Speaker 1: It was a very weird existence for a teenager and
Speaker 1: everything that went I went through in my life. They
Speaker 1: wrote it, And Who's the Boss Man?
Speaker 2: What's hand him?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 4: You got mar Shaw, Bismall Lynch.
Speaker 3: Doug Hendrickson and Gavin Newsome.
Speaker 5: And you're listening to politics.
Speaker 1: You know to be you known to be.
Speaker 5: Gavin.
Speaker 3: Uh. We have in the waiting room a long time
Speaker 3: actress from childhood on epic shows like Who's.
Speaker 5: The Boss to a producer, a writer, director, a Broadway star.
Speaker 3: Activist, activist, ah, you know, someone that has been involved
Speaker 3: in incredible things forever.
Speaker 5: H and I you know what.
Speaker 3: She's also a big fan of the NFL more sean,
Speaker 3: she's also a big fan of the Dodge.
Speaker 5: That Dodger. We'll hold that not again. Well, we'll hold
Speaker 5: that slightly against her, Yeah, slightly. The great Alissa Milana Alyssa.
Speaker 5: How are you, Alissa?
Speaker 1: Hi? I am great? How are you?
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, as well as people can be doing.
Speaker 5: Right with the Dodgers winning the World Series, I'm still
Speaker 5: having fully recovered from that. You're busy as a governor, right,
Speaker 5: you have nothing? I know, I actually feel pretty good
Speaker 5: about that. I was happy they beat.
Speaker 1: You wait, so wait, you're not a.
Speaker 5: Daughter's fan from San Francisco. I know I'm the Governor.
Speaker 5: I did a go Dodgers video. Okay, look, I'm all
Speaker 5: in with the Governor of New York. I won the bet.
Speaker 5: It was a great thing.
Speaker 1: The Giants had enough World Series championships. It was our
Speaker 1: time where we've had a good run. I have no
Speaker 1: doubt that the Giants will be back up there at
Speaker 1: some point. But give us our moment for really.
Speaker 5: Your moment, and you're gonna have so many moments coming up.
Speaker 5: It means crazy. Wait to listen, are you Are you
Speaker 5: a Bronx screw or Brooklyn girl.
Speaker 1: I'm a Brooklyn girl. So my dad used to sneak
Speaker 1: into Ebbitts Field from under the bleachers. So yeah, so
Speaker 1: I have no choice.
Speaker 2: We had a blueprint, huh on how to get the
Speaker 2: fuck down.
Speaker 4: It's right, we ain't paying that high ass cost to
Speaker 4: get in there for the fifty dollars hot dog, twenty
Speaker 4: dollars boxes of popcorn, is sue.
Speaker 1: He had a system. He had a system.
Speaker 3: So, Lissa, you grew up as a kid as a
Speaker 3: as a sports fan. Then your younger years six seven, eight,
Speaker 3: you grew up a Dodger fan?
Speaker 5: Was it Yankees? What was it?
Speaker 1: Was a Yankees? I was a Yankees fan because my
Speaker 1: dad was rebelling against the National League because they moved
Speaker 1: the Dodgers, and I lived in New York still at
Speaker 1: the time. When I got through the Boss, we moved
Speaker 1: out to California, and of course the Dodgers became more
Speaker 1: geographically convenient, and my dad became a Dodgers and so
Speaker 1: literally the way I connect I wrote a book about
Speaker 1: this called Safe at Home. The way that I connected
Speaker 1: with my dad throughout my childhood was through baseball. And
Speaker 1: I used to, you know, fall asleep to the sound
Speaker 1: of Vinceculley's voice calling games. And my son now plays
Speaker 1: pretty competitive, I mean as competitive as you can be
Speaker 1: at at thirteen.
Speaker 2: So did you sneak into any games?
Speaker 1: I may have snuck into a few clubhouses.
Speaker 5: Oh okay, we won't go there. That's scary. I love
Speaker 5: that you love.
Speaker 2: One up like a motherfucker.
Speaker 4: You come home, you've got the whole vibe, and then.
Speaker 1: You vibe sneaking.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So listen, you love the baseball players, any any
Speaker 3: any football players?
Speaker 5: Hockey? Was it always baseball? The love of baseball?
Speaker 1: My first boyfriend was a hockey player. He actually was
Speaker 1: on the Kings, got traded for Kelly Rudy. Remember that trade?
Speaker 3: I do remember that?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Wow, Well you know more. Sean Alyssa is part owner
Speaker 3: of the Seattle Kraken. So he's a he's a he's
Speaker 3: a big hockey guy.
Speaker 1: I love hockey. I love hockey. My brother went to
Speaker 1: shot at Saint Mary as a kid, which is a
Speaker 1: boarding school in Minnesota, on a ice hockey scholarship. We're
Speaker 1: a big hockey family. My son just didn't. He gravitated
Speaker 1: more towards baseball, but we gave him both opportunities.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you got to be a different type of individual
Speaker 4: to get out there on that ice.
Speaker 2: That ship is you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: I got out there on the ice and got one
Speaker 4: of them sticks and got the fucking around a little bit,
Speaker 4: and then I was like, you know what, I got
Speaker 4: a different level of respect for them dudes like I.
Speaker 1: It's incredible. The athleticism is incredible.
Speaker 4: Yes, that's that's what really uh opened my eyes? Like
Speaker 4: them motherfuckers that get up and be skating full speed forward?
Speaker 4: Is it then slide on a die and start doing
Speaker 4: that ship backwards? You know what I got them. And
Speaker 4: then they have come and run and to your will,
Speaker 4: slide into your ass and hit you.
Speaker 1: Into the and then they have to take this little
Speaker 1: black look and shoot it into the net with how
Speaker 1: many defenders on the ice.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's not and they're tough and they want
Speaker 5: to hit you and they want to fight and afterwards.
Speaker 4: The only thing I'm said about where hockey is. I
Speaker 4: was a mighty duckt fan growing up. I used to
Speaker 4: love the flying v Yeah, and when I found out
Speaker 4: that that wasn't it, Yeah, man, I was. I was
Speaker 4: fucked up. That crushed all my you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: But I'll get out there and fuck around. If I could,
Speaker 4: I could go skate like really fast. It's just the
Speaker 4: stopping it.
Speaker 5: By the way, it can't be surprised. On the West
Speaker 5: Coast California, there's no where do you play hockey as
Speaker 5: a kid, understand the base everywhere.
Speaker 1: As soon as Gretzky came to California, I mean it
Speaker 1: was it was a big deal. And all of these
Speaker 1: you programs started turning up.
Speaker 5: Must be more selling case it must because I don't
Speaker 5: you know it's here. It's more sol Morris so Kel yeah.
Speaker 3: Interesting.
Speaker 2: So did you any sports?
Speaker 1: No I had. I didn't have a childhood. I was
Speaker 1: working from the time I was nine years old.
Speaker 5: Damn marshat she started. And by the way, Alyssa is
Speaker 5: this is a true story. Your babysitter takes you to
Speaker 5: an audition without even telling your parents. It's seven years
Speaker 5: old to an anti audio.
Speaker 1: Correct, that's correct. There. It was an open antie audition
Speaker 1: and fifteen hundred kids showed up. Four were picked for
Speaker 1: the National Touring Company and I was one of the four.
Speaker 5: But will you prepare? I mean? Is that is all?
Speaker 2: I mean?
Speaker 5: She just said hey, or may have been a hit,
Speaker 5: I don't know, it said hey, let's let let's come down.
Speaker 5: I got an idea. Spend some time with you today.
Speaker 5: Instead of going to the park, We're going to do an.
Speaker 1: Audioly she she was going in on the audition because
Speaker 1: she was an equity member and they were also auditioning
Speaker 1: for the ensemble. So she took me with her and
Speaker 1: look at me and I was like, you know, sort
Speaker 1: of mimicking what the kids were doing on the stage.
Speaker 1: And she was like, do you want to go up there?
Speaker 1: Do you want to audition? And I have no idea.
Speaker 1: What the word audition meant? I just knew that, like
Speaker 1: I love to sing and dance, so I was like sure.
Speaker 1: It was this huge, long, fourteen hour process, and finally
Speaker 1: as groups started getting cut down, she called my parents
Speaker 1: and she was like, I think you probably should have
Speaker 1: should come down here. And then they weren't going to
Speaker 1: let me do it because they were like, what are
Speaker 1: you talking about. We have a life, we have our
Speaker 1: you know, we have business and we have things to do,
Speaker 1: and the way they tell it, I basically locked myself
Speaker 1: in my room and was so depressed that I couldn't
Speaker 1: do it. And then they finally said okay, So my
Speaker 1: mom and I went to you know this on this
Speaker 1: touring company and we left my dad, which was bone crushing.
Speaker 1: But then when I got Who's the Boss, we moved
Speaker 1: to California, just me and my dad because my mom
Speaker 1: was like, well this is never going to work a series.
Speaker 5: Listen, So what age were? What age was? Who's the Boss?
Speaker 5: When'd you start?
Speaker 2: What? Age?
Speaker 1: Eleven? I was eleven to nineteen, so.
Speaker 3: Eleven years old and your parents like and then like,
Speaker 3: how do you I mean it's hard to say no.
Speaker 1: To that, right, my mom said no. My mom was like,
Speaker 1: there is no way I am moving this family out
Speaker 1: to California. You guys can go, because she was like,
Speaker 1: there's no way this is going to work. And this
Speaker 1: is a time there were only three stations, you guys.
Speaker 1: There was ABC, NBC, and CBS and that was it.
Speaker 5: Yeah. But listen, were you would you you actively trying
Speaker 5: to get that role? I mean, was your mom was
Speaker 5: out there? She was touring with you for Annie. She
Speaker 5: was obviously she bought in enough to your being an
Speaker 5: actress on stage. You must have gone to an audition
Speaker 5: with her for Who's the Boss.
Speaker 1: I went with my dad, But I don't think they
Speaker 1: really knew what they were doing. I mean, mind you,
Speaker 1: they were in their early thirties. Yeah, So, I mean
Speaker 1: it was such a different you know, and I think
Speaker 1: New York represented a lot of struggle for them, Like
Speaker 1: my mom didn't have, you know, we came from very little,
Speaker 1: and so for them, I think it was opportunity and
Speaker 1: I think it was you know, for me, it was
Speaker 1: just like my creative outlet and I've been so blessed
Speaker 1: to still be able to to do it all these
Speaker 1: years later. And then what it's what it's afforded me.
Speaker 3: Marshaun, you may not remember you were, probably wouldn't been
Speaker 3: born yet. But Who's the Boss was a freaking monster hit,
Speaker 3: and I grew up watching Who's the Boss? Does come
Speaker 3: on and Alyssa, here's a funny thing. I kind of
Speaker 3: forgotten my calling. My call was probably to be.
Speaker 5: An actor as well, and as a few.
Speaker 2: He just showed us a revisual take from one of.
Speaker 5: His But but Alissa, my claim to fame.
Speaker 3: I was an extra that turned into an actual role
Speaker 3: in the movie Angels Nowfield and your co star Tony
Speaker 3: Danza was the other picture in the movie Father.
Speaker 5: It was Matthew McConaughey claimed to Fame.
Speaker 3: Danny Glover was in it, and I was the other
Speaker 3: picture with Tony Danzer and I'll never forget. We're like
Speaker 3: day eleven of shooting and Tony literally takes all the
Speaker 3: non actors like myself and everybody, and we went to
Speaker 3: Larry Blake's in Berkeley and he bought all of us
Speaker 3: drinks and food and the greatest guy in the world.
Speaker 3: But every day between sets he would roller skate around
Speaker 3: the Colisseum yeah, or his rollerblaze, whatever it may be.
Speaker 3: That for exercise that crazy like ten like ten miles
Speaker 3: a day in the colisseum doing was.
Speaker 1: In amazing shape and tap dancing too. Did he tap
Speaker 1: dance for you?
Speaker 5: He did tap dance?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know what.
Speaker 5: You've been tap dancing around this one little thing your
Speaker 5: entire life. Doug. By the way, listen, just say you
Speaker 5: know no, Bs and Marshan could attest to this. Doug
Speaker 5: just two days ago sent Marshawn and I had text
Speaker 5: and it was his residual text check of like two.
Speaker 3: Dollars and eighty seven cents for your role in this
Speaker 3: damn movie. No, that was talking us the episode of
Speaker 3: the League with more, Shawn, I.
Speaker 1: Got some more regrets that you didn't pursue it further.
Speaker 3: Jesus No, because Marshawn will tell you. I'm very I
Speaker 3: was very bad at it and was it though, No,
Speaker 3: but it was it was fun. So I've been an
Speaker 3: agent for ever. But anyways, I did that kind of
Speaker 3: I was struggling starting out agent and it was kind
Speaker 3: of fun. And then they asked me to be in
Speaker 3: another baseball movie and I said no because I had
Speaker 3: to go make a living and recruit players and da
Speaker 3: da da. But a little bit of regret, like, Wow,
Speaker 3: this would be pretty cool to kind of kept doing it.
Speaker 5: And now more Shawn is a big movie star kind
Speaker 5: of movies.
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen what is that movie called Jerry Maguire?
Speaker 1: I love that movie so much.
Speaker 2: That is exactly who Doug is. He's that on like
Speaker 2: on stereo.
Speaker 5: I was Tom Cruise.
Speaker 3: Moreshawn was Cuba Gooding Jew Jesus, and he'd be like, mother,
Speaker 3: know me my money.
Speaker 5: It's not exaggerated speaking of money. And by the way,
Speaker 5: I'm serious about this, Alyssa. I mean, at such a
Speaker 5: young age and here you are come. I mean, I'd
Speaker 5: forgotten it was that long. That show lasted that long,
Speaker 5: which is amazing.
Speaker 1: You're Charmed too, charm same time eight years too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just crazy. So you were able to have two
Speaker 5: huge runs. So you're so young. And we had Demi
Speaker 5: Lovato on a few weeks ago and we were talking
Speaker 5: about child stars and we were talking about the struggles
Speaker 5: and the sort of the the energy with parents. Sometimes
Speaker 5: it's all about the parents. Sometimes the parents are taking
Speaker 5: all the money. H Sometimes that pressure and all the
Speaker 5: stress of fame at such an early age, and you
Speaker 5: seem to I mean, in hindsight, I mean, I look
Speaker 5: at you today, but you weathered that pretty well, didn't you.
Speaker 1: Yes, for sure. But my parents have been together since
Speaker 1: they were fifteen. There, you know, I have a brother.
Speaker 1: There's very big in my life. Community. Family has always
Speaker 1: meant more than anything else. And my mom didn't go
Speaker 1: to set with me. She actually had she hired a
Speaker 1: guardian on Who's the Boss because it was so important
Speaker 1: for her to be home for my brother. So I
Speaker 1: think that that was, you know, an indication that that
Speaker 1: was my life and she had her life. But the
Speaker 1: other thing about you know, pop stars have a totally
Speaker 1: different complexity to it because child actors there's actually something
Speaker 1: called the Jackie Coogan Law where we're protected as far
Speaker 1: as financially, whereas pop stars don't really have that because
Speaker 1: there's not a union, so they're not protected by you know,
Speaker 1: any sort of union. So parents, managers can come in
Speaker 1: and take a lot of their money as a kid
Speaker 1: and they don't know.
Speaker 5: And you know, it's interesting, Alyssa, what we were able
Speaker 5: to do, the reason we were a DEMI was we
Speaker 5: actually signed a law in the state of California replicating
Speaker 5: the Cougan Long Accepting extending it to content creators, folks
Speaker 5: on YouTube, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Amazing.
Speaker 5: That is amazing trying to address precisely the example that
Speaker 5: the exception you just referenced.
Speaker 1: Oh and so many parents use their kids for views
Speaker 1: and for you know, advertising dollars, and yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: a really important thing. Good for you.
Speaker 5: But you so you never had that, So you had
Speaker 5: a great So I love to hear that you had
Speaker 5: such a stable family, so that relationship to fame, to
Speaker 5: money and youth, you were able to weather that pretty well.
Speaker 1: My parents, at a very young age instilled to me
Speaker 1: that like part of being a fan and by the way,
Speaker 1: fame was very different then. You know, I got trolled,
Speaker 1: but it was through fan mail, so like I didn't
Speaker 1: have to see it because they went through it all.
Speaker 1: But you know, part of that was an era where
Speaker 1: you know, we grew up idolizing people like Audrey Hepburn
Speaker 1: and Jane Fonda and celebrities that actually did john people
Speaker 1: that did something with their fame that was important to society,
Speaker 1: to community. And so that's how I grew up. So
Speaker 1: my parents always instilled in me, like, you have this
Speaker 1: incredible opportunity to really create change. And I think It's
Speaker 1: why I've continued my activism to this day because I
Speaker 1: don't I don't understand the point of being famous if
Speaker 1: you're not going to do something positive or use your
Speaker 1: voice for you know, marginalized communities or human human rights issues.
Speaker 1: And that started for me at fifteen, during the AIDS epidemic.
Speaker 1: I was friends with Ryan White. To look him up,
Speaker 1: google him if you don't know who he is.
Speaker 5: I still remember the philadel hum interview. I mean, by
Speaker 5: the way and Marshawn what Alyssa did or she's about
Speaker 5: to and she can express it better than I, but
Speaker 5: it's so indelible. I mean, this was a time when
Speaker 5: people with HIV and AIDS, people didn't even want to
Speaker 5: touch them or be in the same room. And here's
Speaker 5: Alyssa tell us the story. You go on Phil Donahue
Speaker 5: with Ryan.
Speaker 1: And I kissed him to prove that you couldn't get
Speaker 1: HIV AIDS from casual contact, which at.
Speaker 5: The time was just like nobody was just before magic
Speaker 5: or after magic.
Speaker 1: This was before before.
Speaker 5: Magic, yes, the beginning the beginning of the yes.
Speaker 1: And that was the moment I mean I Ryan White
Speaker 1: really changed my life because I realized, oh, this is
Speaker 1: this is the power of storytelling. This is the power
Speaker 1: of what I can contribute. And so it took my
Speaker 1: career to like a different place in my mind, and
Speaker 1: I think that that's been very helpful in not only
Speaker 1: just keeping me grounded, but also just the longevity, because
Speaker 1: it's I find like the business is really hard. The
Speaker 1: people who have long careers are the people who are
Speaker 1: willing to deal with it, to deal with the hardship
Speaker 1: of the rejection, and you know, the resilience that you
Speaker 1: have to have to have a forty year career in
Speaker 1: the entertainment industry is rewarded with longevity in the career.
Speaker 1: In your career, and I guess it's a lot like
Speaker 1: athletes too, like what you have to overcome as a
Speaker 1: kid and then in high school sports and in college
Speaker 1: sports and the competition. Like you know, I feel like
Speaker 1: you're you're rewarded for having resilience no matter what you do.
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting more, Shawn, that's a great question for
Speaker 3: you because obviously you've been an athlete at the highest
Speaker 3: level and now you're in the acting business. Have you
Speaker 3: seen uh, maybe not you, but a lot of people,
Speaker 3: whether it be former players or even people you're dealing
Speaker 3: with now and casting calls and all that stuff. The
Speaker 3: rejection and whatnot you're seeing as as an athlete compared
Speaker 3: to actor.
Speaker 2: To me is sort of the same, you know.
Speaker 4: I mean considering like when I start in high school,
Speaker 4: like I want to be a quarterback, and you know,
Speaker 4: I mean I got beat out by uh by my cousin,
Speaker 4: and yeah, I mean I had to Yeah, I mean
Speaker 4: program my mind like Okay, I'm not going to be
Speaker 4: playing quarterback, but I love the game. So where am
Speaker 4: I actually gonna fit in and have to you know,
Speaker 4: I mean, uh learn a new position and you know,
Speaker 4: I mean really uh get into that. A lot of
Speaker 4: individuals who don't you know, I mean to translate to them,
Speaker 4: you know, they can fall off, they can fall into
Speaker 4: a dark place.
Speaker 1: And I mean or one bad coach. Yeah, so many
Speaker 1: athletes have that one bad coach and they're like, I.
Speaker 4: Can't do this and they show I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: in it and it cut the their career short. So
Speaker 4: being able to you know, I mean adapt to that, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean as well like for a situation like I mean,
Speaker 4: I guess I picked that up from you know, from
Speaker 4: playing sports. But you know there's times where I've you know,
Speaker 4: read for a role and you know, I mean, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, I don't hear about it and you know,
Speaker 4: having to continue to go out there and you know,
Speaker 4: continue to do it, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean it's more and so just you know, having
Speaker 2: the right.
Speaker 4: Mindset when when you're doing these things, and you know,
Speaker 4: I mean I kind of don't look at it as
Speaker 4: a like a rejection type thing.
Speaker 2: Is just more so like okay, what did not do?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean in order to secure that uh that role,
Speaker 4: Like what can I work on? I mean, I take
Speaker 4: it as a challenge to myself where you know, I mean,
Speaker 4: I think I said it before, like, uh, I don't
Speaker 4: I don't take ls, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I learned lessons and you know what.
Speaker 4: I mean, the more that you know, I go out
Speaker 4: and I do that, and the more lessons I learned,
Speaker 4: I'm more seasoned the next time I get the opportunity
Speaker 4: to go and do it.
Speaker 2: So, you know what I mean, capitalizing on.
Speaker 4: Every opportunity that I have and whether I get the
Speaker 4: role or I don't get the role, being able to
Speaker 4: learn something from it, I mean to help me.
Speaker 5: But the list is interesting. I mean, if you look
Speaker 5: at like you and more Shawn the thick skin.
Speaker 3: Everyone thinks you guys are drinking champagne and has fires
Speaker 3: on every day on a Friday in your office and
Speaker 3: life is great.
Speaker 5: However, you guys got a battle.
Speaker 3: Man. It's a tough business in terms of the entertainment
Speaker 3: business and sports and everyone, all the fans just think,
Speaker 3: oh my god, the life you of than no plan,
Speaker 3: attent and charmed and this and that.
Speaker 5: But like, it's a tough.
Speaker 3: It's a fucking tough business. You guys are in every
Speaker 3: day the battles and the grind.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to push back on that a little bit.
Speaker 1: I'm going to push back on that a little bit
Speaker 1: only because listen, I live a very privileged life. But
Speaker 1: I think the important thing to remember is that I
Speaker 1: didn't come from privilege. That I've been working my entire
Speaker 1: life to achieve this. And I feel like you know,
Speaker 1: so often we are we are looked upon in the
Speaker 1: entertainment industry as people who are out of touch or elite,
Speaker 1: whereas really artists, athletes, we are more in touch because
Speaker 1: most of us came from somewhere we had to get
Speaker 1: out of. We had to and so we are I
Speaker 1: feel like, even though the privilege is here, now we
Speaker 1: understand the struggle. And that's part of I think why
Speaker 1: I feel like I have to fight so hard for
Speaker 1: marginalized communities or from you know, for for working families,
Speaker 1: is because like that that was us. And I think
Speaker 1: the the the whatever the opposition is has done a
Speaker 1: really good job is painting us as elite and that
Speaker 1: we're out of touch and that we don't know what
Speaker 1: it's like to struggle or to come from nothing. Most
Speaker 1: artists and athletes do, so we relate. And we're all
Speaker 1: from all over this country. I mean, I'm from Stoaten Island, but.
Speaker 5: Listen what I mean. It's so I mean every and
Speaker 5: you've been out front, I mean, and Marshawn Doug, I mean, Alyssa,
Speaker 5: trust me because we've we've been in contact for many
Speaker 5: years on so many different issues. And I can attest
Speaker 5: to a lot of specific issues on gun violence, and
Speaker 5: work you've done on gender equality which has been next level,
Speaker 5: the work you've done, and you even Ukraine and issues
Speaker 5: obviously with healthcare, and and then even going back on
Speaker 5: H and B and Ah's and so many different things.
Speaker 5: But how often you get that blowback and you get it.
Speaker 5: You're the tip of the spear. A lot of this
Speaker 5: saying stay in your lane. Like I mean, to your point,
Speaker 5: you're in Hollywood, you're out of touch, and so I
Speaker 5: appreciate your reflecting on that, and I think you're right
Speaker 5: for athletes to get the same damn thing. Well, it's
Speaker 5: like it's like shut up and drip, don't dribble.
Speaker 3: Or shut up and drill up and dribble.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, unless you're a conservative, and then you're revered
Speaker 5: from those same folks.
Speaker 1: I think there was a very specific campaign to paint
Speaker 1: those of us on a certain political side who are celebrities,
Speaker 1: as being out of touch. And I think they did
Speaker 1: a really good job at that. By the way, I
Speaker 1: only text Gavin when he pisses me off, So I.
Speaker 5: Guess I'm referencing a lot of text messages. So you're
Speaker 5: not alone.
Speaker 3: Every show we have somebody, we all say, get out them,
Speaker 3: get out and get out of get them, get it,
Speaker 3: go out of open pulpit.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So this so this has only texted me once
Speaker 5: in ten years, is what she's still saying.
Speaker 1: I have a question for you. Why is the proposal
Speaker 1: for an amendment in the Constitution, which is a great
Speaker 1: idea to end Americans.
Speaker 5: I know she hates this twenty eight.
Speaker 1: Why is it still listed on your website as the
Speaker 1: twenty eighth amendment?
Speaker 5: I told you we took, we killed all that.
Speaker 1: Is it still your website?
Speaker 5: All right, I'm gonna check it out. I haven't looked
Speaker 5: at the website. Well, tell nobody terms expectacy, we're not
Speaker 5: talking about she's been running this twenty eighth amendment for
Speaker 5: aut fit how many years now? How many serious? Well?
Speaker 1: Me are the shoulders that I stand on? One hundred
Speaker 1: and one years? But I've been specifically involved in the
Speaker 1: Equal Rights Amendment since twenty seventeen, which would be.
Speaker 5: The twenty eighth amendment. And we propose a constitutional amendment
Speaker 5: as relates to gun safety, which if it were approved,
Speaker 5: would be the twenty eighth, and so it came out
Speaker 5: as a twenty eighth. She texted me immediately. I said,
Speaker 5: I'm totally with you. I totally respect that we pulled
Speaker 5: back on the rhetoric in the campaign, but apparently the
Speaker 5: website has not.
Speaker 3: So let me look at that.
Speaker 1: Okay, sit there, you go.
Speaker 5: Well done proving your advocacy. By the way, when you
Speaker 5: were with when you went on that Donahue show and
Speaker 5: and you kiss Ryan, did you get a ton of
Speaker 5: hate and blowbacks?
Speaker 1: Yes, I did, I mean, and and the trolling at
Speaker 1: that at that time it was what was the hat about? Oh,
Speaker 1: people started saying that I was HIV positive and that
Speaker 1: I am you know, that I was going to die
Speaker 1: of AIDS and like all the things. Because at that time,
Speaker 1: you have to understand, like fear was such a big
Speaker 1: part of how politicians the country socially culturally addressed HIV
Speaker 1: AIDS because it was painted as a disease just for
Speaker 1: the lgb TQ plus community or IV drug users. So
Speaker 1: when Ryan White came along and here was this kid
Speaker 1: who was in school who got HIV from aug a
Speaker 1: blood transfusion, he literally became the the reinvention of the
Speaker 1: storytelling of how HIV AIDS is spread. And he was
Speaker 1: a saint and you know, spoke in front of Congress,
Speaker 1: he got kicked out of school, fought for the right
Speaker 1: to go back to school. I mean, just really a
Speaker 1: special fifteen year old kid. You know. Citizen activism is
Speaker 1: to me the most powerful and so at that time
Speaker 1: it was a really big deal. I don't even know
Speaker 1: if you can equate anything to it now.
Speaker 3: And then listen, did he take me back? Did he
Speaker 3: live a pretty lonely life then? Because I mean people
Speaker 3: kind of ostracize him and whatnot. Was he was he
Speaker 3: really kind of like on his own?
Speaker 1: Well, yes he was, but again this is he has
Speaker 1: an incredible mother at an incredible mother, and she gave
Speaker 1: him the strength and the wherewithal to know that like
Speaker 1: he could really do something and gave his tragic situation
Speaker 1: real purpose. And he changed the world.
Speaker 5: Quite literally changed. There was laws in his name, Doug
Speaker 5: and laws Marshaun. I mean, like literally it started a
Speaker 5: march of a movement and an organizational construct and his life,
Speaker 5: you know, was made visible and continues to be visible
Speaker 5: to this day in terms of movements aground the world,
Speaker 5: not just here in the United States. And and back
Speaker 5: to sort of building on shoulders, I mean, so many
Speaker 5: of the laws we have enshrined today for LGBTQ community
Speaker 5: come from his fight in his example and his advocacy
Speaker 5: and his mom's advocacy and legacy as well, which is powerful.
Speaker 5: But Alica, that's I'd forget. I mean, honestly, I'd forgotten
Speaker 5: until we were getting together today you're you're being there.
Speaker 5: I mean, and you guys don't even remember Phil Donniue.
Speaker 5: It was like that was it back to there was
Speaker 5: three networks back in the you know, the old days.
Speaker 5: I mean Phil Donahue was, I meant God back then
Speaker 5: and all eyeballs on it. So when you know he was,
Speaker 5: that was That was a hell of a moment, especially
Speaker 5: for a teenager, the two of you as teenagers in
Speaker 5: this this amazing moment. But I love what you said
Speaker 5: and let me I want to build on this, this
Speaker 5: notion of your mind getting stretched at that moment, and
Speaker 5: it's never gone back to its original form, that you
Speaker 5: identified yourself as something bigger than just an actress at
Speaker 5: that moment that you felt compelled to share your voice.
Speaker 1: It gave my fame because you have to realize, like
Speaker 1: you know, born and Brokelyn moved to Staten Island, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, I was famous, right. I was eleven
Speaker 1: years old. I was on TV top ten show and
Speaker 1: it was very uncomfortable for me. I didn't understand, and
Speaker 1: much credit to my parents, even though we struggled financially,
Speaker 1: I never felt that. So for me, it was a
Speaker 1: lot like why me, Like why am I famous? Like
Speaker 1: why can't? And you know, it was the height of
Speaker 1: all the teen magazines and posters on people's walls, and
Speaker 1: it was like it was it was very isolating. It
Speaker 1: was a very weird existence for a teenager. And everything
Speaker 1: that went I went through in my life, they wrote
Speaker 1: it and Who's the Boss? So like I started developing
Speaker 1: breasts all of a sudden, We'd show up on Monday
Speaker 1: and there was an episode called Sam's First Bra and
Speaker 1: it was like so humiliating. I couldn't even I was,
Speaker 1: I couldn't wrap my head around it. And what it
Speaker 1: did was what Ryan did, was it gave it purpose
Speaker 1: where I was like, oh, this is why me, this
Speaker 1: is why like I understand, I understand now why.
Speaker 5: Not me?
Speaker 1: Right exactly?
Speaker 2: And you had the mindset for too. As as as
Speaker 2: as big especially being young, it was.
Speaker 1: A different again, it was a different time. It really
Speaker 1: was a time where, uh, celebrity involvement in causes mental
Speaker 1: meant a lot, meant a lot of awareness.
Speaker 3: But you still do you still don't see I think,
Speaker 3: do you still do? You see a lot enough in celebrities, entertainers,
Speaker 3: musicians now, I know, athletes get very involved to a degree,
Speaker 3: but you still don't see as much as you probably
Speaker 3: should from people that have the power to do things,
Speaker 3: which is unfortunate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's but I get it. I get it. It's
Speaker 1: you know, you're putting yourself out. I mean, I just
Speaker 1: I think about the twenty twenty four election and how
Speaker 1: you know, you had Taylor Swift and and Beyonce and
Speaker 1: all of these these huge people endorsing Kamala and then
Speaker 1: she lost, and so I would think there's an element
Speaker 1: of like does my stock go down? Like I don't
Speaker 1: feel that way, but I would imagine, you know, when
Speaker 1: you're sort of paraded out almost like a show pony,
Speaker 1: and an election you know, is on your shoulders, I
Speaker 1: feel like when you don't win that it's not only devastating,
Speaker 1: I would think, but also does your stock go down?
Speaker 1: So that's why I consider myself more of an activist
Speaker 1: because I will always be boots on the ground, and
Speaker 1: there are there are a group of us, I mean,
Speaker 1: whether it you know, be athletes or actors or celebrities
Speaker 1: that just don't give a shit, you know.
Speaker 3: But but Melisten, that's but that's exactly what our partner,
Speaker 3: Morshawn's done. His wll career too, Like you know, he
Speaker 3: looked to be honest with you. We started this podcast
Speaker 3: more Shan got a lot of shit like the fuck
Speaker 3: you doing this with Gavin, Dad or d and Marshawn's like, listen, man,
Speaker 3: that's my brother, my family. I've known him, I know
Speaker 3: who he is. So you might want to give me shit,
Speaker 3: but fuck you. And so the point is, like, you know,
Speaker 3: like we have people, some people like I don't want
Speaker 3: to come.
Speaker 5: Meanwhile, we had Marshan's back when he's kneeling on the sideline,
Speaker 5: you know, and then I fell and expressing his quiet
Speaker 5: point of view of.
Speaker 3: Course sitting down, not kneeling, yeah, sitting there. But listen,
Speaker 3: where Shawn's always done the same thing. He's going to
Speaker 3: believe in what he believes in and do it no
Speaker 3: matter what anybody says. And I appreciate that about you
Speaker 3: as well, because you've done that since a young kid,
Speaker 3: which is really rare because you've got a young kid.
Speaker 3: Now we got young kids, and and and my kids,
Speaker 3: some of my kids have done some of the stuff.
Speaker 3: But when you see it at that young of age,
Speaker 3: it's pretty cool to see.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 1: And also I think going back to like the fear factor.
Speaker 1: I think when you're a kid, it's you're not afraid
Speaker 1: of losing an audience or losing money, you know. I
Speaker 1: think the the the more established artists, movie stars in particular,
Speaker 1: that you you would think would be more vocal during
Speaker 1: this time of political divide. I think there is an
Speaker 1: element of like, well, if I'm not making twenty million
Speaker 1: dollars a movie, how am I? How am I gonna
Speaker 1: How am I gonna live?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 1: How am I going to pay for everything that I
Speaker 1: have to pay for? And so I think there is
Speaker 1: like a fear that people are afraid to speak out
Speaker 1: because they're afraid of alienating half the country. But I
Speaker 1: have to tell you, I have never been. I get
Speaker 1: a lot of shit online. I have never been, and
Speaker 1: I go to cons. I was just on Broadway for
Speaker 1: three months. I have never met anyone face to face
Speaker 1: who has ever except for at an NRI convention when
Speaker 1: I was protesting and this guy came over to me
Speaker 1: with an AR fifteen wrapped around his back. But other
Speaker 1: than that, there has never been anyone that has confronted
Speaker 1: me in person about the political stand that I take
Speaker 1: or the cultural stand that I take. And so I
Speaker 1: wonder how much of it is just really having that
Speaker 1: keyboard warrior mentality, or maybe maybe there are tual forms
Speaker 1: like maybe that's a real the.
Speaker 5: Online versus offline world. By the way, Marsham just curious
Speaker 5: and just building out that. I mean, you know, without
Speaker 5: reliving when you decided to just quietly express yourself on
Speaker 5: the sidelines, did you get anyone in your face, anyone
Speaker 5: ever confront you face to face? Yeah, face to face,
Speaker 5: like Alyssa just said about her experience nine.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, the thing is, I don't think
Speaker 4: it's going to confine you, but it's more so like
Speaker 4: you know, you have maybe some individuals from the organization
Speaker 4: who probably want to understand, you know, I mean, where
Speaker 4: you're coming from or why you're doing what you're doing.
Speaker 4: But what I do notice a lot of the times,
Speaker 4: like a lot of people is not a which is
Speaker 4: why I don't mind sitting down having conversations with you,
Speaker 4: but a lot of people not a knowledgeable enough to
Speaker 4: understand and you know, I mean when it's a lot
Speaker 4: of issues and shit going on, a lot of people,
Speaker 4: I mean they're afraid to ask questions because they don't
Speaker 4: want to feel like I mean not knowing or if
Speaker 4: I'm asking a question, I'm not asking a dumb question.
Speaker 4: And then I mean just the just the fact where
Speaker 4: you know, it's you know, all these type of issues
Speaker 4: going on and then you I mean, they they'll look
Speaker 4: at you for you know, your response to you know,
Speaker 4: what you got going on or the way you feel,
Speaker 4: and because you know you don't think that you know,
Speaker 4: maybe your thought process will be accepted the same way
Speaker 4: that I mean. Another individuals is, uh, you know a
Speaker 4: lot of people will tend to you know, shy away
Speaker 4: from or not speak up because you know, I mean,
Speaker 4: go back to that same thing like.
Speaker 2: Not being very knowledgeable about it.
Speaker 1: I also think that there's an element of like the
Speaker 1: fact that we can educate ourselves on issues is a
Speaker 1: testament to how we are okay in life. I think
Speaker 1: there's there's a certain amount of people in this country
Speaker 1: who can't put food on their table, right so that
Speaker 1: is the issue that is concerning them. It is not
Speaker 1: you know, the the the umbrella of why that issue is.
Speaker 1: It's the immediacy of like I can't feed my kid.
Speaker 1: So in a way, it is a sort of a
Speaker 1: luxury and a tech to be able to have to
Speaker 1: think and to educate yourself and to have these conversations
Speaker 1: because a lot of people can't even you know, they're
Speaker 1: one financial dilemma away from being completely bankrupt.
Speaker 5: Amen, But just you know, go back, just because you know,
Speaker 5: just sort of the origin story, which I appreciate Ryan
Speaker 5: being a big part of that, and and sort of
Speaker 5: the spark of your advocacy because you're so defined in
Speaker 5: this context. And that's why this conversation is so appropriate
Speaker 5: we're having in the dialectic we're having around the benefit,
Speaker 5: the pros and cons at a time of such polarization,
Speaker 5: perhaps even more than any other time in our respective lives.
Speaker 5: But was there You mentioned Audrey Heppern, you mentioned the
Speaker 5: people that sort of iconically you looked up to it
Speaker 5: when you when you were a young actress. But was
Speaker 5: there a mentor in particular? Was there someone in particular
Speaker 5: from an advocacy perspective that you really identified with that
Speaker 5: sort of became a north star for you when you
Speaker 5: were growing up?
Speaker 1: Oh? So many people. I mean, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: Ruth Badery Ginsburg was hugely.
Speaker 5: Even years ago. Listen, years ago, way back.
Speaker 1: Way back, way back, I think. But again, I grew
Speaker 1: up in a family that was very politically aware, like
Speaker 1: my parents were part of the student strike in the sixties.
Speaker 1: So I think there's I don't know. I think that
Speaker 1: there was a different level of civic responsibility that we
Speaker 1: don't really have anymore. And I think that there were
Speaker 1: so many, so many activists were a steinum, so many
Speaker 1: people to look up to as a kid, as a
Speaker 1: young person, you know, and to be sort of at
Speaker 1: the cusp of you know, I was born in seventy two,
Speaker 1: so the cusp of the idea of feminism, you know,
Speaker 1: and how you know, when you look at textbooks on feminism,
Speaker 1: it didn't it didn't happen until the seventies. There was
Speaker 1: not one textbook on feminism before a certain time, which
Speaker 1: is so crazy. But you know, as I've gotten older,
Speaker 1: Angela Davis, Martin, Luther King, you know, all of the people,
Speaker 1: all of the people guy.
Speaker 3: But look at look at by the way, look at
Speaker 3: the athletes, Alssa, you got, you know, from Jim Brown
Speaker 3: back in the day to Kareem Bill Walton Alli. I
Speaker 3: mean that was the forefront of what these guys did
Speaker 3: was amazing. You don't have Jane, but you don't have
Speaker 3: that level of star power that's involved, like these guys
Speaker 3: were back to the day. I remember mar Sean the
Speaker 3: famous photo of it was it was Jim Brown, Ali
Speaker 3: Kareem and I think it was camera was But for fourth,
Speaker 3: I mean, just a level people.
Speaker 1: How about this. Does anyone remember how Roberto Clemente died.
Speaker 1: He was a UNISEF ambassador and he died on a
Speaker 1: plane crash. Unis delivering supplies after an earthquake.
Speaker 5: That's right now.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't even if there was any un ambassador there
Speaker 1: was any danger, they would not be sending anyone anywhere,
Speaker 1: especially not on a small plane.
Speaker 3: So Leslie, you you as a mom now with your kids,
Speaker 3: are they into I mean, I know one's a baseball player,
Speaker 3: but are they do you have would you want them
Speaker 3: to follow your same path in regards to the entertainment stuff.
Speaker 1: So before I had kids and I was asked that question,
Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, there's no way they need to
Speaker 1: go to school, they need to go to college, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. But then I had kids, and I I
Speaker 1: realized that they kind of come out who they are
Speaker 1: and it is our job as parents to give them
Speaker 1: other experiences than to to you know, hopefully plant other
Speaker 1: seeds of wonder. But like my daughter came out a
Speaker 1: performer and she's doing musical theater, oh wow. And I
Speaker 1: can't imagine taking it away from her. It's her people,
Speaker 1: it's it's what she identifies with, it's how she expresses herself.
Speaker 1: So at this point I got to kind of be like, now,
Speaker 1: mind you much different time. Like when I was a
Speaker 1: kid and you were an young actor, it was all
Speaker 1: about you know, I wanted to be on TV or
Speaker 1: be in the play Annie or whatever. Now it's like,
Speaker 1: I want a YouTube channel. That's the goal.
Speaker 5: Because I have to ask dyslexia. You and I share
Speaker 5: that in common. Not easy in your profession, not easy
Speaker 5: in any profession. But I mean take me back, I
Speaker 5: mean you did you you have a difficult time reading?
Speaker 5: Was it writing, spelling? Did it impact your confidence? Have
Speaker 5: you overcome issues of dyslexia? Your kids experiencing any signs
Speaker 5: of that, which often is the case.
Speaker 1: It was very difficult. But this is like one of
Speaker 1: those weird conversations where I think that, like being a
Speaker 1: child actor was actually very beneficial for me because I
Speaker 1: was tutored on the set, so I didn't have to
Speaker 1: worry about catching up with the rest of the class
Speaker 1: or learning at a specific pace, like the tutor recognized it.
Speaker 1: My mom's dyslexic, so she was always watching out for it,
Speaker 1: and I got to learn at my own pace with
Speaker 1: a tutor, so she not only you know, made me
Speaker 1: feel like a genius, but also gave me such a
Speaker 1: love of learning and an understanding of the learning difference
Speaker 1: that I have. And it was hard in the business
Speaker 1: as far as like auditioning and having to read side,
Speaker 1: so I'd go into sides or like the scenes, so
Speaker 1: I'd usually go in for auditions completely off off the script,
Speaker 1: so I'd have everything memorized. I'm actually oddly good at math,
Speaker 1: which there's certain people in that are dyslexic that can
Speaker 1: do math.
Speaker 3: Davin Field is geometry statistics, I mean absolutely true.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, I mean I think that, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it is my superpower. I say, because oh I like.
Speaker 5: That, see Doug, because of superpower, don't look down on
Speaker 5: us with dyslexia.
Speaker 1: Well, I think it's how we look at even problem
Speaker 1: solving because we see things in a different order or
Speaker 1: a different perspective or so I love it. I love
Speaker 1: it creatively too. I mean, it's I think it's been
Speaker 1: a part. It's part of why I'm me.
Speaker 5: Well, listen, you've loved it, love it. We can talk
Speaker 5: to you for hours. I got to be honest with you.
Speaker 3: I've always been a huge fan of years, and now
Speaker 3: I know why because you've I mean, what you've done
Speaker 3: and where you came from.
Speaker 5: And how long, Doug, how long she's done it. Resilience
Speaker 5: and longevity, that's the next level, and especially starting that young,
Speaker 5: how so many people don't have this exact ample, and
Speaker 5: how she keeps coming back in terms of standing on
Speaker 5: principle and standing on purpose, and I admire the hell
Speaker 5: out of that. And thanks for taking Sorry to cut
Speaker 5: you off, Doug, but just thanks for taking so many
Speaker 5: hits for so many other people. Thanks for being a
Speaker 5: voice for a lot of voice people that don't have
Speaker 5: a voice, and having the courage your damn convictions. It's,
Speaker 5: as we say, increasingly rare.
Speaker 1: So thank you for saying that. It is. It has
Speaker 1: been the honor of my lifetime to be able to
Speaker 1: do what I do. So thank you, and thank you.
Speaker 5: Look to see you.
Speaker 3: We look to see your son as thirteen and the
Speaker 3: bigs one day and I want to represent them.
Speaker 1: Okay, great, check them out a transaction chat Myla Buliari
Speaker 1: on Instagram. I think you'll be impressed.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 5: That's why he asked you about your agent. I guess
Speaker 5: he was trying to subsect and what that was about.
Speaker 1: Listen, if you ever need a female host guest host
Speaker 1: to come in for you know, for all the obvious reasons.
Speaker 5: Well not what are you suggesting three of us?
Speaker 2: What do you mean?
Speaker 3: Not only that, We're gonna invite you to a cracking
Speaker 3: game as a hockey guru.
Speaker 5: With Sewan in Seattle some time.
Speaker 3: In the new year.
Speaker 1: I would love to do that. I've no for me,
Speaker 1: love love, love to do that. Thank you so much, great, thank.
Speaker 5: You, great to be with. Thank you for doing this. Hey, Doug,
Speaker 5: we love hearing from our listeners and if you have
Speaker 5: any questions or comments, you can email us. Doug, where
Speaker 5: do you email us?
Speaker 3: It's Politicken at iHeartRadio dot com. That's Politicken at iHeartRadio
Speaker 3: dot com. We want all the questions, good, bad, and
Speaker 3: different ugly to Doug to beast mode.
Speaker 5: Send your questions to Politicking at iHeartRadio dot com.