Emmy Mattingly (Buckner)

I spent a fair amount of time thinking about how to kick this off, and I keep coming back to one thing: an apology.

From what she told me, I doubt Emmy feels it's necessary. But it feels right, and I'm a firm believer in doing what's right, whether others feel it's necessary or not.

To be clear, I did apologize privately, very shortly after the interview, and Emmy's response was very kind & very understanding. She probably thought a lot less of what happened than I did. But I genuinely feel that a public transgression requires a public apology, so here it goes.

At one point in the interview, I awkwardly phrased a question in a way that implied Emmy's role on Liv & Maddie was comparable to that of a stand-in. For that, I'm sorry, both to Emmy and to others engaged in the same work.

While I like to think I'm generally pretty good with words, especially as a writer, like all of us, I can sometimes speak in an inelegant manner that doesn't accurately convey my meaning.

Part of the reason this was particularly problematic was because I knew it wasn't the case. In fact, it's one of the biggest reasons I wanted to the interview in the first place.

A lot of people, I think, don't realize just much talent it takes to do this type of work, and I was really excited to get interview Emmy specifically to highlight that, among other things. While I regret my poor choice of words on that question, it did serve to give her a chance to speak directly to that misconception, which I'm glad she took advantage of.

It's not as simple as just being a warm body of the right height & build; it requires genuine acting chops, because you're providing a reaction for those seeing your back, while emoting to give something for the other person to respond to.

Like acting while facing the camera or voice acting, it's not as easy as it looks.

While I'm not happy with how I helped make that point, I am happy I got to.