VISIT WITH: Janie Haddad Tompkins
Actress. Writer. Podcast host.
“Visit With” is a new questionnaire series with folks worth appreciating.
This is the first installment!
I first connected with Janie a few years ago when Dan and I reached out about Stay F. Homekins, the podcast she hosts along with her husband Paul F. Tompkins. Turns out Janie knew all about our little business and asked us to make merch for the podcast. We were more than happy to, especially since their podcast (which started at the beginning of Covid times) was one of the things that we looked forward to during those weird, lonely days. It never failed to make us laugh the hardest. And after meeting them in person, they felt like old friends straight away, easy to be around and genuinely good folks.
In addition to acting and podcasting, Janie publishes Weekend Water here on Substack. You can also find the podcast there, along with special bonus episodes. Most recently she can be seen as Esther in Night Court on Peacock and will be appearing in the new season of Hacks returning on Max in May!
Where’d you grow up and how would you describe it to someone who hasn’t been there before?
Until the end of my 4th grade year, I spent my young childhood near Charleston, West Virginia in an area called Hurricane. (editors note: pronounced Hurrikin) I would describe it as mountainous, since it’s within the Appalachian Mountain chain and very quiet and peaceful. I remember lots of green foliage and a railroad track at the end of our street and swimming every summer at a local pool.
From the end of 4th grade onward, I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. This was an entirely opposite terrain of tropical, coastal city vibes that came with a loaded history that has taken me years to decipher and contextualize. It wasn’t until my early adulthood that I even learned I grew up on a barrier island mere steps from a brutal gravesite for the slave trade because it was never taught in school. This other Charleston was also quiet and peaceful during the years I grew up there. Both places contain rich story traditions and are really neat places to be from because of their differing natural beauty. I was exposed to ocean and marshes and mountains and white water, the best of both natural worlds on the East Coast. I always longed for a big city lifestyle for some reason, in spite of the nature I enjoy in both of America’s Charlestons. The grass is always greener, as they say!
What’s one of your earliest memories?
I used to sleep over at friends’ houses a lot as a kid, and I remember being at my second grade school pal Amy McCormick’s house and listening and singing to the Grease soundtrack on vinyl with her. We’d sing into a brush and I remember music as part of the soundtrack of all of my “stages” in life. Hearing music from certain times can immediately evoke a memory or feeling for me. Fun followup: Amy lives in Oregon now and I was able to see her and meet her husband at Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday concert at the Hollywood Bowl last year! Thank you, Amy, for keeping me boppin to the tunes!
Weirdest or worst job you’ve had?
Ok, this is an interesting question because I have had all kinds of kooky jobs. As an actress, paying the bills through “survival” jobs is part of the artist life’s DNA in America! I temped FREQUENTLY during grad school and was frequently “placed” at event venues. One time, I remember being tasked with selling a motivational speaker’s books one weekend at a VERY packed convention center. This was my first time ever being exposed to that kind of “circuit” and people were CLAMORING to purchase the speaker’s expensive books with a hungry, kind of desperate look in their eyes. I recall being very impacted by the energy of that event in kind of a disturbed way. I hadn’t yet been around people with extreme types of beliefs that inspired them to give off that aura of just TOTAL and UTTER belief in something that was also linked to a product. It freaked me out in a way that I can’t describe accurately, and I felt complicit as a hired hand to take people’s hard-earned money for something I had absolutely no connection to. I can remember the attendees just assuming I was part of this guy’s team, when really I was just trying to make grocery money that month and feeling awkward and guilty for seeing people open their wallets.
Who is someone you know/knew personally who has inspired you?
Personally, I am inspired on a DAILY BASIS by people around me. I don’t know what it is, but whenever I see my friends or family doing something toward their goals or happiness or well-being, it makes me think, I should ALSO be doing that! My inner circle of friends in the entertainment industry have so much grit and resilience from years of rejection (and successes!) We all keep each other motivated to not let “them” win. And by “them” I mean all the dark forces working against forging a creative life, there are lots of them! So, I can’t be specific here, because if I named one person, I would be leaving out a zillion others! But I find inspiration all around me in the people I know.
An album you never get sick of? Like one where you don’t skip around.
This is just one, I would say, because there are several albums I can just put on and allow to play through, but I would safely be able to say The Beatles Let it Be .
What’s something of yours that you consider a keepsake?
For the longest time I wore this hoodie that my boyfriend gave me that he had custom made for me that said “Haddad” on it and I wore it into the ground, breaking the zipper. I still have it in the back of my closet, even though I never wear it anymore. That boyfriend is now my husband of almost fourteen years. I think I might get that hoodie repaired, now that you are asking about it!
What’s a strange place or situation you’ve found yourself in?
Manhattan on 9/11. I was working in an office in midtown at one of my “survival jobs” to pay the bills while I attempted to build my acting career in New York City. Living in NYC to act was the culmination of my lifelong dream at that point. I had moved to the city two years before the attack. That day was one of the most horrific, surreal, and gutting days to witness and live through. I can remember what I was wearing, the weather, the view of the smoke cloud rising into the sky, the most vivid details are burned like a photo in my memory of that day. That kind of senseless, mass, violent loss was something I had not been close to before.
Something you wish you’d known sooner?
I wish I had known that the younger one begins planting the seeds of a career in the entertainment industry, the further one would be along in middle age! And, in addition to that, I wish I had known that mindset is infinitely more important than talent and so are connections! But, mindset truly is everything.
Was there anyone or anything in particular that made you want to be an actress?
I have always loved story and storytelling. For me, the human condition is most understood through others sharing their experiences. My earliest memory of wanting to be an actress was reading aloud in 5th grade. Communing with a group and sharing the words of a writer while we are all raptly experiencing the next moment was captivating to me. I loved being called on by my teacher to read out loud in the class. I always raised my hand to do it!
How was it spending lots of time on the picket line last year?
The picket line was physically taxing. I am someone that doesn’t totally love being outdoors. The conditions have to have ease and I dread slathering myself in sunscreen to do stuff outside. This is why I like swimming at night! I know that is weird, but I guess I’m more of an indoor cat. Being in crowds is also overwhelming to me sometimes. In fact, my favorite “strike actions” were when strike captains asked me to volunteer to observe neutral gates. This felt really focused and purposeful to me, and I was often paired with someone who I got to know more from being stationed at a studio gate for hours at a time. In general, the picket line may have looked exhilarating and joyous from all of the online posting we were requested to do in order to show solidarity and backbone, but, in truth, we were all quite demoralized and tired and deflated for not being supported by our employers. The thing it made me learn is to treat workers with dignity and respect if I am EVER in a position of power.
I know you’re working on a writing project… What’s the writing process like for you? Do you have a writing routine? And can you tell us anything about the project?
Thank you for asking about my project! I am working on a TV series idea that I would like to take to market soon, after finding an appropriate producing partner. My project is inspired by my own, personal experience as a teen at an all-girls school in Charleston, SC in the late 1980s. The idea is a coming-of-age, female empowerment piece set against the backdrop of the Good Old Boy south during the last gasps of second wave feminism. It follows a misfit teen who finds her tribe after stumbling upon a clandestine revolution by the girls at her new school.
My project sprung from an alumni weekend reminiscing with my old classmates. We were really struck by the uniqueness of our secret little all-girls school experience, and I decided to write it. They were so supportive, all of my wonderful classmates, and have all been cheering this project on and saying to take anything and everything from our lives and experience from that time! So much so, I am struggling to change some names so I don’t get sued! It’s been kind of cathartic and rewarding to work on a piece of Southern (almost) fiction centering girls’ voices, especially after the Dobbs decision. Now, more than ever, I want to tell this story of friendship and sisterhood within systems designed to unnecessarily subdue.
My writing process is very sporadic! But I am getting better at thinking about the story and letting it guide me to pockets of solitude here and there to get it all down. I am at a stage in my creation with this series and pilot that it is a constant conversation with itself now. It feels like a living, breathing thing that is continually getting nurtured by me and its few cheerleaders in my inner circle. I am sure that feeling or stage of it will all change, once I attach a producing entity. Then, I guess the conversation may be with actual investors or buyers! And, for me, deadlines help, which is why I sometimes will sign up for a writing class or just meet a friend for something we will call “study hall” where we simultaneously work on our respective pages, so it keeps me honest by having some built-in accountability.
Something you’re looking forward to?
Wow, this is a good question. I have not been looking forward so much these days as just getting to the next day or day after! I am looking forward to Christmas. I like cozy Christmas vibes every year and how it makes people think about being nice to people.
Visit More with Janie here:
Weekend Water Substack
Stay F. Homekins Podcast
Janie’s Instagram
Came for the colored pencil quote, stayed for the great interview. <3
This was a fun interview!