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I Smell Pop Culture: Desperate Housewives · I Am All In with Scott Patterson

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  Speaker 1: I am all in again.
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  Speaker 2: Oh that's just you.
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  Speaker 3: I Smell pop Culture with Eastern Allen and I heart
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  Speaker 3: radio podcast Here everybody, Easton Allen, I am all in podcasts.
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  Speaker 3: iHeart media, iHeart radio, I heeart podcast one eleven Productions.
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  Speaker 3: It's I smell pop culture. I smell pop culture. I
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  Speaker 3: don't just smell regular culture. I smell pop culture. And
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  Speaker 3: in case you were wondering, that is short for popular culture.
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  Speaker 3: My name is Easton Allen, and we are exploring the
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  Speaker 3: people that create the pop culture references we love in
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  Speaker 3: Gilmore Girls. There's so many in Gilmar Girls. Every other
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  Speaker 3: word is a pop culture reference. That's something we love
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  Speaker 3: about the show. We're going deeper with you here on
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  Speaker 3: the podcast. Thanks for joining us, Thanks for coming back
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  Speaker 3: this week. Oh my goodness. I know I say this
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  Speaker 3: every time, but I'm really really excited about this week.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm excited.
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  Speaker 3: We're talking to someone so cool. You know, you look
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  Speaker 3: at an actor sometimes or a director, and you look
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  Speaker 3: at their IMDb, you look at their line of work,
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  Speaker 3: and you're like, everything is so cool. They have never
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  Speaker 3: done a like sometimes people have like a weird bad
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  Speaker 3: movie or something, or something like embarrassing on their resume.
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  Speaker 3: There's some people that don't. They just have cool stuff.
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  Speaker 3: That's who we're talking to this week. Brenda Strong. Who
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  Speaker 3: is Brenda Strong? You ask that's embarrassing? You don't know
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  Speaker 3: if in case you don't know, she was Mary Alice
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  Speaker 3: Young in Desperate Housewives. That's right, Desperate Housewives. We're going
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  Speaker 3: to be venturing into Asteria Lane. And the reason we're
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  Speaker 3: doing that is because Brenda Strong has is a first
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  Speaker 3: on this podcast. She wasn't just mentioned in Gilmert Girls.
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  Speaker 3: She was in girl Mert Girls. She was a guest
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  Speaker 3: star in Gilmurt Girls. We're going to talk about all
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  Speaker 3: of that Desperate Housewives. In case you're keeping score at home,
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  Speaker 3: it was referenced in season six, episode nine, This is
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  Speaker 3: the Prodigal Daughter turns. Luke and laurale I are having
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  Speaker 3: dinner and they're arguing and Lucas upset that Laura I
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  Speaker 3: was talking to Christopher. It's a very tense conversation. Laura
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  Speaker 3: admits to Luke that she hates his grandmother's bedroom set,
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  Speaker 3: to which Luke replies, well, thank you very much for
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  Speaker 3: your honesty about my grandmother's furniture. I wish you'd been
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  Speaker 3: a little more forthcoming about the other men in your life.
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  Speaker 3: And then Laura says, oh my god, enjoy Withsteria Lane.
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  Speaker 3: You major drama queen. So I went on the internet.
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  Speaker 3: I know that was a mistake, but I went on
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  Speaker 3: the internet and I saw some people on a you know,
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  Speaker 3: one of the message boards saying that they didn't get
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  Speaker 3: that reference. They didn't know what she was talking about
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  Speaker 3: when she said enjoy with Steria Lane. And so that
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  Speaker 3: blows my mind. I feel like everybody knows Wassteria Lane
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  Speaker 3: with Siria Lane is the street in Desperate Housewives. It's
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  Speaker 3: in the fictional town affair View. It's where all the
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  Speaker 3: characters live. All the drama happens on Westeria Lane. And
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  Speaker 3: something that connects it to Gilmore Girls that I kind
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  Speaker 3: of love is that Siria Lane still stands today. It's
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  Speaker 3: like the permanent there's a permanent fixture on the Universal
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  Speaker 3: Tram Tour. If you come down here to Los Angeles,
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  Speaker 3: the entertainment capital of LA and you go to Universal Studios,
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  Speaker 3: go on the tram tour, you will drive down with
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  Speaker 3: Siria Lane. You'll see all the homes. It's so cool.
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  Speaker 3: It exists, just like stars Hollow, not many feet from
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  Speaker 3: where I sit currently at the Warner Brothers a lot.
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  Speaker 3: You can walk around stars Hollow. That is like a
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  Speaker 3: permanent fixture there. We're going to be going to Withstiria Lane.
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  Speaker 3: With Brenda Strong. She played Mary Alice Young. She is
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  Speaker 3: the first voice you hear. She's one of the first
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  Speaker 3: images you see in Desperate Housewives. She narrated every episode
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  Speaker 3: except for two. That's all only two episodes she didn't narrate.
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  Speaker 3: She's incredible. I'm such a big I mean this resume.
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  Speaker 3: We're gonna get into this with her. But like Starship Troopers,
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  Speaker 3: Twin Peaks, space Balls, Sue Ellen Mishki on Seinfeld. You
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  Speaker 3: know Scott Patterson are our illustrious host. He was on
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  Speaker 3: Seinfeld too. She was on Seinfeld. She's done so much
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  Speaker 3: incredible stuff and she's in the waiting room now. I
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  Speaker 3: don't want to keep her waiting another second. This is
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  Speaker 3: a legend we're talking to here. Let's get into it on.
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  Speaker 3: I smell pop culture. Brenda Strong here with us, the
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  Speaker 3: legendary Brenda Strong. We're so excited, thank you for doing this.
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  Speaker 2: I am so happy to be here with you.
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  Speaker 3: There's so much to get into, but we have to
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  Speaker 3: start with Desperate Housewives.
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  Speaker 1: That's that's where we're going to jump in here.
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  Speaker 3: So you're I rewatched the first episode of Desperate Housewives earlier,
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  Speaker 3: and something that I think is so exciting is like
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  Speaker 3: the camera pans down on withsteria Lane. I think you
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  Speaker 3: see evil agoria like Jogby, But the first thing you hear,
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  Speaker 3: you see you, and you hear your voice. That's the
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  Speaker 3: very first like word in the show. How did it feed?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you're like the inciting incident of this show,
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  Speaker 3: your character.
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  Speaker 2: I got the series off with a bang, a true bang.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, if you haven't seen Desperate Housewives, I'm sorry this
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  Speaker 3: is a spoiler for episode one minute two, I believe.
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  Speaker 3: But Mary Alice Young, you tragically take your own life
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  Speaker 3: in the very beginning of the first episode, and then
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  Speaker 3: you're they're the narrator for the rest of the show.
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  Speaker 1: Can you tell us how did you get involved with
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  Speaker 1: Desperate Housewives? How did that happen?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's kind of an interesting thing because it wasn't
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  Speaker 2: something that was available to me when they first shot
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  Speaker 2: the pilot, because I was on another series with the
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  Speaker 2: WB and so I wasn't available to audition for any
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  Speaker 2: of theirs. And then I had done a comedy that
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  Speaker 2: I really it was so hard, and I thought I
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  Speaker 2: need to go back to my roots, and so I
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  Speaker 2: went and did some Shakespeare in Montana with one of
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  Speaker 2: my professors from college. And I was up there doing
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  Speaker 2: much Ado about nothing and Midsummer's Night's Dream when I
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  Speaker 2: got the call from my agents saying they're replacing one
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  Speaker 2: of the characters on the pilot of Desperate Housewives. It's
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  Speaker 2: Mary Alice Young and she narrates every episode and there's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of great buzz about the show. We think
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  Speaker 2: you should audition for it. And at the time, I
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  Speaker 2: was doing a film called The Kid and I with
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  Speaker 2: Tom Arnold, and I happened to be in la right
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  Speaker 2: when they wanted to audition me. So I flew down
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  Speaker 2: and luckily I had been, you know, using all of
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  Speaker 2: my instrument doing Shakespeare. So you know, I'm out in
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  Speaker 2: the waiting room waiting for them to bring me in,
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  Speaker 2: and one of the girls comes out of the audition
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  Speaker 2: room and said, Oh, they're so nice, and don't even
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  Speaker 2: worry about having it memorized. You know, they all close
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  Speaker 2: their eyes, they just want to hear you. And I thought, okay,
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  Speaker 2: that's a different you know, And of course I didn't
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  Speaker 2: not I had it memorized. So I walked in and
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  Speaker 2: Mark Cherry was very sweet and he said, I hope
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  Speaker 2: you don't mind. We're all going to close our eyes.
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  Speaker 2: You know, this is we need to hear the story.
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  Speaker 2: And so I proceeded to tell them the story of
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  Speaker 2: my name is Mary Alice and continued on and he
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  Speaker 2: opened his eyes and I kid you not, there was
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  Speaker 2: this cherubic grin on his face and he said, I
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  Speaker 2: understand you're working in Montana. How long are you going
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  Speaker 2: to be there? And can you get out of that contract? Oh?
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  Speaker 2: And I said, funny enough, it's with friends of mine.
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  Speaker 2: And I told them that I needed an understudy on
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  Speaker 2: the off chance that I got some work. So cut
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  Speaker 2: to I ended up being one of I think two
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  Speaker 2: that they tested in the booth with the whole narrator,
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  Speaker 2: and I ended up getting it. So I became the
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  Speaker 2: new Mary Alice Young. And then we had to reshoot
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  Speaker 2: all of the scenes with Mary Alice from the pilot
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  Speaker 2: with Charles McDougall.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, so what and you go to the stereo lane's
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  Speaker 3: a real place. I mean, for intents and purposes, a
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  Speaker 3: Universal Universal Studios. If you've been on the Tram Tour,
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  Speaker 3: you've been on Westeria Lane. So going there to shoot
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  Speaker 3: reshoot those scenes, what was that like? I mean walking
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  Speaker 3: to that big set. Had you worked on like a big,
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  Speaker 3: full neighborhood like that before?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? I had done a few shows where you know,
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  Speaker 2: we're working on a back lot, either at Warner Brothers
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  Speaker 2: or Universal or Disney or any of the places that
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  Speaker 2: have you know, those types of things. But Withsteria Lane
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  Speaker 2: is a character in the show. I mean it is
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  Speaker 2: a full blown character, and it has become immortalized as
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  Speaker 2: Wasteria Lane. Now it historically so many different shows had
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  Speaker 2: used those houses and they just redressed the fronts and
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  Speaker 2: changed the paint and whatever. But I think it's so
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  Speaker 2: great that it's now kind of historically going to be
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  Speaker 2: with Steria Lane from now on.
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  Speaker 1: I love it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, It's just a permanent fixture of a I mean,
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  Speaker 3: the legendary Universal Studios. I think the Munster's house is
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  Speaker 3: like on Wassteria Lane, which I love that.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. I think that might have been Alfred Woodard's
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  Speaker 2: house when she came on season two.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, So what was a typical I mean, you
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  Speaker 3: narrated what one hundred and seventy eight episode of Oh No,
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  Speaker 3: it's one.
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  Speaker 2: Hundred and seventy eight, because there were only two episodes
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  Speaker 2: that I did not narrate. One was narrated by Edie
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  Speaker 2: Britt and the other was narrated by Bree's husband's character. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: and those were the only two that weren't narrated by
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  Speaker 2: me and kind of broke the molds. I'm looking at
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  Speaker 2: my dog trying to figure out what he's doing under my.
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  Speaker 1: Desk, the eternal question what do dogs do?
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  Speaker 3: So what was like a typical because again, you're in
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  Speaker 3: you act in some of the flashbacks, you do appear
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  Speaker 3: in the episode as not the narrator. But what was
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  Speaker 3: like a typical episode, like you just go into a
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  Speaker 3: vo booth and read the narration?
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  Speaker 1: How did that work?
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  Speaker 2: You know? It kind of evolved over time, but generally,
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  Speaker 2: I mean when we first started, it would take hours
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  Speaker 2: to do because we're trying to find the rhythm of
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: it and trying to find how to match the voice
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  Speaker 2: to picture, and it was kind of an new technique,
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  Speaker 2: not a lot of voiceovers, kind of narrated throughout episodic TV,
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  Speaker 2: and so we had to kind of create through trial
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  Speaker 2: and error, a way to make it efficient. And I finally,
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  Speaker 2: after a few episodes, I finally said, you know, it
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  Speaker 2: would be really helpful to me to have the cut
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  Speaker 2: before I come into the booth. We would save so
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  Speaker 2: much time because I could do some homework at home
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  Speaker 2: and I could practice where it is placed based on
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: where you guys placed it to picture. So the order
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: goes like this. We'd get a script, sometimes the day before,
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: sometimes a week before, depending on where we were in
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: the writer's room development. Of course, starting out we had
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: scripts in advance, but as we went on tour the
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: later episodes, we'd always get it last minute and we'd
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: sit and we'd have a table read. And that was
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: really helpful for all of us to a meet all
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  Speaker 2: the characters as they came into the street and b
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  Speaker 2: just here out loud, so all the characters could hear
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  Speaker 2: the narration based on their storyline and how it was
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  Speaker 2: going to fit in with what they were doing, etc. Etc.
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  Speaker 2: And it really gave the directors a chance to kind
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  Speaker 2: of see the overall kind of episode that they were
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  Speaker 2: getting into. So that was first off. Second off, I
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  Speaker 2: would leave from there and I would go to the
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  Speaker 2: Alfred Hitchcock Theater at the Universal kind of lot. I'd
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  Speaker 2: go down pairs into the basement where they did all
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: the editing, and they've done so many major feature films,
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  Speaker 2: and we had kind of a designated booth that was
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  Speaker 2: just ours, and I would record all of the lines,
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  Speaker 2: all the narration, and then they would take that recording
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: and the editor would use it to cut the picture.
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  Speaker 2: So every episode was cut to my voice, and sometimes
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  Speaker 2: if things changed, then the script supervisor would end up
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  Speaker 2: reading one of the lines, and so you'd sometimes hear
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  Speaker 2: my voice from the temp track, or you'd hear Linda's
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  Speaker 2: voice from the script supervisor, which always sounded a little different,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: although she tried to sound more like me as time
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  Speaker 2: went on, which was funny. And then I would get
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  Speaker 2: the DVD, I'd watch the show. I do all of
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  Speaker 2: my copious notes and do all my intentions, break down
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  Speaker 2: the script and everything, and then I would go into
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  Speaker 2: the booth on Fridays generally and record, and if I
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: wasn't working on the show on camera, then I would
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  Speaker 2: come in you know, off camera, and my sweats and
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: my sneakers and do my work.
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  Speaker 3: Were the other cast members jealous that you got to
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: roll in and like your pj's and they had to
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  Speaker 3: be in like full makeup and glam and everything.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I have to say it was really funny.
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  Speaker 2: I got a lot of got a lot of kind
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  Speaker 2: of envious comments from especially marsh Across, who is still
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  Speaker 2: a dear friend. She said, I really wanted to be
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  Speaker 2: Mary Alice Young. That was the role I wanted. I said,
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  Speaker 2: that's so fun because Mark said he probably may have
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: cast me as Bree had I been able to audition,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: so we would have swapped roles. But yeah, even Felicity,
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  Speaker 2: you know Felicity. One day, because I was doing a movie,
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  Speaker 2: Felicity decided to read my part. Oh wow, and she
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: came up to me afterwards she goes, this is a
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: And Felicity is an amazing actress. So in a lot
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: of ways. You know, what Mark Cherry does is he
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: writes music. It just happens to be. And he actually
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  Speaker 2: said the MAVO, which is the Mary Alice voiceover, was
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: the hardest writing that he had to do on the
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: show because it had to be succinct, and it had
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: to be deep, and it had to cut to the heart.
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  Speaker 2: So in a lot of ways, that was the thing
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  Speaker 2: that took the most time, was getting that succinct kind
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  Speaker 2: of human connection to why any of us were doing
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: all the Michigoths things that we were doing.
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  Speaker 3: I love learning that you like as then air are
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  Speaker 3: you coming for the table read and do it with
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  Speaker 3: everybody as It's like, because this is so naive of me,
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: but I assumed it was like the episode is filmed
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: and then the narration is written, like at the end.
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  Speaker 3: I thought it was like at the end of the
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: whole process, like you make the episode, you write the narration,
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: then you come. I love that It's a part of
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  Speaker 3: it from the very beginning.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was the infrastructure. It was the bones that
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: everything was organized around, and the editor would cut to
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  Speaker 2: my voice. So it was really I don't know, it
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: just it was a different template than anything I've ever
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: been part of before, and I loved it. I just
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: loved it.
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  Speaker 3: Would you ever have an experience where you're like at
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: the grocery store something and people like recognize you from
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  Speaker 3: your voice, like they recize, oh, I know that voice
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: is that that.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it happened a lot during the filming
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: of the show, for sure, and it's now happening again
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: because a whole new generation of young women have discovered
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Desperate Housewives because it's now, you know, on Netflix. So,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't walk around talking like Mary alast
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: I don't have this melodious voice, but there is a
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: tenor to my voice that people are like, have we
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: met before? Or oh your yeah? They get it. During
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: the show, I would be in line and I'd start
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: to order a drink and all of a sudden, people
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: would be like, Oh, it's you, you know, so that
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: was fun.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Oh my god. Brandon Strong is with us. We have
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: so much more to get into.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is a Gilmore Girls podcast, and you
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: were in Gilmore Girls. You were in the show. I
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: want to ask so much about that. We're going to
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: take a really quick break and we'll be right back.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: Branda Strong with us. It's I Smell pop culture on
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: the I Am All In podcast. We're talking about Desperate
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: How's whis We're talking about this immense resume. Every thing
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: you've done. I am a fan of. I'm just going
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: down here listening. I love that love that love that
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: we got to talk Gilmore Girls. Everyone listening pleasure here, Yes,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: everyone loves Gilmore Girls. You were in Gilmore Girls Season two,
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: episode seven, Like Motherlike Daughter. You're at the You're the
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: leader of the Chiltern Booster Club. Uh, you get to
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: tell Laura that she's going to be a model in
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: the charity fashion show. What tell us about that experience.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: What was it like getting on the set of gilmart
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Girls being Did they tell you to talk fast? That's
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: something we hear from a lot of people.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Well, the thing that was so cool about Amy was
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: that not only am I a huge fan of her
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: work and her later work, I just Man, the marvelous
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: Missus Mazelle, I just Materie, Masterpiece, masterful running, masterful production.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: She was a fan of Aaron Sorkin's and I had
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: done Sports Night with Felicity Huffman or Aaron Sorkin, And
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: so when I came on the set, she wanted to
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: know all about working with Erin because she was such
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: a huge fan. And one of the reasons she wanted
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: everyone to speak quickly is that's the sorkinism, you know. So,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: so I was very accustomed to having to speak really
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: quickly and get it all done. And the funny thing
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: is is you feel like it's fast when you're doing it,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: but the ear doesn't feel like it's fast. And Lauren
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Graham was a master at speaking quickly. She just she
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: she was so impressive. And I got to play kind
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: of kind of an uppity, you know, booster mom, where
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: I was organizing everybody, and of course she you know,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: she didn't quite fit the mold, yes, let's say, but
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: it just kind of revealed. It's so funny because that
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: show in particular was about a legacy of women. Yes, right,
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: And during that time, a show about all women and
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: my show with Desperate Housewives about all women. We were
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: changing the landscape of television. And before Us came Golden Girls,
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: and Mark Cherry had written on Golden Girls, and it
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: just felt like we were part of this kind of
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: moving movement of empowerment around telling family stories, telling friendship stories.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Women's lives became really interesting to watch, and heretofore it
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: had been all about men and procedurals and power and crime.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: And these were beloved shows because they touched on something
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: we had never really seen before, which was honest complexity
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: in women and women's lives.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's so right and it's so cool that you are,
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: that you're part of this. You know, at this momentum,
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: this shift in television when when you were doing Desperate
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: house like when you get onto the Subjusperate Housewives, was
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: had you worked on anything that was like that before
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: in your career ins of like the way they were
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: telling women's stories or anything like that. Was there anything
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: else you had done before that?
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. I had done. I had done
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: a series called The Help for Warner Brothers, and it was, Yeah,
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: it was. It was about a wealthy woman who kind
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: of ran a household of women and made and you know,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: a cook and you know, the trainer and all of that.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: But it wasn't really it didn't really resonate in the
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: same way. I think this had had just taken a
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: whole nother step.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: One of your characters that I I admire so much
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: is Sue Ellen Miske on Science So Sue the brawls,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: uh oh, Henry Candy Barner Brothers. Wonder I you know
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: she Sue Allan's a complex character. I admire her confidence
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: so much. I aspired to the level of confidence that
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: Miski has.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: It was I just.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Wanted to say, like watching the watching those episodes, it's
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: it's funny because it's it's only four episodes that you're in,
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: is Mishki, But like it feels I mean, yes, it
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: feels like if you just walked up and asked someone like, oh,
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: how many episodes of Sula Miski? And I think people
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: would say like, oh, she's in like every episode of Seinfeld, right,
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: Like you feel like such a such a base part
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: of that show.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: I loved it because growing up I had a friend,
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: like a friend of me who was the heir to
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: the Easy Bake Oven fortune. So it was kind of
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: a similar thing. But he he didn't have a need
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: for a bra. But can you can you tell us
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: about exactly exactly can you tell us about developing that
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: character with with Larry? I mean getting on the set
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: of Seinfeld, working with Larry David?
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: What was that?
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Like? It was a dream? It was an salute dream.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: I adore Larry. He is so gifted. He is a
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: comedians comedian And you know this is before Curb Your Enthusiasm,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: which I was also on as doctor Flom. But you know,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: It was truly cooler water cooler, you know, did you
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: see Seinfeld last night? Because it was all on the
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: Thursday line up, and everybody would talk on Friday morning about,
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: you know, the incredible storylines that they would bring up.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: And I ended up wanting to audition and my managers
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: at the time, and I really appreciated this, they said, wait,
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: just wait, we're looking for something that's going to stand out.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: And nothing against any of the actresses that played Jerry's girlfriends.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: They didn't want that for me. They wanted something that
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: would stand out a little bit more because usually with
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: the girlfriends.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: It was one and done yes.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: And also I'm taller than Jerry, so it might not
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: it might not have played out well. But when Sue Ellen,
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: when that part landed and they described it, they told
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: me and I said, you're kidding, I had what And
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: at the time, I had just had a baby eighteen
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: months before and I was still nursing. So I was
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: a little nervous because you know, Russ were representing a
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: lot of other things at the time, and so I
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: went into the audition and I just said, so, how
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: do you see this character, you know? And they said, oh,
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: she's very classy. She's you know, she's she's confident, and
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: so I played it the way I was going to
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: play it, and then I asked one really important question
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: before I left the room. I said, can you can
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: you tell me how tall Julia Luis Dreyfus is? Is
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: she about this tall? And I held my hand up
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: to my brawline and you should have seen Larry and
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Jerry's eyes pop open, and they went, yeah, that's about
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: how fault she is. And I knew that I just
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: planted the seed that her eyeline and my breasts were
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: going to be a joke. And so I got the job,
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: and Julia could not have been just kind of more welcoming.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: I had done a series with John O'Hurley Wow Gorge,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: and so he and I had a really great relationship.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: So when I walked on set, it was like walking
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: into Old Home Week where everyone just welcomed me. And
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Jason was great and Jerry was great, and Michael ended
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: up casting me on one of his shows later. It
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: just became this collective find the funny, joyful experiment, and
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: I to this day it was one of the happiest
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: experiences of my life. And they take comedy seriously, like
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: we're looking for it and until we find the gem,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: we're not going to leave a stone unturned. And that
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: was great.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: That makes me so happy to hear because I just
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: I look on those episodes so fondly and I just
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: love hearing that it was such a great experience for
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: you and and uh, you had such a great time
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: on the set.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: Scott Patterson who hosts this podcast, he plays Luke and
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Gilmour Girls. He's also he's also in the Elaine Orbit
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: because he was sponge Worthy. Yes, so that was really
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: exciting to get another Scienfeld connection on here. I you
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: have the coolest resume, like like honestly, honestly, I mean
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: I don't want to while I don't want to jump
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: around too much, but like I mean like Twin Peaks,
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Starship Troopers, like all these sports nights, yes, Spaceball, I
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: cannot Like, I'm just in awe.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I am in awe.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: I'm so curious, how, like someone, how do you pick these?
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: Like how does that work? You just have like hit
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: after hit after hit? How does that happen?
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: You know? I wish I could say that I did it,
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: you know, I pitched these. I'm so smart, not that
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: at all. It's you know, Treat Williams, who I got
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: to work with on Everwood, said that, you know, interviewers
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: would come up to him and say, you know, why
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: did you do that role that wasn't you know, that
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: wasn't a very good role for you, or that wasn't
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: a great movie, And he basically say, because I have
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: a family and a mortgage and it was the job
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: that was offered to me at the time. And the
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: truth is I have always been able to get jobs
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: as they come. But it's not that I choose them.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: It's more that they finally chose me, like I fit
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: whatever they were looking for, and thankfully it all just
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: worked out that they were high quality, high visibility, you know,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: kind of popular shows that had a listening in the
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: audience's heart and mind. So I don't feel like I
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: can take any credit for it. I can. I can
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: actually say I have really great agents and a great manager,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: and I've been with them for almost thirty years, so
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: I give them a lot of the credit. I mean,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: they really know who I am, and they know what
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: I'm good at, and they've put me up for the
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: right things and I end up getting the work, and
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: I'm just grateful. I'm just grateful because you know it
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: could have turned out very differently.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: Is there anything that you said no to that you
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: could remember that You're like, Oh, I wish I had.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: No regrets in I wish I had if I said no.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: I've said no to a few things, so it's not
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: like I say yes to everything.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: But I said no during a filming of something, which
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: was a first. And John Ritter and I crossed paths
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: many times in my career before he passed, and I
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: adored him. He was such an incredible human being and talent,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: and I adore his son now too. But we did
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: a film together called skin Deep that Blake Edwards directed,
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: and I was cast in it, and nobody told me
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: that there was any kind of nudity in it. And
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: then I got a nudity writer right before I worked,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, why am I? Because we weren't allowed
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: to read the script. I said, why am I getting
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: a nudity writer? This is this is not what I
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: signed up for. And he ended up having a conversation
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: with me and my agent and assured us that it
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: was all going to be tasteful. And fine, and nothing
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: was going to be seen. It was all going to
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: be backlit, you know, YadA YadA YadA for a sign
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: fellow reference. We shot the scene. It screened at I
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: believe Warner Brothers, and they asked for a reshoot because
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: and I can guarantee this, it was too graphic. You
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: could see things that I hadn't agreed to be seen.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: And they didn't want to have it go into a
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: different category. They didn't want it to be X or
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: or whatever it was. So he wanted to do reshoots
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: and I said no. I said no. You you told
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: me to trust you. I trusted you. You didn't do
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: what you said you were going to do. Why am
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: I going to give you a second chance? You've already Nope,
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: use a body devil. And it was the first time
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: I said no, and I took my name off the
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: film Wow. And there were acting scenes that are still
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: on the cutting room floor that John and I had
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: together that never showed up. So it just looked like
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: a It looked like a walk on with a sex scene.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: I'm like, that's not what I signed up for. I'm
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: an actress. What are you doing? You know? So sorry
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: to be so blunt, but I said no, So that
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: felt good.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: I admire that so much.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Come out on it.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Wow, Well, thank you for sharing that story.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: I really I admire that, and I think that's a
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: great lesson to everyone listening, like to you know, stand
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: up for yourself and what you what you believe in,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: and what you're uh, you know, you have to.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: Now we have antimasty coordinator exactly. That very easy to
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: make sure that things don't go places that people haven't
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: agreed to.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and it protects.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: The artist because it's a very vulnerable position to be in.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: You know, you wanted, you want to cooperate, you want
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: to do the right thing, you want to serve the
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: piece you're an artist, but you also don't want to
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: be taken advantage of. And it's hard to be that
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: person to say no, I'm not comfortable with that.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: So it's it's hard to do, but it's yeah, it's
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: it's important to do that, and it is hard, and
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: a lot of people don't And I just I admire
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: you for that.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: I haven't I don't think I've ever told that story.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: By the way, really that's a first.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you so much for sharing that with us.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: It's such an important story I think for people to hear,
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: and I just really appreciate your honesty. I do want
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: to talk Twin Peaks a bit sadly just lost David Lynch.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sorry. I don't want this to just
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: be like what was that like? But like I mean,
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: he's one of those directors, like not many people get
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: to work with him.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: He's got like this core group. Well, tell us about
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: that experience.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I admire him as an artist
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: and a human being. Yes, on so many fronts. He
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: was unique and an incredible painter as well. And he
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: did have a family of actors that he trusted and
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: continued to work with, Kyle McLaughlin from Desperate Housewives being one,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: so he and I share Twin Peaks and Desperate together.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: I actually never got to work under David's direction. I
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: worked with wonderful directors during those five episodes that I did,
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Diane Keaton being one of them, Lead Adele, Jamie Foley.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: There's amazing, amazing directors, but I didn't get to work
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: with David. But his fingerprints were all over of course
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: that art and that show, so I feel like I
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: got to live in his world. For a little bit,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: and that felt really great. It was quirky and bizarre
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: and fun. It was very creative. Actually, David Warner and
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: I had no idea what we were doing. We didn't
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: know why we were there. We didn't know where the
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: storyline was going. And I finally looked at him one
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: day in the makeup trailine. I said, do you want
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: to just make it up? Just make up? Let's make
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: up a backstory. At least we'll know what we're doing.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: And so we came up with this really kind of fascinating,
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: twisted backstory that we started playing subtexts with, and apparently
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: it was interesting enough that they ended up giving us
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: three more episodes because we were only signed on for two. Wow,
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: So we ended up kind of squeaking five episodes out
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: of it. And and I remember we had a kiss
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: in one of the episodes. And I ran into David
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: thirty three years later, thirty five years later at a
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: comic con in Germany.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: I walked on his table and I said, Hi, David,
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you remember me, And he looked
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: at me, he goes, how could I ever forget you?
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: You're my one and only on screen kiss. It was
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: so great after all these years that he still remembered me. Oh.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Working with Piper Laurie was amazing. She was such a
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: powerhouse and just sitting opposite her was like being close
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: to the sun, Like she radiated so much energy. It
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: was great.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: I love it so much. Brenda Strong is here with us.
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: This is I Smell Pop Culture. I you have you
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: have directed some television yourself. I would love to talk
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: about that. We're going to take another quick break. Stick around,
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: We'll be right back. It's I Smell Pop Culture on
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: the Iamlin podcast. Brenda Strong here with us, where we've
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: been talking about your your career, just so many incredible things.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: Now you have you directed an episode of Thirteen Reasons Why,
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: two episodes, making the move to behind the camera directing.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: Tell us about that transition. What was that like for you?
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: So as we were talking during the break, we were
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: talking about Monterey, California, because you were raised in Santa
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Cruz and my husband's originally from Carmel, just south from there.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: And so my husband, being the son of a general
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: and his father used to teach at DLI at the
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: Defense Language Institute here in Monterey, and so he had
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: written a couple of short films about the military, and
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: he's employed a lot of veterans and a lot of
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: his theater work. His theater called not mana part Physical
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: theater ensemble, and he really gets veterans to do physical
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: theatrical work as part of their healing from ps and
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: war and it's incredible. But he had written this short
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: film we were editing his first short film called I
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Did Not Forget You that we shot in Dallas when
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: I was doing Dallas, and he told we were waiting
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: for the you know, the kind of cut to upload,
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: and he told me this second story about a young
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: army wife and this program where families get cutouts of
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: their live service member in order for their young children
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: not to miss mom or dad when they're deployed. And
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: so I burst into tears when he told me the
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: whole progression of the story. And I said, why didn't
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: we do that film? And he said, oh, yeah, great,
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: that's what you want to hear when you are cutting
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: your first filme, So why don't we do the other one?
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: So I said, you have to write that. You have
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: to write that, and so he did, and I ended
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: up shooting it up here in Monterey, California. Amazing and
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: once it ended up going to twenty two festivals and
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: winning fourteen awards. I showed it to my cast and
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: crew of Thirteen Reasons Why when I got that and
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: we were filming in you know, in and around Vallejo
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: and Napa and the San Francisco Bay area, and Brian
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Yorkey and Joy Gorman Weddles asked me to direct two
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: episodes in the following season.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Incredible, and I.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Couldn't believe it. For first of all, because I felt
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: so connected to the show and it was such a
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: perfect segue for me, and it was such a safe
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: place to kind of go into a larger forum. And
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: I loved it. I just loved it.
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: Was there a challenge when you start directing this? Was
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: there a challenge that you hadn't anticipated?
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: Was there something when you were actually doing It's like,
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: oh my goodness, I wasn't prepared for this, or I
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: wasn't expecting this anything like that happened.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: You know. It's so interesting because I think in a
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: lot of ways, actors are such a natural fit for
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: directing because we know what is necessary in setting the
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: tone for the crew and the cast to do their
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: best work. All the preparation is something that you learn.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: You know, you learn about the production meetings and the
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: tone meetings, and you know the cost and talking about
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: casting and all of that. Those are just adjuncts to
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: getting ready to be on set, and they're all very important.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: And the one thing that I learned is how much
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: work goes into production before an actor ever sets set
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: steps on set. And I it just gave me such
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: an appreciation and such a respect for production and all
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: the people that work so hard to do their best
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: work to bring us to the table. We're the last
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: ones to show up, so if anything, it just gave
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: me a greater appreciation and gratitude for everyone else's work
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: around me. And it is hard work. Directing is not
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: you know, it's not an easy job. It's a stamina job.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: You have to be available and ready and prepared and present.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: And it's almost like being a psychologist. You have to
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: know how to create the environment where everybody gets their
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: needs met, you know, and hold it all together and
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: problem solved. And I loved it. It used every part
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: of me and I can't wait to do it again.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: I can't and I can't wait to watch. The next
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: thing you do is you know, is there something you've done?
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: So many different things, like so many different like I
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: mean Fear of the Walking Dead, You've done a Supergirl.
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: I mean you've done like superhero stuff. Like is there
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: something you have not done yet that you're like, Oh,
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: I've always wanted to do this kind of thing or
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: or this part of the process.
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's really interesting. We're actually developing something
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: right now, my husband and I we're developing a limited
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: series right It's something that we've worked on during COVID
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: and it's kind of gone through a really interesting evolution.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: It started out as a screenplay. It's based on an
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: idea that I had, and then I ended up up
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: deciding we needed an underlying ip so I wrote the
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: book to create the characters, and then that book became
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: the foundation for the series, and then we ended up
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: with a limited series format. So that's where we are
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: right now. So the next thing in my career actually
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: is being a showrunner. I want to be in charge.
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: I want to help shape an entire story from beginning
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: to end, and in do it with all the people
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: that I love working with and bring all the fabulous
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: production designers and customers and editors and directors into our story.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: So that's the next thing that I want. I want
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: to really kind of launch a new story into the
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: universe that people will be talking about ten years from
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: now or twenty years from now. We really have built
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: a new mythology and it's all around female empowerment. And
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: I'm really super excited.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, I can't I.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: Can tell you, but it'll be shown Europe and it's
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: a period piece.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm so excited. I can't wait.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: I love your Your creative energy is so infectious, and
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: I just love listening to you talk about like how
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: you get these ideas you make them happen, because there's
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: people in like I talk to people in my life
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: that are like I just kind of I'm just kind
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: of doing my thing, you know, and then I meet
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: these people that are like, I want this thing to happen,
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: and I do this in this to make it so,
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: and it's such an incredible thing. And I just appreciate
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: people like you being in the world and creating these
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: incredible well.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: You know, It's it goes back to I I really
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: believe if people understood quantum physics more they would understand
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: that they are actually creating the world that they're living in.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: I know that, you know, it might sound woo woo,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: but scientifically it's proven that you are creating your reality.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: And because I'm all also a yoga teacher and a
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: yogi and I a philosopher, I really believe that the
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: world isn't as it is, it's as you are. So
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: however you want the world to be, you're participating in that.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: And so you do have to believe in yourself because
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: you're actually at the source of it. You know, you're
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: the source of your life. And I know your mom is,
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: but mom and dad, but you're participating, you're co creating
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: as we go. And that's one of the reasons I
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: loved David so much, is you know, he understood that
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: as a as a meditator and a creator, is is.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: It's all imagination, It's all whatever you can see it,
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: you can believe it, you can have it. I really
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: believe that.
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: You know, you talk about quantum physics and I watched
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: a documentary years ago called what the bleep Do We Know?
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: And yeah, yeah, And in that documentary they talk about
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: like they put they put like ice crystals under a
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: microscore over some and then they like yell at.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: It and doctor Emotos work.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Yes, that blue.
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: I think I was in like I was a freshman
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: high school. So when I saw that and it blew
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: my mind, I was like, oh my goodness, this is
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: incredibly this is like quantifiable scientific method proven. You can
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: see these effects happening. And it's not just like, hey man,
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: it's all about vibes. It's like it's so far beyond that,
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: and it's just such an I don't know. It's an
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: incredible way to think about life and how you affect
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: the world around you.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and what you focus on gets more power. I mean,
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: I know, you've got a plant behind you. It's probably
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: not real. Yeah, But when I was in in high school,
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: we did, you know, experiments where we would talk to
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: certain plants and not talk to the others, or we'd
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: play classical music to one plant, play hard rock to
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: the others and see the difference in their growth patterns.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: You know, everything is a living organism. Water is a
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: living organism. Water actually can conduct energy. It can it
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: can you know, change its vibration and its structure. It
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: can freeze, it can you know it's it's an We're
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: almost all made of water. We're like seventy percent water. Yes,
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: if what you can do as a thought pattern like
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: screaming at water, if the vibration and the pattern in
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: the water changes when you freeze it. Think about yourself,
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: how you talk to yourself. You know, when you talk
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: to yourself in negative ways, your body is listening. Yes,
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: So it's really about for me. I think I knew
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: from a very young time that that I had something
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: to do with how my life went. And I did
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: not grow up knowing anything about the entertainment industry or performing.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: It was not part of my environment. There was no
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: way that I could have dreamed this and had it
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: come true.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: That's so I love that so much because like if
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: you think about like starting out and then the life
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: you have now, I mean incredible that that it happens
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: this way. So you you up in forgive me Portland
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: Organ m h. When you were growing like when you've
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: thought about your life as a child, like what what
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: did you what did you visualize?
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: What where were you thinking? Where were we expecting for yourself?
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: You know, you can only know what you know. My
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: dad was a teacher. He was a horticulture teacher and
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: a farmer, and and then he went to go get
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: his master's in psychology. And he was an incredible composer.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: Had he not become deaf in one year, he probably
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: would have been a concert pianist.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: He was an incredible piano player and wrote some beautiful
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: music that we all was heard growing. My mom was
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: an incredible singer, but she was a homemaker. She raised
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: six kids. I'm the youngest of six, and so she
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: had a full time job, you know, raising us. The
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: thing that happened to me was all of my siblings
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: played instruments. My parents wanted each of us to choose
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: an instrument to play, and being the youngest of six,
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: everybody else had chosen an instrument, and I didn't want
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: to compete with anybody else. I went no, no, no,
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: thank you. I'm going to dance. And so my dad
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: would play music and I would dance around the house.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: And then pretty soon they went, well, you know, she
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: seems really interested in this, let's get her in some
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: dance classes. So I ended up going to Madam Schumacher
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: in Portland, Oregon, who was a Russian like serious ballet
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: mistress and she brought Nuriev in to give us master classes.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: It was incredible. But at the time I was you know,
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: I was flat and skinny and short. And then I
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: had this huge growth burst and I soon realized that
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: I would tower over any of the men in ballet,
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: and there was no way anybody was going to hire
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: me as a dancer. So I took that and I
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: started to sing in musicals, and I started choreography. So
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: I choreographed Le Fiddler on the Roof and that led
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: me to being in the Wizard of Oz as the
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: good Witch. It was Glinda, which is still popular right
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: now with Wicked. So I did that, and then I
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: played the lead in Music Man, and I was marrying
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: the Librarian and I would love to do that a
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: Broadway with Hugh Jackman.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: By the way, I want to see that.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Anyway, So my dad said, well, you know, he's
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: a college counselor, so his job is helping people find
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: their their thing. And he said, you know, what do
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: you want to do? And I said, well, you know,
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: I was a tennis player, was on the tennis team.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: I was number one seed on the high school tennis team.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: And I said, you know I could be a high
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: school tennis coach or in teach literature because I love language,
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: I love Shakespeare, I love all of those things. And
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: he said, ah huh. And then he gave me this
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: test and it was called the Strong Interest Inventory, and
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: I tested off the charts and formance arts as someone
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: who would really love being a performer.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: And so he said, I think that's something you could
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: look at too, because he'd seen me on stage and said,
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: you kind of got something, kid. You know, and most
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: people either have parents that absolutely don't support them at all,
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: or they have parents like mine who said, you're good
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: at this, you love it, go do it. And so
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: I did. I became a musical theater major in college
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: and that the rest is history.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: I love that so much. That's incredible, incredible parenting. Yeah, yeah,
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: that makes me so happy. This is the ice small
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: pop culture podcast. You haven't the most recent show you did, Unprisoned.
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: I want to make sure we talk about imprisoned. Yes,
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: tell us about that.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: Carrie Washington and Delroy Lindo were the executive producers along
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: with Tracy and you have that Bowser and it was
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: based on Tracy's life and it's a story about her
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: growing up with her father in prison and what that
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: was like being in foster care. And I play her
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: father's main squeeze, who is the woman who actually ended
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: up raising her for over ten years from eight to eighteen.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: And she had kind of a very difficult time accepting
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: this woman as a role model because it wasn't ever
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: really fleshed out. But she was a sex worker at
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: one time, and her dad was a pimp and a
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: drug dealer, and it's based on true story. So I
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: kind of tailor made. And I don't think I've really
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: said this outlined, but I kind of taylor made the
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: character after Sharon Stone and decided that she was kind
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: of this straight, tough talking, no holds barred, really strong
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: woman who decided to help her ma love interest, raise
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: his daughter and do the right thing. And she ended
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: up getting an MBA and becoming a successful part of society.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: And so this character was something so different from anything
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: I'd ever played. She was just ballsy and sex positive
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: and brash and you know, dressed in like leopard skins,
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: and it was just it was so much fun to
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: do such a departure from anything I'd ever done, and
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: that was on the heels of doing sixty first Street
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: with Courtney the Evans, where I was this high powered
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: prosecutor who was kind of tough as nails and you know,
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: kind of a I don't know, dressed down kind of
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: I'm going to get you in your face kind of now.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: So I've been having so much fun playing these characters
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: in kind of the later stages of my career because
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: I'm getting to do really fun stuff and the comedy
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: is so good.
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and we're so lucky to be able to
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: watch this and have this out there. So this is
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: just so great. I'm Prisoned is on Hulu. You can
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: watch it on Hulu now to.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: Carrie's Wonderful and del Roy's Wonderful. It's a great show.
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: Everyone should check it out. Brenda Strung, you've been so
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: generous with your time. Thank you so much for talking
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: to me, for sharing all your stories. This is We're
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: all such big fans, and thank you for stepping into
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: stars Hollow with us for a bit.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: This has been just the best time.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: Happy to be with you, happy to be back in
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: Stars Hollow.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, take care, hey everybody, and don't forget follow us
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: on Instagram at i Am all In Podcast, and email
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.