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I Smell Pop Culture with Tina Louise · I Am All In with Scott Patterson

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Speaker 1: I am all in all It's just you.
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Speaker 2: I am all in with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio Podcast.
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Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Allen, I am all in podcast. When all
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Speaker 1: of them productions, iHeart radio, iHeart media, iHeart podcast. I
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Speaker 1: smell pop culture. That's what we're doing here. Let's get
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Speaker 1: right out the gate here. I am not Scott Patterson. Okay,
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Speaker 1: I'm sorry. My name is Easton. I am the sound
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Speaker 1: engineer here on the I Amine Podcast. And I know
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Speaker 1: you don't know my voice, but I have been here
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Speaker 1: since the beginning. Okay. My DNA is in every episode
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Speaker 1: of this podcast. My blood, sweat, and tears go into
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Speaker 1: every megabyte of this show. And I'm so excited to
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Speaker 1: be in front of the microphone this time. We're doing
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Speaker 1: something really cool here on this next era of the show.
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Speaker 1: This is something we're really really excited about. We're going
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Speaker 1: to be taking you beyond the pop culture references. Pop
1:09
Speaker 1: culture is such a big part of Gilmore Girls. We
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Speaker 1: explore it in depth here on the podcast. We take
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Speaker 1: you deep into what they are referencing in the scripts
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Speaker 1: of Gilmore Girls, how it relates to real life, how
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Speaker 1: it stands in history, the context, the grandeur of all
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Speaker 1: these iconic moments and these people. We're going to take
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Speaker 1: you beyond that. We're going to be bringing the people
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Speaker 1: that created these pop culture moments onto the show. We're
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Speaker 1: going to be exploring them in depth and figuring out
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Speaker 1: what makes a pop culture reference, what is in the
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Speaker 1: DNA of that? How do you become that? And when
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Speaker 1: I found out that it was something we were doing,
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Speaker 1: I got on my hands and knees and I just
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Speaker 1: begged Scott. I was like, please, Scott, please let me
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Speaker 1: be involved with this somehow, and he is graciously allowing
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Speaker 1: me to host this show. This is very exciting for me.
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Speaker 1: We are starting off with the bang here people. We
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Speaker 1: have a great guest for I Smell pop Culture this week.
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Speaker 1: This is something I'm really excited about. I know you're
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Speaker 1: gonna be excited about it, And I just ask you
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Speaker 1: one thing. Can you just please pretend with me. Let's play.
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Speaker 1: Pretend we're going to become actors here for a moment. Okay,
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Speaker 1: so close your eyes, Pretend that you don't see the
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Speaker 1: name of the guests on the podcast app Pretend like
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Speaker 1: it isn't in the description. Because I have the biggest
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Speaker 1: reveal in the world of who we got for I
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Speaker 1: Smell Pop Culture. It's a huge surprise and I'm going
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Speaker 1: to tell you right after these words, iHeart podcasts, listen
2:34
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app. Wow, those were some incredible goods
2:39
Speaker 1: and services that I can't wait to patronize. Hi, welcome
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Speaker 1: back to I Smell Pop Culture. My name is Easton Allen,
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Speaker 1: and today we are going to be talking to the
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Speaker 1: star of gil Lagaan's Island, Tina Luise. You played Ginger
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Speaker 1: Grant on Gilligan's Island, and if you haven't seen Gilligan's Island,
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Speaker 1: what the heck is wrong with you? This is one
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Speaker 1: of the most important and iconic television shows of all time,
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Speaker 1: and we're specifically talking to Tina Louise today because she
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Speaker 1: is referenced in Gilmour Girls. She's referenced twice in gilmer Girls.
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Speaker 1: Let's go back to season three, episode ten, That'll do
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Speaker 1: Pig Francie and Rory. Franci is obviously the leader of
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Speaker 1: the Puffs at Chilton. The Franci and Rory are having
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Speaker 1: a conversation and Francie says, you do not want to
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Speaker 1: be my enemy Marlow Thomas, and Rory says, back, I
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Speaker 1: think I Do Tina Louise Franci, of course has red hair.
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Speaker 1: Tina Louise known for her red hair, especially as Ginger
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Speaker 1: Grant on Gilligan's Island, one of the most iconic redheads
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Speaker 1: of all time. She's referenced again in season seven, episode sixteen,
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Speaker 1: will you be my Laura? Like Gilmore Kirk says, you
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Speaker 1: can be Ginger tolul Lose Marianne Yes. Tina Louise is
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Speaker 1: an absolute icon. She has had an incredible career far
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Speaker 1: beyond Gilligan's Island. She is the last surviving cast member
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Speaker 1: of Gilligan's Island, and she was in every episode of
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Speaker 1: all three seasons of the show. She was in a
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Speaker 1: ton of movies. She was in the original Stepford Wives.
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Speaker 1: She was in this movie called God's Little Acre that
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Speaker 1: you absolutely have to watch. It's an incredible piece of film.
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Speaker 1: She has written a new book. It's called Sunday, a Memoir,
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Speaker 1: and is about her life as a child going through
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Speaker 1: an incredibly tough experience at a boarding school. And we're
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Speaker 1: going to talk to her all about that. We're going
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Speaker 1: to talk about acting, We're going to talking about relationships
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Speaker 1: between mothers and daughters. We're going to talk about it
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Speaker 1: all and we are so excited to have Tina Louise
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Speaker 1: here with us.
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Speaker 3: Welcome my pleasure.
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Your book Sunday a Memoir. It's
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Speaker 1: out now. It's on Amazon and Audible. I've read this book.
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Speaker 1: It is such a compelling story. Thank you so much
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Speaker 1: for sharing it. I have a couple questions about that now.
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Speaker 1: You wrote the book from the perspective of yourself at
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Speaker 1: age six years old going to Ardsley School for Girls,
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Speaker 1: and I found reading it it really puts you in
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Speaker 1: that mindset of a child that's going through these incredible challenges.
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Speaker 3: And that's what I talked about.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, you captured that moment. I thought so authentically when
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Speaker 1: you at that age, did you keep a journal or anything.
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Speaker 3: Like that that was happening.
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Speaker 2: It's just that it all kept came flooding back to me.
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Speaker 2: Really when my daughter was a similar age.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, and.
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Speaker 2: Six or seven or eight, No, not eight. That was
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Speaker 2: kind of the end of it, but you know, six
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Speaker 2: and seven and just I just felt at that point
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Speaker 2: that I could start to write about it because basically,
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Speaker 2: I've been moving a very fast life. You know, in
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Speaker 2: the beginning, I was just moved from place to place
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Speaker 2: to place, and then when I finally got on my own,
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Speaker 2: which was you know, after eighteen then I started working
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Speaker 2: and when Caprice was born, and at that particular point,
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Speaker 2: it just brought into focus, you know, everything that really
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Speaker 2: had happened to me, and I just felt I had
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Speaker 2: to tell this story and I wanted to make first.
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Speaker 2: I wanted to make. I thought of it as a movie,
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Speaker 2: an absolute film. And I had this friend who was
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Speaker 2: a professional writer, and he said, no, no, no, it's
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Speaker 2: a little book, Tina, it's a little book. And I said, well,
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Speaker 2: I've never written a book. He said, well, I'm going
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Speaker 2: to tell you how you're gonna You're going to get
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Speaker 2: a bunch of index cards and everywhere you went. When
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Speaker 2: you get a thought, you're going to write it down.
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Speaker 2: And that's what I began to do. And he said,
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Speaker 2: then later you're going to put it together. You put
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Speaker 2: it in the order that you want, but you can't
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Speaker 2: expect to get all these thoughts like right away just
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Speaker 2: sitting down. And so I did that and it all
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Speaker 2: started flooding back and it became clearer than anything. Wow,
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Speaker 2: it became clearer than any other situation in my life
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Speaker 2: in terms of living with my dad when I finally
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Speaker 2: got to him. There were things about there. I don't
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Speaker 2: even remember going to school with him, And yet all
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Speaker 2: of these moments, this particular beginning, as I kept getting
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Speaker 2: moved from place to place, about five different places before
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Speaker 2: I went to the school, which was so ugly and
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Speaker 2: so peculiar and so run down and kind of like
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Speaker 2: a prison with all these little angry girls all put
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Speaker 2: in this place. Nobody wanted to be there. They should
7:30
Speaker 2: have been with their parents, but there we were, and
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Speaker 2: it became like a war, you know. Then they start
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Speaker 2: getting angry at each other. So it's a very unusual
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Speaker 2: situation in that school. And that's what I wanted to film.
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Speaker 2: But as I said, my friend wanted me to write it,
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Speaker 2: and so I did. And if I didn't write it,
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Speaker 2: then it couldn't be a film. Now it could be
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Speaker 2: a film, of course. You know.
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Speaker 1: There's a part in the book that really resonated with
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Speaker 1: me where you talk about a classmate that was sharpening
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Speaker 1: her pencil, Yes, taken forever. Ye're like, are you done?
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Speaker 1: And then she stabs you in the wrist with her pencil. Yes.
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Speaker 1: I had something similar happened to me where I was
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Speaker 1: in second grade, and a young boy ran through the
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Speaker 1: line with a sharpened pencil and got me right there
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Speaker 1: in the thumb. And you can still see the lead
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Speaker 1: and my lead.
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Speaker 2: Also, year after year after year, I could see that
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Speaker 2: lead in my wrist.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just reading. I was like, I have
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Speaker 1: the same experience when you looked, when you would look
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Speaker 1: down at that wound, at that lead in your wrist,
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Speaker 1: what would come to your mind?
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Speaker 2: Well, how angry we all were, of course, I mean
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Speaker 2: all of the children. They didn't want to be there.
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Speaker 2: Where were their parents, Why were they there? Nobody knew
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Speaker 2: we were imprisoned. We were literally imprisoned. We were in
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Speaker 2: a prison. And the matrons were these two women, a
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Speaker 2: Miss Taylor and Miss Murphy, and they they were not
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Speaker 2: very nice.
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Speaker 1: You know.
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Speaker 2: You know, there were spiders on that when you you
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Speaker 2: were told you had to pooh at a particular time,
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Speaker 2: and and then when you were in the bathroom when
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Speaker 2: you close the door, there were webs of spite of spiders,
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Speaker 2: and nobody ever cleaned them away. They just stayed there
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Speaker 2: and when you looked up, they they I guess they
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Speaker 2: were your friends.
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Speaker 3: They became your friends.
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Speaker 1: It's it's such a terrifying image that you described that
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Speaker 1: so vividly. The spiders up on the on the ceiling.
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Speaker 2: Uh, it wasn't their fault. Nobody cleaned them away. They
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Speaker 2: didn't have to be there. Nobody swept them away.
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Speaker 1: Also, yes, yes, you know, yeah, they were imprisoned as well.
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Speaker 1: How did your relationship with your mother did that? Did
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Speaker 1: that improve as you got older? How did that change?
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Speaker 2: Well?
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Speaker 3: I didn't get to her until I was eleven.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, because I had was with five different
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Speaker 2: sets of people, and then finally I got with my dad.
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Speaker 3: And as you see, when I said, I.
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Speaker 2: Hope I can stay here, Yeah, I I hope I
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Speaker 2: can stay I repeated it three times in the recording.
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Speaker 2: And I realized just recently that I really didn't want
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Speaker 2: to leave there. I mean, I had cousins there. It
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Speaker 2: was the first family situation, even though it was a
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Speaker 2: stepmother who wanted me to call her mother, and I
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Speaker 2: didn't want to do that because I knew I had
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Speaker 2: a mother out there. I knew she was out there.
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Speaker 1: The book is titled Sunday because that's when you were
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Speaker 1: most likely to get visitors, right right, Yeah.
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Speaker 3: And very rarely do they come.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, how did that feel on Sunday morning when you
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Speaker 1: were hoping that someone would come visit you.
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Speaker 3: Not good, Yeah, not good, not good.
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Speaker 1: I'm so impressed with your courage to share this story.
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Speaker 1: This is something that affects a lot of children still
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Speaker 1: all over the place.
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Speaker 2: Well, children need one person, They need one person to
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Speaker 2: be there from the beginning, and when you don't have that,
10:53
Speaker 2: it just leaves you with a basic insecurity. Yeah, there's
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Speaker 2: just no other way. You can't get it back. I
11:00
Speaker 2: felt I got a little bit of childhood back when
11:02
Speaker 2: I had Caprice, you know, which was so beautiful, and
11:05
Speaker 2: we had Easter egg hunts and we had you know,
11:09
Speaker 2: I tried to make my home because I split up.
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Speaker 2: I was married and then I was split up, you know,
11:14
Speaker 2: when the pregnancy was real. Yeah, it's very unfortunate. But
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Speaker 2: the time, you know, I raised her alone, and you know,
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Speaker 2: I tried to make like Thanksgiving, everybody came to our
11:31
Speaker 2: house and Christmas, I had all the friends came over
11:35
Speaker 2: to our house, and I wanted it to be as
11:38
Speaker 2: good as I could make it, you.
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Speaker 3: Know, for her.
11:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I loved, you know, loved raising her. It
11:44
Speaker 2: was just incredible when she was born.
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Speaker 1: This podcast is about Gilmore Girls, which the show at
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Speaker 1: its core is about the relationship between a mother and
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Speaker 1: a daughter. And I know you're so close with Caprice,
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Speaker 1: with your daughter, and I wanted to ask more about that,
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Speaker 1: like as you were raising her, considering what you had
12:17
Speaker 1: gone through as a child, how did that affect how
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Speaker 1: you raised Caprice.
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Speaker 3: Well, I was.
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Speaker 2: There, you know, I mean, living together, and she was
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Speaker 2: the most important person and she was somebody when she
12:29
Speaker 2: was born.
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Speaker 3: I knew for the first time what love was.
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Speaker 2: That I knew that I really loved her, and that
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Speaker 2: I knew I'd take a bullet for her. I'd stand
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Speaker 2: in front of her and happily take a bullet for
12:40
Speaker 2: This sounds strange, but that's how I felt. I mean,
12:43
Speaker 2: I didn't really understand what love was, that you'd lay
12:46
Speaker 2: down your life, you know, for your child, you know,
12:50
Speaker 2: because I didn't have that. I didn't have a mother
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Speaker 2: and a father as a child period. And that's why
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Speaker 2: I wrote the book. So let's talk more about the book.
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Speaker 1: Of course. Of course, when you were recording you recorded
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Speaker 1: the audiobook. Yes, how did that as you were recording it?
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Speaker 1: Reading it back, did anything new come to the surface
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Speaker 1: for you?
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Speaker 2: Yes, I became very emotional. I had two breakdowns in
13:13
Speaker 2: the middle of it. I was I surprised myself, you know,
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Speaker 2: with how deeply I felt and what was locked inside
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Speaker 2: of me, because it was all locked inside of me
13:23
Speaker 2: because I was so busy being moved from place to place.
13:27
Speaker 2: And then when I was with my father, there was
13:29
Speaker 2: just a couple of years, and then I was moved
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Speaker 2: to my mother finally when I was eleven, and it
13:36
Speaker 2: was just bizarre.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, And then when I got to my mother.
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Speaker 2: Of course, she made it plain that there'll be no
13:42
Speaker 2: talking about the past that didn't exist as far as
13:45
Speaker 2: she was concerned.
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Speaker 3: So I had to hold it inside.
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Speaker 2: And also I was told that I had to she
13:52
Speaker 2: made the call, and I had to tell my father
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Speaker 2: I couldn't see him anymore. I mean, I was ordered
13:56
Speaker 2: to do that, Oh my goodness. And I never saw
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Speaker 2: him again until I went to find him when I
14:01
Speaker 2: was twenty twenty one. I never saw him again. And
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Speaker 2: you know, for all I know, Well, why didn't he
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Speaker 2: go to court? Didn't he have rights?
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Speaker 1: Yeah?
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Speaker 3: Why why did this all? Why did all this happen?
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Speaker 1: And why was so much of it on you to
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Speaker 1: you know, it's tragic.
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Speaker 2: And so I held all of this, you know, and
14:21
Speaker 2: you try to I put it aside. I mean, I
14:24
Speaker 2: did many pieces of work. I worked all over the world,
14:27
Speaker 2: and I just moved. I lived in the present, and
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Speaker 2: I still believe in living in the present. I tell
14:33
Speaker 2: everybody live in the present moment. That's what you've got.
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Speaker 2: You never know what's going to happen next. You never
14:39
Speaker 2: know where you're going to be moved next.
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Speaker 1: That's great advice. When you finally were able to talk
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Speaker 1: about it, you said that was when Caprice was around
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Speaker 1: six years old.
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Speaker 3: Well, I didn't talk about it. I wrote wrote about it.
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Speaker 3: Of course, I didn't talk about it.
14:56
Speaker 1: Was writing. Was that the first time you had really
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Speaker 1: confronted Yeah, it happened.
15:00
Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: What motivated that was? It just seemed age?
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Speaker 2: Just her?
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Speaker 3: She motivated it.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, because I was a person that was with her,
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Speaker 2: but nobody was with me.
15:14
Speaker 3: You see.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, if not if when this is made into a film,
15:21
Speaker 1: do you have any like have you thought about what
15:24
Speaker 1: kind of film it would be?
15:25
Speaker 3: Yes, it would be.
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Speaker 2: There's many things that are not in the book. And
15:30
Speaker 2: that's when it was because it was during World War two,
15:34
Speaker 2: so they were only radios. There was no television. There
15:38
Speaker 2: were no computers. It was World War two when the
15:41
Speaker 2: Nazis had risen to power. Yeah, there's a lot going
15:44
Speaker 2: on in that movie that you know, it's not in
15:48
Speaker 2: the book because these were just the child's thoughts, But
15:52
Speaker 2: the movie is World War two, and so the people,
15:56
Speaker 2: the parents, everybody was going through something else. You know,
16:00
Speaker 2: an eighteen year old had a daughter. You know, children
16:04
Speaker 2: shouldn't be teenagers, shouldn't be having children, yes, you know,
16:08
Speaker 2: but she was. Her father said get married, you have
16:11
Speaker 2: to get married because her mother had died when she
16:14
Speaker 2: was three years old.
16:16
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness.
16:17
Speaker 2: So he wanted to find a place for her, someone
16:20
Speaker 2: to replace him very quickly. You know, he thought he
16:24
Speaker 2: was doing the best thing. It was not the best thing,
16:27
Speaker 2: no way, no. But she struck out. And I understood
16:31
Speaker 2: as an I understand as more as an adult. Her
16:35
Speaker 2: whole life was in front of her. What was she
16:38
Speaker 2: supposed to do? I mean, where was she what was
16:40
Speaker 2: she supposed to do with this baby? You know, it's
16:43
Speaker 2: frightening for her as well. Yeah.
16:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's something you talk about in that in
16:49
Speaker 1: the forward of this book is the importance of as
16:53
Speaker 1: you say, children shouldn't be having children, No.
16:55
Speaker 2: And that's why I work with children. Now, that's why
16:58
Speaker 2: I go to the public school and tutor reading, you know,
17:01
Speaker 2: because nobody ever read to me. And as I said
17:04
Speaker 2: to my grandchild Kingston, when he was making noise one night,
17:09
Speaker 2: I said, Kingston, nobody ever read to me, do you
17:11
Speaker 2: know that? And he said, Mommy, quick, read yaya book.
17:16
Speaker 2: And she read me a book. And that was the
17:18
Speaker 2: first time that anybody ever read to me. So I love,
17:22
Speaker 2: you know, helping the children to read because I love
17:25
Speaker 2: to read, love to read, and it's very important to
17:29
Speaker 2: know how to read. Yes, And I can give back
17:31
Speaker 2: in that way. So I love to go to school
17:34
Speaker 2: and I love to tutor them and to help them.
17:37
Speaker 2: Right now I have children that can't even speak English
17:40
Speaker 2: that have come into the country. I didn't have that before.
17:43
Speaker 2: And the other because I started reading to children in
17:46
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety six.
17:48
Speaker 1: I'm so impressed with how with your passion for literacy
17:52
Speaker 1: and helping children read, because it's such an incredible power
17:56
Speaker 1: to be able to escape and to learn so much,
18:00
Speaker 1: and to have to be able to experience another person
18:02
Speaker 1: so important.
18:03
Speaker 2: So it can't really put it into words what it
18:08
Speaker 2: means to me because of everything that I went through,
18:10
Speaker 2: and the fact that nobody ever read to me, and
18:14
Speaker 2: that I can help a child to learn to read
18:16
Speaker 2: because I love to read myself. I love to read,
18:21
Speaker 2: but no mother or father read to me. I could cry,
18:24
Speaker 2: you know, thinking about it. You know it's such a
18:27
Speaker 2: big deal to read to a child. Yes, I love
18:30
Speaker 2: to read to the children. I read three books yesterday
18:34
Speaker 2: to Kingston.
18:35
Speaker 3: It's fine.
18:36
Speaker 1: What books did you read to Kingston? Oh?
18:38
Speaker 3: Whatever they had in their house.
18:39
Speaker 2: You know, I have tons of books in mind, but
18:42
Speaker 2: you know they don't come to New York as much
18:44
Speaker 2: as I've been there, you know, because I I am
18:48
Speaker 2: in New Yorker, and I do love New York because
18:50
Speaker 2: I was born in that area. Capriest, on the other hand,
18:54
Speaker 2: you know, was born in California. That's where we lived,
18:57
Speaker 2: you know, when she was born. So she wented a
19:02
Speaker 2: way back to California.
19:05
Speaker 1: Tina Louise is here with us. The book is Sunday,
19:08
Speaker 1: a memoir. I have so much more to talk to
19:11
Speaker 1: you about. We're going to take a really quick break.
19:13
Speaker 1: Please stick around with us. We'll be back in one second.
19:24
Speaker 1: We're here with Tina Louise, the Legend, the Star, the author,
19:29
Speaker 1: of Sunday, a memoir. It's out now on Amazon and Audible. Now,
19:34
Speaker 1: your childhood was so difficult, but then you blossom into
19:38
Speaker 1: this incredible actress. How did you first discover acting? And
19:43
Speaker 1: that was a passion.
19:43
Speaker 2: Well, that's interesting. I had learned some kind of a
19:47
Speaker 2: little thing there. It was called thoovy you had to
19:52
Speaker 2: lispov and I learned it there. And if you can believe,
19:59
Speaker 2: they were opening the canteen in the high school I lived.
20:03
Speaker 2: You know, I only lived with my mother for two
20:05
Speaker 2: years and then I was sent away again.
20:07
Speaker 3: But I liked the high school.
20:09
Speaker 2: It was a progressive educational school and they had a
20:13
Speaker 2: canteen and they say, can anybody do anything? We need
20:15
Speaker 2: people to do something. We were going to open the
20:18
Speaker 2: canteen and I said, well, I know this ridiculous little
20:26
Speaker 2: episode it's called thuv And so I performed it, you know,
20:32
Speaker 2: this little thing, and.
20:35
Speaker 3: It seemed to be a hit.
20:36
Speaker 2: You know, I made friends and I realized, you know,
20:40
Speaker 2: you can make friends, you know when you perform something.
20:43
Speaker 3: So that was the first thing that I did.
20:45
Speaker 2: And that was that, And then what happened, I don't know,
20:49
Speaker 2: how how would I get into this? Oh? Then in
20:52
Speaker 2: that high school. I would just be in the place,
20:55
Speaker 2: and I thought nothing more than any other child that
20:57
Speaker 2: was in the play. We had a wonderful teacher. In fact,
21:01
Speaker 2: he gave me my middle name. I said, mister Sam,
21:03
Speaker 2: I don't have a middle name, and we're graduating. Everybody
21:06
Speaker 2: has a middle name. You're going to be Tina Louise
21:09
Speaker 2: and I had at that time. I had whatever the
21:11
Speaker 2: last name was of the the man that was married
21:15
Speaker 2: to my mother at that time. And so I participated
21:20
Speaker 2: in those plays and I thought no more about it
21:23
Speaker 2: than that. And then my mother had taken me when
21:28
Speaker 2: I was fifteen to a resort and I met this
21:32
Speaker 2: young man, and so I think I was going to
21:36
Speaker 2: go to Miami U to college. But she took me
21:40
Speaker 2: to a play and my friend was in the play
21:44
Speaker 2: and it was called and everybody was in the play
21:46
Speaker 2: was seventeen, and so was I. And we went backstage
21:50
Speaker 2: and I saw my friend and I thought, wow, this
21:54
Speaker 2: is so great, you know, And he was just an
21:56
Speaker 2: adorable boy. And all the kids in they we all
22:00
Speaker 2: had that makeup on, you know, and I was very striking.
22:04
Speaker 2: And then I went to the first six months of
22:07
Speaker 2: the college MIAMIU and I didn't like the acting class there,
22:11
Speaker 2: and I thought, I want to go to acting class.
22:13
Speaker 2: And I told my mother, I don't want to go
22:15
Speaker 2: back to this place, because I decided I want to
22:17
Speaker 2: study acting all day long. And so she found a
22:23
Speaker 2: place and she asked her friends, and she put me
22:26
Speaker 2: at the Neighborhood Playhouse where Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
22:30
Speaker 2: and you studied all day long. And she put me
22:32
Speaker 2: in a place that was the Barbizon for girls and
22:35
Speaker 2: no men were allowed. And so that's what I did.
22:40
Speaker 1: And that was the beginning, I mean the beginning of
22:46
Speaker 1: just such an iconic career. I mean you studied with
22:49
Speaker 1: Lee Strasburg.
22:50
Speaker 2: Yes, I did get around to that. That was even
22:52
Speaker 2: after I started my career. Yeah, that was after I
22:55
Speaker 2: did God'sker Yeah. Yeah, And that was amazing, And he
22:59
Speaker 2: was the main teacher of my life. Yeah.
23:04
Speaker 1: Would what would you say is the most the most
23:07
Speaker 1: important lesson you learned from him about the craft of acting?
23:11
Speaker 2: To relax and be yourself. I think I finally learned
23:14
Speaker 2: how I think I finally learned how.
23:20
Speaker 1: I love it. I if I may, I have one
23:23
Speaker 1: Gilgan's Island question, What an episode that I love is
23:28
Speaker 1: called All about Ava. You played two roles in that episode. Yes,
23:32
Speaker 1: was that a challenge? What was that like?
23:36
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I have one side of my face
23:39
Speaker 2: that photographs it a little bit differently than the other,
23:42
Speaker 2: So that was easy in terms of photographic you know.
23:46
Speaker 2: And they were just two different characters, you know, one
23:49
Speaker 2: wanted to be the other person.
23:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, so.
23:54
Speaker 2: I played both of them, you know, I just did it.
23:57
Speaker 2: I don't remember what tricks I had to do that
24:00
Speaker 2: at that time, in particular, except you know, photographically I
24:05
Speaker 2: photographed differently. Yeah, and she wasn't me.
24:08
Speaker 3: I was me.
24:10
Speaker 2: I was Ginger the character and she was somebody else
24:14
Speaker 2: who you know. And I don't remember it too well.
24:18
Speaker 1: You know, if anyone's listening, I highly recommend going back
24:21
Speaker 1: and watching that episode. It's really an incredible performance from you.
24:24
Speaker 3: I always tried to do my best, That's all I
24:27
Speaker 3: can say.
24:27
Speaker 1: Well, you stand out in every Gilligan's Island episode, especially
24:31
Speaker 1: old that of it that's from season three. So again,
24:35
Speaker 1: this this this podcast is mostly about Gilmore Girls, the
24:38
Speaker 1: show Gilmore Girls. In that show, there's a number of
24:43
Speaker 1: references to you to Ginger.
24:45
Speaker 3: I didn't know that. Oh well, I had no idea. Yeah,
24:49
Speaker 3: you're the first person who told.
24:50
Speaker 1: Me that that was That was my question, But.
24:53
Speaker 2: Nobody ever told me that. Really, I didn't know about that. Wow.
24:58
Speaker 1: You know there there's a there's a red headed care
25:00
Speaker 1: character and they say, okay, Tina Louis is like that
25:02
Speaker 1: kind of thing.
25:02
Speaker 3: I didn't know.
25:03
Speaker 2: Wow.
25:05
Speaker 1: I mean, how does it feel you You were referenced
25:09
Speaker 1: constantly though, and in all kinds of shows.
25:11
Speaker 3: I've been told I was an icon.
25:12
Speaker 1: Yes, I've been told.
25:13
Speaker 3: Yeah.
25:14
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I'm shotting from the rooftops. How I mean,
25:18
Speaker 1: looking back, how does that feel to have held that
25:21
Speaker 1: place in popular culture?
25:23
Speaker 3: I like it. I have a lot of friends.
25:24
Speaker 2: I like it, and a lot of people write to
25:26
Speaker 2: me and I really appreciate it.
25:29
Speaker 1: That's incredible. Which of your roles through, if you can,
25:36
Speaker 1: was the most memorable the when you look back on
25:38
Speaker 1: the most.
25:39
Speaker 3: That's very easy.
25:40
Speaker 2: It's my first film, Yeah, because I just identified with it.
25:44
Speaker 2: It was so real. It was the most real film
25:47
Speaker 2: that I did. And I had a wonderful director or
25:49
Speaker 2: a wonderful group of people actors that I worked with.
25:53
Speaker 2: The characters you know, it was a book was Erskine
25:56
Speaker 2: Caldwell's book each Yeah, God, it's the Laker and each
26:02
Speaker 2: character was so clear, and it was just so wonderful
26:05
Speaker 2: to be a part of that. And that film went
26:08
Speaker 2: into the Venice Film Festival, and that was an amazing
26:12
Speaker 2: experience for me to go to be invited there and
26:17
Speaker 2: to go to let's see, I didn't go to Rome.
26:21
Speaker 2: It was in Venice. Yeah, I'm the Lido. And we
26:24
Speaker 2: stayed in this amazing hotel and it was such an
26:28
Speaker 2: experience and they gave me two dozen red roses.
26:31
Speaker 3: And the light went on. I said, oh, my goodness, you.
26:33
Speaker 2: Should be giving this to the director on this film
26:36
Speaker 2: or the writer of this film. And I just was
26:40
Speaker 2: overwhelmed with this kind of attention. Imagine that little girl
26:45
Speaker 2: that nobody paid attention to was in Venice. Wow, how'd
26:50
Speaker 2: she get there? And all that light on her when
26:53
Speaker 2: nobody really cared about her.
26:56
Speaker 1: I know, I think reading your book, I think about that.
26:58
Speaker 1: So that was so present in my mind. Is I'm like,
27:00
Speaker 1: here's this little girl that was going through such a
27:03
Speaker 1: difficult experience being you know, feeling so insafe, feeling like
27:08
Speaker 1: she had no one to rely on, and then you
27:10
Speaker 1: become this incredible person.
27:13
Speaker 2: Was it was an overwhelming experience to be at that
27:16
Speaker 2: film festival, let me tell you. Yeah, it was really something.
27:20
Speaker 2: And I got to go to Rome, which I always
27:22
Speaker 2: wanted to go to. I had a lot of friends
27:24
Speaker 2: that were Italian in New York and I always wanted
27:28
Speaker 2: to go back there, and I did. I did go
27:30
Speaker 2: back there and I worked there.
27:32
Speaker 3: Oh amazing. But that was the most important film that
27:36
Speaker 3: I ever did.
27:37
Speaker 1: Again, I mean, everyone listening, you really should watch God's
27:39
Speaker 1: Lake or Buddy Hackett is in the movie.
27:42
Speaker 3: I mean, the Aldo ray was so incredible.
27:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, just all stars, all stars. I do want to say, lastly,
27:49
Speaker 1: I listened to your album It's Time for Tina. Incredible.
27:53
Speaker 1: I love that album so much.
27:55
Speaker 3: Thank you.
27:56
Speaker 1: And I didn't know that you had recorded it until
28:00
Speaker 1: just a few months ago. Oh and it's an amazing work.
28:04
Speaker 3: Thank you.
28:05
Speaker 1: And I just want you to know your version of
28:08
Speaker 1: it's a long long time. It's been a long long time.
28:11
Speaker 1: It's really going. It's I don't you know, viral might
28:14
Speaker 1: be the term. There's everyone's discovering that version of it,
28:17
Speaker 1: and it's really exciting to see it kind of come back.
28:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a wonderful experience. I was just nineteen
28:23
Speaker 2: when I did it, And I don't know if I
28:24
Speaker 2: understood everything I was singing about. I know my tone
28:27
Speaker 2: was good. I did study singing, but I'm glad that
28:34
Speaker 2: you enjoyed it. Yeah.
28:36
Speaker 1: I was going to ask if music was a passion
28:39
Speaker 1: for you as well.
28:39
Speaker 3: Like, well, I loved singing. Yeah, I loved studying, you know.
28:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just I used to go to dance class
28:46
Speaker 2: and I had my singing lessons and whatever. I found
28:52
Speaker 2: many teachers. I had many teachers, well, at least a
28:55
Speaker 2: few before I met Les Strasburg, the master.
28:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
28:59
Speaker 2: We used to sit on the of our seats to
29:00
Speaker 2: listen to Lee and his critique of the different scenes.
29:04
Speaker 2: And I was allowed into the actor's studio before I
29:07
Speaker 2: became a member. And it was his wife, his first wife,
29:10
Speaker 2: who said to me one day, Tina, you have to
29:13
Speaker 2: become a member of the studio. You have to try out.
29:16
Speaker 2: I said, oh, no, Paul, I don't want to. I
29:17
Speaker 2: just want to study with Lee. I really don't want
29:20
Speaker 2: to do that. Well, you have to.
29:21
Speaker 3: You just have to.
29:22
Speaker 2: And I thought, well, if she said I have to,
29:24
Speaker 2: then I have to try out. She also said something
29:27
Speaker 2: to me that I understand now, which I'll never forget,
29:31
Speaker 2: she said. She told me one day after in the class, Tina,
29:37
Speaker 2: what are you afraid of? And I didn't know. I
29:41
Speaker 2: didn't know, but now I know.
29:45
Speaker 1: Tina Louise, thank you so much for joining us on
29:50
Speaker 1: I Am All In Everyone Sunday a memoir. It's her book.
29:54
Speaker 1: It is out now. It's on Audible, it's on Amazon,
29:57
Speaker 1: you can get it anywhere. I highly recommend you read
30:00
Speaker 1: it and go watch everything Tina Lewis has been and
30:03
Speaker 1: she's incredible. This has been so much fun. Thank you
30:05
Speaker 1: for coming by.
30:06
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for listening.
30:36
Speaker 1: Everybody, and don't forget. Follow us on Instagram at I
30:40
Speaker 1: Am All In Podcast and email us at Gilmore at
30:44
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio dot com