Speaker 1: Danielle were you were you practicing your signature?
Speaker 2: Like to see that I do that while we're doing
Speaker 2: the podcast. I just write my name over and over again.
Speaker 1: I just love it. It's like she still has a
Speaker 1: crush on Jensen. She's practicing.
Speaker 2: Practice.
Speaker 3: She wrote a little hard.
Speaker 4: I just think I've ever seen I think, not read
Speaker 4: Lance Bass or Taylor Thomas or any of the others.
Speaker 2: At least I love my husband.
Speaker 1: No official Bass.
Speaker 2: Whoa, Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, remember when we got to whatever convention that was
Speaker 5: a couple of weeks ago, and I was like, guys,
Speaker 5: I have a new signature. I'm gonna I'm gonna really
Speaker 5: take my time. That lasted four signatures before. I was like, no,
Speaker 5: I just have a thing now that where I don't
Speaker 5: even really have control over what comes out of me
Speaker 5: with my signature anymore. It's just like the pen touches
Speaker 5: the paper and my hand does the same moves over
Speaker 5: and over again. And even if I wanted, like, for example,
Speaker 5: I have wanted to stop doing that exclamation point, happy
Speaker 5: face exclamation point that I do at the bottom of
Speaker 5: my name, I've done it ever since I ever started
Speaker 5: signing autographs when I was like eleven or twelve years old,
Speaker 5: and I want to stop.
Speaker 2: It and I can't.
Speaker 6: You know, you can't, You just can Yeah, I can't.
Speaker 6: Can just stop. After the I.
Speaker 5: Sign my name and it just happens automatically, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 5: I wanted to.
Speaker 7: Not do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 7: By the end of the con, you can't even tell
Speaker 7: what my name is, like it just says like best wishes,
Speaker 7: Wendell Freeman.
Speaker 2: Super fil freed Ale.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you just can't. You can't tell anymore. It's just
Speaker 6: a blur.
Speaker 4: And my parents we we we were with my parents
Speaker 4: a couple of weeks ago, got together and we'd had
Speaker 4: like a whole board game weekend in this in this
Speaker 4: beach house.
Speaker 1: Was so fun.
Speaker 4: And my parents have this crazy thing that I don't
Speaker 4: know where they got it, but their glasses like a
Speaker 4: goggles that you put on that turn the world upside down.
Speaker 4: It's like a set of mirrors, so you're looking through
Speaker 4: but suddenly your feet are on the ceiling. It's like
Speaker 4: it completely inverts the world right. It makes you like,
Speaker 4: it drives you crazy, and what you try and do
Speaker 4: is like try and write something and you can't, Like
Speaker 4: you cannot like you look down, which means looking up
Speaker 4: at what you're right.
Speaker 1: It's so confusing, Oh is sign my name?
Speaker 4: It was like I couldn't write like because you try
Speaker 4: and just write correctly and you end up writing upside
Speaker 4: down and backwards. And so then I was like, no, no, no,
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna close my eyes and sign my name
Speaker 4: and I could do it perfectly.
Speaker 1: So it's like, wow, yeah, it's just automatic. You've got
Speaker 1: to try.
Speaker 6: Just thinking about that made me nauseous.
Speaker 2: You've got to ask your parents where they got that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the coolest thing.
Speaker 4: I mean, Indy put it on, could not take it
Speaker 4: off and was just like what God, Yeah, it's so weird.
Speaker 2: Oh that's cool. Welcome to pod meets World. I'm Danielle Fischel, I'm.
Speaker 6: Rider Strong, and I'm Wilfredell.
Speaker 5: So when you film a seven seasons of a TV show,
Speaker 5: episodes start to blend together a bit, as you may
Speaker 5: have already heard on an almost weekly basis with this podcast,
Speaker 5: and now thirty years later, we have forgotten a lot
Speaker 5: of things. But recently, Will and Ryder bumped into this
Speaker 5: week's guest at a convention in Albuquerque, and they couldn't
Speaker 5: be happier to remember the sweetness that is Natanya Ross.
Speaker 5: She appeared in just one episode of Boy Meets World
Speaker 5: as ingrid iverson the girl, Corey and Sean decide to
Speaker 5: riz up for the big Christmas dance and hopes she'll
Speaker 5: become more popular.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 6: Thanks, guys.
Speaker 5: I was hoping you guys were going to notice, and
Speaker 5: in turn, she left quite an impression on the legacy
Speaker 5: of the show, and after visiting us, she went on
Speaker 5: to star in the Freaky Friday TV movie with Shelley
Speaker 5: Long and Gabby Hoffman. She appeared on The Babysitters Club
Speaker 5: and Baywatch, and most notably, she was in almost fifty
Speaker 5: episodes of The Secret World of Alex Mack, playing Robin Russo.
Speaker 5: So now all three of us are thrilled to be
Speaker 5: reunited with Natanya to talk not only about her guest
Speaker 5: appearance on Boymet's World and the fact that she's the
Speaker 5: only proof we have that our school did indeed have
Speaker 5: a pool, but also we will chat about her life
Speaker 5: since we work together, and what she's overcome to be
Speaker 5: here today. Let's please welcome to the show. Natanya Ross.
Speaker 3: Hi, Hi, Hi, how is everyone?
Speaker 2: We're good how are you.
Speaker 8: I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 5: We were just discussing right before you came in. How
Speaker 5: you ran into writer and Will at a convention last
Speaker 5: year in Albuquerque.
Speaker 8: Yes, I did.
Speaker 1: It was us in the Sandloch Crew Hanger.
Speaker 6: It was nothing else and the Mighty Ducks and the
Speaker 6: and the Mighty Ducks.
Speaker 8: We had Jean and Marty and there was nothing else
Speaker 8: to do.
Speaker 6: Pretty much, it's pretty accurate.
Speaker 3: I just got.
Speaker 8: Booked to do another one in the same place. Yeah,
Speaker 8: and I was like, all right, I guess I'll go back.
Speaker 6: I mean, the question really is how fast can you
Speaker 6: spell Albuquerque?
Speaker 3: Not fast at all?
Speaker 6: Albl a l b u q u e r q
Speaker 6: u e oh, I go home albac.
Speaker 1: You practiced that just to be able to do that
Speaker 1: pretty much. Party.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a party track, it is.
Speaker 6: It absolutely is.
Speaker 5: Okay, So let's start with our most basic question we
Speaker 5: like to ask everybody, which is when did you get
Speaker 5: into acting as a kid?
Speaker 8: Six months old?
Speaker 6: No, really, that might be our youngest ever.
Speaker 1: You might beat Matt Lawrence because he's somewhere in the
Speaker 1: first year or year and a half, but you six.
Speaker 2: Months Tell us about that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't remember much.
Speaker 5: What what do you mean, I want to know all
Speaker 5: my memory, I don't remember much.
Speaker 8: My mom was just like very determined to make me
Speaker 8: into something, which I'm you know, goes into a lot
Speaker 8: of ship that happened later on in my life. But yeah,
Speaker 8: six months old, I was a Gerber baby. I was
Speaker 8: doing a bunch of commercials, and then I had like
Speaker 8: very very very small parts in Crimes and Misdemeanors and
Speaker 8: Awakenings with Robert de Niro and Crazy. But then like
Speaker 8: the first I guess real recognizable thing which really still
Speaker 8: trips me out that people even comment on this was
Speaker 8: Little Monsters.
Speaker 5: I yes, so you were in Little Monsters, which starred
Speaker 5: Fred Savage and had a cameo by Ben.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, crazy and I.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, I don't even know if I've actually
Speaker 8: seen it all the way through either. But I was
Speaker 8: very were young.
Speaker 3: I was six years old, and.
Speaker 8: I had this like thirty second little Heart, and that's
Speaker 8: really what kind of kicked everything off. When I think
Speaker 8: my mom and my team at that time, it's so
Speaker 8: weird that to have a team at six years old,
Speaker 8: but they were like, yeah, let's try and take this
Speaker 8: as far as we can take.
Speaker 3: It with this.
Speaker 1: Let's take this, let's let's.
Speaker 3: Take this all the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, six years of investment if paid off.
Speaker 3: I'm telling you.
Speaker 2: So, what are your like? Those are some pretty big
Speaker 2: sets to be on as a small kid. What is
Speaker 2: what do you what.
Speaker 5: Is like your earliest memory of being on a set?
Speaker 5: What do you actually remember where you're like? I know
Speaker 5: I did those jobs because there's evidence of it, But like,
Speaker 5: the first one I really remember is, Yeah.
Speaker 8: Probably I did like a Juicy juice commercial in Canada.
Speaker 8: I remember that because we had to get on a
Speaker 8: plane and we were first class and it was this
Speaker 8: big thing and I loved it so much. But I
Speaker 8: think Little Monsters is probably the first set I really
Speaker 8: remember being on. I couldn't tell you, like too much
Speaker 8: about it, but I have recollections of like what it
Speaker 8: felt like and what it made me feel like and
Speaker 8: what was Yeah, I was really cognizant even at that
Speaker 8: age that this was what I wanted to be doing.
Speaker 8: So although I have, you know, a little bit of
Speaker 8: a cliche child star story later on in life, I
Speaker 8: was never forced into it. Like I knew that I
Speaker 8: loved it even at that age. I just didn't know
Speaker 8: how much I was about to really love it, like
Speaker 8: later on, you know, I just was like I was
Speaker 8: like a rambunctious kind of a big personality kid.
Speaker 3: And I was like, yeah, I'm on set. This is great.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 8: It didn't like, I think, penetrate my soul the way
Speaker 8: it did later on, but I knew I was where
Speaker 8: I wanted to be.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 5: And so when you then made it to boy Meet's World,
Speaker 5: did Bean remember you Did you guys talk about little
Speaker 5: Monsters at all?
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
Speaker 8: No, No, I don't think I brought that. I was
Speaker 8: nervous on set with you guys, and I came from
Speaker 8: I was already on Alex Mack, so I was integrated
Speaker 8: into a set family too. You know, we were I
Speaker 8: think on season two when I did Alex Mack, when
Speaker 8: I did Boy Meet's World. So I just I remember
Speaker 8: coming in knowing the dynamic that you guys had probably
Speaker 8: already built together because I had that too. So I
Speaker 8: was nervous. I was like, I don't remember talking much
Speaker 8: to anyone really, but I did talk to Ben the
Speaker 8: most for sure, but never about little monsters.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 8: Even later on when we were I don't even think
Speaker 8: I brought that up.
Speaker 3: I don't think I've.
Speaker 6: Never we've never seen little Monsters.
Speaker 7: But I have a question if anybody knows, is it
Speaker 7: called little monsters because the kids are bad, like problem
Speaker 7: child or they're actually monsters?
Speaker 4: I think yeah, it's like a monster under the bed
Speaker 4: or something that they've become friends with or something.
Speaker 6: Okay, all right, it's.
Speaker 8: Like a main monster too.
Speaker 3: Howie Mandel is like, okay, gin monster. I should probably
Speaker 3: watched it too.
Speaker 2: We should watch it.
Speaker 7: We should watch it of little monsters.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, Well you were also I mean, you
Speaker 5: were also on a TGIF show. You were on Billy,
Speaker 5: the sitcom with Billy Connolly and Johnny Gillecky, So you
Speaker 5: were all by the time you got to Boy Meets World,
Speaker 5: you are already like a TGIF staple.
Speaker 2: You were already on Alex Mac in second season.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Okay, So before we get into Boy Meets World, there
Speaker 5: is a movie that you did that I have to
Speaker 5: talk to you about because in doing research for this interview,
Speaker 5: I'm not sure this this movie is ever gonna leave
Speaker 5: my nightmare.
Speaker 2: So I need all the details.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 5: Munchie Strikes Back, the sequel to Munchie and that movie,
Speaker 5: Munchie starred Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Speaker 2: So you were in the sequel.
Speaker 5: I want to show you the image of Munchie the
Speaker 5: monster in it because it's it's pretty, it's pretty crazy,
Speaker 5: it's a it's a wonderful creature. And this is the
Speaker 5: official movie description. He dresses like a lounge singer, oh,
Speaker 5: sounds like a stand up comedian and has magic powers.
Speaker 6: Oh, my father, how have I never seen that?
Speaker 5: I love his card again and I need to know
Speaker 5: every detail about this movie.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, God bless the nineties exactly.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was not to say about this movie.
Speaker 8: It was like this weird little Roger Korman movie. I
Speaker 8: don't even think I auditioned for it, just kind of
Speaker 8: like came across to us as an offer. And my
Speaker 8: Mom's like, dude, if you knew anything.
Speaker 2: What was what was the character you played in it?
Speaker 7: So?
Speaker 3: I played the girlfriend of.
Speaker 8: No no, no, no no no.
Speaker 2: I was going to be so excited.
Speaker 3: Yeah that would be like.
Speaker 6: So I mean to kiss.
Speaker 8: I was a girlfriend of like the main character and
Speaker 8: his best friend was Munchie. But it was like an
Speaker 8: imaginary like no one else could really see it. And yeah,
Speaker 8: I was just like his little girlfriend in the movie.
Speaker 5: And what was it like with that? Was that puppet
Speaker 5: on set all the time? Did you have to interact
Speaker 5: with that puppet?
Speaker 8: The puppet was on set, I didn't have any scenes
Speaker 8: with the puppet. Like the prints of the movie is
Speaker 8: like only this kid can see it.
Speaker 6: Yeah. I love how Danielle was just assuming it's a puppet.
Speaker 2: Well, it could be a real guy, could be a
Speaker 2: real person.
Speaker 6: Just yeah, seriously, he instantly just judged that young actor.
Speaker 6: Very nice, Danielle.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I have.
Speaker 8: To say, with all the interviews I do, I've never
Speaker 8: once been asked about monkey Man.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: That makes me happy.
Speaker 1: That's that's our special time.
Speaker 6: Yeah, not every podcast kind of hits the level we.
Speaker 1: Do right to the jugular.
Speaker 6: We try. We try to get the.
Speaker 1: Entirely forgetable nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I want to work with a puppet like that?
Speaker 2: Are you kidding me? That's the puppet is amazing. And
Speaker 2: he's wearing a cute card again. I love it.
Speaker 3: Okay, card a good look.
Speaker 2: It's a great look. I mean, if you're a puppet,
Speaker 2: wear a card again.
Speaker 5: So there's one thing you learned from this interview, let
Speaker 5: it be that, So after Munchie you then came onto
Speaker 5: our set as Ingrid, who was a nerdy wallflower who
Speaker 5: Corey decides to try and make popular. Do you remember
Speaker 5: auditioning for that one or like what was that process?
Speaker 3: Like I do.
Speaker 8: So I had audition for Boy Meets World a plethora
Speaker 8: of times for like all sorts of.
Speaker 7: Like everybody that's the story that seems to be the story.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and this one was like really last minute too.
Speaker 8: They called me in just a couple of days before
Speaker 8: this was about to start, So I think I came
Speaker 8: in on a Friday and it was gonna start on Monday,
Speaker 8: and and it was like one of those times and
Speaker 8: I have a lot of this where they were like
Speaker 8: the part is yours, Like you're not even auditioning against
Speaker 8: anyone else, just go in. They just want to see
Speaker 8: you read. And of course I show up and there's
Speaker 8: like fifty other girls there.
Speaker 2: Of course that happening on.
Speaker 1: Alex mad say that you've already seen it every.
Speaker 8: Other every audition for like the last ten years. So yeah,
Speaker 8: I just I went in and read, and I think
Speaker 8: as I was leaving they called my agent and said
Speaker 8: they got it. So then I showed up Monday to
Speaker 8: table read with you guys.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and what's crazy to me is the entire episode
Speaker 4: is you I know, like, yeah, you have so much
Speaker 4: to do in this episode.
Speaker 1: I've forgotten that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, it's so crazy too, because I mean, obviously,
Speaker 8: Alex Mack was such a big thing in the nineties
Speaker 8: and that's I think what most of the fan base
Speaker 8: still like remains about. But this specific episode, I get DMS.
Speaker 8: I mean, it's NonStop about this specific episode.
Speaker 6: And and I've.
Speaker 8: Rewatched it, you know, yeah, and I have so many
Speaker 8: thoughts about it. But I understand I think a little
Speaker 8: bit more now as an adult, why this episode resonated
Speaker 8: so much with kids at that time. I mean, aside
Speaker 8: from the fact that boy Meet's world is so special
Speaker 8: to so so so many people, it touched on so
Speaker 8: many different things. And as I've rewatched it, it kind
Speaker 8: of like unlocked this core feeling for me that I
Speaker 8: had back then, where like this was very much art
Speaker 8: imitates life for me without any of you guys knowing,
Speaker 8: without me, you know, saying anything like that. I very
Speaker 8: much felt like both of these variations of Ingrid, Like
Speaker 8: I very much felt like the nerdy girl, the not
Speaker 8: attractive girl, the not popular girl, and then like with
Speaker 8: potentially the promise to like maybe be prettier or whatever.
Speaker 8: And it had been like ingrained in my head for
Speaker 8: so long by agents and managers of like, yeah, you're cute,
Speaker 8: but like you're just not that girl, or you're not
Speaker 8: the lead girl, you're not the girlfriend, you're not any
Speaker 8: of these things. And Boy Meet's World was kind of
Speaker 8: the first time I had the opportunity to like show
Speaker 8: both sides, you know. But I distinctly when I was
Speaker 8: in that brown dress thing.
Speaker 3: Whatever that was the worst.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and the glasses and the pigtails that I was like,
Speaker 8: it just it made me feel so much like the
Speaker 8: outside was like showing how I really felt inside.
Speaker 3: And I was just kind of like embarrassed to.
Speaker 8: Be in that outfit, you know. And and then also
Speaker 8: then when the makeover happens, I was like, am I
Speaker 8: even this girl? It was an interesting week for me.
Speaker 2: I will say, Yeah, we recently rewatched it as well,
Speaker 2: and we also had many mixed emotions about it.
Speaker 5: You're you know, sort of thrown into the situation where
Speaker 5: they're going to try to make you like more hot
Speaker 5: for Corey and you never really give any input on
Speaker 5: it before you get the makeover, and then it is
Speaker 5: revealed that you like want to be popular so bad
Speaker 5: that you're like down for whatever.
Speaker 1: That's the best moment of the episode.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think it's like when you grab ben by the
Speaker 4: caller in your life, make me popular popular?
Speaker 5: Yeah, and then it all kind of plateaus when you
Speaker 5: jump into the swimming pool at the end and you
Speaker 5: lose your cool friends because of it, and then at
Speaker 5: the end you still ditch Corey for a more popular guy.
Speaker 5: So I say all of that, like, what looking back
Speaker 5: on the episode, you're talking about when you rewatched it,
Speaker 5: the feelings it brought up for you that were mirroring
Speaker 5: your own life. What now, rewatching it as an adult,
Speaker 5: what do you feel about it now?
Speaker 8: I mean, I don't know if it like ages all
Speaker 8: that well now you know, And but it's almost it's crazy.
Speaker 8: I can almost still kind of tap into that emotion,
Speaker 8: you know, where I think there is so much pressure
Speaker 8: on I mean, I couldn't even imagine being like a
Speaker 8: teenager now, you know.
Speaker 3: I can't imagine.
Speaker 8: And if back in our time, if all of the
Speaker 8: social media and all of the stuff that goes on
Speaker 8: now was happening, then I don't know, that I would
Speaker 8: have like survived that back then, you know. But yeah,
Speaker 8: I think, like looking back at it, you know, I
Speaker 8: was grateful for that opportunity because it actually for me
Speaker 8: showed some of like my team that I could do
Speaker 8: something else than just play this like weird, nerdy, you
Speaker 8: know character. So I was really grateful for that. So
Speaker 8: thank you guys for that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it just.
Speaker 8: Kind of brought back those feelings of like, like at
Speaker 8: that age, I had to learn very quickly, like you
Speaker 8: better get okay with who you are as a human being,
Speaker 8: like and you better do it fast, you know. And
Speaker 8: unfortunately that didn't happen for me till much later in life.
Speaker 8: But yeah, I mean, but it also brought back, like
Speaker 8: I loved being on that show. I remember being so excited,
Speaker 8: you know, that I had gotten the opportunity to do that.
Speaker 8: But you know, it's a mixed bag of uh emotions, right,
Speaker 8: It's a mixed back.
Speaker 2: So well, do people still recognize you as Ingrid? Do
Speaker 2: people talk to you about boy Mes World.
Speaker 8: All the time all the time. It's crazy, Like even
Speaker 8: when I do conventions and there's always a Boymans World
Speaker 8: picture on the table. People just love this character, which
Speaker 8: is so special, and sometimes I get confused about it
Speaker 8: because I'm like, I was only on one episode, but
Speaker 8: they just love ingrid iverson, so.
Speaker 4: I think it's a great character. It's like I feel like,
Speaker 4: but in this second season, it's like, you had your
Speaker 4: episode and then Daniel Harris did her sister Teresa episode
Speaker 4: where she played Harley Coiners and you guys like come
Speaker 4: in and the whole episode is about you, and it's
Speaker 4: like they're the best guest stars.
Speaker 1: Like we've you know, I've only watched the show.
Speaker 4: So far up into the second season, but it seems
Speaker 4: like they're the best characters that we had, you know,
Speaker 4: like this, they're great roles and you did you got
Speaker 4: to show this range. I'm fascinated by what you were saying, Like,
Speaker 4: you know, it's it's so sad that I mean, it
Speaker 4: makes sense, right that actors get categorized, right, Like, when
Speaker 4: you're an actor, you get put into a category. You're
Speaker 4: like the funny comic relief character, the leading lady, leading lady,
Speaker 4: the whatever, and like, but for.
Speaker 1: A kid, that that's a different thing to internalize, you know.
Speaker 4: I feel like as an adult you can say it
Speaker 4: because like, uh, there's a there's a famous acting teacher
Speaker 4: in La named I think this is I think it's
Speaker 4: a Leslie Con thing. You guys know Leslie Con. You
Speaker 4: guy's remember her, and she teaches that. She teaches her
Speaker 4: actors to get up on stage and find their zero,
Speaker 4: which is like what do you present naturally? Like what
Speaker 4: is your presence? Just sort of read to people, And
Speaker 4: so she'll actually have actors get up on stage and
Speaker 4: the whole class will be like what you know, and
Speaker 4: just say like, Hi, my name is so and so,
Speaker 4: and then the whole class judges that person and says
Speaker 4: like I don't trust her, or I want to go
Speaker 4: on a date with her whatever. They're like instinct and
Speaker 4: then like the whole idea is they understand what your
Speaker 4: zero is, what you naturally present as, and then work
Speaker 4: for that or against that based on the character you're playing.
Speaker 1: Whatever. But when you're a.
Speaker 4: Kid, like your zero is very hard to object to objectively,
Speaker 4: like remove yourself from, you know, like I, as an adult,
Speaker 4: you can say like, oh, yeah, I probably I have
Speaker 4: a resting bitch face or whatever it is, and I
Speaker 4: can work against that and you can just move beyond it.
Speaker 4: But when you're a kid, that's your entire identity.
Speaker 1: And I definitely felt that too.
Speaker 4: Like as a kid, whatever it is, whatever parts you
Speaker 4: get start to reflect how you feel about yourself, and
Speaker 4: it's hard to like turn that off or I don't know,
Speaker 4: but yeah, I often wondered if it was if it
Speaker 4: was different with child.
Speaker 7: Actors out on the West Coast than it was on
Speaker 7: the East Coast, because when I moved out here at sixteen,
Speaker 7: even when I started Boy Mets World, you know, you're
Speaker 7: still auditioning for the things you're auditioning for films or
Speaker 7: whatever kind of in between.
Speaker 6: And the thing I noticed about LA.
Speaker 7: Was that it was always like, oh, man, you were
Speaker 7: so great, thank you for coming in.
Speaker 6: It was so nice to see you here.
Speaker 7: And you walk out like, wow, I did well in
Speaker 7: New York. It was like, no, you're too fat. Sorry, yeah,
Speaker 7: so you just you Just by the time I was eleven,
Speaker 7: I would walk in and they go, we ask for
Speaker 7: a redhead who brought this kid?
Speaker 6: No, thank you very much. And I get back on
Speaker 6: the bus and I go home and it.
Speaker 7: Sounds harsh, but it made my skin so thick that
Speaker 7: I just it just wasn't about me, Like I was
Speaker 7: able to completely dissect myself from the fact that they
Speaker 7: were looking for something else, and at least they told
Speaker 7: me that to my face, even at eleven or twelve,
Speaker 7: as opposed to what I would get when I came
Speaker 7: out here in LA.
Speaker 6: Was like, oh my god, you're so good. It was
Speaker 6: so great to have you here.
Speaker 7: And then they'd never call you because they didn't like
Speaker 7: you from the second you walked in. And so I wondered,
Speaker 7: you know, I wonder mentally, which one is actually makes
Speaker 7: you a stronger person and a stronger actor. Is somebody
Speaker 7: just kind of saying to you, no, not gonna do
Speaker 7: a kid, You're not what we're looking for. Or yeah,
Speaker 7: oh my god, it's so great, you're awesome, and then
Speaker 7: just not calling.
Speaker 4: So I think it depends on the kid, right I mean,
Speaker 4: I would guess, but you have to adapt either way.
Speaker 4: Either way, being a kid in that situation is difficult,
Speaker 4: right like handling that rejection or the acceptance of only
Speaker 4: one version of you, right like that that you don't
Speaker 4: have the flexibility to be like, oh I can I
Speaker 4: can be whoever I want as I grow up, you know,
Speaker 4: But you know, and I mean, I think.
Speaker 1: All of us in this group were actually pretty lucky.
Speaker 4: You know, there are other kids who were like extremely
Speaker 4: overweight or very short. You know, they had like a
Speaker 4: different look that only was acceptable as a certain type
Speaker 4: of character, right, and that's all they could play for
Speaker 4: their entire you know, and that has got to wear
Speaker 4: down on you in a way.
Speaker 5: Natanya, what do you remember the things you were getting
Speaker 5: cast for. What do you remember that telling you about
Speaker 5: yourself and who you are? And like do you remember
Speaker 5: being like, oh, I guess I'm this, I guess I'm
Speaker 5: that because this is what everyone sees me as.
Speaker 8: Yes, I did, I very much do so, Like after Munchies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love you know, I.
Speaker 3: Was doing like little episode.
Speaker 8: I was doing step by step and just like all
Speaker 8: these little guest parks always kind of as like the
Speaker 8: Nerdy Friend or whatever. And then I did like the
Speaker 8: middle version of Freaky Friday again the Nerdy Friend, and
Speaker 8: like just remembering being on set in the like glasses
Speaker 8: and the pigtails and like they just love to put
Speaker 8: me in pigtails for whatever reason.
Speaker 3: And that was an interesting one too.
Speaker 8: I think that's when I really started to like like
Speaker 8: pay attention to it. Because we had Andrew Keegan in
Speaker 8: the movie. We had Marlowe all of these people that
Speaker 8: were so cool, and I was like, wow, I am
Speaker 8: not that I'm not that cool. And then I got
Speaker 8: Alex Mack and.
Speaker 2: With Larissa o'linik, another one of our favorites.
Speaker 3: Yes, and uh.
Speaker 8: So Alex Mack was like an arduous process for me.
Speaker 8: I had gone up for the sister you know quite
Speaker 8: a few times and took it all the way to test.
Speaker 8: Same with with Alex the part for Alex. Then they
Speaker 8: shot the pilot, recast the entire thing brought me back
Speaker 8: saying Sister Alex didn't get it, got the call from
Speaker 8: my agent. They wrote apart just for you. All you
Speaker 8: have to do is go down there. I get down
Speaker 8: there to this same casting office that I had been
Speaker 8: to like ten million times, and I was over it.
Speaker 3: At this point. I was like, give it to me
Speaker 3: or not, but I'm.
Speaker 8: Not coming back after this and uh fifty girls there
Speaker 8: of course, but this one I ended up getting. But
Speaker 8: I remember the first episode I filmed, like instantly, you know,
Speaker 8: put me in this kind of weird like like hurt.
Speaker 8: The trajectory of her character and the growth of her
Speaker 8: character ended up being really cool, like something that I
Speaker 8: really leaned into towards the end of the last couple
Speaker 8: of seasons. But at first, you know, I was this
Speaker 8: eleven year old kid and I hadn't.
Speaker 3: Really had puberty yet.
Speaker 8: I had very very pale skin, bright orange hair, which
Speaker 8: you know, that's tough. That's like a tough one growing
Speaker 8: up like that. And I said this on another podcast too,
Speaker 8: when you're eleven years old with bright orange hair, pale skin.
Speaker 8: Just booked this series that we don't know if it's
Speaker 8: gonna make it or not, but it has the potential.
Speaker 8: You don't know that you're just like a few years
Speaker 8: away from like it's gonna be okay, You're gonna be pretty,
Speaker 8: gonna be cool, everything's gonna be fine, but you just
Speaker 8: don't know. And the character was so weird.
Speaker 3: She was so like.
Speaker 8: I've said, she's like the og original alt emo goth
Speaker 8: girl of Nickelodeon. Yeah, and this character there wasn't representation
Speaker 8: of these kind of kids that dressed like this and
Speaker 8: felt like this, and and so again it was one
Speaker 8: more time where I was like, well, no, I've accomplished
Speaker 8: what I wanted to accomplish. I booked a series and
Speaker 8: I'm in. I'm like part of the main cast. I'm
Speaker 8: a series regular and this could really go and I'm
Speaker 8: this weird kid again, you know. And so but I
Speaker 8: had pops throughout where, like I was booking these roles
Speaker 8: that weren't like that, like boy, me girl, babysitters club,
Speaker 8: like all of these different things that got me out
Speaker 8: of it a little bit. But even second season of
Speaker 8: Alex Mack, I would like run to my dressing room
Speaker 8: and put on like a little extra eyeliner or a
Speaker 8: little extra clipline something to like, you know, make myself
Speaker 8: feel a little bit better.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I definitely remember that.
Speaker 8: I mean I was I was type cast for sure,
Speaker 8: bad girl, nerdy girl, weird girl, golf girl.
Speaker 1: Right, anything but the main girl, right like that.
Speaker 8: But the main girl except for this really weird movie
Speaker 8: I did in Canada with Chauncey lea party where I
Speaker 8: played his girl. Yeah, and I was like I think
Speaker 8: I was fifteen or sixteen, and so there, you know,
Speaker 8: there was pops of it. There was pops of it.
Speaker 2: Well, don't forget Munchie where you were Munchy's girlfriend.
Speaker 8: No, and there's Munkey strikes back right.
Speaker 6: Right, she too?
Speaker 7: Exactly too, Yeah, I mean the ponytail, the pigtail glasses
Speaker 7: thing was such a ninety stroke.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, it was such a way. She can't be pretty,
Speaker 6: she's got glasses. Like a minute, she has.
Speaker 7: A pony rail. She can't be pretty, and it is
Speaker 7: just such a thing. Yeah, it was such a thing
Speaker 7: where it was like it.
Speaker 8: Always had me like that until I forced them into
Speaker 8: different hairstyles like second season, where I started to like
Speaker 8: have more of a voice and kind of like advocate
Speaker 8: for myself a little bit more and be like, look, why.
Speaker 3: Is she'd always come on take them out, like we
Speaker 3: can do we.
Speaker 8: Can do better here, you know. And they started to
Speaker 8: listen to me and kind of let me aesthetically lean
Speaker 8: into this character in a way that felt a little
Speaker 8: bit more comfortable. I mean, there were still the nineties
Speaker 8: chokers and out in the very nineties goth outfits and
Speaker 8: all of that, but the hair got a little better,
Speaker 8: like she's an infourd season. I just showed up one
Speaker 8: day to set cut it all off.
Speaker 2: And I was like now what, yeah, now, what are
Speaker 2: you going to do?
Speaker 8: I was so rebellious towards the end of it because
Speaker 8: I'd been put in this box for so long, but yeah.
Speaker 5: Well you have been so open and inspirational talking about
Speaker 5: the struggles you faced in your teens and then it
Speaker 5: really finding its hold in your early twenties with substance abuse.
Speaker 5: It's obviously something very common with young actors who find
Speaker 5: early success, and we were hoping that you could share
Speaker 5: some of that aspect of your story. When did drugs
Speaker 5: and alcohol enter your life?
Speaker 8: So I I was probably like fifteen sixteen years old
Speaker 8: when I started drinking and just you know, smoking weed
Speaker 8: and doing like the things that we do as kids,
Speaker 8: and you know, at these oak Wood parties.
Speaker 3: I know you guys will understand them.
Speaker 8: Reference every weekend, like the second I was done working,
Speaker 8: I would just jam over there and like party all weekend.
Speaker 8: But it was so innocent and young, you know, and
Speaker 8: felt very like experimental and it wasn't a big deal.
Speaker 8: But you know, when it started to get really rough
Speaker 8: for me was around eighteen nineteen years old, and one
Speaker 8: of the best like pieces of advice I could ever
Speaker 8: give is like, really be careful who you surround yourself with,
Speaker 8: you know. And I kind of fell into a little
Speaker 8: bit of a rougher crowd, but all actors, so it
Speaker 8: felt safe. But it was like the next level of
Speaker 8: stuff that like was not going on at Oakwood, And
Speaker 8: you know, I didn't come from a home life that
Speaker 8: had any structure. There was a lot of chaos and
Speaker 8: alcoholism that in the home, and for me, being an
Speaker 8: actor was kind of like the first chapter of my
Speaker 8: life where I was able to like go somewhere and
Speaker 8: become somebody else, right, right, So, like everything that was
Speaker 8: going on at home, like when I was on set,
Speaker 8: that was my safe place. That's like all I had
Speaker 8: for safety. So as I started getting seventeen eighteen years old,
Speaker 8: and I started to look a little bit different, and
Speaker 8: no one could really figure out what box to put
Speaker 8: me in anymore. And I was getting these kind of
Speaker 8: like one off things like Baywatch and nine O two
Speaker 8: and zero and like all of these things. But I
Speaker 8: was growing into more and more a different look, and
Speaker 8: I cut all my hair off and dyed it like jet.
Speaker 3: Black and just rebellious, you know.
Speaker 8: And at a certain point people were like, we're not
Speaker 8: really sure what to do. Like the red hair was
Speaker 8: the thing, and the less parts I got, the more,
Speaker 8: you know, I internalized that and was really with the
Speaker 8: wrong group of people. And yeah, I developed a gnarly
Speaker 8: little heroin addiction, which is you know, which is really crazy,
Speaker 8: Like when I think about how all of that went
Speaker 8: down and like how fast it happened, And now as
Speaker 8: an adult understanding the disease of alcoholism and that it
Speaker 8: was inevitable for me, and it could have been any
Speaker 8: substance really, and this just happened to be the one
Speaker 8: that was introduced to me at a very young age.
Speaker 8: Which again it's like, be careful who you surround yourself with,
Speaker 8: but know that at seventeen, like we don't know that
Speaker 8: at eighteen, when I'm just this young kid, I have
Speaker 8: all this money, I'm like kind of famous, hanging out
Speaker 8: with all these famous people, and someone's like, here, do
Speaker 8: you want to try this? And instantly it takes away
Speaker 8: like every feeling of self doubt you've ever had in
Speaker 8: your entire life. And it instantly takes away all the
Speaker 8: pain of like coming from a very from very tortured
Speaker 8: parents themselves, and it instantly takes away all of these things.
Speaker 8: And it didn't matter anymore if I had had pigtails
Speaker 8: in Alex Mack, or if I had you know, glasses
Speaker 8: and boy Meets World or none of that mattered anymore.
Speaker 3: And yeah, so that was rough.
Speaker 8: So I spent all of my twenties, you know, suffering
Speaker 8: with active addiction, and then figured it out in my thirties,
Speaker 8: and god bless was able to turn around. And I
Speaker 8: know it's like a very cliche child star story. Mom
Speaker 8: steals all the money at eighteen, girl gets strung out
Speaker 8: on heroin blah blah blah blah blah. But also I
Speaker 8: think that what's not talked about enough too is that
Speaker 8: some people do go through that and then make it out.
Speaker 8: Yeah really, you know that to me is like, because
Speaker 8: people are fascinated by this story of a young child
Speaker 8: star that had all this recognition and then is strung
Speaker 8: out on like what you know, we would deem as
Speaker 8: one of the worst things ever to get involved with,
Speaker 8: right and and but what's not talked about more often
Speaker 8: is that some people make.
Speaker 3: It out of that.
Speaker 8: And I'm trying to advocate for those people too, because
Speaker 8: a lot of kids that get fed up like that
Speaker 8: because of you know, whatever it is. I don't want
Speaker 8: to blame it on child acting because I don't know
Speaker 8: that that's really, uh the cause by any means, but
Speaker 8: you know, so, yeah, so when I turned thirty, and
Speaker 8: believe me, I had many bouts in my twenties of
Speaker 8: trying to get clean and going to rehab and like
Speaker 8: trying to figure it out. And at thirty, I just
Speaker 8: I kind of hit like a different kind of spiritual
Speaker 8: bottom that I'd never hit before and really understood that
Speaker 8: if I didn't get this now, that I wasn't gonna
Speaker 8: make it.
Speaker 3: Like I knew that.
Speaker 8: So, yeah, now I'm forty one. Wow, And I spent
Speaker 8: the last decade of my life like figuring out who
Speaker 8: I was and like more importantly than that, being okay
Speaker 8: with who that girl was. Because I haven't acted in
Speaker 8: a long time. I just started acting again and I
Speaker 8: had to like be okay that my identity wasn't about
Speaker 8: being famous anymore or this or that and that, and
Speaker 8: that I had to let I had to learn how
Speaker 8: to trust people that they really liked me for who
Speaker 8: I was, and you know, and I finally figured out
Speaker 8: kind of how to forgive the girl that was in
Speaker 8: her twenties that was just doing the best that she could, yeah,
Speaker 8: without having really had proper guidance or structure, and like
Speaker 8: forgive that girl and tell her that it was okay,
Speaker 8: so that this woman could keep going.
Speaker 5: You know what, an inspirational story. I mean, you know,
Speaker 5: we talk about it even on a very on a
Speaker 5: such a minor, little superficial level, that none of us
Speaker 5: have any real like style or fashion sense because from
Speaker 5: the time we were young, we just handed that over
Speaker 5: to somebody else and just said, Okay, you tell me
Speaker 5: what to wear, and you tell me what's fashionable, you
Speaker 5: tell me what's in.
Speaker 2: And I'm listening to your story.
Speaker 5: And what I'm realizing and thinking about is that for
Speaker 5: child actors, you hand over so much of your identity
Speaker 5: to other people.
Speaker 2: You tell me who I am, you tell me what
Speaker 2: box I check.
Speaker 5: You tell me what because because the roles that I'm
Speaker 5: booking must say something about who I am. And so
Speaker 5: it's so that can be something that is depending on
Speaker 5: which boxes people tell you you're checking. You know, you can't
Speaker 5: expect an eleven year old to have a sense of
Speaker 5: identity or a sense of self. You know, you haven't
Speaker 5: had a check to develop that yet. And so for
Speaker 5: you to have spent your all of your teens being
Speaker 5: told who you were and to be feeling like I
Speaker 5: reject some of that, but I don't know how to
Speaker 5: process it and then to really you know, it makes
Speaker 5: sense that for so many people you deal with it
Speaker 5: by self medicating.
Speaker 6: I think there's also something to chasing the rush.
Speaker 7: You know, you're on stage one night in front of
Speaker 7: an audience and you're popular and important and it matters,
Speaker 7: and then the next day the show is canceled and
Speaker 7: it's gone right, And for some people, they never get
Speaker 7: that rush back, so they look for other places. You know,
Speaker 7: It's that I always said that that being in front
Speaker 7: of the audience was quote unquote like my drug.
Speaker 6: You get this this.
Speaker 7: Rush from being there, from the feeling of being important,
Speaker 7: how fake it is, whether it's real or not, it's
Speaker 7: really you, and all of a sudden, it's gone one
Speaker 7: day and you do it.
Speaker 6: You can to chase it for some people.
Speaker 7: So it's I mean that being said, we also have
Speaker 7: to acknowledge that there's you know, millions of people out
Speaker 7: there that struggle with addiction that aren't in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 7: I know, you know, my one of my oldest friends
Speaker 7: I lost to heroin overdose six six years ago, and
Speaker 7: it's hard to pull out of and you watch the
Speaker 7: decline and it's just to see how well you're doing now.
Speaker 6: I mean, I've seen the descent.
Speaker 7: So to see somebody kind of pull out of it
Speaker 7: and have the life that you do is really a
Speaker 7: testament because you're right, there isn't enough said about the
Speaker 7: people that can pull themselves out of it. But that
Speaker 7: being said, that's a small percentage of people that do.
Speaker 7: I mean, the recidivism rate for especially heroin addiction is brutal.
Speaker 7: You're right, So that's a testament to you as well
Speaker 7: to the strength you found to be able to pull
Speaker 7: yourself out of that.
Speaker 8: Thank you.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 8: And I think that I, you know, probably started suffering
Speaker 8: with mental health issues that were undiagnosed, unmedicated when I
Speaker 8: was young, like really young. I always remember like waking
Speaker 8: up feeling really heartbroken and I couldn't quite pinpoint like
Speaker 8: what that meant when my life was so cool on
Speaker 8: the outside to like, you know, I was like, well,
Speaker 8: I just felt things so deeply, and I was just
Speaker 8: continuously told like, you're an EmPATH, You're a deep child.
Speaker 8: You feel the hard you know. And in the nineties,
Speaker 8: we didn't talk about this kind of thing the way
Speaker 8: we're able to talk about it now. And I actually
Speaker 8: work in treatment now, which is such a one ad.
Speaker 8: I mean, it's like if you would ask me at
Speaker 8: twenty years old, if this is what my life would
Speaker 8: look like. But you know, I'm a director in a
Speaker 8: drug and alcohol treatment facility, so I helped getting people
Speaker 8: you know, on a daily if not you know, every
Speaker 8: other day basis, and so, like what Will was saying,
Speaker 8: the rate of people that make it is very low,
Speaker 8: is very very low, And so I guess it kind
Speaker 8: of poses the question to those of us who have
Speaker 8: been blessed and graced enough to like make it through
Speaker 8: that type of a chapter in our lives, like how
Speaker 8: do you maintain that?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 8: Like how do you make sure? And I think for me,
Speaker 8: the secret to the success of it. You know, a
Speaker 8: lot of people obviously want to ask me, like, well,
Speaker 8: how do you do it? Like how do I do it?
Speaker 8: Like what should I do? And I think the best
Speaker 8: thing that's worked for me because my whole life has
Speaker 8: been spent thinking about me. All I do is think
Speaker 8: about me, right, Like how did that make me feel?
Speaker 8: Like how do I look?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 3: What's going on with me? And what can my next move?
Speaker 3: And all of that?
Speaker 8: And the second I like let all of that go,
Speaker 8: and I really understood the concept of the more I
Speaker 8: think about you, the less I think about me, right,
Speaker 8: everything changed, Everything changed for me, you know, And to
Speaker 8: lead with a heart of service and to go out
Speaker 8: into the world and be of service in whatever ways
Speaker 8: you can be, and there's a million ways to do it.
Speaker 8: Sometimes it's just picking up the phone when.
Speaker 3: A friend needs your help.
Speaker 8: Will like continue to sustain that type of like a
Speaker 8: spiritual levity, so to speak, and like pay back kind
Speaker 8: of the karma of like all the things I did
Speaker 8: when I was in my twenties and so anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 8: I listened to the episode you guys did with Danny,
Speaker 8: and it really like I could get emotional thinking about
Speaker 8: it because I really just understood, like I felt that
Speaker 8: on a very deep level, and I thought that was
Speaker 8: really brave, like how open he was about it. And
Speaker 8: I think that the more open we can be and
Speaker 8: the more conversations we can have like this, especially for
Speaker 8: those of us who people have watched our whole lives, right, Like,
Speaker 8: I still have fans that are like I've been you know,
Speaker 8: I had your AOL.
Speaker 3: What I mean, I'm like what you know?
Speaker 7: And first of all, easy, I'm still AOL's careful what
Speaker 7: we're gonna say.
Speaker 8: Watching from like that long, you know, and so although
Speaker 8: it has been made very very shameful thing, it's not.
Speaker 3: It's really not like let's just talk about it, you know, well,
Speaker 3: but he has something, you know.
Speaker 7: That's why nothing, almost nothing helps more than talking about it.
Speaker 7: Just talking about it, because you invariably find half of
Speaker 7: the people you're talking to deal with something as well,
Speaker 7: and there's just that safety and knowing you're not alone,
Speaker 7: that's right, that's kind of can help to start the process. So, yeah,
Speaker 7: any time you talk about it, is it better?
Speaker 6: It really does does.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I want to just really briefly touch on the
Speaker 5: fact because it's it's something a few of our guests
Speaker 5: have mentioned, but we've never really dived too deeply into it.
Speaker 5: What was the situation with your finances been at eighteen?
Speaker 5: How you you you very casually mentioned that your mom
Speaker 5: stole all your money?
Speaker 2: How did what was that situation?
Speaker 4: So this happens way more than We've had a lot
Speaker 4: of guests on air but also off air talk about this.
Speaker 7: We know so many actors, yeah, so many, it's it's
Speaker 7: it is a common common story.
Speaker 6: With child actors. Unfortunately, it's also that this.
Speaker 8: Happens incredible that the parents figure out how to do
Speaker 8: this also, but so we were from New York. We
Speaker 8: moved out here to do that show Billy, and I
Speaker 8: think my mom realized very quickly, like how much actors
Speaker 8: get taxed when she heard how much I was going
Speaker 8: to make per episode and then saw the checks and
Speaker 8: she was like, what the hell. So she incorporated me
Speaker 8: at like ten years old, So I became a ten
Speaker 8: ninety nine as opposed to Natania Ross and all SAG
Speaker 8: checks went to corporation named it Red Hair Blue Eyes.
Speaker 8: Like I want to die inside every time I say
Speaker 8: that out loud. So everything went to Red Hair Blue Eyes.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 5: Right, And it's not taxed, it's it goes basically, I
Speaker 5: mean a little bit different.
Speaker 8: It's corporate tax through a corporation, so it's it's a lot.
Speaker 6: Better tax at the end of the year. It's a
Speaker 6: whole different thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, different thing.
Speaker 8: And because of the minor I couldn't be an officer
Speaker 8: of the company. So my mom was able to make
Speaker 8: herself president, vice president, secretary.
Speaker 3: This that herself the salary.
Speaker 8: So until I turned about twenty, actually I was the
Speaker 8: sole breadwinner of the family. So there's that aspect where
Speaker 8: I'm paying all the bills, all of this, all of that,
Speaker 8: and then like beyond right, like there's facelifts happening, and
Speaker 8: there's nails getting done and there's all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 8: But I'm not you know, I'm a kid, and I
Speaker 8: think I'm like, I'm a multi multi multip I you
Speaker 8: have no idea.
Speaker 5: I used to I used to jokingly say, oh, I
Speaker 5: know I make money, it's just somewhere else.
Speaker 2: I never saw it exactly.
Speaker 8: So then I turned eighteen, and I got everything that
Speaker 8: was in the Cougan account because remember I started actually
Speaker 8: six months old, so there was a decent amount there,
Speaker 8: but there was a lot more.
Speaker 6: And uh, it was very The Cougan account is twenty five?
Speaker 3: Is it twenty five?
Speaker 6: I thought, I think it's whatever it is.
Speaker 2: Fifteen, yeah, fifteen, twenteen, fifteen.
Speaker 5: I think at some point it became twenty five, but
Speaker 5: originally fifteen.
Speaker 8: But remember too, once I turned ten years old, nothing
Speaker 8: else was taken for the Cougan account because I was
Speaker 8: now now incorporated a boy, Alex, Matt, all the big ones.
Speaker 8: That nothing went into the Cougan account. So I turn eighteen,
Speaker 8: and now it becomes very easy to tell me, like, well,
Speaker 8: I'm not giving you any money. You have a drug
Speaker 8: problem very and then it's like, well, I need money
Speaker 8: to like get help for this drug problem. And it's
Speaker 8: like all right, I mean, I guess we could try
Speaker 8: and move it. And then, you know, I went to
Speaker 8: rehab and I was desperate. You know, I was a
Speaker 8: young kid who was very aware that I had a
Speaker 8: major issue already at like twenty two years old, and
Speaker 8: it had just been a few years before that I
Speaker 8: was acting, and I was working, working actor all the time,
Speaker 8: never stopping, and so I was like, this is it.
Speaker 8: I'm going to try and fix this right now so
Speaker 8: i can get my life back. And you know, when
Speaker 8: you're in a situation like that, you're very vulnerable and
Speaker 8: people all of a sudden start to have power over you.
Speaker 8: And I was told that I could get the help
Speaker 8: that I needed if I signed a power of attorney.
Speaker 8: I did, you know, And while I was that rehab stint,
Speaker 8: while I was in the house I had helped buy
Speaker 8: for my mom, all of the stuff was no longer
Speaker 8: no longer belonged to me. So throughout that decade, I'm
Speaker 8: sure a lot of that goes into like why I
Speaker 8: had to just keep numbing myself to the point of like.
Speaker 3: Being able to think.
Speaker 8: So yeah, I mean it was that was the situation.
Speaker 8: And then, you know, years later, I'd be like, hey,
Speaker 8: let me get that.
Speaker 3: Money, and it's like, I don't want money.
Speaker 8: I don't know what money. You're dying. You didn't make
Speaker 8: as much as you thought, And it was just like
Speaker 8: a series of gas lights that just got to the
Speaker 8: point where, you know, even the residuals I would I
Speaker 8: would go on this really weird downward spiral where I
Speaker 8: would say, hey, can I get some of my residuals? Oh,
Speaker 8: you haven't gotten any residuals. I would call SAG and
Speaker 8: they'll list for you the last twenty you got with
Speaker 8: the amounts, and I write everything down and take it back.
Speaker 8: I don't know, and I just I couldn't take it anymore.
Speaker 8: And when I got sober at thirty, like for real,
Speaker 8: for real, got sober at thirty, I had to make
Speaker 8: the decision that if I held onto that for one
Speaker 8: more second, it's like me drinking poison and expecting someone
Speaker 8: else to die right right, And for what reason? If
Speaker 8: she needed it that bad, she can have it, you know,
Speaker 8: she can have it. It's crazy me and my now husband.
Speaker 8: But when he was my boy friend, we moved into
Speaker 8: this apartment and I think it was like the first
Speaker 8: time I had done a change of address in forever,
Speaker 8: like a real proper change of address, and all of
Speaker 8: a sudden, all these residual checks start coming in. Boy
Speaker 8: meets World being one of the best actually, and they
Speaker 8: just started rolling in and I was like, well, look
Speaker 8: at that, right, it's crazy. And but the lesson it
Speaker 8: taught me to and it's probably made me very irresponsible
Speaker 8: with money, to be honest, because I just don't care
Speaker 8: about it because I just can't ever have it, like
Speaker 8: be this thing in my life anymore where I'm so like,
Speaker 8: oh my god, who's doing you know, I'm just like,
Speaker 8: you want money, you can have it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's go, let's go on this.
Speaker 8: Vacation, like who cares, Let's just live and have fun
Speaker 8: and not worry about money. So in that sense, I
Speaker 8: think it's done. It's a little irresponsible of me at times,
Speaker 8: for sure, but also, you know, it's taught me that
Speaker 8: the value of what money actually means, and it means,
Speaker 8: you know, fractured relationships. It's different for me than it
Speaker 8: is for most people. But that, Yeah, that's my story.
Speaker 8: It's really crazy to think about it, you know now
Speaker 8: as an adult of like just how much young child
Speaker 8: actors get taken advantage of and unfortunately some of us
Speaker 8: by our own family.
Speaker 5: Natania, I want you to know that that like hearing
Speaker 5: you talk about all of that and the way you know,
Speaker 5: I just want you to know that one of the
Speaker 5: things I'm taking away from your experience is that.
Speaker 2: Money comes and money.
Speaker 5: Goes, and it in your life has not at all
Speaker 5: represented success. You are such a success and you are
Speaker 5: so inspirational, and whether when the money has been there,
Speaker 5: when the money has not been there, it has had
Speaker 5: no bearing on you turning out to be the wonderful
Speaker 5: and amazing person that you are, and so that real
Speaker 5: like you can you can frame it however you want,
Speaker 5: but like I'm looking at it and I say, you
Speaker 5: don't have to have a choke hold on it, because
Speaker 5: ultimately it hasn't it hasn't been what you've had to
Speaker 5: base your life on. And I'm just I'm so proud
Speaker 5: of you, and I'm so inspired by you, and I'm
Speaker 5: so grateful that you came and shared your experiences here
Speaker 5: with us, and thank you also for all the work
Speaker 5: you do with other people who are in, you know,
Speaker 5: the same shoes you were in more than a decade ago,
Speaker 5: and for leading with that heart of service that you
Speaker 5: that you do and the impact that you make on people.
Speaker 5: Because no matter how many times people come up to
Speaker 5: you and remember you from Boy Meets World or Alex
Speaker 5: Mack or Munchie or whatever it is, MUNCHI too, Munchi too,
Speaker 5: the real, like your real impact is going to be
Speaker 5: with those people whose life you have absolutely changed. And
Speaker 5: just thank you so much for being here with us.
Speaker 3: Thank you. This was awesome, so fun.
Speaker 2: So much fun.
Speaker 5: I I'm bummed I wasn't in that Albuquerque. Uh I
Speaker 5: wasn't at that Albuquerque con, but I hope that Let's go.
Speaker 1: It was a genuinely good time. It was like it was.
Speaker 1: It was a pretty empty con, so we just all
Speaker 1: got to hang.
Speaker 6: Out hanging out.
Speaker 7: Yes, we're just all hanging out paper planes across the
Speaker 7: thing and each other.
Speaker 1: And the Sandlog guys are a crazy bunch.
Speaker 4: That was really like to witness their dynamic and like,
Speaker 4: I know, Natanya, you've been around them for a while
Speaker 4: because you know it's just like, oh, this is a
Speaker 4: fun it's a whole, it's a whole Seaton.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well I want to be at the next one.
Speaker 5: So thank you again, Natanya. It was really wonderful talking
Speaker 5: to you and catching up and I hope to see
Speaker 5: you again soon me too.
Speaker 2: Than Bi. Wow, what a life, what a story.
Speaker 7: It's the thing that that amazes me is it would
Speaker 7: be so easy to be horribly bitter right right about
Speaker 7: everything you've been through. I like every oh, this business
Speaker 7: was horrible, my family was horrible, my addiction was horrible.
Speaker 6: And instead she turned it all around, is like no,
Speaker 6: I'm just gonna help other people.
Speaker 4: She's so and she's like, I mean when we saw
Speaker 4: her at the con, she just walked right up to
Speaker 4: us and gave us a big hug and has like
Speaker 4: nothing but positive and just wants to know about our
Speaker 4: life and she's so kind, and yeah, she's not bitter,
Speaker 4: she's not cynical, and she's not even against like it's
Speaker 4: so I mean, it's so impressive that she doesn't even
Speaker 4: blame the industry or child actor dumb now, you know,
Speaker 4: because that can basically be one source of like, well
Speaker 4: then everything's a problem, you know. I'm like no, She's like, no,
Speaker 4: I still like could she wants to get back into acting.
Speaker 4: She's acting like and can talk about it so positively.
Speaker 4: It's like, that's that's really.
Speaker 7: Awesome, hugely inspirational. Yeah, it really is. It's just it's yeah,
Speaker 7: it's really incredible. It really is.
Speaker 6: But man, having your money stolen from your your your
Speaker 6: family is just a story we keep hearing over it.
Speaker 6: I know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I think what I'm fortunately happens is
Speaker 4: like if a kid is talented, right, whether that be
Speaker 4: acting or sports or whatever, right that that that can
Speaker 4: become just an escape valve for a parent, you know,
Speaker 4: like I can make my entire life better by by
Speaker 4: this kid.
Speaker 1: And you know, like I remember too, like there's this pattern.
Speaker 4: And I you know, I'm not sure this is Natania's
Speaker 4: pattern at all, but there was also a pattern that
Speaker 4: I remember there was a lot of moms in particular,
Speaker 4: but parents, but moms in particular who basically were using.
Speaker 1: Their kid as a child actor to get a divorce.
Speaker 1: Like do you guys remember that.
Speaker 4: It would be like somebody who's like, oh, I've left,
Speaker 4: you know, they moved to LA from wherever they are
Speaker 4: to get away from their husband, and it was just
Speaker 4: like a way to sort of slowly, you know, break
Speaker 4: up with their partner. But it became like, oh, I'm
Speaker 4: I'm here to support my kid's career. But in reality
Speaker 4: it was like, well, you're going through your own stuff
Speaker 4: and your kid, your kids acting career is just an
Speaker 4: excuse for you to break away and like start your
Speaker 4: own life.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I hope that that happens less because I remember that
Speaker 4: was like at the oak Wood there would be all
Speaker 4: these moms.
Speaker 1: You'd be like, what was last time you saw your husband?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's yeah, the whole it's so strange, it all.
Speaker 7: It's all just kinds of We've talked about nature versus
Speaker 7: nurture on this podcast a lot, and it all seems
Speaker 7: to kind of come down to the home you grew
Speaker 7: up in, just how you were raised, what you were
Speaker 7: raised around, who you were raised by.
Speaker 6: I mean, it makes a huge difference, it really does.
Speaker 2: So I don't know, Well, I'm glad.
Speaker 5: I'm glad I asked her about that, because, like I said,
Speaker 5: we've had a few people like allude to it or
Speaker 5: mention it, and then we've never really spent the time
Speaker 5: actually talking about how that happens. Uh Man, isn't that
Speaker 5: crazy too that just like the change of address, and
Speaker 5: then all of a sudden the checks started coming to her.
Speaker 6: Start rolling in. What you know, it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
Speaker 5: of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us
Speaker 5: on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us
Speaker 5: your emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 5: And we have Merch Merch.
Speaker 6: Too Back in Time or whatever that movie was called
Speaker 6: that you merch.
Speaker 5: Two strike MERGI twos strike two MERG two strikes back.
Speaker 7: That's what it is.
Speaker 5: Yes, and last, but most certainly not least. If you
Speaker 5: are looking for help with addiction, there is confidential free
Speaker 5: help to fine treatment and information at one eight hundred
Speaker 5: sixty six two four three five seven writer send us out.
Speaker 1: We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 4: Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted
Speaker 4: by Danielle Fischel, Wilfernell and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen
Speaker 4: Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
Speaker 4: producer and editor, Tara Sudbox producer, Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and
Speaker 4: Boy Meets World super fan. Easton Allen. Our theme song
Speaker 4: is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. You can follow us
Speaker 4: on Instagram at Podmets World Show or send us an
Speaker 4: email at Podmeats World Show at gmail dot com.