Speaker 1: Welcome to part two of our interview with Lydia Cornell.
Speaker 1: If you haven't listened to part one yet, go back
Speaker 1: and listen to that first, because trust us, you do
Speaker 1: not want to miss a second of this. Please welcome
Speaker 1: back to the pod the Extraordinary Lydia Cornell.
Speaker 2: What are some of the things. I mean, you're an
Speaker 2: actor and you've directed and writing and teaching and mentoring
Speaker 2: and public speaking and all of these things. What would
Speaker 2: you say is one of the things professionally and personally
Speaker 2: that you are most proud of?
Speaker 3: Oh, well, personally as my son. I didn't know.
Speaker 4: I wish i'd known sooner. How the joy of children.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm gaga right now with your.
Speaker 3: Grandchildren that my boyfriend, Oh, I'm a weirdo.
Speaker 4: I went to trade yours and started making strangers babies smile.
Speaker 2: I went from oh, yeah, they're like.
Speaker 4: It was really sweet. I mean, having a new grandchild.
Speaker 4: And so Jack, my son is really happy. He doesn't drink,
Speaker 4: he's got a really nice girlfriend. But they don't call me,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, I.
Speaker 3: Miss I wish I had more kids.
Speaker 4: I know, I know, And I'm also very politically liberal,
Speaker 4: so it's not like you know, I'm running around going
Speaker 4: everybody should have kids.
Speaker 3: It is sort of a bone.
Speaker 4: Of contention right now. I think everyone should have the
Speaker 4: choice to do what they need to do though with their.
Speaker 3: Own Yeah, but that was like wow, that was the.
Speaker 4: Beginning of my real journey in life where I grew
Speaker 4: up becoming a mother. I'm not being selfish, letting go.
Speaker 4: I have some wild Hollywood stories.
Speaker 3: I mean, I was in the eighties. They sent us
Speaker 3: to Manti Carlo three summers in a row.
Speaker 4: I'm, you know, with Prince Albert and James Bond, the
Speaker 4: two James Bonds.
Speaker 2: And I don't know that I was going to say,
Speaker 2: I don't know that there's Yeah, I know that doesn't
Speaker 2: sound they don't do that any yet. Yeah, no, no,
Speaker 2: the world professionally, Yeah, I didn't make it as far
Speaker 2: as money Carlo, but I definitely was an ass in
Speaker 2: the LA area.
Speaker 4: Yeah, all over the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't have to travel far. I managed to
Speaker 2: do it right here at home.
Speaker 4: But I had a really wild, crazy, insane Yeah. And luckily,
Speaker 4: good news is I never got I have a couple
Speaker 4: of meet too stories. But I don't want to ruining
Speaker 4: human's life right now. But I have to say there
Speaker 4: was an agent. The first agent I met before I
Speaker 4: even got the series, pulled his pants off in front
Speaker 4: of me.
Speaker 3: It was a big, famous agency, and I thought it
Speaker 3: was just a rare event. I won't mention his name.
Speaker 4: But another woman in a nineties start six months ago,
Speaker 4: my boyfriend's telling her the story, and she said, Lydia
Speaker 4: never says his name. She goes oh with it. It
Speaker 4: happened to her too, twenty years later. What these things
Speaker 4: happened back in those days. In the eighties, It felt
Speaker 4: as if they used to make posters of me in
Speaker 4: a bikini, and I was on all fours for ABC Network,
Speaker 4: they had bikini posters. TED would be very upset over them,
Speaker 4: but remote to show. They would use one of the
Speaker 4: women as a sex in almost every show not in
Speaker 4: your era.
Speaker 3: I think it ended well.
Speaker 2: Not on our show in particular. We had I mean
Speaker 2: we had sort of the first season, uh we you know,
Speaker 2: had Jesse. The first couple of seasons had had quite
Speaker 2: a few women coming through that were sort of the
Speaker 2: perceived sex symbol of the episode or whatever. But I
Speaker 2: think because it was more of a family show, we
Speaker 2: didn't necessarily have that. We had kind of like John
Speaker 2: as the heart throb, so we had like the more
Speaker 2: the male heart throb of the thing. But but it
Speaker 2: wasn't like that, but I definitely know that was that
Speaker 2: was it. It was like you were sort of the
Speaker 2: sacrificial landlight. Well you're cute, so you're gonna that You're
Speaker 2: gonna just be the the mostly naked one, and we're
Speaker 2: you know, just gonna like and it's I mean, it is,
Speaker 2: it's it's so much has changed in this industry and
Speaker 2: so much has not right right, and you know, I uh,
Speaker 2: certain convictions being overturned. But I but you know, I
Speaker 2: I think that women like you and like the women
Speaker 2: that spoke out in these movements talking about like this
Speaker 2: is this is what it was, and this is what
Speaker 2: we were like, this is what was common and what
Speaker 2: we were expect, what was expected of who of what
Speaker 2: you were. It was just that was it. Well, if
Speaker 2: you're on a TV show then and you're cute, then
Speaker 2: you're just going to be. There's no we can say
Speaker 2: whatever we want.
Speaker 4: And the worst thing is that when he did this
Speaker 4: this agent, instead of being offended, I didn't want to
Speaker 4: hurt his egos, so I giggled.
Speaker 3: And sort of twirled out of the room like, oh,
Speaker 3: I left.
Speaker 2: My heats in the cards.
Speaker 5: That's what we're taught. Don't offend the.
Speaker 2: Right it well, yeah, as women were taught, don't offend.
Speaker 2: And it's also terrifying and in that moment you people
Speaker 2: don't think about the fact that you go ah, yeah
Speaker 2: and you either freeze flight or There's also what women
Speaker 2: are taught, which is fun, which is usually when women
Speaker 2: are faced with some sort of like you know, attack
Speaker 2: or something that we find inappropriate or things like that,
Speaker 2: often we are taught as women to be like, oh
Speaker 2: and make that person comfortable because now we have since
Speaker 2: we're in a dangerous situation, and so you know, speaking
Speaker 2: out about those things like and talking about the stuff
Speaker 2: that we that you know, like it's there is no
Speaker 2: one answer to it or how you handle that sort
Speaker 2: of situation, but the fact that we can now talk
Speaker 2: about it more openly and that you know, uh, hopefully
Speaker 2: this idea of sort of unfettered patriarchy within this business
Speaker 2: has shifted a little bit. And I think, you know,
Speaker 2: with women with women telling stories written by created by
Speaker 2: directed by women, I mean that was I think one
Speaker 2: of the things we were really proud about with Fuller
Speaker 2: House too, was that with it being based on Steph
Speaker 2: and DJ and Kimmy as adult women, we had the
Speaker 2: capacity to include some really interesting female oriented storylines about relationships, parenting,
Speaker 2: and IVF and you know, all of those things that
Speaker 2: we got to cover that were really, really great. And
Speaker 2: one of the things that you that you wrote is
Speaker 2: a screenplay called Venus Conspiracy and Deborah van Volckenberg is
Speaker 2: in it. But the logline reads, all human suffering is
Speaker 2: caused by Victoria's secret and.
Speaker 5: I love that. I love that so much.
Speaker 2: Or you could replace it with Brandy Melville now you
Speaker 2: know whatever that just rotate that out. But the story
Speaker 2: involves uncovering a diabolical plot to keep women thin and
Speaker 2: miserable for profit. So I would love to hear I mean,
Speaker 2: I can imagine what inspired this screenplay, which is just
Speaker 2: life and being a woman in the world, but it's
Speaker 2: just so awesome. I love hearing about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd love to get you in the sore. Here's
Speaker 3: what happened for something, You'll tell you what inspired it.
Speaker 4: In my first movie before I got Tea who Us
Speaker 4: for Comfort, I got Tooose for Comfort, and then I
Speaker 4: got this movie in the Greek Isles with three Oscar
Speaker 4: with three legends, James Old Jones, Jose Ferrera and Lela Kendrova.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, James ol Jones has just come off The
Speaker 4: Great White Hope. He's a Tony Award winner and he
Speaker 4: hadn't done Darth Vader yet. But he was a gentleman
Speaker 4: and he brought his wife to the We were in
Speaker 4: nine weeks in the Greek Isles in a Byzantine monastery
Speaker 4: called Monembasia. It's a kind of a Dismith smooth or
Speaker 4: tiny anyway, it's not quite an island. But and then
Speaker 4: Martin Cove was in it, and Deborah Shelton and Mary
Speaker 4: Louise Well and I had to wear a white bikini
Speaker 4: the whole time, and there was a scene where they
Speaker 4: wanted me to drown and.
Speaker 3: Take off my top.
Speaker 4: I refused to do nudity. I just didn't want to
Speaker 4: do it. I knew one day and my kids would see.
Speaker 3: It, and I just didn't want to do it.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, So they.
Speaker 3: Tried to calm me into it. My sag union wasn't
Speaker 3: on the set.
Speaker 4: We were way, you know, way on an island, right,
Speaker 4: and my manager wasn't there, and the director said, can
Speaker 4: you just pull your top off and we'll get you
Speaker 4: running into the ocean where you're going to drown. This
Speaker 4: is after you know, I had to go swim out
Speaker 4: about a mile.
Speaker 2: You got a drown with your boobs.
Speaker 3: I felt, well, I don't.
Speaker 4: Want my front showing. He said, just the back will
Speaker 4: be showing. And there's an underwater scuba diver camera and
Speaker 4: they have to catch me, you know. And so I thought, well,
Speaker 4: they're trying to trick me. So I had to out
Speaker 4: with them. So I went to the ward of lady.
Speaker 4: We only spoke she only swelled Greek, and there's a
Speaker 4: big rock. We're hiding behind the rock with a dressing
Speaker 4: room wood and we couldn't speak the same language.
Speaker 3: But through lots of hand gesturing, she realized.
Speaker 4: Oh, we're gonna I'll cover you with zinc ox side
Speaker 4: white grease paint which is waterproof. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And we swee out.
Speaker 4: Witted these people and it was amazing. Nico Master rockets
Speaker 4: and all the producers were.
Speaker 3: Like they couldn't use any of the breast footage.
Speaker 4: So like, yes, I run into the ocean, Yeah, pop
Speaker 4: off in the back.
Speaker 3: It's naked. You know, you can see the movie.
Speaker 2: It's right right, but the front it's like, you know,
Speaker 2: the lifeguard knows was just white. You can't see it's
Speaker 2: like clay makeup. Yeah, so that's brilliant.
Speaker 4: My big, first, big incident of having to like really
Speaker 4: stand up for my own rights, you know, even though
Speaker 4: the film was a wonderful thing to do.
Speaker 3: I love that movie. We had a great time on
Speaker 3: the set.
Speaker 4: Then I come to La and I ever von Valckenberg
Speaker 4: because it's the part as my sister.
Speaker 3: She was a Broadway actress.
Speaker 4: She'd also hired, sorry hired to do a movie of
Speaker 4: the Week for Chuck Freeze Productions out here, and they
Speaker 4: fired her the minute they saw her because she had
Speaker 4: gained five pounds, and they said, we're not only firing you,
Speaker 4: we're gonna sue your agent for the weight game. And
Speaker 4: I what, this can't be possible. That was the seed
Speaker 4: of the beginning of me riding the screen flight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna say. I seemed to her like
Speaker 2: that was like a thing.
Speaker 4: Wow, you was skinny, and it was there's no way
Speaker 4: this could be even true. So I started thinking about it,
Speaker 4: and then when I got sober, this movie came out
Speaker 4: of me fully formed because I've been. It opens in
Speaker 4: Pompeii with the goddess Venus, and we're missing her head
Speaker 4: the sculpture, and it's like this really mystical opening, and
Speaker 4: then we're hurled into living day Pompeii and the ad
Speaker 4: buyer in a toga is buying the statue of Venus
Speaker 4: and he goes, she's too thin. Add more to the waist,
Speaker 4: and then we cut to the ninety has to start
Speaker 4: in the nineties because women are allowed to be a
Speaker 4: little more of their own size today, right, You're allowed
Speaker 4: to be yourself a bit.
Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, when I was coming up, you were
Speaker 3: not allowed to gain a pound.
Speaker 4: And in fact, I was told the producers yelled at
Speaker 4: me for eating a burrito and a taco and then the
Speaker 4: bag of Eminem's. They said, don't you know you're a symbol.
Speaker 4: You can't eat starch.
Speaker 2: In those days, it was called starch, right, wow.
Speaker 4: So the food flew in the air and I went
Speaker 4: crying to my dressing room and I remember, ooh, I
Speaker 4: gotta do water pills or something.
Speaker 3: And I wasn't blieming, but I I just start myself.
Speaker 4: And when I turned thirty five, I remember walking into
Speaker 4: Reuben cannons off with the casting director.
Speaker 3: And he goes, you look pretty good for an old lady.
Speaker 3: I was thirty five.
Speaker 4: So you guys have no idea what the eighties were
Speaker 4: really like if you were a second No.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh it was. It's only now are we seeing
Speaker 2: women be able to age past thirty and have roles
Speaker 2: written for women who were in between right sex symbol
Speaker 2: and grandma, you know.
Speaker 6: What I mean.
Speaker 2: For a while, it was like once you weren't that.
Speaker 2: It was like, well, you're of no use to us now,
Speaker 2: thank you. Come back when you were a wrinkled raisin
Speaker 2: and you know, and you're just like, what are you
Speaker 2: talking like? There's so much and I love seeing it
Speaker 2: now again, talking about you know, women creators and stuff
Speaker 2: like women's lives in between all of that are so
Speaker 2: layered and rich and multifaceted and fascinating. It's so nice
Speaker 2: to see, you know. And and women like Olivia Coleman
Speaker 2: and uh Melanie uh like Lynskey Yes from Yellow Jackets,
Speaker 2: women who I think are beautiful and gorgeous and amazing
Speaker 2: but they're but are talented and who make it fascinating
Speaker 2: to watch the human experience, because that's what acting is,
Speaker 2: and it's not like to me, I'm like, I don't
Speaker 2: want to watch an actor just because they're attractive. In fact,
Speaker 2: I don't. I want to watch someone who is interesting
Speaker 2: to look like. I want to watch an interesting human.
Speaker 2: I don't care if they're good looking or not or whatever. Like,
Speaker 2: give me an interesting human. So I love that this
Speaker 2: has been such a focus of your of your career
Speaker 2: and of your work. And like, I think off and
Speaker 2: you know, people talk about, you know, they as a
Speaker 2: feminist to myself, but you know, so many people talk
Speaker 2: about that it would be impossible to be a sex
Speaker 2: symbol and a feminist. And I think that people then
Speaker 2: are greatly missing the point of what feminism is, which
Speaker 2: is that it's all about the choice to be any
Speaker 2: of those things and to express yourself and be whoever
Speaker 2: and however you want to feel as a woman. And
Speaker 2: if that's sweatpants and no bra and like no makeup
Speaker 2: and never cool, if that's dolling yourself up every day
Speaker 2: and get getting all this stuff done, cool, Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2: It's all about how you want to do.
Speaker 4: It, really, and we like, you know, plastic surgery is
Speaker 4: really something that I feel sorry for people who've had it,
Speaker 4: but I don't.
Speaker 3: I'm not. I would never judge them. You know.
Speaker 4: It's like what we were kind of forced to feel
Speaker 4: that we had to have it. I didn't tried both
Speaker 4: talks a few times, but I thank god didn't have
Speaker 4: the money during the time after my husband left, right,
Speaker 4: you know, I'm so glad because I want to be
Speaker 4: gracefully even though I'm using on my other computer, I
Speaker 4: use the zoom filters and all that, right, you know,
Speaker 4: and you know it looks you're up higher.
Speaker 2: Well you're right, yeah, well angles are everything, you know,
Speaker 2: But that's but that's like the thing that and I
Speaker 2: love seeing, you know, I have two daughters who are
Speaker 2: sixteen and thirteen. Oh wow, And you know, seeing my
Speaker 2: daughters like kind of dress and be more themselves and
Speaker 2: you know, like it's it's a really exciting time I
Speaker 2: think for young women. Yeah, in terms of like the
Speaker 2: potential and the opportunity to really truly be like whatever
Speaker 2: expression of female identity you want to be like that,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, there's kind of I love
Speaker 2: that the road has widened ye considerably because because it
Speaker 2: was you know, for women who lived through that time
Speaker 2: of like you had to be a perfect you know,
Speaker 2: this perfect thing, like that's impossible.
Speaker 3: God, you have no idea, And men were very disdainful.
Speaker 4: I remember I had an audition when the oct running
Speaker 4: director looked at me and he went, you're one of
Speaker 4: my favorite actresses. You're very funny. I wanted to come
Speaker 4: in and read for my pilot, and I hadn't quit drinking.
Speaker 4: My drinking career hadn't ended yet. And I brought an
Speaker 4: entire bottle of vodka stuffed in the gym bag to
Speaker 4: the CBS Lady's room executive ladies, and the genes, my
Speaker 4: genes were so tight. I was doing stiletto heels and
Speaker 4: it was like I walked in the room. I stumbled
Speaker 4: into the room. I think I fell off top of
Speaker 4: the casting director.
Speaker 3: I was drunk. It's horrible, but I.
Speaker 4: Thought, seven men on a couch looking at my body
Speaker 4: up and down, is she perfect enough? It wasn't about
Speaker 4: the affecting That's how I felt. Right, of course, it
Speaker 4: probably was, but it was all in my head.
Speaker 3: They were just.
Speaker 2: Well, I would yeah, I would say probably, I'd say
Speaker 2: you probably weren't wrong. Yeah that at nine times, you know,
Speaker 2: eight times out of ten. Particularly then it was it
Speaker 2: was more about what you look like than who you
Speaker 2: were and what you brought to a character.
Speaker 1: And this is why male executives shouldn't be the only
Speaker 1: ones in charge, because women don't want to see perfect
Speaker 1: women on TV.
Speaker 5: We want to see.
Speaker 1: Ourselves reflected in the characters that we watch on TV.
Speaker 1: So I don't want to see like perfect bodies and
Speaker 1: bombshell like, I want to see someone that looks like me,
Speaker 1: who's flawed and he has blemishes and everything.
Speaker 2: Right, but flawed both internally and externally and just human.
Speaker 2: I you know, like, give me, give me a photo
Speaker 2: on Instagram that has some skin texture to it? Good God, please? Yes,
Speaker 2: I know your skin doesn't look like that. There's your
Speaker 2: fuzzy You look like you're made of velvet. What's wrong
Speaker 2: with you? Stop? You know, like I'm like, am I
Speaker 2: my eyes blurry? Why are you so velvety?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 2: Like it's wild to me? Yeah, And again that's what
Speaker 2: you go for it. You want to do it, but
Speaker 2: like also, you know, but you don't have to. You
Speaker 2: don't have to. I think it's it's more it's it's
Speaker 2: really this message of like learning that you can doll
Speaker 2: it up or dress it down, but that the inherent
Speaker 2: worth is all about the inside stuff.
Speaker 4: Oh I love it, Yes, we got that's so wonderful
Speaker 4: that you said that. Hey, we were dogs sitting McFly.
Speaker 4: Oh we love dogs.
Speaker 5: He's welcome to join the podcast. Dogs are welcome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're total dog people are here.
Speaker 3: In the movie, the woman is this, she's a Venus girl.
Speaker 4: She represents the pharmaceutical empire called Venus, which is the
Speaker 4: front they own everything a biotech company and they own
Speaker 4: all this shell companies and they own like the media too,
Speaker 4: so MTV and you know general moods and mood slings.
Speaker 3: It's a comedy that it's got a real plot.
Speaker 2: Driven scary right, kind of like idiocracy when you're like
Speaker 2: ahah right yeah, like yeah yeah, you're like this is hello,
Speaker 2: this is true.
Speaker 4: And they catch her she's supposed to be a size
Speaker 4: to and they catch her like the castapo these advertising
Speaker 4: sects and undercover photos, eating donuts in her car and
Speaker 4: like they catch her and they catch her wearing a
Speaker 4: girdle and she's like I'm giving up. She starts to
Speaker 4: jump off the cliff where they're filming the video and
Speaker 4: she doesn't you know, It's like you think she's gonna
Speaker 4: she just jumps on the three feet of stand and
Speaker 4: runs away from recruit and she discovers its plot and
Speaker 4: it's all like a plotted thriller. But Marco Robie said,
Speaker 4: we're looking for the next big event movie, not Barbie.
Speaker 4: Now I have all these women's groups that want to
Speaker 4: get the movie made. They wanted to years ago.
Speaker 3: But men looked at me like I was crazy when
Speaker 3: I used to pitch this movie.
Speaker 2: Right, and then something, how are you talking about? You're like,
Speaker 2: you're making us miserable when you're literally driving us insane, right,
Speaker 2: it's crazy, right, Like.
Speaker 3: So now it's time has come and I'm really excited.
Speaker 2: So what an awesome like life experience, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean to be able to go from that like
Speaker 2: this is you know, you have a personal experience with
Speaker 2: what the world of that sort of pressure is exactly.
Speaker 2: And yeah, and then also like when you're a woman
Speaker 2: who is also who is attractive and also smart and
Speaker 2: also that you know all these things, it's like somehow
Speaker 2: something has to get discredited. If you're if you're smart,
Speaker 2: you can't be pretty. If you're pretty, you can't be smart,
Speaker 2: because like you don't get to have both.
Speaker 3: Well the America Pharira's speech.
Speaker 4: You know you saw Barbie right, Oh yeah, yeah, the
Speaker 4: America Perira's speech. I went goga because I wrote that
Speaker 4: speech twenty years ago. I'm sure we all did.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's impossible to be a woman and you have
Speaker 4: to pretend to be humble or else be you know,
Speaker 4: you can't be happy for other women, or you can't
Speaker 4: be too happy for right.
Speaker 2: You can't be too much. You have to be thin,
Speaker 2: not enough, right, you have to be thin but not
Speaker 2: too skinny, but not too big, but not too It's
Speaker 2: not too much of anything. Don't take up too much space,
Speaker 2: you know. Don't be too loud, don't be I think
Speaker 2: it's maybe part of the reason that I just am
Speaker 2: uh loud, because I can be.
Speaker 3: Are you guys you're still acting, right, can I love?
Speaker 4: I've been reading up about what you're doing, so, yeah,
Speaker 4: are you producing and all that stuff too?
Speaker 2: I I am, Yeah, I'm producing, uh and and working
Speaker 2: on some writing and working on producing a couple movies
Speaker 2: and some other things, and then acting and doing like
Speaker 2: you know, some of the fun some kind of stuff too.
Speaker 3: You know, I had a stalker. A couple of years.
Speaker 4: I accidentally moved my stocker into the house ago, but
Speaker 4: this is actually more than a few years ago.
Speaker 3: Kelsey Grammar and I had the same stalker and I
Speaker 3: thought he.
Speaker 2: Was at least you shared. You know, that was convenient.
Speaker 2: I mean, two for the price of one. And I
Speaker 2: was accused of them.
Speaker 4: Of The stalker went to TMD and sold a story
Speaker 4: claiming to be a war hero, and then he sued
Speaker 4: Kelsey in myself.
Speaker 2: You know, big classic sounds weirdly familiar.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so then the TMZ put out a picture
Speaker 3: of me. This is what they do. Instead of putting.
Speaker 4: Out a horrible picture of the stalker, they put out
Speaker 4: a picture of me looking like a psychopath psychotic stalker
Speaker 4: wants to bash my face in And I'm like, why
Speaker 4: did they pick a picture of me him?
Speaker 3: I look crazy?
Speaker 4: And underneath the haters wrote, she's so ugly she needs
Speaker 4: her face to be bashed.
Speaker 3: You know, I went, why are they so mean?
Speaker 4: Why can't the tabloids be kinder to women, you know,
Speaker 4: on top of being and then they got the story wrong,
Speaker 4: let me wrong?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah that's that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I never sued Kelsey and they have not corrected
Speaker 4: the story.
Speaker 3: So in my book, I tell the whole funny story.
Speaker 4: It's very funny. It's like a twelve episode crime and
Speaker 4: the crime comic My odd but Chelsea die on the
Speaker 4: same side. But then no one ever knew. Oh, to
Speaker 4: make a long story short. Women, you have to fight
Speaker 4: your own battles, and you have to do it with
Speaker 4: a sense of humor.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Sorry, my voice is so ridiculous.
Speaker 2: It's never no, you're no, please, it's totally no, you're good,
Speaker 2: You're good now your book hiding my brain in my
Speaker 2: bra How can we get our hands on this book?
Speaker 2: Because I am I'm dying to hide it in my brain.
Speaker 4: But it's not out yet. I'm so sorry. I have
Speaker 4: to apologize to.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, please don't don't. We are women, We
Speaker 2: apologize too much. Don't apologize.
Speaker 5: Put us on the put us on the list.
Speaker 4: Read thank you for even asking my My mother died
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty one and the first version of this book,
Speaker 4: the agent, my agent said to me, it's too funny,
Speaker 4: the book's too funny. Where are the dark parts, where's
Speaker 4: the real story? And then I had to really get
Speaker 4: real and so it's funny and dark and it's basically funny.
Speaker 4: But I found letters my mother wrote after she died,
Speaker 4: begging forgiveness. I never she never sent them. It opened
Speaker 4: up an entire new can of worms. I took care
Speaker 4: of her and her husband, my stepfather, when they had dementia.
Speaker 4: And so that last bit isn't written yet. It's written,
Speaker 4: I haven't quite quite put it in the right order.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: The agent now is like excited about it that he's
Speaker 4: been waiting, and he's somebody who's a big producer too,
Speaker 4: and said, I want to see a TV series in this.
Speaker 4: So in the book or my series of when my
Speaker 4: husband left he took a lot of my money, and
Speaker 4: oh yeah, I forgave him and we still have a
Speaker 4: good relationship. But I got it all back in some
Speaker 4: through prayer, I mean, through recovery work and through forgiving
Speaker 4: and not really worrying about it.
Speaker 3: It's really strange and miss right. He's a funny guy.
Speaker 4: But anyway, what's beautiful about that story is that there's
Speaker 4: a lot of fall up in the book. And there
Speaker 4: was something I was going to say that was really
Speaker 4: but anyway, a book is hard to write when you
Speaker 4: really want to make your whole Yeah, oh, I know
Speaker 4: what it was. After my husband left, I rented rooms
Speaker 4: on Airbnb in Beverly Hills, on my big Beverly Hills house,
Speaker 4: and I had roommates from all over the world, from Russia,
Speaker 4: an alcoholic roommate from Russia. I had crazy adventures, a
Speaker 4: women from Poland, a stripper from Budapest, women from London,
Speaker 4: all over the world and it was kind of fun.
Speaker 4: And that part of the book is called Strangers with Keys.
Speaker 4: So my partner, my other partner, and I've written an
Speaker 4: entire TV series about crazy roommates.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, yes, a full house.
Speaker 3: I mean it was right, yeah, and you won't believe
Speaker 3: the stories.
Speaker 4: So anyway, he wants that series, and he wants to
Speaker 4: see the book as a series. And it's got too
Speaker 4: many stories in it, so it'll be a very when
Speaker 4: it comes out. I hope it'll make you laugh.
Speaker 2: That's all I well, I cat just from speaking with
Speaker 2: you and hearing some of your stories. I'm very, very
Speaker 2: excited to read it. And now it's making me remind
Speaker 2: myself that I need to go and work on my book,
Speaker 2: that I'm what are you writing my second one? Well,
Speaker 2: nothing yet. That's the thing is I've been writing out
Speaker 2: a lot of ideas and like outlines and reading other
Speaker 2: books and being like, okay, here's the kind of what
Speaker 2: I want. I had written a memoir in two thousand
Speaker 2: and nine. Andrea also has her book Full Circle that
Speaker 2: she wrote. When did that come out? Twenty twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but I think I'm I think I'm gonna
Speaker 2: write a second one.
Speaker 3: But it's good.
Speaker 2: I suck at writing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, time for part two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm writing a book on Stalin as well. And
Speaker 3: I started back before I got the series, and I
Speaker 3: got to.
Speaker 2: Get back to oh okay, I'm a big history nerd,
Speaker 2: so that I will also be fascinated by that.
Speaker 4: Kind of Phylvia agloss stalls plot to kill Trotsky and
Speaker 4: it was in the Medicivil War.
Speaker 3: I was obsessed with this story, and by long hand,
Speaker 3: I wrote, i'mlines.
Speaker 4: And that book is like hundred pages and now I
Speaker 4: got to condense it to five hundreds.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, Oh that yeah, that was I always like
Speaker 2: reading about the the the women sort of that you
Speaker 2: don't care about that had incredible impacts on how things
Speaker 2: really turned out. And we think it was just a
Speaker 2: bunch of dudes making decisions but really it was not.
Speaker 4: Exactly and I have to say how funny she was
Speaker 4: in my episode.
Speaker 5: Oh gosh. You know, we loved your episode. We reviewed
Speaker 5: it a few weeks ago and you were so good.
Speaker 5: You were so good, But we had.
Speaker 2: Some issues with We have some thoughts on Senorita Mosley.
Speaker 1: And I'm curious about your thoughts too about Senorita Moseley
Speaker 1: kissing one of her students' fathers.
Speaker 3: Like I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 4: Towards I think the director said you kissed him, and
Speaker 4: I went, I kissed him because he wasn't doing it
Speaker 4: fast enough.
Speaker 3: And at one point I just grabbed Bob's ship.
Speaker 2: Really that kind of sounds like Bob though, because Bob's
Speaker 2: were like I can imagine he would be like, it's.
Speaker 5: Kind of awkward like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but yeah, that was our thing was like, wow,
Speaker 1: you read him mostly getting friendly, you know.
Speaker 2: Like it was. And then we were also amazed at
Speaker 2: the part where Senorata mostly comes to the house. Yeah
Speaker 2: I'm asked for It's just like, hey, Mash, sorry, I'm
Speaker 2: going to come over to your house and hangs it
Speaker 2: up all over your house in Spanish. And obviously teachers
Speaker 2: have plenty of time and money to do this.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was we were like, she was very forward,
Speaker 1: she had no boundaries.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was so yeah funny, it was impressive. But
Speaker 2: do you what do you remember about shooting the episode?
Speaker 3: It was so much fun. And the guys all took
Speaker 3: me to lunch.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they Dave Coolier, Bob and John Samos. They all
Speaker 4: took me to lunch at some place in Culver City
Speaker 4: on a with a Korean.
Speaker 3: Did you guys used to.
Speaker 2: Go to the used to go to Little Girl all
Speaker 2: the time, but there was times was in Culver City. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that we used that everybody used to go to at
Speaker 2: lunch time.
Speaker 4: They were so much fun and just down home you
Speaker 4: need a lot of women would go, oh my god,
Speaker 4: you were with this guy. But they were just good friends.
Speaker 4: They were really sweet. And I was friends with Yea
Speaker 4: Franklin for years earlier and Bob Saggett through John Lovetts.
Speaker 4: We were okay, I need saget floor and it was
Speaker 4: just fun. I just had a last I had dark hair.
Speaker 4: I dyed my hair dark, which is really more my
Speaker 4: natural color.
Speaker 3: Quite that dark to play in Quantum Leap the pilot.
Speaker 6: Okay, I played the Ava Gardner Air Force wife, right,
Speaker 6: and several other roles as a brunette, and then full
Speaker 6: house came along and I thought, oh, statish teacher.
Speaker 4: For some reason, in this industry, if you're blonde, you
Speaker 4: can't do drama.
Speaker 3: In my era, you were blonde.
Speaker 4: You were only through comedy, Brnette, we can play drama
Speaker 4: or ethnic characters.
Speaker 1: Right, No, yeah, so many tropes, so many stereotypes.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yeah, you gotta love it.
Speaker 4: Though, we have to evolve with me, roll with the
Speaker 4: create our new.
Speaker 2: Industry, exactly, exactly. Well, this has been such a wonderful
Speaker 2: and incredible conversation, Lydia. I'm just I'm so thrilled that
Speaker 2: we got to have you on this again. Like we
Speaker 2: we grew up and got to meet and come into
Speaker 2: contact with so many really uh like talented, mind blowing
Speaker 2: people in this business, and you're definitely one of them.
Speaker 2: And I'm so glad that we got to reconnect and
Speaker 2: find out what you're up today because you're still a badass. Like,
Speaker 2: thank you, This is just yeah, I'm all of you, truly, thank.
Speaker 3: You so much.
Speaker 4: You guys have beautiful spirits, beautiful hearts and gorgeous faces,
Speaker 4: and I can't wait to see what you're doing next.
Speaker 5: To Thank you.
Speaker 1: You're so sweet, you are just such an inspiration.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for that time and for sharing
Speaker 5: your life with us, so my whole day.
Speaker 3: I'd love to have you on my podcast too, so
Speaker 3: I let you know when we're here.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, please let us know. We would love to
Speaker 2: return the favor.
Speaker 1: Before where else can we find you on the socials
Speaker 1: or you please plug your podcast tell us.
Speaker 4: I have a huge following on Twitter, well almost seventy thousand,
Speaker 4: sixty five thousand, but that's.
Speaker 3: Not that big.
Speaker 4: I'm here to you guys, Facebook, Twitter, you know, all
Speaker 4: the regular LinkedIn Instagram. Okay, trying to see off social
Speaker 4: media while I'm writing, but it's really hard.
Speaker 2: Right is it? At Lydia Lydia Cornell, Yes.
Speaker 4: Lydia Cornell, l y d I Lydia again Cornell and
Speaker 4: on YouTube and I have a podcast called God Shops
Speaker 4: True Stories of Synchronicity.
Speaker 2: Got it?
Speaker 4: Not religious, It's about coincidence and uncanny, yady.
Speaker 2: I love it. I want to check that out.
Speaker 3: And a comedy therapy channel. So I'm gonna up based
Speaker 3: on the book. I'll keep you posting.
Speaker 2: Oh, my God, please do yes, thank you God, I
Speaker 2: love you.
Speaker 5: Love it.
Speaker 2: Oh so lovely to talk to you. Thank you so
Speaker 2: much for joining us today, Lydia. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I love you guys.
Speaker 6: Thank bye.
Speaker 2: God.
Speaker 5: I love her, she said, a girl like.
Speaker 2: I really do. I have a big girl crush on her.
Speaker 2: She is rad.
Speaker 1: I can't believe at age thirty five, they told her
Speaker 1: you're too old for this business, and here she is,
Speaker 1: age seventy, still kicking ass right. I was still working,
Speaker 1: and I'm.
Speaker 2: Saying, like, we tell us, we can't tell us, we
Speaker 2: can't do it.
Speaker 5: It's like they dared.
Speaker 2: She's like, hold my beer, you know, yeah, women these
Speaker 2: days it's like, oh I can't. What do you say? Okay, yeah, sure,
Speaker 2: hold this love. She's yeah, I really oh man. I
Speaker 2: was gonna say I'm going to stalk her, but given
Speaker 2: the story that she told, maybe that's not wrong. I
Speaker 2: don't not like that. But I'm gonna write like, I'm
Speaker 2: going to find her in a very way that makes
Speaker 2: her not uncomfortable, in a legal way, and then yeah,
Speaker 2: a very legal way and with lots of notice and
Speaker 2: not at all being weird. But she's really awesome and
Speaker 2: I mean, we didn't even touch on the fact that
Speaker 2: her great grandmother is Harriet Beecher Stowe. He wrote Uncle
Speaker 2: Tom's Cabin, which is still one of the most I
Speaker 2: think important pieces of literature in American history, and like
Speaker 2: she's an inventor, she's just yeah.
Speaker 1: She's many hats, And there was just I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: how do we prioritize what we talk about with her?
Speaker 5: Because there's I could have talked to her all day,
Speaker 5: Like it was so good. I'm so grateful to her that.
Speaker 2: I'm so part and I'm so grateful that we were like,
Speaker 2: let's have her on the show, Like that was sort
Speaker 2: of a let's do it. And what a what a guest,
Speaker 2: What an awesome, awesome treasure. And I can't wait to
Speaker 2: read Hiding my Brain and my bra because I can't.
Speaker 2: That's also where I hide my brain. I just shove
Speaker 2: it in there sometimes when it falls out the chapstick
Speaker 2: and yeah, yeah, yeah, some boob money. You know. It's
Speaker 2: like when you go to have you ever I don't
Speaker 2: know if you've ever been to like a liquor store
Speaker 2: or like somewhere like on the corner, and they're like,
Speaker 2: we will not accept boob or bra or sock money
Speaker 2: if you ever have your never traveled to those areas. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they don't want.
Speaker 5: They don't want bra money.
Speaker 2: You know there would be a no bra or sock
Speaker 2: money because sometimes you just keep your cash in your
Speaker 2: soccer in your bra. But it's no.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's hysterical.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think I'm just gonna hang that sign up
Speaker 2: in my house. Please no bra or sock money. I
Speaker 2: don't know what you're using it for. Just don't just.
Speaker 5: Don't please go buy a wallet.
Speaker 2: Oh please. Well that was a fabulous episode and I
Speaker 2: I am just what an inspirational human being. She is
Speaker 2: really incredible. I mean, I'm there. I feel like there's
Speaker 2: very few people who can say that they have accomplished
Speaker 2: that much in their career. So we feel extremely lucky
Speaker 2: to have had the chance to talk with Lydia today.
Speaker 2: And thank you Lydia Cornell for joining us, and thank
Speaker 2: you to our Fana Ritos for listening. We adore you guys.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to another episode of How Rude Tanner
Speaker 2: Rito's with our wonderful guest, Lydia Cornell. Make sure that
Speaker 2: you're following us on Instagram at how Rude Podcast. Or
Speaker 2: you can send us an email at howardpodcast at gmail
Speaker 2: dot com and make sure you're liking and subscribing to
Speaker 2: the podcast wherever you're listening so that you can get
Speaker 2: all of the newest episodes as soon as they are released.
Speaker 2: And we'll see you guys next time for another recap
Speaker 2: episode here on the how Rude Tanarito's podcast. And remember
Speaker 2: the world is small, but the house is full boom,
Speaker 2: and you should probably be careful who you give keys
Speaker 2: Tom not.
Speaker 5: But it's an ear out your money from your bra.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, no no Bra or Zucker
Speaker 3: M hm.