Matilda Szydagis Interview on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Episode Transcript
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(00:06):
Well hey there you yes, Imean you have you just finished watching an
episode of your favorite television program,The Marvelous Missus Masel. Are you looking
for a podcast to enhance your viewingexperience, Well look no further. Welcome
to Perfectly Marvelous. Join our hostsErica, Kara and Jade as they provide

(00:29):
you with hours of witty banter,behind the scenes, fun facts, and
oh so much more. Now sitback, relax, and get ready for
a perfectly marvelous time. Good evening, folks, So welcome to the podcast.

(00:58):
I'm Jade, I'm Kara, andI'm Erica, And this is perfectly
Marvelous, a podcast dedicated to thebest darn show that just that ever showed
in the world, The Marvelous MissusMazel. Today we are super excited to
be talking with Matilda Chagas. DidI do it right? Yes? You

(01:21):
did? Yeah yeay, plays thewonderful Zelda on the Marvelous Missus Mazel.
Yay. Welcome Matilda, Thank youso much for joining us. How are
you good? Thank you? Howare you? Thank you so much for
having me? Oh? Are weare? We're so excited, so excited.

(01:42):
Okay, guys, before we startWe're gonna tell you a little bit
about Matilda and her incredible career thusfar. Yes. So, Matilda was
born and raised on the South Sideof Chicago. Her family immigrated from Poland,
and Polish is actually Matilda's first language. She graduated from the University of
Chicago and moved to New York,where she attended ANDA, which is the
American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Shetook commercial art classes at Wie Barron and

(02:07):
tv I Studios and study with thehighly esteemed acting teacher and coach Joanna Beckson.
Of course, all of you lovelylisteners know Matilda as Zelda, but
she won a sag Award with therest of her fellow mazeal cast members for
Outstanding Ensemble for Comedy Series. Whoelse's surprise Nobody surprised for that one.

(02:30):
Yeah. She also played Yarina onThe Sopranos, which we love. Matilda
has produced, directed, and starteda trilogy of short films that are now
available on Amazon Prime Video, whichwe highly recommend. I know each of
us has watched at least one ortwo so far, and I was all

(02:51):
in and rented all three, Sodefinitely recommend that. And you guys.
She also has a children's book outnow that she wrote and illustrated called All
Cats Speaks Holish, and Erica actuallyhas a copy. I have my copy.
Yes, oh, thank you somuch for getting so sweet. It's

(03:13):
I so appreciate that adorable. It'sgoing to be a gift for my brand
new baby niece coming in August,so you guys should definitely check that out.
Yes, my mama just ordered onebecause my stepsister just had a baby,
so it's it's one of the baby'sfirst books, you know. And
my children love it. Um theirtheir grandparents are lebrities, so we love

(03:35):
to introduce different languages. And myhusband was even reading it because his aunt's
Polish and he appreciated the phonetic spellings. So we really enjoyed it and we're
we're also, oh thank you.We're a cat family, so we enjoyed
it. Yeah, cat family.And if I if it just for a
second, I can gush about Matilda'sincredible short films. So it's the Husak,
the Ruins, and the Damn thoseare the three films, and guys,

(03:59):
listeners, it's like yet they're tenminutes each, right, I think
the Damn is even less than tenminutes. They're freaking incredible. The way
that I would describe these films isit's like existentialist psychological horror, and they
have this very best kind, thebest kind of horror. Right, they
have this very noirrish feel. AndI was saying, like it's kind of

(04:23):
reminiscent of It's like John Carpenter meetsHitchcock, right, it's like a cross
between the two. And the thingthat I took away after watching these films
is that the scariest thing in ourlives that we could possibly encounter is what's
inside of our own fucked up minds, and like the trauma that we all
go through, some people greater thanothers. Right, it's like the most

(04:43):
unsettling thing. It's like the scariestthing of all, you know, it's
these films are They're excellent. Ilove thank you so much, Yeah,
Matilda, I love the way thatyou are delivering a message with your entertainment
to your audience. Definitely, youknow, I don't yeah speak a little
bit about Yeah, definitely like that. We felt like they were um existential

(05:05):
is a great word um to use, and um, yeah, they're definitely
more like psychological thrillers, and wewere inspired um by them, you know,
seventies and eighties horror movies. Right, we're big fans. I mean
that's what we grew up with too. Um. So there's definitely there's definitely
some you know shout outs, especiallyin the Hoosac for the Shining for example.

(05:29):
And I was getting goosebumps because I'msuch a I'm such a fan of
like classic horror. You know,uh yeah, I love horror. I've
always loved horror. And in theand in the Damn Um there's like a
you know, little tiny, littleyou know, call out to um two
Jaws. Yeah, yeah, soyeah, it's but yeah, but these

(05:51):
films are not like trying too hard, you know. It's it's they're so
subtle. They're very subtle, verysubtle, and very few. I just
love the way that you're very minimalistwith your dialogue. It's all about the
gorgeous visuals. I mean, thankyou. I could go on and on.
I we seriously need to dedicate likean entire other podcast just to talking
about these films if you're if you'redown, um, because yeah, they

(06:14):
it deserves that was something, youknow, there's that that's something else too.
Like a lot of the movies fromthe seventies, well the horror movies,
um actually do do that. There'sa lot of us silence, a
lot of moments of silence, um. And you know it's about the um,
the the tense moments and the silencewhere you just like you don't know

(06:34):
what's going to happen. Yeah,yeah, No, nowadays people they they
they they're so obvious horror. Youknow, it's very cheap. It's about
jump scares and that's about it,not about well yeah, I mean yeah,
jump scares, you know, fun, you know, I just yeah,
if not overused, I mean whatand what Hitchcock always famously said is

(06:56):
like use dialogue as like a lastresort to tell your story, you know.
And that's what I really feel thatyou guys were doing. It's there
there. It's very strong performances andvery strong cinematography. It's just it's all
around you guys are nailing it.And thank you so much and listeners.
Matilda herself stars in one of thefilms, or well two of the films,
but really you're more showcase like featuredin the Damn and just she gives

(07:19):
an incredible performance as always. Soif you guys want to see more Matilda,
then please and if you also,if you just want to see some
gorgeous visuals like beautiful location, beautifulsetting, a lot of nature. Is
just I could go on and on. Okay, I'll shut up. They're
here. They're here for MASL.Yeah, they're here from MASL. So

(07:39):
we got to get the people whatthey want, you know. And before
we jump into our questions Matilda,first we just want to hear a little
bit about you and how you gotinto acting. If you've always wanted to
be an actor, you know,and I always like to ask the question
to our guests, Um, ifyou if you had to pick a most
memorable or favorite role, what wouldit be? Um, well, it's

(08:01):
not like something, it's not likeacting to something that I always wanted to
do. You know. You readthese interviews with um other actors where they
say, oh, I knew Iwanted to be an actors since I was
like six years old. UM,I do know again, you know,
so I don't have any recollection ofthis, but my sister did say that
she was trying to push my momto get me into commercials when I was
really really small, um, becauseshe thought that I had a really you

(08:26):
know, cute look when I waslike, you know, three, four
or five years old, and mymom, my mom, of course,
you know, being off the boatPoland her reaction was like and that was
the end of discussion. Um.But but I did do a speech contest
all throughout grammar school, and Imust, you know, pat myself on

(08:46):
the back. I went first placeevery single year. Hell yeah, so
thank you very much. UM.So that was you know, that's a
little bit different than acting, butthat's something that's uh, I felt that
I was really good at and Ireally enjoyed doing. And then in high
school I did all that you knowhigh school musicals. Even though I can
sing worth of damn for so itdoesn't really matter. But you know,

(09:09):
it was just a lot of fun. Um. I did a couple of
plays too, and then um,I went to University of Chicago, as
you mentioned, and the whole timepretty much and you know, I went
the you know, academic route,which is what was expected of me,
you know, grow growing up youknow, in an immigrant family. Like
that's what it was. You know, It's like, you know, I
was straight a's I was Valugatory.In eighth grade, I was like a

(09:30):
top three percent. And you knowmy high school, you know, I
went to and you know, andthen I went to UFC, and then
when I was there, I waspart of the UT, which is university
theater. And then in my thirdyear at UFC, I was like,
oh my god, I only haveone more year left. What am I
going to do with myself? Likeall of a sudden, it's like,
oh, now I have to becomean adult and make choices and you know,

(09:54):
decisions. And so I actually feltthat I had two roads to go
down, and there was a questionof which one to choose. One would
have been to continue the academic route. I was considering getting a PhD in
Eastern European folklore, so I havea degree in anthropology actually as an undergrad.
So I just thought that I waslooking back, thank you. So

(10:18):
I just thought I was going tocontinue on, you know, in that
path. Or I was like,wow, well maybe I should, you
know, bite the bull and justtry acting. And that's what I ended
up doing because I figured might aswell try it, you know, right
after I graduated, and then Ican always just go back to grad school.
So yeah, so I moved toNew York and then you know,

(10:41):
I guess the rest is history.So European explore that sounds fascinating too,
that's almost very you know Midge ofyou Midge majoring in Russian literature. Oh
right, exactly, yes, yeah, And I was going to say,
like the anthropology thing, I mean, it's it doesn't surprise me at all
because these things that you were studying, like those are those are my greatest

(11:05):
interests as well, And like ifI could be doing anything other than performing
myself, I would probably be intothose same things, and certainly watching your
your films, your horror films andI listeners. I'm very lucky I got
to meet Matilda in person when Isaw her amazing play the magazine, Which
you did you co write it aswell? Or would just direct it?
No? No, no, Idirected it. I co produced it.

(11:26):
I co produced it and then Idirected it. And again, thank you
so much for coming. I soappreciated. Oh my god, it was
you guys coming and checking it out. No, Christy Perfetti Williams is the
playwright. Excuse me, so right, she wrote it and fabulous and like
I was saying, it's so youknow anthropological of you. You know,
you're very into, like I said, delivering a message with your entertainment.

(11:48):
You're not just you know, you'renot doing anything halfway. You're really going
layers. There's there's layers to yourart. Yeah. Yeah, and you
know tying Well, first of all, I'm just going to say really quick
about the magazine as you know,so that the important message there where you
know, it's all about the gunissues that we have in America, you

(12:09):
know, and but the play itselfwas about the grief and the loss.
Right, there's for the layers man. There's so much in there. Yeah.
Um, and you know, andthen there's still plenty of levity because
that's that's just life. It's likeyou know, you you go to a
funeral and you're you know, peoplestill make jokes because you just like you
have you know, you have tohave that. It's human nature. You

(12:31):
know. It's like one minute,like you know, you're laughing your head
off and then you and then youstart crying because then you realize, oh
crap, I'm at a wake andthat's my loved one and the casket over
there, you know. Yeah,um, but yeah, but we're we're
considering UM, turning the magazine intoUM into a film, putting it making
Christy will make it into a screenplayand I'll be directing that. It was

(12:52):
just awesome maybe because more people cansee it, more people can you know,
have access you know to that UMS. That'd be good. Yes,
everywhere, just everywhere. Yeah,and on on that note, listeners,
the accessibility note. Matilda's films,by the way, are incredibly accessible.

(13:13):
You can purchase them for I thinkfive dollars on Amazon, but if you
would like to just rent rent them, you know, for forty eight hours,
give them a watch. They're,like I said, they're only ten
minutes a dollar ninety nine. Youcan't beat it. Just what are you
waiting for? Links in the descriptionanyway? Sorry Matilda, thank you No,
But what else? What I wasgonna add also is like bring it
back to Mazel. It's just likeMazel obviously is a comedy UM, but

(13:35):
there's obviously so many messages like subtextsand political messages that you know that Amy
put in there in all five seasons, and it's just so beautifully made UM
in that sense, it's so smart, it's so witty. Yeah, it's
just yeah, I think that's oneof the reasons why people love it,

(13:58):
love Mazel so much, because it'sthe way it's written, because how smart
it is. Oh yeah, definitely, it's so layered. That's why exactly,
yeah layered three hours long. Ohyeah. I could not stop talking
about it because there's just so muchpacked into each episode. And when we
were afraid that our episodes were toolong, we asked our listeners, do

(14:18):
you want us to talk less aboutthis? And everyone overwhelmingly wrote in no,
please, the longer the better.I could listen to you talk about
this show all day, and likeit's less a credit to us than it
is to the actual the missus Maisiel, the show. You know, you
get you guys, are you're doing. You're doing some amazing work, you
know, really changing lives, touchingpeople all over the world. And and

(14:41):
I think that this show came tothe world in of the perfect time.
I remember watching this during Quarantine andwe were all so hungry to escape um
but at the same time, gethave some smart humor injected into our lives,
you know, And and a lotof people watched start watching it for

(15:03):
the first time, you know,during the pandemics true, which was great.
You know, so we you know, all of a sudden got a
you know, a different section ofaudience, more fans of people who maybe
didn't have time to watch it before, or maybe they thought that they weren't.
They would, oh, it's notmy cup of tea or whatever,
but then they started watching it andthey're just like, oh my god,
this is so good. Where wasI? Where was I was I under

(15:26):
seriously watching this? Yeah? Yeah, that's what I tell That's what I
tell people, And I always say, don't start watching the show if you
haven't started from season one. Don'tstart it unless you have like a good,
solid day to devote to a.Ya, what's the season one been?
Pre prepare to continue? It's apage turner. I realized that I
didn't answer your second part of thatquestion. I was on to it.

(15:48):
Yeah, I was about to askyou what was what has been my favorite
role? And hands down, it'sZelda. Of course. You know,
I've loved all the roles that I'veplayed, but like Zelda is just that's
just been like an epic role.And I just this show changed my life.
And I'm just so grateful to Amyand Dan and Dana, who is
the executive producer for having me onboard, and you know, and for

(16:11):
all five seasons, and it's Ijust loved playing her. I just love
playing her. She's so much fun. And I'm going to play really quickly.
We're going to play a little Zeldaclip for you guys. Hello,
I miss Bisman do to get intowith you. She's going to be funny.

(16:38):
Why are you whispering talking to people? One the vampires sucking the light
blood out the line? Oh mygoodness, love that vampire line. It
corrects. I know me too.I am so truly hilarious. My god,
that's my That's probably my favorite Zeldamoment. It makes me laughing every

(17:00):
It never gets old. This neverhappened fight. I know. Everyone was
like texting me and emailing me afterthat came out and they're just like,
oh my god, that's absolutely hysterical. I'm so glad you thought so.
That was the very very last scenethat I ever shot for Mazel. Wow

(17:21):
you went out with a bang hunt. Yeah, seriously, that's true.
Might have been, it might havebeen. It might be my favorite Zelda
moment, which is hard to choosejust one, but like it made there's
so many. Yeah, there's somany and you did so much with um
with with sometimes so so few words, you know, which is thank you
such and the expressions help. Likethere's some looks sometimes, the looks on

(17:45):
Zelda's face like you have to payattention, But it's the funniest part of
certain scenes because it's just so real. Thank you so much that I had
so much fun playing her. Yeah, someone some reviewer a few years ago.
Um, you know, just lookat Zelda's face. It tells no
lies. Yes, that's true.She's one of those people. You always

(18:07):
know how Zelda feels. She can'thide it. Yeah, well that's that's
how I am in real life.Actually helps. Yeah, she you portrayed
her so authentic, like she didn'tsee him like a caricature. She was
just you know, this is real. Yeah, no, and that makes
that makes sense to me. It'slike a little thing you and Zelda have
in common. Well, I justI started sobbing after that scene because,

(18:32):
like I said, it was thelast It was last moment. And you
know, Mazel's always very very goodthat if there is um a phone call
scene, the other actor is physicallythere and most shows don't do that.
Um, but we've all, allof us have always been there for each
other. Um. And so Marnwas there. You know, Marn was

(18:57):
physically there, um off you know, off camera obviously, UM giving her
lines to me. So you know, so she was there in my last
day, and UM and a bunchof you know, all the crew was
there and Amy of course. Andyou know, as soon as I heard,
um, Amy say you know that'sa and check it right? Yeah.

(19:18):
So yeah, so as I heardthat check it that, I just
I just started, Um, Ijust started sobbing. And for and for
those of you guys listening who don'tknow, that means check the gate.
And the gate is um right infront of the camera, so um,
they always check to make sure there'slike no piece of hair or like a
fuzzball or a piece of dust oranything like that that could have like gotten

(19:42):
and filmed. Sometimes that does happenright and then and then but basically like
check the gate means like we gotit as long as camera is fine,
like as long as exactly That's whyI started sobbing, because yeah, I
knew that was Yeah, your performanceswas over, Oh it was, it
was done, Yeah, Because Imean it's very rare for something to be

(20:03):
wrong right after they say check theyou know, check the gate. So
that's how it's like, and Ijust it just I just burst into tears.
And then Amy came over and likewe you know, gave me a
big hug and she's like, ohhoney, you know, like it was
oh yeah, and they gave theygave all of us this on our last
days, um respectively. But um. So then she handed me this wrapped

(20:26):
You could tell it was a frame, right, you could tell it was
like a frame photo like it,but it was like wrapped in this beautiful
pink wrapping paper and it was this. Everyone got black and white photos and
they're big. They're pretty big,like they're I want to say, twelve
by eighteen. I think the frameis eighteen. Like it's big. And

(20:48):
so we always had a professional photographeron set. Um Philippe Um at least
first season five. His name isPhilip, and I think the other one
I looked season three, season fourit was Nicole Um. But anyway,
so it was a moment as methough, as as the actor, but
I was like, I was dressedas Zelda and it was in between takes.
Yeah, So the photo. Ididn't know that he was taking the

(21:11):
photo. I had no idea hewas taking this photo. And I'm sitting
in a chair in the kitchen andit's one of those scenes in season five
where um, I I already likehad left, so I'm dressed in like
regular people clothes on my uniform.Oh you know, so I think it
was the episode I want to saysix when we come back, when we

(21:34):
come back, when when I comeback with the aug and that's the I
think it's the one with the lamehorses. But anyway, so it's that
outfit and I'm sitting in in thekitchen in the chair and again like as
me just in between takes um andjust kind of like staring off, you
know, you know, into space. And it's such a thoughtful photo and

(21:56):
it's just beautiful and it just thecomposition is just is just beautiful. Um
such a nice kid, I don'tknow, I know. And that's something
you'd be willing to share on yourInstagram. Perhaps you know what it is
on there, o, Realy,I did put it up. Yeah,
it's not it's on one of myUm Now I'm wondering how I missed that,

(22:19):
you know, maybe I not seethe first one because as you're I'm
griving it, I feel like I'veseen it before, like I'm painting the
picture in my mind, and I'mlike, I can imagine exactly what that
looks like it. I'm sure I'vescrolled up there. Okay, yeah,
it's in one of those group ones. Though it's not like it's not the
first photo. Okay, all right, you know what I mean. I'm
gonna find it and I'm going tosomehow repost it or make it so our

(22:41):
listeners can see it. Guys,don't worry. I'll I gotcha if this
photo is available, and I canalso I can also email it to you
too. But it's it's I'm likenine, it's on Instagram. I'm sure
you're right. Um, and onceonce uh it premiered. I you know,
that's one of the photos that Ithink that's us well yeah, but

(23:02):
it was just such a thought ofit is such a thoughtful gift, and
you know, and and all ofus got you know, our own respective
like it was like a character portrait. Wow, that's you know basically yeah,
yeah, that's social Yeah, veryspecial, yeah, very very special.
They're so good like that and thatwas that was specifically from um Amy

(23:23):
and Dan their rap gift to allof us. That's awesome, it was
very meaningful. Well, okay,we have some listener questions for Matilda.
So we got so many fantastic questionsfrom you guys. Thank you so much
for writing in seriously, and weprobably won't have time to get to all
of them, but it's highly likelythat your question will be answered in some

(23:45):
way as we continue to discuss everything. So let's get started with the questions
from our listeners. Erica away,but Matilda. Our first question is from
one of our listeners, and sheasked what was your favorite episode to them?
And our listener, Lily Martinez,wants to know if you had a
favorite Zelda moment. Well, Iwould have to say, hands down,

(24:08):
the wedding. Zelda's wedding was thebest episode ever. It was I personally,
I mean I personally just it wasso meaningful to me. Um it
was so meaningful to me being thatI'm Polish and Donna, our costume designer,
just really just really knocked it outof the park hill, you know,

(24:33):
yeah, you know, authentic,yeah, ethnic Polish, you know,
dress, the head dress, theribbons, Um, and she built
that for me, and like shedid her research. You know, she
completely did her research and and sheyou know, she built that. But
I have to say that the shoes, the shoes are actually from poland those
boots that they bought from a Polishstore that is in Michigan. That's so

(24:56):
cool, yes, and hand transmission sales, like I know, it's
so good. I only wish thatI could have gotten a better look at
the boots. I feel like Ididn't get a very good look at them.
You know. I actually I postedon Instagram, didn't you a close
up of them with the red laces? I did? I did. I
was just gonna say that. Yeah, I posted up close up also of
like the cuffs, like the lacecuffs. Beautiful. Um. The details,

(25:19):
yeah, the details of the showin general, the details of the
you know, the production values areoutstanding. Um. But yeah, so
you know, everything across the board. But she really, Donna really outdid
herself, um with that and evenyou know, even props and set design
and everything. You know, there'sa big buffet in the room with all
this Polish food like stuff cabbage andpure augie. At Zelda's wedding and I

(25:42):
made the joke when we were onsaid I was just like, you know,
Zelda cooked, who else would havedone it? Of course she didn't.
Yeah, even cleaning afterwards. Yeah, well that well we saw that
I was teaching them how to usethe backyard. Oh my gosh, that's

(26:03):
so funny. That is so sofunny. That may be up there with
my favorite Zelda moment. That absolutelyslayed me. I could not stop laughing.
Yeah, when when Abe was like, can you explain the exact mechanics
of the bae and You're like,nou. Yeah, that was that was

(26:26):
just really really great. I justso uh appreciated and I was just so
grateful and um, it really gotto me emotionally that you know, uh,
Amy and Dan And for that specificepisode it was Isaac Oliver who wrote
that the wedding, you know,the wedding episode. Um, it just

(26:49):
it meant so much to me.The arc that they gave Zelda, um,
not only just throughout the seasons,but specifically in season five that was
just so full and meaningful. Umthat they you know, they gave her
that storyline. We were all thrilled, finally Zelda gets some meat to work
with. You you know, Iremember, I remember very special. Yeah,

(27:14):
I remember gushing about your performance whenwe podcasted on that episode. I
was like, thank you. Wetook so long to talk about it,
about how it was my most marvelousmoment of that episode. I think it
was all of ours. Actually itwas. It was the episode and I
said, so we always have amost marvelous moment, which was is going
to be my next question for you, because it was Lily Martinez question in
there, like what's your favorite Zeldamoment? So get ready for it?

(27:37):
Um so, But yeah, itwas that week. I remember. I
was like, do we even haveto like pick, like it's not even
a question what our most marvelous momentis? Like it was Zelda and Janus
saying their vows to one another.It hit me so hard. It was
I mean, Untilda, you're anincredible actor, you really are. It
was good, thank you kind ofyou to say I appreciate it. Really,

(27:57):
it was like I think the mostsort of thing. Oh sorry,
no, go on, no,I was gonna say, like I just
felt like it's like almost two worldscollided specifically in that moment, because,
like I said, it was specialfor me as Matilda but obviously it's so
special for Zelda. You know,she da you know, Zelda has found
love, which is what you knowJoel says on the fire escape, you

(28:19):
know, with Minage as they're toastingwith vodka. You know, afterwards,
you know, he's like, I'mso happy Zelda found love. So for
Zelda, I was just you know, such a special moment for her.
You know that here's here's Yanush andand she's leaving. You know, she's
moving on with her life. Kindof. Yeah, they keep trying to

(28:41):
pull her back in right well exactly, yeah, exactly, which is also
very hysterical. But it's like,but then it comes down to um.
At the end of the day,she is family, which comes to answering
my other favorite Zelda momentum to answerwho's Lily that Lily's questions. It was

(29:03):
in a season one episode two whereZelda only says one word and it's Iceland
and it's as a ya Kapoor dinner. It's the yam Kapoor dinner scene,
and yeah, it's and and theyalready established the established so many things in
the pilot and you know, alreadyat the beginning of season one, but

(29:25):
they established how Zelda is you know, not just an employee. She's family,
you know, and that that throughline and then and it was that
through line all the way. Umand even especially at the end, you
know, she's getting married, andshe gets married like in their living room,
and the family is there for it, and and then she does keep
getting pulled back in, you know, because I think for her it is
her family, right, you know, even though she was obviously I really

(29:49):
do feel ready to leave, especiallylike she had it Like when Yano she
was like so frustrated. Then sheI feel like because he was getting so
stressed and frustrated, like what areyou doing? Then it was making her
more stressed and frustrating, and thenshe just lost it. She just Amy
came up to me and she's justlike her, you know, she was
just like you, Zelda's had itup to here with these people, like

(30:11):
you just already had it, youknow. So that's when I come in,
like throw down the linens, likethat's the linen closet, and you
know, I just I just hadit. But even though again I really
do feel like it's you know,at the end of the day, it's
still family. But anyway, goback, going back to you know,
Iceland. So the Uncle pour dinnerscene, so moy. She was played

(30:32):
wonderfully by Kevin Pollock. You know, He's like telling Abe, uh,
well, you know you must haveall this money, you have this beautiful
home, you have the servant here, and you know, and you know,
Tony is like, oh, she'snot you know, she's not a
servant, She's an employee. Andat the same time, you know,
Rose says, you know, she'sfamily, and then you know, and
then Abe's like, oh, she'sfamily too. She you know, she

(30:53):
even has a vacation days. Shewent to Holland last year and I go
Iceland. Iceland better than Holland,you know, and it was just like
perfect you know, comic timing fromlike everybody you know, um, so
that that would be like, Ithink my favorite Zelda moment outside of the
wedding like that well, you know, you talk about family and the wise

(31:15):
men seeing her as family, andmy favorite, I think my most marvelous
moment from the wedding episode was thatscene where we got to see you know,
all four of these you know,powerful wonderful female characters getting ready with
you. Yes, it was sofantastic to watch like. I think that's

(31:36):
when I started tearing up a littlebit because I was just like, they
love her so much, like this, and we actually said, we actually
said that to each other on set. How wonderful to have four women us,
four women in a scene by ourselves. Definitely the first and the last,
the only time that ever happened onthe show with the four of you
guys sharing a scene together. Itwas so right. Yeah, it stood

(32:00):
out energetically, like it stood outof the show as something as something very
different. You know, it wassuch a good episode. They're all good,
but that one was really special.It really was. That one was
hard, hard to top yep,it was yeah, and then the show
ends and we're all like, spinoff, spinoff, spinoffs, spin come on,

(32:22):
guys, oh yes, yes,put it onto the universe was like,
um, yeah, I know Alex, Alex Jimmy Nanny who played Yanush,
who was fantastic. Um, youknow, we were joking wrong about
that, and you know, youknow, he came up with one of
the titles for the you know,possible spinoff and whereas whole ish my gosh,

(32:45):
yes and yeah, you know,joking around saying Zelda after hours,
but Yeah, it's just so muchfunnier. Oh, I'd watch it.
Yeah, that's so good. Ilove it. If we already have the
Wolford set, like you might aswell, it's just waiting. I want
the spin off, the really badlyof Zelda and Yanush and like aven Rose

(33:07):
like pop in occasionally, you know, like I was joking, I was
joking around with them. I'm notkidding. I was joking around with Tony
and Marn about that. And Imean because wouldn't be down for that,
you know, you guys would allbe like in so in right, Yeah,
I think, Yeah, I thinkZelda um would end up running a

(33:29):
Polish restaurant in green Point, Brooklyn. Yes, that is that is if
I'm not mistaken. That's one ofour questions. Um, so put a
pin in that is it? Okay? That's what? Yeah, we have.
We have a question pertaining to what, you know, where Zelda went
after the show ended, Like,so, we're gonna ask you that there

(33:49):
were you know, multiple people thatwrote in and wanted to know, essentially,
what was the most challenging day offilming and was it you know,
a location shoot like Coney Island orsomething in the Wiseman Mazel Home set um,
and I think there were other peoplementioning, you know, with it
one of those infamous wonders that areshot for Mazel. Well, we didn't

(34:14):
want our almost every single time,UM pretty much you know, as a
master UM. But yeah, Iwould say I would definitely stay Coney Island.
I would definitely stay Cowney Island.And I'll tell you why. UM.
That definitely was a wonder and thatwe had like two hundred and fifty
extras um. We were at ConeyIsland for real, UM, And I

(34:34):
just tangentially, I just want tosay how special that day was because we
had just you know, had ayear of you know, quarantine for the
pandemic, so we had a yearoff. Obviously we were supposed to start
shooting you know, season four prettymuch one in the you know, pandemic
hit and for you know, fora lot of us, it's like all

(34:58):
of a sudden, we her inthis um carnival atmosphere with all these people,
and the rides are going and peopleare laughing, and you know,
we're outside with this group of peopleand it's like over there, it's like
it was great. It was abeautiful day. It was a beautiful day

(35:19):
down on Corney Island, like itwas, you know, even though it's
like in the first episode, weactually have to wait until May to shoot
it because of weather. Obviously,we couldn't shoot it in January when we
eventually got back into production. Umso, so I guess it was already
a year and a half since youknow, the pandemic had started. Um
but it was just so joyous.The weather was great and everyone was just

(35:43):
so happy, and I you know, ironically it felt so retro. It
felt retro because we had just beenin quarantine, you know, Knox some
people, and all of a sudden, now we're in this like carnival like
the old days. Yeah, exactly, exactly a part where it was it
was just fantastic. I mean,everyone was in such a great mood.

(36:05):
Everyone had a great time, andit was a long day. Oh my
god, this was probably like aneighteen hour day. I can imagine,
um for Coney Island. Yeah wow. Um but you know, and also
I just want put an asterisk.You know, obviously everyone tested, They
were really good with testing, soyou know, plus was outside anyway,
you know, so you know,so everything was like fine and but anyway,

(36:29):
but going back to that wonder,so the whole beginning part, that's
a complete you know wonder where they'regoing around and I basically was the last,
you know, one of the lastpeople at the end of that wonder
and you do not want to bethat mess up at the end of like
a really long, complicated Oh mygod, so much pressure. And the

(36:52):
way that this was done again,there's like all these extras were really in
Equiney Island. The rides are going, it's all loud, so I couldn't
see or hear what, you know, what the group was saying. So
there was a PA crouched down byme and she so she heard all the

(37:12):
dialogue. She was hearing it.So then when it was time we timed
it first, we rehearsed it,we timed it out, so when it
was time for me to run,she hugged down my skirt and then I
was like, frogger. I hadto, like, you know, through
all these extras who were just kindof you know, walking and doing their
thing, you know, being youknow, being an amusement part, and
I had to time it. Ihad to time in exactly. So when

(37:35):
Tony finished his line, I runup with the camera and you know,
and I say my line with theyou know, funny pony rides and stuff
whatever, you know, that linewas and again that like, I feel
like out of all those years,all five seasons, to me, that
was personally the hardest moment to doagain just because of also the logistics of

(37:58):
it, but also the pressure.Yeah I'm saying and everything like that.
Yeah, yeah, I have toI have to again pen myself on the
back. I did not mess up. Oh my god. Yes, yeah,
an iconic scene too, so itdefinitely paid off. Yeah, Austin,

(38:19):
it was like I said, itwas a great day. It was
a great, great day. Ohman. I can imagine and all of
you coming out and and like youwere saying, after the pandemic and everything,
everyone's just and lord knows it tooklong enough for amusement parks too,
only just recently get back to kindof semi normal, although it will never
be normal again, like those daysare going. You know, everything is
different when it comes to a bunchof people being in one place together.

(38:43):
So I can imagine how special andlike magical that must have felt for everything.
That's a great word. It wasmagical. And like I said,
we all felt it. We allfelt it. Yeah, just just happy
to be there and like, yeah, pretending that things are normal. Yeah,
yeah, that's a great. Well, Okay, we have another question
from our listener, Moss hollow Hillon Instagram, and she says, I'm

(39:07):
curious what she was able to bringto Amy and Dan in order to bring
Zelda to life. Was it allscripted or did she have any input that
made it onto the show? Shewas absolutely brilliant. Her book reminded me
of something that Leslie Knopp would haveor nope, would have made she says,
distant ancestor perhaps. And I justwanted to add to that, like

(39:28):
on working with Dan and Amy,just what in general? What were they
like as directors? They're notorious forfitting a ton of dialogue into a very
short scene. So was that difficultto keep up with? Like the pace?
Did it take time to adjust allof these things? We want to
know? Oh, so many questions? Yea begin Well, first of all,

(39:50):
well, the script is the script, like meaning the text and for
working on Mazel so Amy's notorious foruh and I completely agree with her.
Um, you cannot change a word, like everything has to be letter perfect.
So I guess the answer for what'sthe most difficult thing is to make

(40:16):
sure that you when you memorize thescript, that you when you memorize your
lines, that it had to beletter perfect. And I mean, like
you know, we would there'd beyou know, a cut, we'd stop
and the script girl come over.Um, I'm sorry, but you said
A. And it's the like itwas that specific. And again I'm all

(40:38):
for it because there's a reason whywriters write specific words down. There's a
reason why she wrote the instead ofA. You know what I mean,
Like, um, I think soit makes it feel so kind of almost
musical at times, and it iswell and also it's like dance too,

(41:00):
and that's Amy's background, Um isdance. And there was a lot of
choreography and that's that's that's perfectly putlike there's definitely the way we moved,
especially for those wonders, like itwas all you know, it's all choreographed,
you know, and same thing,like there's a musicality to the words
to the dialogue. Absolutely, um. But so in terms of then you

(41:21):
know what did I bring um,Well, they started writing Zelda for me
um and made her Polish. Sooriginally she wasn't Polish. Um. The
breakdown originally said that she was like, you know, Eastern European, like
a generic you know what I mean. And so a lot of people were

(41:42):
like auditioning, you know, forher. But then once I ended up
getting cast, it was just sowonderful and lovely for them to then start
incorporating the fact that I'm Polish andI can speak Polish, um. And
you know, they started doing that. I think it was the first time
I spoke Polish was at that thatother Young Kapoor dinner scene. I think
it was season three, I think, yeah, so, and then then

(42:05):
they continued on with that. Um. So that was that was really great.
And then so, you know,I feel like actors in general,
um bring in their mannerisms, likeyou know, how a character moves through
space, um. And one ofthe things I had decided for Zelda was
that she how she moved, likeshe moved quickly, and because she had

(42:27):
no time, she doesn't have timefor anything, like she has so many
things to do. She's cooking this, she's cooking that, she's got to
clean this, like just no time, you know, And and I so
I That's how I decided to likemove her. And at one point,
um, I think it was seasontwo, I hear Dan from the other
room go, okay, so forthis take Matilda, not so Zelda fast.

(42:49):
So he had coined this phrase Zeldafast, and I loved it.
I was like, oh my God, like the fact of course he you
know, notice because you know,he's a direct dirt and he was,
you know, but both him andeighty and but I just thought I was
absolutely fantastic then because I was like, that's right, because I made that
choice to have her move through lifeand through space in a very quick manner.

(43:16):
So usate yeah and uh and soI don't know this would be part
of you know, answering this questionor not. But you know, the
I based her on. One ofone of the people I based her on
was when I was in high school, I worked in this a Lithuanian restaurant
called Toupe was like hole in awall um on the south side of Chicago

(43:38):
Market Park on Lithuanian Plaza. Andthe cook who worked in the restaurant,
she was Polish and she moved sofast in the kitchen, and I mean
I was so afraid like she wasgoing to chop a finger off because she
was just like using all these bigblades and she's just you know, doing
this and doing that. I waslike, oh my god, And that's

(44:00):
I thought of her. When Igot cast of Zelda, I thought of
her. I was like, oh, okay, I think I think this
is how Zelda would move through lifeas well, just really fast because she
doesn't have time for anything and shehas so much stuff to do. And
then the accent is I thought ofmy mom. I would I would look
at my lines since I was memorizingthem, and think, how would my

(44:21):
mom say this word or this line? Um, because yeah, my mom
has like a releasing accent. Sothat's actually past. That's It's one of
our questions from Thomas Smith. Wantedto know how did she go about portraying
a housekeeper in the sixties. Hasshe ever had domestic help herself? So
you kind of are answering that already, and that was well, go ahead,

(44:43):
go ahead, go ahead. No, I was gonna say. One
of the things I picked up onUM with from your interview with Kevin Pollock
was that your mother actually did theMidge Mazel makeup routine and I was wondering
how you she used her as aninfluence, if she's at all like Zelda,
or if who you used for youryour Zelda. No, my my
my mom is definitely not Zelda.My my mom idolized Marilyn Monroe, So

(45:08):
she definitely, she definitely is notZelda. I mean she's no, I
mean she, I mean she is. And that that's just how you grew
up, you know, and that'sjust how you were, you know,
Like she always made you know,dinners from scratch every single night, like
meat and potatoes, soups. Imean, she did it all, you

(45:28):
know, and um, because that'sjust what was expected of her, you
know. And the you know,same thing with them, And she was
so afraid to have after they gotmarried. She was so afraid of my
dad seeing her without makeup and andand I told Amy, I went up
and I told Amy, when youknow, after I saw that that she
put it in the script, Iwas just like, Amy, oh my
god, I gotta tell you mymom did that. And I almost fell

(45:49):
out of my chair. And Amy'sjust like, that's right, that is
idol because we all thought that thatwas oh, how far fetched is that?
And like to hear people. Alot of people come out with these
stories. He's like, Yo,that was real, that's like taken from
life. I'm like, man,life was different. Yeah, I can't
imagine. No, but I mean, okay, So to answer, um,

(46:10):
it was you said Tom? Itwas Thomas. Yes, you're not
good. You're like just remembering thesethings. I say it one little time
and you're on it. Um HiThomas so Thomas. Uh No, I
definitely did not have domestic help.Um I was a domestic help. One
would say, I've I've kater waiteredand was a waitress for so many years.

(46:32):
I actually started kater watering when Iwas thirteen. I got paid under
the table. Um. Wow.So and yeah, I just just many
many, many many years of that. And what's funny is um going back
to that first Yan Kapoor scene thatWonner. So I was serving soup and

(46:53):
it took hours and hours and hoursand hours because you know, once you
do the master that Wonner, thenyou have coverage, but then everyone still
has to do what they're doing,you know, to even with the coverage,
and the details are not skimped onMazel at all. So I had
it was a real you know,heavy ceramic bowl or whatever I was holding,

(47:14):
and it was real soup in there. And so I was for hours.
I was going and like lading soupfrom person to person to you know
person around the table. And Ididn't spill a drop. I was this
all perfection. And Dan goes tome, thank you. And Dan goes
to me, I have to ask, do you have a you know,

(47:35):
waitress experience? And I said tohim, I'm like I was. I
started catering when I was thirteen.And he goes, it shows in his
dryway, and I was just butand again he noticed that detail. But
you know, that's not something Ihave to tell you. That's not something
that was in the original breakdown.It's not like they said, looking for
an actress who actually has you know, waitress experience. That wasn't in there

(47:57):
at all, because I don't rememberit being, you know, so um,
it just it just happens to bemeant to me. Yeah, sure,
the perfect actor for the perfect partthose dinner scenes. Like that's something
I feel like the Palladinos do sowell because in Filmore Girls, the family
dinner scenes and then throughout Mazel anytimeyou have all of these characters around a

(48:23):
table. It's like dynamite. It'sso entertaining, like the chemists real though,
and it's real, you know,because it's like you, you know,
you have your own like family dinners, and that's what people do.
You know, that's what happened to. People get into arguments, people talk
over each other, all the stuffhappens. What do you mean no one
told me that what's going on here? You know, at these like holiday

(48:45):
you know, gatherings and all thisstuff comes out, and yeah, there
does. They did such a greatjob. It feels family scenes, very
authentic, like you can tell howall of you get along and how there's
this mutual fact for not only eachother, but for the writing and for
the directing. Like it's just it'spalpable on screen. And I think that's

(49:07):
what makes the show almost addictive,Like people keep rewatching and rewatching, and
I don't think that's gonna stop.No, nope, Like, yeah,
it's a it's a classic and it'sand you're right, it was. It
was a whole It was a biglove fest. I'm not gonna lie.
Like we all got along so well. Everyone was like so nice and across
the board too. Cast and crew, you know, and we all treated,

(49:28):
like you said, we all treatedeach other with respect and which is
super important. And it was justsuch a collaboration, you know, it
really was such a collaboration with allof us together. That actually leads into
perfectly into our next little cluster ofquestions here all about other how you know
you're dynamic with the other actors,and how you guys got along. Yeah.

(49:50):
So okay, Erica, go aheadand read that one from Joyce.
Weinstock. Yeah, so Joyce wantedto know. She just mentioned what a
beautifully acted and hilarious performance that wasconsistent from the big getting. She wanted
to know how many times did herlines make her make people laugh during filming
of a scene and had to bedone over She's she said, I'm watching
for the second time from the beginning, catching so much more from her than

(50:13):
I did the first go around.You have to be able to take your
eye off Susie midgem Rose to catchsome of her lines. But she is
so funny. Yeah, she's right, thank you, thank you so much.
Um, Well, there's I mean, there's definitely plenty of times where
we're trying so hard not to breakcharacter, you know, across the board
one of those things that pops intomy head, not necessarily my line particularly

(50:37):
um but the episode, I thinkit was season four, were Susie staying
over and she stays over late,so Zelda stays late because she wants to
wash the one cup and the oneplate you know Susie's using. Yeah,
and so it's in the hallway.So it's me, um Mar and Rachel
and Tony and when we were whenwe were rehearsing it, when we're rehearsing

(51:02):
it, and then we started shootingit like we were, we were talking
quietly, but we were still talkingat you know, using our like regular
voice, like a louds No,that's no, It wasn't whisper at all.
Yeah, it was like that's whereI'm getting loud, That's where I'm
getting too. So we weren't.We weren't doing that yet. So then
then Amy's direction was, I wantyou guys to whisper loud but loudly,

(51:27):
but don't you know not you're you'renot using your regular voice, which is
what we were all doing, justtalking quietly as Oh my god, that
direction just changed everything. It madeit so much funnier and we just all
lost, all four of us justwe had, you know, tears streaming
down our faces because we just startedlaughing. And it's just one of those
moments too, like once you startlike you just you have to you know,

(51:51):
wait, and and Amy's like it'sokay, I'll you know, I'll
wait. I'll wait till you getyour yaya's out. Well wait, you
know, we roll again, becauseit's like every single time we started,
one of us would like start likecracking up again. Like it was just
one of those moments. There's somethingabout that that is so funny, what
like a loud whisper it because itdefeats the entire purpose of what you're trying

(52:13):
to do. And it was theabsurdity of what you guys were saying.
You know, the lines are justso absurdly funny. But that but that
direction, it just it just itwas just a little subtle, tweak and
it just changed ourselves. Yeah,and well then the other and the other
um scene where I didn't make enoughsquash and I was like crying again.

(52:39):
Another family dinner and so um.So this was during like rehearsals um and
then I'm in the kitchen and Iover here you know, ABE say,
you know, is there any moresquash and you know, and then Zelda
goes ah. Every single every singletime I did that, Kevin Pollock would

(52:59):
laugh and I was like, yes, I make cass, you know,
but I yeah. So that wasthat's another moment that you know, comes
to mind. So that's that wasone of my favorite Zelda moments was when
you said, I'm just so happy. Yeah I came back. Yeah right,

(53:21):
I got to come back and we'rein with the family again. Yeah.
I get the sense that, likeif I were to ask Zelda,
you know, it's not that she'snot happy with Yanusha. It's not that
she doesn't totally see yan Nusha's pointthat like, really you gotta break ties
with these people already, like they'rekind of sucking you. They're sucking the
life out of you. Here,it's kind of like Zelda enjoys the being
sucked. She's like, but they'remy family, you know. I feel

(53:43):
like Zelda's I don't know if I'mif I may be so bold here as
to uh as to think of whatZelda might be thinking, um like getting
married, moving out of the house. But then still occasionally, like in
her perfect world, maybe going backa couple times a week to check in,
make sure that every thing is okay, make sure all the dishes are
being done, make sure that they're'sbecause they're all kind of like her children.

(54:05):
Yeah yeah, pretty much pretty much, and in the children themselves,
you know, yes, you know, and then even one generation back she
raised Midge, right, yeah,you know, I have no doubt.
I have no doubt that you know, they mostly And again I'm just this
is me saying this. I haveno idea, um, what Amy was
thinking or this was definitely not writtendown anywhere. You know, I'm pretty

(54:29):
sure that she's been there for youknow, many many years and um,
and definitely you know when Midge wasum much younger for sure. You know,
reference like the boy that used toclimb out of your window or something.
Yes, yeah, like she losethe yeah climbs you don't know.

(54:50):
Well, no, that was thatthat reference was for was for Joel because
there was that one episode after theybroke up, but they're still kind of
hooking up. Oh yeah, yeah, you know, and Zella knows everything.
So that wasn't That wasn't about herbeing a teenager. That was about
like literally oh two weeks ago.But yeah, but even still the way
that the way that you talked toMidge, it give gives this sense that

(55:14):
you've comforted her before. There thereis like a familiarity there, you know.
Oh yeah, absolutely, like Zeldaknows everything. Zelda knows everything,
especially in that in that moment toowhen he does sleep over, um,
when they already have separated, youknow, and and that scene where you
know, Midge just like oh whateverwhatever this and that you know, everything's

(55:35):
fine. The parents are totally clueless, and then the scene ends with me
like Zelda's like totally staring at herand she's like what and you know,
like Zelda just knows. Zelda knowsthat, you know, Joel was in
her bedroom and spent the night becauseshe just knows everything. Yeah. Yeah,
nothing gets fast, Zelda exactly,that's true. Let's see. Our

(55:55):
next question is from Micheline Maynard,and she said, please ask her how
she liked working with Alexander Jim andYanni who played Yanush. He's such a
big dare I say, hammy personality? Did they have fun? Oh?
He was fantastic. He's so talented, fantastic, he was so incredibly fantastic.

(56:16):
And just for so everyone knows,he does not speak Polish. He
does not speak any language for thatmatter. While he did, yes,
and he did such a fantastic joband um and speaking Polish and he and
he was really nervous about it.Um. I cannot I cannot get over

(56:38):
this, the fact that that mandid not We all assumed every I don't.
I don't think there was one personwho would have thought that he didn't.
He was not fluent in Polish.I mean, truly, this is
this is mind boggling to hear.So boy, I just keep telling him,
I kept telling him on set.I'm just like relaxed because I'm telling
right now, as a Polish person, you're doing a pretty damn good job.
Yeah. So and then you know, and then they had UM a

(57:02):
lot of times, not every time, but they would have these really large
que cards for him with the wordsspelled out phonetically. UM. That would
be like behind my head, offto the side or whatever. Um.
And then a lot of it wasyou know, also fixed during a dr
so that you know, that helpedas well, um to match you know,

(57:22):
to mash that up. But yeah, I thought, you know,
he's just so incredibly talented and I'mgonna, you know, say something and
you guys are probably not gonna believebecause I don't think it's even in the
credits. But in that Garbage musical, Um, seeing that I can't remember
what episode that was, it wasobviously the season um where they do that.
It's that industrial or whatever, thatconference whatever, that Garbageman musical.

(57:45):
He plays the old man. He'sthe old man, and that I love
that so much. That's I know, it's crazy fantastic. How did that
end up happening? Did Did theypurposely cast him as the old man?
That suck? No? No,no, no, I'll tell you.
And this is a lesson for actorstoo. So UM, a lot of

(58:05):
times when we have the table readsfor that episode, a number of people,
a lot of the characters, uhlike the day players and whatnot are
not cast yet, so we alllike double up or triple up those characters,
and we hadn't you know, wehave a lot of fun with them,
you know, because it's obviously we'renever gonna play these characters. We're
you know, just doing it becausethey haven't actually cast these actors. And

(58:30):
that's the most fun part of atable read. I imagine you know,
that's fun. So it's just somuch fun. Yeah, because all of
a sudden, you're like, you'renot being your character, You're just you
could just have fun with you know, all these other you like back in
back in acting class or something.Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, so
he read at the table read forthe garbage Man, and Amy loved it

(58:52):
so much, Oh my gosh thatshe was just like, we can't you
know, because they were they were, you know, holding auditions for it.
They're just like, we can't findthe right person to play this role.
But you were so hysterical after tableread. Do you want to do
it? We would love to haveyou do it? And he was like
okay, and that, you know, that was it. And then so
he ended up you know, filmingthat as well. He did a fantastic

(59:15):
job. That was so good.And that's that's not the first time that
Amy and Dan have done that.On Gilmore Girls. I think it's a
year in the life. The actorwho plays um Gypsy randomly played the housekeeper,
Emily's housekeeper, and I would justremember wondering, like, why the
hell is she in this weird costume? And no one's acknowledging that it's Gypsy,

(59:37):
and I had to look it up. And the story behind it is
she killed at the table read becauseshe stepped in when they hadn't cast the
part yet, and everyone just wasin stitches from her performance. And I
guess it's one of those things wherelike when you know, when you hear
it, you know it's right.And Amy heard m Alexander read that old
man and she's like, that's it. No one's going to do better than

(59:57):
that. You gotta be him.Yeah, I mean he was perfect.
I mean we were like in stitchesat the Taylor Race. I never've known.
I never would have known that washim. It gave him like a
wig, you know, I think, you know, in a hat.
And I think he had glasses ontoo. Yeah oh yeah, um but
um but yeah, but I think, I mean he looked great, like
for Yanush, he was like,he looked perfect. He looked perfect for

(01:00:20):
the role. Um. And he'sobviously super talented too. But um.
I had actually asked the casting director, so Anne Davison, um, who
works with Sidney Tolin, who areyou know the the New York City,
you know, casting office for MaizelAnd I asked her, did you actually
see poland you know, Polish actors, like real Polish actors for Yanush,

(01:00:43):
because obviously Alex, you know,is in Polish. So I was just
I was wondering what the background Wasn'tthat just out of my own curiosity,
And she said, yeah, weyou know, we saw some Polish actors.
But she goes honestly, in thebreakdown it clearly said this actor will
not have to speak Polish, theyjust have to do an Eastern European accent.

(01:01:04):
And so she said that, youknow, that obviously widened the search,
you know, and you know,and Alex came in, and you
know, Alex, obviously I thinkhe looks the He was just perfect for
it, right accents and everything.And after he was cast and after we
started shooting, then Amy started writingthe Polish for him because and also what

(01:01:25):
maybe a lot of people the listenersdon't know, is now that the writer's
strike is going on. The reasonwhy, like a lot of places are
like down, production is down becausefor TV, you you don't write every
all the episodes in like say January, and then shoot everything for the next
eight months. They write each episodeas the year progresses, as production progresses,

(01:01:49):
so she started writing in the Polishas you know, as the season
went on, and he was like, wait what what what what you know?
Wait hold on a second. He'slike, you know, I don't
I can't do this. Oh mygod. She's like, yes you can,
Yes you can. I trust Itrust you can, you know?
And he did. Obviously he did. Yeah, and again he did a
fantastic job to imagine that as anactor, to imagine that, like the

(01:02:13):
script all of a sudden becoming somethingcompletely different, like you have to speak
beforeign language and Polish is not aneasy language, no pressure think I think.
I think the top three hardest languagesare. It's like Chinese, Japanese,
and Polish. And I can onlyimagine like Polish letters there are a
lot of them, and their wordsare not short. The Q cards must

(01:02:34):
have been massive in order to fitall of those. Well, I mean
to write it phonetically, right,I mean, which kind of a yeah,
that's yeah, that's just impressive.I mean I will say too,
Like we talked about the facial expressionsof Zelda throw in there. Oh it
was comedic gold, Like I reallythought we had great chemistry, Like it

(01:02:58):
was just perfect cast. I reallydo feel really it's like perfect casting.
And he it's a great guys ashimself as as an aside, like we
totally got along and he's a reallyreally very friendly, very super nice,
like down to earth guy. Awesome. That was such a good addition to
this season. It really was perfect. Yep, yep. If if if

(01:03:20):
I could have made like a seasonfive wish list, it would have been
like, give Zelda a man andmake him hilarious, and they delivered like
it was seriously, my Zelda dreamscame true when that when he came on
the screen, I was like,yes, so it didn't not Yeah,
yeah right, it's just like,yes, this fantastic storyline. Yes,
yes, oh yes, you guysare perfect together, Alexander. Man,

(01:03:43):
hats off to you, my friends. Damn damn, fine job you've done.
Man. Yeah, all right,So we have another question from you
for you from Liz Todd. Shewanted to ask which cast member that you
most enjoyed visiting the craft table with. And oh, such a good question.
Okay, uh well I guess thatwould have to be Man. I

(01:04:04):
knew it. Yes, yeah,we really, she's so nice, she's
so sweet, kind of my favoritekind of just a little wonderful yes,
um, yeah, we we wedefinitely hit it off. We became friends
and it's yeah, she's just sucha wonderful lady and wonderful person. And

(01:04:28):
yeah we would you know, sneakout and why shouldn't say sneak out,
but you know, like when theywere like turning the camera around and uh,
we'd go over to crafty and wewould do that you know, sweet
and salty usually like we we getour favorite was Pringles and Doritos and um,
and then would put it like acup of like a paper cup of
those like little Hershey's kisses that kissessorry, those like um miniature those like

(01:04:53):
many baby chocolate bars, special darkyou know yeah. Um. And then
we would like bring that back towhere we were set up in the house,
like one of the one of therooms in the house was always um
where the cast chairs were, rightokay, like wherever we weren't filming,
right right, it's so cool likeyour your green room, I love that

(01:05:15):
exactly our green room. But itwas like on set though, right right,
you know, like it was justin a room that we weren't shooting
using that day. Oh man,it's so nice to think about you and
Marin having this like lovely friendship withthe Zelda and Rose having such an interesting
relationship. It just makes me happy. Oh she's just lovely, you know.
And I'm gonna I'm gonna share astory with you. And I shared

(01:05:36):
the story. I just shared iton Kevin Pollock's podcast, and I've shared
it before, but I'm gonna shareit again because um it's just like no,
sorry, well you're gonna say.And when I heard it, I
was like, that is my Marin. I just she's she's so lovely to
you tell it, go for it. Um. So it was the pilot.
So we were shooting the pilot andfor those of you who don't know,

(01:05:58):
it was shot in a real apartmentu here in New York City on
like one hundred and twelfth the riversidedry, like at someone's real apartment,
and so like, oh so muchof their furniture was just all just stuck
into the kitchen because we weren't shootingin the kitchen at least that day.
So there's just like all this stuff, so there's no room for us to

(01:06:20):
go to actually stand in the kitchen, except like right in the doorframe,
and we had to but we hadto come, both me and Martin had
to. We're coming out of thekitchen on our queue to walk into the
hallway. So we were just reallyback to back, like really just our
bodies were up against each other.And I was standing in front of her

(01:06:43):
because I was the one who wassupposed to I was supposed to walk in
first. And I was so nervousand I took this like really deep breath
to try to calm myself down becausethis is like, this is the very
first scene, this is the pilot, you know, and I was just
like, oh my god, Iwho I don't mess up. And she
felt let me take that breath,like she could tell I was nervous,

(01:07:04):
and she put her hand on myback and started rubbing it and said into
my ear, she whispered, leanedin and whisper into my ear, don't
worry. You'll be great, You'llbe fantastic. And it was just such
a wonderful, generous moment, notyou know, not just as an actor,

(01:07:27):
but also as a human being.Yeah, to just that moment was
just so beautiful and I was like, wow, that is just so lovely
of her to have done that.It really is, because sometimes it's all
you need as an actor is likejust one other person to believe in you
in that moment, because you know, it's it's kind of a make it
or break it thing, like youall want this to go forward, you
all want this to be to goahead. You know, this is it's

(01:07:50):
like a magical opportunity and when itcomes down to your part and you're just
thinking, I don't want to blowit. I don't want to blow it.
I don't want to be the onewho blows it. And for her
to catch on to that, youknow, it's just it was, Yeah,
it was just a beautiful moment.Like I said, it was just
you know the pilot, you know, yeah, my very first you know,

(01:08:12):
seeing after being cast and it wasyeah, and then you know,
and then we just our relationship justcontinued on and got better and better,
like you know, we got closeras the as the years went on.
And she's just a wonderful person.She really is obviously a fantastic actress as
well, I should mention she's absolutelyfantastic. I loved working with her.
M But you know, even likeI said, even just like as a

(01:08:33):
person, she's just really lovely.And Kevin has said I've heard him say
in interviews that, like someone askedwho who gets the most nervous or something
like along those lines, and hesaid, well, I think that Marin
is the hardest on herself, Likeshe's always the one who puts like a
lot of pressure on herself. Soit's like she could sense that someone else
was having like a moment of doubtor like a moment of nervousness, and

(01:08:55):
she just was like, I knowexactly what that's like, and you know,
reached out in that moment. SoI love Lauren Hankle. I love
her so much. Oh she's wonderful. And it jumps off the screen that
you guys are, that you guysare good friends. You know, the
scenes with Rose and Zelda and Zeldaand Abe. I almost said Tony but
Zelda and Abe that that was someof the best, Like just it was

(01:09:19):
so palpable how much they valued Zeldaand how much you all clicked even off
screen. And that kind of leadsinto our next question. There were a
couple of people Rochelle Atienza and SabrinaIs it Mike, Yeah, mean one
of those Mekan both asked what wasit like working with Tony Shaloub today?

(01:09:43):
We love honey, Tony Shaloub isseriously a national treasure. I mean,
like legit, legit. It waswonderful. I mean we just have such
a We had such a great rapportjust on and off camera. He's just
such a wonderful person. He's sucha great guy. Um and yeah,
we just had the best chemistry,like I said, m on and off

(01:10:04):
camera, and he I just loveI'll just say and I say this in
that like every single in an interview. I love how Amy already established from
the pilot the love flash nemesis relationshipbetween Abe and Zelda, and it just
continued on like throughout, like thethrough line throughout all the seasons. And

(01:10:28):
I just think that's fantastic. Anduh yeah, I mean seriously like watching
Tony work, it's it was Ifelt like I was in a masterclass in
comedy every day. It was justamazing. And I should also add,
you know, I mean everyone's obviouslywonderful, but you know Tony, and
I'll say you know Kevin obviously aswell. You know, it really was
it was just like a masterclass incomedy and you know, they're all just

(01:10:51):
so supportive and also very like Isaid before, you know, everyone's collaborative.
You know, so there was youknow, he might give a tip
saying, you know, oh Iwas you know, thinking maybe you know,
if you try this, it mightbe you know, a little bit
funnier. Um And again I'm notabout it. It wasn't about actors directing

(01:11:11):
other actors, because I'm against that, But it wasn't about that. It
was again this um environment where thereis all this collaboration going on and we
all helped each other. It waslike this big support group, you know.
Or it's like and even even ifsomeone was you know, couldn't get
you know, their lines, thatkept messing up their lines. You know,

(01:11:31):
everyone was just like you know,and including you know, you know
Amy, it's like, don't worryabout it, We'll just do it again.
Don't worry about it. Fantastic,like like no one need no There
was no yelling, there was noscreaming, there was no anger, there
was no stress, like it wasall the stress would always just come from
the actors themselves being like you mentionedpart on yourself, like oh my god,
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorryor about it. Don't even say

(01:11:54):
sorry, Let's just do it again. Yeah, but you know, it
just sounds like such a ducive environmentfor creativity, like absolutely common. Yes,
like if you're comfortable enough and youknow that everybody's got this mutual respect
like that's just it's magical on thisshow. And I just I will say

(01:12:15):
that word over and over again,like there was something magic happening on that
set. It seems like and dareI say marvelous marvelous? Yeah, And
I think you know, Alex Borsonsaid this before in interviews. Um,
I think the phrase that she used, I mean I was using magic in
a bottle before, but I thinkthe correct phrase of phrases lightlightning in a

(01:12:36):
bottle, Yeah, lightning in abottle where it's like this this show was
just so special and we all knewit. We all knew it. Everybody
cast and crew are like, andthis is not normal at all. This
is exactly it's not normal. Thisis not normal. Yeah. Um,
it was just it was Yeah,it was so it was magical. It

(01:12:57):
really was magical. When I needto spin off or a movie exactly seriously,
if if like the world's collective willpower could will a spin off into
existence. It would, it wouldexist already, I swear. I mean
we're all wanting it. I'm sureyou guys are too. I've heard every
every actor say like, hey,spin off, reboot, uh movie like

(01:13:17):
trilogy, I'm in, Like everyone'sin because you guys love working together.
Yeah, absolutely, like it was, Yeah, it was. It was
hands down the best job I've everhad. It was fantastic. And you
know, and back to you know, back to Tony. I just want
to say really quick that I feellike, in general overall, um,
a lot of my favorite moments onthe show was working with Tony, like

(01:13:40):
having those moments like Abe and Zelda. Yeah, And there were so many
times where going back to that otherquestion about breaking like breaking character, there
are so many times where like Tonynow will be looking each other, you
know, like saying our lines,and I could see his eyes like he
was like trying so hard not tobreak and I was trying so hard to
not to break it he saw metrying, you know, Like it was

(01:14:01):
just so much fun. That wasjust so much fun. When when all
the Nikes is like looking at oneanother, and yeah, it makes you
you know exactly what the other person'sthinking. Like there are some people like
that in the world either or youjust have to give them a look.
And you guys are like that,I don't don't make me laugh. No,
we just had such a great rapportum with each other. And you

(01:14:23):
know, I have to say,like, growing up, I watched the
you know, Carol Burnutt Show,and I love that show. Obviously a
lot of people did and um theybroke, you know, they they broke
all the time, you know,in characters because they just thought that you
know, what they were doing andsaying was just like so funny. And
I remember thinking as a kid,like, God, that looks like the
best job ever. And I justI feel like I'm so lucky because I

(01:14:47):
was able to experience that by beingon MESAL and working with such wonderful people
and having such a you know,fun and funny environment to be in.
I can imagine it's like pinched me, is this is this my job?
Right? Exactly? I love howappreciative you guys are of it too,

(01:15:08):
because every actor has said it onany interview I've heard. It never is
unsaid that you guys are always umlike this isn't probably never going to happen
again, and I'm aware of it. And for that reason, we all
savored every right, and that's alsowhy we're also you know, extra upset
that you know, we went,you know, five seasons versus more.

(01:15:31):
Yeah, you know, obviously fiveseasons. It's nothing to sneeze at.
We I am, and I knowall of us are very grateful for the
five seasons, you know, especiallyfor streaming. Usually you get like two
or three, right, you know, so five is a lot. But
you know, but because it's youknow, it's so special across the board.
Um, you know, we didn'twant to go anywhere. We just

(01:15:51):
wanted to have the matchup keep going. Well. I mean, our podcast
is doing its part. We're all, you know, we're just going to
keep that masal Love going. We'renot going to shut up about it.
It's not going away. So hopefullywith all of the noise that we're making
over here and our listeners, youknow, I mean, we're just going
to write some strongly worded letters toAmazon and be like, you know,

(01:16:14):
you guys, I've had yeah,I've had enough of the of the superhero
nonsense. Please bring back nas youknow, or else I will cancel my
subscription. Yeah, Zoda is asuperhero hero in her own room for real.
Absolutely, that's the kind of superheroI'm interested in. Give me that
comic book. Yes, oh mygosh, should be great. I don't

(01:16:35):
Karen, you and I just hadthis. Oh my gosh, can that
exist? Please? Pastic yes InAustin. Austin talked about he has a
comic book that this is fantastic,that should be an interesting thought to put
out in the universe. Yes,and since Matilda is an artist and a
writer, she could do that.Yes, Oh my gosh, I'm so

(01:16:57):
in on this. I will fundthis a little. The comic book,
yes, yes, you know.Its way for people to learn Polish too,
right. Yeah, you guys rememberthose Amelia Bedelia books like that,
that housekeeper that would like come in, you know, kind of sh like
a Mary poppinsy kind of Yeah,I'm seeing I'm feeling Zelda for that.
Yeah, but Zelda's more sassier andwe'll, oh yeah, tell you how

(01:17:19):
it is. Oh yeah, shewants she wants. But instead of instead
of an umbrella though, like MaryPalm pat I would have a pin roller.
Yeah. Yes, yeah, I'mnot you know she she'll kill the

(01:17:40):
superhero with some forced you know.It's like, yeah, you guys,
I think I think we're onto somethinghere. It's gold. It's gold.
Okay. So there were a coupleof things about the whole about all the
polish of it all. And sobefore we get into our question our listener
questions about this, I just wantto play you guys a couple of things.

(01:18:02):
One moment he's been bringing a fewtimes. Okay, So what'd you
say there? Oh, that's actuallya pretty bad polish. You can say
it. We are an explicit podcast. You can say it is true.

(01:18:26):
I mean, I guess the equivalentwould be just like fuck this, like
something along those lines, like itwas yeah, okay, like director,
there's not like no real like rightization, but it's like it's you know,
bad. You know, a lotof the a lot of the polish swear
words that I say, a lotof it's like the same and it's a

(01:18:47):
lot of the stuff that my youknow, my mom would say, my
grandma would say it, and itwas good. It was specific for the
time period for Zelda too. Umand that's wholetta and the whole phrase is
holatta yasna and that really just meanslike damn it, like damn right,
so you know, not not reallylike bad bat you know bat swear word.

(01:19:09):
But I will tell you, um, because this speaks volumes, so
holata, I'm gonna smell it.C h O L E r A.
So what does that spell? Andthat's literally like what that's what the cholera?
So it would be like god ifif if all of a sudden,

(01:19:30):
covid um people start saying covid like, oh my gosh, you know it
seems appropriate though, like right,but I'm just saying it like the fact
that, oh my god, that'slike they had you know, the collar
was so bad, Yeah, hundredsof years ago. That's like it became
a swarm word. So interesting,and I yeah, I just I love

(01:19:53):
that kind of stuff. I wouldnot be surprised if covid became that for
us. Um, Okay, herehere's the fun not now Zelda. That
was the first time Zelda ever spokePolish, right, that's the junk of
our dinner. Yeah, that wasn'tthe first Polish like it was earlier in
the scene. But yes, thatepisode is the first time that I spoke

(01:20:14):
Polish. And um, I'm basicallyyelling at my minions and everything like that.
And that is something also that mymom would say um, and it's
the same thing like um kind ofmeans like damn it. You know.
Again it's not like really like thatbad, but they're really again is like
they're like direct translation. It's aboutlike you're you're kind of saying like the

(01:20:36):
blood of the chicken almost chicken.Like there's no like what I'm saying.
You know, it's like lost intranslation, but it just kind of means
like damn it um And toya stdupe literally means I'll tell the little translation
is like this is for the butt, like this is like dupa means like
ass, you know, like it'slike so like toya st dupe is like

(01:21:00):
this is just like this is youknow, just like for the ass.
This is the shit this is butno, this is the ship in English
means good. That's a positive thing. This is it's a good thing that
this is not what this is notwhat shit or something or something like that
ass or something like yeah, exactly, but it's even more than that.

(01:21:21):
Yes, I guess you could saypaying the ass. This is probably the
closest, but it's not a severeit's a little but it's like a little
bit even more than that, Right, it's like like the fact that you
know this is just so stupid thatit's just like, um, it's just
yeah, it's for the ass.I don't know how else to say it.
That that clip just reminded me ofI know what my favorite Zelda moment

(01:21:45):
is. It's, Um, it'sthe when you can come in and and
because Midge keeps saying no, notnow, not now, not, and
you're trying to bring the dinner andyou're like, I spend all of my
day cooking this meal and it's justsitting there turning to nothing the way that
you said that. I fucking diedthe first time I saw that, because
that was pretty early on in theshow. That was that was first season,
right, no second season? Thatwas when does Midge come out?

(01:22:12):
Second? I think that's a secondI think it's a second season too.
Yeah, and uh yeah that Iremember like the first time I watched it
with my mama. We loved watchingthe show together and we both just like
had to pause it because we hadwe laughed so hard. We love the
way that you deliver those like Iwas just happy then Zelda said, spoke
her mind and told y, yeah, it's like every now and then.

(01:22:35):
It was just so unexpected out ofnowhere. You know. The Zelda just
blows up like that because she hadnever done that before at that pot show.
Yeah, was sitting there dirting tonothing. Oh I love I love
imitating hum until that's like my favorite. I do it on the podcast.
You make it look so fun,You make it look so fun. Okay,

(01:22:58):
So about the pole is Melanie Brown, one of our listeners, says,
I am part Polish and I grewup speaking to my grandma. My
grandma spoke it mostly when angry,and I suspect it was a great many
curse words that she didn't want youngMelanie to hear. Is she fluent in
Polish? Yes she is, andshe says, thank you Matilda for speaking
it so well. It brought mememories of my grandma. And also she

(01:23:20):
wants to know what your dream forZelda is. Ultimately, how do you
hope she spent her retirement years.I love that. So that was the
question I was referring to earlier.Yeah, um, well I think yeah,
I already answer that. Well,first of all, I think she
would take a vacation, um,honeymoon with somewhere. Um. But I

(01:23:41):
think, yes she does, ButI think I think she would end up,
like I mentioned, I really dothink that she would end up running
a Polish restaurant in uh in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, yes, you know,
or the other wait, what she'sjust going to upkeep and make it,
make sure the facilities work. Icould say that. I could yeah,

(01:24:01):
yeah, yeah, absolutely, oryeah we buy something that you know needs
to be like it's a fix herupper and like he totally fixes it up,
you know, or or the otheroption is because and again this was
not in the script or anything likethat. Um, But like I I
think because he's always you know,a mazel that he was always like fixing
stuff. So I think that Yanushprobably has his own like contracting business with

(01:24:25):
you know, which a lot ofPolish guys do anyway, and they still
do. And so you know,maybe Zelda becomes his like receptionist and his
contracting business. So that might beanother option too, Yes about what she
does, I would love both ofthose. What was it that you said
about yan that he always hangs picturesperfectly straight? Then, like he doesn't
need to measure. There's no notmeasuring anything, like I can't remember what

(01:24:50):
that is, say, valuable skill. I would love that. I love,
I love, I was gonna say, and I love that Amy,
like you know, you know theyall well, Isaac also, you know
wrote the Isaac wrote the script.But it was just so specific. Yeah,

(01:25:10):
you know that like Zelda's practicality,Yeah, perfect man, exactly,
somebody who is so good at this? Yeah, I love it. And
that's what part of that scene thatmade it so touching is because we all
know what that's like to have oursignificant other, and like those little silly,
stupid things that no one else appreciatesare what makes us just like turned

(01:25:31):
on for them, you know,and like those hanging those pictures perfectly straight,
like she just really does it forZelda. Yeah, well no,
I mean I was just gonna saythat, you know, I think that
you know, that moment at least, I really do feel that, um,
that was Amy. I do feellike that one moment is definitely Amy
in that and that script she didshare with us at a table read many

(01:25:56):
I was gonna say many years ago. It wasn't recent, It was like
earlier on where I think it wasAmy and Dan's anniversary that day for one
of the table reads, and we'relike, oh, congratulations, and she
has said the story that um,that he had come over when they were
dating, Like he had come overwhen one day and said something about her

(01:26:18):
like um extension chords or outlet orsomething, and he's just like, oh,
you need X y Z. Andlike the next time he came over,
he brought over the appropriate extension chordthat she needed. And she's like,
I knew, she goes, Iknew it was true love right then.
And it's true. The thing is, it's true. It's so true.

(01:26:40):
UM when when things like that happened. I mean, I'll tell you,
like my um, you know,a handful of years ago, my
boyfriend, UM, my boyfriend.I didn't ask him to do this,
and you know, he bought andbrought over a laundry drying rack for my
apartment because I was like, hey, because there's a lot of stuff that
you girls, know, there's alot of stuff that you don't want to

(01:27:00):
put in the dryer, you know, like certain shirts and stuff like that
well shrink. So you know,so I was hanging up all this stuff
like I'm my radiator and wherever Icould, you know, like on the
end of chairs and stuff, andyou know he came over, he saw
that, and the next and youknow, next time he brought you know
over this like drying rack and thesame thing. I remember. I was

(01:27:21):
like, huh, that's something verythoughtful. That's I love that so much.
And so you mentioned at the tableread. You mentioned Amy talking about
the table read and I loved listeningto you talk with Kevin about how you

(01:27:42):
know, lavish and just kind ofdecadent the catering was and how much detail
there was. Could you elaborate atall, like what was your maybe favorite
touch for a certain episode the tablereads? Yes, they were outstanding.
I mean you're just again, it'snot normal. It's not normal to have

(01:28:05):
I heard I heard you mentioned anice sculpture. I was like, I'm
sorry, what I need to knowmore about this? Yeah, oh yeah,
there was like ice sculptures. Therewas just um for the like you
know, uh the first episode ofseason five. Um, the whole room
was set up like as a twaterminal, Like there's a big bossom,

(01:28:25):
you know, a big board thatwas like the departure board, you know,
and there was all those like retroluggage everywhere in the room. O
my god, UM and our youknow, our name plates um and I'm
saying plates, but they were youknow paper, you know, cardboard,
you know for each seat you knowwhere we're supposed to sit. UM.
That also was like um like waslike like the departure board, like you

(01:28:48):
know those the retro one where it'sjust like the yeah yeah, so the
um the white letters on the blacksquares and they used to flip. I
think we even saw that in theairport in the air Report episode when Midge
and right right Rabbits were in theairport. Yeah. Um yeah. So
it's like it's absolutely amazing what theyused. Guys, Like they had the

(01:29:10):
prop. I'm just thinking about thisnow. Oh no, no, no,
so no no, I mean itwas like the inspired by it inspired
by exactly, okay, UM,you know, but it's um, you
know like for episode two for thisseason, for example, I think it
was two UM our name plates.UM had the sixteen minutes logo and the

(01:29:30):
it was on a stand with likea mini TV. Like the mini TV
was like mana wood, like anold you know, like the old fashioned
TVs, and uh, it wasjust the detail is just like really just
crazy and like and in and anotherseason I can't remember which one. UM,
they had real old fashioned um TVcameras like in the room, like

(01:29:55):
actual, yeah, like actual,I think, so I can't remember if
it's at right, I don't know, but it was. It was like
really like these old, old oldretro camera so they would use that like
the Tonight Show and stuff like that. And I think I'm like seeing on
your Instagram like really really detailed sugarcookies. Oh yeah, yeah, oh

(01:30:18):
my god. So each UM,each table read, so these cookies would
be designed for UM one of thethemes of that episode, and you know,
and they were made by Elizabeth Massourkoand she owns the Circle Bake Shop
and she made them herself, soit's not like yeah, so they were

(01:30:40):
just like exquisite. They were likeexquisitely painted and all in detail and everything,
and they just they also tasted verygood. I love how everything,
like even down to the food atyour table reads, was so well thought
out and detailed. Yes and good. No, it's gonna say. I
think it was for the Coney IslandUM table Read. The Coney Island episode,

(01:31:03):
UM, they had all the retrocandies, like all the retro candies
you know, Um, I can'teven take anny off the top of my
head. Like the sugar Daddies Yeahyeah, old old, the old old
stuff like razzles like h yeah yeah. And it was it was just absolutely

(01:31:30):
hysterical because like all, you know, we're all adults and we're like,
all of a sudden, other kids. Oh my god. You know,
everyone's like you know, stuffing theirbacks with all this candy to bring home,
you know. And so it wasreally really great, and like the
final table read was actually you knowit's just super super super special. Um,
you know, we all sobbed.Of course, you know, there's

(01:31:51):
so a lot of tears at theend. Um. But they really went
all out for the very last tableread, Like, um, they had
CATS's Deli cater it night. Youknow, they had like a real bartenders.
Yeah, it was very very nice, and you know they had Wow
you know too drink they had youknow, they had the Midge, which

(01:32:11):
was like a vodka based drink,and then the Susie Bourbon based drink.
Um. Yeah. And then andthen at one point they took us out
on this veranda. So we youknow, we shot every we shot a
lot of the stuff at Steiner Studiowas out in Brooklyn and we did the
table reads. I think it wasstaged six on the fourth floor, and
there is like some kind of thislike huge veranda and outside outdoor veranda and

(01:32:35):
you can walk out onto and sothey didn't tell us anything. They just
kind of was like harraling everyone out. Everyone, you know, everyone just
go outside, you know this.And it was in the evening and they
and I will say that, umour table rereads were always during the day
because it was like a work day, you're going to work, you know,
and a lot of times the tablereads would be during a production day.

(01:32:55):
UM, so they would like,um, do maybe a table read
during like the lunch hour kind ofthing. But anyway, so they specifically,
they specifically did the final table readin the evening. Oh, we
all walk so it's it's nighttime,you know. We walk outside and there's
this huge, this huge fireworks displaystarts over the river looking when you're looking

(01:33:16):
out in Manhattan because we're in Brooklyn. Um, and it was for us.
They like they're all these like pinkthey're all these like pink fireworks and
everything, and it was just thisbeautiful, beautiful display. And that's what
I'm saying, like talk about likegoing all out like that, is they
really they they there was no youknow, no holds barred. You know,
they put out all the stops.However that you know that that phrases

(01:33:38):
um always across the board like itwas just amazing how special everything was,
and yeah, yeah, that's amazing. I love that, love it.
Well, that kind of leads intothe next question. Time to get involved,

(01:34:00):
Seria hears everything and be careful whatyou say. I know. Okay,
So our next question, UM fromSabrina Meekan says, how does the
costume and set design stay set thestage for the role getting into and getting
into character? I bet it helpedtransform and transport you to the era and
more. And you kind of talkedalready about the costumes and everything, but

(01:34:20):
I was thinking about the set designthat and how you have touched on it
a couple of times. And yeah, just going back to what we said
about everyone really loving their job.Every aspect of this show is so intricately
detailed and there's so much love thatgoes into it. I just wanted to
hear you talk a little bit aboutlike the set, what it was like

(01:34:42):
to be on those sets and thedetail that goes into it. Oh,
it's just amazing. I will Iwill quickly just say about the costume or
because most of the time, mostof the time I did wear the Zelda
uniform, and um, it definitelyhelped for sure. You know, you
go, it took me two hourto go through hair and makeup. First
of all, um, that isall my hair. And you know,

(01:35:06):
once you put on those layers,and I have to emphasize layers because they
again are so detailed, um witheverything, like even my bra was vintage.
I'm not kidding you about it.The only thing was my was my
regular underwear. That's the only thingof mine that was not retro. And

(01:35:27):
there were so many layers like andI can't even I just, oh my
god, I can't imagine living inthat time period being a woman. You
know. That's what Caroline, CarolineAaron has said it a lot. She
like did not enjoy the undergarments.Well you have, Yeah, you have
these girdles and these corsets and andthen just these layers and a slip and
then the pantyhose, like it's it'sa lot, and it was a lot

(01:35:48):
to go to the bathroom. Itlike seriously you had to peek, like
you would have to like really getcompletely undressed. Yeah yeah, but you
would also have to hold it,um for when they you know, turn
the camera around, so that takesyou know, and then they changed the
lighting and everything, so that takesa lot more time for them to do
that versus in between takes, whichis like really fast, right. So

(01:36:09):
it's like if you really had togo to the bathroom, you definitely unless
it was an emergency, right,but then you really had to hold it.
And then when they're just like okay, you know it's turning around,
you guys have a little bit oftime. It's just like half of us
would just like race to the bathroombecause it seriously takes like twenty thirty minutes,
you know to take off those layers, you know, and go to
the bathroom and then put it backaround kind of thing. Um Um,

(01:36:30):
it was, yeah, it was, but yes, But but the fact
of the matter is once I hadall the costume on, all of that
on, and especially the hair andmakeup too, I all of a sudden
I was in space as Zelda.I started you know, standing like her,
walking like her, because it's it'shard not to once you already have
you know, all that on you, so that you know that was very

(01:36:54):
that. They're definitely very helpful.And I you know, I've done a
ton of period pieces, especially intheater, and I've always appreciated that.
I've always appreciated putting on a vintageoutfit because at least for me, like
it definitely helps get into that momentand into the character and the set especially.
I'm gonna tell you so, originallyI mentioned the pilot was done in

(01:37:15):
someone's actual apartment, and then whenit was picked up, they built and
I'm not kidding you, that entireapartment, to every single detail, and
I mean to the inch. Whenwe walked onto that set at Steiner,

(01:37:39):
I swear to you, we allsaid the same thing. If you would
have told us we're all of asudden one hundred and twelfth and Broadway in
that apartment, we would have believedyou. Yeah, it was. It
was incredible. It was absolute incredible. So even though we're working on a
sound stage, the apartment that theybuilt was an actual apart partment, So

(01:38:00):
once you're in it, it's likeyou're just in an apartment and it could
be anywhere, you know what Imean. So it was so engulfing and
just so fantastic to be in tobe in that environment. Yeah, I
can't imagine that would help, beingin such an immersive set to really just
make it even more natural than italready is to fall into, you know,

(01:38:25):
the nineteen fifties, nineteen sixties.Yeah, I mean the set was
yeah, absolutely, the set wasabsolutely incredible. The production values, all
the detail. Again, it justlike it keeps using the word detail.
But then and love. You saidthat, that's a great word to use
too, the love that was putinto everything. Yeah. Everyone, Yeah,
it shows. It's one of thosethings where when you just when you

(01:38:46):
love your job, you just youwant to keep working on it. It
doesn't feel like work. So italmost seems like the costume and set designers
went like above and beyond, likethey could have done less work and gotten
paid fine, but they wanted todo more work because they were just enjoying
there. It's like everyone who workson the show, it seems, you
know, after hearing about people talkabout it, it seems like everyone just

(01:39:09):
wanted to keep it lasting, likewanted to make it last you know,
just wanted to continue working on it, so so they did more than than
was required almost you know, yeah, everyone, you know, everyone had
wanted to for it to be likereally really good, and you know even
you know a lot of times theAmazon exex, I shouldn't say a lot,
but it's like the Amazon exex wouldshow up, you know for our

(01:39:30):
table reads like um, you know, pre pandemic and then the last season
two. Um, you know,even Jennifer Salky was there, you know,
on a bunch of other Amazon execs, and during the pandemic they would
be on Zoom you know, soand you know, and then sometimes we
would have the other acts that youknow, actress who live in la Um,
they would be on Zoom as well, like in you know, during

(01:39:51):
the table reads. Again again thiswas like you know, during the height
of the pandemic when we were tryingto do season before, so you know
there that was a little bit differenttoo. And same thing for the you
know, the food that you werementioning for the table reasons stuff like that,
Um that kind of went away,um for again safety reasons. So

(01:40:12):
it's like we would have for example, you know, we could take away
a box lunches, you know,box lunches and like drinks with us when
we left, so we you know, they're still feeding us. But um,
but again it was it was justfor you know, safety concerns,
you know, right right at thebeginning, because we're they're very, very
good. I'm going to say thatagain, they were excellent. Like we
tested every single day and we notonce, not once, did we ever

(01:40:33):
shut down production for COVID ever.So we only shut down. We shut
down for two days and it wasbecause of snow, because there's a blizzard.
And so we shut down for twodays for a season four because of
snow, and it was never forCOVID. Yeah, yeah, that's impressives.
It is impressive because you heard allthese other productions shutting down because you

(01:40:57):
know, someone tested positive and thenum, especially twenty twenty one, you
know obviously you know, everything waslike pre we started, pre vaccination,
Like vaccinations didn't even exist yet,and if they did, it was only
for like sixty five and older,you know what I mean. So it's
like, um, yeah, itwas it was a yeah, we did.
We did a lot of filming.Um, you know, twenty twenty

(01:41:19):
one, before the vaccinations, andit was I think, you know,
very very impressive, and I'm verythankful to Amazon and the whole production team
for um looking into our safety aswell, you know, and I know
they're looking at the bottom line aswell, because obviously they don't want to
shut down production because then, youknow, productions shut us down, then

(01:41:40):
they're losing money there, you youknow, they're losing a lot of money
too, So a lot of caregoing into it, you could tell,
yeah, yeah, you can tell. Well, you know. So we
had another question from our listener,Debbi, and she wanted to know did
you were you able to take anysouvenirs home? We know there was so
much care that went to the setand it's behind everything. Did you get

(01:42:01):
to take something from sell this kitchen? Oh my god, we're all I
kind of stealing stuff there, Well, I should say stealing like it was.
It wasn't like an announcement saying youguys can take whatever you want,
you know. But at the sametime they kind of looked the other way,
you know. So, um,but I did ask before I before
I took the following UM and wastotally fine. But there are um these

(01:42:25):
three um white tin canisters on thecounter in the kitchen. They were always
there, and it was the kindof like they're like stacking dolls that they
go into each other, like theMatriosco dolls. UM, and I took.
I just took the smallest one.So it's like the small um white
tin with like these beautiful painted flowerson it. And so I have that

(01:42:48):
on a shelf in my kitchen.It's a beautiful I know. And and
they're like that was vintage, thatwas or no, that was it was
Oh, you know, that's definitelya vintage because I, you know,
I took off the top and lookedinside. It's all rusted inside, Like
you can't use that. I can'tuse it, you know. But it's
it's clearly vintage, Absolutely clearly vintage. They use a lot of like real

(01:43:09):
stuff, like real venches stuff.And I oh and I in terms of
like the detail, because we weretalking about the kitchen, Um, I'm
gonna give you an example of thedetail of the of the set design.
So there was always like you know, like a stack of mail like in
that little alcove of the kitchen.Yeah, and you don't really you don't
see it on camera I'm pretty sure, you know, like you could see

(01:43:30):
like their stacks of papers and youcan maybe tell it it's mail, But
every single envelope was specifically like theyhad their name on it, they had
the address, they had you know, some kind of like retro company logo
or company that that that it wasthe letter was from. But I mean
seriously, like one was you know, for image one was like to a

(01:43:50):
one was like to you know,mister missus Maizel, like it was the
detail is astounding, Like the seriesof the detail was astounding. Yeah,
Like it just seems like everyone hadso you have to have believe that they
had fun working on that kind ofstuff because I know, I know some
some people who are into vintage fashionaspiring like costume designers themselves, because I

(01:44:12):
live in New York and everyone Iknow is in the industry, and people
always say they love watching this showbecause catching the little details, like from
from a person with a costume designer, I they have such fun watching the
show and catching all the little thingsin the background because it's so period on
point accurate, you know, andjust stuff like that you were saying,
like making the letters look with thevintage postmarks and everything. It's just like

(01:44:36):
they must have really loved to lovedoing it. It's yeah, the the
detail was just like it's crazy.Yeah yeah. And again like it's like
we always use real food. Everythingwas everything was real. Yeah, everything
was real. Wow, And that'snot normal. That's like not usually you
know when when I've been on set, it's like the cheapest bottom barrel,

(01:44:58):
just whatever's whatever's gonna to be themost acceptable on camera. It's going to
be seen quickly, you know,throw it, throw it whatever we can
we can get in there. Butyeah, you're saying that all the stuff
is like authentic. So yeah,everything was real. You know, yeah,
everything was everything was real. Allthe food was like very you know,
high end and real. And Ifeel like, you know, going

(01:45:20):
back to one of the previous questionsin terms of like what you know,
what do actors bring to the character? Um, you know, stuff like
uh, I've missed a manner sincebefore, but like actions, a lot
of actions are not in the script. Yeah, um, so you know
sometimes they are because it depends ifit's like part of the actual story,

(01:45:42):
you know, like if you knowyou have to do if the character has
to do X y Z, orlike for example, um, for Zelda,
you know, it would say inthe script, you know, she's
she's in the kitchen cooking x yZ or she's at the stove making soup.
You know. But then but that'sit. It doesn't say the step
by step what right I do?So that that you know falls onto the

(01:46:04):
actor you know, um about andagain that for me, that's like,
first of all, I do personallycook. I love to cook, um
in like my background and you knowin the service industry, you know,
so I would be at the stoveas Zelda, and then all that action
was me, you know, likeI'm going to now store the soup,

(01:46:25):
I'm gonna put like some salt inhere, I'm gonna do this, I'm
gonna do that, you know,and you know, so that and then
you have to time it out foryourself and everyone. Again that goes back
to also the choreography and stuff likethat. You know, you have to
time out like what you're you know, is this going to work? And
there was a lot of rehearsal too, you know, people should know there's
definitely a lot, a lot alot of rehearsal before we even like put

(01:46:45):
the camera on. Well, therewould have to be because you were saying
that it's like a it's like adance. It's like choreography because the camera
I'm so specific and fast, rightimagine, yeah, oh yeah, I
know. And Amy was always justlike, you know, pace it up,
past up. It's you know,it's all about pacing. It really
was. It was all about thepacing um. And like you said,
it was like that musicality. Youknow, it's like you have to know

(01:47:08):
when to pause, when to go, and then it's like the you know,
the fast dialogue and you know,finishing each other sentences and stuff like
that in moments um. You know, the comic timing um and stuff like
that. It was just it wasweird and well, you know a lot
of us, you know, havea theater background, and that's what you
know, we were all saying whenwe started working on Mazel, because especially

(01:47:29):
because of all those wonders, itsays though we were on stage. Yes,
it's as though we were in aplay on stage because the cameras just
following us around, or the camerasset far back just to get all about,
you know, all the action.And again it's like so you're just
it's as though you're on stage.Yeah, you know, very sociatrical,
Like yeah, we said that afew on multiple episodes, just how it

(01:47:51):
felt like a player, It feltlike a musical without words, like it
was so theatrical, which in allthree of us are giant theater nerds,
so that was always appreciated. ButI think that's another thing that just it's
like a perfect storm of circumstances withhow like the lightning and the bottle aspect

(01:48:11):
of this show, and I thinkthe theater background that many of you had
on top of the esthetic, youknow, production value that the Palladinos seemed
to really nail. It was justwell, I'm just gonna gush. Yeah,
Oh that's what we did every day. We were all gush. Yeah,
Like it's just so good. It'swhat we did every podcast for like

(01:48:33):
three hours. We just could notnot gush. And we would always say,
hey, guys, we're not gonnagush. We're not gonna gush this
time, and like there we go. You know, it's because it's a
freaking love fest over here. Man, love you. Okay, So I
have one more question and I'm gonnaplay some stuff for you first. All
right, here's one we have sayingback home. Never too early for trial

(01:48:58):
to learn how to betty his memorybe a blessing. Okay, so that's
that's one. And then hold on, I'm what do you mean you're not
hungary? He had some candy earlier. He couldn't wait until dinner. That's

(01:49:18):
a little four year olds in myvillage worked and it shows they heard that
she they hit guns. Oh mygosh. Okay, so Zelda is a
badass and she clearly has. Likeyou were talking about what you know,
what you bring to the role asan actor. Um, you bring,

(01:49:41):
you know, your backstory, youbring, you make, you make Zelda
happen, right, So I justwanted I was hoping those clips would like
spark some memory of like how howdid you prepare to say those kind of
lines as Zelda? You know,what did you imagine for her? How
did you know? How did shegrow up? And like, I mean
not that, not that. I'msure it was like you wrote a diary
for Zelda or something, because alot of it is your imagination works like

(01:50:04):
over time as an actor, soyou don't have to write those things down.
They just kind of, um,I'm sure come to you in the
moment or like they come to youwhen you're just when you're preparing the night
before. But yeah, if youcould just talk a little bit about how
you prepared to say those kinds oflines about Zelda's history and like where she
grew up and like how you knowif children in my country did this,
and like I would always be likesavage. Yeah, well, I mean

(01:50:29):
it's just you know again that youknow, based on my own family,
you know, it's like, wellthat stereotype of the Eastern European you know,
stoicism. You know, it's likeshe's very stoic, and again she's
very practical. Um, and it'slike yeah, you know when you grow
up you know in Eastern Europe there, Yeah, it's like it's hardcore.
It's definitely is definitely hardcore. Imean I can tell you stories about my

(01:50:51):
family. It will be like anotherthat will be like a ten hour podcast.
It crazy, you know, allthat, you know, all that
crazy um. But but yeah,it's I mean this is an exaggerated,
uh jokey version of the fact thatuh yeah, a lot of kids,
would you know, grow up waytoo young. You know, look at
the you know, look at thewhat's going on in the Ukraine right now.

(01:51:13):
Ya um, you know it's likemy heartbreaks for you know, those
those children right now. It's likethat it's a twenty first century, this
should not be happening. Um.But it's like that's how my dad grew
up. It's like, you know, all of my relatives were very you
know, the dry, the straightfaced. You know. You know it's
like you'd ask if you'd ask mymom or my uncle, you know,

(01:51:35):
how are you And it's like theirresponse will be like, I'm alive,
like you know what I mean,like in the in like a dry way.
Um, so I did. Idid pull from that, um from
what I know, you know,my own family and stuff like that.
About that that dryness, that's youknow, that stoicism. Um but uh

(01:51:59):
but yeah, it's like he waslike it's like right on about that.
You know, she hit the nailon the head in terms of you know,
and it's like but it's also thejoke also too, like um,
even like Americans for example, growingup in during the depression. You know,
so you have like you would havelike the joke the old you know
your grandfather said when I was young, I don't even walked to school ten

(01:52:21):
miles one way. Yeah, youknow, and then you're lucky if you
had chee lass whatever, you know, like that joke. You know.
So it's along the same lines,you know, where it's like you're growing
up with like not much and youkind of have to deal with that with
what you have. Yeah, Ijust just sent me like unlocked a memory

(01:52:43):
with my grandma. If my grandmagrew up during the Depression, and I
remember, you know, she livedwith us. Gosh, I think I
was three and untill you know,she passed away a few years ago.
But one of the things she woulddo would just like forard any of the
free car fundaments that we got,or like the sugar packets and oh yeah,
that's my grandma, Like it's justand butter and sugar sandwiches were like

(01:53:08):
a dessert. Oh my god,anything that way you had. And I
was just like, oh my gosh. But thinking about it, especially you
know as I grew up and inschool learning about the Great Depression, and
I was just like, no,wonder, like that one's shape that would
stick with you forever, especially whenyou're going through that as a child.
So I can't imagine, you know, people coming from countries where there wars,

(01:53:33):
wars going on, or these greatpolitical movements. Like I think it's
great that they let that kind ofsink into your character and lend even more
authenticity to Zelda. Right, yeah, exactly, yeah she And you're right,
she's a hard ass. Yeah,she's a she's a tough cookie.
Yes, yeah, you get thesense of Zelda loves hard but she takes

(01:53:55):
no bullshit you know. Oh yeah, oh no, that's how I said
before, Like she takes no prisoners. Yeah, she takes no prisoners.
Like I want Zelda to take careof me, but I would not want
to piss her off, you know, right, don't get on Zelda's bad
side. And one of those thingsis like that. There's just reminded me
of like how much Susie loves Zelda, because you really get the sense that
Susie, Susie would appreciate that ina woman, and so she'd be like

(01:54:19):
Zelda makes the best goddamn sandwiches,and like Zelda can do no wrong,
Like I didn't know. Well,you know, I'll tell you guys something
that's so funny that you brought thatup. So um there, I mean,
you kind of do catch a glimpsehere and there about this like special
relationship between Susie and Zelda. Welove it, um, like and what

(01:54:41):
you did what ended up in thethose episodes, Like one point, I
think Susie opens up the fridge andthere's a little love note from Zelda,
you know, saying sandwich for youor something whatever. Was pleased to enjoy
the sandwich. Yeah, yeah,yeah, the bat English and um,
we had a bunch of scenes togetherthat they ended up cutting out. Oh

(01:55:03):
yeah, that was so And Iwas so excited because that was the first
time that It's like I was workingdirectly with Alex and I love her.
And again as a tangent, I'llsay so during the very first time,
like we all met each other andlike, um, we sat down like
it was like before one of thevery first table reads. Again, the

(01:55:26):
food it was like brunch or something. It was like catered. It was
very nice. And anyway, Iwas sitting next to her like we're all
sitting around, you know, it'slike a patio table, Like we weren't
like sitting at the actual table readyet, right, We're just like all
enjoying. It was like a wedding, you know, all these like round
tables out of the brand and stufflike that. And and Alex was sitting
next to me and we were chattingand stuff, and the thought bubble over

(01:55:48):
my head was, oh my god, it's Lois. Oh my god,
it's lowess cool, the chill,you know. And I was like just
talking to her like, you know, oh, you know I'm from She's
like, oh, I'm actually fromSicago. Then you know, we moved
to la and everything, and she'slike, I'm a huge Chicago Bears fan,
you know. So I was likekeeping it cool, but in my
head I was like, oh,I'm just such a huge family guy fan,

(01:56:11):
you know, like yes, umso. But anyway, so it
um, I guess I think itwas. I must have been season two.
Um yeah, I don't think whatseason. No, it was definitely
a season two because that's when theywent to Paris. So the whole point
was they go to Paris and Zeldaand Susie have this like um love affair,
um you know, in the apartment, or Zelda takes care of her,

(01:56:32):
she like makes you know, therewas a scene where I made her
all this food in the entire kitchentable was filled with all this breakfast food
like cakes and eggs and bacon,all this kind of stuff, and um,
you know, there was a fewthere was a few scenes of us,
you know, and for whatever reason, you know, they decided to
cut all those scenes out. Andthe only thing they kept, the only

(01:56:56):
thing they kept was that you know, no, no, the love note
on the on the sandwich, youknow, cut it again and you weren't
even in the scene, darn it, right. Yeah, but it happens,
It happens. It happens to everybody. It happens to all of us.
And I've learned from making my ownmovies where it's like Tailor Darling's.

(01:57:18):
Yeah, well, there's three versionsto every story. The first one is
the script. That's the first version. The second version is when you film
it, because when you film it, the script does change because it depends
on what you see can work andwhat doesn't work once you're actually on your
feet, right. And then thethird version is the edit post production,
yeah, you know, and that'swhen the final comes out. And you

(01:57:41):
know, a lot a lot oftimes, you know, and I couldn't.
I can't tell you why Amy decidedto cut those scenes out. You
know, she probably thought that itwas like stopping the story. And what
she wanted to tell of the storyis of this like love fest between Zelda
and Susie. And she felt thatthat moment with the love note and you
know on the sandwich was enough.You know, maybe that's what she thought.

(01:58:02):
But through it can't throw exactly youknow. Again, I can't,
I can't speak what you know forher, what she was an exactly thing
in her head. But like Isaid, a lot of there's a lot
of stuff that was cut. Alot of it has to do with pacing.
Again, um, you know aboutthe rhythm, you know. Um.
And they even like in one episode, I couldn't tell you which one,
Um, they cut an entire comedyroutine of Rachel's out, like an

(01:58:26):
entire Midge you know, comedy monologue, and you know, and again it
was about and again it's it's notabout like as an actor, you have
to tell yourself that it's not aboutthe acting. It's not about you.
It's not personal at all. It'sabout what makes the story better, you
know, what makes the story better. Like if I cut out the end

(01:58:48):
of the scene, is it goingto be better because the button on that
scene will be better? Maybe itwill. You know, sometimes it is,
um, well, Matilda, overall, you need to take personally the
fact that we are all like reallydisappointed at hearing that these scenes got cut.
Take that personally, because that's that'swhat I want to see that.

(01:59:09):
I mean, I mean obviously ill. I mean, I'm not gonna lie.
I was. I was pretty upset. I was like, oh no,
oh no, I can't those sceneswere cut, Like, oh what
a bummer. One though, Idid get to work with Alex because they
did film them, so that youknow, that was a very fun day,
um, working with Alex And Ican just picture that in my head

(01:59:29):
so perfectly, like sitting at thetable with breakfast foods galore. Yeah,
like I just bet that, Iknow. And then she and then she
was actually eating it, and thenshe was like she had to eat every
single take, and you know,and then she's just like, oh my
god, are we done yet?So many pancakes. I can eat these
pancakes. Oh my god. Pallywill resurface. Even though that the scenes

(01:59:56):
got cut though, the fact thatyou guys filmed them it really feeds into
what came later because you remember when, um, when Susie was so devastated
when Jackie passed, and Zelda waslike a big part of helping her through
that. And then there was thatscene when you showed up with Midge in
Susie's apartment and I just remember you'relike chipping at the ice and you're like,
well the ice loses, we haveto eat it all now, Like

(02:00:18):
no, there it is, youknow, but that like and the way
that Susie was like I made Zeldamad. I didn't know you can make
Zelda mad. Like she just appreciatedZelda so much. And like, I
feel like all of that history thatyou guys had built because you those scenes
were cannon in your mind. Youknow, they were part of your your
characters, and like they informed itso much, so it did pay off

(02:00:39):
in ways. You know, itpaid off in your act like hey,
sad, you know it's subtly,subtenly like things like that were in there
where you can if you were payingattention, you'd be like, oh,
they haven't really Zelda and Susie havelike some special you know, Hey,
yeah, this's like closeness. Yeah, oh like or another example would be
Um in season five, were menjust like who's this? You know,

(02:01:01):
who's this guy you know, meaningyeah, this random guy. Yeah.
And Susie's like, you means Zelda'sdifferent, you know, and men just
like what and and and she says, how do we not know this?
But soothing but she knows. Yeah, I knows. That stood out for
sure. I was just like,come on, what did she say?
Like the guy who's here every daywas a boner for Zelda? You didn't

(02:01:24):
notice him? Yeah? Yeah,oh my god. Yeah. I loved
Susie's little odd relationships with like andwith Rose. You know, we all
love that one too, The whipcreamy moment classic. Yes, I mean
I thought I thought, um,just as an actor, um, I'll
just say this randomly, but um, because of that, I just thought

(02:01:46):
it odd that Susie wasn't at Zelda'swedding. They agree it was in the
podcast where like where the yeah,like this do not makes sense? Our
listeners are listeners too. Several peoplecommented where was Susie? Why was she
not there? She should have beenthere because because she's the only one who
really respected Zelda, you know.No, that's why you know. I

(02:02:09):
thought that the same thing where theyhad that you know, close relationship,
and that was kind of like builtin already, you know, for a
few seasons, you know, subtlyagain you know, but um, so
I had to for myself, Ifelt like I was gonna I gave it
like artistic license, where um,Susie was so busy with her business.

(02:02:31):
She was just like so not justbusy with the business, but all that
crazy stuff was going on with likeall of a sudden, she has these
few clients that she's trying to likejuggle, yeah, you know, and
including Midge too, like she wastrying to get her on that you know,
on the Gordon Ford Show, butthey wanted her other clients. And
so for myself, I was justlike, you know, you know,

(02:02:55):
maybe she probably wanted to be here, but then she just got like caught
up up with whatever she was doing. Like maybe that was when she was
in that spa whatever that scene,that scene was where she was in there
the only woman in that men's spaor whatever, you know, like yeah,
funny, um you know, Sothat for myself, I was just
like, I know, you know, make it makes sense. Yeah,

(02:03:18):
But I love that you felt theabsence of your Susie as well, because
we all did too. I did, I really did because I was like,
wait a minute, White, It'sjust so weird that, you know,
why isn't she here? Because sheobviously was that the family also family
dinners before two she stayed at theirhouse, you know what I mean,
Like there's yeah, there definitely wasthat um connection. Yeah. Yeah,
Oh my gosh, Matilda, weI mean, I can we cannot keep

(02:03:41):
you in good conscience. I cannot, we cannot keep you on this call
any longer. But god damn,it is hard to say goodbye because I
am enjoying the hell out of myselfright now. This has been so thank
you. Yeah, this has beenso much. Thank you so much again
for having me. You guys areso great. I appreciate you so much.
Yeah. Words don't come close toexpressing how much how much joy I

(02:04:03):
feel right now. This is thisis so great. Thank you. Jade
wants to go actor ass off now. I do. After after we after
these interviews, I'm always like,now I just want to go audition really
hard because I want to be ona special show like this too and have
like my own little TV families.Yeah I have. I haven't trying to.

(02:04:26):
I have actor jealousy for you knowwhat you get what you've experienced,
but it helps knowing that you appreciateit. You guys all appreciate it so
much, you know, so itjust makes me love you. I can't
be jealous of you. Oh,we're just I'm so grateful, seriously,
like I hands down, I'm justso thankful and grateful. I say that
to you know, every single interview, I say that to everybody. I
just feel so lucky, seriously,so lucky to have been a part of

(02:04:48):
um the magic, seriously so muchmagic. You know when yeah and yeah,
and it definitely doesn't hurt, youknow when I look at the my
my SAG Actor trophy in my livingroom, like sometimes I go over and
pet him. Yes, I thinkyou're you know more than well. I

(02:05:09):
I think we speak for all ofour listeners when we say, you know,
one, congratulations on such a fantasticshow. And you know time as
Zelda, and we are definitely goingto miss having Zelda on our screen,
and we have to put it outinto the universe that there will be something
a spin off or a movie,but things just yeah, I hope.

(02:05:31):
So. I just I loved playingher so much. I just I just
I just understood her so well,like I know her. You know.
Yeah, well I think it broughta lot of people a lot of joy.
So thank you for that, andthank you so much for talking with
us. I of course last hearingfrom you, So I'm going to start
gushing again. I have to standto Is there any thank you so much?

(02:05:55):
Guys, of course, is thereanything more that you want to say?
The floor is yours? Um,any thing else you want to tell?
Tell the people, tell the listenersaside from um bye, cat speak
polish? What is it? Allcats speak polish? All cat all cats.
I was just gonna say, everybody, go get your property cats all
cats speak polish. Yeah, itwas my uh I called pandemic creativity.

(02:06:17):
I had that idea for many yearsand I finally had the time to do
it in twenty twenty. Um,it's very fun, it's very cute.
If you're a cat lover, you'lllove it. Yeah, you know,
it's you know, great for littlekids too, and and yeah, thank
you, thank you in advance.Awesome, thank you so much. Yes,
the links, the links will bein the description for all of Matilda's

(02:06:40):
stuff. If you, guys,listeners, you you definitely should check it
out and yeah. I all Ican say is thank you, thank you
so much. Thank you, guys. I have a day. Thank you
you too. Bye bye, okaybye. Oh my gosh, that was

(02:07:00):
fucking fun. And I looked atthe recording. I was looking at it
like I don't know. I checkedit about twenty million times. Yeah,
it's ere, we got it,it's there. I'm tearing up a little
bit, and she's just wonderful,like, yeah, now I just want

(02:07:23):
to go rewatch the show all overagain. Have been every single time we
talked about it or talked to somebodyknew from the show. Yeah, now
I just want to go act mybutt off. But anyway, um,
yeah, that was that was fabulous. My cheeks hurt from smiling, that's
for darn sure. And listeners,thank you, thank you for submitting your

(02:07:45):
questions for being a part of thisinterview, because you guys made it.
You made it amazing. It wasamazing. Oh god, there are no
words like I'm all kerfuffled. Itwas so much fun. I could listened
to her tell us stories all alldamn days. Oh yeah, I really
really hope, I really hope thosecut scenes resurface some day. Yes too,

(02:08:09):
I'm sure if they, like,if they release everything like on a
box set or something, and theyhad like, you know, deleted scenes,
like it's probably hours and hours andhours of brilliant content. It's nothing
map that up like that would begreat. Hey, if they could do
it for Twin Peaks where they havethe whole like the missing pieces, they
could do it for masal right thatseriously, Universe two. Seriously, Seriously,

(02:08:37):
it'll happen. It'll happen if Ifeel like, if Dan and Amy
have the opportunity to do it,to do more, they will. They
always do. They always do it, and that's that's why we fucking love
them because they know what their audiencewants and they give it to us.
Like we've talked about a year inthe Life being maybe not the greatest,
but hey, I'll take it.You know. Service is just that's what

(02:08:58):
it is. It's it's for thefans, and you know what we'll do
with it. Yeah, Yeah,more is more. Yes. Yeah.
So don't miss out our next episode, which will be featured on our Patreon
as a video. It's our longawaited Only Murders in the Building Season one
recap Patreon dot com forward Slash perfectlymarvelous podcasts. Yes, Yes, become

(02:09:22):
a patron. When you become aPatreon a Patreon, When you become a
patron, you get acts of ourYes, you get access to all of
our podcasts ad free, as wellas our videos as our listener feedback episodes
as videos and many special episodes likeour Omit b recaps will also be videos

(02:09:43):
featured on Patreon and my uh shamelessplug my other podcast, shall we Compare
thee We have decided to release thoseepisodes as videos on Patreon, complete with
like graphics, all kinds of likeyou know, hello, various fun moments
that extra things that you don't getto see if you're just listening. Yeah,

(02:10:05):
And I feel like I feel likeme as a podcaster, it's it's
like almost frustrating sometimes because I'm soanimated, you know, like I'm so
I do so much acting with mybody and everything while I'm podcasting, and
I do feel that like it's betteron video. You know, I feel
like I'm better on video. It'slike just by way of being an actor.

(02:10:26):
So yeah, you know, ifI do say so myself, it's
it's an okay time, It's kindof fun, might be a little bit
of a hoot. So yes,when you go to Patreon and you sign
up for our tits Up Tier,it is just five little doll hairs a
month, and you get yes allof our podcasts ad free video episodes,

(02:10:48):
and you can become a member ofour Patreon Facebook group where we talk about
all kinds of special things that noone else gets to know. So yes,
listen, listen to our Oh Itto Be Season one rewatch recap episode
which will be out very soon,and then send us your feedback on season
one Lads in the Building, Yes, and you can leave us that feedback

(02:11:13):
by emailing us at Perfectly Marvelous podcastat gmail dot com or on our Instagram
at perfectly Marvelous cast. Or youcan join our only perfectly Marvelous Murderers Building
in the Building group on Facebook.So all of these links are in the
description of this podcast, And ifyou're a patron, you can also leave

(02:11:37):
feedback and the patron only group.I'm sure that's going to be fun.
Oh yes, oh yes, indeed, ladies, I have had a marvelous
time talking with you. Oh mygod, marvelous isn't even We need a
better word. We need more,more of a oh, there'sn't there no
words, it's so good, andlisteners, thank you, Thank you,

(02:11:58):
my darlings for joining us. I'mKara, I'm Erica, and I'm Jade.
Thank you, and good night.Oh my gosh, we did zoom.

(02:12:18):
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