May 13, 2025 • 36 mins
This week, Tommy is joined by actress Shanola Hampton who became a household name playing Veronia Fisher, a.k.a. V, in the smash-hit series SHAMELESS. She played V for 11 seasons, often praised as one of the most beloved characters in the show. Right now, she can be seen in Season 2 of the NBC series FOUND playing Gabi, a public relations specialist who shines a light on missing persons cases. Today, Shanola opens up about what she did with her fellow cast members of SHAMELESS the first time they met, what their relationships are like today, if a reunion with the cast might be in the cards, what part of V’s personality rubbed off on her, what a potential spin-off with Steve Howey might look like, that (very) sexy scene she filmed the first time she met Steve, their conversation about manscaping, what has fulfilled her doing FOUND vs. other shows, why its been thrilling playing a flawed character, what being #1 on the call sheet has been like for the first time in her career, how rejections and sometimes painful hardships over the course of her career never stopped her, important advice for anyone who has a dream, the role she auditioned for that she really wanted, how things are put in your path (or not) for a reason, why she will never allow hate in her life, and so much more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, guys, welcome to I've never said this before with me,
Tommy Di Dario, I have the biggest ball of beautiful
energy on my show today. I'm literally still smiling from
this conversation. The brilliant actress Shanola Hampton joins me today,
who became a household name through playing Veronica akav and
(00:22):
the smash hit series Shameless. She played V for eleven seasons,
which I mean, it's just unheard of in today's TV landscape.
From the moment she graced our screens as V, she
showed the world that we all need a little Shanola
in our lives, and now she is playing a total
badass in the NBC series Found Shanola starts as Gabby.
(00:43):
She is a public relation specialist who shines a light
on missing persons cases. So you throw in a little kidnapping,
some shocking twists, some dark secrets, and of course rescuing
those missing people, and you have one recipe for quite
a thrilling show. But the recipe I also want is
Shanola's recipe for life, because she has a spirit that
(01:03):
can make even the grumpiest person in the world's crack
and smile. That is her gift. So let's see if
today we can get Shanola to say something that she
has never said before. Shanola, I love you. I think
(01:24):
I just said I'm leaving my husband for you. This
is how we're starting the conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I love it. How long have you been married?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Nine years this month?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I mean you've done it.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Makes a ten? And then you and I have a life.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
We have fun together. We'd have some fun together. Pretty
cute together.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, I mean we could you imagine our kids? Oh
my gosh, the eyes. See I don't know if everyone
understands what it's like to sit across from those Okay,
stop it. You do this thing where you act like, oh,
I'm not really looking at you, but I am, and
I know what my eyes are doing. I got fine, Yeah, okay,
(02:02):
but really I'm just so nonchalantly looking at you, and
I'm going to ask you questions and you're going to
open up about everything to me. Yeah, I'm in for it. Okay,
what do you want to know?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Well, first of all, I feel like we're best friends
because I've seen your face all over billboards for like
months and months and months. Now does that ever feel normal.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
No, it doesn't feel normal, but it feels really good.
And it also feels like I knew. It doesn't feel strange.
Does that make sense. It doesn't feel normal, but it
also doesn't feel like it's out of pocket or out
of the realm of what was supposed to happen in
my life. And not in like a cocky way, but
in a very I used to pretend when I was
(02:44):
a little girl. You just met my sister. We would
go into restaurants and I used to pretend like the
paparazzi was following me, and I was like, ten yea,
and no, not right now, please, I just want to
eat with my family. And I'm just in South Carolina
pretending my family's like, oh, I got how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Relaxed, that's not happening. Yeah, I know that's happening for you.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Oh. Of course, Shanolo is a lot and so imagine
this energy at that age. So everything was Shanola, please,
Shanola please, oh, Shanola please. So it was very much that.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
But when you look at those billboards, do you think
I deserve that I put in the time. Yes, it
is my time now.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I always say this. I never I was not found
in a coffee shop. No one walked by me on
the sidewalk and said, you girl, that you're the one
for this role. I absolutely feel like not only did
I put my time in in the business, but educating myself,
making sure that I had the resources dealing with a
lot of blows in order to be able to accept
(03:47):
this time in a way that doesn't feel like I'm
an impostor, right, So it makes me feel like, Okay,
I've earned this position. I think it's so wonderful if
people have success that is quote unquote overnight when you
see it in and they don't. But there is something
about that earn It makes you mentally ready, which is
really the biggest thing is getting your mind wrapped around
(04:09):
what's happening in your life. And I feel I'm so
complete at home. I've been married for twenty five years.
Come on to the college, sweetheart, I have two kids,
so it's sort of my career is not on the
back burner, but it's just an additive to my already
full life.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, which is nice, and it's amazing because the world
fell in love with you from shameless Yes eleven seasons.
That's I mean, I don't even tell you that. That's
almost unheard of nowadays to be on a show for
eleven seasons. We did it, Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
We did it. It was. It's so funny. When we
met the first time we played Guitar Hero, we did
miniature golf together. Because John Wells, who is the greatest
showrunner of all time and creator of Material, knew Material,
knew that he wanted to create a synergy. It had
to be exactly right with these people, and he got
(05:02):
it right. The kids on our show were nine and
ten when we started the show. When we got done,
they were nineteen and twenty, so so much life happened
and I got to live it with them, and Jeremy
was eighteen and Cameron was sixteen. It was it was
such a moment in life that I can't describe to
people how special that experience was. Because we were a
(05:25):
family on and off screen and still are.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
That's not always the case, No, that's usually not the case.
You know, when you're putting different people together, you hope
it all works out, and you hope that you become
a family and friends, but quite often you don't.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Absolutely and sometimes you become family and friends, but it's
just for that season and then it doesn't carry over
when the show is over. That is not the case
with us. As soon as I landed in New York,
Jeremy's on my phone. You know, tell me and Steve
how we talk? Not just once a week, multiple times
a week. We're in each other's lives in a very real,
(05:58):
real way and not five minutes. Hey, how are you
doing conversations? Real life stuff like true friend true friendships,
true family. Ethan's out here right now doing a movie.
It's just we're very and also, I'm mama bear, so
try to get rid of me if you want to.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Know what you're doing? Where are you going?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Why did I have to find out about this on
social media? What are we doing? Yeah? That's that.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I like you. What's your sign?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I'm a geminia?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Aren't?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
But can you see it completely?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Are we compatible? I don't know. Someone looked that up.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We're going to need to look that up. I hope
we are. I hope we are. Baby. Let me let
me tell you the show. I believe next year mark's
fifteen years since it premiered.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Is that true?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's insane. Yeah, that is insane.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I mean I think that's a perfect time for a
reunion of some sort.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
It would be such a dream and a pleasure at
whatever point that that happens, to do a reunion, to
reunite with not only our family, but to also see
where the characters people fell in. The crazy fandom that
is Shameless is unlike any other. Everyone wants to know
(07:12):
what happened next. I want to know what where? Did
did Veronica and keV really move?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Will Frank come back as a ghost? Did he even
really die? I mean they did burn him up, so
probably Yeah, I'm gonna go with you. But you know,
he's got to come back somehow because we got to
do it with Bill Masie. He's the best, and so
it would be a dream. Now, listen, Jeremy has probably
booked and busy. I hope he hears me say this,
so he'll I you know, he might be too good
(07:38):
for us now, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Well, Mama Bear is the one that has to wrangle
everyone together, so it's on you to make this all happen.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Okay, Yeah, and he knows that I will uh huh
when I say we're doing it.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You the is so beloved, right, what part of your
personality rubbed off on V or what part of these
personality rubbed off on you over the years.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Her energy, Yeah, and my energy I thing rubbed up
on V. She's a little more street than I am.
But they both have this, we both haven't they We
both have this sense of loyalty about family and there was,
if you think about shameless, V was a moral compass
(08:21):
in this crazy world. Even when Fiona would be doing
some of her shenanigans, she would try to bring her
back to some sort of morality about it. Now, that
doesn't mean that she's not gonna rab the milkman from
you know, from the truck and set that up, but
there was some sort of moral compass that she has,
and she and keV were the only relationship that was
(08:41):
sustainable the entire season series. They stayed together. They had
that patch where they messed up and it wasn't but
it wasn't a cheating patch, you know. It was a
true love that you got to watch go through all
of the things for eleven seasons. So I love that.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
You and keV, V, you and CAV. Let's have fun
for a minute. If you guys were to have a
spin off, yes, where would you be right now, and
what would it be.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Called, Well, it would be called no keV without V.
Think about it, s e k e V no Kev'll
be easier.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
And I did it.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I did that for the audiences in their car. I didn't.
We've thought about this because we're trying to pitch it
right now. I'm just kidding, we're not. But no, and
I think that it would be somewhere with us owning
a bar together, because I just think that that allows
for so many characters to come in and out with
our girls going through puberty, that's where they would be
(09:39):
right now and having a deal with that and being
a biracial uh girls going through puberty at school. Maybe
not in Chicago, but maybe we end up moving back
to Chicago. I mean, I can go on and on
and on. You have ideas, I have ideas and still
having crazy sex. Can you say that one?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Of course you can. You can say anything off. We're
not daytime baby, this is my spot. That's right, That's
that's your magic though. Your chemistry with everyone you work
with is always so right on. And we're going to
talk about that in this amazing show you're in now,
which is Oh my god, just brilliant, but especially with keV.
(10:21):
With Steve Howie, Yeah, who's my best friend? You guys
were magic together. Yeah, that was magical together.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
People don't realize that to have that kind of relationship
on screen that we have. I mean our first scene.
This is true because I can say anything on you. Right, Okay,
let's get into it. So our very first scene that
we shot together, I am riding him like a bull.
(10:48):
The first Hello, meet Sheanola Hampton, Sheanola, meet Steve. Are
we ready? This is the pilot episode. Go back and
watch it. Veronica has a strap on tne though. It's
Frank saying, these are our crazy neighbors, and I am
riding him. And he tells the story. But let's be
for real. He's just being dramatic that because I pulled
(11:10):
I have to pull his neck, that I really pulled
his neck and I pulled something not true. I will
not own that, but he says, and that's how so
you know you're either going to get it together with
one another or you're not. Right away, yeah, and we did.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That could be a very uncomfortable situation. And you were like,
I'm here, I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Let's go absolutely and he was the same way awkward
it was. It was sort of this chemistry that we
had right away. And of course he's such a an
interesting personality when you first meet him, because he's so
big and he can be sarcastic and people don't know
(11:50):
how to take him. But he is the warmest, most
loyal human being in the entire world. I mean, of
course I feel that way because he's my best friend.
But I also told him about male hygiene. Sir, I'm
gonna need you to man escape.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
What was he shown up to set not doing that?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Listen, here's the thing, girl, even though you are pretending
to go down on someone, I'm still seeing something I've got.
What I don't want to see is your pigs coming
out of your underwear. So what you're gonna do is
going and shape that out. He'll tell you that, right
(12:28):
you met me like no, But but we didn't have
to do a going down scene. It was after that
first one, and I told him, before you get even
think about doing a sex scene with me, get your
butt in the shower. Sweaty balls, sweaty balls, don calm
near me.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Boo, not doing that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
So he'll tell, he'll tell, he will admit to it
that I taught him all the things he needed to
know about male escaping.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
We need a Shanola in our lives. In our lives, yes, yes,
but it's so true when you're working with someone so intimately,
like you got to be honest and you have to
you know, you want to smell good, look good, feel good,
all of it. And when you're that close, yeah, you
better be ready for anything that's right.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And your partner wants the same thing.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yes, yes, amen, Amen?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
What twenty five years married, twenty five years married, but
thirty years together?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well I think you bring this honesty probably to that
relationship too.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I mean, it's so funny to watch my husband and
I together because he is I'm the ying to his yang,
and he would be in the room right now. I
act the same way. I could jump, give you a
lap dance, all the things, and he would just sit
shake his head in that chair and just that's my wife.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
That's my wife. I feel like you and I are
very similar. Like my husband he works on ABC, he's
a news anchor, and I'm entertainment baby. So I'm like,
what we do in entertainment is not all buttoned up
on the News. Right, you don't want to listen to
this show.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Exactly, especially not after we talked about sweaty Balls.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I mean, like I said, I love you already. I
love you already. I just am in awe of everything
you've built in your career and of the person you are.
And you have this new, amazing show that you were
starring in. Okay, producer, yes, okay, producer. It's on NBC,
(14:28):
is called Found. How does doing this show fulfill you
differently than Shameless? For example?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
What you've mentioned it just in that introduction of it
is I am an executive on it. And one of
the things that I was afforded after doing a show
for so long, eleven seasons unheard of, Right, It's very
rare that you have that was the ability to choose
my next project and decide how I wanted my career
(14:54):
to look. I knew a couple of things. I didn't
want to just be an actor for hire anymore. I
wanted to make sure that my voice. I had so
much to offer on the back end and the things
that you don't see on the camera creatively, that I
wanted to make sure that my voice wasn't just mute
it and I wanted to express myself as a director, producer,
(15:15):
all of those things. I didn't know how that was
going to materialize. I really didn't, but I knew that
I needed to learn from the great John Wells while
I was there, so he is one of my mentors,
and I did the directing and I directed in the
last season of Shameless and now being number one. If
you think about Shameless, you have so many characters. So
(15:38):
you have Bill who's number one, you have Emmy who's
number two at the time. Then there's Jeremy because the kids,
it's the Gallagher family. It's their story. So by time
you get to the neighbors, you're at number sixty seven
six seven ors. I mean whatever, however it pans out,
and I go from that to number one, Wow, and
a producer and it is it a great world where
(16:01):
it's like yes, but it also opens up a new
style of management that you have to do with people.
I mean, you know from having your own up, you know,
it comes with It's so great. I love my name
being on this super cute picture. I love my photo.
But we got to have the meetings and we have
to get into stuff and we you know, there so
it comes with pros and cons and that's truthfully, what
(16:24):
I think people need to understand is we live such
a life that looks like it's all glamour. Yeah, but
the work that goes into I always say, for every
red carpet picture you see me on that looks happy,
and it is and it's a joyful time, imagine about
eight times me crying in my closet for each one
time you see me on the red carpet. And that's
(16:47):
sort of the life that we've chosen to live.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, it's so real, and not everybody sees that, right
They look at you and everything you have going on
and they think, oh my god, nothing could be wrong
in her Life's like no, no, no, you have struggles,
You've have faced rejection, and you've gone through all of
it like we all have in our careers.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Lots of it. Imagine being a darskin girl with this
deep voice, Hello everyone from South Carolina with a natural hair.
What jobs am I getting? Boom? You know what I mean?
So really, when you just look at it, but it
also for me was never a doubt that I was
going to sit here across from you looking at these
(17:25):
piercing blue eyes. You know, having this conversation, conversation that's
meaningful because I felt like it was already ordained for me.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Well, and also, that's the beauty of the show is
you're talking about things on TV that aren't really being
talked about. Yeah, you know, and I'm sure for you
that holds a lot of weight.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It does. But you know what's interesting when people say
we are and we are talking about things on the
show that aren't really talked about. But in our community,
we've talked about the fact that there is such a
large gap between who gets the media attention and who
doesn't when they go missing. And our show is just saying,
listen everyone, We're not saying anything specific about any other group,
(18:08):
but every single person deserves to be found. Every single
person deserves the same media attention. And that's what we're
trying to bring light to, is to make these headlines human. Yes,
And I think we've been successful in doing that because
we've also set it up in a way that it's palatable. Right,
you can watch a thriller and you can watch a
(18:28):
man be in the basement and us to this cat
and mouse game, and the man is some people say
good looking, I mean that's fine if y'all into the
Marball love it all, Zach and all that. But you know,
so you're looking at it from a way that is
still has the thriller aspect, and I think that's what's worked.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Well well right. It's not trying to prove a point
or doesn't come off as preachy, feel like or it's
a lesson. It's just it is what it is, right,
But it's telling a story that needs to be told. Yes,
you know, yes, so it's I mean, this show keeps
us on the edge of our seats and you your character, I.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Know, heels running in. Do you see that running in?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Obviously, But she's also not a perfect character flaw and
I love that with a character. I don't need to
see another perfect person on TV board. Give me something
juicy and.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
You play that, thank you. It is the best. I
always call her this beautifully flawed character because in many ways,
if you've seen the show, those who haven't, just know
that a man kidnapped my character, and then my character
re kidnapped the man when she got older. That's all
you need to know. The man was in the basement
helping solving cases. Yep, it's that good. Go watch it
(19:37):
all right, get into it. But what I love about
her and the human nature is we're not just one thing,
and we all have a dark side. Now it's how
much we're able to control leaning into that dark side
and what those triggers might be to lean in even deeper.
You know, if somebody comes from my kids, I'm gonna
(19:58):
tell you right now, I don't know what I'm going
to m hm. You come from my husband, I might
let you just lie a little bit, but my kidnams
getting it. It bends on but but so you just
don't know until you're in it. And to be able
to have her dealing with trauma and healing and all
of the characters really dealing with some sort of trauma
and having to heal from that, I think it makes
(20:18):
it more human than us just seeing these number ones,
you know, doing the oh I'm the hero all the time,
because in many ways, is she just as bad as sir? Yeah, yeah,
that's the question.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yes, yes, And it makes for a really interesting watch
because you never know where it's all gonna go, That's right.
You don't know, like will you turn really dark eventually?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I mean I could maybe maybe the next season. I
mean you see by the end of this season, you
know the good stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Mmm mm the finale's coming up. Yes, anything you can tease.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I can say that I read the finale and I
wasn't expecting what I read to be the finale because
it made me. You wonder, Okay, how are we coming back? Okay,
because it's it's sort of.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Jack, you're dying up in here or something.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Come on, let's not get crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
But if I did the number one number one that.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I just go you have to tie with your eyes open,
in heels in heels, the heels would be up here.
Oh sorry, So anyway, No, I can tell you that
it is what Gabby does is unexpected and it was
for me as well.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Wow, I'm putting your hand. Just drop that on and
just drop it wherever.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Drop it like as hoigh.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Okay, moving move that way. You're the star.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I'm taking the head.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Okay, so interesting. We can't wait for that finale. Where's
the season three announcement? Girl? What are we waiting for?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Listen?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
What are we doing? Uh?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And b C. Yeah, I better announce it soon. Okay,
she's in high demand. I'm I'm playing on this mud show.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Well, by the time this airs, hopefully an announcement would
have come out.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, and then you have to do that thing where
you said since the taping of this show, you know
how they do it on Blura has gotten a season
three twenty two episode thick.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, you'll come back for that. You'll come back for
coming back to Your energy is infectious And I love
what you said earlier. You alluded to always knowing that
you would be doing this and that this was meant
for you. And at five you had a dream, right
and you didn't let anything dissuade you from being right
here in this room with me talking about being number
one on the call sheet in a primetime show, which
(22:39):
is just amazing. So a lot of people listening have
their own dreams, and it's hard to sometimes keep them
around because life happens. So what would you say for
anyone who has any sort of dream, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, I think that the biggest thing that I've always said,
because I could asked this question, and it's really how
do you block out the noise? That's the hardest thing
to do. It's generally one or two things. It's other
people around you giving you a look or even a
sentence that makes you second guess yourself or it's your
(23:11):
own demons that you're battling in your head. And what
I would say is it's the intimate moments when you're
about to go to sleep, that where your heart and
your head are connected and no one else is around,
that you have to talk to yourself and say no, no, no,
no no no, no, no no no. This would not
be put in my heart if it wasn't meant to manifest.
(23:35):
And you have to keep saying it until your body
starts to accept and believe it. Because the science of
the mind is really what you have control of. You
can't control how other people view you, you can't control
the nose and the rejection, but what you can control
is how you think about it and how you come
into the next day. And that doesn't mean I'm not
(23:57):
I mean I am kind of try hockey, But I
don't mean that in the oh that sounds so good.
I mean in the actual conditioning of one's mind to
accept that this was placed on your heart because it
was meant to manifest and believe And until you can
condition yourself to believe it and feel it, just keep
telling yourself.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
It there was never a point you wanted to give up.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
There wasn't a point that I wanted to give up,
but there was definitely many points where I needed confirmation
that I was on the right path.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
How did you get that?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I'll tell you I was bartending. Most people know. I mean,
I mean, come on, can you imagine me with my
people's okay? And I had like I did a Martine shake.
She made money. I don't drink. I do not like
the taste of alcohol, but I can make it. Oh,
come on, skin, thank you, thank you. And so when
(24:52):
I was bartending, I would change my clothes. I would
go to auditions, I come back. I bartend, you know,
And then I would not get the part. And then
I would be crying in the car and I'd be like,
oh God, give me a sign. Oh I don't know.
And I would book a commercial and sure it would
be like adopt a proper commercial where they just skimmed
(25:13):
over my face. But I booked a commercial and every
time it would be something like that, or I would
get one line on something or five lines on something.
So it's like these little wins in the process of
rejection that kept me knowing, Okay, I'm on the right path.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
And I always say, if you're open to looking for
the signs, they're there. Absolutely, they're there. You just have
to be to seeing them.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Absolutely and I and that goes for everyone. You don't
have to be spiritual I am, but you don't have
to be. You just got to be open and willing
and also willing to accept your dream. You accept it. Yeah, yes,
this is my dream. I dreamed it for a reason.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Except yes, look at me.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
What's your crazy eye?
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I can't put sunglasses on it? No, no, no, no, we're not.
You're getting be flustered now and then.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Look out cuture and then you got all red in
the cheeks. I wish everyone could wait. Are they going
to go back and see this?
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Can we zoom into the whole video? We don't need
a zoom.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Zooming?
Speaker 1 (26:15):
No zooming zoom. My god, you werelax all right.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
See if I was shooting you right now, I would
go right in.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
The slow slow the cinematographer. Director.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, if you don't do your hands like this, you're
not a real director. Director.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I see you, I see you. You will be directing,
thank you. I know you're going to be doing it all.
Was there a role that we would be surprised to
know you auditioned for and really wanted that didn't work.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Out there, I'm true blood. Truelo crushed me, really crushed me.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Oh when it was one of those roles that I knew,
I was, uh, Tara, I think, what's the name or
they're on the shut m. Yeah, it would have been
the vampire and it was the friend and she's bartender.
And went to the person that it was absolutely yeah,
that the redhead, but she had a friend, Okay, okay,
(27:09):
was it Retina Wesley? That anyway, anyway, you'll see you'll
see even some similarities with us when I tell you
that I'd psyched myself up so much that this was
my role and I went in and I bombed the audition.
I was devastated, because sure, you can get another opportunity,
(27:31):
but once you've made that impression, it's very hard to
come back. And I knew I could do it. I
knew I could and I lost it. But I was
maybe six months to a year later that I booked Shameless.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
See that, see that and the wild adventure you went
on with that show. Never could have been.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Never could have been Veronica in her boobs out and
up to the sky. You know, all of those things
would have not happened. And if I didn't take that
l for True Blood and even if you look at
the British version of Shameless, Veronica is a blonde hair,
short hair. You know, girl looks nothing like me. Let's
(28:13):
just say, but that was the role I was meant
to have and that's what my dream was manifesting. It
wasn't True bloods it was Shameless all along. But you
can't listen now, doesn't that sound beautiful? All that was
so flowery? Now when you're in it and you just bomb,
you just embarrassed and crying and you know those tears
it usually happens when you suffer from a bad breakup
(28:33):
and you're throwing up and you like made yourself so
sick and you're you know those kind of that was me,
you know, making yourself sick in the toy those for real,
the hitting of the staring wheel. It sounds so dramatic
right now, but we've all done it where it's like no,
and then playing the song or repeat because I deserve
to just cry. You know, it's heartbreaking, it's so heartbreaking.
(28:55):
I pulled over on the side of the road. I
always remember this when I left that all edition and
I just bawled and I called my manager, who's still
I call her my Fraen Maager friend, family manager, still
my manager to this day. And I was like, I
just blew my career. That was my role.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
That was my role, Honey, look at where you are.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
And it's hard to imagine anyone else in that role.
You know what it really is for you? It was
it really was just like this role, just like Found.
I mean, it's it's such a fresh show. And I
think Primetime, you know, Primetime has a ferocious audience.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
It's so hard, it's so hard to get him to stick.
I've not done network TV. This is a whole different
beast for me. I'm coming from the streaming you say,
whatever world, you know what I mean, what did we say?
I was Roden, Steve Howie put a dildel. That's the
world I came from. And now I'm on network TV
doing cold gay commercials. You know, so the audience you
(29:57):
have to retain it. And what I think has worked
for Found and what I appreciate about it is it
does what NBC does so well procedural, but it's I
called it, call it a heightened procedural because it gives
you the thriller to be able to get the audience
to want to come back and want more, and not
just the standard procedural, but for those who love it,
you get to solve a case every week. But then
(30:18):
there's this other element that feels like a whole other
show within a show. Yeah, and so I'm really proud
of us being able to find that balance and really
find an audience to appreciate that balance.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Mm hmmm. That's why I'm we're waiting on the final
the results of a new season because we want it.
So call the powers f and make it happen.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I mean, I went, Meg, can you make a call? There?
Speaker 1 (30:41):
We go, bring it home, Meg, bring it home, bring
it home. Well, we have covered dil Do's, Yeah, we have.
We've covered leaving our home because I've got.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
More on that topic.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
I'm sure you do.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Look at Meg mag Is.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Like, no, I'm sure you have more on that, Like,
we are done. We are done. We've talked about leaving
our husbands, yes, we've talked about having kids together.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
I'm not just leaving our husband for one another I
mean it's got to be worth it.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, I mean, come on now, nobody just out in
the streets, no kids together too. So we've covered it all.
But now I have a question for you.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
It's based off the title of my show, and the
show is obviously called I've Never said this before, And
it was born because I cover a lot of red carpets.
I also work on a show called Extra, and I
do jun kets and on.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
A show called Extra that hasn't been around for like
thirty years.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
You know, I don't want to presume just subtle flex
you know.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah, I picked it up home.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
There you go, and I get such limited time with people,
And that's how the concept for this show was born
is I often saw people wanting to say something a
little bit more before getting cut off or not just
having the same sound bites of what is your project about,
what are you excited for? You know, the usual? And
I thought, let me create a space where we can
celebrate the work, but then have someone come on and
(32:04):
say whatever they want to say that they don't get
the chance to say. So, what is one thing you've
never said before that you want to share today?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Okay, one thing I've never said before. But it can
be about just something. I just never hear.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
You want whatever it means to you, you.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Know when Okay, you know what I've never ever said
in my life is I hate someone Like I've never
said that. I just hate just feels so strong now.
I have strongly despised, right.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
I have people that could get it, you know what
I mean. And I got a couple that just ran
through my head. But I've never ever said I hate
that person, like behind their backs or to them. I've
just never I've never been hateful in that way.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Have you ever said I hate I don't think so,
not about a person, maybe about like I hate that song, yeah,
yeah no, but.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Like to a part like a humans couldn't Yeah no.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
And I don't like that word. I really don't like
that word. I mean maybe when I was younger I
used it somehow, but I don't. I'm like you, I
think in the sense that I'm very energy driven and
I think what you put out is what you get,
and I don't like that around me. I don't like it.
Even like we have a friend right now that we're
kind of going through a little thing with Yeah, And
I just rather I rather not go to those dark places, sure,
(33:27):
and just kind of cleanse Yeah, goodbye, because it's not
worth it because guess what, it affects you. Absolutely, it
affects you. You're putting that out, but it's actually coming
back to you.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Absolutely, and I believe that. So I think that's one
thing I've never said. I also have never said that
I'm a fifteen. I usually say ten.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Well, I think you're a twenty. I think you're twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
So you had to catch that. You had to catch it.
Just kidding out, Uh, but yeah, I think that. Yeah.
I love that you have this platform where you can
dig a little deeper and you're so good.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Oh thank you?
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Am I allowed to say that on your show? Yeah,
we're not zooming in.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
We're not zooming in.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
We are.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Or not? But no, this is what I love. I
love having people like you on who are so accomplished
and so good at what you do, and who create
art that really makes so many people feel seen and
can escape into this world that you create. With everything
else going on in our real lives. You create that
space for people, and I love having artists like you
(34:30):
Wan where we can talk about those projects. But then
get to know you more and I think you're You're
someone who I predict will be around for decades and
decades and decades more.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Thank you. I know you say that to all of
your I do.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Not play them all back, baby, I do not.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I do not.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I am an Italian from Jersey and I call it
as it is.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Thank you, and that means a lot. It really means
a lot.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Thank you well, thank you for hanging. Your show is
out now, this is dropping finale weeks, so do miss
the finale, y'all.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Pick up already happened. Thank you so much, NBC.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Put it out there, put it out there, and please
come back.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
I really truly will. Okay, okay, oh no, no, okay,
what the folks didn't see? Are we? Are we playing
the music out? He did a wink. That's not fair,
and he ended it with a nod. I've never said this, befo,
I never said this before. What's y'all song? Y'all have
(35:30):
a song?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
That's my song?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Now?
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Right?
Speaker 1 (35:35):
All right, all right, I've never said this before. Is
hosted by Me Tommy Didario. This podcast is executive produced
by Andrew Puglisi at iHeartRadio and by me Tommy with
editing by Joshua Colaudney. I've never said this before. It
is part of the Elvis Duran podcast network on iHeart
(35:55):
Podcasts for more rate, review and subscribe to our show
and if you liked this episode, tell your friends. Until
next time, I'm Tommy Diderio.
Hey, guys, welcome to I've never said this before with me,
Tommy Di Dario, I have the biggest ball of beautiful
energy on my show today. I'm literally still smiling from
this conversation. The brilliant actress Shanola Hampton joins me today,
who became a household name through playing Veronica akav and
(00:22):
the smash hit series Shameless. She played V for eleven seasons,
which I mean, it's just unheard of in today's TV landscape.
From the moment she graced our screens as V, she
showed the world that we all need a little Shanola
in our lives, and now she is playing a total
badass in the NBC series Found Shanola starts as Gabby.
(00:43):
She is a public relation specialist who shines a light
on missing persons cases. So you throw in a little kidnapping,
some shocking twists, some dark secrets, and of course rescuing
those missing people, and you have one recipe for quite
a thrilling show. But the recipe I also want is
Shanola's recipe for life, because she has a spirit that
(01:03):
can make even the grumpiest person in the world's crack
and smile. That is her gift. So let's see if
today we can get Shanola to say something that she
has never said before. Shanola, I love you. I think
(01:24):
I just said I'm leaving my husband for you. This
is how we're starting the conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I love it. How long have you been married?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Nine years this month?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I mean you've done it.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Makes a ten? And then you and I have a life.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
We have fun together. We'd have some fun together. Pretty
cute together.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, I mean we could you imagine our kids? Oh
my gosh, the eyes. See I don't know if everyone
understands what it's like to sit across from those Okay,
stop it. You do this thing where you act like, oh,
I'm not really looking at you, but I am, and
I know what my eyes are doing. I got fine, Yeah, okay,
(02:02):
but really I'm just so nonchalantly looking at you, and
I'm going to ask you questions and you're going to
open up about everything to me. Yeah, I'm in for it. Okay,
what do you want to know?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Well, first of all, I feel like we're best friends
because I've seen your face all over billboards for like
months and months and months. Now does that ever feel normal.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
No, it doesn't feel normal, but it feels really good.
And it also feels like I knew. It doesn't feel strange.
Does that make sense. It doesn't feel normal, but it
also doesn't feel like it's out of pocket or out
of the realm of what was supposed to happen in
my life. And not in like a cocky way, but
in a very I used to pretend when I was
(02:44):
a little girl. You just met my sister. We would
go into restaurants and I used to pretend like the
paparazzi was following me, and I was like, ten yea,
and no, not right now, please, I just want to
eat with my family. And I'm just in South Carolina
pretending my family's like, oh, I got how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Relaxed, that's not happening. Yeah, I know that's happening for you.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Oh. Of course, Shanolo is a lot and so imagine
this energy at that age. So everything was Shanola, please,
Shanola please, oh, Shanola please. So it was very much that.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
But when you look at those billboards, do you think
I deserve that I put in the time. Yes, it
is my time now.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I always say this. I never I was not found
in a coffee shop. No one walked by me on
the sidewalk and said, you girl, that you're the one
for this role. I absolutely feel like not only did
I put my time in in the business, but educating myself,
making sure that I had the resources dealing with a
lot of blows in order to be able to accept
(03:47):
this time in a way that doesn't feel like I'm
an impostor, right, So it makes me feel like, Okay,
I've earned this position. I think it's so wonderful if
people have success that is quote unquote overnight when you
see it in and they don't. But there is something
about that earn It makes you mentally ready, which is
really the biggest thing is getting your mind wrapped around
(04:09):
what's happening in your life. And I feel I'm so
complete at home. I've been married for twenty five years.
Come on to the college, sweetheart, I have two kids,
so it's sort of my career is not on the
back burner, but it's just an additive to my already
full life.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, which is nice, and it's amazing because the world
fell in love with you from shameless Yes eleven seasons.
That's I mean, I don't even tell you that. That's
almost unheard of nowadays to be on a show for
eleven seasons. We did it, Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
We did it. It was. It's so funny. When we
met the first time we played Guitar Hero, we did
miniature golf together. Because John Wells, who is the greatest
showrunner of all time and creator of Material, knew Material,
knew that he wanted to create a synergy. It had
to be exactly right with these people, and he got
(05:02):
it right. The kids on our show were nine and
ten when we started the show. When we got done,
they were nineteen and twenty, so so much life happened
and I got to live it with them, and Jeremy
was eighteen and Cameron was sixteen. It was it was
such a moment in life that I can't describe to
people how special that experience was. Because we were a
(05:25):
family on and off screen and still are.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
That's not always the case, No, that's usually not the case.
You know, when you're putting different people together, you hope
it all works out, and you hope that you become
a family and friends, but quite often you don't.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Absolutely and sometimes you become family and friends, but it's
just for that season and then it doesn't carry over
when the show is over. That is not the case
with us. As soon as I landed in New York,
Jeremy's on my phone. You know, tell me and Steve
how we talk? Not just once a week, multiple times
a week. We're in each other's lives in a very real,
(05:58):
real way and not five minutes. Hey, how are you
doing conversations? Real life stuff like true friend true friendships,
true family. Ethan's out here right now doing a movie.
It's just we're very and also, I'm mama bear, so
try to get rid of me if you want to.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Know what you're doing? Where are you going?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Why did I have to find out about this on
social media? What are we doing? Yeah? That's that.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I like you. What's your sign?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I'm a geminia?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Aren't?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
But can you see it completely?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Are we compatible? I don't know. Someone looked that up.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We're going to need to look that up. I hope
we are. I hope we are. Baby. Let me let
me tell you the show. I believe next year mark's
fifteen years since it premiered.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Is that true?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's insane. Yeah, that is insane.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I mean I think that's a perfect time for a
reunion of some sort.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
It would be such a dream and a pleasure at
whatever point that that happens, to do a reunion, to
reunite with not only our family, but to also see
where the characters people fell in. The crazy fandom that
is Shameless is unlike any other. Everyone wants to know
(07:12):
what happened next. I want to know what where? Did
did Veronica and keV really move?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Will Frank come back as a ghost? Did he even
really die? I mean they did burn him up, so
probably Yeah, I'm gonna go with you. But you know,
he's got to come back somehow because we got to
do it with Bill Masie. He's the best, and so
it would be a dream. Now, listen, Jeremy has probably
booked and busy. I hope he hears me say this,
so he'll I you know, he might be too good
(07:38):
for us now, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Well, Mama Bear is the one that has to wrangle
everyone together, so it's on you to make this all happen.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Okay, Yeah, and he knows that I will uh huh
when I say we're doing it.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You the is so beloved, right, what part of your
personality rubbed off on V or what part of these
personality rubbed off on you over the years.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Her energy, Yeah, and my energy I thing rubbed up
on V. She's a little more street than I am.
But they both have this, we both haven't they We
both have this sense of loyalty about family and there was,
if you think about shameless, V was a moral compass
(08:21):
in this crazy world. Even when Fiona would be doing
some of her shenanigans, she would try to bring her
back to some sort of morality about it. Now, that
doesn't mean that she's not gonna rab the milkman from
you know, from the truck and set that up, but
there was some sort of moral compass that she has,
and she and keV were the only relationship that was
(08:41):
sustainable the entire season series. They stayed together. They had
that patch where they messed up and it wasn't but
it wasn't a cheating patch, you know. It was a
true love that you got to watch go through all
of the things for eleven seasons. So I love that.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
You and keV, V, you and CAV. Let's have fun
for a minute. If you guys were to have a
spin off, yes, where would you be right now, and
what would it be.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Called, Well, it would be called no keV without V.
Think about it, s e k e V no Kev'll
be easier.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
And I did it.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I did that for the audiences in their car. I didn't.
We've thought about this because we're trying to pitch it
right now. I'm just kidding, we're not. But no, and
I think that it would be somewhere with us owning
a bar together, because I just think that that allows
for so many characters to come in and out with
our girls going through puberty, that's where they would be
(09:39):
right now and having a deal with that and being
a biracial uh girls going through puberty at school. Maybe
not in Chicago, but maybe we end up moving back
to Chicago. I mean, I can go on and on
and on. You have ideas, I have ideas and still
having crazy sex. Can you say that one?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Of course you can. You can say anything off. We're
not daytime baby, this is my spot. That's right, That's
that's your magic though. Your chemistry with everyone you work
with is always so right on. And we're going to
talk about that in this amazing show you're in now,
which is Oh my god, just brilliant, but especially with keV.
(10:21):
With Steve Howie, Yeah, who's my best friend? You guys
were magic together. Yeah, that was magical together.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
People don't realize that to have that kind of relationship
on screen that we have. I mean our first scene.
This is true because I can say anything on you. Right, Okay,
let's get into it. So our very first scene that
we shot together, I am riding him like a bull.
(10:48):
The first Hello, meet Sheanola Hampton, Sheanola, meet Steve. Are
we ready? This is the pilot episode. Go back and
watch it. Veronica has a strap on tne though. It's
Frank saying, these are our crazy neighbors, and I am
riding him. And he tells the story. But let's be
for real. He's just being dramatic that because I pulled
(11:10):
I have to pull his neck, that I really pulled
his neck and I pulled something not true. I will
not own that, but he says, and that's how so
you know you're either going to get it together with
one another or you're not. Right away, yeah, and we did.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That could be a very uncomfortable situation. And you were like,
I'm here, I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Let's go absolutely and he was the same way awkward
it was. It was sort of this chemistry that we
had right away. And of course he's such a an
interesting personality when you first meet him, because he's so
big and he can be sarcastic and people don't know
(11:50):
how to take him. But he is the warmest, most
loyal human being in the entire world. I mean, of
course I feel that way because he's my best friend.
But I also told him about male hygiene. Sir, I'm
gonna need you to man escape.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
What was he shown up to set not doing that?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Listen, here's the thing, girl, even though you are pretending
to go down on someone, I'm still seeing something I've got.
What I don't want to see is your pigs coming
out of your underwear. So what you're gonna do is
going and shape that out. He'll tell you that, right
(12:28):
you met me like no, But but we didn't have
to do a going down scene. It was after that
first one, and I told him, before you get even
think about doing a sex scene with me, get your
butt in the shower. Sweaty balls, sweaty balls, don calm
near me.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Boo, not doing that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
So he'll tell, he'll tell, he will admit to it
that I taught him all the things he needed to
know about male escaping.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
We need a Shanola in our lives. In our lives, yes, yes,
but it's so true when you're working with someone so intimately,
like you got to be honest and you have to
you know, you want to smell good, look good, feel good,
all of it. And when you're that close, yeah, you
better be ready for anything that's right.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And your partner wants the same thing.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yes, yes, amen, Amen?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
What twenty five years married, twenty five years married, but
thirty years together?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well I think you bring this honesty probably to that
relationship too.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I mean, it's so funny to watch my husband and
I together because he is I'm the ying to his yang,
and he would be in the room right now. I
act the same way. I could jump, give you a
lap dance, all the things, and he would just sit
shake his head in that chair and just that's my wife.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
That's my wife. I feel like you and I are
very similar. Like my husband he works on ABC, he's
a news anchor, and I'm entertainment baby. So I'm like,
what we do in entertainment is not all buttoned up
on the News. Right, you don't want to listen to
this show.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Exactly, especially not after we talked about sweaty Balls.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I mean, like I said, I love you already. I
love you already. I just am in awe of everything
you've built in your career and of the person you are.
And you have this new, amazing show that you were
starring in. Okay, producer, yes, okay, producer. It's on NBC,
(14:28):
is called Found. How does doing this show fulfill you
differently than Shameless? For example?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
What you've mentioned it just in that introduction of it
is I am an executive on it. And one of
the things that I was afforded after doing a show
for so long, eleven seasons unheard of, Right, It's very
rare that you have that was the ability to choose
my next project and decide how I wanted my career
(14:54):
to look. I knew a couple of things. I didn't
want to just be an actor for hire anymore. I
wanted to make sure that my voice. I had so
much to offer on the back end and the things
that you don't see on the camera creatively, that I
wanted to make sure that my voice wasn't just mute
it and I wanted to express myself as a director, producer,
(15:15):
all of those things. I didn't know how that was
going to materialize. I really didn't, but I knew that
I needed to learn from the great John Wells while
I was there, so he is one of my mentors,
and I did the directing and I directed in the
last season of Shameless and now being number one. If
you think about Shameless, you have so many characters. So
(15:38):
you have Bill who's number one, you have Emmy who's
number two at the time. Then there's Jeremy because the kids,
it's the Gallagher family. It's their story. So by time
you get to the neighbors, you're at number sixty seven
six seven ors. I mean whatever, however it pans out,
and I go from that to number one, Wow, and
a producer and it is it a great world where
(16:01):
it's like yes, but it also opens up a new
style of management that you have to do with people.
I mean, you know from having your own up, you know,
it comes with It's so great. I love my name
being on this super cute picture. I love my photo.
But we got to have the meetings and we have
to get into stuff and we you know, there so
it comes with pros and cons and that's truthfully, what
(16:24):
I think people need to understand is we live such
a life that looks like it's all glamour. Yeah, but
the work that goes into I always say, for every
red carpet picture you see me on that looks happy,
and it is and it's a joyful time, imagine about
eight times me crying in my closet for each one
time you see me on the red carpet. And that's
(16:47):
sort of the life that we've chosen to live.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, it's so real, and not everybody sees that, right
They look at you and everything you have going on
and they think, oh my god, nothing could be wrong
in her Life's like no, no, no, you have struggles,
You've have faced rejection, and you've gone through all of
it like we all have in our careers.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Lots of it. Imagine being a darskin girl with this
deep voice, Hello everyone from South Carolina with a natural hair.
What jobs am I getting? Boom? You know what I mean?
So really, when you just look at it, but it
also for me was never a doubt that I was
going to sit here across from you looking at these
(17:25):
piercing blue eyes. You know, having this conversation, conversation that's
meaningful because I felt like it was already ordained for me.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Well, and also, that's the beauty of the show is
you're talking about things on TV that aren't really being
talked about. Yeah, you know, and I'm sure for you
that holds a lot of weight.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It does. But you know what's interesting when people say
we are and we are talking about things on the
show that aren't really talked about. But in our community,
we've talked about the fact that there is such a
large gap between who gets the media attention and who
doesn't when they go missing. And our show is just saying,
listen everyone, We're not saying anything specific about any other group,
(18:08):
but every single person deserves to be found. Every single
person deserves the same media attention. And that's what we're
trying to bring light to, is to make these headlines human. Yes,
And I think we've been successful in doing that because
we've also set it up in a way that it's palatable. Right,
you can watch a thriller and you can watch a
(18:28):
man be in the basement and us to this cat
and mouse game, and the man is some people say
good looking, I mean that's fine if y'all into the
Marball love it all, Zach and all that. But you know,
so you're looking at it from a way that is
still has the thriller aspect, and I think that's what's worked.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Well well right. It's not trying to prove a point
or doesn't come off as preachy, feel like or it's
a lesson. It's just it is what it is, right,
But it's telling a story that needs to be told. Yes,
you know, yes, so it's I mean, this show keeps
us on the edge of our seats and you your character, I.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Know, heels running in. Do you see that running in?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Obviously, But she's also not a perfect character flaw and
I love that with a character. I don't need to
see another perfect person on TV board. Give me something
juicy and.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
You play that, thank you. It is the best. I
always call her this beautifully flawed character because in many ways,
if you've seen the show, those who haven't, just know
that a man kidnapped my character, and then my character
re kidnapped the man when she got older. That's all
you need to know. The man was in the basement
helping solving cases. Yep, it's that good. Go watch it
(19:37):
all right, get into it. But what I love about
her and the human nature is we're not just one thing,
and we all have a dark side. Now it's how
much we're able to control leaning into that dark side
and what those triggers might be to lean in even deeper.
You know, if somebody comes from my kids, I'm gonna
(19:58):
tell you right now, I don't know what I'm going
to m hm. You come from my husband, I might
let you just lie a little bit, but my kidnams
getting it. It bends on but but so you just
don't know until you're in it. And to be able
to have her dealing with trauma and healing and all
of the characters really dealing with some sort of trauma
and having to heal from that, I think it makes
(20:18):
it more human than us just seeing these number ones,
you know, doing the oh I'm the hero all the time,
because in many ways, is she just as bad as sir? Yeah, yeah,
that's the question.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yes, yes, And it makes for a really interesting watch
because you never know where it's all gonna go, That's right.
You don't know, like will you turn really dark eventually?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I mean I could maybe maybe the next season. I
mean you see by the end of this season, you
know the good stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Mmm mm the finale's coming up. Yes, anything you can tease.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I can say that I read the finale and I
wasn't expecting what I read to be the finale because
it made me. You wonder, Okay, how are we coming back? Okay,
because it's it's sort of.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Jack, you're dying up in here or something.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Come on, let's not get crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
But if I did the number one number one that.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I just go you have to tie with your eyes open,
in heels in heels, the heels would be up here.
Oh sorry, So anyway, No, I can tell you that
it is what Gabby does is unexpected and it was
for me as well.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Wow, I'm putting your hand. Just drop that on and
just drop it wherever.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Drop it like as hoigh.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Okay, moving move that way. You're the star.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I'm taking the head.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Okay, so interesting. We can't wait for that finale. Where's
the season three announcement? Girl? What are we waiting for?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Listen?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
What are we doing? Uh?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And b C. Yeah, I better announce it soon. Okay,
she's in high demand. I'm I'm playing on this mud show.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Well, by the time this airs, hopefully an announcement would
have come out.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, and then you have to do that thing where
you said since the taping of this show, you know
how they do it on Blura has gotten a season
three twenty two episode thick.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, you'll come back for that. You'll come back for
coming back to Your energy is infectious And I love
what you said earlier. You alluded to always knowing that
you would be doing this and that this was meant
for you. And at five you had a dream, right
and you didn't let anything dissuade you from being right
here in this room with me talking about being number
one on the call sheet in a primetime show, which
(22:39):
is just amazing. So a lot of people listening have
their own dreams, and it's hard to sometimes keep them
around because life happens. So what would you say for
anyone who has any sort of dream, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, I think that the biggest thing that I've always said,
because I could asked this question, and it's really how
do you block out the noise? That's the hardest thing
to do. It's generally one or two things. It's other
people around you giving you a look or even a
sentence that makes you second guess yourself or it's your
(23:11):
own demons that you're battling in your head. And what
I would say is it's the intimate moments when you're
about to go to sleep, that where your heart and
your head are connected and no one else is around,
that you have to talk to yourself and say no, no, no,
no no no, no, no no no. This would not
be put in my heart if it wasn't meant to manifest.
(23:35):
And you have to keep saying it until your body
starts to accept and believe it. Because the science of
the mind is really what you have control of. You
can't control how other people view you, you can't control
the nose and the rejection, but what you can control
is how you think about it and how you come
into the next day. And that doesn't mean I'm not
(23:57):
I mean I am kind of try hockey, But I
don't mean that in the oh that sounds so good.
I mean in the actual conditioning of one's mind to
accept that this was placed on your heart because it
was meant to manifest and believe And until you can
condition yourself to believe it and feel it, just keep
telling yourself.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
It there was never a point you wanted to give up.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
There wasn't a point that I wanted to give up,
but there was definitely many points where I needed confirmation
that I was on the right path.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
How did you get that?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I'll tell you I was bartending. Most people know. I mean,
I mean, come on, can you imagine me with my
people's okay? And I had like I did a Martine shake.
She made money. I don't drink. I do not like
the taste of alcohol, but I can make it. Oh,
come on, skin, thank you, thank you. And so when
(24:52):
I was bartending, I would change my clothes. I would
go to auditions, I come back. I bartend, you know,
And then I would not get the part. And then
I would be crying in the car and I'd be like,
oh God, give me a sign. Oh I don't know.
And I would book a commercial and sure it would
be like adopt a proper commercial where they just skimmed
(25:13):
over my face. But I booked a commercial and every
time it would be something like that, or I would
get one line on something or five lines on something.
So it's like these little wins in the process of
rejection that kept me knowing, Okay, I'm on the right path.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
And I always say, if you're open to looking for
the signs, they're there. Absolutely, they're there. You just have
to be to seeing them.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Absolutely and I and that goes for everyone. You don't
have to be spiritual I am, but you don't have
to be. You just got to be open and willing
and also willing to accept your dream. You accept it. Yeah, yes,
this is my dream. I dreamed it for a reason.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Except yes, look at me.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
What's your crazy eye?
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I can't put sunglasses on it? No, no, no, no, we're not.
You're getting be flustered now and then.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Look out cuture and then you got all red in
the cheeks. I wish everyone could wait. Are they going
to go back and see this?
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Can we zoom into the whole video? We don't need
a zoom.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Zooming?
Speaker 1 (26:15):
No zooming zoom. My god, you werelax all right.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
See if I was shooting you right now, I would
go right in.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
The slow slow the cinematographer. Director.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, if you don't do your hands like this, you're
not a real director. Director.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I see you, I see you. You will be directing,
thank you. I know you're going to be doing it all.
Was there a role that we would be surprised to
know you auditioned for and really wanted that didn't work.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Out there, I'm true blood. Truelo crushed me, really crushed me.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Oh when it was one of those roles that I knew,
I was, uh, Tara, I think, what's the name or
they're on the shut m. Yeah, it would have been
the vampire and it was the friend and she's bartender.
And went to the person that it was absolutely yeah,
that the redhead, but she had a friend, Okay, okay,
(27:09):
was it Retina Wesley? That anyway, anyway, you'll see you'll
see even some similarities with us when I tell you
that I'd psyched myself up so much that this was
my role and I went in and I bombed the audition.
I was devastated, because sure, you can get another opportunity,
(27:31):
but once you've made that impression, it's very hard to
come back. And I knew I could do it. I
knew I could and I lost it. But I was
maybe six months to a year later that I booked Shameless.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
See that, see that and the wild adventure you went
on with that show. Never could have been.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Never could have been Veronica in her boobs out and
up to the sky. You know, all of those things
would have not happened. And if I didn't take that
l for True Blood and even if you look at
the British version of Shameless, Veronica is a blonde hair,
short hair. You know, girl looks nothing like me. Let's
(28:13):
just say, but that was the role I was meant
to have and that's what my dream was manifesting. It
wasn't True bloods it was Shameless all along. But you
can't listen now, doesn't that sound beautiful? All that was
so flowery? Now when you're in it and you just bomb,
you just embarrassed and crying and you know those tears
it usually happens when you suffer from a bad breakup
(28:33):
and you're throwing up and you like made yourself so
sick and you're you know those kind of that was me,
you know, making yourself sick in the toy those for real,
the hitting of the staring wheel. It sounds so dramatic
right now, but we've all done it where it's like no,
and then playing the song or repeat because I deserve
to just cry. You know, it's heartbreaking, it's so heartbreaking.
(28:55):
I pulled over on the side of the road. I
always remember this when I left that all edition and
I just bawled and I called my manager, who's still
I call her my Fraen Maager friend, family manager, still
my manager to this day. And I was like, I
just blew my career. That was my role.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
That was my role, Honey, look at where you are.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
And it's hard to imagine anyone else in that role.
You know what it really is for you? It was
it really was just like this role, just like Found.
I mean, it's it's such a fresh show. And I
think Primetime, you know, Primetime has a ferocious audience.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
It's so hard, it's so hard to get him to stick.
I've not done network TV. This is a whole different
beast for me. I'm coming from the streaming you say,
whatever world, you know what I mean, what did we say?
I was Roden, Steve Howie put a dildel. That's the
world I came from. And now I'm on network TV
doing cold gay commercials. You know, so the audience you
(29:57):
have to retain it. And what I think has worked
for Found and what I appreciate about it is it
does what NBC does so well procedural, but it's I
called it, call it a heightened procedural because it gives
you the thriller to be able to get the audience
to want to come back and want more, and not
just the standard procedural, but for those who love it,
you get to solve a case every week. But then
(30:18):
there's this other element that feels like a whole other
show within a show. Yeah, and so I'm really proud
of us being able to find that balance and really
find an audience to appreciate that balance.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Mm hmmm. That's why I'm we're waiting on the final
the results of a new season because we want it.
So call the powers f and make it happen.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I mean, I went, Meg, can you make a call? There?
Speaker 1 (30:41):
We go, bring it home, Meg, bring it home, bring
it home. Well, we have covered dil Do's, Yeah, we have.
We've covered leaving our home because I've got.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
More on that topic.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
I'm sure you do.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Look at Meg mag Is.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Like, no, I'm sure you have more on that, Like,
we are done. We are done. We've talked about leaving
our husbands, yes, we've talked about having kids together.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
I'm not just leaving our husband for one another I
mean it's got to be worth it.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, I mean, come on now, nobody just out in
the streets, no kids together too. So we've covered it all.
But now I have a question for you.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
It's based off the title of my show, and the
show is obviously called I've Never said this before, And
it was born because I cover a lot of red carpets.
I also work on a show called Extra, and I
do jun kets and on.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
A show called Extra that hasn't been around for like
thirty years.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
You know, I don't want to presume just subtle flex
you know.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah, I picked it up home.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
There you go, and I get such limited time with people,
And that's how the concept for this show was born
is I often saw people wanting to say something a
little bit more before getting cut off or not just
having the same sound bites of what is your project about,
what are you excited for? You know, the usual? And
I thought, let me create a space where we can
celebrate the work, but then have someone come on and
(32:04):
say whatever they want to say that they don't get
the chance to say. So, what is one thing you've
never said before that you want to share today?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Okay, one thing I've never said before. But it can
be about just something. I just never hear.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
You want whatever it means to you, you.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Know when Okay, you know what I've never ever said
in my life is I hate someone Like I've never
said that. I just hate just feels so strong now.
I have strongly despised, right.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
I have people that could get it, you know what
I mean. And I got a couple that just ran
through my head. But I've never ever said I hate
that person, like behind their backs or to them. I've
just never I've never been hateful in that way.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Have you ever said I hate I don't think so,
not about a person, maybe about like I hate that song, yeah,
yeah no, but.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Like to a part like a humans couldn't Yeah no.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
And I don't like that word. I really don't like
that word. I mean maybe when I was younger I
used it somehow, but I don't. I'm like you, I
think in the sense that I'm very energy driven and
I think what you put out is what you get,
and I don't like that around me. I don't like it.
Even like we have a friend right now that we're
kind of going through a little thing with Yeah, And
I just rather I rather not go to those dark places, sure,
(33:27):
and just kind of cleanse Yeah, goodbye, because it's not
worth it because guess what, it affects you. Absolutely, it
affects you. You're putting that out, but it's actually coming
back to you.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Absolutely, and I believe that. So I think that's one
thing I've never said. I also have never said that
I'm a fifteen. I usually say ten.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Well, I think you're a twenty. I think you're twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
So you had to catch that. You had to catch it.
Just kidding out, Uh, but yeah, I think that. Yeah.
I love that you have this platform where you can
dig a little deeper and you're so good.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Oh thank you?
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Am I allowed to say that on your show? Yeah,
we're not zooming in.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
We're not zooming in.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
We are.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Or not? But no, this is what I love. I
love having people like you on who are so accomplished
and so good at what you do, and who create
art that really makes so many people feel seen and
can escape into this world that you create. With everything
else going on in our real lives. You create that
space for people, and I love having artists like you
(34:30):
Wan where we can talk about those projects. But then
get to know you more and I think you're You're
someone who I predict will be around for decades and
decades and decades more.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Thank you. I know you say that to all of
your I do.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Not play them all back, baby, I do not.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I do not.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I am an Italian from Jersey and I call it
as it is.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Thank you, and that means a lot. It really means
a lot.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Thank you well, thank you for hanging. Your show is
out now, this is dropping finale weeks, so do miss
the finale, y'all.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Pick up already happened. Thank you so much, NBC.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Put it out there, put it out there, and please
come back.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
I really truly will. Okay, okay, oh no, no, okay,
what the folks didn't see? Are we? Are we playing
the music out? He did a wink. That's not fair,
and he ended it with a nod. I've never said this, befo,
I never said this before. What's y'all song? Y'all have
(35:30):
a song?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
That's my song?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Now?
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Right?
Speaker 1 (35:35):
All right, all right, I've never said this before. Is
hosted by Me Tommy Didario. This podcast is executive produced
by Andrew Puglisi at iHeartRadio and by me Tommy with
editing by Joshua Colaudney. I've never said this before. It
is part of the Elvis Duran podcast network on iHeart
(35:55):
Podcasts for more rate, review and subscribe to our show
and if you liked this episode, tell your friends. Until
next time, I'm Tommy Diderio.
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