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Call Her Kat

Queer fan favorite Mayim Bialik discusses her new television role.

Mayim Bialik stars in Fox’s Call Me Kat (courtesy photos)

When it comes to recognizing and embracing promising talent, the gays have been at it longer than practically anyone else. Remember the opening sequence of the movie Beaches starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, where those lead characters were portrayed as children? The kid version of Midler’s C.C. Bloom was a young Mayim Bialik in one of her earliest film roles. Ask any of us, and we’ll tell you we knew Bialik was going to be a star.

Since then, Bialik played the titular role in the ’90s sitcom Blossom, and she stole the show as Amy Farrah Fowler in Fox’s The Big Bang Theory. While she was filming that 21st-century sitcom, she also managed to find the time to earn a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA.

Even though The Big Bang Theory ended in 2019, things are still looking up for Bialik. She now stars in Call Me Kat, where she plays Kat, the single and sassy owner of a Louisville cat café. OutSmart had the pleasure of speaking with Bialik in January, shortly after the show debuted on Fox.

Gregg Shapiro: Before signing on to do Call Me Kat, did you consider yourself a fan of Miranda Hart’s British sitcom Miranda, on which it’s based?
Mayim Bialik: Honestly, I hadn’t seen it until Jim Parsons brought it to my attention towards the end of Big Bang Theory. [He asked], “What do you think of this?” and I said, “I think it’s delightful.” He said, “No, I’m not asking your personal opinion; I’m asking you to be part of it.” That was really the first that I heard of it. That’s how we got here. [Laughs]

One of the first things the viewer sees in Call Me Kat is the breaking down of the fourth wall. Say something about working in that mode.
I think a lot of people don’t understand that we are literally motivated by our desire to honor the original Miranda for all the good that it has brought us. When I was on Blossom as a teenager, Blossom actually kept a video diary, so I’m used to talking at the camera. When we decided to keep that piece of Miranda, it seemed to make a lot of sense, [because Kat] is a woman who is not necessarily lonely, but she is alone a lot. In that sense, breaking the fourth wall [lets] the audience be part of her life. It’s often the way that people who spend a lot of time on their own have to be creative—picturing who’s listening and who cares about them. In this case, [having] the audience care about her is how she sees it.

Call Me Kat allows you to display other aspects of your talents, including your skills as a physical comedian. You even got to do spit-takes in an episode. What do you like best about that kind of humor?
Not everything I do is stuff that I think is the funniest. [Laughs] When I’m told to do a spit-take, I do a spit-take. That’s kind of how it works. I’ve always been a very physical person. I was a dancer from the time I was very young. I grew up watching Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett and Tracey Ullman—women who really all inhabited their bodies in a very specific and comedic way. For me, I think that Darlene Hunt, our showrunner and creator, just incorporated a lot of things about me. I am very physically flexible, so she’s capitalized on that. I like to say that if my mom, when I was 11 and started acting, could have designed a show for me, it would have been Call Me Kat, because this show takes everything I can do and it puts it in there. She can sing, she can dance, she’s funny with her body, she can kick high. That’s what it feels like.

I’m so glad you mentioned singing, because you do get to sing on the show. Is it daunting or fun to sing with Cheyenne Jackson, who plays Max?
It’s absolutely terrifying! I specifically requested that I not have to sing in front of him for extended periods of time because, first of all, he’s absolutely incredible. He is also a person who, if you ask him to sing something 62 times, is going to sound amazing every single time. With me, you get about four takes out of me and then my voice starts to suffer, because I’m not a professional. It’s incredibly lovely how welcoming he is and how much support he gives me, but it really is standing in the presence of greatness to work with him, and especially to sing in front of him. [Laughs]

Kat has a secret crush on Max. Have you ever had a secret crush on someone, and if so, how did that turn out?
Well, they’re not usually secret. I usually post on social media about them. [Laughs] I don’t know if I’ve had a secret crush. Like I said, I feel like nothing’s secret anymore, thanks to the Internet.

Speaking of Cheyenne, your queer fans must be delighted that he, as well as Leslie Jordan, are a couple of your Call Me Kat co-stars. Is it as much fun to work with them as it appears?
Oh, absolutely! What I say about Leslie Jordan is, everything that you wish he’s like is what he’s like. That is no joke. Everything he says is a sound bite. We get to hear him be a little raunchier with his language because we get to see parts of him that other people don’t. He’s delightful, he’s hilarious. Everything he says is an unbelievable story or joke. I did not know much about Cheyenne, to be honest, before getting to work with him. He’s just one of those people; his presence and his heart are so stunning. He’s goofy and playful. He’s adorable! We have a great time. I wouldn’t say that if it wasn’t true. I would just say, “Oh, he’s really nice to work with.”

Early in your acting career, you played the young version of Bette Midler’s character, C.C. Bloom, in Beaches. Did you develop a sense that you had a gay following after that?
I was told that I did, and I found that to be true. I was raised by two very liberal documentary filmmakers who lived in the Village and had gay friends when that was a scandalous thing to do. I was raised with a very strong love and appreciation for the gay community. My parents had gay friends. I grew up seeing men as couples in our home, having dinner with us and celebrating holidays with us. I have gay family members, as many of us do. I’m a happy liberal and loving ally. For sure, the Bette Midler connection is a very specific thing, which I love to be part of.

Kat owns and operates a cat-themed café. Do you have any of your own pets?
I do. I have three cats. I had four, but unfortunately I lost one of them during COVID. It was definitely a rough year in the cat department. But I do have three fur babies, as we call them. And like Kat, I like to say, “I’m not a sad cat lady, I’m a rad cat lady.”

Watch Call Me Kat on Fox every Thursday at 8 p.m.

This article appears in the February 2021 edition of OutSmart magazine.

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Gregg Shapiro

Gregg Shapiro is a regular contributor to OutSmart Magazine.
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