Speaker 1: So we're gonna talk about one of Rider's favorite subjects today. Well,
Speaker 1: it's loosely is that medical stuff?
Speaker 2: Food?
Speaker 1: No food? Do you see food? Okay? So yes, food.
Speaker 3: So here's why I traveled to go get some food
Speaker 3: when my ankle was hurting.
Speaker 1: No, I'm kidding. No, So because it kind of is.
Speaker 3: Going to go into what we're talking about today with
Speaker 3: our guest and with the recap that we've just done,
Speaker 3: because Sue and I have kind of been on a
Speaker 3: little bit of a hunt for just a great we're
Speaker 3: big cheeseburger fans. We don't like, we don't eat them
Speaker 3: a lot, but a hunt around to go find the
Speaker 3: best cheeseburger.
Speaker 1: And somebody told us about a place called the munch Box.
Speaker 3: Now, the reason that the Munchbox is so famous not
Speaker 3: only because it makes you giggle every time you say it.
Speaker 3: It's been around since the fifties, but it is where
Speaker 3: so it used to be across the street from a
Speaker 3: strip club. And all this is a this is all truth.
Speaker 3: You can all look at all this up. And it
Speaker 3: is where Charles Manson used to hang out when he
Speaker 3: dropped his girls off at the strip club to make money.
Speaker 1: And when you go there.
Speaker 3: Now, there's actually a stone that he wrote he'd like
Speaker 3: carved his name in, so it says Charles Manson was here.
Speaker 1: So we're like.
Speaker 3: Eating our burgers in like this culty kind of place.
Speaker 1: So it goes all with all the cold stuff.
Speaker 3: So I saw a stone the other It was a
Speaker 3: great burger and they put chili on everything. No, no, no,
Speaker 3: just the right amount, so it's like you just get
Speaker 3: this hint of smokiness. It was quite wonderful. The history
Speaker 3: of the munchbox was great.
Speaker 4: That is great. So you don't mean chili's like you
Speaker 4: mean chili chili.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they put chili on their burgers, on their dogs
Speaker 1: and on as well.
Speaker 4: When you get it with culture, you.
Speaker 1: Can you can.
Speaker 3: You can also know because they put just the right
Speaker 3: amount on it, you could still taste the meat.
Speaker 1: Is very wonderful. And I was very wonderful.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you recently told me about a great burger place
Speaker 4: near our house.
Speaker 1: Let's smash. Yeah awesome.
Speaker 4: I know I haven't been there yet.
Speaker 1: Oh it's marvelous. It is a marvelous, marvelous place.
Speaker 4: Yes, okay, I do love a good cheeseburger. I know
Speaker 4: this is writer has nothing to add to this, except
Speaker 4: for the fact that he told us about a great
Speaker 4: cheeseburger place near his place that's like a like a
Speaker 4: McDonald's but better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is not possible. Burgers never say die.
Speaker 3: Speaking of round things that you eat, we won't call
Speaker 3: it food. But I have a question for you, Danielle,
Speaker 3: because it's a question my wife and I post to
Speaker 3: each other. We often ask ourselves very deep philosophical questions
Speaker 3: that then lead.
Speaker 1: To other things.
Speaker 3: It's our own form of pre show chatter that my
Speaker 3: wife and I like to age it. If you had
Speaker 3: to give up either donuts or bagels for the rest
Speaker 3: of your life, which would when she was a kid,
Speaker 3: that's not a word for me, I know, because I
Speaker 3: know how much you love donuts.
Speaker 1: But you'd never have a bagel again. That would you
Speaker 1: be okay with that?
Speaker 4: Yes, a bagel is just a hard donuts. That's what
Speaker 4: I say to. You can do so much more with
Speaker 4: bagels than you can. Sure, And I do like bagels.
Speaker 4: I like sweet bagels, I like everything bagels. I like
Speaker 4: all kinds of bagels, I love all kinds of smears.
Speaker 4: I like it. Would never even don't do it. Don't
Speaker 4: do it. And we talked about munch box. That's an ash, guys. No,
Speaker 4: I would never. I wouldn't even I wouldn't miss it.
Speaker 4: I would if you told me I could, I had
Speaker 4: to choose. I wouldn't think about a bagel again for
Speaker 4: the rest of my life. My brain would. They would
Speaker 4: be white from my brain.
Speaker 1: But doughnuts, Okay. It's like the food or sex question.
Speaker 1: Do you have if you have to give it by
Speaker 1: the food or sex, which would you give up?
Speaker 4: I mean that's so easy.
Speaker 2: Yeah again, if we can magically not die, you'll take sex.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but like, yeah, so you never you'd keep sex
Speaker 3: in your life and never eat again?
Speaker 1: If you would, if you'd still be alive.
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, I would so miss sex while covered in
Speaker 3: pizza sauce.
Speaker 1: I like sex, I do. That's great. But oh man,
Speaker 1: have you ever had a let smash? They're phenomenal. Put
Speaker 1: a little chili on it perfectly.
Speaker 4: Just don't get the chili near the munchbox. Welcome to
Speaker 4: Bobby's world. I'm Danielle Fishall.
Speaker 1: Wilferdell.
Speaker 4: We knew that tackling an episode as iconic and as
Speaker 4: bt ish crazy a cult fiction would bring up a
Speaker 4: lot of questions. Maybe We didn't expect as many about
Speaker 4: monotheistic religions, but we knew some new thoughts would go
Speaker 4: totally unanswered, and one of them was, who is this
Speaker 4: Sherry and where is she now? She may have ensorceled
Speaker 4: Sean into a cult, like she's a Los Angeles pastor
Speaker 4: putting together a TikTok dance crew to abandon their families,
Speaker 4: but she also was so good in the episode we
Speaker 4: wanted to know more about her, and so we tracked
Speaker 4: her down and asked her to join us. The Orange
Speaker 4: County born actress is best known as Chandler in the
Speaker 4: classic movie She's All That and as Lily Esposito in
Speaker 4: the early career Ryan Murphy TV show Popular. She was
Speaker 4: also seen on Seventh Heaven, Jag and Psych and in
Speaker 4: the criminally underrated Brady Bunch movie. Later, she would decide
Speaker 4: to step away from acting to raise her daughter, and
Speaker 4: in a weird twist of fate, the week we found
Speaker 4: her on Instagram, she announced she was dipping her toe
Speaker 4: back into acting, a decision we for one, are happy about.
Speaker 4: Today on Meets World, we welcome a terrible influence on Sean,
Speaker 4: but someone we are very excited to reunite with anyway,
Speaker 4: it's Tamra mellow. Yeah, well, welcome. We are so excited
Speaker 4: to see you. Well, we are so excited that you're
Speaker 4: joining us today. This is a very rare occurrence for
Speaker 4: us where a guest star had an even crazier storyline
Speaker 4: on Boy Meets World than they did on Seventh Heaven.
Speaker 5: I seem to consistently play a creep.
Speaker 4: Is Sherry your creepiest character?
Speaker 5: You know? I gotta say so. I watched it last night.
Speaker 5: I don't think I've seen it since it aired. It's
Speaker 5: a real trip revisiting not yeah, like I hadn't had
Speaker 5: my visial line yet.
Speaker 4: Oh, I think it was.
Speaker 5: I think it was my first job. I think it
Speaker 5: was my first job. Really yeah. But looking at this
Speaker 5: particular episode through the lens of today is startling.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Wow, Okay, So I have so many questions. Do you
Speaker 4: remember auditioning for the part?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I do, because I had to audition so many times,
Speaker 5: did you Yeah, which is so weird for a guest star,
Speaker 5: But I remember it being a lot of times.
Speaker 3: They tended to do that for this special episodes we've had.
Speaker 3: Really yeah, other guest cast come on, who say, like
Speaker 3: I had to read four times. I had to read
Speaker 3: five times for kind of some of the bigger episodes.
Speaker 3: So I think they were putting all their eggs in
Speaker 3: the cult basket for.
Speaker 1: There were really this episode. They're pushing that one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was a very special episode.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Had you watched any Boy Meets World before you auditioned
Speaker 4: for it? Oh?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I knew the show. You guys were like iconic
Speaker 5: by this time. You know, my fourth season, you guys
Speaker 5: were everywhere. So I knew this show. And for me,
Speaker 5: as like a baby just starting out actor, like the
Speaker 5: stakes were very high, Like getting this job was a
Speaker 5: really big deal. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Do you remember what your thoughts were the first time
Speaker 4: you read the script?
Speaker 5: You know, I don't because it was so long ago.
Speaker 5: But it's funny because watching it back last night, when
Speaker 5: Sean is confronted and told that only a handful of
Speaker 5: people care about him, I said, well that's me. Five
Speaker 5: seconds later, my character is like, only a handful of
Speaker 5: people care about you. But truly, this was at this
Speaker 5: point in my life. I had probably read Helter Skelter
Speaker 5: four times. You're laying a cult member like that was
Speaker 5: my reel house rights.
Speaker 4: During our rewatch, we were really impressed by you because
Speaker 4: between you and Jerry Levine, you two really ground a
Speaker 4: storyline that could have just completely gone off the rails
Speaker 4: in the first thirty seconds.
Speaker 5: So nice.
Speaker 4: Do you remember any approach you had going into the
Speaker 4: role or any notes you were given about the week, Ash.
Speaker 5: I honestly don't. I think I was so nervous. I
Speaker 5: was so nervous because truly, like I'd maybe done like
Speaker 5: one like tiny budget independent film before, but I had
Speaker 5: never done multi cam certainly, and so it was a
Speaker 5: real like crash course in like acting for the camera.
Speaker 2: Wow, it didn't come across that way, come across so
Speaker 2: confident and you're so you're so centered, you're so grounding.
Speaker 1: No, but I mean it's what works, you know.
Speaker 2: It's like that when you're in your we were commented
Speaker 2: or the fact that you're like seeing in the background
Speaker 2: like lurking, which is a little weird, but then like
Speaker 2: once you're in the scene, like once you and I
Speaker 2: are hanging out and talking, it's like, oh, this is
Speaker 2: really comfortable. In fact, to me, I was a little
Speaker 2: like the fact that we're like holding hands with the
Speaker 2: second I was like, oh, oh, we're like have we
Speaker 2: been dating for a while. All of a sudden, I'm like,
Speaker 2: we're so relaxed. It's a little a little maybe too much.
Speaker 5: But it's a group for me very quickly, and well.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's what we because we already did a recap
Speaker 2: where we watched it and like we ended up talking
Speaker 2: about that, like this whole thing takes place in one day,
Speaker 2: Like I am a full cult member by the end
Speaker 2: of one after Yeah, it maybe it.
Speaker 5: Takes you an hour to be convinced that even though
Speaker 5: you call it, you're like, this is a cult and
Speaker 5: we're LA and then you're like, sign me up.
Speaker 1: Yep, I know.
Speaker 4: I mean even said, like you even point out, oh
Speaker 4: you laughed there, that's that's a mask people used to
Speaker 4: hide it, and then thirty seconds later the whole place laughs,
Speaker 4: and it's never acknowledged that, Like, wait a minute, you're
Speaker 4: the one who just taught me that that's a mask
Speaker 4: for something. That part's definitely a little little crazy. Do
Speaker 4: you remember there being any specific mentions of Scientology during
Speaker 4: the week, because we had talked about whether or not
Speaker 4: the cold was kind of a veiled I just play
Speaker 4: on scientology in LA. Do you remember it ever being
Speaker 4: mentioned outwardly.
Speaker 5: No, I don't think anyone mentioned it outwardly. And actually
Speaker 5: I don't even think I clocked it until like when
Speaker 5: we were watching it last night and he's like, no,
Speaker 5: that room's for celebrities, and my husband went, oh, it's scientology, right,
Speaker 5: I didn't even clock it.
Speaker 1: When I watch it, they were like, that's scientology. They
Speaker 1: had to tell me.
Speaker 3: It was like, that's directly, Okay, that's a direct reference
Speaker 3: of scientology.
Speaker 1: I had no idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And the funny thing is, I remember talking to Jerry
Speaker 5: about religion, like very specifically about religion, but I I
Speaker 5: don't even think we chatted about cults.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, the cults. Really though, when you watched the episode,
Speaker 4: it was something writer or pointed out is that it
Speaker 4: was actually much less an episode about a cult more
Speaker 4: than it ended up feeling about an episode about the
Speaker 4: importance of monotheistic religion. Perhaps.
Speaker 5: Yeah, my son, my seventeen year old son, goes, wow,
Speaker 5: this just got religious real quick.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And by the way, if you've watched every episode
Speaker 4: of Boy Meets World leading up to that, it also
Speaker 4: still it feels like that because the show isn't overtly
Speaker 4: religious often no, certainly not up until that point, So
Speaker 4: it does feel a little like it comes on the only.
Speaker 2: Thing we've ever done is celebrate Christmas so far, I think, right, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: That's kind of generic and not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we never talk about church, like our characters
Speaker 2: never talk about any of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I did think.
Speaker 5: It was an interesting choice, especially for you know, it
Speaker 5: was like a major network Friday night like show, and
Speaker 5: I don't know how common that was back then. I
Speaker 5: don't remember, but I have to say, writer, you handled
Speaker 5: it beautifully. You had that like we'll talk to God.
Speaker 2: It's a.
Speaker 5: Very heavy handed, but it was lovely.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he did do a nice job.
Speaker 2: But it would have been, like it's so funny how
Speaker 2: your character just disappears from the episode, Like it would
Speaker 2: have been so great to resolve, like if Sean had
Speaker 2: just sort of have like gone back to the center
Speaker 2: to get his things and like had like had a
Speaker 2: mister Mac and Sherry car like maybe gotten you out
Speaker 2: of the colt. Like yeah, but as it is, it's
Speaker 2: like you just disappear and like this cult is just
Speaker 2: gonna keep existing.
Speaker 3: And I don't know, mister Mack could have killed her
Speaker 3: for the power that she held.
Speaker 1: That's why we never saw it again.
Speaker 5: Well, here's the thing about mister Mac. I mean, like,
Speaker 5: let's talk about this character like he's he's a kidnapper at.
Speaker 1: Best, right.
Speaker 5: Do you know he's just housing all these underage children
Speaker 5: and them it's real, real creepy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, do you remember?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm sorry, Danielle, I just because maybe you can
Speaker 3: answer this because we we talked about it but couldn't
Speaker 3: ride or thinks, but we couldn't really remember.
Speaker 1: Was there an audience that week? Yes?
Speaker 3: There was, okay, perfect, We couldn't We couldn't remember if
Speaker 3: it was done in front of the live studio audience
Speaker 3: or not. Some of them aren't with some of the
Speaker 3: bigger swing sets and stuff, so we couldn't remember if
Speaker 3: this was one of those episodes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was. It was an audience, okay,
Speaker 5: and that was one for me because I'd only ever
Speaker 5: done theater. So you know, I mean, you guys know
Speaker 5: that energy from an audience.
Speaker 1: Is so it's the best.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you mentioned working with Jerry. What other memories do
Speaker 4: you have about working with him this week? You guys
Speaker 4: obviously got to work pretty closely together.
Speaker 5: We did, and honestly, I only remember that one conversation
Speaker 5: or I don't know if it was one conversation. I
Speaker 5: think it was an ongoing conversation. But I remember him
Speaker 5: telling me that, like that Judaism is the smartest religion
Speaker 5: because it is all based in facts, Like all of
Speaker 5: the things are based in fact, like you know, don't
Speaker 5: eat pork, you could probably get sick from it, like
Speaker 5: stuff like that. That I was just like, you're right,
Speaker 5: interesting me, Like that was my takeaway is that the
Speaker 5: Jews have got it right and everybody else another.
Speaker 4: Really, that's the best possible story you could have. I mean,
Speaker 4: I've never asked a question on a podcast and had
Speaker 4: someone deliver.
Speaker 1: So was behind the seeds Loki converting you.
Speaker 2: Or probably not even converted you, just letting you know
Speaker 2: the telling you proselytized it.
Speaker 1: So that's the thing. So Judaism is the best religion. Bo.
Speaker 2: So if we ever, if we ever wondered if behind
Speaker 2: the seeds of boy Bet World there was a religious.
Speaker 1: Agenda there, it is.
Speaker 4: Okay, let's go let's go back a little bit. You've
Speaker 4: mentioned that this may have been your first show. It
Speaker 4: was certainly your first multiicam. How what was your origin story?
Speaker 4: How did you decide to become an actor.
Speaker 5: Well, I I wanted the love and affection of my father.
Speaker 1: Okay, I love it. Interview We've ever done.
Speaker 3: It?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 5: I was, I was in college. I was in acting school,
Speaker 5: and then I I got an agent, and so I
Speaker 5: dropped out of college and I started. I started working,
Speaker 5: and it was slow, you know, like I had a
Speaker 5: job at the Beverly Center and I sold shoes, but
Speaker 5: I am it was called privilege. It's now the Louis
Speaker 5: Vuitton score.
Speaker 4: Oh I love that Privilege became the Louis Vauton store.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 5: That's privileges origin story exactly. Yeah. I just I started
Speaker 5: getting jobs like like Boy Meets World and like doing
Speaker 5: little guest stars and and that's how it started. And
Speaker 5: I was, you know, it was sort of the time
Speaker 5: when people were really looking it. It was like like
Speaker 5: teenage shows and movies were having this renaissance. Definitely, so
Speaker 5: I was lucky, Like you know, I was. I was
Speaker 5: in my twenties, but I looked like I was fifteen,
Speaker 5: and right, I was.
Speaker 2: Going to say, you must have been slightly older than
Speaker 2: if you already in college. Yeah, because I was seventeen
Speaker 2: and ninety seven so you were in nineteen twenty or.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it was probably twenty one.
Speaker 4: Wow. Okay, And so you did the Brady Bunch movie,
Speaker 4: which is such a big production and with how beloved
Speaker 4: the TV show was a pretty hope, high profile set
Speaker 4: to be on so early in your career. Where did
Speaker 4: the Brady Bunch Movie fall in relation to your guest
Speaker 4: star on Boymet's World?
Speaker 5: I think it was probably very shortly after, Like I
Speaker 5: remember it in like where was I living? Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 5: I think it was really shortly after Boyman.
Speaker 4: What was What was that set experience?
Speaker 5: Like, you know, it was fine. I think I was
Speaker 5: ultimately cut out of the movie. You might see me
Speaker 5: for two seconds. So what it was, by no means
Speaker 5: my big break.
Speaker 4: You are seeing there's photos of you on the internet
Speaker 4: in it?
Speaker 5: Oh is that true?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 5: Oh okay, cool? It was.
Speaker 4: It was cool.
Speaker 5: It was a big set, It was a big production.
Speaker 5: So I was a little bit like I remember like
Speaker 5: getting my call time and you know, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 5: I'm going to start work the next day and everything's
Speaker 5: going to be cool, and I get a panicked call
Speaker 5: from an a D who was like where are you?
Speaker 5: You're supposed to be here, and I'm like, my call.
Speaker 5: She says tomorrow, it's tomorrow, and he's like, no, it's today,
Speaker 5: Get here, So like, can you imagine that kind of
Speaker 5: awful panic? It's like one of your first jobs and
Speaker 5: I'm like rushing to Taft High School from Venice it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Will loves locations most.
Speaker 1: So listen.
Speaker 4: He lights up from the inside and he is familiar.
Speaker 2: He knows a place and maybe as a cousin who
Speaker 2: went to school there.
Speaker 4: Listen, we all have different things that light us up.
Speaker 1: I love locations. Danielle likes your kids. It's different. It's
Speaker 1: what it is.
Speaker 5: We all have copies.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you. Where are you right now? Exactly right?
Speaker 4: Where do you currently live?
Speaker 5: Really?
Speaker 1: Drop a pin? Drop a pin? Okay?
Speaker 4: So I want to talk very briefly also about Seventh Heaven,
Speaker 4: because I think a year before you joined us on
Speaker 4: Boy Meets World, you were on Seventh Heaven, which has
Speaker 4: always been said to be a fun set filled with
Speaker 4: other kids, and there's plot lines like siblings almost kissing
Speaker 4: each other and a diner owner pressing charges on a
Speaker 4: child who stole a drinking glass. What are your memories?
Speaker 1: Wait?
Speaker 4: Is that true?
Speaker 3: Is that real the ones you just said, there's one
Speaker 3: where siblings almost kiss.
Speaker 5: Yes, I just read about this. Did you read about
Speaker 5: it recently? Because I think Beverly Johnson was talking about
Speaker 5: it or something.
Speaker 4: They were practicing.
Speaker 5: They were practicing, right, and then the dad saw them
Speaker 5: and was like, what's going on here? And they're like, oh, no,
Speaker 5: it's nothing, don't worry about it. And he went, Okay,
Speaker 5: I've got to watch this show.
Speaker 1: So did anybody join the cult?
Speaker 4: That's what I really want to know. So what was
Speaker 4: your experience on that show?
Speaker 5: They were nice. They were really really nice to me.
Speaker 5: And you know, I had auditioned for nine o two
Speaker 5: and oh was that still on then? It must have been.
Speaker 5: So I had to audition for Aaron Spelling. I had
Speaker 5: to sing and it was so scary, and he was
Speaker 5: so nice that he was like, well, you're not really
Speaker 5: right for this role, but would you do this role?
Speaker 5: It was. It was the nicest thing. He's such a
Speaker 5: nice man. And so, yeah, I gotta say they were
Speaker 5: all very lovely and welcoming and kind.
Speaker 4: But did anyone try to convert you to Judaism?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm okay, I'm right. I just again, I want
Speaker 4: to remind everybody that we have that.
Speaker 6: Yes, okay, while doing a show about joining I mean,
Speaker 6: that's the levels here are just really intense.
Speaker 4: Okay, Well, then you would also star in Ryan Murphy's
Speaker 4: first show ever, Popular as Lily Esposito in over forty episodes.
Speaker 4: What was it like working with him at the start
Speaker 4: of his insanely prolific career, Bananas?
Speaker 5: You know? It was Ryan is He's how do I describe, right?
Speaker 5: I mean, he's he's so special and he's his mind
Speaker 5: works in ways that you you just don't see it coming.
Speaker 5: And so Popular was so weird. It was such a
Speaker 5: weird show, but it was so fun. We had a
Speaker 5: great time. We did the strangest stuff and yeah, it
Speaker 5: was cool. It was a cool ride.
Speaker 4: Okay, So back to Boy Meets World. What do you
Speaker 4: remember about working with writer and writer? What do you
Speaker 4: what are your memories working with each other that week
Speaker 4: and what the relationship was like working with the director
Speaker 4: and getting all of these these performance beats for this
Speaker 4: kind of wacky episode out.
Speaker 1: I remember feeling incredibly comfortable like that.
Speaker 2: What's funny to me is like watching it now and
Speaker 2: hearing you say that it was one of your first jobs.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, I felt like you were. You fit
Speaker 2: right in and it was like very smooth, and I don't, oh, well.
Speaker 5: That makes me feel so happy. When I was watching it,
Speaker 5: I just I noticed at one point, like you're in
Speaker 5: the shot and you just see my creepy little hand
Speaker 5: on your shoulders claiming you. Well. One thing I remember
Speaker 5: though I'm working with you is people kept telling me
Speaker 5: you look like Writer's girlfriend.
Speaker 4: M m oh, you heard the story.
Speaker 5: You heard about this, Well I only heard I look
Speaker 5: like writer's girlfriend. But now Rachel Lee Cook said girlfriend.
Speaker 5: She's one of my best friends.
Speaker 2: Really, ye still very cool because she came to set.
Speaker 2: She definitely came to set while we were filming the episode.
Speaker 2: Oh she did, yes, And I remember talking about it
Speaker 2: and like having that and that's why it was so
Speaker 2: funny that you guys ended up being and she's all
Speaker 2: that after the fact, you know what, like two years
Speaker 2: later yea, so oh that's so funny.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we were just at a wedding together and we
Speaker 5: were walking down the street and people go, those are twins.
Speaker 5: I mean, mind you. We were in New Orleans and
Speaker 5: everyone was very drunk.
Speaker 1: So gosha.
Speaker 4: People never seen twins before I'd never seen two twins
Speaker 4: and then screamed, Joy, it's.
Speaker 5: Just drunk people in New Orleans, and we don't really
Speaker 5: look that much alike.
Speaker 4: We're just tiny, petite brunettes.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, were the siblings brother and sister? Were they?
Speaker 1: Were they both? I can't stop? All right?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I mean in any parent knows if you walk
Speaker 4: in and see something weird going on with your kids
Speaker 4: and you say, what's going on, and they say, it's fine,
Speaker 4: don't worry about it. Everyone knows you're you accept that
Speaker 4: and you leave you you leave them alone, you turn
Speaker 4: off the lights, absolutely leave them alone, and say got it. Thanks,
Speaker 4: thanks for letting me know. I just wanted to check in.
Speaker 5: Everyone knows about parenting.
Speaker 4: That's where I get all my advice. So were there
Speaker 4: any roles you auditioned for in your career that were
Speaker 4: roles you really wanted, but were roles that got away?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 5: God, yeah, probably most of them.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I know, anything anything you actually auditioned.
Speaker 5: For I didn't really wanted it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 4: That is that is our that's what we do. I
Speaker 4: remember so many rules, reading a thing and being like
Speaker 4: this one, I really want this one, and then you're
Speaker 4: just they I saw you and took your head shott
Speaker 4: and throw it into the garbage the door.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and like you've worked on it, you've memorized the script,
Speaker 5: you've written your backstory, and you're like, this is it,
Speaker 5: this is my moment. And I one time, I can't
Speaker 5: remember what the job was, but I I went to
Speaker 5: the audition and I was so pumped. I was so excited,
Speaker 5: and I could hear them through the door.
Speaker 4: You yes, I hate that feeling the worst.
Speaker 5: And this director was talking to this actress and laughing
Speaker 5: and they were in there for twenty minutes.
Speaker 4: Oh no, I'm sweating. I'm sweating at the bott of it.
Speaker 4: I already. Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 5: So I walked in and I you know when they
Speaker 5: give you like three scenes and you read the first
Speaker 5: one and they go thank you, thank you, thanks all,
Speaker 5: and I went no, yes, which I said, I heard
Speaker 5: you in here chatting this girl up for twenty minutes.
Speaker 5: I want to read the other two scenes. And they went, okay,
Speaker 5: I'm not going to shut you up.
Speaker 1: Listener.
Speaker 5: I didn't get that job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I cast.
Speaker 5: The director never brought me in again.
Speaker 4: Oh that's a that's a rough feeling. I once had
Speaker 4: an audition where I was doing the scene and the
Speaker 4: casting director stopped me in the middle of it and
Speaker 4: then gave me a note and said, I want you
Speaker 4: to start again, and I want you to take that
Speaker 4: note that I just gave you. And I said okay,
Speaker 4: and I started it again, and he stopped me again
Speaker 4: in the same place. He gave me the exact same note,
Speaker 4: told me to start it again. I started the scene again,
Speaker 4: and halfway through the scene, he goes, Wow, you're really visceral,
Speaker 4: aren't you.
Speaker 1: Visceral visceral?
Speaker 4: And I went and he went okay, thank you.
Speaker 5: Oh God.
Speaker 4: I was like, I never want to do this again.
Speaker 4: I just never want to I just don't want to
Speaker 4: do this anymore.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I had.
Speaker 3: I had somebody actually that had thrown my picture away
Speaker 3: right after I walked out of.
Speaker 1: The room because I went back.
Speaker 3: I was with my parents and I went back and
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, no, I'm sorry. I think I
Speaker 3: gave you the wrong headshot. And she's like, it's in
Speaker 3: the trash you can cut out. And I literally had
Speaker 3: to grab it from the trash can, like rooting through
Speaker 3: trash to find my picture to walk to walk out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a casting director answer her phone, put
Speaker 2: their finger up, answer the phone and then talk. But
Speaker 2: mid scene just have to sit there and then put
Speaker 2: it down. Okay, let's keep going. You're listening.
Speaker 1: This is important to you.
Speaker 5: It's the system that it's really setting you up for failure.
Speaker 5: And like when they say, like you just go in
Speaker 5: there and you act like you already have the job,
Speaker 5: but it's impossible. Yeah, when people are you know, like
Speaker 5: I've had people eat during like network tests. I've had
Speaker 5: people like sitting in the back eating their lunch, and
Speaker 5: you know, it's like the best thing I think that
Speaker 5: has happened is is the COVID pandemic. It's the best
Speaker 5: thing that's ever happened for actors because like now you
Speaker 5: just get to talk to help tape.
Speaker 1: I got to get back into the industry. It's now
Speaker 1: built for me.
Speaker 4: I know of all the time, I know it is
Speaker 4: true because I remember that is part of the frustrating
Speaker 4: feeling is all the time you've spent prepping, memorizing your lines,
Speaker 4: doing all the stuff you mentioned, the backstory and all
Speaker 4: the all that work, and then a minimum of a
Speaker 4: forty fifty sixty minute drive to wherever you're going in traffic,
Speaker 4: waiting in the waiting room, then going in being inside
Speaker 4: the room for maybe a couple of minutes, yeah, maybe
Speaker 4: even less if it's if it doesn't go well, and
Speaker 4: then you have all that time to drive.
Speaker 1: Back, drive back again.
Speaker 4: And now you can self tape and that comes with
Speaker 4: It's all with its own host of issue.
Speaker 1: Done it. But I would hate it. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I think, well, yeah, I'm just not. Yeah, I always.
Speaker 2: I always hated, Like I mean, I'm going to old school,
Speaker 2: Like I liked auditioning without cameras in the room, Like
Speaker 2: I liked it when it used to be you just
Speaker 2: met person. And I remember, like during Boys, when they
Speaker 2: started filming you every time and it was all to
Speaker 2: a tape for other people to see. And I remember
Speaker 2: hating that because it changed the vibe. Like, you know,
Speaker 2: I liked it more theatrical, like where it's like, oh
Speaker 2: do we connect, do we talk? You know, it just
Speaker 2: it was more of a person to person connection. Being
Speaker 2: from auditioning out of New York, we couldn't do that.
Speaker 2: You were always all the shows are in LA.
Speaker 3: So we had to we had to be put on
Speaker 3: tape every single time. The opposite is also true with auditioning, though,
Speaker 3: when you have those great auditions, if you had the
Speaker 3: ones when you leave the room and they come running
Speaker 3: after you like.
Speaker 1: Wait a second, can you come back here?
Speaker 3: And they do that in front of everybody else in
Speaker 3: the room, and you're like like, okay.
Speaker 5: That went well, it's the best.
Speaker 1: It's an amazing feeling, and you can get that.
Speaker 2: But I always feel like those are set up with
Speaker 2: so much respect, right like usually, like for me at least,
Speaker 2: if I ever showed up for an on and they
Speaker 2: knew I was coming and had anything any sort of
Speaker 2: like identification of like you're a.
Speaker 1: Human being, I would do better.
Speaker 2: Like you know, if I showed up and had to
Speaker 2: wait like an hour and a half, invariably it was
Speaker 2: an awful audition. Like you know, it's just so clear
Speaker 2: that if you give actors respect and treat them well,
Speaker 2: they'll ride, they'll do better, Like people respond better when
Speaker 2: you're when it's just a cold call, like oh it's
Speaker 2: the worst.
Speaker 5: I know. Just how about just give people water?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, apologize up when things are running late
Speaker 4: and a casting director does come out and says, hey, guys,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry. I know this is the last thing you
Speaker 4: want to hear. But we're running a little bit late today.
Speaker 4: We started late because we had an important meeting that
Speaker 4: came up. I just want to let you know we
Speaker 4: are getting getting to you as soon as possible. Like
Speaker 4: knowing that and you're not just wondering what's going on.
Speaker 4: It's so so different.
Speaker 3: At least treat us like we're stuck in a plane
Speaker 3: on the tarmac. Right, you know, you can use the bathroom,
Speaker 3: let her know what's going on.
Speaker 1: We're good.
Speaker 5: We don't demand much.
Speaker 4: No, So, Tamra, you're from Orange County, right, Yeah, Well,
Speaker 4: I grew.
Speaker 5: Up in Diamond Bar, which is I think it probably
Speaker 5: says on my IMDb in Orange County because I didn't
Speaker 5: write that. But I went to school and I went
Speaker 5: to college in Orange County, so maybe that's why. But yes,
Speaker 5: I grew up in.
Speaker 4: California, Okay, And so although only maybe an hour without
Speaker 4: traffic from LA, it can sometimes feel like a lifetime away.
Speaker 4: What did your parents and your friends think about you
Speaker 4: auditioning and becoming an actor?
Speaker 5: I think, you know, my dad was very supportive. My
Speaker 5: dad died when I was in my twenties, but he
Speaker 5: was very supportive. But I say this now, I think
Speaker 5: I think if I had been born a boy, he
Speaker 5: would have been less supportive, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: I think he just thought she's a girl, she's cute,
Speaker 5: someone will marry her and take care of her, so
Speaker 5: like litter averagery. Yeah, but everybody thought it was cool
Speaker 5: because it wasn't. I didn't grow up knowing anyone that
Speaker 5: was an actor. Yeah, and I think you sort of
Speaker 5: need that, uh like that feeling of like, well, I
Speaker 5: can't fail at this. I've been very successful in community theater.
Speaker 5: Could is? Could it be any harder than that? And
Speaker 5: it's like it takes that sort of mindset to do it,
Speaker 5: because if you knew what the odds were against you, like,
Speaker 5: you wouldn't try.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean everyone must have been very impressed with you
Speaker 4: making it to it, you know. And she all that
Speaker 4: alongside Freddie Prince Junior, Rachel Ye Cook, Matthew Lillard, Paul Walker, Usher,
Speaker 4: Clia Duval, Lil kim My Love and a Emilia Anna
Speaker 4: Paquin Kiaren Colkin. I mean, this must have been quite
Speaker 4: an experience.
Speaker 5: Everyone is in that movie.
Speaker 1: I forgot that. Geez, that list is crazy.
Speaker 4: What was that experience like.
Speaker 5: It was really really fun. It was really fun. Yeah,
Speaker 5: Like I like Paul Walker and I got close and
Speaker 5: he would confide things in me, which was a really
Speaker 5: cool thing. And it's a very you know, it's it's
Speaker 5: a sad memory. But everybody was close. We were like
Speaker 5: it was like we were in high school together. And
Speaker 5: and like Rachel says now because she tracked me down
Speaker 5: several years ago and was like, listen, I didn't go
Speaker 5: to high school, my high and we're going to be
Speaker 5: friends again.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Where'd you guys shoot? Was it in La or? Oh?
Speaker 1: What you care about? The location?
Speaker 5: Ready for this one?
Speaker 1: You shoot a taft Connecticut? Where'd you shoot?
Speaker 5: No? It was Torrance, Torrance High School? And then we
Speaker 5: shot a ton of stuff in in like the Palisades
Speaker 5: mostly I think we were in the Palisades.
Speaker 4: So do people mostly recognize you from that movie? Or
Speaker 4: do you ever get recognized as a cult a leader
Speaker 4: adjacent from Boy Meets World.
Speaker 5: I don't know if anyone's ever recognized me from Boy
Speaker 5: Meets World, but I do occasionally. It hasn't happened in
Speaker 5: a while, but I've gotten some very strongly worded direct messages.
Speaker 4: Oh really, Yeah.
Speaker 5: Like leave Sean alone. You know what you're doing. This
Speaker 5: is a cult, like like from like deeply unhinged people
Speaker 5: or maybe writer alone.
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 4: Wow, you know people have strong feelings, they very.
Speaker 5: Strong feelings, and you know people are watching it now
Speaker 5: and I think they think it's real time and the
Speaker 5: line is so blurred between scripted television and reality television.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well then years ago, I mean you mentioned your seventeen
Speaker 4: year old son. Has he seen your work?
Speaker 5: Yes, ish, But like I remember I tried to show
Speaker 5: him She's all that when he was maybe like eight,
Speaker 5: and he went, I think this is a little adultish
Speaker 5: for me.
Speaker 4: I love it, which is fair.
Speaker 5: Because like I think he was reacting to Jody Leno
Speaker 5: keep licking Matthew Lillard's bare chest, right, And then when
Speaker 5: we were gonna watch this, I said, will you watch
Speaker 5: it with me? And he goes, I've already seen it,
Speaker 5: And I was so excited that he's been secretly watching Wow.
Speaker 5: But like, I don't know that he's ever seen popular
Speaker 5: like I was in a movie called Trtish Soup, which
Speaker 5: I've made him watch a couple of time times. But
Speaker 5: he well, he might care, but he pretends that he
Speaker 5: doesn't care.
Speaker 1: Well he's seventeen.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, so everything I do is embarrassing.
Speaker 4: Well, years ago, you decided to step away from Hollywood.
Speaker 4: I'm sure that was a decision that wasn't easy, considering
Speaker 4: you had been acting since your late teen's early twenties.
Speaker 4: What led you to that decision?
Speaker 5: It was largely having my son. I did a pilot
Speaker 5: when he was I think three months old, and it
Speaker 5: was single camera, so you know, there's ins yeah, like
Speaker 5: stelevision seventeen hour days, and it was hard. It was
Speaker 5: just hard to be away from him. So I decided
Speaker 5: to sort of step back and I started a jewelry company,
Speaker 5: and I'm lucky enough that it's, you know, fairly successful.
Speaker 4: What's the name of the jewelry company? I used to
Speaker 4: mention jewels and I will location.
Speaker 5: In Los Angeles, California.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, tell me more.
Speaker 5: It's called Gray by Tamramelo. Gray is my son's name.
Speaker 4: Oh I love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I've you know, I'm already I can tell.
Speaker 5: I'm like I always say, like I'm such a cliche,
Speaker 5: like I was an actress and now I sell jewelry
Speaker 5: on Etsy. But it's it works. So it's it's been
Speaker 5: really nice for me, But now that my son is
Speaker 5: older and doesn't need me anymore, now I'm like, maybe
Speaker 5: it's time to like dip a toe back into acting
Speaker 5: like I miss it.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm so excited to hear that. I know the
Speaker 4: week we like found you, not that you were hiding
Speaker 4: or anything, but the week we discovered you on Instagram,
Speaker 4: we saw that you had posted that you were jumping
Speaker 4: back in and it's very exciting. Do you have an agent?
Speaker 4: Have you started auditioning? Where are you in this process?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I have an agent, and I have my same
Speaker 5: manager that I've had since boy me its world and
Speaker 5: she was sort of fundamental and being like don't you
Speaker 5: think wouldn't you just want to try? And so yeah,
Speaker 5: like I had an audition yesterday and I taped it
Speaker 5: in my bedroom, Like it was like really easy and fun.
Speaker 5: So this this feels like an easy sort of transition
Speaker 5: back in because I don't have to do too much
Speaker 5: leg work.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you're right now that now that things are
Speaker 4: self tape and you can do it at home and
Speaker 4: your son is older now like it does it feels
Speaker 4: like a real nice entry point. So if you had
Speaker 4: to describe your dream role now, what would it be?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 4: What if you could?
Speaker 1: I just said, how long that took for Daniel to get.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I didn't hear what you said, and
Speaker 4: then all of a sudden, I like landed in.
Speaker 1: My ear chabata.
Speaker 4: Okay, if you had to drive, describe your dream acting role.
Speaker 4: What would it be?
Speaker 1: Number?
Speaker 4: Would it involve the cult leader?
Speaker 5: I have my old No, it would be it would
Speaker 5: be comedy, like I love I love comedy. I love
Speaker 5: the schedule of a multi cam Yeah. But yeah, Like
Speaker 5: when I was younger, I was really into you know,
Speaker 5: I was like I want to be dark and complicated,
Speaker 5: and now I'm like, I just want to have fun.
Speaker 5: Let's just have fun and make people laugh. That sounds nice.
Speaker 4: Yes, Well, as you mentioned, we asked you to watch
Speaker 4: the episode last night, So looking back now watching a
Speaker 4: completely insane Boy Meets World episode that you were such
Speaker 4: a highlight in, if you had the chance to tell
Speaker 4: that twenty year old on screen that you saw something today,
Speaker 4: what would you tell her?
Speaker 5: Oh? God, I think I would probably just say like,
Speaker 5: don't don't take it all so seriously. I remember just
Speaker 5: being so stressed all the time and like, oh I
Speaker 5: have to read all these scripts and it's so hard,
Speaker 5: and it's like, no, you have this. You have been
Speaker 5: given this gift of like being able to work in
Speaker 5: this industry that like is a dream, and so just like,
Speaker 5: remember to have fun, Yes, remember to enjoy it a
Speaker 5: little bit along the way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, hopefully now that you are dipping your toe
Speaker 4: back in and you know, you get the opportunity to
Speaker 4: experience it all over again with a you know, relaxed,
Speaker 4: more fun, mature perspective on everything. It's the same lesson
Speaker 4: for a writer and I when we look back and
Speaker 4: watch the show, we think, man, I wish we were
Speaker 4: We did have a lot of fun, but we also
Speaker 4: work so preoccupied with thoughts about where we should be,
Speaker 4: what we should be doing, wing what we were missing
Speaker 4: out on. And you know, life was passing us by
Speaker 4: right in front of our eyes when we were daydreaming
Speaker 4: that life was actually happening somewhere else. So I can
Speaker 4: so relate to what you're saying. We look forward to
Speaker 4: seeing you in many more things now. We thank you
Speaker 4: so much for coming and spending your time with us today.
Speaker 4: It was an absolute pleasure to see you. And I
Speaker 4: will be buying I'll be buying some jewelry.
Speaker 5: This was super fun. Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you great to see you too.
Speaker 5: Bye bye.
Speaker 4: She's so much fun. Yeah, she doesn't seem culty at all. No,
Speaker 4: that's how they get you. Oh, you're right.
Speaker 2: Was into like helter skelter and kind of because that
Speaker 2: does seem right. You know, you can tell that she
Speaker 2: kind of likes being a little creepy when she was
Speaker 2: acting in that character because she isn't. She doesn't get
Speaker 2: that many jokes, like I don't think does she never
Speaker 2: laugh ever, Like she's she's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's cool. But I love that Now in
Speaker 1: our real life she's is very relaxed and funny.
Speaker 3: So this story about just Jerry, all the stuff Jerry
Speaker 3: was saying.
Speaker 1: I was dying.
Speaker 4: It's amazing, amazing story. Well, thank you all for joining
Speaker 4: us for this episode of Pod Meets World. As always,
Speaker 4: you can follow us on Instagram pod meets World Show.
Speaker 4: You can send us your emails podmeets World Show at
Speaker 4: gmail dot com. And we have merch.
Speaker 1: Where is the merch? What is the exact location of
Speaker 1: the merch?
Speaker 4: It's at podmeetsworldshow dot com. Will Yes writer send us out?
Speaker 1: We love you all, Pod dismissed.
Speaker 2: Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast producer hosted by
Speaker 2: Danielle Fischel, Wilfridell and Ryder Strong Executive producers, Jensen Karp
Speaker 2: and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
Speaker 2: producer and editor, Tarasubasch producer, Maddie Moore engineer and Boy
Speaker 2: Meets World Superman Easton out Our theme song is by
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