It's Aunt Zelda from Sabrina the Teenage Witch!!

Beth Broderick cast her spell on us when she starred as Aunt Zelda in "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," but she was making magic happen long before then.From her very first series with Brad Pitt, to her roles in "Bonfire of the Vanities" and "Fools Rush In"...Beth's body of work is extensive!She shares so many great stories, from her romance with a huge director, to the person who made her life hell on the set of Sabrina, to her friendship with the late Matthew Perry. Plus, find out what made her quit the biz for five whole years!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Dude the nineties called with Christine Taylor and David Lasher. Hey, everybody,
welcome back to Hey Dude the nineties called. I am Christine,
one of your co hosts, and I'm David.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to our podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
What's up, Christine? How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
I am good. I feel like you've got some green
poster board going on behind you. What's happening there? Is
that like a green screen? What do you have going
on back there?

Speaker 3 (00:28):
So we host the Super Bowl party every year and
Jill does these boxes, oh, one hundred boxes, you know,
five dollars a box. Every every quarter score change, somebody wins.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Oh wow, So that's your that's all the bets and
the boxes and the that's.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
One hundred boxes each filled in with everyone's name, Who
was at the.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Party, Who was the big winner, who took home the most.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
My one friend, one of my best friends in the world,
Brian's school are one all of them. He had seven,
So it's the last number of each score at the
end of each quarter. Obviously you want like seven three.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
One zeros decominations.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yes, right, If you get it two or an eighth,
you're probably not winning. And he had you know, he
was on his way over. He's like, give me twenty boxes.
And so he won. He won every quarter and the
final wow.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Wow. And were you pleased with the Super Bowl in general?
Were you pleased with the winner? Pleased?

Speaker 3 (01:34):
I mean I didn't have skin in the game. You know,
I'm a Giants fan, but I just wanted to see
a good game. And my gosh, that was incredible.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yes, how about how about you what he was.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Really rooting for the forty nine ers. I mean, I
but like you, it was I would you know? I
were Eagles fans, and I know I'm sure people are
now not tuning in, people are turning off. No, no, no,
no Eagles. No they're the worst fans. No they're not
all that bad. But no, we're definitely Eagles fans. In

(02:08):
my family. Ben Is I think more of a Jets fan,
you know, I always I think he's more Jets than Giants.
But I don't know, he's I forced him to be
an Eagles fan. But but yeah, when when they went
out and had a melt down at the end of
the however, like the whole end of the season, I mean,
they just played horrible, the Eagles. I was like, let's

(02:30):
go forty nine ers and I was sad at the
I love a good game. I love a good game.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
I listen.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
I love the story of Brock Birdie, you know, last man,
last pick in the entire draft with no respect and uh.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
And I love Christian McCaffrey, I mean, what a.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Y And I know his fan, you know, I know
his father and his mother and that you know, I
know that family. So I did feel like there was
a little personal I did, but you can't. You couldn't
have asked for a better game. And by the way,
most of those games are not that exciting. So that
was really to go down, to go into overtime and

(03:11):
go down to the last seconds was insane.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
It was incredible. Yeah, insane.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Did you guys do you do you go to a
party or you watch a home Well, we don't even do.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I mean, you know, last year, I said, Ben and
my brother went to the super Bowl, so we just
kind of stayed at home and watched. But this year
was just you know, it was sort of this small group.
We don't do a full Super Bowl party.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Did you have good food? Because for me, it's all
about the things.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
It's all junk food. It's just all chips and cheese.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Chickens, some good sub sandwiches.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Exactly. It's just a free day where it's like, let's
just eat as much as we want to eat, guilt free. Anyway,
we've got a great guest in our waiting room, David,
Do you want to make a little introduct.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yes, Beth Broderick played an Zelda on a show that
we did together for a long time called Sabrina the
Teenage which and she's an amazing person and I haven't
seen her in a while.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
And let's wait. Yeah, she's awesome. This will be good. Oh, darling,
there you are. That's Broderick.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Roderick.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
Good Baddy, Hie, hie. What's going on?

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Okay, I'm gonna say this, and I really mean this.
You have not aged a single day since the last
time I saw you, and that was in the nineties.
I kid you not like the last time we probably
saw each other in person. Of course I've seen you
since then on screen, but you like, what deal with

(04:47):
the devil did you make? Please tell me?

Speaker 4 (04:48):
You know, there's so funny. People are always saying that
to me that like you never changed. I'm like, I'm
pretty sure I have. I mean I'm turning sixty five
on February twenty fourth.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Happy, happy early birthday, and keep doing what you're doing
because you look gorgeous.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Thanks, it's so nice to see your face. It's been
a while, right, I was trying to think. But we
saw each other two years ago at that comic con
and Entertainment Weekly did a photo shoot with all of us.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
For longer than two years ago, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
I think it was. I looked it up.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
It was September twenty one, so two and a half
years ago.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, but you were together for years. Yes, you were
on the show My.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
Gosh a long time.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, we'll get into that.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
Are you fun too?

Speaker 2 (05:46):
So much fun? Are you living in Austin?

Speaker 4 (05:49):
No, No, I'm in la Oh. I was in Austin
for a few years. It was very fun. It was
a great place to travel from because it's two and
a half hours everywhere, right, And all I do is
travel for work usually, and then and then when the
pandemic hit and I couldn't travel, I was like, where
am I?

Speaker 1 (06:10):
And I'm stuck here and where's my sister?

Speaker 4 (06:13):
So yeah, it really felt, you know, it sort of
brought home to me that it was time for me
to be with my family, closer to my family. My
cousins are all here, my sisters. I'm eleven minutes from
her door now.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
So and you grew up here, right, I did.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
I grew up in Huntington Beach.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Be but a Southern girl from the beginning. No, nope,
Why do I oh here? Why did I always think
you were from the South? Is it just because you
played Southern characters so well?

Speaker 4 (06:44):
With any characters from the South. My parents were from
Kentucky and uh nurkaha irrespectively, and so they had quite
a bit of a twang going on.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
So yeah, so you you picked up Yeah, you could
just go into it so easily, I mean.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
On into it because I be just grew up with
paper talking. Is similar to that, we.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Thought you were a Southern girl. I went through look
at you California girl all the way.

Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yeah. No, No, I was Huntington Beach. I had straight
a's and red hair, and I was allergic to the sun.
So you can imagine in the surf capital of the world,
how that was not really my particular cup of tea.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
You had a sun allergy?

Speaker 4 (07:30):
Oh yeah, hmm. I was hospitalized twice from sunburn.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
And growing up, doctors were like.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
She needs a mo moo, she needs a hat. Okay,
there's a surf capital of the world in mood.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Before that was cool, because now that's cool.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
That's not cool. No oil and holding those things up.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, all the surfers coming out of the ocean and
you got a giant.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
Hat on giant hat and a moo and the moon.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
As seven year old or eight year old, So tell
so you were a straight a student. But were you
always into the arts or were you like a like
a book smart.

Speaker 4 (08:10):
Were you just I was a weirdo from the get
you know, and my parents, who are were also weirdo.
When I turned thirteen, I was in a freshman in
high school and my parents sat me down and they're like, well,
you're not thirteen, you're twelve. And we lied and actually,

(08:33):
you know Membruary. We submitted celebrating on November twenty fourth
all my life until then, and they're like, nah, actually
you're born February twenty four. And so I was like,
you're telling me i'm twelve in high school. They're like yes.
I was like, because I'd also sort of been pushed ahead.
So so I was fifteen, I was a senior in

(08:53):
high school.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Wait wait, yeah, that's crazy. I hope you celebrate both birthdays.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
But what February made a lot more sense because the
sangit terris. I would read it and go, really.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Is that me?

Speaker 4 (09:11):
Like, oh, yeah, that is me?

Speaker 1 (09:13):
But did they say why they did it? Was it
for school? Was it for like getting Yeah, I got.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
Kicked out of three consecutive uh preschools for being just
a bit more than they could handle. And so my
parents were like, we're just putting in their kindergarten. So
they were just they just made up. They worked in hospitals,
both of them. They just forged a birth certificate and
threw me in there.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
That is, so you skipped great school, You were well ahead.
You weren't just the kid who was just going to
sit there and play with blocks or color you.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
Obviously she's just got to go.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
That is hilarious.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
Yeah. I always was a troublemaker. So yeah, I had
like even in school, there was a faction of the
teachers that were really disapproved of me being in theater
because I had such potential in science, you know, and
these other disciplines, and it's just where I was it's
where I wanted to be.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
It's so interesting. Back then too, it was sort of
like you had to sort of fit into a mold,
the idea of crossover. You were either this or this right,
whereas now I feel like kids they encourage kids to
try everything and do every right.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
You could be a great science student and also an
actor doing the school play right.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
But in my day that wasn't really I mean, look,
I was one of the first generations of women who
expected to work, to have careers, you know, so like
it was a whole different ball game.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Then, what was your first intro to the professional career
of actress? Like, how did you get into that?

Speaker 4 (11:02):
That took a long time. I graduated from the American
Academy of Dramatic Arts when I was eighteen. Oh wow,
And yeah, because I just kept moving fast.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
I was going to say, that's that's when most people
would be starting, right.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
Yeah. I was just always on fire like that. And
they were like, you're too young, you shouldn't be here.
I was like, too bad. You took me, so you
stuck with me now, and then you know, I made
it into the top. You know, it was only one
hundred people the first year twenty five to second, and
I made it into the twenty five somehow, and then

(11:37):
I really kind of got lost for a year. I was,
I was it was a lot being that young with
people that were that much older in college. You know,
it was not a perfect fit in high school. But
when I was sixteen and they were like some had
already graduated from college, you know, this was their finishing projects.

(12:00):
I was really a little bit shell shocked. Made it through,
but needed some time off.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
And then so you had to grow up a little
faster than.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
Yeah, us, Yeah, a lot faster, and and parts of
you do and parts of you don't.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
You know, well, eventually eventually they do. But sometimes there's
like gaps in your development that come through later in life,
like as an adult to be like, oh well I
never partied or I never did.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
This or that.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah. I can remember being in my thirties and thinking,
have I ever sat down? Have I ever read lots
of you know, because I've always been so shot out
of the cannon, and so you know, even now I
have a column, you know, it's due tomorrow, and my
next column, like I have all these things that I
do that I'm involved in. It's just how I was hardwired,

(12:57):
hardwired to be. Yeah, it's very relaxation, very difficult for me.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
So Ada though that is, I mean, an incredible place
to study. And then what happens from there? Because I
need to go to the movie Stealing Home, but I
want to see what.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Yeah, that was really kind of the beginning. From there,
I went to New York City and waited tables and
struggled about and did did a few voiceovers. I was
like the voice of copper Tone, you know, and Abilene
for minutes.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Marked I'm not surprised.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
So I did a few things like that. And then
I started reading about this thing called gay men's cancer,
and and it terrified me. I was really deeply concerned,
and so I started doing as much research as I
could on it. And then a local state member of

(13:58):
the state Assembly put a bill into the Statehouse to
quarantine all gay men.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Are you talking about AIDS in the eighties, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
It was called gay men's cancer. And then Grid and
so when I began advocating for people and started my program,
I co founded a program called Momentum in nineteen eighty three,
eight eighty four, I was twenty three years old, and
I started the second aid program in America. So I
quit acting for almost five years and exclusively did that.

(14:32):
I mean, when I started, we had thirteen guys in
a basement, right and we were trying to get them
clothes and food, and because everybody was spending their SSI
down for medication.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
You know, the movie Dallas Buyers Club that I mean,
I didn't, I didn't realize what it was like on
the inside of that.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
I was around during that time, and I like Dallas
Buyer's Club a lot, but I would say that straight
men were not really the saviors of the situation in
my experience. So I did have a little bit of
a a that gave me a bit of pause around that.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
But how incredible first of all the fact that I mean,
and obviously it was meant to be, because for you
to have already been in La or out West and
to make the decision to try to start acting in
New York City and then just to be there at
that moment, that historic moment in time that I would

(15:34):
imagine just put everything like, I mean, you were still
so young, too, like you hadn't lived full like you
can had lived a full life of you know, fast
paced life, but really for you to be twenty three
years old and see and just be in the heart
of it and then just be called to action is incredible.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
I just dove in. I went down. I remember going
down to volunteer the gay Men's Health Crisis, which was
one desk in one little tiny room, that was the
extent of it. And I said, you know, I really
want you to put my name down. I'll volunteer, I'll
come in Thanksgiving, I'll do whatever needs doing. And he
was super sketched. This young man was like, uh huh.

(16:16):
You know, it was like I don't know about your kind.
And I was like, just write my name down, and
so he did it. And I got a call two
days later from the guy who would become my partner,
Peter Avitable, and he's like, are you really a woman?
I need a woman so.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
Bad I need your help.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
I'm really a woman. I'll I'm a woman, And so
I went. We served dinner at Saint John's in the village,
and it was the first time I'd ever seen someone
who was coping with that disease, and it was terrifying.
They were covered with Carposi's sarcoma. Nineteen years old, maybe
one hundred pounds on walkers with canes. It was because

(16:58):
life expectancy didn't was six months and you couldn't. There
was no medication, there was nothing we could do for anyone.
And so that night Peter got out on the ground
and threw himself around my legs and said, I need you,
I need you, I need you, And I said, just
tell me where to be, and so I showed up
on the following Tuesday, and we founded Momentum, which was

(17:21):
a way for us to relieve the isolation. So we
had a big sit down dinner every week, and sometimes
we got Barbara Cook or people would come and perform.
And we had a free grocery store at a free
clothing store because people lost forty fifty pounds in sixty
days and had nothing to wear and they needed grocery.

(17:42):
So that's that's what I spent my twenties doing, basically.
And then then a bunch of guys, an agent named
lou and a few casting directors got a plot together
and so they told Louis to tell me that he
wanted to be my agent. And so he stopped me

(18:02):
on the street and I want to be your agent.
I was like, you're nuts what I haven't done anything
in years. Like people were offering me teaching age social
service delivery at MSW programs because that's what I'd been
doing and no one had been doing it right. So
they were like, you don't need a degree, we just
need nobody knows how to teach this or do it.

(18:23):
And so I blew him off, and then he saw
me again and he was like, just come up to
the agency, Just come on up with me. And I
guess they'd all been told if I get this crazy
lady up here, lie to her and tell her you
want to represent her. And so I was like, guys,
I don't even have a picture. I don't have anything.
They're like, we'll get your pictures, we'll make your resume,

(18:45):
don't worry about anything. And so these two casting directors
were in on this because they had all decided it
was time that I'd spent my twenties doing this, And
it was like.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
How did they come to find you again after five years?

Speaker 4 (18:59):
Uh? Because I was all I was completely famous for
what I was doing in the AIDS world. I was
all over the theater district, getting donations, getting donations from restaurants,
getting donations from the from the vegetable district, the flower district.
So everybody knew me.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
You're hustling with everybody.

Speaker 4 (19:21):
Nobody, no stone went unturned. We needed food, we needed everything.
And so so they got it in their heads that
I had done it long enough. It was somebody else's
turn and it was time for me. They couldn't do
any figure anything out except to have me act again.
And so.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
I mean, I got to say for our listeners, very
rare for agents and casting directors to just come to
you and be like, we want you to start acting again.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
That doesn't normally happen.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
It doesn't happen at all. It was a total plot.
And so that the first two things I went out
on I got because they were in on it. And
I took the one in Albany at the State Theater there.
It was a production of mouse Trap, and somehow they
were shooting a movie called Ironweed, and somehow I met

(20:12):
the director and ended up screen testing for this major,
major motion picture with Jack Nicholson.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
I remember that.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
And then when I got back to New York the
casting after Bonnie Timmerman called me and said, who are you,
what are you doing? Screen testing for my movie? And
all who ever heard of you? So I was like,
I was sorry, Bonnie, I was doing this. So then
I sat down I sort of told her my story
and she closed that door. We talked for hours and
hours and hours.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Weld on.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
Let me just explain to our listeners, Bonnie Timmerman is
one of the most epic casting directors of all time. Yeah,
if you would have somebody sit down in a room
with you to advocate for you at that time, that
would have been the person.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
And she was determined. She was like, that's it. She
had not been aware of me as an AIDS activist,
although some people were and calling me into to coach
their actors when they had to kiss and things like that,
but not as an actress, had been aware of me
at all. And so she was determined. And the Stealing

(21:18):
Home came along, and of course there were big names
up for that part, and Bonnie Timmerman was like, no,
we're going with this one. Like, I don't know how
she did it, but she got me that part.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
It's a beautiful films, David.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yes, I mean I want to say, what was it
late eighties, sometime in the Yeah, yeah, I loved that
movie and It's just such a beautiful film. There's so
many good actors in it. And I remember you so well.
I remember what I'd.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
Ever done on film. And there I am naked in
the whole night.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
Okay, Jody Foster and John.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
You know, I got there and it was so instructive
for me because you know, like on our day off,
everybody's playing volleyball, and I was like volleyball. Like I
had just been running from funeral to funeral and you know,
like my whole life was surrounded was just about drama.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
And death and death.

Speaker 4 (22:23):
And so I'm on this movie set with these people
and they're like who, you know, like, what's going on?
Some guy tried to date me. I hadn't been on
a date in years. You know, I was just like who.
And it really, I.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Really probably exactly what you needed at that.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
Time, and I really realized, oh my god, I I
have to start living a different way. And then, of
course Jody and Blair found out what I had been
doing through a documentary filmmaker person that they knew, who
was like, oh my gosh, she's like, you know, huge
in the in the world. And so you know, I

(23:03):
ended up being able to sort of talk to the
cast and crew about safety and you know, what was
really going on within the crisis. So it ended up
being this like incredible experience. But yeah, after that, I
was like, Okay, I think I can let someone else
take over now, you know, I think it's.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Yeah, yeah, and I love the way you said it.
Some guy tried to date me like you were this
beautiful woman, but you didn't. You were not allowing yourself
to be that you.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
Have been there in years. Yeah. Wow, And well, I
actually I went out with one guy and I remember,
you know, he came to pick me up. I showed
him what I was doing the AIDS program, and he
came to pick me up, and later that night he
kissed me and just started to cry because he knew
I was going to kill him because I had been

(23:56):
around people with ADS that he was ifinitely going to
get it and he was going to die. And I
just had to say, well, I don't think so, but
I can't guarantee you anything. And so we just couldn't
see any That's just.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
I mean, Christine, does this, I gotta say this conversation. No, no, listen.
We interviewed Bonnie Hunt. Yeah, and she started her career
as a nurse and a cancer ward at Northwestern Hospital,
and she gave us a beautiful story of how that
inspired her to go into the arts. She would bring
the troop from Second City into the cancer ward to

(24:37):
perform for the patient. So I get like there's a
connection there, right, Christine beth story is very similar to Bonnie's.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
I think, well, I think it's just yeah, when you
have a call, when you are called, that's what what
it made me think, Like you were there are no coincidences.
I feel like for you to end up in New
York City at that moment in time and to to
you know, just start the crusade and be the be
the sole woman that you know.

Speaker 4 (25:03):
For a long time, I was, Yeah, I meant to.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Learn the healing power of the arts. That's what Bonnie said.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
She understood that comedy or music is not just for
you know, uh, for enjoyment, but it really saves people.
It really helped.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
Well. I think I think that's true. I mean, I
remember we would sometimes Barbara Cook, I don't know if
you remember her, the Great Barbara Cook would come and
seeing we were in the basement of a church where
we'd have these dinners and you know, the boys would
know about it in advance and they'd show up with
bouquets full of flowers and stuff. It was incredibly moving
to have these performers come and and and and because

(25:40):
isolation was terrible in those days. People were afraid to
leave their homes. People were being beaten on the street
if they looked gay like. So it was a it
was a terrifying time. And yeah, people in the arts really,
you know, among the first to respond. Yeah, and you know,
I think my flair for it that kind of thing.

(26:00):
You know, we I produced all these benefits that produced
a big benefit in eighty seven at Lincoln Center. I
don't know how to produce a benefit, but I just
hand them. You know. We were in between grant We
needed the money, you know, Glenn Close came and did
it to find Caromazov brothers were there, you know, and
it was a huge success. So I think that has

(26:21):
something to do with, you know, having so much of
a background in entertainment.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Can we talk about nineteen ninety the Bonfire of the Vanities.
I remember I read the book. It's a Tom Wolf book.
It was, you know, the biggest cast of all time.
It was one of those movies that just like the
whole world was aware of before it even came out.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Like, what was it like being a part of that production?
It was.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
Interesting shooting in New York City. I mean, my gosh,
it's got all the elements of like total Hollywood glamor.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
It was very glamorous. I mean they had us at
the at the at the Regency Hotel, which was so
fancy that you know, coffee costs like twenty dollars and
then ninety.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
So I was poor.

Speaker 4 (27:20):
I'm like, oh my god, I have to find a
way to bring my own coffee, and like you know,
like you had to wear a suit and tie to
visit me at the hotel, Like it was crazy. But yeah,
that's when I sort of started seeing Brianda Palmer romantically,
for which I did for quite a while.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Wait what.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
I did?

Speaker 2 (27:41):
I'm learning I worked with you for years. I've learned
so much about it that.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
Yeah, and you skipped the whole series with Brad Pitt also,
just just you just left that out. It was right
in between those two.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Well, let's go back. Let's go back to that right now,
have any rhyme or reason on what we're going to
even come on these things.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
We got to keep moving.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
But I didn't know about Brad Pitt. Let's let's hear it.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
My first series was a television series called Glory Days,
and it was I was the newspaper editor of a newspaper.
Brad Pitt worked just out of high school. And and
there was Brad and three guys and me, and we're
up in in Vancouver. This was way before Vancouver was Vancouver.

(28:30):
There was no there there There was no studios to
shoot it. And it wasn't like a warehouse with like
barrel heaters that we would sit around in between the
scenes and stuff, you know.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
So, and had Brad done that TV movie with Juliet Lewis?

Speaker 4 (28:48):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (28:48):
And right, so I had worked with Juliet right after
they did this TV movie and everyone was talking about the.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Two of them.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
Mm hmm, yes, and they were an item.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Then, Yes, I think I lived in or Brad did
lived in a little bungalow next David, do you remember
the apartment I lived in with Martha h in West Hollywood.
They there was a little bungalow right next like on
Harper And I remember it was when Juliette was nominated
for an Oscar and we I remember we saw them

(29:19):
get go into the limo, and I don't remember seeing
him around there that much, but I remember them getting
into the limo on Oscar's day.

Speaker 4 (29:28):
But yeah, they were very they were very, very together
at that time. And we I think we got seven
episodes in before they canceled this. But you know, I
I have always deep respect for Brad and really he
is as good a person as you think he is.

(29:50):
He is a really a good person.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
Is Kentucky Boy also.

Speaker 4 (29:54):
Missouri?

Speaker 3 (29:57):
Imagine if that show had gone seven years.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Like the trajectory.

Speaker 4 (30:02):
But you know, well, you know what was so funny
is is he left to do film, and Louise and
I left to do Bonfire the Vanities, So we like
shot off that series into these films. Of course, mine
was supposed to be the biggest film in the decade,
and his was something nobody knew anything about. And then
of course the biggest disaster of the decade, and his

(30:24):
was and he and he shot to start him. So
that's that really sums up our business.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
I think, well, a disaster, But how do you end
up dating the director of Bonfire of the Vanities?

Speaker 4 (30:34):
Did you was this idea. It wasn't mine. Let's do
the next.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
You know, he doesn't usually happen with the conversations. But
did you did you go through an extensive audition for that?
And had you had something? You know?

Speaker 4 (30:57):
I did, and it was Lynn's stallmaster was the casting
director and another Lynn was so patient with me. I
got up and pretended to zero to my butt on
his desk and I beat Lynn on the head and
they were both just like, oh, like they didn't even
know what to do or say, like, because I just

(31:19):
you know, went it was cuckoo. But that's what comedy
does to me, when you know, people are like, wouldn't
it be funny? If I'm like, yeah, I'll do anything
if you say, wouldn't it be funny? If you know
what I mean, Like, it's no, there's no filter. So yeah,
I found myself in you know, on Pilate's machines with

(31:39):
thirty year olds and stuff, what you know, just because
everybody was like, wouldn't that be funny? Okay? So yeah,
so that's how I and then I ended up on
Bonfire and I was funny in it.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
So there, but yeah, listen, it's hard to make a
movie based on such a beloved book.

Speaker 4 (32:02):
I mean huge book. And honestly, the book did not
come off the page well okay, because the book is
full of racial slurs and people and but but you
have the author's overview, right, so you know that the
author is saying it is bad for people to speak
this way.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah, it's.

Speaker 4 (32:22):
Read and people start throwing out derogatory slurs like that.
We were all like, holy moly, this is going to
be I don't know how you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
It was about the Master of the Universe, these New
Wall Street Titans, and he runs over an African American
kid and then flees the scene, right, I mean it's
it's a powerful story.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
Yeah, but yeah they flee. It is a really powerful story.
But it didn't come off the page as tidally as
one had hoped, you know. So they began like making
casting changes in the middle of it and stuff. We
just all started to get a feeling like, oh hmmm, yeah,

(33:11):
I know you guys know this like when somebody sends
you remember when we used to get like three or
four pilots a day. The young people do not remember this,
but I remember making my sister read the drama once
because I didn't have time to read all four, you know,
for the next day. I was just like, read it,
tell me what happens. I think you're the secretary and

(33:33):
they're they're an amphibium, you know, rescue team, the comedy ones.
You know. Sometimes you get this comedy script and they'd
be like, oh, it's got all the elements, so many
good people are in it. And I would read it
and go and not on the page, just not coming
up off this page, like it's just lead, you know, like.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
With Aine, like a good yeah, with a good like
and the like.

Speaker 4 (34:00):
All these people are in it, and you're just like,
but and't not funny, you know, like I mean, it's
just not funny. Yeah, And I'm and my agents were
always so mad at me, but I was always right
number one of those ones that they told me. But
it had these people and it has this stuff, and
now they but not funny.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
You know, it's a process. We've done failed pilots, right, Christine,
We thought.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
It bet yeah one or two or ten or thirteen or.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
I remember being on one not too long ago. I
won't name it, but just a couple of years ago,
and it had all these really beautiful young people on it.
Who were funny at all? I had them in my trailer.
I'm like, no, guys, it goes in threes. It works
in threes, one, two, three, Come on, come on, guys,
work with me.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
Comedy goes in threes. Yeh.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
They just didn't understand any of it technically or anything.
I called my manager, I'm like, well, m this dog
ain't gonna.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
But do you remember you directed me and Elisa Donovan
and another actor, Jen Blanc for this pilot presentation at
Warner Brothers. I think it was right before Sabrina or
was it during Sabrina? Is that possible?

Speaker 2 (35:23):
Well, you directed some of the Sabrinas. I remember that
I did, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
That pilot. I can't remember if it was four or after.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
I can't remember. It was probably right around that period
of time. But I just I'll never forget. First of all,
it was the first time that I had you were
this hilarious, gorgeous woman who was powerful and strong and
freaking funny and new funny. And when you came in

(35:51):
to direct us and I was like, you are a powerhouse.
And by the way, it was during a period of time,
you know, I think we've come a little a bit,
but there are not a lot of women directing situation comedies. No,
And at that period of time.

Speaker 4 (36:08):
My agents were told that it was you know, that
it was hurting my reputation as an actor.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
What, Yeah, that's just absurd, that's just absurd.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
I mean, it's so funny. Julie Brown and a bunch
of us used to be we would go to these
women's meetings that the Director's Guild, and this was years
and years ago, and we would just stand around and
talk about why that one wouldn't hire us or that
one wouldn't hire us. They used this, They used a
term called late script delivery, and that was that, especially

(36:45):
with the dramas, the scripts came in full too late,
and women didn't have enough experience to be able to direct,
you know, given the fact that there was late script
delivery as a possibility.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
Those are the kinds of things they what women go
to sleep earlier than that, or what's the rationale?

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Too much work, too much to manage the agent.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
Look, you've been on TV in mini skirts for years.
Nobody thinks you're smart. We're not going to be able
to get you any directing jobs. And unless it's like
some kiddie show or something then and they're like, you're
going to get bored and take an acting job, which
is kind of what happened. Yeah, I was just like, oh,
this is boring.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Wow, we've come a long way.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
It's amazing, Like, yeah, it's amazing to hear the stories
only for like probably twenty years ago.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
That's unreal.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, you were amazing, though I know that that was
just a pilot presentation. Those are the things that are like,
you know, you're you know, throwing the hail marry. Maybe
it'll go, maybe it won't, But it was just the
experience because it.

Speaker 4 (37:48):
Was you guys really came up. It was so good.
By the time we were it was great.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
We wished that it had happened, but you know it was.
And also just you you shepherded that and you just
you know, I just have the best memories and wanted
to thank you for it. Like it really was the
first time ever where I was like women can do
this better than men, especially when you're directing young women,

(38:14):
Like it's oh, yes, it works that way, So yeah,
I'll just never forget it.

Speaker 4 (38:20):
But I've noticed over the course of the years and
it's gotten so much better. But I would be on
a show and they would have a woman director is
still very rare then, and you would see, particularly the
women on the show not treat her very well and
not even be aware that they were doing that. Like

(38:40):
there's a scene in I don't know if you've seen Julia,
the new show about Julia Child. It's on Max and
at one point they bring in a female director and
Julia's character is just like, oh, now, dow, where's the
one I can deal with that? And like she just
literally for us right out of the out of the gate.

(39:03):
And that was that happened a lot on sets, so
it would you would think it would be the other
way around it, but it wasn't. And and something I
could say to an actress, she realized you're doing that.
They had no idea and they would shift it pretty quickly,
but they just you know. And even I did this

(39:23):
movie fly Away years ago, and you know, the woman
was the female director, and it did great at the
festivals and it won all these great reviews, and yeah,
she never got one fight from an agent. And I
did another one later called Two Step with a male

(39:44):
director who was the same thing, fresh out of the gate.
We want a bunch of you know, festivals, We got
great reviews. He was snapped up the next day, you know,
instantly by the agencies.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Ah.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
I think n have changed, you know.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
I mean that's you can mark your progress by hearing
stories like this, because we just take for granted now
that I think women do support each other.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
I think if you right, I mean, don't you feel
supported much more?

Speaker 3 (40:14):
Oh my gosh, my daughter's march in the women's march,
and like it's just I think the younger generation understands.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
You know, the equality of it all.

Speaker 3 (40:29):
Before we get to Sabrina, I just, are there any
projects you want to talk about specifically? Because I was
wanting to get into Fools Russian because I'm reading Matthew
Perry's book right now and it's just devastating to me.
I was wondering if you had an impression of working
with him.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
I was worried about him. Yeah, he was also a bingeter.
I don't know if he talks about that in that book,
but at the time, you know, he would eat four
croissants in two seconds, and you know, like there was
just like so much going on with him, and he

(41:06):
spent so much time practicing his lines in the rear
view mirror of the car looking at himself.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
He was so.

Speaker 4 (41:16):
So keyed in to being a star, like he just
had to be a movie star. He read the trades
every minute of the day and was like trying to
figure out where his standing was, you know. And and
I just said him one day, you know, you're good,
You're fine, it's all going swimmingly. You can let something go.

(41:39):
I don't know what is going on, but you're too
stressed out, You're too intense. This is this is not appropriate, right,
enjoy it yourself for God's sake, you know.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
And he's so great. And he's great in that movie.
He's great in the whole nine Yards. He talks a
lot about with the Bruce Willis movie. And he's amazing
in every episode of Friends. Despite this horror he was
going through. I don't know how someone manages that and
then and then shows up and performs the way he did.

Speaker 4 (42:09):
You know, you know, was a tough guy. You know,
because you have an illness doesn't mean you're not a
tough mo oh, you know.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
And and he'd been doing it for so long. I mean,
he was a real pro. He'd been doing it since
he was a teenager, you know, and it was you know,
this was his chance and he was not gonna.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
You know, but I never said he was so intense
about it. He wanted it so badly, and I just can't.
All I could think of was, there's so much else
to life. You're already a multi gajillionaire, you're a successful guy, Like,
there's so much else to life. There's so you know,
Like I think, at all points in our lives, it's

(42:50):
important to sit down and say what is the best
and highest use of my time. When I was in
my twenties, the best and highest possible use of my
time was to run that AIDS program. I was called
to it, Like you say, that's where I was needed.
And you know, and I just think for someone like him,

(43:11):
you know, to let go of that ambition and embrace recovery.
It took him years and years and years to even try.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
And yeah, we're not defined by our works solely, you know.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
There's you know, good luck getting old because and that's
not easy, you know, And and things really do change,
and the way you're treated is completely different. And and
if my ego identity was solely based on this industry,

(43:48):
I would not be in a good space right now dangerous.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
I think for you to have had that awareness as
a twenty three year old, like you were obviously a
mature twenty three year old, to be able to sort
of see it in real time and recognize it, a
lot of us miss it, and then you in hindsight
say why did I not take advantage of that or

(44:12):
why did I not enjoy that moment more? But you
were so in it, and that's just you know, that's
that's pretty incredible, and maybe that was just yeah.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
I mean I think that definitely that experience has guided
my life. People are always like, why are you involved
in politics? And I was like, because what you learn
when you're trying to help people who are dying in
your arms and there's no medical solutions and there are
no political solutions, and no one wants to help or
touch you even and you learned that it really doesn't

(44:44):
matter who's in office, it matters, and that you know
that that it's a matter of life or.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Death and humanity right and love and what was there
at the end.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
Additionally, what you're saying about your perspective and your advice
to me, Matthew, was if your pilot doesn't go or
you fall off a little bit in the in the
hierarchy of Hollywood. You knew that didn't matter. You've seen
you've seen the real stuff, like.

Speaker 4 (45:13):
Yeah, yeah, no, it was not ever definitive for me.
And I don't know if you remember, but during Sabrina,
I was raising money, doing big fundraisers. I was, you know,
I was very busy. This is this was the thirty
fourth year I've done the Christmas for the Good Shepherd
Home for batter Women and Children. So like, you know,

(45:34):
that part of social service delivery and and and political
advocacy has remained a really strong part of my identity
and who I am and what matters to me, and
you know, and I'm so grateful in the in the
last couple of years to have started a column. You

(45:56):
can find it at Beth Brodder dot substack dot com
and it's called Wit and Wisdom for the Ages from
the Aged.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Oh I love it.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Yeah, that sounds great.

Speaker 4 (46:08):
You know, it's just observation. My observation is it's you know,
I'm a very observational writer.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
But do you do it weekly? Weekly?

Speaker 4 (46:15):
It's very ten days. Yeah, I have over five thousand
subscribers and growing all the time. And I've written about PTSD.
I have written about some things that were hard to
write about. Mostly it's just funny. I mean, I have
a column coming out tomorrow called You're starting to bug
me about this fight I've been having with this cockroach.

(46:37):
You just won't go. I'm trying to get him to
go outside, and he just won't go.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
You wrote a column about a fight with a cockroad.

Speaker 4 (46:47):
It's like an existential struggle.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
You know it sounds trippy.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
Can we just talk about Sabrina, because you know, you
were there before I got there. But we've had Melissa,
and we've had so Ley on, we had a Lisa
on and they we all talked really so highly about
the experience.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
But how did that show come about for you?

Speaker 3 (47:12):
And let's let's get into when we work together.

Speaker 4 (47:16):
Uh. Well, they sent me the script and they wanted
me to read for Hilda. And I called my agent
and I said, I'm Zelda, this is going to go
and I'm going to get it. And they were like,
don't tell us who you are. They want to read,
so let's just go in there and do that. So
I went in and there was like thirty five people
there and I read the role of Hilda and then

(47:39):
I said, guys, I need to talk to you. I
really believe that I should be aunt Zelda, and I
really I'm just going to insist you let me read
for her. And what could they say? Right?

Speaker 1 (47:51):
They're like you had the room, right, I mean, you know, I.

Speaker 4 (47:56):
Mean I used to do that all the time, you know,
when I was young, and would send me a pilot
and that was always like the Secretary and the four
are fabulous men who went to save the day, you know.
And I would go in and I would say, like,
I'm here to read for the role of Andrew. And
they would be like best, no, no, no, that's wrong.
Andrew is a man. And I would say, why.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
Oh, man, you were ahead of your time.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
What could they say?

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Ask me my pronouns?

Speaker 1 (48:23):
What could they say?

Speaker 4 (48:24):
They'd be just like, we don't know, I don't think
he should be man. I think I think it's a
female role. And they would just be like okay. Like
I I would go once in a while, I would
screen test against four guys for the part, you know,
like because I would just I would just.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
Go in, especially will you I love that the Secretary.

Speaker 4 (48:44):
Of the bikini. I was not doing it right. I
was just like I'll go I just would walk in
and say like, I'm just gonna read for this male
part over here.

Speaker 3 (48:52):
I've never heard anything like that, any actor, anyone saying
I'm gonna read for you know, the opposite sex role.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
Yeah. I did it all the time.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
I can't imagine you and Caroline Ray playing reverse rolls.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
I mean, you were never have worked wait, so yeah,
finish wait. So you said I'm gonna you gotta let
me read it, and they obviously.

Speaker 4 (49:13):
They did, and then they were like, oh that works right,
but they couldn't get Caroline yet. She didn't want to
do it. I don't know what was going on with her,
but she was under contract to ABC. There was all
kinds of complications around it. But I remember going to
like the final callback and I saw her there and

(49:34):
I was like, that's her. Like I literally saw Caroline
sitting there and I was like, that's her. It is
I mean.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
And also I read Archie comics as a kid, right,
so I if you read the comic books, yeah, she's
an Hilda.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
Yeah, And I was not. I am so, I mean,
we are could not be more typecast. If it was,
it's not possible. I remember walking to so her one
day and she was saying something and she turned around
me and she goes, oh my god, you're a nerd.
And I was like, did you just now notice occurring

(50:13):
to you? You know me two years.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
Caroline has no filter. She just goes whatever she thinks.

Speaker 4 (50:20):
She said, She's like, oh my god, you're a nerd.
Like she thought she finally got it. I was like,
what part of that did you not understand from the
get you know, because you know that's we were. We
were completely and utterly type cast in it.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
But you you both worked so great together. I mean
your scenes.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
You were together for all those years, one hundreds, you know,
plus episodes, and you guys were just so great together.

Speaker 4 (50:51):
Yeah, it was you know, it was hard finding our language,
but once we had it. But we also, and we
sue this day, we can make each other laugh until
we're weeping. Just yeah, like they're just our chemistry is
just that strong, you know.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Yeah. I saw her at the comedy Store the other night.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
I was there seeing Pollie Shore as one man show,
and at the after party, someone came back and said,
Caroline raise up in the main room crushing it right now.
So I ran over there and caught like ten minutes
of her set, and she is as funny as ever.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
I mean, she's she's just doing great. We hung out
for a little bit after.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
Oh she's brilliant, and she'll call me. I'll see her
pick up and she goes, you have to hear the
new one. I'm like, Okay, she's always calling me with
a new joke she just wrote, or what she's doing. Yeah,
but we're you know, we'll always be family. And I
feel the same as with Melissa. I mean, Melissa and
I are still very close. It just you know, and

(51:53):
you have to remember those early years. You got there
a little bit later, the first two years sixteen hours
a day because the special effects were so hard and
it was a little bit overbridden in the beginning, and
we were there constantly for sixteen hour days.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
Yeah, Christine, it was you know, it's a fun show
and you know it's a comedy, but it was very Uh,
it was complicated directing it.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
I mean you had that.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Yeah, I remember Melissa telling us about it, because that's
not what you think you're signing up for for a
SITCOMS sixteen hour days.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
It's even animatrona cat that has to intercut with the line.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
All these special attracts and there's going to be lions
and brahma bulls and you know, the first and.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
I would imagine you started reading scripts very differently, like
you stopped reading them as a as a you know,
the viewer, and you were reading as like, Oh my god,
how long is it going to take to do that?

Speaker 4 (52:48):
Oh god, yeah it was, it was. And then we
finally and that first year we had a The showrunner
was named Nelskeavell, and she she did not like me
at all. She hated me, and I was not her choice.
She did not want me, and she just said horrible

(53:11):
things to me all day long. It was really hard
that first year.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Oh by the way, going right, going back to what
you said, the women supporting women thing, was that this
like you.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
Know that I got that a lot, and she was
just like, you know, she said to me repeatedly, you
were not talented in any way. You only got this
job because you wore a nightgown to the audition and
the head of the network wanted to sleep with you.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
Did you wear a nightgown to an audition?

Speaker 4 (53:42):
Clearly I did not do that. Do that. It's a sitcom.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
That's why you asked to read for men rolls. I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (53:50):
I did not wear a nightgown. I wore a beautiful
white dress because I kind of I guess I went
opposite from the witchy theme. You know, people would go
in black and I was like, yeah, but yeah. So
then when she moved on to a different thing, things
started to get better for all of us, just less

(54:14):
intense and less negative. And then the third year things
really started to get better. And the years, yeah, that's
when you arrived and things really started to get better.
But the first two years were just so hard. I
mean we crawled out of there after twenty six episodes,
sixteen hours a day. Oh my gosh, Yeah, it was hard.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Well, thank you guys for.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Crushing it and having it go to season three and beyond.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Never having been on I mean, David and I did
a series together, but where we did five seasons, but
it was all very condensed into a year and a half,
two years, like we did it very very very quickly
and really you know, sort of speed shooting. So never
having been on a long running series, and David, I

(55:08):
think you've talked a little bit about it because you've
been on a few of them. But that's like, how
how by season, like you said, the first couple of
seasons were rough and then you reached a groove. But
then by season five and six, is it does it
become sort of like, you know, old hat you're just
sort of in the rhythm or do you find the

(55:28):
sparks that keep it? I mean, obviously you're all a
family too, so the joy.

Speaker 4 (55:33):
Of being there. I don't think we ever felt like
it was old hat, because it's comedy, right, yeah, and
especially if you're Caroline and I. You know, we lived
to have a lampshad on our heads, so that live
for that. And Melissa, you know, it's just consummate pro

(55:55):
and you know, and was directing by then. You know,
she's a really brilliant young lady and she'll always be
young to me, so I could say that. And so no,
I don't think I don't think we got burnt out ever.
But I think that after six years, both Caroline and

(56:18):
I were ready to move on.

Speaker 3 (56:22):
And just always had We had great directors coming in,
We had the entire entertainment business came through that show.

Speaker 4 (56:30):
You know, justin Timber.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
Every week there was people there that you know, you
had to show up. I mean, Beth, I told a
story about Henry Winkler when he was directing. He'd called
me up at eleven o'clock at night about a bit,
and I'm like, this dude's caring about this eleven o'clock
at night on Tuesday. I better care about this, and

(56:54):
everybody just yeah, you we learned from each other, and
I think everyone lifted each other up and kept it.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
Uh yeah, and it's such you know. My favorite story
is like, you know, walk in the set one day
and I hear this big commotion in the costume room
and I look in there and they're attempting to measure
a chicken for a tuxedo. That of course, and that
chicken was I'm not wearing this tuxedo. And I mean they,

(57:22):
I mean they were like and you know, who, well, who,
what job does anybody have where you see something like that?
You know it was you know, it was just so damn.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
Wild attempting to measure, Like you couldn't get they were.

Speaker 4 (57:40):
Trying to measure this big old chicken for a tuxedo.
Did not want to do it, but they got that
tuxedo on him somehow, you know. But yeah, so it was.
But I'll tell you, when you're shooting something like that
and when you're doing it, I knew it would be
a hit. I knew I would be Zelda the minute
I read it. And I don't know why. I can't

(58:01):
tell you why I knew that. I just did because
I'm I think maybe because I'm just I'm a little
bit off the beam, you know what I mean, Like
I'm not I'm just a bit a bit odd, and
we were supposed to be witches, so it just made
sense that I would be perfect in that world, you know,

(58:25):
even though like the nerd witch. But I still kne
why I would fit. But you don't have any idea
it's going to be a hit for thirty years, it's
still going to play. It's still playing on Peacock. It's
it's you know, I'm still meeting fans who are nine
years old, you know, watching it for the first time.

Speaker 3 (58:44):
Oh, by the way, Christina and I are going to
see you at nineties Con in Hartford.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, We're doing.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
A Hey Dude reunion there and I'm going to jump
and be with you guys as well.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
You're going to be floating around like a butterfly from
booth to boot.

Speaker 4 (59:02):
It's a fun it's a really fun conference because if
we see so many people that we know in love,
you know, it's it's it's always really fun to.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
Do my first I'm very excited.

Speaker 4 (59:15):
You'll enjoy it. You'll enjoy it. I mean, Caroline was
for one, was really hesitant to do it, and then
she ended up really liking it, like, you know, it's
I don't know, it's it's so meaningful to me. Like
I've had so many weird experiences, like I had this
young man come into my booth two years ago and

(59:38):
he was I was like, are you okay? And he
was like, I need to help my new drill And
I was like, what's going on? And he goes, I'm
then to ask her to marry me. I'm going to
ask her to marry me, but I want you to
help me. Will you help me? Will you help me?
And I was like, yeah, okay, okay, all right, take
a breath, take a breath. Yes, where is she? And
they pointed me out. I said, somebody go get that
young woman and bring her over here. And so they

(59:59):
went gone her and they brought her into my booth,
and you know, he's shaking. I mean, he was just trembling.
And Melissa is like, what's going and I'm like, like,
so she runs over, you know, she like scoots under
the rope and like and and he gets down on
one knee and everybody that place just went wild, you know.

(01:00:21):
And they came to see me two years ago and
they said.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
They're still together.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
Came to see me later. But you know, I've had
people just burst into tears when they walk up and
meet me. I had two girls not too long ago.
They came up to me and the girl goes, I'm
a nuclear scientist, and that lady over there, she's a physicist.

(01:00:54):
And we both became scientists because of you, because we
watched the raina oh my gosh. And you know then
I started to cry.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
What you know, that's remarkable, Like you do not now,
like you said, you how how could you You knew
it was going to be a hit because you'd read
a lot about like you knew you were going to
be cast. But thirty years later, thirty plus years later,
that people are still and the impact that it had incredible.

Speaker 4 (01:01:24):
I've heard that from a lot of women who had
never occurred to them that they could be a scientist
or you know, which is what you know I loved
about my character was you know, yeah, I had mini skirts,
you know, and skin type orange rodeo pants on half
of that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Nobody could wear like that. PRODERI can wear.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
But scientists can look good, right, but most.

Speaker 4 (01:01:48):
Other people kind of thing I thought I wanted to
really wanted to portray that, and it was really important
to me, and I talked to the writers about it
a lot. You know, we up until then we were
really consistently entered with images as either pretty or smart, right,
they were never both. The two sitcombs I had done
before that, the first one, uh, I had played d

(01:02:14):
D Star who was a dumbst girl in Watson d C.
And you know, I had a big rubber boobies on
in the mini skirts and you know, and then CBS
called me that show didn't go up. So after two year,
CBS called me to play the Landa Buchan, the damasall
girl in the Hell Bar, and so like that's what
they let me do for the most part in in

(01:02:39):
in the acting world, or you know, in the dramas.
They would, you know, just hand me like a bathing
suit and a gun, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Like so I look like I was just like that
was fit the molds.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
Molds I fit and Sabrina you and you and Caroline
and Melissa were the most powerful people in any scene.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
I mean because of your powers. I mean it's a
very feminist show.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
Yeah, and it was really important to me to send
that message that you can be pretty and smart that
and I got so much male from moms saying thank you,
thank you, thank you for being on TV and being
a scientist and like because you know it's really we're
just not we don't our girls don't see that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
Yeah, for making it cool, making it interesting. You can be,
you can create, you can it's and look beautiful and
be cool and do all the things.

Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
That's it. That's you.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
That's Beth Broadreck. By the way, is that the Broadreck
the coolest.

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):
It is so good to see you.

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
And I learned so much about you today that I
had never known and your story is just incredible.

Speaker 4 (01:03:56):
Well, thank you. It's you know, it's continuing this story
of mine and in a good way. And you know,
I think it's been a hard time for people in
our business, and you know, and I really feel for
younger people who are trying to get a foothold and

(01:04:16):
they just keep getting knocked down by the pandemic and
then the strike and then you know, it's just like
just a constant one two punch out there for a
lot of artists. And you know, I just want to
say to everybody, life is long. Life is long. This
too shall pass, and you know, believe in yourself because

(01:04:36):
you're here for a reason.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
You know, it's really perfect. And we've got to read
Beth's column. Tell us the name of it again and
where we can find it, but you just.

Speaker 4 (01:04:48):
Go to my name, Beth Broderick dot substack dot com.
It's called Wit and Wisdom for the Ages From the Aged.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
From the Aged. I cannot wait to read. And just
thank you so much for taking the time. It's so
wonderful to see you. It's emotional just doing that, like
David and I have been seeing you know, you guys
have probably seen each other, but just people from our past,
people that we've never crossed paths with but worked, you know,

(01:05:17):
sort of in parallel lives. Like it's just been so
terrific to sort of take this trip down memory lane
and to see you again.

Speaker 4 (01:05:25):
And I think for all of us, and I mean
David and I were, you know, really close and and
know each other for really well. But I've always been
a fan of yours, and you know, we were really blessed.
And when they called and asked me if I would

(01:05:45):
do this and reached out to.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
Me, I was like, yeah, of course, you much. Let's
we'll have dinner in heart for next month.

Speaker 4 (01:05:54):
Okay, let's do it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
Oh yes, yes, we'll see you next month. Exciting and
happy early birthday, Happy early real birthday.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
February. Yes, that was cool.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
She's amazing that stuff like that story is amazing. The
way Bonnie told the story last week, the way Beth
told her trajectory, and and that she even said, I
bet you didn't think that this was going to be
the conversation we were going to be having, because it
just an'n incredible. Like that's that I'm blown away. And

(01:06:36):
she's such a powerhouse, Like I mean, I knew she
was a powerhouse, but I didn't realize.

Speaker 3 (01:06:43):
Amazing she was for years. That's what I love about
this podcast. Even when we had been on You're like
I learned stuff about my own husband. I'm like, I
did not know a lot of this stuff about her,
but now it makes sense. I knew she was always
an activist and she was throwing ben and if it's
for different causes, women's causes, but I didn't know her

(01:07:04):
aids activism and that you gave up acting for five
years to do that. And yeah, it was similar to
Bonnie and then coming back into the acting world and
just having a perspective on life.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
Right, this is in everything. This is what we do
is not life or death.

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
Right, And I love I mean, I don't hear it
often because we all say life is short, but she
said life is long, meaning like that's true.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
You can do it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
No, don't give up, no matter what it is, it's
not you know, you've got time. So just it's just beautiful,
beautiful to talk to her and.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
Right, relax and breathe. Yeah, it's all going to be okay.
You have time. You don't have to do everything today,
you know.

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
Oh that was great, and we're going to see your
next month. That's so exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Yes, I'm excited.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
And we should get so we should we should get
some some video from nineties con and put it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
On our instagram.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
Oh my own, yeah, just like what it's like there.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
I have no idea, she said. People are getting married
in her booths.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Oh my god, you'll let be prepared. All right, Well, everybody,
thank you so much for listening, and we'll we'll be
back next week, same time. Have a great week everyone,
thanks for listening. Make sure to subscribe and give us
five stars.

Speaker 3 (01:08:25):
And please follow us on Instagram at Hey Dude.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
The nineties called see you next time.