"Company" w/ Laura Niemi

This week we welcome actress Laura Niemi! Tune in to find out what it was like to play the character of Beth Strauss!
From Straw Hut Media

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Straw Hut Media. Welcome everyone,let's talk about episode four. I want
to remind people there will be spoilers, so if you haven't watched episode four
of The Patient, please turn thisoff, go watch episode four, and

(00:22):
then come back and listen to ourrecap. So episode four begins with Alan
trying to rest and he can't becausehe's thinking about restaurant guy who's locked in
the closet. He's thinking about momentsthat he's had with Sam. There was

(00:42):
one moment where he asked Sam ifhe'd liked being married, and Sam said
yes because she went with him totwo Kenny Chesney concerts. I thought was
kind of a strange answer. Butand he talks a little bit about the
No Shoes Nation, where the centralidea is love. So he really makes
a point of saying that. Andhe mocks his friend Shane, who's been

(01:04):
to seventy eight concerts compared to histwenty seven, and he does the cuckoo
sign as if Shane is the crazyone he's been a seventy eight concerts.
Sam then describes how he went tothe Greek restaurant to kill restaurant guy stopped
himself in the middle, which he'snever done, and instead brought him home

(01:27):
so that you know, Alan couldhelp him. Sam is very very worked
up in this scene. He's halfa second away from killing restaurant guy.
Alan says, what about protecting yourmother? Sam says, that didn't work.
My father messed me up and youneed to fix me. Alan suggests

(01:49):
that they try something else, likedistracting him from his feelings. He tells
Sam to go to work. Sam'sresponse is they like me there. I
don't want them to see me likethis. But Alan very sternly says,
you can go to work. Youcan do this, and if you get

(02:10):
anxious while you're there, you cancall and have your mom put me on
the phone. And Sam leaves,which is kind of amazing. And there's
this moment that Alan's sitting there andhe just swears, and I think that
he's really realizes the gravity of thisnew situation because he's now basically responsible not

(02:30):
only for his own life, butnot he's responsible to keep this other young
man alive. Then we hear fromthe guy in the restaurant guy in the
closet. His name is Elias.He's obviously very scared and confused. He's
blindfolded, he can't move, he'stied up. He's worried about his parents.

(02:55):
He tells Alan that he came hometo help care for his mom,
who has cancer. And Alan tellshim a few things about himself, that
he has two kids, that hiswife died of cancer. We learned that
Elias is an innovator, came upwith some recipes for the restaurant for his
mom, and he asks Alan togive his parents a message should he not

(03:21):
make it. And it's a reallyemotional scene and Alan is so kind and
generous in the scene, and he'sjust as scared as Elias is. But
he's always the therapist, he's alwaysthe caretaker. We stend to see Sam
at work, which is really interestingbecause we haven't seen this yet. And

(03:45):
he's very well liked at work.They call him mister Efficient. So I
suspect that, you know, he'sgot some rigid habits at work that they've
all noticed. But he's very wellliked and he's basically held up as a
model. And oye, someone wrotea letter, a very you know,
wonderful letter about him, and theyall think he's, you know, great.

(04:09):
But Sam has troubled concentrating at work. He calls from from work.
Candice runs down the stairs with thephone, but she's forgotten to charge the
phone and it's beeping throughout the phonecall. And this really ramps up the
tension in this scene because because Samis like, I need to come home

(04:29):
and and kill kill him, andAlan is trying to calm him down and
basically says, you need to pushthrough this, and then they hang up.
So that's a very very tense scene. Then there's a flashback to a
family meal at the Strauss house,Alan and Beth, Ezra and his wife

(04:53):
and kids Showshanna the daughter and herhusband and kids. Dinner is over,
and Beth serves dessert, which aresice cream Sundays for Shoshana's kids, and
they are very very excited, butEzra's kids can't have that. They've obviously
just eaten a meat meal and theylook really disappointed, and Ezra looks livid

(05:17):
with his mom as he's serving themlike, you know, kosher cake out
of a tupperware, and that seemscompletely nonplussed by it all. Sam returns
from work. He looks at thedoor where Elias is. He's bought a
noise machine so that he can havea session without Elia's hearing. He puts

(05:42):
the noise machine in the room.He pauses a moment to look at him,
closes the door, sits down withAlan, and announces that nothing is
working. Alan responds that he's notso sure about that, because he did
control himself all day long. AndI want to say that Alan is correct
on this point, that he iscontrolling himself. Whatever the reason is,

(06:03):
he's still controlling himself. There aremultiple moments in this conversation when Sam is
about to act. He is secondsaway from jumping up and running in the
room and killing Elias, but Alaninsists that they have to stay and talk
while things are so raw. Heraises his voice a few times to Sam,

(06:25):
telling him to stop, and thenhe suggests that Sam go and see
his wife. He thinks that theemotional shock of seeing his wife will help
just distance those those urges even more. There's more urinating in this episode,

(06:45):
and there's there's there's an interesting Reddittheory on that that I will share when
we're done doing this um recap.But then Sam, Sam is about to
leave, and right before he leaves, Alan asks him to turn off the
noise machine, and this is anotherreally tense moment. Sam turns around and

(07:05):
looks at him with just this shockon his face and anger and confusion,
and he approaches the door to openit, and he stands there for a
minute and doesn't. He goes andyanks the cord out of the wall instead,

(07:29):
And but right before he does that, I don't know if you notice
this, it cuts to Alan toSteve Carrell and it looks like he holds
his breath because he doesn't know whetherSam is going to just like barge in
and kill him, and he doesn't. And Steve Carrell is just a freaking
genius in that moment. And Samleaves, so Elias is so scared at

(07:57):
this point. Now he's crying andAlan starts to sing a song. He
starts singing This Country Road by JohnDenver and Elias sings along and it's really
a beautiful moment. And it endsthere. Yeah, what an ending?

(08:20):
What a total I mean, likeyou're just like, absolutely, you've really
been through a roller coaster of emotionsin that last scene. Yeah, because
sure it's I have to say,the thing that struck me the most about
this episode is that by having aperson in another room who is the potential
victim of a serial killer. Thishas suddenly moved from being a theoretical discussion

(08:46):
about what I would do if Ikilled someone yea, to suddenly being like,
there is a person in the otherroom whose life is completely dependent upon
Alan's ability to keep Sam from goingin there and doing the thing he feels
compulsively unable to stop from doing.Yeah, for sure, and it is

(09:11):
terrifying. Yeah, absolutely terrifying.It's the difference between let's go eat a
hamburger versus let's go make a hamburger. And I think a lot of people
would not eat as many hamburgers ifthey saw how hamburgers were made. And
this is absolutely the case with withthis moment, yeah, of being there.

(09:37):
And then the other thing is theintroduction of this music, that the
idea that Kenny Chesney has such ahuge influence over Sam's life. I did
not see that coming at all,and the No Shoes Nation and all of
that, Like you're like, wait, this guy is a cold blooded murderer,
but apparently he like to blow offsteam by going to see Kenny Chesney

(10:01):
in concert. And it's like reallyreally committed to it, and it's just
interesting the dimensions of that person.What do you think of that? UM,
I'm not I'm kind of fascinated bythis idea that because we see we

(10:24):
see eliots and he seems like kindof a nice young man. He doesn't
he didn't he I mean, he'stied up, so if he if he
has been cocky, obviously he's notgoing to be cocky in that moment,
right, but you know, hecame right, but he came home to
take care of his dying mother orher mother who was ill. Maybe she's
not dying anymore. But you know, I keep waiting for for Alan to

(10:48):
say, you know, like,well, I don't know, guy seems
nice to me, or something like. It's certainly possible that Sam has created
this UM disrespect in his own mind. He probably looks for it in people,
you know, UM, and hekeeps reliving it in his mind because

(11:09):
they're just sitting around in this inthe basement and all of a sudden,
he's like, I have to killhim right now, like nothing's happened,
you know. So he's he's buildinghis own tension to UM to kill,
to kill this guy. So I'mkind of fascinated in his character UM,

(11:30):
which includes yeah, yeah, yeah, and you know what I mean,
the idea, Yeah that it justkeeps amplifying itself over and over again,
right right, And I will saythat, you know, aside from like
go see your wife, you know. Um, really, the the the

(11:50):
treatment that I think is trying tobe done is a behavioral treatment, because
so Sam thinks he needs to stopwanting to kill Elias, but really he
just has to not kill Elias.And the longer he can go without killing
him, maybe the desire and theurge will lessen. It's not going to

(12:11):
happen the other way around. Yeah, he's never he's not. He's not
going to start with, Oh,I don't want to kill him anymore,
so I won't. It's got tobe you're not going to kill him,
and then that urge will will lessen. So um, I was also thinking
about like that today. It's almostlike the one day at a time sort

(12:33):
of concept of quitting drinking, rightor quitting anything or being right. Oh,
you're absolutely say oh I'm swearing offalcohol forever. You have to say
today I'm not going to do it, or right now I'm not going to
do it, right, but youthose moments at up, Yes, and
you may twenty years later not everhave a drink, but that doesn't mean

(12:54):
you still don't want one. Sosometimes that urge never goes away. You
learn to control the urge. SoI think that's what Alan is trying to
accomplish here with him. Okay,my other big question for you, psychoanalyst,
is Sam is a model employee.I mean, like the glimpse that

(13:20):
we get of him at work isthat he is a very well liked coworker.
He is clearly super reliable everyone,you know, when the fact that
he didn't bring donuts and it isthis day to bring donuts is a total
shock to everyone who works with him. But also the letter that has written

(13:41):
about him, which is clearly anunsolicited letter from a person who Sam helped
out right, that you can seethat Sam has been able to offer a
tremendous amount of kindness to another person. And I think I am having a

(14:01):
hard time reconciling those things. Andmaybe you can help me with this stacy,
because you know, when I looklike the classic signs of like depression,
right when somebody is suffering a depression, that those symptoms are even if
they're not, like even if aperson is not outwardly saying I am depressed.

(14:24):
They exhibit behavior that makes you think, okay, this person is going
through something. Yeah, and yetSam it looks like he literally has the
world on a string, according tohis co workers. And if you were
to go to any of those peopleand say, hey, just so you
know, I suspect that person isactually a serial killer, they would think

(14:45):
you were insane. Yeah, andyet he clearly is haunted by demons that
none of those people have any notionabout it. And if Sam is caught
by any reason, and they wereto go and interview those people and they'd
say, yeah, it turns outhe's a John Go killer. He has
a whole boxful of wallets of deadpeople he's killed. I would say,
every single one of them would belike, that can't be true. That

(15:09):
can't be true, And so like, can you talk about the difference,
the duality of those two things.Yeah, So you know, we're talking
about the difference between a primary diagnosislike depression, which affects your mind,
your body, your psyche, yourphysiology, and a personality disorder, like

(15:31):
someone with an antisocial personality disorder.And I want to remind you that Ted
Bundy was the most charming young manwho worked at a rape hot line next
to Anne Rule, who was atrue crime writer for years. She sat
next to this man and didn't knowthat he was the rapist and the killer

(15:58):
that everyone was looking for. Sohe pulled an expert. Yes he did,
Yes he did, And there weretowards the end of their friend.
So it's an excellent book, TheStranger Beside Me, and I highly recommend
it for anyone who likes to crime. But there were moments at the end
where there was some slippage, youknow, I think as the pressure came

(16:22):
on and the police were getting closeto, you know, finding him,
that she started to then you know, like go, I guess I can
see it a little bit now.And I'm wondering that them calling him mister
efficient, like it was a littledig it at it was a little dig

(16:45):
So I also wonder although it wasalmost too good to be true, no
one really likes like why did theywant to hear the letter written about him
over and over and over again?Like that? It felt a little I
don't know, it felt a littleinsincere. That insincere, just a little

(17:08):
a little too much. This I'llread the letter again. I don't know,
I was really surprised by it,Yeah, I know, because I
was totally expecting it to be likea negative review. I mean, let's
just put it this way. Peoplewho inspect restaurants, they are not generally
looked upon favorably, certainly by anybodyworking in the restaurant industry. I mean,

(17:30):
nobody, nobody in the restaurant industryis like, oh hooray, our
favorite restaurant inspector is right right right. They look at that person as a
really like an impediment to them beingable to do their business at best.
Yeah. And so the fact thatthis has been written about him, I
think it points up a what anincredible anomaly it is that someone wrote him

(17:52):
a nice letter. Yeah, andthen on top of that, like the
nicest letter where it just is filledwith evidence of like, Okay, the
Sam that is being described in thisletter has no resemblance whatsoever to the SAM
I know at all. Right.Yeah, so let me tell you the

(18:15):
Reddit theory on the urination. Okay, all right, and then we can
probably get going, yeah really quickly. So someone said that they thought that
maybe because he's in there for awhile and will and will will Alan start
to count how long it takes him, how many seconds that he's in there,

(18:37):
and will he be able to plothis escape during these few moments that
he's in the bathroom peeing. Wow. Yeah, I was kind of excited
by that idea because it's kind ofmeans something. It's literally in every episode,
and we know that they're not justputting things in there for no reason,

(19:02):
So there's there's something that's gonna come. I thought that I should have
written down who said it, soif you're listening, props to you.
But yeah, I thought that wasa pretty interesting theory. That's pretty crazy.
Yeah, I mean, I don'twant to tell that guy, but
it is possible to stop mid pif you have to do something. So

(19:26):
so that's that's a nice segue toour show today, Lindsey, why don't
you tell us about our guest today? Okay, Today, actress Laura Nemi
is on the show. I'm soexcited. Laura is an actress best known
for her performance as Marilyn Pearson onthe NBC series This Is Us, where

(19:47):
her character gained critical recognition and ledher an FYC Outstanding Guest Actress in a
Drama series and Go twenty nineteen andtwenty twenty two. She is also the
founder an artistic director of Lost AngelsTheater Company, a theater company based in
Los Angeles, California that has wonmany awards, including with full disclosure one

(20:11):
for me. I won one intwo thousand and five doing Killer Joe with
Los Angeles Theater Company. I haveknown Laura from a very long time.
She is a wonderful person and agood friend. I'm so happy to welcome
Laura Namy to the show. LouWell done, mister Joe, Laura,
well done, Stacy. We're soexcited that you're here today. Yeah.

(20:34):
And um, I have a bunchof questions for you. And I've gathered
some questions from people on Facebook andReddit, and you know, a lot
of people have questions for you.I even got dried. I even got
a couple of questions after posting.So you know, well I'll show if

(20:56):
we have time. Sure we're notokay, we got some people asking questions,
which the show definitely uh you know, warrants it for sure, right
Yeah, I mean, let's sayat this point, we're four episodes in
and now the internet is rife withconspiracy theories, like everybody has their own

(21:19):
secret plan of what the show is, how it works, Like everywhere you
go, everywhere, everybody's got like, oh, I know what's really going
on now in the patient, I'vetotally got the insideline of this, right
yeah, right, So and now, as always, it's important for us
to say that we are not tryingto get you to tell us anything on

(21:40):
the show that hasn't happened yet.So, okay, so this episode four,
this will air in two weeks,but in theory, we are talking
only up to episode four four.Okay, yeah, that's what we're talking
up to at this point. Gotit. So if you, if we
accident we ask you a question thatis about something that's beyond episode four,

(22:04):
We've come up with a secret wordfor you to say which will keep us
from asking any further questions. We'vebased this word on a type of food
that we served. We use thisword last week, and we're going to
use it again because it was we'restill talking about it. So if you
at any point, if we askyou a question that you can't answer,

(22:26):
all you have to do is saypastiziotio. Yes, that's that's my red
words. Got it? There yougo. That's it. I think they
should continue to serve only food thatis difficult to pronounce for the guest and
for us, I know, right, I mean, come on, letsie,

(22:48):
let me just shout out that wasa beautiful intro. Thank you for
that intro very much. It's mypleasure, of course. I'm so glad
to have you here. Um,all right, start with the question go
for it? Well, one ofthe questions I think that's coming up is
a clarification question, all right,because there are some people who are watching

(23:10):
the show who are not Jewish andthey don't understand the tension that's developing between
you know, the Strauss family andEzra marrying into this Orthodox family. So
I'm hoping that maybe you can takea moment to explain that. I was

(23:30):
explaining it today on Facebook and thought, you know, I think Laura can
probably do a better job. Absolutelyabsolutely. And you know, here's the
thing. When you make TV andthere's a lot of moving parts, sometimes
things get shifted in the editing roomand things aren't landing or things need to
be tightened up. And I willsay that there are some scenes that did

(23:53):
not that didn't lend themselves to fullyexplaining some of the storyline. I don't
think I'm out of turn by sayingthat. I think it's, uh,
it's just what happens in most TVseries that I've ever worked on. So
it's a really good question because youkind of have to rewatch it, you
know, to really make sure thatyou understand it. And even my mom

(24:15):
had called me about this. Butyou know, when you grow up and
this actually happened in our family becauseI am Jewish, um one of the
members of my own family became Orthodoxand you know, our family kind of
have tod had to navigate through thatspecial food for everyone, you know,

(24:36):
their families. Certain you couldn't hewouldn't come out during the holidays because Christmas
and you know, it was justthere. It was a lot of maintenance.
But how I like to equate itbecause I think I think for me,
even if you're not Jewish, youcan kind of um uh understand.

(24:57):
It's as if a family member umlike during you know, politically, you
know, I had this as wellin my family where one one person is
very liberal, the other person's youknow, conservative, and you love them,
but you have very opposing views.I don't know if this sounds familiar

(25:18):
with anybody in politics here. Butand you have to navigate through that relationship,
especially if they're really close to you, and how to do it,
and it's you know sometimes, uh, it's very painful, you know,
especially I think with with moms,you know, having you know, you
know, I'm I'm not a parentin real life, but I do know

(25:41):
that, you know, I canonly imagine that having a son who you've
been close to, because Ezra andI were very very close growing up.
He was him. It was itwas always he and I, and you
want them to kind of grow intothe world with a similar belief system,

(26:03):
you know, and when that altersin such a dramatic way, um,
it becomes there's there's tension in thehouse and so um, you know,
I was, I was listening toone of your I think it was at
an episode that you were talking aboutthe foreshadowing with the date cake and the
I can talk about this in theSystems in episode three, right with the

(26:26):
date cake and the um and theplastic fork, uh lock And I didn't
even get that. I thought thatwas absolutely brilliant that it was. I
think it was a doctor that wasthat had come up with it. It
was as you right, Yeah,I was. It was just fantastic,
right, total straight cred I'm givingit to you. It was. It
was amazing. I didn't even reallythink about that, but um, yeah,

(26:51):
there was that. It was It'sreally uh, you know that that
that moment of of being at thedinner table and having that kind of tension,
you know, after I've made thisdinner, this special dinner that's taken
me hours to prepare, the specialdinner, the special this the special that
in special uh and special cutlery andspecial you know, you have to everything's

(27:15):
got to be kosher, right,you know, and so, um,
it's a thing. It's not enohing, it's something, and so you know,
it's it's it's hard. It's hardat first to do that, you
know. So it's hard at firstto accept that. Can we talk about
the food for a second, becausethat's kind of the thing I've when you

(27:37):
mentioned it. I'm really curious aboutit. Um, so your character makes
this incredibly complex dinner that you haveto navigate all these special things and then
for to dessert you serve ice creamand oh you're talking about that scene?
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Later on serve ice cream

(27:57):
for dessert, and that's older andare all happy, but I can tell
that Ezra is very upset because you'veserved a milk based product. Yeah,
after they've clearly had some sort ofmeat based meal. Yeah, I know
these rules. I technically am Jewish, but I come from I So my

(28:21):
wife came from a very conservative upbringing. In in her house, they kosher,
and they would have plates for meat, plates for milk, and then
plates for Chinese food because nobody knewwhat was in Chinese food, so they
would have one of those three things. Um, but I wonder is the

(28:44):
ice cream is that? Is thatan honest mistake or do we feel like
you knew what you were doing?And yeah, it was absolutely a defiant
thing. It was absolutely a defiantthing. It was it was it was
you know, and and uh,just not wanting to acquiesce in my own

(29:07):
home about what I serve my grandkidsthat are not Kosher, that are not
you know, that are not Orthodox. So yeah, it's us really having
some family strains. And it's theselittle things that actually, you know,
it seemed like little moments for thosewho aren't Jewish, but they are just
that a universal theme of just incrediblefamily tension, you know, dynamics that

(29:33):
are going on in the family,which you know, I think it lends
itself really beautifully to I mean,I think everybody can relate to that.
But it does seem like your yourcharacter is kind of a bit of a
walking dichotomy to a certain degree becauseyou're obviously your female. You play a

(29:53):
canter who is a part of areligious service, and yet many Orthodox Jews
do not accept song from women,as they see that as being disrespectful in
some way, and that is anelement that plays out in episode three when

(30:15):
you perform at the wedding. Butright, and um, well, because
we're just I'm reformed, so wewere, you know, I brought the
kids up reform as a reform Jew, so you know, which is very
very different, you know. Andwhat we're gonna say, lency, No,

(30:37):
nothing, I was just gonna say, I just am curious to see.
I'm still trying to understand is yourcharacter saying no, I'm not going
to change who I am no matterwhat your interests are or is there Like
I'm trying to figure out because there'ssuch a rebellious attitude in your character,

(30:59):
and like you clearly are like rebellingagainst this thing, whether it's thrown a
cake against the wall or you're performingmusic for the you know, orthodox man
or your sermon on ice cream.Like seriously, you are like chaos and
anarchy all over the place, tryingto stra trouble and yeah, and I
want to understand that. Well,it's interesting because more will be disclosed,

(31:23):
right and and episodes to come.So some of those are legit questions,
um and uh yeah, so um, so we we'll kind of know more
as the story progresses a little biton that. That's why I said a
lot of it in editing. That'swhy I was prefacing in the beginning of
this of us talking is you know, does play out things that were kind

(31:48):
of in the first two episodes kindof there. Everything's kind of been jogged
around a little bit and some ofit didn't make the cut, but you
know, so so it it's it'sinteresting how they're how they're doing it.
I found myself intrigued as well,like how they how they put it together
and how they're coming and yeah,so I'm going to be very interested to

(32:09):
hear how everybody else sees this,because right now, I do think there
are a couple of people that arescratching their heads going, wait a minute,
wait, why why are you soangry? What's what's going on here?
So we'll see more, We'll seemore. We'll be revealed on that
one, yeah for sure. Butbut yeah, I think it is that
you know, you know, Ithink in their parenting. You know,

(32:34):
Alan's the you know, best disciplinarian, and Alan's the you know, the
good coup. You know. That'sThat's kind of how I took it.
And Beth is uh and I andI saw it's interesting because I softened her
a little bit because there were momentsthat I think they wanted a little bit
more um, you know, justjust a to go a little bit more

(33:01):
sitting in that alpha dog position.And I'm like, yeah, I just
uh. I the Canters that I'vemet, and you know, growing up,
people who are participatory and in uhand religious ceremonies and whatnot, they
have a different I mean, atleast the people that I met were very

(33:23):
uh. The disposition wasn't as such, you know, right right. Well,
and what's interesting to me because I'mI'm Jewish and I was raised reform
Jewish, so I I got allof it. I got every reference,
you know, throwing the cake andyou know, the ice cream and his

(33:45):
look at you, and and youknow I knew what it all meant,
you know, because I I don'tknow. I just think, like we
can understand the tension that's created whensomeone is you know, gets involved with
someone who you know, kind ofpractices their religion in such more much more
dramatic and kind of rigid way.And I think, and I was thinking

(34:09):
about this today, just so,I grew up in a home my mother
was very very insistent on, youknow, like not looking too Jewish,
and you know, there's like thisbook that's called too Jewish. She really
wanted to fit in. And sowe celebrated Christmas growing up, and we

(34:29):
didn't go to church, but andwe didn't have a tree, but we
got gifts on Christmas. And whenI got married and had my own children,
I said, well, we're notgoing to celebrate Christmas anymore because we're
Jewish. And my mother was insulted. She was insulted because she took it
personally. She was like, well, it was good for you when you

(34:52):
were a child growing up, andI was like, well, yeah,
I didn't know any better. Youknow, I was a child and it
meant gifts, but I don't we'renot going to do that anymore. And
yeah, so um so it's justkind of like an interesting parallel, I
think. But yeah, but Iunderstand now why people who aren't Jewish might
not get it. Yeah. Yeah, that's why I try, and I

(35:15):
try and usually make it equated topolitics, because I think everybody can get
that, right, everybody said amember, that is sure. Yeah,
yep. Um. I wanted toask you about music for a second.
I know that you sing the songin episode three, yeah, and now

(35:37):
I just want to because I knowthis about you that you really you started
out in music like that. Youyou were a professional musician for a long
time and played and played in bandsand like was also you were also like
a classical pianist if I remember thiscorrectly. No, not classical, but
yeah, I played music and Iwas in bands in rock and roll,

(35:58):
and you know, I kind ofdid that in my twenties and so this
gig was really really really special forme. I mean it was like it
was so wonderful to be able to, you know, pick up the guitar
again. It's interesting last year duringduring the two years ago now whatever it
was, during the during the rightin the middle of the pandemic, I

(36:23):
had picked up the Artist's Way again, you know, one of those I'd
done it before, but and Ijust started doing this um self imposed thirty
day songwriting challenge for myself. AndI picked up my guitar and that's what
I did every day for thirty days. And yeah, I mean I created
a song with one note and thatI sat, you know for hours,

(36:45):
and you know, hown different side, you know, whatever it was.
But the rule was it had tobe a song a day. And so
when so when this came up,I had been a little bit more flexible
on guitar because I've been playing itnow right during the pandemic. And so
when they asked to see some ofmy stuff, I had these songs that

(37:07):
I had written that I some ofthem had posted, and they some of
them were silly and some of themwere really rusty, and you know,
but you know, I think thatthat is that is the beauty of of
I don't think they were looking fora Broadway singer, you know, I
don't think they were looking for theywere looking for a real canter in you

(37:27):
know, in a suburb in inthe United States. You know, um
that doesn't live or in LA orNew York or Chicago. You know that
is so um so I kind offit the bill for that, and I'm
grateful for that. It was areal confidence boost because I've never felt the
thought of myself as a singer ofany sort. But um, I sure,

(37:52):
I sure did. Uh you know, want this, want this role
so much because I felt like Ithat was and that was the end of
Beth was the music is the music, you know, and and we'll be
seeing I don't think it's a spoileralert to say that there's more music to
come from from the series, butwhich I'm very excited. And so in

(38:15):
episode three, the song that youperform, Um did you pick that song?
And it's it's interesting because um no, that song. They were kind
of going back and forth with somesongs, some songs they were really clear
that they wanted. And I wasworking with a cantor um who um uh

(38:42):
who was able to you know,teach me the Hebrew and whatnot. Dody
Lee was one of those that was. I think it was always on the
table because it's a song played alot weddings, and that's kind of the
where you hear them. In fact, I just went to a Jewish wedding
last week and the and the rabbiwas playing that. So it was really

(39:02):
cool. Um. But uh,there were some some songs in there that,
um, there were really interesting choicesthat Jay's really really wanted them.
You know Joel, Yeah, Joel. Joel's dad is a rabbi, so
he grew up you know, soa lot of this stuff he really knows,

(39:25):
you know, and he's so theyand they're both Jewish and they both
come from experiences of being in aI don't know how how religious Joe is,
but they're both they both grew upJewish and practicing and so um,
uh, they they knew these songsthey wanted. They were really clear they
wanted certain songs and and I knowthat uh that divide Uh Devid Swirsky,

(39:52):
who's the who's the musical guy thatI was or the canter that I was
working with? A brilliant musician.Um, we would we would kind of
look at each other saying why thissong, this song is just it's really
interesting. Um. But they werereally really firm about it, and you
know, I'm glad because it turnedme on to a whole bunch of new
music and you know, and uhwas a challenge for me as well.

(40:17):
You know, I was just readingtoday that Joel in an earlier part of
his career was actually a country singer. He was a country performer. You're
kidding, No, I just readon the internet. Wait, is this
Joel or Joel? I think it'sJoel. I think wow on I could

(40:42):
be wronging about this, but Iwas. I swear to god, I
was listening. That is, youhave no idea. The rabbit holes of
the fandom of this show are rapidlyexpanding in every direction. And that is
so cool now. I just ohwow, so much that we don't know
about what's happening on the world ofthis show. That literally people are like,

(41:04):
quick, let's research everything we canpossibly find out about the creators and
see if we can for it.And so like the whole thing in episode
four about Kenny Chesney and No ShoesNation and yeah, and then also singing
country roads at the end, andpeople are like, what the hell is
all this country music doing in thisshow? And there are people like,
oh, wait a minute, heused to be a country music performer.

(41:24):
And that's why it's in the show. That makes sense, that makes all
the sense in the world. NI know way to put it together?
Sureltte. Okay, so wait aminute, are you going to get him
on the show so he has totalk about this? Okay, We're so
glad you brought that up because wegot to get them on the show we

(41:45):
have, Yeah, we get themon the show. It is I am
so glad you've posed that question becauseit is a question that we've asked many
times and we get to get ananswer. And so if you have a
way to get that answer for us, we would forever be in Let me
talk to some people. Let metalk to some people, all right,
let me see what I can do. I don't know that there. I
will say this. When we firststarted filming, we first started doing some

(42:08):
interviews for some promos. Yeah,I called them. They just happened to
be together. I called them,and they speakerphone me and I said,
listen, I have some questions becauseI'm going to be asked some questions and
I really like to know these questions. And they were so they so deflected.

(42:29):
They just they didn't want to say. I didn't want to say.
They didn't want to get into it. I could tell that they were.
They don't like to talk. Theydidn't at that point at least. You
know. Now, I'm sure they'vealready opened up, but I didn't want
to give They don't want to sitand talk about about why certain things,
And they weren't that, you know, that's not who they That just wasn't

(42:52):
my experience with them. Of course, now I've been hearing interviews and I
can I'm hearing them. I'm like, oh my god, odd, let
see that. But you know,but so we'll see, I don't know.
Our plan is to get them intowards the end so that so that
they wouldn't be revealing anything because bythat point the show will be basically all

(43:14):
set and we can just be like, hey, here's everything that happened.
Let's talk it over. Come on, Joe, Joel, let's do it.
The Jays, Let's get this going, Jay Jays. I want to
say, FX has been really greatto us, so I'm not in any
way I want to They've been amazingand super nice. But when whenever we
ask about the Jays, they're like, oh yeah, well look over there.

(43:36):
So um yea, yeah, right, we are totally right. But
apparently the Jays will have been talkingabout our podcast, so so they're aware
of it. So yeah, that'sfingers crossed. Yeah, that is so
cool. I love that. SoI'm wondering, um, what it was

(43:57):
like to work with Steve Carrell,especially you know, he's a lot of
his career has been comedy and he'sin this very dramatic role and um we
we interviewed Linda earlier and she wassaying, like, how like very into
his character he was. It wasvery serious, it was very emotional.
Um, but I'm you know,I'm also imagining you know, Michael Scott

(44:23):
and you know, the guy fromAnchorman, that very silly role that he
played. So was there was therelaughter on the set? Was it very
serious? Um? What what wasthat like? Yeah? It was pretty
serious. And you know at thetime, it was so hard when you're
you're acting with another person. Lookat those two don uh don and and

(44:46):
and Steve. They'd be down inthe basement and then I'd be playing my
guitar up you know, up ona lot or in the temp you know
what I mean. So it's like, so, I you know, I
had this levity going. I had. I didn't have this succes experience that
he had. Of course, nowwhen I see it all, I mean
I knew that I knew with thescenes that were doing. Obviously i'd read

(45:06):
the material, but and I could, I could. You know, the
word on the street on the setwas that it's intense, intense days,
intense days. And then when yousee it, it's like, oh,
of course he has to he hasto just keep he has to just keep
in that zone. You can't really, you know, it's really it's it's
very trying. I'm really I haveto say, I was really excited that

(45:29):
I got to work with him inthis genre. I mean, obviously,
you know, be so much funto do a comedy with him. But
I think he's a wonderful dramatic actor, and I just the work that I
really go crazy for is the stuffthat he's done. A Beautiful Boy and
the wrestling movie. I just thought, you just I just think he's done

(45:51):
some amazing work. So I'm gladthat this was the one that I got
to work with him on. Butyeah, it wasn't you know, it
wasn't it. Uh, there wasn'ta lot of gafalling happening on set.
Uh, it was, you know, it was it was definitely a little
bit more. Uh. And we'realso in the middle of a pandemic,

(46:13):
so you know, we shot thisstill during the pandemic, so you know,
we had the masks on, soyou know that kind of you know,
just by virtue of having a maskon kind of closes you, you
know, makes you more insular.Right, So it's a little hard to
get kind of conversations happening on setwhen you're doing that. But um,
but he's just a lovely, lovelyscene partner, very present and just just

(46:38):
very very gracious and true to hischaracter. I mean that this this it's
perfect casting. Shout out to JeanieBackroun perfect casting, um, because this
is I mean, it just ittapped into all of his you know,
his uh special sauce. You know. Yeah, for sure. I wanted

(47:01):
to ask about the casting actually fora second because when well, okay,
when Stacy first approached me about theidea of doing this podcast about the Patient
and I basically we sort of hadan email exchange. It was like,
we'll do this thing. It's aboutthis show, and I knew nothing about
the show whatsoever? And literally wehad lined up our first couple of guests

(47:22):
and then almost immediately You're like,what are we going to do with the
rest of this show? And thenI happened to be on Instagram like thirty
seconds later, and there you werebeing like, I've got this show premiering.
I'm on the patient. I waslike, oh, thank god,
this is amazing. How how didhow did you how did the show come

(47:44):
to your attention and what was theprocess of getting on getting into this show?
Well, it was the old fashionedprocess of auditioning for it. You
know. I had auditioned for it, and I, uh, I really

(48:05):
wanted it. I mean, therewas no doubt about it. I was
like this, you know, Iwant this. I'm Jewish. I definitely
think I could bring something to thetable on this and I want to pick
up a guitar and play Beth.That's it. Just was like, this
is something I wanted so so forthe audition, I learned a song uh
in Hebrew and I performed I youknow, I did you know, the

(48:29):
sang a song um and did thescenes and I, you know, I
just I fought for it. Ifought for it. I was really like
I was determined. And then Ididn't hear anything. Um, and it
was Christmas and I got a phonecall, I think on Christmas Eve saying

(48:49):
that uh no, no no,I was flying out for for to Colorado
Springs for Christmas to be with mymom. Uh And it was like the
twenty third and casting called and mymagic called and said they want to see
They wanted to see some more stuff. Do you have more songs? Can
you do more this? Can youdo more of that? And it was

(49:12):
like, actually I do because Ihad done that songwriting challenge. Like the
moral of the story is like it'ssuch a manifestation. I mean, I
don't mean to get whoo whoo,but it really is like do the work,
it will come. Just focus onthe work, man, Just keep
creating, keep creating. The rightthing at the right time will be right

(49:35):
for you if you just keep creating, keep moving forward through it. You
know, you just never know,you know, And it might be a
year, that's how too long ittook this, But it could be five
years, it could be ten years, you know, but whatever it is,
it was such a such a greatmoment for me to be able to
go yes, see, I haveproof again that when you do the work,

(49:57):
it could pay off, you know. And so I I got I
got cast, and after I sentthem some war music and whatnot. Yeah,
so very cool, cool, Yeah, really cool. I love I
love woo woo. I love woowoo. And uh so I say it
all the time like if you buildit, he will come, you know,
like it's well, there's so muchout of our control in this business.

(50:20):
You know that the one thing that'sin control is what we bring to
the table. So for sure,that's all for sure. Yeah. Yeah,
so I'd like to It's very exciting. I'm and I'm glad that you
got casts because I'm really enjoying yourperformance and talking to you. Um,
thank you, And I'm I'm wonderingif you have any thoughts about um,

(50:45):
the any of the mother's son parallelsgoing on without you know, giving anything
away. I don't want you todo that, but just you know,
because I'm I'm starting to notice theseparallels between maybe you and ezra H and
Candice and Sam and now even inepisode four, um Elias and his mom.

(51:07):
Oh my god, Stacy, Iwant to hear this. Wait,
I gotta turn my back to you. Seriously, it's so funny because I
really, I mean, that's oneof the reasons I love being an actor.
Is I love just any of thearts As a matter of fact,
it's just different people's interpretation of stuff. That's why awards it like, I

(51:29):
mean, as lovely as they are, it just how can you win an
awards somebody's interpretation. It's somebody's different, you know what I mean. That's
an art form. How can youjudge that, you know? But it's
it's interesting to hear different people's interpretation. So I would actually love to hear
what you think about it's stacy.Is that to um? Am I dodging
the question? Well? Maybe,but that's okay, Um, I mean

(51:53):
I'm I'm the psychologist, right,so the whole that's why this is called
psychoanalyzing the patient. Yes, Ijust think it's really interesting. The So
there's well, we don't know umElias's mom, you know, so we
just know the son. But Ithink you're a very different mother than Candace's.

(52:15):
Right, Candice has been very enablingum. But Cannae is a victim,
you know. So I'll go backand start with that. Candice has
been victimized and so I think shedoesn't really you know, what she's done
has come out of her trauma.Um, but you know she has,
and maybe she's also been traumatized bySam. You know, she says that

(52:36):
we were in this together, butyou know this isn't something new that Sam
has anger issues himself. So somaybe she's been traumatized by Sam. But
so she's very enabling of Sam.Um, whereas you are very different and
now let's assume that you haven't beentraumatized. Beth hasn't been traumatized in her
life. So she has the luxuryof being raised and grow and developing in

(53:04):
a way where she can be thestrong person that she is. She can
be a canter. Now that's reallya position of respect for a woman,
you know, in the Jewish religion, Um and her fat and your husband
is very proud of you and reallysupports you and helps lift you up,
and and you know your son doesn'tquite appreciate it. But I just think

(53:30):
there's some interesting parallels there with themothers and the sons. I didn't see
necessarily those parallels. I mean,I I, yeah, I agree,
they're very different kind of mothers,but they're also you know, one could
one can say that she might bea little too overbearing or too codependent or

(53:50):
you know, um, you know, just too attached. She's a she's
a grown man. Now it's alittle weird, do you know what I
mean? But but it's it's yeah, you know, it's also, um,
I think there's dysfunction in every familyso no one gets out alive,
you know what I mean, likethe perfect parents. For sure, she's

(54:12):
gonna have you know, things,But I do think there there is some
of that that's like, see,there needs to be a psychologist on set.
So I'm volunteering. Yeah, andthat project I'm gonna have to Yeah,
yeah, for sure, I'm gonnahave to talk to you. I
will volunteer to be the psychologist friendon the show and do the sound because

(54:36):
we all need that, right.I mean, I'll just show up and
be like, you know what,she's got a point and play a little
song, a song something like this. Right now, I'll do my piano
rendition of Stacy's point. Um.So okay, because we talked to Linda
about this last time. Linda Iman, who was on our last episode of
this and she was awesome. Ilove I just love her. So much.

(55:00):
Now have you worked with her before? No, And I didn't even
get a chance to work with heron this, but we passed each other's
in the hall is in the hallway, and you know, it's just like,
oh God, I want to workwith her. I just think she's
just she's just lovely and she's justyou know, she's she's uh, just

(55:20):
an incredible actress, just very muchwell respected. So one of the things
that I wanted to connect with youabout in this is so Linda comes from
a long background of being on stage. You've got a theater background as well.
Obviously, as we talked about manymany of the actors in the show
have have stage backgrounds, and we'regoing to be talking to some of them

(55:44):
in future episodes as well. Andcertainly the scenario of the basement feels very
much like a play, Like thosetwo guys are on that one set it
really, I agree, it's likea two hander, right, yeah,
totally. And I'm just wondering,like, in terms of how they gave

(56:07):
you your part, right, didthey just say, Okay, you're in
these episodes and here are your scriptsand that's all you need to know,
or was there ever a point wherethey either got the cast together or they
had some sort of overview where theysaid, Okay, this is what's going
to happen on the show, thisis how it works. No, yeah,
no, they didn't. This iswhat happened. They gave us.

(56:30):
They gave me episodes one through eight, and I didn't get the last episodes
to way way after I was castand we were filmed, and we were
deep into filming, and we dida table read, which is interesting that
this even happened in this order,almost at the end of shooting. Wow,

(56:52):
and yeah, and it was like, uh, it was It was
interesting because we had already shot someof those some of those scenes. I
know, we did it for eight, nine and ten, so we did
a table read for eight, nineand ten, so we were we'd already
filmed up until six, you know, or maybe a part of seven.

(57:15):
But so um, so it wasinteresting. It was interesting. I'd never
done that before where it's like you'reall of a sudden kind of meeting all
the players here because there were therewere actors that I hadn't met yet,
although I knew some of them,like Alan Blumenfeld, and you know,
I knew some of them from justbeing in this business for so long.

(57:37):
Um, but yeah, in thattable read, you're seeing everybody, even
because your character basically exists in thepast in the show, yes, and
and then many of these other charactersare in the present. So this is
that table read is probably the firstand only time you're actually seeing those people.
Yes, exactly time I would havenever exactly play. And then you

(58:00):
know, just by virtue of beingon set quite a bit, you know,
I see you know, like Donand I would be in the same
trailer and David ellen Greer would bein the same trailer at the same time
getting our hair hair done or whatever. And because it was just mostly Steve
and I and Andrew and I,you know, yeah, of course.

(58:22):
And so those those last three episodes, those table reads, I think so
based on our conversation with Linda thatwe had last time. What she told
us was is that they had writtenthe first few episodes and then they were
really trying to figure stuff out,so they were constantly sort of working and
reworking things. Yeah, so wasthat table read. Was your understanding of

(58:44):
that table read that it was like, Okay, let's just hear this script
and make sure it works and makesure that it's what we want. Yeah,
I think I think there was stillthere was still some tablework going with
that's exactly right, and it isexactly right. That's they were still to
work out the the ending, andum, yeah, I think it was

(59:06):
just is this gonna work? Isthis gonna work? Let's let's let's hear
it, you know, because asyou know, in theater, it's like
you need to hear it totally,you got to hear it. So I
mean, yeah, it makes mefeel much more secure as an audience member
because I'm constantly like, I don'tknow where the show is going next.
So yeah, it's very reassuring toknow that the writers on the in the

(59:28):
creative process were like, I don'tknow where this is going next. We
should have a gable. I haveno idea how to say, well,
you know, it's amazing because VinceGilligan, um, it was the word
on the street was it was thesame thing with Better Call Saul. You
know, he had no idea whereit was going to go, and everybody
was like, you know, youknow where it's gonna go. He never
knew. Those writers did not know. But I think and I think Bob

(59:51):
Odenkirk has talked about this, hethat, about the writer's room and how
much how geeked out writers get.Oh, we're trying to piece the puzzle
together so that it works. That'sthe that's the fun stuff that gets them,
gets you know, their blood,you know, going to figure those

(01:00:12):
problems out, do you know whatI mean? Yeah, And it makes
sense. I'm married to a writer. He loves that stuff. He loves
that stuff. It's like a mentalRubik's cube, right, nice? So
uh yeah, and I think,you know, I'm I think they did
a really great job with the ending, very satisfying. I can't wait for
people to see it. I can'twait for people to teach to see it,

(01:00:34):
just to see if I'm right,if I if you know that I
think it's satisfying, because it itmight not be you know what I mean
to other people, But I sureas well. I was like, oh,
wow's good, this is good.Yes. I will just say at
the end of every episode. Wesaid this last week as well, that
I'm literally screaming at the television everysingle time. Yeah, So I'm totally

(01:00:59):
fast. You see how they're gonnawrap, Like, where is this gonna
go? Man? Where is thisgonna go? I mean, I just
keep thinking like and don't react,okay, but like it they can't both
be alive at the end of thetenth episode, Like, I don't see

(01:01:20):
how that's a thing. And that'sI mean, I've watched a lot of
television, Laura, I don't know, but I don't. Yeah, but
there are some crazy theories out there, like they're there are some very crazy
theories out there, like this islike Steve Corrella is in prison and this

(01:01:43):
is like a fever dream. He'shappening, he's having he's all of the
characters, right. I just wantto write, no, that's that's not
what's happening, but I don't.I'm so tempted to be like, no,
no, I don't think. Sowe don't know. One wrote something
we don't know like this. Theset directors were saying all these there's some
article about the from the set directors. Every single thing in that basement is

(01:02:07):
very specific about um Candice's time downthere and Sam's time down there as a
as a young person, every gameand everything like that. And this guy
writes, oh, well, ifthat's the case, then my theory that
this is all in in in Alan'shead must not be true. And I'm

(01:02:28):
thinking maybe I don't think your theoryis true. But yeah, well we
don't know, we should maybe Idon't know. I mean, so,
if you were our crazy person onthe internet listening to us right now,
no matter what we say, itis entirely possible that you are right and
were entirely possible. Right. Yeah, that's important to point out. And

(01:02:51):
I live my life like that,saying there's at least a fifty percent chance
that I'm an idiot. So Isay that a lot. That's not true.
Lindsay Jones, You're not an idiot. You're not an idiot. We'll
see, we'll see, we'll Ohmy goodness. So, Laura, were

(01:03:14):
there any questions that um people askyou that you would like to answer?
Okay, okay, I got somegood ones. You're ready. This is
from Donald Gleason underscore Haven. Ithink it's a fan account or is it?
Yeah? What's up? Or isit? What's um? Um uh?
Without spoilers, what would Beth thinkof Sam if they met? Oh?

(01:03:42):
Okay, what would Beth think ofSam if they met? Hm?
Well, I think they would bekindred spirits on the subject of food because
I bet Beth cooks a mean potroast, yes, I'm pretty sure about
that, or a mean brisket,do you know what I mean? Like

(01:04:06):
I think they'd be they might beswapping recipes, yeah, or favorite or
or favorite m favorite food places,right, yeah, it seems reasonable.
Okay, here's another question, andthis is from Orange Blossom honey Bear,

(01:04:28):
where it is a really good question. Where does the patient take place?
Figured it was California, but apparentlynot, thanks thanks Orange Blossom hunting Bear.
That's a really good question because Ican't even answer that. So in
the beginning when we started shooting,that was a question that I had asked
as well, and what they hadsaid to me was possibly Sacramento, up

(01:04:54):
in a suburb up in northern California. Okay, since then, I I
don't know if that uh, thatdoesn't that's I don't I don't think that's
the case anymore. But I thinkit's every town suburbia, United States is
pretty much right. You know,it's it's not yeah, it's not.

(01:05:15):
Uh it's not a high falutant acity, but it's not uh, you
know, it's not. Um,it's not it's nothing. Whenever we're in
exterior shots. The weather is allis usually gray. Yeah, and it
is. It feels overcast most rightthe time, exactly exactly. So it's

(01:05:39):
not California. Yeah, take that. You are right, orange blossom honey
beear, you are correct. Ido not think it's California as well.
Agree. Uh, we have anotherone here from um okay without okay,
here's here's good. What was yourfavorite moment on set with with mister Gleason?

(01:06:00):
And thank you so much. Myfavorite mote. Here's the thing.
I didn't give a chest to workwith him that much. It really really
sucks. I mean, we wereboth we both had a lot of We
were in the trailer a lot gettingour hair done because he was getting his
hair dyed a lot during the show, um, and I was getting my

(01:06:23):
wig on and whatnot, whatnot,and so we would just kind of converse
about the day. But you know, keep in mind he was in that
basement for hours and hours upon end, and he was just you know,
it's it's uh, those are someheavy, heavy scenes that he would be
gearing up for. So I thinkI think next go around, all three

(01:06:45):
of us need to do a comedy. Steve him and I need to do
a comedy so I can really becauseI get a sense he's got a wicked
sense of humor. I do.I will say that he seems very light
hearted, like he's got a wickedsense of humor after we wrapped, when
we hung out, but not somuch, sorry to buzz kill, buzz
kill. Yeah, so what abouthim. He's got all of these he's

(01:07:08):
got all these really serious scenes.By the time he gets in the makeup
chair next to you, he justwants to basically talk about baseball and care
bears or something next or not talkingat all. I mean, that's inten
bears. It's intense, man.Yeah, I get that. You know
it was basically myself, Andrew,Linda and David that were able to be
a little bit more chatty because youknow, we didn't have esthmity intense scenes.

(01:07:34):
Yeah, but you're like, hey, my character's already dead. I'm
can't get me live in the dream. I'm singing. I'm singing today at
a wedding. Come on, Yeah, no spirit, Yeah no, it
was. Yeah, it's that's abummer about when you when you don't get

(01:07:58):
to meet the whole That's why thetable was so fun. To be able
to hear. Everyone was like,oh my god, this is fantastic.
It's like a school reunion. Butyou never went to school for just a
reunion. That didn't make any sense. I don't know what I just said,
Stacy and I Stacy and I,you need to help me over here.

(01:08:20):
I have no idea what I justsaid. Okay, it's not a
reunion. It's more like just aunion. Thank you. Yeah that's it.
Yeah, that's it. It's apre union. Yeah, that's it.
Yeah, that's the kind of thingI would do in my consulting role
as assistant to the psychologist on theset. That's what I would do.

(01:08:42):
I do a lot of that.Yeah, I great, excellent, thank
you. I look forward to it. So, um, do you have
any other like projects coming up thatwe should be able to look for.
And I'm very excited about it,and I unfortunately can't say anything right now.

(01:09:04):
And I'm so bummed because I'm soit's a real feather in my cap.
I'm just I know, I'm justteasing now, but it's um,
I'm really um. Something's coming outhere in probably um a month, yeah,
and about a month that I'm reallysuper proud of and um so that

(01:09:27):
should be landing soon and hopefully Ican talk about it soon because all right,
wonderful. We'll make up a newpodcast about that as soon as it
happens, Jones. We'll just keepfollowing you around and making podcasts about you
as many chances as we can,just psychoanodizing Laura Neemi. That's we can

(01:09:51):
just keep going back, going back, going back and forth. Exactly,
I love it. I love it. Or we can just stop by and
psych analyze you personally, just likein your home. Really could you?
Could you do that? Good?Um, well, we'll need to work.
Lindsey can't do that. But Icould do that. I mean I
could do it. I would doit poorly, but I cannot. Actually,

(01:10:16):
Yeah, you two are the bedsman. I love this, dude.
I'm about having a lot of fun. Oh my god. Despite the
subject matter, it's you know,talking about pretty pretty intense subject matter,
Lindsey said in the first episode.Who knew talking about serial killers could be

(01:10:39):
so gratifying? Oh my god,it is. As long as we are
definitely somebody, we're fine. Areyou getting David in on this? David's
got to come in on this.Uh, David would love David. We
would love David. We would loveDavid. If David is listening, Vid,

(01:11:00):
we'd love to hear from David.Yeah, David's got to come in
because some of those episodes he's inour in saying, oh my god,
some of my favorites, all myfavorites. We are sorry. I'm really
looking forward to that perspective from youknow, the therapist, therapist, right,
So I think that and I knewthat was coming, and yet,

(01:11:21):
you know, four episodes and wehaven't seen him yet, so maybe maybe
that's coming. But I can't wait. Yeah, I just love it.
Yeah, and we want and wewant tom on too because he's done such
an amazing job. We're greedy.I want them all we want, No,
I hear you. You gotta keepworking on this. You gotta keep
working because with these these are justfolks that would have great insight and just

(01:11:44):
very cool people. Yeah, we'regonna have very cool thanking this show until
the Patient season two comes out.That's the plan. Um, Yeah,
we'll have be all set. Laura, you are so awesome. Thank you
so much for being with us today. We so appreciate it. This has
been so so great. Thank you, thank you, and thank you,
thank you. I've learned some thingstoo, doctor Stacy and I I've learned

(01:12:10):
some things from you guys, andand doctor Lindsay Jones only on only on
TV right can read I'm not adoctor. Um. Well, thank you
so much. Yeah, thank you, Laura. Okay, so that was

(01:12:38):
Laura Nemi, the actress who playsBeth Strouse on UM The Patient and UM
she was amazing, Lindsay so,UM, I really enjoy talking to her.
I have to say, she hasone of the best laughs I've ever
heard. Um, she's so fun. Um, and she gave us some
really nice site So what do youthink about that? I love it.

(01:13:02):
I mean, first of all,she's one of my favorite people anyway.
I've known her for many years,and she is a really wonderful sort of
spirit and like I know that ifyou put Laura in Berkley anything, it's
gonna like it's just totally infectious.And so sure enough she was absolutely like
that today and it was great tohave her with us. Yeah. I

(01:13:25):
think the thing that I sort offound the most fun about the whole thing
is that at least some of thetheories that you and I have developed over
it are not necessarily things that she'seven aware of in doing the show.
I thought it was really interesting.Yeah yeah, so my whole plastic fork

(01:13:45):
and knife thing. She was like, oh, that's an interesting connection.
I mean, yeah, yeah,so and the thing about the mothers,
so she you know, but thatdoesn't mean that they they weren't still relevant,
you know, but maybe they justweren't part of the I don't know

(01:14:08):
the direction that they were given,but well, I mean what's interesting is
is that it sounds to me likemany of the people on the show were
sort of in a need to knowtype of basis, which was that they,
you know, like, I'm soused to doing plays, right where
when you're doing a play, theyhand you a script at the beginning of

(01:14:31):
the production period and they say,all right, this is the script you'll
be doing, and you see theentire script from beginning to end, and
you know exactly how the story's goingto go. But it's becoming clearer,
as we interviewed Linda last week andLaura this week, that this show really
started and began filming without necessarily acompleted roadmap of where it was going.

(01:14:58):
And that's not to say they didn'tknow probably where they were going to end
up by the end. I'm surethey had a destination in mind, but
they definitely seemed like they were refiningthat journey throughout the process. And that's
a really interesting thing to discover,especially for this show, which is just

(01:15:19):
so super specific about everything right,right, right, and like it's kind
of like the combination of you andme in a way, because like you're
like super clear and you want toknow everything in advance and exactly how it
works and map it all out,and I'm all like, oh, let's
just start talking and we'll see whathappens. Yeah, And the more I
think about it, this show islike that. It's like a combination of

(01:15:43):
those two elements put together another parallelhow about that? Oh my god,
it's parallel to us. They callthat parallel process. They call that a
parallel process. So in therapy,there's like a process between the therapist and
the patient, and then there mightalso be a parallel between maybe the supervisor

(01:16:09):
and like the the like I workwith students, so we call it,
you know, the trainee. Sosometimes there's similar themes that end up being
you know, parallel, right,parallel process, But I'm maybe I'm making
too much of it right now,but maybe now I think you're touring onto
something. I really I think you'rethere. So we're having right now.

(01:16:29):
Where we're having is a parallel processbetween the therapist, the patient, the
supervisor, the television show that thatperson is watching, the various themes around
that TV show, and they're allcoming together. So really, I think
I may have actually made a parallelprocess across streams here. So maybe this

(01:16:56):
is more like a perpendicular process.M I think I've gotten lost. Be
careful because you might create like aschism in the like universe if you keep
going yeah, that's right. Yeah, well, or and you know,
I'm actually starting to apply my wholethe whole fan theory, you know,
the theory that like this, thiswhole thing is just in Steve Carrell's imagination,

(01:17:18):
that this podcast is entirely in myimagement. You're just a pigment of
my immi imagination, and all ofthis is just a dream. I'm working
really hard if it's all just apigment of your imagination, Lizzie, I
appreciate that. Yeah, I oneof the um one of the really interesting

(01:17:39):
things that I appreciated that. Laurasaid, it clarified for people who've been
wondering, did she you know,not just the ice cream, but did
she serve the ice cream on purposeor was it an accident? You know,
like, um the did she singthe song knowing she was going to

(01:17:59):
cause a maccas or was that innocence? So she pretty much told us,
you know, she gave us alittle inside view there that no, no,
she knows exactly what she's doing.And you know, some thoughts about
how she's just not gonna let goof her own identity and why would we
think that she would. She's alreadythis very strong, you know individual,

(01:18:23):
she's not gonna let it go forher son, and boy, I just
I can't help but draw the parallelback to Candice, who has sacrificed everything
for her son in a way that'sreally unhealthy. Now, maybe some people
think that what Beth has done isunhealthy too, because she's creating more of

(01:18:46):
us schism. I'll use that word. I've never used that word so many
times, but you know, um, yeah, so what do you think?
What do you think I was creatingthe problem here? Okay, So
I am finding it really fascinating becausein the same way that we learned that

(01:19:09):
the song sung at the wedding andthe ice cream were totally not accidental and
they were deliberate. If you rememberback to episode two of our podcast with
James Kaufman when we talked about Samserving Alan the port and you were like,

(01:19:30):
oh, I think that was justa mistake, and James Kaufman was
like, that was definitely not amistake. I'm starting to really pick up
on a theme here, which ismaybe nothing is a mistake on this Maybe
everything is super super deliberate after all, and that everything is a clue about

(01:19:53):
what is coming next. I thinkthat's what I'm starting to understand from this
show. Maybe yeah, yeah,I mean something is coming right that we
haven't even begun to imagine. Soyeah, I can't wait to find out
what that is. And that's whyall of these different fan theories that are

(01:20:14):
on the Internet, where they're likewhere people are like, well, I
think it means this, and Ithink it means this. I'm somewhat loth
to dismiss them because in a way, they're watching and looking for clues just
like we are, and it's justtheir interpretation of the clues. And it's
funny because Laura sort of almost broughtthat up, and in our conversation with
her about many of those things arecompletely open to interpretation, and then an

(01:20:41):
actor, an actor does the roleand then just sort of says like,
I don't know, what did youthink I did there? How do you
take that? I promise that,Okay, if I'm wrong, And this
is all in Steve Carrell's imagination thatI will, I will acknowledge that.

(01:21:02):
I don't often say I am wrong, but I will really just ask my
husband, but I will, Iwill, I will fess up that I
was wrong. I mean, Idon't think that's right, but you know,
who knows. Maybe maybe I'm wrong. I mean I constantly say I'm

(01:21:24):
wrong, and that is usually becauseI'm wrong. Yeah, well I'm hardly
ever wrong. But okay, allright, I'm sure you're right. Yeah,
good one. Yeah, see thisis what I've learned. Yes,
yes, from being married for along time. That's right with a woman.

(01:21:45):
I'm not sure I agree with youyet, but I am. I'm
sure you're right. How about that? Okay? I like it? Okay,
great, I think we've come toa common ground here. Yes,
it's probably a good time for usto um, for their time to be
done. I think our time isdone and um next week. Thank you

(01:22:06):
so much for joining us. We'llsee you in our next session of psychoanalyzing
the patient.