June 23, 2025 • 66 mins
Knots Landing star Donna Mills brings timeless elegance and unshakable grit to this empowering episode of Amazing Women & Men of Power: Legends & Icons. Join her and me as we explore:
- Her rise from early roles to defining Knots Landing
- The quiet courage fueling her personal and professional reinventions
- The joy and insight of late motherhood
- The enduring connections she shares with Joan Van Ark and Michele Lee, now her co-hosts on the podcast We’re Knot Done Yet
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to another inspiring episode of amazing women
and men of power, legends and icons yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
I'm your host, Raven Blair Glover aka Raven the Talk
Show Maven and all my goodness. I have to say
today is truly a dream come true for me. I
(00:29):
have the absolute pleasure and honor of rolling out the
virtual rig carpet to a true legend. You know her
best for her unforgettable powerhouse role as Abby Cunningham Ewing
on the beloved series Not Landing, But Donna Mills is
also much more than just one iconic character.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Oh yes.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Throughout her extraordinary career, She's captivated audiences across television, across film,
and theater with her talent, her elegance, her beauty, her
fearless choice, and her undeniable star quality.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Hey remember play Misty for me? Uh huh uh huh?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Can we just say wow on that one alone?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yes, yes, you're right now.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I am going to tell you that this lady is
so amazing. She just gets better and better and looks
younger and younger today, y'all. Donna continues to inspire with
new projects, including her fabulous new podcast, We're not done yet.
If you haven't heard it, you better ask somebody, because
it's amazing. Alongside her not slanding co stars and lifelong
(01:34):
friends Michelle Lee and Joan van Ard, she's a shining
example of reinvention, resilience, and staying true to yourself at
a stage of life, no matter what age you are.
We're going to talk about her remarkable journey as an actress,
a mother, a grandmotherer, and most recently, yes you heard me,
a grandmother, The cultural impact she's made and continues to make,
(01:56):
and what it means to live. Get this a true,
truly empowered life. So, without further ado.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
You know what I like to say. If you stand
and sit down, if you sit and stand up, because
the lady is here. Donomulle y'all.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Hello, Hello, Hey Chyna.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Thank you. It's so nice to see you.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I tell you, this is so exciting. So if you
see me doing like this, just think of me as
a little kid. And she's getting her first first doll okay,
her stream first gift. So this is truly exciting. My
daughter Jamie and my son Blair, well, it's so funny
because they were just they were teenagers and I made
(02:44):
them come in and watch.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I think we started off with.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Dallas and then Falcon Crest and then Nots Landing and
they fell in love with not To Landing. Okay, my
son fell in love with you. And it was like,
let me see, did you guys come on Thursdays? I
keep visualizing a Thursday, right.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
It was Thursday. It was a Thursday night. I think
it was a well, I guess it depends on part
of the country. Ten o'clock.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, so yeah, it was okay, seven or eight because
we were living in Houston at the time and it
was our show.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It was our family thing.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
That's so it's so nice for us, you know, the
actors in it, to know how impactful it was and
how people still remember it and are watching it again.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yes, yes, we're going to talk about how they can
start watching it again for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And yes, I mean it was the thing.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Those three shows were great, but yours stood out so much.
And okay, you appeared was it in Dallas from time
to time?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
No Jr. Came to Nott's Landing, Okay, time, okay, all right.
Joan had started out her on Dallas with Gary and
then they moved to Notts Landing and so they were
the ones that kind of brought it to so.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Kind of every now and being one show would be
kind of feeding off of another, so that that was
really great.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It was you know, because he was in he was
a Ewing, so it was the Ewing family.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Absolutely. Yeah, it was Joan.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
You're right. And by the way, speaking of Joan, we'll
talk about this more as we go. I was listening
to the show with the three of you, and I
think what I liked about it best is it didn't
sound like a show found you know, three good friends
just chatting it up, and that was so cool.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
That's kind of the They came to us with that idea.
You know, you you three, well, we're funny together. We
we just are. And and they came and they said,
just just talk and then we'll record it. Basically you
(05:05):
know what we've what we've done. Yeah, they're both crazy,
you know, a crazy. I'm the same I'm the same one.
But somehow it comes out funny.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It came out very funny and very real.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You know, I think anyone, especially you know, I'm in
my seventies now, and so anybody, I say, baby boomers
and beyond. This was the show okay. Uh you know
how they have housewives and all that. Now, well the
housewives need to watch some of you, you guys, okay
show because that was our housewife type show back in
the day. You know, the reality of it and stuff,
(05:43):
and it was so great. Now you've had such an
extraordinary career. I mean, like I said earlier across television
filming stage, I remember you being introduced to you first.
I believe in playing Misty for Me? Was that your
first or not?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
No, it wasn't. I came from doing a soap opera
in New York to do play Misty for Me. It's
kind of an interesting story. I had was doing the
soap opera and when they renegotiated my contract, it was
my sister and I not my real sister, but on
(06:24):
the show Leslie Charleston and the show kind of we
put it on the air. It was a new soap
opera and we became It was called Love Is a
Many Splendid Thing and it was really about the movie
with the Eurasian girl being the star, so to speak,
(06:47):
and we were kind of second stars, and for some reason,
the audience just took to us and we became very
important on it. So when we went to renegotiate our
contract to Leslie, and I said to Leslie, you know
what they can't do without both of us. They could
do without one of us, they can't do without both
(07:08):
of us. So let's negotiate together, which we did, and
we got everything that we wanted. One of the things
that I wanted was nighttime guest shots out here in
Los Angeles, Okay. And one of the guest shots that
I did was Dan August with Burt Reynolds Okay. And
Bert Reynolds ran into after we'd done this show, ran
(07:32):
into Clint at a bar one night and Clint said,
I'm looking for a girl for this movie I'm doing.
I can't find anybody I like. And Burt's well, I
just worked with this girl from New York. Maybe you'd
like her. He showed him the dailies from that, and
he hired me right from that. I never met him,
never auditioned, nothing, He hired me right from that. So that,
(07:54):
you know, that was that was my start out here
in California. I'd been you know, in New York work
before then. I'm doing you know, various as sundry things,
and I actually started out as a dancer there.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Oh oh, I'm glad I asked that question because I
had no idea about that story. And that's quite amazing,
you know that, Like you said, you didn't have to
audition or anything. It was happening meant to be because
you were, oh my god, so fabulous in that. So
that's awesome. Did you always want to be an actress,
like from childhood or.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yes? But I am more than that. Wanted to be
a dancer. I studied ballet since I was five years old.
You know. My mother took me to dance class and
I loved it, and you know, I had my tutu's
and my toe shoes and everything. But I was really
quite serious about it. One of the first jobs that
I ever had as a dancer was in the National
(08:54):
Company and the chorus of My Fair Lady. So and
that was a huge deal for me. I mean, I thought, I,
you know, that was the most wonderful thing that could
have happened to me. It is to be in that company.
And I toured around the whole country with it, So
that was that was really fun. But yeah, so when
(09:17):
I first went to New York. That's what I was doing.
I was dancing, but I would go an audition for
movies or television or whatever there was. And then I
started getting roles, and so the dancing kind of took
a second place to acting.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Then Wow, so dance in ballet, you know, I took
ballet in college for just a little bit about all
the shoes and the heel typ toe and all this stuff.
I didn't get further than that.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
It was hard being on your toes, but I did.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I went to from that to kind of a little
bit of the what they used to call jazz dancing,
you know, that type of stuff which was closed but
not nowhere near like ballet.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
But it was my next thing. But yeah, it was
a fun days back then, for sure.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Okay, I think all of dance. I love dance. I
go to see whatever I can these days. And the
discipline that it teaches you is really important, you know,
particularly in this business where you know you have to
(10:35):
be disciplined in order to do it. It's it's hard,
you know. People see the glamour they see, but they
don't know that you get up at four thirty in
the morning and you work at hours and you know
then you go and do a photo shoot and then
you you know, there's there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
It's a lot, It sure is. It's definitely like you said.
It teaches you to be consistent and to be early.
You know, you can't be sleeping that. You got to
be early, get started and commit it. Very committed, very committed.
Absolutely yeah. And you know which is good no matter
(11:14):
where we year off to in our career, because commitment
is huge. You got to have that passion, but you
got to have that commission as well. Now, before you
became a household name. I know you're gonna have to
think back on this because you've been a household name
for a while now. What was life light for down
a meals?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Growing up? Growing up?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
It's funny you send that. I looked up and right
behind my computer here, I have a big montage that
I made for my brother actually, but I got a
copy of it too, that's up on the wall here,
and it's my family, my mother and father's wedding photo,
me as a little my brother and I together as
(12:01):
little kids. You know, I thought, I think, I I
think I always had show business in my lot and
not from there was nobody else in my family that
did it. But it just seemed to be what I
was destined for. Yeah, you know, plays and dance and
(12:22):
and all that in high school and uh when I
was growing up that that was my play, was doing plays.
So it was it was really fun. And you know,
coming up as a dancer. I mean I did other
jobs too. I had. I worked as a secretary a
(12:45):
popular mechanics magazine.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Oh really, it's the sale Top of the Mechanics. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, as a secretary, I was probably one of the
worst secretaries ever. But I think they kept me around
because they kept using different parts of me in photograph,
like my foot and my leg on a gas pedal
in the car. You know, they use it for different things.
(13:16):
Thank goodness. The man that I worked for traveled a lot,
so I could take like four hours to type a
letter because he wasn't there and he didn't know.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I was.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I was terrible. That was not my calling, but I
didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Wow, a secretary, that's funny. But you know, we do
different things to find that perfect thing. You knew that
wasn't yours, you know, and I wasn't. I was in
corporate for a while and I knew Oh, I hated corporate.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
It was just not me.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I wasn't one that you could say, do this, do that,
do this, do that? I feel I get to feel
And you're like that too, very innovative, creative person and
you don't want to be boxed in, right for sure?
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah, I want to be able to do you know
what I feel is good and you know it felt. Yeah,
it's hard in this business because you don't always get
the scripts you know you would have liked to do
and stuff like that, so it's it's hard. It becomes
(14:25):
harder as you get older too.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah. Yeah, I love that you said, and you shared
with us that you know, even though you didn't have
you didn't come from a family of actors or actresses,
you it just was something that was embedded in you
to say this is what I want to be. And
I talked to our amazing women men of power listeners
and viewers a lot about you know, usually what we
(14:50):
feel like we want to be as a child, we
end up being somehow years you know down the line.
It's like it's embedded in us and if we don't
do that, we were doing something within the arena. You know.
I used to want to teach, be a teacher, but
my love and passion was radio. I used to sneak
we were living in Cleveland, Ohio, downtown. I used to
sneak down to the neighborhood radio station WJMO. I was
(15:13):
the pesty little girl that would bring on water and
they were just so sick of me. But I felt
like Casper as a kid. But for some reason at
the radio station, because they got people calling in and
the music and stuff, it excited me and I was like,
these people get to be heard. So it was the
clue of I wanted to be heard. I was the youngest,
(15:34):
and you know, being the youngest sometimes you feel like
everybody's kind of dismissing you. And I didn't start somehow
have to push your way in, you do, yeah, but
I gave up on that because I was a bad tester.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
So it didn't happen until I was fifty five. Here
I am now seventy four, and I feel like, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I a little kid living my dream, especially now with you,
so I ain't far.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Let's let's just say it together.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Live your life, right, Donna.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, You've got to, And kudos to
you for you know, going and finding this and doing
this kind of thing. It's really it's great. I mean
that's why, you know, when we were introduced, I was like, yeah,
I want to talk to her.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Oh that was sweet. I find out offline on the
day what he said to you. But she's talking about
my son, Blair. But he knew for sure because we
watched the show that this would definitely be a dream
come true Blue, a dream come true interview for me.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So, Blair, this is for you.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Now.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
You portrayed so many unforgettable characters. We talked about that
over the decades.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I'm just curious. What role do you feel was the
one that you enjoyed the most? Was it playing Abby
or the one in playing Missy? For me, what was
the character's name in that one I can't read movie?
Hm hm tobe, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes yes. Or
(17:07):
you being on the soap opera because when you bought
up that soap oper I'm like, I remember that because
that wasn't really good.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Soap oper It went off too soon, I thought. But anyway, yeah,
it was that.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Was interesting because I played a novice none on that.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Oh okay, so I wanted you can find old episodes
of that is that when we could.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Find old episodes. I haven't. I haven't seen it. I'm
sure there are. Okay, there must be archived somewhere. It'd
be interesting to see it. It really was.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
But anyway, which one did you feel was your favorite
role and why?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
It was definitely Abby Okay, you know it really was.
First of all, as an actress, you don't often get
to have that much time to hone a character, to
find every morsel of her. You know, I had nine
years so and I had great writing and that, you know,
(18:10):
you don't always get that. So she was definitely my
And she was a character who had many facets. You know,
she's known as the bad girl, you know, villainous, you know, strong.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Sexy, unapologetically at all. That's what I loved about her.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Yeah, but she was well rounded. She had feelings, she
had insecurities. She never let anybody see them. You know,
you would only see that kind of thing if you
saw her alone in a room. She and they did
that as writers on the show. They gave her both sides,
(18:51):
you know, they gave her that you know, kind of
courage that she had to go out there and get
whatever she wanted. But her most important role to her
was her being a mother, and she loved her kids
and she'd do anything for her kids. So you know,
she was well rounded. She was she was a many
(19:12):
faceted character, and that's really fun to play. So I
have to say Abby, I've played a lot of a
lot of different roles, a lot of fun roles, but
Abby is the favorite.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I mean, you couldn't put a better phase or a
different person in that, you know, So let me ask
you this, Are you the same?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I mean in real.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Life I am. I like Abby in some ways and
in a lot of ways. Yes, you know, I became
a mother later in life. I became a mother after
not landing. But that's my most important thing, and I
(19:56):
think it was the most important thing to Abby. Would
I do all the things that Abby did? Maybe not.
I think she was a little promiscuous, you know. Yeah,
I don't think I would do that. But and she
(20:19):
she tended to not always do business in the most
good way, you know, I mean she would cheat on
things a little bit. So I think there are many
things about her that I wouldn't do. But what was
fun was I got to do them as her.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yes, yeah, I had to live that side kind of
vicuriously right. Absolutely, Well, one thing I remember about her
she was very ambitious, she was very strong. She was
a woman of power, you know, and she owned it.
She didn't let me make her feel small or anything.
So my next question was what kind of impact do
(21:05):
you feel Abby had on women back in that day,
especially because that was a whole different time than now.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Right, Yes, it was. I am gratified to hear from
women and to know that that women were influenced by her,
you know that they they said, yeah, hey, that's the
way it should be. You should be that strong, you
(21:32):
should be that that undeniably, I'm going to do this.
I'm ambitious. There's nothing wrong with being ambitious. And so yeah,
I think that I've gotten so many letters and so
many fan things that that tell me how Abby affected
(21:59):
someone's life, mostly women, that they felt like, if Abby
can do it, I can do it. Yeah. Yes, that's
that's very gratifying for me to know that that had
a positive, positive impact on people's lives. It just is
very very it's humbling, but it's it's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And hearing it from real people, right, made a difference
and had to touch you and Michelle's and you know,
Joan and everybody's heart hearing things like that. And you know,
now you're with the one that especially can say that
Abby gave me balls, right, yeah, because back then Abby
(22:45):
not Abby. Oh lord, Now I'm really into the character.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
It's okay.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Back then, Donna, it was like it was hard for
women to get the positions. Remember that we really wanted
in our job and we were wearing you know, suits
and kind of you know, dressing not quite the way
very feminine like we may have felt.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
And I believe you your.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Characters showed us how it's okay to be sexy and ambitious,
you know, but you got to own where you are.
You know, if you're going to go in and strut
it like that, be that, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So I think it's helped.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I know it helped me step into my power.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And that's why everything for me is about amazing women
empower and men are power because I feel like we
have to make that lead, we have to make that step,
and sometimes we have to be pushed out of that
box that you and I talked about, because people want
to keep you in the box and say this is
a certain way. But back then it was really hard
for women to climb up that ladder and be respected.
(23:50):
And Abby was respected. She made don some crazy things,
but she was respected for sure.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Well you know, people seeing her in her business mode
and everything that, and how she didn't take any thing
from men. You know, a lot of times I recall
on knots where you know, some guy I had tried
to do this or that, or Gary wasn't you know,
(24:19):
giving her all the kudos that she deserved or everything.
She was not going to take that. You know, she
was always up there and not afraid and not shy
about you know, asserting herself and asserting her look and
everything about her. Which that's the way women should be.
(24:40):
I mean, I mean, we both know women have been
and it still exists. Paid less than I saw an
interview with some actress I don't remember who it was,
who said, you know this first movie that I did,
the guy gotfteen million dollars and I got five hundred
(25:02):
thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
You know, And so in order for us to be
paid the way we should be paid, them to stand up,
we have to demand it because right.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
And sometimes go the extra mouth and be okay with that,
you know, to get where we want to be. We
just have to, you know, get up extra, stay that
extra hour, you know after work or and go out there.
But it was really hard proving yourself back then. And
I think people that watched your show at that time
felt like Abby and the other women in there that
(25:44):
were strong like that and not afraid to just go
for it. It helped us to come Abby.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Can do it.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I can do it. I'm going in and ask for
that race today.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Right, Yes, Yeah, that's it's that's great, it's great. It's
really great to.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Know, really is let's talk about reinventing yourself. How many
times you feel you've reinvented yourself?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Oh goodness, I don't know, you know, I don't know
if I've reinvented or just kind of evolved.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Okay, okay, I like that.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yeah, yeah, reset, reva whatever you know, reinvent And do
you think sometimes that happens because we're just getting older?
Maybe what we loved yesterday we don't really love today.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Or I mean, as you I think as you get older,
you know your vision and I don't mean in your eyes,
but your your vision of what you want and everything
changes somewhat. Although it's funny I think of it. I
(26:59):
don't think of my self is my age. I get
up sometimes in the morning and I go your hold
and I go that can't be right. I mean, I
play tennis five times a week. I work out, I
do it. There's very little that I don't do now
(27:24):
that I've always done. It's not quite as easy as
it used to be.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
You know, the.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Getting the leg up on the bar and you know
all that kind of stuff is.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
To get somebody to come help me get the leg
off the bar.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, and you job right, because I was listening to
your podcast You jog what you jog?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
No?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
No, no, that it runs?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Okay jobs every night? She does it every night. Oh
my god. Okay, I know, which to me is insane
because like I don't know, and she's by herself. She
goes down and jogs around different neighborhoods and stuff like that.
But she's been a runner all her life and that's
her exercise. That's what she does.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, I'm sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
You and Joan.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It was hard for me to kind of distinguish your
voice is at first listening to it. Yea, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Well I think there will will come a time probably
that will be on camera.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Oh, that'll be great, that'll agree great.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I just read today that video podcast is like taken over.
You know, they want people to come from behind the
mic and get on videos.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
So that would be great.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it will happen. I
mean that's I think that was the idea from the
very beginning. But they wanted to start out kind of
just audio and stuff like that. See how it went,
you know. So yeah, I think so, which I think
would be fun. And and and you know, we're gonna
(29:06):
have some of our old castmates on good you know,
different different people who who you know, we're on the show.
People played different roles and there were there were a
lot of you know, really terrific actors. Yeah, so that'll
be fun. I can't wait to see that for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I want to go back to when you were talking
about you know, age and the things you do to
to you know, keep yourself healthy, and you mentioned something
very profound, and that was you don't you didn't feel
your age. You don't feel your age, And I understand
sometimes I do. I don't want to, but sometimes I
get up and.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
The leg is hurt.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Stuff, I'm like, oh, my god, I wish I would
have prepared for this part of my life, you know,
but it's really wonderful to hear that you are still
doing a lot of the things that you've done always,
you know, to keep yourself healthy, to keep yourself fit.
How important is that for us to not just sit
(30:10):
just because you're a certain age, to own the age, right?
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I mean, it's so important. You just have to think
about it. Think about Okay, you've got all these muscles
in your body, right, if you don't use them, you
know what, Apple, they kind of atrophy, they don't work
well anymore. So you've got to keep working on me.
And it's not just a matter of the walk every day.
(30:38):
Walking is lovely, is fine, but it's not something that
really works. Your muscles has to work out. I do
a lot of stretching as a dancer. I know how
important that is. I do weights, I do I do
one hundred sit ups.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Wow, fifty it up?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Oh my goodness, Oh my goodnessess, that is amazing, Donna.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Yeah, Well, you know, people say, well, how come we
have such a flat stomach? How do you do that
sit ups? You have to work at it. You can't
just if you want to keep it working. You gotta
work at it. Yeah. I can't encourage it enough for
(31:26):
people to have a workout schedule and do it. Do
it sometimes it's maybe only three times a week, but
you got to do it, and you gotta do it
for at least an hour, you know, you can't. I
do usually a half hour on the bike on a
(31:48):
stationary bike. And then I do, you know, like I said,
the sit ups, I do weight leg weights that I
do with three pound weights.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
You have a gym in your home or you have
a gym in your home?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Yeah one?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Yeah, still, I mean, yeah, that makes the difference when
you don't have to leave, you know, and you when
you have to leave, sometimes you have to really talk yourself,
oh do I want to go there?
Speaker 3 (32:18):
You know?
Speaker 2 (32:18):
And all that.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
But having something, like I said, it doesn't have to
be fancy or anything. Right As a dancer.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
By the ballet bar, I have, you know, a whole
mirrored wall ballet bar. That's the one thing that I've
never done without. You know, I've always had a ballet
bar in my house. If you don't have a ballet bar,
you gonna use the kitchen counter.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah, you can put.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Your leg up on anything. But somehow the ballet bar
just kind of motivates you to, you know, do the
proper stretching. So yeah, but you are absolutely right, You've
got to keep moving.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Keep moving.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Absolutely wow.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
So you never stopped really damp, and you still sometimes
dance and do some of the same steps and things
that you did before.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Yeah, I mean I like to go dancing, you know,
and unfortunately my guy likes to dance. So until we
go dancing her for there's a wedding or something, you know,
we're all always dancing. And I've become a big advocate
of a Los Angeles Ballet in the last two year years.
I've I've emceeed their gala and I love It's a
(33:30):
wonderful company and they have improved so much in the
last few years that I haven't started it yet. I
cannot tell a lie. But I am going to take
ballet class again. Oh wow, also classes for adults and yeah,
oh wow. There's no better, nothing better for your body
(33:57):
than ballet. And so I'm gonna start taking class again.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Well, anyone that's looking at this or listening to this,
they would have no idea of your age and will
be shot when they find out. I'm not telling them,
but anyway, because you are.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
You know, the thing is these days, you can't lie
about your age because they look on the on the well,
let's google her, that's right. So I mean, I'd love
to lie about my age, but I cannot.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Well, if you want to tell them, you can.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
But but I'm just saying, you're amazing, amazing. I mean
I know people that are forty that's not even doing that.
And I think it's really important that you took the
time to talk about it because it is so important,
and you've motivated me.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
And I'm gonna be honest. I am not one Blair.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
My son gets on me all the time because I
sit a lot. I'm doing one interview after another, and
I just got to get up. And you have really
motivated me to doing something I don't know about. Lifting
the leg on the well, this table here's not too high.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
I lift it a little bit.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
You start out with that, and you do it. And
the thing is, if you do it every day, by
the end of the week you go, oh, look, I
can get this much closer to my legs than I did.
I mean, it starts out you like this, and then
pretty soon and then I.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Mean, yeah, it's kind of like when we were little
and you do the split, the split, you know, you
sit on the floor, you got the legs and you
start here and then here and then here. So it's
just a little bit and a time. So absolutely, Oh
my god, I'm excited. Honey, I'm going to be exercising.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
That has got me over.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
That's good, I mean, because it's just important, you know,
and look at your vibrant, your you're wonderful, your everything,
so you want to keep it all working.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
I know, I know I've got you know, you know,
I've talked to Guy in one hundred and four is
what I'm going for.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Blair, like, well, you to get to work. We got
to do our part.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Is basically what we say. Yeah, I got to do
our part. Curious, was there a role that you really
wanted and you couldn't get it they turned you down?
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yeah? There been many many really Oh yeah yeah, I
mean now, I mean the business has changed so much
and there's not that many opportunities for someone of my age.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
So and.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
A lot of the casting directors are twenty two years
old and they don't know me, so they want me
to and everything is it used to be to go
in for an audition and new audition, you know, for
the director or whatever. Now it's on tape, and.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I mean you said, is that what it is?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Now you don't go in, Oh.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Okay, they call it self tape. They'll send you the
sides the script, and you know, then you go either
do it yourself on your phone or there's places you
know you can go and they'll record it for you
and you know, you find somebody else to read the
(37:23):
other lines and you do it and send it into
them so they don't have to have people coming in
and doing it. I don't like it, and most actors don't,
and most directors don't because the interaction and like if
you get to meet the director and you do a
(37:44):
reading and he says, yeah, that's good, but try this instead,
and you do that, he gets to know if he
can work with you, he or she with you, and
that's that's really important. With the tape.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah, you're only going to get so much ten to
take for sure. That's interesting. I think.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
There have been numbers of roles, you know, of things
even recently you know that I didn't get you know,
I do a tape or whatever and and you never
hear back, like they're not polite enough to call you
and say, well that was great, but you know we
we chose someone else. You just don't hear anything.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
So what are you do in that case? Do you
follow up?
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Or you just say okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
You can't. Yeah, I mean you can ask your agent
or manager whoever you know, to call them and ask them,
but they'll they'll generally say they really don't like it. Yeah,
if they want you, they'll call you. If they don't,
you just don't hear.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Now that now that you're telling me this, I'm thinking, okay,
so what's going to be next? You know, for not
just what you're doing actors and actresses and stuff, but
for people getting jobs. Are they going to have you
sending the tape to an AI person? AI person does?
Speaker 3 (39:03):
That's one of the things that the strike, the actors
strike was about, was about AI And then you know,
they wanted to recreate someone and then they can just
do with you whatever they want. They can create you
(39:27):
at this point, I anyway, I don't know if everybody can.
I can tell when something's been created by AIS. They're
trying to make you think it's a real person, but
you know it's not. But this is just the beginning
disc stuff. They'll get better and better at it. It
(39:47):
will be not too long from now you won't be
able to tell the difference.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Yeah, and you know Ai, what's happening with AI is
happening so fast. I'm actually taking a certification class now
because in my business, especially at the age I am you,
and you know that you have to stay on top
of things, whether you want to or not. You know,
you can't just kind of bury your head in the sand, right,
(40:15):
So if this is happening, I'm like, Okay, I want
to learn all I can learn for it, because I
don't know how you feel about this, but sometimes I think, okay,
you know, I have those low moments, I guess and
I'm like, Okay, who's gonna want to hire Raven a
seventy four year old to teach them how to how
to be a radio Sorry about that? How to do
(40:37):
a radio show or how to interview? Who's gonna want
to be mentored? At my age? And so I constantly
am finding, Donna that I'm staying up at night on
YouTube learning and studying.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
And do you find that too?
Speaker 1 (40:50):
That you have to kind of stay ahead because things
are moving.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
But I mean to hear you say that is so
great that you're doing that. You know that that you're
not sitting there saying, well they're they're they're not going
to you know, they're not going to take me because
you're learning, you're learning. I mean, do you know how
young that's going to keep you learning? I mean, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
I'm less of a I give in to technology uh more,
because I just it's not my DNA, you know, And.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Yeah, in your field you don't really have to know
it as much.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
But when I start, not as much as you would.
But I give you those to that that you're doing
that and that they're learning about it. It's it's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Yeah, well, it's it's kind of like, you know, if
you want to you know, because you're creating income, right,
creating income nowadays and not saying I'm going to settle
for social security because we don't even know what it's.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Going to have.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
You know, if I don't create income, you know what
I'm saying, and build up my nest. Now why I'm
feeling good and stuff and once I started lifting my
leg up, I'm putting it on the table and start exercising,
like Dona is motivating me to do even better.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
It'll be even better. For sure.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
You have Donamal's productions, right, that's something you started. I
think after what eight or nine seasons of being on
knots Landing, are you still doing that and what is
it all about?
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Well? I back then I produced I think it was
six movies for television with my own production company because
I had you know, they wanted me to be in
them that they gave me the producer credit also, but
I actually did produce them. I developed the scripts. I
(42:57):
you know, chose the directors, chose the other directors, you know,
stuff like that. So that was that was fun. But
then that was in television. So that was where my
power lay in television. Once they started not doing movies
for television anymore, which they you know, they started not
(43:22):
because all these things were coming on cable and that
isn't just the three because I had I had deals
with the ABC and CBS to do movies for television.
Once that started to go away, I sort of gave
up the producing end because I didn't have the power
(43:46):
anymore that they wanted me to be in it, so
they let me be the producer.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Oh really, okay, so you know it was fun.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
I had a good time doing it. I did some
nice work. I did some things that I think were important.
I did a movie called My Name is Kate about
a woman who is aholic. Okay. I did another movie
about it was called Runaway Father, about dead beat dads.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Oh wow, you know.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
So you know I felt that I used what I
had at the time well in making movies that mattered.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
I was just getting ready to say that.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
So you really went in a different way and just
say I want to do some really meaningful things, not
just for entertainment, but yeah, I think that's really going
to move the needles, so to speak, push people, you know,
forward in a way, inspired, motivating people. You know that's
amazing that awo.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
And then I basically left the business when I adopted
my daughter. Okay, clely, So you know that's another reason
I let the production company go because I didn't want to.
I didn't want to work anymore. I wanted to be
a mom.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
That's so wonderful that you adopted her too, you know,
that's that's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
I really.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
I praise you for that because that's important. I had
an opportunity years ago to interview Victoria Raw and she
wrote a book I think something about she had a
lot of different mothers because she had been you know,
different people that she had loved that had taken care
of her. And that's when I really really understood the
(45:39):
other side, actual people that were being adopted, and how
important it was, and how when you the older ones,
people don't adopt necessarily and all these different things. So, yeah,
it just kind of touched me. You said that made
me think of an interview. So that's important. So for
anyone that's thinking, since you brought it up about having
(46:01):
a child, they can't have a child, and they don't
want to go through all the new fancy ways of
doing it, what would be something you would want to
pass on to them about adopting a child.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Well, I'm a big advocate of it. You know, I
was very lucky. I have an incredibly wonderful daughter. She
was from them. I got her when she was four
days old. Oh really, okay, she's my baby, you know.
(46:41):
And I would encourage people to do it. There's many reasons,
you know, that somebody can't have a baby or whatever.
And I think one of the reasons, you know, that
women are older. I was fifty four when I adopted her. Okay, okay,
(47:03):
So it seems to me that that's that's a very
good time when you're a little bit older, because you've
probably done something in your career already. At a career,
you've probably maybe put some money together so that you
(47:24):
have a cushion and that, and these days that it's
just don't feeling good, you know, Oh, you have a
toddler running around, it's just gonna be too much for you. Yeah,
not at all.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Probably life.
Speaker 3 (47:46):
I would highly encourage anyone to adopt and to look
into adopting. There's a lot of different ways to do it.
And mine was a closed adoption, so I never met
as a biological mother or father. But there are open
adoptions too, where you know the parents, but that child
(48:13):
becomes your child, your baby, and your their mother, and
it's a wonderful thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Absolutely, Generally at that age, I guess we have more
control of deciding do we want to keep whatever career
we're doing now, or do we want to stop it?
Like I said, usually we might have a little cushion there,
and you could probably maneuver of your time better than
when you're younger and you're trying to do so many
different things. You know.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
I think if I had a child when I was younger,
I probably would have resented the child somewhat because I
was very vicious.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Yea, I was ambitious.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
I wanted my career, I loved my career, so I
wouldn't have been as good a mother.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Then, yeahs later, it's good that you do that. You
picked at the right time and get there. What do
you say, four months four days.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
For four days?
Speaker 1 (49:15):
Oh wow, Yeah, it's almost like you birth.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
That's amazing. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
That's awesome, wonderful.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
When when you adopt the way I did, they they
try to, you know, get it to the adopted parent
as soon as they can, because you know, the baby
needs to feel you, you know what I mean, and
at infant stage is very important.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
So yeah, that's good. And now you're you got a
grand baby.
Speaker 3 (49:51):
I do, I do. It's so cute it so I'm yesterday.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Oh wow, that's what's his name?
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Cult cold?
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Okay? All right? Oh I called her actually, but I
call them colt.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
One thing.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
About them grand babies boys, just like it's hard to
put them down, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (50:10):
Oh yeah, I mean it's so and it's it's so
wonderful to see your child so happy. Yeah, she just
loves being a mom. She wants four. She wants four,
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
And you're like, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (50:31):
Yeah, I mean that's that's great. But yeah, she's always
loved kids, little kids.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Oh, she was.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
A little kid.
Speaker 3 (50:40):
She she's tall. So she come walking out of her
little nursery school or wherever she was, and she have
three or four other little kids hanging on her.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
They they just went to her. So it's it's natural.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
She's a natural. She is very natural.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
There are many children out there, older children too, you
know that a foster care or whatever that you know,
if you had the chance to adopt them, that's a
wonderful thing to do too. You know, I think it's
probably a little harder because you've got their life before
(51:25):
and hopefully you know, it hasn't been too bad for them.
You know. You just think of any child not having
a loving home to be.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
I can tell you one thing though, I'll say this
old grandmom to a new grandma, A girl quick, Donna.
My grandson Christian can't. It's hard for me to believe
that December he'll be twenty nine years old. And when
my daughter Jamie had him, I remember seeing him and like,
oh my.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
God, he's so cute. He's cute.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
And the next thing I know, he's working for me.
He actually helps build TV channels and stuff for my
client things.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
And he grew up so quick. Yeah, well yeah, but
you had you had children early?
Speaker 1 (52:09):
Yeah right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I had Blair.
Speaker 2 (52:13):
I want to say, in my early twenties.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
There's something like that. Yeah, he grew up fast too.
Always they grow so quick. I can imagine how you
feel about Calling because I feel the same way about Jamie.
When you see them as a mom, you know you're
actually seeing your baby as a mom.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
You know, you're just like.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
I almost in awe. Are you just find yourself watching
and do you find you that she does things like
you do them? Sometimes like me and my daughter were
just now realizing how much we have in common, so
we see each other.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Do I see her do the same things I do?
Speaker 1 (52:49):
Bus it Chris the same way it used to do that?
Speaker 2 (52:53):
Or you see that age.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
He's only three months old, now son, you know, observe her. Yeah,
and of course she's breastfeeding, which I didn't do. Yeah,
of course, but so that that makes it very different.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
But yeah, yeah, I'm glad.
Speaker 3 (53:14):
I'm really glad she's able to do it. It's it's
not an easy thing. Not everybody can do it.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
So I think I did, like for two weeks, and
it was like, and I was trying to work and
go to work. I don't have time to do all that.
Just give me a bottle before I go to work
for sure. Okay, we're running out of time. Someone to
talk real quick about. We're not done yet. It's your podcast,
(53:42):
tell us about it. What do you want time the
listeners to walk away with when they listen to you,
Michelle and Joan, We're not done.
Speaker 3 (53:51):
Yet, you know what I think? First of all, it's
listening to girlfriends, like you said, just girlfriends chatting, and
that's a lot of what it's about. And uh, I mean,
I think that's nice. And I think people like that,
(54:13):
you know, and and long time friends. You know, we've
known each other for a long time. And then then
I and I think they want to hear stories about
the show. The backstage kind of stuff and our different
(54:34):
takes on that, you know, because everybody kind of sees
it from a different perspective really, and so I think
it's fun for them. And like I said, we're going
to have some of the other actors on. I think
I think that people also like to talk about the
issues that we dealt with, dealt with on on nots,
(54:58):
you know, because u it was it was contemporary for
the times. There was you know, my daughter had a
drug problem that I dealt with, and you know there
were lots of Michelle had a drug problem of her own,
you know, so all those kind of things. So I
think they like hearing what we thought about all that
(55:23):
and how we worked with it. You know, it's you know,
there's a lot there, I mean, because we did well.
There's fourteen years of it and at least twenty two
episodes a year. Yeah, fourteen years. It was on the
air longer than almost any show except Gun Smoke.
Speaker 2 (55:47):
Gun Smoke by and heard that one in a while,
I know, yes.
Speaker 3 (55:51):
That one was on something fifteen years or sixteen years
or something like that. But yeah, it was on longer
than Dallas Dynasty, Falcon Crest, and it was on longer.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
Yeah. Wow, I'm telling you fourteen years. I knew it
had been a long time, but I didn't know it
was fourteen years. And it's coming back on or it's
officially back on now.
Speaker 3 (56:15):
It started out on Plex, and I guess it's still
on Plex. I don't know, but probably more important, it's
on Amazon Prime. Okay, I gotta chick Amazon Prime and
you have to kind of search for it. You put it,
you know, with a thing that you can search, put
in Notts landing, and then it'll come in.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
They have a good So excited and that means I
get to start from the beginning.
Speaker 3 (56:40):
Oh, like, that's what many people are doing.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
I love it. I love it. Yeah, yeah. I think
I'm just going to have.
Speaker 1 (56:50):
Jamie and my daughter, Jamie and Blair and my grandson
has never seen it, so we're gonna make him, maybe virtually,
because we're all like, he's in Hawaii, Jamie in Houston,
Jamie and Chris and I'm in La. So we're gonna
have to come virtually some kind of way and watch
it and talk about it.
Speaker 2 (57:07):
It's gonna be so much fun. I'm super excited, scream excited.
Speaker 1 (57:14):
Now, what would you I want to get to the
last I'm gonna give you five rapid fire questions and
then we're gonna end this up. Okay, these are something
that the listeners wanted to know. Can you squeeze in
five more minutes? I promise I'll stay on time. I
got my timer.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (57:30):
Becoming a mother later in life has a was a
bold and beautiful choice. What was the most unexpected joy
you found in motherhood?
Speaker 3 (57:46):
I guess it was the depth of love that I
could feel. I didn't know I could love anything that much.
M M, I love her.
Speaker 2 (57:59):
Oh wow, that's awesome, awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1 (58:02):
Now stepping into the role of grandmother, how has that
expanded your view of family and legacy or has it?
Speaker 3 (58:10):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, I mean because I became a mother
so late, becoming a grandmother it was maybe not an option,
you know, I could have been gone by now. So
it's it's really sort of made it complete, you know,
(58:36):
it made made my life much more complete.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 1 (58:41):
What's the biggest lesson you would want to pass on
to them, to the.
Speaker 3 (58:48):
To to the grandchildren.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
H h.
Speaker 3 (58:55):
Boy. I guess just you know, to to love you know,
love you love your mom, your dad, your family, and
they will love you. If you feel that love from them,
you'll love them back. Here's a little thing that my
(59:17):
daughter said to me when she was two years old.
She stood up in her crib, I swear, and she said, Mommy,
our heart strings are tied together. Are you serious?
Speaker 2 (59:28):
At that age she said that.
Speaker 3 (59:31):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (59:32):
Did that blow you away?
Speaker 3 (59:35):
Oh yeah, I'd never forgotten it, obviously. I wish i'd
had We didn't have our little phones yet done, so
I couldn't record it, but oh my god.
Speaker 2 (59:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (59:48):
And I write it on whenever we you know, correspond
or or anything. I put it on their Mommy, our
heart strings are tied together. Wow.
Speaker 1 (59:58):
Can you share with the f as don just a
tadbit about the vineyard you have built I think with
your partner, right.
Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have. It's in our backyard. It's
a hill behind the house. It's it's a vineyard small,
but we we can turn out one hundred cases a
year and it's we grow. We grow it. We grow
Melbeck and cabernet and we've made yeah, we've made some
(01:00:37):
really good wines. I mean we've won four medals already
at the San Francisco wine competition.
Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
That's really good. We have a you know, you growing
them is a big part of it and everything. But
then you take it to the winery which is out
in Westlake and a winemaker out there, his name is
b Allen, and you know, then you work with him
on you know, how much blend, how much there is,
how much that, how much furnamentation, how long lots of
(01:01:10):
helks go into you know how good it is. But
we've been lucky. It's turned out really really well. It's
called Mandeville Vineyards. Oh. I got to check it out.
Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Oh my god, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
It's so awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
If you can step into any TV show currently currently
done at this area, which show would it be and
what character would you want to play?
Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
Oh my god? WHOA, that's a hard one.
Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
Do you watch much TV?
Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
Now? I don't watch a lot. Okay, but anyway, just
finished watching one that I would like to do. Oh no,
I know, I just saw it. As a matter of fact,
I just did a Doctor Odyssey that was on. But
Ryan Murphy is the is the producer on a creator Okay,
(01:02:03):
but he has a new show coming on called All's Fair.
It's about women lawyers and I just saw, Yeah, I
just saw a promo for it, and it looks fabulous.
Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
It looks absolutely fabulous. I've watched it. In fact, Blair
just texted to me yesterday. Yeah, he just sounds like one.
Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Did you like that?
Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
It looks good, doesn't it? Yes?
Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
Is that the one?
Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
Kim Kardashian is the Yes. And we were talking about,
you know, strength and women being strong and just that's
the prime example of it. And it's you know, I
like to see shows like that being done, so.
Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
I do too, okay for you to see yourself in there? Okay, yeah,
the exciting that the excited Well you don't know which
character because we don't even know what the characters are
right now.
Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
But no, because I think it's a law firm, all women,
those roles are all past. Of course, that's the Kardashian
and whoever else is in it. But it would be
somebody coming with a case probably I don't know, or yeah,
they could hire me as another lawyer.
Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
I can see you as a lawyer. I'll suit it up.
Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
So when you have a cheap day, I know you
like to exercise and take care of yourself, but if
you had a cheap day. What would be your guilty pleasure?
Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
Oh, probably just sitting eating coffee ice cream. I love
coffee ice cream.
Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
Yeah. Is there any actor still living or not that
you would have loved to have shared a screen with
but didn't get the opportunity.
Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
Meryl Streep?
Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
Really, she's amazing. Yeah she's still with us though, so.
Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
You can still have that. Oh yeah, no, she's still
doing it. She's to me the epitome of what an
actor is. She's always really wonderful and various, many various roles.
Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
So yeah, if I got a.
Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
Chance to work with her, I would be thrilled.
Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
I was going to ask you what's next for Donna?
As our final question? What's next that you haven't done?
That you're just saying, I don't like the word bucket list.
I have never liked that bucket.
Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
List for some reason.
Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
You know, I just call it dream or it's something
I'm going for. But what what do you feel that
you would like to do that you haven't done?
Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
Well, not that I haven't done, because what I really
want to do is do another series. I like to work,
I like to be on the set. I like I
just feel at home on a set in a you know,
trailer and you know the whole thing. I just love that.
So you know, if I had my brothers, I would
(01:05:03):
be doing another series.
Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
Now you think maybe you Michelle or and Joan or
have you visualized what it would be? And would you
produce it and direct it?
Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
No? Not directed. I've never directed, okay, and I wouldn't
produce it either because nobody would take me a producer
at this point unfortunately. But yeah, I would just just
you know, like to like to do it. Yeah, you know,
somebody else can produce it, somebody else. I just.
Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
I just want to just want to do it again.
Do what you love, being your element and do what
you love. Wow, this has been amazing everyone. This is
the beautiful, talented, amazing Dona Mills. Donna, thank you for
making this dream come true.
Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Interview. Oh my god happened?
Speaker 1 (01:05:59):
I love it is.
Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
I'm be smiling all day.
Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
I'm just gonna tell you very blessed today.
Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
Well, thank you. It's been a pleasure. You're just lovely
and really good at this, so it was really fun
to do.
Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
Everyone, you've been tuned in to amazing women and Minute
of Power legends and icons yesterday today, and tomorrow and
I'm raving to talk to you. Maybe this is donad Mills,
and you know what. We appreciate you tuning in and
please make sure you share this one with a friend.
Speaker 3 (01:06:33):
They'll be so glad you did.
Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
Bye,
Hello, and welcome to another inspiring episode of amazing women
and men of power, legends and icons yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
I'm your host, Raven Blair Glover aka Raven the Talk
Show Maven and all my goodness. I have to say
today is truly a dream come true for me. I
(00:29):
have the absolute pleasure and honor of rolling out the
virtual rig carpet to a true legend. You know her
best for her unforgettable powerhouse role as Abby Cunningham Ewing
on the beloved series Not Landing, But Donna Mills is
also much more than just one iconic character.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Oh yes.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Throughout her extraordinary career, She's captivated audiences across television, across film,
and theater with her talent, her elegance, her beauty, her
fearless choice, and her undeniable star quality.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Hey remember play Misty for me? Uh huh uh huh?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Can we just say wow on that one alone?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yes, yes, you're right now.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I am going to tell you that this lady is
so amazing. She just gets better and better and looks
younger and younger today, y'all. Donna continues to inspire with
new projects, including her fabulous new podcast, We're not done yet.
If you haven't heard it, you better ask somebody, because
it's amazing. Alongside her not slanding co stars and lifelong
(01:34):
friends Michelle Lee and Joan van Ard, she's a shining
example of reinvention, resilience, and staying true to yourself at
a stage of life, no matter what age you are.
We're going to talk about her remarkable journey as an actress,
a mother, a grandmotherer, and most recently, yes you heard me,
a grandmother, The cultural impact she's made and continues to make,
(01:56):
and what it means to live. Get this a true,
truly empowered life. So, without further ado.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
You know what I like to say. If you stand
and sit down, if you sit and stand up, because
the lady is here. Donomulle y'all.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Hello, Hello, Hey Chyna.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Thank you. It's so nice to see you.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I tell you, this is so exciting. So if you
see me doing like this, just think of me as
a little kid. And she's getting her first first doll okay,
her stream first gift. So this is truly exciting. My
daughter Jamie and my son Blair, well, it's so funny
because they were just they were teenagers and I made
(02:44):
them come in and watch.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I think we started off with.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Dallas and then Falcon Crest and then Nots Landing and
they fell in love with not To Landing. Okay, my
son fell in love with you. And it was like,
let me see, did you guys come on Thursdays? I
keep visualizing a Thursday, right.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
It was Thursday. It was a Thursday night. I think
it was a well, I guess it depends on part
of the country. Ten o'clock.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, so yeah, it was okay, seven or eight because
we were living in Houston at the time and it
was our show.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It was our family thing.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
That's so it's so nice for us, you know, the
actors in it, to know how impactful it was and
how people still remember it and are watching it again.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yes, yes, we're going to talk about how they can
start watching it again for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And yes, I mean it was the thing.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Those three shows were great, but yours stood out so much.
And okay, you appeared was it in Dallas from time
to time?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
No Jr. Came to Nott's Landing, Okay, time, okay, all right.
Joan had started out her on Dallas with Gary and
then they moved to Notts Landing and so they were
the ones that kind of brought it to so.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Kind of every now and being one show would be
kind of feeding off of another, so that that was
really great.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It was you know, because he was in he was
a Ewing, so it was the Ewing family.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Absolutely. Yeah, it was Joan.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
You're right. And by the way, speaking of Joan, we'll
talk about this more as we go. I was listening
to the show with the three of you, and I
think what I liked about it best is it didn't
sound like a show found you know, three good friends
just chatting it up, and that was so cool.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
That's kind of the They came to us with that idea.
You know, you you three, well, we're funny together. We
we just are. And and they came and they said,
just just talk and then we'll record it. Basically you
(05:05):
know what we've what we've done. Yeah, they're both crazy,
you know, a crazy. I'm the same I'm the same one.
But somehow it comes out funny.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It came out very funny and very real.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You know, I think anyone, especially you know, I'm in
my seventies now, and so anybody, I say, baby boomers
and beyond. This was the show okay. Uh you know
how they have housewives and all that. Now, well the
housewives need to watch some of you, you guys, okay
show because that was our housewife type show back in
the day. You know, the reality of it and stuff,
(05:43):
and it was so great. Now you've had such an
extraordinary career. I mean, like I said earlier across television
filming stage, I remember you being introduced to you first.
I believe in playing Misty for Me? Was that your
first or not?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
No, it wasn't. I came from doing a soap opera
in New York to do play Misty for Me. It's
kind of an interesting story. I had was doing the
soap opera and when they renegotiated my contract, it was
my sister and I not my real sister, but on
(06:24):
the show Leslie Charleston and the show kind of we
put it on the air. It was a new soap
opera and we became It was called Love Is a
Many Splendid Thing and it was really about the movie
with the Eurasian girl being the star, so to speak,
(06:47):
and we were kind of second stars, and for some reason,
the audience just took to us and we became very
important on it. So when we went to renegotiate our
contract to Leslie, and I said to Leslie, you know
what they can't do without both of us. They could
do without one of us, they can't do without both
(07:08):
of us. So let's negotiate together, which we did, and
we got everything that we wanted. One of the things
that I wanted was nighttime guest shots out here in
Los Angeles, Okay. And one of the guest shots that
I did was Dan August with Burt Reynolds Okay. And
Bert Reynolds ran into after we'd done this show, ran
(07:32):
into Clint at a bar one night and Clint said,
I'm looking for a girl for this movie I'm doing.
I can't find anybody I like. And Burt's well, I
just worked with this girl from New York. Maybe you'd
like her. He showed him the dailies from that, and
he hired me right from that. I never met him,
never auditioned, nothing, He hired me right from that. So that,
(07:54):
you know, that was that was my start out here
in California. I'd been you know, in New York work
before then. I'm doing you know, various as sundry things,
and I actually started out as a dancer there.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Oh oh, I'm glad I asked that question because I
had no idea about that story. And that's quite amazing,
you know that, Like you said, you didn't have to
audition or anything. It was happening meant to be because
you were, oh my god, so fabulous in that. So
that's awesome. Did you always want to be an actress,
like from childhood or.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yes? But I am more than that. Wanted to be
a dancer. I studied ballet since I was five years old.
You know. My mother took me to dance class and
I loved it, and you know, I had my tutu's
and my toe shoes and everything. But I was really
quite serious about it. One of the first jobs that
I ever had as a dancer was in the National
(08:54):
Company and the chorus of My Fair Lady. So and
that was a huge deal for me. I mean, I thought, I,
you know, that was the most wonderful thing that could
have happened to me. It is to be in that company.
And I toured around the whole country with it, So
that was that was really fun. But yeah, so when
(09:17):
I first went to New York. That's what I was doing.
I was dancing, but I would go an audition for
movies or television or whatever there was. And then I
started getting roles, and so the dancing kind of took
a second place to acting.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Then Wow, so dance in ballet, you know, I took
ballet in college for just a little bit about all
the shoes and the heel typ toe and all this stuff.
I didn't get further than that.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
It was hard being on your toes, but I did.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I went to from that to kind of a little
bit of the what they used to call jazz dancing,
you know, that type of stuff which was closed but
not nowhere near like ballet.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
But it was my next thing. But yeah, it was
a fun days back then, for sure.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Okay, I think all of dance. I love dance. I
go to see whatever I can these days. And the
discipline that it teaches you is really important, you know,
particularly in this business where you know you have to
(10:35):
be disciplined in order to do it. It's it's hard,
you know. People see the glamour they see, but they
don't know that you get up at four thirty in
the morning and you work at hours and you know
then you go and do a photo shoot and then
you you know, there's there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
It's a lot, It sure is. It's definitely like you said.
It teaches you to be consistent and to be early.
You know, you can't be sleeping that. You got to
be early, get started and commit it. Very committed, very committed.
Absolutely yeah. And you know which is good no matter
(11:14):
where we year off to in our career, because commitment
is huge. You got to have that passion, but you
got to have that commission as well. Now, before you
became a household name. I know you're gonna have to
think back on this because you've been a household name
for a while now. What was life light for down
a meals?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Growing up? Growing up?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
It's funny you send that. I looked up and right
behind my computer here, I have a big montage that
I made for my brother actually, but I got a
copy of it too, that's up on the wall here,
and it's my family, my mother and father's wedding photo,
me as a little my brother and I together as
(12:01):
little kids. You know, I thought, I think, I I
think I always had show business in my lot and
not from there was nobody else in my family that
did it. But it just seemed to be what I
was destined for. Yeah, you know, plays and dance and
(12:22):
and all that in high school and uh when I
was growing up that that was my play, was doing plays.
So it was it was really fun. And you know,
coming up as a dancer. I mean I did other
jobs too. I had. I worked as a secretary a
(12:45):
popular mechanics magazine.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Oh really, it's the sale Top of the Mechanics. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, as a secretary, I was probably one of the
worst secretaries ever. But I think they kept me around
because they kept using different parts of me in photograph,
like my foot and my leg on a gas pedal
in the car. You know, they use it for different things.
(13:16):
Thank goodness. The man that I worked for traveled a lot,
so I could take like four hours to type a
letter because he wasn't there and he didn't know.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I was.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I was terrible. That was not my calling, but I
didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Wow, a secretary, that's funny. But you know, we do
different things to find that perfect thing. You knew that
wasn't yours, you know, and I wasn't. I was in
corporate for a while and I knew Oh, I hated corporate.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
It was just not me.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I wasn't one that you could say, do this, do that,
do this, do that? I feel I get to feel
And you're like that too, very innovative, creative person and
you don't want to be boxed in, right for sure?
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah, I want to be able to do you know
what I feel is good and you know it felt. Yeah,
it's hard in this business because you don't always get
the scripts you know you would have liked to do
and stuff like that, so it's it's hard. It becomes
(14:25):
harder as you get older too.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah. Yeah, I love that you said, and you shared
with us that you know, even though you didn't have
you didn't come from a family of actors or actresses,
you it just was something that was embedded in you
to say this is what I want to be. And
I talked to our amazing women men of power listeners
and viewers a lot about you know, usually what we
(14:50):
feel like we want to be as a child, we
end up being somehow years you know down the line.
It's like it's embedded in us and if we don't
do that, we were doing something within the arena. You know.
I used to want to teach, be a teacher, but
my love and passion was radio. I used to sneak
we were living in Cleveland, Ohio, downtown. I used to
sneak down to the neighborhood radio station WJMO. I was
(15:13):
the pesty little girl that would bring on water and
they were just so sick of me. But I felt
like Casper as a kid. But for some reason at
the radio station, because they got people calling in and
the music and stuff, it excited me and I was like,
these people get to be heard. So it was the
clue of I wanted to be heard. I was the youngest,
(15:34):
and you know, being the youngest sometimes you feel like
everybody's kind of dismissing you. And I didn't start somehow
have to push your way in, you do, yeah, but
I gave up on that because I was a bad tester.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
So it didn't happen until I was fifty five. Here
I am now seventy four, and I feel like, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I a little kid living my dream, especially now with you,
so I ain't far.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Let's let's just say it together.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Live your life, right, Donna.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, You've got to, And kudos to
you for you know, going and finding this and doing
this kind of thing. It's really it's great. I mean
that's why, you know, when we were introduced, I was like, yeah,
I want to talk to her.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Oh that was sweet. I find out offline on the
day what he said to you. But she's talking about
my son, Blair. But he knew for sure because we
watched the show that this would definitely be a dream
come true Blue, a dream come true interview for me.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So, Blair, this is for you.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Now.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
You portrayed so many unforgettable characters. We talked about that
over the decades.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I'm just curious. What role do you feel was the
one that you enjoyed the most? Was it playing Abby
or the one in playing Missy? For me, what was
the character's name in that one I can't read movie?
Hm hm tobe, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes yes. Or
(17:07):
you being on the soap opera because when you bought
up that soap oper I'm like, I remember that because
that wasn't really good.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Soap oper It went off too soon, I thought. But anyway, yeah,
it was that.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Was interesting because I played a novice none on that.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Oh okay, so I wanted you can find old episodes
of that is that when we could.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Find old episodes. I haven't. I haven't seen it. I'm
sure there are. Okay, there must be archived somewhere. It'd
be interesting to see it. It really was.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
But anyway, which one did you feel was your favorite
role and why?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
It was definitely Abby Okay, you know it really was.
First of all, as an actress, you don't often get
to have that much time to hone a character, to
find every morsel of her. You know, I had nine
years so and I had great writing and that, you know,
(18:10):
you don't always get that. So she was definitely my
And she was a character who had many facets. You know,
she's known as the bad girl, you know, villainous, you know, strong.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Sexy, unapologetically at all. That's what I loved about her.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Yeah, but she was well rounded. She had feelings, she
had insecurities. She never let anybody see them. You know,
you would only see that kind of thing if you
saw her alone in a room. She and they did
that as writers on the show. They gave her both sides,
(18:51):
you know, they gave her that you know, kind of
courage that she had to go out there and get
whatever she wanted. But her most important role to her
was her being a mother, and she loved her kids
and she'd do anything for her kids. So you know,
she was well rounded. She was she was a many
(19:12):
faceted character, and that's really fun to play. So I
have to say Abby, I've played a lot of a
lot of different roles, a lot of fun roles, but
Abby is the favorite.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I mean, you couldn't put a better phase or a
different person in that, you know, So let me ask
you this, Are you the same?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I mean in real.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Life I am. I like Abby in some ways and
in a lot of ways. Yes, you know, I became
a mother later in life. I became a mother after
not landing. But that's my most important thing, and I
(19:56):
think it was the most important thing to Abby. Would
I do all the things that Abby did? Maybe not.
I think she was a little promiscuous, you know. Yeah,
I don't think I would do that. But and she
(20:19):
she tended to not always do business in the most
good way, you know, I mean she would cheat on
things a little bit. So I think there are many
things about her that I wouldn't do. But what was
fun was I got to do them as her.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yes, yeah, I had to live that side kind of
vicuriously right. Absolutely, Well, one thing I remember about her
she was very ambitious, she was very strong. She was
a woman of power, you know, and she owned it.
She didn't let me make her feel small or anything.
So my next question was what kind of impact do
(21:05):
you feel Abby had on women back in that day,
especially because that was a whole different time than now.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Right, Yes, it was. I am gratified to hear from
women and to know that that women were influenced by her,
you know that they they said, yeah, hey, that's the
way it should be. You should be that strong, you
(21:32):
should be that that undeniably, I'm going to do this.
I'm ambitious. There's nothing wrong with being ambitious. And so yeah,
I think that I've gotten so many letters and so
many fan things that that tell me how Abby affected
(21:59):
someone's life, mostly women, that they felt like, if Abby
can do it, I can do it. Yeah. Yes, that's
that's very gratifying for me to know that that had
a positive, positive impact on people's lives. It just is
very very it's humbling, but it's it's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And hearing it from real people, right, made a difference
and had to touch you and Michelle's and you know,
Joan and everybody's heart hearing things like that. And you know,
now you're with the one that especially can say that
Abby gave me balls, right, yeah, because back then Abby
(22:45):
not Abby. Oh lord, Now I'm really into the character.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
It's okay.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Back then, Donna, it was like it was hard for
women to get the positions. Remember that we really wanted
in our job and we were wearing you know, suits
and kind of you know, dressing not quite the way
very feminine like we may have felt.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
And I believe you your.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Characters showed us how it's okay to be sexy and ambitious,
you know, but you got to own where you are.
You know, if you're going to go in and strut
it like that, be that, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So I think it's helped.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I know it helped me step into my power.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And that's why everything for me is about amazing women
empower and men are power because I feel like we
have to make that lead, we have to make that step,
and sometimes we have to be pushed out of that
box that you and I talked about, because people want
to keep you in the box and say this is
a certain way. But back then it was really hard
for women to climb up that ladder and be respected.
(23:50):
And Abby was respected. She made don some crazy things,
but she was respected for sure.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Well you know, people seeing her in her business mode
and everything that, and how she didn't take any thing
from men. You know, a lot of times I recall
on knots where you know, some guy I had tried
to do this or that, or Gary wasn't you know,
(24:19):
giving her all the kudos that she deserved or everything.
She was not going to take that. You know, she
was always up there and not afraid and not shy
about you know, asserting herself and asserting her look and
everything about her. Which that's the way women should be.
(24:40):
I mean, I mean, we both know women have been
and it still exists. Paid less than I saw an
interview with some actress I don't remember who it was,
who said, you know this first movie that I did,
the guy gotfteen million dollars and I got five hundred
(25:02):
thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
You know, And so in order for us to be
paid the way we should be paid, them to stand up,
we have to demand it because right.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
And sometimes go the extra mouth and be okay with that,
you know, to get where we want to be. We
just have to, you know, get up extra, stay that
extra hour, you know after work or and go out there.
But it was really hard proving yourself back then. And
I think people that watched your show at that time
felt like Abby and the other women in there that
(25:44):
were strong like that and not afraid to just go
for it. It helped us to come Abby.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Can do it.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I can do it. I'm going in and ask for
that race today.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Right, Yes, Yeah, that's it's that's great, it's great. It's
really great to.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Know, really is let's talk about reinventing yourself. How many
times you feel you've reinvented yourself?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Oh goodness, I don't know, you know, I don't know
if I've reinvented or just kind of evolved.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Okay, okay, I like that.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yeah, yeah, reset, reva whatever you know, reinvent And do
you think sometimes that happens because we're just getting older?
Maybe what we loved yesterday we don't really love today.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Or I mean, as you I think as you get older,
you know your vision and I don't mean in your eyes,
but your your vision of what you want and everything
changes somewhat. Although it's funny I think of it. I
(26:59):
don't think of my self is my age. I get
up sometimes in the morning and I go your hold
and I go that can't be right. I mean, I
play tennis five times a week. I work out, I
do it. There's very little that I don't do now
(27:24):
that I've always done. It's not quite as easy as
it used to be.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
You know, the.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Getting the leg up on the bar and you know
all that kind of stuff is.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
To get somebody to come help me get the leg
off the bar.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, and you job right, because I was listening to
your podcast You jog what you jog?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
No?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
No, no, that it runs?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Okay jobs every night? She does it every night. Oh
my god. Okay, I know, which to me is insane
because like I don't know, and she's by herself. She
goes down and jogs around different neighborhoods and stuff like that.
But she's been a runner all her life and that's
her exercise. That's what she does.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, I'm sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
You and Joan.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It was hard for me to kind of distinguish your
voice is at first listening to it. Yea, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Well I think there will will come a time probably
that will be on camera.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Oh, that'll be great, that'll agree great.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I just read today that video podcast is like taken over.
You know, they want people to come from behind the
mic and get on videos.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
So that would be great.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it will happen. I
mean that's I think that was the idea from the
very beginning. But they wanted to start out kind of
just audio and stuff like that. See how it went,
you know. So yeah, I think so, which I think
would be fun. And and and you know, we're gonna
(29:06):
have some of our old castmates on good you know,
different different people who who you know, we're on the show.
People played different roles and there were there were a
lot of you know, really terrific actors. Yeah, so that'll
be fun. I can't wait to see that for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I want to go back to when you were talking
about you know, age and the things you do to
to you know, keep yourself healthy, and you mentioned something
very profound, and that was you don't you didn't feel
your age. You don't feel your age, And I understand
sometimes I do. I don't want to, but sometimes I
get up and.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
The leg is hurt.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Stuff, I'm like, oh, my god, I wish I would
have prepared for this part of my life, you know,
but it's really wonderful to hear that you are still
doing a lot of the things that you've done always,
you know, to keep yourself healthy, to keep yourself fit.
How important is that for us to not just sit
(30:10):
just because you're a certain age, to own the age, right?
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I mean, it's so important. You just have to think
about it. Think about Okay, you've got all these muscles
in your body, right, if you don't use them, you
know what, Apple, they kind of atrophy, they don't work
well anymore. So you've got to keep working on me.
And it's not just a matter of the walk every day.
(30:38):
Walking is lovely, is fine, but it's not something that
really works. Your muscles has to work out. I do
a lot of stretching as a dancer. I know how
important that is. I do weights, I do I do
one hundred sit ups.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Wow, fifty it up?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Oh my goodness, Oh my goodnessess, that is amazing, Donna.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Yeah, Well, you know, people say, well, how come we
have such a flat stomach? How do you do that
sit ups? You have to work at it. You can't
just if you want to keep it working. You gotta
work at it. Yeah. I can't encourage it enough for
(31:26):
people to have a workout schedule and do it. Do
it sometimes it's maybe only three times a week, but
you got to do it, and you gotta do it
for at least an hour, you know, you can't. I
do usually a half hour on the bike on a
(31:48):
stationary bike. And then I do, you know, like I said,
the sit ups, I do weight leg weights that I
do with three pound weights.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
You have a gym in your home or you have
a gym in your home?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Yeah one?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Yeah, still, I mean, yeah, that makes the difference when
you don't have to leave, you know, and you when
you have to leave, sometimes you have to really talk yourself,
oh do I want to go there?
Speaker 3 (32:18):
You know?
Speaker 2 (32:18):
And all that.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
But having something, like I said, it doesn't have to
be fancy or anything. Right As a dancer.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
By the ballet bar, I have, you know, a whole
mirrored wall ballet bar. That's the one thing that I've
never done without. You know, I've always had a ballet
bar in my house. If you don't have a ballet bar,
you gonna use the kitchen counter.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah, you can put.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Your leg up on anything. But somehow the ballet bar
just kind of motivates you to, you know, do the
proper stretching. So yeah, but you are absolutely right, You've
got to keep moving.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Keep moving.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Absolutely wow.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
So you never stopped really damp, and you still sometimes
dance and do some of the same steps and things
that you did before.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Yeah, I mean I like to go dancing, you know,
and unfortunately my guy likes to dance. So until we
go dancing her for there's a wedding or something, you know,
we're all always dancing. And I've become a big advocate
of a Los Angeles Ballet in the last two year years.
I've I've emceeed their gala and I love It's a
(33:30):
wonderful company and they have improved so much in the
last few years that I haven't started it yet. I
cannot tell a lie. But I am going to take
ballet class again. Oh wow, also classes for adults and yeah,
oh wow. There's no better, nothing better for your body
(33:57):
than ballet. And so I'm gonna start taking class again.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Well, anyone that's looking at this or listening to this,
they would have no idea of your age and will
be shot when they find out. I'm not telling them,
but anyway, because you are.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
You know, the thing is these days, you can't lie
about your age because they look on the on the well,
let's google her, that's right. So I mean, I'd love
to lie about my age, but I cannot.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Well, if you want to tell them, you can.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
But but I'm just saying, you're amazing, amazing. I mean
I know people that are forty that's not even doing that.
And I think it's really important that you took the
time to talk about it because it is so important,
and you've motivated me.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
And I'm gonna be honest. I am not one Blair.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
My son gets on me all the time because I
sit a lot. I'm doing one interview after another, and
I just got to get up. And you have really
motivated me to doing something I don't know about. Lifting
the leg on the well, this table here's not too high.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
I lift it a little bit.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
You start out with that, and you do it. And
the thing is, if you do it every day, by
the end of the week you go, oh, look, I
can get this much closer to my legs than I did.
I mean, it starts out you like this, and then
pretty soon and then I.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Mean, yeah, it's kind of like when we were little
and you do the split, the split, you know, you
sit on the floor, you got the legs and you
start here and then here and then here. So it's
just a little bit and a time. So absolutely, Oh
my god, I'm excited. Honey, I'm going to be exercising.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
That has got me over.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
That's good, I mean, because it's just important, you know,
and look at your vibrant, your you're wonderful, your everything,
so you want to keep it all working.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
I know, I know I've got you know, you know,
I've talked to Guy in one hundred and four is
what I'm going for.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Blair, like, well, you to get to work. We got
to do our part.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Is basically what we say. Yeah, I got to do
our part. Curious, was there a role that you really
wanted and you couldn't get it they turned you down?
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yeah? There been many many really Oh yeah yeah, I
mean now, I mean the business has changed so much
and there's not that many opportunities for someone of my age.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
So and.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
A lot of the casting directors are twenty two years
old and they don't know me, so they want me
to and everything is it used to be to go
in for an audition and new audition, you know, for
the director or whatever. Now it's on tape, and.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I mean you said, is that what it is?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Now you don't go in, Oh.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Okay, they call it self tape. They'll send you the
sides the script, and you know, then you go either
do it yourself on your phone or there's places you
know you can go and they'll record it for you
and you know, you find somebody else to read the
(37:23):
other lines and you do it and send it into
them so they don't have to have people coming in
and doing it. I don't like it, and most actors don't,
and most directors don't because the interaction and like if
you get to meet the director and you do a
(37:44):
reading and he says, yeah, that's good, but try this instead,
and you do that, he gets to know if he
can work with you, he or she with you, and
that's that's really important. With the tape.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah, you're only going to get so much ten to
take for sure. That's interesting. I think.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
There have been numbers of roles, you know, of things
even recently you know that I didn't get you know,
I do a tape or whatever and and you never
hear back, like they're not polite enough to call you
and say, well that was great, but you know we
we chose someone else. You just don't hear anything.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
So what are you do in that case? Do you
follow up?
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Or you just say okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
You can't. Yeah, I mean you can ask your agent
or manager whoever you know, to call them and ask them,
but they'll they'll generally say they really don't like it. Yeah,
if they want you, they'll call you. If they don't,
you just don't hear.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Now that now that you're telling me this, I'm thinking, okay,
so what's going to be next? You know, for not
just what you're doing actors and actresses and stuff, but
for people getting jobs. Are they going to have you
sending the tape to an AI person? AI person does?
Speaker 3 (39:03):
That's one of the things that the strike, the actors
strike was about, was about AI And then you know,
they wanted to recreate someone and then they can just
do with you whatever they want. They can create you
(39:27):
at this point, I anyway, I don't know if everybody can.
I can tell when something's been created by AIS. They're
trying to make you think it's a real person, but
you know it's not. But this is just the beginning
disc stuff. They'll get better and better at it. It
(39:47):
will be not too long from now you won't be
able to tell the difference.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Yeah, and you know Ai, what's happening with AI is
happening so fast. I'm actually taking a certification class now
because in my business, especially at the age I am you,
and you know that you have to stay on top
of things, whether you want to or not. You know,
you can't just kind of bury your head in the sand, right,
(40:15):
So if this is happening, I'm like, Okay, I want
to learn all I can learn for it, because I
don't know how you feel about this, but sometimes I think, okay,
you know, I have those low moments, I guess and
I'm like, Okay, who's gonna want to hire Raven a
seventy four year old to teach them how to how
to be a radio Sorry about that? How to do
(40:37):
a radio show or how to interview? Who's gonna want
to be mentored? At my age? And so I constantly
am finding, Donna that I'm staying up at night on
YouTube learning and studying.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
And do you find that too?
Speaker 1 (40:50):
That you have to kind of stay ahead because things
are moving.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
But I mean to hear you say that is so
great that you're doing that. You know that that you're
not sitting there saying, well they're they're they're not going
to you know, they're not going to take me because
you're learning, you're learning. I mean, do you know how
young that's going to keep you learning? I mean, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
I'm less of a I give in to technology uh more,
because I just it's not my DNA, you know, And.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Yeah, in your field you don't really have to know
it as much.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
But when I start, not as much as you would.
But I give you those to that that you're doing
that and that they're learning about it. It's it's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Yeah, well, it's it's kind of like, you know, if
you want to you know, because you're creating income, right,
creating income nowadays and not saying I'm going to settle
for social security because we don't even know what it's.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Going to have.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
You know, if I don't create income, you know what
I'm saying, and build up my nest. Now why I'm
feeling good and stuff and once I started lifting my
leg up, I'm putting it on the table and start exercising,
like Dona is motivating me to do even better.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
It'll be even better. For sure.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
You have Donamal's productions, right, that's something you started. I
think after what eight or nine seasons of being on
knots Landing, are you still doing that and what is
it all about?
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Well? I back then I produced I think it was
six movies for television with my own production company because
I had you know, they wanted me to be in
them that they gave me the producer credit also, but
I actually did produce them. I developed the scripts. I
(42:57):
you know, chose the directors, chose the other directors, you know,
stuff like that. So that was that was fun. But
then that was in television. So that was where my
power lay in television. Once they started not doing movies
for television anymore, which they you know, they started not
(43:22):
because all these things were coming on cable and that
isn't just the three because I had I had deals
with the ABC and CBS to do movies for television.
Once that started to go away, I sort of gave
up the producing end because I didn't have the power
(43:46):
anymore that they wanted me to be in it, so
they let me be the producer.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Oh really, okay, so you know it was fun.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
I had a good time doing it. I did some
nice work. I did some things that I think were important.
I did a movie called My Name is Kate about
a woman who is aholic. Okay. I did another movie
about it was called Runaway Father, about dead beat dads.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Oh wow, you know.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
So you know I felt that I used what I
had at the time well in making movies that mattered.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
I was just getting ready to say that.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
So you really went in a different way and just
say I want to do some really meaningful things, not
just for entertainment, but yeah, I think that's really going
to move the needles, so to speak, push people, you know,
forward in a way, inspired, motivating people. You know that's
amazing that awo.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
And then I basically left the business when I adopted
my daughter. Okay, clely, So you know that's another reason
I let the production company go because I didn't want to.
I didn't want to work anymore. I wanted to be
a mom.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
That's so wonderful that you adopted her too, you know,
that's that's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
I really.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
I praise you for that because that's important. I had
an opportunity years ago to interview Victoria Raw and she
wrote a book I think something about she had a
lot of different mothers because she had been you know,
different people that she had loved that had taken care
of her. And that's when I really really understood the
(45:39):
other side, actual people that were being adopted, and how
important it was, and how when you the older ones,
people don't adopt necessarily and all these different things. So, yeah,
it just kind of touched me. You said that made
me think of an interview. So that's important. So for
anyone that's thinking, since you brought it up about having
(46:01):
a child, they can't have a child, and they don't
want to go through all the new fancy ways of
doing it, what would be something you would want to
pass on to them about adopting a child.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Well, I'm a big advocate of it. You know, I
was very lucky. I have an incredibly wonderful daughter. She
was from them. I got her when she was four
days old. Oh really, okay, she's my baby, you know.
(46:41):
And I would encourage people to do it. There's many reasons,
you know, that somebody can't have a baby or whatever.
And I think one of the reasons, you know, that
women are older. I was fifty four when I adopted her. Okay, okay,
(47:03):
So it seems to me that that's that's a very
good time when you're a little bit older, because you've
probably done something in your career already. At a career,
you've probably maybe put some money together so that you
(47:24):
have a cushion and that, and these days that it's
just don't feeling good, you know, Oh, you have a
toddler running around, it's just gonna be too much for you. Yeah,
not at all.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Probably life.
Speaker 3 (47:46):
I would highly encourage anyone to adopt and to look
into adopting. There's a lot of different ways to do it.
And mine was a closed adoption, so I never met
as a biological mother or father. But there are open
adoptions too, where you know the parents, but that child
(48:13):
becomes your child, your baby, and your their mother, and
it's a wonderful thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Absolutely, Generally at that age, I guess we have more
control of deciding do we want to keep whatever career
we're doing now, or do we want to stop it?
Like I said, usually we might have a little cushion there,
and you could probably maneuver of your time better than
when you're younger and you're trying to do so many
different things. You know.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
I think if I had a child when I was younger,
I probably would have resented the child somewhat because I
was very vicious.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Yea, I was ambitious.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
I wanted my career, I loved my career, so I
wouldn't have been as good a mother.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Then, yeahs later, it's good that you do that. You
picked at the right time and get there. What do
you say, four months four days.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
For four days?
Speaker 1 (49:15):
Oh wow, Yeah, it's almost like you birth.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
That's amazing. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
That's awesome, wonderful.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
When when you adopt the way I did, they they
try to, you know, get it to the adopted parent
as soon as they can, because you know, the baby
needs to feel you, you know what I mean, and
at infant stage is very important.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
So yeah, that's good. And now you're you got a
grand baby.
Speaker 3 (49:51):
I do, I do. It's so cute it so I'm yesterday.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Oh wow, that's what's his name?
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Cult cold?
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Okay? All right? Oh I called her actually, but I
call them colt.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
One thing.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
About them grand babies boys, just like it's hard to
put them down, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (50:10):
Oh yeah, I mean it's so and it's it's so
wonderful to see your child so happy. Yeah, she just
loves being a mom. She wants four. She wants four,
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
And you're like, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (50:31):
Yeah, I mean that's that's great. But yeah, she's always
loved kids, little kids.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Oh, she was.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
A little kid.
Speaker 3 (50:40):
She she's tall. So she come walking out of her
little nursery school or wherever she was, and she have
three or four other little kids hanging on her.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
They they just went to her. So it's it's natural.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
She's a natural. She is very natural.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
There are many children out there, older children too, you
know that a foster care or whatever that you know,
if you had the chance to adopt them, that's a
wonderful thing to do too. You know, I think it's
probably a little harder because you've got their life before
(51:25):
and hopefully you know, it hasn't been too bad for them.
You know. You just think of any child not having
a loving home to be.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
I can tell you one thing though, I'll say this
old grandmom to a new grandma, A girl quick, Donna.
My grandson Christian can't. It's hard for me to believe
that December he'll be twenty nine years old. And when
my daughter Jamie had him, I remember seeing him and like,
oh my.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
God, he's so cute. He's cute.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
And the next thing I know, he's working for me.
He actually helps build TV channels and stuff for my
client things.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
And he grew up so quick. Yeah, well yeah, but
you had you had children early?
Speaker 1 (52:09):
Yeah right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I had Blair.
Speaker 2 (52:13):
I want to say, in my early twenties.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
There's something like that. Yeah, he grew up fast too.
Always they grow so quick. I can imagine how you
feel about Calling because I feel the same way about Jamie.
When you see them as a mom, you know you're
actually seeing your baby as a mom.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
You know, you're just like.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
I almost in awe. Are you just find yourself watching
and do you find you that she does things like
you do them? Sometimes like me and my daughter were
just now realizing how much we have in common, so
we see each other.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Do I see her do the same things I do?
Speaker 1 (52:49):
Bus it Chris the same way it used to do that?
Speaker 2 (52:53):
Or you see that age.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
He's only three months old, now son, you know, observe her. Yeah,
and of course she's breastfeeding, which I didn't do. Yeah,
of course, but so that that makes it very different.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
But yeah, yeah, I'm glad.
Speaker 3 (53:14):
I'm really glad she's able to do it. It's it's
not an easy thing. Not everybody can do it.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
So I think I did, like for two weeks, and
it was like, and I was trying to work and
go to work. I don't have time to do all that.
Just give me a bottle before I go to work
for sure. Okay, we're running out of time. Someone to
talk real quick about. We're not done yet. It's your podcast,
(53:42):
tell us about it. What do you want time the
listeners to walk away with when they listen to you,
Michelle and Joan, We're not done.
Speaker 3 (53:51):
Yet, you know what I think? First of all, it's
listening to girlfriends, like you said, just girlfriends chatting, and
that's a lot of what it's about. And uh, I mean,
I think that's nice. And I think people like that,
(54:13):
you know, and and long time friends. You know, we've
known each other for a long time. And then then
I and I think they want to hear stories about
the show. The backstage kind of stuff and our different
(54:34):
takes on that, you know, because everybody kind of sees
it from a different perspective really, and so I think
it's fun for them. And like I said, we're going
to have some of the other actors on. I think
I think that people also like to talk about the
issues that we dealt with, dealt with on on nots,
(54:58):
you know, because u it was it was contemporary for
the times. There was you know, my daughter had a
drug problem that I dealt with, and you know there
were lots of Michelle had a drug problem of her own,
you know, so all those kind of things. So I
think they like hearing what we thought about all that
(55:23):
and how we worked with it. You know, it's you know,
there's a lot there, I mean, because we did well.
There's fourteen years of it and at least twenty two
episodes a year. Yeah, fourteen years. It was on the
air longer than almost any show except Gun Smoke.
Speaker 2 (55:47):
Gun Smoke by and heard that one in a while,
I know, yes.
Speaker 3 (55:51):
That one was on something fifteen years or sixteen years
or something like that. But yeah, it was on longer
than Dallas Dynasty, Falcon Crest, and it was on longer.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
Yeah. Wow, I'm telling you fourteen years. I knew it
had been a long time, but I didn't know it
was fourteen years. And it's coming back on or it's
officially back on now.
Speaker 3 (56:15):
It started out on Plex, and I guess it's still
on Plex. I don't know, but probably more important, it's
on Amazon Prime. Okay, I gotta chick Amazon Prime and
you have to kind of search for it. You put it,
you know, with a thing that you can search, put
in Notts landing, and then it'll come in.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
They have a good So excited and that means I
get to start from the beginning.
Speaker 3 (56:40):
Oh, like, that's what many people are doing.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
I love it. I love it. Yeah, yeah. I think
I'm just going to have.
Speaker 1 (56:50):
Jamie and my daughter, Jamie and Blair and my grandson
has never seen it, so we're gonna make him, maybe virtually,
because we're all like, he's in Hawaii, Jamie in Houston,
Jamie and Chris and I'm in La. So we're gonna
have to come virtually some kind of way and watch
it and talk about it.
Speaker 2 (57:07):
It's gonna be so much fun. I'm super excited, scream excited.
Speaker 1 (57:14):
Now, what would you I want to get to the
last I'm gonna give you five rapid fire questions and
then we're gonna end this up. Okay, these are something
that the listeners wanted to know. Can you squeeze in
five more minutes? I promise I'll stay on time. I
got my timer.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (57:30):
Becoming a mother later in life has a was a
bold and beautiful choice. What was the most unexpected joy
you found in motherhood?
Speaker 3 (57:46):
I guess it was the depth of love that I
could feel. I didn't know I could love anything that much.
M M, I love her.
Speaker 2 (57:59):
Oh wow, that's awesome, awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1 (58:02):
Now stepping into the role of grandmother, how has that
expanded your view of family and legacy or has it?
Speaker 3 (58:10):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, I mean because I became a mother
so late, becoming a grandmother it was maybe not an option,
you know, I could have been gone by now. So
it's it's really sort of made it complete, you know,
(58:36):
it made made my life much more complete.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 1 (58:41):
What's the biggest lesson you would want to pass on
to them, to the.
Speaker 3 (58:48):
To to the grandchildren.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
H h.
Speaker 3 (58:55):
Boy. I guess just you know, to to love you know,
love you love your mom, your dad, your family, and
they will love you. If you feel that love from them,
you'll love them back. Here's a little thing that my
(59:17):
daughter said to me when she was two years old.
She stood up in her crib, I swear, and she said, Mommy,
our heart strings are tied together. Are you serious?
Speaker 2 (59:28):
At that age she said that.
Speaker 3 (59:31):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (59:32):
Did that blow you away?
Speaker 3 (59:35):
Oh yeah, I'd never forgotten it, obviously. I wish i'd
had We didn't have our little phones yet done, so
I couldn't record it, but oh my god.
Speaker 2 (59:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (59:48):
And I write it on whenever we you know, correspond
or or anything. I put it on their Mommy, our
heart strings are tied together. Wow.
Speaker 1 (59:58):
Can you share with the f as don just a
tadbit about the vineyard you have built I think with
your partner, right.
Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have. It's in our backyard. It's
a hill behind the house. It's it's a vineyard small,
but we we can turn out one hundred cases a
year and it's we grow. We grow it. We grow
Melbeck and cabernet and we've made yeah, we've made some
(01:00:37):
really good wines. I mean we've won four medals already
at the San Francisco wine competition.
Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
That's really good. We have a you know, you growing
them is a big part of it and everything. But
then you take it to the winery which is out
in Westlake and a winemaker out there, his name is
b Allen, and you know, then you work with him
on you know, how much blend, how much there is,
how much that, how much furnamentation, how long lots of
(01:01:10):
helks go into you know how good it is. But
we've been lucky. It's turned out really really well. It's
called Mandeville Vineyards. Oh. I got to check it out.
Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Oh my god, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
It's so awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
If you can step into any TV show currently currently
done at this area, which show would it be and
what character would you want to play?
Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
Oh my god? WHOA, that's a hard one.
Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
Do you watch much TV?
Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
Now? I don't watch a lot. Okay, but anyway, just
finished watching one that I would like to do. Oh no,
I know, I just saw it. As a matter of fact,
I just did a Doctor Odyssey that was on. But
Ryan Murphy is the is the producer on a creator Okay,
(01:02:03):
but he has a new show coming on called All's Fair.
It's about women lawyers and I just saw, Yeah, I
just saw a promo for it, and it looks fabulous.
Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
It looks absolutely fabulous. I've watched it. In fact, Blair
just texted to me yesterday. Yeah, he just sounds like one.
Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Did you like that?
Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
It looks good, doesn't it? Yes?
Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
Is that the one?
Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
Kim Kardashian is the Yes. And we were talking about,
you know, strength and women being strong and just that's
the prime example of it. And it's you know, I
like to see shows like that being done, so.
Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
I do too, okay for you to see yourself in there? Okay, yeah,
the exciting that the excited Well you don't know which
character because we don't even know what the characters are
right now.
Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
But no, because I think it's a law firm, all women,
those roles are all past. Of course, that's the Kardashian
and whoever else is in it. But it would be
somebody coming with a case probably I don't know, or yeah,
they could hire me as another lawyer.
Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
I can see you as a lawyer. I'll suit it up.
Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
So when you have a cheap day, I know you
like to exercise and take care of yourself, but if
you had a cheap day. What would be your guilty pleasure?
Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
Oh, probably just sitting eating coffee ice cream. I love
coffee ice cream.
Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
Yeah. Is there any actor still living or not that
you would have loved to have shared a screen with
but didn't get the opportunity.
Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
Meryl Streep?
Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
Really, she's amazing. Yeah she's still with us though, so.
Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
You can still have that. Oh yeah, no, she's still
doing it. She's to me the epitome of what an
actor is. She's always really wonderful and various, many various roles.
Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
So yeah, if I got a.
Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
Chance to work with her, I would be thrilled.
Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
I was going to ask you what's next for Donna?
As our final question? What's next that you haven't done?
That you're just saying, I don't like the word bucket list.
I have never liked that bucket.
Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
List for some reason.
Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
You know, I just call it dream or it's something
I'm going for. But what what do you feel that
you would like to do that you haven't done?
Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
Well, not that I haven't done, because what I really
want to do is do another series. I like to work,
I like to be on the set. I like I
just feel at home on a set in a you know,
trailer and you know the whole thing. I just love that.
So you know, if I had my brothers, I would
(01:05:03):
be doing another series.
Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
Now you think maybe you Michelle or and Joan or
have you visualized what it would be? And would you
produce it and direct it?
Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
No? Not directed. I've never directed, okay, and I wouldn't
produce it either because nobody would take me a producer
at this point unfortunately. But yeah, I would just just
you know, like to like to do it. Yeah, you know,
somebody else can produce it, somebody else. I just.
Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
I just want to just want to do it again.
Do what you love, being your element and do what
you love. Wow, this has been amazing everyone. This is
the beautiful, talented, amazing Dona Mills. Donna, thank you for
making this dream come true.
Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Interview. Oh my god happened?
Speaker 1 (01:05:59):
I love it is.
Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
I'm be smiling all day.
Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
I'm just gonna tell you very blessed today.
Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
Well, thank you. It's been a pleasure. You're just lovely
and really good at this, so it was really fun
to do.
Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
Everyone, you've been tuned in to amazing women and Minute
of Power legends and icons yesterday today, and tomorrow and
I'm raving to talk to you. Maybe this is donad Mills,
and you know what. We appreciate you tuning in and
please make sure you share this one with a friend.
Speaker 3 (01:06:33):
They'll be so glad you did.
Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
Bye,
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