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Speaker 1: You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.

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Speaker 2: The Oscars are only a few days away, and Ruthie's

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Speaker 2: Table four is excited. Rave finds Zoe Saldana and Elton John.

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Speaker 2: Three Ruthy Table four guests are nominated for Academy Awards.

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Speaker 2: The reason we're revisiting their interviews today. Rave is nominated

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Speaker 2: for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his brilliant

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Speaker 2: and moving performance in Conclave. Tell me about eating and acting?

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Speaker 2: What's the deal that do you eat?

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Speaker 3: That's a good question.

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Speaker 4: I think you need a bit of food for energy.

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Speaker 4: So to have starved yourself or not have eaten within

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Speaker 4: three hours before a performance, you can, I think your

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Speaker 4: sugar level would drop. Mean, but I know I can't

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Speaker 4: eat a big meal.

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Speaker 2: What do you eat? Not? What about on a film set?

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Speaker 2: When we touched first breakfast Breakfast, breakfastival?

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Speaker 4: Really they have now found ways to shorten the day,

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Speaker 4: and they had what I called a running lunch. A

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Speaker 4: lot of films won't. You can maybe twenty minutes to

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Speaker 4: have a sandwich, and they'll have a running lunch from

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Speaker 4: twelve to two. Maybe if they do stop, it's half

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Speaker 4: an hour.

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Speaker 2: Only and so, as I said, you were in Rome, I.

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Speaker 3: Was filming around twice this year.

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Speaker 4: I was filming this Conclave which you mentioned about, a

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Speaker 4: film recreating the conclave when the cardinals, when the Pope

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Speaker 4: has died and all the cardinals get into the Sistine

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Speaker 4: Chapel and they are sequestered away from the world. They

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Speaker 4: have no contact with the outside world at all while

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Speaker 4: they vote for the new pope, and they have to

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Speaker 4: keep voting until the required majority is achieved.

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Speaker 2: Does somebody put them? Can I can one of them

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Speaker 2: say I want to be pope and campaigned?

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Speaker 4: There's a bit of that in it. There is the

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Speaker 4: oh yes, no, that's a bit. It's based on a

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Speaker 4: great book by Robert Harris. Yeah, and it was written

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Speaker 4: maybe nine years ago. And it's been directed by Edward Berger,

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Speaker 4: who directed All Quite on the Western Front, which got

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Speaker 4: a lot of acclaim the last season.

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Speaker 3: He was wonderful director, very very very good, very.

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Speaker 4: Lovely man, very detailed and very and the best sets,

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Speaker 4: attentive to the actors and the nuances that he wants

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Speaker 4: them to bring out. I love working with him, and

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Speaker 4: wonderful Stanley Tucci. He loves playing my two We're two

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Speaker 4: We're two cardinals who are friends and we hit we

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Speaker 4: hit a few bumpy patches in our friendship in.

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Speaker 2: The film, do you both want to put yourselves up

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Speaker 2: for being pope?

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Speaker 4: In different ways? He's a bit more. We're both reluctant

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Speaker 4: to admit it that we do. And he's brilliant in

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Speaker 4: the film.

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Speaker 2: I have to say, did the Vatican were they involved?

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Speaker 4: They they just rise above it. They just know they're

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Speaker 4: not really involved. But nor they just they just and.

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Speaker 2: They let you film in the Vatican.

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Speaker 4: No, no, no, no, no, There is a whole The key

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Speaker 4: voting scenes are in the Sistine Chapel in real life,

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Speaker 4: and there exists Assistine Chapel set made I believe for

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Speaker 4: the mini series The Young Pope, which I think so

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Speaker 4: that set of the Sistine Chapel was was mothballed and

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Speaker 4: then our production brought it out, cleaned it out, repainted it,

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Speaker 4: and it's the whole of the first twenty feet of

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Speaker 4: the Sistine Chapel with the Day of Judgment at one

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Speaker 4: end as a copy and they add the rest with CGI.

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Speaker 4: But I've seen bits of the footage with the added

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Speaker 4: siagi and it looks it looks like we're in the

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Speaker 4: real place.

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Speaker 2: And then for me what i'd last like that was

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Speaker 2: where did you eat in realm?

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Speaker 3: Don't ask me the names I've gone.

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Speaker 2: Okay, just tell me about the food. How did it

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Speaker 2: feel to be eating the food around? For as long as.

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Speaker 4: I'm in there, Stanley, I hope you don't may bring

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Speaker 4: you up again in this podcast with you, but Stanley,

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Speaker 4: teach you brought a chunk of us towards the end,

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Speaker 4: a group of us who were filming, including Edward.

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Speaker 3: It's wonderful restaurant.

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Speaker 4: Called not pomer Doughty but Pomme Dory, I believe, and

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Speaker 4: it's an old family restaurant that was beloved of Pasolini,

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Speaker 4: the director, and he organized this wonderful meal there late,

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Speaker 4: very late after a day's filming, and that I think

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Speaker 4: was the best meal I had. They had put on

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Speaker 4: the special meal because it was Stanley and they were charming.

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Speaker 4: And I went back there to that restaurant again when

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Speaker 4: I returned to Rome later this year in the summer

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Speaker 4: to make the return, and it's just very and you

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Speaker 4: don't really they kind of give you food you didn't

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Speaker 4: really order. I mean, you can't order, but they just

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Speaker 4: sort of present you with what they feel is the

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Speaker 4: best pastor of the evening.

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Speaker 3: And it was very easy.

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Speaker 4: And I definitely preferred the more threat or ear style

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Speaker 4: than the restaurants, the high flying restaurants.

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Speaker 3: I'm not drawn to it so much.

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Speaker 2: Did you read out a lot? Would you filming.

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Speaker 3: On Conclaive? I ate out quite a bit, but.

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Speaker 4: We're filming day. The filming hours are so long. In

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Speaker 4: the end, I would go back to my flat and

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Speaker 4: I cook something. But in the weekends really.

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Speaker 2: And what about in Greece?

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Speaker 3: I love, oh when Greece and Corse.

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Speaker 4: We were in Corforu for most of it, and we

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Speaker 4: came across a wonderful restaurant which served the most exquisite

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Speaker 4: lamb that was on the spit.

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Speaker 3: Oh god, the lamb.

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Speaker 4: Was was just extraordinary, just so circular and tasty, and

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Speaker 4: Spiros's restaurant it was. It was quite a simple restaurant,

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Speaker 4: catering for mostly tourists. But got the lamb was?

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Speaker 2: What month was that? Spring?

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Speaker 4: May?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Oh?

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Speaker 2: We just kept in Morocco? Was that also? Don't you think?

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Speaker 2: I agree?

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Speaker 4: I think Moroccan food that was heaven. Tagine cooking is

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Speaker 4: one of the best cooking ways of cooking. I think

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Speaker 4: I've had come across.

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Speaker 2: When the lamb. Yeah, that was I was going to

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Speaker 2: ask you about the menu. Yeah, because you know, here

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Speaker 2: we are a chef. Chef Shan is a chef for

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Speaker 2: going into a restaurant. And I remember you calling me

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Speaker 2: up from there and saying that you were, you know,

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Speaker 2: learning the skill. A woman from San Francisco came, didn't

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Speaker 2: She a.

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Speaker 4: Chef, Dominique Krenn, who I think has a restaurant in

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Speaker 4: San Francisco called Atlier kren And there's a wonderful chef's

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Speaker 4: table on her. She's from Brittany originally, she's fantastic and

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Speaker 4: she came and she designed all the food for the film,

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Speaker 4: and then she oversaw the initial first few days of shooting,

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Speaker 4: and then she left a couple of her chefs with

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Speaker 4: us who oversaw not just the food and the preparation

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Speaker 4: of the food, but they were looking at the kitchen

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Speaker 4: staff in our film to make sure that they behaved

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Speaker 4: in their demeanor and their just their rhythm of movement,

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Speaker 4: just so anyone looking at it would believe it was

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Speaker 4: a working kitchen.

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Speaker 2: What was it like playing it was a working kitchen?

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Speaker 2: I thought I believed it was a working kitchen. No

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Speaker 2: I did. I definitely did. I mean, we were just

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Speaker 2: such a fantastic character and that type of food and

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Speaker 2: the hidden humor, saying to Will that Richard and I

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Speaker 2: went to El Bulli in the early days, you know,

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Speaker 2: that restaurant in Spain, and it was very much one

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Speaker 2: little tiny piece of food after another, one olive that

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Speaker 2: exploded in your mouth, and one, you know, piece of

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Speaker 2: crab that you know, you had to pick, and then

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Speaker 2: that was it. And we said, they said to us,

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Speaker 2: after twelve courses, he said, now we're going to finish

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Speaker 2: with ravioli with parmesan and butter and sage. And I thought,

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Speaker 2: at last we're getting something to eat. And a plate

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Speaker 2: came and it was just a plate, and so we

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Speaker 2: just waited and waited and waited, and we said, where

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Speaker 2: is the ravioli And they said that basically, it was

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Speaker 2: a spray. It was a spray that they'd sprayed on

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Speaker 2: the plate and it had the essence of ravioli with

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Speaker 2: butter and parmesan. And we had to take our finger

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Speaker 2: and kind of wiped the plate and that was a dish,

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Speaker 2: you know, And I thought, that's okay, exactly. Yeah, that kind.

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Speaker 2: So what was it like being a chef in that?

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Speaker 1: And that's well as you.

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Speaker 4: Saw from the film. I mean, i'm I'm I run

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Speaker 4: the restaurant side. He doesn't do much cooking at all.

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Speaker 4: He's seeing it until the very end when he's challenged

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Speaker 4: to make a good old fashioned cheeseburger, which he does

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Speaker 4: make and I had to cook that.

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Speaker 2: Did you learn skills? Chog? Yeah, you make a good cheeseburger.

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Speaker 3: It was good?

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Is there something that you love about a restaurant or

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Speaker 2: going I would say that people do very private things

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Speaker 2: in a public space. Have you used restaurants as a

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Speaker 2: sort of safety net? Do you think to do something

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Speaker 2: that's difficult or not.

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Speaker 4: If you meet someone in I mean I usually eat

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Speaker 4: either with one other or on my own, or maybe

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Speaker 4: after a show with whoever it might have been coming.

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Speaker 4: I like, I love going on my own to restaurant

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Speaker 4: with a book and it's a privilege. But to have

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Speaker 4: a glass of wine and simple food, I love that.

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Speaker 4: But going with I have been in situations where this

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Speaker 4: is the meal where you tell son so that you're

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Speaker 4: not going to do the film, or you tell them

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Speaker 4: that you can't see them anymore.

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Speaker 3: Or you know, and that's heavy.

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Speaker 4: That's I mean that that in that sense, when it's

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Speaker 4: a tricky thing, then the restaurant is a sort of padding,

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Speaker 4: as you say, safety note, but it means you don't

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Speaker 4: enjoy it's all. Then then the food and the service,

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Speaker 4: then that's all a kind of pathway to get through

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Speaker 4: the difficult thing you've told yourself you've got to do.

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Speaker 4: So I like, I like to be in a relaxed

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Speaker 4: context where it's just the enjoyment of sharing food with people,

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Speaker 4: and of course drink a good you know. I mean,

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Speaker 4: let's talk about alcohol.

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Speaker 1: I love a drink.

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Speaker 2: Let's have a drink.

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Speaker 6: You know.

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Speaker 4: I love martini, I love a Negroni. And why I mean,

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Speaker 4: I am not in excess, but I just love that

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Speaker 4: that little drop in the kind of anxiety as that.

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Speaker 4: And I hate getting really off my face. I don't.

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Speaker 4: I hate the after effect, but I just love that

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Speaker 4: little with the first do you have a cocktail?

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Speaker 2: Our wonderful conversation with Elton John and his husband David

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Speaker 2: Furnish took place around the wooden dining table at their

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Speaker 2: beautiful home in Berkshire. Elton is nominated for Best Original

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Speaker 2: Song for Never Too Late from the documentary of the

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Speaker 2: same name about his life. It was directed by David

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Speaker 2: and RJ.

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Speaker 3: Cutler.

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Speaker 2: This episode was particularly moving. Elton shared with us his

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Speaker 2: memories of growing up cooking with his mother and his grandmother.

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Speaker 1: I grew up after the war, so everything.

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Speaker 2: Was about early life.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: I was born in the council house. I lived with

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Speaker 6: my mother, my grandmother, because my father was away in

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Speaker 6: the Air Force.

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Speaker 2: Was it your mother's mother, Yes.

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Speaker 1: My grandmother. She was fantastic.

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Speaker 2: What was she like?

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Speaker 6: She was wonderful. She could cook anything and make it

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Speaker 6: taste incredible. I mean, basic ingredients were hard to get.

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Speaker 6: After all, we were russianed and bacon was partly a nono.

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Speaker 6: But she made I never remember a bad meal or

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Speaker 6: going hungry, and everything that was left over she made

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Speaker 6: into something else the next day.

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Speaker 1: And what I loved about her because I have the

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Speaker 1: biggest sweet tooth.

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Speaker 6: Her bread puddings and her apple pies, and her scones

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Speaker 6: or scones, and her victorious sponges.

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Speaker 1: Very simple. The kitchen was again, the coal cellar was

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Speaker 1: in the kitchen. It was you believe it.

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Speaker 6: The laundry was done on the stove in a boiler,

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Speaker 6: and we had a mangle to It was a very

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Speaker 6: basic upbringing, but I can never remember the smell of

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Speaker 6: cooking was always wonderful, and she could cook anything. I

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Speaker 6: fell in love with very basic, simple English food at

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Speaker 6: that point.

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Speaker 2: I think that a simple English food as you talk

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Speaker 2: about bread pudding and apple pie, those are very They're

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Speaker 2: not easy to make, you know, And it's to do

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Speaker 2: with the ingredients and the method and the way you cook.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, and things like Spotty Didnking cast It. I walk

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Speaker 6: into a restaurant, say in Yorkshire or something like that,

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Speaker 6: and sometimes they have things like that on the menu

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Speaker 6: to go oh my God, which.

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Speaker 1: For me is just a sheer delight.

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Speaker 6: I always sometimes think that you go to some john

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Speaker 6: for instance, they have Ecoes cakes, and the Echoes cakes

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Speaker 6: are incredible, and they serve it with the cheese and

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Speaker 6: it's just like wow, man from Heaven. Nowadays, unfortunately I

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Speaker 6: can't eat it because I'm semi diabetic, but I do

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Speaker 6: like those English stalwarts a lot.

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Speaker 2: I do too well. So growing up, you had a

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Speaker 2: mother and a grandmother in the house, and your father

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Speaker 2: was where he was.

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Speaker 6: He was away in the Air Force in Aiden, and

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Speaker 6: so I didn't really see much for him. So it

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Speaker 6: was a woman's household. My mom's sister, my aunt, was

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Speaker 6: always there as well. So I grew up with a

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Speaker 6: bunch of women who knew how to cook, which was great.

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Speaker 2: And you all sat down to meal every night together, yes.

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Speaker 1: And we toasted our toast by the fire.

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Speaker 2: Was yours? Similar in Toronto.

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Speaker 3: I grew up in Canada.

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Speaker 1: I was in Toronto.

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Speaker 7: I was one of three boys, and my mom was

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Speaker 7: We were very lucky. She was a stay at home mom.

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Speaker 7: She could make almost anything happen instantly. She had a

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Speaker 7: deep freeze in the basement. And sometimes we'd come back

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Speaker 7: from school or a sports match and we'd bring two

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Speaker 7: friends along and she'd say, no problem, and she'd go

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Speaker 7: on stairs and she thought out some pastries, she thought

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Speaker 7: some meat, she thought a tomato sauce or something then

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Speaker 7: prepared in advance. Suddenly the dinner could just expand or change,

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Speaker 7: you know, with thirty minutes notice. And meals were important,

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Speaker 7: although given it was three boys and there was a

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Speaker 7: lot going on, it was a lot of meals on

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Speaker 7: the hop what you were the I'm the middle one,

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Speaker 7: the middle one. Yeah, the one thing that mum was

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Speaker 7: important because we were always coming and going, but Sunday lunch,

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Speaker 7: Sunday dinner was the one time she wanted the family

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Speaker 7: to be around the table and have more of a

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Speaker 7: sense of occasion, and that was a traditional English roast.

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Speaker 7: My grandparents on my mother's side were from the north

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Speaker 7: and the South of Ireland, and my grandparents on my

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Speaker 7: father's side were from England and Wales, so a lot

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Speaker 7: of those traditions came across to Canada and Sunday roast,

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Speaker 7: Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, roast beef, you know, Brussels sprouts, beans, carrots,

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Speaker 7: a really good gravy, and then always a baked pie

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Speaker 7: or cake or sweet for dessert. My British grandmother was

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Speaker 7: an amazing baker.

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Speaker 2: So you both had grandmothers that.

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Speaker 1: I think grandparents are so important.

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Speaker 2: They are. I agree.

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Speaker 6: The thing about my grandmother was that because we had

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Speaker 6: a garden, we grew all our own produce because it

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Speaker 6: was so much cheaper, and my grandmother had green fingers,

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Speaker 6: so we always had fresh vegetables.

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Speaker 1: Hardly ever had processed peas.

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Speaker 6: I mean the great advantage in those days that food

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Speaker 6: wasn't really you know, instant did no instant whips, no

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Speaker 6: instant there's mashed potato. It was all genuinely from the garden,

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Speaker 6: which was delicious. So I mean I remember shelling the

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Speaker 6: peas every Sunday morning. That's that was like David Sunday

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Speaker 6: roast was very important for the family gathering. So shelling

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Speaker 6: the peas was one thing. Peeling the potatoes with another

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Speaker 6: broad being to another. So we always had good produce

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Speaker 6: because we couldn't afford to buy them because you know,

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Speaker 6: teams times were hard after the war and the butt,

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Speaker 6: and we had a tiny bottle of orange juice which

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Speaker 6: you diluted and poured the water into. But I never

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Speaker 6: felt as if we were missing any denied.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but neither of your mother's work. They didn't have

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Speaker 2: to combine a career with cooking your mother.

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Speaker 6: My mother worked all the time and worked really really

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Speaker 6: hard as well. And she worked in a shop, she

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Speaker 6: worked in a dairy, she worked at the Air Force.

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Speaker 6: She's always but she'd always come home and make dinner. Yeah,

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Speaker 6: she was very hard working woman, but still cooked.

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Speaker 7: She raised Elton as a single mom, and so you

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Speaker 7: know his ability to study and take lessons.

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Speaker 8: And learn and everything.

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Speaker 7: His mum worked very very hard providing for the family

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Speaker 7: to allow him to do that. That's what got him

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Speaker 7: on his path to be who he is today.

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Speaker 2: Did you ever go to restaurants?

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Speaker 6: The only time I remember going to a restaurant is

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Speaker 6: when I went to a Chinese restaurant in Harrow. We

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Speaker 6: lived in Pinner and Chinese restaurants suddenly became the rage.

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Speaker 6: Coffee bars were the rage before that, but we went

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Speaker 6: for a Chinese meal. Was the first restaurant I care

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Speaker 6: remember going to, and it was just wow. We have

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Speaker 6: bean sprouts and it was just so delicious and it

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00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:09,920
Speaker 6: was so exotic, and I remember I was so excited

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Speaker 6: to go to this Chinese restaurant.

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Speaker 1: There weren't many in the area.

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Speaker 6: One in how there wasn't certainly one in Pillar, but

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Speaker 6: it was just an incredible occasion. And that's the first

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Speaker 6: exotic food I ever really had. How old were you,

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Speaker 6: I don't know, eight nine maybe yeah?

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Speaker 7: And did you get to a restaurant It was a

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Speaker 7: very very special treat. Yeah, because again it was expensive

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Speaker 7: and it was a big treat. What we never had

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Speaker 7: was fast food.

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Speaker 3: Book.

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Speaker 7: My mother was very anti fast food. She just didn't

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Speaker 7: didn't think it was good for us. I think she

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Speaker 7: was ahead of her time with that. There wasn't any

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Speaker 7: fast food when I grew up.

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Speaker 2: Fast food was boiling the cabbus for ten minutes.

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Speaker 6: I went to school, there suddenly became there was a

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Speaker 6: Wimpy bar when I was about fifteen.

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Speaker 1: That's the first fast food place I can ever remember.

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Speaker 2: But you both, what is interesting to talk to you

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Speaker 2: about is that food was important to you, and delicious

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Speaker 2: food was important to you, and you grew up with

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Speaker 2: a sense of that importance in your life.

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Speaker 6: You know, Well, meals were very social. It's when you

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00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:11,399
Speaker 6: got together. I mean when I went to school, I

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Speaker 6: had school meals which were vile.

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Speaker 2: That was a day school that was justful.

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Speaker 1: Just awful, awful.

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Speaker 6: Awful, But then you come home at night and that

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00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:22,840
Speaker 6: was the day. That's where you got breakfast was just

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Speaker 6: on the on the run really to get to school.

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Speaker 6: But the meal at night was always important, and of

378
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Speaker 6: course the weekend, the Sunday lunch was really important.

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Speaker 2: And when you both in different stages of your life,

380
00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:38,560
Speaker 2: left this coon of your grandmother's your food, your mother

381
00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:41,399
Speaker 2: rustling something up, and a friend came for you to

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00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:44,680
Speaker 2: talk when each of you, would you tell me when

383
00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:47,400
Speaker 2: when did you leave home? When did you How old

384
00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:49,720
Speaker 2: were you when you suddenly were out on your own

385
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Speaker 2: and thinking about food in your own way?

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Speaker 1: When I was about I met Bernie that.

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Speaker 6: Was nineteen maybe or twenty, and we shared a flat

388
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Speaker 6: in Islington.

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Speaker 2: And did it have a kitchen?

390
00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:11,200
Speaker 1: But I'm incapable of cooking anything and Bernie as too,

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Speaker 1: so we just out all the time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And would that be would you seek out restaurants

393
00:19:18,040 --> 00:19:21,640
Speaker 2: or would you just have grabbed something? Stuff like that?

394
00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,760
Speaker 6: Keep things because we couldn't afford expensive things. But never

395
00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:28,120
Speaker 6: The first real exciting restaurant I went to was when

396
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Speaker 6: Dick James took her to a restaurant off of Tottenham.

397
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Speaker 1: Court Road, And who was Dick James.

398
00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:37,159
Speaker 6: Dick James was my publisher and my manager who you

399
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:39,480
Speaker 6: know published the Beatles, was very famous, first person to

400
00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,600
Speaker 6: sign on. Yeah, And so I went to this restaurant

401
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:47,320
Speaker 6: called La Maisonette and I had a prawn cocktail. I

402
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:49,159
Speaker 6: never seen anything like. I didn't know what to do,

403
00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:49,560
Speaker 6: what's this?

404
00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:54,240
Speaker 1: So that was the first posh in in Berti Coomma's

405
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:55,840
Speaker 1: restaurant that I ever went to.

406
00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:59,679
Speaker 2: Paul mccurrenty told me that that same experience, said he

407
00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:01,639
Speaker 2: when he went was taken.

408
00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:05,320
Speaker 1: By Brian Epstein.

409
00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:11,199
Speaker 2: Again another mam Maisonette or Montclair or Bontant, and it

410
00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:14,119
Speaker 2: was suddenly an eye opener. He said. It was the

411
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Speaker 2: first time he'd only had cheap wine. With John Lennon.

412
00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:20,520
Speaker 2: They used to really and they couldn't understand the point

413
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:23,159
Speaker 2: of wine because it tasted so terrible because it was

414
00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:25,440
Speaker 2: so cheap. And then he went and had a good

415
00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:27,560
Speaker 2: glass of wine and realized what life could be. Did

416
00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:30,160
Speaker 2: you have the same feeling about your prome cocktail?

417
00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:31,000
Speaker 1: Exactly?

418
00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:33,840
Speaker 6: It was like, oh, and the bread was lovely and

419
00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:39,119
Speaker 6: it was beautiful bread rolled and crispy, and and you thought, well,

420
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,320
Speaker 6: this is a different this is a step up. I mean,

421
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Speaker 6: it's not the Aberdeen Steakhouse.

422
00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:46,719
Speaker 1: This, well it's not. This is a proper restaurant, sorry Aberdeen.

423
00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:53,560
Speaker 1: But to me, the Aberdeen Steakhouse was posh was peah.

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Speaker 2: I remember once I was in New York and my

425
00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:59,840
Speaker 2: parents used to take us a special treat to this restaurant.

426
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Speaker 2: And then I was with a girlfriend who was a

427
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:04,000
Speaker 2: friend of mine, and she said her parents were deciding

428
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:06,320
Speaker 2: where to go out to eat and they mentioned this

429
00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:08,440
Speaker 2: restaurant and her parents said, oh, we're not going into

430
00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:10,360
Speaker 2: a place like that, And I thought that was our

431
00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:11,200
Speaker 2: special place.

432
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Speaker 6: Well yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

433
00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:17,200
Speaker 2: What about you?

434
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Speaker 7: When I was working in advertising, you you were taking

435
00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:22,959
Speaker 7: out clients and you were entertaining them. So that was

436
00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:26,080
Speaker 7: a little bit like being let off the leash to

437
00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:29,119
Speaker 7: to explore and have and have fun. And you know,

438
00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:30,919
Speaker 7: you wanted to treat your clients well, and you were

439
00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:33,440
Speaker 7: able to take them to nice restaurants. In Toronto, where

440
00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:36,640
Speaker 7: I grew up, has a fantastic it's a great restaurant town.

441
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,320
Speaker 7: It's very international, so what you get exposed to is

442
00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:43,760
Speaker 7: was very very sophisticated and very very worldly. And that

443
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:46,600
Speaker 7: was that was I've never you know, eaten like that

444
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:47,160
Speaker 7: in my life.

445
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:48,160
Speaker 1: That was really special.

446
00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:51,520
Speaker 2: And so back to the apartment you lived in Islington,

447
00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:55,040
Speaker 2: you ate out, you grab food, and then slowly, with

448
00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:58,120
Speaker 2: your success, you you were able to go and at

449
00:21:58,119 --> 00:22:00,960
Speaker 2: that point to being able to eat food another restaurants.

450
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:04,800
Speaker 6: When I became successful, it was a different kettle of fish.

451
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:07,960
Speaker 6: I met people who were more sophisticated than I was,

452
00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:12,439
Speaker 6: who knew the London restaurant scene and everything, and I

453
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,920
Speaker 6: started going to better places with them. It's just it's

454
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:19,199
Speaker 6: just the journey. I'm starting to play better venues. I

455
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:21,840
Speaker 6: was starting to eat at better restaurants. I was starting

456
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:24,200
Speaker 6: to earn more money. I was starting to live in

457
00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:26,920
Speaker 6: a better place. As you go, as you do things

458
00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:29,680
Speaker 6: like that, step by step, you know, you get introduced

459
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:32,359
Speaker 6: to different things. And it was lovely. It was a

460
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:36,400
Speaker 6: wonderful journey in every respect. I never collected art until

461
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:39,879
Speaker 6: I suddenly became wealthy enough to buy some prints, and

462
00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:44,760
Speaker 6: the whole journey just went step hand in hand. And yes,

463
00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:46,879
Speaker 6: I loved I loved going to lovely restaurant. I remember

464
00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:49,280
Speaker 6: when I first got there was two restaurants in Cavon

465
00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:54,159
Speaker 6: Garten called The Garden and Inigo giants. I used to

466
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 6: go there all the time.

467
00:22:54,960 --> 00:23:00,679
Speaker 2: That was English food, wasn't it called? Yeah? Did you

468
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:03,120
Speaker 2: go to a Greek or did you discover I never.

469
00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:04,879
Speaker 1: I never went abroad at all, hardly.

470
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:08,879
Speaker 6: I went to America, but I'd never really in France

471
00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:11,320
Speaker 6: because I never really went to France or itsly or

472
00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:14,800
Speaker 6: any plant places that came later on. I was introduced

473
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:20,000
Speaker 6: to America in cuisine in inverted commers. I don't really

474
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,040
Speaker 6: think they have a cuisine unless you're in the South

475
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:25,040
Speaker 6: and it's chicken and the food is incredible in the South.

476
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:27,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh my god, do you think what do you

477
00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:27,720
Speaker 2: like in the South?

478
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,399
Speaker 6: I like all sorts of things that aren't good for me,

479
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:36,400
Speaker 6: fried chicken, fried chicken, donuts. If I had a death

480
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:39,920
Speaker 6: row meal, it wouldn't contain anything except sweets because I

481
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:42,240
Speaker 6: can't eat them now, So I'd have ice cream, donuts,

482
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:44,160
Speaker 6: apple pie, ruberb crumble.

483
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:44,679
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah.

484
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:48,359
Speaker 2: I get it. Yeah, so you don't need any sugar

485
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:56,639
Speaker 2: now at all. The River Cafe, when you said lunch

486
00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 2: is now running from Monday to Thursday. Reserve okay at www.

487
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:05,520
Speaker 2: Rivercafe dot co dot uk or give us a call

488
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:13,400
Speaker 2: Zoeh Sardana's nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role

489
00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:18,160
Speaker 2: for her magnetic performance in the musical Amelia Perez. Talking

490
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:20,560
Speaker 2: to her, it's clear she was destined for the role.

491
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 2: Dance was an important part of her life from a

492
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 2: young age. Sitting in the river cafe, she told me

493
00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:28,159
Speaker 2: all about those early years.

494
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:31,600
Speaker 5: I come from a family, and I do know this.

495
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:36,639
Speaker 5: That is a cultural thing. We dance. We dance at funerals,

496
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:40,280
Speaker 5: we dance, had births, we dance. If you fail to test,

497
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 5: we danced if you passed it. You know what I mean.

498
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:45,119
Speaker 8: It's you just dance, and you dance at ing and

499
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 8: you dance alsa.

500
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:49,600
Speaker 5: And neighbors all they can be doctors or architects, but

501
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:51,359
Speaker 5: they know how to play the gongas, and they know

502
00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 5: how to play the drums, and they'll come with a trumpet.

503
00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:55,680
Speaker 8: And everybody sits in someone's.

504
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:59,359
Speaker 5: Backyard and you can see it. Even Puerto Rico is

505
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 5: the same, the same. Dominican Republic is very much that way.

506
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:05,879
Speaker 5: So I grew up just and and there's always everything

507
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,480
Speaker 5: is always a reason to have a party. It's somebody's

508
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 5: it's somebody's baptism, and you sort of go, why are

509
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,159
Speaker 5: we having this parade? Like, no, no, it's a baptism And

510
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:17,240
Speaker 5: you're like, but he's four. You're like, it's the biggest party,

511
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 5: can last sixteen hours. And so I grew up always

512
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:24,520
Speaker 5: seeing great grandparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, teenagers, dancing,

513
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:25,719
Speaker 5: everybody always dancing.

514
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:27,680
Speaker 8: So we dance.

515
00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:28,960
Speaker 2: We did as well.

516
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,800
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, but that transition into dance was very different

517
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:34,040
Speaker 5: from what you do at home.

518
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:34,360
Speaker 1: Right.

519
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 8: It was therapy.

520
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 5: It was medicine for my soul. Yes, because I was

521
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:43,080
Speaker 5: I wasn't really acclimating enough.

522
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:46,800
Speaker 2: I just wasn't a Dominican republic. Yeah, my mom.

523
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:49,640
Speaker 5: Says that we were, but I think it was just grieving.

524
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:51,960
Speaker 5: We were just you were grieving. It was something that

525
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:55,280
Speaker 5: happened to us, was very traumatic. In children don't really

526
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:57,960
Speaker 5: describe trauma. They don't really say I.

527
00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:00,440
Speaker 8: Am going through something right now.

528
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 5: They either shut down or they overreact. They just whatever

529
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 5: it is, they're just not themselves and that's the sign.

530
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 5: That's the indication that they've experienced trauma and they're still

531
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:18,560
Speaker 5: like in a state of shock and bal Ballet became

532
00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:21,159
Speaker 5: my outlet, my place, my safe haven. I would go

533
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:23,680
Speaker 5: to after school it was an environment that I can

534
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:27,200
Speaker 5: go and test myself and challenge myself and.

535
00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:28,120
Speaker 8: Learn something new.

536
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:30,680
Speaker 5: So when you're learning something new, that takes a lot

537
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:34,000
Speaker 5: of your attention and your time, and that's what I needed.

538
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:36,040
Speaker 5: I needed a lot to put all of my attention,

539
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,920
Speaker 5: all of my time into something that was going to

540
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 5: give me some kind of release and relief, and Ballet

541
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:44,200
Speaker 5: did that.

542
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:45,680
Speaker 8: It almost became an obsession.

543
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:50,000
Speaker 5: I was very blessed in the sense that throughout my

544
00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 5: life I had really great role models that took my mom, my, sisters,

545
00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:57,439
Speaker 5: and I in and either by cooking a meal or

546
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:03,240
Speaker 5: teaching us something, you know, we were taken in and

547
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:05,399
Speaker 5: we were told that we can believe in ourselves, that

548
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 5: we can believe in love again, that we can believe

549
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:09,280
Speaker 5: in life again, that we can do this, and we

550
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:10,920
Speaker 5: began our healing process.

551
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:12,080
Speaker 8: But it didn't come that quickly.

552
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:14,200
Speaker 2: It's a kind of rigor, isn't that that when you're

553
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:16,960
Speaker 2: following a recipe or you're learning how to do first

554
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 2: position sex position? That rigor of a discipline of doing

555
00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:24,680
Speaker 2: something allows you then to come be free. Yeah.

556
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 5: Absolutely, And it gave me a confidence that I was

557
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,560
Speaker 5: beginning to lose. Studies show that children when they enter

558
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:33,200
Speaker 5: middle school, which is what you know, we were kind

559
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:33,639
Speaker 5: of about.

560
00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:36,160
Speaker 8: We were still not out of elementary school when he passed.

561
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:38,639
Speaker 5: Away, but when the first couple of years after he

562
00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 5: was gone, we were entering middle school. That's around the

563
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:45,159
Speaker 5: time when children start losing their confidence. And I'm just

564
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:49,680
Speaker 5: happy that that ballet didn't allow me to lose it completely.

565
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 2: And you went to New York. You went back to it.

566
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 5: When I was seventeen, So from ten to seventeen, I

567
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:57,200
Speaker 5: was in Dominican Republic. By the time we were fourteen

568
00:27:57,280 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 5: fifteen years old, we were beach heads.

569
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,679
Speaker 8: Were just like surfing. We were you you have a

570
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:04,560
Speaker 8: bad day, go to the beach.

571
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 6: Yah.

572
00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:07,120
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, you break your boyfriend breaks up.

573
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:08,880
Speaker 1: With you, you go to the beach, you know what I mean.

574
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 8: And and so we were always at the beach.

575
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:14,400
Speaker 5: We were always dancing, we were always at school, ballet,

576
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:16,919
Speaker 5: learning languages.

577
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:18,239
Speaker 8: That sort of, you know.

578
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:20,600
Speaker 5: And then my mom found love again also when we

579
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,800
Speaker 5: were in Dominican Republic by reconnecting with a childhood friend,

580
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:27,680
Speaker 5: and that began to also she began to kind of

581
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 5: step out of her spell because my mom was in

582
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 5: a really bad depression after my dad passed away. For

583
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 5: I would say like two to four years after he passed,

584
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 5: and then she found love and they're still together, still married.

585
00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:47,000
Speaker 2: Huh. Was that good for you? Yes? I was.

586
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 8: I was fourteen.

587
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:51,880
Speaker 5: I think when they when they reconnected and they're still together,

588
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 5: and he became he became my father.

589
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:55,959
Speaker 8: Yeah he is.

590
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 5: He's a really good father and a really great husband,

591
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:02,480
Speaker 5: and he's it's funny, and he's geeky, and yeah, he

592
00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:03,560
Speaker 5: dances really great.

593
00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:04,480
Speaker 8: So to see that my.

594
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 5: Mom also was able to regain, you know, a good

595
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 5: dancing partner, because dancing is really a part.

596
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 8: Of who we are alive. Yeah, of our bank.

597
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,760
Speaker 2: You that into a profession for yourself when you came back,

598
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:18,480
Speaker 2: Did you go to Julie did you? No?

599
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:19,160
Speaker 8: No, no, no no.

600
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:22,160
Speaker 5: I danced in like a little academy in Queens that

601
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 5: I had to take a train and two buses for

602
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 5: every day after school. It wasn't the same. I still

603
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 5: kept at it, you know, for I would say two

604
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:33,600
Speaker 5: more years. By the time I was like to eighteen,

605
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 5: about to be nineteen, I had already kind of started

606
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 5: meddling with acting.

607
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:42,200
Speaker 2: So you went to auditions. Tell us about just.

608
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,120
Speaker 8: One thing led to another I had.

609
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,960
Speaker 5: I knew nothing about that anything. I just knew that

610
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 5: I was going to dance. And I guess, once I

611
00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:53,240
Speaker 5: graduate high school, maybe I'll go to Sunny Purchase.

612
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 8: If I'm lucky enough and.

613
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 5: I really want to pursue this, maybe I'll go to

614
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:02,400
Speaker 5: Yale and master in some kind of dance psychology. And

615
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:04,560
Speaker 5: so I was starting to already think about that and

616
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 5: working with the dean and your in your high school

617
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:10,560
Speaker 5: and everything. But deep, deep down, I had no desire

618
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 5: of doing any of those things because I realized I

619
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:18,720
Speaker 5: had reached my glass ceiling in ballet and I wasn't

620
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,480
Speaker 5: able to shatter it. I just I didn't have the feet,

621
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 5: and I was getting really tired of just punishing myself

622
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 5: for not being good enough, and had I had too

623
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:33,400
Speaker 5: much hunger in me that just being in the core

624
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 5: of a company wasn't going to cut it for me

625
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 5: if it cuts it for other people. I wished I

626
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 5: was more like other people at that time, other dancers,

627
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:42,520
Speaker 5: but I wasn't, and I.

628
00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:44,280
Speaker 8: Would pass by all these little theaters.

629
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 5: When I was in Manhattan. My mom would only let

630
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 5: me go with my sister to Kapezio, to the store in.

631
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:51,200
Speaker 8: Fifty seven and columbus to.

632
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 5: Go buy my shoes and go buy some leotards. Whenever

633
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 5: I was like running out and then was like you

634
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:57,719
Speaker 5: come straight back. I hop on the train and come

635
00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:00,720
Speaker 5: straight back to Queens. But there was they were holding

636
00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:05,000
Speaker 5: these auditions, and there was this little sign yeah, like

637
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:08,440
Speaker 5: on the basement of like this brown stone uptown and

638
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 5: it said New York Youth Theater holding auditions for the Wiz.

639
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:15,200
Speaker 5: And I looked at my sister, who at the time,

640
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 5: she was smoking cigarettes and she wasn't supposed to, so

641
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 5: obviously she brings me into the city.

642
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:24,320
Speaker 8: She's like buys her pack of cigarettes and.

643
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 5: She's just smoking away as she's being like my chaperone,

644
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 5: and I'm like, Marie, can I go check.

645
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:30,240
Speaker 8: This out really quickly?

646
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:31,800
Speaker 5: And then we take the train and go home, and

647
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 5: she's like looking look like her cigarette and kind of

648
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:35,920
Speaker 5: goes for yeah, sure.

649
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 8: And then puts it out.

650
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:41,120
Speaker 5: We go inside, we audition and no, no, no, she

651
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:44,640
Speaker 5: just she was there, signs me up and everything, and

652
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 5: you know, but mind, she's only a year older. It's

653
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:48,320
Speaker 5: not like she's much older than I am. But we

654
00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 5: were always partners and crying. My sisters and I I

655
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 5: auditioned for it, and I get called back for the Whiz.

656
00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:57,240
Speaker 8: Yes, but it was like a small little off off

657
00:31:57,400 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 8: off Broadway.

658
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 2: To this story. These probably guys and actors standing that

659
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 2: this little girl, she's walked off the street, she wants

660
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:10,520
Speaker 2: to audition. Okay, you know, we'll do it. We have

661
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 2: to do it, and it's you.

662
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:16,920
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, and they were so nice they called me back.

663
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 5: I remember waiting for that phone call. Every time the

664
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:22,360
Speaker 5: phone in my house would would ring, I'd.

665
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:24,680
Speaker 8: Be like, I got it, I got it, hello, you know.

666
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 5: And finally it was them, and I think my sister

667
00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:30,720
Speaker 5: took the call and she said, they're calling you back,

668
00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:34,080
Speaker 5: So now we have to tell our parents. So I

669
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 5: remember we did. I waited for my mom to come

670
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:39,240
Speaker 5: home from work and I was like, well, don't be upset,

671
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 5: but we I did audition for this place and I

672
00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:46,880
Speaker 5: got called back and she was just like, okay, what

673
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:47,600
Speaker 5: about ballet.

674
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:49,440
Speaker 8: I'm like, I don't know. I just they're just calling

675
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:51,840
Speaker 8: me for It's a call back. It's like, what's a

676
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:53,440
Speaker 8: call back? I don't even know what a callback was.

677
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 1: What's a call back?

678
00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:56,720
Speaker 8: I guess it's just the second round. It's not like

679
00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 8: I got it. It's just the second round. I'm so sorry.

680
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 8: And then at this point, my.

681
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,880
Speaker 5: Mom takes off from work and she takes me with

682
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 5: my sister for the callbacks.

683
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 8: And I remember there was I'm reading for the role

684
00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 8: of the Scarecrow.

685
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:13,240
Speaker 5: Guys, I sucked so bad. She hat my lines. But

686
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:16,600
Speaker 5: I can dance, I can do whatever. And my mom

687
00:33:17,040 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 5: leans over to my sister and says, oh, boy, I

688
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:22,440
Speaker 5: guess that's what she wants to do, because I guess

689
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:24,760
Speaker 5: I was really bad at the audition because they're watching it.

690
00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:28,080
Speaker 5: They're sitting in the theater and they're allowing the parents

691
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:29,800
Speaker 5: to watch the children because we're all miners.

692
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:31,560
Speaker 8: I was seventeen, yeah, I was seventeen.

693
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:36,160
Speaker 5: And my mom was like, oh, oh, am on, okay,

694
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 5: this is what she wants to do.

695
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 8: So then we all went back to the house.

696
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:40,720
Speaker 5: When I booked it, I didn't book the role of

697
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 5: the Scarecrow, but I booked to be like.

698
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:42,800
Speaker 2: In the core.

699
00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 8: We go back and it's the news.

700
00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 5: Now we've told my grandmother, my stepdad, and my younger sister,

701
00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 5: Oh my god. But we're looking at the schedule. If

702
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:53,920
Speaker 5: I take off from work, then you can take Zoe.

703
00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:55,120
Speaker 5: Then maybe I'll pick her up.

704
00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:57,800
Speaker 8: So at this point that we're all. We've always been

705
00:33:57,800 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 8: a team.

706
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 5: But we realized that with all my ballet commitments and

707
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 5: I had her recital, there was just no way that

708
00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 5: I could do it without failing this academy, which I'd

709
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:08,520
Speaker 5: granted me a scholarship to dance.

710
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:10,280
Speaker 2: So happened.

711
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 5: I called them up and I said, I can't do it.

712
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:15,680
Speaker 5: Thank you so much. I realized that my commitments with

713
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,040
Speaker 5: ballet are far greater and I just can't really do

714
00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:22,399
Speaker 5: what but my younger sister can. And they were like, well,

715
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,960
Speaker 5: I'm like, she looks just like me. People things were

716
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 5: twins and she used to dance, and at that time,

717
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,280
Speaker 5: my sister was going through like a really hard time,

718
00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:34,839
Speaker 5: just sixteen years old, can't fit in theater. Just gave

719
00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:37,320
Speaker 5: her what ballet had given me in my early years,

720
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:40,080
Speaker 5: so I say it for the poor. They did and

721
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:42,040
Speaker 5: she started doing you know, she did the Whiz and

722
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:44,160
Speaker 5: she did Bye Bye Bertie. Then she did Jesus Christ

723
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 5: Superstar and she did a whole bunch of productions with

724
00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:51,080
Speaker 5: this theater company for I would say like five six years.

725
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:54,400
Speaker 5: So all into like her like twenty until she was

726
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 5: like twenty years old or twenty one.

727
00:34:56,719 --> 00:34:59,120
Speaker 8: I joined at once I stopped dancing.

728
00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:02,920
Speaker 5: Then I joined this other theater group in Brooklyn, and

729
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:04,759
Speaker 5: then they hired me. I did it through like an

730
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:09,280
Speaker 5: internship program from school, and then after I graduated high school,

731
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:12,280
Speaker 5: then they gave me a job with full coverage.

732
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:14,280
Speaker 8: I was I was eighteen.

733
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:17,200
Speaker 5: So I'm in this theater group in Brooklyn. My sister's

734
00:35:17,239 --> 00:35:21,239
Speaker 5: the one in Broadway in Manhattan. So she's the one

735
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:25,160
Speaker 5: with all jazz hands and bye bye Bertie, and I'm

736
00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:30,200
Speaker 5: writing skits about urban life and domestic violence and drug

737
00:35:30,239 --> 00:35:33,120
Speaker 5: addiction with a whole bunch of kids and this other

738
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:36,200
Speaker 5: and we're performing in hospitals, in high schools and jails.

739
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:38,359
Speaker 5: Like I went to sing sing to perform, you know,

740
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:40,200
Speaker 5: with the theater troupe, and I loved it because it

741
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:43,080
Speaker 5: was raw. It was awesome, but it was just dangerous.

742
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 5: My mom just didn't want me going to Brooklyn. So

743
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:48,200
Speaker 5: one day she tells my sister just convinced her, because

744
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 5: I was also dating a guy that didn't want me

745
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:54,000
Speaker 5: dating whatever, just convinced her to audition for Joseph and

746
00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:58,279
Speaker 5: the Amazing Technicolor dream Coat at your theater. And then

747
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:01,520
Speaker 5: we'll get her out of Brooklyn. You with this, I

748
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:03,720
Speaker 5: was I think I was like I was nineteen.

749
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:07,480
Speaker 8: It all happened really fast. This was nineteen ninety seven.

750
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 5: So I auditioned and I booked the role of missus Potiphar,

751
00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 5: and I really had fun, and I decided to stay

752
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:18,640
Speaker 5: with the production and with my sister. Well at that

753
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:23,560
Speaker 5: point was doing more production work than being on stage,

754
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:27,120
Speaker 5: because she's always had a good eye. And there was

755
00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:31,279
Speaker 5: a manager in the room and signed signed me and

756
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:36,320
Speaker 5: started sending me out immediately for soap operas and shows

757
00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:39,240
Speaker 5: like episodics and commercials.

758
00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:42,439
Speaker 8: And I started booking things left and right.

759
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:45,239
Speaker 2: It left home by then. Are you living still at home?

760
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:47,040
Speaker 5: No? No, no, no, no, oh my god, no, we're

761
00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:49,360
Speaker 5: such a I'm still living with my parents.

762
00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 2: So you were still being cooked for. I'm getting to

763
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:54,719
Speaker 2: the food that.

764
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 8: Yes, oh, my grandmother.

765
00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:59,279
Speaker 5: At this point, my grandmother was always with us and

766
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:03,920
Speaker 5: her husband, and they lived. You know, my mom and

767
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:06,359
Speaker 5: my grandmother always lived within a block from each other

768
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:08,960
Speaker 5: or in the next building of each other. And that's

769
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 5: how we grew up in Queen's where I would open

770
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 5: the window of my bedroom and go aha, and she

771
00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:18,120
Speaker 5: would open her window, Gay.

772
00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:22,560
Speaker 8: And you would go in this Jon. And this is

773
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:23,840
Speaker 8: how you greet all of your elders.

774
00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:26,440
Speaker 5: You say bless me, and then they always respond, may

775
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:28,640
Speaker 5: God bless you. That's how you greet them, and that's

776
00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:30,920
Speaker 5: how you say good night. In Spain you do it

777
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:31,239
Speaker 5: as well.

778
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:39,560
Speaker 3: And beniz Jon.

779
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:44,920
Speaker 5: And then she would literally come over from her apartment

780
00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:50,160
Speaker 5: and her pjs and come.

781
00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:49,280
Speaker 8: Inside our apartment.

782
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:50,200
Speaker 2: What do you want?

783
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:52,280
Speaker 5: It's like Papa Mango, so beata.

784
00:37:57,440 --> 00:38:00,600
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership

785
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:09,239
Speaker 2: with Montclair h