Post-Glee, Dot-Marie Jones remains one of the hardest working character actors in the scene
Photo Courtesy of Fox
Fun fact: if you tell Dot-Marie Jones you are calling from Kansas, she perks up instantly. “I am a huge Gunsmoke fan,” she blurted out within the first ten seconds of our interview. Turns out, she knows westerns, she knows the middle of America, and she knows real people with real grit—the kind who make our city feel alive. It tracks. Jones is built from that same stock—straight shooters with razor-sharp instincts. She’s the KC of television side characters.
Jones may have become a household name through Glee, but her origin story is all small-town Americana. No formal acting training. No hustling between auditions. Just a woman who lifted weights and accidentally fell into television.
Her big break was called Knights and Warriors. Jones described the show as “like an American Gladiator show, but medieval.” She was Lady Battleaxe, a role she landed almost by accident. “I had gone to school for criminology and was working full time at Juvenile Hall in Fresno,” she says.
A friend called and suggested she audition. She was a powerlifter—fast and physically gifted. “I am thinking to myself, what the hell is a cold read?” she says, genuinely thinking it might mean a cold physical location. Two weeks later, Los Angeles called back—and her life changed permanently.
Today, Jones is one of Hollywood’s most beloved working character actors. Ryan Murphy spotted her early on and put her to work. Jones told her agent she didn’t care if a part was written for a man; she wanted to audition for anything she could physically (or energetically) fit.
“If it’s something that’s written for a guy, but you think I could do it, send me in,” she admits. “I want to throw my hat in the ring.” That mindset landed her a small part on Nip/Tuck and put her on Murphy’s radar for much, much bigger things.
Then fate literally stepped in. Jones ran into Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk in a grocery store. She asked him point-blank to write her something. Two months later, she was offered Coach Shannon Beiste on Glee. “If we want to talk fate, the universe literally put me in the ice cream aisle that day,” Jones jokes.
Glee was transformative—Comedy, drama, vulnerability, physicality. Jones still gets emotional recalling big scenes. “The one that stands out the most, it makes me want to cry now, is when the girls sing Shake It Off when I was going through domestic abuse,” she says. “Another one was getting to sing, because on Glee, I never knew what I was going to get to do until we got an actual script. And when I got that script, I’m like, ‘I have a solo?!’ I mean, I’m no singer, and I do not claim to be, but that was a gift.”
On the show, Jones performed a now-iconic cover of Dolly Parton’s Jolene. “I’ve never met Dolly, but I heard she liked it, so I’m good. That is all I need to know,” she says. “I just wanna hug her.”
Jones is also coming off Lost & Found in Cleveland, finally hitting screens after years and years in development. The film is a wink-nod-wink ode to Antiques Roadshow. Jones plays the stage manager in a show-within-a-show, the glue holding chaos together.
“A lot of the characters I play are kind of bossy and tough, but… it was a whole different kind of character than I had ever played,” Jones says. The ensemble cast includes Dennis Haysbert, Martin Sheen, Loretta Devine, and Jeff Hiller. Jones calls her time on set a gift.
Image Courtesy of Lost & Found in Cleveland
“I was so honored to be a part of this, to get to work with these iconic people,” she says. “To see the final product… I have watched it probably five to six times.”
She was also a little starstruck working alongside the legendary June Squibb. “June, I have known, because she was on Glee for an episode,” says Jones. “I love her so much, and she’s just gold. I mean, 94 years old! I wish I had her memory.”
Jones, meanwhile, is not slowing down. She recently wrapped the horror film Breeder, about a woman who breeds people based on intelligence. “It’s just crazy-good, and it’s in the horror genre. I am like a little kid; I just want to play dress up.”
And for all the work, the awards, the iconic characters, Jones’s ambition remains delightfully simple. Capping off our interview, she says, “I would work 10 days a week if they let me.”
Lost & Found in Cleveland is in theaters now.
Interview gently edited for content and clarity.
