November 4, 2022 • 7 mins
Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz talk new Glee podcast and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Mario Limit, Mario Lopez don't even know on Zoom Apparently
alumni actress Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushko is welcome to
the show. Nice to see you guys. Hey they just
see you. Um, congratulations on the new podcast. And that's
what you really missed? Fun title? Uh what made you
want to do the show? Well, you know, we we
(00:27):
we had an original inception of this podcast where Kevin
and I were kind of talking to people about work
wives and work husbands because Kevin and I have such
a good relationship on an off screen and you know,
the Glee fans are you know, they know what they
want and they get what they want, and you know,
we it turned into a Glee recap podcast and sadly,
(00:49):
you know, when we lost our friend, it was time
to take a pause and we decided that, um, you know,
we weren't sure what was going to happen with it.
But again, literally, fans know what they want and they
made themselves known and they really wanted us to come
back with this show. So we decided to do it
with a new lens of and you know, different, a
(01:10):
fresh perspective. And so here we are, and we are
ready to go, we're excited and we're just gonna We're
gonna give it the old college try again. It's got
to be a lot of fun to revisit it, and
I imagine somewhat therapeutic too, to kind of go and
look at these episodes and oh, my gosh, and does
it uh does it hold up? And does it? Is
(01:30):
it what you thought it would be? Revisiting so far?
Have you started yet? By the way we just started,
um it. A lot of it holds up and some
of it does not. And I think that's sort of
the beauty of it, where you know, any TV show
like you're familiar with, it's a it's a snapshot of
that era and that time, and so some of the
things like yeah, that doesn't sound or look so great today,
(01:53):
but at the time, you know, it was a good world.
And I think it's fun to be able to go
back and address those things and honestly and openly talk
about them. And the first one we do, the pilot,
and we had Ryan Murphy come on, and he sort
of he set the tone where he was so honest
and open about everything that it really feels like it
gives us license to also be that way. For the
(02:16):
rest of it. So going forward, we're just going to
be blunt to talk about our experiences as openly as possible.
Did Ryan reveal anything that that you didn't know about
the show? Did you learn anything from them? Yeah, yeah,
talking apparently they were taught. Well, you're gonna have to
listen to the podcast. What we learned something actually was
(02:40):
that there was talk of a Warblers and UM like spinoff,
which we had never really heard of, and we know,
but he said that he just didn't have the capacity
to actually make another show. So but that was that
was new to us, new news. And also like that
Justin Timberlake. Whole thing about Mr Shoe was they wanted
(03:03):
justin timber League for it in the beginning, and that's
just like the beginning of he kept saying these things
like we really thought we'd do everything. We did not
at all. I bet, I bet. Are you planning on
having um other cast members or guests that who may
have come out on the show for sure? Well, we'll
have whoever will have us. Yeah, I think, you know,
(03:24):
it's a good one to start at the top with Ryan,
and we definitely plan on exploring all of our old castmates.
UM some of the musicians whose songs we covered on
the show. I think that's a really exciting thing to
talk because we haven't really gotten to talk to them
before or hear from them about their experience about being
having you know, letting us these kids on this random
(03:44):
show cover their song and a lot of times they
did pretty well on the charts, and I think that's
just a weird thing to have happened. And so being
able to look back on it after all this time
and seeing how it affected and impacted a lot of
different people, it's going to be fun. Yeah, that is fun. Um.
Where does it the cast stand with each other? Now?
You guys keep in touch for the most part, or
(04:04):
is it like regular high school? You see each other
when you can and sort of pick up a lot
of us keep in touch, Like there's a there's like
fifteen group texts chains that I have on my phone.
I can't keep tracking who's in what one. But yeah,
we really, we really are pretty tight um, and we
try to see each other as much as possible. It
kind of felt weird early on, like after the show ended,
(04:27):
to not see each other as much because you're just
with you. We were with these people for six years.
So um, but yeah, we're we're pretty tight. So has
enough time passed to start thinking about a reunion. I mean,
we we have off screen reunions all the time, getting
together and doing things. I think that's probably a decision
(04:50):
for Ryan to make. Has it been ten years? Has
it been ten years since you guys, because then that
would be a real life tenure reunion, right, not since
we've not? Yeah, okay, many years away away, about a
year or two, I think we're I think it's yeah,
so plus a couple of years. Okay, a couple of
years that will work. Yeah, maybe you can make it happen.
(05:12):
You can, you can get everyone together. I like that.
I like that. I'm going, Um, I know both of
you recently competed on RuPaul's Celebrity Drag Race. How do
you enjoy that? It was a lot of fun. You
should do it? Like, what what does it entail? You
have to get a drag and you have to perform
(05:32):
a musical number every week? But yeah, you live sinc
But it's definitely you have the best of the best
people making all this stuff happen, so you don't have
to do any of it yourself, which is great, because
I would look so busted if I had to do it.
But um, having yeah, you know, a whole wig team,
a whole makeup department, and then sometimes you might have
(05:54):
to work course it. It's not the most comfortable thing,
but there's something very understate like liberating and freeing and
seeing how it affected so many different people in a
positive way. It was. It was a really really fun experience. Yeah,
it was really fun to do it together. I mean
we were actually hired separately, and they tried to keep
us our identities, um from each other, but we talked
(06:16):
every day, so that was very possible. Um. But I
was really grateful because I was very early in my
pregnancy at the time and so um, I couldn't tell
anybody in the show. But at least I had an
ally and Kevin to kind of look after me. And
it was a wild trippy experience for sure. I bet
I'm gona have to go break that ship down over
(06:38):
it then, all right, I think, yeah, thanks Kevin like that.
The baby, By the way, how's the baby? You were saying, Oh,
she's amazing, She's the light of my life. She's incredible. Um,
I can't believe she's like you know five months now,
(07:00):
it's crazy one, right, Yeah, it really is. It's such
a joy and every day is so different and really
um it just makes you remind you to like about
the small things and not sweat the small stuff. So
exactly what. Congratulations, that's all. Thank you, and congratulations you
guys on the new podcast you can listen to and
that's what you're really missed on I Heart radio or
(07:21):
wherever you get your podcasts. Uh. Jennet Kevin, thanks for
hanging out. I hope to see you guys in person.
I know you too. It's really good to see you,
all right, take care, see you with Mario little bit
Mario Limit, Mario Lopez don't even know on Zoom Apparently
alumni actress Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushko is welcome to
the show. Nice to see you guys. Hey they just
see you. Um, congratulations on the new podcast. And that's
what you really missed? Fun title? Uh what made you
want to do the show? Well, you know, we we
(00:27):
we had an original inception of this podcast where Kevin
and I were kind of talking to people about work
wives and work husbands because Kevin and I have such
a good relationship on an off screen and you know,
the Glee fans are you know, they know what they
want and they get what they want, and you know,
we it turned into a Glee recap podcast and sadly,
(00:49):
you know, when we lost our friend, it was time
to take a pause and we decided that, um, you know,
we weren't sure what was going to happen with it.
But again, literally, fans know what they want and they
made themselves known and they really wanted us to come
back with this show. So we decided to do it
with a new lens of and you know, different, a
(01:10):
fresh perspective. And so here we are, and we are
ready to go, we're excited and we're just gonna We're
gonna give it the old college try again. It's got
to be a lot of fun to revisit it, and
I imagine somewhat therapeutic too, to kind of go and
look at these episodes and oh, my gosh, and does
it uh does it hold up? And does it? Is
(01:30):
it what you thought it would be? Revisiting so far?
Have you started yet? By the way we just started,
um it. A lot of it holds up and some
of it does not. And I think that's sort of
the beauty of it, where you know, any TV show
like you're familiar with, it's a it's a snapshot of
that era and that time, and so some of the
things like yeah, that doesn't sound or look so great today,
(01:53):
but at the time, you know, it was a good world.
And I think it's fun to be able to go
back and address those things and honestly and openly talk
about them. And the first one we do, the pilot,
and we had Ryan Murphy come on, and he sort
of he set the tone where he was so honest
and open about everything that it really feels like it
gives us license to also be that way. For the
(02:16):
rest of it. So going forward, we're just going to
be blunt to talk about our experiences as openly as possible.
Did Ryan reveal anything that that you didn't know about
the show? Did you learn anything from them? Yeah, yeah,
talking apparently they were taught. Well, you're gonna have to
listen to the podcast. What we learned something actually was
(02:40):
that there was talk of a Warblers and UM like spinoff,
which we had never really heard of, and we know,
but he said that he just didn't have the capacity
to actually make another show. So but that was that
was new to us, new news. And also like that
Justin Timberlake. Whole thing about Mr Shoe was they wanted
(03:03):
justin timber League for it in the beginning, and that's
just like the beginning of he kept saying these things
like we really thought we'd do everything. We did not
at all. I bet, I bet. Are you planning on
having um other cast members or guests that who may
have come out on the show for sure? Well, we'll
have whoever will have us. Yeah, I think, you know,
(03:24):
it's a good one to start at the top with Ryan,
and we definitely plan on exploring all of our old castmates.
UM some of the musicians whose songs we covered on
the show. I think that's a really exciting thing to
talk because we haven't really gotten to talk to them
before or hear from them about their experience about being
having you know, letting us these kids on this random
(03:44):
show cover their song and a lot of times they
did pretty well on the charts, and I think that's
just a weird thing to have happened. And so being
able to look back on it after all this time
and seeing how it affected and impacted a lot of
different people, it's going to be fun. Yeah, that is fun. Um.
Where does it the cast stand with each other? Now?
You guys keep in touch for the most part, or
(04:04):
is it like regular high school? You see each other
when you can and sort of pick up a lot
of us keep in touch, Like there's a there's like
fifteen group texts chains that I have on my phone.
I can't keep tracking who's in what one. But yeah,
we really, we really are pretty tight um, and we
try to see each other as much as possible. It
kind of felt weird early on, like after the show ended,
(04:27):
to not see each other as much because you're just
with you. We were with these people for six years.
So um, but yeah, we're we're pretty tight. So has
enough time passed to start thinking about a reunion. I mean,
we we have off screen reunions all the time, getting
together and doing things. I think that's probably a decision
(04:50):
for Ryan to make. Has it been ten years? Has
it been ten years since you guys, because then that
would be a real life tenure reunion, right, not since
we've not? Yeah, okay, many years away away, about a
year or two, I think we're I think it's yeah,
so plus a couple of years. Okay, a couple of
years that will work. Yeah, maybe you can make it happen.
(05:12):
You can, you can get everyone together. I like that.
I like that. I'm going, Um, I know both of
you recently competed on RuPaul's Celebrity Drag Race. How do
you enjoy that? It was a lot of fun. You
should do it? Like, what what does it entail? You
have to get a drag and you have to perform
(05:32):
a musical number every week? But yeah, you live sinc
But it's definitely you have the best of the best
people making all this stuff happen, so you don't have
to do any of it yourself, which is great, because
I would look so busted if I had to do it.
But um, having yeah, you know, a whole wig team,
a whole makeup department, and then sometimes you might have
(05:54):
to work course it. It's not the most comfortable thing,
but there's something very understate like liberating and freeing and
seeing how it affected so many different people in a
positive way. It was. It was a really really fun experience. Yeah,
it was really fun to do it together. I mean
we were actually hired separately, and they tried to keep
us our identities, um from each other, but we talked
(06:16):
every day, so that was very possible. Um. But I
was really grateful because I was very early in my
pregnancy at the time and so um, I couldn't tell
anybody in the show. But at least I had an
ally and Kevin to kind of look after me. And
it was a wild trippy experience for sure. I bet
I'm gona have to go break that ship down over
(06:38):
it then, all right, I think, yeah, thanks Kevin like that.
The baby, By the way, how's the baby? You were saying, Oh,
she's amazing, She's the light of my life. She's incredible. Um,
I can't believe she's like you know five months now,
(07:00):
it's crazy one, right, Yeah, it really is. It's such
a joy and every day is so different and really
um it just makes you remind you to like about
the small things and not sweat the small stuff. So
exactly what. Congratulations, that's all. Thank you, and congratulations you
guys on the new podcast you can listen to and
that's what you're really missed on I Heart radio or
(07:21):
wherever you get your podcasts. Uh. Jennet Kevin, thanks for
hanging out. I hope to see you guys in person.
I know you too. It's really good to see you,
all right, take care, see you with Mario little bit
Host
Mario Lopez
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