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Superstar Storyteller: Leslie Zemeckis · Inside The Moms Club

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Hi, Welcome to Inside the Mom's Club, where being a mom is the
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coolest place to be. Here in the Mom's Club, we believe that what
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embarrasses you now will make a great story later. And let's face it,
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you don't laugh sometimes you're gonna cry. Join us in having a good laugh
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together. I'm Monica Samuels. You are now inside the Mom's Club, your
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private destination for all things mom. Welcome, moms, Welcome to Inside the
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Mom's Club. I'm your host, Manica Samuels, and I'm here with my
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lovely co host, Julie. Hello. Hello, Hello, Julie. Excited
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to be here. I'm excited to be here too. We were as little
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recording the show. Now it's May, and it is We're here in La.
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It's beautiful, beautiful May Day here. It's unbelievable in La. But
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you know, May is May is pretty much a tough month for moms generally.
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I mean I kind of look at it like, may I survive May?
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Well? Yeah, because part of the end of school. True,
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So then the question is is this going to be Groundhog Day? Am I
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gonna have to repeat ninth grade with my child care? He didn't figure it
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out? Sorry, shooting. So that's stressful, and that are graduating from
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college. Yes, and so that's a lot of stress. That's a big
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deal because it's emotional too. Yeah, oh yeah, I mean so,
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I mean, it's it's I don't know. It dawned on me. I
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thought, Okay, Mother's Day falls in May, so why do they pick
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May for Mother's Day? And then I thought they picked one of the most
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stressful months of a mother's life, and figured if they give her gifts or
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something right there in the middle of it, she can keep on going,
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like we're gonna pitch us some flowers, maybe a gift card. We're just
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gonna let you know. June first has come in, hang on, we're
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gonna get there because the other the other stressful months of mothers are November for
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Thanksgiving, and it's stressful because some some others have to cook and of course
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they're not gonna throw it pick out the food I'm ordering, And that's very
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stress or because you're not December. You've got Hanukkah and Christmas, and of
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course no one's gonna stop to honor mom. You know, they just make
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you keep plugging right along. But May, Yeah, it's it's that's why
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they have Mother's Day. But also there dawned on me it's also mental health
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awareness. Well listen, so is that coincidental? Just does that just happen
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though? I don't know, but listen. May is great for us.
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But I can tell you overall, we had a fantastic April, like great
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ape. It was exciting. We went to Dallas, Texas to our second
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live show in Dallas. There were over one hundred women there. It was
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it was tremendous. It was at the Albernese Restaurant and they did a fabulous
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job. The Beaman Hotel supported us. There's Farmhouse Fresh, which is great
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skincare. And some of the moms even contacted me later and said, hey,
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the gift bag they gave was that was like Christmas. It was over
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the top. They're an incredible copy. They really are their mission. First
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of all, I think that you pick a company that has a huge mission.
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They help animals. Yeah yeah, helps Yeah yeah, no, understand
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it. And then we got to meet Michelle Schwartz from Buying Beverly Hills and
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that was a story. I loved it. Yeah, yeah, I love
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her. She's really great. Yeah, And we gave an award. We
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gave a Mom of the Year award. So here's what we're gonna do.
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We're traveling all over the country and in each city we are going to honor
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a mom who represents because you know, we had a guest the other day
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who said, when you're a mom, sometimes you just get identified as a
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mom. But yeah, mom is very important, but you're more than that
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too. Yeah, I mean, you can't lose your identity and just being
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a mom. You have to really, I mean, it takes a lot
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of effort to you know, be a whole person. And let's be clear,
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we know that being a mom at all of us deserve Mom of the
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Year. I'm still bucking for it, but you know, I don't know
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you're going to give it to me. But I'm just saying, well,
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okay, let's be clear, most many moms deserve Mom of the Year.
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True, and you know what I hold off hope for you. Oh thanks,
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thanks for getting there. Yeah, but there are some moms, you
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know, like if we had walked in and given Joan Crawford Mom of the
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Year, well maybe that wouldn't have worked out. That's not so cool.
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So I mean, there are some moms that, you know, they that
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didn't work out, we did. We gave it to Kelly Raspberry and she's
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a radio show host in Dallas and has been doing it. It will be
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thirty years in May, and that is phenomenal. We'll think about what kind
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of mom. She was a single mom for ten years and then she married
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someone with three kids and suddenly she went from single mom to the Brady Bunch.
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She she gets an A word for that, am I award for you?
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But what else was cool? And this was really cool too. The
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hundred women who were there, Yeah, were so interesting. I got to
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meet so many interesting women. So for example, we had a former Dallas
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Cowboy cheerleader and she was a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader in the seventies. Yeah,
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I wanted to challenge to the high kick. Still, well I didn't.
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Yeah, I need better than to do that because you know, I don't
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need to be in traction. So I didn't even ask her that. But
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she was a cheerleader during the heyday of the Cowboys. Yes, I mean
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literally the Dallas Cowboys. That was also Dallas, I mean, yeah,
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for sure. So she was there and Michelle Elizabeth Williams game in her Yeah,
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she's been the former guest, and she's got quite the story to tell.
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Ye. She has a tragic story, but she's a super positive person.
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She wrote a book called Nobody Ever told Me She's great. But the
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one of the people that I found the most interesting was jan Corcamus, who
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was our who drove for us during the trip, and she told me she
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had a limo service the nineteen seventies in Dallas. She started. She was
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a woman with a limo service. I mean, think about it, She's
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owning her own business. She's driving people around and I'm personally gonna think that
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she's driving these men around in the oil days. Yeah. Well, and
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she has, no doubt heard at all a lot of interesting stories there,
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huge stories. Everybody has a story, which led me to, Yeah,
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if we had talked to every single woman in that room, I bet we
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could have gotten some amazing stories. Oh yeah, all of their lives,
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which is why it's so tremendous. Today we have an extraordinary storyteller with us.
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She is multi talented, best selling author and acclaimed actress and award winning
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documentarian. She is a passionate advocate for preserving the stories of women throughout history.
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Her most recent documentary, Grande Horizontalis, is about the nineteenth century courtisans
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in Paris, and she's won numerous Best Documentary awards. Her husband is the
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filmmaker Robert Zamechas, who you know from Forrest Gump and Back to the Future.
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Yes, and they have three children together. Please welcome Leslie's Zameccas.
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Welcome to the Laws Club. Thank you well, Leslie. I'm so honored
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and excited that you're here because I absolutely love what you do, because I
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love love, love history, and I've been inspired by so I'm an attorney
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by years ago practice law. But what got me into it was I started
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studying. I got interested in the Lincoln assassination and Mary Surat, who was
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the first woman executed in the US for and I felt like she had not
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been traded fairly, which got me interested in law. And then later on
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I got interested in My favorite actress is Olivia de havilin Why Not necessarily because
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of her acting, which is great, but she fought the studio system and
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one an end of the studio. I mean, I just got interested in
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little stories of women, and that's what you do in all of your work.
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It seems like, so share with us first, how did you get
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interested in nineteenth century courtisance in Paris to create such an amazing documentary? What
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led to that? Of all subjects, Leslie, Yeah, it's a subject
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matter that's always interested me. I love French history, I love English history.
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I'm a voracious reader. I write a book column in the Monticito Journal
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where I live here in Santa Barbara. So it's always a subject that interested
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me, and the women interested me. I I'm not sure there's been some
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really deep dives into their lives and what made them who they were, and
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I just thought, you know, I'm going to do this. I usually
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go between writing a book and doing a documentary, depending on the subject matter,
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where I feel it's going to fall best and how I can tell it
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the best. And I really thought, you know, these women were muses
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to artists of their day and writers of the day, so there's a lot
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of paintings that they posed for. And my first documentary is on the history
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of burlesque, and I became friends with a lot of the newer burlesque.
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Mine was on the Golden Age, like the twenties, the fifties roughly,
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but I became friends with the new burlesque generation that's performing, and there was
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three girls who looked exactly like these courtisans that I wanted to portray, and
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I thought, yeah, I thought, hmm, I'm going to you know,
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we're talking about sex. I'm going to push the envelope. There's beautiful,
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tasteful nudity. And I knew that they would be very comfortable with their
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bodies. So I hired them to portray these women while I wrote all the
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historical stuff for it. And I just think we as a society tend to
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look at women most groups, I'll just say and label them. Oh they're
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strippers, that's Oh they're freaks in a freak show. Oh they're this.
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Oh they're whrrores, which is one of the words I use first in my
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documentary. And I really like to go behind the label. Well, what
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were these women's choices at the time. Yeah, you know, it's easy
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to condemn somebody, but we're not living in that time. We're not when
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there was no opportunities. You weren't going to marry yourself out of where you
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were born. It just was not possible. I love how you go behind
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the story, But there's there's so many nuggets that you were able to pick
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out of this documentary, and I would love to know to tell our audience
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and our listeners, what is one interesting I mean, not even one whatever
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interesting fact that you you know, learned when you were you know, doing
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the research on these courtisans. I have a favorite, but I want to
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hear if we are aligning up together. Yeah, there's so many, but
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yeah, I know, right. What was really interesting to me was the
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Countess de Castaglione. She actually was aristocrat from Italy and she was Napoleon the
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third Mistress for a while and she but her family was connected. She was
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connected, and she's it's thought two things, Yeah, that she's responsible for
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the unification of Italy, and when the Siege of Paris happened in eighteen seventy,
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that the reason that the Prussians didn't destroy Paris was because of her.
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Oh that's powerful, Monica. Yeah, so that's influence. Yeah, yeah,
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so I love the fact that correct me if I'm wrong, because you
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are the search buff here that they actually, in order to have one of
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these ladies on their arms, so to speak, they had to purchase property
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and give them the deed. Is am I understanding? That correctly like happen.
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I don't think, you know, say, somebody approaches me and yeah,
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you know, I'm saying that. You know, there's I don't think
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there was anything laid down you have to do this. I was understood they
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were going to have their own houses, and I mean I've been in one
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and they are grand. I have pictures of it in the documentary. Incredible.
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But yes, they owned the deeds to their houses, where the married
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women at the time did not. Right. They also couldn't get divorced.
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They couldn't have power over their own money, property, but these women could.
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That's interesting and that's actually so. That's how the many poor women were
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able to raise themselves up socially. But even that women who were socially you
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know not or they still didn't have I mean, like you were saying,
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not the same rights. People don't realize. Winston Churchill's mother was an American
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whose mother took her to Europe to find her British you know, nobility to
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marry. Back in those days, women just didn't have the ability. But
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these women were brave enough to rise out of their social situation absolutely, and
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they were the fashion icons of the day. They've written about in the papers.
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People would line up in the park of and watch them in their carriages
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and oh who are they with and what are they wearing? It? And
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they absolutely started fashion trends. They were amazing women, and they weren't all
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This is also what's interesting. They weren't necessarily beautiful somewhere. Oh but you
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look at some of these pictures and you're like, oh, nearly, okay,
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Yeah, different tastes, different times, I guess. Well, speaking
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of different times, so a lot of your films earlier really, like you
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said, from the twenties to the fifties. And I listened to your Ted
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talk where you were talking about your great grandmother Maddie who what inspired you to
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seek out the stories of these women? Is she mysteriously left the face,
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she's left the family. Yeah, and no one ever knew it, and
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it was always implied, you know, it was her fall right to do
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bad things, right, But yeah, but you got teary eyed over it
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because we don't really know what happened to her, what she was feeling.
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And I thought it was clever and you speculate, and I know you say
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in this you say there was Why did Maddie leave, and like, nobody
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knows why Maddie left, and I personally so. Years ago they had us
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do a project in college and they said, talk to your grandparents and ask
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them to interview them for us. So I interviewed my grandmother. I set
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up a camera. First question, I asked her, is tell me about
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my grandfather? And she said, well, he was a drunk. End
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of story. And I went to my mother and said she said he was
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a drunk, and she said, oh, yeah, he was. He
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was an alcoholic. He was the sheriff of his town. And my mother
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remembered distinctly hiding under her bed one day while a lady in their town came
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with a box full of hair to say that her father, her husband,
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and beating her, and my grandfather laughed at her because he was beating his
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wife. But I never would have known any of these things if I hadn't
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asked. And my question to my mother at that time is like, well
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why did my grandmother stay? You asked why did my great grandmother leave?
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Was well, why did mine stay? But it all leads into these questions
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that when we start, like your storyteller, you encourage women to learn about
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other women's stories to tell those stories and what I particularly find interesting. So
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Maddie was a woman of that era. Yeah, did that get you interested
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in women of that era? Because you know, the Hilton Twins and the
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burlesque and you you seemed focused initially in your work on the women of the
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twenties and thirties and the women about the time. I would suspect that your
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great grandmother was, you know, living her life, and you don't know
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why she was doing what she was doing. But I think it's coincidence.
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I like that era. I like that era of entertainment in America. Certain
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kinds of you know, like burlesque and the circus were so huge at that
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time. There were the premiere forms of entertainment before film and radio and all
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that, and all that's just gone. I mean, we don't even think
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about it anymore, and I don't think the light had probably been shown on
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the vast majority of the women who worked in these forms of entertainment. You
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know, when I premiered the Circus film, I went to certain friends of
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mine. It was like, come, you know see it, and that
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was you know, big award winning and oh no, you know, animals
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and cages. I was like, it's historical and it was of another time.
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Don't necessarily any or yeah, yeah, you know, it's it's you
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know, but I just look, you know, and what's interesting about that.
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And also this era is you could do things. There was a freedom.
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You could say, oh, my name's Jill Smith and nobody would question
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it, nobody could find out that you weren't. You could reinvent yourself,
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which all these entertainers did. They most except for the Hilton sisters. Then
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most of them took another name. They invented who they wanted to be.
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Most of them coming out of horrible, horrible circumstances of abuse and poverty,
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and they created this magical life for themselves. I mean, Mabel Stark was
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a woman who said I want to work with tigers, and you know,
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they said, okay, go in and if you live great, you know,
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keep on working. Yeah. I mean, now I'd be like,
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you know, you actually give a voice. Not only do you do all
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of these documentaries and in and all there and everything else, but you are
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actually mentoring and have founded story you know, storytellers, and it's called stories
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matter. So I know that it is something that you is near and dearer
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to your heart and you're actually giving a voice to people who want to be
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storytellers. Can you speak a little bit about it? It's it's really I
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had this idea and it started during the pandemic. I thought, you know,
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I did. I never really had a mentor, and you're and young
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female writers are like, you know, how do you do it? There's
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so much mystery. And so I went to our the Santa Barbara Film Festival
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ahead of it International Film Festival, which is fantastic and it's very much into
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education. I said, what if I started a program professional female authors who
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I know and you know colleagues with mentoring the next generation, like girls in
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college. They don't have to be in college. Most are age about thirty
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two. And what it is? It just it shows that there's no one
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way to do something. Every author comes in. We just had Eleon Wu,
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Yeah, just got a Pulitzer. I knew, amazing storyteller. And
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it's just they tell their process and it really it makes it more doable.
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We're not you know, in college they're learning about theme and grammar and all
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that stuff, but it's like, what is the story, what do you
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want to tell? And how do you tell it, and that you can
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do it. And then at the end of the program, if they you
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know, it's about six weeks, if they work on their piece, which
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is eight hundred words about a woman, we should know if they can pick
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anybody historical or a lot of them pick their grandmothers. It's interesting. Yeah,
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it's then published in Entity magazine, so they become published authors at the
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end of this. Okay, that's pretty fan. That's great. Great.
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The other thing that I've noticed so with you, you're so your husband Robert
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is frequently the executive producer of your films, and I know from my like
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my husband and I currently are trying to build a house together. And we've
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concluded that the Pyramids and the Parthenon will have been built in a shorter time
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than we will finally degree on anything to build this house. So how do
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you all collaborate and work together? How does that work? Well, we
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don't really collaborate, for being honest, Yeah, it's my film, you
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know, bottom line. He'll come in towards the end of a final cut
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and watch it and give me notes. It's like, does this make sense
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to you? You know? And it's the support. But it's my films.
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Yes. And when you do the films, how do you where does
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all the research? I mean, the things that you put together to create
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the film. It's all, you know, absolutely fun because I'll tell you,
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you know, and I teach some master documentary classes around you know,
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universities and online, and I tell people that you should do. I do
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all the research myself, and you should because you keep the names in your
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head. I was looking for the Hilton sisters. I knew that they were
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photographed, they were on a lot of newsreels, but I didn't have access
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to it. I didn't know where it was. So I went to a
21:15
movie house archive in New York. I said, can I, you know,
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look for this, and they literally gave me a box. This is
21:23
a big company with index cards. They're like, yeah, go look,
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yeah, I have fun. Yeah. Well, luckily, you know,
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maybe ten minutes into looking through these index cards had very little information on and
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I came across a card that said something like nineteen thirty three Jimmy Walker's wedding.
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It doesn't mention that they happened. He happened to marry as Siamese twin
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Oh. But because I did all the research. I was like, I
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was like, Ron, go get that tape. It's amazing. Footage hadn't
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been seen for sixty years. The twins are in it. He's in it,
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and that's why I think it's you know, I had just sent somebody
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there and say look for something. You know, Simeon's twins in this circus
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never would have found it. Does that help you connect to the character and
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like make them part of like your every day like you're thinking about this person,
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you know, maybe and help you develop what you're going to create,
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which I think is so cool that you do it on your own. Absolutely,
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yeah, absolutely, I love that you're really and you know, I
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love it. I love doing the research and I love it's like a puzzle
22:25
and then finding something it's like, oh my god, in this and this
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person, and well you can tell your passion because when you have the tears
22:32
and your ted X talk, it's really important because you're really giving a voice
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to women who otherwise no one would know about, you know, Mabel the
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Tiger Trainer, or the Hilton Sisters or and I was very mood by the
22:45
Hilton Sisters story. I mean that really captivated me in so many ways and
22:51
the tragedy of it all at the end. I mean, that could be
22:55
a they should do a film about that, you know, really, it's
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a story that is so is so interesting, and that's what I love in
23:02
your films. We were watching the film on Burlesque last evening. You know,
23:07
it's all just many times I was like, can you I'm sorry,
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can you hit rewind? I need to hear that again? Yeah, And
23:12
you feel for these women and some women who otherwise you wouldn't relate to.
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I mean I can't personally relate to Siamese twins. I mean, but just
23:21
imagining what that was like for them and what their lives were like and how
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it ended so tragically really well, honestly, go ahead, No, I
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was just saying, the Burlust women, if I hadn't ha done that,
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they're almost all gone. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah that's true. Well
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who have you not? I mean, do you have something in the works
23:41
that you can share or is there some women out there that you think you
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know, these are several examples of women that I would love to explore in
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another documentary. Yeah, there are. I'm actually getting ready to go away
23:52
for the summer too, write I've been working on a web series that I
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wrote it, so I haven't had time to write. There's a couple of
24:03
books that are in different you know, like halfway through or started whatever,
24:07
so I really want to get to those, but I always have a list
24:11
of you know, it's like, oh, do I want to you know,
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that would be a great documentary. Well, I mean, you spend
24:17
an enormous amount of energy doing what you do, and it is certainly appreciated.
24:22
But you know, you're not only just an author and you know,
24:25
write films and an actress and all of the above. I mean, well,
24:29
you're also a mom, because that's part of being in the mom's clubs.
24:33
You're a mom. And it dawned. So your husband's a very busy
24:37
man. You're a very busy woman. And does do you ever wake up
24:41
one day and look at each other and say, oh, wait, we
24:44
have three kids? Yeah, like we better? I mean, how does
24:47
that work? She's like, I don't know, Yeah, we need coffee.
24:53
I don't know. They've always just been a big part of our lives.
24:59
We travel, pulled them out of school all the time to travel with
25:02
us, you know, which schools don't like. But I didn't care,
25:07
right you know. I mean, they're my kids and they're going to get
25:08
an amazing education by being with us. And I never set up a writing
25:15
room. I'm actually right now in an upstairs sitting room which is bench so
25:21
I could hear my kids. I never wanted them to be blocked off and
25:23
go, oh, I can't get to mom, Mom's writing. No I
25:26
can't. I got a knock on the door. It's like, so I
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can always hear what's going on. Pop down. Yeah, that's amazing.
25:33
That's impressive. Because I wrote a book and I was had been doing a
25:34
lot of a lot of radio stuff, and I put a sign on my
25:37
door that said in you know, in session or I was on the radio
25:42
show once and my five year old burst in and started screaming, I want
25:48
to be on the radio I And the show was called good Parenting, and
25:52
I'm not really sure I exhibited a lot of good parenting. So the fact
25:56
that you welcome your kids in and you don't even put that boundary good good
26:00
for you. Another example that I have to point out too, there's a
26:03
lot of people listening, and that I want you to know that I did
26:07
listen to what you had to say as you just pounded on doors. You
26:11
were like, I have this idea and you absolutely and this is important to
26:15
hear all you. Yeah, I mean you've heard the word no right like
26:19
forever, so but you know, you just didn't give up. And that
26:22
is incredibly inspirational because a lot of times people don't want to take the chance
26:26
on doing something they've always thought about doing. And so I think that is
26:32
important for people to know that is listening, whether they're a storyteller or they
26:36
have some other dream that you know, just blinders on and keep going.
26:41
Absolutely, and especially I think and I tell people in the documentary world,
26:45
no matter what your documentary is on, there's going to be an audience for
26:49
it there. I mean, there's so many people interested in so many different
26:53
things. So just go make it. Go make a ten minute one if
26:56
that's all you can do, and do it on your phone. But you
27:00
know, if you wait for somebody to say yes, we'll do this,
27:03
you will never write. I mean it's so rare. I mean I'm into
27:08
four and they still don't say yes. But then you know show Time and
27:12
Netflix and you know, but you're like, okay, I keep saying no,
27:15
I'm just I'm just making us. Yeah, keep on going whatever.
27:19
That's what they say that you don't lose unless you quit, so you just
27:22
keep right on going. So that's like, that's what I thought. Okay,
27:26
I wish I could say I made that up by sadly I could.
27:29
Well, Leslie, we have some zoomer moms who would like to ask you
27:33
some questions. So let's welcome our zoomer moms. Welcome to the Mom's Club.
27:45
Welcome ladies. Well, I'm going to go and turn and tell us
27:48
a little bit about yourself and then ask Leslie a question. So Elizabeth,
27:53
welcome to the Mom's Club. Hi there. I enjoyed listening to you,
27:57
Leslie. Okay, So something that you said that really resonated with me was
28:03
about people in general are really quick to judge others. I find that true
28:08
about life in general, and if we all just listened with an open mind
28:12
to hear hear each other, I feel that the world would be a kinder
28:17
and more empathetic place. This brings me to have you ever considered interviewing Ashnab
28:23
Debos. I know I'm pronouncing that incorrectly, but she is a valedictorian from
28:29
US. She's the Asian American Muslim that her speech was just she was unable
28:34
to do her speech at graduation. And I say this because I personally would
28:40
love to hear I've heard her speak. I went down that rabbit hole because
28:45
like you, I am very interested in people's stories and don't just take something
28:52
for face value. And I really like to hear all points of view and
28:56
to really know where things are coming from. And when I went down the
29:00
rabbit hole to find out a little bit about her, I learned so much
29:06
that I did not I was so it was so unexpected and that I love
29:11
being able to share it her point of view and get that out there.
29:15
But it would be great if you know, someone like you was able to
29:18
do that, and then just being able to help the world in general to
29:22
see that it doesn't have to be about hate and it's about love, and
29:26
it's about for her, it was about educating people, and it just got
29:33
turned around by certain people and and so anyway, but yeah, well that's
29:40
great. I know there's so many interesting people that I would like to interview,
29:44
but I would you know, I would have to have a forum for
29:47
it, you know, I would have to be making a documentary right now,
29:49
I'm sticking really in historical stuff. For me, I want to bring
29:55
a light to those people that never had their chance. And I thin I
30:00
think a lot of timely issues. Sometimes time needs to go by so we
30:03
can look back at it without the passion around it or the worry around it.
30:11
But I agree and I encourage especially all the girls who come in my
30:15
Stories Matter mentoring program. You know that she would be a great subject,
30:19
especially if you know you could get her and talk to her and interview her.
30:23
That's a good question. Yeah, Deity, welcome to the Mom's Club.
30:27
Do you tell us a little bit about yourself? And do you have
30:30
a question for Leslie? Sure? Hi there. I am a for fourth
30:37
generation Texan and a long line of very strong, you know women, entrepreneurs
30:48
and business women. So my question to you is, I mean, I
30:52
took so many different things away from that thirty minute documentary, but if you
30:57
had one message that you, uh I wanted to convey from that documentary,
31:07
what would that message be from Grande's horizontalis? Uh? Well, I actually
31:14
say it in the document towards the end, I narrate the price was cheap
31:22
that we we don't need to condone them, but we don't need to condemn
31:26
them. Yeah, that's good. I know when I when I first started
31:33
talking to people about it, you know, I had some people were so
31:37
funny. Oh don't don't portray them in a good life that everybody's gonna want
31:41
to be that. It's like, well one that there is no more of
31:44
that, right, And you know, I live it up for the audience
31:48
to whether what they want to believe about them. No, it's it's it's
31:53
incredible, you know, say that era what women survived and endured, you
32:00
know, childbirth, diseases, illnesses, you know, poverty, the way
32:07
they lived and they survived and they were strong. You just women got through
32:12
it. And Maddie, my great grandmother and my ted talk is lived in
32:17
Gunsight, Texas. Oh wow, oh wow. And are those flamingos behind
32:23
your head? They are even this is Austin. There used to be a
32:30
nursery. Yeah, flamingos all out in the front yard. And then there's
32:37
Steedee Ray Vaughn in the background. Its Cheerley Texan. Yeah, very very
32:42
very Austin. I love that those are nineteen nineties photos, Yeah, Austin,
32:46
And it looks totally different than flamingos are going now. But those of
32:50
us. You know, if somebody's been here a long time and they were
32:52
like, oh yeah, well, we all would recognize them. They welcome
32:59
to the Mom's Club. Tell us a little bit about yourself and you have
33:00
a question. Hi, thank you so much for this episode. I think
33:07
it's really inspiring and it's pleasure meeting you. Likely I heard your type as
33:13
well. It's very touching and operation courtesans have always fascinated me and so little.
33:21
I just found it so fascinating because in the world that women couldn't survive
33:24
without men, and they made their own living their own They own their desires,
33:30
they own their sentuality, they own their property. They're so very inspiring.
33:35
Always, I never felt for a second to condemn them. Ever,
33:38
so when I was listening to your tech talk, I realized there's so much
33:44
sorrow and misery that women endured over the tho years of history. Because we
33:50
have, by and large live in the world that's made by men for men.
33:54
It's kind of still kind of the same in modern days. And now
33:59
you're me out telling those wonderful stories about women about women, told by women,
34:04
made by women for women. But I don't think women's life can ultimately
34:08
change without elevation in the consciousness of the men. So you're a mom and
34:15
a mom. I have three boys and you have two boys. So have
34:19
you seen how the stories about women have changed the awareness and the consciousness of
34:23
men over time and has it affected your boys in their awareness of women?
34:30
Yeah? I think it's I think it's the way they're raised kids, you
34:36
know, boys. I was just at a summit called the Giving Women List,
34:40
and it brought a bunch of like big entrepreneurs and philanthropic women talking about
34:47
that exact thing, that it's not just giving to women's charities, but it's
34:53
it's educating the boys. There was two Smali women, I don't know their
34:59
names off the time their head one was been nominated for the Poets or three
35:01
times. They work with the young boys that were soldiers, I mean seven,
35:08
eight, nine years old, and it's educating them. And I do
35:13
think it is that that bringing, you know. I don't in any of
35:17
my documentaries go it's because the man, you know. So I don't think
35:22
it helps to condemn them, although they've done a lot of bad things.
35:28
It just important to make them part of the dialogue or just say look here,
35:32
like you know, you might call this woman a whore, but m
35:37
hmm that you know, do you really need to let's look at her her
35:40
world? Yeah, that's important. That is great, Debbie, welcome to
35:46
the Mom's Club. Tell us a little about yourself, and you have a
35:50
question. I do I write a lot. I'm a lawyer, and I
35:54
got to tell you I write every day for work, and it's not that
35:58
interesting, don't. I do love to write, and I would love to
36:02
write something, you know, interesting and you know, fun fiction. You
36:07
had said that everyone has their own process, and I see the steaky notes
36:13
behind you, and I heard you say that you're leaving to go write this
36:16
summer, and I'm just curious if you could kind of walk me through what
36:21
your writing process looks like and how you come up with your ideas and what
36:27
you do when writer's block hits. I don't have writer's block. I have
36:34
a ton of ideas. I write them down in a notebook, and I
36:36
just don't get distracted by leaping ahead to an idea that I that I might
36:43
do in three or four years. There's two things I'm working on now and
36:45
until they get done I'm not varying off that. I again, because of
36:52
having kids, I can write. I've trained myself when they were little to
36:54
write anywhere, any room. I don't care what's going on around me.
36:59
If it's ten minutes, if it's twenty minute, of it's eight hours,
37:01
whatever I can get. It's just like I have this like, yeah,
37:06
you got to go right, you gotta go right. So I just do
37:07
it. I don't, you know, get distracted. I've just been super
37:12
busy with the film and mentoring, and I just got a part in the
37:15
film. So that's why I can't wait. Took away and I'll just write.
37:17
I'll get up and i'll walk and I'll just start writing. Yeah.
37:23
So what's of all the things, because you just mentioned that you're also in
37:28
films or an actress as well. Of everything that you do, what gives
37:30
you the most pleasure? Like, what are you most passionate about? Is
37:35
there one aspect? Is it doing the documentaries, is writing the books?
37:37
Is it? Or is it just it's all of it? You all love
37:40
it? Yeah, And I like going you know, they're all aspects of
37:45
storytelling, and I like going through each different one because they're all different,
37:50
you know. Being an actor in a film, I'm not responsible for everything.
37:53
I'm just responsible for my part in the film. But because I'm a
37:58
director, I can see it different now, you know, it's like how
38:01
to sort of fit in or you know, doing everything for the director.
38:07
And but then right, you know, I love writing. I just like
38:10
the process. And Leslie, are you can? I ask her? You
38:14
going away alone? Are you concentrating on something where you're going to be like
38:17
you know why you have many many days alone? Okay, just checking,
38:22
just making sure you know what I mean? What that is? What a
38:27
gift? Right? I do have one question for you the TEDx talk,
38:30
which was so interesting to me because I got to learn so much about your
38:34
projects. But you mentioned something in your ted X talk where your grandma,
38:38
I mean your great grandmother wrote something on the back of a photo. And
38:43
I wonder what you think the meaning behind that? And you know what her
38:46
pain was and we don't know why, but what you think it is she
38:50
wrote this is so Thelma, we'll see how ugly her mom is and oh
38:58
you haven't look at you? Oh there is there a picture? Yeah,
39:01
Oh my goodness, gracious. So this was fascinating to me because you don't
39:06
have a lot of stuff. Well what was interesting too? Oh oh wow,
39:09
wow, yeah, yeah, Julie and I talked for like thirty minutes.
39:14
Well why do you think she left? I mean we're sitting there debating
39:16
it like I don't Yeah, I think, you know, off off the
39:21
top of my head. Somebody told her that, oh I mean profound effect,
39:29
right, wow yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so
39:32
much for being with us today. We have totally enjoyed this. This has
39:37
been tremendous. Where can we find your your film streaming? Is it on
39:42
all the streaming platforms now? Or where it's on iTunes, Apple, TV?
39:46
Google? And it will be on Amazon in a week or two.
39:49
Oh oh my god. That is. But if you google it, it
39:52
should come up where you can struct. I was able to watch it and
39:54
so you Yeah, no, it is. It is amazing. Everybody needs
39:58
to take a look at it. So, Leslie, where can we follow
40:00
you on social media? I'm on Instagram and Facebook and just at my name
40:07
at Leslie's and micas. Okay, great, everybody check her out there.
40:12
But oh and just by the way, everybody, keep keep this in mind.
40:16
Make a note we mentioned New Calm earlier in case you are on the
40:21
podcast and you're just listening. It is spelled n U c A l M
40:25
and it is a great app. Yes it is. Look if you've seen
40:30
them before and after a Julie, everyone in this country would clamor to buy
40:37
the new calm app and good. If you put Mom's Club in the box
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a checkout, you will get fifteen percent of every month of your subscription.
40:47
So we highly highly highly recommend it. Wednesday, I can oh Mother's Day.
40:52
Yeah, great, well I I already have the subscription, so for
40:55
my family, just get a check it out. It's online. With that
41:02
said, we are so I mean, I can't believe the time is up,
41:06
but it has been tremendous. But we'll be back next time with celebrities
41:09
and extraordinary moms just like you. And we thank you moms out there everywhere.
41:14
Your metime is precious and valuable. Thank you so much for spending it
41:16
with us. Remember our motto here on the Mom's Club. If you don't
41:22
laugh sometimes ladies, you are going to cry. You do not want to
41:25
cry. Keep laughing, stay positive, and we will see you next time
41:30
inside the Mom's Club