WEBVTT - Linda Purl 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.880 So he talked like a he had the lingo was 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:07.320 a rough and ready truck driver. Not so much in 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:12.840 today's Japanese but at that time, the differentiation between classes 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:15.760 and sexes and age and all that was very different. 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.120 So for me, for instance, as a five year old girl, 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:22.599 appropriate way for me to refer to myself would be 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:26.840 what actually want it? And then Tanaka San would have said, 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:30.760 vocal us up. So I talked. I learned largely from 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.920 Tanaka San. I talked like a foul mouth middle aged 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:44.000 truck driver. Raised a lot of eyebrows. I'm Linda Pearl. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.599 I'm thrilled to be on Brian's show. I'm an actress 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:48.400 and a mom and a singer I like to say 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.479 not necessarily in that order. Got to play Helene on 0:00:51.560 --> 0:01:01.240 the Office, which was one of the best gigs ever. Hello, Hello, 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:05.040 gentle listeners. I am so glad you've joined me today 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:09.759 for a brand spanking new episode of Off the Beat. 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:14.360 I am your host, Brian Baumgartner. Some might call today 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:19.080 a happy day, but more on that in a moment. 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:21.520 I have a strong hunch a lot of you are 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.199 going to know my guest today, the amazing Linda Pearl 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:29.760 from her time on the office playing Michael Scott's love interest, 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:36.920 I mean Pam Beasley's mom, Helene Beasley. But if you 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.479 were around and paying any attention to pop culture at 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.480 all in the seventies or eighties, you would definitely know 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:49.640 her as the fonds Is girlfriend Ashley Fister on Happy Days, 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:54.800 or maybe as Charlene on Mattlock, or from her multitude 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:59.840 of roles on an Off Broadway over the years. I 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:05.279 love Linda. She comes from the Pearl family tradition of theater. 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.800 She sure lives up to it. Her whole family was 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.079 involved in theater growing up. She grew up in Japan. 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.520 But on top of that, now she has found the 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.960 time to start a sour dough starter kit business with 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.960 her partner Patrick Duffy, to climb mountains, and to have 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:27.840 a full on jazz career. I was so happy to 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.800 bring her onto the podcast so that all of you 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.040 could get to know Linda just a little bit better. 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:36.680 And now is the time to do that, all right. 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:42.720 Let the waiting stop, Let the conversation commence. Here she 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:53.720 has everybody, Linda, Pearl, Bubble and Squeak. I love Bubble, Queak, 0:02:56.320 --> 0:03:01.639 Bubble and Quaker cooking every month left from the nut people. 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:19.320 You are such a doll. Can I tell you the 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:23.720 look on Max's face when not only look jumping Jackson 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:27.760 was over the moon to get your photograph. Oh that's 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:35.040 so great. I'm so glad I last saw you there 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.840 at the under cont How was that for you? It 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.080 was great? Oh my gosh. Well, the fun I mean 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:43.520 I've done other I'm sure we all have, you know, 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:48.200 autograph events like that, however, not never one that was 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:53.640 dedicated to one show. And the Office fans are a 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.960 breed unto themselves. They were so much fun. They were 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.400 so festive, so in the spirit of the show. They 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.600 were so well versed in the show. Um, I mean, 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:08.800 the costumes were to die for, crazy right, really, And 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.680 it was an education because I mean, you know far 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.040 better than I for all your wonderful years on this show, 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:19.840 that the ability for the Office to tap into to 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:24.240 an audience and to ignite that sort of silly fun 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.080 in all of us. Uh, you don't get to see 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:32.039 that when you're doing the work, but boy, we got 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:36.200 to experience it there. It was. It was really cool. Yeah, 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:41.360 it's always amazing to me. I'm wondering if you had 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:48.800 any experiences where the fans feel as though they're not 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:53.640 telling you because they want to. They're almost telling you 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:57.479 because they feel a need to let you know how 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:01.320 much the show has meant to them, or you know, 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:07.159 helped them through a difficult time. You bet. Yeah, it's 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.280 it's done into me coming out of the coming out 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.760 of the pandemic. It's like people missed the experience of 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.800 being in an office. They missed their friends and their 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:20.760 enemies and their freenemies, and just the dynamic of being together. 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.080 Uh not you know, sealed up in your home. So 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.839 that was cool. Just this kind of bonus uh factor 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.800 of a different kind of resurgence or a different kind 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:35.120 of locking into the show because of the pandemic. Yeah. No, 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.120 I think that's true as well. And obviously we we 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:41.479 learned a lot of people were watching it for the 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:45.120 first time. We're rewatching it, uh during that time that 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:49.159 they were away. Um, well, I want to start back 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:56.479 ways for you. Um, you grew up in a family 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.839 a long line of performers. Your mom was an actress, 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:06.640 dad was a director, your grandmother was a stage actress. Um, 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:08.800 what what kind of influence do you think that that 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:13.839 had for you? As a as a child, huge, absolutely huge. 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:18.040 My mother had been an actress but also ballerina. Dad 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.360 an actor and a director, and Dad grew up on 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.920 the road. His parents were touring actors through the through 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.320 the Midwest, so that was his joy and family glue. 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.920 He had a career as an engineer, but he never 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.240 in his heart left the theater. And that was my 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:37.560 parents family glues, what they did together. Dad had his 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:42.280 career in Japan, so they were away from family, halfway 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.599 around the world for family, and in those days, getting 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:49.000 there just wasn't that just wasn't that easy. And also 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.400 Japan was a much more foreign place than it is today. 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.080 And in that moment that I was growing up in 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:59.000 the late fifties through the sixties, early seventies, Japan was 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:03.840 in a moment of huge inhale. Cultural inhale. They were very, 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.280 very curious to know about the West. All over the West, 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:12.480 I mean if that includes the then Soviet Union and 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:17.480 um so there was a constant influx of of culture. 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.120 The Bullshoy and the Kirov people, you know, artists from 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.960 behind the Iron Curtain were coming through. We had a 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.160 fairly big house, just not because we were wealthy, it's 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.880 just what the company gave them. So some guest rooms 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.040 and so there was really only one or two hotels, 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.000 so you never knew who was gonna show up at breakfast. 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.160 We'd have members of the Royal Shakespeare Company or the 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:40.560 kid Off Ballet just hanging out at the house. Was 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.120 like who are you? And so so that was sort 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.160 of the culture in in our home. There were painters 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:50.000 and writers and Harold Clamence Tennessee Williams over this for 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.559 a period of time. So wait what, Tennessee Williams lived 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.120 with you in Japan for a time. I mean I 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.400 say that, I didn't. He was there for a couple 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.080 of months, so it wasn't like he moved in for 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.120 five years or anything. But still that was yes, he 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.520 was that They were very interested in his work in Japan, 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.320 and so he came over to oversee a couple of 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.680 productions of his of his play, and he came with 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:18.080 a dog. There were very strict quarantine regulations at that time, 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.080 so they said, you're going to have to leave the 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.080 country if you, you know, if you insist on being 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.480 here with your dog. But they also recognized that he 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:32.760 was a cultural icon and we had dogs and caged 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:38.240 in area, so they it was funny. They Mr Williams 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.520 came with his dog, and the cultural attache and the 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:47.360 quarantine people came to the house and uh, and they said, okay, 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.800 well Mr and Mrs Pearrel, if you sign your life 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.200 away and promise that this dog, who was this big 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:55.760 by the way, does not leave, you know, the boundary 0:08:55.760 --> 0:09:00.120 will make this lone exception. And Tennessee said, well, that's fine, 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:02.280 but where my dog's days. I stayed too, and my 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:07.439 parents are like, well, okay, go ahead there. And it 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:11.760 was hysterical, but those kinds of things. So yeah, all 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:16.599 of that had a tremendous influence. My parents weren't atheists 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.679 or agnostics necessarily, but we didn't go to church. So 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:23.280 the theater and the arts was our family glue, our 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:28.559 family church and our our community. You grew up in Japan, 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.600 was this difficult as a child for you? There was 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.960 this just a blessing. It was such a gift for 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.880 any child growing up anywhere. We think that's the world, right, 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.680 I mean, that's just accepted as normal. So there were 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.520 things of privilege that we had. Again not because we 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:48.680 were wealthy, It was just an accident of the times 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.319 that I look back now on and just the education, 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:55.280 the global exposure. I mean in my school we had 0:09:55.280 --> 0:10:01.040 thirty three different nationalities, every possible religion, and we just 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.800 got along because we were in it together. And so 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.199 to have that as a as a child, to be, 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:14.360 you know, in a diverse um environment, I think was 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:18.240 again I just took it for granted. I didn't. It 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:22.120 never occurred to me that that we were different anything. 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:26.400 We were in different classes or you know, different parents, 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.199 but that was it. Those were the lines of demarcation 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:33.400 and beyond that, everyone was in it together, right you. 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:39.320 So I read here that you had your own TV 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:45.040 show on Japan's Educational Network ages seven to fourteen. I 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.480 mean you say, as a as a kid, your world 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:49.840 is the world, Like that's how you see things. Was 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:53.760 your early experience a part of who your family was, like, 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.800 that's just what you do. You just perform, you go 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.959 into into acting or or was this a particular interest 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:06.360 to you? Uh? No, it was probably both. I mean 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.600 my my parents, it's what they did. I they had 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.440 so much joy and so many friendships out of it 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:14.400 that we we would see at the dinner table, we 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:17.199 would see the rehearsing plays, you know, in the living room. 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:19.880 And yes it was in the DNA or sort of 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:23.199 spoon fed to me, but also I took to it. 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:26.320 And my parents were those kind of people that had, 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:27.839 you know, I had my sister and I wanted to 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.200 go into the sciences or medicine. Them think they would 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.480 have been equally thrilled, maybe with some dismay they thought, 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.960 oh no, another generation shot to help, but you know, 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.080 very supportive. Now it was not my own TV show. 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:45.120 There was this yen for learning English, and so n 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:48.120 h K, the educational the sort of the MPR of 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:54.800 still ongoing in Japan, had several programs geared for teaching 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:59.800 English at different levels, and the basic format was that 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:04.000 would have a skit uh that would be performed by 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.960 an English speaking person, and then they would sit around 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:10.640 and sort of a chat show kind of format on 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:14.960 sofas and they would explain to the viewer that these 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:19.040 the professors were the new vocabulary words, the grammatical structure, 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:22.480 and they would have me in this case, sitting on 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:25.960 the sofa and they would kind of poke me because 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:30.040 I could say the word in perfect American accent oddly enough, 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.120 so that was my lone donation to the show, but 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:36.200 I would be involved in the skit which were you know, 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:38.120 what is the name of your dog? Or please might 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.679 have some carrots from the supermarket, you know. So it's 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:45.480 a very elementary teaching English program. But it did put 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:50.520 me in a TV studio with the cameras and with 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:52.800 the crew and other people, and I suppose there was 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:54.839 a bit of makeup here and there, and the occasional 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:59.440 line to learn. So it was a lovely sort of 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:03.680 easy s early on apprenticeship into what it's like to 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:08.600 be on a set. Right, did you speak fluent Japanese? 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.840 I did my dad again, that came with the with 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.960 the company. We had a wonderful driver for my dad, 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.120 but he was at the house a lot Tanaka San 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:23.120 and Tanagason had been a rough and ready truck driver 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.040 and he had swapped out that career now to be 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:29.120 in a suit and driving a car for you know, 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:34.600 this this particular executive. So he talked like a he 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.560 had the lingo was a rough and ready truck driver, 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.679 not so much in today's Japanese, but at that time 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:46.480 the differentiation between classes and sexes and age and all 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:50.000 that was very different. So for me, for instance, as 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:53.440 a five year old girl, appropriate way for me to 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.800 refer to myself would be what actually want it? And 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.440 then Tanaka san would have said vocal usa. So I talked. 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.480 I learned largely from tanakasan. I talked like a foul mouth, 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:11.640 middle aged truck driver girl. Raised a lot of eyebrows, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:16.079 but yes, and I never really studied the language. Oh 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.480 a little bit of writing, but I had that gift 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.240 of I just got to pick it up on this street. 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:26.280 So I admire the people who struggle and steady hard 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:29.120 to learn it. I didn't have to uh to get 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.400 it that way. That said, it never advanced after I 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.440 more or less moved away. So you know, that's kind 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.240 of the level. It's a it's a conversational level, and 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:41.920 it's very old fashioned in the way that I have 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.080 Japanese friends who had gone to university in the States 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.480 and the seventies. I tease them because they'll say, oh, man, 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:50.800 that's groovy, or you know, I got to get back 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.040 to my pad. It's like, we can't really say that anymore. 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:56.640 People were talking about that's kind of my Japanese sounds. 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:22.280 You were at the time, uh, the only foreigner to 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:26.600 train at that. Now, my Japanese is not like yours. 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:34.840 Toho game Noo. Yeah, perfect academy film studio that was 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.480 behind Godzilla by the way, So I mean this is 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.840 a significant thing. Why were you allowed to train there 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:43.080 or what did they see in you or or how 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:47.520 did that transpire? Well? I did a couple of plays 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.400 with them, and so, and Toho was a is a 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:56.240 large theatrical corporation along the lines of the old studio 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.920 system in Hollywood. Okay, you know, they would have their 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:04.320 they're sort of coterie of actors, performers, directors, whatnot. And 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:09.920 they would also train them. And uniformity is a is 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.760 a big thing um for many island nations, and I 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:15.720 mean they're having to get along in a small space, 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.080 so uniformity helps a lot. In Japan is no exception, 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:23.600 and that bleeds into all aspects of education and business 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:28.960 and the arts. So their academy was very strong and 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:33.080 really wanting everybody to be working from the same place, 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:39.160 using the same disciplines. And so because I was able 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:40.920 to work with them every once in a while and 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.080 do a couple of their TV shows, it was important. 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.680 I guess that I uh that I take some classes there, 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.760 and I studied dance, ballet and jazz and acting and 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.800 maybe some singing along the way too. But again it 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:59.480 was just an accident of timing and life. Uh. There 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:05.800 were not in Tokyo any other little girls who were 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.240 who spoke the language, whose families were living there for 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:09.879 as long as we did. My folks were there for 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:13.680 about thirty years altogether. Usually folks come through for two 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:15.720 and three years and their company would move them on, 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:18.000 or the diplomatic core would move them on to the 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.359 next post in some other country that was not doing 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.960 My dad's career, uh, you know, worked he was there, 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.639 and so there were we. So between the longevity of 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:32.280 living there and speaking the language and having an interest 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.720 in it, I was the only one. I was kind 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:39.560 of a freak, kind of weird thing. But it was 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.320 fun for me because then I got to I got 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:47.159 to study there, and they're the jazz and certainly the 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:53.040 acting was curious because it wasn't their organic art form. 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:57.880 Their organic art forms would be kabuki and no and bundaku, 0:17:58.040 --> 0:17:59.880 none of which I studied at all. I mean, they're 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:03.280 all men discipline, so I couldn't really. So they were 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:07.919 doing there in order to do modern pieces, which is 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:11.800 all I was involved with or being trained for. They 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:18.680 were teaching their version of American acting, so they would 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:24.240 have watched or perhaps even studied my professors American artists, 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:29.320 and then through their Japanese lens, which had more to 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.960 do with mimicking than actually having it be an organic 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:37.399 part form. And then so that's what I was taught, 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:40.199 which wasn't like later on I went to the at 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:44.120 least Drosperg Institute stuff, It's like, oh they meant so 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:47.040 it was. It was a curious I mean, I'm sure, 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:52.320 as things do, their training has evolved tremendously, but at 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:56.760 that time, I mean, the concept of free emotion and 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:01.000 free music breaking the classical line was just mind blowing 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:03.400 for Japan. It was just not the way things were 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:08.400 done at all. So again I took it for granted 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.480 at the time, And now I think what a curious 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:15.320 moment I got to be exposed to as those tectonic 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:19.160 plate shifts were happening within the culture. Yes, that's so 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.920 fascinating to me. I mean, first off, you talked about 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:28.320 uniformity and how important that is. I mean that you know, 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:32.639 in a way feels an athetical to at least what 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:37.840 we think of as as art and free expression. But 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:42.760 you know the idea that well, it wasn't really it 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:46.520 wasn't really something that they did. So they were trying 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:52.440 to imitate what they were seeing happening, which I think, 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:55.920 by nature, does make it much more uniform. If it's 0:19:55.960 --> 0:20:01.200 not organic, it's something you're putting on. Absolutely, that's fascinating 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:06.399 to me. In fact, one one time there's some show 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:09.200 and I there was a moment in the in the musical, 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:11.879 and I there's a pop up separation. Anyway, it's a 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:14.440 sad moment. It's a musical, but it's a sad moment. 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:18.520 And I cried real tears on stage that evening, and 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:20.760 I was so pleased with myself. I was about eleven, 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:22.800 and I got back to my dressing room and I 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.240 had a notification that I was supposed to go see 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:27.400 the director, and I thought, oh, I know he's gonna 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:30.040 be so pleased with my work, because I was especially 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:32.439 pleased with myself. And I walked in and there he 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:35.800 was behind his desk and he gave me a talking to. 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:41.159 He was furious, he said, to cry real tears was 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:46.840 just not on. And I thought, wow, that's but he 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:50.960 was right because I was doing a different acting method 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:55.760 than anybody else on it wasn't right. So it was 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.480 very curious and he caught it. You know, he saw 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:00.000 it. It It was a big house. It was a fifty 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:02.679 hundred seat house, and he saw it. And boy, I 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:08.040 never did that again. Well, I mean, I guess, I 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:11.199 guess you could say I had. I haven't thought about this. 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:13.679 I haven't talked about this, Linda, and so long the 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:18.359 same experience in reverse. I played in the theater one time, 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:23.080 a role in kabuki. I played the old evil grandmother 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:28.040 in a production with full kabuky makeup that I did myself. 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:33.080 By the way, I have one somewhere. Yes, But the 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.920 reason I bring it up is it wasn't real kabuki, right, 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:42.640 it was. It was an American actually French director interpretation 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:48.439 of what kabuki was, with a comedic slant on it, 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:52.760 I'll be honest. So it was, uh yeah, But I played, Yes, 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:55.960 I played the evil the archetype of the evil h 0:21:56.280 --> 0:22:01.680 grandmother in full, in full kabuki. So there you go. 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.159 I don't think. I don't think i'd be allowed in 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:09.240 Japan now that I'm thinking, Um, so your family stayed, 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.520 but you left Japan to come back to the States. 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:16.680 Was that for education or what was that decision? It 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:20.080 was hormones, you know, time to get my folks right, 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:24.520 I mean that pop of separation. But also I was 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:28.000 interested in the theater, and I felt like a gimmick 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:30.760 over there, you know, so grateful for all of the 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:34.960 experiences and training and stuff. But at the end of 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:38.760 the day, if they the only reason they would hire 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:41.600 me is if they needed, you know, a blondie who 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:44.600 spoke Japanese. I mean it was I was a gimmick, 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:47.960 and I was curious to know how I would fare 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:51.320 in America or in the West anyway. So there was 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:53.119 that it was sort of a popular thing to go 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:54.600 to boarding school and all that. So it was a 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:59.240 confluence of things and I I came back and it's funny, 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:02.080 next week I'm getting together if we we have a 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:06.280 biennial reunion with some Tokyo childhood girlfriends, and you know, 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:09.040 we're very closest kids. And then we had our lives 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:11.720 and raised our kids and careers and whatnot, and now 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:17.080 we get together and a constant a topic of our 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:21.800 discussion is it's the culture shock that we each experienced, 0:23:21.800 --> 0:23:24.600 and we were from we were not necessarily from the 0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:29.400 same native countries. But when we returned to our native countries, 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:32.680 it was hard because at that point you don't belong 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:36.679 in Japan and you don't belong in your native country. 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:41.280 Your all third cultured kids. So it's a price to pay, 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:44.080 you know, whenever you're in one place, there's a part 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:47.439 of you that's left behind. Um and we all have that. 0:23:47.520 --> 0:23:49.199 I mean, if anybody's moved from the city to the 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:52.880 country or vice versa. So it's a price, but it's 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:56.679 it's it's worth it. So yeah, I mean when I 0:23:56.720 --> 0:24:00.200 moved to the States in the seventies, I mean pan 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:03.119 was a drug free nation. Not so much in the 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:07.840 seventies in the States, right what people are doing what? 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:12.359 Uh so? And and lots of things, lots of freedoms, 0:24:12.400 --> 0:24:14.640 and it was sort of the beginning of the women's movement. 0:24:14.960 --> 0:24:19.120 So that was very antithetical really to the things I saw, 0:24:19.160 --> 0:24:23.840 the influences that I was raised around. Gosh, that's so interesting. 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:29.040 You eventually study at some very significant in terms of 0:24:29.200 --> 0:24:32.520 the theater world in the United States. Uh, the Neighborhood 0:24:32.560 --> 0:24:37.520 Playhouse Lee Strasburg Institute, which the basis of that was 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:41.960 my background as well. Um was theater what you were 0:24:42.000 --> 0:24:47.000 most interested in at that point? Oh? Yes, yes, I 0:24:47.000 --> 0:24:50.360 didn't really think about the other. Um, I mean I've 0:24:50.400 --> 0:24:52.760 done a couple of films, but I love that you 0:24:52.880 --> 0:24:55.080 just called it the other. By the way, I'm gonna 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:57.480 use that as well. I'm gonna use that from now 0:24:57.520 --> 0:25:03.119 on the other. Uh yes, yeah, I felt that was, 0:25:03.600 --> 0:25:06.600 you know, the basis for everything. It was the foundation 0:25:06.640 --> 0:25:08.679 and from there sort of like ballet. I mean, if 0:25:08.680 --> 0:25:11.280 you have ballet, then you can move into jazz or modern. 0:25:11.920 --> 0:25:13.680 If you know what the line is, then you can 0:25:13.840 --> 0:25:15.280 break it, but you have to sort of know what 0:25:15.359 --> 0:25:18.560 the line is. And and theater being the actor's medium, 0:25:18.600 --> 0:25:21.479 it was what was most Uh well, it was what 0:25:21.520 --> 0:25:25.760 I was were raised in. Right, You were based primarily 0:25:25.800 --> 0:25:29.840 in New York at this time, I was. I was, 0:25:29.920 --> 0:25:33.320 And then I had gone out to actually Donnie Most Darling. 0:25:33.400 --> 0:25:35.960 Donnie Most was a friend and he moved out to 0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:39.879 l A. And Donnie had mentioned, oh there's this, you know, 0:25:40.240 --> 0:25:42.399 a part that you might be right for. Unhappy days Anyway, 0:25:42.400 --> 0:25:46.919 auditioned and so I started working more in in l A. 0:25:47.440 --> 0:25:51.800 In television rather than in New York. So it took 0:25:51.840 --> 0:25:56.280 about five years to leave New York altogether. But that 0:25:56.359 --> 0:26:00.320 was sort of the beginning of starting my career in television. Yeah, 0:26:00.520 --> 0:26:07.000 transitioning to the other you played Gloria dating uh the 0:26:07.040 --> 0:26:10.520 main character Ron Howard at the time. Now, you just 0:26:10.760 --> 0:26:13.760 audition for this role. Do you have any any stories 0:26:13.800 --> 0:26:16.679