August 18, 2020 • 43 mins
Wells hangs with Pretty Little Liars stars Nia Peeples, Lesley Fera & Holly Marie Combs! They played moms on PLL and now they’re hosting a podcast where they recap the show over a glass of wine.
We hear some untold stories from the set of Pretty Little Liars and the challenges that come with keeping A’s identity a TOTAL secret.
And they reveal some secrets about their PLL costars Lucy Hale and Shay Mitchell!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Wells Cast with Wells Atoms and I
heart radio podcast. That's right, it is the Wells Cast.
How's there going doing out there, guys doing cut me?
Not so much, okay, I mean, aside of all the
other stuff that's happening in the world, bad stuff that's
going on in my life. Well, I did get to
(00:22):
go film some Bachelor stuff which you might have seen,
and there's paparazzi there and know how they got me. Anyways,
that was fun. But I will say this, the nasal
swap test that had a take, I mean super blessed
and very happy that it came back negative. But dude,
that Q tip did some things to my cerebellum, Like
I should have bought it dinner. First. My brain feels
a little bit violent and they go deep in there,
(00:44):
no joke. It is straight to the back of your
spinal column, shoved up there twice. When the producers hit
me up and they're like, how how did it go?
And I was like, I would have asked for a
lot more money if I knew that my nose was
going to get fed before all this, And they said, well,
did they send over some of the salient solution that
(01:05):
seems to help. And I said, wait a second, there's
lube for this test. Well to be said, I mean,
it sucks hitting tested. You've have been tested, you know
what I'm talking about. If you haven't, you bust. And
then the other day I dropped a three pound weight,
maybe asking yourself, well, what are you doing with three
pounds weights? Don't worry about it. But a three pound
weight directly onto my big toe, so gonna lose that nail.
It's great. Before I called my dad as a doctor
(01:26):
and I was like, um, what do I do? I
said him a picture and he was like, I don't know.
If it's broken, it might it might not be. But
here's the deal. There's really nothing you can do. You
can tape it to the other toe, but that's about it.
It's and as far as we've come medically, the best
thing we got is tape it to other te seems lazy.
And then I was reading my DM so I was
(01:46):
like instagramming about it, being like, look at my toe,
look like John to Touro's foot from Mr Deed's and
everyone's like, shove a needle in there and let it drain.
What So I did that, and um, that's super gross.
So anyways, Wow, this has been a really really gross
intro to the show. I'm sorry, but today's episode is
(02:10):
so good. Today we don't have one guest today, we
don't have two guests. Today, we got three guests. Guest
number one actress, singer, dancer, host, author, best known for
starring in the TV series like I Don't Know, Fame Walker,
Texas Ranger, What Pretty Little Liars? Okay, and I Gotta
(02:33):
be honest with you and I'm gonna totally nerd out
on this. She was in the movie North Shore, which
maybe a lot of you guys haven't seen, but one
of the best movies of like the late eighties early
nights whenever it came out. We also got someone else
who was on a little show called Pretty Little Liars,
also on shows like Southland twenty four, C S I
Miami A Good Doctor, and C I s American Horror Story.
(02:56):
We could go on for a while, and then we
also have someone else who's I'm Pretty Little Liars but
also on Charmed, What Picket Fences Stop It? I love
that show. Born in the fourth July Chain a Desire, Simpleman.
I could go for a while, but what is The
one common denominator of all these ladies who are gonna
be on the show today is the show Pretty Little Liars,
(03:16):
which is a fantastic show that I gotta be honest
with you, I never watched, but our good friend Lucy
Hale was the star of it. So, to be honest
with you, my fiance, you're probably doing this interview today
on the Wells Cast. We have Nia People's who is
a mom, I'm Pretty Little Liars. We have Leslie Farah
who was a mom I'm Pretty Little Liars. And we
have Hollywood Ree Combs, who is a mom I'm pretty
(03:37):
Little Liars. They've got a new podcast out called Pretty
Little Wine Mom's Podcast. Basically, from what I understand, they're
just getting drunk and talking about the show, and you
know what, I'm all about it. So coming up in
just a couple of minutes, we're gonna have Nia, Leslie,
and Holly right here on the Wells Cast. Okay, welcome
(04:10):
back to the Wells Cast. I've never done this before
where we've had three guests on the show before, but
I am very very excited to have on the Wells
Cast today. We've got Nia People's, We've got Leslie Farret
and we've got Holly Manrie Combs. How are you guys
really excited to be your first threesome? That's too early
(04:33):
for that. No, it's not. It's never too really sorry,
So I'm really really excited to talk to you guys.
You have a new podcast out called Pretty Little Wine Moms,
and the common denominator with you guys is that you
were all on the show Pretty Little Liars. Correct you?
I thought you were going to We were all stuck
(04:56):
in a base. We were all on the show set, really,
And the thing is the only time we were together
was a particular episode where the term wine moms was
coined drinking heavily and went viral. Everybody loved the wine moms.
We love the wine moms. So I have to be
honest with you. I didn't watch Pretty Little Liars. Okay,
(05:21):
I'm oh my gosh, I know, but are you sure
you're not a graphic But my listenership is so this
is perfect for you guys. But my fiance is good
friends with Lucy, so she was honestly, she should be
doing this interview. That's awesome. Yesterday yesterday. Yeah, but I
(05:42):
will say this. Can I just nerd out real quick
before we kind of get into like the nuts and
bolts of you guys show and only real quick, okay,
only real quick. So Nia, I just need to say
two words to you right now. And I know what
those two words are because you were insta can I
get Yeah, guess nor Shore? Yes, Oh my god, that's amazing.
(06:05):
I was. I knew it. I was telling my producer
before this started. I was like, have you seen North Shore?
And He's like no, and I was like, oh my god.
And he's like, what is it? And I was like, well,
it's the coming of age story about an Arizona wave
pool surfer who decides to go to whole Waii to
surf the big waves and he finds himself a mentor
who teaches him about surfing but also about life, and
(06:26):
then he falls in love with me, who is on
the show today. And he was like, my god, man.
When I first learned about Howley's and uh Barney's, Oh
my god, did we ever discuss that? I auditioned for
that and clear yeah, like and too young? Yeah, okay.
(06:49):
He threw me against the wall for everything because you
you look so very Hawaiian. I can't believe that you
didn't get that part. I know right, it must have
been the pasty white skin from being inside in New
York City apartments. So holly real quick, charmed, of course
great like love Charms was all about it as a
(07:12):
pubescent kid coming into his own charm was a very
big part of my life. Fantastic. But I gotta say
that's not what I'm excited about because Pig Offenses was
my fucking jam back in the day. Wasn't that a
fabulous show? That was my I love that show. I
appreciate that wholeheartedly. It was my favorite so far far far.
(07:36):
And and Leslie, I played rugby in college and I
broke my leg like terribly bad. It was couldn't walk
for three or four months, and so I was just
stuck on the couch and I did all of twenty
four during that entire time. Are you doing it again?
And I should? Actually I still I don't know when
(08:01):
Jack takes like still waiting for that answer, you know, right, mystery,
that is a mystery to be said. I'm a huge
fan of you guys, albeit like in other projects, I
know that Pretty Little Liars was just massive, massive shows.
So this podcast makes total sense, So just explain what
the hell is going on? We don't know, do we know?
(08:26):
Or with the podcast. With the show, it's well, it's
a rewatch podcast, so it's streaming on HBO Max now um,
and we're sort of watching episode per episode. Um. Hopefully
with the fans. I mean sometimes they just watch it
before us and then yell about it later with us. Um.
(08:47):
But the idea is to the ideas to hopefully that
people will like stream it and listen, or just listen
first and stream, or do both at the same time.
There's a lot of options. Yeah. The fun, the fun
part of it for me is just that we really
didn't get to work together on the show. I mean,
once we got drunk and got stuck in the in
(09:07):
the basement, that's about it. And um, with all this
Corona stuff, people were locked down and Leslie and her
husband were already doing a podcast, so she reached out
to us and said, hey, what have we did a
rewatch thing with us? And it has been one of
the most delightful parts of Pretty Little Liars for me
because these are amazing women and we get to go
back and kind of make fun of some of this
(09:27):
stuff and remember some of the poignant stuff and and
get to know each other. And it's been really delightful.
And I think that's what the fans love too, that
it's kind of it's really inside and behind the scenes,
but inside our lives as well. It started from it
started from a podcast that I was doing with my husband,
and then we had the Wine Moms on and it
was so well received that it was like, Okay, well
(09:49):
why don't we do a rewatch? What else are we doing?
You know? So um, and it's just been so much
fun and we can authentically be ourselves on the show,
and and uh, it's been a blast. You did like
a questionnaire where you said what your go to drinks were,
you know, one was a Cosmo and one was like
(10:10):
gingingin uh and uh, which I love because I play
a bartender on TV. And so I was like, I
can make all these drinks for these ladies, but I
don't understand because there's wine in the title. We're all
drinking wine. We moved through it, but Leslie's got Leslie.
The second course a couple. There's a cocktail course, it's
(10:30):
the advertiser course, and then there's a second course, which
is the wine course not really. Yeah, we have multiple
beverages multiple sometimes sometimes we have green juice, I have
green juice, have coffee, and then I have like champagne.
So beverages. Of the pretty little Liars daughters, which were
(10:52):
you guys like closest to a Definitely that's who we
worked with the most. Yeah, the gals who late. So
for me it's Shane Mitchell and for me it's Troy
and Belisario, who's phenomenal. You see how super gracious to
meet with us yesterday, and yeah, we have so much
fun interviewing her. Really nice to see her her face
(11:13):
or just settle. That's what's so great about the podcast
is everybody is so gracious and so willing to be
nostalgic and still gets to remember and experience it, you know,
which is super rare, especially coming from a young cast
of all women. We could have gone one way or
the other right, and it's so fun to hear about
how they've grown up and how they have children now,
or when you know where they're or not, or whatever
(11:35):
it is they're doing in their lives. Because it's been
ten years since the launch of the show. So when
you start a show at nineteen and you leave at
twenty nine, like, now it's twenty nine. That's a that's
a big change in your life. Yeah, so it's real
fun to catch up with them. Yeah, and it's like
we're bringing the convention almost to the fans, because the
fans are so appreciative right now. You know, there's really
(11:56):
not a lot going on in their lives. You know,
it's it's hard, everybody's struggling, but this this show has
brought so much joy to people that were really so pleased.
Obviously in the moment, you identified the most with the
you know your daughter on the show. But as you
watch it back, do you see yourself in other characters? Yeah?
Oh yeah, who would you say that you're most alike
(12:20):
now watching it back. For Spencer, so I never want
to call the police never ever, she has a diversion
to calling the police. Um, I just want to think
it through. I don't want to call the police. I
think I have a little Ella and a little Spencer.
I think in life, in just real life. I was
(12:42):
gonna say Aria and Spencer in real life for me, yeah,
I'm definitely not Ella. She's too forgiving for my style
to the note, which is why I can't call the police. Sorry.
We have a lot of actors on the show, and
we always ask is there a cast group text chain
(13:03):
at the moment? For sure, and definitely then there was.
I wasn't on it, Well you are now. I played Pam.
I was. I was living at the beach, raising kid. Yeah,
you're still living at the beach. It's a totally different beings.
Is it more fun to watch the show back now
(13:23):
or when it was happening in real time? Oh? No,
It's definitely more fun now. Yeah, I'm having more fun now. Totally.
We're not under any contractual obligations to not talk shit
or she not say who A is, which is super
difficult for a decade. Yeah, I mean we were really everything.
They were so careful about everything. So yeah, it's it's
(13:45):
just nice to be able to and and experienced it
in a totally different way now ten years later. I mean,
it's crazy. It almost didn't watch it, didn't watch a lot,
wen't watching most of it until now, So it's like
a whole new ball shop to me. And I'm so
impress the show. I'm like, what I know. I know
(14:07):
that even my husband, who edited edits the show, he's like,
I just want to know what's going to happen next.
I want to know what happens next. And he's totally
into it to see I can call Ned and we
can talk about it. I know, He's like, yeah, an
honorary girl. Now is the show in the can? Like,
have you recorded the entire series? Almost? Yeah? I mean
(14:28):
for I mean you mean the entire s I mean
the entire season, the first season, because there's seven seasons,
so we have a lot in advance in the can
that we're just wrapping up the season, like we have
about five more to go. I had Brian bum Gardner
on a couple of weeks ago, and he's obviously doing
kind of a similar thing with the Office, and I
(14:48):
asked him a question, and I was wondering, if you
guys have to kind of the same response. You mean,
because like Shay Mitchell was this past week and Lizzie
Shaw's coming up, was there an interview that you didn't
expect to be amazing that was that people can look
forward to. I'm super excited about Brian Holdman for sure.
For sure was just's he's one of the writers from
(15:11):
Pretty Little Liars, and he was that interview was so
substantive and like just fascinating just about being being a
writer and um, and so that was really that was
really a wonderful interview. And in the past interviews, Norman
was Norman who was a director on the show. He's
that's a great interview too. Um, but they're all the actors.
(15:33):
The actors were really fun and funny and with some
poignant stuff in there as well. But but the interesting
thing about these guys is that it was just so complex.
They shared with us the complexity of keeping the show
alive in storyline, and it was to me, I'm I'm
astounded by it. So that was that was It revealed
(15:54):
a lot to me, and it took me even deeper
inside than I already was. Yeah, I'm just super disappointed
to hear now about all the girls that were terrified
to say hello to me, like I was gonna blow
them up, like I had magical powers still and I
was super bumped and tam and like, I'm so happy
(16:14):
to find out now that you're not a bit and
I was like, no, it wasn't that they were just
like Lindsay Shaw mentioned that she just was such a
huge fan of Holly that it was. She was just
clamped when she got around it, like, well, no, fanning
out five two of me is super scary. I'm super
(16:38):
pumped about this podcast. I guess I need to watch
Pretty Little Liars if I'm not mistaken. It's now being
aired like on a new streaming service right right if
you can find it out at HBO Max. So this
works perfectly in tandem. So you can go to HBO Max,
you can watch the seasons and then turn on your
cell phone and experience all the behind the scene with
(16:59):
you guys while drinking. And you can also come over
to the to the website, which is pretty dark side
um dot com and there's a bunch of extra stuff
over there. We do these sidecar conversations because sometimes, I mean,
the show is only forty some odd minutes long, and
it takes us hours to record the podcast because we're
(17:20):
just cracking up and going off on these tangents, and
so those become these sidecar conversations over on the website
that are are a lot of fun. Yeah, what day
does the podcast come out? Wednesdays? For the Patreon site
v I p S it's Monday's. Yeah. For our premium
subscription site at Patreon, the Rosewood Clubhouse that comes out Monday.
(17:41):
Everyone out there, go download, subscribe to a lot of stuff.
You can get it anywhere Spotify, uh, the podcast podcast, Spotify,
iHeart Radio, anywhere that podcasts are available. Okay, So I'm
gonna take a quick break and when we come back,
we're going to kind of get into the nuts and
bolts of this show. I don't know if anyone told you,
but it's kind of an origin in story show. But
(18:01):
we're gonna have to do like the abridged version because
there's a lot of us in this group. Chat right now,
Are you guys down with that? Just like a quick
overview of how the hell you got here? Yeah, alright,
quick break. When we come back, we're in for some fun.
(18:26):
You need to drink. I'm almost done with my fast.
How long have you been fasting? You fast? You know
what I've been on it? Well, it's really been a cleanse.
So it's been seven. Today's day eight. Jesus, you man,
you look I mean, you look glowing, and I mean
because there's nothing inside me, none of that liquor. I
(18:47):
do this so I can drink you And are you
drinking water? Are you drinking like salt water is water
and lemon are lying. Yeah, how long until it's over? Well,
it's feeling like not tomorrow because tomorrow I'm swimming with
whale sharks. Um. But Sunday I'm going to start making
among beans souper. Wow. Yeah's gonna try. I've never made
(19:13):
it before, but you know, I don't even know what
that is, but it sounds impressive. I feel like mung
beans were the thing that Creed was growing in his
desk in the office and that made the whole office
smell back. I think I think it was some sprouting
mung beans. Welcome back to the Welles Cast. Very excited
to have the hosts of Pretty Little Wine Mom's podcast
(19:35):
on the show today. We're talking to Unia People's Leslie
Farah and Holly Marie Combs, all of which who were
on the show Pretty Little Liars, and now they're breaking
down kind of all the behind the scenes craziness that
was happening on the show while we rewatching it. And
of course you guys out there can rewatch the show
with everyone else at on HBO Max. So this show
(19:55):
is origin stories. I'm just kind of fascinating with how
successful people whether you're an act to a musician or
a lawyer or a doctor or anyone, you can be
successful in anything. How they get to that point because
a lot of people out there are looking for blueprints
to become successful, and so I like to find out,
like where people came from and how they got to
this point. Obviously there's a bunch of us in the room,
(20:16):
so I guess we're gonna do this kind of quick,
but I would love to know how the hell you
guys got here. Let's start with Leslie. Tell us your
origin story. I grew up in the Inland Empire Corona
at California, so Inland Empire represented here, and my parents
always watched films and TV. I mean we just sat
around and not all. We just watched a lot of
(20:40):
TV and films. And I knew from an early age
I wanted to be an actor. But of course they
didn't know I was asking for an agent at like seven.
But they didn't know how to do that. They didn't
know how to find an agent for me. They didn't
know what world I was from. Um and then I just, uh,
you know, just got involved in theater in high school
(21:00):
and college. I studied and went to grad school and
studied and did a lot of theater, and then I
was lucky enough to get an agent in college, in
graduate school and got my SAG card while I was
living in Florida, and then I came out to l
A in nineties. Thankfully have been working ever since. But
(21:22):
it certainly was a lot of luck. I mean, my
agents in Florida set up a meeting for me with
Mark Krushfeldt, who was a big casting director at the
time here in l A. When I first moved out.
That just started my career. And that was within two
weeks of being in l A. And that just rarely happens.
So I was really lucky got an agent out of that,
(21:42):
and just sort of one thing came after another, and then,
of course, you know, with anything, I tried to find
a balance with theater, which is my first love, and
then doing television and film. You got your first agent
in Florida. Were you in college in Florida? Yeah, I
was in graduate school at the time. I was in
my third year graduate school. These agents from Tampa Forfard
(22:06):
Talent Group came and um a little shout out, and
they came and they watched us do some scenes I
wanted to sign me. I did an episode of The Cape,
which was shooting out there at the time, and I
did an Aquafresh commercial, and um, I was because I
was like, I was in grads and at the same
(22:27):
time I was balancing studies and stuff. So I remember
getting this film with Ellen Burson. I wasn't allowed out
of school to do it, which was sort of crazy
pants to me that you know, here were studying to
be an actor, but I wasn't allowed. So that was
just written excuses like Holly did. She wrote, I know,
I should have I should have should have just made
(22:49):
my agents. No, that's all. Yeah, I just started working
out in Florida. I stayed on for another year as
part of the theater company. They asked me, they invited
me to stay. There's a repertory theater connected to the
to Florida State the Oslo Theater. So I was there
for another year doing theater, and then roamed around and
(23:12):
did some more theater, some regional, and then I came
to l A. I saw so many of my classmates
go to New York and they were just struggling to
stay alive, and I thought, okay, well, all my oldest
and dearest friends and family are in l A. So
if I'm going to suffer, I'm gonna suffer in the
sunshine with some support, like a support system. Like I said,
(23:33):
I was just really blessed to have opportunities that just
sort of fell into place. And then I remember within
a month I had a job on through Rock from
the Sun. I had my first job, and then I
got an agent out of that. But it takes so
much work. I mean, it's not this is abbreviated it.
It really does take a lot of effort and a
(23:55):
lot of amazing people to help build a career. I
remember I was doing just casting director workshops, trying to
be seen after I did through About from the Sun,
and trying to get an agent because the first agent
was sort of a snake oil salesman. And then Mark Malice,
who owned the business that had the workshops with casting directors,
he set up a meeting for me just just heard
(24:17):
that he just really liked my work and not wanting
any I mean, because I was skeptical. I thought, Okay,
what do you want? But he was just he was
so kind hearted, and he set up a meeting for
me with some agents and they've been my agents ever
since STP Partners, and they've been my agents for twenty
something years. And then just work started happening. I was
(24:40):
teaching when I first got out here. I was substitute
teaching oddly enough, math. I really I love math. I
know I wanted to teach acting or something creative, but
I was teaching math. But they put me on seventh
and eighth grade. A lot. Those were my troubled years,
and I totally connected with those kids. And no one
(25:02):
wanted to teach junior high and no one and so
I ended up teaching a lot of junior high maths,
a lot of algebra. So you're a teacher and then
your moonlighting as an actor as well during the yeah,
and I was also a dialect coach. Definitely, you have
to diversify when you're an actor. Sometimes when you're just
like starting to build up work, you just have to
(25:24):
do whatever you can do. What didn't you do? Were
you out center fielder for the Dodgers? Not yet? Not yet?
That's nia. I definitely had to diversify for a while
until the work got to be more frequent to the
point where teachers are reserved. Who I worked for They
(25:45):
were like, okay, either you're available to teach or or
not can I started had to make a decision. I'm like,
I'm ready to just go full force into trying to
get work, and I leapt and then the work was there.
Do you remember career defined moment, the moment that you
were like, all right, this is gonna work. Wow. I mean,
I really do think it was a combination of being
(26:06):
on set with John Lithgow, who was just a delight,
and going I know this is where I want to be.
I know that this is what I want to be
doing for the rest of my life. I think when
I felt like, Okay, I think I can do this,
or that I can make a career out of this,
I think it was well. I mean I think working
on twenty four and working with people like Cherry Jones
(26:28):
and Bob Gunton, who are just incredible actors, I felt like, Okay,
this is this is really special. That's awesome. Will let
you stop telling your background story because we know that
you have to go put your resume in for like
seventeen other jobs real quick. Later today on LinkedIn, I'll
be busy LinkedIn NIA, Let's hear your origin story my
(26:52):
origin story. Okay, I'm the oldest one in the room here,
so I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a really abbreviated version. Okay, Ready,
Nia born super super super super shy, cries that everything
she sees, can't handle anything, plays by herself in the closet,
singing all by herself. Parents worried to death that Nia
will never be able to survive in the world, pushes
me into singing. I relent. I become a complete overachiever.
(27:16):
Bury myself in athletics. In you name it, anything, I
buried myself in it. It's Lane coming Lane. That was
a mistake. I cheer leader, cheerleader. It's a mistake that
you won. Yes, yes, it's a complete mistake. It's because
all the other girls were friends and I was a
(27:37):
last man standing. So so then joined musical dance group
called the Young Americans. Cut to Las Vegas with Liberati.
We'll talk about that. Later, left their audition and fame
um with nine thousand other people. That was my defining
moment there, music, dancing, all of that. From there, I
(27:59):
went to the first film record label. More series after that,
and oh did I mention four husbands along the way
and children, I'm sweating. I know there's so much to
unpack there and we did it though you didn't, and
I love that. I just need you. What do you
(28:20):
want to know? I need to know the Liberaci story
and then we all do we all need that. There's
so many Okay. So when I left high school, I
actually I had a scholarship to u c. L A.
It was an alumni scholarship, which is like an all
around student kind of scholarship. But I had gone straight
into this group that was kind of like glee where
(28:41):
it was dancing and singing and all of that sort
of thing. And we had been hired by Liberaci to
come sing Lives a Christmas Tree hold basically in Las Vegas.
And so I left my scholarship and quit to go
sing Lives at Christmas Tree whole Law in Las Vegas.
(29:02):
And it was in that moment in the elevator two
hours on the phone. They had this phone in the
elevator that would let me call my parents, and I
told him I'm not I can't follow the scholarship. I
I want to be performing. And it became it was
a funny thing for me because I really never liked
being seen. I don't. I don't like to be in
front of people. I'm comfortable with it now, but I'm
(29:24):
not the person that needs to be seen at all.
But it was a good place for me to hide,
and that really, you know it, it gave me being
an overachiever in anything, whether it was singing and dancing,
or sports or or um acting gave me or even
you know, any of the academics, gave me permission to
(29:45):
be alone and to study and to try hard and
not have to deal with people. And so that I
think the focus of um, of wanting to be in
it so badly so I didn't have to be every
where else made me hone. My craft and anything I touched,
and just the pure Newtonian physics of that kind of
(30:09):
energy will and focus will move you forward. I'm very
different now because I don't care. But what did your
parents say whilst on the phone call in the elevator
when you told them you're not going back to college.
Well at first they were panicked, of course, because neither
one of my parents could afford to go to college,
and they're of the generation that I believed that that
(30:30):
was the answer to everything. You get a college degree
in your life is set, and we couldn't afford college.
So the fact that I was giving back a scholarship
did they were just no, no, no, no, no, no, listen, listen,
it's only X number of years you can get your
teaching credential. You need something to fall back on, and
I couldn't. I just couldn't. And so by the end
(30:50):
of the two hours, they fully supported me. They went, Okay,
you gotta you gotta do what you gotta do. Because
for them, they you know, they bit huge credit from
my parents. I mean my parents. My dad was a
white guy from the South. My mom was mixed race
or parents from the Philippines, and they were married at
a time when it was illegal to hold hands in
(31:11):
most states, and so to raise a mixed race family
at that time was unspeakable. And they they succeeded by
focusing on what they wanted to bring forth, and that
kind of bled into how they taught us. And so
once they realized that I was really committed to it,
they just said, okay, then jump in. So I'm grateful
(31:32):
for that, for sure. What do you love the most,
acting or singing or podcasting or fasting? I don't of
all the things I don't love. No, I do love fasting,
but I also love drinking heavily I can't bring sometimes
it's watered. Um. What do I love the most? I
(31:53):
love the freedom to express the way I choose to
express that. I can't pick one thing over the other
because I'm so. I think that what people have to
bring forth is powerful. And when you jump on that moment,
that is that, that is being perfectly present with what is,
and that's harnessing the power of you now. And so
(32:17):
this is you know, for me, that's my favorite thing.
Sometimes it comes out as music. Sometimes it comes out
as writing. You know, I've written a children's book, and
I'm writing my second book called Confessions of a Serial Monogamist.
I wonder why, um, And I'm here in suloon looking
at property and swimming and yeah. So I think that
(32:38):
really listening to the call of one's soul has so
much power because the universe lines up behind it. So
for me, that's my favorite thing is expressing from the
state of deep driving desire, which cannot be separated from
who I am most truthfully, Wow, that was beautiful. You know,
you ponder on that a little bit quite sure what
(33:00):
I said, but it's like everybody going, yeah, that story
is a story that's told a lot on this show,
and by no means my telling our listeners to like
drop out of school. But it is one of those
things where when you know what you want to do,
you focus on it and you gamble on yourself. That's
(33:20):
something that breeds success a lot, which I think is
a really cool thing. And it's such a hard conversation
to have with people who they can't see your potential
in themselves and they try to bring you down, and
that's something that you just can't allow if you know
that you're you're built for bigger and better and greater things.
So I think that's really cool, and that's so freaking
brave because a lot of people have that their parents
(33:42):
paying for it and they're like, Okay, if you're gonna
quit school, then that's on you, but yours was free.
That's a really brave move. So it's just about what
you said. It's it's really really true, and you the
power that exists in knowing who you are and moving
from that place and what you desire. Can't be mad
to buy money, scholarship or someone else's desires for you,
(34:03):
because my parents wanted what was best for me. They
wanted me to stay in school because they thought it
was best. They weren't trying to pull me down. It's
what they thought they wanted the best for me. So
it isn't always about tearing you down. It's them wanting
the best. They just no one can define that for you,
but you. Yeah, okay, Holly, let's hear your story. Jesus.
It's a long one, but not that long. You know,
(34:24):
my mom was really young, My parents were really young
when they had me. Um. She actually moved to New
York City when I was eight to become an actress.
She didn't know why, she just she tried to do
a lot of different things in her young life. And
we couldn't afford a babysitter, so I was often dragged
along with her to these auditions, which in New York,
(34:47):
you know, we call them cattle calls because it's like
a hundred people in a building and it's just whittled
down to five to three to two to one, and
it's this painstaking process. And she was a very sensitive
little being. Oftentimes, you know, the rejection was was too
much for her to handle, and me, being this strange,
(35:08):
pragmatic child, would say things to her. This is according
to her. Okay, I was eight, nine, ten years old.
This is from her perspective. Clearly I don't remember, thankfully
I don't, and I would say things to her like,
you know, well you could have done this better, or
maybe you shouldn't have worn those shoes, or maybe you
could have done your hair. Did you brush your hair today?
(35:29):
Did you? You know? And stuff like that, and so,
you know, because she was only fifteen years older than me,
we sort of bickered a lot, you know, as sisters.
We kind of still do, oddly enough, she said at
one point she was completely fed up with me. Go figure,
and she says, well, if you think it's so easy,
why don't you try it? And I said, okay, and
that's the end of the story. And I did, and
(35:52):
I'm still doing it, kind of still doing it. So
that's just another bone of contention, which you know, just
explains a whole lot about in my life. But now
you know I did. I worked pretty consistently as a
kid and sporadically as a teenager because I was more
interested in being a rebellious teenager and being rebellious For me,
it was not being successful. So you know, my parents
(36:13):
were musicians as well, and so being rebellious meant I
would refuse to learn an instrument. I would refuse to
do music. I would get tattoos and come home at
sixteen with my first tattoo, and my parents would look
at me and say they wanted one too. That was matching.
So it was really hard for me to be bad.
So not playing the piano was bad. I got to
(36:35):
a point where, you know, I didn't know what I
wanted to do with my life. I was simply doing
it because we were a poor family that needed money.
You know. She was a waitress at night. He was
a bartender. You know. I was often left alone at night,
and I strangely enough, HBO, Max, You're gonna love me
because I'm your adopted latch key kid. I was left
home alone at night with HBO, like I had nothing
(36:57):
to babysit me but movies, and some of them are
r rated just you know, so my parents didn't know
how to do the parental controls. Whatever. It was a
learning experience. HBO was my babysitter for a while until
I learned I could sneak out of the building and
nobody would know I was gone. And that's just a
whole another store. But yeah, I got to the point
where in my junior year of high school, I did
figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
(37:18):
It had nothing to do with acting. I wanted to
be a marine biologist, and I turned my grades around
that year, got teacher recommendations, advisor recommendations, got into summer
program that was worth three college credits, and it was
such a huge turn around in my grades. After figuring
out what I wanted to do. Um, you know, I
(37:39):
got my scuba diving license when I was thirteen, like
a weirdo, and um it was really something I was
dedicated to, so much so that all of my teachers
accused me of cheating because my grades were so different,
and they made me take tests in front of them,
as if my brain did not have the capacity to
pass their tests. Um, so I did that, And then,
(38:03):
of course, so I've got through this whole year of
work and like I've found myself, YadA, YadA, YadA. That
summer I get a movie and basically, sadly, it came
down to making five thousand dollars or still spending five
thousand dollars on school even though I had scholarships. But
we're not full scholarships because, as I said, the tattoo
(38:25):
bad Rebellious pass, you only get a partial scholarship for
those people. I asked everybody I knew, and of course
all my idiot friends said, do the movie, and so
I did. And I'm not bitter about it at all
because it worked out in the end. I'm on the
sea Shepherd advice to report now it's fine. That's it's
(38:46):
totally fine. But I did after that, and I sort
of made that distinction and that decision. I just kind
of worked movie after movie after show after show. So
I guess it was the right call from my idiot friends.
Your IMDb credits are are long and amazing. Do you
have a favorite project that you've worked on. Picket Fences
(39:07):
is definitely my favorite because that was, Yeah, that was
my training ground that I did start when I was
I think I did the pilot when I was eighteen,
and we started the show when I was nineteen. Um,
so that was my training ground for sure. That I
was terribly green still even though I had been in
the business for eight years. At that point, I was
terribly green. I had met every great director in New
(39:30):
York City, I had fucked up a lot of fantastic auditions,
and I still felt very new. And so I had
Tom Scarrett and Kathy Baker and Lauren hollyan Don Cheetle
and I Wish Finkle and Ray Walston and just like
the cast of all casts, you know, and I had
just I had to move to l A to do
(39:52):
the show. So I was still living in New York
and I knew no one in l A. So, you know,
I think I was number five on the call sheet,
and that meant a lot of downtime for me. So
I spent a lot of that downtime inside those buildings
at Fox in l A, just watching people, which they
probably thought I was kind of a weird kid, but
I don't give. They sort of adopted me as they're like, oh, well,
(40:15):
you know, she's new here. You know, Lauren Holly took
me home with her quite often. It was a good experience.
I couldn't I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
I hate that it was only four years long. I
hate it. We all hated it when it was canceled.
Hated it, especially David Kelly. That's why he just married
everybody off or killed everybody off in the last episode.
(40:35):
I love that show growing up. It was like such
a big part of my life. So this has been surreal.
I want to be respectful, respectful of your guys this time.
Before I let you go, can we do a rapid
fire questions with you? Guys? I'm totally ready. Can't you
down rapidly? All right, rab fire questions? Here we go.
Favorite pizza topic mushrooms, basil, basil. You know that he's
(41:01):
you know what, the vegan sausage is truly delightful and strange.
But yes, oh okay, go ahead, Yeah, no basil and
no first kiss? Oh y m c a camp. Yes
on Lover's Rock. I mean yeah, that was it? Uh
sixth grade horrible tongue down the throat? Who are you?
(41:22):
I don't even know your name? Terrible terrible at a
new school in Texas. Oh wow, yeah, mine was at school.
His name will remain unnamed. But you remember it? Oh god, yes,
well Nia doesn't even remember that. Poor guys listening to
this being like, oh man, I'm sure he does. Yes,
(41:42):
he does. In Texas, they played spin the ball. I
was new. But they don't. But they go, okay, you
don't just kiss them, Like do you want to stand up,
sit down or lay down? I was like what? Oh,
by the way, I was twelve. I was twelve. Texas
is so structured. Do you remember the first concert you
(42:05):
went to Whitney Houston heart horribly? It was kiss because
my mom was in a punk band and she wanted
to discard me for life. How apropos from the last question?
Who would you call to get you out of jail? Holly, Yeah, Leslie,
I would call Mia because she breaks all the rules.
(42:26):
This woman can break into an ocean. That's true. It
is a true story. It's superpowers were real. What would
be your superpower? Reading minds? Waves of love? I felt
that I did, I did, I felt the wave. I
would like to be able to fire anybody who's not
(42:47):
suitable for their job position. And I'm not naming names,
but he's got orange hairy. I'm sorry. It's the first
thing that came to mind, Like, if you don't do
your job proper, really, why is no one firing you?
I'll be the head fire you're fired. I mean, I
had so many more, but I got to ended on
(43:08):
that one. That was good. Nia, Leslie Holly, thank you
guys so much for being on the Wells Cast. Everyone
out there, make sure you go download, subscribe, listen to
Pretty Little Wine Mom's podcast. You can download it wherever
the hell the podcast star, which is basically everywhere. And
then also, I guess I watch in tandem Pretty Little
(43:29):
Liars on HBO Max. Thank you guys again so much.
This has been such a cool day for me to
get to talk and meet with you guys, so I
appreciate you. I'm glad you never meet your heroes. Don't
do it all right by, guys. Be safe out there, okay, Hi,
thank you. Subscribe to Wells Cast on I Heart Radio,
(43:50):
Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It's the Internet.
This is the Wells Cast with Wells Atoms and I
heart radio podcast. That's right, it is the Wells Cast.
How's there going doing out there, guys doing cut me?
Not so much, okay, I mean, aside of all the
other stuff that's happening in the world, bad stuff that's
going on in my life. Well, I did get to
(00:22):
go film some Bachelor stuff which you might have seen,
and there's paparazzi there and know how they got me. Anyways,
that was fun. But I will say this, the nasal
swap test that had a take, I mean super blessed
and very happy that it came back negative. But dude,
that Q tip did some things to my cerebellum, Like
I should have bought it dinner. First. My brain feels
a little bit violent and they go deep in there,
(00:44):
no joke. It is straight to the back of your
spinal column, shoved up there twice. When the producers hit
me up and they're like, how how did it go?
And I was like, I would have asked for a
lot more money if I knew that my nose was
going to get fed before all this, And they said, well,
did they send over some of the salient solution that
(01:05):
seems to help. And I said, wait a second, there's
lube for this test. Well to be said, I mean,
it sucks hitting tested. You've have been tested, you know
what I'm talking about. If you haven't, you bust. And
then the other day I dropped a three pound weight,
maybe asking yourself, well, what are you doing with three
pounds weights? Don't worry about it. But a three pound
weight directly onto my big toe, so gonna lose that nail.
It's great. Before I called my dad as a doctor
(01:26):
and I was like, um, what do I do? I
said him a picture and he was like, I don't know.
If it's broken, it might it might not be. But
here's the deal. There's really nothing you can do. You
can tape it to the other toe, but that's about it.
It's and as far as we've come medically, the best
thing we got is tape it to other te seems lazy.
And then I was reading my DM so I was
(01:46):
like instagramming about it, being like, look at my toe,
look like John to Touro's foot from Mr Deed's and
everyone's like, shove a needle in there and let it drain.
What So I did that, and um, that's super gross.
So anyways, Wow, this has been a really really gross
intro to the show. I'm sorry, but today's episode is
(02:10):
so good. Today we don't have one guest today, we
don't have two guests. Today, we got three guests. Guest
number one actress, singer, dancer, host, author, best known for
starring in the TV series like I Don't Know, Fame Walker,
Texas Ranger, What Pretty Little Liars? Okay, and I Gotta
(02:33):
be honest with you and I'm gonna totally nerd out
on this. She was in the movie North Shore, which
maybe a lot of you guys haven't seen, but one
of the best movies of like the late eighties early
nights whenever it came out. We also got someone else
who was on a little show called Pretty Little Liars,
also on shows like Southland twenty four, C S I
Miami A Good Doctor, and C I s American Horror Story.
(02:56):
We could go on for a while, and then we
also have someone else who's I'm Pretty Little Liars but
also on Charmed, What Picket Fences Stop It? I love
that show. Born in the fourth July Chain a Desire, Simpleman.
I could go for a while, but what is The
one common denominator of all these ladies who are gonna
be on the show today is the show Pretty Little Liars,
(03:16):
which is a fantastic show that I gotta be honest
with you, I never watched, but our good friend Lucy
Hale was the star of it. So, to be honest
with you, my fiance, you're probably doing this interview today
on the Wells Cast. We have Nia People's who is
a mom, I'm Pretty Little Liars. We have Leslie Farah
who was a mom I'm Pretty Little Liars. And we
have Hollywood Ree Combs, who is a mom I'm pretty
(03:37):
Little Liars. They've got a new podcast out called Pretty
Little Wine Mom's Podcast. Basically, from what I understand, they're
just getting drunk and talking about the show, and you
know what, I'm all about it. So coming up in
just a couple of minutes, we're gonna have Nia, Leslie,
and Holly right here on the Wells Cast. Okay, welcome
(04:10):
back to the Wells Cast. I've never done this before
where we've had three guests on the show before, but
I am very very excited to have on the Wells
Cast today. We've got Nia People's, We've got Leslie Farret
and we've got Holly Manrie Combs. How are you guys
really excited to be your first threesome? That's too early
(04:33):
for that. No, it's not. It's never too really sorry,
So I'm really really excited to talk to you guys.
You have a new podcast out called Pretty Little Wine Moms,
and the common denominator with you guys is that you
were all on the show Pretty Little Liars. Correct you?
I thought you were going to We were all stuck
(04:56):
in a base. We were all on the show set, really,
And the thing is the only time we were together
was a particular episode where the term wine moms was
coined drinking heavily and went viral. Everybody loved the wine moms.
We love the wine moms. So I have to be
honest with you. I didn't watch Pretty Little Liars. Okay,
(05:21):
I'm oh my gosh, I know, but are you sure
you're not a graphic But my listenership is so this
is perfect for you guys. But my fiance is good
friends with Lucy, so she was honestly, she should be
doing this interview. That's awesome. Yesterday yesterday. Yeah, but I
(05:42):
will say this. Can I just nerd out real quick
before we kind of get into like the nuts and
bolts of you guys show and only real quick, okay,
only real quick. So Nia, I just need to say
two words to you right now. And I know what
those two words are because you were insta can I
get Yeah, guess nor Shore? Yes, Oh my god, that's amazing.
(06:05):
I was. I knew it. I was telling my producer
before this started. I was like, have you seen North Shore?
And He's like no, and I was like, oh my god.
And he's like, what is it? And I was like, well,
it's the coming of age story about an Arizona wave
pool surfer who decides to go to whole Waii to
surf the big waves and he finds himself a mentor
who teaches him about surfing but also about life, and
(06:26):
then he falls in love with me, who is on
the show today. And he was like, my god, man.
When I first learned about Howley's and uh Barney's, Oh
my god, did we ever discuss that? I auditioned for
that and clear yeah, like and too young? Yeah, okay.
(06:49):
He threw me against the wall for everything because you
you look so very Hawaiian. I can't believe that you
didn't get that part. I know right, it must have
been the pasty white skin from being inside in New
York City apartments. So holly real quick, charmed, of course
great like love Charms was all about it as a
(07:12):
pubescent kid coming into his own charm was a very
big part of my life. Fantastic. But I gotta say
that's not what I'm excited about because Pig Offenses was
my fucking jam back in the day. Wasn't that a
fabulous show? That was my I love that show. I
appreciate that wholeheartedly. It was my favorite so far far far.
(07:36):
And and Leslie, I played rugby in college and I
broke my leg like terribly bad. It was couldn't walk
for three or four months, and so I was just
stuck on the couch and I did all of twenty
four during that entire time. Are you doing it again?
And I should? Actually I still I don't know when
(08:01):
Jack takes like still waiting for that answer, you know, right, mystery,
that is a mystery to be said. I'm a huge
fan of you guys, albeit like in other projects, I
know that Pretty Little Liars was just massive, massive shows.
So this podcast makes total sense, So just explain what
the hell is going on? We don't know, do we know?
(08:26):
Or with the podcast. With the show, it's well, it's
a rewatch podcast, so it's streaming on HBO Max now um,
and we're sort of watching episode per episode. Um. Hopefully
with the fans. I mean sometimes they just watch it
before us and then yell about it later with us. Um.
(08:47):
But the idea is to the ideas to hopefully that
people will like stream it and listen, or just listen
first and stream, or do both at the same time.
There's a lot of options. Yeah. The fun, the fun
part of it for me is just that we really
didn't get to work together on the show. I mean,
once we got drunk and got stuck in the in
(09:07):
the basement, that's about it. And um, with all this
Corona stuff, people were locked down and Leslie and her
husband were already doing a podcast, so she reached out
to us and said, hey, what have we did a
rewatch thing with us? And it has been one of
the most delightful parts of Pretty Little Liars for me
because these are amazing women and we get to go
back and kind of make fun of some of this
(09:27):
stuff and remember some of the poignant stuff and and
get to know each other. And it's been really delightful.
And I think that's what the fans love too, that
it's kind of it's really inside and behind the scenes,
but inside our lives as well. It started from it
started from a podcast that I was doing with my husband,
and then we had the Wine Moms on and it
was so well received that it was like, Okay, well
(09:49):
why don't we do a rewatch? What else are we doing?
You know? So um, and it's just been so much
fun and we can authentically be ourselves on the show,
and and uh, it's been a blast. You did like
a questionnaire where you said what your go to drinks were,
you know, one was a Cosmo and one was like
(10:10):
gingingin uh and uh, which I love because I play
a bartender on TV. And so I was like, I
can make all these drinks for these ladies, but I
don't understand because there's wine in the title. We're all
drinking wine. We moved through it, but Leslie's got Leslie.
The second course a couple. There's a cocktail course, it's
(10:30):
the advertiser course, and then there's a second course, which
is the wine course not really. Yeah, we have multiple
beverages multiple sometimes sometimes we have green juice, I have
green juice, have coffee, and then I have like champagne.
So beverages. Of the pretty little Liars daughters, which were
(10:52):
you guys like closest to a Definitely that's who we
worked with the most. Yeah, the gals who late. So
for me it's Shane Mitchell and for me it's Troy
and Belisario, who's phenomenal. You see how super gracious to
meet with us yesterday, and yeah, we have so much
fun interviewing her. Really nice to see her her face
(11:13):
or just settle. That's what's so great about the podcast
is everybody is so gracious and so willing to be
nostalgic and still gets to remember and experience it, you know,
which is super rare, especially coming from a young cast
of all women. We could have gone one way or
the other right, and it's so fun to hear about
how they've grown up and how they have children now,
or when you know where they're or not, or whatever
(11:35):
it is they're doing in their lives. Because it's been
ten years since the launch of the show. So when
you start a show at nineteen and you leave at
twenty nine, like, now it's twenty nine. That's a that's
a big change in your life. Yeah, so it's real
fun to catch up with them. Yeah, and it's like
we're bringing the convention almost to the fans, because the
fans are so appreciative right now. You know, there's really
(11:56):
not a lot going on in their lives. You know,
it's it's hard, everybody's struggling, but this this show has
brought so much joy to people that were really so pleased.
Obviously in the moment, you identified the most with the
you know your daughter on the show. But as you
watch it back, do you see yourself in other characters? Yeah?
Oh yeah, who would you say that you're most alike
(12:20):
now watching it back. For Spencer, so I never want
to call the police never ever, she has a diversion
to calling the police. Um, I just want to think
it through. I don't want to call the police. I
think I have a little Ella and a little Spencer.
I think in life, in just real life. I was
(12:42):
gonna say Aria and Spencer in real life for me, yeah,
I'm definitely not Ella. She's too forgiving for my style
to the note, which is why I can't call the police. Sorry.
We have a lot of actors on the show, and
we always ask is there a cast group text chain
(13:03):
at the moment? For sure, and definitely then there was.
I wasn't on it, Well you are now. I played Pam.
I was. I was living at the beach, raising kid. Yeah,
you're still living at the beach. It's a totally different beings.
Is it more fun to watch the show back now
(13:23):
or when it was happening in real time? Oh? No,
It's definitely more fun now. Yeah, I'm having more fun now. Totally.
We're not under any contractual obligations to not talk shit
or she not say who A is, which is super
difficult for a decade. Yeah, I mean we were really everything.
They were so careful about everything. So yeah, it's it's
(13:45):
just nice to be able to and and experienced it
in a totally different way now ten years later. I mean,
it's crazy. It almost didn't watch it, didn't watch a lot,
wen't watching most of it until now, So it's like
a whole new ball shop to me. And I'm so
impress the show. I'm like, what I know. I know
(14:07):
that even my husband, who edited edits the show, he's like,
I just want to know what's going to happen next.
I want to know what happens next. And he's totally
into it to see I can call Ned and we
can talk about it. I know, He's like, yeah, an
honorary girl. Now is the show in the can? Like,
have you recorded the entire series? Almost? Yeah? I mean
(14:28):
for I mean you mean the entire s I mean
the entire season, the first season, because there's seven seasons,
so we have a lot in advance in the can
that we're just wrapping up the season, like we have
about five more to go. I had Brian bum Gardner
on a couple of weeks ago, and he's obviously doing
kind of a similar thing with the Office, and I
(14:48):
asked him a question, and I was wondering, if you
guys have to kind of the same response. You mean,
because like Shay Mitchell was this past week and Lizzie
Shaw's coming up, was there an interview that you didn't
expect to be amazing that was that people can look
forward to. I'm super excited about Brian Holdman for sure.
For sure was just's he's one of the writers from
(15:11):
Pretty Little Liars, and he was that interview was so
substantive and like just fascinating just about being being a
writer and um, and so that was really that was
really a wonderful interview. And in the past interviews, Norman
was Norman who was a director on the show. He's
that's a great interview too. Um, but they're all the actors.
(15:33):
The actors were really fun and funny and with some
poignant stuff in there as well. But but the interesting
thing about these guys is that it was just so complex.
They shared with us the complexity of keeping the show
alive in storyline, and it was to me, I'm I'm
astounded by it. So that was that was It revealed
(15:54):
a lot to me, and it took me even deeper
inside than I already was. Yeah, I'm just super disappointed
to hear now about all the girls that were terrified
to say hello to me, like I was gonna blow
them up, like I had magical powers still and I
was super bumped and tam and like, I'm so happy
(16:14):
to find out now that you're not a bit and
I was like, no, it wasn't that they were just
like Lindsay Shaw mentioned that she just was such a
huge fan of Holly that it was. She was just
clamped when she got around it, like, well, no, fanning
out five two of me is super scary. I'm super
(16:38):
pumped about this podcast. I guess I need to watch
Pretty Little Liars if I'm not mistaken. It's now being
aired like on a new streaming service right right if
you can find it out at HBO Max. So this
works perfectly in tandem. So you can go to HBO Max,
you can watch the seasons and then turn on your
cell phone and experience all the behind the scene with
(16:59):
you guys while drinking. And you can also come over
to the to the website, which is pretty dark side
um dot com and there's a bunch of extra stuff
over there. We do these sidecar conversations because sometimes, I mean,
the show is only forty some odd minutes long, and
it takes us hours to record the podcast because we're
(17:20):
just cracking up and going off on these tangents, and
so those become these sidecar conversations over on the website
that are are a lot of fun. Yeah, what day
does the podcast come out? Wednesdays? For the Patreon site
v I p S it's Monday's. Yeah. For our premium
subscription site at Patreon, the Rosewood Clubhouse that comes out Monday.
(17:41):
Everyone out there, go download, subscribe to a lot of stuff.
You can get it anywhere Spotify, uh, the podcast podcast, Spotify,
iHeart Radio, anywhere that podcasts are available. Okay, So I'm
gonna take a quick break and when we come back,
we're going to kind of get into the nuts and
bolts of this show. I don't know if anyone told you,
but it's kind of an origin in story show. But
(18:01):
we're gonna have to do like the abridged version because
there's a lot of us in this group. Chat right now,
Are you guys down with that? Just like a quick
overview of how the hell you got here? Yeah, alright,
quick break. When we come back, we're in for some fun.
(18:26):
You need to drink. I'm almost done with my fast.
How long have you been fasting? You fast? You know
what I've been on it? Well, it's really been a cleanse.
So it's been seven. Today's day eight. Jesus, you man,
you look I mean, you look glowing, and I mean
because there's nothing inside me, none of that liquor. I
(18:47):
do this so I can drink you And are you
drinking water? Are you drinking like salt water is water
and lemon are lying. Yeah, how long until it's over? Well,
it's feeling like not tomorrow because tomorrow I'm swimming with
whale sharks. Um. But Sunday I'm going to start making
among beans souper. Wow. Yeah's gonna try. I've never made
(19:13):
it before, but you know, I don't even know what
that is, but it sounds impressive. I feel like mung
beans were the thing that Creed was growing in his
desk in the office and that made the whole office
smell back. I think I think it was some sprouting
mung beans. Welcome back to the Welles Cast. Very excited
to have the hosts of Pretty Little Wine Mom's podcast
(19:35):
on the show today. We're talking to Unia People's Leslie
Farah and Holly Marie Combs, all of which who were
on the show Pretty Little Liars, and now they're breaking
down kind of all the behind the scenes craziness that
was happening on the show while we rewatching it. And
of course you guys out there can rewatch the show
with everyone else at on HBO Max. So this show
(19:55):
is origin stories. I'm just kind of fascinating with how
successful people whether you're an act to a musician or
a lawyer or a doctor or anyone, you can be
successful in anything. How they get to that point because
a lot of people out there are looking for blueprints
to become successful, and so I like to find out,
like where people came from and how they got to
this point. Obviously there's a bunch of us in the room,
(20:16):
so I guess we're gonna do this kind of quick,
but I would love to know how the hell you
guys got here. Let's start with Leslie. Tell us your
origin story. I grew up in the Inland Empire Corona
at California, so Inland Empire represented here, and my parents
always watched films and TV. I mean we just sat
around and not all. We just watched a lot of
(20:40):
TV and films. And I knew from an early age
I wanted to be an actor. But of course they
didn't know I was asking for an agent at like seven.
But they didn't know how to do that. They didn't
know how to find an agent for me. They didn't
know what world I was from. Um and then I just, uh,
you know, just got involved in theater in high school
(21:00):
and college. I studied and went to grad school and
studied and did a lot of theater, and then I
was lucky enough to get an agent in college, in
graduate school and got my SAG card while I was
living in Florida, and then I came out to l
A in nineties. Thankfully have been working ever since. But
(21:22):
it certainly was a lot of luck. I mean, my
agents in Florida set up a meeting for me with
Mark Krushfeldt, who was a big casting director at the
time here in l A. When I first moved out.
That just started my career. And that was within two
weeks of being in l A. And that just rarely happens.
So I was really lucky got an agent out of that,
(21:42):
and just sort of one thing came after another, and then,
of course, you know, with anything, I tried to find
a balance with theater, which is my first love, and
then doing television and film. You got your first agent
in Florida. Were you in college in Florida? Yeah, I
was in graduate school at the time. I was in
my third year graduate school. These agents from Tampa Forfard
(22:06):
Talent Group came and um a little shout out, and
they came and they watched us do some scenes I
wanted to sign me. I did an episode of The Cape,
which was shooting out there at the time, and I
did an Aquafresh commercial, and um, I was because I
was like, I was in grads and at the same
(22:27):
time I was balancing studies and stuff. So I remember
getting this film with Ellen Burson. I wasn't allowed out
of school to do it, which was sort of crazy
pants to me that you know, here were studying to
be an actor, but I wasn't allowed. So that was
just written excuses like Holly did. She wrote, I know,
I should have I should have should have just made
(22:49):
my agents. No, that's all. Yeah, I just started working
out in Florida. I stayed on for another year as
part of the theater company. They asked me, they invited
me to stay. There's a repertory theater connected to the
to Florida State the Oslo Theater. So I was there
for another year doing theater, and then roamed around and
(23:12):
did some more theater, some regional, and then I came
to l A. I saw so many of my classmates
go to New York and they were just struggling to
stay alive, and I thought, okay, well, all my oldest
and dearest friends and family are in l A. So
if I'm going to suffer, I'm gonna suffer in the
sunshine with some support, like a support system. Like I said,
(23:33):
I was just really blessed to have opportunities that just
sort of fell into place. And then I remember within
a month I had a job on through Rock from
the Sun. I had my first job, and then I
got an agent out of that. But it takes so
much work. I mean, it's not this is abbreviated it.
It really does take a lot of effort and a
(23:55):
lot of amazing people to help build a career. I
remember I was doing just casting director workshops, trying to
be seen after I did through About from the Sun,
and trying to get an agent because the first agent
was sort of a snake oil salesman. And then Mark Malice,
who owned the business that had the workshops with casting directors,
he set up a meeting for me just just heard
(24:17):
that he just really liked my work and not wanting
any I mean, because I was skeptical. I thought, Okay,
what do you want? But he was just he was
so kind hearted, and he set up a meeting for
me with some agents and they've been my agents ever
since STP Partners, and they've been my agents for twenty
something years. And then just work started happening. I was
(24:40):
teaching when I first got out here. I was substitute
teaching oddly enough, math. I really I love math. I
know I wanted to teach acting or something creative, but
I was teaching math. But they put me on seventh
and eighth grade. A lot. Those were my troubled years,
and I totally connected with those kids. And no one
(25:02):
wanted to teach junior high and no one and so
I ended up teaching a lot of junior high maths,
a lot of algebra. So you're a teacher and then
your moonlighting as an actor as well during the yeah,
and I was also a dialect coach. Definitely, you have
to diversify when you're an actor. Sometimes when you're just
like starting to build up work, you just have to
(25:24):
do whatever you can do. What didn't you do? Were
you out center fielder for the Dodgers? Not yet? Not yet?
That's nia. I definitely had to diversify for a while
until the work got to be more frequent to the
point where teachers are reserved. Who I worked for They
(25:45):
were like, okay, either you're available to teach or or
not can I started had to make a decision. I'm like,
I'm ready to just go full force into trying to
get work, and I leapt and then the work was there.
Do you remember career defined moment, the moment that you
were like, all right, this is gonna work. Wow. I mean,
I really do think it was a combination of being
(26:06):
on set with John Lithgow, who was just a delight,
and going I know this is where I want to be.
I know that this is what I want to be
doing for the rest of my life. I think when
I felt like, Okay, I think I can do this,
or that I can make a career out of this,
I think it was well. I mean I think working
on twenty four and working with people like Cherry Jones
(26:28):
and Bob Gunton, who are just incredible actors, I felt like, Okay,
this is this is really special. That's awesome. Will let
you stop telling your background story because we know that
you have to go put your resume in for like
seventeen other jobs real quick. Later today on LinkedIn, I'll
be busy LinkedIn NIA, Let's hear your origin story my
(26:52):
origin story. Okay, I'm the oldest one in the room here,
so I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a really abbreviated version. Okay, Ready,
Nia born super super super super shy, cries that everything
she sees, can't handle anything, plays by herself in the closet,
singing all by herself. Parents worried to death that Nia
will never be able to survive in the world, pushes
me into singing. I relent. I become a complete overachiever.
(27:16):
Bury myself in athletics. In you name it, anything, I
buried myself in it. It's Lane coming Lane. That was
a mistake. I cheer leader, cheerleader. It's a mistake that
you won. Yes, yes, it's a complete mistake. It's because
all the other girls were friends and I was a
(27:37):
last man standing. So so then joined musical dance group
called the Young Americans. Cut to Las Vegas with Liberati.
We'll talk about that. Later, left their audition and fame
um with nine thousand other people. That was my defining
moment there, music, dancing, all of that. From there, I
(27:59):
went to the first film record label. More series after that,
and oh did I mention four husbands along the way
and children, I'm sweating. I know there's so much to
unpack there and we did it though you didn't, and
I love that. I just need you. What do you
(28:20):
want to know? I need to know the Liberaci story
and then we all do we all need that. There's
so many Okay. So when I left high school, I
actually I had a scholarship to u c. L A.
It was an alumni scholarship, which is like an all
around student kind of scholarship. But I had gone straight
into this group that was kind of like glee where
(28:41):
it was dancing and singing and all of that sort
of thing. And we had been hired by Liberaci to
come sing Lives a Christmas Tree hold basically in Las Vegas.
And so I left my scholarship and quit to go
sing Lives at Christmas Tree whole Law in Las Vegas.
(29:02):
And it was in that moment in the elevator two
hours on the phone. They had this phone in the
elevator that would let me call my parents, and I
told him I'm not I can't follow the scholarship. I
I want to be performing. And it became it was
a funny thing for me because I really never liked
being seen. I don't. I don't like to be in
front of people. I'm comfortable with it now, but I'm
(29:24):
not the person that needs to be seen at all.
But it was a good place for me to hide,
and that really, you know it, it gave me being
an overachiever in anything, whether it was singing and dancing,
or sports or or um acting gave me or even
you know, any of the academics, gave me permission to
(29:45):
be alone and to study and to try hard and
not have to deal with people. And so that I
think the focus of um, of wanting to be in
it so badly so I didn't have to be every
where else made me hone. My craft and anything I touched,
and just the pure Newtonian physics of that kind of
(30:09):
energy will and focus will move you forward. I'm very
different now because I don't care. But what did your
parents say whilst on the phone call in the elevator
when you told them you're not going back to college.
Well at first they were panicked, of course, because neither
one of my parents could afford to go to college,
and they're of the generation that I believed that that
(30:30):
was the answer to everything. You get a college degree
in your life is set, and we couldn't afford college.
So the fact that I was giving back a scholarship
did they were just no, no, no, no, no, no, listen, listen,
it's only X number of years you can get your
teaching credential. You need something to fall back on, and
I couldn't. I just couldn't. And so by the end
(30:50):
of the two hours, they fully supported me. They went, Okay,
you gotta you gotta do what you gotta do. Because
for them, they you know, they bit huge credit from
my parents. I mean my parents. My dad was a
white guy from the South. My mom was mixed race
or parents from the Philippines, and they were married at
a time when it was illegal to hold hands in
(31:11):
most states, and so to raise a mixed race family
at that time was unspeakable. And they they succeeded by
focusing on what they wanted to bring forth, and that
kind of bled into how they taught us. And so
once they realized that I was really committed to it,
they just said, okay, then jump in. So I'm grateful
(31:32):
for that, for sure. What do you love the most,
acting or singing or podcasting or fasting? I don't of
all the things I don't love. No, I do love fasting,
but I also love drinking heavily I can't bring sometimes
it's watered. Um. What do I love the most? I
(31:53):
love the freedom to express the way I choose to
express that. I can't pick one thing over the other
because I'm so. I think that what people have to
bring forth is powerful. And when you jump on that moment,
that is that, that is being perfectly present with what is,
and that's harnessing the power of you now. And so
(32:17):
this is you know, for me, that's my favorite thing.
Sometimes it comes out as music. Sometimes it comes out
as writing. You know, I've written a children's book, and
I'm writing my second book called Confessions of a Serial Monogamist.
I wonder why, um, And I'm here in suloon looking
at property and swimming and yeah. So I think that
(32:38):
really listening to the call of one's soul has so
much power because the universe lines up behind it. So
for me, that's my favorite thing is expressing from the
state of deep driving desire, which cannot be separated from
who I am most truthfully, Wow, that was beautiful. You know,
you ponder on that a little bit quite sure what
(33:00):
I said, but it's like everybody going, yeah, that story
is a story that's told a lot on this show,
and by no means my telling our listeners to like
drop out of school. But it is one of those
things where when you know what you want to do,
you focus on it and you gamble on yourself. That's
(33:20):
something that breeds success a lot, which I think is
a really cool thing. And it's such a hard conversation
to have with people who they can't see your potential
in themselves and they try to bring you down, and
that's something that you just can't allow if you know
that you're you're built for bigger and better and greater things.
So I think that's really cool, and that's so freaking
brave because a lot of people have that their parents
(33:42):
paying for it and they're like, Okay, if you're gonna
quit school, then that's on you, but yours was free.
That's a really brave move. So it's just about what
you said. It's it's really really true, and you the
power that exists in knowing who you are and moving
from that place and what you desire. Can't be mad
to buy money, scholarship or someone else's desires for you,
(34:03):
because my parents wanted what was best for me. They
wanted me to stay in school because they thought it
was best. They weren't trying to pull me down. It's
what they thought they wanted the best for me. So
it isn't always about tearing you down. It's them wanting
the best. They just no one can define that for you,
but you. Yeah, okay, Holly, let's hear your story. Jesus.
It's a long one, but not that long. You know,
(34:24):
my mom was really young, My parents were really young
when they had me. Um. She actually moved to New
York City when I was eight to become an actress.
She didn't know why, she just she tried to do
a lot of different things in her young life. And
we couldn't afford a babysitter, so I was often dragged
along with her to these auditions, which in New York,
(34:47):
you know, we call them cattle calls because it's like
a hundred people in a building and it's just whittled
down to five to three to two to one, and
it's this painstaking process. And she was a very sensitive
little being. Oftentimes, you know, the rejection was was too
much for her to handle, and me, being this strange,
(35:08):
pragmatic child, would say things to her. This is according
to her. Okay, I was eight, nine, ten years old.
This is from her perspective. Clearly I don't remember, thankfully
I don't, and I would say things to her like,
you know, well you could have done this better, or
maybe you shouldn't have worn those shoes, or maybe you
could have done your hair. Did you brush your hair today?
(35:29):
Did you? You know? And stuff like that, and so,
you know, because she was only fifteen years older than me,
we sort of bickered a lot, you know, as sisters.
We kind of still do, oddly enough, she said at
one point she was completely fed up with me. Go figure,
and she says, well, if you think it's so easy,
why don't you try it? And I said, okay, and
that's the end of the story. And I did, and
(35:52):
I'm still doing it, kind of still doing it. So
that's just another bone of contention, which you know, just
explains a whole lot about in my life. But now
you know I did. I worked pretty consistently as a
kid and sporadically as a teenager because I was more
interested in being a rebellious teenager and being rebellious For me,
it was not being successful. So you know, my parents
(36:13):
were musicians as well, and so being rebellious meant I
would refuse to learn an instrument. I would refuse to
do music. I would get tattoos and come home at
sixteen with my first tattoo, and my parents would look
at me and say they wanted one too. That was matching.
So it was really hard for me to be bad.
So not playing the piano was bad. I got to
(36:35):
a point where, you know, I didn't know what I
wanted to do with my life. I was simply doing
it because we were a poor family that needed money.
You know. She was a waitress at night. He was
a bartender. You know. I was often left alone at night,
and I strangely enough, HBO, Max, You're gonna love me
because I'm your adopted latch key kid. I was left
home alone at night with HBO, like I had nothing
(36:57):
to babysit me but movies, and some of them are
r rated just you know, so my parents didn't know
how to do the parental controls. Whatever. It was a
learning experience. HBO was my babysitter for a while until
I learned I could sneak out of the building and
nobody would know I was gone. And that's just a
whole another store. But yeah, I got to the point
where in my junior year of high school, I did
figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
(37:18):
It had nothing to do with acting. I wanted to
be a marine biologist, and I turned my grades around
that year, got teacher recommendations, advisor recommendations, got into summer
program that was worth three college credits, and it was
such a huge turn around in my grades. After figuring
out what I wanted to do. Um, you know, I
(37:39):
got my scuba diving license when I was thirteen, like
a weirdo, and um it was really something I was
dedicated to, so much so that all of my teachers
accused me of cheating because my grades were so different,
and they made me take tests in front of them,
as if my brain did not have the capacity to
pass their tests. Um, so I did that, And then,
(38:03):
of course, so I've got through this whole year of
work and like I've found myself, YadA, YadA, YadA. That
summer I get a movie and basically, sadly, it came
down to making five thousand dollars or still spending five
thousand dollars on school even though I had scholarships. But
we're not full scholarships because, as I said, the tattoo
(38:25):
bad Rebellious pass, you only get a partial scholarship for
those people. I asked everybody I knew, and of course
all my idiot friends said, do the movie, and so
I did. And I'm not bitter about it at all
because it worked out in the end. I'm on the
sea Shepherd advice to report now it's fine. That's it's
(38:46):
totally fine. But I did after that, and I sort
of made that distinction and that decision. I just kind
of worked movie after movie after show after show. So
I guess it was the right call from my idiot friends.
Your IMDb credits are are long and amazing. Do you
have a favorite project that you've worked on. Picket Fences
(39:07):
is definitely my favorite because that was, Yeah, that was
my training ground that I did start when I was
I think I did the pilot when I was eighteen,
and we started the show when I was nineteen. Um,
so that was my training ground for sure. That I
was terribly green still even though I had been in
the business for eight years. At that point, I was
terribly green. I had met every great director in New
(39:30):
York City, I had fucked up a lot of fantastic auditions,
and I still felt very new. And so I had
Tom Scarrett and Kathy Baker and Lauren hollyan Don Cheetle
and I Wish Finkle and Ray Walston and just like
the cast of all casts, you know, and I had
just I had to move to l A to do
(39:52):
the show. So I was still living in New York
and I knew no one in l A. So, you know,
I think I was number five on the call sheet,
and that meant a lot of downtime for me. So
I spent a lot of that downtime inside those buildings
at Fox in l A, just watching people, which they
probably thought I was kind of a weird kid, but
I don't give. They sort of adopted me as they're like, oh, well,
(40:15):
you know, she's new here. You know, Lauren Holly took
me home with her quite often. It was a good experience.
I couldn't I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
I hate that it was only four years long. I
hate it. We all hated it when it was canceled.
Hated it, especially David Kelly. That's why he just married
everybody off or killed everybody off in the last episode.
(40:35):
I love that show growing up. It was like such
a big part of my life. So this has been surreal.
I want to be respectful, respectful of your guys this time.
Before I let you go, can we do a rapid
fire questions with you? Guys? I'm totally ready. Can't you
down rapidly? All right, rab fire questions? Here we go.
Favorite pizza topic mushrooms, basil, basil. You know that he's
(41:01):
you know what, the vegan sausage is truly delightful and strange.
But yes, oh okay, go ahead, Yeah, no basil and
no first kiss? Oh y m c a camp. Yes
on Lover's Rock. I mean yeah, that was it? Uh
sixth grade horrible tongue down the throat? Who are you?
(41:22):
I don't even know your name? Terrible terrible at a
new school in Texas. Oh wow, yeah, mine was at school.
His name will remain unnamed. But you remember it? Oh god, yes,
well Nia doesn't even remember that. Poor guys listening to
this being like, oh man, I'm sure he does. Yes,
(41:42):
he does. In Texas, they played spin the ball. I
was new. But they don't. But they go, okay, you
don't just kiss them, Like do you want to stand up,
sit down or lay down? I was like what? Oh,
by the way, I was twelve. I was twelve. Texas
is so structured. Do you remember the first concert you
(42:05):
went to Whitney Houston heart horribly? It was kiss because
my mom was in a punk band and she wanted
to discard me for life. How apropos from the last question?
Who would you call to get you out of jail? Holly, Yeah, Leslie,
I would call Mia because she breaks all the rules.
(42:26):
This woman can break into an ocean. That's true. It
is a true story. It's superpowers were real. What would
be your superpower? Reading minds? Waves of love? I felt
that I did, I did, I felt the wave. I
would like to be able to fire anybody who's not
(42:47):
suitable for their job position. And I'm not naming names,
but he's got orange hairy. I'm sorry. It's the first
thing that came to mind, Like, if you don't do
your job proper, really, why is no one firing you?
I'll be the head fire you're fired. I mean, I
had so many more, but I got to ended on
(43:08):
that one. That was good. Nia, Leslie Holly, thank you
guys so much for being on the Wells Cast. Everyone
out there, make sure you go download, subscribe, listen to
Pretty Little Wine Mom's podcast. You can download it wherever
the hell the podcast star, which is basically everywhere. And
then also, I guess I watch in tandem Pretty Little
(43:29):
Liars on HBO Max. Thank you guys again so much.
This has been such a cool day for me to
get to talk and meet with you guys, so I
appreciate you. I'm glad you never meet your heroes. Don't
do it all right by, guys. Be safe out there, okay, Hi,
thank you. Subscribe to Wells Cast on I Heart Radio,
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