Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hey Whipsmarties.
Speaker 1: I am so excited to sit down today with a
Speaker 1: woman I have known and admired for so long, not
Speaker 1: only for her incredible career, but as a human who
Speaker 1: was one of the very first people I met when
Speaker 1: I started work as a little whipper snapper on the WB.
Speaker 1: Today's guest is none other than Joanna Garcia Swisher. She
Speaker 1: has an undeniable range as both a comedic and a
Speaker 1: dramatic actress. She's one of those people who is so
Speaker 1: naturally vibrant that you're drawn to her in every room,
Speaker 1: and she has built such an incredible not only career,
Speaker 1: but life, from her current role on Netflix's Sweet Magnolia's
Speaker 1: to her beautiful lifestyle destination The Happy Place, with which
Speaker 1: really explores what motivates us, what makes us feel amazing,
Speaker 1: how we gather, how we enjoy, what it is to
Speaker 1: be alive, to one of my very favorite things. Y'all know,
Speaker 1: I don't really watch reality TV, but I did get
Speaker 1: hooked on the Ultimatum Queer Love, and she hosted it,
Speaker 1: and my goodness, did I love it. She does all
Speaker 1: of it. She's a mom of two young girls. She
Speaker 1: is a wife, she is a producer, she is a creator,
Speaker 1: and I'm just so excited to sit down and talk
Speaker 1: with her today about the twenty plus years we've known
Speaker 1: each other, what her career has been like thus far,
Speaker 1: and what she sees ahead in the next twenty Let's
Speaker 1: sit down with Joe.
Speaker 2: Hello.
Speaker 1: Hello, I'm so excited to see you in your family's
Speaker 1: well and I really's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the girls are getting so big, eleven and eight.
Speaker 2: It's wild. I know. I was just talking to Nick
Speaker 2: last night and he was saying something about a car
Speaker 2: and he's like, well, Emmy, I'll be driving in like
Speaker 2: four years. And I thought, what did you just say
Speaker 2: to me? I felt I felt like it was an assault.
Speaker 2: I mean, granted, she's eleven, almost twelve, but I thought,
Speaker 2: don't say that to me. Don't point that stuff out.
Speaker 1: That's too big a leap.
Speaker 2: I was like, no, sir, because you know how quickly
Speaker 2: four years goes by. God willing by the way in this.
Speaker 2: But I just thought, oh, gosh, but you know, we're
Speaker 2: just good. It's good East Coast eleven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're loving it.
Speaker 2: We are. I mean, we're back home, and so it
Speaker 2: feels right after I lost my dad and then my
Speaker 2: mom and then my grandmother. Well my grandmother are two
Speaker 2: weeks before my mom. It just felt like the right
Speaker 2: thing to be home. I needed to be by my brother.
Speaker 2: My in laws had moved to Tampa, so we came back.
Speaker 2: And also I've been working in Georgia since twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: so it's like a hop skip, so we're kind of
Speaker 2: splitting our time between there, and it feels feels like
Speaker 2: the right spot. But every time I go back to
Speaker 2: La just but I kind of just miss what we had,
Speaker 2: Like you know, that era, that time where things were
Speaker 2: just a little bit more simple, a lot more simple,
Speaker 2: and yeah, and it was fun and stiff. So I
Speaker 2: just I'm a nostalgic for that me too mean moments.
Speaker 1: It's interesting, though, when you talk about your girls, because
Speaker 1: one of my favorite things to ask people is to
Speaker 1: rewind and talk about childhood. And I realize, in all
Speaker 1: the years I've known you, I've not really asked you
Speaker 1: this question either, And I find that it's so interesting
Speaker 1: when I get to talk to parents about this, because
Speaker 1: they can look at their own childhood and also see
Speaker 1: these sort of themes reflected in their children in present day.
Speaker 1: So when when you look back, you know, at the
Speaker 1: age your younger daughter is at nine, if you could
Speaker 1: go and hang out with nine year old Joanna, would
Speaker 1: you see the woman you are today in her? Would
Speaker 1: you be like, oh my god, she's friendly and gathers
Speaker 1: people and is so communicative and as a total performer
Speaker 1: or was she like a totally different kid.
Speaker 2: I think there was probably all of that there, and
Speaker 2: this sort of just like knowing that things were going
Speaker 2: to be okay. But I was really picked on at
Speaker 2: that time of my life, you know, and I feel
Speaker 2: like I still carry those scars to this day of
Speaker 2: just I was so emotional. And one of my friends
Speaker 2: has a daughter who's like this, and I see it
Speaker 2: a lot in her and I always kind of talk
Speaker 2: to my friend through it, and people call her dramatic
Speaker 2: and all of this stuff, and I'm like, yeah, but
Speaker 2: that's what makes her so unique and special and she
Speaker 2: feels so deeply, and so yeah, I think I see
Speaker 2: a lot of that. I'm probably a little bit more
Speaker 2: graceful now, a little, but I was a little bit
Speaker 2: of a bull in a china shop, which I am
Speaker 2: now still in certain ways. But I was like I
Speaker 2: know what I want to do with my life. I
Speaker 2: knew I had this utter sense of just faith that
Speaker 2: everything was going to be okay. But it was hard.
Speaker 2: It was really hard, and it definitely affected it still
Speaker 2: does to this day, that sort of need to kind
Speaker 2: of like please and fit in and all of those
Speaker 2: little insecurities that creep up naturally. And then we choose
Speaker 2: to do what we do for a living, which is
Speaker 2: so forward facing and up for a million opinions, and
Speaker 2: lord knows, we didn't even know back then when we
Speaker 2: started this that the world would be like this, that
Speaker 2: there would be so much access and conversation about us.
Speaker 2: I mean, I feel like when we started on the
Speaker 2: WB it was like message boards that you had to
Speaker 2: like log into AOL about it. Just like you think
Speaker 2: about how much the world has changed. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: think that when I look back on my childhood, I
Speaker 2: really felt now that I'm really just kind of digging
Speaker 2: into it. My mom was just such a She was
Speaker 2: like a getter done. She was like, what do you
Speaker 2: want to do? She was so supportive, and I feel
Speaker 2: like I have a lot of that like feral mom
Speaker 2: energy and me where I'm like, you want to do this?
Speaker 2: Let's go in, like, let's figure it out, let's go.
Speaker 2: My husband had a little bit of that too, which
Speaker 2: is not a great balance for us, so we tend
Speaker 2: to kind of like go all over the place. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I just I felt I felt like it was tough,
Speaker 2: but I knew it was going to be okay. And
Speaker 2: I kind of feel like that now. I guess I
Speaker 2: just said that earlier. When we got on the phone.
Speaker 2: I was like we started talking, I was like, this
Speaker 2: is a hard moment. Yeah, but we're going to be okay.
Speaker 2: And my dad really talked a lot about that too.
Speaker 2: My dad was an immigrant, you know, he came over
Speaker 2: when he was thirteen years old from Cuba, and he
Speaker 2: saw a lot, a lot, a lot of things in
Speaker 2: his life. And what I feel like, I know, especially
Speaker 2: now having like my parents on the other side, that
Speaker 2: I can endure a lot more than I feared a
Speaker 2: lot of things that I just now know. I say
Speaker 2: to my daughters. My daughter asked me if childbirth was painful.
Speaker 2: I said, well, yeah, but she's like, I'm so scared
Speaker 2: of it. And I was like, you're eight and by
Speaker 2: the time you decide to have a baby, or if
Speaker 2: that's what your choice is like, you'll be ready for it,
Speaker 2: you can handle the pain. Put that, but let's bench
Speaker 2: that one for now. But it is true because I
Speaker 2: was so afraid of the idea of like, God, what
Speaker 2: happens the day I lose my mom my dad. It's
Speaker 2: going to be the worst, the worst, And it is.
Speaker 2: But I'm still here, and I'm still living and still
Speaker 2: thriving and still navigating life.
Speaker 1: And yeah, well, and I think there's something really interesting
Speaker 1: to you know, the point that you make about sensitivity,
Speaker 1: because it is hard to be sensitive to cruelty, to
Speaker 1: be sensitive to the suffering of others, to feel the
Speaker 1: weight of things in the world. But I think it
Speaker 1: also can be such a leading force. It's the thing
Speaker 1: that allows you to say, oh, this suffering is an injustice,
Speaker 1: Oh this is a person I could show up for.
Speaker 1: Oh I wish I wish someone had shown up for
Speaker 1: me during X. And so when I see someone going
Speaker 1: through it, I'll show up for them. And I think
Speaker 1: that's it's a gift. It's not always easy to be
Speaker 1: informed and conscious and tapped in and all the things,
Speaker 1: but I do think it's the only way that things
Speaker 1: get better. And so maybe that's why so many sensitive
Speaker 1: people wind up in ways becoming artists and creating things
Speaker 1: because to tell other people's stories is a it's a
Speaker 1: way of showing up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean not to I've shared this before, but
Speaker 2: I had that there was a moment where I was
Speaker 2: contemplating not wanting to act as much anymore. And I
Speaker 2: didn't share that with anybody because that actually, even saying
Speaker 2: it now is kind of a scary thing because I
Speaker 2: don't feel that way now, just FYI. But I had
Speaker 2: a healer, this really wonderful woman, and she said to me,
Speaker 2: you know, what we do as artists, and not to
Speaker 2: like make our job so important, but she said, it's
Speaker 2: life is all about bumping up against each other and
Speaker 2: honing our stones, and oftentimes people, you know, we're so
Speaker 2: many people are just trying to survive right now, and
Speaker 2: their escape is watching television, or their escape is you know,
Speaker 2: going to a beautiful museum and you know, looking at
Speaker 2: incredible art and learning about those things. And part of
Speaker 2: what our I think gift is and our ability, like
Speaker 2: the honor of what we do, is to be able
Speaker 2: to kind of make people feel certain things because we
Speaker 2: are able to hone stones just by allowing someone to
Speaker 2: laugh or cry, or look at the world in a
Speaker 2: little bit of a different way, or learn something. And
Speaker 2: I think it is really important to It's not easy
Speaker 2: to be so raw in touch and you know, literally
Speaker 2: step into the pain and suffering of somebody else that
Speaker 2: we don't know. You know, those are all they're great honors,
Speaker 2: but it's not easy to do. And so but I
Speaker 2: also think there's like value to it more than just entertainment.
Speaker 2: And I do think that it's like an energetic sort
Speaker 2: of healing that we have an opportunity to do and
Speaker 2: to connect. And all I want to do right now
Speaker 2: is tell stories that are relatable and too. You know,
Speaker 2: they're not the coolest stories, maybe you're the hippist or
Speaker 2: the ones that get the most attention, but they're the
Speaker 2: ones that make people feel like less alone. And right now,
Speaker 2: I just like that's so that's where I'm fitting in
Speaker 2: and with my job, and also you know, trying to
Speaker 2: raise two young women to look outside of themselves and
Speaker 2: look further than their immediate radius, and by the way,
Speaker 2: also also settle in and figure out how you can
Speaker 2: help the person that's sitting right next right next to you.
Speaker 2: Such a great honor to connect and it is a
Speaker 2: huge responsibility. And so you and I think as we
Speaker 2: get older we try to like protect our energy and
Speaker 2: our peace and all of that. Yeah, that's that is
Speaker 2: also a delicate dance. What do we have the bandwidth for? Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's I'm so grateful to be surrounded by such strong, connected, aware,
Speaker 2: awake people because it's like I got your back, you
Speaker 2: got mine, and will kind of carry the burden, you know,
Speaker 2: cover the terrain together.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And you know, I think I get what
Speaker 1: you mean. You know, we're so taught to not you know,
Speaker 1: praise what we do or whatever, but I do think
Speaker 1: it's important to love it. And I get that it's
Speaker 1: not rocket science, and I get that it's not curing cancer.
Speaker 1: But I've also sort of had to I had a
Speaker 1: friend say this to me. One of my best friends
Speaker 1: paid me a compliment and I did the thing that
Speaker 1: women are taught to do, and immediately, you know, self deprecated.
Speaker 1: And it happened to be a guy friend of mine,
Speaker 1: and he was like, this is so interesting to me
Speaker 1: that the difference, he said, do you not get that
Speaker 1: I'm essentially I'm giving you a gift. It's like if
Speaker 1: I handed you a present, and you immediately batted it
Speaker 1: back into my hands. It would be insulting. Why do
Speaker 1: you want to take this compliment and throw it right
Speaker 1: back at me and immediately delegitimize it. And I had
Speaker 1: to see that it could hurt someone else's feelings to
Speaker 1: realize I was actually in validate.
Speaker 2: My own Yes, and I think about that.
Speaker 1: In terms of our work, and I've this is such
Speaker 1: a gift of the experience that I've had with some
Speaker 1: of the wonderful people I've gotten to meet around the
Speaker 1: world who watch the things we make, and the number
Speaker 1: of people who've said, in one version or another, well,
Speaker 1: you might not be curing cancer, but I watched your
Speaker 1: show through my cancer treatment. I was just going to
Speaker 1: say that you might not be. And it's like, wait
Speaker 1: a second, Oh my god. Yes we get to encourage empathy. Yes,
Speaker 1: we get to step into other people's shoes. Yes, we
Speaker 1: might get to show audiences people they don't know and
Speaker 1: remind people that no one is other. But we also
Speaker 1: do get to walk through things with people that so
Speaker 1: many others don't. And when I went through my own
Speaker 1: period of what you're talking about, of going, oh, I
Speaker 1: love my job, but maybe I'm entering a phase in
Speaker 1: my life where it's not really for me. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: brought me back to how much I love my job
Speaker 1: and what makes me more excited than ever for all
Speaker 1: the things ahead was actually being reminded of how special
Speaker 1: and sacred our job is. When the making it and
Speaker 1: the things we've all as women been through on set
Speaker 1: hit a sort of breaking point for me, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't understand, Like, how can all these
Speaker 1: people stand around and watch and say nothing? How can
Speaker 1: this be acceptable or just the way it is? I
Speaker 1: think I need a minute, and I gave myself a minute,
Speaker 1: thank god. But what the beat taught me was like, oh,
Speaker 1: part of why I hate when it's not being treated properly,
Speaker 1: that the job, the environment, the women on the set,
Speaker 1: all of it under the hit umbrella. Be concluded, I
Speaker 1: guess it is because this is actually so special. It's
Speaker 1: such a privilege. We're so lucky to do this thing
Speaker 1: that connects us to people around the world. And like,
Speaker 1: in a way I had to lean out for a second,
Speaker 1: to lean in doubly.
Speaker 2: It literally was the exact what I at twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: It's exactly that realization for me. Wow, it was just
Speaker 2: my tank was empty, and then I got Sweet Magnolia.
Speaker 2: As they asked me to do this little show, I
Speaker 2: had no idea what to expect. I knew one of
Speaker 2: the directors on the show. I admired the women that
Speaker 2: had already been cast, and I was like, kind of
Speaker 2: one of those things for like three days, you have
Speaker 2: three days to decide. I had Sailor was a baby.
Speaker 2: I picked her up out of her cribs. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I got to read these scripts today, and it totally
Speaker 2: reignited my commitment to what I think will be like
Speaker 2: the next twenty years of my career and how and
Speaker 2: knowing that, you know, telling stories that like I said,
Speaker 2: it's a sweet it's a show about friendship and women
Speaker 2: and sisterhood and family, but like there's so much truth
Speaker 2: to it. And it just was like the right at
Speaker 2: the right time, the right moment, the right time, and
Speaker 2: everything kind of came together and I was like, this
Speaker 2: is the type of storytelling. And in some ways, I
Speaker 2: feel like I had been putting that out there and
Speaker 2: like it was, you know, the law of attraction, like
Speaker 2: I was welcoming into my life. But I thought, no,
Speaker 2: this is it. This was an answer to a question
Speaker 2: that I had had that I did that I wasn't
Speaker 2: even articulating correctly, but it was just not settling. I
Speaker 2: wasn't in my in the flow. And now I feel
Speaker 2: one hundred percent the clarity is so there. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: it makes sense now.
Speaker 1: And now a word from our sponsors that I really
Speaker 1: enjoy and I think you will too. It's interesting because
Speaker 1: even the way you talk about it. You said earlier
Speaker 1: that you have nostalgia for that kind of beginning era
Speaker 1: when we all started working and we were all on
Speaker 1: the WV and you.
Speaker 2: Know, all these things glossy and.
Speaker 1: Interestingly, my brain was like, God, I get it. But
Speaker 1: also I missed the era because I was in North Carolina, Carolina. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can see you guys like once a year when
Speaker 1: you would come in.
Speaker 2: It's like at home totally. Yeah, that's true. That's a
Speaker 2: good point.
Speaker 1: But the way you're talking about the show, it feels nostalgic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I wonder if maybe that's part of why it
Speaker 1: feels so special.
Speaker 2: So good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point. I'm going to marinate on
Speaker 2: that a little bit because actually that I feel like
Speaker 2: that kind of touches a little bit on my grief
Speaker 2: and where I've been in, you know, like my life is.
Speaker 2: The irony is that this incredible blessing came into my
Speaker 2: life at the same time that I experienced the most
Speaker 2: signial loss that I've ever even could have imagined. It
Speaker 2: was like damn, bam bam. I mean and talk about
Speaker 2: being untethered. You know, mom and dad are gone, grandmother's gone,
Speaker 2: Everyone's like there and I'm just like, okay, I'm here,
Speaker 2: and who's my anchor? You know. It was like really discombobulating,
Speaker 2: and so I feel like maybe it always kind of
Speaker 2: meant to be in that that I needed that like
Speaker 2: touch back to where a safer time and easier time,
Speaker 2: a special time I needed the balance.
Speaker 1: How interesting that you were going through this seismic shift
Speaker 1: in your life, because I think, you know, I think
Speaker 1: about this a lot, you know, knock on wood, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm lucky to have both my parents, yes, And I
Speaker 1: think about I am aware already that there is a
Speaker 1: before and an after that when you lose your parents
Speaker 1: and you're just speaking. It's weird. We're having this sort
Speaker 1: of a cross time conversation in the present. You're you're
Speaker 1: speaking from the after, and as I'm listening to you,
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, no, wonder this amazing show about family
Speaker 1: and friendship came to.
Speaker 2: You in this moment, Like, yeah, it saved me.
Speaker 1: For you to be able to be in that kind
Speaker 1: of arena of love and to process emotion and to
Speaker 1: just be present, It's like, Wow, what an amazing kind
Speaker 1: of gift it is.
Speaker 2: And also one of my co stars has lost both
Speaker 2: had lost both of her parents too, and so few
Speaker 2: of my friends at like my age, our age, like,
Speaker 2: we don't we don't know that right, And I'll never
Speaker 2: forget this season. We were on set together. We both
Speaker 2: had our prop phones, which are obviously not connected at all,
Speaker 2: but we were talking and we both brought up our
Speaker 2: dads and we looked down at our prop phone and
Speaker 2: he said, oh my god, Brook, I said, the date
Speaker 2: my prop phone is the day that my dad died.
Speaker 2: And she looked down at her prop phone and her
Speaker 2: prop phone and it's the date that her dad died,
Speaker 2: and I was like, we just started to ball. I was,
Speaker 2: it was so beautiful and we just both said hi Dad,
Speaker 2: like we hear you, we see you, we feel you.
Speaker 2: But I it Yeah, and everything, I mean nothing is
Speaker 2: for no reason. All of every step along the way
Speaker 2: is a part of the big picture. And my only
Speaker 2: goal is to be you know, humble and aware enough
Speaker 2: to just or just I think just mostly just be
Speaker 2: aware of the importance of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my god, that's so incredible. And for the
Speaker 1: folks at home, I realized we've gotten no surprise. Whenever
Speaker 1: I see it, I don't care if it's like a
Speaker 1: year or ti.
Speaker 2: We go so deep.
Speaker 1: We just start immediately like how's your heart? But for
Speaker 1: the for our friends at home, who you know, there's
Speaker 1: one million streamers and networks and things and whatever. If
Speaker 1: someone hasn't seen the show, can you tell them about it?
Speaker 1: And like, give us the lay of the land. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm realizing I'm not doing my job and like, no,
Speaker 1: it's give me the project details. So I want to
Speaker 1: do it before we keep leaning into the surround the
Speaker 1: surrounding life.
Speaker 2: Of course, Yes, sweet Mindalia is. It's on Netflix. It's
Speaker 2: based on three best childhood best friends. They're like sisters
Speaker 2: chosen family, and it's really about life. It's small towns.
Speaker 2: Small towns is called serenity. My husband leaves me for
Speaker 2: a much younger woman in episode one and you find
Speaker 2: out she's ultimately pregnant, and we go through this divorce,
Speaker 2: but there's this whole resurgence of you know, me finding
Speaker 2: love again and all of us just sort of navigating.
Speaker 2: There's you know, we deal with all different real life issues,
Speaker 2: you know, substance abuse and infidel and death and financial difficulties,
Speaker 2: job opportunities. It's really just a slice of life and
Speaker 2: about how you can be there for one another and
Speaker 2: really support each other. And it you know, there is
Speaker 2: an incredible amount of uh, you know, empathy and compassion
Speaker 2: and and you know, we don't shy away from dealing
Speaker 2: with the harder things, but we are always kind of
Speaker 2: the unity and coming together and that sense of community
Speaker 2: is always something that is really what I think is
Speaker 2: a constant theme. And I work with amazing, amazing writers
Speaker 2: and an incredible crew that has been with us since
Speaker 2: the beginning most most like the majority of our crew
Speaker 2: has been with us since the beginning. And and Heather
Speaker 2: Hedley and Brooke Elliott play my best friends and they
Speaker 2: are just so special to me. So it's really special.
Speaker 1: That's so cool.
Speaker 2: It's a sweet shoe and it's one that I'm really
Speaker 2: really proud of and like you said, I meet people
Speaker 2: every single day, you know, you got me through my divorce,
Speaker 2: or I watched your show while I was in breast
Speaker 2: cancer treatments, and you know it, I do. I feel
Speaker 2: a great honor and I feel like I have just
Speaker 2: it does matter to me. It's funny so many people
Speaker 2: would be like it it bother you. Was at my
Speaker 2: daughter's cheer competition this weekend and one of the women
Speaker 2: was like, does it annoy you that people you know
Speaker 2: talk to you? I said, no, I'm like, I get
Speaker 2: it's an honor. It really is to just be able
Speaker 2: to say thank you so much for watching this, but
Speaker 2: also for sharing that piece of yourself. You know that
Speaker 2: that I'm grateful that I have been able to be
Speaker 2: a part of some difficult journeys and help, you know,
Speaker 2: walk that by the side totally.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's so special and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: having people who can help you make sense of your
Speaker 1: experiences whatever they're about, right, like if it's a big
Speaker 1: life change or if it's great you dealing with the
Speaker 1: loss of your parents. I mean, I think about the
Speaker 1: community that I've had around me in the last couple
Speaker 1: of years when like, there's nothing quite so arresting as
Speaker 1: being like, oh, I've built I've built the life. I like,
Speaker 1: I made the list, I did the things everyone says,
Speaker 1: I did the manifestation stuff. I checked off all the boxes.
Speaker 1: And it's like someone pulls the floor out from under
Speaker 1: you and you're like, oh, none of it's real. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh my god. Like when you start to sort of
Speaker 1: see things rather than like try to make them work,
Speaker 1: it's so arresting. And to have people go through it,
Speaker 1: you know, to watch people. Sometimes it's your friends on
Speaker 1: a show, or it's strangers on the show, or someone
Speaker 1: who writes a book or an article or whatever, and
Speaker 1: it simply by being familiar, it makes you feel less alone.
Speaker 1: And that is something I think is so special about
Speaker 1: your show. It gives me the same nostalgia that like
Speaker 1: my first show, I've now learned weirdly, like, as I've
Speaker 1: gotten to understand it through the fans and then gone
Speaker 1: back and rewatched it, I'm like, oh my god, I
Speaker 1: get it now.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I didn't get it when I was making it, because
Speaker 1: when I was making it, I was like doing script
Speaker 1: breakdowns and you know, figuring out how to stay in
Speaker 1: the two shot correctly, but totally like a viewer, I
Speaker 1: get it, and it is something I think is so special.
Speaker 2: It is it really really is. It's a great, great
Speaker 2: gift and an honor. Do you feel like, I don't
Speaker 2: know why I'm hearing to say this out loud, but
Speaker 2: just and this is something that I think that is
Speaker 2: so special about you? And even just my husband having
Speaker 2: just briefly met you, he was like, she's such a
Speaker 2: like real human and powerful human and you're so special.
Speaker 2: And then do you feel like when you're like, I
Speaker 2: had all this list, these boxes, I checked them all off,
Speaker 2: did it? Did it? And it may have not been
Speaker 2: consistent with what your ultimate destination was, but did it
Speaker 2: make you feel really powerful and like key meal and strong? Okay?
Speaker 1: No, So what I think I had to realize is
Speaker 1: that much like and I know this isn't unique to me.
Speaker 1: I know we all do this, and particularly when you
Speaker 1: receive so much pushback for the quote specialness of your career,
Speaker 1: people are like, it's not special at all, And you know,
Speaker 1: whether they're calling us the Hollywood elite, where I'm like,
Speaker 1: do y' all know how unions work and it's not
Speaker 1: what you think it is? Or you know, they're they're saying,
Speaker 1: like whatever horrible thing they're saying. What I realized is
Speaker 1: the hyper sensitivity and the loneliness and the scars from
Speaker 1: like my own bullying and othering and whatever as a
Speaker 1: kid that I carried put me in a position of
Speaker 1: being so self deprecating that I actually re my quote specialness.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I even have.
Speaker 1: To like say quote specialness. I'm realizing I'm doing it
Speaker 1: in real time, Like this would be like why are
Speaker 1: you doing that?
Speaker 2: Why are you doing that? Don't do that?
Speaker 1: And so what I think it did was it made
Speaker 1: me say, oh, if this, if this is like the
Speaker 1: frequency I vibrate at, it makes people uncomfortable, so I'm
Speaker 1: going to need to be here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I got so accustomed to dimming myself that I didn't
Speaker 1: even realize it made me an easy mark for people
Speaker 1: who were like, oh, that's our way in, for someone
Speaker 1: who could say like, oh, that's a way in where
Speaker 1: then I can kind of I can. I can help
Speaker 1: with the list, but I have I have an ulterior motive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the gift of the grief is that I finally
Speaker 1: tore up the list. Yeah, and it was like just
Speaker 1: like your phone and your coworker's phone for no good reason,
Speaker 1: in that exact moment, in real time, not like three
Speaker 1: weeks later, in that moment said here's a sign. It
Speaker 1: was like the moment I ripped it up, I was
Speaker 1: suddenly surrounded by people ripping theirs up too. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it absolutely saved my life.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I think when you can get on the other
Speaker 1: side of something and say like, oh, I'm actually grateful
Speaker 1: for even what was bad, Yeah, because it gave me
Speaker 1: the future good.
Speaker 2: Well, that's yeah, that's the thing that it's like, it
Speaker 2: was all part of the journey, but god it is. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean you have to have gratitude for every all
Speaker 2: the steps you have to because and also a commitment
Speaker 2: to just staying awake and aware. I think that's the thing,
Speaker 2: is that you can have the twenty twenty, have the
Speaker 2: gratitude for all of that, and also the forgiveness. I
Speaker 2: feel like I really struggle with that with I hold
Speaker 2: onto these things that I are just such a waste
Speaker 2: of time. I'm tough on myself, and I think as
Speaker 2: of late I've been like, just speak easy on yourself.
Speaker 2: You know. I hold myself so deeply accountable that I
Speaker 2: would never do that to my husband or my or
Speaker 2: my best friends. I would be like, give yourself a break,
Speaker 2: and I don't. I don't do that well enough. That's
Speaker 2: I think, something that is in the present.
Speaker 1: Happening for me right now and now for our sponsors.
Speaker 1: I used to sort of I used to say this thing,
Speaker 1: and then I realized I was wearing it as almost
Speaker 1: a badge of honor. That was so sad. I'd say, well,
Speaker 1: nobody's meaner to me than me. Oh, so it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: internet trolls, you think daari, I tap you. I trust me,
Speaker 1: Like this is child's play, honey. And then eventually I
Speaker 1: was like, wait, but why, Yeah, but why I And
Speaker 1: my word of the Year for twenty twenty four was gentleness.
Speaker 1: I was like, I have to find a gentleness, a tenderness.
Speaker 1: I have to I have to be willing to hold
Speaker 1: myself the way I hold other people, whether they're my
Speaker 1: best friends or someone I've barely known. And it really
Speaker 1: has helped me make such a shift, and in a
Speaker 1: weird way, it's made me a more hopeful person. Like
Speaker 1: it's made me understand the stories of people that I'm
Speaker 1: close to. You know that I might relate to like
Speaker 1: there's a reasurns out. There's a reason I related to
Speaker 1: love Warrior and then untamed so much. And then there's
Speaker 1: a reason that you know people I've known in this sphere.
Speaker 1: You know, some of my best friends who've been with
Speaker 1: their person since college, or some of the folks out
Speaker 1: in our world who have always been like a safe
Speaker 1: place to land for me, like you where I'll watch
Speaker 1: what your family's doing, and I'm like, I love that
Speaker 1: I know people where it's worked for so long, because
Speaker 1: that gives me hope, Like we talk about the next
Speaker 1: twenty years of our careers. When I look at certain
Speaker 1: stories like yours, or the sweetness of a family like
Speaker 1: yours or some of my other friends, I get to
Speaker 1: go like that feels fun for the next twenty years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like ah, And I know people I can ask questions
Speaker 1: too about like when it worked, when they knew all
Speaker 1: the things. I don't know most people who met their
Speaker 1: person when we were like, you know, younger, all babies.
Speaker 1: I mean you guys, we were thirty working on Gossip Girl.
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, Like it's such a time in my.
Speaker 1: Brain, you know, wild, and it's so I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's so cool I'm like, oh man, it's nice to
Speaker 1: kind of see that. No matter what, whether you've had
Speaker 1: certain things figured out for a long time or you're
Speaker 1: just figuring them out now, you've got people to lean
Speaker 1: on who've been in their own parts of that journey.
Speaker 1: It's never too late ever and for anything, Yeah, for anything.
Speaker 1: And also there's a million people who've done this before you,
Speaker 1: so you have you have people to lean on.
Speaker 2: I just told my friend this who just had a
Speaker 2: baby a couple days ago. I said, I promise you
Speaker 2: my kids may have not gone through it, but someone
Speaker 2: I know has, so just holler. You know, I'd be like, oh,
Speaker 2: I don't know about that diaper rash, but let me like,
Speaker 2: let me, let's take a picture of it. I think
Speaker 2: I have a mom friend that you know, it's that
Speaker 2: kind of connectivity. But also talking about relationships and sharing
Speaker 2: the realities of like marriage and that type of partnerships
Speaker 2: and the highs and the lows and you know the
Speaker 2: truth to that. I think that's also really important because
Speaker 2: you know, your word was gentleness for twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: mine was clarity. I experienced. It's just like there was
Speaker 2: a relationship in my life that was starting to feel
Speaker 2: I was a friendship and it just was starting to
Speaker 2: feel mess See, it was starting to feel blurry, and
Speaker 2: I hadn't had that in a really long time, and
Speaker 2: I just really needed that sense of clarity. And for me,
Speaker 2: it was all just about authenticity. And my husband and
Speaker 2: I talk about it all the time. I'm like, you
Speaker 2: could be whoever you want to be, good, bad, ugly, honestly,
Speaker 2: Well it's irrelevant, but just show me who you are
Speaker 2: so I know what I'm working with, you know whether
Speaker 2: and and I don't. The smoke and mirrors was just
Speaker 2: a really uneasy place for me and just not living
Speaker 2: that truth and authenticity and so clarity for me was
Speaker 2: my big thing where I was like, let's put things
Speaker 2: a little bit more in focus. Things felt a little
Speaker 2: bit blurry for me. But I do think that you know,
Speaker 2: I've been with Nick fifteen years. Yeah, and we've had
Speaker 2: a lot happen. I mean, credible highs, professionally, personally, desperate lows,
Speaker 2: deep loss, not understanding each other in those moments, grieving differently,
Speaker 2: you know, him retiring, and how we related to each other,
Speaker 2: him being a thirty five year old man that was
Speaker 2: used to trotting out on a field one hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty two games a year to great fanfare, and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, it's like, are you gonna make that lunch?
Speaker 2: The girls? Lunches need to be made? Can you feed
Speaker 2: the dogs? Like not that he didn't do that before,
Speaker 2: but it felt like that was sort of it was
Speaker 2: a huge rock for us, like it rocked us. It
Speaker 2: rocked him and rocked you know. And so I think
Speaker 2: just there is such a beauty to be able to
Speaker 2: connect authentic, authentically and work with that deep truth and
Speaker 2: just real and be raw and real and like doing
Speaker 2: it together and learning from one another, you know, because
Speaker 2: not one person can fill all all the holes. I'm
Speaker 2: married to like four people, my girlfriends, you know, like yeah,
Speaker 2: my career in some ways, I'm married to Nack, like
Speaker 2: I've like in a lot of ways, I have this
Speaker 2: like deep genuine commitment to so many things in my life.
Speaker 2: And so it is it is nice to be able
Speaker 2: to just that's what like doing life together is, And
Speaker 2: that's what I want my children to see. I want
Speaker 2: them to have those people in their lives that they
Speaker 2: feel safe with, that can that they've seen live and
Speaker 2: walk the walk and do all of those things and
Speaker 2: be able to connect with and learn from and you know,
Speaker 2: not be everything for all of you. Know I don't.
Speaker 2: I can't be everything for them.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's really interesting. It kind of hits me
Speaker 1: as you're talking about this because fifteen years for you
Speaker 1: guys together is it's such an enormous chunk of life, right,
Speaker 1: and as you said, you've seen each other through so
Speaker 1: many things. Hillary and I talk about this a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, all of us, you know from our first
Speaker 1: show do, but particularly she and I will talk a
Speaker 1: lot about how we had all these hunches as young people,
Speaker 1: and some of them were right and some of them
Speaker 1: are wrong, and you know, thank god we've all been
Speaker 1: able to grow up together. But part of my brain
Speaker 1: in hearing you talk about your marriage and all these
Speaker 1: life stages and parenting and all these life stages and
Speaker 1: the sort of stages of career is I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, do you think part of the reason that
Speaker 1: you've been so wise in terms of how to ride
Speaker 1: those waves and what a life looks like is because you,
Speaker 1: like you kind of instead of growing up just with
Speaker 1: your peers, right, like we were essentially teenagers on a
Speaker 1: team TV shower like you also grew.
Speaker 2: Up with Reba.
Speaker 1: You grew up with an intergenerational mentor you know, this
Speaker 1: powerful woman who was older and wiser and had been
Speaker 1: through all the things, and talk about somebody who knows
Speaker 1: how to navigate, you know, a big life and a
Speaker 1: public life as a mom. Now do you kind of
Speaker 1: look back on her playing your TV mom and go,
Speaker 1: oh my god, she taught me so much that I
Speaker 1: didn't even realize at the time, or did you realize it?
Speaker 2: I realized it. Yeah, okay. And by the way, I
Speaker 2: don't know, because you would have to ask her too, Chris,
Speaker 2: I'm sure. And there was there was times where, you know,
Speaker 2: I was a kid on you know, her show, like
Speaker 2: Steve and I were just bumbling around like Ding Dong's
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, and every and and Chris Rich the
Speaker 2: guy that plays the man that played my dad on
Speaker 2: the show, and wilst petermant too, like they they just
Speaker 2: always reminded us of how special like the opportunity was
Speaker 2: because we were this was our first show, and you know,
Speaker 2: He's like, this doesn't come around very often, so just
Speaker 2: remember that. But Reva, to this day, I mean, we
Speaker 2: are so interconnected and we are constant communication all of
Speaker 2: us that we have your little group chat and we
Speaker 2: talk all the time, and we you know in many ways,
Speaker 2: like I know when I send them a picture of
Speaker 2: I'm anna cry saying this, but I know that when
Speaker 2: I send them like the picture of my kid at
Speaker 2: the cheer competition, and they're really excited to get it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that is having lost two people that are really
Speaker 2: excited to get those things, like the parents, the grandparents.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, it's really special to have that. And
Speaker 2: I can't believe I'm crying. It's okay, but yeah, Like
Speaker 2: and Riba talk about authenticity, like never there is no
Speaker 2: heir to her, no pretense, there's no a superstar, even
Speaker 2: though she's so undeniably a superstar, she has lived her
Speaker 2: life with such honesty and absolutely and I'm sure that
Speaker 2: there were times where I know there were times you know,
Speaker 2: a soul crush, soul crushing grief and you know, loss
Speaker 2: of things, and but she's so she is so hopeful,
Speaker 2: like watching her fall in love again with Rex, and uh,
Speaker 2: like a kid, like a schoolgirl. You know, it's like
Speaker 2: to be able to look back on your life and
Speaker 2: and just say, you know, no matter what life threw
Speaker 2: at me. I kind of grabbed it by the horns
Speaker 2: and made the best of it and also remained like
Speaker 2: excited and exuberant and joyful. And so did she teach
Speaker 2: me what it was what it meant to be a
Speaker 2: graceful leading lady and a powerful business woman who knew
Speaker 2: her worth and a kind icon, yes, and spades. But
Speaker 2: what also I thought was so special is so special
Speaker 2: about hers that she's just so darn feel and humble
Speaker 2: and and good. And she walked as a bridesmaid in
Speaker 2: my wedding.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll ask you about that, come on, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know cool, yeah, so cool.
Speaker 2: Very special.
Speaker 1: I mean, because you've had such an amazing career, do
Speaker 1: you think having mentors like hers and the community that
Speaker 1: you have has that kind of helped you navigate how
Speaker 1: to do this stuff, how to be in this for
Speaker 1: the long haul.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I feel really lucky, Like looking at the people
Speaker 2: that I've come across and the people like that have
Speaker 2: been a part of my team, like my my people there,
Speaker 2: my family, and and so I feel like I have
Speaker 2: been you know, on Riva when we started that, oh,
Speaker 2: it was really popular to be like super skinny, and
Speaker 2: you know, all of these things and I remember our
Speaker 2: producers were like you. They said to me, there, Joey,
Speaker 2: you were so beautiful. They were like, please, don't change
Speaker 2: the only thing they asked that Steve and I didn't
Speaker 2: have sex. They're like, it'll ruin everything, just don't hook
Speaker 2: up love. I was like, okay.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, we had producers begging everyone to fall in love
Speaker 1: with each other so that no one would ever want
Speaker 1: to leave the show or ask for our raise, and
Speaker 1: our producers were trying to sleep with us at the
Speaker 1: same time. What a fun zone.
Speaker 2: That would have been something to navigate some toxicrabbing bulls
Speaker 2: by the horns.
Speaker 1: No, so toxic and by the way, like how I
Speaker 1: wish we had been protected by like shooting on the
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers line. I know, being isolated because for us,
Speaker 1: And again I feel like she's coming up for me
Speaker 1: so much. She's she's my Reba. Hillary and I talk
Speaker 1: about this all the time because she left the show
Speaker 1: first and when she went to work on White Collar
Speaker 1: shell me and she was like, girl, it is so different,
Speaker 1: Like I'm freaking out. And I was like, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to make it different here and like I'm being told
Speaker 1: I'm difficult. Yes, because I'm being like, don't touch the
Speaker 1: girls at work, boss man, Like it was so wild
Speaker 1: and it really was such a lifeline for me to
Speaker 1: hear than in other places it was going differently. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I don't know, I love I love
Speaker 1: hearing stories like the one you're telling that you had
Speaker 1: such good, protective bosses who mentored you instead of trying
Speaker 1: to take advantage of you. Like more of that, please?
Speaker 1: Good God?
Speaker 2: I know. But don't you feel now that you've gone
Speaker 2: on to lead other shows that you can bring that goodness? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 2: because I do feel a sense of a huge sense
Speaker 2: of responsibility to move forward and like where where I
Speaker 2: have been given the opportunity to set the tone and
Speaker 2: sort of, you know, help create a culture that it's
Speaker 2: like for me, I was able to bring what I
Speaker 2: saw this extraordinary woman and what she's capable of doing
Speaker 2: and what she does just so effortlessly. I was able
Speaker 2: to bring all of that to my jobs and still
Speaker 2: do to this day. I mean, oftentimes I'll be like
Speaker 2: Ria McIntyre doesn't even do stuff like that. In my head,
Speaker 2: I'll be like, you know, like, yes, you can't act
Speaker 2: like that, you.
Speaker 3: Know, don't tell me you've earned that, Like this woman
Speaker 3: has earned all of it and she literally will you know,
Speaker 3: help hold your hair if you got a puke, you know.
Speaker 3: And so but but I definitely think that that is
Speaker 3: a little part of the healing process and a.
Speaker 2: Part of you know, you get to you get to
Speaker 2: and you'll see that. I think in parenting too, if
Speaker 2: that's like part of your journey, you'll you do get
Speaker 2: to just be like, you know what, I kind of
Speaker 2: sorted through all that crap, so you don't you don't
Speaker 2: have to like let me just like put it in
Speaker 2: a different light for you and let me just kind
Speaker 2: of make that better for you and in a beautiful way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think when those things get mirrored back
Speaker 1: to you, you know, with your family and your workplace,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I will carry with me forever.
Speaker 1: You know. I got to be in every leadership role,
Speaker 1: all of them at the same time on my last
Speaker 1: CBS show, and you know, to lead a big network show,
Speaker 1: you know how it is, it's like it's a lot
Speaker 1: big deal and it's wild and it's an honor and
Speaker 1: it's a lot of pressure. And one of the best
Speaker 1: days I had on set when we were juggling a
Speaker 1: bajillion things, and you know, on hour sixteen, Sweet Jordan,
Speaker 1: my prop guy sidles up next to me and he goes,
Speaker 1: you know, to work on a set like this run
Speaker 1: by all of you women, He said, I see how
Speaker 1: different it is for all of you, And it just
Speaker 1: dawned on me. It's been a couple episodes, and I
Speaker 1: don't think I've told you how different it is for
Speaker 1: me too. Having you ladies in charge makes my life better, Aimen,
Speaker 1: And I was.
Speaker 2: Like, Jordan, You're like, darn right, that's it.
Speaker 1: And it was so cool, and it was one of
Speaker 1: those moments where you go like, oh yeah, when we
Speaker 1: when we make sure we're taking care of everybody who's
Speaker 1: not normally taken care of, everybody just gets taken care
Speaker 1: of better, even the people who are used to kind
Speaker 1: of being at the top of the pyramid. That I
Speaker 1: think is so special. And the idea that you got
Speaker 1: to watch Riba do that and that you learn to
Speaker 1: do that, and that you get to do that on
Speaker 1: your set and you get to do that as a mom.
Speaker 1: What an amazing sort of three hundred and sixty degree
Speaker 1: view on your whole life, Like you said, on all
Speaker 1: of your marriages. You know, you're married doing a mom
Speaker 1: you're married to your actual husband. Hei nik, you're great,
Speaker 1: you're married your career, you're married to like your mission
Speaker 1: and your purpose. And they all are in this like flow.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, they are, and even and then when one
Speaker 2: sort of like kitchen, you know, yeah, like you're like, okay,
Speaker 2: hold on, I gotta I gotta kind of like address that,
Speaker 2: and they're all the other ones are kind of flowing,
Speaker 2: and it's like it is a little bit of a
Speaker 2: symphony of just this. You know, it's all about healing.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's what we're here to do, to hear
Speaker 2: and to heal, to learn, to grow, to connect to
Speaker 2: like just you know, experience this classroom together and and
Speaker 2: if we can do that with as much kindness and
Speaker 2: patience as possible. And that's also something that is not
Speaker 2: like ingrained in me as patients. I'm just kind of
Speaker 2: like a h and I feel like I sometimes missed
Speaker 2: the like the details of the plot, and I'm like, dang,
Speaker 2: that was really cool. And I just didn't even really
Speaker 2: acknowledge it in the moment because I was impatient in
Speaker 2: that moment. But I definitely feel like it's I think
Speaker 2: it's all I care to kind of be into right now.
Speaker 1: I love that is that it feels kind of like
Speaker 1: a deep breath.
Speaker 2: Yes, it does. And it's been this year. I write
Speaker 2: in my newsletter for the Happy Place every month, but
Speaker 2: this year especially, I looked back on my last year
Speaker 2: and wow, my headspace was different. I was really depleted.
Speaker 2: I was really I think I actually wrote like, not
Speaker 2: is it the new year yet? Like it took me
Speaker 2: a good two weeks to even be like, whoa, Okay,
Speaker 2: we're in twenty twenty four. This year, I was like,
Speaker 2: let's go, let's go. And I had the flu. I
Speaker 2: got I started the year with the flu, and I
Speaker 2: was like, let's do this. I'm like, we're not We're
Speaker 2: we're not in indulging this, like we're moving forward, We're
Speaker 2: getting through this. Like it just my sense of my
Speaker 2: my bandwidth had sort of expanded. I wasn't as depleted.
Speaker 2: And I think a lot about obviously had to do
Speaker 2: with grief, but a lot of it had to do
Speaker 2: with a lot of hard work and realization and forgiveness
Speaker 2: and reflection that I did last year, and this year
Speaker 2: I felt more full.
Speaker 1: We'll be back in just a minute. After a few
Speaker 1: words from our favorite sponsors. I love that you brought
Speaker 1: up the happy Place because it's the sort of thing
Speaker 1: that just brings me joy. I've talked to people, you know,
Speaker 1: people will say, like, what's something people don't know about you?
Speaker 1: I unwind, especially when we're doing splits, which for our
Speaker 1: friends out were like, you know, when you work from
Speaker 1: noon to three in the morning on set, I'll get
Speaker 1: home and I unwind by like picking a place on
Speaker 1: a map and then designing like a fictitious house there
Speaker 1: on Pinterest. I'm just like, I'm going to build a
Speaker 1: house in Albuquerque reminiscent of Georgia o'keef's ghost Ranch, like
Speaker 1: totally weird, totally nerdy.
Speaker 2: You and I could go down rabbit holes to year Like.
Speaker 1: I actually can't wait. I'm like, we need a side text.
Speaker 2: So I was like, can we go on a girl's
Speaker 2: trip and just do this together. Let's go. Literally, nothing
Speaker 2: would bring me more joy. I'm not even bringing my phone.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be like, I am unavailable. We have work
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll bring like point and shoot cameras. And your
Speaker 1: your lifestyle site makes me so happy because it focuses
Speaker 1: on things that bring me pure creative joy. You know,
Speaker 1: you look at home design projects, you look at like
Speaker 1: beautiful things to cook, you talk to really inspiring women,
Speaker 1: and I love that instead of starting a bunch of
Speaker 1: secret Pinterest boards, you actually made the space that other
Speaker 1: people can enjoy. How how did you a carve out
Speaker 1: the time be decide that you were really going to
Speaker 1: invest the resource of your time and energy into this?
Speaker 1: Is it? Is it pure passion project that lets you
Speaker 1: just feel creative?
Speaker 2: Like? How does it?
Speaker 1: How does it work?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So it started as that. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: that it was sort of a part of me that
Speaker 2: I didn't really share with many people. And it was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is going to be super designed ba because that's
Speaker 2: what I felt like I should do. But The Happy
Speaker 2: Place has saved me in so many ways, so many
Speaker 2: times because it has. It's almost just it's funny because
Speaker 2: you go to my regular Instagram page and I don't
Speaker 2: share nearly as much, like you really get to know
Speaker 2: me on the Happy Place. You see a lot more
Speaker 2: in my life, a lot more of my personality of
Speaker 2: my family because it feels so authentic to my story
Speaker 2: and it's like my diary. I cook I'm not a chef,
Speaker 2: but I cook all the time. I love arts and crafts,
Speaker 2: so I share them. I love great home design. I
Speaker 2: love women and their stories, and I think women are
Speaker 2: the superior beings, just period and point blank. It's the
Speaker 2: late place to like write, and I love reading, so
Speaker 2: I share. But you know what's funny is part of
Speaker 2: last year for me was forgiving myself for being so
Speaker 2: hard on myself because in a lot of ways I
Speaker 2: didn't feel like it reflected what it should have reflected.
Speaker 2: It was sort of like, I don't want to use
Speaker 2: it just for me. I was like, I wanted to
Speaker 2: just give myself the freedom to just be who I am.
Speaker 2: Share the smutty romance novel that I it didn't have
Speaker 2: to be a book that like blew your mind or
Speaker 2: anything more than just I enjoyed it, and so I
Speaker 2: was trying to I've been trying to give myself permission
Speaker 2: to just be me, and in that I've shared my grief,
Speaker 2: I've shared my anxiety, I've shared my fears, I've shared
Speaker 2: my excitement. I've shared, you know, my smoothie recipes that
Speaker 2: feel so trivial, but it's actually I'm excited to say like,
Speaker 2: this isn't a culinary masterpiece, but this is how I'm
Speaker 2: getting my protein this morning. And you know, I love
Speaker 2: avocado toast right now, so we're going to talk about
Speaker 2: avocado toast. And so I just it's just allowing me
Speaker 2: to just be me and and the people the community
Speaker 2: is so positive and so supportive and so lovely, and
Speaker 2: I find that it's really attracted that same energy we
Speaker 2: don't really have like those trolls, you know, and I don't.
Speaker 2: I'm not welcoming them and they're not welcome because it's
Speaker 2: really just not a space for it. It's like there's
Speaker 2: just not it's not a controversial place. It's a place
Speaker 2: that you can come to be real that you can
Speaker 2: come to just just take a deep breath and have
Speaker 2: a little quick recipe or a cocktail with me or
Speaker 2: a coffee with me, or hear about that I'm really sad,
Speaker 2: or that I'm you know, struggling with my morning routine
Speaker 2: and I'm like, let me just show you how it works,
Speaker 2: or you know, it's it's not highly curated and perfect.
Speaker 2: It's not. It's just authentic to who I am. And
Speaker 2: it has it saved me in so many ways and
Speaker 2: there are times where you can see I'm more inspired
Speaker 2: than others. Oftentimes it's when I'm in Georgia by the water.
Speaker 2: We have a lake house there and I just am
Speaker 2: like overflowing with creativity there and that has been also
Speaker 2: a learning lesson for me. So in many ways, it's
Speaker 2: been like a reflection of what I need to hear,
Speaker 2: what I need to know, and it's I think it's
Speaker 2: the voice of what like I want to continue to
Speaker 2: kind of explore.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: That means a lot to me.
Speaker 1: I love that in a space where you get to
Speaker 1: be your full self. You know, it's really interesting. My
Speaker 1: partner says this to me, like, even in all the
Speaker 1: years we were friends, friendly acquaintances, you know, whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call it, it's interesting when someone who knows
Speaker 1: you so well goes God, I thought I knew you,
Speaker 1: and then I realized there's so much more to you,
Speaker 1: and we're all guilty of like the Internet has convinced
Speaker 1: us that we really know everything about people. And you know,
Speaker 1: she'll be like you are so weird and so funny,
Speaker 1: and like you seem so serious on Instagram, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: because that's where I'm trying to like share the news
Speaker 1: to make sure people understand what's going on in the
Speaker 1: world around them.
Speaker 2: Like, and I don't know, I don't even really.
Speaker 1: Know where I'm going with this. It's not necessarily a
Speaker 1: fully formed thought. Things are just coming up as you're talking.
Speaker 1: And I'm realizing, like part of me wants to hide
Speaker 1: and do nothing online because people will say what they
Speaker 1: want even if it isn't true. People will be abusive,
Speaker 1: they'll just be so awful. And then on the other side,
Speaker 1: I'm like, God, it sounds really nice to have a
Speaker 1: space where you can really be your full self, where
Speaker 1: you can be incredibly astute and intellectual and also completely
Speaker 1: silly and say like, this is the coolest wallpaper I've
Speaker 1: ever seen in my life. Yeah, this is the best
Speaker 1: pizza this week. Did you read that New York Times
Speaker 1: article about this tariff whatever? Like we are we contain multitudes,
Speaker 1: as the adage goes, and how nice that you have
Speaker 1: a space where you get to be all of those things.
Speaker 2: It really it has been a gift, and it's not
Speaker 2: it's only years in that I've like really can reflect
Speaker 2: on it and say, I'm all in. I'm all in,
Speaker 2: and this is what it is, and I'm not going
Speaker 2: to shy away from it, and I'm going to be
Speaker 2: who I am and just go for it. But also
Speaker 2: I say that in the same bread of like it's
Speaker 2: under the happy place, not my name, so you have
Speaker 2: to get out, like I'm like, okay, Joe, call my
Speaker 2: bullsh just be like okay, now start to share it
Speaker 2: over there. But no, it is. It's a destination, is
Speaker 2: what I call it all the time. It's a destination
Speaker 2: just to come and be and share and you know,
Speaker 2: it's nice. It's just to tease my heart.
Speaker 1: Well, and I think community is the thing that always
Speaker 1: saves us, and so to build a space for community
Speaker 1: is so important. And I hear it's expanding into production.
Speaker 2: What does it mean. We are actually in production now
Speaker 2: with three movies that are based on a book series,
Speaker 2: and it's really happening. It's really happening. So we are
Speaker 2: just you know, in the process of optioning material and
Speaker 2: getting it made. And and that is another There's so
Speaker 2: many books and things that I read that I'm like, yes, wow,
Speaker 2: this is so amazing. But then I'm thinking to myself, Okay,
Speaker 2: what's consistent with like the ethos, the story, what's the
Speaker 2: story here, what's the that broad strokes And so it
Speaker 2: has been really fun curating that and and like leaning
Speaker 2: into what my intuition is telling me about what needs
Speaker 2: what I feel like we need to like spend our
Speaker 2: time on and you know, you know, it's not easy
Speaker 2: to get anything off the ground. And I also it's
Speaker 2: been really a great joy as an executive producer on
Speaker 2: these movies, not acting in them, to just be there
Speaker 2: for actors too, Yes, because I do speak that language,
Speaker 2: and I do know how important it feels, and I
Speaker 2: know the process of like you could be so like
Speaker 2: I'm so prepared just in general as a human and
Speaker 2: then sometimes things come up like in the last minute.
Speaker 2: And it's funny people that don't understand our types are like, whoa,
Speaker 2: it's like coming out of nowhere, And it's like, well,
Speaker 2: kind of it does. Because that's what you want. You
Speaker 2: want an actor that things come out of nowhere and
Speaker 2: hit you in a certain way because you know they're
Speaker 2: in the moment and like, so it's been nice to
Speaker 2: advocate in that way and set up up a warm
Speaker 2: and loving environment for people to follow their dreams.
Speaker 3: You can.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fun, it's really exciting.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for you.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm also like, great, I have seventeen ideas for some
Speaker 1: things that I'm just going to bring to you.
Speaker 2: Let's go be here, Le's make up, Let's make up.
Speaker 1: I love it well, I mean, oh, I just feel
Speaker 1: such joy for you and with you, and like, like,
Speaker 1: what an exciting moment when you look at and it
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily have to be the year ahead, like your
Speaker 1: to do list or what's in the calendar or things
Speaker 1: with work, but I guess when you sort of look
Speaker 1: in front of you this year or the big you know,
Speaker 1: twenty years we spoke of earlier, when you're kind of
Speaker 1: looking out at the horizon, what feels like your work
Speaker 1: in progress right now?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: No pressure, I know.
Speaker 2: I want to be a really present mom. That's super
Speaker 2: important to me. So like just the parenting thing is
Speaker 2: always going to be a work in progress because they've
Speaker 2: changed so quickly and it's like WHOA, that one came
Speaker 2: out of nowhere. But I think that I have this
Speaker 2: voracious need to tell, to storytell, and not necessarily as
Speaker 2: an actor, So I just I'm extremeeling extremely creative in
Speaker 2: my moment and also trying to look back and and
Speaker 2: know that you know, I'm being so wholly supported and
Speaker 2: protected from the other side, and I actually am understanding that,
Speaker 2: you know, it is it will inform everything how I parent,
Speaker 2: how I live, how I walk in this world, everything
Speaker 2: that that loss, but also that there is like great
Speaker 2: creativity and power that's sort of being pushed from the
Speaker 2: other side for me. And I think the work in
Speaker 2: progress is going to just try to remind myself to
Speaker 2: to not be so worried about trying to make something
Speaker 2: that I think people you know want. I want to
Speaker 2: just follow my heart and tell the stories that I
Speaker 2: know without a shadow of a doubt that storytelling will
Speaker 2: be the next twenty years for me for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to tell the story you want to tell, not
Speaker 1: necessarily for what people are going to think about it.
Speaker 2: And that's what happy places. And it just hit me
Speaker 2: when your partner was saying to you, like, there's so
Speaker 2: much more to you, which, by the way, I would
Speaker 2: say that too, Like I'm like, yes, share that, you know,
Speaker 2: that's like, it's just tell the story. The story changes
Speaker 2: every day, fifteen times a day, yes, And there's beauty
Speaker 2: and power to that, and it's it's important and we
Speaker 2: are in these spots to be able to do that,
Speaker 2: so we have a chance to But everyone should tell
Speaker 2: their story, everyone should agree, even the ones we don't
Speaker 2: want to listen to.
Speaker 1: Well, I think the more people that do the more
Speaker 1: the more others are encouraged to do it too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think people are going to really are wakening.
Speaker 2: They're they're waking up to the truth. And it it's
Speaker 2: not fast enough, because of course we're not. I'm not patient,
Speaker 2: but I do think that there's going to be less
Speaker 2: tolerance for the lack of authenticity and I think it's
Speaker 2: going to reveal itself. I That is my prayer, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that is my prayer.