Work in Progress: Annaleigh Ashford

It's no secret that Tony Award-winning actress Annaleigh Ashford is a versatile force to be reckoned with! From her captivating performances on Broadway in 'Legally Blonde' and 'Wicked' to her current role on the small screen in the true crime drama "Happy Place," she's proven she can do it all! Act, sing, and dance, but did you know she's also good at impressions?

Ever get together with a friend you're comfortable around, and you let loose and start making silly voices? That happens a lot when Annaleigh joins Sophia on the pod, and it's hilarious! Besides slipping into her 'puppet Judy Garland' character, the actress talks about her new series based on a real-life story and why it's different from other true crime drama shows, making the transition from stage to television, and why it's so easy to slip into people-pleasing mode on sets.

Plus, she opens up about working alongside the late great James Earl Jones on the Broadway revival of "You Can't Take It With You" and the surprising request he made near the end of their show's run that taught her an unforgettable lesson! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, It's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hello
whip smarties. Today we are joined by an actress that
I absolutely adore. I think she is one of the

(00:22):
most talented people in my generation. From Broadway to film
to TV, she is an absolute legend. She earned a
Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her performance as Irene in
the Hula limited series Welcome to Chippendale's. She received her
first Grammy nomination in the category Best Musical Theater Recording
of Sweeney Todd and like I mentioned one a Tony

(00:43):
in twenty fifteen. She is so funny, so charming and
just so wise. And next up she is starring in
the new series Happy Face, now streaming on Paramount Plus.
It is a true crime story inspired by the true
life story of Melissa G. Moore, a young woman who

(01:05):
discovered that her beloved father was actually the prolific serial
killer known as Happy Face. As an adult, she changed
her name and guarded her secret, but eventually decided to
start working in advocacy, supporting victims who have experience with

(01:26):
this kind of crime. She's absolutely incredible, and today I'm
going to ask Annalie all about what it's like to
do this show what her favorite lessons are from Broadway,
film and or television, and what Real Housewives series is
her favorite. Let's dive in with Annalie Ashford.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Hi.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
I'm so amped that you're here, and I'm also laughing
because we've had the most ridiculous I don't know how
long we've been doing this ten minutes of trying to
get our audio things to work. I don't know if
you folks at home are going to get any of
that treat, but we've had a nice giggle.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
It was really good. I feel really good about how
I look my posture right now. My posture is not
a result of me trying to have good posture or
me trying to be good to my spine, but it's
really just because my microphone set up as bizarre.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
I was gonna say, did you get one of those
chairs that like you put your you put your calves in,
and then it's supposed to make you sit up straight.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I don't know if you can see my chair has ears?
Can you see his like bunny ears?

Speaker 1 (02:37):
No?

Speaker 2 (02:38):
But maybe I should get one of those you put
your calves in? It is that the real thing?

Speaker 1 (02:43):
I think it's like an ergonomic thing. Is that the
right word?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Do you get it in the magazine that you get
on when you go on the plane?

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Probably sky Mall? Yes, I'm it feels like something you
could get on sky.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Have you seen a sky mall lately? I have not.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
I haven't, but honestly, I think they should bring them.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Back in paper please. Yeah, that sounds like a very
delightful treat when boarding an airplane.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yes, I think we deserve more air traffic controllers and.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
More hallelujah right invent to both as.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Two people talking about our travel schedules. I'm like, just please,
please keep the planes in the air. That's all I want.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
I've had a couple of rough landings recently, and I
have prayed in a way that was different that will
feel very uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, you're like, oh, this, this is what it means
to strike terror into one's heart. It's happening to me.
I understand that turn a phrase.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Now, Oh my god in so many ways like oh.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yea yea, which is also a lot like people who
do what we do, who you know, play in the
circus for a living and try to pretend they're not
anxious all the time. What are you talking about what
are you talking about? To feel that kind of like
gripping anxiety that's worse every once in a while. When
when that happens to me, I'm like, oh, interesting, I
didn't know it could go up from ten, but now

(04:00):
we're at a twelve, and that's what a twelve feels like.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, we live in like a low level, constant pulse
of anxiety and then you know, yeah, when it gets
ramped up, you're like, oh, do I need a full
xanax right now or just to send about would you
like a rantl PAM or would you just like a propanel? Oh,
I said the fancy name for beta blocker?

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Is that what that is?

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, propanol, it's a beta blocker. Have you dived into
beta blockers?

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah? I had like a weird COVID thing almost two
years ago, which was deeply scary and also really humbling
because when I was like, no, I'm a very healthy
person and I understand that, like, you know, a fourth
COVID infection could probably be really bad for you, but
also my job requires me to be in large theaters
of people. What do you want from me? And then

(04:51):
the doctor after a few weeks was like, I don't
think you're taking this as seriously as.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
You should be.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
You do know that the number one horrible side effect
of COVID for women between forty and fifty is cardiac issues.
And I literally if I was like it was like
he'd smacked me, like straight into gone with the wind.
I was so offended and I was like, I'm barely forty.

(05:17):
I'm forty. Oh no, And it was like this very
rude awakening because I was like, no, but I have
you know that sort of like trauma that freezes you
a little bit stunted. And I think I'm perpetually twenty
six and you're saying I need to like go to
the doctor regularly to see what's up with this, and
they were kind of like, welcome to adulthood, lady, and

(05:39):
I really didn't like it.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
You said, where's my recipim.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
I was like, I guess I'll take all this heart
medication and go sit next to Morty at the cardiac center. No,
it was like me and a bunch of old dudes
all summer long, and actually they were adorable. And I
did have moments where my actor brain kicked in and
I was like, this would be like such a cute
little series of shorts. And then I was like, probably

(06:03):
super inappropriate to ask all these people to violate their
own hippa as well to be on camera with me.
But if I could, it would just be so cute.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, and you could. I want to know their life
stories already. I'm in. It was like it was me
and the old guys, you and Morty. Did Morty take
lorez pan?

Speaker 1 (06:22):
I didn't ask him what he was taking, but he
he walked with his little cane like he was in
a little dance routine a lot, and I really was adorable.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
To me, Marty sounds fantastic.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
He had a great sense of humor.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Is he in show viz chovas adjacent?

Speaker 1 (06:37):
I feel like probably showing going to like the nice
hospital in the middle of La I bet like most
of those guys were you have?

Speaker 2 (06:45):
You had no idea? But he was the boom operator
on taxi.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Right, He's like I was the one. I'm tod Robert
and narrow hacked.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Wait did you take propinall? Was that? Why? I mean?

Speaker 1 (06:58):
I like took all sorts of I had to get
Like one of the worst things was the they would
do these like contrast MRIs that I had to do,
and those I really didn't like, because at least once
I did the first one, I knew what was coming.
But like when I first, you know, got back from
this stage play I was doing in London, they were

(07:19):
basically like, well, we've got to run all the tests
again here to like go through the proper levels of
insurance and whatever. And they were like, oh, and you
haven't had a contrast MRI. We're going to give you
this thing and we're just going to push this die.
You're gonna give a little bit of a warm.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Flush in your pelvic region. Uh huh, I know.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
And I was like a warm flush. I was like,
I feel like someone just dumped a pot of almost
boiling water, like up my crotch. What are you talking
about a warm flush like this? I was like, I
must be dying, and they were like, you're not dying.
It'll pass in about ninety seconds.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
It's such a weird feeling.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
It's not great.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
No. It's also like, why don't you just say you're
gonna make it. It's gonna feel like you peed your
pants but you didn't.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
It's going to feel like you peed your pants with
boiling water.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah, I didn't feel like it felt as boiling. I'm
sorry you had that experience.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
I mean I was very unwell at the time. The
next time I did it, like three months later to
get my official like, you're in the clear. You can
get on longer flights again, buddy, it wasn't as bad.
But I also thought maybe that was just because I
knew what was coming.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
You know, it could have been a combo platter. It
could have been a little it could have been a
left leftover COVID in you pelvic pation.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
It could have just been the high inflammation I was
dealing with. It made like warm, feel like fire.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Do you know what else does that to you? Is
magnesium pushes? Have you ever gotten a magnesium push? Wait?

Speaker 1 (08:49):
No, but I got an NA D one.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
How do you feel I have? That's the one thing
I haven't done. What it feel like? Will you tell me?

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Felt like someone put from like tit to tit ribcage
like in a vice and went and I was like,
oh my god, oh my god, the chest compression is
so crazy. But also I went down a little bit
of like a nerdy rabbit hole that whole fall like
post being told I wasn't going to die because I

(09:16):
was like, well, I have to figure out how to
like not to be one of those crazy like guys
who's changing out his blood with his kid's blood. I'm
not like that nuts, Yeah, but I was like, there
are there definitely have to be advances in versions of
like biohacking or cell therapy or whatever, like the cool
stuff they're doing in Switzerland. I was like, what are
the things I could do here that won't bankrupt me
but that might help me like recover from this. And

(09:39):
I did a lot of research on NAD and was like, yeah,
I'll give this thing a try. And then I was like, oh,
this is why people say if if you feel like
you're having a cardiac arrest, tell us and we'll slow
down the trip. And I was like, I just don't
know if I'm made for this stuff. You guys, Like,
I was like, now I'm forty, I don't want to
I don't want to touch it.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
But it was surren I've taken it orally. Okay, I've
taken it orally just the pills, you know, like uh.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
With the lorazapammer separately, not at the same time. Okay.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
You know, sometimes if nobody was around it take them
at the same time. Lorazza pan is usually like a
night before a bed situation when I'm having like bad
anxiety and I can't sleep, I use it instead of
like a sleeping aid. I take like a half of
half like I take such a low dose, and if
it's but I can tell if I'm really like really struggling,

(10:32):
if I'm having like I'm gonna have a panic attack moment,
then I'll take a full one and not pass out,
which really means you needed it, wow, because.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Your your adrenaline is really burning through. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
And then but the NAD I didn't real I just
was taking it for immune system stuff. But I've never
gotten the drip. I've never gotten a push, I've never
gotten the id.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
And it was it was it was wild. Welcome to
our medical show.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Everyw I know. I literally I could talk about the
gut microbiome for the next hour if you want, got
me too.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
I have a friend who literally became a like an
expert in it after a postpartum thing, and I started
one of like the best health companies in the world
because she was just like, there have to be better
options for moms than this. She's the clost person I know.
So yeah. I ask her like all my nerdy questions
about what is legit?

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Do I have candida? Do I have stable? Should I
take probiotics? I should get a test? Right? What should
I do? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (11:28):
She's always like, hey, just remember that anybody who's trying
to sell you like forty six supplements is trying to
profit off of your checkout of forty six items.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
I'm like, right, ray, Yeah. But also when you go
to certain health food starts aka Airwan sometimes in that aisle,
I get like lost in good packaging. Yeah, packaging for me,
Oh god, I'll be like I need this colostrum because
it's in a beautiful I'm.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Like, how gorgeous. Okay, if you love packaging. There's a
show that came out on Netflix many years ago called Abstract.
Have you ever seen it?

Speaker 2 (12:05):
I've heard about it.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Oh, it is my favorite show. Every episode they profile
an artist or a designer, and there's an episode on
typography that literally it's it's like it's like someone scratching
an itch that your brain has wanted scratched for your
whole life. It's so soothing and pleasurable and gorgeous. To

(12:27):
look at that. That is my that's my gift to you.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Okay, I can't for today I'm excited about I just
was in DC for a day and I drove past
a like a cleaning a cleaners. It was just like
a laundromat, but the advertise, like their logo was so.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Clean, corgeous. Did you take a pig?

Speaker 2 (12:47):
I I almost did, but I was like, what am
I going to do with this? Like go start a
cleaning company, like a brand of laundromats that just have
really good logo. But really, Then I had a whole
thought process of sometimes we do pick a place for
their logo. Yeah, because you're like, that looks like a
really clean, lovely logo, so the place must be clean
and lovely.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah. Well, it's like, look how much they care about
the details. I want people who care less details to
that level to care about my details.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Thank you for figuring that out for me.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, I understand it. I I'm one of those people
who can't not take the picture and who also can't
not take the screenshot, to the point that when I
realized I'd hit over two hundred and fifty thousand screenshots
on my phone, I was like I I sat with
myself for a minute. I was like, is this the
thing I should address with my therapist? I don't think

(13:39):
Or is that the most insufferable question I've ever asked
myself in a sort of self inventory.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
You know what I think it means? You're an artist?

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Thank you. Thank you for figuring that out for me.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
It makes sense to me. I have screenshot stuff all
the time. My husband does not, and he's sort of
like bewildered by why that. I also, you know when
you have to go somewhere and you need them for me,
you have a flight and you don't want to open
your email or open your app like eighteen hundred times
just to shut it. Yet it Oh yeah, I always
go right away.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Oh the boarding get way?

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Do that? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Done. I screenshot the boarding pass and then favored it
and it's my last thing in my favorites album. Done,
so I have it one touch and then when I
get on the plane, I delete it.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Are your pictures organized?

Speaker 1 (14:27):
They really go in waves? I will be the most
organized person. And then also the to do to organize
pile or cluster is also very overwhelming. Yeah, me too,
But when I do it, I do it really well.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Good for you. I never do that part. Well, my
mine's just a big mess. It's just kind of bad.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Okay, So this is the thing, and I will be honest.
I haven't been doing it every day, but a friend
of mine started this on January first, and she's really good.
She's doing it every day. And she said, every single day,
starting for New Year's search the date in your phone. Okay,
so you know today is April fifteenth. Plug in April

(15:11):
fifteenth in your eyephotos and it will bring up every
photo from every April fifteenth in your entire photo album
and then you can do a clean out.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
That's a great way too clean, I know.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
And she's been doing it every single day of the year,
and I'm so enamored with it. But I was like,
you know what, even if I do it twice a week,
it's more than I've done in the last ten years.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Oh my god, that's a great hack. Okay, I'm gonna
take that because that will help me. I also, I
just had a baby. I have a six month old,
which is very fun. She's really silly, sweet, and then
I have an eight year old. But I have become
that person that somebody's like, hey, let me see the baby,
and I want to see you know, your let bloy jack.
And then I go, okay, hold on, I have my

(15:53):
friend in the picture. And I turn into you know,
like a seventy five year old woman on my phone
trying to find the picture and people waiting, you know,
just right, because.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
You also want to find the best picture.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, you know, I want to I want to really
show off her little blonde roots that are coming in
because she was born with dark hair and she has
her hair. Usually their hair falls out and then they
like have new hair that grows in. Hers did not
fall out, and now she's got blonde roots.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
She's got like a reverse dye job.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yes, she looks like a guy who did like just
for men and hasn't done his roots.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
It's god, I loney.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
So I'm always trying to find like the picture that
really shows her blonde roots that.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Feels very spiritually aligned, because you are one of the
funniest people in our universe. So for you to have
a baby with a reverse dye job that's also natural
is like it's chef's kiss to me. I love that.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
It's so wacky.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
You're like, oh, the universe really gave me a cookie hair.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
It's so funny, and she also has no idea. You know,
she's just like smiling and dream She's a baby, she's
living baby dreams. It's really good. It's a look. I
love it. She's funny.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
And now a word from our sponsors who make the
show possible. I hate when women get asked this question,
but I'm also I mean it genuinely because I'm fascinated
with all the things that you have going on, and

(17:29):
especially like Broadway schedules. How do you how do you
do the thing and have the family?

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Well, you know it shows a week is like no joke.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
No, it's it's like a crazy mission.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
I would say, you know, when I go back into
TV film land, you know when we have a big
day or night, shoots are crazy. That is a raque thing.
But I still always say, we don't have to sing, like,
we don't have to like hit a note that everybody
knows you hit or you didn't. There's something like really

(18:08):
vulnerable about being on stage period because you can't say,
can we try again? But also singing in particular and
dancing is because it's it. It's also it's an athletic event.
You know. And I've always loved the Olympics, but the

(18:29):
older I get, the more I'm like really like, oh,
I also you know enough when a kicker goes to
make the field goal and like a really high pressure
situation and it doesn't go well, I almost can't look
like you know, it feels like Opening Night or something.
It's like very uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
That makes me so uncomfortable. Like Adam Sandler movies. I
love him, but if I'm watching an Adam Sandler movie
at home, I have to pause it and go for
a walk around the house and then come back the
secondhand embarrassment feeling. Yeah, just the whole point of that
kind of comedy, right, is like you're supposed to feel
embarrassed by everything going wrong. Yeah, it is so physically

(19:09):
almost painful for me.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yes, I hear you.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
And I thought about this a lot when I because
I hadn't done a stage play, you know, in my
adult career, until I went and did this show I
was telling you about on the West End, and I
had days where I was like, I feel like I've
been beaten. Yeah, it's like someone beat me in my sleep,
from my head to my toes. I don't know what's happening,

(19:34):
and I would think about people like you and be like,
what would I have? How would I do this? And
be singing because I was just talking and then you know,
yelling and crying and having all sorts of insane physical experiences.
But like I didn't have to sing.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
They're all different, you know. I was just say, it's
like being like a basketball player or baseball players have
to play every day. Basketball players have to play every day,
you know, the same kind of thing. But you get
your endurance up, you train, and then there's also it's
a marathon. It's not a sprint, you know, but and
that's why your body hurts so bad. You're in this

(20:11):
like long term event. You know. It's just sometimes it
just feels like it goes on. It's such a gift.
You have so much gratitude, you know, there's it's always
coupled with immense gratitude and joy, and you know, the
communion that you have with the audience every night is magic.
But there's definitely an emotional hangover and physical hangover. Yeah

(20:32):
you know what I mean. You wake up you're like, oh,
you know.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
What helps me kind of understand it, especially because you
do feel like when you get to do this and
you love your job so much, you always feel like
anytime you voice about any truth of anything that's difficult,
you're like, but I love it. Please don't think I
just did it.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
I literally just did it.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
But it's like, I know what that is, and I
think what I what has comforted me weirdly, And this
is so revealing of the kind of nerd I was
in school, is understanding like the scientific theory of how
every action has an equal and opposite reaction, like the
idea of a pendulum swing. So I think, if you're
gonna get that much joy from the art and the

(21:15):
danger of like what's gonna happen tonight and the experience
like you're saying that you have with the audience, the
equal and opposite reaction is like sometimes you wake up
and you're like, who ran me over with a mac
truck in my sleep last night?

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Totally? You know the other part of it. My husband
did this play Isn't It Twice Now where he plays
a guy who hits rock bottom and then ultimately gets
sober and it's about addiction, and it's this great play
called The White Chip. And he played this really intense arc,
you know, and also he spoke NonStop. He's just basically

(21:51):
talking for ninety minutes straight. And one of our friends,
who's a fantastic actress, Crystal Dickinson, she was like, Joe,
you know that you're not playing that part, but your
body doesn't know that you're not playing that part. So
you know that great book, The Body keeps the Score. Yes,
you know, that's actually like a great such a beautiful book.
And sometimes I think it's a great book for actors

(22:12):
to read because it's a really like healthy reminder that
you do indeed need rest because you're putting your body
through this marathon, not only physically, but like emotionally. I'm
really steadfast, and like we leave it at the door
when we leave, you know, leave it, leave it at
your trigger when you walk you know, when you walk away.

(22:34):
And I really believe in like the separation of it.
Like I loved. One of the things I loved about
Severance when it came out was that it helped me
explain actor brain, you know really, and it's like kind
of like Severance, you like, you become a different person
for a little bit, and then you've got to be
like and come back to you. You can't like lave
in it. You can't sit in that, especially when you're

(22:56):
playing the dark stuff totally.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
But you're right, your body doesn't know the difference rents.
So if you film a scene where your partner or
your sibling dies for eight hours on set one day, like,
it's in your body and you've got to figure out
how to get it out of your body and also
not apologize for how insane it sounds to say, oh,
this trauma is in my body totally.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
The certain scores too, and these people stay inside your
bones in a way that you're like, why do I
feel so heavy? Like when we were doing studying in
the park with George. This score is one of the
best scores that's ever been written, in my opinion, but
it's also half of it's in minor. It doesn't really
resolve until the last song. There's this beautiful chord that resolves,

(23:44):
and it's kind of when the piece resolves, So the
majority of the play you're kind of living in this
there's a chord that's repeated over and over again, and
it's a minor, so it's uncomfortable. It's like, sounds simple
to just say it's sad, but it's like very it's
like melancholy. And then the last song of the first

(24:05):
act and the second act it's called Sunday and it's
a it's the funeral March, which is also like beautiful,
but you know it's melancholy. Yeah, sad, sad. So it
stays in your bones, it stays in your guts.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
It really does. How do you how do you work
on processing that out? Like when you talk about the
severance experience and you and your husband both you know,
do this job. So thank god someone gets your your
thing when you come home, But how have you kind
of figured out in your personal life and your individual

(24:42):
life how to shake all those cobwebs and chords out
of your body.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
I disassociate cool.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
I did that for a really long time.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
It's really a healthy no.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
I used to sort of wear it as a badge
of honor. I'd be like that it gets to me
and and eventually I was like, this is deeply emotionally.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
Unheathy, like I'm exploding. I don't know why.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
That's so weird that I woke up and I don't
know whose life I'm living or who lives in my
house with me and I don't know why this happened.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
I mean, you know, that's one way. I A long
time ago, I watched this great interview that Emma Thompson
did I Larry King, and she explained that she liked
the game of being able to walk on and pop
right in, like walk right on stage and be able

(25:36):
to be right in, like do enough homework that you
can slip in and slip out like really with ease,
and so really like the goal is to have as
much homework as you can done. And also flexibility, yeah
have For me, I find that if all the homework
is there and I in a safe environment, then I

(26:02):
feel comfortable being really flexible and I can kind of
slide in and out. And I make myself kind of
slide in and out. So if we're doing something really dark,
I kind of give the crew, like and everybody there
like a breath to know that they can laugh, that
we can joke around, like let's have some light. But
that does not work for everybody. So I'm like really

(26:23):
careful making sure kind of what the other actors need.
But I sometimes need that because I'm such an mpath. Yeah,
but I can feel the crew and I feel like
what everybody else is kind of navigating, and I don't
want them to like be in a state for five
hours where they feel like they have to be like
silent and walk on it. You know. I don't know,
there's something kind of about the energy of the whole

(26:45):
day that feels lighter and brighter if we can all laugh,
like we need to be reverent of whatever we're working
on in the moment. But I always think back to
that amazing interview that i'm A Thompson did, and I
just kind of want to be like her. So I
kind of I like, this is going to sound insane,
but I play like a little game with myself. I like, Okay,

(27:05):
when can you slip out? Can you slip back in?
Like how can you weave in and out of character?
Like basically can you go through the severance elevator?

Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (27:15):
But that but that doesn't always like make sense for everybody,
So I don't I kind of take a tip from
whoever I'm working with and kind of navigate around them
as well, what do you do?

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Oh, that's really cool. I think I'm always kind of learning,
you know. I feel like part of the goal right
of being alive is to learn more and navigate better
and like the thing I've really been so I'm kind
of meditating on and I didn't have the language for
it when I turned thirty. I think I discovered the

(27:43):
language for it when I turned forty. And I realize
it's been this exploration over the last ten years is
how to hold more and more things to be true
at the same time, so to be able to say
the set I'm on. Let's say we're doing a movie together.
Our set is incredibly safe and it's dangerous. Yeah, it

(28:06):
has to be so we can be in the scene.
You know, I am completely in control and I am
completely out of control in this space. I've done all
my homework so I can slip in. And also I
don't know what the fuck's going on and I could
be surprised, like yeah, And you know I can in
my personal world in activism, I can hold things I

(28:29):
know to be true to be true, I e. What
makes democracy work and what doesn't. Social science data matters
like kids do better when they have lunch at school.
Defunding school lunches is psychotic, and I have to figure
out why someone who is pro defunding school lunches got
that way and I have to be able to listen

(28:51):
to what they believe to be true so that I
can then have a conversation with them rather than an argument,
and maybe we come to a new thing instead of
we get in a fight and then they never want
to change their mind, you know. So it's like, yeah,
there's something about that for me. And so the way

(29:12):
I think about it is like every year, I want
to feel like I've learned more and shifted my capability
or expanded my opinion or tolerance or whatever. But also
it's weird because it's like, yeah, sometimes I find that
the interest in so many things and wanting to take

(29:34):
a cue from my coworkers or my crew means that
I start thinking about what everybody else is doing and
what everybody else needs, and making sure everybody else has
everything that is going to make their day go great.
And then I realize I haven't done anything for myself. Yeah,
And so it's like, I don't know, it's a bit
like being in like the spin cycle, but I think
if I can stay aware of it, at least I

(29:55):
can sort of stay on top of.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
The water totally. You know, As you were saying all
of that, The first thing I thought of was my
husband says, two things can be true at the same
time all the time, and it's actually like, it's a
great way to argue with somebody, as you said, it's
a great way to resolve, it's a great way to reset,
and it's also a great way to have common ground

(30:19):
and also keep a conversation going. And then the other
thing that you just said. As you were talking, I
had a realization that my whole explanation was about people
pleasing and just making everybody else feel good.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
On the set.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Parents like, yeah, you know sometimes and the one thing
about what we do for a living, which is super
fun and all the things, but it is also navigating
personalities constant. It's a really social profession, and sometimes it's
just easier when everybody's happy, or it's easier when everybody

(30:56):
is having a better day. It's easier when the vibe
is good. I would say that that's true for any
anybody's job. Yeah, and sometimes I think, unfortunately, when you
should be able to just invest in the scene and
be completely focused on that, sometimes you can't. You have

(31:18):
to yeah, also be wearing other hats, and sometimes I
think that that makes my job easier to make everybody
else happy. But really, now that I'm listening to myself,
I like, I'm just people placing and making people.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
But I think it's both your thanks can be.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
True at the same time.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah, they sure. Again, I think the thing about it
is my natural instinct is to make sure everybody else
is good first. I'm trying to learn to also make
sure I'm good in that first past.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
And I think there's something interesting too, right, Like, the
longer you do this job, the more gratitude you have
for the you know, relative success you have. Then it's
like if a new kid comes on set and isn't
checking on every department head, nobody expects them to. They're like,
do you even know what a department head is?

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (32:14):
But when you've been doing this as long as we have,
if you don't, it's kind of like actor with an attitude,
and you're like, no, I'm just I have to deliver
like a two page monologue today and I'm running my
lines in my head. I'm so sorry. I'm not actually
not thinking about what you need. I just don't want
to waste your time. Yes, So again, it's likely it's
spin cycle stuff. And I think a lot about when

(32:37):
I thought about it a lot getting ready for today,
because you have such an amazing career from like Broadway
to film to TV. You know, it's crazy to think
that you want a Tony in twenty fifteen, like talk
about the spin cycle of You've got so many irons
in the fire when you look back at sort of

(32:58):
all these spaces you've worked in and different environments, like
is there a mentor who stands out to you? Is
there is there a kind of advice, you know, whether
it's how to stay focused as an actor or I
don't know, how to like not lose your mind on location,
Like what what are the standouts for you when you

(33:19):
kind of look back and you realize what your biggest
sort of inspirations or maybe nuggets of wisdom are for
the for the next chapter.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Well, that was really nice of you to talk about
my career that way. Also, I like to say it
in the mic like.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
This amazing, Like you have had the really amazing career. Congratulations.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
I'm just hey, I'm just really happy that I've gotten
to work. You know, I always love when people are like, so,
how did you choose this role? I'm always like, I
don't know. Is that a like, you know, we answer
that question a lot too, like we've chose it most
of the time. Actors don't choose what they're doing most
of the time. We really that's like the that would
be the you know, well that is the dream some

(34:02):
people do. And I think you, yes, you do choose
the things you get to work on because you say
yes or no. But you're the majority of your career
is you seeking out work. And also I just think
it's so rare that we get to go yes, I
will bless you with my blessings. You know, it's usually

(34:22):
like a collabor it's a collaborative art form, so I
think it comes together as collaboration as well too.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
So the few jobs that I have just been offered
in my life, oh, it's felt like a miracle, you know.
With the moment that I got to choose for the
first time, it was like it also felt really scary.
You're like, I get to choose, this feels crazy. But
on that note, the people that I've learned from I
learned from everybody that I ever work with, whether it's

(34:50):
a good experience or a bad experience, because there's always
something to learn. But I just recently got to go
to James Earl Jones's memorial, which was like like theater church.
It was so beautiful. It was really overwhelming, and you know,

(35:12):
felt like the end of an era in so many ways.
He felt like somebody who was just going to live
forever to me, and he will live forever. The thing
that he taught me while working was something that you
said earlier is he was the forever student. He was
always learning, he was always finding something new in the play.

(35:34):
Up until the last weekend. He brought me and Christy Nilsen,
who played my Mom, into his dressing room and he
was like, I would like to try something new in
the scene that comes right after you, and you know,
I had an idea that he wanted to try, and
we had four performances left. Wow. He would run scenes
from Othello with my husband in his dressing room on

(35:57):
Thursday afternoons that like halfway through the and he was like,
I'd like to run these scenes with you. I always,
you know, wanted to work on them again. I never
quite cracked them. They've just always, you know, the poetry's
always been a thorn in my side. There were things
about that piece that he wanted to revisit, so he
just like came in and worked on them. Talk about
a forever student. And then the other person who also

(36:21):
just recently passed and I thought would just live forever
was Linda Lavin. She like was so such a dear
friend and so funny and warm, and you know, she
was such a such a legend but also such a

(36:41):
pro And the way she would walk onto the set
of a of a multicam was like ready or not,
here comes mama. You know, that is her medium. And
she knew like the back for hand, but she could
make you laugh and still be honest at the same time.
But what she taught me was, you know, I'd have
a couple of rough moments here there, and I'd come
in in her dressing room and we would talk about

(37:03):
alan on together. She was a big allan on person
and I'm an all on person, and we would talk
about forgiveness and letting things go. And I think that's
a forgiveness is something that we don't talk enough about
in the workspace, whether it be our business that we're
in or every workspace. You have to be able to
like let go and let God and move on and

(37:24):
forgive people and reset. You have to really be able
to reset without holding on to resentment. So I would say,
you know, those two were great teachers.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Wow, that's so cool. And now a word from our
wonderful sponsors. What made you want to shift from all
these mediums to come into this new space and do

(37:58):
happy face?

Speaker 2 (37:58):
Like?

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Where did it come from?

Speaker 2 (38:03):
When somebody says do you want to come to this drub?

Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah, that's one of those I know.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
You know, well, I'm so lucky. I've kind of been. Uh,
I've been an actor who people often connect me with
whatever they saw me in last which is actually like
sort of the greatest gift, you know, they kind of
just you know, some people think of me as Buddy

(38:29):
and Masters of Sex, and some people are like, oh,
I saw you play Missus love It and Sweeney Todd
or you know, Dot and whatever. They saw me and
Kikaboots or or they Sabby Positive whatever. But these are
all like really different kinds of shows. Like they've all
done really really different pieces tonally genre. You know, some

(38:49):
are comedy, some are drama, and then yeah it's like
a crime drama. There's levity. Michael Showalter directed it, and
he's so funny and great. So he gave he really
set the tone for us and gave us a breath
of dark comedy, which I think was important for me.
But yeah, I was, Hey, it's a fantastic true story

(39:12):
with a great character with an incredible conflict. She's really
vulnerable and cannot not be vulnerable. There's nothing better at
playing a character that's just like the griven. Circumstances will
just forever be complicated and uncomfortable for her. So she's
going to be vulnerable.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Yeah, it's like she can't hold it back.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yeah. I mean, if you had a father who was
a serial killer, that would just be a conflict that
just never ends.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
I literally can't imagine. Okay, will you tell the folks
at home who are like, what are they talking about?
What is Happy Face? In case they've been living under
a rock, can you give them the log line?

Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yes, there was a real life serial killer in the
nineties called the Happy Face Murderer, and his daughter came
out as his daughter and has become an advocate for
folks who've been touched by the trauma of true and
so this is this is the telling of her story.
Her story is all based on true events, but we've

(40:08):
really wanted to be respectful of the victims involved in
the real life crime. So the crime elements are fictionalized.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
Okay, so they're inspired by things that have happened, but
then fictionalized so that it doesn't drudge up sort of
historical trauma for people who've survived or for surviving family.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
Absolutely, And you know, one of the things that I
think the show reminds us is not only are we
unaware of all of the victims and the victims' families
when we consume true crime, you know, of the you know,
the way that we do in pop culture, me included,

(40:50):
and why do we like to watch them? Like why
do we like true crime?

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Right?

Speaker 2 (40:55):
If you think about it, it's mystery. We want to
know who solved it, you know, like and who did it?
And then we want to know why and how because
it helps keep us safer, helps protect us from it
happening to us. And then also I think one of
the questions that my character and the real life Melissa

(41:16):
grapples with is why and how and if it happened
to somebody that is related to you, can it happen
to you? You know? And yeah, she carries around this
like bag of guilt and shame for the rest of
her life because of something that her father did, not
because of something she did.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Yeah, what has it been like to get to know
Melissa more because she is the woman that you portray
have have you two been able to just sit and
kind of unpack those things together or does that feel
too intimate to you? And are you like I want
to have a dinner, but I don't want to know,
so I don't drive myself crazy, Like how do you

(41:56):
thread that needle as a performer.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Well, as you know most of the most of your information,
you should hopefully be able to get from the script,
and if you don't, that's when you go looking out elsewhere.
So I really had everything I needed in the script.
And so when we first started working, you know, our
incredible showrunner jun Casicio, was like, do you want to
talk to Melissa? And she's like, I also have letters.

(42:21):
I have all the letters that her dad sent her,
which are a big part of our story. Which side note,
this is crazy. Jen had all of her letters, had
all of Melissa's letters. Our showrunner had all of the
real Melissa Moore's letters from her dad from prison in
her house in Alta, Dina and her house burnt down. No,
so when we started doing the press tour, she had

(42:43):
to tell Melissa, I have to tell you all of
your letters were in my house and they're gone. And
Melissa was like, you know, that's actually a relief because
I never knew what to do with him. This was
such a conflict for me, which is really the inner struggle,
the inner conflict of my character out you know, the series,
not just this season is you know, what do you

(43:04):
do when you love the memory of the man before
he was the monster? You know, what do you do
with that? That trauma? So how about that crazy? So anyways,
I actually when I would look at those letters, I
started to read some of them and I went, you know,
I actually don't need to read this. It felt like
I was like looking into somebody's drawers that I didn't
need to look into it. And also Melissa and I

(43:26):
actually didn't connect before, and I almost was relieved because
I knew that we would connect on the other side.
And during the press tour, I learned so much from
her about the machine of true crime and how it
affects real people and how every time one of these
shows happens, how it can retraumatize, you know, families on

(43:49):
both sides of the courthouse, and we just we learned
so much from her. But I but I actually didn't
need didn't need that before we started.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Oh well yeah, I almost imagine it allowed you to
have your own journey and experience without the pressure of
trying to also carry someone else's.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yeah, I mean you know you also you feel a
responsibility to to share their story with compassion, and her
advocacy work was really important to us. Yeah, and also
she's got great empathy in the way that she talks
to victims, so that was really important. But uh, that's beautiful, Yeah,

(44:31):
wild story.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Something I thought was so cool that you said talking
about this was that, yes, it's a true crime show,
but it's really a different kind of take. You said
in another interview that it doesn't glorify the killer or
show any acts of violence against women, and that was
such a light bulb for me. I was like, that's

(44:54):
so important because, whether we realize it or not, these
things we show, these reenactments on so many shows, you know,
in this genre, they they show things they normalize. By nature,
you watch something and you become desensitized in a way,
even if you're shocked or scared or whatever, do you

(45:15):
think now that you know you're on the other side
of so much of that press tour and everything. Has
it made you think about the ways we approach these
stories and maybe how we should think about the way
we engage with true crime.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
It has absolutely changed the way that I consume true crime. Wow,
it has. You know, we know that it's real people,
but we don't know it's real people. You're not really
acknowledging it. It's just another way that we're consuming entertainment.
And most of the shows in this genre are through

(45:56):
the mail lens. There are oftentimes even from the serial
killer's point of view. You know, we spend a lot
of time with the killer, why, how, where? And we're
never really with a female point of view in this world.
And then the other thing that was really unique about
the show is it's a show about violence with no violence.

(46:18):
We don't see dead bodies all over the forest. That's
always a relief to not have to see a dead
girl in the in the forest. You know, you do
not see that on our show. You hear about it,
which is maybe even sometimes more uncomfortable in some ways,
but I think that there's no way around that because

(46:39):
it's a reminder that this person did these horrific things
to women, and the way he talks about them is
so flippant and disgusting. But again, it's I think it's
a show that is trying to give back agency to
women in a in a space where men have had
it all. You know, they've been the detectives, they've been
the killers, and really the women have just been the

(47:01):
victims and the family.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
And now for our sponsors, what was it like to
unpack this stuff with Dennis Quaid because you know, he's
got to play your father, which means he has to
play this man you're talking about, you know, this person
who speaks about women so flippantly and was so violent
toward them. Like, were there ever days where he just said,

(47:27):
I really hate this. You know, how do you as
actors figure that out?

Speaker 2 (47:34):
He was very clear right when we started working on
this that he wanted to make sure that there would
be no glorification of this man. Yeah, and I think
that's why he was interested in working on it, because
you know, it's her story, it's not his. He's very

(47:55):
outspoken about that when we talk about the show, He's like,
this is not my story, this is Melissa's story. Yeah,
And I also think the two of us had a
really natural, easy chemistry. You know, I keep saying, like
we always talk about the chemistry that you have with
actors when you're playing like romantic scenes with them, but
we forget about like you need chemistry when you're playing

(48:17):
friends with people, and you really need a unique chemistry
to play family with somebody. And they have this totally complicated,
uncomfortable father daughter relationship, but it was really easy for us.
It's just like you could feel that there was love

(48:37):
right away, which was great because that's the thing that
she has to fight and that's the that's the conflict.
So yeah, he was He's he was such a great
casting choice because he's so like charming and naturally likable
and he's still really vulnerable in moments. She could have

(49:00):
just played it like a you know, like a psychopath,
but psychopaths are also complicated. That's what I'm interesting to
watch well, And how.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
Cool to have an actor who really wanted to help
an audience understand why people were charmed by this man,
why it took so long probably to catch him. Why
you know all of these things. It's like, weirdly, in
order to do Melissa's story the service it deserves, her

(49:28):
father has to be played well.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Absolutely, Yeah, you don't understand her conflict if you don't
like him a little bit. Yeah, which is also you
feel uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
It makes me uncomfortab No, it makes me feel achy.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Really at the end of it, it makes you question
what would you do if your parent, why you're sibling,
or your spouse, or your child, or your friend. What
would you do if somebody did something like this?

Speaker 1 (49:55):
I can't imagine.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
You would blame a part of yourself. You would forever
live with shame, You would for ever live with guilt,
and you would forever want to be of service to
the people that he affected and the victims' families, you know,
which is what this woman has done. She's become an advocate. Yes.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Absolutely, Wow, it's pretty amazing and I'm so glad that
you know, despite what a strange world it is to
dip into, it's been such a positive experience. I want
to ask you something completely opposite for you know, our
aforementioned need for levity. Yeah, it's a heavy chat.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Yeah, you want to take a left turn. Two things
can be true at the same time.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Totally, we can be very vulnerable and also very silly.
I getting away from true crime, but in the reality genre.
I know you are a very big Bravo fan.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Yeah, what do you want to see about?

Speaker 1 (50:48):
I just want to know, like what your favorite Bravo show.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Is right now? Well, Beverly Hills realis of Beverly Hills
is all the highlight. But I would also say I
think that Summerhouse is giving us a nice run right
now because the Page and Craig breakup. We've been watching
it play out both in Southern Charm and now in Summerhouse.

(51:14):
To watch it from.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
It goes across shows.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Yeah, Craig knew nothing was happening, and then you watch
Summerhouse and you're like, Craig, how did you not know?
Page was clearly like not doing well last summer and
not happy with you, and you had no idea there
were cracks that he did not see. Also, I love
New Jersey. We'll always love New Jersey, and Salt Lake
City has become one of the tops. Like Salt Lake

(51:38):
City's kind of wild.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
Everybody says that, but salt Lake City is so great.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
No, that's okay, that's okay. It's not everybody's thing. Do
you watch The Traders? No? Do you watch any reality TV?

Speaker 1 (51:49):
I watch home shows.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
I watch home shows too. Hey, it's not everybody's thing.
It's how I disassociate.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Well, here's the thing. I it's one of those things
that I know the world is so big that it
feels daunting to start. I don't get it through friends.
I know little bits and pieces of the drama. And
then I do have a friend who will be like,
you don't need to watch anything, but you need to
watch this TikTok, so you understand what everyone on the
internet is talking about.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Yeah, like vander Pump rules probably. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
So now I'm in this space where I'm like, but
I want more. I'm scared to give it to myself
because I think then I might really go down the
rabbit hole. But I have a friend who's also a
huge Bravo fan, who will just voice memo me catchphrases.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Amazing, so that you're just up today.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Yeah, on a random day, I get an in this
town and it makes me laugh.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
I mean, the one one I feel. Well, what I
will say is that I think you should maybe go
back and watch Vanda Pump Rules, like the last four seasons.
Oh okay, so just the last four seasons. It's a
delightful treat. And it's also now It's parts of it
are like being in pop culture, you know what I mean? Like, yeah,

(53:03):
I did not want to watch The Traders, and then
I was like, oh, now it's become a pop culture thing.
Now I have to watch.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
It's kind of everywhere.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
Do you watch drag Race?

Speaker 1 (53:12):
I do?

Speaker 2 (53:12):
Okay, So drag Race is one that I would dip
in and out of throughout the.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
Years, so that I was that's what I was gonna say.
I get I go. Sometimes I'm all in, and then
there's seasons I haven't seen. I need to really fine.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
I went back after I had Lucy. When you're nursing,
you're kind of like stuck in one spot and sometimes
you're just like, oh god, I get you. You can't
really get anything done. So I was like, you know
what I'm gonna get done. I'm going to watch every
episode of drag Race. W that's ever happened?

Speaker 1 (53:40):
Oh my god? How fun?

Speaker 2 (53:42):
It was so so fun. It was a blast, and
I'm like so up to date on drag race that
I can really talk about anything related. But anyways, that
was a fun one to go back and watch from
the very beginning because also you know in twenty ten
or nine, I don't when did it start, like two
thousand and nine or something, that like glossy camera thing

(54:05):
that they did on America's Next Top Model. It was
empty at this time, so it still as MDV. You know,
it's changed networks aro out the years, but uh, they
have that funny like it's just so funny. And then
everybody's caught like outfits that they were wearing, like their
street wear was crazy.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
You know.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Wow, fashion has changed and not that long of a time.
And also it was like almost twenty years ago, what I.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
Know, it feels like yesterday, and also like another millennia
and it's upsetting.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
It makes it's upsetting me, like I feel like I
need to wear like low rise jeans with a with
a tank top.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
I just think I'm never going to go back I missed.
I didn't know how much I missed the top half
of my pants until I got it and then was like, oh,
I'm never going to give this back to you.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Do you have a high butt crack?

Speaker 1 (54:54):
I don't think so you would know.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
I don't either. My best friend Craig has a very
high butt crack.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Oh, so he could never wear the low rise chains.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
It's not a good moment for him. He just always
had butt crack out. Recently, I was like, your butt
crack is hanging out and your pants are like you
have the highest but crack of anybody I know.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
Oh not in a low rise.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
No, he just has a very high butt crack. That's
just a fun thing to look out for. Do you
have a high but crack or a low book crack?

Speaker 1 (55:24):
It feels like a late night infomercial. You can sue.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
You know, we should put it in We should put
it in sky Mall. Some underwear for people with high
butt cracks. Yes, do a high but crack. We've got
some nich So Niche.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
It's probably a billion dollar idea. You just did a
Judy Garland puppet impression? Yes, and watch What Happens Live.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
It's so weird.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
How long have you been a puppeteer?

Speaker 2 (55:55):
This was a character that was created in New World Plaza?

Speaker 1 (55:59):
How did you do?

Speaker 2 (56:00):
You know how it? Where it happened? Somehow? I was
with my friends and we were like somebody was like,
you do the worst impression of Liza Minelli I've ever seen,
And I was like, I know, you know, my lies
of Menelli impression is like if puppet Judy came back
from the dead of Judy, that carlt came back from
the dead as the puppet. That's my That's what my
lies of Menelli is. It's really came from Liza. Really,

(56:23):
the origin story of puppet Judy is.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
Liza again, niche again. I know, I love it.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
That's some game magic right there.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
It sure is. Oh my god, I want to be
in the room for the next one.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
Well, Judy, Judy makes an appearance, loves to making appearance.
She like she's had a rap.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
I was just going to say, it sounds like Judy
has really been hitting the watch what Happens Live bar
back there mixing martinis for her.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
Is sweet sweet? Was It was like it was like
the Judy Garland show, Judy, you know, like last five years, Judy,
Poor Judy, poor, poor sweet Judy, poor Judy. Oh I
know it makes me the last five years Judy. What
if Judy did the last five years? Nobody wants to
see that.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Nobody wants to see it, put it away, put it away. Well,
the show is amazing. There's so many wonderful things happening
in your life. You probably have a million things coming
down the pipeline. What when you kind of look around
and think about the rest of the year, what feels

(57:36):
like you're working progress.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
My work in progress is I would say, I'm making
sure that I say yes to myself and take care
of myself. So I'm getting a second chance at being
a mom with a newborn again. You know, I had
my little boy eight years ago. And when you have

(58:01):
a little person that you're taking care of, not just
a little person, it can be any person in your
life that you're taking care of. If you have a partner,
if you have a you know, if you have a roommate. Like,
we take a lot of care of a lot of people,
but yeah, one of those people that doesn't take is
good of care of myself. And what I mean by
that is like, I'm good at taking my vitamins and
drinking my water, but I don't always say what I need.

(58:22):
And I just took something from our conversation about you saying,
you know, I'm trying to learn, and I'm learning and
learning every day and talking about James and talking about
Sweet Linda and kind of the students of life not
just our craft that they were. Like. The lesson that
I take away from this conversation today was when you
were asking me about my process and I said, well,

(58:45):
I basically put everybody first and make sure that it
feels good for everybody else before it feels good for myself.
So that's something I'm working on. It's like telling people
what I need and telling myself what I need because
I think that's actually something I'm missing. So yeah, I
think that's going to be kind of one of the
goals of the year. You know, we've got to take

(59:07):
care of mama.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
You gotta take care of put your oxygen mask on
before your neighbor.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Mama. Mama, Mama, Mama. We're seeing Gypsy this week. Actually,
on that note, I know can't wait. It's so excited.
It's my favorite. It's one of my favorite favorite shows.
I think it's in my top five very favorite shows.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
I have not seen it in so long that you're
making me realize I should probably go see.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
Yes new ress production is I can't wait to see
awdre be Mama ready or not? Here come.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Oh, it's going to be amazing.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Well let's go see some theater and for you for
the next year.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
Oh my goodness. I don't totally No, it's like.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
A you know, we're in there like I don't know
what's happening moment.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
Well we've been in the I don't know what's happened.
I know, as in our like industry for so many years.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Now I'm like, oh, guys, try not to be in
fear space.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
Yeah, I'm trying to be in abundance. I have a
thing in development with some friends. I am working on
getting this like really funny queer rom com off the
ground with a great comedian that I know. I have
a movie coming out in June. And yeah, and I'm

(01:00:27):
going to do like my favorite nerdy time. I'm guest
directing a documentary film festival.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Memorial Dazing. Yeah. So cool.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
So I'm like very amped about that. And yeah, just
kind of leaning into the to your point, like to
things that feel joyful and being excited about, like the rooms,
the people, the learning. I think the thing I've begun
learning about how obsessed with work and productivity I learned

(01:01:00):
to be when it became a badge of honor because
I was working on a show and like seventeen hour
days were exhausting, so we had to be convinced they
were amazing and like a proof of our dedication.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
Now I'm starting to try to learn how to really
love my days even when they're not like overly adrenalized
and exhausting.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
Yeah, and so.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
I'm overwhelmed by all the things I'm doing in a way,
but I also realize, you know, at six o'clock on
many days now, I can turn it off, and I
just have never had that before, And I'm trying to
think of that as a privilege rather than to be
worried that I'm not doing enough.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Amen. Yeah, Yes, enjoy six o'clock. Go to go on
and buy fifty dollars worth of dinner.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Hottest club in La. Did you see that TikTok that
went around about the twenty dollars strawberry single strawberry at
Aralon in a plastic contention? I was like, we've jumped
the shark.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
You were like, this is crazy, We've jumped the shark.
What's it?

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Daste like, well, yeah, I was like, clearly I want one,
but I'm not going to be that personal. It's like,
I've also always wanted to go to space, but I'm
not going for eleven minutes in the middle of a recession.

Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
Totally agree with you. We get to the thank you
too for claiming that. It's through that thank you, like,
what are we doing?

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
What are we doing?

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
I completely agree. It feels like upside down world. Yes
I do. There are times I love you Air One,
but when I go to your produce section, I'm like,
I'll see you later. I will go get the other things,
but I will go get that weird key lime pie
that's made out of coconut and I don't know how
it tastes like key lime pie, but it has an
aftertaste that reminds you that it's not key lime pie.
But I will not buy your fifteen dollars grapes. I know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
It's like there are things that I really want from there.
And then I also am the person that's like, I'm
not going to pay that for blueberries. I'll go to
the farmer's market on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
Yes, yeah, for sure, Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
And that's where my duty comes out. I'm not paying
for those berries.

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
She would have been like bears, I don't even know
what we have. Beers A beers is nineteen four defect.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
I live on vodka and a prayer.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Volcano my Canada day, Oh my god, I love it.
Thank you for today, Congrats on the show. I'm amped
for you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, thank
you for inviting me into your magic space.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
Oh you, sweet soul.