Interview: Amid That '90s Show, Agatha, and Boeing-Boeing, It Was Debra Jo Rupp All Along

It’s an extraordinarily productive summer for veteran actor Debra Jo Rupp. As she returns to the stage for the first time in a long time, as the Parisian maid Bertha in the Barrington Stage Company production of Boeing-Boeing, Rupp is watching the fruits of her labor come to life on TV screens. Netflix just debuted the second season of That ’90s Show, the sequel to the popular series That ’70s Show, where Rupp takes center stage once again as daffy house (grand)mother Kitty Forman. And Disney+ is getting ready to drop the Marvel series Agatha All Along, where Rupp stars opposite Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza, Patti LuPone, and Joe Locke.

After spending several years in the land of television, Rupp is excited to not just get back to her theatrical roots, but to commute from her own home in the Berkshires. Here, she talks about her various projects and pays tribute to the late Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who she played in a solo play a decade ago.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

For starters, how’s Boeing-Boeing going?
I think well. I don’t know. I’m in the middle of it. But the cast is amazing. Amazing. I think it’s good. We’ve all worked together before, and we’re all associate artists of the theater. And it’s the 30^th anniversary, so it’s nice.

When was the last time you did a farce farce like this?
I don’t know. I did A Flea in Her Ear at Williamstown, and Ring Round the Moon. But nothing like this. This is fast. And if it’s not fast, it doesn’t work. It’s timed so exactly.

I’ve seen this play a fair amount. Obviously, in New York with Christine Baranski in your part, and I also saw that production in London with Rhea Perlman playing her. Had you ever seen it before?
I’ve never seen it. I saw some video, but there’s not a lot, unless you want to look at a high school production. Christine Baranski, I understand, leaned more towards a militant German. I’m not like that at all.

How are you doing it?
I’m very Parisian. I have short, spiky red hair. She’s very well-educated. She’s extremely good at her job, almost like a machine. And then she just gradually falls apart.

Are you happy to return to theater after spending so much time in TV land?
Yeah. I’ve been gone for almost two years. Barrington is my kind of theater. And it’s where my home is. It’s nice to work out of your own home and have your own things. I’ve discovered that I very much like my things. My own knives to cook with, my own pots and pans. And, before this, I took my first vacation in almost 40 years. I have an actor’s mindset, so I just kept saying yes to jobs because I was like, I don’t know, maybe I’ll never work again. So, I went to France.

You studied for Boeing-Boeing.
I studied a little bit. I taped people. I made them say my lines. I was the crazy American. 

Kitty Forman actually got to France in the end, huh? [Ed. Note: That’s a plot point in That ’90s Show]
Yes, she did. The show gave me — I have a stunt double, which I try not to use a lot, but, you know, I’m not 35 anymore — the stunt double’s wig to take with me to take photos. But then I forgot to do it.

I really enjoy That ’90s Show, and the way you and Kurtwood Smith so effortlessly got back into those roles. Did it feel effortless to you as an actor to go back there?
You know, they pitched the show to us during the height of Covid. It was a time when I think we both felt strongly that people needed to laugh, much like now. It’s why I’m so happy to be doing Boeing-Boeing. People need to laugh. It’s like, not good. Anyway, they pitched it in a Zoom meeting, and we liked the idea of it being related to Eric, and set in the summers, although that may change.

But I had been doing the Cameo thing, and I was giving the money that I made from cameo to restaurants in the Berkshires to help them stay afloat. I’d look like my normal self, but I’d do it as Kitty. I’d put Red off camera. If somebody said “Can you wish happy birthday to Stephanie?” I’d go “Red, it’s Stephanie’s birthday!” I already had Kitty in me, and once you do the laugh, you’re there, you know? And Kurtwood is just Kurtwood.

I read somewhere that you had kept all the props from That ’70s Show in your basement.
Oh, my God. I apparently have a huge problem saying goodbye. I have the cheese grater lights from the kitchen. I had all the pictures in the house. All my costumes. My nurse’s uniform, all of her cardigans with kittens on them. I had everything.

Did they make you mail it all back?
Well, I brought it all back. Not the clothes, cause we’re in the nineties. All the set stuff. I had a bazillion slides that I gave them that they used to recreate everything.

I’m sure there’s nothing you can tell me about Agatha All Along, but what can you tell me?
Single camera is hard for me. There’s so much waiting around, and I like a live audience. I don’t know. I get bored. I’m probably not doing it right. But I have to say, this one is so fun for me because it’s all imagination. You can just go nuts with it. And the set they built was insane and beautiful, with weird trees and weird things lighting up.. They sent it to me, but I haven’t watched it and I probably won’t, because I don’t like to watch myself. I’m hoping that it’s what I saw in my head. I love Jac Schafer. She’s the one who wrote it, ran it, directed some of it. I like her a lot. I have high hopes for it.

And it’s a great cast.
Yeah, it’s a really good cast. You know…I’m not going to say that. Yeah, I can’t say anything.

I’m sure Dr. Ruth has been on your mind a lot lately with her passing.
I knew that it was going to be imminent, and I knew I couldn’t get to see her because I’ve been in Los Angeles. Julie Boyd, who directed Becoming Dr. Ruth, and Ruth and I would have dinner the first week of January every year to celebrate all the holidays, and we did it up until I went to LA two years ago. So, the last time I saw her was two years ago, and she was getting a little frail, but she was still there.

I knew that it wasn’t great, so I wrote her daughter Miriam, and Miriam said “If you write something, I can read it to her. I don’t know how much she understands, but we’re told that the last thing to go is hearing,” which I did not know.

Me neither.
Good to know. I wrote something for her and Miriam read it to her. I just wanted her to know how important she has been in my life and will continue to be. She’s such a force. Honestly, and this is the truth, sometimes when I get tired or depressed, I think about her. There are people that go “You know, my childhood wasn’t great,” and I just want to go “Look at her childhood! She’s 10 years old and put on a train with a doll, and she loses her whole family.” And look at what happened. She was up all the time. All the time. She didn’t allow you to be tired or upset. She didn’t allow it.

And I think about that.