Enough with the Airhorn?

Hannah answers more of your letters about which guest stars she would like to work with again, third culture kids, and Faulty Towers on VHS in Saudia Arabia.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:20):
LAFT meeting, a laft A meeting. You guys, Hello, I
realized do I always start this with an airhorn? Remember
I told you guys last week that my mom was like,
it feels like you're your enthusiasm levels going up on
LAFT meetings. You're getting crazy. And I'm realizing maybe that's
because I'm starting a reacingle time going. Maybe it's a lot.

(00:44):
Maybe no one really wants to hear that when they,
you know, open up a podcast to listen. I'm sitting
here wearing my Ferguson shirt, my mess around Ferguson shirt.
I see that. I can't explain. I know I've talked
about before, but I can't explain. I was so excited
when New Girl became super popular, and I just assumed.

(01:09):
I just assumed there'd be so much like swag and
merch around the show that you would be produced by
like the show, that we would get to wear all
the time and just like represent all the time. And
there wasn't. It's not feeling like a weird missed opportunity,
like the studio doesn't like make all this merch and
swag and everybody could just go and buy it. So
it's funny. When we started this Podcastla Morning and I

(01:30):
were like, we need to get some new girl merch
out into the world, specific to the mess Around and
the Winnie CC dynamic. But ye'all know me. I'm a
crazy cat lady out and brown. I have a whole
account called Have Cats, Will Travel Cats Cats with a
Zi Lada. I'm so crazy about cats. So I've been

(01:53):
waiting for the right opportunity for us to create some
fergus in merch and Valentine's Day seemed like the perfect
time to drop that love letter to the fans and
to myself. And I've been wearing this T shirt stop
this Ferguson T shirt and it's so cool, like being
able to being able to like wear it out in
the world because people know, people know Fergie ferg ma'am um.

(02:18):
You can get yours, of course at the mess Around pod
dot com. Go get it. But if you get it,
if you get this T shirt, please, Like I designed
this with my bestie Wendy. I feel like, please, if
you get it, can you just put it on and
like tag me so I can see. It makes me
so happy. Ah. Right, It's a loft meeting, which is
really all's time to shine. You send in your letters,

(02:40):
your videos, your voice memos, your thoughts, your conspiracy theories
around the show, all the stuff, and then I get
to talk about it and address it, which is my
favorite thing to do. So here we go. Let's launch
in with Gwyneth. What's up? Gwyneth? Love that name? Hello
a Hanna and Lamourn. Firstly, I'd like to thank you

(03:02):
both so much for doing this podcast. The specific energy
that your friendship brings to the show is authentic and
so enjoyable. This podcast has really helped me understand not
only how special you are as people, but also just
how talented you are as actors. This is so nice.
I know lots of comments say otherwise, out you mean,

(03:25):
lots of comments say otherwise, Oh my goodness, gracious well,
I haven't seen those comment Maybe the algorithm is protecting
me from the criticism. But I see a clear difference
between Cec and Hannah and Winston and Lamourn. CEC's not
going to stay home and do any puzzles, and Winston

(03:47):
doesn't have half the riz Lamarn does. Oh God. What
prompted me to reach out though, was a kindred feeling
with you two, with you Hannah. Sorry. What prompted me
to reach out, though, was a kindred feeling with you.
Hannah calls us third culture kids. Oh, I know this well.
I know this well, just like you. I spent a
great deal of my life overseas. It's awesome hearing you

(04:09):
off your offhanded mentions of a British mother, an Indian father,
Canadian citizenship and upbringing in Cyprus, et cetera, and so
much more. I grew up in a similar way as
an American with a parent in the Foreign Service. I
rarely lived in any country for longer than three years.
I truly have never seen my experience on the screen
before This's my life too. And then I remembered, Hannah,

(04:33):
it wasn't on this podcast when I first felt that shock.
It was on the show in the episode Barkrawl, the
characters Coach and May meet for the first time and
bond over being third culture kids. All of this background
leads me to my very simple question. Were the stories
of Coach Slash May inspired by Hannah's story or by
anyone else working on the show, or was that just random?

(04:57):
Thank you so much to everyone who works on this
podcast finally make the experience so much richer for your audience. Gwyneth,
Thanks Gwyneth. Yeah, it's funny. Third Culture kids, man, it's
a whole thing. I don't know. My assumption would be
for the coach may thing is that there was someone
in the writer's room that had that experience and then

(05:18):
Sike like built that into the story of their relationship.
That would be my guess. I don't think it's inspired
by me particularly, but yeah, Third Culture kids, it's it's interesting.
I always said that I'd never lived in a place
more than three years. When I lived in Toronto, I
think I was there for four and for me, I
was like, wow, that's the longest I lived anywhere. And

(05:40):
the irony was it was probably the city that I
least connected with, but I spent the most time there
until I moved to LA and I've been here often
on now for a very very long time. So yeah, interesting,
Like it was interesting thing for me to actually like

(06:02):
be living in a life for as long as I
have now, which is over a decade, feels so strange
because I'm much more comfortable in movement and change, which
is the nice thing of being a Third culture kid
is that change is comfortable and I know, changes uncomfortable
for a lot of people, so there was a lot
of ups and down, so obviously moving a lot, but

(06:23):
that was the one gift of it. It made change
very comfortable and traveling very easy and familiar, which was
always nice. All right, here we go our next question.
Hi Hannah and in the morn, my name is Amir. Well,
this is mer Mer. My name is Mer. My friend,

(06:45):
my best friend Faith and I are from the UK
and we're big friends of the new girl. She's definitely
the just in my CC we usually found quoting Schmidt's
a white man, Nope, at each other. I've just listen
to the ex's episode of the podcast, and my question
is is there any guests are on the show that
you wish you could have worked with more, Like Tiffany Hattish,

(07:08):
Adam Brodie, Mary, Elizabeth Ellis. They were on this episode,
but you didn't get to work with all of them much,
if at all. Thank you man. Yes, you know what's
really crazy is that I watched this show as it airs,
so we shot the show. But if people aren't in
your scenes, you're probably not working that day often so
you don't even cross paths. And then I would watch
it as it aired, so it aired about three to

(07:29):
four weeks later after shooting. But then I've never rewatched
the show. So here I am, like, many many, many,
many many years later, in a weird way, almost watching
for the first time. It feels like because I'm not
like in the machine of the whole thing, and I'd
forgotten because it wasn't in my core memory. It wasn't like,
oh yeah, that time Tiffany Hattish and I hung out

(07:51):
all day didn't happen. So I'm rewatching and I'm like,
what I mean, it's it's amazing the level of guest
stars we had on this show and what they brought
to the show. There was like a running joke that
New Girl was becoming the Law and Order of LA
and that means Law and Order is such a long

(08:11):
running show and it shoots in New York that every actor,
usually at the beginning of their career, at some point
got hired and cycled through that show. And I feel
like New Girl ran for so long that so many
great comedy actors at the beginning of their career came
on and they had a line here, or you know,
a few lines there, and it was just it's so

(08:32):
interesting that you get to kind of see them at
that point. Yeah, so crazy, and I wish I'd spend
more time with all of them, or anytime with any
of them. I wonder if we ever did a reunion
of I just watched SNL fifty and you know, they
brought everybody back that's ever been a part of it.
That'd be so cool to do for New Girl. I

(08:55):
wonder if somebody could do that with just like photoshop
is to make like the like the all the amazing
guest stars and then the cast of New Girl altogether
in one picture. Someone all they're talented. Could they do
that so we could actually see all the incredible people
that have been part of this show, just like in
one shot. That'd be awesome. Ah, right, here we go,

(09:29):
next question. Hello mess Around crew, Thank you so much
for all your time and efforts for the pod. Love
listening to you all. I noticed that saved by the
bell is a common theme one New Girl. Nick at
one point says they don't know what saved by the
Bell is and they don't feel pain when Justice is
tripping out during Thanksgiving three, she references Ac Slater and
when CC is about to go on a date with

(09:50):
someone named Paul Schmid says it's a stupid name, But
then CEC references Mark Paul Gossler. How do you say
his last name? I don't know is the show reference
because the characters would have grown up watching this show
or the writer's just massive fans. Probably both, probably both.
See You by the Bell was iconic, iconic that also

(10:12):
had like a stellar cast who all went on to
do like amazing things. I love that show, so I
think it's probably both. All right, Vienna, Hi, Hannah Lamore
and Hannah, when you said you love Faulty Towers, I
just had to write in ooh, I no, I'm gonna
love this letter. I've also watched every episode multiple times
because my dad once bought the DVD sit and told

(10:33):
me and my brother, we just had to watch your
dad introduced you to this show. Oh my gosh. I
love that so much, And now to this day, way
over decade later, we still quote it regularly. One of
our favorite things is to say, is oh I know,
Oh I know? And Prunella Scales's voice and cute as

(10:55):
a short hand for thank you, and John that's a
shorthand for thank you, and John Cleese's voice, Do you
have a favorite episode or a line you like to
quote from Faulty Towers? Just had to ask, Oh, my gosh,
all of it, honestly. So, I grew up for a
lot of my life in Saudi Arabia, and so there
was no TV there, there was no movies, and it

(11:17):
was just like the tapes in videos my parents kind
of brought in with them, and Faulty Towers was one
of them. So it was just something we watched on loop.
So I know the words do every single episode that's
not a lie? And so does my brother. My brother
and I can quote the entire show. It's only thirteen episodes, right,

(11:38):
that was it. That's all they ever did on that show,
all of it, all of it. There's one called The Builder,
and it's about when John Clas's character, a Basil Faulty,
hires a builder that he knows his wife wouldn't approve of.
And the builder, just like the wife had veered, screws

(11:59):
the entire thing and so Basil is freaking out. And uh,
there's some very classic lines that happened between the Builder
and Basil Faulty that I quote. Oh that time, very interesting,
funny viewing some of it, though, I will say on
a rewatch of Faulty Towers does not hold up. Some

(12:20):
of it is like, yeah, no, no, sir, you can't
do that anymore and shouldn't. Shouldn't have done it, then
she won't do it out. But a lot of it
was very funny, very very funny show. Ps. I loved
hearing you talk about your auditioning journey as an actor
before a New Girl, when there were very few Indian

(12:41):
people on her screens and those that were were often stereotypes.
As a half Indian actor from Toronto, myself, I totally
related to you. I think what you said about being
at first being too Indian for roles and then suddenly
they wanted to cast an Indian actor, wondering if you
weren't Indian enough. It's something I'm sure a lot of
actors of all differ races can relate to. I agree.

(13:02):
I'm always auditioning for roles that they say is ethnically
ambiguous because it's not immediately clear what my background is. Anyway,
thank you for talking a bit about it and for
being such a great character on our screens in New Girl.
All the best, Fienna, Yeah, that was something I struggled
with trying to get a job when I got here,
is that if they wanted specifically Indian, I got so

(13:24):
excited because I'm like, perfect, There's not a lot of
us at this point right now, so here's me. And
they would look at me and be like, no, you
don't look like the stereotype of what we think it
Indian is, and so I wouldn't get cast even though
I'm Indian. It was so strange. Yeah, And then I'd
go up for, you know, a role. Usually it was

(13:47):
described as exotic at the time, and then they'd be like, no,
she looks too like South Asian and I was like okay.
So it was a struggle, which is why and I've
told this many times before. When Liz Merriweather cast me
in New Girl, I wrote her a thank you letter
multiple times because I was like, man, you have no idea,

(14:11):
because I had asked her like, why did you pick
me for the role? And she said, well, you were
just the funniest actress and that was refreshing. And that
is the reason why any actor wants to get hired,
because they are the best for the role. And that
is how I got cast on the show, not because
of what I was or wasn't ethnically, It was just

(14:32):
because of how I connected to this character and how
I chose to play her was exactly what Liz Merriweather wanted.
So that was life changing for me to be cast
for that reason and considered and chosen for that reason. Oh,
as always, you guys asked the best questions. Thank you
so much, love these loft meetings. Please please please tag

(14:56):
me if you go. Get this ferguson shirt so we
can be winning out in these streets and send us more.
Please send us voicemails. I want to hear your voice,
so take a voice note and just send it in.
Read your own letter and send it in as voice
memos so I can play it and I can hear it,
and you can hear yourself here on the podcast. That
would be awesome. You can follow us on ig at

(15:19):
the mess Around pod and send in those voicemails and
or voice memos, emails, photos, anything at the mess around
pod at gmail dot com. Bye. That was the mess
Around in iHeartMedia Production. Our executive producer is Joel Monique.
Our senior producer is Abu Zafar Bei Wang provided engineering

(15:41):
and editing Services, additional production from Daniel Goodman, Wendy Heisler
and Kyle Shevron. Our theme song was written and composed
by Ronald Jukebox Jackson, Catch you Next time. Bye,