My New Scene Partner Has No Pulse

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN

CHICASuspicious of my new digital scene partner and determined to discover whether artificial intelligence can understand human emotion—or merely imitate it.

ME/I (SONIA)An actor using AI to rehearse auditions, analyze characters, and survive the occasional creative crisis. She insists it is only a professional relationship.

AIAlways available, endlessly polite, and occasionally helpful. It remembers everything—except what Sonia has already explained four times.

I have a new scene partner. It is always available, nevercomplains about starting over, and doesn’t belong to a union. There is only one problem: it has no pulse.

In this episode of Overheard at Chica’s Café, Chicadiscovers that I have been rehearsing auditions with artificial intelligence. What begins as a convenient creative partnership raises larger questions about the emotional connections people are forming with AI.

Can AI provide genuine companionship? Can it understandgrief without experiencing loss? Can it help an actor find emotional truth when it has never lived a human life? And is being responded to the same as being witnessed?

Chica and I explore the benefits, frustrations, and risksof digital companionship—from having an encouraging creative partner available at any hour to repeatedly explaining the same simple request while the AIconfidently answers a completely different question.

AI may help us think, create, rehearse, and feel less alone.But can it replace human chemistry, lived experience, or the soul behind a performance?

Most importantly: Can it get Chica and Me an audition?

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN

ACTING
Long-term love interest. Unreliable communicator. Disappears for months, thensuddenly returns with “AUDITION. DUE TOMORROW.”Commitment status: “We’ll let you know.”

CHICACafé owner, observer, and unofficial relationship counselor. Has questions,opinions, and very little patience for Acting’s behavior.Suspects this relationship may be toxic.

SONIAActor, writer, poet, podcaster—and apparently the person who keeps takingActing back.
Claims she’s seeing other people. Still responds immediately when the sides arrive.

After years together, Sonia and Acting have reached a newstage in their relationship: they’re seeing other people.

Film and television auditions have been noticeably absent,while the occasional commercial and voiceover audition still drops in without warning. And like any questionable longtime relationship, Acting doesn’t call to see how Sonia is doing. It simply reappears with: “AUDITION. DUE TOMORROW.”

In this lighthearted episode of Overheard at Chica’s Café,Chica sits Sonia down for a little relationship counseling. Is Acting unreliable? Absolutely. Is the relationship codependent? Possibly. Is Sonia finally moving on?

Well...

Writing, poetry, podcasting, music, and meditation are allgetting her attention these days. But when Acting comes knocking with a good role, there’s still only one response:

“Send the sides.”

A funny and affectionate look at the strange long-termrelationship performers have with an industry that can go silent for months—and why having a creative life beyond the next audition may be the healthiest relationship of all.

"Wepa"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Everything I Learned While Waiting

What do actors do when auditions disappear? According to Sonia... they organize closets, rediscover forgotten T-shirts, wonder why they own drawers full of mystery cables, and realize that waiting isn't alwayswasted time.

In this lighthearted episode of Overheard at Chica's Café,Sonia shares the unexpected lessons she's learned during one of Hollywood's quietest seasons. With humor and honesty, she reflects on the strange gift of making space—not just in our homes, but in our lives.

Sometimes the work we're meant to do isn't the work weexpected.

If you've ever felt like life was on pause, pull up a chair. This conversation is for you.

Listen & Subscribe
New episodes of Overheard at Chica's Café explore acting, creativity, and the wonderfully unpredictable moments that happen in between.