@spotlight

Swell Spotlight: Debra Healy - Assistant Director and Talent Stage Manager with credits including the Oscars, American Idol, and the Golden Globes.

So first off, Deborah, thank you for being here. I want to start off with this question. I know you're on a more personal level, so I don't want to jump quite into the work you've done over the last 10, 15, 20 years. Let's talk a little bit about how you got started in Hollywood, as they say. Can you tell us what was it on? Were you always involved in television or did you sort of segue from film?

Flashing lights! Superstars! Craft services! Thank you to Debra Healy for sharing her time and experiences with us.

2
@Beedie
Debbie Liebling-Healy
@Beedie · 2:55

Show business and it’s progressive (or not) movement

Thank you, Tyler, for inviting me to Swell period. I love the format. I have been in television for 47 years. I started when I was 17 teen and my older sister saw an ad for a production truck that wanted a production assistant. I interviewed against 65 other women, and I got the job because I was the same age as the owner's daughter. It is not so much about education or anything else and a lot about who you know and your age
@spotlight
How did you end up working in the sort of television that I would say has defined your career over these last couple of decades? I know that you worked with the original American Idol team. You were with the show from season one for several seasons, and I know of your work with the Oscars as well. And those are very high profile events. So how did you end up working on those?
@Beedie
Debbie Liebling-Healy
@Beedie · 3:16

Sexual harassment in television and how I got there!

Yes and no. I was fortunate enough to work on, as you said, American Idol for four seasons, the Oscars for 20 years and the Golden Globes 23 years, other immense life shows. I always loved what I did and really didn't have the desire to move up and direct. I became a mother with two small kids, and I was still working and writing notes every night and being exhausted during the day
@spotlight
Could you break those down for people that aren't really familiar with the industry and let us know what both of those positions would entail as an assistant director and also as a stage manager. And I know that from from production to production, the tasks can vary. But if you could sort of ballpark it your experiences on maybe a couple of the ones that we mentioned here already
@Beedie
Debbie Liebling-Healy
@Beedie · 4:01

Breakdown stage manager vs. assistant director

There were instances where they thought they were better and that didn't really go over too well with me. And you deal with a lot of personalities and it's very interesting, whereas when you're an assistant director, you're basically in a truck working directly with the director and the technical director and listening to about 25 to 30 different voices going on in your headset
@Beedie
Debbie Liebling-Healy
@Beedie · 0:26

In addition...

I also just wanted to add that every single show is very different. And on some shows you would talk to more people than others. I failed to mention that I would also be talking to audio, video tape leads and stage managers on every single show that I did as an assistant director didn't want to let that go
@spotlight
Wow. So you're really taking on two different tasks that are vastly different from one another and in very high, stress, demanding environment. I don't know if I could handle that sort of thing. I'm curious to know you mentioned a couple of the people that you've worked with in the past, a Listers, to say the least
@Beedie
Debbie Liebling-Healy
@Beedie · 2:17

Show biz memories

Yes, certain productions definitely trigger memories for me. When I first started, I was lucky enough to work with John Wayne and a bunch of other people who are also well known but not around any longer. I have been fortunate to work with just about every celebrity there is in Hollywood and Europe, and every production does stand out in its own way. I think also most memorable would be shooting at the White House, which I did for three years in a row
@spotlight

Horror stories?

You mentioned a couple of horror stories. I'm wondering if you could maybe share one of them with us here on Swell. I know that a lot of people here are not in the Hollywood industry and probably hear stories, but nothing like somebody on the front lines could tell us. So if you're comfortable giving us a story of something that went horribly wrong, or maybe somebody you work with that wasn't the best. And of course, no names
@spotlight

Spotlight is now open for questions or comments!

I also wanted to add that I'm gonna go ahead and open the Swell spotlight up. So if anybody has a question for BD and would like to leave a swell here, please do. So it's a great conversation. And I'm sure she would love to to hear some of your questions as well
@Beedie
Debbie Liebling-Healy
@Beedie · 1:34

Worms in the show biz apple!

I will say for the most part that just about all the talent I worked with were wonderful people. That being said, there were probably ten in my career that I wouldn't give the time of day two. I will not mention this person's name. However, I was doing an award show and he came back stage quite drunk and was very rude to the director of our Green Room talent holding area and called him racial slurs, which of course, in today's climate would not be welcome
@spotlight
Wow. Bd, it's really sad to hear that workers have to endure that sort of thing from I mean, they shouldn't have to endure it from anybody. But the fact that it sounds like an alist celebrity was treating somebody that way. I mean, surely know better. But I feel like these sorts of stories we're getting a lot of them lately could be because more people have cell phones these days or because people talk more
@Beedie
Debbie Liebling-Healy
@Beedie · 3:45
I can remember being on shows where there would be a mistake not caused by me, but perhaps a celebrity used foul language or there was a glitch or something, and we would stay back and fix everything for the West Coast, so the East Coast would get the live mistakes. And by the time it aired in the West Coast, they would never have known that anything was the matter
Swell user mugshot
0:000:00