Spotlight: Eloise Mumford
Eloise Mumford is an actress currently working on The Right Stuff
for the National Geographic Channel.
She is best known for her role as Kate Kavanagh in the
50 Shades of Grey series, and was born and raised in Washington State
Photographer: Logan Cole
Hair/Makeup: Kimberly Bragalone
Styling: Benjamin Holtrop
Tearsheet by Kristen Wong
1. What’s it like to act as a pilot on television? How did you prepare for The Right Stuff? What’s next for Trudy Cooper’s development as a character?
Playing Trudy Cooper has been an incredibly humbling and thrilling experience. Getting to step into the shoes of this phenomenal pilot, this fierce woman, changed the way I carry myself in my own life and made me want to strive to be as resilient and badass as she was. The second I sat down in front of the controls of a plane while filming, I understood in an instant the lure of being a pilot: to control our own fate, to have the power to rise above it all, to suddenly feel both tiny and soaring at the same time.
I prepared for this role by reading and watching everything I possibly could about the space race and the history of the Mercury 7. I nerded out hard. And to prepare specifically for Trudy, I sought inspiration in the women who would have been her heroes: the spectacular female pilots of the 1920's-1950s, such as Amelia Earhart, Ruth Elder, and Louise Thaden. As I studied them and was blown away by their bravery, tenacity, and spirit, I suddenly understood Trudy more instinctually. The exploration of her passion and where it collides with the constraints of the time is a journey that I am deeply invested in, and I'm so glad our show delves into it.
2. What was the most challenging role you’ve taken on as an actor? How did you resolve the character for yourself as a performer and the screen at large? What was the hardest part about it?
Every role has its own challenges, and with every role I try to push myself deeper and further as an artist. As I get older I want to excavate more and more of the human experience when taking on a character. Trudy Cooper was particularly hard for a specific reason: I felt a huge responsibility to honor her and all the women like her who were held back so intensely by the sexism that runs so deep in our culture. In diving into her and her story, it broke my heart over and over to witness and portray a woman who was just as talented, if not more so, than the men surrounding her, but who was not afforded the same access to opportunity simply because of her sex. It was viscerally painful to relive that time, and to recognize that, while so much has changed since then, we still have so far to go. I wanted to inhabit both the ache and the hope of it all: to pay homage to the strength of women who have been fighting for our rights for decades, centuries. I carry that fight forward with me now.
3. What new skills have you learned over the course of 2020? How has 2020 forced you to change as a person and an actor?
I learned to bake sourdough, along with so many other people in quarantine! I learned to be more open and tender as a human surrounded by other humans during this achingly hard time. I have learned to celebrate the small moments of joy in the midst of so much unknown, and to reach out when I need help. I learned that giving people you love the opportunity to hold you when you need it in turn gives them the permission to do the same with you when they need it. I yearn to bring this vulnerability to my work as an actor: to reflect that acknowledging pain and finding strength in that process is as human as it comes.
4. What was the highlight of your year so far? Where have you seen the most good happening in your life and the world at large?
As I answer this, Joe Biden was just elected president and Kamala Harris was just elected the first woman vice president. I have never felt more a part of the hopeful experiment that is democracy in America: to witness and participate in the tireless, joyful, necessary work that is required to bend our country towards fulfilling its aspired principles. It is exhausting, and it takes us all-marching, organizing, uniting, voting. It is an incredible feeling to see the payoff of that work, and to know that this is not where the work stops, it is where it begins. Tomorrow we pick up again, and the next day, and the next. This is the joy that is democracy, and the joy of caring about our nation and all its inhabitants. This is the joy of all being in it together, tethered to each other in kindness and hope.
5. In an alternate universe where you aren’t an actor what do you think you would have made your life’s work? Why that particular occupation?
I have three alternative universes. I always thought I would be a doctor, specifically a pediatrician. I came really close to going this route in life, honestly. In the other alternative universe, I am a high school math teacher. I still think this would be pretty rad. And, finally, especially lately, I wish I were a scientist. I love marine biology in particular, and the thought of being out near the ocean, doing field work, helping our planet is dreamy.
6. It’s always interesting to think about past roles in an actor’s line of work. What was working on 50 Shades of Grey a few years back like? Do you have any particularly strong memories or anecdotes from working on that set? What was getting cast in that like?
Working on 50 Shades was an experience that I am incredibly grateful for. It was a wild ride, from the beginning to the end, it was so many years of my life, and I am really grateful for the people I met and got to work with and became dear friends with through it. After I had auditioned, but before I had been cast, I was asked to do the table read with the rest of the cast, producers, and everyone. I was the only actor there who was not officially cast: it was the highest stakes callback I have ever had. I knew that I could either earn the role in the room, or completely blow it. When Sam Taylor Johnson called me a few days later to tell me I would be Kate, I was just so thrilled to be working with her and everyone involved.
7. What was working on Broadway like while you were still an NYU student? Is there anything you would have done differently as you began your career? Do you have any advice for young women starting out in the industry?
I played Elisabeth Moss's understudy in the Broadway production of Speed The Plow and it was a dream come true. I was still getting my theater degree from NYU's Tisch and to take time off from that to go to Times Square every day and get to be surrounded by supremely talented people was just breathtaking. I went on once as her understudy and stepping out onto that stage was the most terrifying experience of my life. It was a leap of faith like none since. I had never rehearsed the play with the two actors I was about to act opposite, and the theater was completely packed. As I stepped out, William H. Macy, who was playing the lead, winked at me, and I knew then that we were off to the races. It was thrilling. I graduated college with an overwhelming amount of student loans. When I went to LA to try to get work, I didn't give myself the option to fail. There is so much luck in this business, and the only way to combat that is to work your tail off, so that when the luck hits, you are supremely prepared. It's lonely and it's nerdy, but I've always taken scrappy over glamorous. That would be my advice to young women starting out: pour your heart into it and surround yourself with fierce women who inspire you. Be kind and a feminist. Tether yourself to good, strong people, and be one yourself to everyone around you. Fight for what you know is right.
8. If you could go back in time and change three things in the history of your life, would you go? What would you change?
Boy oh boy, there are for sure some relationships I wish I could blink away. A handful of guys I wish I had never met. That would be fairly satisfying. In all seriousness, though, I do really think everything is connected in a way that once you start pulling at threads, suddenly you aren't where you are at all anymore (I mean, I've seen BACK TO THE FUTURE enough times). I am deeply grateful for my life, for the wild journey it has been and will continue to be.
9. What is your life motto?
My parents repeated a phrase to me over and over my whole life, a mantra which is overwhelmingly personal, but I will sum up basically as just this: be kind. That's sorta just it. We only have this tiny blink of our lives on this breathtaking planet, surrounded by the people we are lucky enough to share this moment in the universe with. Be kind.
10. What are your social media handles?
Instagram: @eloisemumford
Twitter: @eloise_mumford
Interview by Alison Hernon, Editor-In-Chief, & Kristen Wong, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine.
