The Buzz - BuzzWorthy Radio
BuzzWorthy Radio: Jaime Lee Kirchner!
Jaime Lee Kirchner plays nurse Sonia Jimenez on “Mercy.” She was born in Germany and raised in Clarksville, Tennessee. Pursuing her passion to act at a young age, she performed at The Roxy Regional Theater, appearing in over 40 productions.
A trained dancer, singer and actress, Kirchner attended and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. While at NYU, she starred as Julie Jordan in a main stage production of “Carousel.”
Shortly after graduating from NYU, Kirchner embarked on the national and international tour of “Rent” playing the role of Mimi Marquez. Upon completion of the tours, she landed a series regular role in the television series “Just Legal,” starring opposite Don Johnson and Jay Baruchel.
Realizing that her life-long dream was to be on Broadway, Kirchner returned to New York and reprised her role of Mimi in Nederlander Theater’s production of “Rent” on Broadway, garnering rave reviews.
Kirchner then relocated to Los Angeles and landed several guest-starring roles on television series and pilots including “Enemies” opposite Jeffrey Donovan, as well as a series regular role in “Austin Golden Hour.” Kirchner recently guest-starred in an episode of “Dollhouse” opposite Eliza Dushku, playing the juicy role of a pop starlet with a death wish. The role enabled her to record her own music and perform a live concert.
Kirchner is an avid painter and visual artist with a collection of work which she hopes to showcase in the very near future.
A trained dancer, singer and actress, Kirchner attended and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. While at NYU, she starred as Julie Jordan in a main stage production of “Carousel.”
Shortly after graduating from NYU, Kirchner embarked on the national and international tour of “Rent” playing the role of Mimi Marquez. Upon completion of the tours, she landed a series regular role in the television series “Just Legal,” starring opposite Don Johnson and Jay Baruchel.
Realizing that her life-long dream was to be on Broadway, Kirchner returned to New York and reprised her role of Mimi in Nederlander Theater’s production of “Rent” on Broadway, garnering rave reviews.
Kirchner then relocated to Los Angeles and landed several guest-starring roles on television series and pilots including “Enemies” opposite Jeffrey Donovan, as well as a series regular role in “Austin Golden Hour.” Kirchner recently guest-starred in an episode of “Dollhouse” opposite Eliza Dushku, playing the juicy role of a pop starlet with a death wish. The role enabled her to record her own music and perform a live concert.
Kirchner is an avid painter and visual artist with a collection of work which she hopes to showcase in the very near future.
- Duration:
- 12m
- Broadcast on:
- 23 Sep 2009
- Audio Format:
- other
Good morning everybody. Welcome to Buzzworthy Radio on this Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009. It's 10th of the a.m. Eastern, 10th of the time, 7th, 30 a.m. Pacific Coast time. We are joined by this Jamie Lee Kirchner who plays the role of Sonia Jimenez on the new NBC show Mercy. How are you? Oops, I think my switchboard cut out before I was able to unmute her. Let me go back in and do this again. There we go. How are you? There we go. I'm good. Good, good. Thanks for stopping over this morning. Where? Absolutely. So let's talk about Mercy. What is Mercy about? And then describe your character for us. Well, I play a character called named Sonia Jimenez, it's a nurse show, I guess. It's more of a friendship show, less of a procedure drama and more about the relationship between the nurses, the friendship and the dynamic they have with the patient. I think on most of these medical shows, it highlights the doctors and their perspective. And I think the fresh take on our show is that it's what happens after the doctors leave and who actually deals with the emotional dynamic when the patient has been diagnosed with these terrible things or are healing. And it's that relationship that highlights the healers and nurses. Okay. And exactly, do we know anything in regards to your character yet or are we going to find that out? We're just kind of being in the pilot episode, you know, if we're going to reference another show of Face Sex and the City Act, I kind of like to see myself as the Miranda. She's a big dryer, a little more cynical, she tells it like it is, a little more straightforward. She's a great nurse, and then in her personal life, you know, she's kind of sick of the yahoo she's been dating and is trying to, you know, find greener pastures, maybe a little more superficially looking for the guy with the money, the guy with the stability. And I think ends up begrudgingly falling for this police officer, this guy named Nick Valentino. And that gets interesting because she has a brother who's in a gang and starts to straddle a fine line of helping her brother get out of that situation while dating a guy in law enforcement. So the drama ensues from there. The drama ensues from there, especially the next few weeks, absolutely. So how did you get an acting, apparently, you wanted to act for a while, I heard, and you went to the NYU tersh school. Yeah, at CAP 21 school, it's the only college I applied to, and I got accepted early decision. I was going to NYU if you killed me, but I did, so it didn't kill me. I started when I was about eight years old. My dad suggested, "Hey, I'm going to still be in a show," and I said, "Yeah, it sounds like fine." And then ever since, I've been acting, singing, dancing, painting, an artist at heart. You were in one of my favorite musicals, Rent. Yay. Oh my god, I loved Rent. How was it like doing that? I mean, I'm sure that was absolutely fantastic for you, but I mean, talking to someone who actually got the new book. They took me 10 years. I was obsessed, honestly. I was a rent head, about 15 years old, 16 years old, from coming from Clarksville, Tennessee, and my mom took me to see when the original cast was on. My dad's name was Ben Vega, was the original Mimi, of course, and I saw her last performance. I didn't realize it was her last performance, and I actually ended up taking an Alvin Ailey dance class, and I met stage manager's daughter in the class, and I got to go backstage and meet everybody. So it was an amazing trip, and then 10 years later, I actually got to play Mimi on Broadway, so it was a huge, huge, huge thing. It was amazing. It was one of the best things I've ever had happen to me in my whole life. Oh, I'm sure, and what's the main difference between doing theatre and doing a television show? What was the prime difference? Well, artistically, I think, for me, artistically, I miss doing theatre in that it's an organic experience. I'm a very independent person, and I like the responsibility of maintaining energy throughout an entire show for almost two and a half hours, especially to musicals and dance, it's more physical, and it's more in the moment, and I find that TV, it's fabulous because you can actually be on these locations and present the literal reality of a show, but there's a lot of stop and start, so it starts to feel a little bit difficult, it comes in and keeping it fresh, staying in the moment, and not being a parrot and repeating just a line to actually show up emotionally, and I don't know, I miss the curtain going up in theatre in the relationship you have with the live audience, and if you screw up, it's on you, and it's fabulous, it's on you, yeah, so, I don't know, it's definitely more high stakes in theatre for the artist, more high stakes in the business world for TV. A lot of money is a stake there, so everybody's got to be on their best game. It's true, that is true, and you were recently, I just found out you were recently in an episode of Dollhouse, the life of Just You, and I don't know what was that, you played a role of music artists with a death wish, is how it looked about to me. Yeah, I played pop star Raina Russell, Allah, like a Rihanna or Britney Spears, and that was amazing because I got to do a show at the Music Box Theatre, a show show, a fake pop star type show, and I got to do my own choreography and I got to sing all the songs, and you don't really get that experience in TV to actually have a role being actress who gets to sing and perform, so that was amazing, and I, you know, all the footage, I got to keep all the footage to that, so that was pretty neat. So, do you still think, in your spare time, besides the acting? Pretty much, pretty much, I'm singing in the shower lately, because our schedule is good, and we're going up near you. They probably can, and they're probably very annoyed, because it's very early in the morning, because we have crazy hours, but as I look out, yeah, Mercy is taking up most of my time in terms of getting to do other things, but that's okay, it's a fabulous show. I'm looking forward to seeing it, and the actual series premiere is tonight, correct? It is tonight, it hatches this evening, it's, depending on where you are, seven or eight o'clock on NBC. Yes, tonight on NBC, it is at eight, sevens in general, and you can catch full episodes. It's not at NBC.com, you can catch it at hoo.com, and I'm looking forward to seeing what this show entails, and it's like you said, it's different than most medical dramas, because now you're dealing with friendships between nurses, and not just, it's not like a Grey's Anatomy, let's put it that way, it's not like a Grey's Anatomy, it's definitely great. It's not like a Grey's, I mean, I honestly, I only watched throughout one or two episodes of Grey's, I'm a big lost fan, so when it came out, I started watching Lost, but I think from what I've heard about Grey's, it's a little less soap operating in the best possible sense, not to rag on Grey's, but I don't know, it just focuses, it's just a little bit more real, like I said, it's like sex in the city, but with a lot cheaper shoes and a lot more Guinness, you know, we're just, we're body, lots of body gals hanging out, trying to figure ourselves out and go to work at the same time. So then what genre would you specify Mercy as, and if not, it's not drama, then would you say like a dramedy, like dramedy or? I'd say for lack of a better word, it's a drama, because it's dealing with, you know, people being diagnosed with pretty, pretty serious things, there's a lot of serious things that happen in the show, just like life, but you find ways to make light of it just so that you can stand it, you know, I think maybe we'll make our own new genre, because I don't think it's really like anything you've seen, so it's definitely worth a view. Okay, absolutely, and one more before we, before we start off, is there any place that people can find you? Do you have a Twitter, Facebook fan page, any place that they can keep the contact with you? I guess I don't like to recommend the Facebook, because there's some, some crazies out there, I already have somebody develop, I got Facebook now, watch it. Yeah, I do, if the Facebook got me in, but before that, somebody had created a page and was pretending to be me, and all of my friends were, they helped me to see you on Facebook, I'm like, I'm not on Facebook, and they're like, oh yes you are, so I don't know about the Facebook, but um, I don't know, try me, try catching me Wednesday night, today to clock, I'll definitely be there every night. I like that answer, I love that answer, there's Dainley Kurtzner everybody, Watzner, as nurse Tony Jimenez on Mercy, the first episode drops tonight, September 23rd at 8/7 Central, only on NBC, and catch full episodes online at NBC.com and Hulu.com, thank you so much for stopping by, it was a pleasure talking to you. Right, have fun, take it out tonight. Absolutely, I'll be there, I'll let you know what I think is it absolutely. Yeah, let me know, I kicked the math, I'll draw a mean right hook, so you have to check in and see what that's about. Absolutely, you take care, you have fun, all right? Okay, thanks, you too, bye bye. Alright everybody, that was Dainley Kurtzner, Tony Jimenez on Mercy, like I said, the first episode drops tonight at 8/7 Central, only on NBC. Next week, Monday, September 28th at 11.30am, we're going to have on Kevin Rankin, he plays the role of edgy ENP, Tyler Briggs, and NBC's new ensemble medical trauma trauma, so he'll be joining us on Monday, on October 2nd at 10.30am, we're going to be joined by Jeffrey Reiner, who is the executive producer of that show of trauma, so he'll be joining us then, and then on Friday, October 9th, we're going to be joined by Paul Logan, he is the star of the news site by a show, Mega Floss, and he formally plays the role of Glenn Reiner on "Bees of Our Lives" on NBC, so make sure you guys stay tuned for those shows, we will be back on Monday, but from all of this here at Buzzworthy Radio, I'm Novell J. Lee, signing off, making sure you guys get the latest buzz with Buzzworthy Radio. You take care, have fun, be safe, and enjoy the rest of your day. "Can't get enough of Buzzworthy Radio, knock on now to www.buzzworthyradio.net, to get the latest news on upcoming guests, past shows and videos of all your favorite stars, keep getting the latest buzz with Buzzworthy." Hi, this is Dr. Blochstein, and you're listening to Buzzworthy Radio on Blah- what? No, I can't do it like he does it, but I just can't. Alright, I'll try.
Jaime Lee Kirchner plays nurse Sonia Jimenez on “Mercy.” She was born in Germany and raised in Clarksville, Tennessee. Pursuing her passion to act at a young age, she performed at The Roxy Regional Theater, appearing in over 40 productions.
A trained dancer, singer and actress, Kirchner attended and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. While at NYU, she starred as Julie Jordan in a main stage production of “Carousel.”
Shortly after graduating from NYU, Kirchner embarked on the national and international tour of “Rent” playing the role of Mimi Marquez. Upon completion of the tours, she landed a series regular role in the television series “Just Legal,” starring opposite Don Johnson and Jay Baruchel.
Realizing that her life-long dream was to be on Broadway, Kirchner returned to New York and reprised her role of Mimi in Nederlander Theater’s production of “Rent” on Broadway, garnering rave reviews.
Kirchner then relocated to Los Angeles and landed several guest-starring roles on television series and pilots including “Enemies” opposite Jeffrey Donovan, as well as a series regular role in “Austin Golden Hour.” Kirchner recently guest-starred in an episode of “Dollhouse” opposite Eliza Dushku, playing the juicy role of a pop starlet with a death wish. The role enabled her to record her own music and perform a live concert.
Kirchner is an avid painter and visual artist with a collection of work which she hopes to showcase in the very near future.
A trained dancer, singer and actress, Kirchner attended and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. While at NYU, she starred as Julie Jordan in a main stage production of “Carousel.”
Shortly after graduating from NYU, Kirchner embarked on the national and international tour of “Rent” playing the role of Mimi Marquez. Upon completion of the tours, she landed a series regular role in the television series “Just Legal,” starring opposite Don Johnson and Jay Baruchel.
Realizing that her life-long dream was to be on Broadway, Kirchner returned to New York and reprised her role of Mimi in Nederlander Theater’s production of “Rent” on Broadway, garnering rave reviews.
Kirchner then relocated to Los Angeles and landed several guest-starring roles on television series and pilots including “Enemies” opposite Jeffrey Donovan, as well as a series regular role in “Austin Golden Hour.” Kirchner recently guest-starred in an episode of “Dollhouse” opposite Eliza Dushku, playing the juicy role of a pop starlet with a death wish. The role enabled her to record her own music and perform a live concert.
Kirchner is an avid painter and visual artist with a collection of work which she hopes to showcase in the very near future.