May 14, 2024 • 26 mins
There are few stars that get us as nostalgic for the ’90s as Melissa Joan Hart. The actor, director, and comedian stops by The Bright Side to discuss her new comedy tour, growing up as a teen star, her time hanging out with Britney Spears, self acceptance, and more. What's your favorite Melissa Joan Hart show? Let us know by sending an email to hello@thebrightsidepodcast.com.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey fam, Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today on the bright Side, everyone's favorite teenage witch, Melissa
Joan Hart joins us on the show. We're digging into
her decades long career as an actress and director, her
new foray into stand up comedy, and why she stayed
down to Earth through it all.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
It's Tuesday, May fourteenth.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm Danielle Robe, I'm Simone Boyce, and this is the
bright Side from Hello Sunshine, Simone.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
We have one of our nineties teenage heart throb idols
on the show.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Melissa Joan Hart preteen. Simone is just screaming, literally shaking
right now. I mean, this is a this is a
dream come true.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You love all the nineties nostalgia. I know this is
a moment for you. I can't help but think of
her not as Melissa joan Hart, but as her iconic characters,
like I want to call her Sabrina, I want to
call her Clarissa.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It's hard to just say Melissa joan Hart.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
And I think that's a testament to the longevity that
she had. I mean, she in Clarsa explains it all.
She did sixty five episodes from nineteen ninety one to
nineteen ninety four, Sabrina the Teenage Witch was just an
institution as well. She was one of the hardest working
stars of that time.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I'm gonna tell you one of my biggest takeaways from
our conversation that I want everybody to keep an eye
out for as they listen. She was an actress. She
was a teen actress, but she and her mom were
such bosses. They took such control of her career and
their lives.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, it's a story I haven't heard from many teen actors.
It was really impressive.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
She was an ever present force through a lot of
the defining moments of the nineties of pop culture back then.
I mean I forgot she was in the Drive Me
Crazy video with Britney spears.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Talking with Melissa Joanhart got me thinking about all the
nineties rama behind the scenes all the other actors' TV shows.
We may be able to get the inside scoop on
who she hung out with, who she dated, like, what
really happened behind the scenes in the nineties.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Oh yeah, we're gonna put our best investigative journalism to
the test right here with Melissa. You know what's been
fun for me recently Danielle. I discovered that the entire
Nickelodeon Nineties library is available for you to stream on
Paramount Plus. So I have sat my two boys in
front of the television and I'm now forcing them to
(02:32):
watch the shows that I grew up with, and surprise, surprise,
they love the slime.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
They just want to watch more slime.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I remember, Simone.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
One of my first red carpets was the Kid's Choice Awards,
and all I could think was like, please let me
get slimed.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Please let me get slimed. It was so iconic for us.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
It was such a thing back then.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
And I actually have wait, hold on, I have to
show you something. So I in Florida at this time,
like peak nineties pop culture, right, and so we were
only a road trip away from Disney and Universal Studios,
so we would go there quite a bit and I
made my parents take me there. And I still have
(03:14):
this relic. This is my original super sloppy doubledare souvenir
shirt that's a.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Size like it's a cute baby.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's a baby te now, but it's red and it
has like the slime on it. I love that and
I wanted to get slimed so bad, and it was
the demand to get slimed was out of control. You
had to you had to like probably get tickets ahead
of time, wait in line. And now my kids are
asking me, did you ever get slimed? And I'm like, no, sweetie, mom,
(03:41):
we didn't get slimmed, but I did get this cool
T shirt.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
What's it like watching all of the nineties shows back
with your kids now?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
It's honestly so fulfilling. I can barely describe it. I mean,
we've been watching Guts and Salute your Shorts and Family
Double there, and it's this really surreal, full circle moment
where it brings back all these core memories that you
can actually like feel in your body, like I can
really remember what it was like watching these shows as
(04:12):
a kid, and then to share it with your kids.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
It's honestly one of the most fun parts of parenting.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
What do you think are the nineties shows that stick
out for you? Like I was a full house fiend,
even Doug, Like I would wake up on Saturday mornings
and watch all those cartoons from like eight am to
eleven am, and my brother and I would fight over
the remote.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yes, did you have any characters or actors that you
really idolized at that time.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, totally. I loved watching Tapega on Boy Meets Worlds.
I thought she was the prettiest, coolest girl I had
ever seen. Yeah, and she was kind of a badass
on the show. She never let anyone push her around.
I mean Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sarah Michelle Geller.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yes, was just it for me. Did you watch with
your brother? Did you watch alone? Who'd you watch with?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I made my brother Blake watch with me.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And so it's actually so funny you asked that because
to this day he knows all the characters of Charmed
and his guy friends are like, what are you talking about?
But he knows all the shows that all the girls
wanted to watch.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
He had an older sister. That's how it happens.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Okay, we're taking a quick break, but we are continuing
to go down millennial memory Lane with Melissa Jonehart.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Don't miss it.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
We're back and today Danielle and I are leaning into
our witchiness a bit with actor, comedian, director, and America's
favorite teenage witch.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
It's Melissa Joonhart.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Melissa was the Queen of the tgif lineup?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
How could I forget?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Since then, she's appeared in dozens of films and TV shows.
She has an upcoming project for Lifetime called The Bad Guardian,
and get this, she's taking the stage as a stand
up comedian with our other favorite witch, Caroline Ray.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Welcome to the bright Side, Melissa.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
Thank you so excited to be here on the bright
side with you guys talk about all bright side.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Things, Melissa. I hope it's okay if we fan girl
a little bit here. Do you ever get sick of
talking about the iconic roles that you've played?
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Do you ever get sick of it? Or do you
still have fun?
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Meta now?
Speaker 6 (06:20):
So, like, I appreciate that everyone well first of all,
has like a different project of mine that they like.
And I've been doing a little stand up recently, and
I've been saying that, like the greatest thing you can
hear is I love your work. Because who gets to
hear that, you know, the toll booth operator doesn't get
to hear that. You know, teachers don't really get to
hear that. You know, it's very rare that like the
garbage man gets to hear like love you work, ause
(06:42):
you know, they go dump in the garbage down the street.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
That's such a nice way of looking at it. I
actually really want to get into your stand up because
you and at Hilda aka Caroline Ray are doing stand
up together and this show is called I Identify as
a Witch, which I love because back in the day,
I feel like it was just women with amazing opinions
that were called a witch.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
But so now I lean into the word. How did
this come about?
Speaker 6 (07:07):
Back in like October, we did a show ord around Halloween,
we did a show together in Huntsville, Alabeba. And I
was freaking out. I was only supposed to do like
ten or fifteen minutes. I ended up doing twenty and
I loved it, and I was like, let's do that again.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
So she and I decided we do a little tour.
Speaker 6 (07:22):
So we're getting a few in just to see, just
to try my hand at it and see how it goes.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
It's really fun. I feel really natural on stage. It's funny.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
It's like standing up on stage for like twenty minutes
and telling some stories and then like for me to
get to entertain and like bring a smile, which is
always my goal.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
Is like literally we.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Say a prayer before you a free show when we
do live shows and say, you know, bring someone a
laugh today who needs it. And so getting to go
up on stage and do that for twenty minutes in
different cities feels so much more authentic to who I
am as like an entertainer and like wanting to bring
a smile. And so it's been really, really fun and
I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
Like the first thing I said when I got stations,
like I can do something at charity shows.
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Now I can go on a USO tour and do something,
because I always felt like I can't go on a
us SO tour and entertain the troops.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
I have nothing to entertain with. I can't sing. I
can do this. So it's so exciting. It's like feels
like this whole world has been open to me.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
When I look back at all your roles across networks
and film and TV, so many of them are rooted
in humor. Why was being funny always important to you?
Speaker 6 (08:23):
I can't say where it exactly came from. I think
what's weird is like I was always in Goofball.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
I guess you know.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
My family, we were all actors, but some weren't as
like Rizal Dazzle as I was. I was very much
like I'll say that these Lifesavers are the best thing
I've ever had. I don't care, you know, like, but
it's funny because, like, you know, everything I did, even
this one play that turned out to be super dramatic,
my part wasn't. My part was silly. The play was
(08:51):
called Beside Herself. I did a half hour monologue before
Beside Herself started, called The Valerie of Now, and it
was written by Peter Hedges, who's written like Dan in
real life and like huge movies. Joe Mantello directed it.
So Joe Mantello and Peter Hedges and I are all
in a room together workshopping this monologue I'm supposed to
do at the age of it just before Clarissa, So
eleven or twelve, and it was supposed to be half
(09:11):
an hour, but I talked so fast it ended up
being twenty minutes. And it's it's a girl who just
got her period for the first time, and she's all alone.
Her mom went out to get her birthday decorations, and
it's her like getting on the phone and talking to
the pillow, and you know, singing songs and jumping up
and down on the couch and trying to figure out,
like I shoved a bunch of tissues up there, is
that good enough? And like, you know, not really knowing
what to do. And it's sort of silly in nature.
(09:33):
But then the next portion of the play you find
out what happened to that girl on that day and
how her life changed from sexual abuse, and so it's
you know, it's a very dark play, but my part
was really silly and light, and that job sort of
led me to Clarissa, which obviously then it just kind
of snowballed from there.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
So it's weird. It was like I was a commercial girl.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
I was known as the Rice Crispies girl in the
second grade because I was on the Risk Crispies commercial.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
And I do remember that.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
I kind of ran the gamut between like soap operas, commercials.
In nineteen eighty six, I was on seraout Live three
times and some skits, you know, just sort of being
around funny people, being around talented people, exploring all these
different worlds.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
And then with Clarissa, I became a sitcom girl. And
my family will still to this day.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
Say why did they pay you to be funny?
Speaker 5 (10:21):
You're not funny.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
So it's interesting that I have made this career for
my My kids say the same thing.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Now.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
My family always said it. My dad always said it
to me, like, you're not funny. I don't get it.
I actually stopped telling him when I was on talk
shows because he would just bash me after Oh.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
My god, you are so funny, Melissa.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I could find, like millions of other millennials who would
debate that you brought so much joy to so many
children in the nineties, in the early aughts. I mean,
I was raised on Nickelodeon. Nickelodeon was like my religion.
It was so empowering to watch. But I'm curious, like,
did you feel pressure to look a certain way or
adhere to a certain aesthetic?
Speaker 6 (10:57):
Back then, I was told a few times I could
be a big movie if I would lose some weight,
which I thought was insane because I was like one
hundred and three pounds and like had a flat stomach,
so I couldn't. I don't know what else I could
have done except grow five inches. But I would get
all like pissy about it and then be like, screw it.
I don't I'm not going to, so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I'm so glad you didn't. I'm so glad that you
had such wisdom at such a young age. It's not
worth it. Like my goal is to be a working actress.
My goal is to keep working and providing for my family.
And you know, even when I was younger, before I
had a family or a husband or anyone, I would
always use my younger siblings as a barometer for what
I should be doing. But then also like thinking forward,
I always thought forward to what am I going to
(11:39):
do when I have a family, and how am I
going to sustain and get my kids to college and
make it to retirement and all those things.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
So I was always sort of thinking ahead in that way.
Speaker 6 (11:46):
And I was always saving, and I was always a
vesting and I think I was one of the few.
But Ello cool J gave me some great advice on
the set of probably some Nickelodeon thing we were doing
in like ninety seven. Maybe he hit all these gold
chains and I was like, wow, look at all these diamonds,
and he goes, don't do this, don't do this. He
said something to the effect of, don't waste your money
on something like this buy a house, or like he
(12:07):
gave me like solid investment advice, where I was like,
save my money, got it, you know. So the first
thing I did when I knew that I had a
little longevity on Sabrina, when I was picked up for
a second season, I bought a house. I was like,
I don't want to throw money into rent anymore. I
want to buy a house that I can afford, that
I can someday pay off. And that was my whole goal,
was like get a house I can pay off so
that I always have a place to live no matter
(12:28):
what happens.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I love that you mentioned Sabrina because it was my
favorite show as a kid. I used to fake sick
from school to watch that show. And there were three
female main characters, which was kind of an anomaly on
TV in the nineties.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Yeah, and they were.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Smart and witty and totally unapologetic about their opinions. And
Sabrina was not really sexualized the way I'd seen other
female leads of that time, not really at all.
Speaker 6 (12:55):
I feel like, you know, I definitely wore my share
of crop tops and low cut, but I didn't even
go that low. Like, I didn't the Brittany and Christina
Aguilera thing like, I didn't get that much stomach in there.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Did it feel unique when you were making it or
just in hindsight, No, it.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Didn't at all.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
Actually, because I was a big fan of watching when
I was growing up in like the eighties, when Cable
started Nickelodeon after like eight pm became nick at Night,
and it was all my mom's generation shows, So it
was Brady Bunch and all this stuff. So watching Bewitched
and I dream a Janie. When I was doing Sabrina,
I was like, this is very much like one of
these shows. It's just it hasn't been done in a while,
(13:29):
you know, so I felt a little bit copycat in
a way.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Melissa, I just learned that your mom is the one
who pitched Sabrina the Teenage Witch to network execs and
you became an executive producer alongside her at such a
young age. You even directed episodes back then too. What
did you gain from that experience.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
I'm so thankful to her for doing that. I mean,
she was my manager all through my childhood. And then
you know, when Clarissa ended, she was like, you have
a fan base that likes you. Let's not do let's
not put you in all these sexy, sexy roles. Let's
find something for that fan base that you've built that
trusts you. And so my mom found the comic book
(14:10):
some well someone handed to her on a playground, So
this'd be a great role for Melissa. We made it
a Showtime movie that a lot of people know what
because Ryan Reynolds was in it. So we made this
Showtime movie. And the whole time we're making this movie
and my mom's producing it, she's like, this would be
a great series, and everyone's like okay. Whenever, when she
sat down in the editing bay, she cut together a
trailer for a TV show based on the movie, and
(14:31):
she brought it out to LA. She goes, I'm going
to LA, I'm going to pitch this to five different networks.
I was like, good luck, like kind of like this
is ever gonna happen. Sure enough, she got three offers
in the room, and ABC gave her the offer for
a TGIF timeslot, and.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
She was like, that's the one I'm going with. We're
gonna be on ABC. She's like, pack your bags. I'm like, yeah, right,
I'm still gonna go to college.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Good luck.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
I don't think this is going to happen. So I
go to college and she's like, Nope, you got to leave.
We got to go to LA.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
And that's the first time we actually worked to move
to LA. When I was twenty, so I was never
a teenager playing the teenage witch.
Speaker 6 (15:00):
I moved to LA and she was the producer, so
she was executive producing this thing. I mean, she's hiring
the writers, and she's hiring the cast, and she's in
the ending bay and she's part of the music choices,
and I mean that show is her design.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
And everyone was so sick of me being bossy.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
I've been bossy since forever, Like especially like Clarissa.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I would always.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
Mess around with the lighting board and the cameras and
like want to learn everything and be in everybody's business
and tell everybody how to do it. And I learned
a lot from the directors on that show too. We
were doing it as if it was a live show.
They would have a switcher and they'd switch cameras depending
on what shot they wanted, and they'd edit it in camera,
and so I learned to direct that way. And then
it came about that. I think it was first or
(15:43):
second season a Sabrina. My mom said, here's your DGA card.
You're directing the next episode. And I was like what,
and they God she did that because it's it became
like second nature to me. I love directing.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Your mom was such a boss, I.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Know, thank God, a truly audacious woman.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
It sounds like, Okay, we're going to take a quick
break and we'll be right back with Melissa Joan Hart.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We're back, and this is the bright side with Melissa
Joan Hart.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Melissa, you had such an incredible work ethic from such
a young age. But I have also learned that you
were quite the responsible partier, that you liked to go
out dancing, and I'm dying to hear some stories just
about like what it was like going out during that time.
Was there camaraderie between you and the other TV stars
(16:37):
of the nineties.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Did you guys go out together?
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Yeah, it was a big group of us.
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Mainly the cast that we would hang out with was
the that seventies show cast.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
We would hang out a lot.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
So there was this restaurant that I think is still
there called La Poo Bell, and so you know, that
would be the place to go if you had nothing
else to do. But on different nights there were different
promoters at different clubs. And my mom was a huge
club queen. My mom starting to take me to clubs
when I was sixteen. Wait what yeah, Oh, she was
a huge.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Piece stories about your mom just keep getting better.
Speaker 6 (17:06):
She was getting divorced for my dad, and she wanted
to be like only around gay men, really, and so
we would go to the gay clubs and have a
blast and like just dance all night. And so she
started taking me out just to dance. So when I
got to LA, and I'm old enough now and I
can go out anytime and get into a club. And
it was only about for about two years, I was
going out probably four or five days a week. And
(17:28):
I mean we get started at ten, but in La,
the club's close at one thirty. I would have to
be up at five to be at work. I would
allow myself one gin and tonic early on in the night,
you know, be fine to drive by the time it
was last call and head home get some sleep. But
then I would sleep a lot on the set. We
had a lot of downtime. There are numerous photo albums
of me asleep on the set.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Sleepy girl like you, Danielle. Danielle always talks about how
she's doing.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
It's a talent. It's a talent.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
You guys like I slept leaning against a horse before
on set, but or in a wedding dress, were like
across four chairs at the back of a sofa and
they were taking pictures of me all the time and
documenting it all. That's how I kind of survived the
club scene a little bit. I think was sleeping where
I could.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
You had a sweet friendship with Britney Spears for a
period of time, and then you were also in the
Crazy music video.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
I mean, do you stay in touch with.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Her at all?
Speaker 6 (18:22):
No? No, we we had to do a lot of
press around driving Crazy. We did the video together, and
then we did a ton of like TRL hosting this.
We did something in Utah together, if things in New York.
She came to the premiere and she was on Sabrina.
It was very rare that we got private moments to
hang out and get to know each other well.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
You know.
Speaker 6 (18:41):
It was more of that superficial relationship that everybody saw
on camera, and I mean we'd be whispering to each other,
you know.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
But the cameras are there, or the bodyguards are there,
or that.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
You know.
Speaker 6 (18:48):
We're on a red carpet at the American Music Awards
and I'm hosting and she's performing, and we're having numerous
costume changes, and it's like, Hi, Hi, Hi.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
You know.
Speaker 6 (18:56):
She was seventeen, I was twenty three, and I was
looking at her, going wow, like she was on Sabrina
and I wanted to take her to lunch.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
I wanted her to join us. So I was like,
a bunch of us are walking down the street to lunch.
She's like can I can.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
I to her whole team, and they like listed off
all these things she had to do, and.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Her face just deflated.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
She's like okay, and I don't remember what happened, but
I think she started chasing us down the street.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
One point. I was like, they let me come, They
let me come, you know. So she went to lunch
with us.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
We had to have her back at this time and
all that, And then I did sneak her out of
her hotel one night because I wanted to take her
out with some people her age. I was like, told
her bodyguard we were going to my mom's house for lasagna.
So I think that's the only time I've ever lied
in my life. But it was too Big Rob. I
llowed to Big Rob, and then you know, I'd take
her to a club and everyone kind of clamped onto
her and held on to her, and I was like,
I got to go. I got to work in the morning,
(19:42):
and everyone there was like, we'll keep her, We'll take
care of her.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
And I left her there and I still feel guilty
about it to this day.
Speaker 6 (19:48):
Oh there's all sorts of things that happened that and
especially for someone seventeen going through when she was going
and I didn't have it like she did. First of all,
I never reached that level of stardom, and second of all,
mine was so snowball. Hers was so oh, kick you
in the face, like quick, you're famous. Now everybody knows
you and you can't be private anymore. Learn to live
with it right now, you know, whereas mine was sort
(20:08):
of like a trickle effect of like you're the Rice
Krispies girl, it's second grade. Then you're doing theater and
adults know who you are in the industry, and then
Frank Rich is reporting on you, but your friends don't know.
And then you're doing Clarissa, and one or two people
recognize you on the street over the course of a year,
and then you're twenty and you moved to LA and
all of a sudden, now people start to know who
you are. When hers was literally like, damn.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
You did a video.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
We know who you are.
Speaker 6 (20:30):
You're ours now, you know? And I couldn't understand her experience.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
You know, you got famous more gradually, but you were
only fifteen when you started playing Clarissa. Did you have
any challenges transitioning into adulthood.
Speaker 6 (20:42):
Well, I understand when some of these kids want to
rebel and be seen as sexy and taken seriously, and
I'm an adult that rebellious, like I'm not a kid,
look at me.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
You know, that kind of thing. It did happen with
some of my peers and contemporaries, But for me, it
was like, do I like what I'm doing? Am I
getting paid fairly? We're good. It wasn't about being rich
or famous.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
It was about having the lifestyle I wanted to have,
which was basically, I want to travel and I want
to throw parties and I want some security. And I
know that sounds like extremely like bullshit, level headed, but
like that literally was my focus and everything else was bonus.
Like I definitely went through rebellious phases. I mean, but
I didn't need to show it necessarily. But it's so
(21:23):
funny because I just remember this the other day that
like I was getting this big bonus on Sabrina, which
was just for wardrobe. It was just so that I
could look good on a red carpet. However, nobody guided
me through what that looked like, and I didn't trust it.
I thought that money was actually coming out of my paycheck,
so I didn't spend it. And I mean, you guys,
it was a lot of money, but like I had
this money to go shopping, but I never trusted it.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
I was like, nah, And at the end of the year, the.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
Warder people will be like, you should probably go spend
some of this money, and I'd be like, all right,
Jimmy choos, which I still have like a collection of here.
But I show up on the red carpet and like
you can find me and a lot of pictures in
these ugly brown quarter roy pants and like some weird
little bra tops or backlists tops, which was a big
thing at the time, like like almost like handkerchief tops.
(22:09):
And like, I don't know where I was shopping or
whose closet I was kind of raiding, but wearing some weird,
weird stuff that I'm like that might have been my
rebellious face was like I'm gonna look slubby and half naked,
you know. That was like, I'm not gonna put it together. Well,
I'm not gonna ask for help. I'm just gonna here.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
I am.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
It's good enough.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I mean, I feel like we all had our limited
two moments.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
But now that you're a parent to high schoolers and
all of the nineties trends are back, what if you
love seeing coming back?
Speaker 1 (22:40):
And also what do you never want to see again?
Because I have a whole list.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
I really wish I had kept my combat boots.
Speaker 6 (22:45):
I had such a collection of combat boots, and who
knew those were gonna like it seemed like those were
never going to come back. But I have to say
I've been wearing some butterfly clips recently because I had
them for a nineties party I went to, and they're
so convenient when you need to like pull your hair
back and just clip it. They're so strong. So I
will rock the butterfly clips for sure. But like the
(23:06):
crop tops I can't do. I don't have the body
for that anymore. So you know, I could thank the kids,
but really it's it's Fried Chicken. It's Fried Chicken's fault
that I can't wear the crop tops anymore.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Worth it?
Speaker 6 (23:18):
But I'm in the life too short category. I'm gonna
have an ice cream. Come with my son if he
wants to go get ice cream, because what if I
get hit by a bus tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
I didn't have that ice cream. I feel like an idiot.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Okay, so we talked about your stand up, but you
also have a new movie coming out next week. It's
a drama called Bad Guardian. What trew you to that role?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (23:33):
I thought it was a really interesting story. When I
started reading the script, It's like, if a script can
catch me past twenty pages, I'm in And this one
was great, Like this guardianship business is, and of course
we know it from like the Britney Spears Conservatorship, or
we know it from the recent whe New Williams story
of some guardianship's gone wrong in a celebrity younger person
sort of way. But it tends to be a big
(23:54):
senior citizen scam that happens. It's a two point nine
billion dollar business. And don't get me wrong, most of
that is necessary for people to be safe when they
don't have family members to take care of them. However,
I mean, anytime there's money that much, right, there's gonna
be a huge corruption. And so in this story, there's
like this story of this family that just doesn't have
the money. When her father ends up having an accident
(24:15):
and put in the hospital and she can't find him
and he's taken into a guardianship, it quickly turns into
a situation they can't get themselves out of. And it's
very much like small town family with a lack of
means and the lack of knowledge trying to fight a
big system.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
So I just felt like it was a great story
to tell.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
It was well written, and the director did a fantastic job,
and I wasn't sure how my performance. I usually cringe
when I watched my own stuff, but I watched this
back and I was really really proud of it.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
So I hope people will.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Love it, maybe learn a little something from it, just
to protect yourself in the future. But if you've experienced this,
it could be a little bit of a trigger warning.
You know, like, it's a tough business and it's an
interesting story to tell.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
I love that you're so proud of it. Melissa, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
We're gonna let you go, but before we do, how
do you seek out the bright side of life?
Speaker 5 (25:05):
It's a choice, I think every day.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
It's a choice to wake up and thank God for
the things we have. Like I literally only started praying
in the morning. When I open my eyes, when my
alarm goes off, the first thing I do is, like,
the sun is up, my family is home safe, there's
food in my stomach, there's a roof over my head,
there's clothes on my back, the little things. You know,
you don't have as many problems when you're thankful for
(25:29):
the things that you actually have. So sometimes I try
to start my day that way, and then other times
you can turn it around with service to others or
even a good Louis Armstrong song like.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
You just never know.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Melissa, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 6 (25:43):
This has been fun. Thank you for having me. Keep
up the colorful life.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Melissa Jonhart is an actor, comedian, director, and so much more.
Her new movie Bad Guardian is out on May eighteenth.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
For today's show and tomorrow, Jessica Biel is joining us
to talk about periods, parenting, and so many more peas.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
You don't want to miss it.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
That was another pie.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro O
b a y.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
I'm Simone Voice.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
You can find me at simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
See you tomorrow, folks, Keep looking on the bright side.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
See you tomorrow.
Hey fam, Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today on the bright Side, everyone's favorite teenage witch, Melissa
Joan Hart joins us on the show. We're digging into
her decades long career as an actress and director, her
new foray into stand up comedy, and why she stayed
down to Earth through it all.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
It's Tuesday, May fourteenth.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm Danielle Robe, I'm Simone Boyce, and this is the
bright Side from Hello Sunshine, Simone.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
We have one of our nineties teenage heart throb idols
on the show.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Melissa Joan Hart preteen. Simone is just screaming, literally shaking
right now. I mean, this is a this is a
dream come true.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You love all the nineties nostalgia. I know this is
a moment for you. I can't help but think of
her not as Melissa joan Hart, but as her iconic characters,
like I want to call her Sabrina, I want to
call her Clarissa.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It's hard to just say Melissa joan Hart.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
And I think that's a testament to the longevity that
she had. I mean, she in Clarsa explains it all.
She did sixty five episodes from nineteen ninety one to
nineteen ninety four, Sabrina the Teenage Witch was just an
institution as well. She was one of the hardest working
stars of that time.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I'm gonna tell you one of my biggest takeaways from
our conversation that I want everybody to keep an eye
out for as they listen. She was an actress. She
was a teen actress, but she and her mom were
such bosses. They took such control of her career and
their lives.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, it's a story I haven't heard from many teen actors.
It was really impressive.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
She was an ever present force through a lot of
the defining moments of the nineties of pop culture back then.
I mean I forgot she was in the Drive Me
Crazy video with Britney spears.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Talking with Melissa Joanhart got me thinking about all the
nineties rama behind the scenes all the other actors' TV shows.
We may be able to get the inside scoop on
who she hung out with, who she dated, like, what
really happened behind the scenes in the nineties.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Oh yeah, we're gonna put our best investigative journalism to
the test right here with Melissa. You know what's been
fun for me recently Danielle. I discovered that the entire
Nickelodeon Nineties library is available for you to stream on
Paramount Plus. So I have sat my two boys in
front of the television and I'm now forcing them to
(02:32):
watch the shows that I grew up with, and surprise, surprise,
they love the slime.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
They just want to watch more slime.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I remember, Simone.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
One of my first red carpets was the Kid's Choice Awards,
and all I could think was like, please let me
get slimed.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Please let me get slimed. It was so iconic for us.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
It was such a thing back then.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
And I actually have wait, hold on, I have to
show you something. So I in Florida at this time,
like peak nineties pop culture, right, and so we were
only a road trip away from Disney and Universal Studios,
so we would go there quite a bit and I
made my parents take me there. And I still have
(03:14):
this relic. This is my original super sloppy doubledare souvenir
shirt that's a.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Size like it's a cute baby.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's a baby te now, but it's red and it
has like the slime on it. I love that and
I wanted to get slimed so bad, and it was
the demand to get slimed was out of control. You
had to you had to like probably get tickets ahead
of time, wait in line. And now my kids are
asking me, did you ever get slimed? And I'm like, no, sweetie, mom,
(03:41):
we didn't get slimmed, but I did get this cool
T shirt.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
What's it like watching all of the nineties shows back
with your kids now?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
It's honestly so fulfilling. I can barely describe it. I mean,
we've been watching Guts and Salute your Shorts and Family
Double there, and it's this really surreal, full circle moment
where it brings back all these core memories that you
can actually like feel in your body, like I can
really remember what it was like watching these shows as
(04:12):
a kid, and then to share it with your kids.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
It's honestly one of the most fun parts of parenting.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
What do you think are the nineties shows that stick
out for you? Like I was a full house fiend,
even Doug, Like I would wake up on Saturday mornings
and watch all those cartoons from like eight am to
eleven am, and my brother and I would fight over
the remote.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yes, did you have any characters or actors that you
really idolized at that time.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, totally. I loved watching Tapega on Boy Meets Worlds.
I thought she was the prettiest, coolest girl I had
ever seen. Yeah, and she was kind of a badass
on the show. She never let anyone push her around.
I mean Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sarah Michelle Geller.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yes, was just it for me. Did you watch with
your brother? Did you watch alone? Who'd you watch with?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I made my brother Blake watch with me.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And so it's actually so funny you asked that because
to this day he knows all the characters of Charmed
and his guy friends are like, what are you talking about?
But he knows all the shows that all the girls
wanted to watch.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
He had an older sister. That's how it happens.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Okay, we're taking a quick break, but we are continuing
to go down millennial memory Lane with Melissa Jonehart.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Don't miss it.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
We're back and today Danielle and I are leaning into
our witchiness a bit with actor, comedian, director, and America's
favorite teenage witch.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
It's Melissa Joonhart.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Melissa was the Queen of the tgif lineup?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
How could I forget?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Since then, she's appeared in dozens of films and TV shows.
She has an upcoming project for Lifetime called The Bad Guardian,
and get this, she's taking the stage as a stand
up comedian with our other favorite witch, Caroline Ray.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Welcome to the bright Side, Melissa.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
Thank you so excited to be here on the bright
side with you guys talk about all bright side.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Things, Melissa. I hope it's okay if we fan girl
a little bit here. Do you ever get sick of
talking about the iconic roles that you've played?
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Do you ever get sick of it? Or do you
still have fun?
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Meta now?
Speaker 6 (06:20):
So, like, I appreciate that everyone well first of all,
has like a different project of mine that they like.
And I've been doing a little stand up recently, and
I've been saying that, like the greatest thing you can
hear is I love your work. Because who gets to
hear that, you know, the toll booth operator doesn't get
to hear that. You know, teachers don't really get to
hear that. You know, it's very rare that like the
garbage man gets to hear like love you work, ause
(06:42):
you know, they go dump in the garbage down the street.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
That's such a nice way of looking at it. I
actually really want to get into your stand up because
you and at Hilda aka Caroline Ray are doing stand
up together and this show is called I Identify as
a Witch, which I love because back in the day,
I feel like it was just women with amazing opinions
that were called a witch.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
But so now I lean into the word. How did
this come about?
Speaker 6 (07:07):
Back in like October, we did a show ord around Halloween,
we did a show together in Huntsville, Alabeba. And I
was freaking out. I was only supposed to do like
ten or fifteen minutes. I ended up doing twenty and
I loved it, and I was like, let's do that again.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
So she and I decided we do a little tour.
Speaker 6 (07:22):
So we're getting a few in just to see, just
to try my hand at it and see how it goes.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
It's really fun. I feel really natural on stage. It's funny.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
It's like standing up on stage for like twenty minutes
and telling some stories and then like for me to
get to entertain and like bring a smile, which is
always my goal.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
Is like literally we.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Say a prayer before you a free show when we
do live shows and say, you know, bring someone a
laugh today who needs it. And so getting to go
up on stage and do that for twenty minutes in
different cities feels so much more authentic to who I
am as like an entertainer and like wanting to bring
a smile. And so it's been really, really fun and
I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
Like the first thing I said when I got stations,
like I can do something at charity shows.
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Now I can go on a USO tour and do something,
because I always felt like I can't go on a
us SO tour and entertain the troops.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
I have nothing to entertain with. I can't sing. I
can do this. So it's so exciting. It's like feels
like this whole world has been open to me.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
When I look back at all your roles across networks
and film and TV, so many of them are rooted
in humor. Why was being funny always important to you?
Speaker 6 (08:23):
I can't say where it exactly came from. I think
what's weird is like I was always in Goofball.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
I guess you know.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
My family, we were all actors, but some weren't as
like Rizal Dazzle as I was. I was very much
like I'll say that these Lifesavers are the best thing
I've ever had. I don't care, you know, like, but
it's funny because, like, you know, everything I did, even
this one play that turned out to be super dramatic,
my part wasn't. My part was silly. The play was
(08:51):
called Beside Herself. I did a half hour monologue before
Beside Herself started, called The Valerie of Now, and it
was written by Peter Hedges, who's written like Dan in
real life and like huge movies. Joe Mantello directed it.
So Joe Mantello and Peter Hedges and I are all
in a room together workshopping this monologue I'm supposed to
do at the age of it just before Clarissa, So
eleven or twelve, and it was supposed to be half
(09:11):
an hour, but I talked so fast it ended up
being twenty minutes. And it's it's a girl who just
got her period for the first time, and she's all alone.
Her mom went out to get her birthday decorations, and
it's her like getting on the phone and talking to
the pillow, and you know, singing songs and jumping up
and down on the couch and trying to figure out,
like I shoved a bunch of tissues up there, is
that good enough? And like, you know, not really knowing
what to do. And it's sort of silly in nature.
(09:33):
But then the next portion of the play you find
out what happened to that girl on that day and
how her life changed from sexual abuse, and so it's
you know, it's a very dark play, but my part
was really silly and light, and that job sort of
led me to Clarissa, which obviously then it just kind
of snowballed from there.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
So it's weird. It was like I was a commercial girl.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
I was known as the Rice Crispies girl in the
second grade because I was on the Risk Crispies commercial.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
And I do remember that.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
I kind of ran the gamut between like soap operas, commercials.
In nineteen eighty six, I was on seraout Live three
times and some skits, you know, just sort of being
around funny people, being around talented people, exploring all these
different worlds.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
And then with Clarissa, I became a sitcom girl. And
my family will still to this day.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
Say why did they pay you to be funny?
Speaker 5 (10:21):
You're not funny.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
So it's interesting that I have made this career for
my My kids say the same thing.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Now.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
My family always said it. My dad always said it
to me, like, you're not funny. I don't get it.
I actually stopped telling him when I was on talk
shows because he would just bash me after Oh.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
My god, you are so funny, Melissa.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I could find, like millions of other millennials who would
debate that you brought so much joy to so many
children in the nineties, in the early aughts. I mean,
I was raised on Nickelodeon. Nickelodeon was like my religion.
It was so empowering to watch. But I'm curious, like,
did you feel pressure to look a certain way or
adhere to a certain aesthetic?
Speaker 6 (10:57):
Back then, I was told a few times I could
be a big movie if I would lose some weight,
which I thought was insane because I was like one
hundred and three pounds and like had a flat stomach,
so I couldn't. I don't know what else I could
have done except grow five inches. But I would get
all like pissy about it and then be like, screw it.
I don't I'm not going to, so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I'm so glad you didn't. I'm so glad that you
had such wisdom at such a young age. It's not
worth it. Like my goal is to be a working actress.
My goal is to keep working and providing for my family.
And you know, even when I was younger, before I
had a family or a husband or anyone, I would
always use my younger siblings as a barometer for what
I should be doing. But then also like thinking forward,
I always thought forward to what am I going to
(11:39):
do when I have a family, and how am I
going to sustain and get my kids to college and
make it to retirement and all those things.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
So I was always sort of thinking ahead in that way.
Speaker 6 (11:46):
And I was always saving, and I was always a
vesting and I think I was one of the few.
But Ello cool J gave me some great advice on
the set of probably some Nickelodeon thing we were doing
in like ninety seven. Maybe he hit all these gold
chains and I was like, wow, look at all these diamonds,
and he goes, don't do this, don't do this. He
said something to the effect of, don't waste your money
on something like this buy a house, or like he
(12:07):
gave me like solid investment advice, where I was like,
save my money, got it, you know. So the first
thing I did when I knew that I had a
little longevity on Sabrina, when I was picked up for
a second season, I bought a house. I was like,
I don't want to throw money into rent anymore. I
want to buy a house that I can afford, that
I can someday pay off. And that was my whole goal,
was like get a house I can pay off so
that I always have a place to live no matter
(12:28):
what happens.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I love that you mentioned Sabrina because it was my
favorite show as a kid. I used to fake sick
from school to watch that show. And there were three
female main characters, which was kind of an anomaly on
TV in the nineties.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Yeah, and they were.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Smart and witty and totally unapologetic about their opinions. And
Sabrina was not really sexualized the way I'd seen other
female leads of that time, not really at all.
Speaker 6 (12:55):
I feel like, you know, I definitely wore my share
of crop tops and low cut, but I didn't even
go that low. Like, I didn't the Brittany and Christina
Aguilera thing like, I didn't get that much stomach in there.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Did it feel unique when you were making it or
just in hindsight, No, it.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Didn't at all.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
Actually, because I was a big fan of watching when
I was growing up in like the eighties, when Cable
started Nickelodeon after like eight pm became nick at Night,
and it was all my mom's generation shows, So it
was Brady Bunch and all this stuff. So watching Bewitched
and I dream a Janie. When I was doing Sabrina,
I was like, this is very much like one of
these shows. It's just it hasn't been done in a while,
(13:29):
you know, so I felt a little bit copycat in
a way.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Melissa, I just learned that your mom is the one
who pitched Sabrina the Teenage Witch to network execs and
you became an executive producer alongside her at such a
young age. You even directed episodes back then too. What
did you gain from that experience.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
I'm so thankful to her for doing that. I mean,
she was my manager all through my childhood. And then
you know, when Clarissa ended, she was like, you have
a fan base that likes you. Let's not do let's
not put you in all these sexy, sexy roles. Let's
find something for that fan base that you've built that
trusts you. And so my mom found the comic book
(14:10):
some well someone handed to her on a playground, So
this'd be a great role for Melissa. We made it
a Showtime movie that a lot of people know what
because Ryan Reynolds was in it. So we made this
Showtime movie. And the whole time we're making this movie
and my mom's producing it, she's like, this would be
a great series, and everyone's like okay. Whenever, when she
sat down in the editing bay, she cut together a
trailer for a TV show based on the movie, and
(14:31):
she brought it out to LA. She goes, I'm going
to LA, I'm going to pitch this to five different networks.
I was like, good luck, like kind of like this
is ever gonna happen. Sure enough, she got three offers
in the room, and ABC gave her the offer for
a TGIF timeslot, and.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
She was like, that's the one I'm going with. We're
gonna be on ABC. She's like, pack your bags. I'm like, yeah, right,
I'm still gonna go to college.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Good luck.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
I don't think this is going to happen. So I
go to college and she's like, Nope, you got to leave.
We got to go to LA.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
And that's the first time we actually worked to move
to LA. When I was twenty, so I was never
a teenager playing the teenage witch.
Speaker 6 (15:00):
I moved to LA and she was the producer, so
she was executive producing this thing. I mean, she's hiring
the writers, and she's hiring the cast, and she's in
the ending bay and she's part of the music choices,
and I mean that show is her design.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
And everyone was so sick of me being bossy.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
I've been bossy since forever, Like especially like Clarissa.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I would always.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
Mess around with the lighting board and the cameras and
like want to learn everything and be in everybody's business
and tell everybody how to do it. And I learned
a lot from the directors on that show too. We
were doing it as if it was a live show.
They would have a switcher and they'd switch cameras depending
on what shot they wanted, and they'd edit it in camera,
and so I learned to direct that way. And then
it came about that. I think it was first or
(15:43):
second season a Sabrina. My mom said, here's your DGA card.
You're directing the next episode. And I was like what,
and they God she did that because it's it became
like second nature to me. I love directing.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Your mom was such a boss, I.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Know, thank God, a truly audacious woman.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
It sounds like, Okay, we're going to take a quick
break and we'll be right back with Melissa Joan Hart.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We're back, and this is the bright side with Melissa
Joan Hart.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Melissa, you had such an incredible work ethic from such
a young age. But I have also learned that you
were quite the responsible partier, that you liked to go
out dancing, and I'm dying to hear some stories just
about like what it was like going out during that time.
Was there camaraderie between you and the other TV stars
(16:37):
of the nineties.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Did you guys go out together?
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Yeah, it was a big group of us.
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Mainly the cast that we would hang out with was
the that seventies show cast.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
We would hang out a lot.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
So there was this restaurant that I think is still
there called La Poo Bell, and so you know, that
would be the place to go if you had nothing
else to do. But on different nights there were different
promoters at different clubs. And my mom was a huge
club queen. My mom starting to take me to clubs
when I was sixteen. Wait what yeah, Oh, she was
a huge.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Piece stories about your mom just keep getting better.
Speaker 6 (17:06):
She was getting divorced for my dad, and she wanted
to be like only around gay men, really, and so
we would go to the gay clubs and have a
blast and like just dance all night. And so she
started taking me out just to dance. So when I
got to LA, and I'm old enough now and I
can go out anytime and get into a club. And
it was only about for about two years, I was
going out probably four or five days a week. And
(17:28):
I mean we get started at ten, but in La,
the club's close at one thirty. I would have to
be up at five to be at work. I would
allow myself one gin and tonic early on in the night,
you know, be fine to drive by the time it
was last call and head home get some sleep. But
then I would sleep a lot on the set. We
had a lot of downtime. There are numerous photo albums
of me asleep on the set.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Sleepy girl like you, Danielle. Danielle always talks about how
she's doing.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
It's a talent. It's a talent.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
You guys like I slept leaning against a horse before
on set, but or in a wedding dress, were like
across four chairs at the back of a sofa and
they were taking pictures of me all the time and
documenting it all. That's how I kind of survived the
club scene a little bit. I think was sleeping where
I could.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
You had a sweet friendship with Britney Spears for a
period of time, and then you were also in the
Crazy music video.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
I mean, do you stay in touch with.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Her at all?
Speaker 6 (18:22):
No? No, we we had to do a lot of
press around driving Crazy. We did the video together, and
then we did a ton of like TRL hosting this.
We did something in Utah together, if things in New York.
She came to the premiere and she was on Sabrina.
It was very rare that we got private moments to
hang out and get to know each other well.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
You know.
Speaker 6 (18:41):
It was more of that superficial relationship that everybody saw
on camera, and I mean we'd be whispering to each other,
you know.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
But the cameras are there, or the bodyguards are there,
or that.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
You know.
Speaker 6 (18:48):
We're on a red carpet at the American Music Awards
and I'm hosting and she's performing, and we're having numerous
costume changes, and it's like, Hi, Hi, Hi.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
You know.
Speaker 6 (18:56):
She was seventeen, I was twenty three, and I was
looking at her, going wow, like she was on Sabrina
and I wanted to take her to lunch.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
I wanted her to join us. So I was like,
a bunch of us are walking down the street to lunch.
She's like can I can.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
I to her whole team, and they like listed off
all these things she had to do, and.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Her face just deflated.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
She's like okay, and I don't remember what happened, but
I think she started chasing us down the street.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
One point. I was like, they let me come, They
let me come, you know. So she went to lunch
with us.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
We had to have her back at this time and
all that, And then I did sneak her out of
her hotel one night because I wanted to take her
out with some people her age. I was like, told
her bodyguard we were going to my mom's house for lasagna.
So I think that's the only time I've ever lied
in my life. But it was too Big Rob. I
llowed to Big Rob, and then you know, I'd take
her to a club and everyone kind of clamped onto
her and held on to her, and I was like,
I got to go. I got to work in the morning,
(19:42):
and everyone there was like, we'll keep her, We'll take
care of her.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
And I left her there and I still feel guilty
about it to this day.
Speaker 6 (19:48):
Oh there's all sorts of things that happened that and
especially for someone seventeen going through when she was going
and I didn't have it like she did. First of all,
I never reached that level of stardom, and second of all,
mine was so snowball. Hers was so oh, kick you
in the face, like quick, you're famous. Now everybody knows
you and you can't be private anymore. Learn to live
with it right now, you know, whereas mine was sort
(20:08):
of like a trickle effect of like you're the Rice
Krispies girl, it's second grade. Then you're doing theater and
adults know who you are in the industry, and then
Frank Rich is reporting on you, but your friends don't know.
And then you're doing Clarissa, and one or two people
recognize you on the street over the course of a year,
and then you're twenty and you moved to LA and
all of a sudden, now people start to know who
you are. When hers was literally like, damn.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
You did a video.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
We know who you are.
Speaker 6 (20:30):
You're ours now, you know? And I couldn't understand her experience.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
You know, you got famous more gradually, but you were
only fifteen when you started playing Clarissa. Did you have
any challenges transitioning into adulthood.
Speaker 6 (20:42):
Well, I understand when some of these kids want to
rebel and be seen as sexy and taken seriously, and
I'm an adult that rebellious, like I'm not a kid,
look at me.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
You know, that kind of thing. It did happen with
some of my peers and contemporaries, But for me, it
was like, do I like what I'm doing? Am I
getting paid fairly? We're good. It wasn't about being rich
or famous.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
It was about having the lifestyle I wanted to have,
which was basically, I want to travel and I want
to throw parties and I want some security. And I
know that sounds like extremely like bullshit, level headed, but
like that literally was my focus and everything else was bonus.
Like I definitely went through rebellious phases. I mean, but
I didn't need to show it necessarily. But it's so
(21:23):
funny because I just remember this the other day that
like I was getting this big bonus on Sabrina, which
was just for wardrobe. It was just so that I
could look good on a red carpet. However, nobody guided
me through what that looked like, and I didn't trust it.
I thought that money was actually coming out of my paycheck,
so I didn't spend it. And I mean, you guys,
it was a lot of money, but like I had
this money to go shopping, but I never trusted it.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
I was like, nah, And at the end of the year, the.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
Warder people will be like, you should probably go spend
some of this money, and I'd be like, all right,
Jimmy choos, which I still have like a collection of here.
But I show up on the red carpet and like
you can find me and a lot of pictures in
these ugly brown quarter roy pants and like some weird
little bra tops or backlists tops, which was a big
thing at the time, like like almost like handkerchief tops.
(22:09):
And like, I don't know where I was shopping or
whose closet I was kind of raiding, but wearing some weird,
weird stuff that I'm like that might have been my
rebellious face was like I'm gonna look slubby and half naked,
you know. That was like, I'm not gonna put it together. Well,
I'm not gonna ask for help. I'm just gonna here.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
I am.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
It's good enough.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I mean, I feel like we all had our limited
two moments.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
But now that you're a parent to high schoolers and
all of the nineties trends are back, what if you
love seeing coming back?
Speaker 1 (22:40):
And also what do you never want to see again?
Because I have a whole list.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
I really wish I had kept my combat boots.
Speaker 6 (22:45):
I had such a collection of combat boots, and who
knew those were gonna like it seemed like those were
never going to come back. But I have to say
I've been wearing some butterfly clips recently because I had
them for a nineties party I went to, and they're
so convenient when you need to like pull your hair
back and just clip it. They're so strong. So I
will rock the butterfly clips for sure. But like the
(23:06):
crop tops I can't do. I don't have the body
for that anymore. So you know, I could thank the kids,
but really it's it's Fried Chicken. It's Fried Chicken's fault
that I can't wear the crop tops anymore.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Worth it?
Speaker 6 (23:18):
But I'm in the life too short category. I'm gonna
have an ice cream. Come with my son if he
wants to go get ice cream, because what if I
get hit by a bus tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
I didn't have that ice cream. I feel like an idiot.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Okay, so we talked about your stand up, but you
also have a new movie coming out next week. It's
a drama called Bad Guardian. What trew you to that role?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (23:33):
I thought it was a really interesting story. When I
started reading the script, It's like, if a script can
catch me past twenty pages, I'm in And this one
was great, Like this guardianship business is, and of course
we know it from like the Britney Spears Conservatorship, or
we know it from the recent whe New Williams story
of some guardianship's gone wrong in a celebrity younger person
sort of way. But it tends to be a big
(23:54):
senior citizen scam that happens. It's a two point nine
billion dollar business. And don't get me wrong, most of
that is necessary for people to be safe when they
don't have family members to take care of them. However,
I mean, anytime there's money that much, right, there's gonna
be a huge corruption. And so in this story, there's
like this story of this family that just doesn't have
the money. When her father ends up having an accident
(24:15):
and put in the hospital and she can't find him
and he's taken into a guardianship, it quickly turns into
a situation they can't get themselves out of. And it's
very much like small town family with a lack of
means and the lack of knowledge trying to fight a
big system.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
So I just felt like it was a great story
to tell.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
It was well written, and the director did a fantastic job,
and I wasn't sure how my performance. I usually cringe
when I watched my own stuff, but I watched this
back and I was really really proud of it.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
So I hope people will.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Love it, maybe learn a little something from it, just
to protect yourself in the future. But if you've experienced this,
it could be a little bit of a trigger warning.
You know, like, it's a tough business and it's an
interesting story to tell.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
I love that you're so proud of it. Melissa, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
We're gonna let you go, but before we do, how
do you seek out the bright side of life?
Speaker 5 (25:05):
It's a choice, I think every day.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
It's a choice to wake up and thank God for
the things we have. Like I literally only started praying
in the morning. When I open my eyes, when my
alarm goes off, the first thing I do is, like,
the sun is up, my family is home safe, there's
food in my stomach, there's a roof over my head,
there's clothes on my back, the little things. You know,
you don't have as many problems when you're thankful for
(25:29):
the things that you actually have. So sometimes I try
to start my day that way, and then other times
you can turn it around with service to others or
even a good Louis Armstrong song like.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
You just never know.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Melissa, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 6 (25:43):
This has been fun. Thank you for having me. Keep
up the colorful life.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Melissa Jonhart is an actor, comedian, director, and so much more.
Her new movie Bad Guardian is out on May eighteenth.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
For today's show and tomorrow, Jessica Biel is joining us
to talk about periods, parenting, and so many more peas.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
You don't want to miss it.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
That was another pie.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro O
b a y.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
I'm Simone Voice.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
You can find me at simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
See you tomorrow, folks, Keep looking on the bright side.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
See you tomorrow.
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