February 5, 2025 • 40 mins
Pamela Anderson, the beloved Baywatch actress and model, has re-invented her career through a memoir and Netflix documentary about her life, and an award-nominated role in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl. In a candid interview for Elle magazine, Martha talks to Pam about looking back on decisions, pushing the boundaries (of a career), and lessons learned from a life in the limelight. Listen here for the full conversation.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Maybe you have seen Pamela Anderson in her Netflix documentary
last year. Maybe you saw her in her recent feature film,
The Last Showgirl, which won her a Golden Globe nomination.
Or maybe you've seen her new cookbook, her first book project.
Because lately, Pamela Anderson has been everywhere. Elle Magazine asked
(00:25):
me to interview pam for their February digital issue. We
had a great time getting to know each other better,
and I wanted to share our conversation with you.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Please enjoy. Hi, Hi, Nice to meet you in person.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Nice to meet you in parson. I'm so excited. I
thought this would just be kind of random but kind
of perfect.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Oh no, it is. It's very exciting for me. I
got out at four am this morning to watch your
amazing performance in The Last Showgirl. Well, thank you and
uh and it made me very sad, but it is.
It's sad, but it was very very well done.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Congratulations, congratulations, thank you, and I'm I'm glad you're that
you're not the downtrodden woman in the in the film.
It's just it's like crazy and Jamie the Curtis, she
did such an amazing job as usual.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
She's so much fun. I mean, she was just like
such a champion for women too. She just took me
by the shoulders and she said, I did this movie
for you.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I thought, you know, it's such a woman's woman.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
She's been there, she's reinvented herself time and again. And
I think she saw bet in me that you know,
I was wanting to do the same thing and really
support me, which was, you know, incredible. I'm just so
happy I got to do this.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And the fact that it's congratulations on the Golden Globe,
uh nomination. And I don't think he got an Oscar
today though I.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Was watching Oh no, no nomination for the Oscar, but
I mean I couldn't even imagine that. I mean, I
did get a SAG nomination, which is great, which is
really exciting. You know, all of this is just unexpected exciting.
I always say the win is in the work. I mean,
I just got to do something I really love and really,
you know, I needed to do that for my soul.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So how long did it take to make that film?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
We shot in eighteen days?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Oh wow, So that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
It's impossible about me, But you know, the impossible is
what it so it was almost in real time.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It's like it's according to the Yeah, amazing. And where
you shoot it? Where was that?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Well, we shot it in Las Vegas, and we shot
it at the Rio, and we shot it backstage and
really in real backstage quarters, those really tiny, you know spaces,
and we had to get out of there at a
certain time because of the show, like that underwater circus
or something.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
We had to put everything back.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
The start is so lay oh something, Oh the old
one and those tall stairs. I was feeling so sorry
for all the girls climbing up those stairs.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Good for your legs, but boy, oh boy, it's with
fifty pounds backpacks on. I mean a lot of those
those costumes were so heavy. I mean all those rhinestones
they weigh something. And then we had the backpack and
the headdresses and you know, and the stairs.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Coming downstairs is harder than going upstairs.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
How did the role actually come about?
Speaker 4 (03:32):
The role came about, well, I the script was sent
to an old agent and he turned it down. And
I've talked about that, and I my son produced the
documentary that he made.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
He made a documentary, and.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Gea knew that he produced that, so she got him
the script, knowing that I hadn't read it if it
was turned down within a new hour, and I read
it fell in love with it. I could hear the
voice in my head, I could see how to play here,
all the layers and nuances. I felt like it was
already in my mind, and so I knew I had
to do it. And that's the first time I've ever
experienced anything like that, because nobody was giving me these
(04:10):
great characters to play or a script like this.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
So I just thought, wow, I was I came home.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
I made a beautiful garden, roses and vegetables, and you know,
making pickles and jam, a big pickler and canner, and
that's in my family, and that's something that I just thought,
Camela's pickles. Maybe I'll do something fun like that heard
And then this world came about, and I thought, well,
I can I can get at to that later, I
can do it at this, I can do both. But
(04:39):
I really wanted to do this film, and so that's
how it came about, and I just started preparing for
it and working hard on it, and I thought this
might be my only chance to do a film, and
so I'm going to give it all I got, well,
you look you looked.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And your body looked amazing. I looked you looked great
in the in the film. Did you have to do
any special press for the film or you? I mean
you're you're in fantastic shape and your and your beautiful skin.
I know all about your no makeup thin.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Well, I mean I take care of myself. I you know,
I eat healthy. I'm a you know, I'm always outside walking.
But I worked with a great choreographer who I worked
with on Broadway. Actually I played Roxy in Chicago on Broadway,
and I had Greg Butler. I brought him onto this film,
and so he kind of knew where, you know, I
(05:28):
was at. I'm not really a dancer, as much as
I love it. He knew how to how we could
work together and how we could put that audition scene together.
So that was a lot of you know, dancing, it's
great exercise. But I've always kind of been active, so
that's what keeps me in shape. I'm not I don't
go to the gym or anything like that, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
You know, you don't do pilates like I do three
three mornings a week at six thirty am.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I love plates but I don't have it here on
the island. I'm not on at any place.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
That's something you could be that said, I've a pilates studio.
Everybody wants pilates.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah, well I could do it.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I could.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I have a little you know, basement in my in
my boat house.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
I could probably put a pilates machine there, but I
probably get tangled up in it.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
I did.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
No, it's but I have a train. I have a trainer,
and it's old easier because they can change all the
springs and everything. You don't have to you don't have
to do it yourself.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I think that's pretty hard to do yourself. I think, actually, no,
it is too hard.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And so so the so the choreography was, it was
very interesting, and the and the the men behind, you know,
behind the voice. I mean that it's it's it's happened
to all of us, those auditions that are just so
ridiculous and so heartless, and you get the real feeling
of that there.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Well, I like it that she doesn't take no for
an answer, that she would almost walks away but then
turns back.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I had an experience like that when I was very
young doing going on go sees as a model, and
they asked us as all the girls the ghost sage
to bringing bikinis. And after I had the interview with
about there were about fifteen guys sitting around a table
looking at our books and looking at us, and then
they said, oh, go on, go get into your bikinis.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And I said, well, does the part require a bikini?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And the guy said no, but we might as well.
We have you here, we might as well look at you.
And I just walked out of the room. I just
left and I was only you know, maybe seven team,
but I just I just wouldn't put up with that crap.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Well that's good that you didn't put up with that.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Oh, and that's the way I've been all along, but
with the whole me too thing and everything, I just
wouldn't put up with it. And yet you know, when
you see other girls do put it, putting up with
it because of the they need the money or they
need the job, and it's it's a it was a
difficult situation. I think I think that might be getting
better after all these few years of horrible metube problems
(07:52):
that we've been going through.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Well, it's hard to navigate, it's hard to navigate a
business which is based on physical be and you know
and also naivete. You're young and you're in this business
and you want to please people, and you don't know
you have a gut feeling that maybe it's not the
right thing to do, and you can get yourself in
these dangerous situations.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Or I was painfully shy.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
It was such a shy young girl, if you can
believe it, and I just wanted to do anything to
stop being shy. And I remember when this Playboy cover
came up. I said, okay, I can. My mom said
do it? You know, yes, do it. And I didn't
know what it was going to lead to, but then
you know, it led to kind of this wild and
crazy life, but something certainly you draw from I guy.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
How was it to work with Gia Coppola?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Well, she is amazing. She's such a great actress director.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
She's very soft spoken, but she's very decisive and she
this was her singular vision.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
She had one a little monitor that she would carry.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
You know. I went from this movie to doing Naked
Gun for Paramount, and it was like, couldn't be any
more different. I mean, with hundreds of people on set,
video villages, she had keeping this. It was by Indie
fields are so fun because I really don't have a
lot of cooks in the kitchen. It's really her vision.
And she's great. I mean she she has this natural
(09:13):
calmness and knowing and and there was so many women
on the set, Like even our DP was a woman,
Autumn Durral who's and the girl carrying the boom.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
There was so many women on this.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
I don't think they planned it, but this was really
a film about women, created by women, written by a woman.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
But but dressed by a man. How is Bob Mackie?
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Bob Mackie Bob Mackie costumes?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Those were museum pieces by you know, some of them
still had name tags in them. So I really felt,
you know, as much as we were sticking into me
and like, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Heavy and and and.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
They were they were quite. They were wife fabulous. Those
caustic and dresses too, those much are her.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
They were heavy and they make it look easy. I
mean I talked to some of the Jubilee show girls.
I had them come over for tea and we talked
about kind of the you know showgirl dos and don't
you know they're not bur lesque dancers. They were never
asked to mingle with people in the casinos. They were
kind of they were protected. They were the icon of
Las Vegas. But there's no show anymore, you know it.
(10:19):
Out with the old, in with the new. Las Vegas
is pretty much known for that, and I think that's
why I love the analog versus digital of shooting on
film was kind of subconscious in a way where it
kind of remind nostalgia, kind of made you think of
the past. And it was kind of a period piece
because I think it was twenty sixteen that Jubilee ended,
(10:41):
and so they had to be careful how they shot
Las Vegas. They couldn't have the Sphere in it, for instance.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You know, they had to make sure it was you been.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I was going to ask you, have you been to
the Sphere?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I haven't.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Oh my gosh, I've been there three times. And I
have a restaurant in Las Vegas. Do you know that.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Oh if I had known you were shooting there, I
would have made three. Your whole crew went to my restaurant. Oh,
it's in the Paris It's in the Paris Hotel and
it's called the Bidford and it's a replica, sort of
a replica, oversize replica of my own house. That like
this room that I'm sitting at is there's stuff like
this in the in the it's a beautiful restaurant and
it is one of the top five celebrity restaurants in
(11:19):
Las Vegas this year. I'm so excited.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
That's so exciting. Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yes, all I can think about in that sphere, which
is one of the most amazing theatrical experiences you will
ever have, or probably the most amazing you'll ever have,
is if Shakespeare had had such a place, Oh my,
it would have been. I can't wait to see a
Shakespearean play in that place. I can. And I saw
(11:44):
you what was incredible in the most recent show it
was it was the best. But but they're there. Movie
that is about the world, about the world is that
takes the cake. It's just Incredibles me by like six
see different directors and it's an amazing film. So when
you go back to Las Vegas, make sure you get
(12:04):
to go.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I will go. Yeah, I was whatever, see.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
What or is there there they need? It's very as
there's so many things going on at once. You'll see
when you go. So I want to know about Lady Smith.
It's so such a beautiful name. Is that an old name?
Is that the real name of a town?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah, that's a real name of a town. It's an
old mining town on Vancouver Island and it's called Lady Smith.
It's like one little road and I've I grew up here,
you did.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
My grandmother had this little auto court where there was
nine cabins on this little court and I'm in the
roadhouse right now, which used to be her general store,
and she had a tea. She would serve tea in
the little teahouse. It's all connected, and had a little
store here and would bake here. And so I'm right
here where the squeaks are on the same spots, my
(12:56):
dad says, in the floors.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
But that's about it. It's it's very cute.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Where did they come from? Where did your Where did
your your parents come from? Where did your grandparents come from?
Speaker 4 (13:08):
My grandparents were Finnish, finish finish, so I have the
finish finish roots. And there were loggers and my grandfather
danced on treetops.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
And you know, there's.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Beautiful, They're so beautiful. The people are so beautiful. I
venture fin let other people are so beautiful and their
attitude is so beautiful too.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Well. Nature is very important, and storytelling is very important.
My grandfather used to teach me fairy tales and mythology.
It was a great storyteller and really deep voice. And
I was six foot four and I don't know. He
was really a special person. And I spoke Finnish to
him till he passed away when I was eleven. But
I can imagine him here in his chair with that
he always had, So it's nice. I wanted to come home.
(13:51):
I wanted to come home to the place where the
trees knew me since birth. You know, I just felt
like I needed to come home.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Well, how often how often do you leave there?
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I am hardly ever here lately.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
I mean promoting this film for four months and running
around and doing that. You know what, we I forgot
that this was all part of it. You know, you
think you do the film and then you're done, But no,
that's just.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Going No, No, You're you're going to do all the
find out about all the ancillary stuff.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Yeah, and I do believe in the film. I want
as many people to see the film as possible. I
wanted to get it's do it well.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
It has just a limited distribution right now. When is
it going to go on Netflix or something.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I don't know what the plans are for streaming, but
I'm glad that this film is being shown on the
big screen because they created special lenses for this film Autumn.
There's these automorphic lenses where the edges are kind of blurred,
and that really focuses in on the talent. So that's
kind of lose that I think in smaller devices. But
it's an indie film, so for instance, we'd open on
(14:47):
six hundred screens instead of thousands like another film. What
and and in Canada, you know, a hundred screens or something.
It's it's very limited and also limited in for the
money they put into advertising, so it's very much word
of mouth and and so that's why we do as
much as we can do to promote it, because it
doesn't have the same machine behind it. You know, Netflix,
(15:09):
they have millions and millions of dollars they put behind
their projects and their artists, and so I kind of
like it.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I'm always like the little engine that could. I can
get there. I can get there. I'm just fighting for it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I think, I think lots and lots and lots of
people will be watching.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
It's still I hope, ultimately, I think so.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So what does the ideal day look like for you
in Ladies Smith?
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Well, it's winter right now, and actually yesterday was fun
because I got to really prune back my roses. It
finally froze, which is so bizarre, Like the weather's so different.
We used to get snow every year and there's been
no snow, so I wanted to wait and really do
the heart prunning after the froze for a while. So
that's what I did yesterday. Today, I'm just you know,
(16:04):
am I is it? My b I moved my parents
onto the property. They live in one of the cabins,
and so there's some health issues for things. I'm looking
after them and it's fun. It's fun to cook for them.
It's fun to make my dad eat more vegetables in
it's his seventies.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Like you, you have, you have one child.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I have two children. I have, oh I have, but
they're twenty seven and twenty eight, Brandon and Dylan. Dylan
is the youngest one.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Brandon is the producer who's you know, masterminding this all
a lot of these things.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
I saw your documentary, by the way, and I loved it.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Did you?
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I loved it?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Oh it's just so great. Oh good, well, thank you,
thank you, it's so great.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
You're such a beauty and you're such a you know,
you started the whole world.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I mean, just just to be able. I love.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
I consider myself a homemaker. I consider myself you know,
I love to bake and cook and.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I'll win white. I just I got your I got
your from your cookbook. There it is and very nicely, John.
How long did it take you to put together?
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Three years? You know we did the testing and taste,
I mean did they. I didn't realize what takes to
make a cookbook because I made this recipe card box
for my kids when they got their first home together
and they lived together, and they are the ones who said, mom,
this is a cookbook.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
And I thought, oh.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Geez, they're so you know, they're very they're.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Businessmen, so that was their idea.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
And then I just worked with a great photographer. The
photographer actually shot Nomah's cookbook. Oh, and Noah is so
fabulous on and.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
D then have you been ged Ova?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I have I have.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I have. It's a vegetable season, so that was lucky
for me. So I like, I love rice porridge. That's
that's really is that. It's really Japanese with the.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Gorgeous I'm a moarning person, and I, you know, all
these people that are doing this intrimitted fasting, I couldn't
do it. I have to eat as soon as I
get up, I take my vitamins. I I make some
kind of porridge and some kind of something warm, you know,
or my overnight oats. It's funny when I go to
hotels now, I'll go to my room. I'll go to
my room and there'll be something the chef has made
(18:12):
from my cookbook in my room.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
How nice? Isn't that amazing?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
In Barcelona, in La, all over the world.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
And I love your writing and I love your sketching.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
You do my doodles, Oh no, I think.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
They're very beautiful. I want to eat a sweet po
potato burger right now.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Well, I'm glad you like that because that's what I eat.
But that's my you know, my kids were kind of saying, Mom,
this is really a recipe.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
No, it's it is a recipe at least it's an
idea of a very good recipe. And your saffron spinach
rice cake. It reminds me so much of Tadique. You know,
I love I love Persian food, and that is.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Called that's a deep because I didn't want to be disrespectful,
because you know I can write.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Do you you can grow saffron? Do you know that?
Did not know that I'm growing my old saffron. I
got a jar of saffron from my farm this year,
a little half high jar of saffron, which is like gold.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Yeah, And do you grow it in the garden or
do you grow it in the garden and it comes
back stronger the second year and then even stronger than
the third year.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
They're procus balls. Okay, you can order them and they
are wonderful. I mean, the fragrance of homegrown saffron is
so much superior to anything that you buy anything. I
love it. You will love it. Oh, I love your
I love your watermelon, watermelon granita. Do you know have
(19:41):
you seen my new cookbook, my hundredth book?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
No, no, no, but I want it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I have a good orange granita in that book. And
here you are probably amazing. You have watermelon.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
It's so beautiful, and I'd like to do with preserved
lemons too. But you know, I met David Zimmer of
the cementation guy from Nomah, yeah, talking about you know that,
and so they kind of was inspired by him a
little bit the watermelon grenita.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
But I was speaking of blood orange trees. I probably
shouldn't say this, but I.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Remember when my sons were born, I planted them I
placenta in a blood orch tree.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
You did, That's very I don't know where we got
the idea to do that. Oh, that's goulda been a
terrible thing that comes up.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
And did the blood orange tree grow well?
Speaker 3 (20:27):
The blood oornetry grew well.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
But unfortunately that heuse burned down, oh in one of
the California fires, which I am just poor California for
this has just been the most horrible. There was also
one that just came up at the Getdy overnight and
I'm like, yes, really yeah, but they put it out,
they contained it right away, but it was overnight, and
they're sending me videos my kids all the time.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
It's so awful. I have so many friends who lost their.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Homes, and you know, we had I said to a
matching a matching program or my company. All our gifts
are by the company, which is good. We set off.
I sent off a lot of money last week, and
I hope I got one notice that from somebody that
they had received it. So I hope they can distribute
it fairly and not nicely.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
And the people, well that's the hard thing.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
I mean, my you know, I know a lot of
people who work with animals, so I've been trying to help,
you know, reunite people with their I gave.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I gave mine to the pet world.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yeah, we need some rain, you know.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
And I think that's it's just been a very apocalyptic because.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
That's why you don't That's why you haven't a snow
in Vancouver because there's no rain, right, I know.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
But it's I keep on telling my kids this place is.
I mean, it really is heavenly I live. It's it's
nice to live like in a rainforest and eagles and
owls and seals on.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
My deck, and you know it's whales, killer whales. So
beautiful it really is.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
I never I could never give this place up, even
though the East Coast is.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Kind of calling me. I mean, I really love I'm
always going.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
To Bedford you would love it here. I really love
Connecticut and I Bedford's Bedford's west Chester. It's right on
the border of Connecticut, so you're in It's it's in
New York, and it's from my house. It's like fifteen
minutes to my office in on thirty fourth Street. And
I live on one hundred and fifty acre farm.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
As Pictures and Jesse have.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
We have all kinds of of West Coast people moving
in now, and I bet we get more because of
the because of the fires. But Matt Damon just moved here,
and and we have Blake Lively, she She and Rock
live here, and a bunch of a bunch of other
(22:45):
lots of Hollywood people have been moving here. But it's nice.
You love it here.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I think it's it's kind of like where I am.
But yeah, civilization.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You don't have the ocean. The ocean is so close by.
But we have beautiful reservoirs and lakes and and I
have a I have lots of animals on my farm.
I live like you live, but on the on the
East coast.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
The Hudson Husband Member is a big art commune. Like
for yes, a lot of artists come came from there.
So it's say, it was like it's an energy there.
I think I want to do some theater too. So
I think if I kind of gravitate towards the East coast,
I'll be closer and I'll be a little more brave
and try to experiment with I want do things that
challenge me. I want to do things that are completely transformative.
(23:28):
And so that's the exciting part of all this is
that I think people may it may start being able
to see me and doing other things other than you know,
like just.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
The and I can I ask you how old you
are because I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
I'm fifty seven.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Oh, that's why you said that in the movie.
Speaker 6 (23:45):
I know.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
In the line was I'm fifty and I'm beautiful, and
I changed it.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I said, no, we're just committing mine now, you said,
he said, And I said, boy, does she look good
for fifty seven? So you could be my daughter. My
daughter is fifty nine. I have a very beautiful daughter,
mother of my two grandchildren. And and she's fifty nine.
She looks like looks like she looks like forty at
the most. My daughter and uh and the kid. The
(24:11):
kids are old for they're old for a forty year old.
But they're very young for a fifty nine year old
because they're only twelve and thirteen. The kids' friends have
much younger parents. So my daughter, my daughter is like
in a weird situation, and she's she's divorced and she
doesn't have a husband and and so's she's in a
weird place. But she is such a good mother. And
(24:33):
those kids are so fabulous.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
I can't wait on grandkids.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Oh yeah, it's the best.
Speaker 6 (24:41):
Wait, but you still you still have two little boys.
They're twenty seven, they're that's young. Well, the money is
already engaged in cage. Yeah, they're really happy. They're good.
I don't know they they're they're old souls. I mean,
it will be fun. I think, you know, that's the
next stage.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
That's an step. I mean, my relationship is to my
work and that as I like to say, you.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
With you would love my granddaughter. She my granddaughter sort
of reminds me of you. She's very vivacious, and she's
and she's uh, she can act, she can dance. She's
been at Alvin Ailey for she's been at Alvin Aily
for ten years and she's thirteen. Wow, And she's been
studying there for ten years. And she's like strong as anything,
(25:25):
you know, physically strong and very tall. She's like six
feet tall now she's thirteen. Well, you can don't kill girl.
She's good.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
I think that's what happens.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I think the dancers really, you know, spend their whole
life dancing and then just got too tall.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, she's getting too tall for the for well, Alvin
Ali the girl. The women are big, you know, they're
big women, and but but beautiful. And she she likes choreography.
She likes to do She likes to choreograph, so that's good,
that's what she'll do. But she also wants to be
a doctor.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
She also was a combination. I'm being a doctor, she
loves to.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Be your writers and she's and she wants to be
a food critic.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Well, I think you need to know a lot of
things and do a lot of things these days.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Your your book has so much and you refer so
much to sort of classic French, very high cuisine, but
in the most simple, beautiful way. So did you travel
a lot in Europe?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I have traveled a lot, and I spent a few
years in the south of France. I lived in Sant Tropez.
I lived in Marseille, I lived in Cassie.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Oh yeah I did.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Oh yeah, And so that was thought.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
So that's where that's where a lot of these that's
where a lot of these beautiful recipes call and and
the h and the photography is beautiful in this book.
I love all your pickles, yeah, and I make I
make lots of jams and jellies too. I grow so
many different kinds of berries and fruits on my farm.
(26:58):
And your focacco looks amazing. And your bread is your
bread really really good?
Speaker 3 (27:04):
My bread is really good.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
I've already made you know, three badges since I've been home.
I have this great, you know, sour dough starter named
Astrid Biking Warrior Princess.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
She's amazing, and so yeah, I just finally.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
As soon as I get home, I take a starter
out of the fridge, I feed her. Then I you know,
a couple of days later, I can start making bread.
And that's when I feel like I'm home. I mean,
it's therapeutic.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
How who takes care of Astrod when you're away?
Speaker 3 (27:28):
He's in the fridge.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
She just stays in the fridge.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
She's so gay, she's fine. Yeah, she's fine.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
And I mean I was gone for a few months
and I came back and and I just you know,
poured off the liquid on the top and feed her
and it was fine and small Paris.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
That's good, you know.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
Yeah, I mean it's it's been a you know, my
son's fiance taught me how to make bread.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
And it was a big thing. I think over COVID
when people were making bread. Oh yeah, and but I
really love it. It's hard for me to follow recipes sometimes,
but with baking.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Have to and with bread, I just learned the hard
way over many attempts.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
You have to do it.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I like your kale ships. Those look really good.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Those are good, really good. So are you a vegetarian?
Speaker 4 (28:13):
I am, I am, But I you know, I didn't
want to make the book very like vegan. I wanted
it to just be celebrating my garden because, you know,
trying to figure out what to make out of my
garden all the time, you know how we get so
much of everything all at once.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
And yeah, and I.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
So I was and then thinking about my favorite kinds
of food all over the world, and I think it came.
You know, we start off with so many recipes and
you whittle it down. So I wanted it also to
be about, you know, writing a little bit and sharing
more lifestyle stuff too.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
But well it it came out very beautifully, were very beautifully.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Oh thank you. That means a lot coming from you.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
I'm going to I'm gonna make your waffles. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
If you make it, let me know.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I'll send you a photo.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
That would be good.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
It's funny because you know when you're doing food, when
you're doing the testing, and then you're doing the pictures,
and then you're.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Not there for all the pictures. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I was going crazy because you know, yours looks a
little different than it's. It's it's a real experience. I
didn't realize how much went in to make it.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I'll send I'll send you a copy of my new book.
It's my it's like my forty ninth cookbook, but my
one hundredth book overall. And so it was it was
a big deal getting that out for for the last week.
Got we got it out right before Christmas. But I'll
send it to you and you can just peruse it.
It has one little chapter in the back of how
(29:41):
I write a cookbook, And because after all these cookbooks
that I've written, it was it was funny. And that's
my granddaughter. That was the first page you read in
the books because she was very interested to know how
it actually what the process is. And I got it down.
I got it down, I think after forty eight books.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
So just recipe itself is as a as an art.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Form and you can't you can't let anybody show you
it's not.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
It's hard. It's hard work, so I mean, much harder
than I thought.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
It would be. So what's your what's your favorite recipe
in the book?
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Well, I am you know, I just have these fond
memories of making parogis, you know, with my mom, and and.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
We still make them.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
You know, you bring out the big board and you
fill them of all sorts of things, because you know
they Jesus is pretty much in everything.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Dairy isn't pretty much everything.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
So I tried to find a really good recipe that
didn't have that in it. So I was I really
love that that one with the peas.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
And the mint.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Yeah, delicious, So nice little combination, but I pictures a
little bit over fried.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
That isn't how mine looked. So I was just like
always looking at things.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
I made a whole list because usually you know in
a cookbook sometimes there's these little tiny things that are
off and you keep this running list. So I learned
it just you know, you have proofreaders, you have people
going through these things, and you still miss little tiny things.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Doesn't that drive you crazy? Uh No, it doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I I think I've gotten used to those those people there.
And a good code for editor is a really good
thing because you don't want to leave anything out. You
don't want to add any any any mistakes in the
recipe because you want to be authentic, but you want
to be accurate. So what what what is exciting you
outside of let's say the cookbook world now or the
(31:31):
film world. What's exciting you and what's distressing you?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
What's distressing me?
Speaker 4 (31:37):
Well, I mean I've always been a little bit of
a rebel, and you know, I tried, I'm doing this,
you know not, I'm not that I'm doing this no
makeup thing. As decided I don't have to want to
make up every day or being a hair and makeup
chair every day.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
And even in this photo shoot for L I wore makeup.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
It was exciting and glamorous, and I'm just trying to
find what my next incarnation is. I feel like I
because I'm such like the little you know, farm girl
oh here, but I also love glamour and I love
beauty and I.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Love Oh man, you're real good at that.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
So I don't said.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
You have beautiful skinned, beautiful teeth, beautiful eyes, and you know,
you play it all. And when when you gave out
the makeup thing, we were all kind of like saying,
I wonder how long that will lasts? Because I'm a
little natural, A little enhancement makes you even more fantastic.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
So well, and that's what I want to do, is
I want to you know, experiment with but doing it myself.
I feel like when I work with people, they put
a lot on me or so I just kind of
want to be like, you know, every moment you get
up in the morning, you feel like, what is what
makes your eyes a little bit more accentuated?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Like I'm going to do that, but I'd like to
do why don't you.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Why don't you work with a makeup Why don't you
work with a makeup company?
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Yeah, maybe I should do that. I mean, I should
he talk to my son Brandon. He'll know how to
do it him and Dylan. But I I think that's
what the next step is. I just want to be
a little more polished, but not look over. But there's
always it's fun to do, you know, magazine covers or
movies and film that. Even with the Show Girl, I
didn't really get ready in front of a mirror. I
didn't want the scenes not wearing my cup. I didn't
(33:11):
want to be I'm going to do want to think
about how I looked in the film. So that was
interesting journey too. But it's funny course that you don't
like what you look like. I mean, it's just not
even about that, it's about.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I mean, could you were playing somebody, You're not playing yourself,
So I'm.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
Not playing myself and I think that's kind of been
the people have been asking me, like, how many similarities
are there? Are you playing a version of yourself? And
I said, no, this is this is an entirely different person.
So that's exciting to see too. When you look up
at the screen and you see you don't see yourself,
that was really cool because god.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah, because you see a character instead, and I loved
the documentary.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I thought it was today and it's hard.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
It's hard to do it. It's hard to do a documentary.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
It is in your life. I didn't have anything.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
I told my son, if you're going to do a documentary,
the only thing I asked is that I have nothing
to do with it. And I said, I don't think
I've saved anything, but of course, as every mother does,
we've saved everything.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
So I let him just have free reign.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
And that's so great.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
I haven't even seen the whole thing top to bottom,
because I started to see it. It just makes me
sad what it was kind of the beginning of this
era for me.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
So for with revelation, that's what it is, self acceptance.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
I'm writing an autobiography right now, and the way you
do that, that's the hardest thing.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Well, I did write grand memoirs. I wrote.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
I wrote my memoirs the same time they were doing
the documentary, and for me, I can't.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
You're only seven, so it's not your memoir, you know what.
It's just like a diary of your of your life
until now you're going to have so much more to
write about. I've waited completely. I mean I've written my
remembering columns and all of that stuff, which is sort
of part of the part of the autobiography. But boy,
I'm having I'm having fun because it's going to be
(35:03):
it's going to be very funny by my autobiography because
I'm not going to let anything not be said. That's
so nice, you know, I wanted to. I want to
tell it all. I'm sure it'll be great, and then
you'll get it all out. Oh well maybe maybe.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Like again even with you, Martha with your cover of
Sports Illustrated. It's nice to be able to do things
that inspire people. I mean, that's what this business is
all about. For me. I always want to make sure
if I'm doing a film, that it's hopeful, that it's inspiring,
that it's uh, you know, it's always moving forward. Like
I feel like even Shelley, she's always moving forward. And
(35:42):
I came to that script fully loaded, and when I
met Gia, I just knew that she was going to
throw things at me, but I was still going to
be moving forward. So I love that about you and
about your choices and and I think you inspire.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
A lot of women. I asked my daughter, should I
do it? And she said, yeah, go for it. But
but I, but I I work at it. You know,
I take care of myself and but I, but I
do have good heritity. And so when she said go
for it, that was that was a nice way to
encourage me. And and it's the same thing with the documentary.
(36:18):
She she didn't watch the documentary until like two weeks
after it was released. I didn't show it to her,
she didn't ask to see it. And she called me
on a Sunday afternoon she said, I just watched the
film and I said yes, and she said it's good.
So that was nice. And so that those are the
kinds of things that that matter. I think as a response,
(36:41):
the people who care about you the most, or the
people you care about the most, if if they if
it's okay with them, it's okay.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Well it's for them too.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
I mean they I feel like when I remember, you know,
just be being younger and navigating this business and having
two children, and everything that happens to us have as
to them, and think about that. In the moment we think,
you know, we're surviving and we're protecting them, but they
feel all your feelings. They go through all of this
and they have to deal with things in public too,
(37:11):
and so it's nice they're looking.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
They're looking for advice, they're looking for advice, they're looking
for guidance, and if you can give even a little
bit of that from a good life lived on that
it matters a lot of them. And to be open
and authentic and honest is very important. I think I've
just ambled along and found my way. I think that
(37:34):
that's that's something that again, if you're if you're alert,
you can navigate very nicely through through change. And one
of my models is when you're through changing, you're through.
So it's uh, it's extremely important for me to keep
change happening and whatever I can do. The next cover
(37:56):
will be in a bikini. When I saw when I
saw those girls and in the last showver these they
look pretty good and I couldn't look her out like
that race is too fat.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Oh no, oh gosh. I just think you have to.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
You know, everyone has their own way, and I feel
like they've taken a very unorthodox route to get to
this point, and it was just my way. It wasn't
people ask me for advice Sometimes I think, well, don't
ask me for advice, but.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
You'll find your way.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
And I think that when you're like with in MyDD,
I think you're a pioneer. So I mean you had
you there was no other way but yours, and I
think that's really an exciting, romantic way to live. And
living in the mystery and being okay with that. That's
kind of where I'm at these days. Ically said, but
I'm now I'm looking at things because i want to
be challenged. I'm very drawn to a musical element. After
(38:51):
playing Rocks in Chicago on Broadway and working with a
lot of musicians and vocalization a lot of things, I
kind of think there's a musical.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Element that I want to explore.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
You never know, I mean in film and in on theater,
not like a recording artist or anything.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Just something, something that's really going to challenge me. I
want to know what I'm made of.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
I feel like I just scratched the surface. It's been
an interesting four months. I never thought that the movie
would be getting this much attention and awards, conversations and
things like that. So I've been just doing what I'm
told and it's all been kind of a blur. But
I'm excited to be on this end of it because
I'm ready to get into the next thing.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
I'm just so happy to have made your equations problem.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yes, I'm so happy. I mean, this is exciting.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
I remember this is I thought it was a long shot,
and so I'm so happy that says.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
You would do this. So I can't wait to meet you.
And if I get out to the East Coast, we
might be neighbors.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
You never know.
Maybe you have seen Pamela Anderson in her Netflix documentary
last year. Maybe you saw her in her recent feature film,
The Last Showgirl, which won her a Golden Globe nomination.
Or maybe you've seen her new cookbook, her first book project.
Because lately, Pamela Anderson has been everywhere. Elle Magazine asked
(00:25):
me to interview pam for their February digital issue. We
had a great time getting to know each other better,
and I wanted to share our conversation with you.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Please enjoy. Hi, Hi, Nice to meet you in person.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Nice to meet you in parson. I'm so excited. I
thought this would just be kind of random but kind
of perfect.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Oh no, it is. It's very exciting for me. I
got out at four am this morning to watch your
amazing performance in The Last Showgirl. Well, thank you and
uh and it made me very sad, but it is.
It's sad, but it was very very well done.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Congratulations, congratulations, thank you, and I'm I'm glad you're that
you're not the downtrodden woman in the in the film.
It's just it's like crazy and Jamie the Curtis, she
did such an amazing job as usual.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
She's so much fun. I mean, she was just like
such a champion for women too. She just took me
by the shoulders and she said, I did this movie
for you.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I thought, you know, it's such a woman's woman.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
She's been there, she's reinvented herself time and again. And
I think she saw bet in me that you know,
I was wanting to do the same thing and really
support me, which was, you know, incredible. I'm just so
happy I got to do this.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And the fact that it's congratulations on the Golden Globe,
uh nomination. And I don't think he got an Oscar
today though I.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Was watching Oh no, no nomination for the Oscar, but
I mean I couldn't even imagine that. I mean, I
did get a SAG nomination, which is great, which is
really exciting. You know, all of this is just unexpected exciting.
I always say the win is in the work. I mean,
I just got to do something I really love and really,
you know, I needed to do that for my soul.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So how long did it take to make that film?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
We shot in eighteen days?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Oh wow, So that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
It's impossible about me, But you know, the impossible is
what it so it was almost in real time.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It's like it's according to the Yeah, amazing. And where
you shoot it? Where was that?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Well, we shot it in Las Vegas, and we shot
it at the Rio, and we shot it backstage and
really in real backstage quarters, those really tiny, you know spaces,
and we had to get out of there at a
certain time because of the show, like that underwater circus
or something.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
We had to put everything back.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
The start is so lay oh something, Oh the old
one and those tall stairs. I was feeling so sorry
for all the girls climbing up those stairs.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Good for your legs, but boy, oh boy, it's with
fifty pounds backpacks on. I mean a lot of those
those costumes were so heavy. I mean all those rhinestones
they weigh something. And then we had the backpack and
the headdresses and you know, and the stairs.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Coming downstairs is harder than going upstairs.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
How did the role actually come about?
Speaker 4 (03:32):
The role came about, well, I the script was sent
to an old agent and he turned it down. And
I've talked about that, and I my son produced the
documentary that he made.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
He made a documentary, and.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Gea knew that he produced that, so she got him
the script, knowing that I hadn't read it if it
was turned down within a new hour, and I read
it fell in love with it. I could hear the
voice in my head, I could see how to play here,
all the layers and nuances. I felt like it was
already in my mind, and so I knew I had
to do it. And that's the first time I've ever
experienced anything like that, because nobody was giving me these
(04:10):
great characters to play or a script like this.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
So I just thought, wow, I was I came home.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
I made a beautiful garden, roses and vegetables, and you know,
making pickles and jam, a big pickler and canner, and
that's in my family, and that's something that I just thought,
Camela's pickles. Maybe I'll do something fun like that heard
And then this world came about, and I thought, well,
I can I can get at to that later, I
can do it at this, I can do both. But
(04:39):
I really wanted to do this film, and so that's
how it came about, and I just started preparing for
it and working hard on it, and I thought this
might be my only chance to do a film, and
so I'm going to give it all I got, well,
you look you looked.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And your body looked amazing. I looked you looked great
in the in the film. Did you have to do
any special press for the film or you? I mean
you're you're in fantastic shape and your and your beautiful skin.
I know all about your no makeup thin.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Well, I mean I take care of myself. I you know,
I eat healthy. I'm a you know, I'm always outside walking.
But I worked with a great choreographer who I worked
with on Broadway. Actually I played Roxy in Chicago on Broadway,
and I had Greg Butler. I brought him onto this film,
and so he kind of knew where, you know, I
(05:28):
was at. I'm not really a dancer, as much as
I love it. He knew how to how we could
work together and how we could put that audition scene together.
So that was a lot of you know, dancing, it's
great exercise. But I've always kind of been active, so
that's what keeps me in shape. I'm not I don't
go to the gym or anything like that, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
You know, you don't do pilates like I do three
three mornings a week at six thirty am.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I love plates but I don't have it here on
the island. I'm not on at any place.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
That's something you could be that said, I've a pilates studio.
Everybody wants pilates.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah, well I could do it.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I could.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I have a little you know, basement in my in
my boat house.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
I could probably put a pilates machine there, but I
probably get tangled up in it.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
I did.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
No, it's but I have a train. I have a trainer,
and it's old easier because they can change all the
springs and everything. You don't have to you don't have
to do it yourself.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I think that's pretty hard to do yourself. I think, actually, no,
it is too hard.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And so so the so the choreography was, it was
very interesting, and the and the the men behind, you know,
behind the voice. I mean that it's it's it's happened
to all of us, those auditions that are just so
ridiculous and so heartless, and you get the real feeling
of that there.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Well, I like it that she doesn't take no for
an answer, that she would almost walks away but then
turns back.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I had an experience like that when I was very
young doing going on go sees as a model, and
they asked us as all the girls the ghost sage
to bringing bikinis. And after I had the interview with
about there were about fifteen guys sitting around a table
looking at our books and looking at us, and then
they said, oh, go on, go get into your bikinis.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And I said, well, does the part require a bikini?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And the guy said no, but we might as well.
We have you here, we might as well look at you.
And I just walked out of the room. I just
left and I was only you know, maybe seven team,
but I just I just wouldn't put up with that crap.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Well that's good that you didn't put up with that.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Oh, and that's the way I've been all along, but
with the whole me too thing and everything, I just
wouldn't put up with it. And yet you know, when
you see other girls do put it, putting up with
it because of the they need the money or they
need the job, and it's it's a it was a
difficult situation. I think I think that might be getting
better after all these few years of horrible metube problems
(07:52):
that we've been going through.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Well, it's hard to navigate, it's hard to navigate a
business which is based on physical be and you know
and also naivete. You're young and you're in this business
and you want to please people, and you don't know
you have a gut feeling that maybe it's not the
right thing to do, and you can get yourself in
these dangerous situations.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Or I was painfully shy.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
It was such a shy young girl, if you can
believe it, and I just wanted to do anything to
stop being shy. And I remember when this Playboy cover
came up. I said, okay, I can. My mom said
do it? You know, yes, do it. And I didn't
know what it was going to lead to, but then
you know, it led to kind of this wild and
crazy life, but something certainly you draw from I guy.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
How was it to work with Gia Coppola?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Well, she is amazing. She's such a great actress director.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
She's very soft spoken, but she's very decisive and she
this was her singular vision.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
She had one a little monitor that she would carry.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
You know. I went from this movie to doing Naked
Gun for Paramount, and it was like, couldn't be any
more different. I mean, with hundreds of people on set,
video villages, she had keeping this. It was by Indie
fields are so fun because I really don't have a
lot of cooks in the kitchen. It's really her vision.
And she's great. I mean she she has this natural
(09:13):
calmness and knowing and and there was so many women
on the set, Like even our DP was a woman,
Autumn Durral who's and the girl carrying the boom.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
There was so many women on this.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
I don't think they planned it, but this was really
a film about women, created by women, written by a woman.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
But but dressed by a man. How is Bob Mackie?
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Bob Mackie Bob Mackie costumes?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Those were museum pieces by you know, some of them
still had name tags in them. So I really felt,
you know, as much as we were sticking into me
and like, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Heavy and and and.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
They were they were quite. They were wife fabulous. Those
caustic and dresses too, those much are her.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
They were heavy and they make it look easy. I
mean I talked to some of the Jubilee show girls.
I had them come over for tea and we talked
about kind of the you know showgirl dos and don't
you know they're not bur lesque dancers. They were never
asked to mingle with people in the casinos. They were
kind of they were protected. They were the icon of
Las Vegas. But there's no show anymore, you know it.
(10:19):
Out with the old, in with the new. Las Vegas
is pretty much known for that, and I think that's
why I love the analog versus digital of shooting on
film was kind of subconscious in a way where it
kind of remind nostalgia, kind of made you think of
the past. And it was kind of a period piece
because I think it was twenty sixteen that Jubilee ended,
(10:41):
and so they had to be careful how they shot
Las Vegas. They couldn't have the Sphere in it, for instance.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You know, they had to make sure it was you been.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I was going to ask you, have you been to
the Sphere?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I haven't.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Oh my gosh, I've been there three times. And I
have a restaurant in Las Vegas. Do you know that.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Oh if I had known you were shooting there, I
would have made three. Your whole crew went to my restaurant. Oh,
it's in the Paris It's in the Paris Hotel and
it's called the Bidford and it's a replica, sort of
a replica, oversize replica of my own house. That like
this room that I'm sitting at is there's stuff like
this in the in the it's a beautiful restaurant and
it is one of the top five celebrity restaurants in
(11:19):
Las Vegas this year. I'm so excited.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
That's so exciting. Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yes, all I can think about in that sphere, which
is one of the most amazing theatrical experiences you will
ever have, or probably the most amazing you'll ever have,
is if Shakespeare had had such a place, Oh my,
it would have been. I can't wait to see a
Shakespearean play in that place. I can. And I saw
(11:44):
you what was incredible in the most recent show it
was it was the best. But but they're there. Movie
that is about the world, about the world is that
takes the cake. It's just Incredibles me by like six
see different directors and it's an amazing film. So when
you go back to Las Vegas, make sure you get
(12:04):
to go.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I will go. Yeah, I was whatever, see.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
What or is there there they need? It's very as
there's so many things going on at once. You'll see
when you go. So I want to know about Lady Smith.
It's so such a beautiful name. Is that an old name?
Is that the real name of a town?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah, that's a real name of a town. It's an
old mining town on Vancouver Island and it's called Lady Smith.
It's like one little road and I've I grew up here,
you did.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
My grandmother had this little auto court where there was
nine cabins on this little court and I'm in the
roadhouse right now, which used to be her general store,
and she had a tea. She would serve tea in
the little teahouse. It's all connected, and had a little
store here and would bake here. And so I'm right
here where the squeaks are on the same spots, my
(12:56):
dad says, in the floors.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
But that's about it. It's it's very cute.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Where did they come from? Where did your Where did
your your parents come from? Where did your grandparents come from?
Speaker 4 (13:08):
My grandparents were Finnish, finish finish, so I have the
finish finish roots. And there were loggers and my grandfather
danced on treetops.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
And you know, there's.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Beautiful, They're so beautiful. The people are so beautiful. I
venture fin let other people are so beautiful and their
attitude is so beautiful too.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Well. Nature is very important, and storytelling is very important.
My grandfather used to teach me fairy tales and mythology.
It was a great storyteller and really deep voice. And
I was six foot four and I don't know. He
was really a special person. And I spoke Finnish to
him till he passed away when I was eleven. But
I can imagine him here in his chair with that
he always had, So it's nice. I wanted to come home.
(13:51):
I wanted to come home to the place where the
trees knew me since birth. You know, I just felt
like I needed to come home.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Well, how often how often do you leave there?
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I am hardly ever here lately.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
I mean promoting this film for four months and running
around and doing that. You know what, we I forgot
that this was all part of it. You know, you
think you do the film and then you're done, But no,
that's just.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Going No, No, You're you're going to do all the
find out about all the ancillary stuff.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Yeah, and I do believe in the film. I want
as many people to see the film as possible. I
wanted to get it's do it well.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
It has just a limited distribution right now. When is
it going to go on Netflix or something.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I don't know what the plans are for streaming, but
I'm glad that this film is being shown on the
big screen because they created special lenses for this film Autumn.
There's these automorphic lenses where the edges are kind of blurred,
and that really focuses in on the talent. So that's
kind of lose that I think in smaller devices. But
it's an indie film, so for instance, we'd open on
(14:47):
six hundred screens instead of thousands like another film. What
and and in Canada, you know, a hundred screens or something.
It's it's very limited and also limited in for the
money they put into advertising, so it's very much word
of mouth and and so that's why we do as
much as we can do to promote it, because it
doesn't have the same machine behind it. You know, Netflix,
(15:09):
they have millions and millions of dollars they put behind
their projects and their artists, and so I kind of
like it.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I'm always like the little engine that could. I can
get there. I can get there. I'm just fighting for it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I think, I think lots and lots and lots of
people will be watching.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
It's still I hope, ultimately, I think so.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So what does the ideal day look like for you
in Ladies Smith?
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Well, it's winter right now, and actually yesterday was fun
because I got to really prune back my roses. It
finally froze, which is so bizarre, Like the weather's so different.
We used to get snow every year and there's been
no snow, so I wanted to wait and really do
the heart prunning after the froze for a while. So
that's what I did yesterday. Today, I'm just you know,
(16:04):
am I is it? My b I moved my parents
onto the property. They live in one of the cabins,
and so there's some health issues for things. I'm looking
after them and it's fun. It's fun to cook for them.
It's fun to make my dad eat more vegetables in
it's his seventies.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Like you, you have, you have one child.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I have two children. I have, oh I have, but
they're twenty seven and twenty eight, Brandon and Dylan. Dylan
is the youngest one.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Brandon is the producer who's you know, masterminding this all
a lot of these things.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
I saw your documentary, by the way, and I loved it.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Did you?
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I loved it?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Oh it's just so great. Oh good, well, thank you,
thank you, it's so great.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
You're such a beauty and you're such a you know,
you started the whole world.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I mean, just just to be able. I love.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
I consider myself a homemaker. I consider myself you know,
I love to bake and cook and.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I'll win white. I just I got your I got
your from your cookbook. There it is and very nicely, John.
How long did it take you to put together?
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Three years? You know we did the testing and taste,
I mean did they. I didn't realize what takes to
make a cookbook because I made this recipe card box
for my kids when they got their first home together
and they lived together, and they are the ones who said, mom,
this is a cookbook.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
And I thought, oh.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Geez, they're so you know, they're very they're.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Businessmen, so that was their idea.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
And then I just worked with a great photographer. The
photographer actually shot Nomah's cookbook. Oh, and Noah is so
fabulous on and.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
D then have you been ged Ova?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I have I have.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I have. It's a vegetable season, so that was lucky
for me. So I like, I love rice porridge. That's
that's really is that. It's really Japanese with the.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Gorgeous I'm a moarning person, and I, you know, all
these people that are doing this intrimitted fasting, I couldn't
do it. I have to eat as soon as I
get up, I take my vitamins. I I make some
kind of porridge and some kind of something warm, you know,
or my overnight oats. It's funny when I go to
hotels now, I'll go to my room. I'll go to
my room and there'll be something the chef has made
(18:12):
from my cookbook in my room.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
How nice? Isn't that amazing?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
In Barcelona, in La, all over the world.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
And I love your writing and I love your sketching.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
You do my doodles, Oh no, I think.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
They're very beautiful. I want to eat a sweet po
potato burger right now.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Well, I'm glad you like that because that's what I eat.
But that's my you know, my kids were kind of saying, Mom,
this is really a recipe.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
No, it's it is a recipe at least it's an
idea of a very good recipe. And your saffron spinach
rice cake. It reminds me so much of Tadique. You know,
I love I love Persian food, and that is.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Called that's a deep because I didn't want to be disrespectful,
because you know I can write.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Do you you can grow saffron? Do you know that?
Did not know that I'm growing my old saffron. I
got a jar of saffron from my farm this year,
a little half high jar of saffron, which is like gold.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Yeah, And do you grow it in the garden or
do you grow it in the garden and it comes
back stronger the second year and then even stronger than
the third year.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
They're procus balls. Okay, you can order them and they
are wonderful. I mean, the fragrance of homegrown saffron is
so much superior to anything that you buy anything. I
love it. You will love it. Oh, I love your
I love your watermelon, watermelon granita. Do you know have
(19:41):
you seen my new cookbook, my hundredth book?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
No, no, no, but I want it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I have a good orange granita in that book. And
here you are probably amazing. You have watermelon.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
It's so beautiful, and I'd like to do with preserved
lemons too. But you know, I met David Zimmer of
the cementation guy from Nomah, yeah, talking about you know that,
and so they kind of was inspired by him a
little bit the watermelon grenita.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
But I was speaking of blood orange trees. I probably
shouldn't say this, but I.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Remember when my sons were born, I planted them I
placenta in a blood orch tree.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
You did, That's very I don't know where we got
the idea to do that. Oh, that's goulda been a
terrible thing that comes up.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
And did the blood orange tree grow well?
Speaker 3 (20:27):
The blood oornetry grew well.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
But unfortunately that heuse burned down, oh in one of
the California fires, which I am just poor California for
this has just been the most horrible. There was also
one that just came up at the Getdy overnight and
I'm like, yes, really yeah, but they put it out,
they contained it right away, but it was overnight, and
they're sending me videos my kids all the time.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
It's so awful. I have so many friends who lost their.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Homes, and you know, we had I said to a
matching a matching program or my company. All our gifts
are by the company, which is good. We set off.
I sent off a lot of money last week, and
I hope I got one notice that from somebody that
they had received it. So I hope they can distribute
it fairly and not nicely.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
And the people, well that's the hard thing.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
I mean, my you know, I know a lot of
people who work with animals, so I've been trying to help,
you know, reunite people with their I gave.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I gave mine to the pet world.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yeah, we need some rain, you know.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
And I think that's it's just been a very apocalyptic because.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
That's why you don't That's why you haven't a snow
in Vancouver because there's no rain, right, I know.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
But it's I keep on telling my kids this place is.
I mean, it really is heavenly I live. It's it's
nice to live like in a rainforest and eagles and
owls and seals on.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
My deck, and you know it's whales, killer whales. So
beautiful it really is.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
I never I could never give this place up, even
though the East Coast is.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Kind of calling me. I mean, I really love I'm
always going.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
To Bedford you would love it here. I really love
Connecticut and I Bedford's Bedford's west Chester. It's right on
the border of Connecticut, so you're in It's it's in
New York, and it's from my house. It's like fifteen
minutes to my office in on thirty fourth Street. And
I live on one hundred and fifty acre farm.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
As Pictures and Jesse have.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
We have all kinds of of West Coast people moving
in now, and I bet we get more because of
the because of the fires. But Matt Damon just moved here,
and and we have Blake Lively, she She and Rock
live here, and a bunch of a bunch of other
(22:45):
lots of Hollywood people have been moving here. But it's nice.
You love it here.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I think it's it's kind of like where I am.
But yeah, civilization.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You don't have the ocean. The ocean is so close by.
But we have beautiful reservoirs and lakes and and I
have a I have lots of animals on my farm.
I live like you live, but on the on the
East coast.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
The Hudson Husband Member is a big art commune. Like
for yes, a lot of artists come came from there.
So it's say, it was like it's an energy there.
I think I want to do some theater too. So
I think if I kind of gravitate towards the East coast,
I'll be closer and I'll be a little more brave
and try to experiment with I want do things that
challenge me. I want to do things that are completely transformative.
(23:28):
And so that's the exciting part of all this is
that I think people may it may start being able
to see me and doing other things other than you know,
like just.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
The and I can I ask you how old you
are because I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
I'm fifty seven.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Oh, that's why you said that in the movie.
Speaker 6 (23:45):
I know.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
In the line was I'm fifty and I'm beautiful, and
I changed it.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I said, no, we're just committing mine now, you said,
he said, And I said, boy, does she look good
for fifty seven? So you could be my daughter. My
daughter is fifty nine. I have a very beautiful daughter,
mother of my two grandchildren. And and she's fifty nine.
She looks like looks like she looks like forty at
the most. My daughter and uh and the kid. The
(24:11):
kids are old for they're old for a forty year old.
But they're very young for a fifty nine year old
because they're only twelve and thirteen. The kids' friends have
much younger parents. So my daughter, my daughter is like
in a weird situation, and she's she's divorced and she
doesn't have a husband and and so's she's in a
weird place. But she is such a good mother. And
(24:33):
those kids are so fabulous.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
I can't wait on grandkids.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Oh yeah, it's the best.
Speaker 6 (24:41):
Wait, but you still you still have two little boys.
They're twenty seven, they're that's young. Well, the money is
already engaged in cage. Yeah, they're really happy. They're good.
I don't know they they're they're old souls. I mean,
it will be fun. I think, you know, that's the
next stage.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
That's an step. I mean, my relationship is to my
work and that as I like to say, you.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
With you would love my granddaughter. She my granddaughter sort
of reminds me of you. She's very vivacious, and she's
and she's uh, she can act, she can dance. She's
been at Alvin Ailey for she's been at Alvin Aily
for ten years and she's thirteen. Wow, And she's been
studying there for ten years. And she's like strong as anything,
(25:25):
you know, physically strong and very tall. She's like six
feet tall now she's thirteen. Well, you can don't kill girl.
She's good.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
I think that's what happens.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I think the dancers really, you know, spend their whole
life dancing and then just got too tall.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, she's getting too tall for the for well, Alvin
Ali the girl. The women are big, you know, they're
big women, and but but beautiful. And she she likes choreography.
She likes to do She likes to choreograph, so that's good,
that's what she'll do. But she also wants to be
a doctor.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
She also was a combination. I'm being a doctor, she
loves to.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Be your writers and she's and she wants to be
a food critic.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Well, I think you need to know a lot of
things and do a lot of things these days.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Your your book has so much and you refer so
much to sort of classic French, very high cuisine, but
in the most simple, beautiful way. So did you travel
a lot in Europe?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I have traveled a lot, and I spent a few
years in the south of France. I lived in Sant Tropez.
I lived in Marseille, I lived in Cassie.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Oh yeah I did.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Oh yeah, And so that was thought.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
So that's where that's where a lot of these that's
where a lot of these beautiful recipes call and and
the h and the photography is beautiful in this book.
I love all your pickles, yeah, and I make I
make lots of jams and jellies too. I grow so
many different kinds of berries and fruits on my farm.
(26:58):
And your focacco looks amazing. And your bread is your
bread really really good?
Speaker 3 (27:04):
My bread is really good.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
I've already made you know, three badges since I've been home.
I have this great, you know, sour dough starter named
Astrid Biking Warrior Princess.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
She's amazing, and so yeah, I just finally.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
As soon as I get home, I take a starter
out of the fridge, I feed her. Then I you know,
a couple of days later, I can start making bread.
And that's when I feel like I'm home. I mean,
it's therapeutic.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
How who takes care of Astrod when you're away?
Speaker 3 (27:28):
He's in the fridge.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
She just stays in the fridge.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
She's so gay, she's fine. Yeah, she's fine.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
And I mean I was gone for a few months
and I came back and and I just you know,
poured off the liquid on the top and feed her
and it was fine and small Paris.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
That's good, you know.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
Yeah, I mean it's it's been a you know, my
son's fiance taught me how to make bread.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
And it was a big thing. I think over COVID
when people were making bread. Oh yeah, and but I
really love it. It's hard for me to follow recipes sometimes,
but with baking.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Have to and with bread, I just learned the hard
way over many attempts.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
You have to do it.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I like your kale ships. Those look really good.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Those are good, really good. So are you a vegetarian?
Speaker 4 (28:13):
I am, I am, But I you know, I didn't
want to make the book very like vegan. I wanted
it to just be celebrating my garden because, you know,
trying to figure out what to make out of my
garden all the time, you know how we get so
much of everything all at once.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
And yeah, and I.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
So I was and then thinking about my favorite kinds
of food all over the world, and I think it came.
You know, we start off with so many recipes and
you whittle it down. So I wanted it also to
be about, you know, writing a little bit and sharing
more lifestyle stuff too.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
But well it it came out very beautifully, were very beautifully.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Oh thank you. That means a lot coming from you.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
I'm going to I'm gonna make your waffles. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
If you make it, let me know.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I'll send you a photo.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
That would be good.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
It's funny because you know when you're doing food, when
you're doing the testing, and then you're doing the pictures,
and then you're.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Not there for all the pictures. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I was going crazy because you know, yours looks a
little different than it's. It's it's a real experience. I
didn't realize how much went in to make it.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I'll send I'll send you a copy of my new book.
It's my it's like my forty ninth cookbook, but my
one hundredth book overall. And so it was it was
a big deal getting that out for for the last week.
Got we got it out right before Christmas. But I'll
send it to you and you can just peruse it.
It has one little chapter in the back of how
(29:41):
I write a cookbook, And because after all these cookbooks
that I've written, it was it was funny. And that's
my granddaughter. That was the first page you read in
the books because she was very interested to know how
it actually what the process is. And I got it down.
I got it down, I think after forty eight books.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
So just recipe itself is as a as an art.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Form and you can't you can't let anybody show you
it's not.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
It's hard. It's hard work, so I mean, much harder
than I thought.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
It would be. So what's your what's your favorite recipe
in the book?
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Well, I am you know, I just have these fond
memories of making parogis, you know, with my mom, and and.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
We still make them.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
You know, you bring out the big board and you
fill them of all sorts of things, because you know
they Jesus is pretty much in everything.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Dairy isn't pretty much everything.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
So I tried to find a really good recipe that
didn't have that in it. So I was I really
love that that one with the peas.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
And the mint.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Yeah, delicious, So nice little combination, but I pictures a
little bit over fried.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
That isn't how mine looked. So I was just like
always looking at things.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
I made a whole list because usually you know in
a cookbook sometimes there's these little tiny things that are
off and you keep this running list. So I learned
it just you know, you have proofreaders, you have people
going through these things, and you still miss little tiny things.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Doesn't that drive you crazy? Uh No, it doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I I think I've gotten used to those those people there.
And a good code for editor is a really good
thing because you don't want to leave anything out. You
don't want to add any any any mistakes in the
recipe because you want to be authentic, but you want
to be accurate. So what what what is exciting you
outside of let's say the cookbook world now or the
(31:31):
film world. What's exciting you and what's distressing you?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
What's distressing me?
Speaker 4 (31:37):
Well, I mean I've always been a little bit of
a rebel, and you know, I tried, I'm doing this,
you know not, I'm not that I'm doing this no
makeup thing. As decided I don't have to want to
make up every day or being a hair and makeup
chair every day.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
And even in this photo shoot for L I wore makeup.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
It was exciting and glamorous, and I'm just trying to
find what my next incarnation is. I feel like I
because I'm such like the little you know, farm girl
oh here, but I also love glamour and I love
beauty and I.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Love Oh man, you're real good at that.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
So I don't said.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
You have beautiful skinned, beautiful teeth, beautiful eyes, and you know,
you play it all. And when when you gave out
the makeup thing, we were all kind of like saying,
I wonder how long that will lasts? Because I'm a
little natural, A little enhancement makes you even more fantastic.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
So well, and that's what I want to do, is
I want to you know, experiment with but doing it myself.
I feel like when I work with people, they put
a lot on me or so I just kind of
want to be like, you know, every moment you get
up in the morning, you feel like, what is what
makes your eyes a little bit more accentuated?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Like I'm going to do that, but I'd like to
do why don't you.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Why don't you work with a makeup Why don't you
work with a makeup company?
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Yeah, maybe I should do that. I mean, I should
he talk to my son Brandon. He'll know how to
do it him and Dylan. But I I think that's
what the next step is. I just want to be
a little more polished, but not look over. But there's
always it's fun to do, you know, magazine covers or
movies and film that. Even with the Show Girl, I
didn't really get ready in front of a mirror. I
didn't want the scenes not wearing my cup. I didn't
(33:11):
want to be I'm going to do want to think
about how I looked in the film. So that was
interesting journey too. But it's funny course that you don't
like what you look like. I mean, it's just not
even about that, it's about.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I mean, could you were playing somebody, You're not playing yourself,
So I'm.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
Not playing myself and I think that's kind of been
the people have been asking me, like, how many similarities
are there? Are you playing a version of yourself? And
I said, no, this is this is an entirely different person.
So that's exciting to see too. When you look up
at the screen and you see you don't see yourself,
that was really cool because god.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah, because you see a character instead, and I loved
the documentary.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I thought it was today and it's hard.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
It's hard to do it. It's hard to do a documentary.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
It is in your life. I didn't have anything.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
I told my son, if you're going to do a documentary,
the only thing I asked is that I have nothing
to do with it. And I said, I don't think
I've saved anything, but of course, as every mother does,
we've saved everything.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
So I let him just have free reign.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
And that's so great.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
I haven't even seen the whole thing top to bottom,
because I started to see it. It just makes me
sad what it was kind of the beginning of this
era for me.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
So for with revelation, that's what it is, self acceptance.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
I'm writing an autobiography right now, and the way you
do that, that's the hardest thing.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Well, I did write grand memoirs. I wrote.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
I wrote my memoirs the same time they were doing
the documentary, and for me, I can't.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
You're only seven, so it's not your memoir, you know what.
It's just like a diary of your of your life
until now you're going to have so much more to
write about. I've waited completely. I mean I've written my
remembering columns and all of that stuff, which is sort
of part of the part of the autobiography. But boy,
I'm having I'm having fun because it's going to be
(35:03):
it's going to be very funny by my autobiography because
I'm not going to let anything not be said. That's
so nice, you know, I wanted to. I want to
tell it all. I'm sure it'll be great, and then
you'll get it all out. Oh well maybe maybe.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Like again even with you, Martha with your cover of
Sports Illustrated. It's nice to be able to do things
that inspire people. I mean, that's what this business is
all about. For me. I always want to make sure
if I'm doing a film, that it's hopeful, that it's inspiring,
that it's uh, you know, it's always moving forward. Like
I feel like even Shelley, she's always moving forward. And
(35:42):
I came to that script fully loaded, and when I
met Gia, I just knew that she was going to
throw things at me, but I was still going to
be moving forward. So I love that about you and
about your choices and and I think you inspire.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
A lot of women. I asked my daughter, should I
do it? And she said, yeah, go for it. But
but I, but I I work at it. You know,
I take care of myself and but I, but I
do have good heritity. And so when she said go
for it, that was that was a nice way to
encourage me. And and it's the same thing with the documentary.
(36:18):
She she didn't watch the documentary until like two weeks
after it was released. I didn't show it to her,
she didn't ask to see it. And she called me
on a Sunday afternoon she said, I just watched the
film and I said yes, and she said it's good.
So that was nice. And so that those are the
kinds of things that that matter. I think as a response,
(36:41):
the people who care about you the most, or the
people you care about the most, if if they if
it's okay with them, it's okay.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Well it's for them too.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
I mean they I feel like when I remember, you know,
just be being younger and navigating this business and having
two children, and everything that happens to us have as
to them, and think about that. In the moment we think,
you know, we're surviving and we're protecting them, but they
feel all your feelings. They go through all of this
and they have to deal with things in public too,
(37:11):
and so it's nice they're looking.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
They're looking for advice, they're looking for advice, they're looking
for guidance, and if you can give even a little
bit of that from a good life lived on that
it matters a lot of them. And to be open
and authentic and honest is very important. I think I've
just ambled along and found my way. I think that
(37:34):
that's that's something that again, if you're if you're alert,
you can navigate very nicely through through change. And one
of my models is when you're through changing, you're through.
So it's uh, it's extremely important for me to keep
change happening and whatever I can do. The next cover
(37:56):
will be in a bikini. When I saw when I
saw those girls and in the last showver these they
look pretty good and I couldn't look her out like
that race is too fat.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Oh no, oh gosh. I just think you have to.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
You know, everyone has their own way, and I feel
like they've taken a very unorthodox route to get to
this point, and it was just my way. It wasn't
people ask me for advice Sometimes I think, well, don't
ask me for advice, but.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
You'll find your way.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
And I think that when you're like with in MyDD,
I think you're a pioneer. So I mean you had
you there was no other way but yours, and I
think that's really an exciting, romantic way to live. And
living in the mystery and being okay with that. That's
kind of where I'm at these days. Ically said, but
I'm now I'm looking at things because i want to
be challenged. I'm very drawn to a musical element. After
(38:51):
playing Rocks in Chicago on Broadway and working with a
lot of musicians and vocalization a lot of things, I
kind of think there's a musical.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Element that I want to explore.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
You never know, I mean in film and in on theater,
not like a recording artist or anything.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Just something, something that's really going to challenge me. I
want to know what I'm made of.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
I feel like I just scratched the surface. It's been
an interesting four months. I never thought that the movie
would be getting this much attention and awards, conversations and
things like that. So I've been just doing what I'm
told and it's all been kind of a blur. But
I'm excited to be on this end of it because
I'm ready to get into the next thing.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
I'm just so happy to have made your equations problem.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yes, I'm so happy. I mean, this is exciting.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
I remember this is I thought it was a long shot,
and so I'm so happy that says.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
You would do this. So I can't wait to meet you.
And if I get out to the East Coast, we
might be neighbors.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
You never know.
Host
Martha Stewart
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