May 29, 2023 • 54 mins
She played Ingrid Iverson, a favorite from our Season 2 rewatch of “Turnaround,” and now actress Natanya Ross joins the gang for a new episode of Pod Meets World. Natanya started her acting career at just 6 months old and, in addition to BMW, found success on The Secret World of Alex Mack and The Baby-Sitters Club. But unfortunately, early attention in Hollywood sometimes finds itself lost in personal pratfalls and issues with addiction, two obstacles Natanya has inspirationally overcome in her adult life.
Natanya opens up in an honest chat about child stardom and what she’s doing now to help others in a similar situation.
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Speaker 1 (00:17):
Danielle were you were you practicing your signature?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Like to see that I do that while we're doing
the podcast. I just write my name over and over again.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I just love it. It's like she still has a
crush on Jensen. She's practicing.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Practice.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
She wrote a little hard.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
I just think I've ever seen I think, not read
Lance Bass or Taylor Thomas or any of the others.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
At least I love my husband.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
No official Bass.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Whoa, Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Well, remember when we got to whatever convention that was
a couple of weeks ago, and I was like, guys,
I have a new signature. I'm gonna I'm gonna really
take my time. That lasted four signatures before. I was like, no,
I just have a thing now that where I don't
even really have control over what comes out of me
with my signature anymore. It's just like the pen touches
(01:23):
the paper and my hand does the same moves over
and over again. And even if I wanted, like, for example,
I have wanted to stop doing that exclamation point, happy
face exclamation point that I do at the bottom of
my name, I've done it ever since I ever started
signing autographs when I was like eleven or twelve years old,
and I want to stop.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It and I can't.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
You know, you can't, You just can Yeah, I can't.
Can just stop. After the I.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Sign my name and it just happens automatically, and I'm like, oh,
I wanted to.
Speaker 7 (01:51):
Not do that.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (01:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (01:52):
By the end of the con, you can't even tell
what my name is, like it just says like best wishes,
Wendell Freeman.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Super fil freed Ale.
Speaker 6 (02:00):
Yeah, you just can't. You can't tell anymore. It's just
a blur.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And my parents we we we were with my parents
a couple of weeks ago, got together and we'd had
like a whole board game weekend in this in this
beach house.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Was so fun.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
And my parents have this crazy thing that I don't
know where they got it, but their glasses like a
goggles that you put on that turn the world upside down.
It's like a set of mirrors, so you're looking through
but suddenly your feet are on the ceiling. It's like
it completely inverts the world right. It makes you like,
it drives you crazy, and what you try and do
(02:33):
is like try and write something and you can't, Like
you cannot like you look down, which means looking up
at what you're right.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It's so confusing, Oh is sign my name?
Speaker 4 (02:43):
It was like I couldn't write like because you try
and just write correctly and you end up writing upside
down and backwards. And so then I was like, no, no, no,
I'm just gonna close my eyes and sign my name
and I could do it perfectly.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
So it's like, wow, yeah, it's just automatic. You've got
to try.
Speaker 6 (02:58):
Just thinking about that made me nauseous.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You've got to ask your parents where they got that.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, it's the coolest thing.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I mean, Indy put it on, could not take it
off and was just like what God, Yeah, it's so weird.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Oh that's cool. Welcome to pod meets World. I'm Danielle Fischel, I'm.
Speaker 6 (03:13):
Rider Strong, and I'm Wilfredell.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
So when you film a seven seasons of a TV show,
episodes start to blend together a bit, as you may
have already heard on an almost weekly basis with this podcast,
and now thirty years later, we have forgotten a lot
of things. But recently, Will and Ryder bumped into this
week's guest at a convention in Albuquerque, and they couldn't
(03:37):
be happier to remember the sweetness that is Natanya Ross.
She appeared in just one episode of Boy Meets World
as ingrid iverson the girl, Corey and Sean decide to
riz up for the big Christmas dance and hopes she'll
become more popular.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Thanks.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
Thanks, guys.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
I was hoping you guys were going to notice, and
in turn, she left quite an impression on the legacy
of the show, and after visiting us, she went on
to star in the Freaky Friday TV movie with Shelley
Long and Gabby Hoffman. She appeared on The Babysitters Club
and Baywatch, and most notably, she was in almost fifty
episodes of The Secret World of Alex Mack, playing Robin Russo.
(04:16):
So now all three of us are thrilled to be
reunited with Natanya to talk not only about her guest
appearance on Boymet's World and the fact that she's the
only proof we have that our school did indeed have
a pool, but also we will chat about her life
since we work together, and what she's overcome to be
here today. Let's please welcome to the show. Natanya Ross.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Hi, Hi, Hi, how is everyone?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
We're good how are you.
Speaker 8 (04:45):
I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
We were just discussing right before you came in. How
you ran into writer and Will at a convention last
year in Albuquerque.
Speaker 8 (04:54):
Yes, I did.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
It was us in the Sandloch Crew Hanger.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
It was nothing else and the Mighty Ducks and the
and the Mighty Ducks.
Speaker 8 (05:03):
We had Jean and Marty and there was nothing else
to do.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
Pretty much, it's pretty accurate.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I just got.
Speaker 8 (05:10):
Booked to do another one in the same place. Yeah,
and I was like, all right, I guess I'll go back.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
I mean, the question really is how fast can you
spell Albuquerque?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Not fast at all?
Speaker 6 (05:22):
Albl a l b u q u e r q
u e oh, I go home albac.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You practiced that just to be able to do that
pretty much. Party.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, that's a party track, it is.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
It absolutely is.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Okay, So let's start with our most basic question we
like to ask everybody, which is when did you get
into acting as a kid?
Speaker 8 (05:46):
Six months old?
Speaker 6 (05:47):
No, really, that might be our youngest ever.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You might beat Matt Lawrence because he's somewhere in the
first year or year and a half, but you six.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Months Tell us about that.
Speaker 8 (05:59):
Yeah, I don't remember much.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
What what do you mean, I want to know all
my memory, I don't remember much.
Speaker 8 (06:05):
My mom was just like very determined to make me
into something, which I'm you know, goes into a lot
of ship that happened later on in my life. But yeah,
six months old, I was a Gerber baby. I was
doing a bunch of commercials, and then I had like
very very very small parts in Crimes and Misdemeanors and
(06:29):
Awakenings with Robert de Niro and Crazy. But then like
the first I guess real recognizable thing which really still
trips me out that people even comment on this was
Little Monsters.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
I yes, so you were in Little Monsters, which starred
Fred Savage and had a cameo by Ben.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, I know, crazy and I.
Speaker 8 (06:53):
Oh my god, I don't even know if I've actually
seen it all the way through either. But I was
very were young.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I was six years old, and.
Speaker 8 (07:01):
I had this like thirty second little Heart, and that's
really what kind of kicked everything off. When I think
my mom and my team at that time, it's so
weird that to have a team at six years old,
but they were like, yeah, let's try and take this
as far as we can take.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It with this.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Let's take this, let's let's.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Take this all the way.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, six years of investment if paid off.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
So, what are your like? Those are some pretty big
sets to be on as a small kid. What is
what do you what.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Is like your earliest memory of being on a set?
What do you actually remember where you're like? I know
I did those jobs because there's evidence of it, But like,
the first one I really remember is, Yeah.
Speaker 8 (07:44):
Probably I did like a Juicy juice commercial in Canada.
I remember that because we had to get on a
plane and we were first class and it was this
big thing and I loved it so much. But I
think Little Monsters is probably the first set I really
remember being on. I couldn't tell you, like too much
about it, but I have recollections of like what it
felt like and what it made me feel like and
(08:05):
what was Yeah, I was really cognizant even at that
age that this was what I wanted to be doing.
So although I have, you know, a little bit of
a cliche child star story later on in life, I
was never forced into it. Like I knew that I
loved it even at that age. I just didn't know
(08:29):
how much I was about to really love it, like
later on, you know, I just was like I was
like a rambunctious kind of a big personality kid.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And I was like, yeah, I'm on set. This is great.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
You know.
Speaker 8 (08:40):
It didn't like, I think, penetrate my soul the way
it did later on, but I knew I was where
I wanted to be.
Speaker 6 (08:48):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
And so when you then made it to boy Meet's World,
did Bean remember you Did you guys talk about little
Monsters at all?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I don't think so.
Speaker 8 (08:57):
No, No, I don't think I brought that. I was
nervous on set with you guys, and I came from
I was already on Alex Mack, so I was integrated
into a set family too. You know, we were I
think on season two when I did Alex Mack, when
I did Boy Meet's World. So I just I remember
(09:17):
coming in knowing the dynamic that you guys had probably
already built together because I had that too. So I
was nervous. I was like, I don't remember talking much
to anyone really, but I did talk to Ben the
most for sure, but never about little monsters.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Wow.
Speaker 8 (09:35):
Even later on when we were I don't even think
I brought that up.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I don't think I've.
Speaker 6 (09:41):
Never we've never seen little Monsters.
Speaker 7 (09:43):
But I have a question if anybody knows, is it
called little monsters because the kids are bad, like problem
child or they're actually monsters?
Speaker 4 (09:51):
I think yeah, it's like a monster under the bed
or something that they've become friends with or something.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
Okay, all right, it's.
Speaker 8 (09:57):
Like a main monster too.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Howie Mandel is like, okay, gin monster. I should probably
watched it too.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
We should watch it.
Speaker 7 (10:04):
We should watch it of little monsters.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
Oh my gosh, Well you were also I mean, you
were also on a TGIF show. You were on Billy,
the sitcom with Billy Connolly and Johnny Gillecky, So you
were all by the time you got to Boy Meets World,
you are already like a TGIF staple.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
You were already on Alex Mac in second season.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
Okay, So before we get into Boy Meets World, there
is a movie that you did that I have to
talk to you about because in doing research for this interview,
I'm not sure this this movie is ever gonna leave
my nightmare.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
So I need all the details.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
Munchie Strikes Back, the sequel to Munchie and that movie,
Munchie starred Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
So you were in the sequel.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
I want to show you the image of Munchie the
monster in it because it's it's pretty, it's pretty crazy,
it's a it's a wonderful creature. And this is the
official movie description. He dresses like a lounge singer, oh,
sounds like a stand up comedian and has magic powers.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
Oh, my father, how have I never seen that?
Speaker 5 (11:32):
I love his card again and I need to know
every detail about this movie.
Speaker 8 (11:37):
Oh my god, God bless the nineties exactly.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, that was not to say about this movie.
Speaker 8 (11:49):
It was like this weird little Roger Korman movie. I
don't even think I auditioned for it, just kind of
like came across to us as an offer. And my
Mom's like, dude, if you knew anything.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
What was what was the character you played in it?
Speaker 7 (12:04):
So?
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I played the girlfriend of.
Speaker 8 (12:07):
No no, no, no no no.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I was going to be so excited.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah that would be like.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
So I mean to kiss.
Speaker 8 (12:17):
I was a girlfriend of like the main character and
his best friend was Munchie. But it was like an
imaginary like no one else could really see it. And yeah,
I was just like his little girlfriend in the movie.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
And what was it like with that? Was that puppet
on set all the time? Did you have to interact
with that puppet?
Speaker 8 (12:35):
The puppet was on set, I didn't have any scenes
with the puppet. Like the prints of the movie is
like only this kid can see it.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
Yeah. I love how Danielle was just assuming it's a puppet.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Well, it could be a real guy, could be a
real person.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Just yeah, seriously, he instantly just judged that young actor.
Very nice, Danielle.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Sorry, I have.
Speaker 8 (12:55):
To say, with all the interviews I do, I've never
once been asked about monkey Man.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
That makes me happy.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
That's that's our special time.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
Yeah, not every podcast kind of hits the level we.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Do right to the jugular.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
We try. We try to get the.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Entirely forgetable nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, no, I want to work with a puppet like that?
Are you kidding me? That's the puppet is amazing. And
he's wearing a cute card again. I love it.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Okay, card a good look.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
It's a great look. I mean, if you're a puppet,
wear a card again.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
So there's one thing you learned from this interview, let
it be that, So after Munchie you then came onto
our set as Ingrid, who was a nerdy wallflower who
Corey decides to try and make popular. Do you remember
auditioning for that one or like what was that process?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Like I do.
Speaker 8 (13:46):
So I had audition for Boy Meets World a plethora
of times for like all sorts of.
Speaker 7 (13:51):
Like everybody that's the story that seems to be the story.
Speaker 8 (13:54):
Yeah, and this one was like really last minute too.
They called me in just a couple of days before
this was about to start, So I think I came
in on a Friday and it was gonna start on Monday,
and and it was like one of those times and
I have a lot of this where they were like
the part is yours, Like you're not even auditioning against
(14:15):
anyone else, just go in. They just want to see
you read. And of course I show up and there's
like fifty other girls there.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Of course that happening on.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Alex mad say that you've already seen it every.
Speaker 8 (14:24):
Other every audition for like the last ten years. So yeah,
I just I went in and read, and I think
as I was leaving they called my agent and said
they got it. So then I showed up Monday to
table read with you guys.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Yeah, and what's crazy to me is the entire episode
is you I know, like, yeah, you have so much
to do in this episode.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I've forgotten that.
Speaker 8 (14:46):
Yeah, yeah, it's so crazy too, because I mean, obviously,
Alex Mack was such a big thing in the nineties
and that's I think what most of the fan base
still like remains about. But this specific episode, I get DMS.
I mean, it's NonStop about this specific episode.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
And and I've.
Speaker 8 (15:04):
Rewatched it, you know, yeah, and I have so many
thoughts about it. But I understand I think a little
bit more now as an adult, why this episode resonated
so much with kids at that time. I mean, aside
from the fact that boy Meet's world is so special
to so so so many people, it touched on so
(15:26):
many different things. And as I've rewatched it, it kind
of like unlocked this core feeling for me that I
had back then, where like this was very much art
imitates life for me without any of you guys knowing,
without me, you know, saying anything like that. I very
much felt like both of these variations of Ingrid, Like
(15:50):
I very much felt like the nerdy girl, the not
attractive girl, the not popular girl, and then like with
potentially the promise to like maybe be prettier or whatever.
And it had been like ingrained in my head for
so long by agents and managers of like, yeah, you're cute,
but like you're just not that girl, or you're not
(16:12):
the lead girl, you're not the girlfriend, you're not any
of these things. And Boy Meet's World was kind of
the first time I had the opportunity to like show
both sides, you know. But I distinctly when I was
in that brown dress thing.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Whatever that was the worst.
Speaker 8 (16:32):
Yeah, and the glasses and the pigtails that I was like,
it just it made me feel so much like the
outside was like showing how I really felt inside.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And I was just kind of like embarrassed to.
Speaker 8 (16:45):
Be in that outfit, you know. And and then also
then when the makeover happens, I was like, am I
even this girl? It was an interesting week for me.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I will say, Yeah, we recently rewatched it as well,
and we also had many mixed emotions about it.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
You're you know, sort of thrown into the situation where
they're going to try to make you like more hot
for Corey and you never really give any input on
it before you get the makeover, and then it is
revealed that you like want to be popular so bad
that you're like down for whatever.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
That's the best moment of the episode.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
I think it's like when you grab ben by the
caller in your life, make me popular popular?
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Yeah, and then it all kind of plateaus when you
jump into the swimming pool at the end and you
lose your cool friends because of it, and then at
the end you still ditch Corey for a more popular guy.
So I say all of that, like, what looking back
on the episode, you're talking about when you rewatched it,
(17:47):
the feelings it brought up for you that were mirroring
your own life. What now, rewatching it as an adult,
what do you feel about it now?
Speaker 8 (17:59):
I mean, I don't know if it like ages all
that well now you know, And but it's almost it's crazy.
I can almost still kind of tap into that emotion,
you know, where I think there is so much pressure
on I mean, I couldn't even imagine being like a
(18:21):
teenager now, you know.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I can't imagine.
Speaker 8 (18:24):
And if back in our time, if all of the
social media and all of the stuff that goes on
now was happening, then I don't know, that I would
have like survived that back then, you know. But yeah,
I think, like looking back at it, you know, I
was grateful for that opportunity because it actually for me
(18:46):
showed some of like my team that I could do
something else than just play this like weird, nerdy, you
know character. So I was really grateful for that. So
thank you guys for that.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
But yeah, it just.
Speaker 8 (19:01):
Kind of brought back those feelings of like, like at
that age, I had to learn very quickly, like you
better get okay with who you are as a human being,
like and you better do it fast, you know. And
unfortunately that didn't happen for me till much later in life.
But yeah, I mean, but it also brought back, like
I loved being on that show. I remember being so excited,
(19:26):
you know, that I had gotten the opportunity to do that.
But you know, it's a mixed bag of uh emotions, right,
It's a mixed back.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So well, do people still recognize you as Ingrid? Do
people talk to you about boy Mes World.
Speaker 8 (19:40):
All the time all the time. It's crazy, Like even
when I do conventions and there's always a Boymans World
picture on the table. People just love this character, which
is so special, and sometimes I get confused about it
because I'm like, I was only on one episode, but
they just love ingrid iverson, so.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
I think it's a great character. It's like I feel like,
but in this second season, it's like, you had your
episode and then Daniel Harris did her sister Teresa episode
where she played Harley Coiners and you guys like come
in and the whole episode is about you, and it's
like they're the best guest stars.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Like we've you know, I've only watched the show.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
So far up into the second season, but it seems
like they're the best characters that we had, you know,
like this, they're great roles and you did you got
to show this range. I'm fascinated by what you were saying, Like,
you know, it's it's so sad that I mean, it
makes sense, right that actors get categorized, right, Like, when
you're an actor, you get put into a category. You're
like the funny comic relief character, the leading lady, leading lady,
(20:45):
the whatever, and like, but for.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
A kid, that that's a different thing to internalize, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
I feel like as an adult you can say it
because like, uh, there's a there's a famous acting teacher
in La named I think this is I think it's
a Leslie Con thing. You guys know Leslie Con. You
guy's remember her, and she teaches that. She teaches her
actors to get up on stage and find their zero,
which is like what do you present naturally? Like what
is your presence? Just sort of read to people, And
(21:14):
so she'll actually have actors get up on stage and
the whole class will be like what you know, and
just say like, Hi, my name is so and so,
and then the whole class judges that person and says
like I don't trust her, or I want to go
on a date with her whatever. They're like instinct and
then like the whole idea is they understand what your
zero is, what you naturally present as, and then work
(21:34):
for that or against that based on the character you're playing.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Whatever. But when you're a.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Kid, like your zero is very hard to object to objectively,
like remove yourself from, you know, like I, as an adult,
you can say like, oh, yeah, I probably I have
a resting bitch face or whatever it is, and I
can work against that and you can just move beyond it.
But when you're a kid, that's your entire identity.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And I definitely felt that too.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Like as a kid, whatever it is, whatever parts you
get start to reflect how you feel about yourself, and
it's hard to like turn that off or I don't know,
but yeah, I often wondered if it was if it
was different with child.
Speaker 7 (22:10):
Actors out on the West Coast than it was on
the East Coast, because when I moved out here at sixteen,
even when I started Boy Mets World, you know, you're
still auditioning for the things you're auditioning for films or
whatever kind of in between.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
And the thing I noticed about LA.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
Was that it was always like, oh, man, you were
so great, thank you for coming in.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
It was so nice to see you here.
Speaker 7 (22:29):
And you walk out like, wow, I did well in
New York. It was like, no, you're too fat. Sorry, yeah,
so you just you Just by the time I was eleven,
I would walk in and they go, we ask for
a redhead who brought this kid?
Speaker 6 (22:40):
No, thank you very much. And I get back on
the bus and I go home and it.
Speaker 7 (22:43):
Sounds harsh, but it made my skin so thick that
I just it just wasn't about me, Like I was
able to completely dissect myself from the fact that they
were looking for something else, and at least they told
me that to my face, even at eleven or twelve,
as opposed to what I would get when I came
out here in LA.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
Was like, oh my god, you're so good. It was
so great to have you here.
Speaker 7 (23:05):
And then they'd never call you because they didn't like
you from the second you walked in. And so I wondered,
you know, I wonder mentally, which one is actually makes
you a stronger person and a stronger actor. Is somebody
just kind of saying to you, no, not gonna do
a kid, You're not what we're looking for. Or yeah,
oh my god, it's so great, you're awesome, and then
just not calling.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
So I think it depends on the kid, right I mean,
I would guess, but you have to adapt either way.
Either way, being a kid in that situation is difficult,
right like handling that rejection or the acceptance of only
one version of you, right like that that you don't
have the flexibility to be like, oh I can I
can be whoever I want as I grow up, you know,
But you know, and I mean, I think.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
All of us in this group were actually pretty lucky.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
You know, there are other kids who were like extremely
overweight or very short. You know, they had like a
different look that only was acceptable as a certain type
of character, right, and that's all they could play for
their entire you know, and that has got to wear
down on you in a way.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Natanya, what do you remember the things you were getting
cast for. What do you remember that telling you about
yourself and who you are? And like do you remember
being like, oh, I guess I'm this, I guess I'm
that because this is what everyone sees me as.
Speaker 8 (24:18):
Yes, I did, I very much do so, Like after Munchies.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Yeah, I love you know, I.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Was doing like little episode.
Speaker 8 (24:29):
I was doing step by step and just like all
these little guest parks always kind of as like the
Nerdy Friend or whatever. And then I did like the
middle version of Freaky Friday again the Nerdy Friend, and
like just remembering being on set in the like glasses
and the pigtails and like they just love to put
(24:49):
me in pigtails for whatever reason.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
And that was an interesting one too.
Speaker 8 (24:53):
I think that's when I really started to like like
pay attention to it. Because we had Andrew Keegan in
the movie. We had Marlowe all of these people that
were so cool, and I was like, wow, I am
not that I'm not that cool. And then I got
Alex Mack and.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
With Larissa o'linik, another one of our favorites.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yes, and uh.
Speaker 8 (25:15):
So Alex Mack was like an arduous process for me.
I had gone up for the sister you know quite
a few times and took it all the way to test.
Same with with Alex the part for Alex. Then they
shot the pilot, recast the entire thing brought me back
saying Sister Alex didn't get it, got the call from
(25:37):
my agent. They wrote apart just for you. All you
have to do is go down there. I get down
there to this same casting office that I had been
to like ten million times, and I was over it.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
At this point. I was like, give it to me
or not, but I'm.
Speaker 8 (25:51):
Not coming back after this and uh fifty girls there
of course, but this one I ended up getting. But
I remember the first episode I filmed, like instantly, you know,
put me in this kind of weird like like hurt.
The trajectory of her character and the growth of her
character ended up being really cool, like something that I
(26:14):
really leaned into towards the end of the last couple
of seasons. But at first, you know, I was this
eleven year old kid and I hadn't.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Really had puberty yet.
Speaker 8 (26:25):
I had very very pale skin, bright orange hair, which
you know, that's tough. That's like a tough one growing
up like that. And I said this on another podcast too,
when you're eleven years old with bright orange hair, pale skin.
Just booked this series that we don't know if it's
gonna make it or not, but it has the potential.
(26:47):
You don't know that you're just like a few years
away from like it's gonna be okay, You're gonna be pretty,
gonna be cool, everything's gonna be fine, but you just
don't know. And the character was so weird.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
She was so like.
Speaker 8 (27:01):
I've said, she's like the og original alt emo goth
girl of Nickelodeon. Yeah, and this character there wasn't representation
of these kind of kids that dressed like this and
felt like this, and and so again it was one
more time where I was like, well, no, I've accomplished
(27:22):
what I wanted to accomplish. I booked a series and
I'm in. I'm like part of the main cast. I'm
a series regular and this could really go and I'm
this weird kid again, you know. And so but I
had pops throughout where, like I was booking these roles
that weren't like that, like boy, me girl, babysitters club,
like all of these different things that got me out
(27:44):
of it a little bit. But even second season of
Alex Mack, I would like run to my dressing room
and put on like a little extra eyeliner or a
little extra clipline something to like, you know, make myself
feel a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So yeah, I definitely remember that.
Speaker 8 (27:59):
I mean I was I was type cast for sure,
bad girl, nerdy girl, weird girl, golf girl.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Right, anything but the main girl, right like that.
Speaker 8 (28:11):
But the main girl except for this really weird movie
I did in Canada with Chauncey lea party where I
played his girl. Yeah, and I was like I think
I was fifteen or sixteen, and so there, you know,
there was pops of it. There was pops of it.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Well, don't forget Munchie where you were Munchy's girlfriend.
Speaker 8 (28:30):
No, and there's Munkey strikes back right.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Right, she too?
Speaker 7 (28:35):
Exactly too, Yeah, I mean the ponytail, the pigtail glasses
thing was such a ninety stroke.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
Oh yeah, it was such a way. She can't be pretty,
she's got glasses. Like a minute, she has.
Speaker 7 (28:48):
A pony rail. She can't be pretty, and it is
just such a thing. Yeah, it was such a thing
where it was like it.
Speaker 8 (28:54):
Always had me like that until I forced them into
different hairstyles like second season, where I started to like
have more of a voice and kind of like advocate
for myself a little bit more and be like, look, why.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Is she'd always come on take them out, like we
can do we.
Speaker 8 (29:12):
Can do better here, you know. And they started to
listen to me and kind of let me aesthetically lean
into this character in a way that felt a little
bit more comfortable. I mean, there were still the nineties
chokers and out in the very nineties goth outfits and
all of that, but the hair got a little better,
like she's an infourd season. I just showed up one
(29:32):
day to set cut it all off.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And I was like now what, yeah, now, what are
you going to do?
Speaker 8 (29:36):
I was so rebellious towards the end of it because
I'd been put in this box for so long, but yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
Well you have been so open and inspirational talking about
the struggles you faced in your teens and then it
really finding its hold in your early twenties with substance abuse.
It's obviously something very common with young actors who find
early success, and we were hoping that you could share
some of that aspect of your story. When did drugs
(30:13):
and alcohol enter your life?
Speaker 8 (30:15):
So I I was probably like fifteen sixteen years old
when I started drinking and just you know, smoking weed
and doing like the things that we do as kids,
and you know, at these oak Wood parties.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
I know you guys will understand them.
Speaker 8 (30:29):
Reference every weekend, like the second I was done working,
I would just jam over there and like party all weekend.
But it was so innocent and young, you know, and
felt very like experimental and it wasn't a big deal.
But you know, when it started to get really rough
for me was around eighteen nineteen years old, and one
(30:50):
of the best like pieces of advice I could ever
give is like, really be careful who you surround yourself with,
you know. And I kind of fell into a little
bit of a rougher crowd, but all actors, so it
felt safe. But it was like the next level of
stuff that like was not going on at Oakwood, And
(31:14):
you know, I didn't come from a home life that
had any structure. There was a lot of chaos and
alcoholism that in the home, and for me, being an
actor was kind of like the first chapter of my
life where I was able to like go somewhere and
become somebody else, right, right, So, like everything that was
(31:36):
going on at home, like when I was on set,
that was my safe place. That's like all I had
for safety. So as I started getting seventeen eighteen years old,
and I started to look a little bit different, and
no one could really figure out what box to put
me in anymore. And I was getting these kind of
like one off things like Baywatch and nine O two
and zero and like all of these things. But I
(31:57):
was growing into more and more a different look, and
I cut all my hair off and dyed it like jet.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Black and just rebellious, you know.
Speaker 8 (32:04):
And at a certain point people were like, we're not
really sure what to do. Like the red hair was
the thing, and the less parts I got, the more,
you know, I internalized that and was really with the
wrong group of people. And yeah, I developed a gnarly
little heroin addiction, which is you know, which is really crazy,
(32:25):
Like when I think about how all of that went
down and like how fast it happened, And now as
an adult understanding the disease of alcoholism and that it
was inevitable for me, and it could have been any
substance really, and this just happened to be the one
that was introduced to me at a very young age.
(32:47):
Which again it's like, be careful who you surround yourself with,
but know that at seventeen, like we don't know that
at eighteen, when I'm just this young kid, I have
all this money, I'm like kind of famous, hanging out
with all these famous people, and someone's like, here, do
you want to try this? And instantly it takes away
like every feeling of self doubt you've ever had in
your entire life. And it instantly takes away all the
(33:09):
pain of like coming from a very from very tortured
parents themselves, and it instantly takes away all of these things.
And it didn't matter anymore if I had had pigtails
in Alex Mack, or if I had you know, glasses
and boy Meets World or none of that mattered anymore.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
And yeah, so that was rough.
Speaker 8 (33:28):
So I spent all of my twenties, you know, suffering
with active addiction, and then figured it out in my thirties,
and god bless was able to turn around. And I
know it's like a very cliche child star story. Mom
steals all the money at eighteen, girl gets strung out
on heroin blah blah blah blah blah. But also I
(33:51):
think that what's not talked about enough too is that
some people do go through that and then make it out.
Yeah really, you know that to me is like, because
people are fascinated by this story of a young child
star that had all this recognition and then is strung
(34:11):
out on like what you know, we would deem as
one of the worst things ever to get involved with,
right and and but what's not talked about more often
is that some people make.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
It out of that.
Speaker 8 (34:24):
And I'm trying to advocate for those people too, because
a lot of kids that get fed up like that
because of you know, whatever it is. I don't want
to blame it on child acting because I don't know
that that's really, uh the cause by any means, but
you know, so, yeah, so when I turned thirty, and
(34:45):
believe me, I had many bouts in my twenties of
trying to get clean and going to rehab and like
trying to figure it out. And at thirty, I just
I kind of hit like a different kind of spiritual
bottom that I'd never hit before and really understood that
if I didn't get this now, that I wasn't gonna
make it.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Like I knew that.
Speaker 8 (35:06):
So, yeah, now I'm forty one. Wow, And I spent
the last decade of my life like figuring out who
I was and like more importantly than that, being okay
with who that girl was. Because I haven't acted in
a long time. I just started acting again and I
had to like be okay that my identity wasn't about
(35:27):
being famous anymore or this or that and that, and
that I had to let I had to learn how
to trust people that they really liked me for who
I was, and you know, and I finally figured out
kind of how to forgive the girl that was in
her twenties that was just doing the best that she could, yeah,
(35:50):
without having really had proper guidance or structure, and like
forgive that girl and tell her that it was okay,
so that this woman could keep going.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
You know what, an inspirational story. I mean, you know,
we talk about it even on a very on a
such a minor, little superficial level, that none of us
have any real like style or fashion sense because from
the time we were young, we just handed that over
to somebody else and just said, Okay, you tell me
what to wear, and you tell me what's fashionable, you
(36:22):
tell me what's in.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
And I'm listening to your story.
Speaker 5 (36:25):
And what I'm realizing and thinking about is that for
child actors, you hand over so much of your identity
to other people.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
You tell me who I am, you tell me what
box I check.
Speaker 5 (36:38):
You tell me what because because the roles that I'm
booking must say something about who I am. And so
it's so that can be something that is depending on
which boxes people tell you you're checking. You know, you can't
expect an eleven year old to have a sense of
identity or a sense of self. You know, you haven't
(36:59):
had a check to develop that yet. And so for
you to have spent your all of your teens being
told who you were and to be feeling like I
reject some of that, but I don't know how to
process it and then to really you know, it makes
sense that for so many people you deal with it
by self medicating.
Speaker 6 (37:19):
I think there's also something to chasing the rush.
Speaker 7 (37:22):
You know, you're on stage one night in front of
an audience and you're popular and important and it matters,
and then the next day the show is canceled and
it's gone right, And for some people, they never get
that rush back, so they look for other places. You know,
It's that I always said that that being in front
of the audience was quote unquote like my drug.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
You get this this.
Speaker 7 (37:40):
Rush from being there, from the feeling of being important,
how fake it is, whether it's real or not, it's
really you, and all of a sudden, it's gone one
day and you do it.
Speaker 6 (37:50):
You can to chase it for some people.
Speaker 7 (37:51):
So it's I mean that being said, we also have
to acknowledge that there's you know, millions of people out
there that struggle with addiction that aren't in the entertainment industry.
I know, you know, my one of my oldest friends
I lost to heroin overdose six six years ago, and
it's hard to pull out of and you watch the
decline and it's just to see how well you're doing now.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
I mean, I've seen the descent.
Speaker 7 (38:14):
So to see somebody kind of pull out of it
and have the life that you do is really a
testament because you're right, there isn't enough said about the
people that can pull themselves out of it. But that
being said, that's a small percentage of people that do.
I mean, the recidivism rate for especially heroin addiction is brutal.
You're right, So that's a testament to you as well
(38:34):
to the strength you found to be able to pull
yourself out of that.
Speaker 8 (38:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (38:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (38:38):
And I think that I, you know, probably started suffering
with mental health issues that were undiagnosed, unmedicated when I
was young, like really young. I always remember like waking
up feeling really heartbroken and I couldn't quite pinpoint like
what that meant when my life was so cool on
the outside to like, you know, I was like, well,
(38:58):
I just felt things so deeply, and I was just
continuously told like, you're an EmPATH, You're a deep child.
You feel the hard you know. And in the nineties,
we didn't talk about this kind of thing the way
we're able to talk about it now. And I actually
work in treatment now, which is such a one ad.
I mean, it's like if you would ask me at
twenty years old, if this is what my life would
(39:20):
look like. But you know, I'm a director in a
drug and alcohol treatment facility, so I helped getting people
you know, on a daily if not you know, every
other day basis, and so, like what Will was saying,
the rate of people that make it is very low,
is very very low, And so I guess it kind
(39:41):
of poses the question to those of us who have
been blessed and graced enough to like make it through
that type of a chapter in our lives, like how
do you maintain that?
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Then?
Speaker 8 (39:50):
Like how do you make sure? And I think for me,
the secret to the success of it. You know, a
lot of people obviously want to ask me, like, well,
how do you do it? Like how do I do it?
Like what should I do? And I think the best
thing that's worked for me because my whole life has
been spent thinking about me. All I do is think
about me, right, Like how did that make me feel?
Like how do I look?
Speaker 6 (40:11):
Like?
Speaker 3 (40:11):
What's going on with me? And what can my next move?
And all of that?
Speaker 8 (40:13):
And the second I like let all of that go,
and I really understood the concept of the more I
think about you, the less I think about me, right,
everything changed, Everything changed for me, you know, And to
lead with a heart of service and to go out
into the world and be of service in whatever ways
you can be, and there's a million ways to do it.
Sometimes it's just picking up the phone when.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
A friend needs your help.
Speaker 8 (40:36):
Will like continue to sustain that type of like a
spiritual levity, so to speak, and like pay back kind
of the karma of like all the things I did
when I was in my twenties and so anyway, Yeah,
I listened to the episode you guys did with Danny,
and it really like I could get emotional thinking about
(40:58):
it because I really just understood, like I felt that
on a very deep level, and I thought that was
really brave, like how open he was about it. And
I think that the more open we can be and
the more conversations we can have like this, especially for
those of us who people have watched our whole lives, right, Like,
I still have fans that are like I've been you know,
I had your AOL.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
What I mean, I'm like what you know?
Speaker 7 (41:21):
And first of all, easy, I'm still AOL's careful what
we're gonna say.
Speaker 8 (41:29):
Watching from like that long, you know, and so although
it has been made very very shameful thing, it's not.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
It's really not like let's just talk about it, you know, well,
but he has something, you know.
Speaker 7 (41:42):
That's why nothing, almost nothing helps more than talking about it.
Just talking about it, because you invariably find half of
the people you're talking to deal with something as well,
and there's just that safety and knowing you're not alone,
that's right, that's kind of can help to start the process. So, yeah,
any time you talk about it, is it better?
Speaker 6 (41:59):
It really does does.
Speaker 5 (42:00):
Yeah, I want to just really briefly touch on the
fact because it's it's something a few of our guests
have mentioned, but we've never really dived too deeply into it.
What was the situation with your finances been at eighteen?
How you you you very casually mentioned that your mom
stole all your money?
Speaker 2 (42:21):
How did what was that situation?
Speaker 4 (42:23):
So this happens way more than We've had a lot
of guests on air but also off air talk about this.
Speaker 7 (42:31):
We know so many actors, yeah, so many, it's it's
it is a common common story.
Speaker 6 (42:37):
With child actors. Unfortunately, it's also that this.
Speaker 8 (42:40):
Happens incredible that the parents figure out how to do
this also, but so we were from New York. We
moved out here to do that show Billy, and I
think my mom realized very quickly, like how much actors
get taxed when she heard how much I was going
to make per episode and then saw the checks and
she was like, what the hell. So she incorporated me
(43:01):
at like ten years old, So I became a ten
ninety nine as opposed to Natania Ross and all SAG
checks went to corporation named it Red Hair Blue Eyes.
Like I want to die inside every time I say
that out loud. So everything went to Red Hair Blue Eyes.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (43:17):
Right, And it's not taxed, it's it goes basically, I
mean a little bit different.
Speaker 8 (43:21):
It's corporate tax through a corporation, so it's it's a lot.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Better tax at the end of the year. It's a
whole different thing.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Yeah, different thing.
Speaker 8 (43:28):
And because of the minor I couldn't be an officer
of the company. So my mom was able to make
herself president, vice president, secretary.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
This that herself the salary.
Speaker 8 (43:39):
So until I turned about twenty, actually I was the
sole breadwinner of the family. So there's that aspect where
I'm paying all the bills, all of this, all of that,
and then like beyond right, like there's facelifts happening, and
there's nails getting done and there's all that kind of stuff.
But I'm not you know, I'm a kid, and I
think I'm like, I'm a multi multi multip I you
have no idea.
Speaker 5 (43:59):
I used to I used to jokingly say, oh, I
know I make money, it's just somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
I never saw it exactly.
Speaker 8 (44:07):
So then I turned eighteen, and I got everything that
was in the Cougan account because remember I started actually
six months old, so there was a decent amount there,
but there was a lot more.
Speaker 6 (44:20):
And uh, it was very The Cougan account is twenty five?
Speaker 3 (44:25):
Is it twenty five?
Speaker 6 (44:26):
I thought, I think it's whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Fifteen, yeah, fifteen, twenteen, fifteen.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
I think at some point it became twenty five, but
originally fifteen.
Speaker 8 (44:34):
But remember too, once I turned ten years old, nothing
else was taken for the Cougan account because I was
now now incorporated a boy, Alex, Matt, all the big ones.
That nothing went into the Cougan account. So I turn eighteen,
and now it becomes very easy to tell me, like, well,
I'm not giving you any money. You have a drug
(44:55):
problem very and then it's like, well, I need money
to like get help for this drug problem. And it's
like all right, I mean, I guess we could try
and move it. And then, you know, I went to
rehab and I was desperate. You know, I was a
young kid who was very aware that I had a
major issue already at like twenty two years old, and
(45:17):
it had just been a few years before that I
was acting, and I was working, working actor all the time,
never stopping, and so I was like, this is it.
I'm going to try and fix this right now so
i can get my life back. And you know, when
you're in a situation like that, you're very vulnerable and
people all of a sudden start to have power over you.
(45:37):
And I was told that I could get the help
that I needed if I signed a power of attorney.
I did, you know, And while I was that rehab stint,
while I was in the house I had helped buy
for my mom, all of the stuff was no longer
no longer belonged to me. So throughout that decade, I'm
(46:00):
sure a lot of that goes into like why I
had to just keep numbing myself to the point of like.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Being able to think.
Speaker 8 (46:08):
So yeah, I mean it was that was the situation.
And then, you know, years later, I'd be like, hey,
let me get that.
Speaker 3 (46:13):
Money, and it's like, I don't want money.
Speaker 8 (46:14):
I don't know what money. You're dying. You didn't make
as much as you thought, And it was just like
a series of gas lights that just got to the
point where, you know, even the residuals I would I
would go on this really weird downward spiral where I
would say, hey, can I get some of my residuals? Oh,
you haven't gotten any residuals. I would call SAG and
they'll list for you the last twenty you got with
(46:35):
the amounts, and I write everything down and take it back.
I don't know, and I just I couldn't take it anymore.
And when I got sober at thirty, like for real,
for real, got sober at thirty, I had to make
the decision that if I held onto that for one
more second, it's like me drinking poison and expecting someone
(46:56):
else to die right right, And for what reason? If
she needed it that bad, she can have it, you know,
she can have it. It's crazy me and my now husband.
But when he was my boy friend, we moved into
this apartment and I think it was like the first
time I had done a change of address in forever,
(47:17):
like a real proper change of address, and all of
a sudden, all these residual checks start coming in. Boy
meets World being one of the best actually, and they
just started rolling in and I was like, well, look
at that, right, it's crazy. And but the lesson it
taught me to and it's probably made me very irresponsible
with money, to be honest, because I just don't care
(47:38):
about it because I just can't ever have it, like
be this thing in my life anymore where I'm so like,
oh my god, who's doing you know, I'm just like,
you want money, you can have it.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah, let's go, let's go on this.
Speaker 8 (47:49):
Vacation, like who cares, Let's just live and have fun
and not worry about money. So in that sense, I
think it's done. It's a little irresponsible of me at times,
for sure, but also, you know, it's taught me that
the value of what money actually means, and it means,
you know, fractured relationships. It's different for me than it
(48:14):
is for most people. But that, Yeah, that's my story.
It's really crazy to think about it, you know now
as an adult of like just how much young child
actors get taken advantage of and unfortunately some of us
by our own family.
Speaker 5 (48:30):
Natania, I want you to know that that like hearing
you talk about all of that and the way you know,
I just want you to know that one of the
things I'm taking away from your experience is that.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Money comes and money.
Speaker 5 (48:43):
Goes, and it in your life has not at all
represented success. You are such a success and you are
so inspirational, and whether when the money has been there,
when the money has not been there, it has had
no bearing on you turning out to be the wonderful
(49:04):
and amazing person that you are, and so that real
like you can you can frame it however you want,
but like I'm looking at it and I say, you
don't have to have a choke hold on it, because
ultimately it hasn't it hasn't been what you've had to
base your life on. And I'm just I'm so proud
of you, and I'm so inspired by you, and I'm
(49:25):
so grateful that you came and shared your experiences here
with us, and thank you also for all the work
you do with other people who are in, you know,
the same shoes you were in more than a decade ago,
and for leading with that heart of service that you
that you do and the impact that you make on people.
Because no matter how many times people come up to
(49:47):
you and remember you from Boy Meets World or Alex
Mack or Munchie or whatever it is, MUNCHI too, Munchi too,
the real, like your real impact is going to be
with those people whose life you have absolutely changed. And
just thank you so much for being here with us.
Speaker 3 (50:05):
Thank you. This was awesome, so fun.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
So much fun.
Speaker 5 (50:09):
I I'm bummed I wasn't in that Albuquerque. Uh I
wasn't at that Albuquerque con, but I hope that Let's go.
Speaker 1 (50:19):
It was a genuinely good time. It was like it was.
It was a pretty empty con, so we just all
got to hang.
Speaker 6 (50:25):
Out hanging out.
Speaker 7 (50:26):
Yes, we're just all hanging out paper planes across the
thing and each other.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
And the Sandlog guys are a crazy bunch.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
That was really like to witness their dynamic and like,
I know, Natanya, you've been around them for a while
because you know it's just like, oh, this is a
fun it's a whole, it's a whole Seaton.
Speaker 5 (50:43):
Yeah, well I want to be at the next one.
So thank you again, Natanya. It was really wonderful talking
to you and catching up and I hope to see
you again soon me too.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
Than Bi. Wow, what a life, what a story.
Speaker 7 (50:59):
It's the thing that that amazes me is it would
be so easy to be horribly bitter right right about
everything you've been through. I like every oh, this business
was horrible, my family was horrible, my addiction was horrible.
Speaker 6 (51:12):
And instead she turned it all around, is like no,
I'm just gonna help other people.
Speaker 4 (51:15):
She's so and she's like, I mean when we saw
her at the con, she just walked right up to
us and gave us a big hug and has like
nothing but positive and just wants to know about our
life and she's so kind, and yeah, she's not bitter,
she's not cynical, and she's not even against like it's
so I mean, it's so impressive that she doesn't even
blame the industry or child actor dumb now, you know,
because that can basically be one source of like, well
(51:35):
then everything's a problem, you know. I'm like no, She's like, no,
I still like could she wants to get back into acting.
She's acting like and can talk about it so positively.
It's like, that's that's really.
Speaker 7 (51:46):
Awesome, hugely inspirational. Yeah, it really is. It's just it's yeah,
it's really incredible. It really is.
Speaker 6 (51:51):
But man, having your money stolen from your your your
family is just a story we keep hearing over it.
I know.
Speaker 4 (51:58):
Yeah, I mean I think what I'm fortunately happens is
like if a kid is talented, right, whether that be
acting or sports or whatever, right that that that can
become just an escape valve for a parent, you know,
like I can make my entire life better by by
this kid.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
And you know, like I remember too, like there's this pattern.
Speaker 4 (52:19):
And I you know, I'm not sure this is Natania's
pattern at all, but there was also a pattern that
I remember there was a lot of moms in particular,
but parents, but moms in particular who basically were using.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Their kid as a child actor to get a divorce.
Like do you guys remember that.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
It would be like somebody who's like, oh, I've left,
you know, they moved to LA from wherever they are
to get away from their husband, and it was just
like a way to sort of slowly, you know, break
up with their partner. But it became like, oh, I'm
I'm here to support my kid's career. But in reality
it was like, well, you're going through your own stuff
and your kid, your kids acting career is just an
excuse for you to break away and like start your
(52:56):
own life.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (52:58):
I hope that that happens less because I remember that
was like at the oak Wood there would be all
these moms.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
You'd be like, what was last time you saw your husband?
Speaker 8 (53:05):
Right?
Speaker 6 (53:05):
Yeah, it's yeah, the whole it's so strange, it all.
Speaker 7 (53:08):
It's all just kinds of We've talked about nature versus
nurture on this podcast a lot, and it all seems
to kind of come down to the home you grew
up in, just how you were raised, what you were
raised around, who you were raised by.
Speaker 6 (53:19):
I mean, it makes a huge difference, it really does.
Speaker 2 (53:21):
So I don't know, Well, I'm glad.
Speaker 5 (53:24):
I'm glad I asked her about that, because, like I said,
we've had a few people like allude to it or
mention it, and then we've never really spent the time
actually talking about how that happens. Uh Man, isn't that
crazy too that just like the change of address, and
then all of a sudden the checks started coming to her.
Speaker 6 (53:40):
Start rolling in. What you know, it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 5 (53:45):
Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us
on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us
your emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com.
And we have Merch Merch.
Speaker 6 (53:57):
Too Back in Time or whatever that movie was called
that you merch.
Speaker 5 (54:00):
Two strike MERGI twos strike two MERG two strikes back.
Speaker 7 (54:04):
That's what it is.
Speaker 5 (54:06):
Yes, and last, but most certainly not least. If you
are looking for help with addiction, there is confidential free
help to fine treatment and information at one eight hundred
sixty six two four three five seven writer send us out.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 4 (54:24):
Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted
by Danielle Fischel, Wilfernell and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen
Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
producer and editor, Tara Sudbox producer, Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and
Boy Meets World super fan. Easton Allen. Our theme song
is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. You can follow us
(54:45):
on Instagram at Podmets World Show or send us an
email at Podmeats World Show at gmail dot com.
Danielle were you were you practicing your signature?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Like to see that I do that while we're doing
the podcast. I just write my name over and over again.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I just love it. It's like she still has a
crush on Jensen. She's practicing.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Practice.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
She wrote a little hard.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
I just think I've ever seen I think, not read
Lance Bass or Taylor Thomas or any of the others.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
At least I love my husband.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
No official Bass.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Whoa, Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Well, remember when we got to whatever convention that was
a couple of weeks ago, and I was like, guys,
I have a new signature. I'm gonna I'm gonna really
take my time. That lasted four signatures before. I was like, no,
I just have a thing now that where I don't
even really have control over what comes out of me
with my signature anymore. It's just like the pen touches
(01:23):
the paper and my hand does the same moves over
and over again. And even if I wanted, like, for example,
I have wanted to stop doing that exclamation point, happy
face exclamation point that I do at the bottom of
my name, I've done it ever since I ever started
signing autographs when I was like eleven or twelve years old,
and I want to stop.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It and I can't.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
You know, you can't, You just can Yeah, I can't.
Can just stop. After the I.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Sign my name and it just happens automatically, and I'm like, oh,
I wanted to.
Speaker 7 (01:51):
Not do that.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (01:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (01:52):
By the end of the con, you can't even tell
what my name is, like it just says like best wishes,
Wendell Freeman.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Super fil freed Ale.
Speaker 6 (02:00):
Yeah, you just can't. You can't tell anymore. It's just
a blur.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And my parents we we we were with my parents
a couple of weeks ago, got together and we'd had
like a whole board game weekend in this in this
beach house.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Was so fun.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
And my parents have this crazy thing that I don't
know where they got it, but their glasses like a
goggles that you put on that turn the world upside down.
It's like a set of mirrors, so you're looking through
but suddenly your feet are on the ceiling. It's like
it completely inverts the world right. It makes you like,
it drives you crazy, and what you try and do
(02:33):
is like try and write something and you can't, Like
you cannot like you look down, which means looking up
at what you're right.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It's so confusing, Oh is sign my name?
Speaker 4 (02:43):
It was like I couldn't write like because you try
and just write correctly and you end up writing upside
down and backwards. And so then I was like, no, no, no,
I'm just gonna close my eyes and sign my name
and I could do it perfectly.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
So it's like, wow, yeah, it's just automatic. You've got
to try.
Speaker 6 (02:58):
Just thinking about that made me nauseous.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You've got to ask your parents where they got that.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, it's the coolest thing.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I mean, Indy put it on, could not take it
off and was just like what God, Yeah, it's so weird.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Oh that's cool. Welcome to pod meets World. I'm Danielle Fischel, I'm.
Speaker 6 (03:13):
Rider Strong, and I'm Wilfredell.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
So when you film a seven seasons of a TV show,
episodes start to blend together a bit, as you may
have already heard on an almost weekly basis with this podcast,
and now thirty years later, we have forgotten a lot
of things. But recently, Will and Ryder bumped into this
week's guest at a convention in Albuquerque, and they couldn't
(03:37):
be happier to remember the sweetness that is Natanya Ross.
She appeared in just one episode of Boy Meets World
as ingrid iverson the girl, Corey and Sean decide to
riz up for the big Christmas dance and hopes she'll
become more popular.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Thanks.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
Thanks, guys.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
I was hoping you guys were going to notice, and
in turn, she left quite an impression on the legacy
of the show, and after visiting us, she went on
to star in the Freaky Friday TV movie with Shelley
Long and Gabby Hoffman. She appeared on The Babysitters Club
and Baywatch, and most notably, she was in almost fifty
episodes of The Secret World of Alex Mack, playing Robin Russo.
(04:16):
So now all three of us are thrilled to be
reunited with Natanya to talk not only about her guest
appearance on Boymet's World and the fact that she's the
only proof we have that our school did indeed have
a pool, but also we will chat about her life
since we work together, and what she's overcome to be
here today. Let's please welcome to the show. Natanya Ross.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Hi, Hi, Hi, how is everyone?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
We're good how are you.
Speaker 8 (04:45):
I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
We were just discussing right before you came in. How
you ran into writer and Will at a convention last
year in Albuquerque.
Speaker 8 (04:54):
Yes, I did.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
It was us in the Sandloch Crew Hanger.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
It was nothing else and the Mighty Ducks and the
and the Mighty Ducks.
Speaker 8 (05:03):
We had Jean and Marty and there was nothing else
to do.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
Pretty much, it's pretty accurate.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I just got.
Speaker 8 (05:10):
Booked to do another one in the same place. Yeah,
and I was like, all right, I guess I'll go back.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
I mean, the question really is how fast can you
spell Albuquerque?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Not fast at all?
Speaker 6 (05:22):
Albl a l b u q u e r q
u e oh, I go home albac.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You practiced that just to be able to do that
pretty much. Party.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, that's a party track, it is.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
It absolutely is.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Okay, So let's start with our most basic question we
like to ask everybody, which is when did you get
into acting as a kid?
Speaker 8 (05:46):
Six months old?
Speaker 6 (05:47):
No, really, that might be our youngest ever.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You might beat Matt Lawrence because he's somewhere in the
first year or year and a half, but you six.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Months Tell us about that.
Speaker 8 (05:59):
Yeah, I don't remember much.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
What what do you mean, I want to know all
my memory, I don't remember much.
Speaker 8 (06:05):
My mom was just like very determined to make me
into something, which I'm you know, goes into a lot
of ship that happened later on in my life. But yeah,
six months old, I was a Gerber baby. I was
doing a bunch of commercials, and then I had like
very very very small parts in Crimes and Misdemeanors and
(06:29):
Awakenings with Robert de Niro and Crazy. But then like
the first I guess real recognizable thing which really still
trips me out that people even comment on this was
Little Monsters.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
I yes, so you were in Little Monsters, which starred
Fred Savage and had a cameo by Ben.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, I know, crazy and I.
Speaker 8 (06:53):
Oh my god, I don't even know if I've actually
seen it all the way through either. But I was
very were young.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I was six years old, and.
Speaker 8 (07:01):
I had this like thirty second little Heart, and that's
really what kind of kicked everything off. When I think
my mom and my team at that time, it's so
weird that to have a team at six years old,
but they were like, yeah, let's try and take this
as far as we can take.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It with this.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Let's take this, let's let's.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Take this all the way.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, six years of investment if paid off.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
So, what are your like? Those are some pretty big
sets to be on as a small kid. What is
what do you what.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Is like your earliest memory of being on a set?
What do you actually remember where you're like? I know
I did those jobs because there's evidence of it, But like,
the first one I really remember is, Yeah.
Speaker 8 (07:44):
Probably I did like a Juicy juice commercial in Canada.
I remember that because we had to get on a
plane and we were first class and it was this
big thing and I loved it so much. But I
think Little Monsters is probably the first set I really
remember being on. I couldn't tell you, like too much
about it, but I have recollections of like what it
felt like and what it made me feel like and
(08:05):
what was Yeah, I was really cognizant even at that
age that this was what I wanted to be doing.
So although I have, you know, a little bit of
a cliche child star story later on in life, I
was never forced into it. Like I knew that I
loved it even at that age. I just didn't know
(08:29):
how much I was about to really love it, like
later on, you know, I just was like I was
like a rambunctious kind of a big personality kid.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And I was like, yeah, I'm on set. This is great.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
You know.
Speaker 8 (08:40):
It didn't like, I think, penetrate my soul the way
it did later on, but I knew I was where
I wanted to be.
Speaker 6 (08:48):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
And so when you then made it to boy Meet's World,
did Bean remember you Did you guys talk about little
Monsters at all?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I don't think so.
Speaker 8 (08:57):
No, No, I don't think I brought that. I was
nervous on set with you guys, and I came from
I was already on Alex Mack, so I was integrated
into a set family too. You know, we were I
think on season two when I did Alex Mack, when
I did Boy Meet's World. So I just I remember
(09:17):
coming in knowing the dynamic that you guys had probably
already built together because I had that too. So I
was nervous. I was like, I don't remember talking much
to anyone really, but I did talk to Ben the
most for sure, but never about little monsters.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Wow.
Speaker 8 (09:35):
Even later on when we were I don't even think
I brought that up.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I don't think I've.
Speaker 6 (09:41):
Never we've never seen little Monsters.
Speaker 7 (09:43):
But I have a question if anybody knows, is it
called little monsters because the kids are bad, like problem
child or they're actually monsters?
Speaker 4 (09:51):
I think yeah, it's like a monster under the bed
or something that they've become friends with or something.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
Okay, all right, it's.
Speaker 8 (09:57):
Like a main monster too.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Howie Mandel is like, okay, gin monster. I should probably
watched it too.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
We should watch it.
Speaker 7 (10:04):
We should watch it of little monsters.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
Oh my gosh, Well you were also I mean, you
were also on a TGIF show. You were on Billy,
the sitcom with Billy Connolly and Johnny Gillecky, So you
were all by the time you got to Boy Meets World,
you are already like a TGIF staple.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
You were already on Alex Mac in second season.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
Okay, So before we get into Boy Meets World, there
is a movie that you did that I have to
talk to you about because in doing research for this interview,
I'm not sure this this movie is ever gonna leave
my nightmare.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
So I need all the details.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
Munchie Strikes Back, the sequel to Munchie and that movie,
Munchie starred Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
So you were in the sequel.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
I want to show you the image of Munchie the
monster in it because it's it's pretty, it's pretty crazy,
it's a it's a wonderful creature. And this is the
official movie description. He dresses like a lounge singer, oh,
sounds like a stand up comedian and has magic powers.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
Oh, my father, how have I never seen that?
Speaker 5 (11:32):
I love his card again and I need to know
every detail about this movie.
Speaker 8 (11:37):
Oh my god, God bless the nineties exactly.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, that was not to say about this movie.
Speaker 8 (11:49):
It was like this weird little Roger Korman movie. I
don't even think I auditioned for it, just kind of
like came across to us as an offer. And my
Mom's like, dude, if you knew anything.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
What was what was the character you played in it?
Speaker 7 (12:04):
So?
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I played the girlfriend of.
Speaker 8 (12:07):
No no, no, no no no.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I was going to be so excited.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah that would be like.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
So I mean to kiss.
Speaker 8 (12:17):
I was a girlfriend of like the main character and
his best friend was Munchie. But it was like an
imaginary like no one else could really see it. And yeah,
I was just like his little girlfriend in the movie.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
And what was it like with that? Was that puppet
on set all the time? Did you have to interact
with that puppet?
Speaker 8 (12:35):
The puppet was on set, I didn't have any scenes
with the puppet. Like the prints of the movie is
like only this kid can see it.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
Yeah. I love how Danielle was just assuming it's a puppet.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Well, it could be a real guy, could be a
real person.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Just yeah, seriously, he instantly just judged that young actor.
Very nice, Danielle.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Sorry, I have.
Speaker 8 (12:55):
To say, with all the interviews I do, I've never
once been asked about monkey Man.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
That makes me happy.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
That's that's our special time.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
Yeah, not every podcast kind of hits the level we.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Do right to the jugular.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
We try. We try to get the.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Entirely forgetable nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, no, I want to work with a puppet like that?
Are you kidding me? That's the puppet is amazing. And
he's wearing a cute card again. I love it.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Okay, card a good look.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
It's a great look. I mean, if you're a puppet,
wear a card again.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
So there's one thing you learned from this interview, let
it be that, So after Munchie you then came onto
our set as Ingrid, who was a nerdy wallflower who
Corey decides to try and make popular. Do you remember
auditioning for that one or like what was that process?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Like I do.
Speaker 8 (13:46):
So I had audition for Boy Meets World a plethora
of times for like all sorts of.
Speaker 7 (13:51):
Like everybody that's the story that seems to be the story.
Speaker 8 (13:54):
Yeah, and this one was like really last minute too.
They called me in just a couple of days before
this was about to start, So I think I came
in on a Friday and it was gonna start on Monday,
and and it was like one of those times and
I have a lot of this where they were like
the part is yours, Like you're not even auditioning against
(14:15):
anyone else, just go in. They just want to see
you read. And of course I show up and there's
like fifty other girls there.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Of course that happening on.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Alex mad say that you've already seen it every.
Speaker 8 (14:24):
Other every audition for like the last ten years. So yeah,
I just I went in and read, and I think
as I was leaving they called my agent and said
they got it. So then I showed up Monday to
table read with you guys.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Yeah, and what's crazy to me is the entire episode
is you I know, like, yeah, you have so much
to do in this episode.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I've forgotten that.
Speaker 8 (14:46):
Yeah, yeah, it's so crazy too, because I mean, obviously,
Alex Mack was such a big thing in the nineties
and that's I think what most of the fan base
still like remains about. But this specific episode, I get DMS.
I mean, it's NonStop about this specific episode.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
And and I've.
Speaker 8 (15:04):
Rewatched it, you know, yeah, and I have so many
thoughts about it. But I understand I think a little
bit more now as an adult, why this episode resonated
so much with kids at that time. I mean, aside
from the fact that boy Meet's world is so special
to so so so many people, it touched on so
(15:26):
many different things. And as I've rewatched it, it kind
of like unlocked this core feeling for me that I
had back then, where like this was very much art
imitates life for me without any of you guys knowing,
without me, you know, saying anything like that. I very
much felt like both of these variations of Ingrid, Like
(15:50):
I very much felt like the nerdy girl, the not
attractive girl, the not popular girl, and then like with
potentially the promise to like maybe be prettier or whatever.
And it had been like ingrained in my head for
so long by agents and managers of like, yeah, you're cute,
but like you're just not that girl, or you're not
(16:12):
the lead girl, you're not the girlfriend, you're not any
of these things. And Boy Meet's World was kind of
the first time I had the opportunity to like show
both sides, you know. But I distinctly when I was
in that brown dress thing.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Whatever that was the worst.
Speaker 8 (16:32):
Yeah, and the glasses and the pigtails that I was like,
it just it made me feel so much like the
outside was like showing how I really felt inside.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And I was just kind of like embarrassed to.
Speaker 8 (16:45):
Be in that outfit, you know. And and then also
then when the makeover happens, I was like, am I
even this girl? It was an interesting week for me.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I will say, Yeah, we recently rewatched it as well,
and we also had many mixed emotions about it.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
You're you know, sort of thrown into the situation where
they're going to try to make you like more hot
for Corey and you never really give any input on
it before you get the makeover, and then it is
revealed that you like want to be popular so bad
that you're like down for whatever.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
That's the best moment of the episode.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
I think it's like when you grab ben by the
caller in your life, make me popular popular?
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Yeah, and then it all kind of plateaus when you
jump into the swimming pool at the end and you
lose your cool friends because of it, and then at
the end you still ditch Corey for a more popular guy.
So I say all of that, like, what looking back
on the episode, you're talking about when you rewatched it,
(17:47):
the feelings it brought up for you that were mirroring
your own life. What now, rewatching it as an adult,
what do you feel about it now?
Speaker 8 (17:59):
I mean, I don't know if it like ages all
that well now you know, And but it's almost it's crazy.
I can almost still kind of tap into that emotion,
you know, where I think there is so much pressure
on I mean, I couldn't even imagine being like a
(18:21):
teenager now, you know.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I can't imagine.
Speaker 8 (18:24):
And if back in our time, if all of the
social media and all of the stuff that goes on
now was happening, then I don't know, that I would
have like survived that back then, you know. But yeah,
I think, like looking back at it, you know, I
was grateful for that opportunity because it actually for me
(18:46):
showed some of like my team that I could do
something else than just play this like weird, nerdy, you
know character. So I was really grateful for that. So
thank you guys for that.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
But yeah, it just.
Speaker 8 (19:01):
Kind of brought back those feelings of like, like at
that age, I had to learn very quickly, like you
better get okay with who you are as a human being,
like and you better do it fast, you know. And
unfortunately that didn't happen for me till much later in life.
But yeah, I mean, but it also brought back, like
I loved being on that show. I remember being so excited,
(19:26):
you know, that I had gotten the opportunity to do that.
But you know, it's a mixed bag of uh emotions, right,
It's a mixed back.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So well, do people still recognize you as Ingrid? Do
people talk to you about boy Mes World.
Speaker 8 (19:40):
All the time all the time. It's crazy, Like even
when I do conventions and there's always a Boymans World
picture on the table. People just love this character, which
is so special, and sometimes I get confused about it
because I'm like, I was only on one episode, but
they just love ingrid iverson, so.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
I think it's a great character. It's like I feel like,
but in this second season, it's like, you had your
episode and then Daniel Harris did her sister Teresa episode
where she played Harley Coiners and you guys like come
in and the whole episode is about you, and it's
like they're the best guest stars.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Like we've you know, I've only watched the show.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
So far up into the second season, but it seems
like they're the best characters that we had, you know,
like this, they're great roles and you did you got
to show this range. I'm fascinated by what you were saying, Like,
you know, it's it's so sad that I mean, it
makes sense, right that actors get categorized, right, Like, when
you're an actor, you get put into a category. You're
like the funny comic relief character, the leading lady, leading lady,
(20:45):
the whatever, and like, but for.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
A kid, that that's a different thing to internalize, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
I feel like as an adult you can say it
because like, uh, there's a there's a famous acting teacher
in La named I think this is I think it's
a Leslie Con thing. You guys know Leslie Con. You
guy's remember her, and she teaches that. She teaches her
actors to get up on stage and find their zero,
which is like what do you present naturally? Like what
is your presence? Just sort of read to people, And
(21:14):
so she'll actually have actors get up on stage and
the whole class will be like what you know, and
just say like, Hi, my name is so and so,
and then the whole class judges that person and says
like I don't trust her, or I want to go
on a date with her whatever. They're like instinct and
then like the whole idea is they understand what your
zero is, what you naturally present as, and then work
(21:34):
for that or against that based on the character you're playing.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Whatever. But when you're a.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Kid, like your zero is very hard to object to objectively,
like remove yourself from, you know, like I, as an adult,
you can say like, oh, yeah, I probably I have
a resting bitch face or whatever it is, and I
can work against that and you can just move beyond it.
But when you're a kid, that's your entire identity.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And I definitely felt that too.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Like as a kid, whatever it is, whatever parts you
get start to reflect how you feel about yourself, and
it's hard to like turn that off or I don't know,
but yeah, I often wondered if it was if it
was different with child.
Speaker 7 (22:10):
Actors out on the West Coast than it was on
the East Coast, because when I moved out here at sixteen,
even when I started Boy Mets World, you know, you're
still auditioning for the things you're auditioning for films or
whatever kind of in between.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
And the thing I noticed about LA.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
Was that it was always like, oh, man, you were
so great, thank you for coming in.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
It was so nice to see you here.
Speaker 7 (22:29):
And you walk out like, wow, I did well in
New York. It was like, no, you're too fat. Sorry, yeah,
so you just you Just by the time I was eleven,
I would walk in and they go, we ask for
a redhead who brought this kid?
Speaker 6 (22:40):
No, thank you very much. And I get back on
the bus and I go home and it.
Speaker 7 (22:43):
Sounds harsh, but it made my skin so thick that
I just it just wasn't about me, Like I was
able to completely dissect myself from the fact that they
were looking for something else, and at least they told
me that to my face, even at eleven or twelve,
as opposed to what I would get when I came
out here in LA.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
Was like, oh my god, you're so good. It was
so great to have you here.
Speaker 7 (23:05):
And then they'd never call you because they didn't like
you from the second you walked in. And so I wondered,
you know, I wonder mentally, which one is actually makes
you a stronger person and a stronger actor. Is somebody
just kind of saying to you, no, not gonna do
a kid, You're not what we're looking for. Or yeah,
oh my god, it's so great, you're awesome, and then
just not calling.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
So I think it depends on the kid, right I mean,
I would guess, but you have to adapt either way.
Either way, being a kid in that situation is difficult,
right like handling that rejection or the acceptance of only
one version of you, right like that that you don't
have the flexibility to be like, oh I can I
can be whoever I want as I grow up, you know,
But you know, and I mean, I think.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
All of us in this group were actually pretty lucky.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
You know, there are other kids who were like extremely
overweight or very short. You know, they had like a
different look that only was acceptable as a certain type
of character, right, and that's all they could play for
their entire you know, and that has got to wear
down on you in a way.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Natanya, what do you remember the things you were getting
cast for. What do you remember that telling you about
yourself and who you are? And like do you remember
being like, oh, I guess I'm this, I guess I'm
that because this is what everyone sees me as.
Speaker 8 (24:18):
Yes, I did, I very much do so, Like after Munchies.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Yeah, I love you know, I.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Was doing like little episode.
Speaker 8 (24:29):
I was doing step by step and just like all
these little guest parks always kind of as like the
Nerdy Friend or whatever. And then I did like the
middle version of Freaky Friday again the Nerdy Friend, and
like just remembering being on set in the like glasses
and the pigtails and like they just love to put
(24:49):
me in pigtails for whatever reason.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
And that was an interesting one too.
Speaker 8 (24:53):
I think that's when I really started to like like
pay attention to it. Because we had Andrew Keegan in
the movie. We had Marlowe all of these people that
were so cool, and I was like, wow, I am
not that I'm not that cool. And then I got
Alex Mack and.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
With Larissa o'linik, another one of our favorites.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yes, and uh.
Speaker 8 (25:15):
So Alex Mack was like an arduous process for me.
I had gone up for the sister you know quite
a few times and took it all the way to test.
Same with with Alex the part for Alex. Then they
shot the pilot, recast the entire thing brought me back
saying Sister Alex didn't get it, got the call from
(25:37):
my agent. They wrote apart just for you. All you
have to do is go down there. I get down
there to this same casting office that I had been
to like ten million times, and I was over it.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
At this point. I was like, give it to me
or not, but I'm.
Speaker 8 (25:51):
Not coming back after this and uh fifty girls there
of course, but this one I ended up getting. But
I remember the first episode I filmed, like instantly, you know,
put me in this kind of weird like like hurt.
The trajectory of her character and the growth of her
character ended up being really cool, like something that I
(26:14):
really leaned into towards the end of the last couple
of seasons. But at first, you know, I was this
eleven year old kid and I hadn't.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Really had puberty yet.
Speaker 8 (26:25):
I had very very pale skin, bright orange hair, which
you know, that's tough. That's like a tough one growing
up like that. And I said this on another podcast too,
when you're eleven years old with bright orange hair, pale skin.
Just booked this series that we don't know if it's
gonna make it or not, but it has the potential.
(26:47):
You don't know that you're just like a few years
away from like it's gonna be okay, You're gonna be pretty,
gonna be cool, everything's gonna be fine, but you just
don't know. And the character was so weird.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
She was so like.
Speaker 8 (27:01):
I've said, she's like the og original alt emo goth
girl of Nickelodeon. Yeah, and this character there wasn't representation
of these kind of kids that dressed like this and
felt like this, and and so again it was one
more time where I was like, well, no, I've accomplished
(27:22):
what I wanted to accomplish. I booked a series and
I'm in. I'm like part of the main cast. I'm
a series regular and this could really go and I'm
this weird kid again, you know. And so but I
had pops throughout where, like I was booking these roles
that weren't like that, like boy, me girl, babysitters club,
like all of these different things that got me out
(27:44):
of it a little bit. But even second season of
Alex Mack, I would like run to my dressing room
and put on like a little extra eyeliner or a
little extra clipline something to like, you know, make myself
feel a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So yeah, I definitely remember that.
Speaker 8 (27:59):
I mean I was I was type cast for sure,
bad girl, nerdy girl, weird girl, golf girl.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Right, anything but the main girl, right like that.
Speaker 8 (28:11):
But the main girl except for this really weird movie
I did in Canada with Chauncey lea party where I
played his girl. Yeah, and I was like I think
I was fifteen or sixteen, and so there, you know,
there was pops of it. There was pops of it.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Well, don't forget Munchie where you were Munchy's girlfriend.
Speaker 8 (28:30):
No, and there's Munkey strikes back right.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Right, she too?
Speaker 7 (28:35):
Exactly too, Yeah, I mean the ponytail, the pigtail glasses
thing was such a ninety stroke.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
Oh yeah, it was such a way. She can't be pretty,
she's got glasses. Like a minute, she has.
Speaker 7 (28:48):
A pony rail. She can't be pretty, and it is
just such a thing. Yeah, it was such a thing
where it was like it.
Speaker 8 (28:54):
Always had me like that until I forced them into
different hairstyles like second season, where I started to like
have more of a voice and kind of like advocate
for myself a little bit more and be like, look, why.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Is she'd always come on take them out, like we
can do we.
Speaker 8 (29:12):
Can do better here, you know. And they started to
listen to me and kind of let me aesthetically lean
into this character in a way that felt a little
bit more comfortable. I mean, there were still the nineties
chokers and out in the very nineties goth outfits and
all of that, but the hair got a little better,
like she's an infourd season. I just showed up one
(29:32):
day to set cut it all off.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And I was like now what, yeah, now, what are
you going to do?
Speaker 8 (29:36):
I was so rebellious towards the end of it because
I'd been put in this box for so long, but yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
Well you have been so open and inspirational talking about
the struggles you faced in your teens and then it
really finding its hold in your early twenties with substance abuse.
It's obviously something very common with young actors who find
early success, and we were hoping that you could share
some of that aspect of your story. When did drugs
(30:13):
and alcohol enter your life?
Speaker 8 (30:15):
So I I was probably like fifteen sixteen years old
when I started drinking and just you know, smoking weed
and doing like the things that we do as kids,
and you know, at these oak Wood parties.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
I know you guys will understand them.
Speaker 8 (30:29):
Reference every weekend, like the second I was done working,
I would just jam over there and like party all weekend.
But it was so innocent and young, you know, and
felt very like experimental and it wasn't a big deal.
But you know, when it started to get really rough
for me was around eighteen nineteen years old, and one
(30:50):
of the best like pieces of advice I could ever
give is like, really be careful who you surround yourself with,
you know. And I kind of fell into a little
bit of a rougher crowd, but all actors, so it
felt safe. But it was like the next level of
stuff that like was not going on at Oakwood, And
(31:14):
you know, I didn't come from a home life that
had any structure. There was a lot of chaos and
alcoholism that in the home, and for me, being an
actor was kind of like the first chapter of my
life where I was able to like go somewhere and
become somebody else, right, right, So, like everything that was
(31:36):
going on at home, like when I was on set,
that was my safe place. That's like all I had
for safety. So as I started getting seventeen eighteen years old,
and I started to look a little bit different, and
no one could really figure out what box to put
me in anymore. And I was getting these kind of
like one off things like Baywatch and nine O two
and zero and like all of these things. But I
(31:57):
was growing into more and more a different look, and
I cut all my hair off and dyed it like jet.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Black and just rebellious, you know.
Speaker 8 (32:04):
And at a certain point people were like, we're not
really sure what to do. Like the red hair was
the thing, and the less parts I got, the more,
you know, I internalized that and was really with the
wrong group of people. And yeah, I developed a gnarly
little heroin addiction, which is you know, which is really crazy,
(32:25):
Like when I think about how all of that went
down and like how fast it happened, And now as
an adult understanding the disease of alcoholism and that it
was inevitable for me, and it could have been any
substance really, and this just happened to be the one
that was introduced to me at a very young age.
(32:47):
Which again it's like, be careful who you surround yourself with,
but know that at seventeen, like we don't know that
at eighteen, when I'm just this young kid, I have
all this money, I'm like kind of famous, hanging out
with all these famous people, and someone's like, here, do
you want to try this? And instantly it takes away
like every feeling of self doubt you've ever had in
your entire life. And it instantly takes away all the
(33:09):
pain of like coming from a very from very tortured
parents themselves, and it instantly takes away all of these things.
And it didn't matter anymore if I had had pigtails
in Alex Mack, or if I had you know, glasses
and boy Meets World or none of that mattered anymore.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
And yeah, so that was rough.
Speaker 8 (33:28):
So I spent all of my twenties, you know, suffering
with active addiction, and then figured it out in my thirties,
and god bless was able to turn around. And I
know it's like a very cliche child star story. Mom
steals all the money at eighteen, girl gets strung out
on heroin blah blah blah blah blah. But also I
(33:51):
think that what's not talked about enough too is that
some people do go through that and then make it out.
Yeah really, you know that to me is like, because
people are fascinated by this story of a young child
star that had all this recognition and then is strung
(34:11):
out on like what you know, we would deem as
one of the worst things ever to get involved with,
right and and but what's not talked about more often
is that some people make.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
It out of that.
Speaker 8 (34:24):
And I'm trying to advocate for those people too, because
a lot of kids that get fed up like that
because of you know, whatever it is. I don't want
to blame it on child acting because I don't know
that that's really, uh the cause by any means, but
you know, so, yeah, so when I turned thirty, and
(34:45):
believe me, I had many bouts in my twenties of
trying to get clean and going to rehab and like
trying to figure it out. And at thirty, I just
I kind of hit like a different kind of spiritual
bottom that I'd never hit before and really understood that
if I didn't get this now, that I wasn't gonna
make it.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Like I knew that.
Speaker 8 (35:06):
So, yeah, now I'm forty one. Wow, And I spent
the last decade of my life like figuring out who
I was and like more importantly than that, being okay
with who that girl was. Because I haven't acted in
a long time. I just started acting again and I
had to like be okay that my identity wasn't about
(35:27):
being famous anymore or this or that and that, and
that I had to let I had to learn how
to trust people that they really liked me for who
I was, and you know, and I finally figured out
kind of how to forgive the girl that was in
her twenties that was just doing the best that she could, yeah,
(35:50):
without having really had proper guidance or structure, and like
forgive that girl and tell her that it was okay,
so that this woman could keep going.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
You know what, an inspirational story. I mean, you know,
we talk about it even on a very on a
such a minor, little superficial level, that none of us
have any real like style or fashion sense because from
the time we were young, we just handed that over
to somebody else and just said, Okay, you tell me
what to wear, and you tell me what's fashionable, you
(36:22):
tell me what's in.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
And I'm listening to your story.
Speaker 5 (36:25):
And what I'm realizing and thinking about is that for
child actors, you hand over so much of your identity
to other people.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
You tell me who I am, you tell me what
box I check.
Speaker 5 (36:38):
You tell me what because because the roles that I'm
booking must say something about who I am. And so
it's so that can be something that is depending on
which boxes people tell you you're checking. You know, you can't
expect an eleven year old to have a sense of
identity or a sense of self. You know, you haven't
(36:59):
had a check to develop that yet. And so for
you to have spent your all of your teens being
told who you were and to be feeling like I
reject some of that, but I don't know how to
process it and then to really you know, it makes
sense that for so many people you deal with it
by self medicating.
Speaker 6 (37:19):
I think there's also something to chasing the rush.
Speaker 7 (37:22):
You know, you're on stage one night in front of
an audience and you're popular and important and it matters,
and then the next day the show is canceled and
it's gone right, And for some people, they never get
that rush back, so they look for other places. You know,
It's that I always said that that being in front
of the audience was quote unquote like my drug.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
You get this this.
Speaker 7 (37:40):
Rush from being there, from the feeling of being important,
how fake it is, whether it's real or not, it's
really you, and all of a sudden, it's gone one
day and you do it.
Speaker 6 (37:50):
You can to chase it for some people.
Speaker 7 (37:51):
So it's I mean that being said, we also have
to acknowledge that there's you know, millions of people out
there that struggle with addiction that aren't in the entertainment industry.
I know, you know, my one of my oldest friends
I lost to heroin overdose six six years ago, and
it's hard to pull out of and you watch the
decline and it's just to see how well you're doing now.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
I mean, I've seen the descent.
Speaker 7 (38:14):
So to see somebody kind of pull out of it
and have the life that you do is really a
testament because you're right, there isn't enough said about the
people that can pull themselves out of it. But that
being said, that's a small percentage of people that do.
I mean, the recidivism rate for especially heroin addiction is brutal.
You're right, So that's a testament to you as well
(38:34):
to the strength you found to be able to pull
yourself out of that.
Speaker 8 (38:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (38:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (38:38):
And I think that I, you know, probably started suffering
with mental health issues that were undiagnosed, unmedicated when I
was young, like really young. I always remember like waking
up feeling really heartbroken and I couldn't quite pinpoint like
what that meant when my life was so cool on
the outside to like, you know, I was like, well,
(38:58):
I just felt things so deeply, and I was just
continuously told like, you're an EmPATH, You're a deep child.
You feel the hard you know. And in the nineties,
we didn't talk about this kind of thing the way
we're able to talk about it now. And I actually
work in treatment now, which is such a one ad.
I mean, it's like if you would ask me at
twenty years old, if this is what my life would
(39:20):
look like. But you know, I'm a director in a
drug and alcohol treatment facility, so I helped getting people
you know, on a daily if not you know, every
other day basis, and so, like what Will was saying,
the rate of people that make it is very low,
is very very low, And so I guess it kind
(39:41):
of poses the question to those of us who have
been blessed and graced enough to like make it through
that type of a chapter in our lives, like how
do you maintain that?
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Then?
Speaker 8 (39:50):
Like how do you make sure? And I think for me,
the secret to the success of it. You know, a
lot of people obviously want to ask me, like, well,
how do you do it? Like how do I do it?
Like what should I do? And I think the best
thing that's worked for me because my whole life has
been spent thinking about me. All I do is think
about me, right, Like how did that make me feel?
Like how do I look?
Speaker 6 (40:11):
Like?
Speaker 3 (40:11):
What's going on with me? And what can my next move?
And all of that?
Speaker 8 (40:13):
And the second I like let all of that go,
and I really understood the concept of the more I
think about you, the less I think about me, right,
everything changed, Everything changed for me, you know, And to
lead with a heart of service and to go out
into the world and be of service in whatever ways
you can be, and there's a million ways to do it.
Sometimes it's just picking up the phone when.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
A friend needs your help.
Speaker 8 (40:36):
Will like continue to sustain that type of like a
spiritual levity, so to speak, and like pay back kind
of the karma of like all the things I did
when I was in my twenties and so anyway, Yeah,
I listened to the episode you guys did with Danny,
and it really like I could get emotional thinking about
(40:58):
it because I really just understood, like I felt that
on a very deep level, and I thought that was
really brave, like how open he was about it. And
I think that the more open we can be and
the more conversations we can have like this, especially for
those of us who people have watched our whole lives, right, Like,
I still have fans that are like I've been you know,
I had your AOL.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
What I mean, I'm like what you know?
Speaker 7 (41:21):
And first of all, easy, I'm still AOL's careful what
we're gonna say.
Speaker 8 (41:29):
Watching from like that long, you know, and so although
it has been made very very shameful thing, it's not.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
It's really not like let's just talk about it, you know, well,
but he has something, you know.
Speaker 7 (41:42):
That's why nothing, almost nothing helps more than talking about it.
Just talking about it, because you invariably find half of
the people you're talking to deal with something as well,
and there's just that safety and knowing you're not alone,
that's right, that's kind of can help to start the process. So, yeah,
any time you talk about it, is it better?
Speaker 6 (41:59):
It really does does.
Speaker 5 (42:00):
Yeah, I want to just really briefly touch on the
fact because it's it's something a few of our guests
have mentioned, but we've never really dived too deeply into it.
What was the situation with your finances been at eighteen?
How you you you very casually mentioned that your mom
stole all your money?
Speaker 2 (42:21):
How did what was that situation?
Speaker 4 (42:23):
So this happens way more than We've had a lot
of guests on air but also off air talk about this.
Speaker 7 (42:31):
We know so many actors, yeah, so many, it's it's
it is a common common story.
Speaker 6 (42:37):
With child actors. Unfortunately, it's also that this.
Speaker 8 (42:40):
Happens incredible that the parents figure out how to do
this also, but so we were from New York. We
moved out here to do that show Billy, and I
think my mom realized very quickly, like how much actors
get taxed when she heard how much I was going
to make per episode and then saw the checks and
she was like, what the hell. So she incorporated me
(43:01):
at like ten years old, So I became a ten
ninety nine as opposed to Natania Ross and all SAG
checks went to corporation named it Red Hair Blue Eyes.
Like I want to die inside every time I say
that out loud. So everything went to Red Hair Blue Eyes.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (43:17):
Right, And it's not taxed, it's it goes basically, I
mean a little bit different.
Speaker 8 (43:21):
It's corporate tax through a corporation, so it's it's a lot.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Better tax at the end of the year. It's a
whole different thing.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Yeah, different thing.
Speaker 8 (43:28):
And because of the minor I couldn't be an officer
of the company. So my mom was able to make
herself president, vice president, secretary.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
This that herself the salary.
Speaker 8 (43:39):
So until I turned about twenty, actually I was the
sole breadwinner of the family. So there's that aspect where
I'm paying all the bills, all of this, all of that,
and then like beyond right, like there's facelifts happening, and
there's nails getting done and there's all that kind of stuff.
But I'm not you know, I'm a kid, and I
think I'm like, I'm a multi multi multip I you
have no idea.
Speaker 5 (43:59):
I used to I used to jokingly say, oh, I
know I make money, it's just somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
I never saw it exactly.
Speaker 8 (44:07):
So then I turned eighteen, and I got everything that
was in the Cougan account because remember I started actually
six months old, so there was a decent amount there,
but there was a lot more.
Speaker 6 (44:20):
And uh, it was very The Cougan account is twenty five?
Speaker 3 (44:25):
Is it twenty five?
Speaker 6 (44:26):
I thought, I think it's whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Fifteen, yeah, fifteen, twenteen, fifteen.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
I think at some point it became twenty five, but
originally fifteen.
Speaker 8 (44:34):
But remember too, once I turned ten years old, nothing
else was taken for the Cougan account because I was
now now incorporated a boy, Alex, Matt, all the big ones.
That nothing went into the Cougan account. So I turn eighteen,
and now it becomes very easy to tell me, like, well,
I'm not giving you any money. You have a drug
(44:55):
problem very and then it's like, well, I need money
to like get help for this drug problem. And it's
like all right, I mean, I guess we could try
and move it. And then, you know, I went to
rehab and I was desperate. You know, I was a
young kid who was very aware that I had a
major issue already at like twenty two years old, and
(45:17):
it had just been a few years before that I
was acting, and I was working, working actor all the time,
never stopping, and so I was like, this is it.
I'm going to try and fix this right now so
i can get my life back. And you know, when
you're in a situation like that, you're very vulnerable and
people all of a sudden start to have power over you.
(45:37):
And I was told that I could get the help
that I needed if I signed a power of attorney.
I did, you know, And while I was that rehab stint,
while I was in the house I had helped buy
for my mom, all of the stuff was no longer
no longer belonged to me. So throughout that decade, I'm
(46:00):
sure a lot of that goes into like why I
had to just keep numbing myself to the point of like.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Being able to think.
Speaker 8 (46:08):
So yeah, I mean it was that was the situation.
And then, you know, years later, I'd be like, hey,
let me get that.
Speaker 3 (46:13):
Money, and it's like, I don't want money.
Speaker 8 (46:14):
I don't know what money. You're dying. You didn't make
as much as you thought, And it was just like
a series of gas lights that just got to the
point where, you know, even the residuals I would I
would go on this really weird downward spiral where I
would say, hey, can I get some of my residuals? Oh,
you haven't gotten any residuals. I would call SAG and
they'll list for you the last twenty you got with
(46:35):
the amounts, and I write everything down and take it back.
I don't know, and I just I couldn't take it anymore.
And when I got sober at thirty, like for real,
for real, got sober at thirty, I had to make
the decision that if I held onto that for one
more second, it's like me drinking poison and expecting someone
(46:56):
else to die right right, And for what reason? If
she needed it that bad, she can have it, you know,
she can have it. It's crazy me and my now husband.
But when he was my boy friend, we moved into
this apartment and I think it was like the first
time I had done a change of address in forever,
(47:17):
like a real proper change of address, and all of
a sudden, all these residual checks start coming in. Boy
meets World being one of the best actually, and they
just started rolling in and I was like, well, look
at that, right, it's crazy. And but the lesson it
taught me to and it's probably made me very irresponsible
with money, to be honest, because I just don't care
(47:38):
about it because I just can't ever have it, like
be this thing in my life anymore where I'm so like,
oh my god, who's doing you know, I'm just like,
you want money, you can have it.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah, let's go, let's go on this.
Speaker 8 (47:49):
Vacation, like who cares, Let's just live and have fun
and not worry about money. So in that sense, I
think it's done. It's a little irresponsible of me at times,
for sure, but also, you know, it's taught me that
the value of what money actually means, and it means,
you know, fractured relationships. It's different for me than it
(48:14):
is for most people. But that, Yeah, that's my story.
It's really crazy to think about it, you know now
as an adult of like just how much young child
actors get taken advantage of and unfortunately some of us
by our own family.
Speaker 5 (48:30):
Natania, I want you to know that that like hearing
you talk about all of that and the way you know,
I just want you to know that one of the
things I'm taking away from your experience is that.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Money comes and money.
Speaker 5 (48:43):
Goes, and it in your life has not at all
represented success. You are such a success and you are
so inspirational, and whether when the money has been there,
when the money has not been there, it has had
no bearing on you turning out to be the wonderful
(49:04):
and amazing person that you are, and so that real
like you can you can frame it however you want,
but like I'm looking at it and I say, you
don't have to have a choke hold on it, because
ultimately it hasn't it hasn't been what you've had to
base your life on. And I'm just I'm so proud
of you, and I'm so inspired by you, and I'm
(49:25):
so grateful that you came and shared your experiences here
with us, and thank you also for all the work
you do with other people who are in, you know,
the same shoes you were in more than a decade ago,
and for leading with that heart of service that you
that you do and the impact that you make on people.
Because no matter how many times people come up to
(49:47):
you and remember you from Boy Meets World or Alex
Mack or Munchie or whatever it is, MUNCHI too, Munchi too,
the real, like your real impact is going to be
with those people whose life you have absolutely changed. And
just thank you so much for being here with us.
Speaker 3 (50:05):
Thank you. This was awesome, so fun.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
So much fun.
Speaker 5 (50:09):
I I'm bummed I wasn't in that Albuquerque. Uh I
wasn't at that Albuquerque con, but I hope that Let's go.
Speaker 1 (50:19):
It was a genuinely good time. It was like it was.
It was a pretty empty con, so we just all
got to hang.
Speaker 6 (50:25):
Out hanging out.
Speaker 7 (50:26):
Yes, we're just all hanging out paper planes across the
thing and each other.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
And the Sandlog guys are a crazy bunch.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
That was really like to witness their dynamic and like,
I know, Natanya, you've been around them for a while
because you know it's just like, oh, this is a
fun it's a whole, it's a whole Seaton.
Speaker 5 (50:43):
Yeah, well I want to be at the next one.
So thank you again, Natanya. It was really wonderful talking
to you and catching up and I hope to see
you again soon me too.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
Than Bi. Wow, what a life, what a story.
Speaker 7 (50:59):
It's the thing that that amazes me is it would
be so easy to be horribly bitter right right about
everything you've been through. I like every oh, this business
was horrible, my family was horrible, my addiction was horrible.
Speaker 6 (51:12):
And instead she turned it all around, is like no,
I'm just gonna help other people.
Speaker 4 (51:15):
She's so and she's like, I mean when we saw
her at the con, she just walked right up to
us and gave us a big hug and has like
nothing but positive and just wants to know about our
life and she's so kind, and yeah, she's not bitter,
she's not cynical, and she's not even against like it's
so I mean, it's so impressive that she doesn't even
blame the industry or child actor dumb now, you know,
because that can basically be one source of like, well
(51:35):
then everything's a problem, you know. I'm like no, She's like, no,
I still like could she wants to get back into acting.
She's acting like and can talk about it so positively.
It's like, that's that's really.
Speaker 7 (51:46):
Awesome, hugely inspirational. Yeah, it really is. It's just it's yeah,
it's really incredible. It really is.
Speaker 6 (51:51):
But man, having your money stolen from your your your
family is just a story we keep hearing over it.
I know.
Speaker 4 (51:58):
Yeah, I mean I think what I'm fortunately happens is
like if a kid is talented, right, whether that be
acting or sports or whatever, right that that that can
become just an escape valve for a parent, you know,
like I can make my entire life better by by
this kid.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
And you know, like I remember too, like there's this pattern.
Speaker 4 (52:19):
And I you know, I'm not sure this is Natania's
pattern at all, but there was also a pattern that
I remember there was a lot of moms in particular,
but parents, but moms in particular who basically were using.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Their kid as a child actor to get a divorce.
Like do you guys remember that.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
It would be like somebody who's like, oh, I've left,
you know, they moved to LA from wherever they are
to get away from their husband, and it was just
like a way to sort of slowly, you know, break
up with their partner. But it became like, oh, I'm
I'm here to support my kid's career. But in reality
it was like, well, you're going through your own stuff
and your kid, your kids acting career is just an
excuse for you to break away and like start your
(52:56):
own life.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (52:58):
I hope that that happens less because I remember that
was like at the oak Wood there would be all
these moms.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
You'd be like, what was last time you saw your husband?
Speaker 8 (53:05):
Right?
Speaker 6 (53:05):
Yeah, it's yeah, the whole it's so strange, it all.
Speaker 7 (53:08):
It's all just kinds of We've talked about nature versus
nurture on this podcast a lot, and it all seems
to kind of come down to the home you grew
up in, just how you were raised, what you were
raised around, who you were raised by.
Speaker 6 (53:19):
I mean, it makes a huge difference, it really does.
Speaker 2 (53:21):
So I don't know, Well, I'm glad.
Speaker 5 (53:24):
I'm glad I asked her about that, because, like I said,
we've had a few people like allude to it or
mention it, and then we've never really spent the time
actually talking about how that happens. Uh Man, isn't that
crazy too that just like the change of address, and
then all of a sudden the checks started coming to her.
Speaker 6 (53:40):
Start rolling in. What you know, it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 5 (53:45):
Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us
on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us
your emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com.
And we have Merch Merch.
Speaker 6 (53:57):
Too Back in Time or whatever that movie was called
that you merch.
Speaker 5 (54:00):
Two strike MERGI twos strike two MERG two strikes back.
Speaker 7 (54:04):
That's what it is.
Speaker 5 (54:06):
Yes, and last, but most certainly not least. If you
are looking for help with addiction, there is confidential free
help to fine treatment and information at one eight hundred
sixty six two four three five seven writer send us out.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 4 (54:24):
Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted
by Danielle Fischel, Wilfernell and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen
Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
producer and editor, Tara Sudbox producer, Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and
Boy Meets World super fan. Easton Allen. Our theme song
is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. You can follow us
(54:45):
on Instagram at Podmets World Show or send us an
email at Podmeats World Show at gmail dot com.
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong
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