JOHN HERINA: her-EEN-uh.

MM: John her-EEN-uh. How do you spell that?

JH: h-e-r-i-n-a.

MM: ... i-n-a.

JH: Some people call me Hernia.

MM: My last name is Menninger and I used to be called Meningitis. I had the same issue.

JH: [chuckles]

MM: So, first off tell me a little bit about yourself. You’re in school? What grade are you in?

JH: My school is in Marietta [Georgia] and I’m going into the 8th grade. I play sports such as football, baseball, basketball. Those three sports.

MM: All the “ball” sports.

JH: Um, mm. All the “ball” sports.

MM: Chess club or anything like that?

JH: Um, Chess Club? No. Not exactly. I do kind of wish I had gone into band but, you know, I do play the piano very ... well, I guess, for my age. [smiles about that sheepishly]

MM: Do you still play the piano?

JH: I do still take lessons but it will be, kind of, difficult to take the lessons in High School because football runs everyday of the week.

MM: What position do you play?

JH: I play split-end. I’m hoping to be a quarterback, but ... a back-up quarterback at the most. But those are all hopes. And on defense I play cornerback.

MM: Cornerback. Now see, if I was a sports buff I could ask you specific questions about sports. But I wasn’t born with the sports gene and I don’t watch football. So I guess your fans are going to have to wait until a better interviewer. Uh, got a favorite movie?

JH: I’ve seen a lot of movies ... [still thinking]

MM: [Maybe] recent ones?

JH: Recent ones? No. But, I am hoping to see “I, Robot”. My brother saw it and said it was good movie.

MM: It’s a good movie. Spiderman 2?

JH: I’ve seen Spiderman 2. I think that was a very good movie: great acting, great sound effects, special effects. I’d say Spiderman [2] is a very good movie.

MM: Harry Potter fan?

JH: I was. I read the first book and I liked it a lot. But I never got into the second book.

MM: Now, from my perspective it gets better. The 3rd, 4th and 5th book really take off.

JH: Yeah, I kind of wish I would have continued.

MM: Well, they’re still out there. You’ll probably have it for reading sometime in the future. Well, tell me how you got involved with all of this. How you were contacted and ...

JH: Well, I think that my mother ...

MM: Who is here by the way.

JH: She’s sitting here right next to me. Well, I think she sent in pictures of us to an agency named Babes ‘N Beaus.

MM: Babes ‘N Beaus. You’d be the beau and not the babe.

JH: [chuckles] Yeah, I’m the beau, not the babe.

MM: Okay.

JH: We went to a fashion show and I’ve been involved ever since I was 2. My brother and I tied for first place.

CINDRA HERINA (mother): It was a model search.

JH: Model search.

MM: So you were in a fashion show at the age of 2?

JH: Uh, yes.

CH: Well, actually the model search.

MM: Model search. Okay. And what did you before Good Eats besides modeling?

JH: I’ve done a lot of print. I’ve done numerous commercials. I’ve done movies. I’ve done ... you name it. I’ve done radio voiceovers, stuff like that.

CH: Theater.

JH: Oh, yeah. Theater, too. I did a production called Casper [—The Musical] at Fox Theater.

MM: Were you Casper?

JH: I was not Casper. I wish I was. But if memory serves me right, I think that Casper was played by a young man about my age named Paul Tiesler.

CH: It was Paul Tiesler.

JH: It was Paul Tiesler. He signed a little portfolio I got. He was from New York and a very nice person. I would love to work with him again.

MM: Who’d you play?

JH: I played in the chorus. We practiced a lot and in the end, the applause we got for all the hard work was worth all the time we put in in the “dungeon” of the Fox Theater.

CH: Chita Rivera also starred in the production…you know…she was a Broadway Actress and two time Tony Award winner [West Side Story].

JH: And we had our picture taken and we got a T-shirt.

MM: Okay.

JH: T-shirt is always great.

MM: Free clothing is always a plus. What movies have you been in?

JH: I have been in a Disney Channel production called “Nightjohn”. I’ve also read the book. It’s very good. The movie and the book are about the same. They’re all about the hardships that slaves faced back in the Civil War era. It was pretty rough how they had it. Even though I was very young, I did have a chance to have a kind of a big part in a few scenes. But I was afraid of the guns. I played one of the sons of Beau Bridges.

CH: Beau Bridges was the father.

MM: You played Beau Bridges’ ...

JH: ... little boy. My name was “Homer”.

CH: You were 4 years old.

JH: Yeah, I was 4 years old. I can’t really remember it that well but I have pictures to prove it.

MM: I have issues with my memory at 4, too. As we all do.

CH: [laughs]

MM: I think I was in Kentucky.

[we all laugh]

MM: So, how did you get involved with Good Eats? How’d that start?

JH: Well, I went to an audition and I acted like myself. And they liked me and they brought me onto the show. And I filmed Macaroni and Cheese which I thought was very good. As kind of a premier thing, my family and I, we made macaroni and cheese at home after we got done filming.

MM: You mean from the Good Eats recipe?

JH: Yes.

CH: We rolled out the red carpet.

MM: Literally?

JH: Literally.

CH: At first we came up the sidewalk, I was dressed in a gown. [laughs] It was quite a production.

MM: Well, good. What do you like about working here?

JH: I love the crew. They are just awesome. They’re great to work with. They’re very ... They’re just good all over. Let’s just put it that way. They’re kind. They’re very professional about their work. They’re good to work with.

MM: What are you learning from the show?

JH: I’m learning a lot about lighting. I hoped to film my own kind of movie with a camera that I hope to buy with a little bit of this money. So, you know, I’m getting tips on sound and lighting and things, like, the shots and how they’re done. I’m also reading a book called, “The Guide to Filmmaking.” It’s kind of helping me along here. I’m a beginner.

MM: Personally ... to tell you a little bit about myself. I’d love to make a spoof of Good Eats called Good Vittles. And it’s all about country cooking. You know? But, it’s all parody. So, it’ll have a guy named Alton Blue or something like that. He’s got a family in the double-wide that he’s got to feed. So he has possum soup. How do you skin a possum? You have to cook it over a big fire in a cast iron cauldron. So you’d visit Lodge Manufacturing and get their big cast iron pot.

CH: Lodge, that’s the brand of our Dutch oven.

JH: Yeah, we love it. I use it to cook meals in Boy Scouts.

MM: It’d be funny but I don’t have the money or the time to write it and every thing. But I think it’d be funny to do just a 15 minute spoof on it.

JH: Yeah, it’d be hilarious.

[We ramble on about this but that’s not what you want to read about so moving on ...]

MM: Well, I ask the fans on-line if they have any questions, so I’m just going to ...

JH: Oh, fans. I didn’t know I had fans.

MM: Well, they’re Good Eats fans. A lot of them do think you’re cute but we won’t get into that. There are girls out there watching you ...

JH: Hopefully.

MM: Do you have any favorite recipes from Good Eats?

JH: Recipes. Yeah, I loved Macaroni and Cheese once again.

MM: Now, the stove top version or the oven version?

JH: The stove top. Um, right now I’ve learned a lot about cutting. This soup, this vegetable soup, I’ve had before but this is really good, actually. [aside] Sorry, mom.

CH: [chuckles]

JH: I liked the vegetable soup. I’ve never had cold soup before as the script portrays ... which they’ll see when the show airs. And I like grape gazpacho.

MM: Grape gazpacho?

JH: Yes, grape gazpacho. I also like the roulade it tasted very good. I was on the roulade show. I was only on at the beginning, but the food tasted very good when I did have it.

MM: Are you a better cook now that you’ve come on the show and seen this ...

JH: Yes. Well, this show has really boosted my interest in cooking to a new level.

MM: Anything you’ve had challenging on the show?

JH: Yes. Peeling. They wanted me to peel an apple. It was very easy. However, they wanted me to do it in a way that was, you know, I couldn’t quite get it. It was a spiral kind of way. I eventually got it but we had to change the technique to up and down. And that’s when it kind of ended up looking like a flower because the peels were like this. [indicates and laughs]

MM: Is there anything challenging overall like the acting portion, or how they want you to be or on your mark? Your lines?

JH: I don’t really think so. The lines I can tackle pretty well. My mother helps me a lot with them. I review them with her. The acting is natural, hopefully.

MM: Just being yourself or does it feel like you’re being a character?

JH: Well, I’m being a little bit of a character but I feel pretty much like myself when I’m doing it.

MM: Do you feel like Marsha’s “son”?

JH: Well, you know. Marsha is a great actress. And ... uh ... I just, I don’t think it would fit if I were her son? But, I mean ... You know ... [begins hedging on what he said]

MM: Now the person, Merrilyn [Crouch, who plays Marsha] is a nice person.

JH: Yes. She’s a very nice person. Funny, too. Very funny.

MM: Now, you’re from Atlanta, right?

JH: Mm, hm. Actually, I was born in Germany on an American Army base because my father was in the military.

MM: So, how long have you been in Atlanta?

JH: Most of my life. About 8 years.

CH: No, about 10 years.

JH: About 10 years.

MM: You’ve got to change those numbers as you grow older.

[everyone chuckles]

MM: Next year it’ll be 11 years. Have you had any formal training or acting?

JH: Training in acting? I’ve done a few workshops closely related to the Screen Actors Guild. They were run by people in the business. It was very ... it did help my acting a lot. I learned a lot of things about improv and slating. I’d never heard of slating before.

MM: What is slating? I haven’t heard of it either.

JH: Okay. Slating is ... You go to an audition they don’t know anything about you. So you have to tell them your name, your agency, your age, that’s about it. You’ve got to tell them a little bit about you. That’s what slating is. I had never heard of it myself. But, now, it’s second nature.

MM: [reading] “Ask John if his popularity status changed at school when he began getting TV work on Good Eats.”

JH: I know you think it might have, but no. It hasn’t changed.

MM: Gone down?

JH: It hasn’t gone down but a few more kids have actually noticed me a little bit more.

MM: Okay. All right. Do you talk about it at school?

JH: Yeah, I talk about it, you know. I’ll be absent for a couple of days and I’ll come back and people will say, “Where ya been?” And I’ll go, “Filming a TV show.” And some of them will say, “Oh.” or something like that. And I’ll be like, “Don’t believe me.” You know? Two days later, “Was that you on ... ? Wow!”

[we all chuckle]

JH: But thanks for asking that question whoever that was.

MM: Okay. I’ll find out who it was.

CH: Were these questions that you’ve gotten from the fans?

MM: Yes. I said I didn’t know if I’d be able to interview John and Merrilyn today. I didn’t know. So, I said, “If I can, what would you like me to ask them?”

JH: I wonder if that was someone from the school.

MM: I don’t think so. Most of the people on my site have been posting a long time and are adults.

JH: Ah, okay.

MM: [reading the next question] “Did you have to audition or were you shoe-in because of your appearance?”

JH: Both.

CH: [laughs]

MM: Someone I know of on the board got an autograph from you back when you came to [Alton’s] book signing a couple of years ago for I’m Just Here ...

JH: Oh, yes.

MM: And apparently you mentioned you had a brother. [yes, I forgot I had heard about his brother at the beginning of the interview]

JH: Yes, I do.

MM: What’s his name?

JH: His name is Britt.

MM: Britt.

JH: He’s a feisty little Leprechaun ...

CH: [laughs]

JH: ... as my grandmother would say.

MM: Ah, okay. Is she Irish?

JH: Yes. We come from an Irish family.

MM: Well, this person asked, “Is John’s little brother working yet?”

JH: Yes. He’s actually been on a show here. He’s been in acting for about as long as I have because we were both introduced to it at about the same age. He’s a year younger than me. He is a great brother. He’s awesome. We have our fights sometime but you know, that’s “brotherhood!”

MM: [laughs]

CH: He’ll be here tomorrow.

JH: He will be here tomorrow.

MM: Ah, really.

JH: He’ll also be on this show.

MM: Ah, great. And how old are you if I may ask?

JH: Me? Yes. I’m 13, just turned in May.

MM: What’s your birthday, if I may ask?

JH: May 19th.

MM: May 19th.

JH: My brother is 12 and his is August 12th.

MM: Does the mom want to reveal her age?

CH: [shakes her head]

MM: No? Okay.

[everyone chuckles]

MM: Twenty-eight and holding still, right? Okay.

[at this point John was called to the set]

JH: Well, it’s been a pleasure. Pleasure meeting you.