Speaker 1: This is going along the same line since you guys
Speaker 1: not knowing I had opponent.
Speaker 2: Bomb animals, I know what mombell are you about to drop?
Speaker 1: I don't think you guys knew this, because I think
Speaker 1: it might have already been gone by the time you
Speaker 1: came up there. But so I totally forgot about this.
Speaker 1: This is this is really this presecharch chatter is just
Speaker 1: appreciation for my parents, my dad in particular, king strong,
Speaker 1: unbelievable father. And it struck me how amazing he was.
Speaker 1: When I was sitting with Indy and I was dropping
Speaker 1: him off at a class and we were sitting across
Speaker 1: from Amazon Fresh and he's like, there's an Amazon Fresh
Speaker 1: and I was like yeah, He's like, what's that?
Speaker 3: Am I?
Speaker 1: And then this leads to, you know, Jeff Bezos has
Speaker 1: so much money. I'm like, how do you even know
Speaker 1: who Jeff Bezos is? But okay, and then he's like
Speaker 1: Elon Musk and so I'm like, all right, let's pivot
Speaker 1: this into like a real conversation. I'm like, so what
Speaker 1: would you do, Like, what would you do if you
Speaker 1: had all the money in the world?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: And it was like we get past, like well, I
Speaker 1: just buy every toy. I was like, yeah, okay, but
Speaker 1: then you know, what would you do? And you know,
Speaker 1: this is.
Speaker 5: Indy you're talking for some reason, I thought you were
Speaker 5: talking to your dad and you didn't know what you
Speaker 5: would buy every like serious, because that's.
Speaker 6: Your dad.
Speaker 2: Know who Jeff, what would you do with all the money? Daddy?
Speaker 6: Gotcha? Okay, I'm on board.
Speaker 1: And this is one of those like fun parenting conversations
Speaker 1: that you know you want to hear, like what your
Speaker 1: kid thinks about the world. And to India's credit, he
Speaker 1: pretty quickly got to like, well, I would help people.
Speaker 1: I would I would give it, you know, I would
Speaker 1: want to give some money to people that you know
Speaker 1: are homeless. And and I was like okay, yeah, well
Speaker 1: what you know you have to pick a cause and
Speaker 1: you care only about Americans or you go international. We're
Speaker 1: talking about philanthropy. And then I was like okay, but
Speaker 1: beyond like what would you what would you want to do?
Speaker 1: Like and he's like, what if we had another house.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, that would be that would actually that
Speaker 1: fits like my dream too, having a second house. He's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, dad, what if we could have a
Speaker 1: water slide? And I remembered, my dad built me a
Speaker 1: water slide. Did you guys know this? No, when we
Speaker 1: were kids, when we were like eight or nine, we
Speaker 1: realized we had this so one a tree that they
Speaker 1: had chopped down right in front of our pool. It
Speaker 1: was like like a stump of a redwood tree. But
Speaker 1: then it started to regrow so it was actually like
Speaker 1: thirty feet tall and it had this like big stump section.
Speaker 1: So we had a treehouse in there and had, you know,
Speaker 1: a platform of wood and a ladder to get up
Speaker 1: to it. And at some point, at like eight or nine,
Speaker 1: we realized like, oh, you could actually from the top
Speaker 1: of this treehouse go down ten feet or whatever fifteen
Speaker 1: feet to the pool. So my dad and my grandfather
Speaker 1: took a couple of months and built a full on,
Speaker 1: half pipe water slide wow out of fiberglass.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was crazy, and Pump figured out how to get
Speaker 1: water up there. So we had like we would go
Speaker 1: turn this little thing and it would shoot water down
Speaker 1: a full on water slide, and then he put roller
Speaker 1: skates on the bottom of it so you could push
Speaker 1: it out of the way so it didn't block the
Speaker 1: whole like the pathway around the pool. So yeah, by
Speaker 1: the time it was gone by the time you guys
Speaker 1: ever came up to roade a chart because I think
Speaker 1: we ended up that tree is no longer there, like
Speaker 1: the treehouse, you know. So it was only between like
Speaker 1: eight eight or nine and like probably right around Woman's
Speaker 1: World thirteen fourteen. But it made our house the coolest house. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, when we had soccer games, we would have
Speaker 1: like the after party at our house because everybody wanted
Speaker 1: to come to the water slide. It was so much fun.
Speaker 1: But the best part was the discovery. We realized, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you could go you would go fast down
Speaker 1: this little water slide. But then we were like, we
Speaker 1: want to go faster, and we realized that if you
Speaker 1: were naked, you could slide down this street because your
Speaker 1: skin on this fiberglass was just like wow, it was
Speaker 1: like slick and so yeah, so we would always be
Speaker 1: like all right, and we just pull our bathing suits
Speaker 1: down and go bare butt. It was like going bare
Speaker 1: butt and you would haul ass literally down the water slide.
Speaker 1: It was so so much fun.
Speaker 2: Well, how fast did Susie go down?
Speaker 1: We rode Susie to the top of the water slide.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. But I mean, it was just like
Speaker 1: I mean think, I just can't believe the commitment that
Speaker 1: my dad had, Like I mean, and I totally forgot
Speaker 1: about it until I'm sitting there talking with India and
Speaker 1: his like dream. He's like, we could have a water
Speaker 1: slide into our own pool, you know, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: that would be amazing. Oh my god, my god, I had.
Speaker 2: That did that?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I know, there's recently been a thing going around.
Speaker 7: It's not you know, it's not like novel people thought
Speaker 7: of it, thought of it and said it over the years.
Speaker 7: But there's a thing recently going around on social media
Speaker 7: about like ways to make your house the cool house
Speaker 7: when your kids are young, so that they always they
Speaker 7: want to bring your friends around you, that your friend
Speaker 7: that you're comfortable with their friends, that their friends feel
Speaker 7: comfortable around you. And there was a woman who said
Speaker 7: they only have one rule. They have like over every
Speaker 7: weekend they have a kid party, but the kids have
Speaker 7: to turn in their phones when they walk in. So
Speaker 7: they turn in their phones into a thing and then
Speaker 7: they can do anything they want for the rest of
Speaker 7: the day. They provide food and drinks and games and.
Speaker 1: Cigarettes and booze and yeah, just.
Speaker 2: No, I met like juice boxes and stuff.
Speaker 1: But my parents. My parents have told me that they
Speaker 1: made that conscious decision. They were like, we want to
Speaker 1: be we want you your friends to come to our house.
Speaker 1: And it totally worked. We still go to my parents' house,
Speaker 1: like we make a mass exodus every summer with all
Speaker 1: of my friends because my parents made such an effort,
Speaker 1: and like, yeah, I don't think I'm gonna be able
Speaker 1: to build a water slide, but I definitely want to.
Speaker 1: You know, I want my house to be that because
Speaker 1: I think it's so important. It's like the best way
Speaker 1: to have a relationship with your kids and your kids friends.
Speaker 7: And that's why Will has made a ban on all
Speaker 7: fun in his house. He said, I don't want any.
Speaker 5: For me, but they got I were like Halloween comes,
Speaker 5: the lights are off. I have razor wire that goes
Speaker 5: across everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kids away.
Speaker 5: I actually have the least kid friendly home I know.
Speaker 5: You could essentially have been.
Speaker 6: You have to walk over stone and a pond to
Speaker 6: get into my house.
Speaker 1: The backyard is one giant toys.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but there are toys that kids are not allowed
Speaker 5: to play with because they're still there in the package.
Speaker 1: So you really keep everything in the package.
Speaker 5: Still, it depends on what it is if So, first
Speaker 5: of all, the only toys that I have are toys
Speaker 5: of characters that I've done.
Speaker 6: Okay, so I usually when they.
Speaker 5: Exactly sorry, do you have any toys and water slides?
Speaker 1: Growing do you actually have? Do you have any that
Speaker 1: you could like push a button and you hear your
Speaker 1: own voice?
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, really good? Of course a ton of those,
Speaker 5: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: But do you keep them in the packaging? Because Indy
Speaker 1: would love that if you if you showed up with
Speaker 1: a toy that had your voice, you would just think
Speaker 1: that's I would.
Speaker 5: Usually get two back in the day, so I get
Speaker 5: one to display and one that I just keep in
Speaker 5: a package in a box if it was ever worth something.
Speaker 6: So I have what you know, But yeah, I mean
Speaker 6: even I think behind me, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't think that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I have a bunch I'd say like I am Batman,
Speaker 5: or this is totally cool, or and there's a bunch
Speaker 5: of ron stoppable one you press a button and it's like
Speaker 5: oh boo, yeah, like stuff like that. So but then
Speaker 5: what started to happen in the industry get every time
Speaker 5: you know, and what's worse sigil check.
Speaker 1: What's worse is in the industry.
Speaker 5: What started to happen was they started to hire non
Speaker 5: union actors to do to record the toys because they
Speaker 5: didn't want to pay us anymore to do the toy stuff.
Speaker 5: And I remember one recording session that I had to
Speaker 5: do a Batman watch and you had to record for
Speaker 5: every time. So I would sit there going it's one,
Speaker 5: two three, and then you'd finish and go one oh one.
Speaker 3: Wow, wow, two one.
Speaker 5: So it's like a six hour session to make sure
Speaker 5: that when you press the button it would go it's
Speaker 5: one thirty four.
Speaker 1: See now that's just pull your voice from the internet and.
Speaker 6: Like, yeah, now they just.
Speaker 7: Exactly, let's make Pod meets World figures. What would our
Speaker 7: Pod Meets World figures say?
Speaker 6: Mine would say bizarre?
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 6: Like Daniels would say wow.
Speaker 1: Like mine would just ramble in coherently and then like
Speaker 1: make the like you know what I mean that or
Speaker 1: it would be good.
Speaker 6: Yeah they press the button, it would just go God.
Speaker 3: I hate toys.
Speaker 6: Hate being a toy.
Speaker 2: This is the worst.
Speaker 6: And who even likes toys? Toys are commercial?
Speaker 1: Pony a little Susie and what about yours?
Speaker 6: Danielle what would your toy?
Speaker 7: Mine would ask a question and then just talk. Mine
Speaker 7: would say, what do you like to do on a date?
Speaker 7: Because what I like to do on a date is
Speaker 7: I like to go for a long walk.
Speaker 1: Will scream merch but like keep a variety of different
Speaker 1: merchant or I would explain why I'm like, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I no longer do the Phoenie call.
Speaker 6: I gave it to this girl throwing you know something
Speaker 6: like that.
Speaker 1: Too, like to be a long description.
Speaker 5: Yeah, toys that would actually finish the other one.
Speaker 1: But all anybody would want is a doll of you
Speaker 1: doing the Phoenie call. That's the phony call for a doll.
Speaker 1: Would you do it?
Speaker 6: It depends on where the money would go. If the
Speaker 6: money would go to a good place, like to me.
Speaker 2: Then like your bank account, right, If it would go to.
Speaker 5: My account or to help other people that would give
Speaker 5: me money, then yes, right right.
Speaker 7: Yeah, if other people to help would give you money,
Speaker 7: I like this idea.
Speaker 5: Well, oh you're still see I was just the perfect
Speaker 5: what I was gonna say. I was gonna say, when
Speaker 5: all three toys got together, they just talk over each other.
Speaker 2: It's so weird to push all their buttons together.
Speaker 6: At the same time and they just start talking over
Speaker 6: each other.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Pond Meets World. I'm Danielle Fischel, I'm right
Speaker 2: or Strong, and it is one thirty four.
Speaker 3: I'm not Wilfred.
Speaker 7: Through the whirlwind that has been Season four of Boy
Speaker 7: Meets World, it sometimes feels like the hits just keep coming,
Speaker 7: whether it's classic episodes, iconic lines, or punchlines that have
Speaker 7: survived almost thirty years. Take your pick. We're in the
Speaker 7: midst of true sitcom sicko mode. And if we were
Speaker 7: to write a list of impactful new regulars that this
Speaker 7: package of twenty two episodes brought us, this week's podcast
Speaker 7: guest would be right up top. The often mentioned Verna
Speaker 7: Hunter was commonly referenced in seasons prior, but it wasn't
Speaker 7: until Fishing for Verna that we put a face to
Speaker 7: the name, and forever helped cement the backstory of Sean
Speaker 7: and give his character the depth that deserved to move forward.
Speaker 7: We'd see her again in Janitor Dad, then Turkey Day,
Speaker 7: and then she'd unceremoniously disappear as quickly as she arrived,
Speaker 7: without explanation until she's talked about during season seven with
Speaker 7: a revelation that was emailed to us as a spoiler
Speaker 7: maybe two hundred times.
Speaker 2: After leaving the trailer.
Speaker 7: Forever you'd see her pop up on shows like The Practice,
Speaker 7: X files Er and Charmed, but she'd soon after take
Speaker 7: her talents and passion to a field I personally love
Speaker 7: vintage clothing. She's a designer who has curated and morphed
Speaker 7: older pieces into her own, seen on clients like Kirsten
Speaker 7: Dunst and Katie Holmes, and she even had her own
Speaker 7: reality show called d Rescue Me. She now focuses on
Speaker 7: building stunning bridal dresses and eveningwear from repurposed materials. And
Speaker 7: now we are thrilled to welcome a woman of many
Speaker 7: talents to Podmeets World. It's Verna Hunter herself. Scherene Mitchell.
Speaker 4: Hi, Hi, it's so nice to see you guys. Thank
Speaker 4: you good to be here. I am. I watched all
Speaker 4: three episodes that I was on last night, and you know,
Speaker 4: I was struck by what a beautifully written show it was, right,
Speaker 4: you know, the intelligence of the writing really is classic.
Speaker 4: You know, it's it stands the test of time, and
Speaker 4: a little bit sad that so many of the social
Speaker 4: issues that were being discussed on those episodes are still
Speaker 4: relevant today. You know. It's like humanity really doesn't change,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 6: Fashion, the fashion does that's about it.
Speaker 4: That's about it exactly, hairstyles and hair color and ages.
Speaker 1: Was that the first time you had seen the episodes
Speaker 1: since you did them.
Speaker 8: Since I've done them, I'd seen videos, you know, I
Speaker 8: got to tell you, guys, I've done I did a
Speaker 8: lot of work, and I'm about and I'm doing a
Speaker 8: lot of work now, which is interesting and i'd like.
Speaker 4: To talk about that. But when people ask me about
Speaker 4: my career and I tell them the things that I've done,
Speaker 4: although I have done bigger parts than this and kind
Speaker 4: of more notable projects, notable as in for me, because
Speaker 4: I had a three episode dark, I wasn't like a
Speaker 4: regular or something. People women, especially lose their minds. They're
Speaker 4: just they start screaming. They can't even believe that I
Speaker 4: was Sean's mom.
Speaker 9: They're like, you know, they get so excited. It's very
Speaker 9: sweet and it tells me how. You know, you guys
Speaker 9: raised it more than a generation. I think you raised
Speaker 9: like two generations of young people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's weird, right, like we we kind of had
Speaker 1: no idea either. That's what you know, That's what so
Speaker 1: much of this podcast has been about, is like us realizing, Oh,
Speaker 1: this thing that was, you know, in our minds, like
Speaker 1: just a small part of our lives or the beginning
Speaker 1: part of our lives, has you know, really had a
Speaker 1: resounding effect on so many people. It's so interesting.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean if you think about the shows that you
Speaker 4: came home from school and watched or watched in the
Speaker 4: evening with your family, and they have an impact. I
Speaker 4: have to say, you know, Michael Jacobs, I was reallyledging
Speaker 4: him and I know there's another creator and I I
Speaker 4: didn't ever interface with her. You know she got yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 4: I mean he created a beautiful show and it has
Speaker 4: tremendous emotional integrity and every episode without being corny, and
Speaker 4: I guess, guess again, it's the writing. And you know,
Speaker 4: you guys really carry a lot of talent, and that
Speaker 4: talent is still with you. I watched you all work
Speaker 4: yesterday and I was just like, God, they're so talented.
Speaker 4: They're timing their deliveries, the level of freedom in your performances.
Speaker 4: You know, I've learned a lot more about acting and
Speaker 4: actors as I've gotten, as I've grown up. When I
Speaker 4: was doing it then at that point, I really still
Speaker 4: was kind of new.
Speaker 2: You know, well, let's talk about that.
Speaker 7: Actually, do you remember your audition for Boy Meets World.
Speaker 4: I do. I can still see myself going.
Speaker 7: I think that was at Gower Okay, yeah.
Speaker 4: It might have been there. And you know, at the time,
Speaker 4: I had just finished a series with Tony Danzas, so
Speaker 4: I had been a series regular on a comedy, and
Speaker 4: I had become aware by that point too that doing
Speaker 4: a sitcom is really the best gig in.
Speaker 2: The business path.
Speaker 4: It really is, and it remains in my mind and
Speaker 4: in my heart that that remains the truth. But so
Speaker 4: I was excited, you know, about going up for this part,
Speaker 4: and I also thought that Verna was an opportunity for
Speaker 4: me to be a little to explore kind of the
Speaker 4: wackier side of my personality. It's funny. I watched the performance,
Speaker 4: and you guys will relate to this yesterday I was like,
Speaker 4: I could have done that better.
Speaker 6: Of course, that is also what this podcast is.
Speaker 5: It's the three of us watching going man, we could
Speaker 5: wish we could go back and do that over again.
Speaker 1: And then we say it on the podcast and then
Speaker 1: everyone writes this emails being links. I mean, it's so
Speaker 1: hard on yourself. It's like, but we can't help it.
Speaker 4: It's not hard on ourselves, but it's more recognizing as
Speaker 4: you learn more about comedy, how I could have made
Speaker 4: her funnier. I definitely she was quirky. So in any case,
Speaker 4: I remember the audition and I remember getting the job.
Speaker 4: I remember my agent calling me and telling me that
Speaker 4: I've gotten it, and you know, I was delighted, of course,
Speaker 4: because I thought that she was a really sweet character.
Speaker 4: And I think that's the funny part now too, is
Speaker 4: that she would have been more comedic if I had
Speaker 4: made her, if I had made her a little harder,
Speaker 4: a little tougher. But she ended up just being a
Speaker 4: little zany, which is appropriate for me and for the
Speaker 4: way that she's described.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well that's what I was wondering, because that
Speaker 1: first episode is actually more dramatic. Yeah, you know, and
Speaker 1: when we watched it, I was like, gosh, this is
Speaker 1: like a one act play, you know, like the I
Speaker 1: called it like Sam Shepherd light, you know, It's like
Speaker 1: I mean, and it was interesting. I was thinking, like,
Speaker 1: I wonder if sure he knew like when you were
Speaker 1: cast that you would end up having to do actually
Speaker 1: more comedy, like by the second and third episode, Verna's
Speaker 1: mostly there for laughs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I honestly mean, just to
Speaker 4: be honest, I don't remember what I was told. I
Speaker 4: do remember realizing that there was a dramatic element to
Speaker 4: her role. There would have to be, because you know,
Speaker 4: Ryder was without a mom, right, which is like wow
Speaker 4: kind of and I was confused, and I'm still a
Speaker 4: little confused. Maybe you can enlighten me where who was
Speaker 4: he living with Chet or not? Before these episodes, who
Speaker 4: was he living with?
Speaker 1: So in second season I was living with mister Turner,
Speaker 1: the teacher because Chet leaves to go after you to
Speaker 1: chase you down. And then the end of season three,
Speaker 1: right end of season three, Chet comes back and takes
Speaker 1: me into his life. And it's sort of this bittersweet
Speaker 1: thing because because you actually can kind of tell that
Speaker 1: that Chet's not a great father and that he is not,
Speaker 1: you know, super responsible, and there's there's a sinuation of
Speaker 1: like alcoholism, and but it's never like really explicitly stated,
Speaker 1: but you get the feeling that Sean might have been
Speaker 1: better off with mister Turner, but mister Turner wasn't ready
Speaker 1: to take him, so he goes back to Chet. But
Speaker 1: then we don't really develop the home life with Chet
Speaker 1: until you came until this episode. That's the first time
Speaker 1: I think we saw the trailer and we see where
Speaker 1: the home life is, and so it's really you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the thing about these sitcoms, right, It's
Speaker 1: like one episode can sort of rewrite history or like
Speaker 1: define the characters. So I think your episode, that Fishing
Speaker 1: for Verna episode really established the Hunter family dynamic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know so. So the backstory for me
Speaker 4: about the third episode is that I don't know if
Speaker 4: you guys know this or if you remember, but Blake Clark,
Speaker 4: who played Chet, yeah, plays my husband is his hysterically
Speaker 4: funny person. Yes, And I don't know if you can tell,
Speaker 4: but in my takes, it's sort of the way I'm
Speaker 4: speaking now. I was on the verge of hysterical laughter
Speaker 4: and I begged him. I leaned and I said to him,
Speaker 4: I am begging you please dial it back because I'm
Speaker 4: I couldn't keep it together. And Michael Jacobs called me
Speaker 4: off stage and he was like, sharene if you fall
Speaker 4: apart one more time, I am sending you home, and
Speaker 4: I was like, and then I burst out laughing, because
Speaker 4: you're serious.
Speaker 6: I couldn't help it.
Speaker 4: I was so First of all, I'm an easy laugh
Speaker 4: you know. I love to laugh, and I had a
Speaker 4: really easy funny bone, you know. So I'm more a
Speaker 4: good laugher than I am necessarily funny. I'm funny because
Speaker 4: I can create humorous characters, you know, but uh, what's
Speaker 4: his name? Blake Clark is a comic, you know he is,
Speaker 4: and he knows how to get you. And he just
Speaker 4: knew that I was sensitive to his sense of humor,
Speaker 4: and I could barely look at him without falling apart.
Speaker 4: Betsy has this line she says something about he was
Speaker 4: my biological father.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, yeah, right.
Speaker 4: And I mean it was all I could do, because
Speaker 4: it's like she just kept upping the ants. He was
Speaker 4: all I could do not to fall apart again. And
Speaker 4: so I really I would say that if Verno didn't
Speaker 4: come back to remain in Sean's life, it is entirely
Speaker 4: mind fault, you know.
Speaker 1: I don't think so I break all the time. We've
Speaker 1: been watching episodes where you can see me just losing
Speaker 1: it and they just had to keep it in, you know,
Speaker 1: like I. So I was all, I'm exactly the same way.
Speaker 1: And that's funny because I actually remember us just losing
Speaker 1: it all the time with Blake. And you know the
Speaker 1: tension of an audience too, when you have a live
Speaker 1: audience and the pressure to get through it. You know,
Speaker 1: if you get the giggles, it's over.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but it's just that's Blake.
Speaker 5: That's Blake too as the as the comic exactly like
Speaker 5: you're saying, Sreen, It's it's that if he sees something
Speaker 5: that makes you laugh, he's reading his audience and he
Speaker 5: is going to continue pushing that button because it's to
Speaker 5: guaranteed laugh and that's what you're going for as a comic.
Speaker 6: So he was phenomenal at doing that.
Speaker 7: He also would know, like if that he had given
Speaker 7: you a delivery of something that was really funny and
Speaker 7: you laughed at it, and now you're expecting it, so
Speaker 7: you're going to be able to keep it together because
Speaker 7: you know what to expect. So then he would just
Speaker 7: do something totally different it's equally as funny, and you
Speaker 7: were like, wait, I had been able to get myself
Speaker 7: to a still place because I thought I knew what
Speaker 7: you were going to do. Yeah, it was that anytime
Speaker 7: we worked with Blake, I remember it just it being
Speaker 7: hard to keep it together. And I wasn't even in
Speaker 7: a lot of scenes, if any scenes with Blake, but
Speaker 7: I remember watching run throughs and just seeing everybody lose
Speaker 7: it with him all the time.
Speaker 4: That's another thing I wanted acknowledge the show for, which
Speaker 4: is that all the supporting rules, all the guest stars
Speaker 4: are terrific.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean those two boys, the brothers that crossed the Frankie,
Speaker 4: Oh my god, They're so funny, and the writing for
Speaker 4: them is so intellectual. You know, that's funny. I really
Speaker 4: admired that. And then the guy that comes into Will
Speaker 4: he worked in a scene with you and your dad,
Speaker 4: who He's like, I come, I come here from the
Speaker 4: backwoods to Yeah, another great character.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so the burly mountain man.
Speaker 4: The burly mountain man. But yeah, the casting was really terrific.
Speaker 7: What we talked about Blake and what it was like
Speaker 7: working with Blake, what were your impressions of a young
Speaker 7: wright Strong and what was your relationship Do you remember
Speaker 7: working on your relationship or did you guys try to
Speaker 7: keep some distance because you were supposed to be estranged.
Speaker 2: What was that relationship?
Speaker 4: Like, I feel like I got closer to Corey his
Speaker 4: character to Ben because he kind of led the way.
Speaker 4: And I will admit that I've changed a lot since
Speaker 4: those years. I was actually very shy when I was
Speaker 4: on a set. I don't know if you know your
Speaker 4: listeners understand, but you know, when you're a guest and
Speaker 4: you're coming into a core group of regulars, Yeah, the
Speaker 4: regulars are under a lot of pressure to deliver the show,
Speaker 4: and the guest is really just a small part of
Speaker 4: the whole episode. And so and I know this too
Speaker 4: because when I was a series regular on a series
Speaker 4: with Tony Danza called Hudson Street. We had a year
Speaker 4: and I was, you know, on the show that full year,
Speaker 4: and I remember being under a lot of pressure, you know,
Speaker 4: to deliver an entire episode and to just really deliver
Speaker 4: the comedy of my role and so on. And when
Speaker 4: guests would come, you would want to be welcoming and
Speaker 4: inclusive and make them feel comfortable. But same time, you know,
Speaker 4: you had your own life and stuff to deal with.
Speaker 4: So I don't recall really getting very close to you
Speaker 4: because there really wasn't room. And then also there's just
Speaker 4: even the pressure of kind of not the pressure, but
Speaker 4: the importance is the value of taking seriously my own
Speaker 4: lines and my own moments that as I recall it,
Speaker 4: also at the time, I likely had my own dressing
Speaker 4: room or even maybe small trailer. And you know, I
Speaker 4: just finished an independent film and I'll tell you guys
Speaker 4: about it. It's a beautiful movie, and we put my
Speaker 4: sister and I have started a production company, and so
Speaker 4: this is our first We produced it, which I'm sure
Speaker 4: you might know is like going through a war. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: it's an independent film and I acted in it, you know,
Speaker 4: but there was no trail, there's no dressing rooms, and
Speaker 4: like you're just like working the whole. You know, you're
Speaker 4: literally calling quiet on the set and delivering a deep
Speaker 4: performance all in one go. Whereas when you're when I
Speaker 4: was doing shows like this on television, there's a lot
Speaker 4: of protection. The actor is protected a lot, you know,
Speaker 4: a PA or an ad Generally, a PA will take
Speaker 4: you to your trailer, take you to lunch, bring you
Speaker 4: to the set, and then again break and you go
Speaker 4: off and the regulars study their lines or they're getting
Speaker 4: notes I mean it looks easy, but comedy is actually hard.
Speaker 4: And the writers especially, I'm sure the writers of this show,
Speaker 4: because the writing is so keen. You know, the writers
Speaker 4: are giving you notes between takes and helping you hone
Speaker 4: the comedy, and so I really don't recall socializing. Also,
Speaker 4: you guys were young.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we would have been going off
Speaker 1: into school. I mean, what's amazing is that we actually
Speaker 1: don't have that many scenes together. It's funny because when
Speaker 1: you showed up on screen, I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's Sharien and I totally remember. And then I was like, well,
Speaker 1: Ben gets the big scene with her, and I remembered
Speaker 1: that scene as if I had been in it, because
Speaker 1: I must have been there for the run throughs watching it.
Speaker 1: But then I was like, oh, then you show up
Speaker 1: in the trailer at the end of the episode, and
Speaker 1: that's kind of it. And then and then the.
Speaker 7: Janitor Dad, it's you and Blake at school right more
Speaker 7: so than you know, So.
Speaker 1: You don't have that many interactions.
Speaker 5: So strange though, because it really works well for the
Speaker 5: character that there's something about the idea that Sean's mom
Speaker 5: gets along and gets closer with Corey and other people
Speaker 5: around everyone but Sean. For some reason, there's some disconnect
Speaker 5: with her and her own son that actually really worked
Speaker 5: for the characters. As you're going, you know, Blake is
Speaker 5: obviously overcompensating as trying to be the funny dad and
Speaker 5: doing everything you can, and and Verna feels the disconnect,
Speaker 5: and it did.
Speaker 6: It just worked for the whole family dynamic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I mean I even yesterday I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: I see it almost maybe I feel it even the
Speaker 4: other way, which is that she I wrote to him
Speaker 4: every day, and so perhaps I didn't have to work
Speaker 4: that relationship because we felt connected. We were connected, But
Speaker 4: the relationship that had to be written and sorted was
Speaker 4: the one with Blake, you know, with check because he
Speaker 4: was sort of blamed for me, oh my god, abandoning
Speaker 4: my son. I mean, you know, it was kind of
Speaker 4: a courageous move on the part of the writers, you know, yeah, right, well, and.
Speaker 7: So brilliantly played, because as we talked about when we
Speaker 7: did the recap of your first episode, we were primed
Speaker 7: as an audience to not like this woman because who
Speaker 7: could abandon her child? And then you come on and
Speaker 7: you're just like, you love her and she's kind and
Speaker 7: even though you still have a hard time understanding how
Speaker 7: she could just pick up and leave her son and
Speaker 7: by the way, take his home because.
Speaker 6: You left the rail huge problem with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they did.
Speaker 1: What did I do?
Speaker 4: I took his home.
Speaker 2: You took the trailer.
Speaker 7: You left in the trailer the family lived in, so
Speaker 7: he didn't have a space to live. No when you left,
Speaker 7: when you left it, there was no trailer. And then
Speaker 7: and then Blake. So yeah, you you left your family
Speaker 7: and then your husband homeless.
Speaker 4: You guys, that's a nightmare.
Speaker 1: Well it's funny because it actually isn't really addressed. I mean,
Speaker 1: they they sort of they sort of do this sleight
Speaker 1: of hand where you show up in that hotel room
Speaker 1: scene with Corey and you are so sympathetic because you
Speaker 1: you you sort of emanate a sadness and a like
Speaker 1: and and a fragility that is like, oh this poor woman.
Speaker 1: But in reality, like they don't really ever address the
Speaker 1: fact that you you did a pretty awful thing, and
Speaker 1: that's what Will couldn't get over. Will was kind of
Speaker 1: like this, Yeah, it's again, it's it's a tricky thing,
Speaker 1: you know. I think they kind of had backed themselves
Speaker 1: into this backstory and then they wanted to, you know,
Speaker 1: entered use your character, and they kind of had to
Speaker 1: ignore that in order for you to stay to remain likable,
Speaker 1: which you are likeable completely. It's a little bit of
Speaker 1: a yeah.
Speaker 4: But I have to say though, that I wonder what
Speaker 4: the intention was for Sean, meaning that Sean would end
Speaker 4: up being this young man who I guess would be
Speaker 4: well wanting to connect a lot to other people, especially
Speaker 4: perhaps h Cory because he doesn't have a tight family
Speaker 4: of his own. I guess that would have been the intention. Maybe, Yeah,
Speaker 4: that would have been the result is that it might
Speaker 4: have created a young boy, you know, a young man
Speaker 4: who needs contact, needs inclusion.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean one of the biggest themes of the
Speaker 1: show that you know, it's explicitly stated in one episode,
Speaker 1: but then it's it is an overriding thing, is that
Speaker 1: you don't have to be blood to be family, and
Speaker 1: that you know, it plays out in Shawn's overall storyline
Speaker 1: that he essentially needs Corey to panga the Matthews family
Speaker 1: to compensate for what he's not getting at home.
Speaker 5: But there's also something interesting that I'm just thinking about
Speaker 5: now as we're discussing this where Sean has a much
Speaker 5: easier time connecting with men and boys than he does
Speaker 5: with girls or women. Like even Topanga, they have, you know,
Speaker 5: kind of an ongoing problem. They go, they fight against
Speaker 5: each other a little bit. The girlfriends. We don't get
Speaker 5: a steady girlfriend until Angela. So there really is Yeah,
Speaker 5: he's got yeah, he's got a it seems like he's
Speaker 5: got a trust.
Speaker 6: Yeah when he comes to women. I mean, he definitely does.
Speaker 4: When you have abandoned man issues.
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, sure.
Speaker 5: And I'm curious when you came into audition for the role,
Speaker 5: were you given any of the backstory that they had
Speaker 5: set up originally for the character or No.
Speaker 4: Again, I don't fully remember, but I do remember knowing
Speaker 4: that this was his long lost mom who had gone
Speaker 4: away and left the family, and that there was some
Speaker 4: kind of dark past and that she's returned. Okay, and
Speaker 4: that's it, and just that through. You know, I didn't
Speaker 4: know the entire arc because I only probably had the
Speaker 4: one episode when I auditioned. They hadn't created either a
Speaker 4: victim in Vernon nor a kind of hard mean woman either.
Speaker 4: She's kind of had her reasons. I mean again, they
Speaker 4: wrote an interesting character.
Speaker 2: She's complex.
Speaker 7: Can you talk a little bit about what it was
Speaker 7: like working with Rusty and Betsy in the Turkey Day episode.
Speaker 7: We were talking about how that it was never it's
Speaker 7: never mentioned that, you know for a while when Shawn
Speaker 7: before he went to live with mister Turner, he lived
Speaker 7: with the Matthews, and then we do this Turkey Day
Speaker 7: episode where the families are spending time together, and similarly
Speaker 7: to the way they kind of had to ignore that
Speaker 7: you had abandoned your son and stole his home, the
Speaker 7: other characters also kind of had to ignore the idea
Speaker 7: that we're just going to go to this woman's house
Speaker 7: for Thanksgiving, even though we almost had to adopt her son.
Speaker 2: So what was that like for you working with Rusty
Speaker 2: and Betsy?
Speaker 4: You know you guys Again, I think I learned more
Speaker 4: about the episode that I participated in by watching it
Speaker 4: again than maybe by being in it. Sure, because again,
Speaker 4: when you're a guest, you mostly focus on your scenes,
Speaker 4: and I will I have a very vivid memory of
Speaker 4: the entire Thanksgiving scene in the trailer because it was
Speaker 4: so funny to me and Blake was funny. The whole
Speaker 4: idea of me serving the cheese and wanting to make
Speaker 4: the same green out of the wine and how completely
Speaker 4: sort of you know, Verna was a bit guileless, you know,
Speaker 4: she didn't really know any better. And there's this heartbreaking
Speaker 4: moment when Betsy hands me that beautiful casserole dish and
Speaker 4: I noticed in my own work. I was like, oh, wow,
Speaker 4: look at me. I just sort of touched the dish.
Speaker 4: I mean, it makes me want to cry now, you know.
Speaker 4: She She's like, oh, the realization that you know, and
Speaker 4: that and that's what the episode was about, and it
Speaker 4: was so beautifully handled, this idea of disparity, you know,
Speaker 4: income disparity or income inequity, and it's being handled right
Speaker 4: there in their lives, like oh, and then it was
Speaker 4: fascinating too, this what happened with these guys, you know
Speaker 4: in the trailer park who were a little bit like,
Speaker 4: who is this family coming here from the other side
Speaker 4: of town and you know they're going to make fun
Speaker 4: of us? And how beautifully kind of there was a
Speaker 4: resolution at the end, but my memory of that, first
Speaker 4: of all, all you guys, all of you are terrific comedians,
Speaker 4: terrific actors, and you know they were no exception. You
Speaker 4: know these are you guys were consummate even at a
Speaker 4: young age. It is not easy to pull off that
Speaker 4: kind of comedy and week after week after week, and
Speaker 4: so yeah, they're terrific actors. And again I was like
Speaker 4: an innocent with I was surrounded by comedy sharks. You know,
Speaker 4: I just we're gonna get singing me. You know, I
Speaker 4: really had a rough time keeping it together. I was
Speaker 4: having too much fun. I know you the way around.
Speaker 7: You made the joke that the reason we don't see
Speaker 7: Verna again is because you couldn't keep it together.
Speaker 2: But did you know then that Turkey Day was going
Speaker 2: to be your last episode?
Speaker 7: We were shocked when when that episode came around and
Speaker 7: I read this is Sharene's last episode, we were all shocked.
Speaker 7: Wright or fully remembered there be more.
Speaker 2: Of course he got to do with you. He was like,
Speaker 2: there's no way that's the end. Did you know that
Speaker 2: this was going to be your last episode?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was from the original booking. I was booked
Speaker 4: for a three episode or wow, that was that was
Speaker 4: the book. I mean, of course, you know, every actor
Speaker 4: is like, oh my god, it would be so fun
Speaker 4: if I could go back, or oh my god, it'd
Speaker 4: be great if they decided to write her in or
Speaker 4: you know, maybe he'll need kind of stay in touch
Speaker 4: with his mom. And I'm not sure it was fully
Speaker 4: ever explained, Like do you guys know what happened to?
Speaker 2: No closure would have been nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna we do find out, you know, the
Speaker 1: spoiler alert, spoiler alert that you are not my biological
Speaker 1: mom that ends up becoming revealed, that.
Speaker 7: Is revealed in season seven that you're not actually his
Speaker 7: biological mother, right, And we haven't gotten to those episodes yet,
Speaker 7: so we did not remember that. Like that was completely
Speaker 7: a shock to us, but about two hundred people emailed
Speaker 7: it to us.
Speaker 5: Do we does do any does anybody here remember if
Speaker 5: we find out who is biological mommy?
Speaker 6: Does chet even know who is? I mean he mustn't, right,
Speaker 6: It's not like a guy.
Speaker 5: It's like, you know who the mom is, so it's
Speaker 5: I mean, you got it, but it's never mentioned, right,
Speaker 5: It's just like she's not your biological mom, but we're
Speaker 5: not gonna talk about who.
Speaker 6: And it's not Jack's mom, I guess.
Speaker 1: I mean I know that what Blake has to come
Speaker 1: back for. Obviously he comes back and dies, right, But
Speaker 1: I feel like he must have come back for another
Speaker 1: episode in between there, and at some point, isn't it
Speaker 1: explained like where Sean is living what.
Speaker 5: I think he comes back for a lot more because
Speaker 5: there's a whole storyline with Jack two. I mean, I
Speaker 5: think there's I think you guys do a few episodes
Speaker 5: ago and then he does a couple as a ghost.
Speaker 1: Right, I mean it's like it comes back as a
Speaker 1: good Yeah, but there's there's I'm pretty sure that we
Speaker 1: introduced Jack without Blake coming back, right, and then Blake
Speaker 1: comes back for the episode where he dies. It's called
Speaker 1: like we'll have a good time then, Like it's just
Speaker 1: it's just one really, I think so, because the whole
Speaker 1: point of that episode is that like he and I
Speaker 1: come to terms, like we we kind of like find
Speaker 1: a new relationship now that he's back in town after
Speaker 1: being away, and then he dies of a heart attack.
Speaker 1: It's it's a tragic episode's weirdly dramatic.
Speaker 2: Scharene, so much happened after you left.
Speaker 4: Us, and clearly Chet was kind of, you know, like
Speaker 4: a wild man. I mean he obviously had a baby
Speaker 4: with somebody else, and then maybe that's why Erna left him.
Speaker 4: You know, just the kind of you.
Speaker 6: Know, yeah, maybe she didn't know. Sean wasn't hers.
Speaker 2: I gave birth to that baby.
Speaker 1: For a couple of years of her life, she doesn't
Speaker 1: quite remember.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Chen, do you do you? Did you start acting
Speaker 5: at a young age? Did you did you start in
Speaker 5: New York? How did you get into the industry.
Speaker 4: I went to a very good college and my parents
Speaker 4: wouldn't let me study acting, and so I was pre
Speaker 4: met for three years.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 4: My dad had been the doctor, and I think I
Speaker 4: thought I would okay, fine, if I can't be an actor,
Speaker 4: I'll make dad happy. Of course, I went to work
Speaker 4: at a hospital during a winter break and was literally,
Speaker 4: you know, dizzy at every turn because I was so
Speaker 4: overwhelmed by the amount of you know, pain in the hospital.
Speaker 4: And I remember thinking like, this isn't kind of the
Speaker 4: hospital I was expecting. I was expecting bright lights and
Speaker 4: a white flat. You know. I was the acting version
Speaker 4: of Ali. And once I graduated, I went and worked
Speaker 4: in fashion, because which was my second love to acting,
Speaker 4: was fashion. I was I went to Mademoiselle magazine. I
Speaker 4: was in the fashion department, and then I got a
Speaker 4: job at an American Vogue here in New York and
Speaker 4: I was in the fashion department and I did that
Speaker 4: for about three years, and then I became the national
Speaker 4: scout for a top modeling agency called Elite. I was
Speaker 4: twenty four years old. They sent me to Paris and
Speaker 4: I ran around with all these supermodels. It was an
Speaker 4: extraordinary time. But while I was there, my family hit
Speaker 4: a really hard bump. A lot of really tough things
Speaker 4: happened to my family, and my fiance had an affair
Speaker 4: with the model from the agency, and I was not
Speaker 4: only devastated by what was happening to my family, but
Speaker 4: I was heartbroken for the first time in my life.
Speaker 4: And I was living in Paris, away from my family
Speaker 4: and especially from my younger sisters. So I came back
Speaker 4: to New York and decided to live my own life.
Speaker 4: And I took my first acting class with a wonderful
Speaker 4: acting teacher named Warren Robertson in New York, and within
Speaker 4: two years I booked a small independent film, and in
Speaker 4: the third year, I became a member of the Actress
Speaker 4: Studio after one audition, and I booked my first feature,
Speaker 4: which was a feature with Steven Segall called Out for Justice.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I didn't see anybody seeing Richie.
Speaker 5: Anybody know what Richie did Bobby Lupo, Oh yeah, chomping anything.
Speaker 5: Of course, of course I know. But I could do
Speaker 5: Out for Justice Backwards, sidewards and foremast.
Speaker 4: That was my first big role. And it took me
Speaker 4: out to LA And once I got to La, I
Speaker 4: was like, it's January. It's freezing in New York. It's
Speaker 4: gorgeous here, Like, why would I go back? So I
Speaker 4: stayed and one of the agents. You know, at the time,
Speaker 4: you could kind of be hip pocketed by a couple
Speaker 4: of agents. So one had gotten me this role, but
Speaker 4: another one had wanted to represent me, and so she
Speaker 4: finds me through finding my mom and she says, have
Speaker 4: you ever what are you doing? Are you working with
Speaker 4: anybody out there? And I said no, and I said
Speaker 4: I had just wrapped Out for Justice, And she said,
Speaker 4: I want to send you up for this guest star
Speaker 4: on Who's the Boss, because Who's the Boss was a
Speaker 4: big show at the time, And went up for the
Speaker 4: guest star and I booked it and it was was
Speaker 4: called Tony in the Mafia Princess, and so it was
Speaker 4: about Tony Danz's character has to domesticate the daughter of
Speaker 4: a mafioso, and she is, you know, just kind of
Speaker 4: a spoiled little girl. Basically, it's a great episode. It
Speaker 4: was a guest star and so I do that. And
Speaker 4: then Vicky Rosenberg, who was the casting director of that series,
Speaker 4: said who's representing you out here? And she sent me
Speaker 4: to another wonderful agent, Roe Diamond, And within about a
Speaker 4: few months, Roe sent me up for American Heart, which
Speaker 4: was a movie with Jeff Bridges and Jeff This was
Speaker 4: based on a documentary. So answer short answer, No, I
Speaker 4: was in my mid to late twenties when I really
Speaker 4: started acting and got my first break. And this leads
Speaker 4: me to just say to you, like I tell people
Speaker 4: all the time, if there's a dream in your heart,
Speaker 4: if there's some gift there that's being carried within you,
Speaker 4: it's not an accident. It was placed there by something
Speaker 4: bigger than you, and there will be a way made
Speaker 4: for it if you address it, if you go to it.
Speaker 4: And I have to say, I was really lucky because
Speaker 4: I never believed in no, and I still don't. I
Speaker 4: don't believe in the limitations that we often hear about.
Speaker 4: Oh it's harder, you know, it's very hard if you're
Speaker 4: too old, if you're to this, if you're too that.
Speaker 4: I don't buy any I never bought any of it,
Speaker 4: you know. I just believe that again, if if the
Speaker 4: yearning is there, a way will be made if you
Speaker 4: address it. So I was very positive about my career
Speaker 4: all the way through. So I did. So. I did
Speaker 4: American Heart, which is a beautiful movie if you've never
Speaker 4: seen it. And then I did and then I and
Speaker 4: then I booked. I went up for the Tony Danzis
Speaker 4: series Huts History. I wasn't supposed to get it. In
Speaker 4: the last minute, I go up to tests and I
Speaker 4: booked this thing, twenty two episodes on air. It was,
Speaker 4: I mean, really nothing, sort of America, but was my
Speaker 4: first series audition. I never asked before. I know, it
Speaker 4: was kind of the luck of the innocent. I've never
Speaker 4: been into test before. So I woke into this room.
Speaker 4: There was like thirty five ABC executives, and I was
Speaker 4: just like, hi, I was just so happy. I was
Speaker 4: completely delighted to be there. I just booked that. And
Speaker 4: then after that was when Boy Meets World came along,
Speaker 4: and a lot of other guest stars and recurring roles,
Speaker 4: and that was at a time when a good working
Speaker 4: actor could get a lot of guests and recurring roles.
Speaker 4: And then, I don't know what you guys might remember.
Speaker 4: What happened for me, just to bring you up to speed,
Speaker 4: was in two thousand and one, there was a writer's strike.
Speaker 4: Two thousand and one, just near the end of the
Speaker 4: resolution of the writer's strike was an actor's strike, and
Speaker 4: so all of us who were solid working actors go
Speaker 4: out of work for like a year and a half.
Speaker 4: And frankly, I wasn't prepared for it financially. I just
Speaker 4: hadn't you know, your viewers might find it interesting. I
Speaker 4: don't know. But when you were an actor, you know,
Speaker 4: in you're earning, you have you come off of a
Speaker 4: long period of not earning, so you begin to earn
Speaker 4: and suddenly you're paying down debts and you're you know,
Speaker 4: you're living. You try to live a little better than
Speaker 4: you have, and you know, maybe you let yourself enjoy
Speaker 4: life a bit more than you did, and suddenly you realize, oh,
Speaker 4: it might be another minute before I work again. And
Speaker 4: I just didn't have that savvy you know, to kind
Speaker 4: of figure out like, oh, wait a minute, you know,
Speaker 4: I've just come off a series. Let me save this
Speaker 4: portion or invest that portion, you know. I just didn't know.
Speaker 4: And so a year and a half go by, and
Speaker 4: I'm going through my savings, and by two thousand and two,
Speaker 4: two thousand and three, I was in a panic. And
Speaker 4: I also don't know if you guys remember, but that
Speaker 4: was the beginning of reality programming.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, killed the industry.
Speaker 4: Did and it made it a lot harder change the industry.
Speaker 4: It did change it, and not necessarily for the first
Speaker 4: for the worst, or it was harder, but then it
Speaker 4: became easier because a lot of other platforms developed for
Speaker 4: us all to work on and creative. But by two
Speaker 4: thousand and three, I was like and I spent a
Speaker 4: year auditioning. I was put on a veil fourteen times,
Speaker 4: oh my, and I was losing the parts to name
Speaker 4: actresses who were bigger than me, who had been waiting
Speaker 4: that same period of time for a job. And so
Speaker 4: I began to panic, and I began to seek out
Speaker 4: alternate ways to make a living. I also became very
Speaker 4: humble about finding alternate ways to make a living. You know,
Speaker 4: it's so important, and I didn't know this then. To
Speaker 4: keep working and to keep serving other people in any
Speaker 4: way that you can, so that you're not just earning
Speaker 4: and having a second income source, but that you are
Speaker 4: engaged in a meaningful way with other people, be they
Speaker 4: creatives or non you know, and thankful. It took me
Speaker 4: a really tough year of babysitting and just barely getting
Speaker 4: by to stumble upon an idea, which was to take
Speaker 4: used clothing and rework those pieces of clothing into fashion.
Speaker 7: You were upcycling before upcycling was a buzzy word like
Speaker 7: it is right now.
Speaker 4: I was a big part of that trend of upcycling,
Speaker 4: or you know Zach cool reworking. And I started out
Speaker 4: in a fleeting market, in a little ten by ten
Speaker 4: booth in a in a parking lot, And in the
Speaker 4: third month of my booth, I got offered a warehouse
Speaker 4: to build a store in. In the second month of
Speaker 4: that warehouse, the New York Times wrote about it.
Speaker 2: This is a Fairfax trading post you were at, right.
Speaker 4: I was at Fairfax, And because it was Fairfax in
Speaker 4: West Hollywood. Here I have humbled in a way I've
Speaker 4: become humble. I've I'll be honest. I spent a year
Speaker 4: babysitting at I cried every day what had happened to
Speaker 4: my life? All I knew was I had to start
Speaker 4: earning money, and I had to stop using credit cards
Speaker 4: to get by, and I had to stop waiting for
Speaker 4: residual checks. I had to get to work, which really
Speaker 4: means get engaged with other humans and find a way
Speaker 4: to serve them. And what I stumbled upon was I
Speaker 4: had a talent for dressing women and a talent for
Speaker 4: style because I had had a background in it. Sure,
Speaker 4: so here I go to the trading post. But my
Speaker 4: eyes when I go to these vintage stores, I mean
Speaker 4: to these thrift shops is for fashion. I'm like, well,
Speaker 4: Mark Jacobs is doing nineteen fifty and Louis Vuitton is
Speaker 4: doing nineteen sixty. And I could see that because I
Speaker 4: had the background. And so all the coolest girls in
Speaker 4: Hollywood are walking into my booth going like what are
Speaker 4: you doing? Like what is this? And I attracted this
Speaker 4: really cool group of celebrity young celebrities. They were all
Speaker 4: just about to break through into celebrity status. I'm being
Speaker 4: without tossing out names, really like the coolest it girls
Speaker 4: became my clients. I ended up with this warehouse store.
Speaker 4: I ended up getting covered by the press. But like crazy,
Speaker 4: I ended up working, you know, trend forecasting for all
Speaker 4: these huge designers, because girls who wear vintage clothing are
Speaker 4: always on the fringe. They're always the girl who wants
Speaker 4: to look different than everyone else. Fashion is created by
Speaker 4: from the ground up. Fashion is created by the people
Speaker 4: who really don't have the money to go into the stores.
Speaker 4: Once it's in the stores, it's on trend, it's already
Speaker 4: everybody wants to know what's coming. It's going to be
Speaker 4: that girl who's got the courage to look like nobody
Speaker 4: else and buy something in a thrift store and make
Speaker 4: it cool. And so those are my girls, and so
Speaker 4: everybody wanted to study them. And I did this for
Speaker 4: about twelve years, and it began to morph into another
Speaker 4: form of making clothes, and I began to make wedding dresses.
Speaker 4: And yeah, it's an amazing story, and I will tell
Speaker 4: you that now. I came back to New York in
Speaker 4: twenty sixteen. I went back to the Actors Studio. I
Speaker 4: began writing that story because this is a story of
Speaker 4: humility and transformation and purpose. I'm sorry, it makes me
Speaker 4: very emotional. Great because I learned when I stopped acting
Speaker 4: in that period because I couldn't get the work that
Speaker 4: I had growth to be done. I had growth to do,
Speaker 4: and that that would teach me what my purpose was,
Speaker 4: which was really to speak into the hearts of especially
Speaker 4: young women, and to encourage them to have a sense
Speaker 4: of self esteem and to have a sense of compassion
Speaker 4: for the self esteem and a commitment to their individuality.
Speaker 4: And this was the beginning of many designers designing and
Speaker 4: merchandising for authenticity, and it was the beginning of this
Speaker 4: trend of like, you don't need to be like it,
Speaker 4: you aren't like anyone else, and so claim your authenticity,
Speaker 4: which is a tremendous, really gift right to a human
Speaker 4: being to go like, oh, the coolest thing about me
Speaker 4: is me, you know it said, I get to be
Speaker 4: entirely authentically me. And that was a big part of
Speaker 4: my messaging as I worked with every little girl who
Speaker 4: was and they were all mostly very young girls who
Speaker 4: came to me for their prom, their first prom dress
Speaker 4: or their first important dress, their butt mitzvah dress, their
Speaker 4: prom dress, whatever, and I'm yeah, and I look at
Speaker 4: them and go like, oh, you listen to me, you
Speaker 4: are such a beauty here, let's choose you something cool.
Speaker 4: And I moved into the space of like really loving
Speaker 4: and supporting them, and they changed my life. So I
Speaker 4: in twenty sixteen, I come back to New York and
Speaker 4: I begin writing about this. And in twenty twenty, it
Speaker 4: was before COVID or after. It was just after COVID
Speaker 4: I the plague was ready. It was called Who Are You?
Speaker 4: It had six songs about girls and their moms and
Speaker 4: me and about really a form of faith, like what
Speaker 4: happens when you give your life over to something bigger,
Speaker 4: higher than you, and what will that thing do with you?
Speaker 4: It'll make your life a lot bigger than any life
Speaker 4: you can make for yourself. And I wrote this story
Speaker 4: and the first producers who heard it are developing it
Speaker 4: now for a big musical.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's great, congratulation.
Speaker 4: It's extraordinary and it's moving because well, I don't know,
Speaker 4: I guess it's kind of full circle. But Who Are
Speaker 4: You is now being developed into, you know, a musical
Speaker 4: with sixteen songs instead of six and I'm you know,
Speaker 4: I'm working on it. I literally you're meeting me at
Speaker 4: a very interesting moment, and I'm going to say this
Speaker 4: for you guys. You know, this business can discard you
Speaker 4: at different intervals of time, and I'm starting to realize
Speaker 4: that there is a gifting in it if you don't
Speaker 4: experience it, experience it as a rejection, but instead as
Speaker 4: an opportunity to look inward and figure out how you're
Speaker 4: changing and where your voice, what it is that you
Speaker 4: actually are starting to learn about life and how you're
Speaker 4: going to use that in your art, which is different
Speaker 4: than just being an actor. It's like, what are you
Speaker 4: here to say and do and give to this world?
Speaker 4: And when you've been given a unique opportunity, as you
Speaker 4: guys have been and I have in my own way,
Speaker 4: to address a larger audience, it becomes it is incumbent
Speaker 4: upon you to refine your voice, your messaging. What are
Speaker 4: you saying? Because people are listening to you, and they care,
Speaker 4: they and they value you, you know. And so I
Speaker 4: see now that in those ten years that I left
Speaker 4: the business, and I did leave it, I was refining
Speaker 4: another another understanding about life that I was going to
Speaker 4: then come back now years later. When many actors would
Speaker 4: feel that their value has diminished, I instead know that
Speaker 4: my value has actually increased. There I believe our society,
Speaker 4: there's almost a conspiracy against aging and against people who
Speaker 4: are artists who are aging or let's say seasoning or
Speaker 4: I don't know, marinating in life. I think that we
Speaker 4: become more powerful and more valuable. I know that what
Speaker 4: actually has happened is you become more potent, just as
Speaker 4: society or the industry might want to inhibit you. And
Speaker 4: I'm telling you, I'm here to tell you fight that
Speaker 4: urge and fight buying it. Don't believe it. You are
Speaker 4: arriving into this new period in your lives where you
Speaker 4: will produce, You're going to write, you're going to develop projects,
Speaker 4: and it's really critical that you maintain a sense of
Speaker 4: commitment to what you know, you carry, you know, and
Speaker 4: so yeah, here at this moment, you know, I've just
Speaker 4: written an adaptation of a one act play into a screenplay.
Speaker 4: We just shot it and it's beautiful. It's called a
Speaker 4: Tantalizing and it's a base on a William Master simone
Speaker 4: one act and I'm starring opposite John Cullum, who's a
Speaker 4: two time Tony winner and a five time Tony nominee
Speaker 4: and an Emmy nominee. And he's he's celebrated his ninety
Speaker 4: fourth verse birthday before we round stunning, stunning work. And
Speaker 4: I'm working on the musical which I can't tell you
Speaker 4: the new title, but it was called who Are You?
Speaker 4: And you know, again, my nature tells me who I
Speaker 4: am and tells me that I have no doubt that
Speaker 4: it'll occur because it's part of something bigger. It's a
Speaker 4: part of a bigger message that will have value and
Speaker 4: go forward. So I'm working on that. And I've written
Speaker 4: a play, an eight character play about financial inequality and
Speaker 4: what is fair? Is it fair for some people to
Speaker 4: have so much when so many people are suffering and
Speaker 4: have so little? And I say, it isn't It's not fair,
Speaker 4: you know, and the system isn't set up fairly, and
Speaker 4: that's something i have a lot of compassion for and
Speaker 4: I'm committed to articulating those messages. And it happens to
Speaker 4: be a comedy, so that's good. You know, a bunch
Speaker 4: of really like greedy people and how desperately they all
Speaker 4: want to find fairness, you know. So that's what I'm
Speaker 4: doing and that's what I'm up to, and it's also
Speaker 4: what I believe, and I want to encourage you guys
Speaker 4: to to own in your own careers, because you clearly
Speaker 4: came into this business to deliver something really important that
Speaker 4: impacted a lot of young people. And I'm pointing to
Speaker 4: that room because I still see bridal clients and much
Speaker 4: less than I used to because I am busier with
Speaker 4: creative ventures now. But these young women, especially those in
Speaker 4: their late twenties and thirties, when I tell them that
Speaker 4: I was sure, girls run out of the room screaming
Speaker 4: like like they it's almost like something that they didn't
Speaker 4: know has come to life before them, right, yes, because
Speaker 4: they it's because they loved you guys so much, and
Speaker 4: they loved Boy Meete's World so much.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for sharing all of that with us.
Speaker 7: I stories, I really enjoyed doing my research on you
Speaker 7: last night and learning about I'm a vintage clothing fanatic
Speaker 7: and so learning about you and just doing some research
Speaker 7: on that.
Speaker 2: I mean, you were a pioneer.
Speaker 7: You are a pioneer, and so thank you for sharing
Speaker 7: all of that with us. Finally, looking back now, it's
Speaker 7: been almost thirty years since you made your appearance on
Speaker 7: Boy Meets World. If you could look, if you could
Speaker 7: give a message to that Charene that Charene we met
Speaker 7: on Boy Meets World.
Speaker 2: What would your message to her be, Well, it's.
Speaker 4: A big part of what's in the play the musical
Speaker 4: is that message. And it took me so many years
Speaker 4: to learn it. But I you know, I speak to
Speaker 4: men and women, to all people. But I really couldn't
Speaker 4: see myself then. I didn't know the value of my presence.
Speaker 4: My shyness was really fear of connecting, of connection. I
Speaker 4: didn't know that when people would meet me that they
Speaker 4: would actually want to keep knowing me. I just assume
Speaker 4: that it was, you know, because I had done the job,
Speaker 4: that they were all being nice to me, instead of thinking, no,
Speaker 4: they care about me because I care about them. My
Speaker 4: message to her then would be tell everyone the truth.
Speaker 4: Give up your addictions. I was still an addiction at
Speaker 4: that time. I was struggling with a few things. And
Speaker 4: you know, addiction is tricky because it can be invisible
Speaker 4: to others. But if you suffer with addiction, it is
Speaker 4: inhibiting your sense of purpose. It is when you surrender
Speaker 4: your addictions, you move into the truth. And I wasn't
Speaker 4: yet living in the truth then because I was afraid
Speaker 4: to ask for help. And so again you know nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety six. Yeah, I wasn't yet entirely free. So that's
Speaker 4: part of my message too, is tell people the truth
Speaker 4: about everything. Tell everyone the truth. Human beings, we are
Speaker 4: wired to understand one another in the truth we are.
Speaker 4: We actually are wired to be compassionate and people will
Speaker 4: help you if you tell them what you're struggling with.
Speaker 4: And so I would say that I didn't know that
Speaker 4: I was beautiful. I'd say today I'm an attractive woman,
Speaker 4: But then I was a beautiful young woman, and I
Speaker 4: didn't know. I felt insecure, I felt not good enough.
Speaker 4: I felt that my value was based on my business
Speaker 4: appear I remember one day walking across a lot and
Speaker 4: some guys whistled at me, and I thought, Sharen, how
Speaker 4: many years is it going to take you to find freedom,
Speaker 4: you know, in your physical self? And honestly, I never
Speaker 4: really came to it until I gave up needing to
Speaker 4: have and I gave that. I began serving three young women.
Speaker 4: I began working with women, and I thought. I used
Speaker 4: to drive to my vintage store every day and say,
Speaker 4: I surrender my face because I know that nobody cared
Speaker 4: what I look like, and nobody cares what we look
Speaker 4: like also, you know, giving up a notion about my future.
Speaker 4: I was so desperately attached to being an actress that
Speaker 4: I couldn't see how many gifts I had that I
Speaker 4: could draw from, and that maybe I would go down
Speaker 4: other parts of the river, you know, into other little
Speaker 4: tributaries of my gifting and then come back, you know,
Speaker 4: into a richer But I couldn't see that. So I
Speaker 4: was holding on some tight gender that I had, not
Speaker 4: realizing that there was a latent talent, which was this
Speaker 4: talent for design and styling that would bring me back
Speaker 4: with even greater hits. But you know, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Life is perfect, you guys. It's painful and it's perfect,
Speaker 4: and it's heartbreaking and it's joyful and you just got
Speaker 4: to stay in it and tell people the truth, ask
Speaker 4: everyone for what you need, Like, tell people, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm working on this thing and I don't know who
Speaker 4: to talk to you, and I'm wondering how to do this.
Speaker 4: I didn't know how to do that. Then my community
Speaker 4: got smaller and smaller and smaller till I was completely isolated,
Speaker 4: going broke. But even going through that, now I see
Speaker 4: it was perfect for me going into the darkness, coming
Speaker 4: back out again as a whole person, as a healed
Speaker 4: person who was free of addiction. You know.
Speaker 2: So yeah, what a story.
Speaker 7: Thank you so much for sharing, and thank you for
Speaker 7: spending your time with us here today and telling us
Speaker 7: all about the wonderful things you're working on now. And
Speaker 7: what a fascinating, interesting, beautiful life.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 4: And I want to tell you also thank you for
Speaker 4: having me on and thank you for that you're doing this,
Speaker 4: not you know, for me, but I mean for the
Speaker 4: people that are hearing you. I think, bringing people back
Speaker 4: and talking about your experience again, You're sharing the value
Speaker 4: of your own lives. People want it, you know, they
Speaker 4: they need to know from you. So I hope that
Speaker 4: you all can doing other projects and keep expressing yourselves
Speaker 4: the way that you are so generously.
Speaker 2: So thank you. I appreciate you so much. So great
Speaker 2: to see you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 6: Good luck with all of your projects.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: What a story, what a life, My.
Speaker 5: Gosh, I want I wanted to ask her something, but
Speaker 5: it was I was so rived.
Speaker 6: I wanted to ask her who.
Speaker 5: She thought was the better actor, Jeff Bridges or Steven Seagall.
Speaker 1: But Yeah, that's a tough debate, isn't it.
Speaker 6: Seriously.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to go for the joke because I
Speaker 5: was so rivetted by what she was saying.
Speaker 6: I was like, this is not a time to joke.
Speaker 5: But everyone knows Steven Sagall is the better the two actors.
Speaker 7: It's so interesting, like her, her incredible life. It reminds me.
Speaker 7: I've talked about it before when we've done Q and
Speaker 7: as and people say like, what's your advice to somebody
Speaker 7: who wants to get into acting? And I always feel
Speaker 7: like a buzzkill saying, know what your plan B is
Speaker 7: because I don't necessary. I don't mean because you're probably
Speaker 7: gonna end up having to do it.
Speaker 2: But like, I didn't truly feel.
Speaker 7: Free to be creative until I knew if it doesn't,
Speaker 7: if somebody isn't going to give me a chance, if
Speaker 7: I'm not going to make it in acting, I have
Speaker 7: something else I love just as much I have something else.
Speaker 7: And for her, you know, she was holding onto it
Speaker 7: so tightly. I need to be an actor. I need
Speaker 7: to be an actor. I need to be an actor.
Speaker 7: She was going broke, and then she said, wait a minute,
Speaker 7: I have this fashion background, and she pursued this whole
Speaker 7: other part of her life that exactly like she said,
Speaker 7: ended up giving her so much more value in then
Speaker 7: the entertainment industry because she had that life experience. So
Speaker 7: it's just, you know, like she said, life is perfect
Speaker 7: the way it works out, even when you think it's
Speaker 7: a disaster and you're falling back on your Plan B. Like, yeah,
Speaker 7: it's just it's so great. How if you just let
Speaker 7: it unfold?
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think the key is, like, you know, the
Speaker 1: problem with acting or the challenge. The biggest challenge of
Speaker 1: acting is that so much of it is out of
Speaker 1: your control and you're constantly you know, being rejected. You're
Speaker 1: constantly not getting parts. So that's part of the job, right.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, you're swinging and missing more often
Speaker 1: than you're actually hitting. But that's okay. But the problem
Speaker 1: is you start to feel like that's not okay, that
Speaker 1: you're being pushed out of the industry, that you're being
Speaker 1: told well, you're not really talented, you're not actually you
Speaker 1: don't belong here y. And so I think having a
Speaker 1: Plan B is exactly right. But it's not even that
Speaker 1: it needs to be a career. It just needs to
Speaker 1: be a passion or a sense of self. It doesn't
Speaker 1: is not tether to the your status within the industry,
Speaker 1: because your status within the industry is a nightmare. And
Speaker 1: if you if you're looking to that to give you
Speaker 1: a sense of self, you're never going to be satisfied.
Speaker 1: You're never going to be happy, you know. And I
Speaker 1: think it took me way too long to realize that.
Speaker 6: You know, well, it's also when you're younger, an actor
Speaker 6: is what you are. When you're older, an actor is
Speaker 6: what you do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and those are two completely different things. I'm an
Speaker 5: actor and that it's what I do. It's no longer
Speaker 5: who I am. But when you're when you're seventeen, eighteen
Speaker 5: years old, it's who you are.
Speaker 3: I'm an actor right now.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, you know, you want to be categorized,
Speaker 1: you know, especially in high school age, Like that's what
Speaker 1: you want, right It's like a sense of identity and like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is this is I found who I am. And
Speaker 1: the truth is, you found what you're going to do,
Speaker 1: maybe for the next couple of years, maybe for the
Speaker 1: rest of your life. But yeah, yeah, I gotta I
Speaker 1: gotta remember that to like encourage INDI you know, because
Speaker 1: I feel like there's a tendency as a parent and
Speaker 1: as a friend, as anybody to look at somebody be like,
Speaker 1: you're this type of person, and you just it's so
Speaker 1: much better to be like, you're you're having fun doing that,
Speaker 1: You're doing this really well, keep doing that maybe for
Speaker 1: a while, but it's not gonna be like, it's not
Speaker 1: your identity, it's your occupation.
Speaker 5: That's it, and that's the need to passions, right, that's
Speaker 5: do it.
Speaker 7: So yeah, well, thank you all for joining us for
Speaker 7: this episode of Podmeets World. As always, you can follow
Speaker 7: us on Instagram Podmeets World Show. You can send us
Speaker 7: your emails podmeets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 6: And we have merch like wow, bizarre merch.
Speaker 7: Podmeets Worldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 6: We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 5: Pod Meets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by
Speaker 5: Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder Strong.
Speaker 6: Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman.
Speaker 5: Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor,
Speaker 5: Tara Sudbacks, producer, Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy meets World
Speaker 5: super fan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle
Speaker 5: Morton of Typhoon, and you can follow us on Instagram
Speaker 5: at Podmets World Show or email us at Podmetsworldshow at
Speaker 5: gmail dot com