“It affected me tremendously!” Kether Donohue, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ‘08, said while looking back at her classroom experiences at Fordham. As a Communication and Media Studies alumna, Donohue still applies her lessons from media classes in her acting career today. She is currently vamping up for the FXX premiere of season two of ‘You’re the Worst’ on Sept. 9.

Since her childhood, Donohue knew that acting was the profession she wanted to pursue. “I’ve always had a performance drive in me. When I was five and six years old, I was always doing shows with my parents in the living room,” she said. “When I was around eight years old, I asked my mom to enroll me in acting class. I went to acting school in the city and found an agent at that time; ever since then, without a shadow of a doubt, that’s what I was going to do professionally with my life. I didn’t stop pursuing it.”

Donohue also did not let college interrupt her professional career as an actress. While taking classes at Fordham, Donohue continued booking regular, guest star, co-star and other various roles. When booking a pilot during her freshman year, Donohue recalled receiving the news from her agent. “I was actually in philosophy class at Fordham, and my booking agent called a few times, so I knew it was important; I stepped out of class to find out that I got the pilot!” she said.

While at Fordham, Donohue didn’t struggle with balancing school with acting gigs. “[My experience] was no different from people who were also theatre majors at Fordham. [They] were memorizing monologues and doing cool productions. I think doing it professionally outside of school is no different—[the theatre majors and I] were doing the same thing,” she said. “Like a theatre major, I was still picking up a script, memorizing lines and divvying out my time and priorities.”

Majoring in theatre, along with her external acting jobs, would have been too hectic, according to Donohue. “If I was a theatre major, it would have been stressful and I would have had so many things to juggle; I made the choice not to be a theatre major because I wanted to just do it professionally, even though I wasn’t the best actor or ready yet,” she said.

Donohue’s classes, particularly with Gwenyth Jackaway, Associate chair of communication and media studies, changed her life. “What I took away from all of my classes: You can use media to reinforce dominant ideologies and stereotypes in our culture, or you could use media to promote and create new images and ideas of how we see ourselves and others. Being a female in comedy and an actor in general, you have these choices – you are not a victim to anything,” Donohue said.

“The choice [I am] most proud of is when I get to play a character like Lindsay in ‘You’re the Worst’; I get to be funny, sexy and grotesque. Lindsay is not just one thing; she is a multifaceted female in a sitcom, which is very rare. I also pride myself that I’m voluptuous and curvy; I never felt a pressure to widdle down to a size zero in an unnatural way to book work. I don’t think women should be judging anybody’s bodies in general. There is a judgement of women who are curvier than what you’re used to seeing; I take pride in playing a character who represents that,” Donohue said.

“Right now, I’m in a successful position, but I’ve been auditioning for twenty years and collected unemployment for three years in a row because I wasn’t booking any jobs. I’ve had managers and agents drop me and reject me, and that doesn’t stop me. I kept going because I believed in myself.”

In ‘You’re the Worst’, audiences watched Donohue’s character, Lindsay, go through many personal conflicts in season one. “We see Lindsay have a lot of internal and external conflicts. She is married to an investment banker, but she isn’t happy with the marriage. She also lives on the west side of the country, but she’s an east coast girl at heart,” Donohue said. “She’s very much at odds with what’s she’s doing in life versus how she feels. You see the self-destructiveness as a result of that: for instance, her desperation to lose weight and fit in with the girls on the west side. You also see her desperation to be the perfect wife, but that all blows up in her face.”

In season two, audiences will get the chance to watch Donohue’s character evolve into a more independent woman. “Season two is very much about Lindsay being single – it’s also about her finding how she got in the mess and how to get out of it. Lindsay is also discovering how to become an authentic human being for once.”

“Lindsay is forced to go seek within herself; she doesn’t have all these things that were precious to her before, like her husband and his financial and emotional support. She is left dangling alone and you’ll see how she’ll handle that journey in discovering herself,” Donohue continued.

When looking at her current position and general career as an actress, Donohue said that persistence and hard work pays off. “Right now, I’m in a successful position, but I’ve been auditioning for twenty years and collected unemployment for three years in a row because I wasn’t booking any jobs. I’ve had managers and agents drop me and reject me, and that doesn’t stop me. I kept going because I believed in myself.”
For rising actors and actresses at Fordham, Donohue said, “Cliches in life are true – just be yourself and do not try be someone else. Be persistent as hell. If you want to be an actor, don’t listen to the odds. Don’t let people’s pessimism get you down. If a lot of people are judging and don’t believe in you, you have to believe in yourself.”