The Herald, ASU Campus Paper
Thursday, January 27, 2005

By Dustin Faber

John O'Connell, director and associate professor of theatre arts, appeared on MTV's MADE as the acting coach to junior Anna Paulson, 17, who wanted a part in the play A MidSummer Nights Dream at Memphis's Overton High School. O'Connell, known as Johno to friends and family, said he enjoyed filming the episode, and was pleased with the airing.

"It was more fun than I thought it would be," O'Connell said. "I had more face time than I thought I would have. It was funny to see how they edited it without chronological consideration. Anna's hair would be long one minute, and short the next."

O'Connell also received humorous feedback from students, as well as his large family, about the blonde hair he sported in the episode. O'Connell,whose natural hair color is grey,said the producers wanted him to keep his blonde hair that he had dyed for school.

O'Connell said that MTV did a nice job of making it a sweet story. Despite the show claiming that Paulson wanted a romantic lead, she was really after the role of Puck, the mischevious fairy sidekick to Oberon, king of the fairies.

"She didn't get the role she wanted," O'Connell said of Paulson, who ended up with the role of Phillistrate. "But it helped her more personally than it did as a high school actress."

O'Connell spoke with Paulson over the phone after the shows debut last week, and said that she felt a little hurt when she discovered the perception other's had of her.

"I warned her that MTV would find people who said she was weird and her hair was stupid," O'Connell said. "It's one thing to know how people feel about you, but it's another thing to hear it on national television. But in the end, her classmates were encouraging her. They needed the negative at the beginning to set up the sweet ending."

In the opening of the show, several students were interviewed and made it known that Paulson was a dork and a little weird. Paulson, who has a strong interest in science fiction and fantasy (she owns every Harry Potter book), has also written a full-length novel, which O'Connell read parts of and found enjoyable.

Paulson has since been cast in another school play, Talking With. O'Connell says that Paulson is undecided about life after high school.

Along with building her acting skills, the show also challenged Paulson to show her feminine side. While Paulson was a little leary of changing her character, she eventually begins wearing makeup and was convinced by O'Connell to buy and wear a pink dress, a thing Paulson never thought she'd do.

O'Connell was selected after a director in Memphis suggested his name to MTV producers earlier in the year. The producers were looking for someone with a feisty, Nathan Lane-type personality.

"He was hand-picked," MTV producer Heather Walsh said in a story by The Herald on Sept. 16. "The executive producers loved his sense of humor and his intelligence of drama. It just clicked."

MADE is described by MTV as a show where "one willing candidate embarks on a mission to transform his or her life. Each teenager has a dream to break out of their shell and find out who they really are."