The Bombshell

Arden and Julie Anne chat with actor and business owner Kate Walsh, the star of Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, Bad Judge and creator and owner of Boyfriend Perfume. They discuss her upbringing in a large family in Northern California, starting her own perfume company and advocating for her health trying to get answers when she had a brain tumor.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello, that's no need stress. Let's just give a shout
out to Mark Rivers for the most amazing theme song

(00:32):
of all time. Hello, welcome to Lady the Road. My
name is Arte Marine, coming to you from my booge
garage in Los Angeles, California. You might know me from
the Netflix show Insatiable or Shameless or my very very political,
hard hitting podcast Will you accept this rose about this
bachelor franchise with me today? Is my friend, my cohort

(00:52):
and my co host, Miss Julianne Robinson, And let you
people know you from Julianne. I have had a very long,
very very career, but people will always know me for
having directed the pilot of Bridgetin and Sexy six and
Sexy six. Excuse we should say as we're recording this, Julianne,

(01:13):
congratulations are in order. You were just nominated for a
Director's Guild award. And and I were texting each other.
She was like, julian so ballered. She so because Jon
Favreau and Vince Gilligan. Right. I was like, that's so
casual belief. So I'm a shoeing, right, You're a shoeing. Well,

(01:34):
we're so excited I'm gonna say this is my oldest
friend in Hollywood. I believe in Hollywood. I have known
this person the longest. She is actually zooming to us
right now. She's down Under. She lucked out and like
went for a fun romantic trip, fell in love like
around February twenty and got got borders closed in the

(01:56):
only place on earth that just got it right. And
it's just like truly living a completely different experience. She's
in Australia right now. You know our guest. She's an actor.
You know her from as the star of Private Practice
excuse me, Number one on Ashonda Show. Excuse me, Grey's Anatomy,
Thirteen Reasons Why, Umbrella Academy, Fargo Girls, Trip, Drew, Carry

(02:22):
Bad Judge Emily in Paris, Stage productions, I mean stage,
screen and television. Excuse me. She's also a producer. She's
an entrepreneur. She started a perfume company called Boyfriend that
you can buy everywhere. It smells so good, and they
even have Boyfriend campbells, which I actually burned all of mine.
I've used my entire Boyfriend candle, and I'm now down

(02:43):
to some other weird one right now. That's not yours.
And she's an animal activist, but morrist Importantly, she's a hilarious, loyal,
wonderful friend. I love her so much. Ladies and gentlemen,
Miss Kate, Kathleen Walsh, than you. What an intro, Arden,

(03:05):
What an intro. So happy to be talking to you.
Now you guys know each other. Julia was saying she
directed your first ever episode. Is actually that's not true.
I double checked. I went back and I actually watched
the first episode that I ever did on Gray's Anatomy,
and you you were indeed in it, Kate. And so

(03:26):
now I'm transported back to being that person that had
like literally just got off the plane from England and
didn't know what the heck was going on, and everything
was so big and scary, and there you were, and
I was having to direct you, this glamorous, amazingly beautiful,

(03:46):
poised person. But that was quite a thing. I remember
it well. I'll say nice. I hope that was nice. Yeah,
you were, you were super nice. Which episode was it?
It was called the band Aid Covers the bullet whole
love of alliteration, I like it. Yeah, And one of
the patient's husbands was flirting with you and saying that

(04:07):
you looked like Katherine de Neuf. Oh I remember, okay, yes, gosh,
who was it? Who was the writer that? And then
he went on to run scandal Mark Mark wild Ding. Yes,
and Mark was always like, We're gonna write that you
look like and I was like, oh, it's so embarrassing,
me me, so embarrassing. But okay. I met Kate when

(04:31):
I was nineteen years old. We met in Chicago and
she had platinum blonde hair. Talk about Katherine to you
as a blonde? Holy cow? Did you you still do?
But blonde Kate? Well, you want to see a dead
ringer for Katherine, like blonde Kate. It was weird. That
was weird. I must say. I remember being in New
York with my platinum blonde moving into chicken fat yellow

(04:54):
hair color and I was like, it was I f
C or something thing and I saw like the what
is it Beldejore or something, and I'm like what it
was like? It was a very strange thing like that.
That's a weird thing. It looks when you look like somebody,
it is weird, Okate. So we wanted to talk to
you a little bit about your upbringing because I'm just fascinated.

(05:18):
I know that you are you the youngest of five children?
Is that correct? That's correct? Yeah, it was Joe Walsh.
Joseph Patrick came over when he was four from Ireland.
And then my mom is she's third generation. Her grandparents
were immigrants. Yeah, and then my grandmother was first generation.
And then yeah, you're Irish Italian, right, that's correct. Yeah,

(05:41):
And you grew up in San Jose, San Jose, California,
and my parents were divorced though when I was six seven.
Then I'm the only one that went to live with
my mom, and it was quite unusual, but that's what happened.
I didn't think it was unusual until years later in therapy,
I'm like, wait a minute, huh, how did that happened? Anyway?
So how much how much younger were you than your siblings?

(06:02):
So well, Joe Joe Welsh Jr. Is five years older
than me. I hate to out him like that on
the on the Internet, but he is, he's older. And
then there's so it's like five six seven, yeah, and
then my oldest sister was already out of the house,
so the older three we're with my dad. And then
my mother remarried my stepfather who's seventeen years younger than her.

(06:23):
How how that's all right? So I call her the
o c the Original Cougar, because she she really made
a path. Hearing your brother, you and your brother talking
about your stepdad like that, he was like caught a
young and hot. He looked like Donovan Leach. He looked
like Donovan because I remember liking Donovan and he liked
Donovan too, and he also played the guitar and played

(06:44):
Donovan songs. Was like this is so weird remembering seven
eight and like, wow, my mom is married to the
guy looked exactly like Donovan. How did they meet? They met?
I think they met in therapy because one dozen the
seventies we bring on women that our first person we
talked to was Joan jet like we were talking to
people we admire, like, yeah, I'm in good company, You're

(07:07):
in good college where we talked to people that have
what we want. I would say, You've always respected your
business sense, your talent, your ownership of yourself, and what
I like is your scrappiness that you did not come
from privilege. You almost sounded like unsupervised and you were
saying we were running around the Hills where that murderer was.
What was oh yeah, when and where Charles Manson was.

(07:31):
That's where we lived. It was like my oldest sister
apparently met Charles Manson, but this was, yeah, this was
in northern California at Alan Rock Park, So this before
he was really, you know, in the height of his madness.
He my oldest sister said that she was an Alan
Rock Park around a bonfire, tripping on acid and he

(07:52):
was talking about how he could control the flies. And
that's when she's like, you know what, I'm going to
back away because it's starting to become a bad trip.
So that's what I've heard. I don't know why my
older sister would say that if it wasn't the truth.
But this was way before I think he moved down
south and did all the real madness. God, I mean,
my parents moved to California from provincial New Jersey. I

(08:14):
was in my mom's belly Summer of Love n seven
major race riots happening in with the National Guard in
New Jersey at Newark, and my parents lived in Maplewood.
Because I remember asking, you know, at a certain agent,
what was happening when I was in Utero was there
some stress, just trying to map my own madness, and

(08:35):
so I'm just looking back to where you know it
all started. And UM said, oh, yeah, yeah, there were
like these crazy riots. Your father had already left California
and start his job. I was left with three babies
and diapers year in my belly. And and she said,
I remember our housekeeper had to keep her was African American,
like shelter her in the house because it wasn't safe

(08:55):
to go outside. And so it was just crazy time.
All the kids, like I had said, have been inn
pro chial school, moved to California Summer of love. Everyone
went to public school, and all madness ensued. People forget
how culturally different it was like a different country California
versus say New York or New Jersey or Connecticut. And
I remember when I first moved back East is a

(09:17):
young person when I first met you are in Chicago,
and then going on to New York. We made our
little bunny trail across the East and back to California.
I remember thinking, oh, this is so different from where
I grew up East Coast. It's still culturally different, but
even more so if even back in the sixties and
seventies must have been just like California was like the
wild West. You seem very East Coast to me, like

(09:39):
you know, because I met I guess I met in
Chicago when I moved to New York. But you've always
had that. I say this as the highest compliment. There's
always been this glamor, like anti name. You felt like
a movie star, even when you were just doing a
play in a gymnasium that I saw with you and
Pat McCartney and you were twenty three years old, and
I don't know if you've and had like an agent yet,

(10:01):
but like it was like she's a movie star, Like
you felt very New York, sophisticated. There was something almost
like old fashioned what was the name of the woman
who played Mrs Robinson and Bancroft r And Bancroft, Like, yeah,
you felt like a woman I'm like, confident and powerful
and fun. It's really good for me, Thank you. This

(10:23):
is very good for me to hear that you were
also fun, like you were a rascal, like you were
like like it wasn't just ambition. It was like this
and I'm gonna go out for eat a steak and
I'm going to have a glass of wine. And likely
that you say that, because I think I was just
really in love with that archetype of actress movie star
since I was little, because before even my parents were divorced,

(10:44):
my mother and I would watch old movies together. We
would watch the million dollar movie. I watched Dialing for Dollars.
That's what I watched. I said, that's all I watched.
Was this is what I wanted. And we talked about
this because in your book, you wanted to be like
Gypsy rose Lee. Yeah, I was like, that's what I
want to be, or is it folly girl? I wanted
to be wearing scantily clad sequence, be dazzled rhyin stone

(11:06):
and plumed head dresses, swimming and dancing and saying yes.
But also I did I fell in love with the
old studio system. Was like, I can't wait to meet
Louis B. Mayer and be a part of the system
and be handcuffed to the studio. To studios. Yeah, you know,
of course, it's all projection. But I was in love
with every dead movie star. Was like, oh Tyrone Power,

(11:27):
Oh my god, Gary Cooper, Wait, I mean, would a
would a dreamboat? And then of course, Carol Lombard and
Brna Loy, Merna Loy and oh my god, I mean
I want to be alone her, Greta Garbo, Greta Garbow
and just everything. I really yes, Katherine Hepburn and then

(11:50):
also the dancers Rodgers and fred Astaire gene Kelly. I
was obsessed and that's where I would go. That was
my first I guess escape right. I wasn't at a Dolls.
I wasn't into that. I was like, how watch these movies?
Little like I would say, probably five as early as
I can remember going to the movies, and I'm going
to the movies. Also that the interesting time of growing

(12:12):
up in the seventies. That was the best decade for
future films. Yeah, and there was no kid movies like
we just go see whatever the adults were saying. That's right.
I was just saying that to somebody else. I mean
I watched Mash with my parents. We all you're like, ah,
nothing like a comedy, said the Korean War. Yea for
like a six year old. The weird thing is maybe
we all had similar experiences, but in all different parts

(12:34):
of the world. Because I remember I was sick when
I was younger, it's going to be a recurring theme.
But I would lie in bed and I used to
change the channels and it was always like every afternoon
there would be Ginger Rogers, Fred Asta or just an
old classic movie. So I was really raised on those
classic movies as well. I wonder if there's something I

(12:56):
like that and they we're all drawn to each other. Yeah,
it's I know that is interesting, right, It's so romantic.
It was such a world that was created. And the
lighting they used for the black and white films, I
mean it was so spectacular, Julia, do you think about
that as a director, like that dramatic and fantastic lighting

(13:17):
that you don't really see. I mean, we all as
actresses want to be lit well, but do you know
what I mean as a director, especially like DVD or
h D and all of that. Now, it's like there
was this other world film. Yeah, yeah, MGM, just creating
this fantastical world. Did you always want to be an actor?

(13:37):
It was always the dream. Oh I was little like
five six, it was like, that's what I want to do.
I did my first school play when I was probably
six or seven. I played glend to the good Witch.
Even though my dress looked like Dorothy's because you know,
you brought your clasts from home. But it was like,
this is like this magical thing. I wanted to be
glend to the good Witch. Well, I have to say,
watching Fargo, I was watching you did after you left

(14:01):
Grey's Anatomy. You could have easily, I'm sure, jumped into
any series after Private Practice, any network thing that you wanted.
And I'm watching Umbrella Academy, I'm watching Fargo, I'm watching
Thirteen Reasons Why, and what I'm seeing I'm like, this
is an old school movie star. This is you chose
these characters, and these women are all glamorous, and they're

(14:24):
all having a great time, even if they're down on
their luck, even if they're not the star of it,
they are all number one on the call sheet in
their world. Like you just would come in and steal
a scene. Was that an intentional choice for you? Of
like I want these fun, like gritty character parts because
it was such a joy watching you chew the scenery

(14:45):
in those oh thank you, thank you, thank you. Well,
I will say that I think as a struggling actor,
you just want to work and then the dream is
to get it. Remember, it was like to get a
show because everybody would do a pilot. I mean everybody,
you let it do movies too, but those it was
so hard. You said, I didn't have any We didn't
have like parents in the business or ends like that.

(15:06):
We scrapped it out, dipped it out. And so you're
so excited when you get a show, and then you
get a series like Gray, which is iconic and massively
successful and critically acclaimed, and then you're like, Okay, but
I want to act. I want to play different roles.
That's what I always wanted to do. And I always
felt like a character actress. That's what's interesting to me, right,
And so whether in comedy and drama, I always did.

(15:28):
And I think you feel like Hollywood's always trying to
like box you and and go you're this, you're that.
And so I was really done with playing Addison, as
grateful as I was, which of course I was. If
you open up a whole world to me, and it
was a delight and I met and I learned so much,
and I honestly, one of the gifts of being able
to play a role for a long time and the
gift of network television for me is you get better

(15:50):
as an actress. I think if you really like acting
and you want to and you're not just they're going, okay, well,
now I've got this great check and buy a bunch
of stuff, which I did too, But it's like, yeah,
I did, I did. I like that you enjoyed your success, though,
I have to say I like that you are self
made and you've enjoyed your success. I have thank you.
I've enjoyed it. But I was really bored that That's

(16:12):
why I created boyfriend. Like my the creative part of me,
kind of my mind was always going better. So let
me just circle back and finish that thought that I
do think that being able to work every day made
me a better actress. I just got to practice every day.
I mean, you're there. I think you can either get
lazier and just or you could get better. And I
feel like it made me a better actress to be

(16:33):
able to practice all the time. But then after that,
I was like, get me out of network. I felt
like I've been a network jail, Like I really just
want to play. People like, what do you want to
play now? I'm like things that end? What do you
want to do now? Things that end, like I just
want to play a part that that it's beginning, middle
and done. So it was really the I think, well

(16:53):
I did bad Judge, remember, and that was a roller
coaster in and out of hell. I mean that was
a crazy backs him that I still am proud of.
But it was really painful. As you know, it was
like a crazy, crazy journey. But I fargoes when I
did in between, that was the thing I really did
straight away. If you have not seen her, Gina has

(17:14):
this character. She is like a cat and heat looking
for her money. You have this giant like cooler that
you flung from your finger, and she's like this like
sexy former exotic dancer that's one like House of Great
North and does not want to be there, like trying
to get this insurance check. The outfits, the glamour, the

(17:37):
physicality you and Martin Freeman like you stick in your
leg up and putting your foot behind his shoulder and
like just stretching your legs and I mean the freedom
of that. I was like, look at her, go Okay,
we're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna come back.
And we have so many questions about business, and you're
acting it's incredible and we're back. Okay. We left off

(18:06):
with me complimenting Gina all of your costumes. I've noticed
you are decked to the nine like your outfits an
umbrella Academy should be in a museum. It should. That's
Christopher Hargin and the costume designer and like a team
of expert milliners and he that was really a delight.
That was the costumes of for me. And shoes. I

(18:28):
can't say this with that sounding really protentious, but coming
from the stage, you know, you just you're like, what shoes?
And we weren't. It's going to determine how I walk?
Don't you think that? And aren't and Julianne like it's
just like how are you gonna walk? How are you
going to move? And I think also wanted to be
an actress from being a little kid. Part of it
is playing dress up. That's like the fun like going
into your parents closet, going into I remember going to

(18:49):
my mom's makeup. You know, you're just like, I want
to put on makeup, do something crazy with my hair,
do wear weird clothes. It's dress up And I think
I really got the experience of that and the liberation
because you know, when you get trained it was all
standardslawski and and even improv training, which is yes, and
and but when I did comedia training with Johnny cusas

(19:10):
company at the time New Crime in Chicago and then
Tim Robbins Theater Company, what is it actor's game? But
the comedian stuff is all working with archetypes and masks
and status and characters, and it is it's going to
this old school part of yourself that's loves to play
dress up. So you're playing dress up and you kind
of think, what archetype is this character? But it gave

(19:32):
me the freedom to go start from the outside in.
And their rules were like what emotion are you playing
in every scene? And a heightened real has to be
real and make it as heightened it as urgent as possible.
So anger, fear, sadest, joy, and you think, oh, it's
gonna be too theatrical. But so it was so liberating
that experience, and so particularly and when you don't I

(19:52):
think as an actor have a lot of power of
a writing or over the other elements. But you can okay,
well what are we going to create here? You know
in the toy closet that kind of ties into a
couple of questions I have. One of them is just
a selfish question. As a director and having been an
episodic director, I'm really intrigued to ask you, does it

(20:14):
actually make any difference who's directing you on an episodic show? Yes? Why?
Because you can't tell when you're a director, You just
don't know. You just go in and it's so stressful
because everybody knows each other, and you know, Yeah, typically
we'd say it's the writer's media of television and directors
or visitors, and particularly on Private Practice, which or grays

(20:35):
or a show that we were just doing for so
long and and we knew it so well. But you still,
even if you know the set or you know like
the character, you still create a director that's going to
give you something fresh and new. And I think even
more so it's kind of urgent that you want a
really good director to keep it interesting and to help

(20:59):
you find nuances and things that are that you hadn't
thought about because you played it for so long or whatever.
Does that make sense? And and also it's still a conductor.
I still think the director, in the very least is
the conductor of the piece. You know. Well, that's good
to know because you never can't tell sometimes well. And

(21:20):
also you can get some cranky Brady actors that are
just like whatever, we're still having our you know chat
or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. My My next question is I
remember I am being transported back to that first episode
of Grace that I did, and I didn't realize this

(21:42):
was a big moment for you as well as me
because you'd come on and it was just soon after
you came on the show, but you were always so
you have this quality of being very poised, and it
goes back to that movie star thing that Arden was
talking about. Very poised, very self zest. That is a
quality that I'm sure most people envy more than almost

(22:04):
any other quality in the world. In fact, I'm working
with an executive coach and I said, if I could
just have one quality in the whole world, it would
be to be self possessed. And you have that in Spade.
I'm intrigued. Is that a construct or? Is that real?
Is it like a duck paddling quickly underneath? I'd say
the flip side of that is a quivering, shivering war

(22:25):
frat war frat bat with a Vadey wing that I'm
often trying to clean and I can't get to whatever
is the most repulsive antithesis of composure. It's interesting. I've
literally never thought of that or thought of myself like that,
because I think when I think of like public things
like red carpets and all that, I always just feel

(22:46):
so not enough and shattered and weird and like pretending.
Part of this podcast has been a little bit of
self help for Julianne and I. We just we bring
people on that we have fake it. Yeah, that's the question.
How do you how do you find it within yourself
to pick composed? And it could also go back to

(23:06):
the training that you're talking about, the comedia training, the
theater training, where you kind of have to look at
yourself from the outside. But how do you do it?
I don't know. I'm thinking about now and here being
in Australia, and one of the things that I've been
doing was doing a lot of chatting about getting a
studio built here because they have little stages and things
here and there, but mostly people come here to shoot

(23:28):
exterior location scenes. And but I was thinking about just
being asked to do to come and speak and come
and meet with all these people that are come on Flashpoint,
which is like one of their sort of talk show
but like a PBS talk show talking about the necessity
of a studio. And it's like there's some inner persona
there must be that's like a boss lady, a boss

(23:50):
that's like okay, that I can click into and create that.
I think there's just it's like a natural sort of
leadership role. But the other flip side of that is
that little war for that's like shaking in my boots.
But I think there is like probably a healthy parent
part of myself that is very like confident and like
this is what I need, is what I want, But

(24:11):
it's that struggle. I mean, I was just with my
mental health care professional yesterday talking about that, like and
she was deliriating the child versus like the healthy parent,
because I think in our culture so much, either like
to be an artist, you have to be like a
bit of a kid. You're like a fun, playful kid.
But then often if you're you know, the adult who's
confident and that is a woman anyway, you're called a bit.

(24:33):
That's so that's like I was saying her, She's like,
why are you afraid of being mutler, letting yourself be angry,
because then I'll be called a bit and she's like,
that's not real. And so that's I know, I've really
pivoted or digressed. But no, no, we love this. But
I think that there is that feeling. She's like, there's

(24:54):
you can feel it in yourself when you're just being
an adult and confident and with a level gaze. And
I think it started in acting. It's just acting. You're like, okay,
you're going on stage, just do it. That could be
shaking in my boots and literally and then you're just like, okay,
it's on. And there was a certain safety to knowing,
like when you're doing a play, there's gonna be a cut,
it's gonna end. Was there a reason you chose acting, then,

(25:18):
do you think? Because I also think about why I
chose directing, and I think it was. Looking at it now,
it's like you could control, you know, when when things
are out of control. There was a certain amount of
control that you could bring. So I'm just curious as
to whether there's an element of that into going into acting.
I think when I was little, it was being expressed

(25:39):
and seen and having attention. Probably ill. I mean, I
was like, I want to be fabulous. I want to
do that, you know, like, you know, you weren't thinking famous.
It wasn't that, but being seen probably, and I think
probably coming from the where I came from as a kid,
it was such a jungle in my house, you know that.
I was like, this was a place for me to

(26:01):
be seen and heard and expressed and get validated for sure,
you know. And I think that that. I think a
lot of people can identify with that. And I think
when you're really young, you don't even have the words
for that. You're just like there's something in here that's
got to be out and it's not being expressed. And
then there was a so there's a tension. Then you're
good at you're getting an audience. There was I remember
doing school plays. I remember cracking my first joke on stage.

(26:25):
There was some comedy line that landed and the audience laughed,
like this is amazing. I mean, I'm sure you remember that,
you know, getting laughs making people laugh. Oh my god,
at camp when I was ten, Oh my god. And
this question for both of you, guys, I guess, but
does it ever get to the point where the need,

(26:46):
the reason why you needed to become an actor. Then
you moved past that at a certain point, you don't
need that anymore because you know, kind of I don't know,
you just don't need anymore. And then what do you
do at that point? That's where I am Julianne I think. Yeah.
For me, I'm like, uh, I got yeah, I got there,
I did it. Now what Yeah? I remember? And it's

(27:09):
actually something I think that Sean and I identified with,
and it was sort of why she made Private Practice.
She's like, Okay, I'm making this show and gras anatomy
about people that are struggling and getting to where they
want to be as doctors, residents. And then now you
get there, and then what happens? What's your life like?
And that was what why she wanted to make, you know,
in a more adult sort of show. And for me,
and then you know, this reads goes into health stuff.

(27:32):
I was just all guds blazing still at forty eight
when I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. My managing
and coping mechanism too, is just like okay, go get
a bunch of other things going, Like it's not enough
to be acting and producing like, let's always there's always
a remodel going on. There's always my redecorating. Yeah, and

(27:52):
then moving in with my then boyfriend, and that was
a good, great house, by the way, that was a
great house. You're redecorated one, I think with a boyfriend
and the kids. That was great. So it's like, but
I knew even before I was like, this can't last.
This is gonna have to end. I can't keep going
like this. There's something that's coming and I don't know

(28:14):
what it is, but it turned out it was a
five cent We would definitely want to talk about that
before we get to that. I have one. I always
admired you just as like a boss, as like a businesswoman,
unapologetically that you made your own money. You know, we
we talk about money on this podcasts. I feel like
a lot of women don't talk about it. Are you

(28:37):
good at negotiating for your like to make advocating? Have
you always been good at negotiating? Are you better at it? Like, well,
this is what it is. I think I probably got better,
but I was always for some reason, even when I
first got you know, an agent in New York as
a manager at that time in the nineties, it was like,
very there's a lot of money, particularly in TV. Like

(28:58):
I always knew where my value you was, and TV
right out of the gate, it seemed like I had value.
And this was in the days where they were just
doing crazy development deals for stand up comics and all
that kind of stuff. And it was in the days
too when you do a pilot and it was double
what your regular episodicalee was, which was a lot of
money for someone who had come from waitressing. So I

(29:18):
was like, what, I admit that, but it was like
high stakes gambling in a way, and you're kind of
betting on yourself, so you kind of know what your
value was in the marketplace. But then I always sort
of had a good idea. And then as an adult,
or as I got more and more work, I understood that, oh,
I'm going to go do this project, not for money,

(29:39):
obviously an indie film, it's going to be for the art,
but I know I can make my bank over here.
And that was always in television. But it's still like
I did Emily in Paris for fun, not for fun
for free, but just like go shoot in Paris with
my friend Andy Fleming and the delightful Darren Starr and
Lily and all that. But to work in Paris and
just do a fun shoot Paris for Chicago's okay, you know,

(30:01):
but then you understand where for me, I'm like, I
understand where I can get paid. And then there was
a certain fuel and anger beneath that in terms of look,
the gender pay gap is ridiculous and there's nothing fair
about it and there's nothing logical about it. Film is
where I see it the most, because I just have
my value and television is much different than than film,

(30:22):
and so I would sort of push and even push
my agents and and but I also have a great lawyer.
I should say, that's like an incredible negotiator. Okay, my
boyfriend just walked up with a massive thing of flowers.
How cute is this? Did you time this? This seems

(30:43):
like oh andes and lilies? Wow, guys, sorry, oh my god,
that is a huge bouquet of flowers. I have one
money question, and you can feel free to say no,
I've never asked you about this. But I have so
many self made female friends who came from nothing, and

(31:04):
we're married and they're husbands who were all healthy working
men get divorced and go after their money. Yeah, that
happened to me, as you know. Yeah, I still pay him.
I was married. I was married fourteen beautiful bobs. Do
you still pay him? Yes, by the law of California.
You know, there's a lot of people in that position.

(31:26):
And you didn't have children. You didn't have kids. Know,
we had a house, We had a house in a car.
He was a studio executive making a very good living.
I literally can tell you, quite honestly though, I have
no resentment about that now. I did well. I worked
through that. I had to do some real work. But
let's just say I don't have any resentment now. But

(31:47):
there was one year where I sat nine thousand dollars
in coins and a check for verty sense that was
that was a business manager's idea. Oh my god. She's like,
I haven't. I'm like, okay, let's do it. That's legal.
It's still legal, isn't it. But I don't have any

(32:08):
I don't. I'm just like I kind of laugh at it,
and it's like, there's no there's And I think also
there's there's a generation of people that thinks that life
should be fair and it's just not. And it's never
going to be, and it's actually the rare anomaly when
things are fair. So you kind of got to get
used to that and make your own live by your
own morality and lick your wounds and go on. I'm
fifty three years old, on my way to a strumpf

(32:29):
before and I just got my ass handed to me
via email. I sent a script out to a dear
friend too. It's like, this is the biggest PIECI well,
I it was my story that Joe Alshould, my friend
wrote and so whacked out out there comedy crazy. So

(32:50):
it still happens. And you're like, well, I'm not going
to cancel him, and I hope he's not going to
cancel me. It just was a person that a really
strong reaction to something that I But I'm just saying
that you still get your feelings. I still get my
feelings here. You still have to lick your wounds and
you still have to go And I thank you, sir
for your feedback and for trudging through that he have

(33:11):
a garbage that you felt, you know, Julianne circling back
to you asking like do you still want to act? It? Changes?
I think as an art and I'm sure it's changed
for you, like how you want to express yourself as
an artist, right, But I still take swings. I still
take big swings and risks because I feel like I
ever got the shot that was like instatiable part was fun.
I feel like I haven't gotten to show what I

(33:33):
can fully do. I mean, I've always I've always wanted
to make my own thing, but I still feel like
I haven't gotten to do it right. I still have
that itch. Good. I'm like, let's go. Yes. For me,
it's more interesting to create stories and shows like that's
more interesting to me. Now, Okay, wait, final question. So
what I like about you shaking it off like I'm

(33:54):
gonna pay you every month for however long, like you're hearty,
you get back in. So you at one point you
started a perfume company. You are an atree like you
are a full business owner mogul, full mogul, your own
that's mo. That was yeah, but that was creative. I
co owned it now with my business partner, Luigi Piccarazzi,

(34:14):
who rest digital Media Management's the best name. So that
I started it myself when I was on private practice
because I was creatively just really starting I mean, you know,
I'm not complaining. Number one. It was like a great
show and a great experience. But I think that's a
spark of creativity. Where does it come from. There's something
that a little bee buzzing around, and you're like, that's
not going to go away. It doesn't make any sense.

(34:35):
I'm working seven hours a week. I don't have time
for that. This is crazy. Just go away. But the bee,
if it keeps coming back, You're like, all right, they
gotta pay attention to this. Can I just say you've
always smelled great? I don't know if I do right now,
but thank you. It's a little sweaty here, but now
I just it was more. It was a creative and
it was all driven by story, which was my boyfriend

(34:56):
and I had broken up. I missed his co own.
I was in New York shopping at Jeffrey's walking by
a giant poster of Sarah Jessica Parker her. I think
Second Fragrance was coming out or something, and I thought,
wouldn't it be great? And maybe I'll go to the
men's counter to get, you know, a masculine scent that
reminds me of my boyfriend. I'm like, boyfriend. That would
be a great idea. Boyfriend boyfriend in a bottle. My

(35:18):
mom loves my boyfriend, you know, my husband loves all
these like tagline like lines, just like story just kept
coming at me, the ideas and a little songs, and
I don't know stories. So then I eventually was like,
I'm just gonna call my lawyer and see if the
I P is available. It probably is. If there's already
boyfriend jeans, boyfriend shirts, there's boyfriend, there's that's not gonna
be available. Well, it was available, so I just took

(35:40):
that as a green light. I just kept exploring it.
And that's when agents, I think, or managers or lawyers
are the best, because if they're they're saying, let's go
for it. And we didn't do it in a traditional
licensing deal. We just I owned it and I created it,
and I sold it in the room when I pitched
it to Ahsen and Sephora, and then I made it.
I went about making it the way you would have pilot,
you know, And was actually told to me by my

(36:01):
ex boyfriend that it was inspired by who was at VCS,
Like why don't you just make it and own it?
And so it's success. You get a bloan from the
bank and you make it, and then you own it,
and then it's yours creatively. That's amazing. We're going to
take a quick break before we do. Do you have
any words of wisdom for you know, gals in any industry,
any working gals out there who maybe get nervous but

(36:24):
like trying to take ownership of themselves in their dreams
and being like the boss lady, like anything to help
them on days where they maybe feel nervous or scared
about making a presentation or going in for like a
job interview. Like what you would say to like own
your inner baller, I would say, to that moment, if
let's just address that of like nervousness or feeling flat

(36:45):
or anxious, I would say, for me, what's always relieved
me of that is to talk about it with somebody,
to get support from a friend. You're very good at that.
I mean, I'm not kiddie. When I first did a
voice over, the very first voiceover I ever did, it
was a big deal, and I got so nervous when
I went into the booth because I was in l
a and all I could see was Chicago and New

(37:08):
York like forty people, you know how it is on
the other side of a phone, eating bagels, listening and judging.
And I got so nervous that my heart was pounding
and I lost my breath. I couldn't literally couldn't get
the lines out and there and then there was like
these dead pauses at the other hand that they're all
probably going, why what's happening with her? Why did we
hire her? And I was freaking out and I got
to the point where my can they see me? Was

(37:28):
it just the cans? And what I did in that
moment I excuse myself. I went to the engineer and
I was like, I can't see me right, and He's
like no. I'm like, okay, this is my first time
ever doing a voice over and I'm really nervous and
I don't want to do I'm like, I can't catch
my breath, and he was just like, uh, just relaxed.

(37:49):
I guess he didn't have It wasn't the advice that
he had. It was just me saying it, buying myself time,
acknowledging that I'm human. Then the idea came to me,
let me look at the commercial again, kind of a
look at the film and then I could get out
of my downward spiral and rabbit hole catch my breath.
But I do think that in any of those cases,
like support support, support, buddy systems, I think a lot

(38:11):
of people think to be a boss lady or to
be an entrepreneur, you have to do it alone. It's
like singular. It's not. It's always community. And that's like
the biggest lesson I've learned. Pride your village. That's great advice.
It's so good. We're gonna take a quick break and
we're going to come back and talk about something we're
very excited to talk to about. Okay, and we're back. Okay.

(38:36):
So I'm very protective of you, and as you mentioned earlier,
you did have a brain tumor. But like, just to
sort of give a headline a hypothesis for this, my
mom rest in peace. JJ. Shout out to JJ and
this guy who loved Kate. She always told me that
I was the CEO of my body, how important it
is to advocate for yourself as a doctor. And ironically,

(38:59):
which mentioned later, I think she was dismissed in a
way that ultimately I think as a woman in particular,
you can get dismissed. So I was with you, and
I've known you for years, and you were not okay.
You were really tired. You couldn't drive yourself. You've openly
discussed that you'd already been through an early menopause, but like,

(39:21):
could you talk a little bit about your experience of
like you knew something was off and how people reacted. Well,
I think culture is and you can't really blame anybody.
It's just that, you know, my boyfriend at the time,
I thought I was depressed. I was exhausted. I could
have like five cups of coffee and I couldn't wake up.
But it was this very subtle sort of thing, and
I thought it was because I'd just done bad Judge

(39:44):
and I had exhausted myself. I was doing this really
intense workout at the time, and so I thought I'll
ease up on that and go back to pilates. And
then the plodies woman it's like, ah, you're all right,
side of your body is dipping. I'm like, no, it's not,
oh yeah, it is, oh, oh okay. And then noticed
like subtle things like I was off balance a little bit,
and I really thought, oh, the menopause is back is

(40:05):
at it? And so because I was feeling pretty just flat,
not just exhausted, but really like a little low. And
so my boyfriend the times like, oh, you're depressed because
your show was canceled, that Judge was canceled. Like, no, don't,
it's not that. But I'm tons of stuff that's been canceled.
It's not that. And then even my assistant Derek at
the time, he had never worked with me not working,

(40:27):
so he thought, oh, is this what she is like
an actress out of work? Is this what she's like?
You know? I mean he came, he rocked up to
the house one time and I was laying in my
robe on the lawn. I was like, it just felt good.
But I browed that van to do the photo shoot
and you were driving. We wanted to do a show
called Getting My Van and we a mobile talk show.

(40:48):
It was fun. And my friend Rebecca Drake, who was
an amazing photographer, she was taking photos of us and
her husband is a member of the Silver Some Pickups
the band, and she loaned us the band van and
Kate was driving it and I was a driver. I
usually I have no problems. I drive everywhere. What was it.
You're like, hey, kitty, I remember he said, hey, kitty cat,
you're getting pretty close to the cars on the side.
You kept almost hitting every car and like, whoa, hey girl,

(41:11):
hey queen, like a loaned loaned van. Hey kitty, whoa,
whoa watch up for that mirror that you almost sucked out.
I had no idea. That was the beginning of me
understanding I couldn't drive cut two. And then even then
my assistants like, oh my god, Diva, she needs to
be to drive her. And then he got the car
with me. He's like, no, well, at a stoplight, maybe switched.

(41:32):
So I finally, you know, I went to see a
person that specializes in menopause, and because it took the
boxes for all that again even though I'd already been
through it, like this is weird. I remember being at
Hugoes with you and you, Jane, let's talk in You're like,
Jane and I just menopause. She was like, okay, how
did you know her? Had she already talked about it

(41:53):
or I don't know, but you were like, she looked girl. Yeah,
she was like okay, and you were like, it's this
this anxiety. So sexis nobody talks about it, and she
was like, okay, I'm just trying to get like a
very green castle roll like anyway, sorry I cut you off. Yeah,
you were talking to Jane Lynch about menopause and she
looked like, oh my god. Yeah. It was like I

(42:14):
felt like I felt like I was going crazy. And
then I really was like I started fantasizing about going
to the emergency room because I just didn't feel right
and I really was scared. It went from subtle to
a nosedive where I couldn't drive, I was having trouble
balancing walking, but also I just cognitively I couldn't function.
I couldn't order like uber eats. But all these things

(42:35):
were so subtle. Initially, I'm like, oh, it's like a
d D from machines or from you know, devices. Uh,
I can't finish my book. It's murakami. It's very dense.
Uh okay. And then I said to my boyfriend like
I just want to go to the emergency rooms, like
I just wish you'd get on meds. I'm like, I'm
not adverse to that. I just tell you. I'm tell
you there's something wrong. I don't feel good. I want

(42:56):
to get a scant. He's like, don't go. The emergency
room will be on t MS. So he got me
this great prominent neurologist at CEDARS. He got an appointment.
I went in and the guy was like, you're in menopause.
You're a woman of a certain age and actress. You're
not working. You know this is very common. I think
you're depressed. And he just slid across a prescription for

(43:19):
a very high dose of zoop which is an antidepressant.
And I was like, respectfully, I have a shrink WO
can prescribe and I'm not opposed to this, but I
just want to get I want to get an m R.
I want to get a SCAMP And he said why
what what do you think you're going to find? I said,
I don't know. Maybe there's so immacative degeneration. I don't know,
but I just want to get an m R. I

(43:39):
before I commit to a very high dosage of this.
And I should say that had I gone to my
GP whos female before, she would have ordered it up
straight away. After that, she was she was shocked and apaul.
But this guy was so resistant, so he finally capitulated
and wrote me the prescription and then it wasn't even urgent.
We did. I think it like a glade or something.

(44:00):
I went in, and in the night before I went in,
my boyfriend threw me a volleyball on the pool and
I fractured my pinky because I had no death reception.
I mean, I remember going to a premiere. I was
wearing flip flops. I couldn't balance. I was like, it
was a disaster, and so I went in for a
fraction pinky at a brain scan, and I remember saying
on the way there, I had Derek Congo to see

(44:21):
if they'll tell me anything, and I said, no, they
won't have to send the skins. Well, right after I
got out of the ride there like the radiologist wants
to see it, and I'm like, a great, I'm gonna
get some news. And then that's what I said, you know,
you have what looks to be the nine, but we
won't know until you get in there. I'm an engy
of a brain tumor and might have. And they showed
many scans of my brain stemps of the line, which

(44:41):
was like a parable. I was that like Kate texted
me a picture of this tumor. It was literally the
size of like not a McDonald timmer girl, like a
juicy homemade an enormous, like a whopper, Like it was
like a like a huge hamburger. It was big. It
was a big. It was like a lemon. It was
a leomon, but it was a little over five centators.

(45:02):
And I should say right before this, I started getting
shooting Payton's in my eye, um my left eye, which
is where it was. Then three days later they took
it out. It started on you know, steroids and anti
Caesar and education, and I was very lucky that it
hadn't gotten to the point where I had seizures. So yeah,
and then they took it out and thank god, it
was all right. It was, but I we didn't know

(45:23):
until they got in there if they would get the
whole thing out, if it was able, what it would be.
But it was great to feel very, very, very lucky
because there was a person that I knew that had
not been I'm in the gem and he died eighteen
months later. So you do feel it's cliche. It's all
the cliches. You're like, Okay, if I come out of
this and to make some changes in my life, and
I did, I had no idea how common it is

(45:47):
for women to go to the doctor and to be
told that what they have wrong with them is stress.
And it goes back to hysteria apparently, you know when
women were diagnosed as hysterics. So thank you for sharing
your story. My mom who her mom had polio and
so she sort of gave up on medical science where
she was raised kind of Christian scientists, Like she just

(46:09):
make us go swimming in the ocean. I mean, I
went to doctors, but if we were going to the
doctor growing up, something was really wrong. And my mom
before she died, she kept going to the doctor to
get X raised and she was like something was wrong
with her shoulder in her arm, and she was icing
it and like died of suddenly of like a massive
heart attack, like three weeks later. And the nurses in

(46:31):
our family afterwards, like the female nurses were like, Oh,
that's the sign for women. It's in your shoulder and
your neck, Like that's how women present. That's very true
that women heart disease presents in so many different ways.
That's actually something that I'm interested in my own for
my own health, Like wait, I think I gotta get
it at you. I want to make sure because it

(46:52):
is so radically different for women. My dad was always
they were always injecting the ink die in his vein,
like not saying her outcome would have been any different,
but maybe if they'd seen it, if there was a
clogged something. I mean, who knows. My brother is obsessed
with it. I'm kind of an acceptance that this is
how it went down, But my brother was very If

(47:14):
this is a known thing, why didn't anybody ask for
more tests? Anna our producer here, She was saying that
she really has learned how to be an advocate for
herself when you go to the doctor. Anna, right. I
mean that also stems from my mom too, who is
an Iranian immigrant and she's a very strong woman. But

(47:34):
I think people when they hear her accent kind of
dismiss her, not realizing that she's, you know, an engineer. Yeah,
she's an engineer. She knows what's up. And so she
would always say, if they say no, tell them to
write it down that they specifically that doctor said no,
because she says, if you make them be accountable for
if anything happens later on. And they were the ones

(47:56):
that say, basically, it's like all right, well, put your
money where your mouth is. If you're telling me that
I'm this whatever I'm feeling is like in my head
or like whatever stress related anxiety, whatever I'm making it
up because I'm you know, a hysterical woman or whatever,
then write it down so we know. And she would
always help me do that, because you know, it's even

(48:16):
worse with people of color. They really dismiss people of color.
It's interesting that you say because your mom's accent too.
It's like really interesting that it was just so basic
and terrible, just like you must be not intelligent. It
might be really stupid because you get that accent. Huh yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
You're right with women of color, people of color, it's

(48:38):
it's really but I think also it brings about the
issue in our culture. We're socialized to believe that lawyers
and doctors because every parent was like probably a lawyer,
to doctor, their experts and their gods and they know.
And even when you do in medical show like we
did you know, Julie, I like the graze or whatever,
the neurosurgeons and say, oh, they think they're gods. Are

(49:01):
heart surgeons with these Really there's a god complex there
and what I used to do too, even before the
brain tumor and all that. But when I was because
I went through early menopause. When I was having I
found out very suddenly and was quick trying to go
to a fertility doctor. And I never really went to
the doctor either. I just was like, more, you know,
I'll go to acupuncture, do that. But I would bring

(49:23):
a friend with me because I leave my body when
I go to the doctor, I get nervous, I get scared.
I'm like and even now when I go to get
scans for my you know, follow up scans, I bring
someone with me because I think we all think we're adults,
we should be able to handle this. Like I'm an
adult person or mother. I've got all these kids, I
run a business. I should be able to go to
the doctor by myself. I just always like strength in numbers, support, support, support,

(49:48):
So literally remember going to fertility doctor in l A.
And I brought my friend Karin with me, and she
with her little Yorkie and we were just like these
two women that rocked up, like I'm like, you asked
the question, because I forget I sit there and I'm
like her, I just leave my body. I just dissociate
because it's stressful. I think that's so easier to advocate

(50:08):
sometimes there's somebody else and not yourself, Like I could
go ask questions for you. Probably then I could ask
for me. And you want to get answers right, there's
no way and you can write it all down. But
I still think it's nice to have. I have a friend.
This is the this is the theme of this podcast.
It's really great advice. Oh good, I'm glad. We have

(50:29):
to ask a question. We have a question that we
ask everybody. I'm gonna let my friend, miss Julianna ask you. Okay,
what would you say to your young self looking back
on that child? What advice would you give that child? Now,
in fact, it can be any age. It could be fourteen,
it'd be eight, whatever, Like young Kate. What does young

(50:51):
Kate need to know? Oh boy, that's like major. Well,
there's so many things, but I think that I would
say to young Kate that you're loved and that don't worry.
Worrying is a waste of time. Everything always is okay,
it's gonna be okay, it is okay, everything always works out,
So don't worry. That's what I would say, don't worry.

(51:13):
You got this girl. As much as you work hard,
you really do dive into life and you're so curious.
You travel the world and your loyal friend. You really
have a community around you into curiosity, and you really
appear to have a nice work life balance. And I
just I'm very grateful for you. I just love you
so much. I think you're doing great, and I'm so

(51:36):
thankful that you did this podcast with us. Thank you,
thank you. Just what a delight. It's so nice to
chat with you ladies women. Thank you. I enjoy you. Anna,
you look great. I must say thank you. Oh my god.
Can I just say I'm so happy to talk to you.
What a delight. Thank you. Where can people find you,
Miss Kate? Oh? At www? I think it's Kate Walsh

(51:58):
dot com. I'm not certain. Or on Instagram it's Kate
Walsh and get her boyfriend have boyfriend? Boyfriend pervume? Yeah,
boyfriend perfume dot com. Well, Kate, we love you. Follow her,
you can follow us. I'm Arta Marine m y r
I and Julianne is Julianne Robinson director. I think yes,
that's correct, Anna Dr Banana. Where can people find you.

(52:21):
I'm just at Anna and you can email us at
Lady Road Podcast at gmail dot com. And you, guys,
what a delight. Thank you so much for joining us
for another episode of Lady of the Road. Have a
good time and advocate for yourselves. Go for it, Buddy's System,
go dream big, ladies, and Jent's everybody goodbye, bye bye.