Latest / Mommywood / Sixteen Candles, breaking for babies and getting back in the game - Debbie Pollack

Transcript

Sixteen Candles, breaking for babies and getting back in the game - Debbie Pollack · Mommywood

• 0:00
  Mom. Hey, I'm your host, Emily Bolt.
• 0:10
  I'm an actor, teacher, and a new mom.
• 0:13
  Once I became pregnant, I went on a hunt for answers to all my
• 0:17
  questions about being a working actor.
• 0:19
  Mom. And what did I find?
• 0:22
  Practically nothing. So here I am asking all the
• 0:25
  questions to try to figure out how people do it.
• 0:28
  How are mothers balancing and not balancing parenthood in this
• 0:33
  crazy industry? Join me and my amazing guest as
• 0:37
  we take a real look into the lives of working moms in the
• 0:41
  entertainment industry. On this episode of Mommy Would,
• 0:45
  I'm talking to the legend, the myth, the Mama, Debbie Pollock.
• 0:49
  It was so great talking to Debbie.
• 0:51
  I love her so much. She's so sweet and has so much
• 0:55
  great insight and wisdom when it comes to being a mother in this
• 1:03
  career, in this industry. Her story is actually a little
• 1:07
  bit different than a lot of the people I've talked to so far on
• 1:11
  Mommy would because she was an accomplished actress before
• 1:17
  having children. Then when her children were
• 1:20
  young she took a break and was a mom and had a regular full time
• 1:28
  job. And then once her kids got a
• 1:33
  little bit older and were more self-sufficient she got back
• 1:37
  into acting. And I love her story so much and
• 1:44
  the things she talks about that I wouldn't have thought of in
• 1:51
  when it comes to her type of story, we're so great to hear.
• 1:56
  I thought it was so interesting because I was asking her about,
• 2:01
  you know, if her children could sense that when she had a
• 2:05
  fulltime job, not acting. If they could sense that she
• 2:10
  wanted to do something else, and she said that at that time it
• 2:15
  was important that she was their mom and that she was their
• 2:19
  stability. And I loved that so much.
• 2:23
  And then saying that when she came back, when she got back
• 2:28
  into acting, that it didn't necessarily make her a better
• 2:32
  mother, but it made her a more fulfilled, A happier individual,
• 2:38
  which in turn probably made her a better mom.
• 2:42
  And I just loved hearing it and and hearing that at the end of
• 2:47
  the day, her kids didn't care what she did.
• 2:50
  They didn't care if she was working in some corporate job or
• 2:56
  if she was acting. They just wanted their mom to be
• 2:58
  happy. And that is really what it's all
• 3:02
  about when it comes to being in this career and having children.
• 3:06
  I think it's really just about showing them that not only that
• 3:13
  they can have a job that fulfills them, but but being the
• 3:18
  happy person and being the parent that our children need
• 3:26
  and oh gosh, I I just listen to the episode, It's so great.
• 3:33
  Also, there is an amazing story that she tells about
• 3:37
  breastfeeding and you have to listen to it.
• 3:41
  It's so good, especially since August is Breastfeeding
• 3:44
  Awareness Month. This is the story to to be to
• 3:50
  listen to. Anyway, I've talked too long and
• 3:54
  I could go on and on about the wonderful things about Debbie,
• 3:58
  but here is her episode. Here is our conversation and I
• 4:03
  hope you enjoy this episode of Mommywood with Debbie Pollock.
• 4:09
  Hi. Hi.
• 4:10
  It's so good to see you. Thank you so much for scheduling
• 4:15
  and rescheduling and accommodating all my stuff and
• 4:20
  you too. I mean, we're both back and
• 4:22
  forth. That's that's what my wood's all
• 4:24
  about. We got a lot of stuff going on
• 4:26
  and there's a lot of rescheduling.
• 4:28
  So all good. Good.
• 4:31
  Good. First of all, I think just a
• 4:34
  little back story for anyone who's listening that I think we
• 4:37
  have the funniest like meeting story ever because my parents
• 4:43
  and my sister, her husband and their baby, one baby at the
• 4:48
  time, stayed at your Airbnb during my wedding.
• 4:55
  I know it's like and your family, you know I did Airbnb
• 4:59
  for many, many years and your family are still like.
• 5:03
  Right up there with like my favorite guests.
• 5:05
  And they're lovely, wonderful people.
• 5:07
  Which is why you're lovely, wonderful people.
• 5:10
  Thank you and I know. It's so funny, but just to see,
• 5:15
  to see your mom and how she raised you all.
• 5:19
  It's no wonder you're such an amazing mother.
• 5:23
  Well, thank you. Yes, I I'm trying.
• 5:28
  Please tell them I say hi. I will for sure.
• 5:31
  I'll be going home in a couple weeks.
• 5:34
  So I will. I will give them my love.
• 5:39
  Well, first of all, just how are you?
• 5:41
  It's been a minute since we've chatted.
• 5:44
  I'm good. I'm really good.
• 5:47
  I'm. I'm spending time with my
• 5:51
  daughter and her new baby and I went to Chicago to see my son
• 5:57
  and his wife and hoping I'm going to be commuting soon for
• 6:00
  another baby. But we'll see.
• 6:03
  Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's so exciting.
• 6:05
  I bet that's just like a whole new world.
• 6:12
  Being a grandparent as opposed to a parent.
• 6:16
  You get to have like the fun stuff without and then you get
• 6:20
  to give them back. Yeah.
• 6:24
  So I have to admit, I pardon me, I am.
• 6:28
  I'm really fortunate that my daughter and my Soninlaw are so
• 6:35
  open to share him with me to to really, you know, there's a
• 6:41
  huge. Warmth in my heart.
• 6:45
  That they're new parents and that they are welcoming me and
• 6:51
  so much to spend so much time with them.
• 6:54
  It means so much to me. It really does.
• 6:55
  Yeah. That's so sweet.
• 6:57
  And he's, they have a baby boy. And how old is he now?
• 7:01
  He's. Seven months and a week or so
• 7:04
  something. Oh my gosh.
• 7:06
  And what's his name? His name is Royce.
• 7:08
  Royce. Where did they come up with
• 7:10
  voice? I haven't heard that.
• 7:12
  My daughter just said it was a name that she knew a guy I think
• 7:15
  in junior high school or something, and she always just
• 7:17
  thought it was a great name. And then his middle name is
• 7:21
  James, and he is named after the his grandfather, who he didn't
• 7:29
  really get to know very well, but his grandmother, his
• 7:35
  grandfather's wife. Ray pretty much raised him
• 7:38
  because Eric's mom worked a lot. And so when Eric was a little
• 7:42
  boy, he spent a lot of time with his grandmother.
• 7:46
  And in the Jewish tradition, we name our children after
• 7:50
  grandparents. I love that.
• 7:52
  What? My daughter's named after my
• 7:55
  grandmother, so yeah. I love that.
• 7:59
  Well, not probably is even more so why he's so inclined to like
• 8:05
  loves having you spend time with him with the baby as well, like
• 8:10
  there's something about grandmas.
• 8:12
  I think I know Bryce is going to be this with his other
• 8:16
  grandparents this afternoon, so I think they're just really
• 8:19
  happy that they've got grandparents and support so
• 8:22
  close. Yeah, I was going to say, wow,
• 8:24
  they have both sets of grandparents.
• 8:26
  Two grandparents like nearby is incredible.
• 8:32
  So obviously your so your daughter and your son are both
• 8:38
  grown. They're once that your daughter
• 8:43
  is nearby and your son is in Chicago.
• 8:45
  How long has he been in Chicago? He let's see, they've been there
• 8:50
  three years. My, my son is a psychiatrist and
• 8:55
  my daughterinlaw is a cardiologist, so they're both
• 8:57
  there in medical programs. Right now.
• 8:59
  He's in residency and she's finishing up a fellowship.
• 9:02
  Wow. You must be very proud.
• 9:07
  Who's older? Your, your daughter or your son?
• 9:10
  My son is older by about two years, nine months, OKOK, so
• 9:20
  backing up, what is your What was your experience, your career
• 9:27
  trajectory before kids came along?
• 9:32
  Great question. I guess the you've been in it,
• 9:37
  you've been been in the game for a while.
• 9:40
  I think the first thing to say is that I never wanted to have
• 9:44
  kids because I was so. I was so concerned that they
• 9:47
  would interrupt my career trajectory.
• 9:52
  I was a singer and dancer in the on the East Coast.
• 9:56
  I did Off Broadway shows. I did regional theater shows.
• 10:00
  But I was primarily singing and dancing as my career.
• 10:05
  As a matter of fact, I did a movie in 1983 called 16 Candles
• 10:11
  that the casting director came to see me in a show called How
• 10:16
  to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
• 10:18
  And I was wearing a gigantic red wig and very tight clothing.
• 10:22
  And I talked in a voice like this the whole show and how she
• 10:27
  got. From that character to the 16
• 10:30
  Candles character, she's a brilliant casting director.
• 10:34
  So I, I, I just was very driven to be a successful working,
• 10:42
  supporting myself actress. Yeah.
• 10:47
  So what made that shift that you were like actually I guess I
• 10:53
  will help children or did you have any shift or was it just
• 10:57
  like surprise here, here it is, it's happening.
• 11:00
  The shift was, I met a guy, The shift was I met a guy in New
• 11:07
  York City and we we moved out here.
• 11:14
  He was also in the business and we moved out here when he got a
• 11:18
  job on a soap opera and. So we moved from doing theater
• 11:26
  in New York to transitioning to film and television in Los
• 11:30
  Angeles. I did do 16 candles when I lived
• 11:33
  in New York, though. Just a little movie.
• 11:35
  Some of you might have heard of it.
• 11:40
  Some of you might have, Some of you might have heard of it.
• 11:42
  Just, you know, no big deal. That's amazing.
• 11:47
  I love that movie, so I know you took a break while your kids
• 11:56
  grew were growing up. What was it like once you did
• 12:04
  get back into it? Was it just that they were a
• 12:09
  certain age? I know or like just what was it
• 12:15
  like getting back into it after taking so much time?
• 12:19
  Was there always that, like, urge?
• 12:24
  Was it harder to get? Like?
• 12:27
  Did you feel like you were starting over?
• 12:29
  Oh, completely. I thought I was starting over
• 12:32
  only because the the business was so different.
• 12:35
  When I left the the business they used to hand deliver 8 by
• 12:40
  10s to the casting director's office by messenger when agents
• 12:45
  and managers wanted to do a submission.
• 12:47
  There were, there were people that.
• 12:49
  Rode bicycles and all over New York City delivering pictures
• 12:53
  and people here driving all over LA and it was just very
• 13:01
  different. Not only was the business
• 13:03
  different, the style of acting was different.
• 13:05
  If you think about before I stopped, there were shows like
• 13:11
  Bob Newhart and that John Britter show was called
• 13:15
  Hooperman and it was very broad kind of.
• 13:19
  Sitcom acting. There were great shows like Hill
• 13:23
  Street Blues and I don't know what else trying to think there
• 13:29
  was. There were really good, you
• 13:31
  know, episodic television shows as well.
• 13:33
  But for the most part they were just written differently and
• 13:38
  they were acted differently than they were when I came back.
• 13:42
  When I returned, everything had become electronic.
• 13:45
  Everything had shifted to actors could submit themselves on
• 13:51
  something called Actors access. All of these things had changed
• 13:56
  business wise, not only acting wise.
• 13:59
  So it was really a matter of, OK, what do I do now to figure
• 14:04
  out how to get back up to speed, right.
• 14:07
  Do you think was it more because I would think most of those
• 14:14
  things make it easier, but I guess it because that's all I've
• 14:20
  known. So was it hard to like figure
• 14:25
  all that back out? Did you have to like get new
• 14:29
  representation? How did it look for you getting
• 14:33
  new rap? How did you go about doing that?
• 14:36
  After 16 candles, I signed with William Morris.
• 14:38
  So big huge agency. And I was like this teeny tiny,
• 14:41
  tiny fit. When I left New York and moved
• 14:46
  out here, my manager in New York managed me for a while.
• 14:53
  But I left the business when I got divorced and I had to figure
• 14:57
  out a way to go and support myself.
• 15:01
  So I went back to school. I worked for the American Cancer
• 15:05
  Society. Then I got for security licenses
• 15:07
  and I worked in a the Trust Company banking industry.
• 15:12
  And I really got to a point where one day a friend of mine
• 15:15
  said if I wasn't working, I had. I had left my last job because
• 15:19
  they were absorbed by another financial institution.
• 15:23
  And so I had a friend who said to me, and if you could be doing
• 15:26
  anything right now, what would you be doing?
• 15:28
  And I said I'd be auditioning. And it was that just moment in a
• 15:35
  very simple conversation that got me back in.
• 15:39
  Now I did have to relearn everything.
• 15:41
  And what I did was I joined something called the Actors
• 15:44
  Network, which was started by Kevin EW back in the Oh my God,
• 15:52
  the 90s. It's no longer in existence, but
• 15:55
  Kevin is still around, and he still has a company that helps
• 15:58
  advise actors on the business side of everything.
• 16:02
  And I I learned everything that I didn't know.
• 16:09
  Because not only did they have kind of seminar kind of things,
• 16:14
  they had a booklet that talked about casting directors in
• 16:17
  studios and had maps. But there was also something
• 16:20
  called accountability groups, where they would divide actors
• 16:23
  up into 20 or 30 people and you'd all get together and you
• 16:28
  would share information, which is what I learned was so
• 16:33
  important to make sure you had people who you trusted.
• 16:38
  Who knew what they were talking about?
• 16:40
  Not just people running around trying to be just kind of trying
• 16:46
  to be actors, but not really looking at the business as a
• 16:49
  business. And from everything I learned
• 16:54
  with the Actors Network flash Forward.
• 16:57
  A few years later, I started teaching the business of acting
• 17:01
  to students privately, but also at the American Academy of
• 17:05
  Dramatic Arts in Hollywood. Yeah, that's, yeah.
• 17:10
  I miss our our group as well. It's still going.
• 17:16
  It's still. Well then, Well then, get me
• 17:18
  back in. Let's get going.
• 17:21
  Well, you know what it is, is that there is acting is a very,
• 17:25
  can be a very isolating career for you sit in your apartment,
• 17:31
  you wait for auditions. Hopefully people are going to
• 17:36
  class so they can keep their instruments sharp and their
• 17:39
  creativity free. But if you are, if you don't
• 17:46
  have a group of people that you can learn stuff from, bang ideas
• 17:50
  around here, kind of stuff in the background of what's going
• 17:54
  on, real stuff, not just kind of all the kind of actor, what I
• 18:00
  call actor noise, that's out there.
• 18:03
  It's very loud. It's very loud and it's very
• 18:07
  distracting. And if you think about it,
• 18:10
  actors have a finite amount of money to spend, what I call
• 18:14
  actor dollars. And if you listen to a lot of
• 18:17
  the noise, you can be distracted by what's important to spend
• 18:20
  your actor dollars on. You got away from your question
• 18:26
  there a little bit. No, that's okay.
• 18:29
  Just going off the fact of how isolating being an actor is and
• 18:34
  then combined with like the isolation of motherhood too,
• 18:38
  it's like a double whammy, which both seem.
• 18:43
  It's interesting because both seem so community driven and
• 18:49
  they are once you're in the. Community.
• 18:54
  But what if you're not? If you're not in something, in a
• 18:58
  group, in a, if you don't have those people, then it's it's.
• 19:06
  Rough it's very it's very isolating.
• 19:10
  And that's why I think having connections with other mothers,
• 19:16
  new mothers that are working actors is so important, even if
• 19:22
  you're kind of scope. Of where to meet people or how
• 19:27
  to find people. People meet in class.
• 19:29
  People meet at auditions. And I think it's so important to
• 19:35
  talk to people. Find your people is what I tell
• 19:39
  my my students. It's so important to find other
• 19:42
  mothers like you and find out what's working for them.
• 19:47
  You know they want to know what's working for you.
• 19:50
  And I think it's so important in this industry to share good
• 19:54
  information. Yeah.
• 19:56
  Yeah. Especially because for acting
• 20:00
  and being a mother, both can be. There's so much compare and
• 20:06
  despair in both of those because you know, especially social
• 20:10
  media, it's very like this is. I I pack my kids lunch and make
• 20:16
  them look, everything's in the shape of stars and hearts.
• 20:19
  And I do this, this, this and this.
• 20:20
  And then I booked this job and look at me doing all myself
• 20:25
  tapes and all my auditions and it's like, for fuck's sake, why?
• 20:30
  What am I? And you can just scroll and
• 20:32
  scroll and be like what am I doing with my life.
• 20:38
  No, I I totally get it. I totally understand.
• 20:42
  I. I'm going to take a break right
• 20:46
  here because I have to grab a Kleenex.
• 20:47
  That's go for it. No, we're just.
• 20:49
  Signing up, do you remember what we just said?
• 21:01
  I was just talking about Doom scrolling.
• 21:04
  OK. Yes.
• 21:05
  OK. Hold on one second.
• 21:06
  Sorry. All right, I think.
• 21:14
  Social media is start again. I think social media can be very
• 21:23
  detrimental to young moms, young actors, because it's all about
• 21:35
  how somebody else does something and I it's good to.
• 21:40
  Believe me, I've learned like to put postits on a mirror to play
• 21:44
  with my grandson. I've on TikTok, so I, I, I, I
• 21:49
  you learn stuff. But again, it's about the noise,
• 21:54
  and I think that can be very distracting.
• 21:58
  Yeah. How do you find yourself not
• 22:03
  getting distracted by the noise? Well, you have to understand,
• 22:08
  I've been doing this for 400 years.
• 22:12
  I I am in and I know I am grateful for this every day.
• 22:18
  I do not take this for granted one bit.
• 22:22
  I have good representation. I have a good resume.
• 22:27
  People know who I am for one reason or another.
• 22:33
  And I. Honestly, don't participate in
• 22:37
  the noise. I did.
• 22:41
  I did participate in a accountability group out after I
• 22:44
  left the Actors network for many years and I got to a place where
• 22:50
  because of my chronologic age, I was not in the same
• 22:58
  circumstances a lot of people in that particular group.
• 23:01
  So finding another group could be a possibility, but.
• 23:05
  I've also gotten to a place where I just trust that and I
• 23:12
  don't mean to sound really woo woo, but what's going to happen
• 23:14
  is going to happen if I am doing my job and my job for me is
• 23:22
  going to class my my job is having a good setup and being
• 23:32
  comfortable. Doing self tapes.
• 23:36
  I know a lot of people who are very resentful that they have to
• 23:38
  do self tapes to me. I'm like, I could do it all day
• 23:44
  long because I get to choose what I get to send.
• 23:50
  Do I miss being in front of casting directors?
• 23:53
  Absolutely. But I also am very realistic to
• 23:56
  know this is how we do it now. Just like there's no more guys
• 24:00
  delivering 8 by 10s on bicycles anymore, we don't have to even
• 24:04
  print out our headshots. Really.
• 24:06
  We don't have to print out headshots.
• 24:09
  Fabulous. Yeah.
• 24:12
  Save. Save the little money we can in
• 24:15
  the places that we can. But it's true.
• 24:17
  It's really true. So I think once you get
• 24:20
  confident in, and I will, I will say this, when I was a mom, it
• 24:26
  always came first. It it just.
• 24:29
  It had. In my mind.
• 24:30
  It had to, because I was responsible for two little
• 24:33
  creatures, yeah, who are now very happy, healthy, successful
• 24:38
  creatures, yeah. And I love, love you.
• 24:41
  You did such a good job. You're still doing such a good
• 24:44
  job. Like it says a lot that you
• 24:48
  know. Like you said how how I am, how
• 24:52
  your children are. It says a lot about how you
• 24:56
  were. You are as a mother.
• 25:00
  But being a mother first was very important when they were
• 25:03
  littler. Now that they I'm in a different
• 25:05
  place. Once they got to junior high
• 25:07
  school or high school, I was still their mom.
• 25:09
  But suddenly my focus went to I am an actor and I.
• 25:15
  It was no longer like, I'm going to do this around my children.
• 25:18
  It would then became this is what I do for a living.
• 25:22
  And wrapping my head around that finally, because I can make the
• 25:25
  transition from my children need me more than anything right now
• 25:29
  to now it Now it's mine turn. Yeah, Is that is that a strange
• 25:37
  place to to be? Because obviously for me right
• 25:43
  now that seems so far off. And then you get to the place
• 25:47
  where like they, like you said, like they don't need you all the
• 25:50
  time. Is that a strange?
• 25:53
  I mean, obviously it doesn't happen overnight.
• 25:57
  And a great question. And here's here's what I tell
• 26:00
  what I'm going to tell you what I think about that we're women.
• 26:05
  We if we were a man. This is so sexist.
• 26:09
  I can't believe it is what it is, I'm sure.
• 26:12
  Yeah, I know. It's like our society is just so
• 26:16
  conditioned that a man has a job and a man supports the family
• 26:20
  and we can do the same thing. We can say, and this is what the
• 26:27
  one thing that I would have changed is I would have said I
• 26:34
  am an actor who is a mom if I. I I would have liked to have
• 26:40
  said that earlier than I did instead of saying I'm a mom
• 26:42
  who's an actor. Because putting it's all about
• 26:49
  our head. Our heart only believes what we
• 26:51
  tell ourselves. So if I if I had put that first,
• 26:58
  I don't know if things had been different.
• 27:00
  I don't know if I would have taken such a big break from the
• 27:02
  business, but. I don't think it's a bad thing
• 27:06
  for us to say I am an actor who has children.
• 27:09
  I am. I am an actor who's a mom.
• 27:12
  Yeah. Because ultimately, that brings
• 27:14
  so much more depth to our work. For sure.
• 27:18
  Yeah. Yeah, I feel like we there's a
• 27:22
  sense that like if we don't say like I'm a mom above all things,
• 27:27
  which like, of course it goes without saying, but we still
• 27:32
  have to say it. That like we love our children
• 27:35
  and our children will always come first.
• 27:38
  That should we shouldn't have to preface every sentence we say
• 27:42
  with I love my kids, but today is hard.
• 27:47
  I love my kids, but I wanted it like.
• 27:50
  And it and it just totally be. Just totally be.
• 27:54
  I love my kids and yes, but. It it it has to be an end.
• 28:00
  Because if we are going to be professionals, if we are going
• 28:03
  to have a career, just like a man would have a career, we have
• 28:09
  to find ways to incorporate everything in our lives.
• 28:14
  In our lives. Yeah, yeah.
• 28:17
  Don't you find it so odd that even now people will be like, if
• 28:23
  a guy is on set, a dad is on set, an actor who has kids is on
• 28:30
  set and they're like, they'll be like, won't even think twice,
• 28:37
  Other people won't think twice. But if if if a female actor, if
• 28:41
  a actress is on set and she has kids and they're like, oh, who's
• 28:45
  watching your kids and you're like, why aren't you asking him?
• 28:50
  He also has the children. Like, it sucks that that's still
• 28:56
  a thing. I would equally ask both, like,
• 29:00
  just who's watching your kids just because I'm nosy?
• 29:03
  And like, how are you making work?
• 29:05
  Because I'm like, how are you making it work?
• 29:08
  Who's doing it? Do you have free help?
• 29:10
  What's happening? Again, I think it just goes back
• 29:14
  to that. And I am not saying that dads
• 29:16
  aren't spectacular at child rearing.
• 29:22
  So much of it. I know, I've seen, you know how
• 29:25
  much he watches the baby? It's like.
• 29:29
  But I think again, it's just, it's such a still such a
• 29:32
  traditional role, being a mom, being a mother.
• 29:35
  We give birth, we breastfeed, yeah, all these things.
• 29:40
  And I don't know if you have time for a fast breastfeeding
• 29:43
  story. Yeah, of course.
• 29:46
  And when my son was born he was £10 three oz came out, look like
• 29:51
  he was ready to have a cigarette.
• 29:53
  So he was really big and about. When he was five months old, I
• 30:00
  got my first job on television on an episode of Saint Elsewhere
• 30:05
  and the the role was a woman who was delivering a baby.
• 30:12
  And it's it's on YouTube. You can find it.
• 30:15
  It's once I tell you the story you'll you'll go, I got to look
• 30:18
  at this. So Mark Tinker was the director.
• 30:21
  He was also one of the producers of the show.
• 30:24
  And the after the first day of rehearsal I lived in Studio City
• 30:27
  and the MTM studios is CBS is also in Studio City.
• 30:32
  So I went to the director and I said I'm nursing a baby.
• 30:35
  He was five months old at the time so he was really big And I
• 30:40
  said I'm, I'm nursing a baby. Are you alright if I leave the
• 30:43
  studio and come back after lunch and he goes, you're nursing a
• 30:46
  baby. And I was like, yeah, and he
• 30:49
  goes, we know nurse on camera and I was thinking.
• 30:53
  It's 1987. It's a boob.
• 30:56
  What are they going to show, right?
• 30:59
  So I said yeah, sure. So I went home, came back, We
• 31:08
  finished rehearsing. The next day we started.
• 31:10
  We were going to get ready to shoot.
• 31:12
  I'm on a a Gurney with. David Morris in between my legs
• 31:18
  for like 4 days. It was like the best.
• 31:22
  And I was in my trailer and there's a knock at the door and
• 31:24
  all of a sudden the second AD comes in and he said okay, we
• 31:28
  have some babies. And I said, oh okay.
• 31:31
  And he goes, we just want to see who will, who will, you know,
• 31:35
  who's hungry. So they brought the babies in.
• 31:38
  Now to be on television, you have to be 6 weeks old.
• 31:41
  So all of these babies were born as preemies.
• 31:45
  They ring all the mothers and the baby and the teacher because
• 31:50
  you have to have a teacher on set if there's children.
• 31:54
  And they brought them all into my trailer and suddenly I
• 31:58
  panicked. And I was like, I have no
• 32:00
  diseases. I there have been wit nurses for
• 32:03
  centuries, you know. They handed me a baby Taylor.
• 32:06
  I will never forget her name. I picked up my shirt.
• 32:08
  I put her on the boob but looked down and said that's not my
• 32:11
  child. Taylor was hungry.
• 32:13
  Taylor's nursing. So the teacher opens the trailer
• 32:18
  and says the second ADOK we have a hungry baby, I hear on the
• 32:22
  walkie-talkie. OK, we're coming to set.
• 32:24
  We got a hungry baby. We're walking to set.
• 32:29
  I'm still a little bit in shock, as is my face.
• 32:36
  I crawl up on the Gurney and you can only be under the lights if
• 32:42
  you're a certain age for a certain amount of time.
• 32:44
  So everything was really dark. I'm up there.
• 32:48
  I am still just kind of sitting there trying to process what's
• 32:53
  going on. They hand me Taylor.
• 32:57
  The lights come up. They have a clipboard over
• 33:01
  Taylor's face like this so that she's still not in the lights.
• 33:04
  Cuz they were still setting up some stuff?
• 33:06
  Sure. I looked down and all of a
• 33:10
  sudden chaos starts happening in the back of the stage.
• 33:14
  The lights go down, The baby's taken out of my arms.
• 33:19
  What had happened was MTM. Got wind that they were shooting
• 33:24
  something with bodily fluids exchanging and they shut it
• 33:28
  down. Wow.
• 33:33
  So the PS:. To This is the next day.
• 33:38
  Same scenario. Bring in the baby, turn up the
• 33:41
  lights. This is over.
• 33:43
  They tried it again. They had tried it again, but
• 33:45
  this time I had a body stocking on.
• 33:48
  And in the show, if you watch the episode, you see Taylor
• 33:52
  trying to eat her way through the bodystocking.
• 33:55
  Oh my God, there are so many things about that story.
• 34:01
  That episode, I think that episode won six Emmys because it
• 34:05
  was it was an extraordinary episode.
• 34:08
  But that was my first job on television.
• 34:11
  Holy shit. First of all, why wouldn't could
• 34:16
  they? Was there any discussion of them
• 34:19
  just, oh, because your baby, he was so your son was.
• 34:22
  So they asked me, they said, they said, can we use your son?
• 34:25
  And I was like, you don't understand.
• 34:28
  He was born looking like he was five months old when he he
• 34:32
  looked like he was five months old when he was born.
• 34:34
  So, Oh, no, he was sitting up and he was big.
• 34:38
  Oh my God. I mean, yeah, we've had a couple
• 34:42
  where they're like, does May look like younger?
• 34:48
  And I'm like, no, no, she doesn't.
• 34:51
  She looks her age, as she should.
• 34:55
  But it's very interesting. My manager wanted to sign my
• 34:59
  grandson because they need newborns, but unfortunately my
• 35:04
  grandson was also built born large.
• 35:06
  So we're big people, not 16 candles.
• 35:09
  You see, We're big people. Oh my God, That's crazy.
• 35:17
  I wouldn't have even thought of the idea.
• 35:19
  I forget that. Like, yeah, a wet nurse is a
• 35:22
  thing, but the idea of nursing something like, yeah, somebody,
• 35:27
  you know, this is not my, this is not my son.
• 35:30
  I will never forget what she looks like.
• 35:32
  And I will tell you right now, there is a woman who's 35 years
• 35:35
  old walking around out there going, yeah, my mother handed me
• 35:39
  to a total stranger to nurse me so I could be on television, she
• 35:47
  says to her therapist. She says, Oh my God, wow.
• 35:56
  OK, So what ages or like, what was the, I guess, ages of your
• 36:04
  kids when you were taking a break?
• 36:06
  Like, when did you, like, stop? And when did you come back?
• 36:13
  Because obviously you were I still doing it when your son was
• 36:17
  a baby? Yes, I was.
• 36:21
  That's a great question. I stopped when he was about
• 36:26
  four, and she was about two. OK, so you.
• 36:32
  So you were in it. It's still in the thick of
• 36:35
  motherhood with two, though. You were still auditioning and
• 36:40
  at that point when when they were so little, was acting your
• 36:46
  your only focus or did you did you have another thing going on
• 36:52
  or? At that time, their dad is a
• 36:57
  director, producer in town, and we I was a mom or I was an actor
• 37:06
  and I actually worked a lot when they were little.
• 37:12
  I did have help because he was at the studio all day long and
• 37:18
  and sometimes into the evening and I did a lot of work when
• 37:22
  they were little. So it was, it was a wonderful
• 37:31
  time because I could still, you know, many cases would be home
• 37:34
  to put them in the bathtub and to put them to bed and, you
• 37:37
  know, all those those wonderful parts of of mommy hood.
• 37:41
  Yeah. What were you able to work like
• 37:46
  while you were pregnant or how did it look back then?
• 37:49
  Because I know now that people, you know, I still had auditions.
• 37:54
  I got my first coaster of being pregnant.
• 37:56
  And like people you can hide it. Like, was it, was it similar
• 38:00
  back then? Did you, like, not want to work
• 38:06
  while you were pregnant? Were you sick at all?
• 38:08
  What were your pregnancies like? My pregnancies were quite
• 38:12
  traumatic because I was very sick.
• 38:14
  I got pregnancy induced asthma, so I was on dramatic medication.
• 38:21
  So if I looked like a cute little pregnant person, maybe I
• 38:25
  would have worked. But I first of all, 10 pound,
• 38:29
  three ounce babies and I was just, I was not.
• 38:34
  I was not a healthy pregnant girl.
• 38:36
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 38:39
  Did you were you nervous, like telling your reps once you were
• 38:45
  pregnant or like was there any? Were you just like I'm pregnant?
• 38:50
  Here it is. Deal with it or or what was
• 38:53
  their reaction? Do if you remember what they
• 38:57
  said when you told them? Or did you tell them?
• 39:02
  I'm going to be honest, I don't remember.
• 39:04
  Yeah, I. Don't remember that.
• 39:06
  Yeah, I I know that we are all so nervous about like, what's
• 39:11
  going to happen once? What are people going to say?
• 39:15
  And so far, every person I've talked to, like, there hasn't
• 39:20
  been a bad reaction. Like who's going to be like, no,
• 39:26
  like that baby. How dare you get pregnant?
• 39:28
  Like, who's going to say that? And if they do, you need new rap
• 39:32
  like, obviously. Absolutely.
• 39:35
  OK, sidebar, sidebar, my reps, my managers were two gay women
• 39:40
  and they were so excited that I was having a baby that they that
• 39:43
  they could have a baby. So then it was like, but OK, go
• 39:46
  back that on. I love that.
• 39:51
  That's amazing. Yeah, I feel like people are so
• 39:56
  women are so nervous about. Being an actor and getting
• 40:02
  pregnant of like, what's when am I going to work again?
• 40:06
  Am I going to be able to audition?
• 40:09
  And like you said, like if it. What's going to happen is going
• 40:12
  to happen? Like, I think that was one of
• 40:16
  my, like biggest things. Holdups.
• 40:22
  Whatever the word is before getting pregnant where it's
• 40:25
  like, well, I'm not where I want to be and what's going to
• 40:29
  happen, but it's like, well, I'm 3035.
• 40:34
  I either got to kind of shit or get off the ball.
• 40:37
  Like if I want to have a baby, it's like you got to you got to
• 40:41
  have your life too. And like, I think as actors, we
• 40:44
  forget how important life is outside of acting, because we're
• 40:51
  so like acting is my life. What are your Oh my God, when
• 40:55
  they ask what are your some of your hobbies?
• 40:57
  And I'm like, I'm an actor. I don't have hobbies.
• 41:01
  I act. You know, it's really, it is
• 41:04
  really important because you know that I remember my mother
• 41:07
  telling me when I was thinking about having babies and she said
• 41:13
  there's never a good time, there's never a good time, You
• 41:16
  just do it. You just choose to do it when
• 41:19
  you choose to do it. And I think that was the a big
• 41:25
  lesson for me to learn. One of the funny things I will
• 41:28
  share with you is that I was terrified to tell my father I
• 41:31
  was pregnant. I was the I was the eldest of
• 41:34
  three daughters. You've been telling my me my
• 41:37
  whole life don't get pregnant. So when I found out he was
• 41:43
  actually going through treatment for cancer and he was, he was in
• 41:47
  a room that had a big radioactive sign on it.
• 41:54
  He I wanted to tell him I wanted to you know do something to make
• 41:58
  him feel better. So I stood outside the the
• 42:02
  window and I went like this on my belly and 1st I said.
• 42:09
  I went like this and he like, didn't get it.
• 42:11
  And I pointed to the radioactive sign and he looked at me and I
• 42:14
  went like this. Next thing I knew there were Ivy
• 42:18
  tubes flying and he had jumped out of bed and he was pressed up
• 42:21
  against the window and he was kissing the window.
• 42:23
  Oh my God, it was wonderful. That's so sweet.
• 42:28
  Yeah, it is a weird. It is a weird thing, telling
• 42:32
  your dad that you're pregnant, cuz you're like let's not
• 42:37
  rewind. Like what?
• 42:39
  But it's the same thing as like how we're born.
• 42:43
  We're all we all get here the same way, We just don't want to
• 42:46
  think about. And we don't want to tell our
• 42:48
  fathers exactly. It's like, I don't want to tell
• 42:52
  anybody. It's so funny.
• 42:54
  Oh man. Like my my mother was, you know,
• 42:58
  raised in the in the age where you didn't say the word that you
• 43:03
  only said. You know you couldn't see it on,
• 43:06
  you couldn't say it on television.
• 43:08
  You wouldn't say it out loud to at a party or something that you
• 43:13
  Oh my God, that's so bizarre. It's so.
• 43:17
  Ask your mom. She'll tell you.
• 43:18
  I know your mom's bigger than my mom, but yeah, that's that's
• 43:24
  bizarre. Oh, man.
• 43:27
  So So when? So then what?
• 43:32
  How old were your kids when you started getting back into it?
• 43:35
  You said like middle. Schoolish My daughter was 15 and
• 43:43
  my son was 17. Something like that, Yeah.
• 43:46
  So like self-sufficient for the most part.
• 43:51
  And that's when I joined the actors network and I went back
• 43:53
  to class and I think I just, if if there's one thing that I I
• 43:59
  would tell new mommy, actresses is actors.
• 44:04
  Go to class. It just it reminds you who you
• 44:09
  are, what you do. It reminds you that you have a
• 44:14
  path and that you have an ability to create.
• 44:23
  And again, that just the communal support that you can
• 44:26
  get in a good class with a good teacher and there's so.
• 44:35
  Much I got. I've got a list.
• 44:37
  But it's true. It's true.
• 44:40
  And it's also, to be quite honest, finding someone who's a
• 44:43
  teacher, who's supportive of your life life's choices.
• 44:47
  Yeah, yeah, that's true. So when you when you were got,
• 44:55
  we're getting back getting back into it and like had to find new
• 44:59
  reps and like figure out how things were like newly working
• 45:05
  then did you, how did you juggle?
• 45:12
  Because I mean obviously your kids I guess at that time like I
• 45:16
  said we're pretty selfsufficient.
• 45:18
  But how did you still juggle? Like, were you then able to be
• 45:24
  like, I'm an actor who's a mom? Or were you still, like, trying
• 45:28
  to juggle like, mommy guilt? I don't know whatever word we
• 45:35
  would call it. I don't think I was juggling
• 45:41
  mommy guilt. I think at that time in my life,
• 45:46
  because I had been in an industry, pardon me, because I
• 45:51
  had, I had been in this financial services industry and
• 45:54
  I was. So unhappy.
• 45:57
  And I had a lot of people saying, don't you miss acting?
• 46:00
  And I'd say no, I act like I know what the fuck I'm talking
• 46:03
  about every day. So I didn't I really.
• 46:08
  And I think when I had to start looking for a Rep again, I had
• 46:13
  the confidence to say, here's my resume, yes, there is a gap and
• 46:20
  here is why and to say to the people that I was talking to.
• 46:25
  I raised my children. I didn't tell them anything else
• 46:29
  other than saying this was important for me to do, and I
• 46:32
  was very grateful because I ran into people who really respected
• 46:37
  that. I was also very fortunate
• 46:40
  because I did have a strong resume from before I left the
• 46:45
  business. So it was easy coming back and
• 46:48
  saying here's what I've done and the fact that I was in A.
• 46:55
  Hugely popular, kind of iconic movie really helped as well
• 47:00
  because a lot of the people that I were was talking to at the
• 47:03
  time were people who grew up with that movie, and so I was
• 47:08
  very fortunate with that as well.
• 47:12
  Were you then at that time coming back, did you feel like
• 47:18
  you were in a different category and you had been before?
• 47:24
  And how did you? Yeah, how?
• 47:27
  How was that navigating or how was it navigating that?
• 47:35
  Well, interestingly enough, I never wasn't ingenue.
• 47:39
  Yeah, I just was never built like that.
• 47:42
  So when I was younger, I was a character actor.
• 47:45
  Yeah, I when I came back, I was still a character actor.
• 47:50
  I just had more mileage under the hood and interestingly
• 47:58
  enough, a character actor, the age of a character actor kind of
• 48:03
  fluctuates. So some days I can be I can go
• 48:08
  out as forty. No, not really.
• 48:11
  I can go out as 50. I can go out of 50 and and
• 48:15
  sometimes I go out with no makeup on and play up the Gray
• 48:19
  hair and and I go 70. So that's the difference between
• 48:26
  being a character actor. My best friend is is a
• 48:29
  beautiful, beautiful woman who was on soap operas for a long,
• 48:33
  long time and as she got older the roles changed.
• 48:38
  And sometimes it's easy to change into those and sometimes
• 48:42
  it's not as comfortable. Yeah, yeah, I I wonder if it
• 48:50
  was, I don't want to say easier, but like that that break.
• 48:58
  I wonder if that was helpful to like come back, cuz I know, like
• 49:03
  if we just keep going and going, it's like I'm like, I haven't
• 49:07
  changed since I was 22. But it's like, no, there's
• 49:13
  there's some difference between now and then.
• 49:18
  But I am very interested in because how you were saying that
• 49:23
  you had, you know, this this other job, this other life
• 49:28
  essentially, and you ended up even like that you lost that job
• 49:37
  because the things were. So it's interesting that even
• 49:41
  when you're like, oh, I'm going to have this steady, normal
• 49:47
  person job for this amount of time and it's still not really
• 49:52
  as steady as we think it'll be anyway, right?
• 49:56
  Absolutely, if you are not working for yourself.
• 50:00
  You are always at the mercy of the people you work for it the
• 50:06
  industry you work for, the stock market.
• 50:12
  A I, you know, there's so many things that can influence our
• 50:20
  employment. That being said, I knew that
• 50:27
  there was only one thing I wanted to do.
• 50:30
  Yeah. And I it doesn't mean that I
• 50:33
  wasn't very good at selling multimillion dollar portfolios,
• 50:38
  because I was. But the fact is, is that it
• 50:40
  wasn't where my heart was. There was a period of time I
• 50:44
  knew I had to support my family. I'd had to do what I needed to
• 50:47
  do. But I was really happy to kind
• 50:51
  of get back to the real me, who I really was.
• 50:56
  And did you find that once you were able to go back to doing
• 51:04
  what you loved, did you think that there was a difference in
• 51:10
  in being a mom? I would think as a child, it
• 51:14
  would be nice to see your mom finally do what she loves.
• 51:20
  Oh, I'm going to cry. I I think.
• 51:27
  My children are kind of in a unique situation because while
• 51:30
  they were growing up, there's nothing as a as like a teenager.
• 51:38
  There's nothing more disturbing than have people run up to you
• 51:41
  at a table in a restaurant and ask them, people asking your
• 51:45
  mother for an autograph or a picture which happened most of
• 51:51
  their life. I I can't say that it.
• 51:57
  It made me a better mom or a different mom.
• 52:01
  But what it did is it made me a happier individual, which I can
• 52:06
  only think that made me a better mom.
• 52:12
  Yeah, yeah, I think. Did your did your kids know that
• 52:18
  that's what you wanted to do all along?
• 52:24
  Like, did they know that you were an actor and like?
• 52:27
  No, I think because what I thought would have done is that
• 52:31
  would have told my children I wasn't happy in my life and I
• 52:35
  would never. I never wanted to portray that
• 52:39
  to my children, that whatever I was doing, I just want to be
• 52:41
  their mom. I wanted to just be solid.
• 52:43
  It doesn't really matter what we do, it just they want us.
• 52:47
  They want to know that we're there for them, so they don't
• 52:51
  care. They don't.
• 52:54
  Most kids, because, you know, I I teach young kids and a lot of
• 52:59
  times in our, like, opening circle times I'll be like, what
• 53:02
  do our parents like? We ask a different question each
• 53:05
  time. And I'll one of the times.
• 53:08
  A lot of times I'll say, like, what are your parents?
• 53:11
  Does anybody know what their parents do for work?
• 53:14
  Most of them do not. Most of them are like, they talk
• 53:18
  on the phone or they're on their computer, or they go to work, or
• 53:24
  they like they're very just like, I don't know.
• 53:28
  My children, my children knew what we did with their dad and
• 53:31
  what I did because they would often go to the studio.
• 53:35
  My their dad was a producer director on a sitcom that ran
• 53:42
  for 400 years, so they used to go to the studio with their dad
• 53:47
  on Friday nights for taping. And so, you know, hanging out
• 53:51
  with Kevin James and Leah Remini wasn't a big deal for them
• 53:55
  because they just, that's who their dad worked with.
• 53:59
  And so they could understand, oh, that's what mom used to do.
• 54:02
  Because at that time, yeah, it's really, it's really funny.
• 54:08
  Even today, my kids just want they They just don't care about.
• 54:16
  Oh, I was on that episode of that the other night.
• 54:19
  Or. Or I dubbed this movie into
• 54:22
  English. You might enjoy this movie.
• 54:24
  They're like, oh, I don't, OK. I don't have to, you know, It's
• 54:30
  like if I was a dentist, they wouldn't want to see the teeth
• 54:32
  that I filled, you know? I mean, good point.
• 54:35
  A solid point. That's true.
• 54:40
  I know. Well, I know your son's not.
• 54:44
  Your daughter's not in the industry either, right?
• 54:46
  Not anymore. She used to be.
• 54:47
  She actually went to Columbia College to study for film
• 54:51
  directing because she really, she really wanted to.
• 54:54
  And she was not really happy in the industry because as many
• 55:00
  people have to start out in very low positions and often times
• 55:05
  those people aren't treated very well and.
• 55:10
  You know, and I just, I applaud her.
• 55:12
  I say, you know, good for you that you could say, Nope, this
• 55:16
  is not for me, right. Yeah, I wish I had that at some
• 55:20
  point. You know, and you never know.
• 55:23
  You never know. I've had friends that worked in
• 55:26
  this industry forever and they said, Yep, I'm done.
• 55:31
  I am not one of those people. I want my entire head to be
• 55:35
  Gray. I would.
• 55:36
  I would like to die on a set. I would like to just.
• 55:41
  I am a character actor. Yeah.
• 55:44
  So for me, I never have to stop working and I don't want to.
• 55:48
  Yeah, I love that. I feel like like even though as
• 55:55
  much as like our kids don't care what we do, it is nice to show
• 56:00
  them like that at whatever age like that, we can always pursue
• 56:07
  what we want and and for them too, like we just want our kids
• 56:13
  to choose something that they want to do.
• 56:18
  And that's that's something that I learned as a mom, that one of
• 56:21
  the most important things and even when they were older,
• 56:24
  because it meant more when they were little, they they didn't
• 56:27
  have this concept but to show my children I had confidence in
• 56:32
  what I was doing. To show my children that I had
• 56:37
  very clear career goals. That I think was something
• 56:43
  important for them to see, but that I'm once again.
• 56:45
  That was when I returned to the industry when they were older.
• 56:50
  Confidence to show them this is who I am.
• 56:52
  This is what I do. Yeah.
• 56:56
  I mean, and that's. I feel like that's pretty
• 56:59
  priceless. Like, it's hard.
• 57:00
  You know, You can only lead by example.
• 57:04
  You can't really tell your kids to be confident.
• 57:08
  Like if you're, you know, not paving the way ahead of time.
• 57:14
  Oh man, that makes me so happy. And I'm so happy you get to be
• 57:20
  with your grandson so much. I just, I just tilted over
• 57:24
  sideways and I realized, oh, the high chairs right back there.
• 57:27
  I was, like, trying to give her it up.
• 57:29
  Oh my God, he's so stinking cute.
• 57:33
  Yeah. We might have to like if May
• 57:37
  goes for younger man, we might have to I mean we should at
• 57:40
  least have a play date that's for that's for sure.
• 57:45
  We're not far apart. We should definitely do it.
• 57:50
  Well, what would you say right now is like your you're a
• 57:58
  lifesaver at the moment. Like what Do you what's class?
• 58:06
  Yeah, Will you Do you want to share where you take class or
• 58:10
  some of the places that you would recommend?
• 58:16
  Sure, I I went to Carnegie Mellon with a gentleman named
• 58:22
  Jeffrey Marcus. Who is an extraordinary teacher,
• 58:29
  but he's an extraordinary teacher because he's an
• 58:33
  incredible human being. I like to send new actors to
• 58:42
  Jeffrey because I definitely think he has a gift for not
• 58:49
  really directing, but really helping people understand the
• 58:54
  craft. I take from a gentleman named
• 58:57
  Rob Brownstein who is also a great human being and has
• 59:04
  actually a road map. He's created 7 questions that he
• 59:11
  gives to people when they are sitting, when they're beginning
• 59:15
  to work on a character he is. I like Rob's class because of
• 59:21
  the incredible actors. That are in the class, It really
• 59:25
  feels like a company of people that really care about each
• 59:30
  other and are reliable for each other.
• 59:36
  And it's it's it's also a good class.
• 59:39
  Are you able? Go ahead.
• 59:42
  Are you able? Do you do in class or do you do
• 59:45
  zoom classes? Or do you find there's a
• 59:47
  difference or one you prefer? It's that's a great question.
• 59:51
  I actually preferred zoom classes because I was very
• 59:55
  careful during the pandemic. But what I can tell you about
• 59:58
  zoom classes is that zoom class replicates a self tape.
• 1:00:04
  Zoom class is right here and I found that I sharpened so many
• 1:00:09
  skills by having this very restricted acting canvas.
• 1:00:18
  I just recently started going back to class, which is really
• 1:00:21
  nice to to be in that environment again and be with
• 1:00:27
  actors. And so I will definitely now
• 1:00:30
  continue going in person. But Zoom class I thought was
• 1:00:35
  magnificent for me because and I I know people didn't like it,
• 1:00:40
  people want that face to face. My job is to get jobs.
• 1:00:44
  My job is to audition. Acting class is great, but Zoom
• 1:00:49
  taught me how to audition better than I was before.
• 1:00:53
  Yeah, yeah. I guess it's similar to the SELF
• 1:00:56
  tape where it's like, well, this is the lens they're going to be
• 1:01:01
  seeing me in, but it is nice to have that like face to face.
• 1:01:06
  So it is, you know, I got very good at creating my camera, my
• 1:01:13
  laptop with my reading partner, so that the camera for my phone
• 1:01:19
  was right here and my partner was right here, so I could
• 1:01:23
  actually have a conversation with someone and it looked
• 1:01:27
  really good. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:29
  Once you get the set up up, you're golden.
• 1:01:34
  Once you get that all figured out.
• 1:01:38
  Oh man. Well, it's been so good talking
• 1:01:41
  to you. And I appreciate you taking your
• 1:01:44
  time. I know that we got lots of stuff
• 1:01:49
  going on, so I really appreciate you taking your time and we
• 1:01:56
  definitely have to get a play date together.
• 1:01:58
  You know, I wanted, I wanted to share one last thing with you,
• 1:02:04
  something about defining ourselves.
• 1:02:10
  Once we give birth, we have no choice.
• 1:02:13
  We are always a mom. And knowing that we can do more
• 1:02:23
  than just be a mom is, I think, really important.
• 1:02:27
  And I don't think mothers tell their daughters this enough.
• 1:02:33
  I have something in my closet that I look at every day and it
• 1:02:37
  says they're four. Postits says I am, I will, I
• 1:02:44
  can. I do.
• 1:02:48
  And I can look at those four posters and apply them to
• 1:02:51
  anything in my life. And I think it's important that
• 1:02:55
  we just every day tell ourselves just because I have babies, just
• 1:03:02
  because I have been blessed with this gift of delivering children
• 1:03:08
  to the world, I can still have it.
• 1:03:12
  Bang up. Fucking amazing career.
• 1:03:15
  Yes, Amen. Amen.
• 1:03:20
  I'll be using that sound clip. I didn't mean to give a sound
• 1:03:28
  clip. I don't goosebumps.
• 1:03:29
  I just think it's important that young women hear that.
• 1:03:34
  Yeah, yeah, because I do. I feel you because there are.
• 1:03:40
  There's so many, like women. It's like once you have a mom
• 1:03:44
  and it's like I'm a mom and that's that's, you know, like we
• 1:03:50
  said, of course, like, yes, our kids are their most important.
• 1:03:52
  But it's like and that's that what is what defines me.
• 1:03:56
  And my heart's outside of my body and all of this.
• 1:03:59
  Mother, mother, mother. And it's like, yes.
• 1:04:03
  And like how you said yes and not, but yeah.
• 1:04:08
  Always an and a good comedy. You didn't come.
• 1:04:15
  Exactly. Always.
• 1:04:16
  Yes and yeah. That's amazing.
• 1:04:22
  Yes. And that's our episode.
• 1:04:26
  Thank you so much to my guest. And a special thank you to my
• 1:04:30
  producer, Cecilia Trip with Laurel Canyon Creative.
• 1:04:35
  And thank you to Edith Mudge for our theme music.
• 1:04:39
  And I hope you enjoyed having a look into Mommywood.
• 1:04:45
  Don't forget to follow Mommywood podcast on Instagram and TikTok.
• 1:04:52
  And please give us a nice review and a few stars while you're at
• 1:04:57
  it. We would appreciate it so, so
• 1:04:59
  much and take care.