bailee madison

Metamorphosis

Flying High With Season Two Of Pretty Little Liars And Seizing The Day On Her Singing Career,  Bailee Madison Continues To Chase Challenge And Defy Definition

photos by ben watts
words by tamara rappA

Listen to the extended podcast interview ---find Story + Rain Talks and Bailee Madison's episode when it drops soon on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.

Tamara Rappa: I've been able to see and listen to a lot of your press around this season of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School and noticed just how much people like to discuss with you what it's like to be an actor since childhood. Is there anything that both people always ask you and/or don't ask you that surprises you?

Bailee Madison: I know. They love it. [Laughs]  It's a tough one because I totally understand those common questions. I think if the roles were reversed, I would also be really curious about whether I missed out on childhood. There have been so many stories about that kind of thing throughout the years. Every human's different. It is, however,  a notorious fact that being a kid in this industry, let alone anyone in this industry, but especially a child, is a really tough thing, so I'm not surprised by those questions. I'm  happy to answer them because I'm grateful for the life I've been able to live. The stories I have and the ways that I'm able to respond to those questions are, thankfully, really positive. I guess I'm surprised that no one's ever asked me your question! [Laughs] Maybe that's the surprise. No one has ever said, 'What's something you've never been asked?

TR: On set at our cover shoot we were discussing that you recently appeared on Drew Barrymore's show, someone who's also known for having been a child star. Oftentimes she does like to discuss her history as a child actor with her guests, yet the two of you didn't tackle that subject?

BM: We lightly tackled it. I have to say, I think I blacked out for that interview! I had been so looking forward to being on her show. It  was genuinely on my bucket list. I think this crazy thing happens...when you walk out onto her show...even the minute you enter her building. It's filled with so much love. You can feel that the energy is just like...

TR: ...Vibes, vibes.

BM: Oh my God, the vibes were so good. Then I sit down on the couch, and I'm holding hands with Drew Barrymore. You're being interviewed by someone you've admired and respected for so many years, someone who has been in this industry since she was a kid, someone who is tackling life with such honesty and kindness. You can tell that she's not given up on the fact that while she's here on this earth she can touch people's hearts, and do good. That, for me, was the most inspiring thing. What Drew does so beautifully, is that she just ends up having the most honest conversation. I felt like I was on my couch with my best friend and we were topic-jumping. What was nice was that, no---we didn't  lean into the nooks and crannies of being a kid. Looking back now, it's so refreshing that we didn't go there. A normal couch conversation took place. I went into the show thinking that I just wanted feel human and  talk to someone and connect with them. They'll cut it into a much shorter interview, but we were basically on the couch for almost an hour together.

TR: Maybe that was a conscious choice on her part, to talk about something other than the thing everybody expects the two of you to talk about.

BM: ...Everyone talks about. [Laughs]. She makes you feel really seen outside of the industry. There wasn't that list of things that make you think, oh, that's me being seen---when in fact, it really isn't All of what's typical [in an interview] can be  really superficial and untouchable in a sense, and just weird, But it is our normal.

TR: You've been an actor since before you could speak. What was the impetus for how your over-two-decades-long career would kick off? You're going to be 25 years old in October, and you've already been working for two decades. I know you were probably an absolutely adorable baby...
BM: I don't know if I was that cute, to be honest! Some of the childhood photos I've seen... I don't know if I was the cutest baby, but I appreciate that. Honestly,  people like that have been in my life since I started, like my makeup artist who has been with me since I was 10 years old  always says, 'I knew you'd grow up to be a pretty young woman, Bailee.' [Laughs]  My old agent says it all the time, 'I told everyone you'd grow up to be cute.' Maybe I was protected when I was a baby, when they were like, 'I don't know. She could go one way or the other.'  I'm glad that people think I've grown into myself!

TR: Speaking of your makeup artist, your look for the Kelly Clarkson Show was stunning.

BM: Thank you. You know what's funny about that, which means a lot, and we talked about this briefly at our shoot, about five days before my press started, my skin went haywire. Which has never happened; I've never really struggled with that in my life. It was so painful and it was so bad. I had gone in to see someone about it two days before I flew to New York and started this whole new product routine. She said I have rosacea and dermatitis and eczema...

TR: That's the last thing you want to hear, heading into press.

BM: Your face is on camera, and it's up for scrutiny. People love to pick on the first thing that they can see, and I think some people just wait to jump on it. No matter how thick your skin is, being in this business, especially when someone starts to pick on physical parts of you, picks apart you as a human, it's gonna hurt. I remember waking up that morning for press in New York, and it was just not happy, and Megan, my makeup artist, walked in and she was like, 'Oh. Bail.' I thought, I'm not going to cry. It's going to be fine. Thankfully she covered it up so no one could tell. It's so funny to think about that, and know the insecurity I felt.

TR.  ...And I saw a stunning, stunning look.

BM: Red lips are my power lip.

TR: What kicked off your acting career?

BM: I don't know if any of us really know. I'm from Florida, from Fort Lauderdale.  Miami is a forty minute drive away from where we live and it's a commercial town. My mom did so many commercials at that time. I think the reason why I did commercials when I was younger is because my mom would audition, and they would need a baby. It was perfect. I think I did my first one at like two weeks old. It was a Home Depot or Office Depot commercial, I don't remember. My sister Kaitlyn is thirteen years older than me, and she played the young Charlize Theron character in Monster. When I was three, my sister was auditioning for a movie called Lonely Hearts with John Travolta and Salma Hayek and James Gandolfini and I was in the waiting room in some Orlando hotel, I  can picture it.  I remember the casting directors seeing me on the floor with my mom and asking, 'Does she act?' My family didn't know if I could; I couldn't even read yet!  They said they were looking for someone for a role, and would I want to audition for it?  My sister recalls that she took me around the corner, she tells the story that she read the lines to me and told me to repeat them back. And I said them back to her. My sister was like, 'Oh shit! Yeah, okay. Go in there!' I remember doing the audition and they said something like, 'Let's do it again, and you're supposed to be really, really sad right now.'  So I started to cry. I got that movie, filmed that film, we thought, that's it, what a fluke, but so fun. After that, my sister sent my mom this online article that said that  a worldwide search was happening for Bridge to Terabithia. That was the book that was being read in my elementary school. We submitted a tape, got a call a couple weeks later, they flew me out to LA, I did a producer session. We flew back to Florida. We got the callback when my mom was driving on the highway, and we were in New Zealand about two weeks later for six months filming. From that point on is when my mom came to LA, kicking and screaming. Then, by the grace of God,  it would be eleven months out of the year that I would be on set. I loved it, and I didn't want to stop.

TR: To note some of your projects: Bridge to Terabithia, Brothers, Don't be Afraid of the Dark, Just Go with It, The Haunting Hour, Once Upon a Time, The Fosters, The Good Witch, Trophy Wife--which I loved, and most recently, Pretty Little Liars. What's the thing that you learned early on in your career, and what's the thing that's taken a while for you to learn?

BM: I loved Trophy Wife! Oh man, I'll credit the people I worked with because I do think, very early on, I had the privilege---whether I knew it or not---of choosing to be a sponge around the actors I worked with. I was seeing the way a set works, the way a set is controlled and helped to move along, I witnessed the taking care of crew members. From the moment I started, it became so blatantly aware to me that it takes a village. You're lucky enough to lead a set as an actor and see what comes along with it, and what an honor that kind of expectation is. I've carried it all with me. I also think I learned about public opinion early on. There used to be these things online called message boards, and there was one  on IMDB. I remember being 8, 9, 10, or 11, looking on the IMDB message board. I'd see an insane amount of replies on it. One of them said that I was obese. Another one said I was anorexic. Another said that my mom wasn't actually my mom, and that my actual mother was a drug addict and that was the reason I was able to cry on camera. I was being exposed to,not just public opinion, but blatant lies being told about a human, about me. And not just like a human, but a child. Very quickly I developed this childlike tendency of thinking, let them talk. The more they write, the more popular my IMDB page is, you know? I was able to look at it all in a different way. Fifty percent of me wants to say that I had no idea how much one has to continue to prove oneself in this business; but then I think the other side of me did always know. You're only as good as your last project. People can respect what you did before, but staying relevant is a whole other thing. The older I get the more it really slaps you in the face, but you try not to hold onto it.

TR: Do you ever remember feeling unsure of your acting skills?  Was there a time when you felt you really began to hit your stride at work?  It seems to me that you really hit the ground running.

BM: Thank you. I do think about my younger self and think, 'God, she had it really good'. I feel like this last year of my life has been such a reflection of knowing that I can hold gratitude for everything and think, I'm so thankful. But I'm also a young woman looking back and thinking that my child self deserves a pat on the back. To some degree, I was still the one going into those audition rooms. I was still the one in front of the people. I was still the one interacting with male directors for the first time, being a child and understanding those dynamics. Looking back, I finally started to think, good job. I've definitely had moments throughout my life, like obviously with Bridge To Terabithia, where it was overwhelming in itself. That led to everything, so to not give credit to it would be crazy. That was an, 'Oh my gosh, this is taking me to the next thing.'  Brothers, for me, was such a blessing. I was on the Critic's Choice carpet when I was 10 and a part of For Your Consideration campaigns when I was literally 9 years old. Just Go With It was a whirlwind. I can pinpoint so many moments where things felt special, and then the next special thing would happen. In terms of questioning my acting and my talent, I don't think there's any actor who doesn't question. Acting is so exposing, it's so raw. In your brain you're accessing all of these different emotions and you're around all these people. You do the work, you do the prep, but then the scene finishes, and that's what's going to be seen by the world. You have no idea how it's going to be cut. You can think about a scene all you want, but then before you know it, that scene's over, you're in a costume change, and now you're trying to give your all in the next scene. When I go home, I try to get to a better place and think, no one can make the choices that I made. Those are the choices that I made. I am here to stay. And I have good instincts. I'll continue to work hard. That's the name of the game.

TR: In your work, you've been exposed to such a large group of creatives and makers. Is there anyone you've had the opportunity to work with and be around who's made a really positive impact on you? Whether that's in acting itself, work ethic, professionalism, personality?

BM: I feel like I'm inspired by humans.  If you're looking for it, you can learn something from anyone you're around. I'm intrigued by people. I'm intrigued by how people have navigated their lives, how they got to the place that they are now how. I'm intrigued by people's desires and dreams and the inner workings of it all.  To me, living life is really inspiring. But obviously there's people like Adam Sandler, who runs a set in the most joyful way possible. He takes care of his people. He loves what he does. He spreads love and light into the world. and continuously is that. It's not just his thing that the world sees, it actually is exactly him. That's so inspiring. And so beautiful. Then there are directors I've worked with. People on my show. I would even say my line producer from Pretty Little Liars this season. We got along great. He'd be like, 'Let's go on a walk and talk'---we'd talk about the schedule. There's the way he got us through a crazy time when our industry was shutting down but somehow took care of our crew and kept the ship moving that's inspiring. Then there's the people in my life: my friends, my girlfriends, womanhood, sisterhood, actors, not actors... I think I just try to learn from anyone who happens to be in my space, in my orbit, imparting their energy. There's something to learn from everyone.

TR: What do you love about this season of Pretty Little Liars?

BM: I honestly really love everything. The nice thing about doing a show versus a film where there's a beginning, a middle, and you need to get to the end so this is what the audience needs to feel at all these different points, is that it's freeing to continuously follow the characters with  no end in sight, to be aware of, unless the show isn't picked up. You have this really artistically freeing thing. Going into the second season, there's the comfort of knowing that thing that we did the first time around worked. Now we get to trust ourselves, now we get to have a lot of fun with it. This season does just that. There's a comfort level, a familiarity, a boldness to the story lines and to all the actors' work. It feels fresh and it feels exciting, this season. I also feel  like it just knows itself. I enjoy watching things that you feel know themselves. I feel like it's saying, 'We're here to stay,' and I also feel like it's saying, 'And we'll just get better.' There's so much we can do with the show. I think I'm most proud of the fact that we can let people be scared and be camped at times, and have fun, not take ourselves too seriously, but at the same time you're watching a show centered around six young women and around  topics that matter, topics to talk about. We're grounding our crazy PLL villain world with really true stories. We're saying, 'Look, there's that kind of horror, but then there's the normal day-to-day horror that human beings deal with.' We had the opportunity to weave in those stories, episode by episode, especially this season. [The writers] did such a great job with that.

TR:  I just watched the upcoming Pride episode. Representation and inclusivity appears to be a key element in Pretty Little Liars.

BM:  I love that episode. I think what I like about it, is that it doesn't feel like it's just for show. It feels like simply, this is life. It's not performative at all. What a joy it is to be a part of something that wants these stories to exist; to remind people it's part of our day-to-day life---whether we know exactly what people are going through, or not

TR: You have actor Annabeth Gish on this season. Whenever I think of Annabeth Gish, I of course think of Mystic Pizza. I'm assuming you've seen the 80's film Mystic Pizza? If not, you have to!

BM:  That's what my hairstylist thinks of too, with Annabeth!  I haven't seen it, and Annabeth knows that, but yes, a hundred percent, I'm going to see it. I just love her. We text all the time. I FaceTime and call. I've worked with adults pretty much my whole life up until this show, when it was the first time I was truly around people my age. I've always just connected with adults and understood them, and felt seen by them. So when Annabeth came on, not only was I freaking out about OG PLL, but also about the fact that she opens the original PLL season two in therapy  and our second season too. What a full-circle fangirl, amazing, iconic moment. Annabeth and I joke all the time. The moment we made eye contact, she was like, 'We're like two little peas in a pod.' It's the way we both think on a set and try to enhance things, or calm things down. We each try not to take some things too seriously and make sure that others aren't, too. We are yin and yang on set. I enjoyed every moment with her. We are manifesting doing a mother-daughter road trip comedy movie together.

TR: What is a good acting partner like? When you're sharing countless scenes with a given actor or a given ensemble, like you are on Pretty Little Liars, what makes things work for you?

BM: You can't be selfish with it. I think that every actor obviously has ideas. Some do, some don't, of what they would like to do in that scene for their character. There's nothing better than being in a scene across from a partner who is happy to throw all of that against the window to just take it somewhere else. I always say, if you're present with one another, it's like a really good game of tennis. You're against an opponent who can see the ball coming and bounce it back to you. You've got to play back at it, and you can feel it when you're filming scenes with certain people. I have it on the show with the girls, which is so special. We know each other so well now and can pick up on little things. Having a partner who's open to letting go of an idea they may have for a scene, who is able to just exist in a scene or in the words, who is always down to throw in something different, is when it's most fun.

TR: You've come to be known as sort of a scream queen. Where would you like to go with your career? What kinds of roles do you dream about?

BM: The clear answer is that I see myself directing and creating. I've always had that picture in my head, ever since I was little. I would talk about it in interviews;  the idea of having one of my kids on my lap when visiting me on a lunch break while I'm directing one day. I love a set way too much to just act. I can't turn that part of my brain off, I would love to be able to have the chance to set the tone for a project, to take care of the crew, to keep the ship moving when things are thrown at you and you have to pivot. To say to an actor, 'I understand what you're grappling with in this scene, and I get why you might be apprehensive. I understand. All of it would fuel my heart with so much joy. Currently what's been fun is that I have this body of work as a kid, a tween, a teen, a young adult...and now I feel like all of the genres are up for grabs for me to take. Doing comedy is so different as a woman in your 20's in a comedy. It's almost like I have a chance to wipe the slate clean, and re-enter as this new version of myself, this new me. I'm being really picky at the moment, trusting my gut with what makes sense and what feels right, and I'm not shut off to any genre. I'm in a place of receiving grounded, beautiful,  nuanced storytelling. Which, you know, is the dream for every actor, but it's especially exciting for me right now because I feel like whatever the next step is, I'm approaching it as a completely different person.

TR: How do you get your best ideas for a character? How do you typically find your inspiration for and in your work? When I talked to Sydney Sweeney the first time, she spoke in depth about how she keeps intricate notebooks of the past, present, and future of her characters, these specific roadmaps. Is there a way that you tap into all the colors of a character you're going to play?

BM: I've done the notebook thing. I will jot things down if they come to me, but ultimately there's just a stillness I have to find in my body, and an openness. The more I think about [my character], the more in my head I get. I've had the honor to be handed scripts that so beautifully set the tone for where you need to go. It surprises me sometimes; I'll watch myself on PLL, and I'll laugh out loud at a choice that I made, because it will feel so not-me at all, and at the same time, I can't think of a way that Imogen would say it differently, It's gut instinct. I'll find ways the character might hold their body, or ways that their mouth might move. I do try to not overthink the process too much. I try to let discovery happen when my body's actually on set, when we're there in the moment, in costume and hair and makeup. I'm a very set-driven actor. I  like to immerse myself in the experience, get grounded and still, and then say goodbye to Bailee.

TR" Do you find that the industry is difficult in terms of actors being able to break into genres and projects other than they might be known for? How difficult would it be for you to do that? Does the industry tend to pigeonhole?

BM: I think for sure. I also think they tend to pigeonhole women. Actors have the most amazing imaginations but sometimes we're at the hands of people who can't imagine us with different hair color or eye color; or that maybe we can kick ass and be a badass, maybe we can take on a quiet role. Sometimes we are the ones who have the imagination for a role, but people will send things through that view us as that one thing.  I have the blessing-curse thing of having been a child actor, so familiar to people.

TR: We were also talking about your nudity clause on set at the cover shoot. Can you share a little bit about how you've chosen to approach nudity in your work?

BM: Look, I'm a big fan of  never say never, and I would hate to have something recorded where I'm saying it will absolutely never happen. You just don't know. Honestly I'm all for it if it serves the story. My experience has been that I haven't been sent something like that yet, where nudity serves that story. If I'm going to have kids one day,  I'm not going to be naive to the fact that they might have a friend stumble across a video of their mom one day, and it's going be a part of their lunch conversation at school. If that's going to happen, for me, it's got to really, really serve the story. PLL actually kind of discusses this in the first season. We swapped a lot of the lenses used to make it more for the female gaze. Where you would typically see a woman's butt or a woman nude in the shower, we let the guys be nude in a quick shower scene. There are funny ways  to start making a bit of progress. I do have a nudity clause, and I'm very grateful to be on a show with showrunners who don't find it necessary to put us in those situations. That's super cool. No one really makes those choices anymore...we can tell our story, but not make these young girls get naked. Or, how can it be body doubles? The option of protecting one's body is finally starting to happen, but there have been things that I've lost out on. I didn't know what those things would be because they weren't in the script, but they wanted me to sign that I would be nude. How do you sign something and not know the scene? That's when you kind of laugh and think, this is crazy.

TR: One of your beloved roles is in Just Go With It, where your character has this hysterical double persona, opposite Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler. What do fans talk to you about most? Like what do they love the most?

BM:  It's always a surprise, it's always different. I've always said that it's so fun for me to meet people. Sometimes I'll have  a grandma walk up to me, and the grandma will say, 'Parental Guidance with Billy Crystal is my favorite movie.' A young girl will walk up to me and say, 'My gosh, you were in Wizards Of Waverly Place'. I look back on my life as a child, and I actually don't think anyone pigeonholed me. What a blessing. I have to thank every casting director and every actor and director who saw my past work, saw that I was the kid, and then trusted me to tackle a whole new genre and task. The reoccurring comments are often about Just Go With It or Once Upon a Time. The Fosters is a big one. It's consistently different, depending on the person, and it's always fun for me.

TR: What's it like for you, being a public figure on social media? Is it tough? Do you feel the pressure to feed it in the way that it needs to be fed, but especially so as a public figure?

BM: I was definitely a lot freer with my socials a couple of years ago. I feel like when I was younger, and I don't know if it was because cancel culture wasn't so much of a thing, you didn't have this daunting chip on your shoulder that was telling you to be careful what you say, that anything could be twisted, and you could be done. I used to have a Tumblr account when I was 15. I wrote this one thing, I think it was titled Labels Are Meant For Jars, Not For People. It  was this essay that I wrote one day when I was on set in between takes. I felt the need to put it out there. The Huffington Post picked it up and it kind of became this thing. People sent in videos of themselves writing down words they had been called or labeled as, and then they ripped up the piece of paper. I put that together to make it into a video. I felt so connected and so happy that we had this tool to reach people and have these conversations. I'd say my relationship with it now has a bit more caution to it, by choice, not out of enjoyment, I think I'm in a place of trying to figure out how I can still connect and also  protect myself, because the forgiveness meter, the humanity meter, has really plummeted. Who am I, not to be overly-aware of the fact that I'm just existing in my 20's and I'll slip up like everyone has in their life, making mistakes and growing and learning from them? We're not freaking perfect, and if anyone thinks that they are and they have it all together, good for you. I personally don't  think people can know everything that's correct and say everything that's right. So, my socials? A work in progress, I think. I do love connecting to it. I do love seeing things. It's about protecting my mental health within it.

TR:  One of the things that you learned very early on, and I love the way you put it, is public opinion. We want the engagement and interaction, we want the smart conversation but then it also invites this whole group of people who are commenting for comments' sake, not even knowing what they're saying sometimes.

BM: You can't help but see stuff. My childhood face has been a meme my entire life online. Now it's a positive meme, and I'm grateful to be on the other side of it, but for the longest time, it was like, 'You're saying you want to punch an 8 year old, because I cried in a scene?!' I was supposed to cry in those roles. I didn't walk on set and say, 'I really want to cry today and scream and be upset.' That's what the role called for, yet you're attacking a child for her crying face. You have to kind of laugh at things, but it is just bizarre. Once you realize that you can't win and you're not going to please everybody, then it becomes a little bit easier.

TR: You released a song this year, titled Kinda Fun, which must feel like a milestone. When did you know you could sing, and how did you hone your talent over the years while acting.

BM: I feel like I knew that I could sing once I released the song, and people didn't hate it!  That was when my heart calmed down a little bit. Growing up, music had always been the thing that I said I wanted to do. I used to put on shows and concerts and plays and write songs in my notebooks. But I was on set if I wasn't at school, and acting just kind of became all of it. I auditioned for this film called A Week Away, which I ended up doing and producing. Then we sold it to Netflix, and it was such a joyful experience in all the ways. It's a musical. I remember walking into that audition room and everyone had their guitars out. I had to listen to everyone sing. I really wanted the role. I walked in and said, 'I'm going sing this song that I wrote the other day, and I feel like it might work for the story'. I walked out, called my boyfriend who is a musician [New Hope Club's Blake Richardson], and I teared up, started to cry, and told him I wasn't going to get it, I can't sing. He was like, 'That's not true. You're not a singer, obviously you're an actor, but you can.' I got the film and it was really fun. I had never been in a recording booth before. I was learning all these things for the first time and also trying to sing as the character---not myself. [Kinda Fun] is Bailee and my voice, and now I'm in the process of writing. My boyfriend and I write any chance that we get. We go into the studio we have in the house. Every day I'm kind of surprising myself with what's able to come out of my little body.  I'm not saying that I can stand next to the greats, by any means, but I love to sing, my voice has things to say, and singing has been really freeing and liberating and wonderful.

TR: It must be fun to share creative space with your boyfriend.

BM: It's so fun. We've been together for five years. I've obviously seen him and his band, New Hope Club, perform all over the world. I've gotten to watch him create. Just like any relationship, the thing that your person loves, you want to do your best to understand fully, and to fully see them. Kinda Fun happened in such an authentic way. We both started looking at each other at random moments while writing it, with huge smiles. We thought, we can do this together. And it's brought us closer, for sure.

TR: ...And you're on the Jonas label.

BM: I've known Kevin Jonas, the Jonas' father, and their mom, since I was 7 years old. I used to trick-or-treat with their youngest, Frankie. They were always so kind and so lovely and we have a mutual friend that had also known me since I was around 8 years old. When A Week Away came out, I had this moment where I thought, it's now or never, time to take that initial step into the music world. I had a conversation with our mutual friend, Brian.  I asked him who he would  put me with, who would I be safe with, who could I trust? The music business is just like the acting industry, in that it can be brutal. There are disguised people left and right; you don't know what you're walking into, what you're signing, what the deal is. I don't know much about the music world, so thankfully I've had my boyfriend next to me to help me with all these things. And he was like, 'Oh my gosh, Kevin; Kevin Jonas'. I had a conversation with him on the phone and at the end, I was like, 'So, are we doing this?' He was like, 'You don't need time to think?' And I said, 'No, I've known you my whole life.' What's so beautiful is that right after I signed with him I pretty much went on to the first season of PLL, which took me out for ten months,  then a whole press tour, then I filmed something again for four months, but he was so patient and so understanding. He would only call to check in on my mental health and how I was doing, not call to put me in sessions or demand things or need things. It's such a lovely relationship. I'm a faith-based person and so is he. To have someone on my team that can call and pray with me on the phone while I'm on set, recite something, send me a little bit of hope and love---but then also be there to support whatever I want to say, however I want to create, whatever art looks like for me, whatever song I believe in. No expectations, just enjoyment and creativity. I'm so grateful to have that.

TR: What's next?

BM: I'm putting music on the front-burner right now. I think I'm leaning into music until I find the script that speaks to me. I'm currently in a place where I haven't found that script yet, the script that makes me want to pack my bags, leave my home, and put myself in the mindset for a character. While I'm waiting for that, it'll be about nurturing the music and enjoying the process.

TR: What's a favorite line from your single?

BM: I have a couple, but I like  'You call it confusion, I call it delusion'.  Half of the time, we're not confused. Our gut actually knows everything that it's telling us, so it's a bit delusional to call ourselves confused. We're all pretty damn smart with our intuition and when it comes to what we want.  'I used the bones going old with a bow and arrow; I got my mind bespoke, did you get the memo?'... was a line that was written in reflection of my younger self. Also, 'I'm in my skin, sun kissed, now I like my body; I'm in the midst of self-bliss; yeah, it's all around me'...that entire second verse was written about filming the second season of PLL over the summertime. I had this newfound confidence, I liked myself. I was okay with liking myself. There were all these things that I finally felt, and that I've finally owned up to.