Speaker 1: Misspelling with Tory Spelling and iHeartRadio podcast. Then we came
Speaker 1: back around again, we did was it originally titled Friend
Speaker 1: to Die For? Or Death of a Cheerleader?
Speaker 2: It was originally titled a friends Really it was that
Speaker 2: was the opposite. And then I think, when I want,
Speaker 2: I may be wrong about this, but I think when Lifetime,
Speaker 2: when it aired on Lifetime, they renamed it Death of
Speaker 2: a Cheerleader.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure, okay.
Speaker 2: Because what I watched last night had all the original
Speaker 2: credits and it was a front to Die For. So
Speaker 2: I have to say that it's a really good little movie.
Speaker 2: It really is, And there's so many talented people. And
Speaker 2: now when they make TV movies, because they're so cheap
Speaker 2: about it, they like barely have any supporting characters. There's
Speaker 2: just like the two leads and then like barely they
Speaker 2: barely give anyone else any kind of arcs or development.
Speaker 2: And there was a cast of characters who were all
Speaker 2: interesting and talented and had dialogue and had like you
Speaker 2: cared about them. And it was shot in la and shot.
Speaker 1: It never happens, wes.
Speaker 2: Like I know, it never happened. So it was so
Speaker 2: nice to watch it and be like Wow, this was
Speaker 2: this really good little movie, and you were you were
Speaker 2: actually It's it's interesting because you were actually you were
Speaker 2: actually likable too. I feel like your character wasn't one dimensional,
Speaker 2: wasn't just like just the bitchy girl. Like your character
Speaker 2: was really likable. And then my character, who was actually
Speaker 2: a murderer, she was likable too. Like there was like
Speaker 2: you rooted for kind of both of them in a way.
Speaker 1: I don't think you and I could not be like
Speaker 1: we have that quality. I've never had thing.
Speaker 2: I've never played somewhat. I've never played the villain. I mean,
Speaker 2: I was the murderer, but she still wasn't the villain.
Speaker 1: Weird would be a likable villain. Yeah, I was likable, bitch.
Speaker 1: It's just it's okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So were you still doing nine O two one zero?
Speaker 2: When we did it was because I think I was
Speaker 2: just finished with life goes on. I think life goes on,
Speaker 2: it just canceld.
Speaker 1: So we started in nineteen ninety, right, We started in
Speaker 1: eighty nine and ended in and we ended in ninety three.
Speaker 2: We were eighty nine to ninety three.
Speaker 1: In ninety three, ninety four, Yeah, okay, I want to
Speaker 1: say it was ninety.
Speaker 2: Four Okay, so like was on had just gotten canceled,
Speaker 2: I'm playing a killer, and I'm I'm in a dark
Speaker 2: place when I did that movie. Just like like I said,
Speaker 2: I was very methody, I was dark, I was I
Speaker 2: was this, I was this sad little person when I
Speaker 2: did that movie. So all of that every time I
Speaker 2: had to cry, like all that stuff like easy peasy,
Speaker 2: because I was. I was so devastated. My whole life
Speaker 2: was just the rug was just taken out from under me.
Speaker 2: Because when they can people don't know this, or maybe
Speaker 2: they do. It's your family. I mean, when you do
Speaker 2: a series for four years, that is your family, and
Speaker 2: then when the network just decides to cancel it, like
Speaker 2: they're like okay, you can't see your family anymore. Your
Speaker 2: family's disbanded, and it's so devastating. So I know I
Speaker 2: was carrying all that into that movie that we did,
Speaker 2: into A Friend to Die for.
Speaker 1: Well, I got to say, I never knew that because
Speaker 1: I remember thinking I was scared to see you because
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, we did Troop Beverly Hills, and
Speaker 1: they were the cool girls and they had their whole group,
Speaker 1: and you were always nice to me. But you were
Speaker 1: still with that group, and I was like, what's it
Speaker 1: going to be like? And then when you saw me,
Speaker 1: you were really nice to me, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I felt like we were equals now, and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: I felt better. So yeah, I never saw any of them.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm so glad because I also was reading I
Speaker 2: remember I was also reading the Diarrheaman Frank, and that
Speaker 2: was getting me really dark too, you know, like I
Speaker 2: was in just a really dark place.
Speaker 1: And chopping up cucumbers, you know.
Speaker 2: I know, randomly the knife in the car, Like I
Speaker 2: don't actually what's funny is you know, now as an adult,
Speaker 2: like I would research the true story that we that
Speaker 2: we made. I mean, it's a true story, right, But
Speaker 2: I didn't at the time, so I don't even know
Speaker 2: if there just was a knife in the car.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you that because I never
Speaker 1: thought to do that. Like both girls were the real girls,
Speaker 1: and I never even thought like, and they didn't even
Speaker 1: encourage us, like, hey, girls, you might want to like
Speaker 1: do some research. We have some material nothing.
Speaker 2: No, nothing, nothing.
Speaker 1: And it was a fictionalized story, I know.
Speaker 2: And it's crazy because I think the girl I played
Speaker 2: served seven years in Juvenile and then was released, and
Speaker 2: I do remember thinking knowing that there was that I
Speaker 2: was playing a real person, and knowing that I wanted
Speaker 2: to portray her as someone who made a horrible mistake
Speaker 2: as opposed to, you know, being being calculated and all
Speaker 2: of that. And I definitely wanted to portray her as
Speaker 2: someone who was worthy of compassion. That was kind of
Speaker 2: like my driving force, I think. But yeah, no, didn't
Speaker 2: didn't research any of the real stuff.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Oh my gosh. And all the friends.
Speaker 1: The friends were incredible, like Marle, Carlie Shelton, who else,
Speaker 1: Like every time I watch I see someone new, I
Speaker 1: know you.
Speaker 3: Were in it. I don't, I don't.
Speaker 2: And they all had they all had lines, and they
Speaker 2: all had like you all knew, you knew who they
Speaker 2: all were. Like TV movies aren't like that anymore. They
Speaker 2: just really aren't. They're just so bare bones now. And
Speaker 2: that movie was full and yeah, I actually like I
Speaker 2: watched it last night and I was like, this is
Speaker 2: a good little movie. And we are we were so cute,
Speaker 2: we were so young, we were so little. I'm actually
Speaker 2: I think I'm seventeen in the movie. I have a
Speaker 2: daughter who's seventeen right.
Speaker 1: Now, You're like, don't do this, don't do this, don't
Speaker 1: kill the popular girl.
Speaker 2: No, it's a move, it's a bad move.
Speaker 3: How old is your old toy?
Speaker 1: Seventeen? Really, my aldes at sudden is seventeen?
Speaker 3: Is he senior?
Speaker 1: He is a sixteen year old daughter?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Wow, we're going through the college application
Speaker 2: circus right now and it's consuming me.
Speaker 1: Hey, it overwhelms me. I'm out. It was never my
Speaker 1: cham I'm just like, ask your dad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's no, it's weird to think that. I like,
Speaker 2: when I was watching the last like, I'm like, that
Speaker 2: is the same age as my daughter now, And it
Speaker 2: doesn't make me feel old. It's just like wow, Like
Speaker 2: I was like, what a legacy doing this. I've been
Speaker 2: doing this for decades, you.
Speaker 3: Know, forty over forty years?
Speaker 1: What you look so young? And you say the number
Speaker 1: and it's like I know, I know, but so do you?
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 2: And that's also why when people meet us in person,
Speaker 2: they have no idea where where to put us in
Speaker 2: their mind, like we're either ten or we're twenty or what.
Speaker 2: We're definitely not our age, Like it definitely is not.
Speaker 1: That thank goodness, Thank goodness. Okay, so friend to we
Speaker 1: had that experience and then they made the remake, Oh right, right,
Speaker 1: A friend and die for Yes, yes, yes, yes did
Speaker 1: they I think they called it a death of a
Speaker 1: cheerleader they did this time, Okay.
Speaker 2: I think so. And I played an FBI agent, So
Speaker 2: I did like you did, re sints you did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was. I was a little sad though that
Speaker 1: I was not contacted.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, toy. I had nothing to do with it
Speaker 2: other than I showed up for my three scenes. I
Speaker 2: did not produce it, because had I produced it, we
Speaker 2: would have called you my friend.
Speaker 1: Well, when you do O g things, people want O
Speaker 1: GPS and that would be you and me.
Speaker 2: That's true. No, You're You're absolutely right.
Speaker 1: And when I heard that it was coming out, I
Speaker 1: even put a picture of you and I like our
Speaker 1: death scene on my feet and my Instagram like, oh
Speaker 1: look what's coming thinking that the.
Speaker 2: Publicity shot up us like holding the night one. It's
Speaker 2: the funniest picture and.
Speaker 1: Actually on all fours looking up your you're kind of
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, and I'm very casual about it. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I've got a knife and I'm holding it over you.
Speaker 2: And the way that scene actually ended up in the
Speaker 2: movie is it's very blurry and you really don't see anything.
Speaker 2: I don't remember. I didn't remember that until I rewatched
Speaker 2: it and I was like, oh, yeah, you really don't see
Speaker 2: the murder. It's very impressionistic.
Speaker 1: You just hear I am a horrible screamer, not a
Speaker 1: good love horror films, not a good horror movie screamer.
Speaker 1: But you can hear my life castle he sounds okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: And then like I get back in the car and
Speaker 2: I'm like, actually, my favorite part of the whole movie,
Speaker 2: which feels very out of it's like when it's on
Speaker 2: my face. It's actually before I come and stab you.
Speaker 2: It's like it keeps the frame keeps going like this,
Speaker 2: it's like on my face. And then I'm like, you know,
Speaker 2: like I was wondering, like what was going through my
Speaker 2: head when I was filming that, like about to kill someone, Like.
Speaker 3: What is that feeling?
Speaker 2: And then and then I'm sure we did that because
Speaker 2: it's the city, you know, it's the car. So they're like, okay, Kelly,
Speaker 2: we got that. Now you've just killed her. Okay. Action,
Speaker 2: So then there's like the post killing face, you know,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, it's crazy what we do. It's we
Speaker 2: have the weirdest jobs on the planet. It's crazy. That's
Speaker 2: actually something I think about this a lot, because I
Speaker 2: go to extremes very quickly in my real life, you know.
Speaker 2: I do it with my children. I'm very cautious in whatever,
Speaker 2: and I go to like worst case scenarios like that
Speaker 2: is my like gohoji, I don't. I'm not modulated in
Speaker 2: any way, and I'm married to someone from Montana who's
Speaker 2: very calm, so drives them crazy. But I really think
Speaker 2: it's because of all roles we've played, like all the
Speaker 2: parts I've played like I've been kidnapped, I've been stabbed,
Speaker 2: I have stabbed like I I've done such extreme I've
Speaker 2: been taken hostage. So I'm not nor My reactions to
Speaker 2: things aren't normal.
Speaker 1: I'm going to use that now on My ex husband
Speaker 1: used to be like, why do you act like this
Speaker 1: like you always think the worst is gonna happen? That's right,
Speaker 1: because hello.
Speaker 2: It does and very real like for for reels, put
Speaker 2: ourselves in that position in order to tray the emotion
Speaker 2: that the convincing emotion that we need to give to people.
Speaker 2: So those so all those triggers did y'all all in there?
Speaker 2: So all it takes is for someone to press a
Speaker 2: button and I'm like, you know, I go crazy because
Speaker 2: I'm like, I know what it feels like to pretend
Speaker 2: get protected.
Speaker 4: Such a valid point I might have understand.
Speaker 3: But in therapy a lot too.
Speaker 2: There's a chance.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's amazing.
Speaker 2: Did you start seeing a therapist as a kid, like
Speaker 2: Beverly Hills people, the people who have money. No, I
Speaker 2: didn't start seeing a therapist until uh twenty probably twenty
Speaker 2: years ago, and boy, was at a revelation.
Speaker 3: I was like, really, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Here all my suitcases full of sorrows and stuff. I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna put them right here and I'm open them
Speaker 2: up and let's take it out. And it was just
Speaker 2: like God, bless this amazing woman, Beth, God bless Beth.
Speaker 2: She just sat there and listened because I'm like, I
Speaker 2: got a lot of stuff to unload here. And then
Speaker 2: once you know, once that like big like wasn then
Speaker 2: like now it can be normal, it can be kind
Speaker 2: of like a just a session. But before it was
Speaker 2: like I had never seen a therapist and I've been
Speaker 2: an actress since I was seven years old. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I got some stuff to talk about, and now it's reasonable,
Speaker 2: But before it was just like I didn't even know
Speaker 2: where my car was parked after a session beginning, I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh. Like also, my parents split up when
Speaker 2: I was doing Life Goes On when I was fifteen.
Speaker 2: My sister died when I was old. Was I twenty one,
Speaker 2: twenty two, twenty two, so like there was so much
Speaker 2: life stuff and then there was all this child actor
Speaker 2: shit r that I had to talk about. So it's
Speaker 2: a it's been a journey. Thank God for Beth and
Speaker 2: my husband.
Speaker 1: You had to keep working. You couldn't even process like
Speaker 1: a normal child, right.
Speaker 2: Well. You know it's interesting is when my parents split
Speaker 2: up and I was doing Life goes On, I definitely
Speaker 2: channeled everything into my character because I played a girl
Speaker 2: g all who like to slam the doors, She like
Speaker 2: to like to yell sometimes. So I just put that
Speaker 2: all into my work. And I actually like and pretty
Speaker 2: much every TV movie I've ever done, I've had to
Speaker 2: cry a bunch so I get it out, you know,
Speaker 2: I use my job in that way.
Speaker 3: My factor's version yeah, we're all a little method.
Speaker 2: Let's be honest.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true, it's true. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: But the most interesting actors are people who've been through stuff.
Speaker 2: If you haven't been through stuff, you're not an interesting actor.
Speaker 1: Hmm.
Speaker 2: Patty Lapone told me that, So it's real.
Speaker 1: Have you seen Agatha all along?
Speaker 2: I haven't seen it yet.
Speaker 1: It's so good.
Speaker 2: My daughter's been watching it and she's like, my daughter,
Speaker 2: Maggie cannot believe that I am friends with Patty. I'm
Speaker 2: like friends with her, Like she's like my second mom.
Speaker 2: Like she's actually going to New York this weekend and
Speaker 2: we're staying with her. And Maggie's so excited.
Speaker 3: I'm like, she sees her in a new light now
Speaker 3: totally does.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And like Patty, she's seventy I think she's seventy
Speaker 4: six years old and her corner ye's on fire, on fire,
Speaker 4: And Matty's like, I can't believe you know Patty the poem.
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, I know, Patty, that's crazy. I who
Speaker 3: love it.
Speaker 1: Have they watched Lights Goes On?
Speaker 2: No? I have them on VHS and I don't have
Speaker 2: a VHS, so my.
Speaker 1: Dad doesn't stream anywhere.
Speaker 3: It doesn't what it doesn't stream because is that possible?
Speaker 2: Well, I was told they had some weird like music
Speaker 2: rights issues, so they couldn't sell it into syndication or stream.
Speaker 2: So no, my kids haven't seen it. But I have
Speaker 2: a big box of VHS tapes that my father recorded.
Speaker 2: He'd like play and record every Sunday night to record
Speaker 2: the episode, and then he would title the tapes whatever
Speaker 2: he thought the episode was. It's like quirky Dances or uh,
Speaker 2: it wasn't even like Tyler Tyler Benchfield got like killed
Speaker 2: in a car accident. And he's like, and he didn't
Speaker 2: call it Tyler. He's like Tommy dies Chad gets aids
Speaker 2: like it's just like the craziest titles and it's just
Speaker 2: my dad like conflating their real names, and it's like
Speaker 2: it's the funniest.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, we were just transferred over right, there's
Speaker 1: a place must be ice.
Speaker 2: But you know, I just haven't done it yet. I
Speaker 2: need to because they're pretty amazing.
Speaker 3: Oh such, and I got them.
Speaker 1: Allow that was like my childhood show. Oh everybody, everybody, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah.
Speaker 2: It was. It was a pretty massive experience for me.
Speaker 2: I hate to say that I peaked at thirteen, but
Speaker 2: that's I don't think I'll ever be honest shore like
Speaker 2: that again. It was amazing. I mean, like, yeah, it
Speaker 2: was cool to be cast in New York. But for
Speaker 2: as successful as that show is and how amazing that
Speaker 2: show is, nothing holds a candle to Life goes On.
Speaker 2: Nothing can compete in my in my mind because that
Speaker 2: was just a singular experience. And Chris Burke, who played Quirky,
Speaker 2: absolutely changed my life for the better. He made me
Speaker 2: such a better person. And I remember when I auditioned
Speaker 2: for Life Goes On. I asked the casting director in
Speaker 2: the first audition, I'm like, so the person who's played
Speaker 2: in Quirky, is he really going to have Down syndrome?
Speaker 2: And she looked at me and she's like, uh, yeah,
Speaker 2: is that really something? You can act like you have
Speaker 2: Down syndrome or you don't. And he was the first
Speaker 2: person I ever spent any time with who had Down
Speaker 2: syndrome or anything like that and change my life. And he's,
Speaker 2: by the way, he's doing well. He's he's still you know,
Speaker 2: he's he lives in a in like a group home,
Speaker 2: but he's got his family around him. And I talked
Speaker 2: to him. I talked to him probably a couple times
Speaker 2: a year.
Speaker 1: So I love hearing that that you stay in touch.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah for our generation that that show like changed
Speaker 1: our generation, But so did.
Speaker 2: I know two one Oh.
Speaker 1: Honestly, like, it's hard to look at it that way
Speaker 1: when it's your show. It is you know, you know,
Speaker 1: like I hear you and you probably hear me, But
Speaker 1: it's like.
Speaker 2: But your show was so gutsy. It was gutsy in
Speaker 2: so many ways as well, but it was also.
Speaker 1: Two kids, thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were really lucky, Like how who gets to
Speaker 2: do that? Who gets to do that? What a gift?
Speaker 1: A moment in time that never be replicated. Really, it's
Speaker 1: a different time of television making.
Speaker 2: And actually everybody told me, everybody told me after forty
Speaker 2: everything changes in the business, and I was like, oh no,
Speaker 2: that won't be that won't be my experience, and it
Speaker 2: definitely does change. We also had the Lovely Pandemic, so
Speaker 2: that changed a lot of things too. I actually ended
Speaker 2: up staying home for like really all of it and
Speaker 2: realized how much my kids needed me. So I told
Speaker 2: my husband, I'm like, Okay, you work full time now
Speaker 2: and I'm going to stay home and be a mama
Speaker 2: for a while. And that's also probably why we have
Speaker 2: all these animals too, because I was like, you collected animals,
Speaker 2: collected animals during the pandemic, so like that's just what happened,
Speaker 2: makes sense?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did that. We hatched a lot of things,
Speaker 1: some quails.
Speaker 2: Damp Oh did you really how we did a baby quail?
Speaker 2: I don't think there's anything newterer than that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Think animals are the best way to teach children empathy.
Speaker 1: I agree with that.
Speaker 3: I think you just let.
Speaker 2: The animals do the work and boom, you get an
Speaker 2: empathetic kid because they're around an animal that needs it,
Speaker 2: needs to you know, you need to feed it, you
Speaker 2: need to be gentle with it. Like I really think
Speaker 2: that that is Gosh. My seventeen year old has the
Speaker 2: biggest heart. She's so loving and so gentle and so patient.
Speaker 2: I am not those things. I'm like very like, let's
Speaker 2: get it done, and I'm like very type A and
Speaker 2: all the things, and she is not. And I really
Speaker 2: credit the animals for that of having that effect on her.
Speaker 1: Except the cleanup, my mind don't want to clean up.
Speaker 3: No, I clean up up.
Speaker 2: I clean up and there's all kinds of different poop
Speaker 2: that I have to deal with, so many different kinds.
Speaker 2: But it's okay. You know, it's like it's my baby.
Speaker 2: I don't mind changing the day. It feels a little
Speaker 2: bit like that when it's your animals. It's like it's fine.
Speaker 2: So like whenever somebody comes to my bar and we're like, oh,
Speaker 2: there's got poop, I'm like, yeah.
Speaker 1: So you're welcome.
Speaker 3: I don't even exactly.
Speaker 1: No poop is great. I don't used to love eating
Speaker 1: goat poop. It was like dessert.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's black beans.
Speaker 1: It's fine.