Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Girl.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to I Choose Me. This bonus episode is
Speaker 2: pure fun, you guys, with the amazing Alison Sweeney, we're
Speaker 2: going to do a lightning round to inject some joy
Speaker 2: into your day. So let's do this. Okay, Allison, you
Speaker 2: played a soap opera character who was brilliant, ambitious, slightly ruthless,
Speaker 2: and absolutely iconic. So if Sammy Brady wandered into a
Speaker 2: Hallmark Christmas town, well, I have three choices. Is she
Speaker 2: taking over the festival planning committee by day three? Is
Speaker 2: she secretly buying the struggling in or is she falling
Speaker 2: for the man in town who is not impressed by
Speaker 2: her resume?
Speaker 3: Boy, that's it, there's some good options there. I think
Speaker 3: she is.
Speaker 4: I think she's taking over the festival committee. Like right
Speaker 4: from the beginning, she's in charms and it's her way
Speaker 4: or the highway.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I love that about her.
Speaker 2: Have you ever accidentally been recognized for a character that
Speaker 2: you didn't play or even like another celebrity?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I have been recognized as Reese Witherspoon on more than
Speaker 4: one occasion. Okay, and one time I just took it, like, oh,
Speaker 4: thank you, I'm so glad you like I just I mean,
Speaker 4: I can't do accents. I wish I could toss in
Speaker 4: a little bit of her southern southern thing. I wish
Speaker 4: I could, But I just tried to like minimize the
Speaker 4: and just take the komplument and move along.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Sometimes it's easier to just go along with it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The other one is because daytime, I think is so
Speaker 4: familiar to people that sometimes I get like did we
Speaker 4: go to high school together?
Speaker 3: Where do I from?
Speaker 4: And then you find yourself running through your entire happen you,
Speaker 4: like find yourself running through your entire resume trying to
Speaker 4: find you like this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, no, okay, how about yeah?
Speaker 3: Then I don't I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm then you got You're like we never met,
Speaker 2: you don't know me?
Speaker 1: Okay. Uh, let's see.
Speaker 2: Weirdest place you've been asked for an autograph or a selfie?
Speaker 2: Where's the like the most surprising place?
Speaker 4: Someone's most surprising place was in a woman's bathroom, like
Speaker 4: on my way in, which is like you know you
Speaker 4: there's submergency sometimes.
Speaker 1: Like when you're on your head open.
Speaker 4: The stall, like like this is I'm now my brain
Speaker 4: has already committed.
Speaker 3: To what's about to happen, and I'm ready, and.
Speaker 4: It's sometimes desperate for this situation, and and like I can't.
Speaker 4: I cannot, And normally, of course I'm like and then
Speaker 4: you is she gonna wait?
Speaker 1: Now are they listening to me? pH?
Speaker 2: Are they're recording my piece out?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: That's fun, fun times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, this is about a little hallmarky too, which
Speaker 2: is harder to pull off convincingly. A Christmas ball gown
Speaker 2: in fake snow, or heels while running from danger in
Speaker 2: a mystery movie while it's raining.
Speaker 4: The heels running in a mystery movie while it's raining,
Speaker 4: because that's actually happened to me. And that's hard to
Speaker 4: do convincingly because then inevitably, once you get to the
Speaker 4: close up, you take the heels off and now you're
Speaker 4: in like comfy shoes and you know, so.
Speaker 3: They have those like cozy boots and stuff.
Speaker 4: But then you have to sort of like pretend like
Speaker 4: you're still walking like you were in the Master, you know,
Speaker 4: trying to sell that I'm uncomfortable in the shoes.
Speaker 3: It's all that can be tricky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Rain's hard to work.
Speaker 3: In Yeah, the rain.
Speaker 4: And then the thing about working up here in Vancouver
Speaker 4: is they sort of tend to pretend like it's not raining.
Speaker 4: And when you're from Los Angeles, you know, everyone freaks
Speaker 4: out about.
Speaker 2: No and you're like, hi, guys, I'm getting drenched.
Speaker 1: Is that not a problem?
Speaker 3: Is that a problem? That were like anyone? And they're like, oh, really,
Speaker 3: I hadn't noticed it was raining.
Speaker 2: Like oh, going, okay, would you actually like to live
Speaker 2: in a hallmark town or on Hope's Swinson's Ranch?
Speaker 1: I know they answer to.
Speaker 3: That, Oh yeah, the answers Hope Swinson's Ranch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we both that I would have lived there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she everyone wants to live it. And those sources
Speaker 4: were adorable.
Speaker 3: Like it was. It was such a great It was like,
Speaker 3: oh my gosh.
Speaker 4: While the movie sort of was talking myself into like
Speaker 4: maybe I really could do this, like maybe we should throw,
Speaker 4: you know, sell everything and like Bible ranch and.
Speaker 3: Get some horses.
Speaker 1: Why didn't you do it?
Speaker 3: I'm still considering it, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how old are your girls?
Speaker 2: Nineteen twenty three and twenty eight? Wow, I know I'm
Speaker 2: going to it's gonna be hard when one of them
Speaker 2: goes into the thirties, and then I'm going to be like, wow,
Speaker 2: I'm old.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I my son is turning twenty one tomorrow, and
Speaker 4: and I sort of like hadn't really come to terms
Speaker 4: with it until you know, I still haven't.
Speaker 3: Really it's happening, and I'm like, it's a lot. That's
Speaker 3: a lot to take in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, your baby, that was your baby.
Speaker 2: Okay, back to Hallmark. You're stranded in a snowstorm in
Speaker 2: a small town.
Speaker 1: Who saves you? Is it A the flannel clad contractor.
Speaker 2: Who's absolutely hot, or be the brooding single dad who
Speaker 2: owns his own bakery, or See the mysterious guy restoring
Speaker 2: the inn.
Speaker 4: Well, I feel like I See might be a similar character,
Speaker 4: but I would probably go like see like the suited
Speaker 4: guy who has.
Speaker 3: The money to restore it, and A is the contract
Speaker 3: deftly does it right?
Speaker 1: Definitely?
Speaker 3: I think I would have to go with A.
Speaker 4: I love I love the flannel you know guy that
Speaker 4: like can work with his hands.
Speaker 1: Okay, I believe you.
Speaker 2: Okay, you're the queen of the Hallmark mysteries, which made
Speaker 2: me think about what would I want my own character
Speaker 2: to do if I had my own mystery? Oh yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I need your help, you executive production.
Speaker 4: So the key is that what we love about them
Speaker 4: is that like it's a regular job that like people
Speaker 4: do and then they and then they happened. So for example,
Speaker 4: my best example of like the clues that as a
Speaker 4: baker solve the mystery was one time when she knew
Speaker 4: the time of death because of the person who had
Speaker 4: died had a pie left in the oven, and so
Speaker 4: Hannah could like kind of off her eye, knew how
Speaker 4: overcooked that the crust was, like it was burnt, but
Speaker 4: not that burnt, so it could only have been like
Speaker 4: forty minutes that that pie was in the oven. And
Speaker 4: I was like, and I just thought that was like
Speaker 4: the quintessential like perfect clue as like for a baker
Speaker 4: to solve.
Speaker 3: You know, So you want to have a.
Speaker 4: Job that you would that seems like totally normal and
Speaker 4: everybody does it, but you use your instinct, like but
Speaker 4: it requires good special skills.
Speaker 1: I love that most. Maybe I could be like work
Speaker 1: in a flower shop.
Speaker 4: A flower shop, Yeah, you could be a florist.
Speaker 3: You could be we do what about a hairdresser? Do
Speaker 3: you like?
Speaker 1: I like that idea.
Speaker 4: We haven't done hairdresser, and I feel like those they
Speaker 4: get people to talk, or manicurists like they get people that.
Speaker 1: People spill the tea all the time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, totally, what is that.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they do that.
Speaker 2: I find myself doing it too. I think it's like
Speaker 2: the awkward not with a manicurist, but like definitely with
Speaker 2: hair people.
Speaker 1: I hair people, people who do your hair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm always I find myself talking to them about
Speaker 2: really intimate or deep things when Yeah, why, I don't.
Speaker 3: Know, I don't. I mean they're close to you for
Speaker 3: a long time and.
Speaker 1: You're just sitting there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Also there's something about them petting her hair, like yeah,
Speaker 2: it's very soothing and comforting.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's why.
Speaker 4: Makeup artists too though, And they're right in your face,
Speaker 4: like your face in their face are like right here.
Speaker 4: So you tell you you find yourself telling them everything too,
Speaker 4: every So that could be fun because I feel like
Speaker 4: that's a good special skill to have, is you get
Speaker 4: people to tell you things. So I always have the
Speaker 4: thing with the baking that I bring people cookies and
Speaker 4: it gets them to open up to me and tell me.
Speaker 4: Steph And we had one we had one scene where
Speaker 4: someone says to me like really you just give cookies
Speaker 4: and I'm like, it works, don't art you know, I
Speaker 4: can't explain it.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is a little bit of a Lightning
Speaker 2: round Hallmark edition. Okay, So do you prefer to act
Speaker 2: out a love triangle or a surprise engagement? Surprise engagement
Speaker 2: more fun?
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay?
Speaker 2: Preference for a plot city girl goes home or hometown
Speaker 2: girl goes to the big city.
Speaker 3: City girl goes home or goes to small town. Okay?
Speaker 2: Do you prefer one take or do you like doing
Speaker 2: like seventeen takes one take? What you're a one take wonder?
Speaker 4: I'm a one taker yeah, I mean just from the
Speaker 4: soap background.
Speaker 3: Oh, but this is lightning, so I won't. I won't
Speaker 3: fill out the answer. That's okay.
Speaker 1: Easier to work with a baby or an animal. That's
Speaker 1: a tricky.
Speaker 3: One animal animal. Yeah, but barely.
Speaker 4: I mean that's a that's that's hard.
Speaker 3: That's hard. It's all hard.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: One last one, what do what do you prefer hot
Speaker 2: cocoa or champagne?
Speaker 4: Is this in real life?
Speaker 1: No, I'm just like in the in the Hallmark movie
Speaker 1: to culminate the sort of happy ending.
Speaker 4: Yeah, hot cocoa, because fake champagne tastes terrible.
Speaker 3: I can't, I can't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like sparkly watered down apple juice.
Speaker 3: Real, Yeah, it's terrible.
Speaker 2: So okay, let's just sort of bring it back to
Speaker 2: our original conversation as we end. This is a bonus
Speaker 2: I choose me moment. What was one career choice that
Speaker 2: felt scary to you but it turned out to be
Speaker 2: the right move and the end.
Speaker 4: Well, the actual literal answer of that is when I
Speaker 4: agreed to be on the celebrity edition of Fear Factor.
Speaker 4: Oh that was scary and I knew it was scary.
Speaker 1: Wait what did you have to do?
Speaker 3: Oh? It was pretty scary.
Speaker 4: The cool thing was the fun one was hanging outside
Speaker 4: a building in downtown LA.
Speaker 3: We were on like the fortieth story.
Speaker 4: Outside the window, they removed like the panels like this,
Speaker 4: and you had to crawl around the edging of the
Speaker 4: building from one around the turn of the corner.
Speaker 1: Are you afraid of heights?
Speaker 3: And I'm not afraid of heights?
Speaker 4: And I sort of, like, as an actor, knew like
Speaker 4: they can't kill me, you know for sure? Yeah, I
Speaker 4: was like in a suit. I actually sort of thought
Speaker 4: if I fall, like, that's cool. Too, So I wasn't
Speaker 4: really afraid of that one at all.
Speaker 3: It just it was really hard.
Speaker 4: And then the really horrible one was they did tell
Speaker 4: us they wouldn't like they did have like certain agreements
Speaker 4: with the celebrities, but then it turned out not to
Speaker 4: be a blessing because I was in a coffin with
Speaker 4: snakes and worms and then they poured madagascar hissing cockroaches
Speaker 4: around my face. So anyone who hasn't seen it, feel
Speaker 4: free to google this on YouTube. But like there's a
Speaker 4: video of me like my head, I have these goggles
Speaker 4: on and then I'm in like a kind of a
Speaker 4: coffiny type situation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all these cockroaches.
Speaker 4: All around my face, and it was very upsetting and
Speaker 4: alarming and and anyway, but kind of like it turned out. Ironically,
Speaker 4: it's one of the first NBC shows that got expanded
Speaker 4: to ninety minutes. You remember they used to do the
Speaker 4: like super sized episodes.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't remember those.
Speaker 4: And so me frea out about that thing turned out
Speaker 4: to be like a reason they extended it to ninety minutes.
Speaker 4: And then I kind of got in like good with
Speaker 4: the NBC executives at the time because.
Speaker 3: Of what had all gone on there.
Speaker 4: It's a longer story than this, but it ended up
Speaker 4: leading to lots of more opportunities for me in the
Speaker 4: reality TV space, and probably, like you would have to
Speaker 4: follow the logic a little bit, but probably how I
Speaker 4: ended up getting to host the Biggest sizzor yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: that's that's incredible.
Speaker 2: Little Yeah, that's a decision that you wouldn't think would
Speaker 2: get you.
Speaker 4: No, you would not guess that, but also that would
Speaker 4: be Then now back to your very first question is
Speaker 4: what advice would I give to my.
Speaker 3: Twelve year old girl self but.
Speaker 4: Also to people in general, is to say yes to adventure,
Speaker 4: take a chance.
Speaker 3: You don't know.
Speaker 4: It doesn't progress or like career is not necessarily a
Speaker 4: linear ladder that you climb, it's this like loopy.
Speaker 3: It could be anything.
Speaker 4: You have no idea and you don't know if you
Speaker 4: don't try.
Speaker 3: And so you got to take chances.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: I love that you've been such a good sport. I
Speaker 2: love I love hanging out with you. Thank you for
Speaker 2: joining me, Alison Sweeney.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. This is so fun.
Speaker 1: I love you.
Speaker 3: I love you too.
Speaker 1: Bye. Thank you