EDGE Interview: Mason McCulley Explains 'Carole Cook Died For My Sins'

Red-headed actress Carole Cook is best-known due to her relationship to another famous redhead – Lucille Ball. Ball had convinced the New York-based actress to come to Los Angeles after reading a positive review of her performance in "Annie Get Your Gun," and the two became friends and colleagues, with Cook appearing in multiple episodes of "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy" in the 1960s and 1970s. Cook would go on to appear in films (most memorably in "Sixteen Candles" as Molly Ringwald's character's grandmother.

Cook was also a best friend to out actor Mason McCulley during the last years of her life. How the 30-something actor, best known for his ongoing role on HBO's "Insecure," became friends with an actress some 60-years his senior is explored in his play – or as he puts it, his sermon – entitled "Carole Cook Died For My Sins," his solo piece that received strong reviews in its recent Los Angeles premiere that has been extended through November 24 at the Skylight Theatre (For more information, click here).

McCulley got close to Cook during his late mom's final years. Then when Cook died, he had a two-week spiral. "I got to rock bottom once Carole died," he told Socialite Life in a recent interview. "I went on about a two-week sort of West Hollywood bender at all the gay bars, doing all the things – which I was no stranger to. I had done that more than several times in my life, but it was spiraling towards rock bottom."

McCulley quit drinking, and from his grief, he saw clarity. Feeling guidance from Cook, he moved to New York and developed his one-man show, which follows his journey from conservative Alabama to success as an actor. It also chronicles his coming out and his close relationships with his mother and with Cook. "Aptly comparing his one-man show with the nakedness of pornography, Mason leaves no stone unturned, chronicling sobriety, his sex life, and the seismic impact the deaths of Carole Cook and his mother had on him. These experiences outline a period of significant moral flux, one in which McCulley learned a myriad of lessons about life and how we should live it," writes Henry Vaughn in his review for The Larchmont Buzz.

McCulley and Cook appeared in an episode called "The Visit" on Season 1 of the Emmy-winning, short-form web series "Break a Hip" in which the show's elderly and cranky protagonist (Christina Pickles) confronts Cook for a late-in-life reality check. McCulley played her most devoted servant, protective of his boss while massaging her feet. (To watch the episode, follow this link).

EDGE spoke to McCulley about his relationship with Cook, writing the show, and why Cook should be an icon in the LGBTQ+ community.

Editor's note: Introduction by Robert Nesti.

EDGE: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Mason McCulley: My name is Mason McCulley. I am an actor and now, I guess, a writer because of this play. I'm originally from Birmingham, Alabama. I am 42 years old. I came to Los Angeles in 2002 to study theater at Pepperdine University. I did that so that I could be closer to LA. I have always dreamed of being on TV and in films, and I knew that if I got out to LA for university, that would happen.

EDGE: Tell us about your show "Carole Cook Died For My Sins."

Mason McCulley: Where do I begin? "Carole Cook Died For My Sins" is a solo show I wrote, and it is my truth. It is a true story about what happened when my dearest friend, the iconic actress Carole Cook, passed away in January 2023, three days shy of her 99th birthday. She was incredible. We were soulmates on so many levels. Even with a 60-year age difference, she was one of my dearest friends. When my mom was diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia in 2015, Carole and I became really close. That's when my life got a little darker and a little more chaotic. At that time, we were already close, but that's when we really got close because she looked over me and looked after me. When my mom got sick, I believed in nothing, but I believed in Carole because I could see her, and she was a part of my life. So, when Carol died, I spiraled, and I went on a two-week bender in West Hollywood that I detail in the play. After those two weeks of partying, I woke up literally, figuratively, and metaphorically, and I decided that I had to make a change in my life. I had to seek light and hope, so I felt I had something to give and started a journey towards myself. I am obsessed with the title because it is wildly irreverent while simultaneously being reverent because Carole was so irreverent. "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke," was her motto. So, I have replaced Jesus Christ with Carole Cook, which is delicious.

EDGE: Was writing this show therapeutic for you?

Mason McCulley: Beyond. My director, Cameron Watson, is brilliant. He's been my mentor for at least 15 years. He knew Carole, and he guided me through the process. When we first started this journey, which was not that long ago, it was wild that it was all happening so quickly, but when something's inside of you, you just have to fucking get it out. He advised me to write it all down when we started this journey. So, I wrote it all down, and now, it'll be a book one day. I've got a lot, but now we have to take all those delicious things, tell the same story, and convey every emotion more concisely. He told me to tell it all even if we only see it. Tell the darkness and go to the dark places. And to your point, it's been beyond therapeutic and allowed me to visit the past without staying there. One of the main themes of this place is shame, and I can go back to those places and see how I acted and why I acted and reflect on the things that I did and give them to the audience in a way where they can come with me. Perhaps a little gay boy is sitting in the audience; the show is for 18 plus, who will then be able to say, "I don't have to go to those places because Mason already did.