February 19, 2024 • 52 mins
Isaac Mizrahi sits down with actor, Mindy Cohn (Facts of Life, Scooby-Doo, Palm Royale.) Mindy spills the tea on George Clooney and talks about how she and her “Facts of Life” co-stars don’t make any money on residuals. Plus, she shares the wonderful advice she got from Betty White, Bea Arthur and Cloris Leachman at such a young age and so much more.
Check out Mindy’s live event, Conversations with Prime Women, in NYC on April 27, 2024. Get tickets and information.
Follow Hello Isaac on @helloisaacpodcast on Instagram and TikTok, Isaac @imisaacmizrahi on Instagram and TikTok and Mindy Cohn @mindycohn
(Recorded on January 24, 2024)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I have a little beef to pick with mister Clooney,
who was on our show for three seasons, who I
have amazing stories about who facts of life at the
time he was doing it transformed him, meaning he paid
his rent for a year. He was a working actor,
and I understand, But you know what, I'm so taken
aback sometimes when I hear him dis his experience, because yes,
(00:24):
it was not our er, this dramatic, famous, fabulous thing.
But he was funny, he was darling, and if memory serves,
we'd bless and he was very, very happy to be there,
as were we. So my point being, I don't love
to rewrite history. I also give people the freedom to
have their own history. But my experience of doing the
(00:46):
show for the tenueres that we did it was pure joy.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
This is Hello Isaac, my podcast about the idea of
success and how failure affects it. I'm Isaac Musraian. In
this episode, I talked to Emmy nominated actor and my
incredible friend Mindy Cone.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Hello, Isaac, it's Mindy. Mindy Cone, call me back. Yes,
I'm coming to New York and we need to dine.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I am about to talk to like literally one of
my best friends whose name is Mindy Cone. And here's
the thing about podcasts. I think they're just supposed to
be like really really good conversation. And so Darling's stay
tuned to this podcast because if nothing else, Mindy and
I can talk. Okay, we can talk. And you know,
(01:39):
I'm gonna try not to go off on tangents or
try to go off on tangents. I can't tell yet,
So stay tuned, and here we go, Mindy Cone. Hi,
Oh god, I just I just it's so happy when
(02:01):
I see such to make me so happy. You know,
I have to say, I feel like millions of Americans
feel the same way about you, Like you make people smile.
You know. Before I start, before you become the subject
of this, I have to tell you a story about
my mother. Okay, growing up, my mother always told me
the story about how when she was a little little girl,
(02:22):
like seven or eight years old, there were like talent
scouts who came to Brooklyn and discovered her. They thought
she was gorgeous, and her parents were like, she ah,
she's not going to Hollywood. She's not going to be
a movie star. This is not going to happen. And
then later Shirley Temple happened, and it was apparently those
those talent scouts who discovered Shirley Temple who were the
(02:45):
people who like discovered my mother. Her career was thwarted
as a fabulous child star and a fabulous star in general.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Kinda still hasn't gotten over it.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
She'll never get over it, Like she'll literally know, like
literally never get over So I tell you that story,
worry because you know, to a lot of people, being
a child star is a cautionary tale. And you were
a child star. That's how you started in show business.
In case anybody doesn't remember, Mindy was a huge child star, right,
(03:16):
I mean, darling the facts of life. That was like
everybody in the world, like you are the most famous person.
You can't go out of your house, right, So you
make that story a good story as opposed to the
evils of what happened to like young kids who.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Are taking I have mom and dad Cone first of all,
my parents who this was always what I did, not
who I was, and I came home to be their
second daughter, Mindy. My mom and dad had full blown,
very successful careers and this was nice.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
What what were they?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
My dad owned and operated an incredible paint company, and
my my mom was a real estate lawyer, so they
both had very successful careers. And this was my extracurricular activity.
This was not the family's full time job, was not me.
In fact, when we gathered around the dinner table every night,
which we did when my dad wasn't traveling, we talk
(04:12):
about everybody's day, not mine, and so it actually Cones
being cones. You know, they swung the other way and
made sure it wasn't too important, right to the point
that I was just like, I'm doing a good job, right,
I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Well, tell me about that a little bit, because this
is not like a therapy sessionist thing. But that can't be, well,
it can be I wanted to be. I want you
to tell us what that was like for you at
the dinner table with the Cones, where they were going
blah blah blah and ignoring a little bit that you
were literally like the funniest person in America and you
(04:47):
weren't even fucking thirteen years old. You know.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Well I had just turned thirteen, just been bat mitzvad
when Norman and Charlotte discovered me at school.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Norman Lear and Charlotte Ray okay, yeah, oh my god,
we're going to drops of names and aunt Charlotte, but
go on, go.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
On, I'm going to drop thousands of names today.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
They discovered you. They discovered you. I like this little
bit of history I do with everybody, you know, all right, Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So I was at an aug girl private school in Bellair, California.
They came to authenticate the scripts what's it like to
be in all girl school. So there was a group
of students, Sarah Perkins, Andrea Navan and myself, and here
come Norman and Charlotte and Alan Horne, who's a big
wig here in Hollywood and one of the loves of
my life. Anyway, point being that around the dinner table
(05:33):
it was so not talked about, for fear that my
parents did not know what we were in for and
didn't want me to get a big head, which is
you know, that's also just about anything in my family, right.
You don't want to gloat, you don't want to be
a show boat. But it got to the point where,
around the age of eighteen and nineteen, I really thought,
(05:56):
I mean, this is kind of a big deal, isn't
it to be? Unlike I had show and so it
made me feel very much. I developed this fabulous trait
that I have good bad, are indifferent, putting everybody else
before me. In fact, my nickname to most of my
friends at that time was Oz behind the curtain, making
things happen for other people. I still carry that suitcase
(06:17):
with me. It's lighter, but I definitely still feel I
do my best work for other people. I am not
a great hustler for myself. I'm not a good self promoter.
Although I did ask you.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
To do this podcast my show, it's so see truth.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I'm getting better, but I still do tend to put
people before me. I don't know whether that is a
tone trait or a mindy trait, or I was born
with it, but it is something that I have struggled with.
To be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You know, okay, what occurs to me to pull out
of you right now is this idea that you know
you started life in that way. You know that was
the car that brought you to the party, right, facts
of life Uncle Norman and Aunt Charlot. I mean, come on,
you living you know what, which is very rare.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Very rare, Isaac. I got to say, I didn't really
get to the party until I was eighteen or nineteen
I got to be honest and really, really when it
happened was sixteen when James Pine, again so serendipitous, which
is my life, plucked me out of Hollywood to come
to New York to do my first show with Eileen Heckart,
Stalker Channing, Robert Klein, Peter Reeber. That was my first shick,
(07:24):
to be honest, So that's a sixteen three years into
Facts of Life is when I went, oh, okay, this
is something. I'm loving this, this feels right. This was
a very comfortable heat I'm wearing please yes, and like, oh.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
My god, forming and memorizing lines and showing up and
work blocking.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And working as you have with other talented people around you,
and all of a sudden you keep up and you're like,
I think we're onto something. Man, this is kind of fabulous.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
You know. Wait a second, Okay, wait, go back, go back.
Because when I started, what brought me to the party
was fashion, right, and people go, oh, he's a fashion
I am not really doing that, sowonech of course I
have a collection, and I have merchandising and blah blah.
But what I really want to do you know I'm
trying to make headway into show business?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Right, You're not trying because who got on Broadway before me?
That would be you, which I'll never let you forget.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
But wait a second, but like one night, Arnold, my
husband and I were at some gala dinner, right who
you love? You know, Arnold?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Right?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
And we were at some dinner and I won't tell
you the name of the actress, but there was an
actress there who was really famous in the seventies for
being like this iconic figure, right, And he said, oh, Darling,
I grew up and I loved you. And she looked
at him like, would you please stop referring to that,
because I've done so many other things in the world
that have brought me a claim, and yet everyone keeps
(08:46):
remembering this fucking thing that I did in the nineteen seventies.
You understand what I'm posing here to.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
You, of course, But what I'm saying, and I'm suggesting, Isaac,
is that when you and I became friends, I saw
you as mish Buch creatives. We're creative brother and sister.
And the fact that you did fashion, yes, but that
you also sing and perform and act and I embrace
all of that. Why because I actually know you and
you know.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Me, so you know about you? Darling? Do you go, like,
stop relying on the fucking facts of life to identify me,
because I'm so much more. Does that ever happen to you?
Do you feel that?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Well? I am now fifty seven, almost fifty eight. I
now think it's darling because it's like Pansie's jacket underglass.
It's not me, It's right, it's a piece well, it's
a piece of memorabilia. I am that to them. What
it's done is hindered my career. It's gotten me chances,
It's been both. It gets me wonderful tables at restaurants,
(09:46):
it brings a smile to people's faces. It's sometimes a
pain in the ass. All of it. Point being that
it is ten years of my life, and I'm not
going to discount it, especially if it brings pleasure to
people ten years.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Do you know, Like, what do we think of as
the most successful TV sitcom in the entire Like, I
don't know what you say, but I can't think of
any sitcoms that were on for ten seasons or nine
seasons or whatever. I mean. That is Olympian, Darling Olympian.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
It's lovely. There's a few others that are quite wonderful.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
But even friends, I mean, how long was friends? Friends?
Was what like secondeen seasons or eight seasons?
Speaker 1 (10:24):
I think it was close to term. I could be wrong.
I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
We don't I know, we're not historians that way. Tell
me about being that age and the work ethic.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Isaac, I will tell you we had an extraordinary experience
being the last of Norman Lear shows. Why because they
worked very much, as he always brought his favorite stage
actors into TV sitcom land, and so we treated it
as work. It was a job. So again it was
what we did, not who we were, but we very
much went to work. We had a blast, but it
(10:57):
was work, and none of us thought it was something else.
Now you talk to other people our age that were
working at that time, I mean the son and Rose
with them putting on their pants in the morning, and
so we didn't live like that. We enjoyed what we.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Did, we meaning the cast of the show, you and
your family or everybody, Me and the cast.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And I think that's one of the reasons people saw
the chemistry that the four of us had is because
the chemistry was not the four of us as Mindy, Lisa,
Kim and Nancy, but is the characters because we were working.
And so I do think, not that we took ourselves seriously,
but I think we were always kind of shocked that
other people were not having our experience. That it was
(11:40):
playtime and they were indulged and they were spoiled and
they were we had none of that. We clocked in
and we were just the on camera version of our
hundred people grew.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
It's like what Betty Davis always said. She said, we
showed up on time, we made our marks, we set
our lines, we went home. That's what she always said.
But wait, so you never felt any mind of pressure
or anything.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Right, The pressure I felt was that I was going
to my own school instead of studio school. It's where
my mom put her foot down. I was going to
this very prestigious college prep school. So I went to
school in the morning, did first through fourth periods. My
Granny Rose took her lunch break from Saxsmonth Avenue where
she ran the fur department. Missy green Love was.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
So much Granny Rose running the fur department.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And schlept me in her La.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
By the way, in LA department in La. Okay, that
is not yes to be missed. Okay, go on.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Her clients were Lucio Bald Todifields. We can talk about
that at nauseum. Pull up in her brown Monte Carlo
and drive me down Sunset Boulevard to the studio. Dropped
me off where I worked all afternoon, got picked up
and driven home, and had four hours of homework to
get ready for school the next day. I was exhausted
when the show ended. I was twenty one. I looked
(12:53):
at my mom and I said, I am exhausted. She said, men,
Dad and I talk about this all the time. You
have lived a life like you're forty already. I mean, listen,
I had once in a lifetime experiences every day, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Right, Wait a minute, Lucy, Lucy, oh, you mentioned her name. Yes,
I saw a quote somewhere.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Well, you know my story about her.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
She once told you that you were the funniest girl
in America. This is what she said. So like you
didn't feel a little bit of pressure, like, oh shit,
now what you know, Lucy says, I'm funny now.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
At the time, Oh my god, No, it's the opposite.
It's like die, I mean, we've ascended. I mean, you know,
I never felt the pressure to be funny. Why we
had amazing writers and we had a pedigree of being
a Norman Low show. Now this is one of the
things that I have a difference of opinion. I've started
to talk about it because Isaac again fifty seven, I'm
going through a thing and I think with this new show,
(13:46):
I just want to stop protecting people. You know, I
have a little beef to pick with mister Clooney, who
was on our show for three seasons, who I have
amazing stories about who facts of life at the time
he was doing it transformed him, meaning he paid his
rent for a year. He was a working actor, you know.
And I understand it was not mash okay, we were
(14:08):
not some like you know, right like, and I get that,
but you know what, I'm so taken aback sometimes when
I hear him dis his experience because yes, it was
not our er, this dramatic, famous, fabulous thing. But he
was funny, he was darling and if memory serves may,
(14:29):
may I say my memory not his. What we disagreed,
We had a blast and granted it might not have
been his most fulfilling job, but it certainly at the
time we were doing it, he was very very happy
to be there, as were we. So my point being,
I don't love to rewrite history. I also give people
the freedom to have their own history. But my experience
(14:51):
of doing the show for the Tenueres that we did
it was pure joy. And I think if you talk
to Nancy specifically, because she and I are kind of
stilled very close friends, she will tell you the same thing,
and the other two girls as well, that it is
a very cherished piece of our life that was not
only enjoyable, but we're proud of it, you know. And
(15:11):
I got so much. Yeah, well, I think what you
were getting out with what you experience. But I know,
but I know people tend to like one of them
blew it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
This is totally And this is just why I brought
it up because I feel like, you know, at some
point it does happen in kind of middle age where
you just go like, all right, everybody, I'm over this.
It's so tedious already, it's so boring already that I
have moved on, Like you just move on and you
don't care. You know, I think that's wonderful about it.
(15:43):
You know, can you just explain to me, like you
were born in Belair, you were born in La born
in La born in Cones. I don't mean to ask,
but most of the Jews that we know came from
the East Coast and ended up going against their will
or because they want to tell me.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
My mom is an East Coaster. My mom's side comes
from Chicago and New York, and it's still my New
York connection, which is why New York raised me as well.
It's sort of very by coastal because of my mother.
But my dad, and here's the most gorgeous part. My
grandma Sarah and Isdoor are also born Angelino's. We have
deep roots here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
On my dad's side, your grandparents' names are Sarah and
is a Door. Yeah, guess what my mother's name is side.
Guess what my father's name is is a Door.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I want to tell you that. Sorry, No, I'm very related.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Holy hell, what the hell?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
There is always an East Coast And by the time
I was sixteen, I was spending almost every summer and
every winter break in New York. And I have to
say without New York. I don't think I would still
be in this business. I don't think I would have
the esteem I have for the career that I have,
and I don't think I to the person I am,
so I do have to say, as much as I
(17:03):
love being an Angelino, I also you know, it's one
of those things I tell people, I love New York.
Here's the ticket. New York loves me back. New York
doesn't love everybody back. And I get that, and for
some reason that that city went Yeah, kid, it's you
in New York. Every time I'm in the city, it
kisses me on the forehead and says, you're home. You're good.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yes, yeah, yeah, I know that because we know each
other mostly from hanging out in New York City and
not really in La Darling. Speaking of you and the
East Coast and your life as a young adult, right,
Like you finished Facts of Life right, and you took
a hiatus to go to university. Is that right? I did,
(17:43):
like you had to go like, hey stop, I need
to educate myself, right.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I just actually needed a break, is really the thing.
And it wasn't even about going to college, although I
always wanted to, And that's fine, but it's not even
about that. It really was about do I want to
be doing this still? And also twenty one is such
a weird age, as you well know if you've had
some success, I started experiencing that sort of oh my gosh,
(18:10):
we love Mindy, but we don't want Natalie in our movie.
And I felt like I needed sort of a break
so that if I was going to come back, it
was going to be. You know something I also think,
and it's very important. It's why I still am a
voracious reader and why my friends do all kinds of
things is you know, to me, no one's really interesting
(18:30):
unless they're interested. And I've always been very interested in
the world around me, not just what I do for
a living, and so I've always been that person to
want to explore other things, travel read voraciously. It was
not only important, but it was vital. Especially as an
actor and a career. You want to try and pivot
(18:52):
as much as you can, and the world of show,
especially TV Land, doesn't want you to pivot. They want
you in your lane. So you know, honestly, to talk
about this forty years later, I'm not only so proud
of myself, but you and I have talked about this privately.
Where I had this mentor group, God knows again, So serendipitously,
(19:14):
through Elaine Heckart, I met Elaine Stritch and Jerry Page
and Ruth Gordon, and the West Coast version was b
Arthur and Chlorus, Betty White and these mentors of mine
who became mentors. We were like a coven. And even
though they were forty years my senior, they always talk
to me about my age now. So Isaac, here's the
(19:35):
gorgeousness of this life that I'm living, is that I
am the age now that they were when they met me.
And this is the age they told me when I
was twenty. Not when you want to hear it, kid, boy,
your fifties and sixties and seventies are going to be
so amazing because just you're not going to realize your career.
And this is coming from Jerry Page who had won
(19:55):
an oscar in her seventies. Ruth same thing, right. Eileen
still worked until the day she dropped. And obviously Chlorus
was here, and be was here and Betty was here.
But it is not lost on me at the rifled
age of fifty seven and last year obviously fifty six
when I booked Palm Royal that I am the age
(20:16):
they were now and their prophecy should I say prophecy
poit POI has has started to come true that here
it comes, here it comes.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Did it ever occur to you that you could do
something else or would want to do something else? Like
what if you did want to be what a doctor?
A psychiatrist?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
There a doctor emergency surgeon or a.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Writer or something exactly? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Oh yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Is there ever a part of you that goes You know,
I wanted to be a ballerina and I was casked
as Natalie and then the end does the rest of sistery.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
The doctor thing has come back and ruled. There have
been many times when I went back to get a
graduate degree that I thought, you know, if you wanted
to be a nurse practitioner, now would be the time.
I mean, now my brain is shot, so there's no way.
I then thought, oh, should join like you know, the
Peace Corps and go and instead, yeah, life happens, and
(21:18):
for me I became less courageous and less confident that
I could go to school and study for nine years
and do it and gratefully jobs kept coming were they
as notorious as facts of life? No. I think that's
one of the biggest misunderstandings the world has of me
in that, you know, well, it's her choice, she's not working.
I have worked for the last forty years, just not
(21:40):
maybe in things that everybody has seen.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
The level off that's of life ten years on gratefully
ten years. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I have supported myself as an actor for my whole life,
and for me, Mindy, that's a very esteemable thing to
have happened, right, And it sort of makes.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You keep going the other misconception, at least for me,
you know, I think, Okay, she's on the show that
has been syndicated for fucking what like thirty years? Right,
isn't the royalty? Like all I know about are like
Ross and Rachel and blah blah. They never have to
work another day in their life.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Because, right, we don't make a dollar.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
How is that possible?
Speaker 1 (22:22):
We haven't made a dollar? Why is the Contra's why
we had a strike twenty five years ago? And it's
why Jennifer Aniston and they all make millions of dollars
in residuals now because we went on a strike twenty
five years ago. And that was one of the points, Well.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Why don't you make residuals? What the fuck? Why can't
you make residuals on facts of life?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Because the schedule the contract was made.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
There are blocks of facts of life, you know, blonding
on whatever network you turn on.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I know, so we're still on all over the world.
It's just that the year the contract started preempted us
doing that. So again, I do think that people think
we're sitting on this, these piles of gold coins up
our asses. It could be further from the truth. And
so I think again talking about why I do what
(23:13):
I do. I am a creative Proudly I have been
able to support myself, not from facts of life.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Oddly enough, right, this is the amazing Yeah, my dear,
this is the great thing.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Thank you. Well it makes it makes me proud because
my best friend Tara Carcion, who's also been a character
actor since she was eighteen, we go this road together.
I think we're journeyman, you know, we are that middle
class actor that people talk about that. Yes, I may
have a famous face and my fame index is higher
than Terra's sometimes, However, the fact that we have consistently
(23:47):
worked you know throughout our lives.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Working actors, Darling, working actors, which is so not glamorous.
It's I mean, because you honestly like you did voice over.
You did fucking like you. I mean you did some stuff,
you know, talk to me about the voiceover thing. Is
that fun? Do you like that?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Oh? Yes, it's beyond fun. And what's so interesting is
Natalie sometimes has talked about as oh my god, you've
played an iconic character. Well, really, the iconic character I've
played is Velma dankly Velma. He who?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
But yeah, it looks so much like Velma. It's so crazy.
I love what did she style herself after Velma? Or
did they style Velma after you? Is what I want
to know.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Actually, I style myself around Edna from The Incredibles.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Well, Darling, wait a second, do you know something? You
can call the people who created ed and I don't
know who they are, but apparently I am one of
the people who was inspiring to them. For I'm serious, Darling,
I am not kidding Edna. It's funny that you should
pick her out because Edna is everything.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Well, when we were styling Anne Holiday, my character in
the new show Palm Royale, one of the hairdressers said,
so we're gonna wig you. Do you have an idea?
And I said, I want to be a cross between
Edith Head and Edna from the.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Incredible definitely in there and she died.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Laughing and she and she said done, wow, done.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah. So you know, a lot of what we talk
about on this podcast is this idea of like failure
and was there ever something that you've failed at that
you learned something from. I mean, you've worked consistently.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Darling, but I have failed miserably at love relationships. And
I say fail and I use that term loosely in
that I've had wonderful men in my life and have
had all of it and then some. And by the way,
I do have to say the height of optimism is
that I can be fifty eight and never been married,
(25:47):
which I hope to meet my Arnold. And so having
said that, I find it very exciting to still have
a first in front of me. And so that's that.
But no, I personal relationships, as far as friendships, are tremendous,
but the love thing has been challenging for me. I
used to be attracted to projects, and I used to
(26:08):
be attracted to men to people weren't men. Yeah, weren't men.
They were boys and needed a mommy, and that was
so unattractive to me. The last thing, you know, if
I want to be a mommy, i'd have a kid.
You know. I don't want that. So these incredible love
affairs that I've had have been lovely but ended in
(26:29):
exactly the same way. This has stopped been good for
me because I don't want to mother you. I want
to be in relationship with you, and so that's not
been the big win for me in my life. And
I don't call them failures, but yeah, they're failures, right,
I mean something you want that you don't get.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Well, yes, except we know each other really well. And
you began the answer to this question by saying, well,
you know I have failed. And the thing is, I
don't men. Do you have to tell me about that?
Because you're single, you live alone and have kids. I
think she went check, check and check. I don't want
any of that shit, you know, because it is a
(27:07):
lot to deal with. It will impede you, it will
hold you back. But do you see that more as
a virtue or more as a drawback? Tell me a
little let's selve into this.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I mean, honestly, it's neither and I mean only you
will get this reference, which also makes me happy and
makes me sad at the same time. Mary Wicks, do
you remember a character actress Mary Wicks?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Excuse me, yes, I do, Darling. Hello.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
She was on Dick Caviot and she was asking her,
you know you're single, you never had children? Like what
is that? And she said she didn't say this, but
this is my version of what Mary Wick said. I've
never felt that I needed to be whole unless I
was part of a pair. A lot of women feel
that way. Say that again, I'm not whole unless I'm
part of a pair.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I have never felt that way. She did not. She
did not feel that way.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
God and I do not feel that way. And I
know a lot of women do. Write if I don't
have that hymn or her ever your persuasion or them them,
they her, I'm not fulfilled. And Mary Wick said this
so beautifully without sort of giving him attitude about it,
where she said, I have the most delicious friends. I
invited many glamorous places for every holiday. I have a
(28:17):
wonderful family of friends, and I have put as much
energy and maternal energy into those relationships. So I'm not
coming from a deficit of having never had I'm coming
from a place Mindy is coming from a place of
excitement about what's to come, and whether that is waiting
for my ship to come in and little Pollyanna.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
So be it.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
That is truly how I feel. There are, gratefully so
many of us now. I channel my dear friend Tracy
Ellis Ross, my friends Sarah. There's a bunch of us
who have had these big, wonderful lives looking for love,
but not to the point where it is going to
be like boy as our lives suck. You know me,
(28:59):
I'm a voracious traveler. I have these wonderful friends that
I cultivate and put energy into. And you know what, Isaac,
He's out there and he will find me because when
I look and I go find Mindy, no good at
that he needs find.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
He will find you. One second, I have to bring
this up because oh no, I have to bring this
up because I feel like a lot of people listening
might go so you say you feel that it's coming
and that you don't feel like you but at some
point do you go, what have I done wrong? Because
I feel like a lot of people. What have I
(29:38):
done wrong with that? Is my hair, the wrong coloring,
my glass?
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I talked about failure. First of all, it's never been
about my looks, or my age or my this. Because
God bless him, here comes the gossip. You see some
of these for lack of a better term, reality shows,
and it's like he gets him. Like right, We've all
seen those people on the street where it's like, really
even found somebody?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
My God, but that's the most ridiculous thing. But let's
talk about like responsibility that we take for this stuff,
you know.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
But Isaac, I want to go back to when you
said failing. There was a period in my thirties and
early forties especially that I saw if it was something
I could not get, that it was a failure. Aging
into when you learn more about not only yourself, but
how the world works, how your life works. And listen,
I am a little spiritual. They don't need to rub
(30:29):
a boota and light a candle. But I've got what
I believe in that what is meant for me is
meant for me, and what is not is not. And
I don't believe that whatever the universe, God, the sun,
a dolphin, whatever, you believe in is we are not
meant to be alone. And so I experience existential aloneness.
(30:52):
You bet, I experience oh god, I don't want to
be that drab anti Mindy who's like, oh god, we
got to invite Mindy, she has nowhere to go. You know,
those fears are real. But my experience tells me that
I am additive and that wherever he is, he's out
there having whatever life he's having. I mean, the first
thing I am going to do is go where the
(31:12):
fuck have you been? But you know the truth of
the matter is it's not for me now. And do
I think it's coming? Yeah? I do. I mean I
would be an idiot not to think. So. I have
a lot of life left to live. By the way,
that is the biggest misunderstanding, we'll call it. That was
ever given to me by the world in my twenties
(31:34):
and thirties, the boy in your fifties and sixties and seventies.
I mean, you know it's kind of over, Isaac. Well,
it's the I am having such the opposite experience. I
cannot start to begin to tell you. And you know,
this first ten you've seen me, the best is yet
to come. No kidding, Well, it's been happening.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Well, I know, and not merely as an artist, but
also in your personal life too. I was very close
friends with a woman who met the guy of her
life like in her late fifties, and she married him
in her late fifties, and you know, it was short.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
We talked about her, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
The guy died recently and it wasn't sup pretty, but
they had a great like fifteen years together.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Well, and my friend Marjorie experienced the same thing. I
have women in my life who met their love of
their life very late in life, and they were successful
career women.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
And there are so many things that you learn as
a person that you bring to a relationship that you
would not necessarily know in your twenties and thirties, which
actually end up corroding, corroding, corroding the relationship. So trust me,
you're ahead of the game.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Thank god I didn't meet him, Oh, thank god I
didn't meet him in my forties.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
You're ahead of the game.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
It would have been a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
You have very far reaching tentacles in the world socially, Yes,
you like Josh and Brent for instance, Like, how the
hell did you meet Josh and Brent.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Josh, because I'm a fag had since I was thirteen.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
What's the name of their company?
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I forgot Beakman eighteen o two Bookman.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Exactly because it's so great and I use a lot
of their products. But how did you meet them? And
what is that all about? Are you partner? Is it something?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
No, we are not partners. I mean I have a
face that says, oh, come tell me everything, and I'll
tell you everything. And I really don't want to know
anything about you.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
All right.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
And I'm very private. And when I say private, I
don't mean secretive. I don't live in secrecy, but I
do really protect my privacy. And one of those things
I protect are my friendships. Why because we all have
public private and Josh and Brent are a perfect example.
You know, they are a brand and they sell based
(33:49):
on who people think they are and know them to be.
And do I know them as those people? You bet?
But I also know them privately, and so I think
that's why I have such incredible friendship with whether they're
very famous, very wealthy, very beautiful, very whatever, because I
don't talk about it, and I even though you know
I'm an Instagram hoo, and I love it. It's not
(34:11):
that it isn't my real life, but I'm very careful
about how much I put out there about that. So
these friendships come by very honestly and very similar to
you and I. You look at each other and you're like,
you're my person. The only way I can describe it
is how these women like Eileen and Elaine and Jerry
(34:33):
and Ruth and Chloris looked at me forty years their
junior and went, yeah, you and I, we're the same people.
My picker happens to pick gay men. I've been a
fag had since I was thirteen.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
And or like, for instance, I read on your curriculum
Vita somewhere or whatever it was that you are the
godmother of Angelina, Jolie and Brad's kids. Is that I know?
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I know, it's like so out there.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So it's hilarious between the Goats and Vermont and fucking
like the Branjelina kids in Brentwood. I mean, yeah, well
go on, how does this go on? Darling?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
It goes on and it permeates and it turns into
gossip and fair and what people don't realize is there's
real people behind all of that, and so I discuss
none of it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
I mean I do.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
I just think it's really important to just it's all
just such bullshit.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
I just want to know what Christmas is like Like
Shay Kohne, Well.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
You saw her. I was for Christmas. I was in
Palm Beach with Brent and Josh and Jonathan Adler and
Simon Done. That's where I was with.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
My boys were so.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Go figure, where's the glamor in that? Although we did
have a glamorous time.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
You know, you have a few projects men. Do you
have like a series coming out right and it's on
Apple TV. It's on Apple TV and it's star studded,
But also you have a movie though, you have a
movie that you just rapped or that you just thre
mirroring or what.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Darling Obviously Palm Royal, this series on Apple TV is
an embarrassment of riches in every way. My part and Holiday,
she's divine and delicious, but the cast is stupid. I mean,
it's just dumb. Kristen Wigg, Alison, Janney, Laura Dern, Josh Lucas,
Ricky Martin, Carol Burnett, Come on, Kaya Gerber. I mean,
(36:20):
it just keeps giving Julia Duffy and so I'm just
out of my mind for this to come out for
a variety of reasons. I'm so proud of it. Abe, Sylvia,
our showrunner has changed my life. What can I say?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Well, can I tell you? What has changed my life
is seeing you in some of that period wardrobe, which
is absolutely life altering, Darling, tell me about that. I
know you have like a real interest in clothes, right, Oh,
what is that like for you? First of all, it's
like late sixties early seventies, right, is that the period? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:53):
It is, it is it's nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Okay, so it's nineteen sixty nine and you were Tom Beach.
Whoever did that styling is really Ray Alex Mark, because
literally I knew it was like nineteen sixty nine, not
nineteen seventy one or sixty eight. I knew it was
like nineteen sixty nine. So what was that like? Where
did you go? Did you find clothes? Did they make
stuff for you?
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Alex did both found and made. My character is sort
of this, even though in the country club set not
ramped up. I mean, there are designer duds on Kristin
and Allison. That'll make your jaw drop. But a lot
of it was found and a lot of it was
actually made with vintage fabrics. All of it. Our art
direction are sets. It's just sublime. The cars that we
(37:33):
get to drive. I mean every department, Oh came with
the goods?
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Where did it go to be delicious?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Where did it shoot? How long were you shooting?
Speaker 1 (37:43):
We shot for six months in Los Angeles. Everything kind
of duped for Palm Beach. Gratefully, all the producers who
didn't want to give Florida money. I'm not mad at that.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Aha, good for you. Wow. And so you were quite
lucky that you got to shoot in your hometown, Like
that is really really lucky. How many people that have
to migrate to LA or migrate to New York or
something like that, right, So talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
There's nothing more glamorous than pulling up onto the Paramount lot,
parking your car and walking to a stage where you know,
I mean, and all the trailers with everybody's name on it,
and it is it's sort of like you want to
just have someone pinch you and just go is this
still happening? I still get such a rush, as does
everyone else.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Right, it's very Joan Crawford like pulling up signing autographs,
let's go. The other thing I think about is that's
very glamorous, darling, Like when is this going to happen?
Like when we have like how long a run on
Broadway maybe like a year and like a main starring role,
and you just like pull up to the theater every
damn night in New York City on Broadway. In that
(38:49):
so there are a few fans.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
You know. It's my dream. Oh listen, I'm making it
a reality. Everyone talks about what do you want? I
want a Tony that is MI. That's my that's my pinnacle.
I want eight shows a week and I want to benominated.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
You don't have like performance anxiety or imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
No, no, I have to say every time I am
on stage, and I thank James Lapine for it because
it started with his production of Table Settings, which I
was a part of eons ago. I am not nervous.
I am in my element. I get excited, and you
know me, I'm also just an uber fan. Anything live
(39:29):
is life giving and so to be a part of
that on stage, I look forward to it, I really do.
I cannot wait. I don't know what it's like. I
don't know what role it is. I don't care. That
is completely aspirational.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
How do you, darling, what accounts for that? Can you
tell me?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Like?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Was that good parenting? Again? Well, how do you miss stage? Fright?
How do you miss that?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
What's interesting is I'm more nervous on a movie set.
I'm more nervous when there are one hundred people waiting
for you and it's your turn, and you come and
you got to bring the goods. To me, that is
much more nerve racking than having rehearsed with an ensemble,
and once the stage manager gives you your cue to
go on stage, it's all you. You're in control. It's
(40:15):
the only place in actors in control is on stage.
Everything else is the director's running it, the producer's running it,
you know. And so that to me is more nerve
wracking to be on a set where you've got crew
going gwed like to go to lunch. Hope she knows
her shit?
Speaker 2 (40:31):
No dot, I mean no, I mean you know. One
of the great quotes of all time is from Elaine Stretch.
I think it was something like the most terrifying word
in the English language is places.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Oh that's so funny. Well, this is a gift Clorus
gave me, which I will pass on to you because
I know that you'll be on stage much sooner than
I will tell me. Clara says, what happens physically to
you when you get nervous? And I said, oh my god,
my stomach drops, if you like have to poop. I
have a little flop sweat. My heart races. She goes, all, right, Tumble,
what happens physically when you get excited? And I said, well,
(41:01):
you know, my stomach drops, I kind of have to poop.
And she goes right, and your stomach and your heart
races and you get a little flop sweat And I
go yes, and she goes, yeah, it's the same thing, honey.
It's called excitement. Some asshole told you that to nerves,
it's exciting. Changed my life change. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I love that story, Miss Leachman. Great m This is
a big, big, big question going way way way way
way way back. Two things. Who was the most unbelievable
person you ever worked with? Who you just adored, and
(41:44):
who was the worst And maybe if you don't want
to say who the worst was. You could say, well,
it was an actor rule kind of go hm, you know,
tell us the stories? Could you tell us those two stories?
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I could, and I have one and I will name names.
I have no pride. Aha. I have to say my
favorite has been one of the most recent to work
with Kristin Wig and Alison Janny and Carol Burnett. I'd
have to kind of put them all on equal ground,
believe it or not, but especially Kristin I think when
(42:15):
people see her, how great you think she is is
nothing pair. She has a monologue in the last episode,
episode ten that is a masterclass, and we got to
see her do it all day and each take was
more breathtaking than the last. We were vol in tears
and laughing. I mean, she's so incredible. And Alison Janny
(42:37):
has been on my list of actresses.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Oh yeah, who you want to work for? So much
to learn from Alison Janny.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
And guess what, it's all deserved. It's all for a reason,
like yep, yep, she deserves all of it and more.
Oh so, I have to say that my worst experience.
Do you know Anson Williams who was on Happy Days?
Vaguely yes, he played potsy. Yes, directed an episode of
a series that I did, and he embarrassed me in
(43:05):
front of the crew and he didn't have to, and
he did and it kept going, and I just not
only didn't deserve that, no actress deserves that. And it
was him trying to get what he needed and I
was just not able to do it in the moment.
And a good director would see that and pivot or
(43:28):
come back to it. There's a list of things he did,
none of them. And I remember going off that set
so dejected and so upset, and I just thought there
was absolutely no reason for someone to do that to anybody.
It's a terrible thing. So I have to say that
was kind of the worst experience I've ever had on
(43:49):
a set, and it was you know, he did it. Well.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Tell me speaking of directors, because that's a big part
of your persons, right especially you know, you began this
whole thing. We tape the episode. The producer who works
with us says, oh, you know, how do you like
to be presented? Is it Mindy Cone? Actor? Writer? Producer
blah blah, And you said, no actor, right, Yet I
(44:12):
really feel that if you create a character, Darling, you
are kind of producing or writing or something you are
giving your bit to it. Talk about that for a minute,
because you're creating something, right, what's the difference between writing
and then?
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Well I have produced, for sure, and it's definitely a
different skill set. But I think sometimes actors are a
little too self hating, and I'm just not one of them.
I think not enough is given to what actors are
asked to do because sometimes it looks so easy. Well,
that means they're doing a good job. I mean, you know,
there's a talent there, there's a skill there, and sometimes
(44:52):
it is perceived as well it's just her personality, or
she has a cute voice, or you know, well her
face just looks like that. All those things are true,
but it also is a skill. It's why people when
they see my face, going back to how he started
this conversation, see me and smile is so darling. It
has nothing to do with me. It has to do
(45:13):
with a character I played in their youth. And whether
you want to give kudos to that or not, I
can tell you that Natalie and Mindy are very different people.
And I take that as a compliment that I actually
did something right. So even though I was discovered, and yes,
the thirteen year old Mindy is very similar to the
thirteen year old Natalie, but given the next couple of
(45:36):
years and seasons, they're very different. And that's acting. And
I think sometimes people don't talk about it because it
does sound so precious and weird, and I don't know, it's.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
A funny thing because a writer does what he does,
a producer does what he does, a director does what
he does, and then an actor kind of takes all
that stuff and gives it the actual three dimensions and
the voice and the whole physicalization and the whole heart
and soul and warmth or coldness of something. Yeah, you know, yes,
(46:09):
all right, so Mindy Darling. One thing I ask everybody
on my podcast, and this is something you might want
to give it a minute and think about it. I
ask them about their obituary, because you know, I'm obsessed
with obituaries, right I do. Do you have an idea
about what your obituary would mean? What it would it
be about? Tell me, thank you? Wait what that would
(46:37):
be your obituary? Just thank you? Thank you? Oh my god,
like thank you. Yeah, You've been a great audience. I'm
like nothing more. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
I mean, it can mean a variety of things, but
to me, it encompasses almost nine percent of what I'm
about gratitude. Gratitudeareness of what has been given to me,
awareness of what I've put out.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
Jesus, yeah, thank you period wow ah wow, this is
a great answer.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
I get report of it. Like what I like about
it is that it is short and that it is
so meaningful and you really can't come for it, like
I might come for it, but I can't. I can't
think of like a way to come for that. It's
like you so want to do that whole thing? Anybody
said no, Because a lot of times the artists will say, oh,
so surprisingly, I want to be remembered as a good
person or a good mom or a good dad or
(47:36):
whatever it is. And I'm like, what are you people crazy?
And I can come for that a little bit, even
though it is the right answer, Like that's a great answer,
but thank you man, that is yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Well, it's also because all those things that they want
to be remembered for, they already will. That is their legacy, right,
our legacy. Listen, you are a part of my legacy.
I'm a part of yours. When people talk. When I
talk about you, two people, I'm expressing how much I
love you and who you are to me, vice versa.
That's legacy or not. Okay, come for me. I love you.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Thank you is like what you see on your tombstone.
Thank you, mindy Cone.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Right if someone would say, like, right, you're asked this
in a variety voice, I think of the James Lipton
when you go to God and he's answered the pearly gates.
What do you want to say? Thank you? You know?
Speaker 2 (48:23):
I mean, that's that's oh man. That just makes me
feel so good. That makes me smile again, Like I'm
really smiling inside. If I'm not smiling on my face,
I'm smiling a huge, big old you know that Mark
Jacob sweater with the big smiley face from when.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
He that's from eating cheese.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Smile, that's smile. That's a big smile exactly. Darling. You're amazing.
You want to promote something I do podcast.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
I obviously, I obviously want to promote Palmree All on
Apple TV. Absolutely does it out air March twentieth, start streaming. Okay,
and yes, the movie that I did with al Pacino
called Bill will come out next year as well. And
the last thing is, I'm doing this event in New
York City on April twenty seven. It's called Conversations with
(49:07):
Prime Women. It's amazing. There's a website. I'm going to
give it to you to promote. And that's okay, my shame.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
I come do I get to come to.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
Your ohoh my god, if you would, it would make
me so happy.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
I'm a prime one myself, Darling. I'm a prime woman.
The primis, the primis. I love you. I love you,
I mean it, I love you.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
That was great. You know, well this happens quite often,
you know, when I finish an interview with somebody, I think,
oh gosh, like, I have so many other things I
want to talk to you about. But really, in Mindy's case,
I have pages and pages of questions that we did
(49:50):
not even scratch the surface on. But I think what
we did get to was so incredibly interesting, mind boggling.
There was so many things that caught my attention, particularly
about how she dealt with her early success and how,
you know, the parents and the entire family were sort
(50:10):
of a little blase about it all. You know, I
think that really kind of set her up for the
life she's leading now and for the kind of menchi
way that she approaches the world. You know, like, if
Mindy Cohne is nothing else, she is a mensch. I'm
so glad you got to see that side of my
incredible friend Mindy, which, by the way, sounds like a
(50:32):
really good idea for a series my incredible friend Mindy. Right. Anyway,
I'm glad you were here. Thank you, darlings. If you
enjoyed this episode, do me a favorite and tell someone,
tell a friend, tell your mother, tell your cousin, tell
everyone you know. Okay, and be sure to rate the show.
(50:54):
I love rating stuff. Go on and rate and review
the show on Apple Podcasts so more people can hear
about it. It makes such a gigantic difference and like
it takes a second, so go on and do it.
And if you want more fun content videos and posts
of all kinds, follow the show on Instagram and TikTok at.
(51:16):
Hello Isaac podcast, And by the way, check me out
on Instagram and TikTok at. I am Isaac Musrahi. This
is Isaac Misrahi. Thank you, I love you, and I
never thought i'd say this, but goodbye. Isaac. Hello Isaac
is produced by Imagine Audio, Awfully Nice and I AM
(51:40):
Entertainment for iHeartMedia. The series is hosted by Me Isaac Msrahi.
Hello Isaac is produced by Robin Gelfenbein. The senior producers
are Jesse Burton and John Assanti vis Executive produced by
Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Carl Welker and Nathan Kloke at
Imagine Audio. Production management from Katy Hodges, Sound design and
(52:04):
mixing by Cedric Wilson. Original music composed by Ben Wilson.
A special thanks to Neil Phelps and Sarah Katanac at
I M Entertainment.
I have a little beef to pick with mister Clooney,
who was on our show for three seasons, who I
have amazing stories about who facts of life at the
time he was doing it transformed him, meaning he paid
his rent for a year. He was a working actor,
and I understand, But you know what, I'm so taken
aback sometimes when I hear him dis his experience, because yes,
(00:24):
it was not our er, this dramatic, famous, fabulous thing.
But he was funny, he was darling, and if memory serves,
we'd bless and he was very, very happy to be there,
as were we. So my point being, I don't love
to rewrite history. I also give people the freedom to
have their own history. But my experience of doing the
(00:46):
show for the tenueres that we did it was pure joy.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
This is Hello Isaac, my podcast about the idea of
success and how failure affects it. I'm Isaac Musraian. In
this episode, I talked to Emmy nominated actor and my
incredible friend Mindy Cone.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Hello, Isaac, it's Mindy. Mindy Cone, call me back. Yes,
I'm coming to New York and we need to dine.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I am about to talk to like literally one of
my best friends whose name is Mindy Cone. And here's
the thing about podcasts. I think they're just supposed to
be like really really good conversation. And so Darling's stay
tuned to this podcast because if nothing else, Mindy and
I can talk. Okay, we can talk. And you know,
(01:39):
I'm gonna try not to go off on tangents or
try to go off on tangents. I can't tell yet,
So stay tuned, and here we go, Mindy Cone. Hi,
Oh god, I just I just it's so happy when
(02:01):
I see such to make me so happy. You know,
I have to say, I feel like millions of Americans
feel the same way about you, Like you make people smile.
You know. Before I start, before you become the subject
of this, I have to tell you a story about
my mother. Okay, growing up, my mother always told me
the story about how when she was a little little girl,
(02:22):
like seven or eight years old, there were like talent
scouts who came to Brooklyn and discovered her. They thought
she was gorgeous, and her parents were like, she ah,
she's not going to Hollywood. She's not going to be
a movie star. This is not going to happen. And
then later Shirley Temple happened, and it was apparently those
those talent scouts who discovered Shirley Temple who were the
(02:45):
people who like discovered my mother. Her career was thwarted
as a fabulous child star and a fabulous star in general.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Kinda still hasn't gotten over it.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
She'll never get over it, Like she'll literally know, like
literally never get over So I tell you that story,
worry because you know, to a lot of people, being
a child star is a cautionary tale. And you were
a child star. That's how you started in show business.
In case anybody doesn't remember, Mindy was a huge child star, right,
(03:16):
I mean, darling the facts of life. That was like
everybody in the world, like you are the most famous person.
You can't go out of your house, right, So you
make that story a good story as opposed to the
evils of what happened to like young kids who.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Are taking I have mom and dad Cone first of all,
my parents who this was always what I did, not
who I was, and I came home to be their
second daughter, Mindy. My mom and dad had full blown,
very successful careers and this was nice.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
What what were they?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
My dad owned and operated an incredible paint company, and
my my mom was a real estate lawyer, so they
both had very successful careers. And this was my extracurricular activity.
This was not the family's full time job, was not me.
In fact, when we gathered around the dinner table every night,
which we did when my dad wasn't traveling, we talk
(04:12):
about everybody's day, not mine, and so it actually Cones
being cones. You know, they swung the other way and
made sure it wasn't too important, right to the point
that I was just like, I'm doing a good job, right,
I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Well, tell me about that a little bit, because this
is not like a therapy sessionist thing. But that can't be, well,
it can be I wanted to be. I want you
to tell us what that was like for you at
the dinner table with the Cones, where they were going
blah blah blah and ignoring a little bit that you
were literally like the funniest person in America and you
(04:47):
weren't even fucking thirteen years old. You know.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Well I had just turned thirteen, just been bat mitzvad
when Norman and Charlotte discovered me at school.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Norman Lear and Charlotte Ray okay, yeah, oh my god,
we're going to drops of names and aunt Charlotte, but
go on, go.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
On, I'm going to drop thousands of names today.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
They discovered you. They discovered you. I like this little
bit of history I do with everybody, you know, all right, Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So I was at an aug girl private school in Bellair, California.
They came to authenticate the scripts what's it like to
be in all girl school. So there was a group
of students, Sarah Perkins, Andrea Navan and myself, and here
come Norman and Charlotte and Alan Horne, who's a big
wig here in Hollywood and one of the loves of
my life. Anyway, point being that around the dinner table
(05:33):
it was so not talked about, for fear that my
parents did not know what we were in for and
didn't want me to get a big head, which is
you know, that's also just about anything in my family, right.
You don't want to gloat, you don't want to be
a show boat. But it got to the point where,
around the age of eighteen and nineteen, I really thought,
(05:56):
I mean, this is kind of a big deal, isn't
it to be? Unlike I had show and so it
made me feel very much. I developed this fabulous trait
that I have good bad, are indifferent, putting everybody else
before me. In fact, my nickname to most of my
friends at that time was Oz behind the curtain, making
things happen for other people. I still carry that suitcase
(06:17):
with me. It's lighter, but I definitely still feel I
do my best work for other people. I am not
a great hustler for myself. I'm not a good self promoter.
Although I did ask you.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
To do this podcast my show, it's so see truth.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I'm getting better, but I still do tend to put
people before me. I don't know whether that is a
tone trait or a mindy trait, or I was born
with it, but it is something that I have struggled with.
To be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You know, okay, what occurs to me to pull out
of you right now is this idea that you know
you started life in that way. You know that was
the car that brought you to the party, right, facts
of life Uncle Norman and Aunt Charlot. I mean, come on,
you living you know what, which is very rare.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Very rare, Isaac. I got to say, I didn't really
get to the party until I was eighteen or nineteen
I got to be honest and really, really when it
happened was sixteen when James Pine, again so serendipitous, which
is my life, plucked me out of Hollywood to come
to New York to do my first show with Eileen Heckart,
Stalker Channing, Robert Klein, Peter Reeber. That was my first shick,
(07:24):
to be honest, So that's a sixteen three years into
Facts of Life is when I went, oh, okay, this
is something. I'm loving this, this feels right. This was
a very comfortable heat I'm wearing please yes, and like, oh.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
My god, forming and memorizing lines and showing up and
work blocking.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And working as you have with other talented people around you,
and all of a sudden you keep up and you're like,
I think we're onto something. Man, this is kind of fabulous.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
You know. Wait a second, Okay, wait, go back, go back.
Because when I started, what brought me to the party
was fashion, right, and people go, oh, he's a fashion
I am not really doing that, sowonech of course I
have a collection, and I have merchandising and blah blah.
But what I really want to do you know I'm
trying to make headway into show business?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Right, You're not trying because who got on Broadway before me?
That would be you, which I'll never let you forget.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
But wait a second, but like one night, Arnold, my
husband and I were at some gala dinner, right who
you love? You know, Arnold?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Right?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
And we were at some dinner and I won't tell
you the name of the actress, but there was an
actress there who was really famous in the seventies for
being like this iconic figure, right, And he said, oh, Darling,
I grew up and I loved you. And she looked
at him like, would you please stop referring to that,
because I've done so many other things in the world
that have brought me a claim, and yet everyone keeps
(08:46):
remembering this fucking thing that I did in the nineteen seventies.
You understand what I'm posing here to.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
You, of course, But what I'm saying, and I'm suggesting, Isaac,
is that when you and I became friends, I saw
you as mish Buch creatives. We're creative brother and sister.
And the fact that you did fashion, yes, but that
you also sing and perform and act and I embrace
all of that. Why because I actually know you and
you know.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Me, so you know about you? Darling? Do you go, like,
stop relying on the fucking facts of life to identify me,
because I'm so much more. Does that ever happen to you?
Do you feel that?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Well? I am now fifty seven, almost fifty eight. I
now think it's darling because it's like Pansie's jacket underglass.
It's not me, It's right, it's a piece well, it's
a piece of memorabilia. I am that to them. What
it's done is hindered my career. It's gotten me chances,
It's been both. It gets me wonderful tables at restaurants,
(09:46):
it brings a smile to people's faces. It's sometimes a
pain in the ass. All of it. Point being that
it is ten years of my life, and I'm not
going to discount it, especially if it brings pleasure to
people ten years.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Do you know, Like, what do we think of as
the most successful TV sitcom in the entire Like, I
don't know what you say, but I can't think of
any sitcoms that were on for ten seasons or nine
seasons or whatever. I mean. That is Olympian, Darling Olympian.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
It's lovely. There's a few others that are quite wonderful.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
But even friends, I mean, how long was friends? Friends?
Was what like secondeen seasons or eight seasons?
Speaker 1 (10:24):
I think it was close to term. I could be wrong.
I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
We don't I know, we're not historians that way. Tell
me about being that age and the work ethic.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Isaac, I will tell you we had an extraordinary experience
being the last of Norman Lear shows. Why because they
worked very much, as he always brought his favorite stage
actors into TV sitcom land, and so we treated it
as work. It was a job. So again it was
what we did, not who we were, but we very
much went to work. We had a blast, but it
(10:57):
was work, and none of us thought it was something else.
Now you talk to other people our age that were
working at that time, I mean the son and Rose
with them putting on their pants in the morning, and
so we didn't live like that. We enjoyed what we.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Did, we meaning the cast of the show, you and
your family or everybody, Me and the cast.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And I think that's one of the reasons people saw
the chemistry that the four of us had is because
the chemistry was not the four of us as Mindy, Lisa,
Kim and Nancy, but is the characters because we were working.
And so I do think, not that we took ourselves seriously,
but I think we were always kind of shocked that
other people were not having our experience. That it was
(11:40):
playtime and they were indulged and they were spoiled and
they were we had none of that. We clocked in
and we were just the on camera version of our
hundred people grew.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
It's like what Betty Davis always said. She said, we
showed up on time, we made our marks, we set
our lines, we went home. That's what she always said.
But wait, so you never felt any mind of pressure
or anything.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Right, The pressure I felt was that I was going
to my own school instead of studio school. It's where
my mom put her foot down. I was going to
this very prestigious college prep school. So I went to
school in the morning, did first through fourth periods. My
Granny Rose took her lunch break from Saxsmonth Avenue where
she ran the fur department. Missy green Love was.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
So much Granny Rose running the fur department.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And schlept me in her La.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
By the way, in LA department in La. Okay, that
is not yes to be missed. Okay, go on.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Her clients were Lucio Bald Todifields. We can talk about
that at nauseum. Pull up in her brown Monte Carlo
and drive me down Sunset Boulevard to the studio. Dropped
me off where I worked all afternoon, got picked up
and driven home, and had four hours of homework to
get ready for school the next day. I was exhausted
when the show ended. I was twenty one. I looked
(12:53):
at my mom and I said, I am exhausted. She said, men,
Dad and I talk about this all the time. You
have lived a life like you're forty already. I mean, listen,
I had once in a lifetime experiences every day, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Right, Wait a minute, Lucy, Lucy, oh, you mentioned her name. Yes,
I saw a quote somewhere.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Well, you know my story about her.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
She once told you that you were the funniest girl
in America. This is what she said. So like you
didn't feel a little bit of pressure, like, oh shit,
now what you know, Lucy says, I'm funny now.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
At the time, Oh my god, No, it's the opposite.
It's like die, I mean, we've ascended. I mean, you know,
I never felt the pressure to be funny. Why we
had amazing writers and we had a pedigree of being
a Norman Low show. Now this is one of the
things that I have a difference of opinion. I've started
to talk about it because Isaac again fifty seven, I'm
going through a thing and I think with this new show,
(13:46):
I just want to stop protecting people. You know, I
have a little beef to pick with mister Clooney, who
was on our show for three seasons, who I have
amazing stories about who facts of life at the time
he was doing it transformed him, meaning he paid his
rent for a year. He was a working actor, you know.
And I understand it was not mash okay, we were
(14:08):
not some like you know, right like, and I get that,
but you know what, I'm so taken aback sometimes when
I hear him dis his experience because yes, it was
not our er, this dramatic, famous, fabulous thing. But he
was funny, he was darling and if memory serves may,
(14:29):
may I say my memory not his. What we disagreed,
We had a blast and granted it might not have
been his most fulfilling job, but it certainly at the
time we were doing it, he was very very happy
to be there, as were we. So my point being,
I don't love to rewrite history. I also give people
the freedom to have their own history. But my experience
(14:51):
of doing the show for the Tenueres that we did
it was pure joy. And I think if you talk
to Nancy specifically, because she and I are kind of
stilled very close friends, she will tell you the same thing,
and the other two girls as well, that it is
a very cherished piece of our life that was not
only enjoyable, but we're proud of it, you know. And
(15:11):
I got so much. Yeah, well, I think what you
were getting out with what you experience. But I know,
but I know people tend to like one of them
blew it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
This is totally And this is just why I brought
it up because I feel like, you know, at some
point it does happen in kind of middle age where
you just go like, all right, everybody, I'm over this.
It's so tedious already, it's so boring already that I
have moved on, Like you just move on and you
don't care. You know, I think that's wonderful about it.
(15:43):
You know, can you just explain to me, like you
were born in Belair, you were born in La born
in La born in Cones. I don't mean to ask,
but most of the Jews that we know came from
the East Coast and ended up going against their will
or because they want to tell me.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
My mom is an East Coaster. My mom's side comes
from Chicago and New York, and it's still my New
York connection, which is why New York raised me as well.
It's sort of very by coastal because of my mother.
But my dad, and here's the most gorgeous part. My
grandma Sarah and Isdoor are also born Angelino's. We have
deep roots here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
On my dad's side, your grandparents' names are Sarah and
is a Door. Yeah, guess what my mother's name is side.
Guess what my father's name is is a Door.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I want to tell you that. Sorry, No, I'm very related.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Holy hell, what the hell?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
There is always an East Coast And by the time
I was sixteen, I was spending almost every summer and
every winter break in New York. And I have to
say without New York. I don't think I would still
be in this business. I don't think I would have
the esteem I have for the career that I have,
and I don't think I to the person I am,
so I do have to say, as much as I
(17:03):
love being an Angelino, I also you know, it's one
of those things I tell people, I love New York.
Here's the ticket. New York loves me back. New York
doesn't love everybody back. And I get that, and for
some reason that that city went Yeah, kid, it's you
in New York. Every time I'm in the city, it
kisses me on the forehead and says, you're home. You're good.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yes, yeah, yeah, I know that because we know each
other mostly from hanging out in New York City and
not really in La Darling. Speaking of you and the
East Coast and your life as a young adult, right,
Like you finished Facts of Life right, and you took
a hiatus to go to university. Is that right? I did,
(17:43):
like you had to go like, hey stop, I need
to educate myself, right.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I just actually needed a break, is really the thing.
And it wasn't even about going to college, although I
always wanted to, And that's fine, but it's not even
about that. It really was about do I want to
be doing this still? And also twenty one is such
a weird age, as you well know if you've had
some success, I started experiencing that sort of oh my gosh,
(18:10):
we love Mindy, but we don't want Natalie in our movie.
And I felt like I needed sort of a break
so that if I was going to come back, it
was going to be. You know something I also think,
and it's very important. It's why I still am a
voracious reader and why my friends do all kinds of
things is you know, to me, no one's really interesting
(18:30):
unless they're interested. And I've always been very interested in
the world around me, not just what I do for
a living, and so I've always been that person to
want to explore other things, travel read voraciously. It was
not only important, but it was vital. Especially as an
actor and a career. You want to try and pivot
(18:52):
as much as you can, and the world of show,
especially TV Land, doesn't want you to pivot. They want
you in your lane. So you know, honestly, to talk
about this forty years later, I'm not only so proud
of myself, but you and I have talked about this privately.
Where I had this mentor group, God knows again, So serendipitously,
(19:14):
through Elaine Heckart, I met Elaine Stritch and Jerry Page
and Ruth Gordon, and the West Coast version was b
Arthur and Chlorus, Betty White and these mentors of mine
who became mentors. We were like a coven. And even
though they were forty years my senior, they always talk
to me about my age now. So Isaac, here's the
(19:35):
gorgeousness of this life that I'm living, is that I
am the age now that they were when they met me.
And this is the age they told me when I
was twenty. Not when you want to hear it, kid, boy,
your fifties and sixties and seventies are going to be
so amazing because just you're not going to realize your career.
And this is coming from Jerry Page who had won
(19:55):
an oscar in her seventies. Ruth same thing, right. Eileen
still worked until the day she dropped. And obviously Chlorus
was here, and be was here and Betty was here.
But it is not lost on me at the rifled
age of fifty seven and last year obviously fifty six
when I booked Palm Royal that I am the age
(20:16):
they were now and their prophecy should I say prophecy
poit POI has has started to come true that here
it comes, here it comes.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Did it ever occur to you that you could do
something else or would want to do something else? Like
what if you did want to be what a doctor?
A psychiatrist?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
There a doctor emergency surgeon or a.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Writer or something exactly? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Oh yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Is there ever a part of you that goes You know,
I wanted to be a ballerina and I was casked
as Natalie and then the end does the rest of sistery.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
The doctor thing has come back and ruled. There have
been many times when I went back to get a
graduate degree that I thought, you know, if you wanted
to be a nurse practitioner, now would be the time.
I mean, now my brain is shot, so there's no way.
I then thought, oh, should join like you know, the
Peace Corps and go and instead, yeah, life happens, and
(21:18):
for me I became less courageous and less confident that
I could go to school and study for nine years
and do it and gratefully jobs kept coming were they
as notorious as facts of life? No. I think that's
one of the biggest misunderstandings the world has of me
in that, you know, well, it's her choice, she's not working.
I have worked for the last forty years, just not
(21:40):
maybe in things that everybody has seen.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
The level off that's of life ten years on gratefully
ten years. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I have supported myself as an actor for my whole life,
and for me, Mindy, that's a very esteemable thing to
have happened, right, And it sort of makes.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You keep going the other misconception, at least for me,
you know, I think, Okay, she's on the show that
has been syndicated for fucking what like thirty years? Right,
isn't the royalty? Like all I know about are like
Ross and Rachel and blah blah. They never have to
work another day in their life.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Because, right, we don't make a dollar.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
How is that possible?
Speaker 1 (22:22):
We haven't made a dollar? Why is the Contra's why
we had a strike twenty five years ago? And it's
why Jennifer Aniston and they all make millions of dollars
in residuals now because we went on a strike twenty
five years ago. And that was one of the points, Well.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Why don't you make residuals? What the fuck? Why can't
you make residuals on facts of life?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Because the schedule the contract was made.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
There are blocks of facts of life, you know, blonding
on whatever network you turn on.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I know, so we're still on all over the world.
It's just that the year the contract started preempted us
doing that. So again, I do think that people think
we're sitting on this, these piles of gold coins up
our asses. It could be further from the truth. And
so I think again talking about why I do what
(23:13):
I do. I am a creative Proudly I have been
able to support myself, not from facts of life.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Oddly enough, right, this is the amazing Yeah, my dear,
this is the great thing.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Thank you. Well it makes it makes me proud because
my best friend Tara Carcion, who's also been a character
actor since she was eighteen, we go this road together.
I think we're journeyman, you know, we are that middle
class actor that people talk about that. Yes, I may
have a famous face and my fame index is higher
than Terra's sometimes, However, the fact that we have consistently
(23:47):
worked you know throughout our lives.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Working actors, Darling, working actors, which is so not glamorous.
It's I mean, because you honestly like you did voice over.
You did fucking like you. I mean you did some stuff,
you know, talk to me about the voiceover thing. Is
that fun? Do you like that?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Oh? Yes, it's beyond fun. And what's so interesting is
Natalie sometimes has talked about as oh my god, you've
played an iconic character. Well, really, the iconic character I've
played is Velma dankly Velma. He who?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
But yeah, it looks so much like Velma. It's so crazy.
I love what did she style herself after Velma? Or
did they style Velma after you? Is what I want
to know.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Actually, I style myself around Edna from The Incredibles.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Well, Darling, wait a second, do you know something? You
can call the people who created ed and I don't
know who they are, but apparently I am one of
the people who was inspiring to them. For I'm serious, Darling,
I am not kidding Edna. It's funny that you should
pick her out because Edna is everything.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Well, when we were styling Anne Holiday, my character in
the new show Palm Royale, one of the hairdressers said,
so we're gonna wig you. Do you have an idea?
And I said, I want to be a cross between
Edith Head and Edna from the.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Incredible definitely in there and she died.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Laughing and she and she said done, wow, done.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah. So you know, a lot of what we talk
about on this podcast is this idea of like failure
and was there ever something that you've failed at that
you learned something from. I mean, you've worked consistently.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Darling, but I have failed miserably at love relationships. And
I say fail and I use that term loosely in
that I've had wonderful men in my life and have
had all of it and then some. And by the way,
I do have to say the height of optimism is
that I can be fifty eight and never been married,
(25:47):
which I hope to meet my Arnold. And so having
said that, I find it very exciting to still have
a first in front of me. And so that's that.
But no, I personal relationships, as far as friendships, are tremendous,
but the love thing has been challenging for me. I
used to be attracted to projects, and I used to
(26:08):
be attracted to men to people weren't men. Yeah, weren't men.
They were boys and needed a mommy, and that was
so unattractive to me. The last thing, you know, if
I want to be a mommy, i'd have a kid.
You know. I don't want that. So these incredible love
affairs that I've had have been lovely but ended in
(26:29):
exactly the same way. This has stopped been good for
me because I don't want to mother you. I want
to be in relationship with you, and so that's not
been the big win for me in my life. And
I don't call them failures, but yeah, they're failures, right,
I mean something you want that you don't get.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Well, yes, except we know each other really well. And
you began the answer to this question by saying, well,
you know I have failed. And the thing is, I
don't men. Do you have to tell me about that?
Because you're single, you live alone and have kids. I
think she went check, check and check. I don't want
any of that shit, you know, because it is a
(27:07):
lot to deal with. It will impede you, it will
hold you back. But do you see that more as
a virtue or more as a drawback? Tell me a
little let's selve into this.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I mean, honestly, it's neither and I mean only you
will get this reference, which also makes me happy and
makes me sad at the same time. Mary Wicks, do
you remember a character actress Mary Wicks?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Excuse me, yes, I do, Darling. Hello.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
She was on Dick Caviot and she was asking her,
you know you're single, you never had children? Like what
is that? And she said she didn't say this, but
this is my version of what Mary Wick said. I've
never felt that I needed to be whole unless I
was part of a pair. A lot of women feel
that way. Say that again, I'm not whole unless I'm
part of a pair.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I have never felt that way. She did not. She
did not feel that way.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
God and I do not feel that way. And I
know a lot of women do. Write if I don't
have that hymn or her ever your persuasion or them them,
they her, I'm not fulfilled. And Mary Wick said this
so beautifully without sort of giving him attitude about it,
where she said, I have the most delicious friends. I
invited many glamorous places for every holiday. I have a
(28:17):
wonderful family of friends, and I have put as much
energy and maternal energy into those relationships. So I'm not
coming from a deficit of having never had I'm coming
from a place Mindy is coming from a place of
excitement about what's to come, and whether that is waiting
for my ship to come in and little Pollyanna.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
So be it.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
That is truly how I feel. There are, gratefully so
many of us now. I channel my dear friend Tracy
Ellis Ross, my friends Sarah. There's a bunch of us
who have had these big, wonderful lives looking for love,
but not to the point where it is going to
be like boy as our lives suck. You know me,
(28:59):
I'm a voracious traveler. I have these wonderful friends that
I cultivate and put energy into. And you know what, Isaac,
He's out there and he will find me because when
I look and I go find Mindy, no good at
that he needs find.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
He will find you. One second, I have to bring
this up because oh no, I have to bring this
up because I feel like a lot of people listening
might go so you say you feel that it's coming
and that you don't feel like you but at some
point do you go, what have I done wrong? Because
I feel like a lot of people. What have I
(29:38):
done wrong with that? Is my hair, the wrong coloring,
my glass?
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I talked about failure. First of all, it's never been
about my looks, or my age or my this. Because
God bless him, here comes the gossip. You see some
of these for lack of a better term, reality shows,
and it's like he gets him. Like right, We've all
seen those people on the street where it's like, really
even found somebody?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
My God, but that's the most ridiculous thing. But let's
talk about like responsibility that we take for this stuff,
you know.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
But Isaac, I want to go back to when you
said failing. There was a period in my thirties and
early forties especially that I saw if it was something
I could not get, that it was a failure. Aging
into when you learn more about not only yourself, but
how the world works, how your life works. And listen,
I am a little spiritual. They don't need to rub
(30:29):
a boota and light a candle. But I've got what
I believe in that what is meant for me is
meant for me, and what is not is not. And
I don't believe that whatever the universe, God, the sun,
a dolphin, whatever, you believe in is we are not
meant to be alone. And so I experience existential aloneness.
(30:52):
You bet, I experience oh god, I don't want to
be that drab anti Mindy who's like, oh god, we
got to invite Mindy, she has nowhere to go. You know,
those fears are real. But my experience tells me that
I am additive and that wherever he is, he's out
there having whatever life he's having. I mean, the first
thing I am going to do is go where the
(31:12):
fuck have you been? But you know the truth of
the matter is it's not for me now. And do
I think it's coming? Yeah? I do. I mean I
would be an idiot not to think. So. I have
a lot of life left to live. By the way,
that is the biggest misunderstanding, we'll call it. That was
ever given to me by the world in my twenties
(31:34):
and thirties, the boy in your fifties and sixties and seventies.
I mean, you know it's kind of over, Isaac. Well,
it's the I am having such the opposite experience. I
cannot start to begin to tell you. And you know,
this first ten you've seen me, the best is yet
to come. No kidding, Well, it's been happening.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Well, I know, and not merely as an artist, but
also in your personal life too. I was very close
friends with a woman who met the guy of her
life like in her late fifties, and she married him
in her late fifties, and you know, it was short.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
We talked about her, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
The guy died recently and it wasn't sup pretty, but
they had a great like fifteen years together.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Well, and my friend Marjorie experienced the same thing. I
have women in my life who met their love of
their life very late in life, and they were successful
career women.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
And there are so many things that you learn as
a person that you bring to a relationship that you
would not necessarily know in your twenties and thirties, which
actually end up corroding, corroding, corroding the relationship. So trust me,
you're ahead of the game.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Thank god I didn't meet him, Oh, thank god I
didn't meet him in my forties.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
You're ahead of the game.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
It would have been a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
You have very far reaching tentacles in the world socially, Yes,
you like Josh and Brent for instance, Like, how the
hell did you meet Josh and Brent.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Josh, because I'm a fag had since I was thirteen.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
What's the name of their company?
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I forgot Beakman eighteen o two Bookman.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Exactly because it's so great and I use a lot
of their products. But how did you meet them? And
what is that all about? Are you partner? Is it something?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
No, we are not partners. I mean I have a
face that says, oh, come tell me everything, and I'll
tell you everything. And I really don't want to know
anything about you.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
All right.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
And I'm very private. And when I say private, I
don't mean secretive. I don't live in secrecy, but I
do really protect my privacy. And one of those things
I protect are my friendships. Why because we all have
public private and Josh and Brent are a perfect example.
You know, they are a brand and they sell based
(33:49):
on who people think they are and know them to be.
And do I know them as those people? You bet?
But I also know them privately, and so I think
that's why I have such incredible friendship with whether they're
very famous, very wealthy, very beautiful, very whatever, because I
don't talk about it, and I even though you know
I'm an Instagram hoo, and I love it. It's not
(34:11):
that it isn't my real life, but I'm very careful
about how much I put out there about that. So
these friendships come by very honestly and very similar to
you and I. You look at each other and you're like,
you're my person. The only way I can describe it
is how these women like Eileen and Elaine and Jerry
(34:33):
and Ruth and Chloris looked at me forty years their
junior and went, yeah, you and I, we're the same people.
My picker happens to pick gay men. I've been a
fag had since I was thirteen.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
And or like, for instance, I read on your curriculum
Vita somewhere or whatever it was that you are the
godmother of Angelina, Jolie and Brad's kids. Is that I know?
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I know, it's like so out there.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So it's hilarious between the Goats and Vermont and fucking
like the Branjelina kids in Brentwood. I mean, yeah, well
go on, how does this go on? Darling?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
It goes on and it permeates and it turns into
gossip and fair and what people don't realize is there's
real people behind all of that, and so I discuss
none of it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
I mean I do.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
I just think it's really important to just it's all
just such bullshit.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
I just want to know what Christmas is like Like
Shay Kohne, Well.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
You saw her. I was for Christmas. I was in
Palm Beach with Brent and Josh and Jonathan Adler and
Simon Done. That's where I was with.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
My boys were so.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Go figure, where's the glamor in that? Although we did
have a glamorous time.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
You know, you have a few projects men. Do you
have like a series coming out right and it's on
Apple TV. It's on Apple TV and it's star studded,
But also you have a movie though, you have a
movie that you just rapped or that you just thre
mirroring or what.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Darling Obviously Palm Royal, this series on Apple TV is
an embarrassment of riches in every way. My part and Holiday,
she's divine and delicious, but the cast is stupid. I mean,
it's just dumb. Kristen Wigg, Alison, Janney, Laura Dern, Josh Lucas,
Ricky Martin, Carol Burnett, Come on, Kaya Gerber. I mean,
(36:20):
it just keeps giving Julia Duffy and so I'm just
out of my mind for this to come out for
a variety of reasons. I'm so proud of it. Abe, Sylvia,
our showrunner has changed my life. What can I say?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Well, can I tell you? What has changed my life
is seeing you in some of that period wardrobe, which
is absolutely life altering, Darling, tell me about that. I
know you have like a real interest in clothes, right, Oh,
what is that like for you? First of all, it's
like late sixties early seventies, right, is that the period? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:53):
It is, it is it's nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Okay, so it's nineteen sixty nine and you were Tom Beach.
Whoever did that styling is really Ray Alex Mark, because
literally I knew it was like nineteen sixty nine, not
nineteen seventy one or sixty eight. I knew it was
like nineteen sixty nine. So what was that like? Where
did you go? Did you find clothes? Did they make
stuff for you?
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Alex did both found and made. My character is sort
of this, even though in the country club set not
ramped up. I mean, there are designer duds on Kristin
and Allison. That'll make your jaw drop. But a lot
of it was found and a lot of it was
actually made with vintage fabrics. All of it. Our art
direction are sets. It's just sublime. The cars that we
(37:33):
get to drive. I mean every department, Oh came with
the goods?
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Where did it go to be delicious?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Where did it shoot? How long were you shooting?
Speaker 1 (37:43):
We shot for six months in Los Angeles. Everything kind
of duped for Palm Beach. Gratefully, all the producers who
didn't want to give Florida money. I'm not mad at that.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Aha, good for you. Wow. And so you were quite
lucky that you got to shoot in your hometown, Like
that is really really lucky. How many people that have
to migrate to LA or migrate to New York or
something like that, right, So talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
There's nothing more glamorous than pulling up onto the Paramount lot,
parking your car and walking to a stage where you know,
I mean, and all the trailers with everybody's name on it,
and it is it's sort of like you want to
just have someone pinch you and just go is this
still happening? I still get such a rush, as does
everyone else.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Right, it's very Joan Crawford like pulling up signing autographs,
let's go. The other thing I think about is that's
very glamorous, darling, Like when is this going to happen?
Like when we have like how long a run on
Broadway maybe like a year and like a main starring role,
and you just like pull up to the theater every
damn night in New York City on Broadway. In that
(38:49):
so there are a few fans.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
You know. It's my dream. Oh listen, I'm making it
a reality. Everyone talks about what do you want? I
want a Tony that is MI. That's my that's my pinnacle.
I want eight shows a week and I want to benominated.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
You don't have like performance anxiety or imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
No, no, I have to say every time I am
on stage, and I thank James Lapine for it because
it started with his production of Table Settings, which I
was a part of eons ago. I am not nervous.
I am in my element. I get excited, and you
know me, I'm also just an uber fan. Anything live
(39:29):
is life giving and so to be a part of
that on stage, I look forward to it, I really do.
I cannot wait. I don't know what it's like. I
don't know what role it is. I don't care. That
is completely aspirational.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
How do you, darling, what accounts for that? Can you
tell me?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Like?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Was that good parenting? Again? Well, how do you miss stage? Fright?
How do you miss that?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
What's interesting is I'm more nervous on a movie set.
I'm more nervous when there are one hundred people waiting
for you and it's your turn, and you come and
you got to bring the goods. To me, that is
much more nerve racking than having rehearsed with an ensemble,
and once the stage manager gives you your cue to
go on stage, it's all you. You're in control. It's
(40:15):
the only place in actors in control is on stage.
Everything else is the director's running it, the producer's running it,
you know. And so that to me is more nerve
wracking to be on a set where you've got crew
going gwed like to go to lunch. Hope she knows
her shit?
Speaker 2 (40:31):
No dot, I mean no, I mean you know. One
of the great quotes of all time is from Elaine Stretch.
I think it was something like the most terrifying word
in the English language is places.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Oh that's so funny. Well, this is a gift Clorus
gave me, which I will pass on to you because
I know that you'll be on stage much sooner than
I will tell me. Clara says, what happens physically to
you when you get nervous? And I said, oh my god,
my stomach drops, if you like have to poop. I
have a little flop sweat. My heart races. She goes, all, right, Tumble,
what happens physically when you get excited? And I said, well,
(41:01):
you know, my stomach drops, I kind of have to poop.
And she goes right, and your stomach and your heart
races and you get a little flop sweat And I
go yes, and she goes, yeah, it's the same thing, honey.
It's called excitement. Some asshole told you that to nerves,
it's exciting. Changed my life change. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I love that story, Miss Leachman. Great m This is
a big, big, big question going way way way way
way way back. Two things. Who was the most unbelievable
person you ever worked with? Who you just adored, and
(41:44):
who was the worst And maybe if you don't want
to say who the worst was. You could say, well,
it was an actor rule kind of go hm, you know,
tell us the stories? Could you tell us those two stories?
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I could, and I have one and I will name names.
I have no pride. Aha. I have to say my
favorite has been one of the most recent to work
with Kristin Wig and Alison Janny and Carol Burnett. I'd
have to kind of put them all on equal ground,
believe it or not, but especially Kristin I think when
(42:15):
people see her, how great you think she is is
nothing pair. She has a monologue in the last episode,
episode ten that is a masterclass, and we got to
see her do it all day and each take was
more breathtaking than the last. We were vol in tears
and laughing. I mean, she's so incredible. And Alison Janny
(42:37):
has been on my list of actresses.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Oh yeah, who you want to work for? So much
to learn from Alison Janny.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
And guess what, it's all deserved. It's all for a reason,
like yep, yep, she deserves all of it and more.
Oh so, I have to say that my worst experience.
Do you know Anson Williams who was on Happy Days?
Vaguely yes, he played potsy. Yes, directed an episode of
a series that I did, and he embarrassed me in
(43:05):
front of the crew and he didn't have to, and
he did and it kept going, and I just not
only didn't deserve that, no actress deserves that. And it
was him trying to get what he needed and I
was just not able to do it in the moment.
And a good director would see that and pivot or
(43:28):
come back to it. There's a list of things he did,
none of them. And I remember going off that set
so dejected and so upset, and I just thought there
was absolutely no reason for someone to do that to anybody.
It's a terrible thing. So I have to say that
was kind of the worst experience I've ever had on
(43:49):
a set, and it was you know, he did it. Well.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Tell me speaking of directors, because that's a big part
of your persons, right especially you know, you began this
whole thing. We tape the episode. The producer who works
with us says, oh, you know, how do you like
to be presented? Is it Mindy Cone? Actor? Writer? Producer
blah blah, And you said, no actor, right, Yet I
(44:12):
really feel that if you create a character, Darling, you
are kind of producing or writing or something you are
giving your bit to it. Talk about that for a minute,
because you're creating something, right, what's the difference between writing
and then?
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Well I have produced, for sure, and it's definitely a
different skill set. But I think sometimes actors are a
little too self hating, and I'm just not one of them.
I think not enough is given to what actors are
asked to do because sometimes it looks so easy. Well,
that means they're doing a good job. I mean, you know,
there's a talent there, there's a skill there, and sometimes
(44:52):
it is perceived as well it's just her personality, or
she has a cute voice, or you know, well her
face just looks like that. All those things are true,
but it also is a skill. It's why people when
they see my face, going back to how he started
this conversation, see me and smile is so darling. It
has nothing to do with me. It has to do
(45:13):
with a character I played in their youth. And whether
you want to give kudos to that or not, I
can tell you that Natalie and Mindy are very different people.
And I take that as a compliment that I actually
did something right. So even though I was discovered, and yes,
the thirteen year old Mindy is very similar to the
thirteen year old Natalie, but given the next couple of
(45:36):
years and seasons, they're very different. And that's acting. And
I think sometimes people don't talk about it because it
does sound so precious and weird, and I don't know, it's.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
A funny thing because a writer does what he does,
a producer does what he does, a director does what
he does, and then an actor kind of takes all
that stuff and gives it the actual three dimensions and
the voice and the whole physicalization and the whole heart
and soul and warmth or coldness of something. Yeah, you know, yes,
(46:09):
all right, so Mindy Darling. One thing I ask everybody
on my podcast, and this is something you might want
to give it a minute and think about it. I
ask them about their obituary, because you know, I'm obsessed
with obituaries, right I do. Do you have an idea
about what your obituary would mean? What it would it
be about? Tell me, thank you? Wait what that would
(46:37):
be your obituary? Just thank you? Thank you? Oh my god,
like thank you. Yeah, You've been a great audience. I'm
like nothing more. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
I mean, it can mean a variety of things, but
to me, it encompasses almost nine percent of what I'm
about gratitude. Gratitudeareness of what has been given to me,
awareness of what I've put out.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
Jesus, yeah, thank you period wow ah wow, this is
a great answer.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
I get report of it. Like what I like about
it is that it is short and that it is
so meaningful and you really can't come for it, like
I might come for it, but I can't. I can't
think of like a way to come for that. It's
like you so want to do that whole thing? Anybody
said no, Because a lot of times the artists will say, oh,
so surprisingly, I want to be remembered as a good
person or a good mom or a good dad or
(47:36):
whatever it is. And I'm like, what are you people crazy?
And I can come for that a little bit, even
though it is the right answer, Like that's a great answer,
but thank you man, that is yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Well, it's also because all those things that they want
to be remembered for, they already will. That is their legacy, right,
our legacy. Listen, you are a part of my legacy.
I'm a part of yours. When people talk. When I
talk about you, two people, I'm expressing how much I
love you and who you are to me, vice versa.
That's legacy or not. Okay, come for me. I love you.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Thank you is like what you see on your tombstone.
Thank you, mindy Cone.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Right if someone would say, like, right, you're asked this
in a variety voice, I think of the James Lipton
when you go to God and he's answered the pearly gates.
What do you want to say? Thank you? You know?
Speaker 2 (48:23):
I mean, that's that's oh man. That just makes me
feel so good. That makes me smile again, Like I'm
really smiling inside. If I'm not smiling on my face,
I'm smiling a huge, big old you know that Mark
Jacob sweater with the big smiley face from when.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
He that's from eating cheese.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Smile, that's smile. That's a big smile exactly. Darling. You're amazing.
You want to promote something I do podcast.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
I obviously, I obviously want to promote Palmree All on
Apple TV. Absolutely does it out air March twentieth, start streaming. Okay,
and yes, the movie that I did with al Pacino
called Bill will come out next year as well. And
the last thing is, I'm doing this event in New
York City on April twenty seven. It's called Conversations with
(49:07):
Prime Women. It's amazing. There's a website. I'm going to
give it to you to promote. And that's okay, my shame.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
I come do I get to come to.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
Your ohoh my god, if you would, it would make
me so happy.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
I'm a prime one myself, Darling. I'm a prime woman.
The primis, the primis. I love you. I love you,
I mean it, I love you.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
That was great. You know, well this happens quite often,
you know, when I finish an interview with somebody, I think,
oh gosh, like, I have so many other things I
want to talk to you about. But really, in Mindy's case,
I have pages and pages of questions that we did
(49:50):
not even scratch the surface on. But I think what
we did get to was so incredibly interesting, mind boggling.
There was so many things that caught my attention, particularly
about how she dealt with her early success and how,
you know, the parents and the entire family were sort
(50:10):
of a little blase about it all. You know, I
think that really kind of set her up for the
life she's leading now and for the kind of menchi
way that she approaches the world. You know, like, if
Mindy Cohne is nothing else, she is a mensch. I'm
so glad you got to see that side of my
incredible friend Mindy, which, by the way, sounds like a
(50:32):
really good idea for a series my incredible friend Mindy. Right. Anyway,
I'm glad you were here. Thank you, darlings. If you
enjoyed this episode, do me a favorite and tell someone,
tell a friend, tell your mother, tell your cousin, tell
everyone you know. Okay, and be sure to rate the show.
(50:54):
I love rating stuff. Go on and rate and review
the show on Apple Podcasts so more people can hear
about it. It makes such a gigantic difference and like
it takes a second, so go on and do it.
And if you want more fun content videos and posts
of all kinds, follow the show on Instagram and TikTok at.
(51:16):
Hello Isaac podcast, And by the way, check me out
on Instagram and TikTok at. I am Isaac Musrahi. This
is Isaac Misrahi. Thank you, I love you, and I
never thought i'd say this, but goodbye. Isaac. Hello Isaac
is produced by Imagine Audio, Awfully Nice and I AM
(51:40):
Entertainment for iHeartMedia. The series is hosted by Me Isaac Msrahi.
Hello Isaac is produced by Robin Gelfenbein. The senior producers
are Jesse Burton and John Assanti vis Executive produced by
Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Carl Welker and Nathan Kloke at
Imagine Audio. Production management from Katy Hodges, Sound design and
(52:04):
mixing by Cedric Wilson. Original music composed by Ben Wilson.
A special thanks to Neil Phelps and Sarah Katanac at
I M Entertainment.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com