The Big Door Prize Season 2 brings a whole new side to Ally Maki and Gabrielle Dennis' characters. Characters go through drastic changes and it's an emotional series amid the comedy.
Both are experienced actors with a lot of work under their belts. Maki gained fame for her role in TBS' sitcom Wrecked. She also starred in Pixar's Toy Story 4 as Giggle McDimples. Her other notable credits include Home Sweet Home Alone, Shortcomings, and Hit-Monkey.
As for Dennis, she is known for her role in The Game. She also played Whitney Houston in The Bobby Brown Story for BET. Her other notable credits include Luke Cage, Girls Trip, Rosewood, SWAT, and The Upshaws. She also stars in ads for Old Spice with Deon Cole.
ClutchPoints had the chance to speak with Maki and Dennis at the press day for The Big Door Prize Season 2 ahead of its premiere on Apple TV+. The duo talked about using the Morpho machine, not taking the “easy” route in their careers, and what Ally Maki and Gabrielle Dennis hope to see from their characters in future seasons.
Ally Maki, Gabrielle Dennis-The Big Door Prize Season 2 interview
ClutchPoints: I just asked your co-stars Chris O'Dowd and Josh Segarra about this, but if at the beginning of your careers, if you could know your potential or if you're fulfilling it using the Morpho machine, would you look?
Ally Maki: Ooh, at the beginning of our careers? Oh man.
No, I don't think I'd want to know, 'cause then I feel like I'd be so attached to making that outcome happen and I feel like the most beautiful moments in life are ones that I wasn't expecting or when I took a different path. So I feel like personally, I would not want to know. [laughs]
Gabrielle Dennis: Yeah, I feel like for me, I'm a little bit of a chicken to do it by myself. [laughs] But I'm also such a follower like if my friends were doing it I would like wait and see how it went for them.
AM: Yeah, same! I'm like, “You go first!”
GD: Just because [in] the first season, [it] was like entering social security numbers I was like, “Let me hold back and I'll be in the back of the line — I don't want to be the first.”
AM: I'd be out at that point. [laughs]
GD: But I do think at certain stages it is fun to kind of have that little extra nudge, especially if you're just feeling complacent in life or like lost. It sometimes is an affirmation or a confirmation I guess of like, You're not happy, you're not content, so go out there and do something about it. You know what I mean?
And sometimes we need that nudge to do it cause we won't do it on our own. So I think that is something that is beautiful about the Morpho machine. It does create a little bit of chaos and confusion in life, but I think once the dust settles, it's like, Oh, there was a purpose and a rhyme and a reason for this and something good comes out of it, even though it may not feel right as it's happening.
But I think the ultimate goal is that everyone's looking for that ultimate level of happiness and just joy and fulfillment and, I guess, finding their potential.
CP: Well, I appreciated those answers. I'll say, more or less, Chris and Josh's answers were that they'd do it because it's something to do.
Both: [laugh]
AM: Yeah, that sounds right.
CP: One of my favorite lines in the season is when Chris' character talks about taking the easy path in life. I asked them this as well, but for both of you guys, do you recall a project or something in your career where it wasn't taking the easy path out?
AM: Oh man. I feel like every project, every role has their own unique set of challenges and I try to pick roles or do roles that are challenging for those very reasons to kind of expand as an actor and just a person.
I feel like in terms of expanding my own potential, there was a long time where I really thought I could, as an Asian-American woman, only play a certain type of role, or I was confined to comedy for a long time. And I was like, “I don't know how to do drama, I'll never be able to be a dramatic actress.”
So, I think just being able to see where, what I've done in the last few years of different types of roles, leading roles, dramatic, has been really—
GD: [clapping] Because the girl stays busy! She stays busy!
AM: [It] has been really fun to kind of open up these worlds of what we can do and what we can create and I just want to keep expanding and keep challenging myself.
So I'd say every role is kind of challenging in its own way.
GD: Absolutely. I feel like every role definitely comes with its own challenges. But for me, if I had to pick a role, it was a little bit more work, but I think playing an actual real person is challenging.
Especially playing Whitney Houston, for me, was the first time it clicked like, Oh, this is real character work. Like, I actually have to study the mannerisms and study the interviews and try to get behind the scenes.
Because when we think of someone like a Whitney Houston, we hold [her] on a pedestal of being Whitney, the artist, the voice. But behind that, I didn't get to play those moments — [there were] no stage performances. It was her at home as a mother and as a wife.
That was challenging because of the different type of work. As Cass, myself and David [West Read], we'll sit down and we'll come up with scenarios and we'll come up with ideas of what we think Cass would do. But when you're playing a real person, it's like, Well, history said this is what happened, and you kind of have to follow these specific things and fit them in a box.
So for me, it was definitely the pressure part, but I would say that that was a little hard, but it was worth it because as an actor, it definitely helped me grow.
CP: It seems that there was a good camaraderie between all of you. Chris and Josh were talking about having pints in Georgia where you guys filmed. So, what were some core memories from the production on this season of the show?
GD: Oh, so many. I love whenever we just get together and just shoot the breeze off of set and just kind of release some steam. I did remember I hosted a little thing at my house.
I was renting a house, I had a pool — it was too cold for anybody to get in it — but everybody brought a little something and we just had this vibe. It was just nice to feed everybody and do our thing.
And then, I [don't] think it was this season, it was last season, [but on] Easter, we did one as well at Crystal [R. Fox's] house. She hosted a big one there. So, it's just nice because when we do stuff like that, everybody really gets excited and chips in and it's just fun.
AM: Yeah, I think exploring Atlanta, too. I just really found my way this season of having a great time there. I was living in Inman Park and explored the BeltLine and just like walking around there [and] the excitement of the city was so much fun.
And then, just walking down the street to visit Gabby or Mary [Holland] or whoever, Juliet was so much fun. It felt like a little community and I think our cast is so fun because we're all so different, but weirdly, it feels like a family because yeah, [we're] all different ages, we're all from different places, so we really just we had a vibe. It was a vibe.
GD: And I think I had more fun this season because the city wasn't as intimidating. The new job out of your home base wasn't as intimidating. So I think like Ally was saying, I was definitely exploring Atlanta a lot more.
We were less pandemic-y. [laughs] So there was a little layer of like, Oh, I can be out, you know what I mean?
AM: I was like, Oh, I can go to a restaurant and hang out! We went to a soccer game. That was so fun. Yeah, really great city, too.
GD: It was a great city.
CP: I know both of you guys have done a lot of dramatic work, and I think the beauty of The Big Door Prize Season 2 is how funny it can be, but also how intimate and how heavy it can also be. What did each of you tap into for those intimate moments?
AM: I think there's so much to draw from in this show, and the timing of it was really unique because when I auditioned for it, it was during the pandemic, or kind of towards the end. As a society, I think we're all coming to these realizations of what does really make us happy and what is our true potential?
And I think before I was just so career-focused, just hustling, hustling, hustling, working so, so, so hard all the time. And I think this show came at a perfect time where I was analyzing my own life and my own career of what am I doing this all for? And what does make me happy? Where do I want to go?
So I think It was very easy to draw from that. And also, we were in a very isolating time, too, during the pandemic. And Hana [in the] first season was very isolated and kept to herself. So I think there was so much from my own life that I was able to draw upon.
And working with Damon [Gupton], too, the very instant chemistry that we had.
GD: For sure, I think it's the same. Reading the script was during the pandemic and it makes you ask all these questions. Because everyone's working from home now, it was like everyone's re-evaluating what they wanted to do with their lives.
I think with all of the most roles you play, if not all, there's something from your personal life that you find these parallels to try to pull into that character. And specifically, with a show like this, it's very hard to avoid those tough questions and how it ties into your own life and to kind of pull those substitutions for your character work.
So for me, it was definitely an eye-opening experience. Like you said, it can be very heavy, and I think that's why our show really needs the comedy. Because this can spiral really quickly and fast in the wrong direction. I think David does such a great [job] of balancing that and not making us feel like we're just losing our minds.
Because if you really sit and have to sit in a room and think about, Okay, I went to this place, this machine [came] out of nowhere, I have this card, it's telling me this thing, it conflicts with what I thought I was doing, or maybe it confirms it. But even in that, sometimes that confirmation was like, But is that it? Do I have nothing else to offer or to bring out of life?
So, the show can be heavy, but I think our writers do such an amazing job of keeping all of that in check and not making us go off [and] steer to one direction more than the other.
CP: My favorite scene in the season is the proposal scene. I just think it's really funny. Can you both recall filming that scene, which left Chris and Josh “in stitches”?
GD: Well, with my sketch comedy background, I'm pretty good at not breaking.
AM: You've seen it all!
GD: I like breaking people. But when Josh starts rapping, I mean you can't help but [break]. There's an internal part of me that just wants to burst out cackling.
But we do also have long days. We're also trying to be very professional. [laughs]
AM: Yeah, trying to be. [laughs]
GD: The scene is hilarious — both Josh and Mary are such funny talented actors. So the two of them together that dynamic was definitely treat for me this season. I enjoy watching them together.
AM: I remember I walked into the makeup trailer and I saw Mary for the first time as this new [love in] Giorgio's world, and I just wasn't ready for it.
We were talking about this earlier about how with the costumes and everything come together. Originally, in your mind, you don't see that. And of course she would have that hairstyle and she'd be in the track suit and she had her long nails and it just made me laugh so hard.
I mean, they're just hysterical together and the chemistry they have is so spot on. They make you laugh so hard, but there's this depth to both of them as actors that is so special. I think that's true for all of our cast — they're able to do comedy and then bridge these moments that will make you just tear up or cry or think about things. I think that's really what makes our show so special.
CP: Ally, your character evolves so much in this season as all of them do. I don't know how many seasons this show is going to get, but both of you, is there something more that you would like to explore with your characters?
AM: Oh man, I call her [Hana] our “Mysterious Little Onion” because there's so many layers to her and each season has been so much fun to peel back and find another piece of her.
I mean, this season, just finding friendship for the first time, finding community, connecting with people — I mean, I'm trying not to give anything away — but she hints [at] her backstory. And I think for her to come to terms with it and understand that more, just as the person playing her, I think would be really, really fascinating and fun.
And that's all I'll say, I guess.
Both: [laugh]
GD: I think for Cass, I would love to see her really put on her big girl [pants]. We've seen her take these baby steps and I feel like she's one of those people [that] it slowly takes her a moment. She's very down for doing the growth, she's very adventurous, but sometimes I feel like for her, I want to see her just really embrace it full force and not worry about anyone.
I want Cass to put Cass first. That is my goal for Cass as the season grows. And just to really see how badass she can be. I think there's this layer of that under her that we haven't quite seen yet. So we kind of toy with some things, but I'm pretty excited. I think she has a lot more growth to go, which is very fun as an actor to see how we get to explore that.
AM: Do you know what I'd want to see of Cass? I have this vision of Cass taking all of her boxes and just throwing them off a cliff or just like ripping them all to shreds.
GD: [laughs] Those damn boxes!
AM: Cause some of my favorite moments of your character is when you get your box, like, I need my craft box. I just think it's so endearing and so sweet and says a lot about your character of how she views the world and views herself
GD: [They're] also reminders of these little potentials that were, that didn't happen, that she needs to unpack. She really needs to unpack — literally unpack what all that means.
AM: Which is so universal and relatable. We all have our little boxes that we keep tucked away. Maybe one day, I'll knit.
GD: Yeah.
AM: Never gonna happen.
GD: Maybe one day I'll learn French.
AM: Oui, oui?
GD: No, no. Never gonna happen. [laughs] No, it's universal I think in all of the languages.
Both: [laugh]
CP: Ally, are we gonna see you in Toy Story 5?
AM: Oh! Wouldn't I like to know? [laughs]
I don't know. We don't know. What does the Morpho say? [laughs] I would love to be, let's just say that. It was truly a highlight of my entire life.
The first three episodes of The Big Door Prize Season 2 are streaming on Apple TV+.
Follow Us
Subscribe