Finding ‘Love’: This Kansas City actress is growing up, and the TV roles keep coming

When TV viewers last saw Kansas City native Bebe Wood, she was a bespectacled young teen on ABC’s “The Real O’Neals.” In the new Hulu series “Love, Victor,” premiering June 17, the glasses are gone and Wood finds herself playing the popular girl.

“I graduated high school, took off those glasses and started auditioning for completely different roles,” says Wood, now almost 19. “In Hollywood, when you take off your glasses, you never get asked to play book-smart characters again.”

Now based in Los Angeles, Wood grew up in Fairway and Kansas City’s Pendleton Heights neighborhood with her parents, Thad and Olga Wood. She began acting as a child, landing roles in Kansas City stage productions before securing guest spots in 2012 episodes of “30 Rock” and “Veep.”

Wood graduated from homeschooling high school in 2018 and briefly lived in Lawrence before moving out to Los Angeles.

She had already spent time in L.A. off and on since her first prime-time series regular role in NBC’s 2012-13 comedy “The New Normal,” about a gay couple and the surrogate they hire to have their child. (Wood played the surrogate’s wise-beyond-her-years daughter.)

In the two-season 2016-17 comedy “Real O’Neals” Wood played the younger sister of Kenny (Noah Galvin), who came out as gay to his Irish-Catholic family (the show was inspired by the life of alt-weekly sex advice columnist Dan Savage).

Meanwhile, Wood landed her first voice-over job playing Shannon in Netflix’s animated series “Trollhunters,” created by Guillermo del Toro. She recorded her dialogue for 2016’s season one at a studio in downtown Kansas City, connecting with del Toro via video chat.

“You have to exert a lot of energy when you are doing voice-over, an extreme amount of energy, just because the only medium is your voice,” Wood says. “As gorgeous as those animations are, the life of it to some extent has to come from the actor’s voice. … I am acting even more dramatically with my body in a way I don’t often get the opportunity in television or film acting to wildly gesticulate.”

After “Real O’Neals” ended, Wood studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts for a summer.

Loving ‘Love, Simon’

Somewhere along the way, on an airplane, she saw the movie “Love, Simon,” which inspired her new Hulu series. The film, based on the novel “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” by Becky Albertalli, tells the story of a closeted gay Atlanta high schooler (Nick Robinson).

“By the end of that two hours, I realized I was fully crying on an airplane,” Wood says. “It happens. I loved the movie.”

Last year, Wood was presented with the opportunity to audition for three roles in quick succession. One was titled “Love, Simon Spin-Off,” and she decided that was the only one she’d try for. She taped her audition at her acting coach’s house in Los Angeles, flew back to Kansas City to visit her parents and got a request for a second audition tape, which landed her the role.

Set in the “Love, Simon” universe, “Love, Victor” follows Victor (Michael Cimino), a new arrival to Simon’s former Atlanta high school. During his journey of self-discovery, Victor begins corresponding with Simon (actor Nick Robinson returns to provide Simon’s voice as Victor reads Simon’s emails). Wood plays Lake, best friend to Mia (Rachel Hilson), who Victor attempts to date while sorting out his sexual identity.

“I’ve been describing Lake as the perfect mixture between Elle Woods from ‘Legally Blond’ and RuPaul,” Wood says. “She is so much fun to play and I haven’t had the opportunity to play a character like her before. It’s been fun to expand and stretch those popular girl wings.”

Wood praised the “intricate nature” of every character in the show, which broadens its focus from Victor to his friends and family as the 10-episode first season unfolds.

“Lake’s dealing with social pressures and image issues and everything that comes with being social media obsessed and caring about one’s outward presentation,” Wood says. “This is the first show I’ve been on where it’s (mostly) all young people. That was incredibly fun. … My past shows were comedies and I think (this one) is a dramedy. There is a funny nature to it, but there’s also a sweet, melancholy nature to some of the topics as well.”

Wood says it’s mostly coincidence that all three of her series have had LGBTQ issues at their core.

“I think I mostly just gravitate toward good shows,” she says. “But it’s not a coincidence, personally, in the way the LGBTQIA community has been a big part of my life. I was surrounded by gay men and women growing up. Those were my parents’ friends and my family, so I owe a lot to that community. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without that community, so I’m super-thrilled and grateful to do these sorts of shows that hopefully mean something to someone because it feels like a way of saying thank you to all the people in my own life who I love.”

What’s next

They filmed from August to December last year in Los Angeles — doubling as Atlanta. Now, during the COVID-19 crisis, she’s been studying Egyptology and archeology through online Harvard University courses.

As for future projects, Wood has recorded her first EP, six songs she wrote the music and lyrics for. She sings, plays guitar and even plays a Wurlitzer organ. Follow Wood on Instagram (@BroadwayBebe) and Twitter (@BebeWood) for details on when it will be released on Spotify and Apple Music.

“I would say it’s inspired by the tunes of the ‘60s and ‘70s, but a modern take,” she says, categorizing it hesitantly as rock-jazz-pop. “It’s so hard to put a genre to music. Let’s just say it’s an outward manifestation of my personality.”

As she awaits word on season two of “Love, Victor” — season one ends with plenty of threads dangling, waiting to be pulled — Wood recounts some advice she’s given to other actors after her own experience.

“If you don’t wear glasses, I tell actors, put on glasses if you want to play a smart person,” she says, chuckling at the absurdities of Hollywood casting, “because obviously only smart people have glasses.”

Freelance writer Rob Owen: RobOwenTV@gmail.com or on Facebook and Twitter as RobOwenTV.

This story was originally published June 14, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Finding ‘Love’: This Kansas City actress is growing up, and the TV roles keep coming."