Glee Interview: Dot-Marie Jones Says Coach Beiste Is No Wallflower

At six-foot-three, Dot-Marie Jones is not easy to miss and her portrayal of the fierce but vulnerable Coach Shannon Beiste on Glee has touched the hearts of Gleeks across America. During this year’s E3 Electronic Gaming Expo, Dot helped to promote Konami’s soon to be released Glee Karaoke Revolution Vol.3 . I tested it out, and even though I’m more tone deaf than a Rebecca Black fan, I really had fun singing “Time Warp.”  Dot and I took some time at E3 to talk about karaoke, sitting alone at lunch, arm wrestling, and what it’s like playing Coach Beiste on one of the most popular shows on TV.

Let’s start with the game. How’s the new Glee Karaoke Revolution?

Dot-Marie Jones:  It is awesome. The graphics are really cool. I have used personal karaoke machines and it just has the words coming down the screen. In this game it actually has videos of the kids singing in the show. It’s like you get to sing with them, yeah, it’s really different.

Do you like to sing karaoke?

Oh, I do anything to make people laugh. I used to sing karaoke a lot, but when I got to actually sing on the show that was the first time I’d done it legitimately, I guess I should say.

Were you scared?

Nah! It was amazing, I’m in it to have fun.  I had a blast.

I heard you were a fan of the show before you came on.

I was. I worked with Ryan Murphy before when I did three episodes of Nip/Tuck, and I ran into Brad Falchuk in a store, and said what have you been doing? And he said he was finalizing the end of season one of [Glee].  And I said, “Oh my god I love that show, I want to be on there.” But, come on, you say those things… but you never think anyone’s listening. But Brad and Ryan created the character Coach Beiste for me. I didn’t audition or anything, they wrote it for me.  It’s surreal, I’m so grateful for these guys, it’s unbelievable.

Why were you initially drawn to the show?

I love watching the kids sing. I’ve never been in theater or anything; I know I like to sing in the car and it’s neat to sing and stuff. And it’s just nice to see that element on TV. I don’t remember seeing it on TV before.  Plus I’m a huge Jane Lynch fan and to meet her and get to work with her is beyond words. She’s great.

What do you like about playing Coach Beiste?

For me there is a personal side to Coach Beiste that relates to me. My whole life I’ve been big.  I’ve always been the big girl, in sports and everything.  In 8^th grade I went from 5’6” to 6’1”.  I’ve always been the huge girl. At my tallest I was 6’4” and 275 and now I’m right at 6’3” because I’ve had 11 knee surgeries from sports, and I’m like 250. I’m not petite and not your wallflower.  And so for me I always get the looks and people staring, “Is that a guy or a girl?”, my whole life.  It used to piss me off, it still pisses me off sometimes.  My favorite thing about playing Coach Beiste is the emotional side.  Because I’ve been an actress for 19 years now, I’ve played the cop, the prisoner, the bodyguard, the correctional officer, the tough chick, the biker chick, whatever, and this is part of Coach Beiste but it’s the emotional side that I’m totally drawn to and I love it.

I really like the friendship Beiste and Will Schuester have formed. The episode where you and Schuester go out drinking is one of my favorites.

Thank you. That’s one of my favorite episodes too.  And Matt and I, ever since the “Never Been Kissed” episode when he kisses me, we’ve always worked closely because a lot of my stuff is with him.  And it was after that episode, he said it too, that we’ve become so much closer.  Even with working together every day, all day, I just adore him.

Where would you like to see the show go next season?

I’m excited to know where the show is going to go too, because they left so many doors open. It’ll be exciting to see what the writers come up with, because they work their butts off. I don’t know how they work like that because we only have 8 days to shoot a script.  But it’s a gift to be on that show, I wouldn’t care if it took a month to shoot it.

You have had some notable roles in very popular shows and movies before. How is it getting recognized for Glee on the street?

Oh, you would think this was the first show I ever did.  It’s funny, the demographics, the young kids knew me from Lizzie McGuire.  And a lot of the older ’30s, ’40s knew me from the sitcoms I did like Married With Children, which plays like 500 times a day, or like George Lopez and Roseanne in reruns now. Mostly the guys, and now I’m noticing women too, but mostly the guys like seniors in high school to like 30-year-olds, know me from a movie I did, Boondock Saints.  I’m in it like 20 seconds but that film is so huge.  I have a lot of guys come up to me and say “What’s the rule of thumb?”

But for Glee it’s every demographic possible. This older man in New York was like “Hey Coach! I love you!” This old scruffy guy that you would not picture watching the show. And even little kids. My thing about the show is that there is at least one message in every episode.  And with all of the different characters in the show, every one of us can relate to at least one or two of them in our own personal life. It touches so many people, even the adults’ storylines people can relate to.

I had a young girl on Facebook who wrote me, and it just made me start bawling. She said, “thank you so much for playing that character on TV” -it’s going to make me cry now- she said, “I was always one of those girls who never had a place to sit at lunch.” And I was like…what do you say?  I just wrote her back, I was bawling hysterically, I wrote, “Well sweetheart, you will always have a seat at my table.”  You don’t realize what you are doing and who you affect until you get a response like that. I have always been proud of my work, but it makes me rise up a little higher.

So, you have a very interesting history before you got into acting. Do the kids from Glee ever bring it up with you?

Yeah, I was a juvenile probation counselor for 4 and a half years, that’s what I went to college for.  But yeah some of them will ask me arm wrestling questions, because I won 15 world titles in arm wrestling.  And a lot ask about track and field; I was a shot-putter. I didn’t make the Olympic Games but I made the trials in ’88 and then ’92. So it’s funny because Kevin McHale, who plays Artie on the show, he’s like “damn Dot! Is there anything you haven’t done?” He’s always saying something like that, he’s so funny. And now he’ll hear something new that I’ve done and he’ll say, “well of course she did.”

Glee Karaoke Revolution (Vol. 3) will release Fall 2011. Glee returns this fall to Fox.

Catch Dot-Marie Jones this Sunday on The Glee Project.

For more on Glee, click here.

Images courtesy of Fox.