about the role. She was so highly dramatic which is where I live as an actress and I got to have some fun with the language. It was perfect that I was out at Stratford at the time so it was pretty seamless. 

Me: Do you think she's a strong role model for girls and women? 

Alison: Yes. Very much so. Just my strength and I play a lot of those. I guess it's where the voice sits and what I do now. 

Me: So, is Rogue the kind of character you like to play? 

Lenore: Yeah, for me the kind of characters I played throughout my life have given me great comfort and solace. I've done a lot of traveling in real life as well and gone to many countries and lived in many different areas. That's what this time we are here on Earth all about. So I think it informs the characters that I play. 

Me: You're pretty passionate, aren't you? 

Lenore: Yeah, I'm a pretty passionate person. 

Me: Do you like doing voice over work, Alison? 

Alison: I am lucky in my voice acting career, Storm stands out but I had fun playing an 8-year-old kid on "Monster By Mistake" and I loved playing Baby Bird in "Birdz." That one was fun but Storm was the one I did the longest. That's the one closest to who "Alison" is an actress in terms of high drama. It was great and it was early and one of the first things that I did. It launched the rest of my voice acting careers. And the reaction to it was amazing. 

Me: Do you watch cartoons yourself? 

Alison: No, I'm not really into it. 

Me: So, are you a superhero or comic book fan, Lenore? 

Lenore: Yeah, I think that superheroes and cartoons have become in a way our modern day mythology. Their like our ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses. A lot of people look to them and the stories. They are universal themes at times in the Marvel comics, they're not just surface their deep and we can look at them in many different ways. Even the fact that the worst supposed to be enemy of the X-Men is very close to Professor X and they have a history. Do you know what I mean? So it's like there's no such thing as pure evil. Their both sides of the same coin. I'm quite excited that cartoons have taken off as much as they have. 

Me: So, what kind of stuff do you read or watch? 

Lenore: I love Percy Jackson. I love the magic and mythology and all that stuff. Again their universal themes and in that they're regurgitating the Greek myths which I studied as a child, I studied Greek myths, I love them, I love mythology from all the world. Joseph Campbell is an amazing American writer talked a lot about mythology in society and how myths are important to every society. One of the most important myths is the heroes journey. Somebody who is a woman or man goes out and hears the call to adventure. Hears the call and goes out to find themselves and find something to go on a quest and they have to battle all of the energy forces to get to the quest. Once they get to the thing they are looking for that's just a part of it. Then they have to go home and take what they found with them. And sometimes when they bring that jewel and crystal or that wisdom back to society... society might not ready to accept that piece of wisdom so again they might find themselves with challenges as a loner trying to give that piece of wisdom to a society that is not willing to take it yet. Then they have to learn to be able to live with that. So I think all of these kind of stories are very, very deep within our psyche and they strike a certain cord in each of us that we can relate to. Some people don't go on the quest, some people are like Hobbits, they like to stay in their own cozy burrow and don't want to go on any adventures and some of us love the calling and adventure and love to go and challenge ourselves. I'm definitely one of those kind of people. 

Me: So, what was the fan reaction like that you witnessed, Alison? 

Alison: I was completely amazed of the reaction that I was getting. I was going, "Yeah, and I'm doing Shakespeare on this huge stage in front of 11, 12, 15 hundred people and you guys are going nuts over a cartoon!" These kids would gather around me, I'll see parents coming across when my kid was playing softball. Parents would come across and say, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. I don't want to disturb you but little Mikey here says you're Storm. I told him that's a little ridiculous." No, actually Mikey's right. I'll end up with 20 kids sitting in front of me looking up and going "do Storm." Then I know I also made it when the tech crew on a theatre gig or a film set when the men are dropping the wiring and all the stuff they're looping they go, "You're Storm, man? For real you're Storm? Hey!" They call their buddies and the next thing I know the whole crew puts down everything and comes over. This is when I knew okay, this is big stuff. 

Me: What was your fan reaction like, Lenore? 

Lenore: I get a lot of fan mail, even to this day, from young people who feel like outsiders or who feel they don't quite fit. Even people for instance who are in jail, people who are in the military. I've got email from people who are in warships out in the Gulf harbor there at one point of time. They wrote to me because they felt lonely and Rogue really spoke to them and they just really connected with her. 

Me: Why do you think that is? 

Lenore: I think part of it is she's a loner. She's always alone, she could never really get close to somebody too much because she's afraid of her own powers. She's sort of afraid of intimacy because if she does want to get close to somebody, fall in love with somebody and wants to touch somebody she can't because if she actually touches them she will drain them all of their life force and take it upon herself to get into herself and kill them. So that is an amazing power to have and it's an amazing curse as well. So I'm sure there's a part of her that doesn't like herself very much and wishes she was different and wishes she was normal just like everybody else. So I think that's why a lot of people relate to her. 

Me: Alison, what was it like when you first went to L.A.? 

Alison: What was cool was when they flew me down to L.A. to re-voice a bunch of them, it was just post an earthquake. I don't know what year, I can't remember but they've been a 5 on the richter scale or something. It was a nice little earthquake. By time I got to the hotel I wasn't allowed to go out on the balcony, the pool had been drained and there was a huge crack on the bottom. I wasn't allowed to drink the water, there were still aftershocks. There's this kid from Barbados who spent most of her time in Toronto and then all of a sudden the earth is shaking. I go into a restaurant and there's people very calmly sitting there eating. It was my first time there and it was interesting because it was right after this earthquake. I'll be sitting there in the hotel dining room having breakfast and my plate would leave the table as the ground was tilting. I would look round and people were sitting there quite calmly. 

Me: Maybe you caused it... you are Storm after all. Hahahaha.

Alison: That's a good point, Jason. 

Me: So, you said you had to re-voice... re-voice for what? You also mentioned the "previous actress"... 

Alison: I re-voiced two full seasons. I couldn't figure out why because our voices were quite close. Of course it turned out to be... I don't know if I should say it in an interview because it wasn't a good thing. I guess the reason that they did that was because she wouldn't get residuals. Most of the reason they came to Toronto was because we did the buy-out system. We were bought out for about five years and what was interesting about the X-Men was I never got anything from it at all. It was supposed to be a buy-pit for three years or five years and supposed to be paid after that. But for some reason, and I remember asking my union about that and I think it was because of a pre-sum agreement or the other. But what it did mean was the actress who played it before me was an American actress and was no more entitled to her residuals. 

Me: Oh, wow. What did you think about that? 

Alison: I made some money but thought it was kind of crappy. I'm sure she thought she was replaced on this show but at least she had the residuals coming on from the two seasons that she did. I remember feeling bad about it and the guys who were doing the recording saying, "Don't worry about it, man, if it wasn't you it'll be somebody else." But I felt kind of bad. I put myself in her place and thought that was kind of crappy. 

Me: Do you have a favorite episode that stands out that you can remember? 

Lenore: Well, "Rogue's Tale" of course. 

Me: What was it about that episode that is your favorite? 

Lenore: It goes more into Rogue's background and shows her how she got that power. And that's the one that has the flashback to Cody my boyfriend. 

Me: Do you miss playing Rogue? 

Lenore: Yeah, and I miss the show in a way. I wished they used the original us in the following shows because some of us play kids in the other shows that we do. So we can easily make our voices younger or older or whatever and yet they didn't want to use us in any of the following ones which is kind of lame. 

Me: Why do you think they didn't being you guys back? 

Lenore: I don't know, for whatever reason they decided to not use any of the original cast. 

Me: Were you ever approached to make a cameo in the first X-Men movie? 

Alison: No, never. 

Me: Were you offered a part in the X-Men movie, Lenore? 

Lenore: No, but that would've been kinda cool. 

Me: Did you like the movie? 

Lenore: I was a little disappointed in the movie that they made her kinda made her a bit of a combination of Jubilee and Rogue. I think they just wanted to get that age group represented of that really young age group. I think Rogue is most interesting when she's older and sexier with the red hair and the white stripe up the middle. She has her powers and in full flight so to speak. Again they didn't choose they way to go with her and so she barely had a southern accent.

Alison: I think I saw the very first one and I went, "No! She's not Storm! She's not powerful enough!" 

Me: Lenore, where do you live now?

Lenore: After "X-Men" I went to L.A., New York, Vancouver, which is where I traveled after I did "X-Men." And now I live in Nova Scotia. I came full circle, I came back home and bought a house there and I have little dogs and started working with young kids and teaching them they can be successful no matter where they come from, if it's a small town or what. And working with a digital animation program there that teaches children how to do the art and animation so I go in a do a workshop with them once a year. The rest of the time I was asked to run for government. 

Me: I was going to ask you about that. How did that happen?

Lenore: I became a politician. It's a pretty amazing career. Here's a pic of myself and Justin Trudeau... 

Me: That's so cool! What is that like for you? 

Lenore: I go into schools and talk to kids and stuff and the teachers get all excited and say, "You know, class, who we have here?" They expect the kids to say it's the MLA, there it's called the Member of the Legislative Assembly. 

Me: What would be the equivalent here in the U.S.? 

Lenore: Basically I would be the State Representative for the government of that state. A Congress woman I guess. 

Me: Ahhh... okay. so, in the school's the teachers would know of your acting background? 

Lenore: Yeah, I would go into the schools and the kids would get all starry eyed. One time this kid jumped up and said, "I know who she is! I know who she is!" The teacher said, "Okay, Johnny, who is she?" He said, "She's a superhero!" 

Me: So, do you still have a passion for acting? 

Lenore: I like talking to people about my passion for the arts. I talk about the creative economy and getting animation and film and television and theatre, music and dance and art at the forefront of government thinking as opposed to thinking about something that is on the back burner, they think it's just the icing on the cake it's not worth investing in. I believe that these kind of things are what keeps society civilised. It also makes a lot of money and hires so many people. So if we can get a bunch of television, movies and animation going on in the area it brings in money and the spin-offs are incredible for the communities. So I don't see why they have to spend money on dodging holes and even the natural resources of the province of our country. There is a natural resource which is the talent and creativity of the people. If we can tap into that and use that we're going to have a lot of people happy and are making money and are buying other resources and using other peoples talents to create the beauty all around us. That's what I'm enjoying, spending my time working on those kind of things these days. 

Me: That's cool. Alison and Lenore, thanks so much for being on the Phile. I hope this was fun. 

Alison: Thanks, Jason. 

Lenore: Thanks, Jason, I enjoyed being on the Peverett Phile. Bye for now, Sugah.

That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Alison and Lenore for a great interview. The Phile will be back on Wednesday with Feist. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye. Kiss your brain. 

Give me some rope, tie me to dream, give me the hope to run out of steam, somebody said it could be here. We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year. I can't count the reasons I should stay. One by one they all just fade away...