38 | MARCH 19 • 2020 

Growing Up

Indebted co-star Jessy Hodges, 
a Huntington Woods native, 
comes by her talent naturally.

SAM BLAKE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
J

essy Hodges has come a 
long way from “the per-
formance couch” — the 
Victorian-style four-seat-
er that sat in the living 
room of her Huntington 
Woods childhood home 
and served as seating for a 
makeshift stage. 
Hodges, 33, now lives 
with her husband in Los 
Angeles and co-stars in 
the NBC comedy series 
Indebted, which premiered 
Feb. 6. Although she 
describes that bygone piece 
of furniture in unflattering 
terms — “It was pea green, 
with a lot of stitching … I 
didn’
t really like it; sorry, 
mom and dad!”— its mem-
ory still elicits a twinkle. 
“It was opposite a great 
stage, kind of like this,
” she 
said, pointing to a small 
rectangle of bare wooden 
floor against the wall in her 
current living room. 
It was across from that 
old couch where Hodges 
would practice mono-
logues and rehearse songs 
for the roles she had at 
Stagecrafters in Royal 
Oak and at Berkley High 
School, and where she 
would film audition tapes 
for Interlochen Arts Camp. 
Her mother, Ellen 
Sandweiss, who graduated 
from Groves in 1977, is 

also an actress, perhaps 
best known for her role in 
the 1981 Michigan-made 
cult classic film Evil Dead. 
She stoked Jessy’
s interest 
in acting. Sandweiss now 
lives in Asheville, North 
Carolina, where Jessy and 
her younger sister Ali were 
born. 
“My mom is naturally 
a performative person,
” 
Hodges said. “For her, it’
s 
almost like a currency; 
she deals in the language 
of performance, so it was 
always a part of our house-
hold.
” 
Jessy Hodges’
s passion 
for acting and the arts 
was further fueled by her 
extended family and their 
Jewish heritage. 
“I’
m very close to my 
mom’
s side of the family; 
I’
m still very close to my 
Bubbie Miriam,
” Hodges 
said. 
Miriam Sandweiss lives 
in Beverly Hills, Michigan. 
“She and my mom and my 
mom’
s sisters were all really 
into the arts. There was a 
big emphasis on the arts 
from my Jewish side of the 
family, and I don’
t think 
that’
s a coincidence.
”
As a kid at Workmen’
s 
Circle, a secular, progres-
sive Jewish cultural orga-
nization serving Metro 

Arts&Life
tv

“Being a Jew from Michigan is very 
fundamental to who I am.”

— JESSY HODGES

Jessy Hodges on set in her Indebted role as Joanna

PHOTO COURTESY JESSY HODGES/NBC

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