One’s very first experience on a feature film set can often make a big impression, even if it’s only working on a single scene in the film. That’s exactly what happened toLeslie Bibbwhile working on the 1997 Paramount release,Private Parts.
TheBetty Thomas-directed film is an adaption of the autobiographical chapters fromHoward Stern’s 1993 book of the same name. The movie covers Stern’s earliest dreams of being on the radio and then follows what happens as he makes his way from the Boston University radio station to scoring his dream gig, working in New York City at WNBC. That’s where Bibb’s character, an NBC tour guide, steps in. While showing a group of tourists around the building, she brings them by Stern’s studio just in time to see a guest swallow a 13-inch kielbasa sausage.
During a recent episode ofCollider Ladies Nightretracting Bibb’s steps in the industry fromPrivate Partsto her latest release, the Netflix seriesGod’s Favorite Idiot, Bibb went into detail on how she scored the part and what it was like stepping onto her very first feature film set:
“I was still in acting school. I think I auditioned for that movie for like 10 other parts. I just kept going in and going in because it was a big movie. It had so much happening. We shot on a Saturday, which was weird. I was like, ‘You shoot on a Saturday?’ That felt weird.”
As for working opposite big names like Stern,Robin Quivers, and Thomas, Bibb’s experience couldn’t have gone better. Here’s how she described it:
“Howard, because he was doing the show and doing this, he had an apartment almost. He could sleep there or live there because he was just working. He was very serious. I remember being very nervous about meeting him. I just remember being scared he was gonna ask me something that my 19-year-old brain would be nervous about or I didn’t know, and he was so generous and so kind. And Robin was so lovely. And my mom really loved Howard Stern and she thought it was such a cool job. And Betty Thomas was directing and I think sent her flowers. I was such a nerd. I was like, ‘I’m gonna send Betty Thomas flowers!’”
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So yes, clearly the stars and director ofPrivate Partsmade a big impression on Bibb, but there was something else about the day-to-day that’d wind up influencing her own approach to leading a set — the lunch. She explained:
“I remember at lunch they had lobster and they really had a nice lunch for their cast and crew. That’s not common. They were very lovely to their crew and that’s not always — A, sometimes there’s not the budget, but sometimes you just don’t have producers who give a sh*t. But that really stuck in me. I’ve been on sets where I’ve gotten to produce a movie, I’m always like, it’s an important thing. I just remember that really stuck with me, of how much the crew really loved it because it was the simplest way to just make sure you’re saying to them, ‘Thank you,’ and, ‘We couldn’t do this without you.'"
Not only did thePrivate Partslunches show great respect for the film’s cast and crew, but so did the movie’s headliner, Stern, who seems to have had the ideal trickle-down effect on set. Here’s how Bibb put it:
“I really think that really came from Howard. And he was very serious about the work, which I thought was really cool. I think that script was really under lock and key, so I didn’t read the whole script. I would just get, ‘Audition for this part, audition for this part,’ and so I remember not being like, ‘Well, he’s not an actor. He’s this radio host, disc jockey guy,’ whatever, and getting there and really seeing how serious he was and thinking that was really cool too, how it mattered to him.”
As for the scene itself, Bibb was feeling the pressure personally, but she was also quite concerned about the well-being ofAlthea Cassidy, “The Kielbasa Queen.”
“I just remember being so scared and like, ‘Don’t f*ck up your lines. Don’t forget them.’ And that woman swallowed that sword over and over and over. Not a sword. Whatever it was. That kielbasa sausage. I always say it’s like sword swallowing. [She] swallowed that kielbasa sausage over and over, and I remember I think I walked up to her at some point and I was like, ‘Do you need water? Are you okay?’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, my throat’s just a little sore!’ She’s like, ‘I’ve gotta fly out for a bachelor party this afternoon,’ or something. She was like, ‘It’s a J-O-B.’ [But], you know, on a set you do it over and over and over from every different angle, and it’s one and done I’m sure for her, you know? And that was just crazy.”
Eager to hear more from Bibb about her journey in film and television thus far? There’s loads more from where this came from! You can listen to our entire hour-long conversation uncut in podcast form below:
