CHICAGO _ Before she became a multiple Emmy winner for her role on the sitcom "Will & Grace," and long before she became half of the folk/blues/vaudeville duo Nancy and Beth, Megan Mullalley was a Northwestern alum and aspiring theater actress living in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood.
"I lived on the last block of Lincoln right before Wells Street," Mullalley says in a phone interview. "It was this weird building that was built by some inspired, weirdo architect. None of the rooms were square, they were all crazy shapes, and they had these crazy stained glass windows."
Mullalley, 58, eventually moved to Los Angeles, carved out a career as a television and film actress that included eight years as Karen Walker on "Will & Grace" (a role she'll reprise when the sitcom returns later this year), and married future "Parks & Recreation" actor Nick Offerman.
Mullalley met Nancy and Beth co-frontwoman Stephanie Hunt, herself an actress and musician, in the early 2010s, when both women were making a movie in Texas. They recently released a self-titled album of covers that includes renditions of Gucci Mane's NC-17 banger "I Don't Love Her" and George Jones' mournful classic "He Stopped Loving Her Today."
Mullalley, as cheerful and lovely as you would have hoped she'd be, and as sharp, broke down the particulars. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation:
Q: You're going to open for the Pixies, you've opened for Robert Plant. Do they treat you like a peer, or do they say, "Oh, it's Karen from 'Will & Grace'"? What kind of reception do you get from other musicians?
A: It's been great, because I've been singing my whole life, and I've done a lot of concerts and a lot of Broadway musicals, but still no one knows me as a singer. My mom knows. So when we went on tour last fall with Emmylou (Harris) and Robert Plant and Steve Earle, it was pretty cool, because I don't think Emmylou and Robert even knew that I was an actress. I think they just legitimately thought we were musicians, and they loved our schtick that we do. We were on a bus with them, and we had a great time. Nobody ever mentioned anything to me about being an actress. They were like, "Great. Sing your little songs, girls."
Q: Actors turned musicians always talk about how hard it is to be taken seriously. Starting off a little tongue-in-cheek helps, right?
A: Totally. There is a total double standard, which is fine. It's like, do not dare to start a band, because that's just your little vanity project. However, if you're a pop star who, on a whim, is like, "I guess I'll be in a movie," it's like, please step up and accept your Oscar.
Q: I've clearly touched a nerve.
A: It's true, though, right? Fortunately with Nancy and Beth, what Stephanie and I do is so fun and kind of pure and innocent and funny and just coming from the heart, I think within a minute or two, audiences completely forget and just get caught up in it.
Q: You cover Gucci Mane's ("I Don't Love Her"). For him, that's actually kind of a sweet song.
A: I know. That's a tender love ballad.
Q: You do a Gucci Mane song, you do a Lou Rawls song. Did part of you worry: We're white women, and people get touchy?
A: No, I never think about that. We just kind of pick songs we really freak out over, and love. It's kind of like doing comedy. You can't be shy, and you can't hold back. Comedy is always growing and changing and topping itself, the boundaries are continually being knocked down. We just have to go with our gut about what we love.
Q: You and Stephanie started out as friends _ does it become more of a business relationship after a while?
A It doesn't feel like a business to us at all. Stephanie and I are just really good friends. I call her the human Xanax, she's the easiest person to be around of anybody I've ever known. It is impossible to get worked up or in a bad mood when you're around Stephanie, she is so positive. Not in an, an ...
Q: Not in an annoying way?
A: Not in an annoying, airy fairy way, she's just like that. I don't know why, exactly.
Q: Do you find the higher your profile is, the more hit movies you do, the more it helps Nancy and Beth?
A: I don't know, I'm not really sure. I feel like, ultimately, it does help, but I don't necessarily think it's because I'm on "Will & Grace," or whatever else I've done. It doesn't guarantee that we're going to sell anything out. We have to work really hard to sell tickets.
