Ep 40: Live the Movie Version of Your Life with Oscar®-Nominated Producer Rachel Winter

Hello and welcome to this Episode #40 of the Mother’s Quest Podcast with someone who’s grown up alongside me as my friend since I was five years old, Rachel Winter.

The St Ends to my Be Fri in the Best Friends necklace charm we bought in elementary school, Rachel knows me better in some ways than I know myself. Most know her as the Oscar-nominated producer for the movie “Dallas Buyers Club,” and the life and creative partner of Terence Winter, the Emmy-Award winning screenwriter for the HBO show Sopranos and the Oscar-nominated screenwriter for the movie Wolf of Wall Street. 

She’s also a mom to two children, Max and Simone, a devoted daughter, a champion to her friends, and at her core, a storyteller, a quality expressed beautifully by Rachel Steinman, who presents this week’s dedication.

In our conversation, Rachel and I explore the people and experiences that shaped her as a child, why she asked for a divorce when she realized she wasn’t living authentically to her vision and how she has since stepped forward as the heroine of her journey in the movie version of her life.

We talk about her latest movie starring Rosario Dawson, Krystal, which took fifteen years to make. And how, because of how long it took to produce, it resulted in a deep friendship with William H. Macy, who directed and acted in the movie, and Felicity Huffman, Bill’s real-life wife who also played his wife in this movie.

I appreciated Rachel’s honesty as we delved into how the E.P.I.C. guideposts show up in her life, how she has learned to slow down and focus when she’s with her children, the upcoming movie projects she’s most excited about, how she takes care of herself with strong boundaries and a morning workout ritual after drop-off, and how she shows up for the people she loves in her life.

Rachel gave us all a challenge to seek out an out of the box movie experience, like Krystal, if its playing near us, and take a moment to look around, and even introduce ourselves to someone sitting near us, so that we realize we are all connected and that stories bring us together. 

I’m grateful that I get to live my life alongside my friend Rachel and that I had this time to delve deep into what it’s really like for her to live the authentic, movie-version of her E.P.I.C. life. I hope you leave this episode inspired to create space for conversations like these with your closest friends, to find the important and out of the box stories you need to bring forward, and to fully realize the vision you have for your life.

This episode dedicated by:

Rachel Steinman for her mother Laurie Kallen Schwent

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

• The people and experiences that shaped Rachel as a child: how she believes we are the next version of our own mothers, the impact of her father’s work as a juvenile public defender, and the experience of seeing stories come alive at the Jewish Community Center.
• Her commitment to living an authentic life, how she realized she wasn’t living the life she envisioned in her first marriage, and her steps to clear a path for who she was meant to be.
• What she experiences as a cycle of life and balance with our children, in which we pay forward our love and care for our children as our mothers did for us. And also why it’s important for our children to see us and care for us while we’re raising them.
• Her desire to have it all in her own way, why she writes everything down to see the juxtaposition of her life as a mom and her life as a movie producer, and the surprising day that brought her from picking up medicine at CVS to lunch with George Clooney.
• Rachel’s experience of mindfulness with her children, which begins with slowing down and focusing, and how she’s learned to come from a place of calm, especially with her daughter.
• Her passionate and purposeful desire to tell true stories that inform and also entertain and the ones she’s in the process of creating now, from a movie about LeBron James to one she is co-creating with her husband about Evil Kenevil.
• The movie Krystal, 15 years in the making, how it does not fit easily in a box and how it challenges us to embrace things that are unexpected, to move beyond our fears, and to see that we are in this together.
• An E.P.I.C. Snapshot moment she’ll never forget, stepping onto the Red Carpet at the Academy Awards, when she and Terry both arrived as nominees for their own work, on equal footing.

This Week’s Challenge:

Go and see the movie Krystal if it’s playing near you, or another out of the box movie. Be open to seeing something unexpected that isn’t like anything else. While there, take a moment to look around, and even introduce yourself to someone sitting near you, and realize we are all in this together.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Rachel Winter’