WEBVTT - One on One: Vanessa Branch 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:18.040 I am all in you. I am all in with 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:22.360 Scott Patterson an iHeartRadio podcast. Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.920 am all in Podcast one eleven productions. iHeartRadio, Art Media. 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:33.480 iHeart podcasts. One on one interview with Vanessa Branch, who 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:38.200 played Bobby for two episodes Gilmore Girls. This is season seven, 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.680 episode five, The Great Stink, and we will get back 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:51.080 to Vanessa after these messages. Vanessa, Hello, Hi, thank you 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:56.320 so much for joining us. Really appreciate the time. We 0:00:56.440 --> 0:01:03.640 had a very good time watching your scenes. They were iconic, 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:06.560 I have to say, in the in the Gilmour universe, 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.039 those were that was Those were iconic scenes that that 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.840 That scene you did in the restaurant was absolutely fantastic. 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.320 And after I saw it, I said, how did this 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:21.800 girl not become a star? Oh did you wonder that yourself? 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.560 I mean, not out of conceit, but you have so 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.360 much to offer that I was stunned that you you 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:34.080 didn't have a bigger career. Was it because you chose 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.120 not to pursue it with real ferocity? You had other 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:39.080 things going on? 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.560 Or you just Oh no, I mean I I pursued it. 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:43.000 I did. 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:45.120 I mean the past seven years I have not been acting. 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:47.760 That was a choice because I had a little man 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.960 who's my dream man, and I wanted to be able 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.880 to spend a lot of time with him. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.080 How old is he's seven? 0:01:58.520 --> 0:01:58.760 Yeah? 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:01.840 Yeah, another feeling. I have a nine year old son, 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:02.400 so I know. 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:04.480 Yeah, and every minute you don't want to miss a minute, 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:06.920 Like I just now that he's this age, now I 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:09.040 feel like I could go back to work and actually 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:13.240 just started. She asked last week have my first audition 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:17.080 that I've had in god knows how long, right, But yeah, 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:18.800 I wanted to have that, you know, I want to 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:20.600 have that time to save it. It's too fast. 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.840 It's too fast. Yeah, isn't it crazy? My guy is 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.799 going to be ten in June, and it's just it's 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:29.920 just like a blink of an eye and another blink 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:31.280 of an eye is going to be off to college. 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:35.040 It's like they're a little bit of a different person, 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:36.480 and you go through a little bit of a grieving 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:38.280 process and no one really tells you that, you know, 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:39.239 mm hmmm. 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.080 Right, Yeah. What I do is that my phone is 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:44.160 filled with videos for when he was two and three 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:45.880 and four and five. I watch them all the time 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.600 I do. I actually, when I'm on the road, I 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.840 watch these things incessantly. He's sick of me at this 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.000 point because I you know, I FaceTime him five times 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:59.079 a day. He goes, Yeah, Dad, what's it? What's up? 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.320 But anyway, so you're an actress in a model you're 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:06.959 best known for you were the Orbit Gum gal from 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.280 two thousand and two to two thousand and ten, eight 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.919 years of Orbit Gum gigs. That is a great thing 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:14.760 to snare. 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.760 You were a lot forty five commercials. 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:25.320 Yeah wow, wow wow wow. Yeah, residuals, too residual. 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:27.960 So I was under contract, which was actually a lot better. 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.639 A lot better. Yeah, that's nice. And you were gaelling 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.520 the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Hello, so you did 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.040 do some big stuff. All right, here we go. 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:42.160 Tell me. 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:44.720 I want to talk about the Orbit Gum stuff. Those 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:48.760 commercials were iconic. What was it like working on that 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:51.840 campaign for so long? Tell me how you got it. 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:55.160 The thing that's really cool about that campaign, and then 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.160 I'll tell you how I got it was that it's 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:01.080 a really funny story. Actually is that you know, depending 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:03.280 on what you watch as far as TV shows go, 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.839 and there's so many TV shows nowadays or films. There's 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:08.800 so much out there, but depending on what you watch 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.560 depends if people know who you are. But that Orbit 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.120 campaign was everywhere and everybody knew. It's one of the 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:20.360 best selling campaigns in history. And so it was funny 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.080 because in person, people don't recognize me because I speak 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:24.600 with the British accent in those as I did on 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.919 Gollmer Girls, and I actually am British, but I was 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.159 raised back and forth. So for me, it's kind of 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.000 like being bilingual. It's hard to explain to people that 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.360 you can switch like that, but with an accent we can, 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.479 and so you know, it would be neat for me. 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:40.719 In person. People wouldn't recognize me, but people would be 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.320 talking about it. People were dressing up as me at Halloween, 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.680 and you know, and I liked being anonymous. I loved 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:48.880 that people would like be talking in the grocery store 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:51.560 line about like how much their boyfriend loved the Orbit 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:53.920 gum girl and they didn't feel threatened by her because 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:55.240 they loved her too, And I was like, I know, 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.280 she's so cute, right, Oh, I love that girl, And 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:01.640 so it was really cool to be able to do 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:03.920 something like that that, you know, it's kind of part 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.200 of pop culture, you know, right. 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.719 Now, when when you go back to London or England, 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:13.200 do you speak with a British accent? 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.560 No, although it's very hard for me to not switch 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.880 into it, so sometimes I will. It's it's a weird 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.880 it's a weird thing because it is. The minute I'm 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:27.200 surrounded by it, I want to, you know, I kind 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:30.280 of do switch. But then I think, right, well, I've 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:32.120 been speaking this way for a while, and I don't know, 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:33.520 it's it's weird. 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:35.359 It's a little weird, right, But it's easy to slip 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.880 in and out of it, right, Yeah, no problem, all right. 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:42.080 So the commercials are very clever. What was the craziest 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:44.120 thing he had to do on those commercials? 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.640 We actually did a lot of crazy things. We shot. 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:49.520 We shot them all over the world. We would go 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:53.640 a bunch of places, and we did one with an 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.000 Ostrich and one with a whole thing of penguins. But 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.760 like literally I was in the penguin pool and penguins 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:00.360 bite and they were like swimming all around and I 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.800 had boots on a pie. But the crazier one was 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:06.520 with the Ostrich because you know Ostrich can be kind 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.560 of dangerous. And there was supposed to be an Ostrich 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.800 running towards my back, like straight into camera, and the 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.480 guy said, don't worry, I'll stop the ostriche before I 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.839 don't freak out though, because ostriches, you know, can be dangerous. 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.160 And he was the Ostrich wrangler, and that's a job, 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:26.960 an ostrich wrangler. And I was looking at the camera 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.080 and I can see the reflection in the back of me, 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:33.159 and the Ostrich comes kind of like charging towards me, 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:35.560 and the guy misses when he went to kind of 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.320 grab the Ostrich, and the Ostrich is still like running 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:41.599 straight in my head like full force, and they're big, 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.960 and I remember thinking, like, just stay still, just stay still. 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:46.040 They said he's still. 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:48.320 And then some other guy came out like just before 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:50.000 it got to me and tackle the Ostrich and it 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.320 was hilario was hilarious my camera. 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:55.080 But don't don't they have a claw that's like three 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.560 or four inches long that they can yep you gab 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:00.800 you with. I mean, yeah, that's one of the boy 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:05.440 do you still do people ask you to say the 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.480 slogan at all all the time? What is the slogan? 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:15.960 We refresh us, no pun intended. There there are a few. 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.280 Fabulous is one of them. Of course it sounds every 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:21.160 when I say it, you know, as the commercial goes 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:23.480 dirty mouth and clean it up. Those were the Those 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:25.000 were the slogan gotcha. 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.600 Gotcha, gotcha? Do you still use Do they still send 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:29.120 you orbit gum? You're still chewing it up? 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:31.000 They don't still send the orbit gum. 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:38.320 They don't send you anymore. Yeah, all right, So now 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:40.240 let's get into good more girls. How'd you get the role? 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:46.000 So it was regular kind of audition. I went in 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.640 to did my audition for it and felt like it 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:53.680 went really well, And afterwards heard from my manager. She said, 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:56.400 they thought you were great, They loved you, but they 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.960 felt that your British accent wasn't the right British act 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.600 that it was supposed to be an Oxford educated British accent. 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:09.160 And I thought a second. My parents were really sticklers 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.920 for language and grammar, and my mother had had elocution 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.760 lessons and that's the exact accent that I have. And 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:17.520 it's hard if you're American. You don't know the difference 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:18.320 between these things. 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:20.800 Right, You can't I do I do? I do? You 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:24.040 you nailed it. Yeah, No, that was Oxford. It was Oxbridge, 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:25.280 as they say, and. 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:27.840 So and so I said to my manager, I said, Flee, 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.800 will you please call them back and ask them to 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:34.960 see me again because I'm promising this is the right accent. 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:39.440 And she did, and to their credit, they said, okay, 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:41.800 let's bring in and meet the producers because we really 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:43.880 liked her. We just weren't sure. And then when I 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.640 came in, the producers were like, she's the one that's 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:50.040 define and I was so sweet that to their credit, 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:52.600 the casterders, they were so nice afterwards. They actually said 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:54.440 to me like, we're really sorry. We you know, we 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:56.040 apologized for that. That just didn't And I was like, God, 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.320 don't worry. Thank you for believing in me enough to 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.040 bring me back in after after you know you were 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:01.880 sure about that. 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:04.920 But that was the part of the character that made 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:09.439 her so lethal. Was that was that that accent. And 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.280 you just knew exactly where she was from, you knew 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.520 exactly where she went to school. Yet she still had 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.599 this side of her where she was this like stunning 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.400 woman who could stand up and end a meeting and 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.640 know that that would be effective to close the deal 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:31.120 and talk about contrasting Rory. I mean, you gave off 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:38.400 such a cosmopolitan, worldly vibe, knowing vibe, and Rory was 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.320 just crushed underneath the weight of that. So the scene, 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.160 that's what was so great about that scene, that can't 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:45.040 contrast of it. 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.160 We watched it. I rewatched it today. We're going to 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.320 be talking about it. And you know, you don't, you don't, 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.960 you're not often rewatching yourself all the time stuff that 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.200 you do. And it was really fun. It was so 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.080 fun because I remember that part was so fun and that, 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:03.280 you know, it's interesting being able to be because you know, 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:05.520 she was she was Bobby was obviously not really a threat. 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.000 She was really nice, but just the fact that oh. 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.000 No, no, no, she was a threat? Are you kidding me? Well, 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:13.599 are you kidding me? 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.360 Not in Bobby's eyes, maybe in Rory's eyes, but in 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:21.400 hurt right, And it was fun. It was fun seeing that, 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:26.839 remembering portraying that, you know, that kind of two sided thing. 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:29.680 It was, you know, it was a it was film. 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:32.520 It's you know, once in a while that show gets 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.480 in does it gets a filmic thing going? That was film. 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:40.800 It was that was good film. What do you remember 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:41.840 about that? Shooting day. 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:50.199 I remember it was super late. You know, the guys 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.480 were really fun, the other guys who were on it 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:57.160 as well, and everyone was incredibly nice. Alexis is a 0:10:57.240 --> 0:10:59.360 really I actually ended up doing another job with her 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:04.280 shortly thereafter, on a film called Postgrad and she's and 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.720 she's a really very down to earth, you know, kind 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:13.280 human being. And you know, you meet some great people 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:15.160 in LA but not everyone that way, and she was 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:18.680 I remember her really being specifically. You know, we talked 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:22.640 a lot and I liked her a lot. Right, and 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:24.960 the fast talking everyone, of course, right, that's I'm sure 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.800 that's constant fast talking. You know how fast you got 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.480 to pick up, pick up the pace, don't leave any spaces, 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:31.000 all of that. 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:33.120 It's the only note we ever got. We didn't get 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:35.520 any other notes, sure, because we always knew what the 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.240 director was going to say. Right, you want it faster, right, faster? 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:41.920 Got it? It's four am. I can't do it faster. 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:47.200 I want to go home. So when we recapped the episode, 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:51.080 we were a bit torn on that scene. If Rory 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:53.079 should have reacted the way she did when she found 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:58.560 out that you were a female colleague of logans Logans, 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.080 What What are your thoughts about that? Did you think 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.400 it was the right dynamic for the for the show. 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.080 I kept wondering how he managed to not ever say 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:08.640 she that's a tough one, right. 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:10.280 When you think about it, Yeah. 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:15.400 It would have been tough. But do I think, look, 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:20.080 I get it from a young woman's perspective, totally get it. 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:23.160 Why maybe that would be that way? And so I 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.320 feel like it made sense, although I don't think he 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.320 was at fault, Like I didn't think he needed to. 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:29.679 I don't think that there was any reason for him 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:31.920 to specifically say, oh, she's a girl or she's a. 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.360 Guy, right right, right right? 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:35.960 Yeah. 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.000 We we went back and forth on that for a 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:42.000 little while. All Right, so you've also been in three 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:44.080 of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. What was it 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.120 like working in those all those films? And what do 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:51.120 you think of it? It's controversy now that I think 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:56.480 I think I think Bruckheimer wants to distance himself from Johnny, 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:58.880 from Johnny Depp for some reason. What do you think 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:00.640 about all that? First of all, let's talk about what 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:01.679 it was like working on it. 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.679 Working on those films was literally like a dream, because 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.200 when you're on a set with that kind of budget 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.920 and that kind of creativity and perfection. The first I 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.000 was in the first three, and then they did a 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:18.520 ten minute short film, Disney'd a ten minute short film 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:22.239 just about me and my partner in it, about our characters, 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.080 and it's the prequel to the first film, which cost 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.920 a million dollars that short. And the first movie was 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:30.880 shot in la and then second the third we shot 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.360 in Saint Vincent in the Caribbean. And I remember the 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:38.200 first day of shooting in the Caribbean and we'd be 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:42.600 taken by boat to they had this huge bay that 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:46.240 they had literally there was nothing modern there. You couldn't 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.880 see anything other than you know, beautiful beach and palm trees, 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:55.000 three gigantic, authentic pirate ships, and this whole town, Tortuga, 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:59.480 which they had created impeccably. And you know, it was 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:02.240 early sun rising, and they'd take us on this other 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:06.520 little speedboat to enter this bay which we hadn't seen yet, 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.560 and we're pulling into it and the sun is rising 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:13.240 over this as if we're entering, you know, a seventeenth 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:18.600 century village, so authentic. And I thought, if I told 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.400 my eight year old self that I was going to 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:23.960 get to do this one day. I wouldn't have believed that. 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:29.120 I always remembered that moment just because it was so mesmerizing. 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:30.240 It was an amazing moment. 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:34.040 That's the top of the food chain in the film business. 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.080 I mean, it doesn't get bigger than that stuff. 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:39.720 Yeah, And I made some great friends on it. And 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:41.920 Gore Verbinski was the director of the ones I did, 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.240 and he was so awesome to work with, and we 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:46.840 all would get to hang out. We're on this island. 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:48.600 It's just you know, there's not very many of us 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:52.560 working together, and it was it was tons of fun. 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:53.240 It would be up plate. 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:54.440 Did you stay on the island? 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:55.600 Yes? 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.280 Yeah? Wow. So what was it like working with Johnny? 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.160 Did you get to work with Johnny? And he? 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:04.040 I can all I can say from my personal experience 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:08.440 with him is that he is the loveliest human being. 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:11.840 He was kind to every single person on set, whether 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.600 they were working on the set or they were you know, 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.040 I mean anyone from the island who was there, anyone 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:21.280 who was doing background, anyone who was doing craft service 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:23.800 to everyone, and we would be you know how you 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:25.400 know what long hours you work with things. It was 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:28.880 ninety five degrees out. We had on authentic wool costumes 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:31.600 that were killing us. He was, I mean, it was 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.240 like you were drenched. We'd be like in the blazing 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:38.600 sun doing these scenes, and he was just he was lovely. 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:40.440 And we'd all hang out as well, you know, at 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:42.120 different times, and so you got to you know, see 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:45.200 each other other times. And I only ever knew him 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:47.640 to be the nicest man. 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:53.480 You know. I always wondered because so many top musicians' 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:59.560 top bands embrace him. He's like, he's like friends with Aerosmith, 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:01.920 and he did an album with Jeff Beck. If you 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.680 can even imagine doing an album with Jeff Beck. He 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:08.880 I mean, I went to you know, Patty Smith and 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:11.600 I go back to the mid seventies and I went 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:15.040 to see her when she came out in LA a 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:17.760 couple of years ago, and Johnny was there too, and 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.040 he played a song or two with her on So 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:27.600 he's like, so you can't be a bad guy and 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:33.200 be welcomed by that range of people in that business, 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:37.720 you know, because they're extra sensitive about who they led 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.080 into their worlds because those are really exclusive worlds. So 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.000 he just always was. 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.000 I mean, I didn't this is just my personal opinion. 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:51.960 And I didn't know Amber ever, but I felt like 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:55.280 if there was falsehood there, to me, it seemed it 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:59.160 was on the opposite side. But you know, life is weird. 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:01.040 Who knows. But that was my you know, my personal 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.880 experience with him was that he was always intelligent, interesting 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:05.520 and kind. 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:07.679 Soft, very fascinating. 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:10.840 I think about that with my I have a boy 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:15.240 who's a gentle boy, and Johnny was a gentle boy, right. 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:19.720 Because hot, you know, you go on a talk show 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:25.439 and you're that quiet, that reserved, yet your presence is 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.280 such that nobody can take your eyes off you, but 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.159 their eyes off you and you're hysterically funny at the 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:36.840 same time by just holding everything back. I mean, that's it. 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:37.760 It's a superpower. 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.000 And he also is I mean, talk about sexy that man. 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.440 If I like, if there is, if there is star quality, 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:47.280 I mean, I remember the first time I met him, 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:49.320 I like, you know, and I'm not one who's ever 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.880 been starstruck by much, you know. I I've always been 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:57.000 pretty grounded, and that was that was the first time 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.760 I saw trying not to droll all over myself. 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:15.960 All right, So here's a few other fun facts about you, Vanessa. 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:21.720 Why fun fact you were Miss Vermont in nineteen ninety four. 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:25.280 Let's just so crazy when I figure about it out, 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.560 And I did it. I actually won on a dare. 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:31.840 I'd never like done pageants before ever, never even thought 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:33.919 about it. I was modeling though through college to make money, 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.320 and my modeling agent had said to me, why don't 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:39.600 you do Why don't you do the Miss Vermont pageant 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.359 because you can win scholarship money to pay back school owns. 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.320 And I was like, what are you talking about? No way, 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.160 like I meet because I'm totally a durpball. I've always 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:51.560 been a durpball. I'm like not the girl to like 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:53.119 brush your hair and put on makeup. I just did 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.480 it especially for you. I like, like, you know, I'm 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:58.800 I'm out playing with boys. When I was a girl, 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:02.240 I was a tomboy. Like I'm just not that. But anyway, 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:04.479 she she one of my best friends. The morning of 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.840 the Miss Vermont pageant said to me, I doubled triple 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.119 dare you. And we'd been it was my senior year. 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.200 At the end of all the like that the last 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:14.679 week of partying, we'd been up all night long. We 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.080 sat in this disgusting bathroom. She painted my nails and 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:20.080 I went into the pageant, and I thought a fluke one. 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:23.560 So you you went on to the So if you 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:26.640 won Miss Vermont, you were in the Miss America pageant, right, yeah? 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:29.680 And so what happened Miss America. 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:34.159 I didn't win, you know if I won, right, But 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.320 it was a really it was actually a fascinating experience, 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.600 A fascinating experience to see behind something like that and 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:42.840 to see, you know, there's you have all sorts of 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.760 images of what these women are like and who they are, 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:51.560 and and to be very honest, it was an incredibly educated, interesting, 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:56.399 accomplished group of women. They all definitely wore more makeup 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.960 when we're cleaner than I was. But they were a really, 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:02.399 really amazing group of woman. One of my best friends 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.000 to this day I made she was Miss Tennessee and 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:07.800 we still, you know, see each other multiple times a 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:12.200 year and nice. Yeah, it was a really fascinating experience. 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:17.280 App And you speak Mandarin Chinese, I speak Chinese and frenchship. 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:19.680 So you've been to China. You picked it up there, 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:20.400 you studied it. 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.080 In college or I studied it in college, and I 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:27.760 studied there when I was in college, and then I've 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:30.880 worked there quite a few times. I've done a few 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:34.199 films in China for the Chinese market. I modeled in 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:36.159 Taiwan right after college. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:41.199 Oh wow, yeah wow. So acting was just a natural 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:43.640 progression from what you were doing before. 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:45.600 No, I always knew. I knew at the age of 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.280 three I wanted to be an actress. Okay, always my thing. 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:52.480 It was always what I did. I went to I 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:54.439 went to Middlebury College in Vermont, and I had a 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:58.280 double major of Chinese in theater. Okay, So I always 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:00.120 knew that's what I that's what I wanted to do. 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:02.760 Fantastic. So now you're going to get back into it. 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:05.920 You're excited, you get in some meetings, and is your 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:06.800 agent excited? 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:09.680 I haven't. I didn't officially do it. It just kind 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.400 of happened. I've been working on something else that's a 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:16.760 true passion project of mine that's about to launch in 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:19.880 a few weeks. And it's taken me years to get 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:21.600