Latest / I Choose Me with Jennie Garth / I Choose..Beverly Hills 90210
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Garth. Hi, Hi, Hi,
- 0:09Speaker 1: it's me Jenny. Welcome to the I Choose Me Podcast.
- 0:15Speaker 1: You are all showing up for our new podcast, and
- 0:19Speaker 1: I am so grateful. I'm reading all of your reviews
- 0:22Speaker 1: and your comments and I'm just loving all of it.
- 0:26Speaker 1: This spot is for you, guys, So I want you
- 0:29Speaker 1: to tell me what you want to hear about from me.
- 0:31Speaker 1: What topic do you want us to delve into. What
- 0:35Speaker 1: decision have maybe you made that you want to talk about,
- 0:38Speaker 1: and tell us what you learned from it. Let us know.
- 0:42Speaker 1: I have a question for you. Do you believe in
- 0:44Speaker 1: trusting your gut making decisions based on instinct? This next
- 0:50Speaker 1: story is an example of when I trusted my gut
- 0:55Speaker 1: on one of the biggest choices I ever had to
- 0:58Speaker 1: make decision that would alter the trajectory of my life forever.
- 1:06Speaker 1: And I had to make this decision when I was
- 1:08Speaker 1: only seventeen years old. But first I want to introduce
- 1:11Speaker 1: you to another member of my team, my life team.
- 1:17Speaker 1: Randy James started as a page at ABC, the network ABC,
- 1:23Speaker 1: you know the one, when he was only eighteen years old,
- 1:27Speaker 1: and quickly rose through the ranks of the company to
- 1:31Speaker 1: become the director of casting for the whole network. In
- 1:34Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, he started his own talent management company
- 1:39Speaker 1: at the age of twenty nine. He is my longtime manager,
- 1:44Speaker 1: my best friend, my father figure, my discoverer. I call
- 1:48Speaker 1: him mister Showbiz and you can too.
- 1:51Speaker 2: Hey, Jenny Garth.
- 1:54Speaker 1: Don't ever call me by my full name. That makes
- 1:56Speaker 1: me feel like I'm in trouble.
- 1:58Speaker 2: Look at you with your own podcast.
- 2:00Speaker 1: Are you proud now?
- 2:01Speaker 2: I possibly be any prouder. This is so cool, This
- 2:04Speaker 2: is so exciting.
- 2:06Speaker 1: We're talking about choices, Randy.
- 2:08Speaker 2: I know, I know, we've all made a few.
- 2:12Speaker 1: Good Yep, you chose me, I chose you. That's a
- 2:16Speaker 1: whole nother story. We'll tell that another time. But today
- 2:19Speaker 1: I want to talk about the choice to do Beverly
- 2:22Speaker 1: Hill's line Up two one now, and you were there.
- 2:25Speaker 2: I was there, and I'll bet a lot of people
- 2:28Speaker 2: don't know. But it actually was a choice because you
- 2:33Speaker 2: had two different shows that were interested in you, that
- 2:37Speaker 2: wanted you, and you had to make a choice between them.
- 2:40Speaker 1: That's right.
- 2:42Speaker 2: It was not an easy choice.
- 2:43Speaker 1: Wow, I forget about that that there was another show
- 2:47Speaker 1: on the table. It wasn't like it was another offer
- 2:50Speaker 1: on the table. It was just another audition, right, Well.
- 2:54Speaker 2: No, they actually wanted you. So, yes, you were in
- 2:57Speaker 2: a position where you could have had either show.
- 3:00Speaker 1: At the time, Wow, look at me.
- 3:02Speaker 2: Just to get give a little context for the listener.
- 3:05Speaker 2: When you came out, it was nineteen eighty nine and
- 3:08Speaker 2: you had done a couple of things. You did one
- 3:11Speaker 2: episode of Growing Pains. Do you remember that?
- 3:14Speaker 1: Yes? I do. I remember the line you want to
- 3:16Speaker 1: hear it?
- 3:17Speaker 2: Yeah, I would love to hear it.
- 3:18Speaker 1: Sticky, sticky, sticky. And that was it. Sticky, sticky, sticky.
- 3:24Speaker 1: That was my line.
- 3:24Speaker 2: You don't remember, you know what. It's amazing, but it
- 3:28Speaker 2: escaped me momentarily.
- 3:30Speaker 1: There I reminded you.
- 3:31Speaker 2: Then the other thing you did, I don't know if
- 3:33Speaker 2: you were you'll, well, of course remember this. You did
- 3:36Speaker 2: a TV movie I think it was for Disney called
- 3:40Speaker 2: Teen Angel Returns.
- 3:42Speaker 1: Starring Jason Priestley.
- 3:45Speaker 2: How crazy is that?
- 3:47Speaker 1: That's right, we played in a movie together. I don't
- 3:50Speaker 1: think we were like love interests or anything. I really
- 3:52Speaker 1: don't remember at all.
- 3:53Speaker 2: And then you did a short lived series called A
- 3:56Speaker 2: Brand New Life where you played Barbara Eden's daughter and
- 4:01Speaker 2: By the way, that should be an episode of your podcast.
- 4:03Speaker 2: You should bring Barbara on because she's such an influence
- 4:07Speaker 2: on you.
- 4:08Speaker 1: She has a huge influence on me, Like as an actress,
- 4:11Speaker 1: I want let's Booker Booker Dano. We need her on
- 4:14Speaker 1: the show. But let's talk about okay. So the shows
- 4:18Speaker 1: that we were looking at. One was something called Whole
- 4:21Speaker 1: Street High, right, right.
- 4:23Speaker 2: I think it ended up going on there as Hull High,
- 4:25Speaker 2: Hole High, Yes, And that was an NBC pilot. A
- 4:32Speaker 2: little bit of background. NBC, I believe at the time
- 4:34Speaker 2: was the number one network.
- 4:36Speaker 1: Fuck.
- 4:37Speaker 2: Huge Box was this upstart network that had just come
- 4:42Speaker 2: on the scene that really not a whole lot of
- 4:45Speaker 2: people were.
- 4:46Speaker 1: Watching, right, It didn't even exist until what nineteen eighty nine.
- 4:51Speaker 2: Right, I mean nine o two one. I was one
- 4:53Speaker 2: of the first series nine to two one. I ended up,
- 4:57Speaker 2: along with The Simpsons, being the one of the shows
- 5:01Speaker 2: that really launched that network, that got people to start
- 5:04Speaker 2: watching it. Now. Hull High was the concept of the show.
- 5:08Speaker 2: It was a set in a high school, but there
- 5:11Speaker 2: was a major singing and dancing component, and it was
- 5:16Speaker 2: directed and the series was going to be directed by
- 5:20Speaker 2: a guy named Kenny Ortega. Which most people today remember
- 5:25Speaker 2: from High School Musical. He directed the High School Musical.
- 5:29Speaker 1: And all the dancing and all the numbers, all the
- 5:33Speaker 1: dance was master.
- 5:36Speaker 2: Before that, he did all of the choreography for Dirty Dancing,
- 5:42Speaker 2: for Madonna's videos, for San Elmo's Fire. I mean, he
- 5:46Speaker 2: was a major, major force in that world, the world
- 5:51Speaker 2: that so the fact that he was a part of
- 5:53Speaker 2: Hull High and Hull High was going to be on
- 5:56Speaker 2: the number one network was huge. Aran Spelling was at
- 6:01Speaker 2: that time god going through kind of a lull in
- 6:04Speaker 2: his career. He had been super super successful when he
- 6:10Speaker 2: was had all the shows on ABC, right, and I.
- 6:14Speaker 1: Knew about all those shows like I watched The Love Vote.
- 6:17Speaker 1: I grew up with Aaron Spelling shows.
- 6:20Speaker 2: Charlie's Angels, Dynasty, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island. Now, I
- 6:25Speaker 2: was at ABC in those days and ABC was There
- 6:30Speaker 2: were only three networks and ABC was number three. It
- 6:35Speaker 2: was doing really, really poorly. They started working with Aaron
- 6:40Speaker 2: and it went to number one all because of him.
- 6:43Speaker 2: In fact, they used to joke and say that ABC
- 6:46Speaker 2: stood for Aaron's Broadcasting Company. So now Aaron came up
- 6:54Speaker 2: with this show along with Darren Starr, for Fox, and
- 6:58Speaker 2: so it really was a risk because Aaron wasn't hot
- 7:03Speaker 2: at that moment. X was this new.
- 7:05Speaker 1: Network nobody knew about.
- 7:08Speaker 2: Yeah, nobody knew about. So it really was a risk.
- 7:13Speaker 2: I actually, because of my experience working with Aaron at ABC,
- 7:19Speaker 2: I didn't count this guy out. He was an absolute
- 7:22Speaker 2: genius and here he had an opportunity to work with
- 7:27Speaker 2: this fledgling television network who was probably really thrilled to
- 7:32Speaker 2: work with him. And I thought that that possibly could
- 7:36Speaker 2: be just the right combination.
- 7:39Speaker 1: Yeah, and you sort of guided me in that direction
- 7:43Speaker 1: a little bit, and I remember thinking, Wow, this is
- 7:48Speaker 1: incredible to be at the sort of fork in a
- 7:50Speaker 1: road where I get to have two things on the
- 7:53Speaker 1: table to decide between. And it was a I remember
- 7:57Speaker 1: being like, I don't know what to do. This is
- 8:00Speaker 1: it was scary, you know, it's a very big decision.
- 8:03Speaker 2: It is. And there was one other piece of this,
- 8:07Speaker 2: which is when I first met you. The first time
- 8:10Speaker 2: I saw you, I saw you dancing. That's right, Yeah,
- 8:17Speaker 2: And in Hull High it was all about dance. That's
- 8:20Speaker 2: why they had Kenny Ortegas. So that was another sort
- 8:24Speaker 2: of if you're doing the pros and com that was
- 8:28Speaker 2: another one for a Hull High, So it really was.
- 8:32Speaker 1: Which one they kind of balance each other out. But honestly,
- 8:36Speaker 1: doing the show with Fox and for Aaron Spelling was
- 8:41Speaker 1: a riskier.
- 8:42Speaker 2: Move on paper. It absolutely was. There was no question
- 8:47Speaker 2: about that. And that's why at the end of the day,
- 8:50Speaker 2: it really came down to you having to go with
- 8:54Speaker 2: your gut on this, because all I can do is
- 8:58Speaker 2: your manager is say, well, here pros and here are
- 9:00Speaker 2: the cons and here's what could happen. But I've learned
- 9:05Speaker 2: in this business that it's this is not a business.
- 9:09Speaker 2: It's based on science, you know, or based on statistics.
- 9:14Speaker 2: And over the years, I've seen many examples where what
- 9:19Speaker 2: everybody thought was going to happen didn't happen. I mean,
- 9:23Speaker 2: back in ninety four, there were two shows that were
- 9:30Speaker 2: set in hospitals that were procedural shows. One was called
- 9:35Speaker 2: Chicago Hope and it was produced by DAVIDY Kelly, who
- 9:40Speaker 2: was a huge producer at the time, and the other
- 9:43Speaker 2: one was called Er. And at the time, everyone in
- 9:48Speaker 2: the business thought that Chicago Hope was going to take
- 9:51Speaker 2: off and be this enormous success and run for you know,
- 9:55Speaker 2: ten years, and Er, you know, was going to peter out,
- 9:58Speaker 2: not go anywhere now Chicago Hope did Day on the
- 10:00Speaker 2: air for a few years. But Er became Er and
- 10:03Speaker 2: gave us George Clooney, Oh, the gift, the gift. The gift.
- 10:08Speaker 2: George Clueney changed George Clooney's career because he had been
- 10:12Speaker 2: around for a while. He had auditioned for US at
- 10:14Speaker 2: ABC on all kinds of things, and he'd been working
- 10:18Speaker 2: here and there. But he made a choice. He went
- 10:21Speaker 2: on that show and against probably almost everybody in the
- 10:25Speaker 2: business's guests, Er became the juggernaut that it became and
- 10:31Speaker 2: launched his career in a lot of other people's careers too.
- 10:34Speaker 2: So at the end of the day, it had to
- 10:35Speaker 2: come down to a gut decision that you had to make.
- 10:39Speaker 1: That I had to make. What I was sixteen, seventeen
- 10:42Speaker 1: years old, right, How can sixteen or seventeen year old
- 10:47Speaker 1: make a gut decision of that magnitude.
- 10:51Speaker 2: Well, you you had input from me, you had input
- 10:54Speaker 2: you know, other people in your life. But at the
- 10:57Speaker 2: end of the day, I think that there was probably
- 11:00Speaker 2: probably even if you don't remember, the conscious conversation that
- 11:06Speaker 2: you had with yourself at the end of the day,
- 11:09Speaker 2: something about this decision had to feel right, and I
- 11:12Speaker 2: think that's why. I think that's why they call it
- 11:14Speaker 2: a gut decision, because sometimes it's not a conscious, intellectual
- 11:20Speaker 2: decision that you make, but just a feeling that maybe
- 11:23Speaker 2: you can't even articulate or explain, you know.
- 11:29Speaker 1: I mean that happens a lot when you make a choice.
- 11:33Speaker 1: Then you just go with your gut, and it's really scary,
- 11:38Speaker 1: but that's like the ultimate decision maker. I think if
- 11:41Speaker 1: we listen to our guts, listen to you know, that
- 11:45Speaker 1: little voice inside of us. And that's what I did.
- 11:47Speaker 1: I took all of your advice, and I took all
- 11:51Speaker 1: of the pros and all of the cons, and I
- 11:54Speaker 1: was just like, I choose Beverly Hills nine or two
- 11:59Speaker 1: on it. Oh that's the show for me. And I
- 12:04Speaker 1: didn't know why I chose it, but I did.
- 12:06Speaker 2: Here we are, I'm definitely happy. Let me ask you
- 12:16Speaker 2: a question that I don't know if we've ever discussed
- 12:20Speaker 2: when you went on to Beverly Hills nine O two
- 12:22Speaker 2: and zero. Because most people in the industry teenagers, a
- 12:25Speaker 2: lot of them, and this is the case I think
- 12:28Speaker 2: with every one of your co stars on that show
- 12:30Speaker 2: started in the industry when they were kids. I think
- 12:34Speaker 2: all of them worked as kids in the industry, or
- 12:37Speaker 2: at least you know, had been in the business for
- 12:39Speaker 2: a while.
- 12:39Speaker 1: You're so right, every single one of them. Yeah, Sanna,
- 12:43Speaker 1: jason Ian definitely was, Brian was Gab was Tory what everybody.
- 12:51Speaker 2: And they had all been doing it for a while.
- 12:54Speaker 2: And you had just blown into town basically a year before.
- 12:58Speaker 1: I had just gotten off the bus.
- 13:00Speaker 2: But I'm wondering how that felt. I don't know if
- 13:05Speaker 2: you've ever heard the expression imposter syndrome, which is a
- 13:09Speaker 2: phrase that's used with actors in the entertainment industry, but
- 13:12Speaker 2: I think it can apply to a lot of areas
- 13:14Speaker 2: where you find yourself in a job where you're there,
- 13:18Speaker 2: but there's a little voice in your head that says,
- 13:22Speaker 2: what am I doing here? I think all these people
- 13:25Speaker 2: maybe made a huge mistake. And I'm just wondering if
- 13:29Speaker 2: you ever had that feeling when you got on this
- 13:33Speaker 2: show and you looked around and you had done a
- 13:35Speaker 2: little bit of work, but not much, and you'd only
- 13:38Speaker 2: been here for a year and you're working with all
- 13:40Speaker 2: of these people, if you ever felt that.
- 13:43Speaker 1: Way, I mean that's interesting that you should ask that question.
- 13:47Speaker 1: I do remember being at the first read through, the
- 13:51Speaker 1: first like gathering of the whole cast. We were at
- 13:54Speaker 1: Aaron Spelling's house, and I just remember being out of
- 13:59Speaker 1: my mind and nervous, like seriously kind of out of
- 14:03Speaker 1: my body. That was that kind of experience. And yeah,
- 14:07Speaker 1: I surely felt that then. I didn't know that it
- 14:09Speaker 1: was called imposter syndrome. I didn't even know what imposter
- 14:13Speaker 1: syndrome was until very recently and someone told me about
- 14:17Speaker 1: it and I was like, oh, wow, okay, yeah, I
- 14:19Speaker 1: had that yesterday. I literally have that on a daily
- 14:24Speaker 1: basis something I'm working on.
- 14:27Speaker 2: Well, I think doing this podcast, I think hopefully you're
- 14:32Speaker 2: going to be able to work through your imposter syndrome,
- 14:35Speaker 2: and maybe we do a whole episode just on that,
- 14:38Speaker 2: and we take questions from the audience or experiences that
- 14:43Speaker 2: some of your fans listeners have had and how they
- 14:46Speaker 2: maybe can apply the things that you've learned to work
- 14:50Speaker 2: through that those feelings that they have of not feeling
- 14:54Speaker 2: that they deserve or have earned where they are, because
- 14:58Speaker 2: the truth of the matter is, you actually did deserve
- 15:02Speaker 2: everything that you've gotten. You wouldn't have gotten that job
- 15:05Speaker 2: if you hadn't gone in there and beaten out a
- 15:09Speaker 2: whole lot of other.
- 15:10Speaker 1: People for it, I guess so, so you.
- 15:13Speaker 2: Did deserve to be there. But then all of us
- 15:16Speaker 2: have that little voice in our head that says, I
- 15:18Speaker 2: don't deserve to be here. What have these people done?
- 15:21Speaker 2: This is crazy? And that's something that probably a lot
- 15:26Speaker 2: of people can.
- 15:26Speaker 1: Relate to in their own Absolutely, I mean, that's a
- 15:29Speaker 1: huge topic. We definitely definitely need to talk about that,
- 15:31Speaker 1: because not only did I struggle with it when I
- 15:34Speaker 1: was a young girl, I've struggled with it my whole life,
- 15:36Speaker 1: and I struggle with it literally this past weekend, like
- 15:40Speaker 1: it's something that you have to learn how to control.
- 15:43Speaker 1: But yeah, I definitely had it back then. So I
- 15:47Speaker 1: see how that decision really impacted the overall trajectory of
- 15:53Speaker 1: my entire life. Like that moment was a defining moment
- 15:58Speaker 1: when I decided to say yes to Beverly Hills nine
- 16:01Speaker 1: two and oh and I decided to jump into that
- 16:04Speaker 1: cast and go on that ride. You know what a
- 16:09Speaker 1: profound impact it had on my life. I mean, were
- 16:12Speaker 1: you scared at all when you see you saw what
- 16:15Speaker 1: was happening?
- 16:16Speaker 2: Yes, because aficionados of nine O two and oh may
- 16:21Speaker 2: remember that the show was not an instant hit. It
- 16:25Speaker 2: struggled and Hull High did go on the air. It
- 16:29Speaker 2: went on for a few episodes. I don't think it
- 16:33Speaker 2: ran a full season. Was canceled, I think part way through.
- 16:36Speaker 2: But both shows were on the air, and both shows
- 16:39Speaker 2: were struggling, And it wasn't until the summer summer.
- 16:45Speaker 1: The summer episodes, the bathing.
- 16:47Speaker 2: Why don't you tell the listeners who may not be
- 16:50Speaker 2: what happened in the summer, Oh my gosh.
- 16:52Speaker 1: The producers were genius. They saw that the show wasn't
- 16:57Speaker 1: doing well. People we didn't know about it, you know.
- 17:00Speaker 1: And also Fox was a smaller network, so it didn't
- 17:03Speaker 1: have the like wide release that you would want a
- 17:06Speaker 1: show like that to have, and they decided to while
- 17:12Speaker 1: all the other shows on network television were showing reruns
- 17:17Speaker 1: because they were taking a break in their production schedules,
- 17:21Speaker 1: so they decided to continue shooting throughout the summer and
- 17:25Speaker 1: play those episodes during the summer months. So when people
- 17:30Speaker 1: had the option to watch the same old rerun that
- 17:32Speaker 1: they had watched a million times, or to watch this
- 17:35Speaker 1: new show about Beverly Hills. I think it started to
- 17:39Speaker 1: grab people's attention, and that's when we got that sort
- 17:44Speaker 1: of momentum building up. You know, we found our audience.
- 17:49Speaker 2: Isn't that when they introduced the beach Club and they
- 17:51Speaker 2: did all of this.
- 17:52Speaker 1: Yeah, it didn't hurt that we were all in bikinis
- 17:54Speaker 1: and right, and then the guys are shirtless. Yep, that'll
- 17:58Speaker 1: get you some ratings. So a good choice on their part,
- 18:02Speaker 1: for sure.
- 18:04Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 18:04Speaker 1: Absolutely, what if I hadn't made the choice? Can you imagine, like,
- 18:08Speaker 1: I mean, the sky's the limit on that imagination, what
- 18:11Speaker 1: my life would be like if I hadn't done Beverly
- 18:13Speaker 1: Hills nine or two or zero? Who knows?
- 18:15Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because you know, this is such a brutal business.
- 18:19Speaker 2: And you go back and you look at the cast
- 18:20Speaker 2: of Hull High and they were all good actors, and
- 18:24Speaker 2: the young lady that got your role is a good actress.
- 18:27Speaker 2: But they've gone on and they've all worked here and there,
- 18:31Speaker 2: But I don't think that any of them went on
- 18:33Speaker 2: to have the kind of career that the cast of
- 18:36Speaker 2: your show had, or certainly, you know, no one's talking
- 18:39Speaker 2: about them or those roles thirty years down the road.
- 18:43Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, you're like, thank you life. I mean,
- 18:46Speaker 1: it's just like a force, you know, Like in life,
- 18:48Speaker 1: sometimes you don't know you're making choices, but you're making
- 18:52Speaker 1: some really big ones. And this was one of those
- 18:55Speaker 1: moments for me, and I could have never never known
- 18:59Speaker 1: how it would end up. Do you think that there's
- 19:02Speaker 1: an element of fate for all of us in our choices?
- 19:07Speaker 1: Like you can measure the pros and the cons all
- 19:09Speaker 1: you want, when you can write it down and listen
- 19:12Speaker 1: and talk about them to your shrink or whatever you
- 19:15Speaker 1: need to do, But there's that element inside all of us,
- 19:18Speaker 1: like you said, that little voice, that gut instinct, call
- 19:22Speaker 1: it fate if you will do you think, yeah, it
- 19:25Speaker 1: works right?
- 19:25Speaker 2: And I think the message I think is that maybe
- 19:29Speaker 2: it's important to almost like an exercise. You need to
- 19:36Speaker 2: train your body to be able to do certain things,
- 19:38Speaker 2: whether you want to be a runner or a swimmer
- 19:40Speaker 2: or whatever. Maybe there's a process where we have to
- 19:43Speaker 2: train our brains to listen for that instinctual message. And yeah,
- 19:51Speaker 2: you know, you can rack that message up to fate
- 19:55Speaker 2: or God or the universe or whatever, but the important
- 19:59Speaker 2: thing is to hear it and not have it drowned
- 20:02Speaker 2: out by all the other voices in your head, because
- 20:05Speaker 2: I think statistically, on paper, if you went through those
- 20:08Speaker 2: two choices that you had, the statistical choice to make
- 20:13Speaker 2: would have been hull high for all the reasons that
- 20:15Speaker 2: we discussed.
- 20:18Speaker 1: And I know for me, when I'm faced with a decision,
- 20:20Speaker 1: especially like a career decision, where you basically say, here
- 20:24Speaker 1: are all the pros and here all the cons and
- 20:27Speaker 1: you really do help me break it down and think
- 20:29Speaker 1: it through. But then at the end of that conversation
- 20:31Speaker 1: you also say, but it's up to you, and I
- 20:34Speaker 1: will support you whatever you decide. So you hand it
- 20:37Speaker 1: back to me, and I'm like, oh God, well, scary.
- 20:42Speaker 1: But the truth is, even if I can't make the
- 20:45Speaker 1: decision in that moment, I usually will take some time
- 20:48Speaker 1: with it and sit with it and really, like you said,
- 20:53Speaker 1: get quiet and listen to my inner voice, my instinct,
- 20:58Speaker 1: and then go with that because when I get that
- 21:01Speaker 1: direct message from the core of who I am, I
- 21:04Speaker 1: know that's the right decision every time. Even if it's
- 21:07Speaker 1: the wrong decision, it's the right decision.
- 21:10Speaker 2: You've said before, there been times that you've made the
- 21:14Speaker 2: wrong decision or the wrong choice in your life, but
- 21:18Speaker 2: there's also a way of looking at those choices and
- 21:20Speaker 2: recognizing that sometimes you have to look at things from
- 21:26Speaker 2: the perspective and the luxury of looking at it from
- 21:29Speaker 2: a year down the road or further. My wife has
- 21:33Speaker 2: a phrase that she's always used, could be good, could
- 21:36Speaker 2: be bad. And sometimes in the moment, you don't know
- 21:39Speaker 2: if whatever is happening to you in the moment is
- 21:42Speaker 2: good or bad. But you look back at that moment
- 21:45Speaker 2: six months, a year or more, then you realize, oh wow,
- 21:49Speaker 2: I didn't realize it at the time. I thought that
- 21:52Speaker 2: was one of the worst things that ever happened to me.
- 21:54Speaker 2: But if that hadn't happened, that wouldn't have led to this,
- 21:57Speaker 2: and that wouldn't have led to this exactly. But you
- 22:00Speaker 2: realize if it wasn't for that at the time quote
- 22:04Speaker 2: unquote wrong choice, you wouldn't be in this place where
- 22:07Speaker 2: you are right now, you know, a year or two
- 22:09Speaker 2: down the road, and.
- 22:11Speaker 1: From where I sit now. When I look back on
- 22:12Speaker 1: that decision that I made to be on the show,
- 22:15Speaker 1: I never I don't think I ever came to you
- 22:18Speaker 1: and said, oh I think I made the wrong decision.
- 22:21Speaker 1: I think I made the wrong choice because it was
- 22:24Speaker 1: such a great experience. Yeah, even the you know, the good,
- 22:30Speaker 1: the bad, and the ugly of all of those ten years,
- 22:34Speaker 1: it was the right decision.
- 22:35Speaker 2: Yeah. Well I have another question for you.
- 22:44Speaker 1: Oh I like it when you ask you questions, Randy,
- 22:46Speaker 1: mister Shobiz. Sorry.
- 22:48Speaker 2: When this show took off, it took off in a
- 22:51Speaker 2: way that not many shows, even super successful shows, take off,
- 22:56Speaker 2: because it really was a touchstone for young people, for teenagers.
- 23:02Speaker 2: It spoke to them in a way no other show
- 23:05Speaker 2: had spoken to them before the level of fandom went
- 23:10Speaker 2: from zero to sixty in a very short amount of time.
- 23:14Speaker 2: You went from just being kind of a normal kid,
- 23:17Speaker 2: if I could call you a kid, to which you
- 23:20Speaker 2: were still a teenager at that time, to literally not
- 23:25Speaker 2: being able to go to the mall or to go
- 23:28Speaker 2: anywhere without being mobbed. I mean famously, there was there
- 23:34Speaker 2: was an autograph signing an event at a mall that
- 23:38Speaker 2: you and Luke went to, and it became so crazy
- 23:42Speaker 2: that the state police had to be called in and
- 23:44Speaker 2: they had to like smuggle to take the two of
- 23:48Speaker 2: you out of the thing because they were seriously afraid.
- 23:51Speaker 2: People were fainting and bodies were being passed up onto
- 23:56Speaker 2: the stage and oh my god, sanity bananas. What was
- 24:01Speaker 2: that like for the young girl who's pastime prior to
- 24:05Speaker 2: this was riding her huffey through cemeteries and talking to
- 24:09Speaker 2: dead people.
- 24:10Speaker 1: I can see that that's going to be the clickbait
- 24:12Speaker 1: now that I talk to dead people, which is fine
- 24:16Speaker 1: because I do. I love it. Wow, Yeah, you were there,
- 24:19Speaker 1: I think for some of those. I remember one of
- 24:22Speaker 1: it where you were there in the stage was like
- 24:24Speaker 1: moving and then all of a sudden you like hustled
- 24:26Speaker 1: me out of there.
- 24:27Speaker 2: Right.
- 24:28Speaker 1: Yeah, that was.
- 24:28Speaker 2: Wild when I booked you into that, and I think
- 24:32Speaker 2: that was the first one that you went to.
- 24:33Speaker 1: I think it was by myself. I was by myself
- 24:36Speaker 1: on that one.
- 24:36Speaker 2: We're by yourself on that one. And if I remember correctly,
- 24:40Speaker 2: it was an Indiana and it was the first indoor
- 24:43Speaker 2: mall ever in the country. And I was talking to
- 24:47Speaker 2: the manager of the place and I said, listen, you
- 24:50Speaker 2: know what kind of security do you have here, because
- 24:53Speaker 2: there's going I think there's going to be like levels
- 24:56Speaker 2: of crowds that you've never seen before. And he said,
- 25:00Speaker 2: do you know how long I've been doing this? And
- 25:02Speaker 2: do you know how long this mall has been open
- 25:04Speaker 2: and we've had all kinds of people here. Don't worry
- 25:07Speaker 2: about the security we've you know, we've we've got our
- 25:10Speaker 2: six security guys and they've been here for well.
- 25:14Speaker 1: The voice he used to.
- 25:16Speaker 2: I was, yes, exactly that it's still in my head.
- 25:20Speaker 2: We got there and the six security guys were a
- 25:23Speaker 2: little bit overwhelmed. I mean it was completely nuts.
- 25:28Speaker 1: Yeah, there were people up above us hanging off the
- 25:31Speaker 1: railings insanity. I was like, wait, what is happening? Who
- 25:37Speaker 1: are they here to see? They're here to see me?
- 25:40Speaker 1: It felt surreal, like completely like a movie of some kind.
- 25:45Speaker 1: I had to like step outside of myself to get
- 25:47Speaker 1: through that. And basically those are the times when I learned,
- 25:53Speaker 1: you it's go time, Like, it doesn't matter how fraid
- 25:56Speaker 1: you are, it doesn't matter that you've never done this before,
- 25:59Speaker 1: it doesn't matter that you're doing this on your own.
- 26:01Speaker 1: It's go time.
- 26:02Speaker 2: Just do it right.
- 26:03Speaker 1: And I think that's been like something that served me
- 26:06Speaker 1: well for the rest of my life is sometimes you know,
- 26:09Speaker 1: like when I'm about to go do a talk show
- 26:11Speaker 1: or an appearance somewhere, Yeah, I have to tell myself,
- 26:14Speaker 1: like it's go time, let's go do this.
- 26:17Speaker 2: Don't be afraid that took a lot of guts for you,
- 26:20Speaker 2: because in those days, because you'd never been in the
- 26:23Speaker 2: public eye and you were not I don't think you
- 26:25Speaker 2: were anybody that ever craved attention like that. No, you
- 26:29Speaker 2: were very uncomfortable with people even staring at you, or
- 26:34Speaker 2: being in crowds of people or being the center of attention.
- 26:38Speaker 2: And here you were, I think there were like eight
- 26:41Speaker 2: to ten thousand people in this mall screaming, and you
- 26:45Speaker 2: could very easily have said, I can't go out there.
- 26:49Speaker 2: There's no way I could go out there. I'm sorry,
- 26:51Speaker 2: but you knew you didn't have a choice. And by
- 26:53Speaker 2: the way, you were going to say a few words
- 26:56Speaker 2: and then you're going to sit down, and all eight
- 26:58Speaker 2: thousand of those people were going to theoretically come up
- 27:03Speaker 2: to you and take pictures with you, and you'd be
- 27:05Speaker 2: signing autographs and having to have like an interaction with
- 27:08Speaker 2: all of them. You had to be in a full
- 27:09Speaker 2: blown panic given the person that you were at that time.
- 27:13Speaker 1: Yeah, I was cutting my teeth and learning how to
- 27:15Speaker 1: deal with stuff like that my future, basically, And I
- 27:19Speaker 1: got thrown right into the deep end on that one,
- 27:22Speaker 1: for sure, because yeah, like you said, I am not
- 27:26Speaker 1: a person that likes the spotlight. I've never been in
- 27:28Speaker 1: the spotlight. I grew up I had older half sisters
- 27:32Speaker 1: and older half brothers, and I was the baby of
- 27:34Speaker 1: the family. So I spent a lot of time not
- 27:39Speaker 1: wanting anybody to give me extra special attention because I
- 27:42Speaker 1: wanted my sisters and my brothers to see me as
- 27:45Speaker 1: equal to them. Like I didn't want any special treatment.
- 27:47Speaker 1: I didn't want. I don't want my light to shine
- 27:50Speaker 1: any brighter than anyone else's. And that's kind of how
- 27:52Speaker 1: I walk through life. And I was not used to
- 27:57Speaker 1: going to the store and having people stare at me
- 27:59Speaker 1: like you said, or you know, follow me to my car,
- 28:03Speaker 1: or having a pop rozzi take pictures of me. It
- 28:05Speaker 1: was also foreign to me. And I remember when I
- 28:09Speaker 1: wasn't doing events like that that were planned out and
- 28:12Speaker 1: like you know, I was prepared for. I would stay home.
- 28:17Speaker 1: I started to develop agoraphobia, where you don't leave the house,
- 28:22Speaker 1: you don't go out, and you have somebody else go
- 28:25Speaker 1: get your things you need and then you just stay home.
- 28:28Speaker 1: And I started to do that. It was very isolating
- 28:30Speaker 1: and very lonely, and it made it even worse when
- 28:34Speaker 1: I did have to go out and perform, you know,
- 28:36Speaker 1: or go do my job.
- 28:38Speaker 2: The other thing, too, is that leading up to that,
- 28:41Speaker 2: you were working fifteen hour days and the studio was
- 28:47Speaker 2: located in a very weird place. You weren't on a
- 28:50Speaker 2: film lot, you know, on a movie studio. It was
- 28:53Speaker 2: sort of in an industrial complex that Aaron had rented
- 28:59Speaker 2: out in the middle of this San Fernando Valley. I
- 29:02Speaker 2: think they were shooting porn movies.
- 29:05Speaker 1: They say so.
- 29:07Speaker 2: The rumor has it. And like you said, when you
- 29:10Speaker 2: when you weren't working, you were at home. But the
- 29:12Speaker 2: other part of it is that Los Angeles is kind
- 29:15Speaker 2: of a town that is used to seeing famous people.
- 29:20Speaker 2: So even when you did go out in Los Angeles,
- 29:23Speaker 2: for the most part, you probably didn't get the same
- 29:27Speaker 2: level of fandom that you would going to a town
- 29:31Speaker 2: in Indiana.
- 29:32Speaker 1: I didn't even care. I stayed home, Like even I
- 29:35Speaker 1: remember just being home a lot and doing lots of baking,
- 29:38Speaker 1: lots of arts and crafts during that time period. Whenever
- 29:41Speaker 1: I didn't have, you know, when I wasn't on set,
- 29:44Speaker 1: I would just stay home and garden or something. I'm
- 29:47Speaker 1: still kind of like that.
- 29:48Speaker 2: Randy there you are. Yeah, but you've you've also, as
- 29:53Speaker 2: you've you've proven again and again you've gone to a
- 29:56Speaker 2: place that was so out of your comfort zone. Just recently,
- 30:02Speaker 2: I just saw you stand up at an event for
- 30:05Speaker 2: the American Heart Association and speak to hundreds of women
- 30:11Speaker 2: who were leaders of business, cardiologists, all of these people
- 30:15Speaker 2: and spoke to them, and you did it so wonderfully.
- 30:18Speaker 2: And this is a testament to how far you've come,
- 30:22Speaker 2: because I'm sure that little girl in writing her Huffey
- 30:26Speaker 2: couldn't have imagined ever being in New York City standing
- 30:30Speaker 2: up and talking to a crowd like that from for
- 30:34Speaker 2: half an hour.
- 30:34Speaker 1: Now, that room was intense. There were probably like five
- 30:37Speaker 1: hundred people there. I was not prepared for that, but
- 30:40Speaker 1: sometimes you just jump in. It's go time, you gotta
- 30:43Speaker 1: do it.
- 30:45Speaker 2: So what's the message for your listeners who can't imagine
- 30:50Speaker 2: going from where they are now in their lives to
- 30:52Speaker 2: where they would like to be.
- 30:54Speaker 1: I mean, I would just remind them of this decision
- 30:57Speaker 1: that I made and let that inspire them. I mean,
- 31:00Speaker 1: choosing nine to two and l was one of the
- 31:02Speaker 1: biggest decisions of my life. I played that character for
- 31:05Speaker 1: ten years a decade. She became a part of who
- 31:10Speaker 1: I am in all of the best ways, and that
- 31:13Speaker 1: show took me around the world. It's given me immense opportunities.
- 31:18Speaker 1: Even thirty years later, I get to attend conventions with
- 31:22Speaker 1: my og cast, and I get to have a podcast
- 31:26Speaker 1: about it. I get to have my own podcast. It's
- 31:30Speaker 1: like the gift that keeps on giving. You know that show,
- 31:33Speaker 1: that decision. I would say that if you're sitting out
- 31:35Speaker 1: there and you're faced with a decision, whether it's a
- 31:38Speaker 1: career decision or a personal decision, whatever it is, even
- 31:42Speaker 1: if it seems daunting, trust your gut, period. It has
- 31:47Speaker 1: all the answers, and it's right every time. We all
- 31:50Speaker 1: have access to our gut, the clear answers, our best thinking,
- 31:56Speaker 1: but we second guess it because we don't trust ourselves,
- 31:58Speaker 1: or sometimes we want instant gratification, that easy way out.
- 32:04Speaker 1: So sometimes when we're faced with a decision, faced with
- 32:09Speaker 1: tuning in to our natural instinctual awareness, we abandon ourselves
- 32:16Speaker 1: in that moment, and we know when we're doing it.
- 32:20Speaker 1: You know that feeling when you hear yourself say you
- 32:24Speaker 1: shouldn't be doing this, but you do it anyway. In
- 32:29Speaker 1: that exact moment you didn't choose yourself. We abandon ourselves
- 32:36Speaker 1: all the time. Learning to listen to our gut takes discipline.
- 32:42Speaker 1: We have to be able to get quiet. We have
- 32:47Speaker 1: to be able to get quiet and push aside all
- 32:50Speaker 1: those outside voices and opinions that are constantly ricocheting around
- 32:55Speaker 1: in our heads. When I'm faced with a big choice,
- 32:59Speaker 1: a big decision, and I like to do this, I
- 33:02Speaker 1: like to close my eyes and take a few deep breaths,
- 33:07Speaker 1: and then I ask myself, what is the right decision
- 33:12Speaker 1: for my highest good and for the highest good for
- 33:15Speaker 1: all involved? And then I wait for the answer. My
- 33:19Speaker 1: beautiful friend Jennifer Schaeffer taught me that little trick tuning
- 33:23Speaker 1: into my intuition, listening to my instincts has served me
- 33:28Speaker 1: time and time again. So can we all try that
- 33:32Speaker 1: next week. Let's listen to ourselves a little more. Let's
- 33:36Speaker 1: listen for those gut instincts, even if you just take
- 33:41Speaker 1: notice of them. That's a great start to learning to
- 33:44Speaker 1: listen and trust ourselves. I don't know about you, but
- 33:47Speaker 1: I feel like this is my life. Who else am
- 33:49Speaker 1: I going to trust to make the right decisions for me?
- 33:52Speaker 1: I love you now. I want you to go to
- 33:55Speaker 1: the mirror and tell yourself you love you too. And
- 33:58Speaker 1: I hear you. This may seem so. It might be
- 34:01Speaker 1: hard for you to look into your eyes like that.
- 34:03Speaker 1: It was hard for me at first, but I promise you,
- 34:07Speaker 1: if you do this with me, even just once a week,
- 34:10Speaker 1: like every Wednesday, after you listen to this podcast, go
- 34:13Speaker 1: to the mirror and tell yourself you love yourself, you
- 34:18Speaker 1: are going to see a noticeable positive change in your life.
- 34:22Speaker 1: And you know what, I'm not going to stop asking
- 34:24Speaker 1: you to do it, so you might as well. I'll
- 34:26Speaker 1: be right here next week. I hope you will too,