Speaker 1: And that's what you really missed with Jenna and Kevin
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio podcast and welcome back to and
Speaker 1: that's what you really missed Part two with the one
Speaker 1: and only Ryan Murphy. We know we left you on
Speaker 1: a cliffhanger last week when Bryan dropped that little nugget
Speaker 1: that when they created Will Schuster, they apparently were interested
Speaker 1: in Justin timber Like playing the part. So why don't
Speaker 1: we we gotta go back. We gotta go back and
Speaker 1: check check out what he's deep on that one. I
Speaker 1: don't even think justin Timberloke knows this, but there was
Speaker 1: like a one week window and talking to his people
Speaker 1: where I thought maybe he was interested, but maybe that
Speaker 1: meant we interested in having a script dropped off at
Speaker 1: his front door. I don't remember. I wasn't as fastile
Speaker 1: at the Star casting back then, but that was our
Speaker 1: idea for Mr Shoe was justin Timberlike. And then it
Speaker 1: was very quickly like um yeah, just in his book
Speaker 1: for tours through Ton threeteen or something. It's like okay, no,
Speaker 1: justin Timberlake. So when that happened, I was like, well,
Speaker 1: let's just let's just find everyone and the only person
Speaker 1: that we just straight out offered it to. Was We
Speaker 1: kept talking about a Jane Lynch type of Jane Lynch type,
Speaker 1: and finally I was like, let's just offer it to Jane.
Speaker 1: She's probably gonna say no, um, but to my shock
Speaker 1: and thrill, she said yes instantly. So she was the
Speaker 1: only real name. And then we just had this magical
Speaker 1: period where for six months we we um went all
Speaker 1: around the country and anybody who wanted to audition could
Speaker 1: send in tapes, and we looked at everybody and everybody
Speaker 1: and everything, and you know, and then had narrowed it
Speaker 1: down to for each of the parts, three roles. And
Speaker 1: then we brought all of those actors, and I believe
Speaker 1: there were fifty actors in total were brought to l A.
Speaker 1: And you guys remember walking into these hideous, fluorescently lit
Speaker 1: rooms with like all of these people that you staring
Speaker 1: at you with notepads with pins ready to judge. It was.
Speaker 1: It was the most like cliche we're gonna get suits.
Speaker 1: It was. They were actually all in black suits, sitting
Speaker 1: in this teared room staring at you with no expression.
Speaker 1: And I had no power back then, like I was,
Speaker 1: I I really was just like a voice in the Wilderness.
Speaker 1: But there was a moment in the casting of that
Speaker 1: show where I kind of would be the first person
Speaker 1: to speak. I would make sure like I would would
Speaker 1: talk first, and in both of your cases, I was
Speaker 1: I remember saying, it's Jenna, or I don't want to
Speaker 1: do it, it's Kevin, it's Kevin, or I can't go on.
Speaker 1: I would say something like that, because what are they
Speaker 1: going to say? Um? And you know, there were other
Speaker 1: people who were considered for for your parts, and I
Speaker 1: don't really like to talk about that, but many of
Speaker 1: them I've worked with. You know. The weird thing about
Speaker 1: it is like you meet the people when you get
Speaker 1: to that far in a casting process. People don't know,
Speaker 1: like you meet the person that you're up again, you're
Speaker 1: sitting in the room with you're against yourself, Like, yes,
Speaker 1: that was written for him based on his he did
Speaker 1: a tremendous audition. Yeah, I mean it was interesting, Like
Speaker 1: I do remember that I would be not telling the
Speaker 1: truth if I didn't tell you, Like, you know, when
Speaker 1: I was working with Johnny Groth and Pretty Handsome, that's
Speaker 1: when I first met Leah and so Jonathan and I
Speaker 1: were filming Pretty Handsome and Leah came out to visit Jonathan,
Speaker 1: and you know, that was also a period in time
Speaker 1: where the ideal look were people who are on like,
Speaker 1: you know, quote unquote, look, we're on c W shows totally,
Speaker 1: And I remember Leah saying like, oh my god, I
Speaker 1: can't even get an audition on a goddamn c W show,
Speaker 1: Like it's really gonna be hard for me, because you know,
Speaker 1: so I remember thinking like, oh, she'd be a really
Speaker 1: good Rachel and I in the writing. I think we
Speaker 1: would all start to I don't think Brad and Ian
Speaker 1: new Lea then, but I would kind of right in
Speaker 1: things Lee and I had spoken about. So she kind
Speaker 1: of always was the front writer for that part. Like
Speaker 1: you know, I do remember her auditioning and me sneaking
Speaker 1: her sides I think really early, so she was very
Speaker 1: familiar with what she was doing and Kevin Riley saying, well,
Speaker 1: thank god we've found that actress because it almost looks
Speaker 1: like it was written for her, and I was like,
Speaker 1: kind of was, but it was. It was, Um, it
Speaker 1: was really really really fun to do the casting of
Speaker 1: that part and for all of your parts, and um,
Speaker 1: and I was directing it too, so I kind of
Speaker 1: was thinking like, well, you know, and I had worked
Speaker 1: with Amber. Amber was um little baby Amber came in,
Speaker 1: was on my delta, broke failed pilot another thing. And
Speaker 1: I always say that from every tragedy comes re birth.
Speaker 1: But I never forgot Amber and how great she was.
Speaker 1: And I think we kind of thought of Mercedes for Amber,
Speaker 1: to be quite honest, but um, there were other contenders,
Speaker 1: but just you know. But it was also like one
Speaker 1: of those things that once you guys got into the
Speaker 1: room and read and you don't know this as actors
Speaker 1: because again, no one ever tells you and sit you
Speaker 1: down and looks you in the eye and said, you
Speaker 1: know what, you were phenomenal. That was the best moment
Speaker 1: I think in many of your auditioning lives, because you
Speaker 1: just walked in and and you nailed it. And also
Speaker 1: even if you didn't kind of get some things right,
Speaker 1: it was sort of like, well, that's the person I
Speaker 1: want to hang out with. That's the essence of that character.
Speaker 1: The spirit of who you all were as young people
Speaker 1: was the thing that I'm like, well, I want to
Speaker 1: I want to showcase that. I want to showcase and
Speaker 1: of course you know the great Irony Kevin is you
Speaker 1: were the big dancer and the cast and we put
Speaker 1: you in a wheelchair. So well, the show was made today.
Speaker 1: You couldn't cast me anyway, No, we couldn't. And that's
Speaker 1: another interesting thing to think about, and that I talked about,
Speaker 1: like that would not have happened. There were many things
Speaker 1: that would not have happened, but um, it was. It
Speaker 1: was a really magical, protected experience that was about um
Speaker 1: talent and the love of talent and the love of
Speaker 1: actors and wow. And also like you guys had to
Speaker 1: read two scenes and sing a song as I recall,
Speaker 1: and Kevin, I recall that your song was let it
Speaker 1: be am I wrong, And so you and I used
Speaker 1: to have that joke, right, just be like Kevin, just
Speaker 1: let it be bad. You just walk up out of
Speaker 1: nowhere and I'd like this, let it be Kevin, But
Speaker 1: you were just so But also what so cute is
Speaker 1: everybody was really nervous and it was hard. And what
Speaker 1: was it like when you guys got the call? Who
Speaker 1: called you? Guys? Did I call? You know? It was
Speaker 1: my age, my manager? Yeah, Oh that's right. I wasn't
Speaker 1: allowed to because that was corporate policy where the casting
Speaker 1: person had to call the agent, Yeah, because you remember
Speaker 1: you came in. Are you going to tell yeah, well
Speaker 1: you came in, so I had already been in two
Speaker 1: days before. For it was the network. What was first
Speaker 1: studio network studio was first network, so I had a
Speaker 1: studio and then by network, you had flown all the
Speaker 1: people in from New York that we were testing with
Speaker 1: or against. And then that's when Jenna was there, had
Speaker 1: already met Chris, and you stuck your head in the
Speaker 1: room and I had never tested for anything, and I
Speaker 1: was shocked. I had made it to the fourth audition.
Speaker 1: And I have terrible nerves, especially one auditioning, and you
Speaker 1: stuck your head in the room and you go hi. Everyone,
Speaker 1: You're like hi, and you're like a nervous, dumping nervous
Speaker 1: and you are and I remember you shut the door
Speaker 1: and you it was sort of like popping an inflated
Speaker 1: balloon because you released like the tension and we all
Speaker 1: start of laughing like he's nervous, Like are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: Like we have no his show is getting made, but
Speaker 1: it was I was like, that's very so nice of
Speaker 1: him to come in here and acknowledge that, like they
Speaker 1: also have to pick someone and they're also nervous about
Speaker 1: finding the right people. It's like, all right, we have
Speaker 1: here everyone, like just id I kind of instinctively knew,
Speaker 1: like maybe in the back of my lizard brain, like
Speaker 1: this was my chance. This this show was my shot.
Speaker 1: And I've never prepared or worked harder than anything. And
Speaker 1: then in the preparation of directing that pilot, like pilots phenomenal.
Speaker 1: I watched it yesterday. It is hold up, It's very
Speaker 1: good from every detail. It's like, you're just so it
Speaker 1: worked hard. Thank you. I mean I I of making it,
Speaker 1: and it was like it was such a wonderful experience.
Speaker 1: We made it in the fall, it was beautiful weather,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I remember shooting on Halloween, right
Speaker 1: around Matt Morrison's birthday. That was the day that was
Speaker 1: the end, and it was just so fun. I remember,
Speaker 1: and I was, you know, it was in my head.
Speaker 1: And nobody had ever directed in our world or made
Speaker 1: a musical. So the you know, the the Andrew Mitchell
Speaker 1: and I um and Chris Baffa who was doing the
Speaker 1: who was our DP? Like we were trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how do you what is the language of making
Speaker 1: a musical? And like we kind of were I had
Speaker 1: a very strong sense of what I wanted to do,
Speaker 1: but it was just joy. It was really fun. And
Speaker 1: and then Jenny, you had asked me about the casting
Speaker 1: of the other the other Yes, you know, the guest
Speaker 1: star cast. Like, I'm trying to even think how that
Speaker 1: star did. Um. Who was our first celebrity, Kristen Channa
Speaker 1: with that was written for her? Um. I loved her. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean everybody from like Stay Moos you know who
Speaker 1: we loved too, I mean Gwyn. I mean I would
Speaker 1: imagine that a lot of people were like, hey, like
Speaker 1: by the time the show had kind of taken off,
Speaker 1: people were like, Ryan, please put me in this show. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got a lot of phone calls and um, you know,
Speaker 1: oh this is another hot piece of dish. I've never
Speaker 1: talked about this. Okay, So do you remember that the
Speaker 1: role that Eve played love Eve almost Whitney Houston had
Speaker 1: agreed to play that part. Um, so you've given you
Speaker 1: some Justin Timberlake tea. Again. I don't know if Justin
Speaker 1: Timberloke ever knew about that, but I thought, but Whitney Houston,
Speaker 1: that actually made it pretty far down the line. And
Speaker 1: I had a phone call with Whitney about that part.
Speaker 1: You to Whitney about it, Yes, oh my god, and
Speaker 1: that's what well? That lovely and charming and sweet. And
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think she was in the right
Speaker 1: place and time to do it as all I'll say.
Speaker 1: But I remember even with her her agent at the time,
Speaker 1: like she just loved that it was about kids in
Speaker 1: choir and she was like, this is phenomenal, like that
Speaker 1: you're doing a show about show choirs and you know,
Speaker 1: she was in a choir. Whitney, and I just said,
Speaker 1: I think you as a teacher would be a great
Speaker 1: kind of thing for you to play and she said,
Speaker 1: I agree, um, and yeah, and then we talked about
Speaker 1: I don't know, it was just but she she didn't
Speaker 1: end up doing it, and Eve was phenomenal. But I
Speaker 1: think that Eve was fierce. But I think at the
Speaker 1: moment that I got close to Whitney Houston, I was like, well,
Speaker 1: there's other there's people that we can put in here.
Speaker 1: And then you know, um, I spent years trying to
Speaker 1: write a role for Jennifer Lopez, who's a friend. I
Speaker 1: could never figure out the right part, and her schedule
Speaker 1: was and Anne Hathaway, like there were always people who
Speaker 1: wanted to do it, but we can never figure out
Speaker 1: the timing that I called the one that got away.
Speaker 1: But they were lovely and great after love, like I
Speaker 1: just wanted to be on it and I was like, please,
Speaker 1: can you please of them? But every everybody, like there
Speaker 1: was a moment in time where because people wanted to
Speaker 1: come and show off, like normally you see actors and
Speaker 1: they're just acting and they're like, I mean, like all
Speaker 1: of them, they're incredible. Yes. And I would also like
Speaker 1: to speaking of Sarah Jessica, do you know that I've
Speaker 1: gotten death threats about the Turkey Lurkey number. I would
Speaker 1: just like to say that I don't care and I
Speaker 1: love that. I love let's have a Kiki Turkey Lurkey
Speaker 1: one of my faiths, and I did not deserve the
Speaker 1: death threats. I had a friend last night randomly text
Speaker 1: me about that number in particular and said, do you
Speaker 1: remember this number? And I was like yes, He's like
Speaker 1: I was walking my son with with my husband and
Speaker 1: I thought it was a dream I had and when
Speaker 1: I played it for my toddler and he was like, huh,
Speaker 1: I stand by it. But the but the But the
Speaker 1: thing about that was, you know, again, it was it
Speaker 1: was a moment in time where you could turn on
Speaker 1: television and there was Adele on Entertainment at night talking
Speaker 1: about the Glee episode like it was just something that
Speaker 1: people loved and wanted to be a part of it
Speaker 1: and UM wanted to like I can sing, We all
Speaker 1: like it was. It was fun. Sometimes I would do it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I would search for um, you know what I like.
Speaker 1: With Anne, I could never the timing was off, and
Speaker 1: with Jennifer, we can never find the right part. But
Speaker 1: it was always but it meant a lot that people
Speaker 1: at that level would reach out and say, we see
Speaker 1: what you're doing, and we love what it's about, and
Speaker 1: it's cool and god, you know what, I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: killed to have been a kid and been able to
Speaker 1: see something like that on the air. That was always
Speaker 1: the running thing, like I wish this had been on
Speaker 1: the air when I was a kid. And I felt
Speaker 1: that too, and that was the reason why, you know,
Speaker 1: But for a while there, I did have a really
Speaker 1: lucky Golden Rolodex. I really did, and it was it
Speaker 1: was fun special for us too. We got to meet
Speaker 1: all these really awesome people who came in and were like,
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of you, and you're like, wait, is
Speaker 1: that you're a fan of the show first, but like also,
Speaker 1: and I got to have moments that remained with me, like, um,
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, one of my idols was
Speaker 1: Carol Burnette and that show aired at ten o'clock and
Speaker 1: my father used to get so mad that I would
Speaker 1: sneak out of bed and watch it. And I get
Speaker 1: to have a moment with Carol Burnett on the set
Speaker 1: of Glee where I got to hold her hand and say,
Speaker 1: when I was a child, I felt completely like an
Speaker 1: alien and you made me laugh and I recognized in
Speaker 1: you some energy that I wanted to have. And then
Speaker 1: of course I broke down and she rubbed my back.
Speaker 1: But I got to have moments like that with people
Speaker 1: that I grew up loving, and I got to say, like,
Speaker 1: you know, Burt back Rack, like I got to say
Speaker 1: thank you. You meant something to me. You influenced my
Speaker 1: life in other people's lives. And you know the moving
Speaker 1: thing about that is nine out of ten times those
Speaker 1: icons would say wow, Really they have no idea how
Speaker 1: people feel about them, because people are too exhy in
Speaker 1: expressing love and expressing you meant this to me, you know,
Speaker 1: So I got to have those moments as I'm sure
Speaker 1: you guys did, you know, so many of them with
Speaker 1: so many great icons. You know, Stevie was one, and
Speaker 1: that started up relationship with me and her and that
Speaker 1: continues to this day, which is it was. I was
Speaker 1: lucky and I'm very humbled by it. And I think now,
Speaker 1: like what if if Glee were on the air, Like
Speaker 1: who do you who would you guys like to put
Speaker 1: on that you have a bucket list? Well? Beyonce? Yes, obviously,
Speaker 1: I know you guys were always mad that I never
Speaker 1: did a Beyonce tribute episode. I feel like I feel
Speaker 1: like Lizzo would have been like the newer um like
Speaker 1: also would have done as right, would be great to
Speaker 1: get start. Oh yes, she would be good, you know.
Speaker 1: Like my only regret the I only have one regret musically,
Speaker 1: which I I wish she probably wouldn't have done it then,
Speaker 1: but like I really wanted to do a Taylor Swift
Speaker 1: tribute episode. Um, we kind of tried a little bit.
Speaker 1: We certainly did Taylor songs, but I think she's so
Speaker 1: amazing and those songs would have worked so well on Glee,
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift was kind of the one that got away back. God,
Speaker 1: there's so many Beyonce we should have. I wish we
Speaker 1: could figure it out. But fiance it's hard though, Like
Speaker 1: that was like doing the Micael episode where it's like,
Speaker 1: who can sing all these songs? Michael episode, which almost
Speaker 1: killed us, that's what That's what tore us apart. That
Speaker 1: was the worst shoot of all time because it was
Speaker 1: so long, it was so hard. Oh God, I just
Speaker 1: remember that. I was so paranoid about like because I
Speaker 1: was obsessed with Michael and you were like, Okay, you
Speaker 1: can come in and pitch us songs. Yeah, tell me
Speaker 1: what you want. Right. He was like, what Michael was
Speaker 1: my breaking point? I wasn't in the Michael episode. That's right,
Speaker 1: you got fired. I got fired for an episode. Really,
Speaker 1: I didn't get fired for an episode. I was. I
Speaker 1: was told to go take a vacation. It was and honestly,
Speaker 1: we've never talked about this, but it was like my
Speaker 1: mental it was like my mental health episode. Was that
Speaker 1: right after you did the video with Gaga? I think
Speaker 1: when was that? It was right around that time, Kevin. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's right, that's right. When called you Ryan to ask
Speaker 1: Jenna could do the video. Yes, when Gag got called
Speaker 1: and said, Hi, you need to release Jenna for three
Speaker 1: weeks something like that, and like, I'll do anything you say.
Speaker 1: It was like two nights got me out. But yeah,
Speaker 1: there was nothing. But yeah, you know what, I think that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you look back on those moments, right that we all had,
Speaker 1: and they seemed so overblown, and Michael was a big one,
Speaker 1: you know. And of course, now, Jennet, if you had said,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm a young person who is not
Speaker 1: loving or adjusting well to the schedule, to the limelight,
Speaker 1: to trying to figure out who I am as a person.
Speaker 1: I need a minute, that would have been it would
Speaker 1: have been like, you know what, Jenna, here is two
Speaker 1: tickets to Hawaii, paid for by the corporation, and please
Speaker 1: do it. But back then there was no language or
Speaker 1: so it was like just it was just um, you know,
Speaker 1: keep it down, keep it down, keep it down. And
Speaker 1: then you explode and everybody says, what's wrong with you?
Speaker 1: Know what? What's going on? And as like your roommate
Speaker 1: at the time, I think I also didn't even recognize
Speaker 1: what was going on because I was still tired and
Speaker 1: just going to work, and like, to me, it was
Speaker 1: surprising too because you just didn't know to look for
Speaker 1: these things like, oh, we're all doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: We're fine. If I'm fine, she's fine. Well, And then
Speaker 1: like you have like these crazy episodes with these massive
Speaker 1: things that every the press is talking about, and you
Speaker 1: know you're going all of these like social pressures are
Speaker 1: now like pushing down on you externally that you're like
Speaker 1: you don't even have the time or energy to actually
Speaker 1: looking inward and say like I need a second, right,
Speaker 1: it's just you act out or you act or you
Speaker 1: explode or whatever it is, and you know your an
Speaker 1: emotional meth and you don't know how to quite regulate
Speaker 1: what you're feeling or you know, tell anybody what's going on.
Speaker 1: And I think the other thing at the time was
Speaker 1: there was just like I said, of it, there was
Speaker 1: no there was no corporate language like you are an
Speaker 1: employee and you signed a contract and we're shooting, and
Speaker 1: what do you mean you don't feel like going in,
Speaker 1: which is going to require rewrite. But it was just
Speaker 1: a different time and I don't think that any anybody
Speaker 1: knew the vernacular about But I'm glad that you got
Speaker 1: that time and I don't you know, it's all a blur,
Speaker 1: like I just remember, like what do you I don't
Speaker 1: really want to do a super Bowl episode. I really
Speaker 1: don't want to because it's like, why are people who
Speaker 1: people who watched the Super Bowl are not going to
Speaker 1: watch Glee and we're just going to get attacked and
Speaker 1: picked on. And it took a month, and it took
Speaker 1: a month to shoot that episode. It did and there
Speaker 1: was great things that came out of it, like there
Speaker 1: was there and there are moments that remain indelible. But
Speaker 1: it was a lot of pressure and um that's when
Speaker 1: I had bron critis and the flu. Well, we kept
Speaker 1: getting canceled. The night shoots um to for Thriller kept
Speaker 1: getting canceled because everybody kept getting strapped or passing it
Speaker 1: around and we have to cancel the night shoot if
Speaker 1: somebody couldn't show up. Yeah, they were in the Michael
Speaker 1: Jack in the State was very very particular about you
Speaker 1: know how we were going to you know, when I
Speaker 1: suggested we were going to mash up Thriller with heads
Speaker 1: Will Roll, it was it was hours of of conversations
Speaker 1: and they didn't like it was just a lot, and
Speaker 1: I do really think that that probably was the apex
Speaker 1: that we were all like, you know what, this has
Speaker 1: got to calm down now because this this cannot sustain physically,
Speaker 1: this is too much. And was that season three? Yes,
Speaker 1: to Michael Jackson, I don't think was too Jackson was three.
Speaker 1: But super Bowl is too super bowls Okay wait what
Speaker 1: was our super Bowl episode? So that? Okay, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's why I'm confused. So it's a blur. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: twenty two episodes, like it's it all is just a blur,
Speaker 1: But it was. It was at that end of season two.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget it. It was at the end of
Speaker 1: season one. It was like, yeah, we get to go
Speaker 1: on a tour to a mall. What do you the
Speaker 1: radio city? Yay, oh my god, look there's a T shirt.
Speaker 1: And then at the end of season two, what we
Speaker 1: don't want to do that? We didn't We call you
Speaker 1: into like a rehearsal room to have a talk with you,
Speaker 1: to like I don't think we can do this. Yes
Speaker 1: you did, because there were many moments like that. There
Speaker 1: was a moment where we're like we can't do this,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, well, I don't know what to do,
Speaker 1: like I'm an employee to here. But I will say
Speaker 1: that our bosses had they really they were great and
Speaker 1: they had great compassion. And it was one of those
Speaker 1: things where this had never happened before. So there was
Speaker 1: no roadmap for any of us in any way to
Speaker 1: understand anything that we were doing. Um, it was sort
Speaker 1: of like, you know, stumbling towards the next and and
Speaker 1: there's just like diconomy of like we don't want to
Speaker 1: say no, they don't want to say no. Nobody knows
Speaker 1: how to kind of say like I'm at my ropes
Speaker 1: at and like we just don't know how to We
Speaker 1: didn't know how to do that. There was no roadmap
Speaker 1: for it. And so I look back at it now
Speaker 1: and it's like, Okay, so you have these group of
Speaker 1: actors who've given you ten months of their year to
Speaker 1: shoot twenty two episodes, and now you want them to
Speaker 1: go on a musical tour. I wish I could have
Speaker 1: gone to tour with fresh eyes, because going stepping into
Speaker 1: any arena now to see an artist perform, you're like, God,
Speaker 1: they're so lucky. This is so cool. And I say
Speaker 1: that to Kevin every time I'm like, I wish I
Speaker 1: appreciated tour more, but how could you? You were like,
Speaker 1: you know, we were all kind of being just It
Speaker 1: was a nutty time and had three days off in
Speaker 1: between wrapping the season before we went to Veggas to start.
Speaker 1: How are those three days? Because I didn't have three
Speaker 1: days off? Did you enjoy them? Episodes? Kevin, we slept.
Speaker 1: I was the one that enjoyed the tour of the most.
Speaker 1: I had a great time. It was all dream true.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. We got to London and the girls disappeared.
Speaker 1: They all just fell off the face that they were
Speaker 1: crying in their room and why were you crying? Like
Speaker 1: everybody wanted to go home and see there. We had
Speaker 1: sold out seven shows in a row at the O
Speaker 1: two in London and walking up to the stage like
Speaker 1: take our places for the first show, I had my
Speaker 1: arm around Leah. I'm like, Leah, isn't this amazing. We're
Speaker 1: at the most famous arena in the entire world and
Speaker 1: we're going to do seven sol And I was genuine
Speaker 1: like that was my dream and she was like, I
Speaker 1: just want to see my family. Okay, okay, you know,
Speaker 1: youth has wasted on the young. It's very true. But
Speaker 1: when I understood it, I understand like that people didn't
Speaker 1: have the same dreams I had, Like I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a music pop star, and this was the only
Speaker 1: way I was going to get to be able to
Speaker 1: do it. Ryan, you said you wanted to be editor
Speaker 1: in chief of Vogue growing up. But like you, your
Speaker 1: fashions have always been very um iconic, if you will
Speaker 1: um talk about like your your love for costumes and
Speaker 1: the details of like all of that going into the
Speaker 1: pilot and the show because it was so specific and
Speaker 1: it was also so telling of our characters. That's it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just talking to somebody about that. You know.
Speaker 1: The thing, the thing that I loved the most in
Speaker 1: my life is creating a world and then entering into it.
Speaker 1: And that was always evidenced by my childhood. You know.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Indiana. Literally in the backyard was
Speaker 1: a cornfield in a church, and I would be reading
Speaker 1: articles in the local paper, the Liz Smith column about
Speaker 1: Studio fifty four, and I couldn't go there. So I
Speaker 1: turned my bedroom into Studio fifty four. I found reference photos,
Speaker 1: and I made a disco ball, and I made my
Speaker 1: room look like like I made my room look like
Speaker 1: Studio fifty four. Then, for example, when Grace Kelly died,
Speaker 1: I took a photograph of Grace Kelly to the local
Speaker 1: hardware store and said, see the color of her eyes.
Speaker 1: I want to paint my room the color of Grace
Speaker 1: Kelly's eyes. Can you make me this color? And they
Speaker 1: were like what, but they did. So I always did
Speaker 1: that and that was a way to escape my pain.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, a tortured, picked on, little gay kid.
Speaker 1: So once I started to do things in Hollywood, and
Speaker 1: I started off writing movies and none of them got made.
Speaker 1: And then I did a television show and I instantly
Speaker 1: loved it because I'm like, oh, I can make a world.
Speaker 1: I can create something that is in my head and
Speaker 1: other people can kind of have a porthold so to
Speaker 1: do it. So everything that I do, um, you know.
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time um on the costumes,
Speaker 1: on the sets, on the colors. And when I was
Speaker 1: doing Glees specifically, I thought it had to be so
Speaker 1: bright and poppy and inviting, from the sets, to the
Speaker 1: costumes to the way it was lit. Because maybe people
Speaker 1: wouldn't hang around in a musical number, but they would
Speaker 1: if it was like a candy box, so I was.
Speaker 1: It was always that level of detail. And you know,
Speaker 1: I do have really bad O c D. I've been
Speaker 1: treated for it. I've been on medication for it, and
Speaker 1: it does not go away no matter what I do.
Speaker 1: It becomes less as I get older, but it becomes
Speaker 1: a way to put my anxiety. So I one of
Speaker 1: the things about my life that I love is is
Speaker 1: that I will stay up until two in the morning
Speaker 1: researching and referencing different patterns and colors. Like I'm working
Speaker 1: on a thing right now about Truman Capodi and I'm
Speaker 1: doing that, Like so it's like, well, I want to
Speaker 1: go to Lacote bass v, a famous restaurant in New York,
Speaker 1: So let me fall into that wormhole. I've loved that
Speaker 1: part of my life, but that's also been a torment
Speaker 1: for me because anybody who has O c D knows
Speaker 1: that it's very difficult. And but it was I think
Speaker 1: that looking back on it, it's all been a place
Speaker 1: to put my anxieties, but more than that, my hopes
Speaker 1: and optimism. But I love that, and I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time on all of it. Like just I
Speaker 1: remember painting the lockers in those hallways of Glee, the
Speaker 1: hours of research about the exact right shade. Of course,
Speaker 1: I can't remember what Michael Jackson episode it was, so
Speaker 1: that's growing old. But um, I did spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time and energy on and I spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time and energy on the the the costumes that
Speaker 1: you guys wore, and that that began the phase of
Speaker 1: my career that I call my funko pop doll phase,
Speaker 1: where if you're going to have a character, you have
Speaker 1: to instantly think about how do I make that character
Speaker 1: a doll so that it's instantly iconic and has its
Speaker 1: own iconography. So you know, Tina had her own likes
Speaker 1: and dislikes, already had his own, well, he would never
Speaker 1: wear that. Like, it's just things that I instantly just
Speaker 1: I had mood boards and all of those things. And
Speaker 1: I do think that that was a way in from
Speaker 1: many people. The clothes sets, the it just was kind
Speaker 1: of a delicious um world, the Glee world. It wasn't
Speaker 1: the real world. And I always say, like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to live in the world the real world. I
Speaker 1: want to live in my world and I get to
Speaker 1: create my World's how lucky am I am? I to
Speaker 1: do that, Like, I have very specific rules when I
Speaker 1: create things. You know, I just did this show about
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Dahmer that's very popular and people are kind of
Speaker 1: obsessed with why so much yellow? What's up with the yellow?
Speaker 1: And when I made that show, it was based on
Speaker 1: I saw one picture of of a hallway and Jeffrey
Speaker 1: Dahmer's a apartment that had this very weird fluorescent lighting.
Speaker 1: And I kept trying to figure out where is that
Speaker 1: color from? And I finally found that color and it
Speaker 1: was in a urinal cake, the exact same shape of yellow.
Speaker 1: So I kept holding up this thing saying this is
Speaker 1: the color, and everything then bounced off that like how
Speaker 1: lit it the clothes? What does that mean? It's just
Speaker 1: a concept, and so I'm very um those those kind
Speaker 1: of things matter to me, and I'm always know before
Speaker 1: I sell any show, I have learned, like there's so
Speaker 1: much stuff that you kind of have to design the poster,
Speaker 1: and you have to design the typography on the poster.
Speaker 1: You kind of have to have a concept before you
Speaker 1: make something, because that's you have to or else you're
Speaker 1: gonna get lost. So all those things I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time on, but thank you for noticing that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I never get to talk about these sort
Speaker 1: of weird things, but it is the two am decisions,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, I mean I think being on sort
Speaker 1: of like the receiving end of some of those things
Speaker 1: where anytime we'd go in with Lou who did the
Speaker 1: costumes and an incredible team that everything was so specific
Speaker 1: where she knew the rules, like if you set up
Speaker 1: the rules of like this is she she got it,
Speaker 1: she speaks the same language. Yeah. Yeah, it's about having her,
Speaker 1: who's an expert completely just play within that with each
Speaker 1: of us. Yeah, there's I think that, Like, I think
Speaker 1: people want rules and boundaries, both his viewers and his
Speaker 1: department hasn't even as actors like okay, well this is
Speaker 1: the box that I get to be in. Great Like
Speaker 1: there's there's a discipline to it, you know. And I
Speaker 1: don't know how you guys felt, but I think as
Speaker 1: soon as I saw you in those costumes, I was like, well,
Speaker 1: there you go, there's your character. You knew what to do.
Speaker 1: It influenced everything. Well, there wasn't and there wasn't a
Speaker 1: lot about like Tina in the pilot, right, like even
Speaker 1: in my audition, you were like, can you improval at all?
Speaker 1: Can you just tell me who she? And I had
Speaker 1: done work on the plane to l a of like
Speaker 1: figuring out who she was. So I walked in and
Speaker 1: thin a very specific um idea of who you know
Speaker 1: and her intent. But like with the costumes, my first fitting,
Speaker 1: I looked like Artie and I had mom jeans and
Speaker 1: these very like right, I remember those pictures letters And
Speaker 1: Luke called me and she said, so we're taking a turn,
Speaker 1: I hope, and Ryan thinks you look too much like Artie.
Speaker 1: Let's let's switch it up. And I come in and
Speaker 1: I see all this chains and black and I was
Speaker 1: vampire music. I mean I was game, but like walking
Speaker 1: stepping into those outfits, I was like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: this is who she is. This makes sense to me now.
Speaker 1: And then my audition song changed right away, and like
Speaker 1: everything just kind of like clicked, you know, and and
Speaker 1: that you know it was it started with the costume,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, because we I just remember thinking Ian
Speaker 1: was always obsessed with Tina's stutter and the pilot and
Speaker 1: like idea, and I was like, what is that about?
Speaker 1: Like is that even real? I mean could we even
Speaker 1: do that today? Could you could we even have done
Speaker 1: in that this day and age, could we have a character?
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know, but it just became
Speaker 1: sort of a like I always imagined her as someone
Speaker 1: who was shy and yet also secretly tough and had
Speaker 1: an armor, which is where that look came from. And
Speaker 1: once Lou and I I remember saying like, also, I
Speaker 1: think Jenna would look really good and a lot of purple,
Speaker 1: and and that became a thing, and then like we
Speaker 1: just built it and became ye yeah, and then you know,
Speaker 1: you watch that pilot and you're like, well, these are
Speaker 1: all funko dolls, like they just are like they're all
Speaker 1: every one of you, everybody from Jane and with the
Speaker 1: track suits, yeah who I mean, that was your idea
Speaker 1: of the track se and that was was it the
Speaker 1: plan to always have her in track suits always? Like
Speaker 1: you know, some things were like you figure out when
Speaker 1: you're building something, like all the inspiration doesn't come at once,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you need to put something next to something
Speaker 1: to make a decision. But I just remember thinking that
Speaker 1: Sue Sylvester would never would always be ready to jog
Speaker 1: and ready for like so um yeah, and I really
Speaker 1: I and I remember talking to Jane and the making
Speaker 1: of the pilot, and I'm like, I think this is
Speaker 1: kind of the best role ever because you're always going
Speaker 1: to be comfortable. You're always just going to be in
Speaker 1: like a track cozy track suit. And she was like,
Speaker 1: please layers of sweaters. I know you suffered butts. And
Speaker 1: also you had a lot of like there was a
Speaker 1: lot of b York and and and Tina, Like that
Speaker 1: was another influence. Like that was a thing like we
Speaker 1: couldn't find her. We were like, we want to do them.
Speaker 1: I follow we can't find York, New York had fallen
Speaker 1: off the face of the earth. Gladly we found her. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's it's a toyous process. And also
Speaker 1: it's really fun, you know when you guys were all
Speaker 1: playing misfits. So the idea that I always had is
Speaker 1: this is a group of people who were literally the
Speaker 1: Island of Lost Toys. And when I was a child,
Speaker 1: that Christmas musical that had the where the Island of
Speaker 1: Lost Toys number, I was like, I should be on
Speaker 1: that island, and I related, and I remember all of
Speaker 1: their outfits were so singular in their looks, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be something else, other like remember
Speaker 1: the doll with the jelly thing, was that it was
Speaker 1: all these weird things that I and I never wanted
Speaker 1: them to change. I wanted them to keep their misfit
Speaker 1: chet because I thought it was so great. Don't be
Speaker 1: something else. But it's kind of fun how we are
Speaker 1: able to do that in this business. Well, and also
Speaker 1: the tidbit I'm sorry, Kevin, the weird thing talking about
Speaker 1: this morning, Like that iconic scene in the pilot of
Speaker 1: being you know, being a part of something special makes
Speaker 1: you special. That was shot in a different costume for Rachel, right,
Speaker 1: and you are like, he's not working, can't we can't
Speaker 1: have it like that? No, because she looked like, um,
Speaker 1: a flamingo dancer. Like it was just like this weird costume.
Speaker 1: And then we looked at it like, okay, well this
Speaker 1: is the most this is the thesis statement of the show.
Speaker 1: And she's not relatable at all. It's like people, she
Speaker 1: looks like Lola Flana, so we we we shot it.
Speaker 1: And you know that was also things like that I I, um,
Speaker 1: I didn't know, you know, I didn't have kids then.
Speaker 1: So a lot of those, a lot of those that
Speaker 1: moment came from Dana Walden and Jennifer Sulky seeing the
Speaker 1: rushes and saying like no, and also like what I
Speaker 1: had originally planned for Don't Stop Believing was completely out
Speaker 1: to Mars, and it was. It was those two women
Speaker 1: who said they should just be real people, simple girls
Speaker 1: and boys who were wearing like clothes from the gap relatable.
Speaker 1: That's their version of a uniform. And I was like, oh, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: let's do that. So it was a very fluid process, um,
Speaker 1: the making of that pilot and little things that we
Speaker 1: would shoot and then throw away and then re shoot,
Speaker 1: and sometimes I would sneak on the lot and do
Speaker 1: them without permission, which I would pay for later. But um,
Speaker 1: I just it was always a living, breathing organism until
Speaker 1: it wasn't like I just kept working on it. I
Speaker 1: was obsessed with that. Yeah, I mean even if something
Speaker 1: is simple like you watch Don't Stop Now and it
Speaker 1: seems so simple, like we rehearse that for weeks and
Speaker 1: I filled in for Corey because Corey didn't have a
Speaker 1: work Pieza yet. There were like five different versions of
Speaker 1: that number that remember, you could like Ryan would come in,
Speaker 1: you come in and be like I want something twilight
Speaker 1: arms up, I want lots of arms up. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean the thing. I did have a vision, but I
Speaker 1: also didn't my vision was yes or no, So like
Speaker 1: I remember you guys, I do remember. We worked on
Speaker 1: it a lot, and I also knew you know. Also,
Speaker 1: I will tell you no one wanted to do Don't
Speaker 1: Stop Believing Brad in the studio. No one wanted to
Speaker 1: do it because it had just been done on The Sopranos,
Speaker 1: and I kept saying, I don't care. I just know
Speaker 1: it's this song because it meant something to me as
Speaker 1: a kid, and just the phrase don't stop believing um.
Speaker 1: And also when I was working on it, more important
Speaker 1: than the number was the look on Mr. Shoes face
Speaker 1: watching it, remembering his own dreams. And I remember we
Speaker 1: did one take and Matt just kind of started to
Speaker 1: cry and then like that's it. That's what I wanted,
Speaker 1: and he was like, no, no, that was a mistake.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, that's what I wanted. Like that
Speaker 1: idea of looking back at your life and thinking I
Speaker 1: wish I had done something differently and move towards the
Speaker 1: person that I was afraid to be. That's what that
Speaker 1: song was for. Me. So in terms of seeing it,
Speaker 1: it was you know that that Mike Nichols quote of
Speaker 1: this is, you know the elephant dancing on the head
Speaker 1: of a pin. That was what that number was. And
Speaker 1: if it didn't if that number wasn't working and didn't
Speaker 1: make you cry, I'll probably cry talking about it, like
Speaker 1: it's not gonna work. So there was the big exuberant
Speaker 1: don't stop believing, and then there was the middle of
Speaker 1: the road one, and then there was the one where
Speaker 1: I think it was like you know, movement shots where
Speaker 1: it was like blue man, I don't know what you
Speaker 1: were doing, and I just remember, we have to distill
Speaker 1: this down to make it feel like relatable kids who
Speaker 1: don't know what they're doing, but it's kind of good
Speaker 1: and it's just like this, you know. I remember, I
Speaker 1: remember the moments and shooting that number where something would
Speaker 1: matter to me more than other things. I wasn't so
Speaker 1: much interested in some of the steps as I was
Speaker 1: was was interested in Jenna, like how you would fling
Speaker 1: your hair around or Leah would like do that, or
Speaker 1: like what that meant, like youth, the exuberant of being
Speaker 1: free in a space. You're free on that stage, You're
Speaker 1: not free in the hallway so you can fling your
Speaker 1: body around. I remember being so moved by your hair
Speaker 1: acting like things like that. That hit and then we
Speaker 1: did an episode based by bursting into tears that the
Speaker 1: youthfulness of hair being flung. But it was like, um,
Speaker 1: it was just it was such a great um. We
Speaker 1: worked really hard on it, and we we we were
Speaker 1: given the time to rehearse and to work things out
Speaker 1: and for me to say yes, no, not that, more
Speaker 1: of that, do more of that? Um. I was obsessed
Speaker 1: with the way Amber would pat her leg at the beginning,
Speaker 1: like little moments that probably no one ever cared about.
Speaker 1: These are the things that I obsessed over because for me,
Speaker 1: they represented hope, youth, freedom, safety. I remember when I
Speaker 1: was in drama club. It was the only place in
Speaker 1: the world where I felt that I could be me
Speaker 1: and not be judged. So I was looking for things
Speaker 1: like that and and those were powerful moving things that
Speaker 1: And I almost also have this rule in my career
Speaker 1: where which I learned from Glee, which is the most
Speaker 1: the more specific something is, the more universal it becomes.
Speaker 1: So we're making like no one thought a show about
Speaker 1: show choir would ever work. But the reason it did
Speaker 1: is because everybody knows what it's like to be misunderstood,
Speaker 1: unseen and bullied everybody, and that is the thing that
Speaker 1: people glommed onto. And um, I've never forgot it. I've
Speaker 1: never forgot the the the shooting of that episode and
Speaker 1: the specificity. And I kept, you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: how many takes we would do, sometimes fifteen and also
Speaker 1: I will I will be honest, like it was so
Speaker 1: sometimes you guys would be doing numbers. You have to
Speaker 1: remember that we built that auditorium on stage right, and
Speaker 1: we would be doing and I'll like, for example, when
Speaker 1: we were doing them troubled Tones, mashup of the Adele songs,
Speaker 1: Rumor has It? And what was the other song, Jenna?
Speaker 1: What was that song? Someone like you? That was a
Speaker 1: moment where you guys, we're just doing it and Adele
Speaker 1: was you know Adele. And that was a day where
Speaker 1: I think I said, we're going to shoot the whole
Speaker 1: day this number, that's what doll we're doing, and everyone
Speaker 1: on the lot, from all of these different departments at Fox,
Speaker 1: we just came and we sat in the audience and
Speaker 1: it was so magical that I think you guys maybe
Speaker 1: had to run it like fifteen times before we kick
Speaker 1: people out. People would you got standing ovations in the rehearsal.
Speaker 1: I remember like it was just moving to see young
Speaker 1: people performing at that level and being able to be creative,
Speaker 1: and the lighting and it was just kind of nutty
Speaker 1: and magical. But that's what I remember, the joy of
Speaker 1: seeing you guys kill it. And also like when we
Speaker 1: did wheels that episode in the first season, that number
Speaker 1: all of you in the wheelchairs. Again, probably not something
Speaker 1: we could do today, but I remember enjoyed shooting that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I remember Paris and I sitting in that director
Speaker 1: sitting in the auditorium just marveling, like I can't believe,
Speaker 1: like that these kids get to sing this song and
Speaker 1: talk about um, yeah, you know, disabilities in this way,
Speaker 1: and it sometimes you just felt like you were outside
Speaker 1: watching it, like you couldn't believe what we were getting
Speaker 1: away with and like, okay, but I knew when we
Speaker 1: were doing it the reaction that the audience would feel
Speaker 1: that way, and they did, maybe not Tom style, but
Speaker 1: I think we felt that within it too though even
Speaker 1: telling it, especially those first third team where like you said,
Speaker 1: we had the time and had the care like even
Speaker 1: when we go into the recording studio later on, we'd
Speaker 1: have to record a song basically in thirty minutes, but
Speaker 1: we had half a day to figure out with Adam
Speaker 1: Ander's like what are the three parts gonna sound like?
Speaker 1: And b Mary we didn't know because our voices are
Speaker 1: so different. We were still figuring all that out, and
Speaker 1: there was so much excitement from every department to figure
Speaker 1: it out and make it all work together, and having
Speaker 1: you know, people who were designing the sets come out
Speaker 1: and finally see like what it looked like as everyone's performing,
Speaker 1: as Andrew Mitchell was shooting it, you know, with these
Speaker 1: beautiful steadicam shots and seeing the joy it brought so
Speaker 1: many different people for so many different reasons, and it
Speaker 1: just magically working over and over again, Like I remember
Speaker 1: Don't Stop, which was maybe this one of the simplest
Speaker 1: umbers we've ever done. We should I think we shot
Speaker 1: it for day and a half. Yes, we get like
Speaker 1: seventies something takes and you watch it like, well, this
Speaker 1: is very simple, but had you not taken the care
Speaker 1: big musical number we had done like that, and also
Speaker 1: like directing a musical, do you know how hard it
Speaker 1: is to get a light flare to go off at
Speaker 1: the exact moment Lia Michelle puts her head. It was hard,
Speaker 1: like we've never done anything like that, so we had
Speaker 1: the space to be like and I just kept saying,
Speaker 1: that's not it, that's not it, that's not it, that's it.
Speaker 1: And then when that took a while, but I just
Speaker 1: it was it was like, Um. One of my favorite
Speaker 1: moments in the show was when we were doing the
Speaker 1: Vitamin D number. And you know, the story of the
Speaker 1: Vitamin D number was because at that point, you know,
Speaker 1: we were in the middle of shooting in and I
Speaker 1: was so tired, and um, we noticed that whenever I
Speaker 1: took a claret and d from my allergy, suddenly we
Speaker 1: had the energy to continue one with the screenwriting. But
Speaker 1: I remember, I remember the day that we were doing
Speaker 1: I didn't like the boys part of it. I'm sorry, Kevin,
Speaker 1: but I was obsessed with the Halo walking on Sunshine
Speaker 1: part of it. I remember thinking, like, how are these
Speaker 1: girls going to do this number because I had not
Speaker 1: seen the rehearsal, and just how insane you guys were
Speaker 1: and how much fun you had. That was another day
Speaker 1: where we just sat there and laughed and watched it
Speaker 1: all day, and there were so many times where even
Speaker 1: if we were in the scenes, we would all just
Speaker 1: go watch each other's numbers so impressed. There were days
Speaker 1: where you guys would not be filming and you would
Speaker 1: come in to watch other cast members perform, just to
Speaker 1: sit there and say like, well, what are they gonna do?
Speaker 1: You know how often I'd sit in that choir room
Speaker 1: and be like, I'm getting paid to sit here and
Speaker 1: watch these people get up here and perform their asses
Speaker 1: off real and respond to it. Yeah, you know. I
Speaker 1: was like, you guys are so talented, and like you
Speaker 1: would have ideas that would push us, Like you would
Speaker 1: have me doing songs I never would have picked for
Speaker 1: myself or given. Amber never used to like do the
Speaker 1: like yellow singing sort of like that. She's like, I've
Speaker 1: never done that before, and now can you imagine hearing
Speaker 1: her not do that? Where we were all pushed to
Speaker 1: challenge ourselves, and then I think you also saw that
Speaker 1: and then started to sort of implement some of those
Speaker 1: changes into the characters, like from our real lives, and
Speaker 1: I felt sometimes it was great. Sometimes we're like this
Speaker 1: seems familiar, but it was. It all came from us
Speaker 1: being able to just push ourselves and that Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: first thirteen, even into year one and two. Like I
Speaker 1: remember that I would never ever do anything on Friday
Speaker 1: nights because most of the time we would be shooting
Speaker 1: in that choir room until four in the morning Friday night,
Speaker 1: and it was you know, we would all sit around
Speaker 1: in a huddle in our crappy director's chairs and that
Speaker 1: have given me years of back problems, and we would
Speaker 1: just like shoot the ship and talk and like make
Speaker 1: jokes and um and a lot of the things that
Speaker 1: we would write would come from those moments of like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, why are Naya and um Amber singing
Speaker 1: the boy's mind? Well, we got to put that into
Speaker 1: an episode. Like it was like Heather, the whole character was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the dolphins have yet like moments just hanging out and
Speaker 1: they were Hi, It's Bethany Frankel. My time on the
Speaker 1: Wheelhousewives of New York is a few years behind me,
Speaker 1: and now I'm ready to put the wheel back into
Speaker 1: the Wheelhousewives. That's where my new podcast, We Wives comes in.
Speaker 1: Isn't your typical rewatch podcast. I'm watching only the most
Speaker 1: iconic episodes from all cities. I'm sharing never before heard
Speaker 1: stories of what happened behind the scenes. And I'm not
Speaker 1: just pulling in cast members for postgame analysis. I'm doing
Speaker 1: something a little more interesting. If you've ever seen an
Speaker 1: episode of The wheelhouse Wives, you know the drill, But
Speaker 1: beyond throwing drinks and legs, there are lessons about marriage, divorce, friendship, money, parenting,
Speaker 1: and fame if you have the right minds, analyze and
Speaker 1: dig deeper. So I'm bringing on unexpected thought leaders and
Speaker 1: celebrities to get their take on the chaos this season.
Speaker 1: I sit down with Elizabeth Moss, Kevin Neal and Zusie Orman,
Speaker 1: Griffin Johnson and more. You think that there isn't much
Speaker 1: to learn from flipping tables and yanking wigs, but that's
Speaker 1: where you're wrong. Listen to Rewives with Bethany Frankel on
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your favorite podcasts. Ryan, Like, this show has had
Speaker 1: so much impact on like everybody right around the world.
Speaker 1: But you know, we talked about us in the bubble
Speaker 1: and you, um, like, there's so much media out there
Speaker 1: they raises us, brings us down, but like, what what
Speaker 1: do you want this show to leave? And and how
Speaker 1: do you want it to imprint on people, on you,
Speaker 1: on us, Like, what is it that you want this
Speaker 1: show's legacy to be? You know, I for me personally
Speaker 1: right it. I said this at the Coreries memorial service,
Speaker 1: where I said, you know, Glee was the best of
Speaker 1: times and it was the worst of times in all
Speaker 1: of our lives. I think that's true because of the tragedies,
Speaker 1: because of things. But also the thing that I have
Speaker 1: learned the older I get is lean into the best
Speaker 1: of times. And I look at that show and what
Speaker 1: it did, and um, how we don't we don't read remember,
Speaker 1: but I'd remember because I forced myself sometimes to go
Speaker 1: back that first season when Glee came on. I think
Speaker 1: attendance and show choirs left something in this country. There
Speaker 1: was some article I remember cutting it out and showing
Speaker 1: it to you, back when there was newspapers. I remember
Speaker 1: things like that, the legacy of m a love for music,
Speaker 1: a legacy of looking at social issues. UM like UM,
Speaker 1: so many episodes that we did that were very heavy
Speaker 1: and we're really about something that young kids. I think
Speaker 1: that the legacy of UM examining you know, high school
Speaker 1: bullying was was a big thing coming out was a
Speaker 1: big thing. Drug addiction was a big thing. There were
Speaker 1: just so many things that we covered to me that
Speaker 1: were important. But the legacy that I want to last,
Speaker 1: which I think is lasting, is the show celebrates music
Speaker 1: of all kinds and it is a love letter to
Speaker 1: musical artists and to um misfits in high school who
Speaker 1: can express what they're feeling from song. And that was
Speaker 1: the conceit that you would just be walking down the
Speaker 1: hallway and you'd burst into song. But that's kind of
Speaker 1: what life is always felt to me, Like, I just
Speaker 1: care now about you know, young kids watching the show
Speaker 1: who can feel the thing I'm embarrassed about myself is
Speaker 1: the very thing I should be celebrating. That to me
Speaker 1: is what the show was about and will always be about.
Speaker 1: And I'm at the phase now with that show, you know,
Speaker 1: where it's like, well, there's been enough time, Like maybe
Speaker 1: we should really re examine it as a brand, you know,
Speaker 1: should we do um a reboot of it in some way?
Speaker 1: Should we do a Broadway musical of it? In some way?
Speaker 1: Like it's sort of like an interesting legacy see that
Speaker 1: I'm interested in doing in a positive way. After sort
Speaker 1: of pausing for a while, but I don't know. I
Speaker 1: just love what it says and what it did, and
Speaker 1: there will never be in my life another Glee anything
Speaker 1: close to it in terms of me feeling so close
Speaker 1: to it and the feeling that I really did have
Speaker 1: when I made it, which was just pure love and
Speaker 1: feeling that I, as a misunderstood, unloved kid, had a
Speaker 1: moment where maybe I was understood. That's what it means
Speaker 1: to me. It was it's very much that show about
Speaker 1: how I felt as a kid and how I wish
Speaker 1: I had a friend like that show, Like if that
Speaker 1: show had aired when I was a kid, it would
Speaker 1: have been my friend. And I find that really moving,
Speaker 1: and I find it so important that so many young
Speaker 1: kids do see that show as that, And that's what
Speaker 1: I love about it, and that's what I'll always love
Speaker 1: about it. And well, that's what I think we all
Speaker 1: tried to do with it. Are we all crying now?
Speaker 1: I see tears. I mean, that's that's how it feels
Speaker 1: for me. And I think I don't speak for Dinner,
Speaker 1: but it was it brought us all together, it made us.
Speaker 1: It was you know, meta in that way where yeah,
Speaker 1: we were playing characters, but we were those kids, and
Speaker 1: we did get brought together and did get to have
Speaker 1: this incredible, wild experience where we felt appreciated and that
Speaker 1: we belonged, and how around the world people got to
Speaker 1: connect with that, connect with us, connect with you. And
Speaker 1: it's incredible that anything can last that long and still
Speaker 1: have that that much meaning. And so it's incredible to
Speaker 1: be a part of something that has and still does
Speaker 1: mean that much to people. Yeah, it's sweet, it's it's
Speaker 1: um I look at it in just such a different light,
Speaker 1: like it's the thing that never should have worked, that worked,
Speaker 1: and it work just because of the group of people
Speaker 1: who made it and how much we all believed in
Speaker 1: it and we just we had no idea and like,
Speaker 1: I've never had that feeling again of let's roll up
Speaker 1: art literally like that. That's the reason why you go
Speaker 1: into show business. First of all, you do. Anybody in
Speaker 1: show businesses in show business because you are in love.
Speaker 1: That's just the truth. And you go into that to
Speaker 1: try and get this universal feeling of acceptance and love
Speaker 1: and that you're missing, which show business and success gives you. Right,
Speaker 1: That's what I've learned from my decades of therapy. But um,
Speaker 1: I just feel like it was such a wonderful time,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad that we get to, you know, have
Speaker 1: conversations like this where we're we're able to look back
Speaker 1: in it in a fond way, like we're not in
Speaker 1: the pressure cooker of making it, and when you're in
Speaker 1: the pressure cooker, it's hard. But now we're like, um
Speaker 1: old enough and we have an a distance that I
Speaker 1: hope everybody who did it could see that it really
Speaker 1: was made with pure love and great intent. But I'm
Speaker 1: just curious to you guys, have any because I'll never
Speaker 1: talk about this again. Do you have any undying questions
Speaker 1: you've always wanted to ask me about the show? Because
Speaker 1: I feel like there has to be something we didn't
Speaker 1: talk about or have we talked about everything? Um, I
Speaker 1: have something dark I was going to ask about, like
Speaker 1: we were to do it, we were talking about now
Speaker 1: we're talking about Corey, and we were talking about but
Speaker 1: I don't think we ever got to talk about like
Speaker 1: the decision and the conflict of like actually making the
Speaker 1: quarterback right, Like we obviously were very we were contracted
Speaker 1: and we were going to make it whether we wanted
Speaker 1: to or not, right, Like we were a part of that.
Speaker 1: But we were given the option to not do it,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I think I remember Ryan or somebody saying like,
Speaker 1: you don't have to do this, but it felt like
Speaker 1: I feel like everyone's gonna do it. I don't want
Speaker 1: to be the one person who's not right. And then
Speaker 1: I think a part of it was like we did
Speaker 1: it for Cory in some way, um, in hopes that
Speaker 1: we would get some sort of closure within in some
Speaker 1: weird way. So I'm just curious, like we never really
Speaker 1: got to hear about your guys side of that decision
Speaker 1: to like actually doing yeah, and make that decision, like
Speaker 1: how Finn was going to exit the show. That's a
Speaker 1: really good question because I've thought a lot about that recently,
Speaker 1: and I would not have done that show now. I
Speaker 1: just would not have done it. I would never have.
Speaker 1: I felt like it was way too raw and way
Speaker 1: too soon. And but this is what happened. So Corey died,
Speaker 1: and the months leading up to that were very fraught
Speaker 1: and emotional and difficult to love someone. And and I
Speaker 1: had no idea that he had a drug problem. Um,
Speaker 1: I was naive. I didn't no, Um, I don't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And then you know I was the person who had
Speaker 1: to lead the intervention, not knowing what to do or
Speaker 1: what to say, Like I was just like desperate for
Speaker 1: him to live, you know, and it was again I
Speaker 1: had no training for that. So when he passed, you know,
Speaker 1: there was a decision that we had to make about, um,
Speaker 1: do we cancel the show or do we go on?
Speaker 1: And it was a difficult decision. And I had a
Speaker 1: conversation with Leah about it because she was dating Corey
Speaker 1: and was very you know, involved in in the thing,
Speaker 1: and it was like, well, what do you want to do?
Speaker 1: And it was it was it was a big corporate decision.
Speaker 1: And there was a decision after a couple of of
Speaker 1: weeks of well, there's a crew here that's been with
Speaker 1: us from day one, there are many jobs on the
Speaker 1: line the show. The show was still doing well, Um,
Speaker 1: do you keep it going or do you cancel it?
Speaker 1: Of course there's no right answer, um, And I didn't
Speaker 1: really know what to do, so I just sort of
Speaker 1: I remember, after many conversations from a lot of people
Speaker 1: weighing in, we made the decision to well, let's keep
Speaker 1: it going. And if you're going to keep it going
Speaker 1: and keep these jobs going, how do you address what
Speaker 1: happened because the male lead of the show, you know, died,
Speaker 1: So what do you do? Do you just pretend it
Speaker 1: didn't happen. You can't do that. Did he die off camera?
Speaker 1: That didn't feel right to me? Um, And I just
Speaker 1: think that with a lot of conversations, we decided to
Speaker 1: pay tribute to him. Yeah, And it was something that
Speaker 1: I remember even then thinking, Okay, well, if we're gonna
Speaker 1: do this, people are going to have a lot of feelings.
Speaker 1: And I don't even remember. I was in such a
Speaker 1: blur of grief, to be honest, and so devastated by
Speaker 1: his death that you know, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: told you guys the story, but you know I helped
Speaker 1: him in his intervention and he seemed to have gotten
Speaker 1: through it in a good way. And then I went
Speaker 1: off to make The Normal Heart and I was always
Speaker 1: talking to him every day, and he came to the
Speaker 1: set of The Normal Heart to be with me, and
Speaker 1: he was like my child, and I remember thinking like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, thank god he made it, thank God
Speaker 1: he's gonna be okay. He came to Fire Island and
Speaker 1: he spent time with me, and I remember thinking like,
Speaker 1: against all odds, he's going to be okay, and then
Speaker 1: two days later, three days later, he died, so it
Speaker 1: was very unexpected and um, anyway, so we decided to
Speaker 1: do the tribute episode, and I remember that the one
Speaker 1: thing that I asked for was that there was a
Speaker 1: grief counselor on set who at any moment could you know?
Speaker 1: People weren't really doing that back then to my knowledge.
Speaker 1: But I also remember that not one single person talked
Speaker 1: to that grief counselor. Nobody was interested in really sharing it.
Speaker 1: And I think that, um, it's it's an episode. I
Speaker 1: was able to watch once and at it, never looked
Speaker 1: at it again. I probably think that it was not right.
Speaker 1: Two Again, it was complicated because, as I recall it,
Speaker 1: everybody had the choice do you want to sing? Do
Speaker 1: you not want to do this? Do you want to
Speaker 1: be in it? Do you not want to be in it?
Speaker 1: If you don't want to be in it, I will understand. Um,
Speaker 1: it just felt like an impossible corner. We were all
Speaker 1: put in right like there's no right or wrong, there's
Speaker 1: no it just felt like and it blurred to me
Speaker 1: to like I don't remember being given the option. I'm
Speaker 1: which now like I remember briefly, but like it just
Speaker 1: was one of those things that, like I think the
Speaker 1: grief counselor was like it was just a sign that
Speaker 1: it was all too soon, too raw, like nobody was
Speaker 1: ready to talk about it right, Like nobody was in
Speaker 1: the place too. And also we were all very very
Speaker 1: protective of each other, like we were all very close
Speaker 1: on all levels, and it felt like that we were
Speaker 1: having to sort of I had never lost anyone before
Speaker 1: that I was that close with, and I didn't know
Speaker 1: how to personally deal with it other than like being
Speaker 1: around all of you guys and being able to talk
Speaker 1: about it, and because I knew everybody felt the same
Speaker 1: and so having you know, yeah, we're in a scene
Speaker 1: talking about a character, obviously we're talking about our real friend,
Speaker 1: and then there's a camera on you, and it's like
Speaker 1: when those things happened, like you don't know when you're
Speaker 1: going to lose it and not lose it and break down.
Speaker 1: And I remember the camera turned on me and I
Speaker 1: just got up out of the wheelchair and walked out
Speaker 1: of the scene and I was just outside stage is
Speaker 1: just like losing it and crying and and I was like,
Speaker 1: what is happening? Like what is going on because the separation.
Speaker 1: I've watched other shows shows do it too since just
Speaker 1: to see and it is that you know, there's no
Speaker 1: correct answer, there's no right way to do it. And
Speaker 1: I just remember feeling like our little group here is
Speaker 1: being exposed in a way where by that point too,
Speaker 1: you know, we were constantly in the press or It's
Speaker 1: like I just wanted to, I think, get even closer
Speaker 1: and protect ourselves, and it felt like we were sort
Speaker 1: of opening the thing to the public. And there was
Speaker 1: also a thing I remember when we had to go
Speaker 1: to the Teen Choice Awards and accept an award and
Speaker 1: they wanted us to speak about Corey and there's all
Speaker 1: this weird stuff like what is like what is happening
Speaker 1: where you are still managing a brand and a job,
Speaker 1: but also at the core of it, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: one of our closest friends is gone and like and
Speaker 1: we also, yeah, we didn't know what to do. We
Speaker 1: had never been in this very peculiar specifics. What do
Speaker 1: you what do you guys? You know, what do you
Speaker 1: think we should have done? That's the thing I don't know,
Speaker 1: because creatively, I don't know how you get around it.
Speaker 1: As you do address it, and it also feels like
Speaker 1: an elephant in the room if you don't address it right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was very, very difficult, and yeah, if I yeah,
Speaker 1: if I could do it all over again, I think,
Speaker 1: knowing now what I do know, I probably would have said,
Speaker 1: you know what, we're going to take a year off
Speaker 1: and then we're going to check in and see how
Speaker 1: does everybody even six months? Remember, I remember that everybody
Speaker 1: had time off after he died. I remember we kept
Speaker 1: moving the shooting date. Um. But you know, the world
Speaker 1: was a different place than again. It was. It was
Speaker 1: such a and everybody who were you know, our bosses
Speaker 1: had great empathy. None of us knew what to do,
Speaker 1: but I know none of us knew how to handle it.
Speaker 1: None of us knew how to pay tribute to him.
Speaker 1: None of us knew what to do with the business.
Speaker 1: But all of us did know that when that happened,
Speaker 1: I think our hearts all kind of broke and we
Speaker 1: were kind of done. Even though it was it was
Speaker 1: not said, we were like, okay, well that that there,
Speaker 1: it's gone, that the spirit of joy of it has
Speaker 1: left the building. And you know, you can keep things
Speaker 1: going for financial reasons and to keep crew members being paid.
Speaker 1: And again, the crew that we had was several hundred
Speaker 1: people who were with us from the beginning who did
Speaker 1: depend on those paychecks, so that that was a big
Speaker 1: thing to be thinking about. But I wasn't thrilled with
Speaker 1: how it was. It just I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1: Nobody did, and I think we did the best with
Speaker 1: what we could. But it was very dark, and you
Speaker 1: were right to say, like, let's talk about that, because
Speaker 1: none of us have really talked about it. Um I
Speaker 1: blocked it out of my memory. I do remember talking
Speaker 1: to everybody and saying, do you want to sing a
Speaker 1: song or not? Or what do you want to do?
Speaker 1: Like I remember Leah was very unsure and that was
Speaker 1: her ideas to sing that song, and it was like,
Speaker 1: are you sure? Okay? Like I don't remember. I remember
Speaker 1: everything being very tender and tentative and not knowing where
Speaker 1: to move. But if I had to do it again,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I would we would have stopped for a
Speaker 1: long time and different world, probably not come back. I
Speaker 1: don't think we would have come back now if this
Speaker 1: had happened, I would be like, that's the end, because
Speaker 1: you can't really recover from something like that. And also
Speaker 1: it wasn't like a normal death where someone was sick
Speaker 1: and you can see them. It happened so quickly with
Speaker 1: no warning, and we thought things had been first of all,
Speaker 1: we had no idea, and then it was sort of
Speaker 1: dealing with the crisis, and um, yeah, we just have
Speaker 1: such a young cast to lose so many people that
Speaker 1: it feels so, I don't know, a bit much bigger
Speaker 1: and more tragic because it's these people who aren't having
Speaker 1: lived out their time right or havn't like, had the
Speaker 1: full experience. They're full time spent here. Yeah, and that's again,
Speaker 1: to be blunt, I think that's part of the reason
Speaker 1: why none of us have wanted to do anything else
Speaker 1: with the show, because of respect for the people who
Speaker 1: have passed. And like, Okay, well maybe it's fine as
Speaker 1: it is, and if you bring it up again, it
Speaker 1: maybe it's not healthy to examine these emotions and feelings,
Speaker 1: but maybe it is. I don't know the answer. I
Speaker 1: just know that whenever we talk about it or things
Speaker 1: like this, like I'm sure you guys have no idea
Speaker 1: that there were all of these conversations like about should
Speaker 1: we or shouldn't we? You just thought, like, this is
Speaker 1: what we're doing. You did not get to see the
Speaker 1: parent exactly crying in the room on his knees, sobbing,
Speaker 1: saying I can't go on. You didn't see dad do that.
Speaker 1: You just saw Okay, here's here's trying to be a leader.
Speaker 1: Um yes, trying to be stoic in front of us,
Speaker 1: keep it together. And in some ways we all just
Speaker 1: wanted to be together. So what what other way but
Speaker 1: to come and do the show and be together and
Speaker 1: he'll together, you know. So I remember talking to like
Speaker 1: Telly was in the writer's building and he was just like,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to even just be on the lot
Speaker 1: every day, even to just be in the same places
Speaker 1: where we were with him every single day, where no
Speaker 1: matter where we went, it was just a constant remind reminder. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you're probably right in the the decision probably
Speaker 1: to have if it happened today that you were just yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a no brainer, right, like in in hindsight, but
Speaker 1: like you know, again, we live in a different world.
Speaker 1: That's why like these new eyes of like watching the
Speaker 1: show and looking at the show as adults, and you know,
Speaker 1: with all this time, you know in space between it,
Speaker 1: like it's it's a different beast now, and like we
Speaker 1: look back so much more fondly than the the anger
Speaker 1: and the pain that you know kind of was over
Speaker 1: shadow over shadowed a lot of it for a lot
Speaker 1: of time. I also think because a lot of the
Speaker 1: bad stuff happened towards the end, and so that's the
Speaker 1: most what what do you like? I'm interested in that, Like,
Speaker 1: what do you define the bad stuff? Corey? I think
Speaker 1: you know the mark of it all Naya and so
Speaker 1: like the things that happened more recently were losing people
Speaker 1: we were close with, and then I think there were
Speaker 1: other things that happened towards the end of the show,
Speaker 1: behavioral things well, and also the core casts that we
Speaker 1: that grew into this thing, you know, like everybody separated,
Speaker 1: Like we didn't see half of our friends. They went
Speaker 1: off to New York and half the show was split
Speaker 1: into two different shows, and so it felt like our
Speaker 1: whole family went, you know away, and you're like, I'm
Speaker 1: you know, Kevin and I are still in the choir
Speaker 1: room and we're like, what's going over you know, happening
Speaker 1: in New York And you're hearing of all these things
Speaker 1: and you know, the media wheel is going and the
Speaker 1: gossip wheel is going, and it just felt like everybody
Speaker 1: took the show and ran with it versus like the
Speaker 1: bubble that we were able to experience and the law
Speaker 1: that we're able to experience in the pilot and in
Speaker 1: that short you know, in those first couple of years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, that's the dilemma when you do a high
Speaker 1: school show, right, It's like, Okay, well they have to graduate,
Speaker 1: and they have to they have to. And of course
Speaker 1: when you're I remember hating that idea, it's like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to leave this choir room. I'm not interested
Speaker 1: in going to New York. I don't care about that.
Speaker 1: I only cared about those kids in that room. And
Speaker 1: um hm, that was a creative decision that maybe, um
Speaker 1: I should have addressed in the writing. Like I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe we had done four seasons and like one of
Speaker 1: them was like an acid trip, and then you got
Speaker 1: to repeat your senior years so that all of you
Speaker 1: and then it should probably have ended once we left
Speaker 1: that choir room. And I think that you learned, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you learned that when you're doing a high
Speaker 1: school show, other people who struggle with that too, you know,
Speaker 1: Um yeah, I mean there are shows on now that
Speaker 1: they just replaced entire casts every two seasons. Just like
Speaker 1: in here, the new people, but also like the characters,
Speaker 1: you don't want to leave them. I think we live
Speaker 1: in a world now with television particularly well, where the
Speaker 1: appetite for a hit show is probably three seasons. That
Speaker 1: seems to be the streaming model, and there's a reason
Speaker 1: for that, and I wish, but also we did some
Speaker 1: great things in those last two seasons that were phenomenal
Speaker 1: and musical numbers that were great, and so I wouldn't
Speaker 1: change anything. But I do have regrets, you know. I
Speaker 1: think what I wish I had really done is to
Speaker 1: have more, you know, in talking about it with you guys,
Speaker 1: I wish that we had had more sort of State
Speaker 1: of the Union's meetings where you were allowed and I
Speaker 1: was allowed to sit with you guys and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is where I am. What do you want to know?
Speaker 1: Because I would have told you it was just like
Speaker 1: we were always in different places and running around and
Speaker 1: just trying to keep up. I just remember that feeling
Speaker 1: like I'm trying not to drown. I am. I am
Speaker 1: paddling as fast as I can. I did not have
Speaker 1: the resources or the training or the skills to really
Speaker 1: do it or know what I was doing, and I
Speaker 1: was faking it till I made it. Of course, now
Speaker 1: I would be able to handle it in a completely
Speaker 1: different way, and many relationships in a very different way. Um,
Speaker 1: and I wish I had. But um, but you're able
Speaker 1: to do that now, and you're able to be apparently
Speaker 1: like a more well rounded human, probably because you did
Speaker 1: go through all of these things. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: would love to come back on your podcast and really
Speaker 1: go through some of these later episodes that I did
Speaker 1: direct and tell you like because I like talking about
Speaker 1: the joy of it, Like I enjoyed this conversation you
Speaker 1: tell us when come back, Like I really want to
Speaker 1: talk about Um, well this is the pilot, but I
Speaker 1: mean there's so many great I mean episodes like have
Speaker 1: me back because I want to talk like I love
Speaker 1: love talking about well the Madonna when we can talk
Speaker 1: about that right now, but like, yes, like I mean
Speaker 1: there's so many I will come back from Madonna. But
Speaker 1: I want to like even talking with you guys about
Speaker 1: the joy of of the Adele mash up or the
Speaker 1: vitamin D number or don't stop you leaving, just sitting
Speaker 1: here talking about God. We had so much fun. We
Speaker 1: were all just fans like we were fans. And Amber
Speaker 1: Ley is the one who first turned me onto Adele.
Speaker 1: She was the one who said, have you heard this singer? Um, Kevin,
Speaker 1: I think you were the first person who told me
Speaker 1: about Lady Gaga because you guys were on some show
Speaker 1: with her and I'm like, who's Lady God? Yeah, yeah
Speaker 1: we did. And so these were just like um creative
Speaker 1: moments where we're like, I love this person, listen to
Speaker 1: this or check out this or remember this. And then
Speaker 1: you know, it was my job to inform you guys
Speaker 1: of ancient Barbara streisand songs. I knew that I didn't
Speaker 1: know any musical theater. You kid. I remember I've told
Speaker 1: the story of a billion times, but I don't know
Speaker 1: if you knew this right and that when Chris and
Speaker 1: Chenowith was doing Maybe this time during between one of
Speaker 1: the setups, I was walking around the halls with her.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'd never heard this song before. You
Speaker 1: sound great, right, yeah, Kevin, no idea? I was like,
Speaker 1: you cannot fix me. Imagine how heretical and bizarre. It
Speaker 1: was to be doing a Kandarin Ebb song on a
Speaker 1: mainstream network television show, like that's just so weird, and
Speaker 1: we did that. You can do now dance on TV.
Speaker 1: It was like a dream come true. You know. It's
Speaker 1: like everything you either have to choose between TV or Broadway,
Speaker 1: right my whole life, people were like, we have to
Speaker 1: choose one acting or singing, like no, I can't write,
Speaker 1: And then here we happened. Yeah, um, please come back Ryan.
Speaker 1: We well I'm coming back from Madonna. So like, what
Speaker 1: was that episode fifteen or sixteen of season one? So
Speaker 1: how are you telling me you guys, how you guys
Speaker 1: are going to do this show? Because I love when
Speaker 1: you guys talk about Glee and I have kind of
Speaker 1: we've had conversations, but I've always been I've never let
Speaker 1: anybody else do anything like this except for you too,
Speaker 1: because I do believe that you have a love of
Speaker 1: the show and that you believe in the message of
Speaker 1: the show, and I trust you implicit So tell me, like,
Speaker 1: how do you do how are you going to do
Speaker 1: this this show that I think people are going to
Speaker 1: really enjoy? Do you do an episode? One? Episode a week, okay,
Speaker 1: and we'll go through the episodes and then we're going
Speaker 1: to obviously go through the actual narrative of the episode,
Speaker 1: go through the characters and all that our half hour
Speaker 1: stories memories, and then there's sort of all the other
Speaker 1: fun things that we can add in, you know, addressing
Speaker 1: some of the crazy like TikTok rumors and things that
Speaker 1: dispel some of those sort of things you tell me
Speaker 1: about those what are those? Oh my god, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: So this is I think what started the Glee resurgence
Speaker 1: during the pandemic was TikTok. There's Glee talk because the
Speaker 1: algorithm can get so specific that people started sharing all
Speaker 1: of like their favorite or most hated or wildest conspiracies
Speaker 1: about the show. But also like Glee is still being
Speaker 1: talked about two thousand twenty two, as you know, and
Speaker 1: so like let's talk about what people were talking about
Speaker 1: the show currently and address some of those things. I mean,
Speaker 1: we also wanted to like bring on some of the
Speaker 1: actual artists that we covered this time around, Like I'd
Speaker 1: love to know Steve Perry's view of how our version
Speaker 1: of Don't Stop, you know, how that affected his career,
Speaker 1: if at all, And he was he was. He was
Speaker 1: the first one when I was on my bend or
Speaker 1: about I have to get this song. He was supportive
Speaker 1: from the get go, and I remember he came to set. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember meeting. He was very lovely and just got
Speaker 1: it and got and I think I had a very
Speaker 1: brief conversation with him about I'm interested in this song
Speaker 1: because of x UM. Yeah, we may have questions for
Speaker 1: you too. I should have a segment on your show
Speaker 1: called true or False where you just asked me questions
Speaker 1: and I'm only allowed to say true or false. Great,
Speaker 1: let us let us do on it and come up
Speaker 1: with some really good ones. It's funny because I'm elderly now,
Speaker 1: but I do have a nine year old who's who
Speaker 1: I let watch TikTok sometimes, and he's always saying, like,
Speaker 1: your show is really popular on here. I'm like, what
Speaker 1: each And then I try and research it and I
Speaker 1: can never find anything. I have fallen into the YouTube.
Speaker 1: They're all of these compilation things where will be like,
Speaker 1: you know, Sucilvest's greatest moments or one hundred of the
Speaker 1: most insane things that they actually put on Glee, And
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, how do we do that, right,
Speaker 1: Mr Shoes. Creepiest moments, yes, yeah, things that things that
Speaker 1: didn't age well, the future, yes, predicting the future, yes, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: So we'll talk about stuff like that. Okay, I'll come
Speaker 1: in and do a true and false segments. Okay, we're
Speaker 1: going to add that. We're gonna add Ryan, You're the best.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you so much, serious, thank you. I
Speaker 1: think we should also have a segment called we did
Speaker 1: this right? And I think we should have a segment
Speaker 1: called we really this up. Yeah. I think that's right.
Speaker 1: There were some things you know that you don't know
Speaker 1: that you just trying to the turn of it, you know,
Speaker 1: but a lot of things we did right. So we did.
Speaker 1: Love you guys, thank you for having Okay, by what
Speaker 1: a conversation with Lady Ryan Murphy. UM, it's no truly incredible.
Speaker 1: We're just so grateful to him, and UM, we can't
Speaker 1: wait to recap the pilot with you guys next week.
Speaker 1: We're going to go back and chat about what really happened.
Speaker 1: That's what you really missed um in the pilot And
Speaker 1: so make sure you go watch that this week and
Speaker 1: join us next week and follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: and that's what you really missed. Pod follow Kevin, follow
Speaker 1: me for all the Glee insider tips. Are we trading
Speaker 1: trading tips? We're trading tips, trading stocks, training tips. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your support these first two weeks.
Speaker 1: Please also let us know who you want us to
Speaker 1: have on the pod and we'll do our best to
Speaker 1: try to get all our our friends and fans to
Speaker 1: come on and talk about this show. So see you
Speaker 1: next week. Thank you for being here. Bye bye bye,