July 18, 2023 • 50 mins
On this week's episode, Rosie catches up with her dear friend and 'little sister,' Kristin Chenoweth. In 1999, after Rosie saw Kristin in the Broadway show, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, in the role of Sally, Rosie predicted she was going to be a "huge huge huge star." And as we now know, Rosie was correct. But what neither of them realized back when Kristin first came on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, was that that was the beginning of a longstanding friendship, which later led them to become each other's chosen family. After not seeing each other for a while, listen in as Rosie and Kristin catch up in only the way sisters do, sharing updates on their personal lives, as well as how they're adjusting to the world at large.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey, everybody, it's me Rosie o'donald. How are you. It's summer,
It's summer. I'm very excited that summer's here. Although one
thing I'm sick of is the TikTok song Ooha Caribu.
You know that one. Can't get it out of my mind,
and you know, it's like a pachinko machine in my mind.
(00:33):
They all drop at the same time. Between that and
I am your mother, listen to me. I love that song,
Megan Trainer. I think I might do that as my
mother son dance for Blake when he gets married next year.
But anyway, I had a big outing with Dakota, who
(00:54):
is in her kind of isolating phase. A lot of
the people I work with to help her with her
autism have told me that this happens when they're preteens. Now,
you know, she's ten, but she's acting preteeny and kind
of isolating.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
She is obsessed with drawing, and that's a great thing.
So she's mostly been staying by herself and drawing, but
at the end of the day she has some elaborate
digital picture that she made. But since the summer started,
she's really been reticent to go outside like, she doesn't
want to go in the pool, she doesn't really want
to go on the trampoline, and I'm kind of worried
(01:35):
about her. So I had these season tickets I bought
for the Angel City soccer games, and we haven't been
to any because every time I asked, she says no.
So I made a deal with my friend Carolyn that
we were going to pick her up and her daughter, Gigi,
and we were going to go watch this game. And
Dakota loves Gigi. Normally, Gigi's five years younger than her,
(01:55):
but they get along like a house on fire. And well,
she did not want to go at all. She didn't cry,
but she was very adamant in the car and angry
and upset, saying things like I don't know why you
would even buy these stupid tickets. And I was like, well, there,
it's a girls team. And you know, when I was
a girl, I didn't get to play soccer because it
(02:16):
wasn't for girls and boys yet. And she's like, I
am not a girl and I am not a boy.
Why are you going to listen to that. I'm like, honey,
I am listening to that, and I am doing my
very very best you know, but she was not happy
and any way I approached it, she was not happy.
But I will give her credit because I made sure
(02:38):
to charge the headphones. We brought the headphones. She had
it plugged into her computer and she drew the whole time. Now,
there were three times she paid attention when we got food,
so we had French fries for them. They ate the
French fries. They had popcorn, which they loved, and they
had a bomb pop so they were very excited about
(03:01):
the bob pop. And you know, but I will tell
you this. In the car on the way home, they
said to me, this is the very last time I'm
doing it. And I only did that for you. I
was like, well, thank you very much, because I'm a
little concerned at how much you don't want to do anything. Honey.
Honey is still okay? You know. Part of the issue
(03:23):
with a child who is non binary and really is
interested in expressing themselves as they them And every time
I have so many little things I say like hey,
baby girl, and she like looks at me and I'm like, hey,
baby human. You know, like every single thing I say,
I have to sort of change. And when you're sixty one,
(03:45):
it's hard, you know, it's hard, and it's really affecting
our So we have an appointment right after our animation camp,
which we're going to next week. Right after animation camp,
we're going to talk to a new time talking doctor
and hopefully she will help us figure out exactly how
we can help each other. Dakota and I parenting boy,
(04:09):
it never ends, especially if you keep adopting babies. Like
I don't have a lot of friends to call who
are sixty one who can talk to me about their
ten year old child in distress. But there you go
on the wholes. They are doing very well, but this
isolating thing it worries me. I know people talk about
(04:31):
regression with their autistic children, but it's usually they have
a few words and then they kind of regress and
go back to nonverbal. But I don't think that that's
what's happening. But I do think emotionally, something big is
going on for them, and like any parent, you just
want to be there and provide a safe haven and
(04:54):
orfer some understanding. You know, well, my guest today is
one of my very close friends and I love her
so much. I first saw her on Broadway, and you're
a good man. Charlie Brown. I could not keep my
eyes off of her. She is as kind and nice
and loving as she appears. There's no act with her.
What you see is what you get. She is the
(05:15):
real deal. And I love her family, and I love
her love for her family and her love of everything
musical and entertainment. And her voice is like one in
a billion. And she is cuter than any human should
be allowed to be. She's my good friend. And here
she is Kristin Chenow with There she is Kristin Cheno
(05:49):
with Hello.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
You, Hi, I miss you.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
You know you're like a little pot of gold. Kristin
Jennow with I always say that you are like the
reason that people shouldn't always try meds before they've tried
every single thing you've ever done, Like watch every performance,
go to the Broadway, watch you and then you know,
Charlie Brown, watch you all the way through everything you've
(06:14):
ever done. And you know, I saw the most beautiful
photograph of you at Carol Burnett's eightieth birthday with Julie Andrews,
and I just looked and I thought, she's always gonna
feel I know her that she's not one of them.
But she is. You are one of them, and I
know you're one of those people that will never believe it,
(06:36):
but you certainly are. Kristen Jenny with you are spectacular
in the same unique and absolutely transcendent way that they are.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Thank you, I feel you know, it's so funny. I
was just talking about this there that night with Bernadette.
I was saying, I just feel like and I don't
know if you saw the article that Gollie Han did.
I think it was Variety?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Oh no, I didn't.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
She was talking about the death of the movie star, yes,
and like the real movie star. And though we have
beautiful movie stars today and they're amazing, I kind of
feel like there's the death of that kind in my
lane with music, theater, and with your lane with comedians, yes,
an actor like you know you look at Oh, there's
(07:22):
so many.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I'm just hearing it. Ruth Buzzy comes to name.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
But you look at certain you know, Gene Waller, you
look at all these comedians of a certain time, and
I feel like you and I don't know, I hope
this doesn't sound arrogant at all, Like you and like
me are kind of like the tail end of that.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I totally agree, because we really had these meteoric figures
in our world and a time when there was an
access to see you, like I sometimes hear kids, and
I count Ariana Grande in this. I see Ariana Grande
and I see her saying, and I go, this has
(08:01):
only happened because she got to see you do popular
and defying gravity. And she watched since she was born
Barbara streisand sing, and she like these kids, we didn't.
If I wanted to see Funny Girl, I had to
wait a full year until it was on the four
to thirty movie. Of course. Same that's the only time
(08:23):
you got to see a movie again, or even to
see the repeat of a show that only aired once.
And then you saw the repeat and then it was
just gone into the void.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And we talked about it and like it was days
gone by, but it was just it was over and
then faded into space. Yeah, and now they get that opportunity,
and I'm glad. I was getting my hair done for
that night. Actually I wasn't sorry. Josh was getting his
haircut and the lady goes, what are you here for?
And he said, only my girlfriend's singing at this thing.
(08:55):
And he said it's for Carol Hernette and lady goes,
I know her.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Mm oh it pains me.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So it really isn't What do they say, Rosie? It
goes like, who's that girl?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
How's it going?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
He goes, who's that girl? Get me Kristin Chenna with
get me a Christian Jennow with type, who's Kristin Chenna with?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Not?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
It really is true, isn't it? It really is? And
you know the greatest line I ever heard about it
was Carrie Fisher saying, we're all just waiting for obscurity.
You know, we're all of us, you know, no matter
who you are, and that it happens. And you know,
I remember when my kids noticed a real significant difference.
We were at like a football game or something, and
(09:38):
all the celebrities were sort of in one area, you know,
like where the free food and stuff was, and my
son started teasing me, going, looking, nobody's coming over to you.
Look at they're going over to so and so, and
they're going over to but no one's going to you, Bob.
And I was like, well, I deserved that, I guess
for all the times that they did coming into fear
(09:59):
in your life. But you're right, Mommy is not known
in the way she was. And you know what, that's okay,
it's okay too.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
But see, but Rosie, there's also the fact of you are.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
But is it just that there's so much new coming up?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Is that there's new coming up and there's talent that
you can see on the voice, there's talent that you
can see. And these kids who were seeing have had
the ability to ingest nothing but the best art in
the business for their entire career. There would never have
been an Ariana Grande if there hadn't been you, if
(10:40):
there hadn't been Barbara, because you were the one that
she wanted to model her whole life after being in musicals.
You were it for her. You were the Bernadette Peters
for older generation.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Right, and that was my Bernadette. Correct, Yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
It has gone fast, don't you think, honey, it's gone fast.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
When you plucked me out and I was what twenty
seven maybe, and you were a baby yourself, right, even
though like you were all of our big sisters, but
mine especially, I felt because you have the ability to
make everybody feel that way. I never thought I just
thought it would remain like that forever right, and it's
(11:23):
also okay that it isn't.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
It's okay.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And I think maybe that's part about getting older too,
that I go as long as I continue to get
to do what I love, right, I don't need to
be it's okay. Like I remember Annie Potts we were
doing GCB, that TV show. Yes, I was asking Annie
all the stories and everything I could get from her,
like I was the one on the cast that want
to know everything that Annie Potts had offer. And the
(11:48):
four main girls had to stay for our photo shoot
and Annie didn't have to do And I go, no,
Annie Pott should be in our photo and she said, no, no,
it's time for the young y'all take it over. I'm
going to go home in my pond chain boat roast
some chicken. Yes, yeah, and I never interpret Now I'm
doing that.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yes, me too, honey, me too. When you know, it's
so funny because I wouldn't have thought that at sixty
one this is what my life would look like. But
I'm so happy that it does. You know, I'm so
happy to make a choice to do a podcast because
quality of life matters a lot more when you're sixty one,
(12:30):
you know, I did a series last year and it
was done during COVID, so it took more like two years,
and you know, and then it was long hours. It's hard,
you know, And I'm not saying that to people who
work in a factory. I get it, I get it,
but I'm just telling you it's a lot of time
away from your little ten year old autistic angel. You know.
It's it's a lot of time away from where I
(12:53):
feel that I'm needed. And I also feel like, what
am I trying to prove anymore, you know, right, trying
to prove you funny, trying to prove you're smart? What
am I right? Right?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Well? Youston also like I feel like and I know
that you are this way too. Of course I still
care what people think. Yes, I always have a little
bit of that in me, but I've sort of graduated
from caring so much. And also, like about three or
four months ago, I crashed and burned because the schedule
was so overbooked. Because you know, we've talked about it before.
(13:25):
It's not just the television career or the Broadway or
the concert. It's a lot of different jobs I do, right,
So the work life balance of which you speak with
Dakota and your kids and the life responsibilities is now
what I'm wanting for myself for twenty twenty three and beyond,
which is the stuff that doesn't matter that you do,
(13:46):
that's you know, just do this stuff you love.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
My friends have stood by for thirty years, like we understand.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I don't want to do that any Yeah, I totally
get it, honey. And I think that as we age,
things come into focus and we drop what we no
longer need or use. And if you're lucky enough to
be in a position where you don't have to you know,
which most people are not in that position. But if
you are lucky enough and you can get to choose that,
(14:15):
I think it's the biggest thing you've ever earned for yourself,
you know for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And that's a new way for me to start to think.
You can see I'm getting emotional. It's because I just
love you so much. You know, I love you so much.
You really are like my little tiny sister soulmate. Because
I get you, babe, and I love you, and I
love your parents. I love your family. I love what
you do for the kids over the summer with your
(14:41):
Broadway training camp. I mean, I just think you're the
real deal, Kristin Chen with then you always have been. Well,
I learned by watching the Greatest and that is for sure,
you you know, watching Carol, watching Bernadette, and then of
course watching you juggle fifteen different kinds of careers. Because
people forget, oh she's not a talk show host. She's
(15:03):
also a remember an actor. Oh and she does stand
up comedy. And by the way, she is also a host.
So it's just an interesting we've both been divided. Plus,
you are a mother. Let's not forget you're a mother.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Five times over five times.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
You know you're a mother. You have huge responsibilities. And
with this camp and everything that I'm trying to do,
I not a mother, but I choose that that's kind
of where my children are.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And totally I totally get that. I have a school,
as you know, in New York as well, and every
time I get to go there and see the kids
and what they're doing, I feel like they are all
my kids too. Hey, we got more to come, so
don't go away. Tell everybody listening what you do with
(16:07):
this camp. And it's in Oklahoma right where you're from.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It's my hometown of Broken Or Oklahoma, that's outside Tulsa, right,
And we didn't ever have a performing arts center. And
about fifteen years ago somebody died and gave a lot
of money for a building.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I'm so glad they did.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And they wanted to name the theater after me, and
I thought I was too young, and they said, no,
you're not too young. You're actually I like, no, and
they said yeah. So my dad said, you know, what
are you going to do to make your legacy?
Speaker 3 (16:39):
What do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
And I said, well, I'll play there and I'll write
my friends to come play there. I'll have Broadway shows
come through. And he said, no, what else? So I
thought of the Broadway boot Camp. And I know part
of that was inspired by what you do with the
Broadway kids, right. That was a definite correlation to what
I saw you doing there, and I wanted to do
it for my home state. And what ended up happening
(16:59):
is the last year was our ninth year, and through COVID,
I hired Manhattan transfers, best technical people to do it virtually,
and we had kids from all over the world were
able to come this way. And so last year I
said I can't go backwards now that it's open to
everybody from London.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
To rustl How beautiful.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, And so they came. We had an over four
thousand kids audition. We could only pick one hundred, and
we did thirteen to fifteen one week and sixteen to
eighteen another week. And what I did was I hired
Kenny Ortega. I love him too. He loves you too,
nice nice man, oh yeah, and so talented and loves
(17:42):
young talent like you and I do. And he came
in and directed it, and Monarch Entertainment Producing Company decided
to film it, and we are in the final stages
of editing and next week we will be taking it
out to pitch for. It's called thirteen We met in
a documentary. I forgot to say that.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
That's okay, that's okay. You made a documentary about the camp.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah, And it's called thirteen hundred Miles to Broadway because
it's thirteen hundred miles from Broken Air to Broadway. And
it's very very good. It's like nothing I've seen. It's
all of our friends coming in to teach Rosie singing,
acting and dancing acting for film and television. We've added singing,
songwriting and at improv. Next summer, which I'd love to
(18:25):
actually get you. You've come in and zoomed with us
and the kids freak out. My dream is to eventually
have a school, an after school program for my home state,
for free, where kids can come and study and play
and learn graphic arts.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
And it's so needed, it so needed. We had all that.
We had musicals every year in my high school were
it was a big thing. Who auditioned and the weekend
of the show was so exciting and we got each
other little flowers, and you know, it was what we
imagined we were going to have in our careers on Broadway.
And I can't even begin to think how many kids'
(19:04):
lives you change with doing that, honey.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Well, just like you, I mean, and to see, okay,
see the transition, to see somebody who doesn't feel like
they fit to find their troop. Yes, and it's competitive,
it's you know, I'm gonna be honest, it's not a
participation group award camp. But there's lots of life skills
that they learned to while they're there. There's lots of
time for team building, lots of talk about grace with theirselves,
(19:29):
with each other. We were able to finally capture that
all on film, and I'm so excited to be able
to present it to a very select few studios to
see what they think if it's something that they can see.
I've been enjoying what's the thing on? I don't know
if it's PBS, but Ron Howard and Brian Glazer did
a thing about the Young Ballet Group.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yes, yes, beautiful. I don't remember the name of it.
We could find it either. Yeah, because that's what happens now.
I watch Jeopardy, I go oh, oh, oh, oh shit,
the buzzers that I can't my brain does not work.
People are like, you should host this or that. I go,
I have news for you that Rosie O'Donnell used to
talk so fast, and really she's gone, she's taking a nap.
(20:09):
I don't know what's happening.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
What's happening.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I think I'm gonna have to start taking baiter blockers.
The other day, I was like, the thing, you know,
the thing. It's a calculator, calculatory numbers.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
So press it. You know, it's a small thing. Yeah,
that's what I do. It's not good, you know. I
don't want to say I told you so, But for
a long time, I've been telling you this. I look
on your Instagram and your stuff, and I go, she's
going on tour again. She's doing her concerts night after
night after night. And then I read, of course, I'm
(20:39):
so the Queen of Versailles. That is gonna be Steven Schwartz.
Of course he's from Wicked, but that's not I think
of him as Pippin right away. But of course, yes,
he's a genius, that guy and you guys work together
so well in Wicked, and that you're going to be
playing that crazy ass woman who bought that big ass
house and then it all fell apart and she had
(21:00):
dogs that pooped everywhere. Every member.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Oh yes, the Maltese is that were afraid they were
going to be eaten by alligators. You know. I looked
at the documentary Rosie, and I thought, is this a
story that we want to tell? I just wanted to know,
because then I looked at her really hard, and what's
lovely about her? There's a more innocent look. We talk
(21:22):
about entitlement a lot, right, right, and not everything is
bad when you say entitlement. And I I'm being very
careful here because I have champagne problems too, now. Of
course I didn't grow up that way, nor did I,
but we know now, and I wanted to have a
more innocent look at the entitlement. She's actually incredibly smart,
(21:48):
and I think she kind of has her heart here.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
But she's also an engineer.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And she build his house, you know, David, her husband,
She builds his house and they lose everything, and what
that looks like in America and then how do they
build that back up?
Speaker 1 (22:07):
And what does at what costs? Right?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
And I think it's very timely given.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Totally is the gross excess of our culture and the
you know, people like the Kardashians, who I'm sure are
lovely individually, however, as a family unit, I think they
do damage to women by teaching children that you need
to cut your face up in order to look perfect enough,
or add ass to your ass. You know, it just
(22:33):
is so silly to me, and I don't understand why
they're so admired, and you know, people like we're saying
to me, oh, well, they're billionaires.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
But Rosie, I think if we're talking about this kind
of culture, that's what it is. Where are the mothers?
But my mother was in my business. Yes, all the
dang time my mother was in my business. Fame is
such a it can be like evil thing that tangles
(23:01):
you in and then it can spew you out. And
what I want to tell everybody is it's great, famous,
wonderful at first, but then it's it can spew you
out as fast as you got taken in, and then
what do you have? So what I will say is
people that turn it around and make businesses out of it,
that's great too. But if we're just led on how
we look, yes, then what happens when we don't look
(23:25):
like that exactly? I mean, I'm a botoxies. You're sure,
but I know that one day it won't be. And
I mean I'm I've aged and I'm okay with it.
I'm okay with it. Every day I think I can't
feel my feet, that's okay, the bottoms of my feet
and these heels are killing me.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
What's that?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Why does my lower back hurt? I've never had that.
Why can't I see anything?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Right? You know, just anything anything? How about when you're
in the shower and you don't know if it's the
conditioner or the shampoo because you can't read it. Oh
my gosh.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Every hotel, I go in, here's me, I get it up.
I'm like looking at it no, no matter how, and swinny.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, it's all mush, It's all mush. I just I'm
scared that.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Our need for perfection, and I include myself in this
because I'm a perfectionist. Our need perfection, We're going to
shoot ourselves in the fit for it. And we're seeing
evidence of that that suicide rates have never been higher,
the drug use for teens, especially with adderall and xanax,
that all of this stuff has never been higher because
needing to be perfect. It's almost like when they go
(24:30):
into college. It's like here, you get your books, you
get your dorm, and you get your doctor's prescription of
adderall so you can think and see. I think I
would have fallen prey to that if I were going
into school. It's just scary. I think it's scary times
and I want. I love the phone and I love
the Internet, but it's also scary because immediately to my
younger friends were like, what's wrong, what I do?
Speaker 1 (24:52):
I'm nothing exactly exactly the immediacy of it. I remember
Kelly's brother and his wife had the very first walkie
talkie cell phones. So we'd be eating dinner and she'd
be out with the kids somewhere and it'd be like, JJ,
I'm coming home and dream it. But I'm like, who
(25:13):
would want to live with that? Well, guess what, We're
all living with it. We're all living in it. And
everybody's like, oh, the kids are addicted. No, so are
the parents. Everybody's addicted to the phone.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
We sit down and dinner, we have you know, my
brother's wife, all of us, my mom, everybody's right, even
us and my dad' said can we just put on
phones down for one minute.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
While we eat? It's scary, Leary. It's a whole different
world than when we grew up.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
You know, even twenty years ago, Rosie, even when your
show was on, right, I don't even know how you
found surprise guests.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And I mean, I guess the internet was.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
I don't know it was.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
It wasn't.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
No.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
In fact, AOL had just launched, and I kept telling
the Water Brothers people, we have to incorporate these and
they did a study that showed only you know, thirty
percent of homes had come well in the next two years.
It was like quadruple that, right, and Uh, they just
didn't know how to merge the two. And I think
that's what we're coming to with these smaller delivery platforms,
(26:12):
with not using the most expensive set pieces that you can. Like,
you know, even when they redo a show, they make
it too big, they make it like you know, password, no, no, no.
It was a tiny little show with Bettie White and
her husband and it was all inside, quippy, little smart.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
It was just a different time and I miss it,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I don't know, girl, I'm trying to be woke and
considerate and learn like everybody, like I don't want to
offend people. Of course, not be patient with me. I
was told the other day one of my young friends,
I'm just Josh and you, I said, and they said, no,
you know, you can't say that anymore.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I was like, why not?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Because people named Josh might get.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Trigger Oh my god, we can't live in this world.
How can we live in this world?
Speaker 3 (27:04):
It's Rosie.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Here's one that'll that'll let you'll die. So if you
acquire and I work with priors a lot, I have
them come up on stage with me and.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Sing with me beautiful, yes, thank you well.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Soprano alto tarent base is no longer you have to
say higher voices, wow, lower voices. And I'm like, well,
what if you're a higher voice, but you're an alto,
so the lower of the high voices, because somebody might
be triggered because they don't identify as a certain vocal
type wars.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well, that's the overly dramatic actors and actresses we're working with,
I think. But yeah, it's it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And we you and I are, like I said, right
in that cusp, right, and we just start to do
our best. And but with cancelations happening every day, I'm
not so worried about being canceled.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
I just don't want to hurt anybody.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Honey, I'm smart. My reactions are this. Yeah. But if
if you do hurt someone and you find out about it,
I know what you do. You make amends, You apologize,
you try to make it right. You know, that's what
you do. And that's that's all you can do, is
is try your best and be as open hearted and
let them know that your intent is inclusivity, you know,
(28:14):
and respect, right, respect, Yeah, because we are both learning,
you know, we learn as we go on, and and
that's the best you could do. And you know it's
funny when I'm on the set now, Kristen's probably not
happening to you, but yet. But like on The l Word,
I was the oldest actress there, and I feel a
little like Angela Lansbury did, where all of us would
(28:36):
gather around Angela Lansbury at tony rehearsals and just try
to hear her say anything to us. Right, And now
I'm the Angela Lansbury and all these young variations of
queer kids coming up to me asking me questions and
you know, saying do you have any gay kids? I'm
like no, but I tried. I took them to Broadway.
I gave them Barbara and Bete Medler at Kristin Shadow.
(28:59):
With that, none of us came through his cake. Well,
I'm there, I'm there, I've gotten now.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
I used to be.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Called hello cutie, two, Hello lady, and now I'm hello dear.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Yes, well you're not where I am. What, ma'am do
you think you're able to climb up the stairs before
we go to the Delta lounge? Ma'am do you think
you can climb up the stairs? I was like, yes,
I can, No, I want to tell you by the
top of those stairs. I was a little huffing and puffin,
(29:35):
but I wasn't gonna let that guy know that. You
know what I mean? Of course, yeah, of course.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Of course no.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
I yeah, I've had people men like on set sex. Here, Kristen,
here's a box you can sit on. Why you wait, I'm.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Do I look tired?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah, yeah, it's happening. It's happening. Honey. Wait, I'm a
bunch of years aheadiest sweetheart, and I'm telling you it's
a interesting But here's the thing. I love getting older.
I love that I lived so much longer than my
mom ever had the chance to. I love that I'm
getting to raise my children. And you know, Blakey's getting
(30:13):
married and yes, can you believe? And you hear where
he got engaged in Phantom. He invited me and her
mother to go to Phantom with him, and then before
the show started, he got down on one knee and
I was like overwhelmed with emotion, and I thought, God,
my mother never lived to see this. You know, my
(30:34):
mother never saw one of her kids get married. And
here we are waiting on the wedding. You know, it
was wild. Kristen I was. You know, the most times
I ever missed my mother was when my first child
arrived and was placed in my arms and I was like,
oh my god, this is And then when Blakeie got engaged,
(30:55):
I couldn't stop crying. The whole time during Phantom, I couldn't.
I just kept thinking, this little boy who didn't talk
really till he was five, this little boy, this little
outdoorsy man.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I remember when you got it. I remember and when
he came to this world. And I never thought we'd
be staying here having a conversation about him getting married exactly.
And I'm I'm so happy because you see, just like
in Still Magnolias and all the things that we've heard,
the circle goes on, right, And you know, you know,
(31:26):
I believe in the hereafter, and so I believe that
your mom and I don't know if she ever shows
herself to you in certain ways, and I know she's here.
I know she's watching over that kid, all your kids, right,
And I've told you this before. I know that your
mom is proud of you, and I know that she
watches over her.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Children, right.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
I do believe that I believe that no no parent
is perfect. But she does that.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, and I think that as I get older, like
I think more about the afterlife than I did before. Right,
I never really thought of it. I thought, God, you die,
and that's it. And it's sad. Carol Burnett at her life.
She's about to be ninety, right, No, ninety years old,
Carol Burnett, Right, No, Well it's hard.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
She was just seventy exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
That's what I feel about Jane Fonda too. Jane Fonda is,
you know, talking about turning seventy. And I went down
to Atlanta for her party and now it's like her
eighty sixth birthday or something crazy, and I'm like, how
did this happen? You know?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
And also tell me if you're experiencing this, Like every
day I wake up, I get on the internet and
I say who passed away?
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I do too, because we're of that age. And it
breaks my heart. Yes, because when the ones who have died,
let's say in before ten years ago, like Whitney, you know,
such a sad tragedy. It's a tragedy, right, And when
someone dies like almost of natural causes, you go, wow.
(32:57):
Some people only get seventy two, and that's that was
their limit. That's right. That's what the average is. They say,
you know that men and.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
That's are going to live each day.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
To quote Lucy, use if it's the last day of
our life.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Right right, the time is now. I so agree, honey,
I so agree.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
Now.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Listen, the wedding was called off, but you're with the
boys still.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
It's so good.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
It's actually better, you know how. It was also when
I start looking at my wedding as a gig, not
a gig, but like I've got to fit.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
It in and yeah, no, no, there's no need to
do that, no, honey, No.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
So we worked out our day and we're definitely gonna
do it this year because we just you know, we're
gonna have a big We're gonna just do just our
family great. We want to keep it very and then
in New York we're going to have a big little
shindig for our friends, which includes you.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Well, good, well, I want you to know that you
are on Blake Christopher's list for his guests at his wedding,
just so you know you are. You are, and he
wanted to invite you and Gloria Estefan and I'm in
good company exactly. He's like, well, Mom, I've known Kristin
like my whole life. I'm like, well, that's true, you know.
(34:16):
And he's like and you know, yeah, and you remember
I would bring him sometimes and it would just be
when you were performing or we were doing something together,
I would bring him. And he always was such a gentleman,
such a little boy gentleman.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
I have a little special I'm not, you know, trying
to show favoritism, because all of your children are so special, Rosie,
but I do have a little special place in my
heart for him.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
How can I not. We've spent the most time together exactly. Yes.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
I remember one time we were together. I don't know
where we were. We were in a dressing room and
he was little, I mean young, yeah, and he was
just looking at me and he said, you're really you're
really pretty.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
And my whole life now this is just yes, I'm
probably gonna get in trouble for this. My whole life,
I've been like, never pretty. I'm always the cute and
a little snuggle muffin and all that, and I love that.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
But when he looked at me and such with such innocence,
and so I just gave him the biggest time, I
was like, I love you, Lake. I don't know this thing.
We've just always had this thing. So I will be
there with bells on because I've seen him grow up.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Yes, isn't it amazing? It's amazing to me. My mom
when when he got engaged, she goes, guess what, She's
the one that told me about it.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Really, just now, would you and Josh ever get married
at a show?
Speaker 6 (35:36):
I said, no, whenever show. That's my life. No, exactly,
I understand that too. I so do now tell me
about schmigadoon.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, I'm happy about that, just like you with O word.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
We did Smigadoon in the height of the pandemic before vaccines, right,
and I'm a vexers, so I was kind of like, ugh,
do I want to go to Canada and do this
And it was really fun even though we were being
so safe and could hardly We stayed in our.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Own little pods, right, and I remember that.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah, we really minded the rules and I'm really glad
we did. And then we got to come back. I
don't know, was it not last summer? When did I
do it? I don't even know anymore? What year are
we in?
Speaker 1 (36:18):
We are in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
So we did this last year and now we're it's
all edited together and it's now we had season two,
but they're calling it Schmicago and this is a This
is a love letter to sixties and seventies musicals and
composers like Sondheim and Shorts, Wow, all the greats. And
I think it's totally different because the last one was
(36:42):
Golden Age era musicals, which I love of course me too, right,
And that role I played was a takeoff of while
she was just a bitty, just mean and hateful, I
had a I don't know, five minute number without any cuts,
and it was a Potter song like taken off from
We've Got Trouble of My Friends right Now.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
And now this part.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
What I love that single Paul our writer has done
is given all of us, people like me, an opportunity
to play different characters, very different characters from before. So
he's gathered a little troop like music theater. And I
think that's if there's not a show for me this,
then I'm nuts.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Then there's no reason for you to be in the
entertainment industry. This is your show. It's like a Cinderella
fit in the slipper. There you go. It fits, and
you know what else to it?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
If it's Allan's foot and Jane's foot and Dove's foot
and Cecily and Keagan, who are the heartbeat of our
show and so darling and funny.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Fun funny, so funny.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Oh God, Cecily and Keegan make me laugh so hard,
it's really hard. And Hi may Is and I mean
we have and Arianna and I mean there's I'm forgetting people.
But it's so special, Aaron Toavette. We have such a
great music theater love letter or what we do.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
And I love it.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Well, honey, you know what I can't get over how
wonderful all of the things that you do turn out.
You have a new book. I've read all your books,
and you have a new one that's called I'm no Philosopher,
but I've got thoughts, many meditations for saints, sinners and
the rest of us. What a great title. Thank you,
(38:24):
really wonderful. I love it. And you just sat down
and typed that out on your computer and there it was,
Yeah you know how, Yeah, that's how it works. Magic right, magic.
Speaker 6 (38:35):
No.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
During when the first shutdown happened, I had just lost
one of my very good best friends. I think I
talked to you about that before, and I didn't know what.
I was sort of like, I don't know what to
do with myself. And he called me, said, you want
to write another book my agent, and I said no,
because that was like having a book report view all
the time, right right, And he said, well, think about it,
like think about what you'd want it to be. So
(38:58):
I separately I was I'm a big journaler. I think
you are too, yes, And my journal journal journal, and
I started journaling heavy again and reading my old ones,
and I started writing separately, just separately, some stuff down
like almost another journal, and I thought, hey, this could
be except write you know, thoughts on love, thoughts on harmony, connection, loss,
(39:20):
hearsay all of it right, and thoughts on screwing up
all of it.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
And it kind of was born from my journal entries
oh great.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
And of course I used humor because that's a big
part of who I am. But I also allowed I
always think it was okay to allow people to see
that not everything is always as it seems. Now you
know me say you already know that it's not just
glitter and rainbows and unicorns, all the time and pink.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
And I know that people do think that of you,
that you're always happy and it's always you know, happy,
happy Kristen. But you know, like the rest of us,
you struggle with the challenges that some many of us have,
including me, you know, anxiety, depression. Those things are real
and they're serious and they matter.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
They do, and that it's okay to sort of let
that out of the bag that people see, because I
want people, especially my younger crowd audience, to know that
this is part of who I am too, and it's
okay if you have that. I really wanted to spread
that message, and so there's some pretty deep general interests
(40:27):
that I share so that people can see how the
darkness can happen, right and how I pull myself out
of it. And of course silly things like you know,
my mom always says, you know, you got to have
the patience of job, and you need to read job again.
So I go back and read Job and Joe bitched
his head off. Thank you very much, welcome. So we
talk a little bit about that kind of thing. But also,
(40:48):
just like you, I've seen you do this, like people
that inspire you, like mottos, they've had. There's one that
I keep going back to, and I list a lot
of them and why, and then maybe my version of
that motto, which like, there's one that says that you
remember Elizabeth Edwards.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Of course yes, since she got cancer and he had
an affair and it was a bad situation.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Not a good guy. I don't think sorry for judging him.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
But I judged him for that too. They'll go ahead, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Kind of judged him. And then she got a sick
and passed away. But she said the most beautiful thing,
Rosie and I have it. I got it in a
postcard and I framed it. I cut the card off
and I framed the think right. It says she stood
in the storm, and when the wind did not blow
her way, she adjusted her sales. And so for me
kind of every day. And by the way, it doesn't
(41:40):
have to be bad stuff. You can stand in the
storm of goodness, right, and whether you're gonna accept it,
what you're gonna do with it, how you're gonna handle it,
all those things, and when the wind does not blow
your way, adjust yourself, but still staying with who you are.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I love that so much.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
So there's a lot of there's a lot of just
musings and and also some of the meditations. There's thoughts
about vertigo sickness, and thoughts about an accident that I
had and how I pushed it down, pushed it down,
way down, and how it affected my life and how
I still have pain from it and anxiety. And it's
(42:15):
just a okay with me to share those parts of
who I am and hopefully done with humor as well.
So that's why I wrote the book, and it just
it's sort of formed. And so many nights, sleepless nights
during the shutdown, of course, sleepless nights, because I was thinking, right,
how are we in this position?
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Yes, how can we be here?
Speaker 2 (42:33):
How can another school shooting happen? Now it's so normal
that I just go, that's normal, that's sad, it's tragic.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
So I can get really depressed.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Me too, I know, I know, I know. So it's
that kind of book.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Well, I can't wait to get it. I'm going to
go take the little one to pick out our books
this weekend. Oh good listen, I love you so much,
thank you, and thank you people, and I love you. Goodbye,
I love you bye. Didn't you enjoy that we'll be
back with some questions from you the listener. Thank you,
(43:28):
Kristin Shallow, I love you so much. And now we
hear from you the listener. Let's see what we got
a couple questions lined up.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
Hit it Hi, Rosie, it's Tessa listening in all the
way from Amsterdam, Europe, hopefully the first one from Europe
to make it on the show.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Yay.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Thank you so much for making this podcast and being
such an inspiration. It's really the highlight of my week.
So thank you. I wanted to tell you that, and
it's just so such a feel good moment and so positive.
What I wanted to ask you is, I think it's
(44:12):
super inspiring that you adopted five children.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
I mean, wow, you deserve a medal for that.
Speaker 4 (44:20):
And I wanted to know if you always knew that
you wanted to adopt, or was there also a time
where you were in the process of getting pregnant or
wanting to having gone through to miscarriages myself. Yeah, I
was wondering how your journey was with that. So again,
(44:46):
thank you so much for all that you do, and yeah,
keep up the good word.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Thank you so much. All the way from Amsterdam, which
I can't wait to go visit one day for many reasons,
not just the plentiful marijuana. I can't wait to go
visit there, And thank you for your question. You know
I never wanted to give birth, isn't that odd? I
never did. I mean, I knew that I was gay
from the time I was about ten years old, and
(45:13):
I just never thought it was going to be part
of my journey. And also, I had a teacher named
Pat Maravell who became like a mom to me after
my mother died. My mother died, I was in fifth grade,
and I met this teacher in seventh grade and then
she sort of took me under her wing. And she
got pregnant and her husband was also a teacher, and
(45:35):
they had a baby, and then they had another baby,
and I said I would stay home and watch the
two year old while they were going to the hospital. Well,
I wasn't prepared for what I saw at sixteen years old.
It was terrifying to me, to tell you the God's
honest truth. But it's not like there was ever a
time in my life where I thought I want to
(45:56):
get pregnant and this is the time and I want
to experience that myself. I know so many of my
friends went through that, but I never went through it.
And I think because of this woman, Pat Maravell, I
knew that love made a family, not blood, you know.
And she was the first one who ever hugged me,
the first one who ever said I love you to me.
She was really formative and instrumental in my life. She
(46:19):
died of breast cancer and very sad. But I never
did go through fertility issues or fertility questioning. I just
knew because of her and her love for me and
how it changed my world that, you know, family is
defined by love and that's what makes a family, not
necessarily blood. So the five kids, some people say what
(46:43):
you said to me, You know you should be lauded
for doing that. You know, I am the lucky recipient
of another woman's generosity. And these kids are the reason
that my whole life has been meaningful. They make me
want to be better and do better and show up
more and help them along their journey. So you know,
(47:07):
it's like a mutual a mutual gift I think all around.
But good luck in your journey to become a parent.
I hope whichever way the child you're supposed to raise
finds you is the right way, and I hope you
get to experience it because it is by far the
greatest joy of living, if you ask me. Thank you
(47:30):
for that beautiful question, and we got one more. Here
we go, Hi, Rosie.
Speaker 5 (47:35):
I have been a big fan since I was an
elementary schooler watching your show after school and just really
loving it. And since I have listened to and basically
watched and read everything you've ever done, and I've always
just been interested in what you're up to. So I'm
loving this podcast. And a comment for you is that
(47:59):
I've never never heard you sounding so settled and centered,
and I don't know, you just seem to be in
a really good space, and I just wanted to say
that I'm noticing that, and I think it's really cool
to see. And I like that you said on your
(48:19):
podcast with Ross that life is a circle and you
come back to yourself. Are you coming back to yourself?
Something that I'm working on.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
To beautiful, beautiful question. Thank you so much. You know
what I think it is too. I think it's age,
you know. And I turned sixty something shifted and I'll
be sixty two this year, you know. And I was
born in sixty two. That makes it some special kind
of year for the person. But yes, I feel good.
(48:49):
You know, I worked very hard on my mental health
when I moved out here during the pandemic. I was very,
very depressed during the pandemic in New York, in New Jersey,
in a big house where nobody could come visit, and
it was Dakota and myself, and it became too big
and everything became too oppressive, and I knew I needed
the sun. So I came to LA and in the
(49:11):
last two and a half years that I've been here,
it's just been me working on me. And I have
a wonderful therapist that I've been with for a while,
and she's phenomenal and helps me see clearly and maybe
reframe some things that I need reframing with. So yes,
I thank you for noticing, first of all, and I
(49:34):
thank you also for wanting that to be for you too.
I want that for everyone. But you can't scream at
a flower to bloom, and you can't rush yourself to
a place where things settle. And I think you'll find
a lot of postmenopausal women, like myself, find that there's
a wisdom that comes with it there's something that replaces
(49:56):
where you were, and that's this new feeling grounded and
centered and safe and authentically myself. And I wish that
for everyone listening, and I thank you so much for
the beautiful question. I hope you enjoyed today's show, and
next week we'll be back talking with Daniel Rosen, doctor
(50:16):
Daniel Rosen, all about Manjaro weight loss and what one
can do to get started on being healthier in the
weight area. And it's all connected, you know, mind, body, spirit, health,
all of it. So listen for that. It's very interesting.
Thanks so much, see you next week.
Hey, everybody, it's me Rosie o'donald. How are you. It's summer,
It's summer. I'm very excited that summer's here. Although one
thing I'm sick of is the TikTok song Ooha Caribu.
You know that one. Can't get it out of my mind,
and you know, it's like a pachinko machine in my mind.
(00:33):
They all drop at the same time. Between that and
I am your mother, listen to me. I love that song,
Megan Trainer. I think I might do that as my
mother son dance for Blake when he gets married next year.
But anyway, I had a big outing with Dakota, who
(00:54):
is in her kind of isolating phase. A lot of
the people I work with to help her with her
autism have told me that this happens when they're preteens. Now,
you know, she's ten, but she's acting preteeny and kind
of isolating.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
She is obsessed with drawing, and that's a great thing.
So she's mostly been staying by herself and drawing, but
at the end of the day she has some elaborate
digital picture that she made. But since the summer started,
she's really been reticent to go outside like, she doesn't
want to go in the pool, she doesn't really want
to go on the trampoline, and I'm kind of worried
(01:35):
about her. So I had these season tickets I bought
for the Angel City soccer games, and we haven't been
to any because every time I asked, she says no.
So I made a deal with my friend Carolyn that
we were going to pick her up and her daughter, Gigi,
and we were going to go watch this game. And
Dakota loves Gigi. Normally, Gigi's five years younger than her,
(01:55):
but they get along like a house on fire. And well,
she did not want to go at all. She didn't cry,
but she was very adamant in the car and angry
and upset, saying things like I don't know why you
would even buy these stupid tickets. And I was like, well, there,
it's a girls team. And you know, when I was
a girl, I didn't get to play soccer because it
(02:16):
wasn't for girls and boys yet. And she's like, I
am not a girl and I am not a boy.
Why are you going to listen to that. I'm like, honey,
I am listening to that, and I am doing my
very very best you know, but she was not happy
and any way I approached it, she was not happy.
But I will give her credit because I made sure
(02:38):
to charge the headphones. We brought the headphones. She had
it plugged into her computer and she drew the whole time. Now,
there were three times she paid attention when we got food,
so we had French fries for them. They ate the
French fries. They had popcorn, which they loved, and they
had a bomb pop so they were very excited about
(03:01):
the bob pop. And you know, but I will tell
you this. In the car on the way home, they
said to me, this is the very last time I'm
doing it. And I only did that for you. I
was like, well, thank you very much, because I'm a
little concerned at how much you don't want to do anything. Honey.
Honey is still okay? You know. Part of the issue
(03:23):
with a child who is non binary and really is
interested in expressing themselves as they them And every time
I have so many little things I say like hey,
baby girl, and she like looks at me and I'm like, hey,
baby human. You know, like every single thing I say,
I have to sort of change. And when you're sixty one,
(03:45):
it's hard, you know, it's hard, and it's really affecting
our So we have an appointment right after our animation camp,
which we're going to next week. Right after animation camp,
we're going to talk to a new time talking doctor
and hopefully she will help us figure out exactly how
we can help each other. Dakota and I parenting boy,
(04:09):
it never ends, especially if you keep adopting babies. Like
I don't have a lot of friends to call who
are sixty one who can talk to me about their
ten year old child in distress. But there you go
on the wholes. They are doing very well, but this
isolating thing it worries me. I know people talk about
(04:31):
regression with their autistic children, but it's usually they have
a few words and then they kind of regress and
go back to nonverbal. But I don't think that that's
what's happening. But I do think emotionally, something big is
going on for them, and like any parent, you just
want to be there and provide a safe haven and
(04:54):
orfer some understanding. You know, well, my guest today is
one of my very close friends and I love her
so much. I first saw her on Broadway, and you're
a good man. Charlie Brown. I could not keep my
eyes off of her. She is as kind and nice
and loving as she appears. There's no act with her.
What you see is what you get. She is the
(05:15):
real deal. And I love her family, and I love
her love for her family and her love of everything
musical and entertainment. And her voice is like one in
a billion. And she is cuter than any human should
be allowed to be. She's my good friend. And here
she is Kristin Chenow with There she is Kristin Cheno
(05:49):
with Hello.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
You, Hi, I miss you.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
You know you're like a little pot of gold. Kristin
Jennow with I always say that you are like the
reason that people shouldn't always try meds before they've tried
every single thing you've ever done, Like watch every performance,
go to the Broadway, watch you and then you know,
Charlie Brown, watch you all the way through everything you've
(06:14):
ever done. And you know, I saw the most beautiful
photograph of you at Carol Burnett's eightieth birthday with Julie Andrews,
and I just looked and I thought, she's always gonna
feel I know her that she's not one of them.
But she is. You are one of them, and I
know you're one of those people that will never believe it,
(06:36):
but you certainly are. Kristen Jenny with you are spectacular
in the same unique and absolutely transcendent way that they are.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Thank you, I feel you know, it's so funny. I
was just talking about this there that night with Bernadette.
I was saying, I just feel like and I don't
know if you saw the article that Gollie Han did.
I think it was Variety?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Oh no, I didn't.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
She was talking about the death of the movie star, yes,
and like the real movie star. And though we have
beautiful movie stars today and they're amazing, I kind of
feel like there's the death of that kind in my
lane with music, theater, and with your lane with comedians, yes,
an actor like you know you look at Oh, there's
(07:22):
so many.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I'm just hearing it. Ruth Buzzy comes to name.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
But you look at certain you know, Gene Waller, you
look at all these comedians of a certain time, and
I feel like you and I don't know, I hope
this doesn't sound arrogant at all, Like you and like
me are kind of like the tail end of that.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I totally agree, because we really had these meteoric figures
in our world and a time when there was an
access to see you, like I sometimes hear kids, and
I count Ariana Grande in this. I see Ariana Grande
and I see her saying, and I go, this has
(08:01):
only happened because she got to see you do popular
and defying gravity. And she watched since she was born
Barbara streisand sing, and she like these kids, we didn't.
If I wanted to see Funny Girl, I had to
wait a full year until it was on the four
to thirty movie. Of course. Same that's the only time
(08:23):
you got to see a movie again, or even to
see the repeat of a show that only aired once.
And then you saw the repeat and then it was
just gone into the void.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And we talked about it and like it was days
gone by, but it was just it was over and
then faded into space. Yeah, and now they get that opportunity,
and I'm glad. I was getting my hair done for
that night. Actually I wasn't sorry. Josh was getting his
haircut and the lady goes, what are you here for?
And he said, only my girlfriend's singing at this thing.
(08:55):
And he said it's for Carol Hernette and lady goes,
I know her.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Mm oh it pains me.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So it really isn't What do they say, Rosie? It
goes like, who's that girl?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
How's it going?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
He goes, who's that girl? Get me Kristin Chenna with
get me a Christian Jennow with type, who's Kristin Chenna with?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Not?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
It really is true, isn't it? It really is? And
you know the greatest line I ever heard about it
was Carrie Fisher saying, we're all just waiting for obscurity.
You know, we're all of us, you know, no matter
who you are, and that it happens. And you know,
I remember when my kids noticed a real significant difference.
We were at like a football game or something, and
(09:38):
all the celebrities were sort of in one area, you know,
like where the free food and stuff was, and my
son started teasing me, going, looking, nobody's coming over to you.
Look at they're going over to so and so, and
they're going over to but no one's going to you, Bob.
And I was like, well, I deserved that, I guess
for all the times that they did coming into fear
(09:59):
in your life. But you're right, Mommy is not known
in the way she was. And you know what, that's okay,
it's okay too.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
But see, but Rosie, there's also the fact of you are.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
But is it just that there's so much new coming up?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Is that there's new coming up and there's talent that
you can see on the voice, there's talent that you
can see. And these kids who were seeing have had
the ability to ingest nothing but the best art in
the business for their entire career. There would never have
been an Ariana Grande if there hadn't been you, if
(10:40):
there hadn't been Barbara, because you were the one that
she wanted to model her whole life after being in musicals.
You were it for her. You were the Bernadette Peters
for older generation.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Right, and that was my Bernadette. Correct, Yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
It has gone fast, don't you think, honey, it's gone fast.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
When you plucked me out and I was what twenty
seven maybe, and you were a baby yourself, right, even
though like you were all of our big sisters, but
mine especially, I felt because you have the ability to
make everybody feel that way. I never thought I just
thought it would remain like that forever right, and it's
(11:23):
also okay that it isn't.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
It's okay.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And I think maybe that's part about getting older too,
that I go as long as I continue to get
to do what I love, right, I don't need to
be it's okay. Like I remember Annie Potts we were
doing GCB, that TV show. Yes, I was asking Annie
all the stories and everything I could get from her,
like I was the one on the cast that want
to know everything that Annie Potts had offer. And the
(11:48):
four main girls had to stay for our photo shoot
and Annie didn't have to do And I go, no,
Annie Pott should be in our photo and she said, no, no,
it's time for the young y'all take it over. I'm
going to go home in my pond chain boat roast
some chicken. Yes, yeah, and I never interpret Now I'm
doing that.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yes, me too, honey, me too. When you know, it's
so funny because I wouldn't have thought that at sixty
one this is what my life would look like. But
I'm so happy that it does. You know, I'm so
happy to make a choice to do a podcast because
quality of life matters a lot more when you're sixty one,
(12:30):
you know, I did a series last year and it
was done during COVID, so it took more like two years,
and you know, and then it was long hours. It's hard,
you know, And I'm not saying that to people who
work in a factory. I get it, I get it,
but I'm just telling you it's a lot of time
away from your little ten year old autistic angel. You know.
It's it's a lot of time away from where I
(12:53):
feel that I'm needed. And I also feel like, what
am I trying to prove anymore, you know, right, trying
to prove you funny, trying to prove you're smart? What
am I right? Right?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Well? Youston also like I feel like and I know
that you are this way too. Of course I still
care what people think. Yes, I always have a little
bit of that in me, but I've sort of graduated
from caring so much. And also, like about three or
four months ago, I crashed and burned because the schedule
was so overbooked. Because you know, we've talked about it before.
(13:25):
It's not just the television career or the Broadway or
the concert. It's a lot of different jobs I do, right,
So the work life balance of which you speak with
Dakota and your kids and the life responsibilities is now
what I'm wanting for myself for twenty twenty three and beyond,
which is the stuff that doesn't matter that you do,
(13:46):
that's you know, just do this stuff you love.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
My friends have stood by for thirty years, like we understand.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I don't want to do that any Yeah, I totally
get it, honey. And I think that as we age,
things come into focus and we drop what we no
longer need or use. And if you're lucky enough to
be in a position where you don't have to you know,
which most people are not in that position. But if
you are lucky enough and you can get to choose that,
(14:15):
I think it's the biggest thing you've ever earned for yourself,
you know for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And that's a new way for me to start to think.
You can see I'm getting emotional. It's because I just
love you so much. You know, I love you so much.
You really are like my little tiny sister soulmate. Because
I get you, babe, and I love you, and I
love your parents. I love your family. I love what
you do for the kids over the summer with your
(14:41):
Broadway training camp. I mean, I just think you're the
real deal, Kristin Chen with then you always have been. Well,
I learned by watching the Greatest and that is for sure,
you you know, watching Carol, watching Bernadette, and then of
course watching you juggle fifteen different kinds of careers. Because
people forget, oh she's not a talk show host. She's
(15:03):
also a remember an actor. Oh and she does stand
up comedy. And by the way, she is also a host.
So it's just an interesting we've both been divided. Plus,
you are a mother. Let's not forget you're a mother.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Five times over five times.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
You know you're a mother. You have huge responsibilities. And
with this camp and everything that I'm trying to do,
I not a mother, but I choose that that's kind
of where my children are.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And totally I totally get that. I have a school,
as you know, in New York as well, and every
time I get to go there and see the kids
and what they're doing, I feel like they are all
my kids too. Hey, we got more to come, so
don't go away. Tell everybody listening what you do with
(16:07):
this camp. And it's in Oklahoma right where you're from.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It's my hometown of Broken Or Oklahoma, that's outside Tulsa, right,
And we didn't ever have a performing arts center. And
about fifteen years ago somebody died and gave a lot
of money for a building.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I'm so glad they did.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And they wanted to name the theater after me, and
I thought I was too young, and they said, no,
you're not too young. You're actually I like, no, and
they said yeah. So my dad said, you know, what
are you going to do to make your legacy?
Speaker 3 (16:39):
What do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
And I said, well, I'll play there and I'll write
my friends to come play there. I'll have Broadway shows
come through. And he said, no, what else? So I
thought of the Broadway boot Camp. And I know part
of that was inspired by what you do with the
Broadway kids, right. That was a definite correlation to what
I saw you doing there, and I wanted to do
it for my home state. And what ended up happening
(16:59):
is the last year was our ninth year, and through COVID,
I hired Manhattan transfers, best technical people to do it virtually,
and we had kids from all over the world were
able to come this way. And so last year I
said I can't go backwards now that it's open to
everybody from London.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
To rustl How beautiful.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, And so they came. We had an over four
thousand kids audition. We could only pick one hundred, and
we did thirteen to fifteen one week and sixteen to
eighteen another week. And what I did was I hired
Kenny Ortega. I love him too. He loves you too,
nice nice man, oh yeah, and so talented and loves
(17:42):
young talent like you and I do. And he came
in and directed it, and Monarch Entertainment Producing Company decided
to film it, and we are in the final stages
of editing and next week we will be taking it
out to pitch for. It's called thirteen We met in
a documentary. I forgot to say that.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
That's okay, that's okay. You made a documentary about the camp.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah, And it's called thirteen hundred Miles to Broadway because
it's thirteen hundred miles from Broken Air to Broadway. And
it's very very good. It's like nothing I've seen. It's
all of our friends coming in to teach Rosie singing,
acting and dancing acting for film and television. We've added singing,
songwriting and at improv. Next summer, which I'd love to
(18:25):
actually get you. You've come in and zoomed with us
and the kids freak out. My dream is to eventually
have a school, an after school program for my home state,
for free, where kids can come and study and play
and learn graphic arts.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
And it's so needed, it so needed. We had all that.
We had musicals every year in my high school were
it was a big thing. Who auditioned and the weekend
of the show was so exciting and we got each
other little flowers, and you know, it was what we
imagined we were going to have in our careers on Broadway.
And I can't even begin to think how many kids'
(19:04):
lives you change with doing that, honey.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Well, just like you, I mean, and to see, okay,
see the transition, to see somebody who doesn't feel like
they fit to find their troop. Yes, and it's competitive,
it's you know, I'm gonna be honest, it's not a
participation group award camp. But there's lots of life skills
that they learned to while they're there. There's lots of
time for team building, lots of talk about grace with theirselves,
(19:29):
with each other. We were able to finally capture that
all on film, and I'm so excited to be able
to present it to a very select few studios to
see what they think if it's something that they can see.
I've been enjoying what's the thing on? I don't know
if it's PBS, but Ron Howard and Brian Glazer did
a thing about the Young Ballet Group.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yes, yes, beautiful. I don't remember the name of it.
We could find it either. Yeah, because that's what happens now.
I watch Jeopardy, I go oh, oh, oh, oh shit,
the buzzers that I can't my brain does not work.
People are like, you should host this or that. I go,
I have news for you that Rosie O'Donnell used to
talk so fast, and really she's gone, she's taking a nap.
(20:09):
I don't know what's happening.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
What's happening.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I think I'm gonna have to start taking baiter blockers.
The other day, I was like, the thing, you know,
the thing. It's a calculator, calculatory numbers.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
So press it. You know, it's a small thing. Yeah,
that's what I do. It's not good, you know. I
don't want to say I told you so, But for
a long time, I've been telling you this. I look
on your Instagram and your stuff, and I go, she's
going on tour again. She's doing her concerts night after
night after night. And then I read, of course, I'm
(20:39):
so the Queen of Versailles. That is gonna be Steven Schwartz.
Of course he's from Wicked, but that's not I think
of him as Pippin right away. But of course, yes,
he's a genius, that guy and you guys work together
so well in Wicked, and that you're going to be
playing that crazy ass woman who bought that big ass
house and then it all fell apart and she had
(21:00):
dogs that pooped everywhere. Every member.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Oh yes, the Maltese is that were afraid they were
going to be eaten by alligators. You know. I looked
at the documentary Rosie, and I thought, is this a
story that we want to tell? I just wanted to know,
because then I looked at her really hard, and what's
lovely about her? There's a more innocent look. We talk
(21:22):
about entitlement a lot, right, right, and not everything is
bad when you say entitlement. And I I'm being very
careful here because I have champagne problems too, now. Of
course I didn't grow up that way, nor did I,
but we know now, and I wanted to have a
more innocent look at the entitlement. She's actually incredibly smart,
(21:48):
and I think she kind of has her heart here.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
But she's also an engineer.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And she build his house, you know, David, her husband,
She builds his house and they lose everything, and what
that looks like in America and then how do they
build that back up?
Speaker 1 (22:07):
And what does at what costs? Right?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
And I think it's very timely given.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Totally is the gross excess of our culture and the
you know, people like the Kardashians, who I'm sure are
lovely individually, however, as a family unit, I think they
do damage to women by teaching children that you need
to cut your face up in order to look perfect enough,
or add ass to your ass. You know, it just
(22:33):
is so silly to me, and I don't understand why
they're so admired, and you know, people like we're saying
to me, oh, well, they're billionaires.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
But Rosie, I think if we're talking about this kind
of culture, that's what it is. Where are the mothers?
But my mother was in my business. Yes, all the
dang time my mother was in my business. Fame is
such a it can be like evil thing that tangles
(23:01):
you in and then it can spew you out. And
what I want to tell everybody is it's great, famous,
wonderful at first, but then it's it can spew you
out as fast as you got taken in, and then
what do you have? So what I will say is
people that turn it around and make businesses out of it,
that's great too. But if we're just led on how
we look, yes, then what happens when we don't look
(23:25):
like that exactly? I mean, I'm a botoxies. You're sure,
but I know that one day it won't be. And
I mean I'm I've aged and I'm okay with it.
I'm okay with it. Every day I think I can't
feel my feet, that's okay, the bottoms of my feet
and these heels are killing me.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
What's that?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Why does my lower back hurt? I've never had that.
Why can't I see anything?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Right? You know, just anything anything? How about when you're
in the shower and you don't know if it's the
conditioner or the shampoo because you can't read it. Oh
my gosh.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Every hotel, I go in, here's me, I get it up.
I'm like looking at it no, no matter how, and swinny.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, it's all mush, It's all mush. I just I'm
scared that.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Our need for perfection, and I include myself in this
because I'm a perfectionist. Our need perfection, We're going to
shoot ourselves in the fit for it. And we're seeing
evidence of that that suicide rates have never been higher,
the drug use for teens, especially with adderall and xanax,
that all of this stuff has never been higher because
needing to be perfect. It's almost like when they go
(24:30):
into college. It's like here, you get your books, you
get your dorm, and you get your doctor's prescription of
adderall so you can think and see. I think I
would have fallen prey to that if I were going
into school. It's just scary. I think it's scary times
and I want. I love the phone and I love
the Internet, but it's also scary because immediately to my
younger friends were like, what's wrong, what I do?
Speaker 1 (24:52):
I'm nothing exactly exactly the immediacy of it. I remember
Kelly's brother and his wife had the very first walkie
talkie cell phones. So we'd be eating dinner and she'd
be out with the kids somewhere and it'd be like, JJ,
I'm coming home and dream it. But I'm like, who
(25:13):
would want to live with that? Well, guess what, We're
all living with it. We're all living in it. And
everybody's like, oh, the kids are addicted. No, so are
the parents. Everybody's addicted to the phone.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
We sit down and dinner, we have you know, my
brother's wife, all of us, my mom, everybody's right, even
us and my dad' said can we just put on
phones down for one minute.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
While we eat? It's scary, Leary. It's a whole different
world than when we grew up.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
You know, even twenty years ago, Rosie, even when your
show was on, right, I don't even know how you
found surprise guests.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And I mean, I guess the internet was.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
I don't know it was.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
It wasn't.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
No.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
In fact, AOL had just launched, and I kept telling
the Water Brothers people, we have to incorporate these and
they did a study that showed only you know, thirty
percent of homes had come well in the next two years.
It was like quadruple that, right, and Uh, they just
didn't know how to merge the two. And I think
that's what we're coming to with these smaller delivery platforms,
(26:12):
with not using the most expensive set pieces that you can. Like,
you know, even when they redo a show, they make
it too big, they make it like you know, password, no, no, no.
It was a tiny little show with Bettie White and
her husband and it was all inside, quippy, little smart.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
It was just a different time and I miss it,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I don't know, girl, I'm trying to be woke and
considerate and learn like everybody, like I don't want to
offend people. Of course, not be patient with me. I
was told the other day one of my young friends,
I'm just Josh and you, I said, and they said, no,
you know, you can't say that anymore.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I was like, why not?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Because people named Josh might get.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Trigger Oh my god, we can't live in this world.
How can we live in this world?
Speaker 3 (27:04):
It's Rosie.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Here's one that'll that'll let you'll die. So if you
acquire and I work with priors a lot, I have
them come up on stage with me and.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Sing with me beautiful, yes, thank you well.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Soprano alto tarent base is no longer you have to
say higher voices, wow, lower voices. And I'm like, well,
what if you're a higher voice, but you're an alto,
so the lower of the high voices, because somebody might
be triggered because they don't identify as a certain vocal
type wars.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well, that's the overly dramatic actors and actresses we're working with,
I think. But yeah, it's it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And we you and I are, like I said, right
in that cusp, right, and we just start to do
our best. And but with cancelations happening every day, I'm
not so worried about being canceled.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
I just don't want to hurt anybody.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Honey, I'm smart. My reactions are this. Yeah. But if
if you do hurt someone and you find out about it,
I know what you do. You make amends, You apologize,
you try to make it right. You know, that's what
you do. And that's that's all you can do, is
is try your best and be as open hearted and
let them know that your intent is inclusivity, you know,
(28:14):
and respect, right, respect, Yeah, because we are both learning,
you know, we learn as we go on, and and
that's the best you could do. And you know it's
funny when I'm on the set now, Kristen's probably not
happening to you, but yet. But like on The l Word,
I was the oldest actress there, and I feel a
little like Angela Lansbury did, where all of us would
(28:36):
gather around Angela Lansbury at tony rehearsals and just try
to hear her say anything to us. Right, And now
I'm the Angela Lansbury and all these young variations of
queer kids coming up to me asking me questions and
you know, saying do you have any gay kids? I'm
like no, but I tried. I took them to Broadway.
I gave them Barbara and Bete Medler at Kristin Shadow.
(28:59):
With that, none of us came through his cake. Well,
I'm there, I'm there, I've gotten now.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
I used to be.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Called hello cutie, two, Hello lady, and now I'm hello dear.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Yes, well you're not where I am. What, ma'am do
you think you're able to climb up the stairs before
we go to the Delta lounge? Ma'am do you think
you can climb up the stairs? I was like, yes,
I can, No, I want to tell you by the
top of those stairs. I was a little huffing and puffin,
(29:35):
but I wasn't gonna let that guy know that. You
know what I mean? Of course, yeah, of course.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Of course no.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
I yeah, I've had people men like on set sex. Here, Kristen,
here's a box you can sit on. Why you wait, I'm.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Do I look tired?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah, yeah, it's happening. It's happening. Honey. Wait, I'm a
bunch of years aheadiest sweetheart, and I'm telling you it's
a interesting But here's the thing. I love getting older.
I love that I lived so much longer than my
mom ever had the chance to. I love that I'm
getting to raise my children. And you know, Blakey's getting
(30:13):
married and yes, can you believe? And you hear where
he got engaged in Phantom. He invited me and her
mother to go to Phantom with him, and then before
the show started, he got down on one knee and
I was like overwhelmed with emotion, and I thought, God,
my mother never lived to see this. You know, my
(30:34):
mother never saw one of her kids get married. And
here we are waiting on the wedding. You know, it
was wild. Kristen I was. You know, the most times
I ever missed my mother was when my first child
arrived and was placed in my arms and I was like,
oh my god, this is And then when Blakeie got engaged,
(30:55):
I couldn't stop crying. The whole time during Phantom, I couldn't.
I just kept thinking, this little boy who didn't talk
really till he was five, this little boy, this little
outdoorsy man.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I remember when you got it. I remember and when
he came to this world. And I never thought we'd
be staying here having a conversation about him getting married exactly.
And I'm I'm so happy because you see, just like
in Still Magnolias and all the things that we've heard,
the circle goes on, right, And you know, you know,
(31:26):
I believe in the hereafter, and so I believe that
your mom and I don't know if she ever shows
herself to you in certain ways, and I know she's here.
I know she's watching over that kid, all your kids, right,
And I've told you this before. I know that your
mom is proud of you, and I know that she
watches over her.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Children, right.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
I do believe that I believe that no no parent
is perfect. But she does that.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, and I think that as I get older, like
I think more about the afterlife than I did before. Right,
I never really thought of it. I thought, God, you die,
and that's it. And it's sad. Carol Burnett at her life.
She's about to be ninety, right, No, ninety years old,
Carol Burnett, Right, No, Well it's hard.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
She was just seventy exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
That's what I feel about Jane Fonda too. Jane Fonda is,
you know, talking about turning seventy. And I went down
to Atlanta for her party and now it's like her
eighty sixth birthday or something crazy, and I'm like, how
did this happen? You know?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
And also tell me if you're experiencing this, Like every
day I wake up, I get on the internet and
I say who passed away?
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I do too, because we're of that age. And it
breaks my heart. Yes, because when the ones who have died,
let's say in before ten years ago, like Whitney, you know,
such a sad tragedy. It's a tragedy, right, And when
someone dies like almost of natural causes, you go, wow.
(32:57):
Some people only get seventy two, and that's that was
their limit. That's right. That's what the average is. They say,
you know that men and.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
That's are going to live each day.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
To quote Lucy, use if it's the last day of
our life.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Right right, the time is now. I so agree, honey,
I so agree.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
Now.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Listen, the wedding was called off, but you're with the
boys still.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
It's so good.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
It's actually better, you know how. It was also when
I start looking at my wedding as a gig, not
a gig, but like I've got to fit.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
It in and yeah, no, no, there's no need to
do that, no, honey, No.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
So we worked out our day and we're definitely gonna
do it this year because we just you know, we're
gonna have a big We're gonna just do just our
family great. We want to keep it very and then
in New York we're going to have a big little
shindig for our friends, which includes you.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Well, good, well, I want you to know that you
are on Blake Christopher's list for his guests at his wedding,
just so you know you are. You are, and he
wanted to invite you and Gloria Estefan and I'm in
good company exactly. He's like, well, Mom, I've known Kristin
like my whole life. I'm like, well, that's true, you know.
(34:16):
And he's like and you know, yeah, and you remember
I would bring him sometimes and it would just be
when you were performing or we were doing something together,
I would bring him. And he always was such a gentleman,
such a little boy gentleman.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
I have a little special I'm not, you know, trying
to show favoritism, because all of your children are so special, Rosie,
but I do have a little special place in my
heart for him.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
How can I not. We've spent the most time together exactly. Yes.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
I remember one time we were together. I don't know
where we were. We were in a dressing room and
he was little, I mean young, yeah, and he was
just looking at me and he said, you're really you're
really pretty.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
And my whole life now this is just yes, I'm
probably gonna get in trouble for this. My whole life,
I've been like, never pretty. I'm always the cute and
a little snuggle muffin and all that, and I love that.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
But when he looked at me and such with such innocence,
and so I just gave him the biggest time, I
was like, I love you, Lake. I don't know this thing.
We've just always had this thing. So I will be
there with bells on because I've seen him grow up.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Yes, isn't it amazing? It's amazing to me. My mom
when when he got engaged, she goes, guess what, She's
the one that told me about it.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Really, just now, would you and Josh ever get married
at a show?
Speaker 6 (35:36):
I said, no, whenever show. That's my life. No, exactly,
I understand that too. I so do now tell me
about schmigadoon.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, I'm happy about that, just like you with O word.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
We did Smigadoon in the height of the pandemic before vaccines, right,
and I'm a vexers, so I was kind of like, ugh,
do I want to go to Canada and do this
And it was really fun even though we were being
so safe and could hardly We stayed in our.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Own little pods, right, and I remember that.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah, we really minded the rules and I'm really glad
we did. And then we got to come back. I
don't know, was it not last summer? When did I
do it? I don't even know anymore? What year are
we in?
Speaker 1 (36:18):
We are in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
So we did this last year and now we're it's
all edited together and it's now we had season two,
but they're calling it Schmicago and this is a This
is a love letter to sixties and seventies musicals and
composers like Sondheim and Shorts, Wow, all the greats. And
I think it's totally different because the last one was
(36:42):
Golden Age era musicals, which I love of course me too, right,
And that role I played was a takeoff of while
she was just a bitty, just mean and hateful, I
had a I don't know, five minute number without any cuts,
and it was a Potter song like taken off from
We've Got Trouble of My Friends right Now.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
And now this part.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
What I love that single Paul our writer has done
is given all of us, people like me, an opportunity
to play different characters, very different characters from before. So
he's gathered a little troop like music theater. And I
think that's if there's not a show for me this,
then I'm nuts.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Then there's no reason for you to be in the
entertainment industry. This is your show. It's like a Cinderella
fit in the slipper. There you go. It fits, and
you know what else to it?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
If it's Allan's foot and Jane's foot and Dove's foot
and Cecily and Keagan, who are the heartbeat of our
show and so darling and funny.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Fun funny, so funny.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Oh God, Cecily and Keegan make me laugh so hard,
it's really hard. And Hi may Is and I mean
we have and Arianna and I mean there's I'm forgetting people.
But it's so special, Aaron Toavette. We have such a
great music theater love letter or what we do.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
And I love it.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Well, honey, you know what I can't get over how
wonderful all of the things that you do turn out.
You have a new book. I've read all your books,
and you have a new one that's called I'm no Philosopher,
but I've got thoughts, many meditations for saints, sinners and
the rest of us. What a great title. Thank you,
(38:24):
really wonderful. I love it. And you just sat down
and typed that out on your computer and there it was,
Yeah you know how, Yeah, that's how it works. Magic right, magic.
Speaker 6 (38:35):
No.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
During when the first shutdown happened, I had just lost
one of my very good best friends. I think I
talked to you about that before, and I didn't know what.
I was sort of like, I don't know what to
do with myself. And he called me, said, you want
to write another book my agent, and I said no,
because that was like having a book report view all
the time, right right, And he said, well, think about it,
like think about what you'd want it to be. So
(38:58):
I separately I was I'm a big journaler. I think
you are too, yes, And my journal journal journal, and
I started journaling heavy again and reading my old ones,
and I started writing separately, just separately, some stuff down
like almost another journal, and I thought, hey, this could
be except write you know, thoughts on love, thoughts on harmony, connection, loss,
(39:20):
hearsay all of it right, and thoughts on screwing up
all of it.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
And it kind of was born from my journal entries
oh great.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
And of course I used humor because that's a big
part of who I am. But I also allowed I
always think it was okay to allow people to see
that not everything is always as it seems. Now you
know me say you already know that it's not just
glitter and rainbows and unicorns, all the time and pink.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
And I know that people do think that of you,
that you're always happy and it's always you know, happy,
happy Kristen. But you know, like the rest of us,
you struggle with the challenges that some many of us have,
including me, you know, anxiety, depression. Those things are real
and they're serious and they matter.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
They do, and that it's okay to sort of let
that out of the bag that people see, because I
want people, especially my younger crowd audience, to know that
this is part of who I am too, and it's
okay if you have that. I really wanted to spread
that message, and so there's some pretty deep general interests
(40:27):
that I share so that people can see how the
darkness can happen, right and how I pull myself out
of it. And of course silly things like you know,
my mom always says, you know, you got to have
the patience of job, and you need to read job again.
So I go back and read Job and Joe bitched
his head off. Thank you very much, welcome. So we
talk a little bit about that kind of thing. But also,
(40:48):
just like you, I've seen you do this, like people
that inspire you, like mottos, they've had. There's one that
I keep going back to, and I list a lot
of them and why, and then maybe my version of
that motto, which like, there's one that says that you
remember Elizabeth Edwards.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Of course yes, since she got cancer and he had
an affair and it was a bad situation.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Not a good guy. I don't think sorry for judging him.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
But I judged him for that too. They'll go ahead, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Kind of judged him. And then she got a sick
and passed away. But she said the most beautiful thing,
Rosie and I have it. I got it in a
postcard and I framed it. I cut the card off
and I framed the think right. It says she stood
in the storm, and when the wind did not blow
her way, she adjusted her sales. And so for me
kind of every day. And by the way, it doesn't
(41:40):
have to be bad stuff. You can stand in the
storm of goodness, right, and whether you're gonna accept it,
what you're gonna do with it, how you're gonna handle it,
all those things, and when the wind does not blow
your way, adjust yourself, but still staying with who you are.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I love that so much.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
So there's a lot of there's a lot of just
musings and and also some of the meditations. There's thoughts
about vertigo sickness, and thoughts about an accident that I
had and how I pushed it down, pushed it down,
way down, and how it affected my life and how
I still have pain from it and anxiety. And it's
(42:15):
just a okay with me to share those parts of
who I am and hopefully done with humor as well.
So that's why I wrote the book, and it just
it's sort of formed. And so many nights, sleepless nights
during the shutdown, of course, sleepless nights, because I was thinking, right,
how are we in this position?
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Yes, how can we be here?
Speaker 2 (42:33):
How can another school shooting happen? Now it's so normal
that I just go, that's normal, that's sad, it's tragic.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
So I can get really depressed.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Me too, I know, I know, I know. So it's
that kind of book.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Well, I can't wait to get it. I'm going to
go take the little one to pick out our books
this weekend. Oh good listen, I love you so much,
thank you, and thank you people, and I love you. Goodbye,
I love you bye. Didn't you enjoy that we'll be
back with some questions from you the listener. Thank you,
(43:28):
Kristin Shallow, I love you so much. And now we
hear from you the listener. Let's see what we got
a couple questions lined up.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
Hit it Hi, Rosie, it's Tessa listening in all the
way from Amsterdam, Europe, hopefully the first one from Europe
to make it on the show.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Yay.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Thank you so much for making this podcast and being
such an inspiration. It's really the highlight of my week.
So thank you. I wanted to tell you that, and
it's just so such a feel good moment and so positive.
What I wanted to ask you is, I think it's
(44:12):
super inspiring that you adopted five children.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
I mean, wow, you deserve a medal for that.
Speaker 4 (44:20):
And I wanted to know if you always knew that
you wanted to adopt, or was there also a time
where you were in the process of getting pregnant or
wanting to having gone through to miscarriages myself. Yeah, I
was wondering how your journey was with that. So again,
(44:46):
thank you so much for all that you do, and yeah,
keep up the good word.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Thank you so much. All the way from Amsterdam, which
I can't wait to go visit one day for many reasons,
not just the plentiful marijuana. I can't wait to go
visit there, And thank you for your question. You know
I never wanted to give birth, isn't that odd? I
never did. I mean, I knew that I was gay
from the time I was about ten years old, and
(45:13):
I just never thought it was going to be part
of my journey. And also, I had a teacher named
Pat Maravell who became like a mom to me after
my mother died. My mother died, I was in fifth grade,
and I met this teacher in seventh grade and then
she sort of took me under her wing. And she
got pregnant and her husband was also a teacher, and
(45:35):
they had a baby, and then they had another baby,
and I said I would stay home and watch the
two year old while they were going to the hospital. Well,
I wasn't prepared for what I saw at sixteen years old.
It was terrifying to me, to tell you the God's
honest truth. But it's not like there was ever a
time in my life where I thought I want to
(45:56):
get pregnant and this is the time and I want
to experience that myself. I know so many of my
friends went through that, but I never went through it.
And I think because of this woman, Pat Maravell, I
knew that love made a family, not blood, you know.
And she was the first one who ever hugged me,
the first one who ever said I love you to me.
She was really formative and instrumental in my life. She
(46:19):
died of breast cancer and very sad. But I never
did go through fertility issues or fertility questioning. I just
knew because of her and her love for me and
how it changed my world that, you know, family is
defined by love and that's what makes a family, not
necessarily blood. So the five kids, some people say what
(46:43):
you said to me, You know you should be lauded
for doing that. You know, I am the lucky recipient
of another woman's generosity. And these kids are the reason
that my whole life has been meaningful. They make me
want to be better and do better and show up
more and help them along their journey. So you know,
(47:07):
it's like a mutual a mutual gift I think all around.
But good luck in your journey to become a parent.
I hope whichever way the child you're supposed to raise
finds you is the right way, and I hope you
get to experience it because it is by far the
greatest joy of living, if you ask me. Thank you
(47:30):
for that beautiful question, and we got one more. Here
we go, Hi, Rosie.
Speaker 5 (47:35):
I have been a big fan since I was an
elementary schooler watching your show after school and just really
loving it. And since I have listened to and basically
watched and read everything you've ever done, and I've always
just been interested in what you're up to. So I'm
loving this podcast. And a comment for you is that
(47:59):
I've never never heard you sounding so settled and centered,
and I don't know, you just seem to be in
a really good space, and I just wanted to say
that I'm noticing that, and I think it's really cool
to see. And I like that you said on your
(48:19):
podcast with Ross that life is a circle and you
come back to yourself. Are you coming back to yourself?
Something that I'm working on.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
To beautiful, beautiful question. Thank you so much. You know
what I think it is too. I think it's age,
you know. And I turned sixty something shifted and I'll
be sixty two this year, you know. And I was
born in sixty two. That makes it some special kind
of year for the person. But yes, I feel good.
(48:49):
You know, I worked very hard on my mental health
when I moved out here during the pandemic. I was very,
very depressed during the pandemic in New York, in New Jersey,
in a big house where nobody could come visit, and
it was Dakota and myself, and it became too big
and everything became too oppressive, and I knew I needed
the sun. So I came to LA and in the
(49:11):
last two and a half years that I've been here,
it's just been me working on me. And I have
a wonderful therapist that I've been with for a while,
and she's phenomenal and helps me see clearly and maybe
reframe some things that I need reframing with. So yes,
I thank you for noticing, first of all, and I
(49:34):
thank you also for wanting that to be for you too.
I want that for everyone. But you can't scream at
a flower to bloom, and you can't rush yourself to
a place where things settle. And I think you'll find
a lot of postmenopausal women, like myself, find that there's
a wisdom that comes with it there's something that replaces
(49:56):
where you were, and that's this new feeling grounded and
centered and safe and authentically myself. And I wish that
for everyone listening, and I thank you so much for
the beautiful question. I hope you enjoyed today's show, and
next week we'll be back talking with Daniel Rosen, doctor
(50:16):
Daniel Rosen, all about Manjaro weight loss and what one
can do to get started on being healthier in the
weight area. And it's all connected, you know, mind, body, spirit, health,
all of it. So listen for that. It's very interesting.
Thanks so much, see you next week.
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