Mom

Season 4 M-Net (*101) 18:30 Comedy

Going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings can be traumatic, especially for always-single nurse Wendy (Beth Hall) in sitcom Mom (2013-current). She’s often full of tears when lead characters Christy and Bonnie (Anna Faris and Allison Janney) are near. Not that Beth minds – she’s just happy to have a job.

She was originally cast as Janice in 1

season 1, who’d be interrupted at the AA meetings while telling her story, but the role was cut on day 1 of filming. “They said it just wasn’t working,” says Beth, “but they wanted me back, so they created Wendy.”

She loves comedy, but Beth is 2

best known as secretary Caroline in period drama Mad Men (2007-2015) – she had 20 appearances as a call-actor between 2010 and 2015.

Working part-time let her be a 3

mom to her adopted daughter with Philip, her hubby of 19 years. “The hospital called – they had a safe-surrender newborn. I had one night to decide and it’s the best decision we ever made. I came home with a bundle of joy and said, ‘This is our daughter Nina Jane’.”

Before getting into acting, Beth 4

worked in an antique store, joking that “I kinda look like an antique. I was dying the grey out of my hair at 25”.

While she enjoys Twitter (her han5

dle is @bethhall), one of the things Beth loves about filming with a live audience is the instant feedback. “I’m from theatre, so I missed that crowd interaction with some of my other work. But now with Mom, it’s amazing!”

So does she have anything in com6

mon with her character? “Wendy is a crier and I’m a crier,” she laughs.

And as for hobbies, “Besides run7

ning after Nina, I like to play poker at least once a week,” she says.