Honey Grove • EP417

Imagine your favorite TV show arrives in your small hometown. That’s what happened in Honey Grove, Texas when the cast and crew took the show on the road and filmed on location.

The girls reminisce about the trip and it’s filled with nostalgia, friendship, lasting memories and deep emotions.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
First of all, you don't know me. Were all about
that high school drama, Girl Drama, Girl, all about them
high school queens forever. We'll take you for a ride
in our comic girl sharing for the right teen drama
queens girl fashion. But you're tough, girl. You could sit
with us Girl Drama, Queens Drama, Queens Drama, Queen's Drama

(00:20):
drawn MC, Queen's Drama Queens. Hey, Hi, Hello, welcome back everyone.
It is season four, episode seventeen. It gets the worst
at night. A lot of depressing titles for our show.
Oh my god, especially for a happy episode. Yeah, we're
having this uplifting moment after a lot of actual depression

(00:42):
and sadness, and then they're like, let's just keep the titles.
Really sad. I know, I don't know why, because it
really was a fun episode. Scaruly having this episode of
Aaron May nine, two thousand and seven. The synopsis is
that the teens of Tree Hill that would be US,
mount a rescue mission to treeve Marvin from his ill
advised road trip with Rachel. While on the trip, Haley

(01:05):
and Nathan get a second chance to enjoy the prom well,
and I guess Brooke and Peyton do too, and we
actually danced, and Lucas and Peyton decided to take their
relationship to the next level. Brooke tells Haley that she lied.
She was the one who lied about stealing the calculus
exam and Nathan struggles with the residue of a past
mistake and we went to Honeygrove. We sure, did we

(01:31):
have my Honeygrove Texas hat? I have? I just found
a whole thing in my attic full of Honeygrove paraphernalia,
like like the police. It's like a badge. Yeah, yeah,
police badge. Why did you have a police badge? We
like remember single, no, every single I don't know, organization

(01:53):
and Honeygrove came out for this. I mean we had
law enforcement, the fired apartment, and the public school system
and the mayor and everybody came out. Yeah, it was.
It was so wild because we originally got into Paris, Texas. Well, yeah,
how did we even end up in Honeygrove? There was
a contest, but it was submissions from all over the
United States or something like what was the ya? Does

(02:14):
anyone remember? So I remember, and I don't remember where
we launched it. I can't remember if they made us
do commercials or if they were running radio ads. But
they got fans to submit videos, and they asked like,
as a team of friends, you know, get get your
sort of high school crew and tell our high school
crew why they should come and do prom with you guys.

(02:37):
And these kids from Honeygrove just made the most charming video.
And they toured us around the town, and they took
us through the school and they talked to us about,
you know, everything that they were doing and what they
were into and why they related to Tree Hill. And
I remember, to Hillary's point, we got into Paris, Texas
late at night. That's where the motel was because there

(02:59):
wasn't even a place for us to stay in Honeygrove, right,
And as we filmed there, we started to learn about,
you know, this phenomena that happens, you know, not just
around America, but all sorts of places when you go
through these huge generational changes and industry changes, and these
towns that once had some big industry no longer dis Yeah,

(03:24):
and Honeygrove was in this process. You know, not to
be morbid, but it's it's what they said to us.
It's stuck with me. They said, you know, we're a
town that's in the process of dying, and wow, I
remember like having to hold back tears, and so I
think that was part of the reason, you know, coming
in with all of us and a two hundred person
crew and tour buses and music and all the stuff.

(03:47):
It you're right, Hill, everybody came out. It was like
a festival, Like we threw a festival for five days.
It was so special to be a part of that
with them, and it was fun. Yeah. I liked, you know,
roll in at night, we couldn't see anything. We wake
up the next morning and there's like a fake Eiffel Tower,
but then it's really As we drove out to Honey Grove,

(04:09):
it's all, you know, it's like a lot of farmland.
And I remember being super creeped out at seeing like coyotes,
being just like no baby tacked up on the fence post.
Oh Jesus, Yeah, do you remember that, Just seeing like
skulls and pelts and stuff, And I was like, what

(04:29):
where going on? I had the first because you know,
I get real nostalgic about touching old things, which is
why I go to the flea market every weekend. And
when we first drove into town and it was like
Golden hour in the morning because we have to get
up so freaking early. And I was like, look at
these old grain silos and the fading paint. Oh my god,
it's so beautiful. Is that a dead animal? Like? It
shook me out of my beautiful like the revery real quick.

(04:55):
Yeah it was. You know, I've been around taxidermy my
whole life. I just never seen anything just like tact
upon a fence before. That was that was too rich
for me. That practice. What's the wonder what the point
of that is? I think maybe it's supposed to like
ward off other predators or it seems like a lot.

(05:16):
And then I remember referencing it with the high school
kids and they were just like, oh, yeah, that's like,
you know, that's a weird thing that the older generation does.
We don't do that, because I do think there is
a lot of cool stuff about how a young person
grows up in a town like this. You know, we
have TV and movies and so you're exposed to the

(05:38):
wider world even though you live kind of in this
little bubble. Yeah, And so the kids of Honeygrove had
like a million questions and did you go over to
their house that night? We went and we did a
watch party. I wish one of the kids houses. Unfortunately,
I was like really stuck in a weird place in
life at that time, and I just wasn't being very
social and I regret it deeply. While there was a

(06:01):
really cute little boy that was like a musician and
he knew that our show was all about music, and
so we went and we did this watch party at
the house of this group of girls. And this kid
was like, what was he like an eighth or ninth grade?
I think he was definitely like freshman energy. I loved him.
He played like a senior. I mean, he played like

(06:25):
a boss, and we were all like, okay, honey, And
it was so fun to just like find this kid
that we would have never been exposed to otherwise and
celebrate that he had this amazing gift and go to
a local house party. I love fantastic. I love that.
I wish we had been able to do that with
our show more go out on the road and connect

(06:45):
with yeah people, you know, the people in the towns
that those kids that are watching our show and feeling
so connected to us because that's who we were to them,
just kids in a small town. Yeah, it felt real.
You know, it felt really real that when we watched
the party back, you guys said it, it's like, oh no,
we didn't have to do anything to pump these extras up.

(07:06):
Away was a real party. They all just showed up.
They were so happy to be there. I loved. I
loved looking at the landscape when you know, anytime I
go into a small town that's like, that's like that
kind of deserted and there's all these old buildings from
the forties, fifties, and sixties. You can see it was
once really thriving and then yeah, as you said, whatever
the industry was left. I always wonder what that's like

(07:29):
growing up in a high school like that. I didn't
well at all. You've seen Last Picture Show, right, Remind
me it's a Larry McMurtry book, Last Picture Show, And
then they made the movie of it, his Sybil Shepherd,
and you know, I didn't see it. What is it?
Oh my god, it's incredible. It's about a small town

(07:51):
in Texas, right, And I want to say they filmed
it in the seventies, but it's about the fifties, and
it is identical to the narrative that we experienced while
we were there in the two thousands, and so it's
kind of interesting to look at our episode of our
show where the main Street has the exact same aesthetic
as this classic American film and classic American novel, and

(08:15):
it's existed, you know for a hundred Well, that is Americana.
That's what it is. That's that feeling that you get
where it's the old and the new kind of all
merging together and all of this kind of country culture.
I think it's so interesting, and I know that it
probably feels really boring to the kids that are growing

(08:36):
up there, But what they don't realize is that they're
going to turn into that older generation that's perfectly fine,
where yeah, it's like I just want my land. No
one talked to me exactly like I'm happy, Just leave
me alone, let me enjoy my life. You don't know
that when you're sixteen go to the city to say, well,

(08:59):
we really did have a good time. And this episode
definitely address that older generation. We have to address the
Dan and Karen of it all, because on Earth it
carried through the whole episode and I gagged every time.
I know, I feel like because they're look, they're doing
this parallel path with Dan and Karen getting more intimate

(09:19):
and him being sweet to her and her saying maybe
I could love him, and you know, it's it's obviously
moy was doing such a beautiful job in the Unseid
in her performance, because you see it scratching this old
itch or healing this old wound, you know, the Dan
and Karen of high school years, and it's parallel pathed
with Lucas getting closer and closer to the Abbey reveal

(09:41):
he realizes who she is. He's looking for her in
this episode. So I feel like the writers are making
Dan and Karen lean so far in so that when
Abby's secret is known by all of us, it'll feel
like a bigger gut punch. Yeah, for sure that the strategy, right,
Isn't that why this is happening? It has to be.

(10:02):
I mean to me, each of the Dan and Karen
scenes where he's like, I want to be here for
you and the baby. I would be mad if you
didn't call me. That's a very Lucas Scott move. You know,
when he stays to make breakfast, when he finally admits
to her. He's like, I haven't felt this way since

(10:23):
I was seventeen and very much in love. You know,
he's admitting she's the only woman that he's ever loved.
All of those scenes bookend either a Haley and Nathan scene,
and it's these two boys of Dan Scott are also
more in love than they've ever been at seventeen, and
so are they? Which one of them is going to

(10:45):
end up like their dad? Yeah? Which one of them
is going to be the one that really thought they
were in love at seventeen? And then yeah? And then
pulled the rug out. I cringe every time I watched Yeah,
the Dan and Karen stuff, because you just can It's
it's the it's the babysitter running upstairs when the intruder
comes in the house, Like, don't go upstairs. Every time

(11:07):
I watched Karen and Dan, I'm like, don't do it.
And also, is tree Hill so small? It's so small
that there's nobody else to make out with. It's this
like she's needing closure. I mean that has to It's
so human, right, Like it's got to feel good to
her on some level, Like eventually, after all this time,

(11:29):
he couldn't resist coming back to her. There's, you know,
on some level that's got to feel good to her ego.
I don't I'm not saying I don't think Karen is
like obsessed with her ego at all. But we're human,
like the things that make us feel good it's hard
to run away from. So if you have your hand
up you're like, no, I'm just like I'm dying because
you're giving this really lovely answer, And all I could

(11:51):
think of Hill when you were like, it's tree Hill.
Really that's small, I'm like, well, we made tree Hill,
and the only people any of us ever kiss, we're
all of each other. So clearly there was nobody else
to make allway, Hilary. I mean, I'm not going to
admit to all the people I kissed, but I found
a bigger bubble there was. There was a little teeny

(12:13):
tiny tunnel under the screen dram studio with exit and
find other people. Um um. But to your point, like,
I don't know, I I worry that Karen doesn't have
any friends to tell her, like she really run into
the house year has no girlfriends. Well, and what an

(12:34):
interesting thing that one of the tactics when you look
at you know, the wheel that they show you in
therapy if you've ever been in an abusive relationship, and
they say, here's how you need to understand the system
of how these relationships work. One of the biggest chunks
of the wheel is isolation. Yeah, abusive partners isolate you,

(12:54):
so you have nobody to go to as a sounding
board to talk about what's happening to you and say, hey,
that's crazy. Yeah, and it's really interesting to me that
in the landscape of the show. You know, for reasons
that we're probably less philosophical, probably just the fact that,
again they didn't want to spend too much money on

(13:15):
too many actors. They weren't going to cast friends. For Karen,
she had deb or whatever. But she is an isolated
woman who is being manipulated by this person who she's
already been in this abusive cycle with, and he is
love bombing her, and he is he is bending the

(13:36):
truth to fit his narrative so that she will love him.
And it's like, oh man, it makes like every alarm
bell in my body go off. Yeah, I memorize that
chart it. I want better for her. Yeah, who does
her hair? Do you know what I mean like clearly

(13:57):
cut her hair. Yeah, like what hairdresser? Inn isn't like
why she doesn't talk to anyone. Well, the one person
she did start talking to was Deb but now obviously
that's the table. She can't talk to Deb about this.
I know she can't talk to the kids. I mean,
at least she keeps that boundary. She's not like sitting
Haley down and being like listen speaking of female friendship.

(14:24):
The Brook and Haley falling out in this episode, and
it's so uncomfortable. I mean, I get it. I get
why Haley was upset. I do. I don't know. I
feel like maybe it's is she overreacting? Well, she didn't
get fired. No, I don't think she's overreacting at all.
I don't think she's either. I think what I appreciate
about it is the fact that this storyline, for us

(14:47):
deals with complexity in a real way, like we acknowledge
how complicated this is. Brooke says, I wanted to tell you,
but then she said I wouldn't graduate. I'm also gonna
lose my job, Like I don't know what to do,
and Haley's like, yeah, but I lost my job. It's
a fight about things it's not just you said this

(15:08):
and hurt my feelings and no, no no, non in and
no no, not about boys, which is nice. Yes, it's
it's about real complicated moments and when when we make
a wrong choice and then it sends us down a
rabbit hole and everything only gets worse, and the things
we're trying to hold onto, and just all of it,
and even the fact that you say in that scene, yeah,

(15:29):
I lost my job, but you should graduate, Brooks says,
I get that, but you're my friend. It we get
to explore all the layers of why this would be
such a hard thing for two people to talk about. Yeah,
And I really appreciate that, because you're right. Sometimes when
the characters are fighting over a boy, it's like, really,
we're gonna act like this is important, This is something

(15:49):
really important, is important. Yeah, And I love I love
that Brooke owned up to it. I thought that was
really cool because it would have been really easy for
her to just let it go. And those are the
kiel being gone. Absolutely, Rachel's gone, so like the scapegoat's gone.
There's no reason to there's no reason except for her
own character, her own meaning integrity to do that. And

(16:12):
I thought that was really cool. I buy Hayley's anger.
It's the betrayal. It's like, now I look stupid because
I've been making fun of this girl for like weeks now,
about this girl for weeks now. She didn't do it
like it was you. What's interesting to me is that

(16:32):
Brooke does some revisionist history and says I did it.
She just took the fall, when in reality, no, Rachel
hatched a plan and you two did it together. But
but Brooke knows that she's the one who should have
done it differently. Yeah, and I like, I kind of
like a move. Yeah, I do like it, especially because

(16:56):
all that's happening in this episode is Rachel is just
being on the Oh god, what is going on? Oh
my god, what's going on? Yeah, it's so grossery and
you know what would hit me? And maybe it's because
we were in another high school and we're having this conversation,
these conversations about what it means that this moment is

(17:16):
almost over, and I think about Chris Keller being like, oh,
Rachel and all her plastic parts, and then the guys
in the jail are talking about her plastic surgery, and
then you're talking about it and everybody, and it made
me think of the time capsule when Brooke says to camera,
no matter what you do as a girl, you know,
the paraphrasing is, no matter what you do, it's always wrong.

(17:39):
If you're fat and dumb and you're a guy, it's fine,
but if you're a girl, not so much. And if
you're if you're sexy, you're a horn. And if you're
not sexy, you're a prude. Girls can never be enough.
And we had an adult writing an episode about a
teenager who, by the way he wrote, to have had
plastic surgery. Yeah, and then all anybody does is make

(18:00):
fun of her plastic surgery and act like because she's
she's so pretty, but she didn't earn it so ker
and it's not so gross. It's like, no matter what
you are, they will rip you to shreds. Even I mean,
mouth is talking about something totally benign. I don't even
know what he was saying, because I got so thrown
off by Chris Keller going bitches, Like I'm just horrible

(18:25):
over that. I'm so over men just calling women bitches
as though it's a completely acceptable way of communicating. Yeah, Mouth,
that was our boss's monologue. Oh yeah, and remember what
we were talking about while we watched the episode. Okay,
so guys, we obviously read your messages and we've noticed
this for a while, and it hit us listening to

(18:46):
that insane MONOLOGU there's always going to be somebody else
with her, and you know what, I realized, and yes,
are naked, but I didn't. The whole thing is so gross,
and so many of you say my horse, like, oh,
I had to let her go, but oh, it's just disgusting,
and so many fans will say, like in this whole
Mouth Shelley Rachel period fans will write in, they'll tweet us,

(19:07):
they'll dm us and say, we don't recognize Mouth anymore.
And this version of him is so gross. It's because
this isn't Mouth. It's our boss writing himself as the
I'm such a nice guy and all the sexy girls
don't want to have sex with me, and isn't it
sad for me? But I'm so much better than them.
And that's why we look at the episode and go,

(19:30):
who is that guy? We don't recognize that guy because
poor Lee had to deliver these gross guy monologues that
we're targeted at the young women on our show, and
you're right, joy. But when Lee's doing Our Boss's monologue
out loud as his dialogue, then Chris is like, get bitches,

(19:50):
And then all the guys in the prison are like, Wow,
you're just surrounded by all these hot bitches. You're a
stud bro, and it's like, oh so and demoralizing. It
really is a man well. And also Mouth swore to Shelley.
He swore to Shelley he wasn't going to tell anybody
that's right had sex because he knew how important her

(20:13):
identity as a clean teen was to her. And what
does he do. He tells every single person he can,
his best friends and perfect strangers. And if you look
at our Boss's life at the time, he was in
a relationship that he'd been in since he was very young.
And I don't know how he felt in that relationship.

(20:36):
But Mouth was in a relationship with Shelley. She didn't
make me feel like I was good enough. I was
never good enough. What he said, Oh I did. Yeah,
I love this. You're on it, go dude. He says,
Shelly made me feel not good enough. And that's when
Chris Keller's like, bitches, and then he says with Rachel,

(20:57):
I knew it was a lie, but she was flirting
with me. That is a hundred percent our boss talking.
And he calls Rachel a pain reliever and he says,
you know, she told me I was good enough. All
I wanted was to amaze Shelley and I couldn't. And
it's like, what what it is so out of context,

(21:19):
it just comes out of nowhere. It's a pure example
of someone in power wanting to use their platform for
their own messaging of and processing whatever was going on
with him. It had nothing to do with the show.
It was not best for any of the characters. It
wasn't best for any of the actors. It was just
totally selfish and gross. And every turn he got think

(21:41):
about this. This is when Danielle left, this punished in
this episode, Like that was a conversation we all had
behind the scenes. Everyone's going to get to go do
this fun trip and you don't get you to do
and you don't get to play well. So don't forget this.
In the timeline, Danielle has left, They've given her, not

(22:03):
even an exit. She just disappears and everybody talks about
her she disappeared. This is also in real life when
she began dating her now husband, who was the gorgeous
guy at the bar that mouth is talking about. That's
our boss talking about how jealous of Danielle's husband he was.

(22:23):
And the entire episode when she has just disappeared from
the face of the earth. In terms of Tree Hill,
all anybody does is talk about her body. We do
eight jokes in a row about why would he need
ass he's with Rachel. It's over and over and over
and over again. And then the way they made it
okay is that when Brooke is the last person to

(22:44):
say it, everyone goes assistance in unison and it's like
it's just a joke. It's a sitcom joke. But when
you really look at it, you see how it was
all so insidious and a hand that we were all
so I guess living in a time it's just cultural,
living in a time when it was still acceptable to

(23:04):
see that in the script, and none of us were
like marching in there like how yeah, dare you Like
that's just where you know we were. We had an
understanding of the context of the ceiling of what we
could do that yeah, you know, and at that age
and just what it was like this we don't know

(23:25):
what else could we do, and now obviously we know,
but and by the way, it is part of the reason,
because don't forget we would complain. So when when it's
just Chris Keller saying bitches, or some guy who's a
guest star for one episode who says something gross about
her body in the jail and doesn't know the greater
context of what we're dealing with, we did complain. And

(23:47):
it's why they made the ass joke you and then
you and then you and then you and then New
and then all in unison, and it's like, well, if
we take it out, we have no scene. They figured
out ways to force us into these positions. And it's
not that I'm look, I love filthy humor and I
love you know it's a little bit, but when it's

(24:11):
targeted at someone rather than simple humor exactly, it just
doesn't feel good. And I don't like that that we
were all used in this episode to just pile on
our friend because she said to her grown up married boss,
please stop hitting on me, and please stop touching me,

(24:33):
and please stop trying to make out with me at
bars I'm very uncomfortable, like that should just be the
bare minimum, the bare minimum. My god, this was a
nightmare period. Like I love this trip. I am that
still wear the long sleeve grateful Dead T shirt that
we wear when we arrive on Honey Grow. I have it.

(24:53):
I wear it once a week. It is so thin
right now, but it's because we we self edit. It's like,
I'm gonna remember going to the hotel bar. Do you
guys remember where we stayed. There was a road crew
that was also being put up at the hotel because

(25:14):
it was that cool two story motel you shaped with
the courtyard in the middle. It was like, yep, it
was like being at summer camp. And they had the
hotel bar and it was the only place to go.
And so we had all these like union you know,
like road crew dudes hanging out in this bar. And
then all of a sudden, tree Hill descends right and

(25:36):
so I went with Jojo and I learned had a
two step from a bunch of those dudes. But I like,
I danced with those dudes. I had a great time.
It was so fun. That's the stuff that's like nice
to cling to because that trip is also when our
boss assaulted me. And so it's like the duality that

(25:56):
we're seeing in the scenes also was existing behind the scene,
because it's like, how do I have a good time
but also have this memory of just wanting a yack?
You know? Yeah, I think you bring up a really
important thing, and I gotta say, hats off to you.
I didn't know if you were going to say that part,
you know, on the show or not, but people assume

(26:19):
that you've either had this like very intense moment, you know,
you've been assaulted, like in an alley by a stranger
and it was horrible. Most of what you know, statistically
we all go through is something happens with someone you know.
And you had this horrific moment with our boss that
was so unacceptable, and it was inside of a container

(26:41):
of many days of great memories. And that's I think
where it's sticky and where we as a society need
to get a little bit better about understanding that many
things are true. At the same time, we have beautiful
memories of Honeygrove, of those kids, of that part we
went to to watch that episode of those amazing guys

(27:03):
teaching everybody to country dance at the bar and you
had like a car crash of an incident with a
grown up that was supposed to be your mentor, and
he was abusive and creepy to you. Yeah, and had
just put you through filming an episode where you were
exactly abused. Well. He also when we announced honey Grove,

(27:26):
I don't know if you guys are aware like how
we announced it, but remember we secretly flew into honey
Grove and went to a school PEP rally, and so
he decided that it was going to be just me
and him, and so just me and him had to
fly to honey Grove, just me and him, went and
did the announcement, just me and him flew home together.

(27:49):
The flight back from that is when he assaulted me.
He assaulted me again in the car on the drive
from Raleigh to Wilmington. He went straight to set and
he told Daniel that he and I made out the
whole time and it was fun, and he was trying
to make her jealous, and so she confronted me about
it and was like, what are you doing? And I'm like,

(28:10):
what are you talking about? You know, And so then
we had to go on this trip with him, and
this was really like the last three months where my
blood was boiling and I didn't know how to process
it anymore. And you can see it in the episode.
You can see that I'm not there, you know, like
I'm doing all these scenes with Chad, but I look

(28:30):
like and I kind of like, just don't I'm not
connecting in any way because I was so in like
I don't know, shell mode. And my reaction to that
kind of stuff is to not let it ruin my
good time. My rebellion is to be like, oh, you
wanted to like assert your power, cool, cool, would have

(28:50):
a great time and laugh extra hard with my friends. Yeah. Yeah,
Well so my memory of Honeygrove is like partying with
James Lafferty. I knew a party with Jay. I'm bardied
with Laugherd and Honey. But by the way I think
that is, I'm We're very similar in that way, and

(29:11):
I think part of what breeds that response. You know,
I've I've I've said it before on this podcast. We've
all talked a lot about it. The response to mistreatment
for me is usually, Oh, you think you're gonna with
my integrity, watch this, I'm gonna be early. I'm gonna
know my lines and everybody else's. I'm gonna like watch me,

(29:32):
and when everybody goes out, I'm gonna have the best time.
And you're gonna wonder how I could be having so
much fun with you in the room. And I've come
to realize it's a self protective thing. And I think
when people wonder why that reaction comes into play. What
I want to highlight, especially for you in this moment.
This is season four, we're on six year contracts. Yeah,

(29:56):
there is no you don't like it, you get to leave, No,
you don't. They literally own you. Yeah, it's a legal
battle to leave because they own you, and so you
can't get away from it. You can't quit it, and
it's hard. So you have to figure out how to
cope inside of the place that you know you have

(30:18):
to show up in every day. Yeah, I hope it's
okay for me to ask this, But why didn't you
ever report and when that happened? Oh? I did? I
told all sorts of people. You did? I mean, honey,
I told everybody and people saw it. What's interesting about
the culture now? People Chad walked up and goes, what
are you doing? Right? He said that to him. He

(30:41):
said that to our boss in the bar, he watched
our boss grabbed me in front of a lot of people.
And you know, Chad didn't have anything to lose because
he knew our boss hated him anyway. You know a
lot of people had a lot to lose. Yeah, so
you don't speak up when you have a lot to lose.
But he felt so comfortable that that was not something

(31:05):
that he had a problem with. You know, I can
do whatever I want to her in public with her
boyfriend's standing there at that time. You have to remember,
like Desperate Housewives was the biggest show on TV and
Nicolette Sheriton was going through hell because she'd been assaulted
on set and they dragged her through the mud. That's right.
It was that era, right, Like it just hadn't It

(31:27):
didn't matter even you know the thing with her friends,
the writer in the friend's room that you know you
had talked about with HR meetings and if like people
you are related to on set aren't acting alarmed, right,
Like I was surrounded by men that I had relationships with,
my brother, my boyfriend, my boyfriend's dad, my boyfriend's uncle,

(31:49):
Like they were all like whatever they were all like,
you're such a trooper, you know, Like, so that was
the sentiment. No one was ever like, whoa, yeah, we
got a handle that. It wasn't until I went to
my next job. Yeah, and they culture you to handle it.
But to be clear, because people want to say, oh,
it was a different time ten years later, in the

(32:12):
same way you were going through this on your set,
this is what I was dealing with on my next set.
It's pervasive. It wasn't then. It was all the time. Yeah,
And you know, years later, in the same way that
you were going through this stuff and our boss was
doing this to you in front of people, it hit
me that exactly what was happening to you at this

(32:32):
time in North Carolina, that's what was happening to me
years later. Yeah, in front of rooms full of men,
and you know, my sweet a camera operator would pull
me aside and go, I want to punch the cat
of that guy. I've got to pay for my kids
to go to school, and I can't. What do you need?
And the people who were in charge, like your boyfriend's

(32:53):
dad and uncle and all those people who said nothing,
The people who were in charge that I went to
said nothing when I reported my first assault on set,
which was witnessed by people, to my boss, who had
flown in from La. Again, you get put in a
different city and they can get away with a lot.
His response was, well, thank god he didn't try to
rape you. I don't even know how to wrap my

(33:16):
brain around that response. That's insane. It was so like, oh,
so you're not allowed to say don't be so upset
about this, but you're saying, don't be so upset about this.
You got accosted by our boss in a bar full
of our friends and they looked at the ground because
they were afraid to confront him. And it's like, oh,

(33:38):
it's a life lesson to learn it if this is
season four, Yeah, we're twenty free years old. The life
lesson for me is like, never ever ever expect someone
else to take a risk for you. Just don't, because
that way, if someone ever does, you can just be
pleasantly surprised and you're not disappointed. But it's so sad.

(33:59):
It's not though, like we're all grown ups. We all
handle our own I handle my own ship, and everybody
can't be willing to take a bullet for everything. Like
there are things that you have to kind of strategize
about in your life. And yeah, because because when everything
came out during the Me Too movement, I felt a
sense of like members of our crew who I had

(34:19):
been friends with for a long time tiptoeing around me
because they didn't know if they were supposed to like
bring it up or apologize or not apologize, or make
excuses or disclaimers and like just blanket statement to put
out into the world. I don't expect anybody to have
done anything because we were in a different era at
that point, and there were a couple of people like

(34:43):
your friend, Sophia, like Steve Allen was my guy. Steve
Allen was a guy who pushed the dolly for our
camera on our show and was the safest, warmest, kindest
place for me and for anybody that went to the
that One Tree Whole convention we did with Beth Crookham.

(35:03):
They saw Steve Allen come into the lobby and me
run across lobby and burst into tears, and everyone's like,
why is Hillar crying on that guy? Because that's the
guy that was my safe person special. But to have
someone like a Steve or you know, like I had,
will and seth like, I gotta say, I hear what

(35:23):
you're saying. I remember having the reckoning on our show
together of going like, oh, all our bosses, all those
guys who work with our main boss, who talk about
how we're family and all the things. We're only family
until us needing help jeopardizes their money. And that was

(35:45):
such an ugly realization to me. But when you say
I don't expect anybody to do anything, I sure as do.
I don't accept that. I don't accept it. Well, now
you do, but back then, no, I am always has
been the person who will get involved, who will jump in,
who will try to shoulder something. And what I find
unacceptable is that it's usually us. It's the women figuring

(36:09):
out how to protect each other, how to not let
somebody go in the room with the boss alone anymore,
how to make sure we've got a side tex thread
so that somebody can feel supported when they're being hit
on inappropriately. And I'm so angry at all of these
dudes in power who stand around and do nothing. And
I have sympathy for everyone. You know, you hear that

(36:31):
thing of like above the line, below the line. I
hate that, but I get that so many people on
cruise can't jeopardize their jobs because they can't jeopardize their families.
But I am not okay with men that are our
peers or more powerful than us, people like your boyfriend's dad,
who was the second most powerful person on our set,

(36:52):
who looked at the ground. And I say this with
complexity because I loved that person for the nine years
we did our show. I do too, and I know
you guys did too. I still have a lot of
affection for me too. A lot of the people that
I'm mad at, and I do too, But I'm so mad.
I'm mad at the other actors who don't do anything.
I'm mad at the producers who don't do anything because

(37:15):
we're not supposed to have to do this alone. Do
you think it's a perfect metaphor that we're covered in
bruises though for this honestly, yeah, like we're covered in bruises.
We're just beaten down. That's how I felt, And it's
the girls always, yeah, and it's tiring. Do you think
that sometimes the men don't stand up because they think

(37:35):
we want to fight our own battles and we don't
want their home, They don't want their money to be
jeopardized either. No, I believe that there's definitely a part
of that sometimes, but I do wonder if there's some
of it that's like should I like I don't want to.
I don't want to offend, Like if she's got this,
she's taking care of it, like I don't want to.
The cool guy move is to ask the woman and say,

(37:58):
are you uncomfortable? Want me to do something? Can I
stand with you? Yeah? Right, it's so easy. It's a question.
It's not hard to your point. Joy about the reporting
and where we go, like running things all the way
up to HR and then having the most powerful local
boss in my situation scream at me and tell me

(38:21):
that I was jeopardizing everybody's jobs because I couldn't quote
unquote take a dick joke, and I was like, being
assaulted at work is not a dick joke. I have
sympathy for the reality that people are scared that you know,
they're going to put a hole in the ship and
then the ship is going to sink. But get over
it and protect your people because this idea that you

(38:44):
know looking at the ground is okay, it's not. And
thank god, Hillary that you had that moment with Chad.
He was already so at odds with our boss. That's it.
He had nothing to lose, he was like, but by
the way, he was protected as the numb number one
on the call sheet. Yeah, he had the most power,
so he could come up and shove our boss off

(39:05):
you and get in a fight. And I'm glad that
he did. I want everybody to follow that lead, you know. Yeah.
I mean I'm sweating and am I yelling? I'm so upset.
This is a sticky episode of all the episodes we've done.
This one and the all night graduation party are where

(39:28):
things got incredibly complicated, and you know, when we had
to revisit all of this stuff for the article that
came out about our show. Yeah, you know, there was
a lot of time spent on this era. And so
it's it's weird to watch because I can see myself

(39:50):
being super super fake, and I don't know if the
fans can see, like, I don't know if they're like, hey,
Hilary seems pretty checked out of this whole scene. She
waiting to have sex with Lucas forever. We sure wish
she looked happier about it. I do not read you
like that at all. But I know what you see
because there are two and a half years of my

(40:11):
life on a set like this where I look back
and I can see, like I think I look like
a dead person walking. Yeah, like you, I can see
it on my face, and I don't know that other
people can are certainly people who don't know you well.
But it is a weird thing to see. It's like

(40:32):
you're looking at another person. Yeah. I just wanted to
be Haley in this episode because you got the cool
outfit and you got the cool hair. That whole seventies
vibe was so cute. You've got this safe relationship and like, yeah,
all the things were worked by the way. You know
what melted me. You two in the gazebo and you're saying,
tell me a secret and I'm going risky. I was like,

(40:55):
oh my god, tattooed on my body. Like I loved
that risky. Oh it was so cute and after all
that sweetness with you two at the problem, it was
so nice to have a couple to just like feel
joy for. Yeah, I loved them in this episode. I
loved my haircut. I was real happy about that haircut.

(41:18):
I loved this wardrobe. Shout out to Carol Cutshall, our
wardrobe designer, costume designer. I mean, Chris Keller looked like
a million bucks in every scene, brilliant costumes for him,
all of us, like the seventies proms so fun. So
the seventies problem was so cheat But truly, I took
a picture on my phone of that frame of Chris

(41:38):
Keller on the white bench in the purple and white
suit with the balloons all around him, in the white shoes.
He Tyler Hilton has never looked cooler. Oh my god,
I was obsessed such good wardrobe. We built that gazebo

(41:59):
and left it as a gift to the town, is true?
That was like, yeah, that was part of our like
deal with the town council. Wait, you guys, something really
stuck out to me because Danielle was getting the ship
bullied out of her in this episode, and then you've
got Chris sitting on that bench looking so cool in

(42:21):
his elvis suit. God, I hope Tyler kept that outfit.
Not the point, seriously, but it was so interesting to
me that two of our contest winners came by and
we're like, oh, are you Chris, Kellner. I'm like, God,
how old are you? And they make fun of him
for being this old guy at a party trolling for
younger girls, and I was like, hold on, this whole

(42:41):
episode is about our older boss being mad at a
younger girl who doesn't want to what happens too much?
Do you know what I mean? I literally was like,
but yeah, but wait, we're making fun of the creepy
old guy. I'm confused. Was it like an interjection to
try to prove he had a sense of humor or

(43:01):
sometimes I don't know. I loved the scene you had
with Chris. I thought that was so nice when you
at the end when you walk up to him on
the bus and he's like trying to get you in bed,
and you're so clearly it was a beautiful delivery, which
is also hard to do when you're when you're supposed
to be playing drunk and yeah, having like a real
life realization that is actually not it's it's real. It's

(43:25):
not something that you're holliconating about in the in the
moment or you know, feeling overemotional about. Yeah. I love
that and the way that you guys just decided to
have a nice chat all night and Brooke has this
realization about her life and how she wants to change things.
It was so nice. It was the firm no, Sophia, Yes, yeah,

(43:46):
how good does know? And how good it felt? Yeah?
And what I loved too is that, in a way
we've seen through the season, Brooke and Nathan recognize their
similar patterns and lean on each other. And I love
that in realizing how easy it would be for her
to just numb out, she says, I don't want to

(44:07):
be that version anymore, and then kind of calls him
out to do the same, to grow up a little. Yeah,
it's so yeah. I loved it. It felt empowering and fun,
and I liked being able to voice that there is
so much growth available on the other side of that
sort of vulnerability with yourself, like this would be easy.

(44:31):
This is the thing I do and it's something I
actually really don't like and it hurts me and I
think I want to be different. That's so hard to
admit something about yourself that way, and she does it.
I got to do it as her in this way.
That felt awesome. Yeah. I love those moments in life
because they come around and you can take it when

(44:54):
it comes like you can grab the bull by the
horns and be like, here's this opportunity for me to
acknowledge something I don't really want to acknowledge, but I'm
going to do it, and then I'm going to keep
moving forward with now this new information, because once you
have new information, it changes everything. Or you can shove
it down and wait till the next time it comes
back around, and it's so much harder than next time,

(45:15):
and it's even harder than time after that. So I
love watching It's one of my favorite things. So I
Broke is one of my favorite characters because just like
ever in the whole history of the teen world that
we you know has has been given out to us,
because she's so honest all the time. It's just pure honesty,
Like this is exactly how I feel, for better or
for worse. It's I just love that she took it

(45:38):
in the moment that it was there, she grabbed it
and went okay, okay, it's time to change, let's do it.
So when she calls Chris Keller out the next day,
you said you were going to tell anybody so good,
so good, well, and in a way like I don't
know why I have this memory, but I remember when

(45:59):
we were filming that scene, you and I in the
gazebo and then he walks up and makes the threesome joke.
I remember feeling like the energy under the scene for
me was I warned you about this last night. You
said you weren't going to do sex jokes today, and
you did it. So now I'm gonna tell everybody you cried,
you know, like like I built this little backstory that
they had agreed that he was going to be better,

(46:21):
and then the first thing out of his mouth is
a sex thing and she just eviscerates him, and I
loved it. It It made me giggle. I'd pay money to
see that conversation, like her just being like Chris babe, Like, honestly,
why do we always go there? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, late
night drinking tea on the bus. Oh my god, that's
that's the improv skit I want to do with Tyler

(46:43):
at the next convention. Yeah yeah, just be like, let's
do Brooke and Chris talking about their feelings on the bus.
Just see where it goes. Yeah. I love it. Well, Hillary,
you know, I have to say I'm so sorry that
all that happened to you and the guys. Wait, I

(47:03):
want to, I know, give you a complement right now,
because this is important you at the at the expense
of you know, what you felt like was subpar work
for you. As Sophia said, we didn't really see that
that way, but you know what you feel when you're
at work and you're trying to do your best and
you're you know, you've always been somebody that looks out

(47:24):
for everyone. You're like Mama Bear on the set and
you're always trying to check and make sure everybody's okay.
And you know, in a time when you were not
okay and I don't know who was looking out for you.
I know it wasn't me because I was tied up
in my own drama and I don't know what. Maybe
it was James and a Steve Allen, I guess. And
you know, so if you were there, um, I wish
I had been more involved. But I just I'm I'm

(47:46):
impressed and I and I just I guess I wanted
to say like thank you as a cast, a member
and a crew member for somebody too. Is just you know,
you were always looking out for everybody, and even at
the events of your own work, in times when you
were going through a lot of shit, and I'm just
sorry that that all happened to you. And I know

(48:07):
that you get a lot of times you get which
you put out, and so I know there's a lot
of good things that came out of that, holding that
space for people, for you, and I hope that there's more.
So anyway, that's all I was. Thank you, Okay, No,
I appreciate that. Yeah, I mean I this was a

(48:29):
shy one. Yeah. Yeah, but Tyler and I sing whoa God?
We sang um? Why was there Elvis and Johnny and
June Cash. It was like we ended the night on
a keyboard in the bar and singing Johnny Carter and
June Cash that we got married in a fever song.

(48:53):
Oh yeah, going to Jackson. Ye please tell me that's
your karaoke song? Like my god to do some June
Carter in karaoke? Did you guys? Didn't you karaoke in Honeygrove?
I feel like I heard about it. It was karaoke
and it was at the bar. It was just in
the bar. That's it, you know. It's like hiding in
the fun Yeah, is my safe space. And so James

(49:17):
and I stole walkie talkies from the ad department and
snuck around the whole hotel, spine on people and had
a great time dream Tyler and I sang karaoke Jojo
and I line danced with the road crew. I mean
we hid in the bushes at one point. We were
definitely weird. Does that man? Like, sometimes you're just going
through the sh stuff, but then you have all these

(49:37):
other amazing things happening that It's like, I love that balance.
I'm so glad that all that fun stuff happened in
honey Grove. Yeah, because it was like we all just
got to take a big road trip together. How cool.
It was fun. I wish we'd gotten to do more
of it. Yeah, you know, you guys did it after
I left. I have information. I'm googling Honeygrove right now.
Davy Crockett discovered honey Grove and called it Honeygrove because

(49:59):
of an abundance of honey filled trees in eighteen thirty six.
Well hot damn kind of funny. Oh and something about coffins.
It's a hardware store that sells coffins too. That's funny.
That tracks well, if there's anyone in honey Grove that
has pictures from our time there. Yes, they're still taking

(50:20):
pictures in the gazebo, like this is still happening. It's
so sweet, you guys take pictures or like dig up
your old pictures from when we were there and please
tag us in them. Because for all of the rough stuff,
it was magical. It was and that is a credit
to the people who were there. If we were dealing
with people within our own little faction that we're weird,

(50:41):
the townspeople and the kids of Honeygrove made it magical. Truly.
We owe them so much excitement. They were so involved,
they were so like just amazed and excited to watch
and be a part of it and add great questions.
And ma'am, we had such a ball meeting with all
of you guys. Yeah, did anybody keep their outfit? Did

(51:04):
anybody keep their seculd keep those gold boots though? Damn? Yeah, yeah,
you should have those boots. You know what we should do,
because now this exists, we should take a little screen
grab of an episode or of a frame of the
episode and put them in that reverse searching Google and
see if we can get them for you. Those Yeah,

(51:28):
let's get all right, great, where the hell out of this?
Wait you guys, do we have any questions about this episode? Yeah,
we got a fan question. Yeah. Caroline wants to know
when the closing sea of an episode follows into the
next one, such as Lucas having his heart attack, do

(51:50):
you film those scenes on the same day or do
you wait until filming commences for the next episode. Well, ladies,
you two are the directors, tell her, Yeah, Usually you
have the other director for the next episode on set
at the same time, so you film it at the
same time, unless there's a break, unless it's like season

(52:11):
to season. I think then, well, I was going to say,
I've only seen that happen once. What where we've had
the director and we've been able to be like episode
four raps at lunch and then episode five picks up.
Usually you don't get that luxury because directors are coming
from other shows. They're prepping. The way we would pull
that off by this point, like season four or five

(52:33):
on our show is that so often we would have
recurring directors, So like if Greg Prange was directing and
then our boss was directing, they would coordinate that. But
if we had visiting directors, which is what most shows do.
And you know what is more common. Oh man, it
would be so rough to like finish a cliffhanger and

(52:54):
then eight days later have somebody new come in and
like there's just somebody with a computer being like, this
is the frame. You have to match this frame. I
don't remember that, that's so funny. I really just remember
having a guest director come in and they would like
overlap the day if it was maybe if it's like
a giant stunt is what I'm thinking, you know, like, hey,
getting hit by a car, that one was an overlap.

(53:18):
So I remember having to direct because that requires like
a street closure and a stunt team and a drive
right right, But that's rare, you mean, it was expensive,
just an actor having to match. They're like, it's an actor.
Make them do it there. They're like, oh, you did
this three weeks ago. You need to cry exactly the
same way today. But if but if they hit to

(53:39):
pull a permit, they're going to get both of those
directors on set at the same time, and they would
they would always have like it was Paul or Greg.
It was always one of our local people that just
lived there. Anyway. The second director exactly, yeah, exactly, easy, easy, guys,
should we spin a wheel? Let's hey honorable mentioned to

(54:00):
Um Brooks showing us how to wrap a curl around
a barrel in this episode instead of shamping it in
and rolling it, because that's what everybody was doing at
the time, and it was like Sophia always ahead of
the curves. She's like, I'm gonna show you all. What
what's up. I'm like, no, no, don't fry your ends, baby,
So good. Okay, somebody read it? What's our wheel? Now?

(54:21):
We just have an air wrap? But we didn't have
that then? Oh? Um, is this for me? Who's the
most likely to eat pizza for breakfast? Someone spied on me?
Oh my god? Is that all of us? I mean,
I don't eat breakfast. I drink coffee. Uh man, So
it's definitely not me. It's you and I though. Yeah,

(54:45):
if it's around, I'm gonna eat it. If it's in
the fridge, I don't care what time it is. I
think it's like a childhood trigger, Like I love cold
pizza for breakfast because I would do it all the
time when I was a kid. If my parents ordered
pizza the night before, I'd wake up and just like
cal pizza man as I walk onto the bus. Yeah,
and now as an adult, I still love cold pizza.
But if I'm in the mood to be fancy, I'm like,

(55:07):
let me put the pizza in the air fryer and
make an egg and then we put an egg on.
So nice. Oh that's so good. Yeah, I've never experienced.
I will make you breakfast pizza. It's delicious. Get ready
like an over medium egg. Oh well, now the broken

(55:28):
peyton her roommates, you can make her egg pizza. Okay, Yeah,
what's happening in the next episode. It's season four, episode eighteen,
the Runaway. Oh, I bet they find Abby and like
everything's gonna start hitting the fan. Okay, Yeah, I'm so
sad for us that we're gonna soon have to find
out what Dan did because everyone's gonna sob and it's

(55:49):
gonna be depressing. Eron, damn it. I will say, we
all know how hard it is sometimes to stand up
when terrible things are happening around you. What has saved us,
I think, is that we had each other find one
other person and like go to bat for them and

(56:09):
let them go to bat for you, Because very often
if somebody. If the first person says something, other people
feel much more secure to get in line and add
to that chorus. And so you know, something that you
all talk to us a lot about is loving our
friendships and the way we show up for each other.
And we have learned that in the best of times
and in the literal worst of times, like we talked

(56:32):
about in this episode. You know things that happened to
many of us during filming of this show and even
years later. We have consistently brought a rallying cry and
that can really make all the difference. So if you
can do that for somebody, we highly recommend it. And
we love you all right you guys, thanks for bearing
with us on this really complicated episode. Who we love you,

(56:55):
honey girl. Hi guys, Hey, thanks for listening. Don't forget
to leave us a review. You can also follow us
on Instagram at Drama Queens oth or email us at
Drama Queens at iHeartRadio dot com. See you next time.
We all about that high school drama Girl, Drama Girl,
all about them high school queens Forever. We'll take you

(57:18):
for a ride at our comic girl Cheering for the
Right teen drama queens drawl up girl fashion, but your
tough girl. You could sit with us. Girl drama, Queens Drama,
Queens Drama, Queens Drama, Drama, Queens Drama, Queens