In a season of precocious children on television, the award may well go to Bebe Wood on “The New Normal.”
During a visit Wednesday to their Spanish Mission-style set (a replica of the home Diane Keaton had flipped where they shot the pilot), Wood was a standout in telling about her own moments on the Fox comedy this season, starting with the impression of Little Edie from “Grey Gardens” that she brought to the show.
How did a 10-year-old girl come to know that eccentric cult figure, star of documentary, film and musical?
‘Well,” she said, “I’m from Kansas. So they put on a local production at this little artsy theater that does really weird shows. So I saw the musical and thn I got into it. So I started — I saw the documentary and then the movie and then I started the impression. And then, like, I went to school as Little Edie.
“Well, it was actually at a PTA meeting,” Wood continued. “All the kids from my class were sitting there, watching ‘Little Nemo.’ And I was just there in my Little Edie outfit, just watching the movie. And, you know, I don’t know what they thought.”
When she did Lille Edie for the people casting “The New Normal,” her fate was sealed.
“On the pilot, she was regaling Ryan [Murphy] and myself and the cast with this impression,” executive producer Ali Adler says. “And Ryan said, ‘If we go to series, that’s the second episode.'”
And so it was.
The latest celebrity impersonation by the little girl on the show has been someone she did not know about previously about, Cher.
“Cher is really fun, because when I was up there singing with a wig, and makeup took so long.”
But it was nervewracking, she said. “I was so nervous because I didn’t know how to do Cher. And I just all weekend was watching ‘The Sonny and Cher Show,’ just trying. And I was so nervous to go to the table read because I needed it to be perfect.”
Said Adler: “She did not disappoint.”
Wood’s quirkiness comes largely from real life as when it came time to pick Halloween costume for last fall, she went old school as well.
“My costume this year was Al from ‘Quantum Leap.'”