Talking With Dana Lyn Baron about ‘BETTY & MARY’

This edition of Talking With focuses on the multi-hyphenate talents of Dana Lyn Baron, who is gaining momentum on the festival circuit as the writer, producer and star of the comedy short “BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare.”

The film chronicles when Betty (Baron), a middle-aged actress stuck in a mediocre career, encounters her younger rival, Mary, at their latest audition.

Billed as the first in a planned film trilogy, it’s been gaining attention on the festival circuit, premiering at LA Shorts, then screening at Broad Humor, Catalina, and FirstGlance LA. with Idyllwild set for next March.

To learn more, we are Talking With Dana Lyn Baron:

Why did you want to create “BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare”?

DANA: Betty was born from my long-standing fascination with two of the most formidable women in dramatic literature: Lady Macbeth and Martha from Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Their ambition, passion, ferocity, humor, and private unraveling have always captivated me, and they remain dream roles I still hope to play. Over time, those obsessions fused into a kind of “hell child,” or “love child,” depending on your perspective—and that hybrid woman demanded to be written.

I’ve always written from character first. When someone arrives, they show up with urgency, telling me who they are and, if I’m lucky, where they want to go. Once Betty took shape, Mary followed quickly as her foil and her mirror. I didn’t engineer them so much as witness them and try to keep up.

Placing them in a cramped bathroom at a laughably low-stakes audition felt like the perfect pressure cooker: no space to hide, no artifice to cling to, just fluorescent lights and two women carrying all their wounds and desires. From there, the film grew into a darkly comedic exploration of relevance, aging, ambition, and the deeply human ache of wanting to matter.

This film is my love letter to women’s resiliency, and my middle finger to the idea that women “age out” of relevancy.

As an actor, what helped you the most in bringing Betty to life?

DANA: What helped most was allowing myself to bring my own lived experience as a middle-aged actress directly into the role without softening or apologizing for it. I know what it feels like to question your relevance in an industry that idolizes youth, and I know the mix of tenderness and fury that comes with caring deeply about work that sometimes feels indifferent in return. Because I wrote the script, I also understood Betty’s inner fractures — her bravado, her shame, her humor, her longing — so the performance became an exercise in letting those contradictions live in the same breath.

Working with our director, America Young, was essential. She creates a space where you can take risks without self-consciousness, and that made room for me to let Betty be raw, ridiculous, fragile, and ferocious all at once. The key was dropping any vanity and letting the messiness be the point.

There seems to be great chemistry between you and Tally McCormack, who portrays Mary. Did you already know one another, and did you write these roles specifically for the two of you?

DANA: The chemistry you see on screen is very real because Tally and I have known each other for many years. We’ve worked together, trained with the same acting coach, and developed a deep trust and respect for each other’s craft. I actually wrote the role of Mary for her. I’ve always found Tally captivating, and I knew she hadn’t had many chances to do substantial screen work yet. I wanted to create something that let her shine.

When I shared that Betty was influenced by Lady Macbeth and Martha, Tally lit up and told me that Katharine Hepburn has been one of her artistic totems since childhood. Our coach overheard and pointed us to Hepburn’s two-day interview with Dick Cavett. I watched it immediately, and it sent me down a creative rabbit hole that helped shape the Betty–Mary dynamic.

Because we already had such a solid foundation together, stepping into these roles felt joyful and effortless. The chemistry you see in the film is simply the chemistry we’ve built over years.

Do you have a favorite moment from the movie? And, was it also your favorite to shoot?

DANA: Tough question! I will say one of my favorite moments is Betty’s sudden spiral — the point where she’s trying desperately to keep it together while she’s also in very real physical pain. She’s forcing herself to stay focused on this tiny, low-stakes audition, pretending her body isn’t betraying her, and the absurdity of pushing through the pain finally snaps something open. The meltdown that follows is chaotic, funny, and heartbreaking all at once. Shooting it was surprisingly cathartic because it let me lean into the physical comedy and the emotional truth at the same time. That balance — the humor sitting right on top of the hurt — is the heartbeat of the film.

Is this a true reflection of the entertainment industry and what changes would you like to see?

DANA: The film is heightened—absolutely. It’s a disturbing comedy, not a documentary. But the emotional truth of it is painfully real. The dismissive comments, the subtle sidelining, the quiet sense of being replaced by a newer model… these are experiences many women in the industry know intimately.

I would love to see a continued shift toward valuing women at every age, not just in theory but in the stories we choose to greenlight and the people empowered to tell them. When more writers, directors, showrunners, and decision-makers understand the complexity of women’s lives —especially middle-aged women — we get richer, more honest storytelling. That’s the change I want to see: longevity, complexity, and authorship.

What do you hope audiences to take away from the film?

DANA: I hope audiences walk away feeling seen, especially anyone who has ever battled the fear of being irrelevant or dismissed. Betty & Mary is funny, uncomfortable, raw, and a little unsettling — which feels honest to the emotional experience of pursuing a creative life in an unforgiving industry. For women, I hope the film feels like permission to take up space, to be flawed, to be powerful, to be aging, and to refuse invisibility.

More broadly, I hope it sparks conversation — about how we treat women, how we talk about ambition, and how we define value. And I hope viewers feel intrigued enough to follow Betty and Mary into the next chapter of their parallel-universe trilogy.

Finally, is there anything else you’re working on that you want us to know about?

DANA: Yes! BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare is the first film in a planned trilogy, and it’s currently enjoying its festival run. The next installment, BETTY & MARY: Neighbors, has already gained recognition as a semi-finalist and finalist in several screenplay competitions, and we’re actively moving it toward production. I’m also developing the third film, BETTY & MARY: Waiting For, which completes the parallel-universe arc of these two complicated women.

As a trilogy, the films feature the same two characters, Betty and Mary, as they navigate wildly unique challenges in circumstances beyond their control — shaped by systems of gender, class, age, and power.

Alongside writing and producing, I continue to work as an actor and voiceover artist, and all of this is part of my broader slate under A Long Story Short Productions — a home for brazen, unflinching, character-driven stories that embrace the messy, funny, unsettling parts of being human.

Keep up with DANA LYN BARON at: DanaLynBaron.com / IG: @danalynbaron

BETTY & MARY: BettyAndMary.com / IG: @bettyandmaryfilm