Dot Jones was breaking records even before her starring role as Coach Shannon Beiste on the hit Fox show Glee. Jones is a 15-time arm-wrestling world champion, has completed 20 years in showbiz and is ready to wrestle the Emmy out of her competitor's grip next month.
Windy City Times: Hello, Dot. How are you today?
Dot Jones: Hi, Jerry. I'm sorry I am late calling you. I was at an audition and these crutches are slowing me down.
WCT: You had to hobble to an audition?
DJ: Yeah; it's for a movie in October. I am only on crutches for a few more weeks. How are you, sweetie?
WCT: I'm great. How exactly did the whole Glee experience happen for you?
DJ: I ran into Brad Falchuk at the supermarket and I hadn't see him since I had done Ryan Murphy's pilot, Pretty Handsome. That was the show he had done right before the Glee pilot. It didn't get picked up but Glee did. They were just finishing their first season.
I loved the show and asked if they could write me something, please! Brad and I were laughing and he asked if I could sing. I said, "I'm no Mariah Carey but I can carry a little tune." I missed Ryan because I had done three Nip/Tucks also for Ryan. Two months later my agent calls me and Ryan Murphy's office wanted to know my schedule for last July. I was open because I had just finished a recurring role on HawthoRNe and the season had just ended. Cut to it and here we are. Now I have an Emmy nomination, which still blows my mind.
WCT: That is crazy! Good for you.
DJ: Thank you. This is my 20th year in show business.
WCT: You started off in sports though, correct?
DJ: Yes. I majored in criminology in college. I had no idea I would be doing this today. I worked four and a half years juvenile probation before a friend of mine told me about auditions back in '91. It was for a new show kind of like American Gladiators but it was called Knights and Warriors. I played Lady Battle Axe. I got one of four women spots out of the 300 that auditioned. It was mostly athletic but we did little acting vignettes. It was fun.
WCT: Do you still work out?
DJ: I try to but I have been so crazy busy that I haven't been to the gym in four months.
WCT: Well, now you can't with your foot.
DJ: Yeah, I just did that Friday night. It's all right I still have my foot so I am lucky.
WCT: Do you have a sports award that you are most proud of?
DJ: I think that when I won my 15th world title in arm wrestling. That was my goal. I wanted to win 15 world titles then I would see about retiring.
WCT: Jane Lynch has a book coming out. Would you ever want to write one?
DJ: Absolutely.
WCT: I watched you as a mentor on Oxygen's The Glee Project. What do you think of that show?
DJ: It is fantastic. I love to see Robert Ulrich on there, too, because he was one of the casting directors that cast me on to Nip/Tuck. It was great to work with him outside of the office. The kids are so talented.
WCT: They are so good.
DJ: I am just glad that I don't have to be the one to pick the one that goes home.
WCT: I am talking to the winner soon but they won't tell me who it is yet.
DJ: You will be happy.
WCT: You know and can't tell me! You get to be on the finale. I just recently saw you appear on Logo's Drag U as a judge.
DJ: I love me some RuPaul!
WCT: How did that happen? RuPaul just called you up?
DJ: He called my agent and asked if I would interested. I said, "Hell yeah!" I love that show. I would have liked to have been one of the contestants that they made over because I grew up out in the country and I am so casual. Dressing up for me is a nice pretty shirt and new jeans. So that would be a blast to have them make me over although I couldn't walk in heels.
WCT: I heard you might wear pants to the Emmys.
DJ: I am planning on it. I have to find somebody that can make something incredible for me. I get offers where they want to fit me for the Emmys then I tell them my size. They usually say, "We only have sizes zero to six." I wasn't born a six!
WCT: They have to make you something special, then.
DJ: I know. I have a few phone calls I have to return and I think we are going to come up with something great.
WCT: Can you tell me anything about the new season of Glee?
DJ: It is going to be incredible. That is all I know. I just shot my first episode the other day. I was in one scene with Matt Morrison and Jayma Mays. I love her; she is the one that plays Emma. Both of them are such great people. I get so excited when we get to work together.
WCT: What would you like to tell people who are picked on for being different?
DJ: The people that are picking on them are just insecure about something of themselves. All of the people that I went to school with we grew up together. People talked crap about me when I was growing up. "Is that a man or a woman?" I was big. I went from 5'6" to 6'1" in eighth grade. Where the hell could I hide that? People always ask me if I would have been smaller or shorter.
I wouldn't have accomplished anything and be where I am at if it wasn't for how big I am. I went to the Olympic trails twice in the shot put, won 15 arm-wrestling titles and I am on the number-one show in the country. As my friend Kathy Griffin would say, "Suck it!"
WCT: Sounds like her. When are you coming to Chicago?
DJ: One of my best girlfriends lives in Skokie. I haven't been there since 1999. I did a movie there in Stockton, Ill. It was called Stray Dogs with Genevieve Turner. I love Chicago—not to mention the best pie in the nation!
WCT: How do people keep up with you?
DJ: I do Twitter. It is dotmariejones.
Look for the annual Emmy Awards on Sept. 10 by checking www.emmys.tv for listings. The new season of Glee starts in early 2012 on Fox.
