Speaker 1: So I've been going into production on a project which I.
Speaker 2: Will be able to tell you all about a couple
Speaker 2: of months.
Speaker 1: But so we've been, you know, doing days at my house,
Speaker 1: mostly with very small crew, mostly just my producers and whatnot.
Speaker 3: But day one, we like I made.
Speaker 1: Sure we got like great bagels, had them all laid out,
Speaker 1: and then we break for lunch and we're like, oh,
Speaker 1: what are we going to order for lunch? By day three,
Speaker 1: we're like just sandwiches? What am I? You know, I
Speaker 1: just realized, like this is the way production goes, right,
Speaker 1: Like the quality of food just gets steadily worse as
Speaker 1: you just get into production.
Speaker 3: And it made me think of some of.
Speaker 1: The worst food that I've had on sets because they
Speaker 1: can go so extreme. There are there have been sets
Speaker 1: where you go there and like they have you know,
Speaker 1: sushi and catered lunches, and it's just like the budget
Speaker 1: is insane. And then there are other sets where that's
Speaker 1: really not the case. And for me, like the best example,
Speaker 1: and this is I might have actually told a version
Speaker 1: of the story. I know it's out there in the
Speaker 1: world because I think it's even like a trivia effect
Speaker 1: on IMDb.
Speaker 2: But I did this movie my Giant, which I know
Speaker 2: we're talking about, right.
Speaker 3: So I went to.
Speaker 2: I went to Prague to shoot this movie, and the
Speaker 2: food was.
Speaker 1: Subpar, allowed to be desired, And there is a scene
Speaker 1: where I get puked on by the giant, and in
Speaker 1: order to make it, you know, believable, they took some
Speaker 1: potatoes and carrots and food dye and made this giant
Speaker 1: vat because I had to be covered in vomit.
Speaker 2: It was one of those classic kid actor scenes.
Speaker 3: Where it's just cover the kid and stuff.
Speaker 1: So they had this giant vat sitting on the set
Speaker 1: and the extras.
Speaker 3: There were like one hundred extras that day. I thought
Speaker 3: it was lunch. Oh no, they ate out of vomit.
Speaker 1: They had to stop them from eating, like they were
Speaker 1: like no, no, no, no, that's production.
Speaker 2: There there with bowls and spoons.
Speaker 3: You've got catered vomit, cater voit, catered vomit. So have
Speaker 3: you guys ever had.
Speaker 1: Like a truly great or truly horrible on set food experience.
Speaker 4: Well, I'll tell you right now. The movie I directed
Speaker 4: for two.
Speaker 2: B no food budget.
Speaker 4: First of all, we ran out of craft service on
Speaker 4: like day three.
Speaker 3: What there was just there's not even a red vine
Speaker 3: to be had.
Speaker 5: There was there.
Speaker 4: There was not a red vine, and I I all
Speaker 4: of a sudden noticed it. I was like, what, why
Speaker 4: is there? Why is there nothing to eat here? And
Speaker 4: they're like, yeah, we ran out, and so I paid
Speaker 4: out of pocket have a massive cost go run where
Speaker 4: we could just bring all the stuff that that movie had.
Speaker 4: Some of the worst craft service I've ever had.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah too.
Speaker 4: Now I'm doing Dancing with the Stars and on tape.
Speaker 4: First of all, the little craft service thing on Magical
Speaker 4: Magic Magical, they have a section that's very clearly geared
Speaker 4: toward kids. So it's like all the different types of
Speaker 4: fruit snacks, all the different type of granola bars, a
Speaker 4: candy section, jelly beans, like you name it. I get
Speaker 4: a writer for in my room. Anything I want and
Speaker 4: need in my writer the minute you arrive.
Speaker 3: Stinky broccoli. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 4: It wouldn't be it wouldn't be a day without writer,
Speaker 4: Stinky stinky Brockley. I'll tell you why, because you're the
Speaker 4: one who wanted vegetables. Yeah you.
Speaker 3: Peanut butter cups and water and peanut butter cups.
Speaker 6: I had waterbbly water yeah yeah, so.
Speaker 4: Uh no, But like the minute we get there, we
Speaker 4: we tape next door to an Airwan whatever, I want avocado, toast,
Speaker 4: two eggs.
Speaker 6: So they're moving money around from Switzerland so they can
Speaker 6: go to Airwon.
Speaker 4: Yes, cut a cup of coffee from a very specific
Speaker 4: coffee place called Dante. Yeah they bring I mean, I mean, oh,
Speaker 4: I want an energy shot? Nope, yeah, they just all
Speaker 4: day off. Do you what do you want for lunch?
Speaker 2: It's glorious.
Speaker 4: It's actually glorious. Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty great. So
Speaker 4: I have definitely I have been on both sides of
Speaker 4: the spectrum.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah, I mean I have too.
Speaker 6: Obviously you go to you do smaller productions where there's nothing.
Speaker 6: I was just at a convention where the green room
Speaker 6: was just a room, like a small closet room. No water,
Speaker 6: no napkins, no anything, literally nothing, literally nothing. It was
Speaker 6: just it was three chairs that if you wanted to
Speaker 6: sit down and get some food you could.
Speaker 3: But I was did will do you remember?
Speaker 1: It was just like, oh, there's a whole bunch of sandwiches,
Speaker 1: there's turkey or turkey or turkey.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: No. But one of the best shows I was ever on.
Speaker 6: Every day they just brought the in and out truck.
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, was every day magical. Yeah, the days
Speaker 6: that I was there, that red meat, it was it
Speaker 6: was magic.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 6: Actually, the more red the more burgers you eat, the
Speaker 6: healthier they get. People don't know that there's a there's
Speaker 6: threshold where then it becomes diet food.
Speaker 3: So that's just science. That's everybody knows that.
Speaker 4: So I had a burger last night.
Speaker 3: You know, it was dropped off to you, wasn't it
Speaker 3: at your whole.
Speaker 4: Producer box. Yeah, I'm so hungry by the time our
Speaker 4: tape nights are over.
Speaker 2: And imagine because I'm getting hungry.
Speaker 3: Now, how are you too?
Speaker 4: Should we move forward into this episode?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Are we going to have a vat of puke
Speaker 3: for lunch? Is that that's the plan. That's what are
Speaker 3: we doing.
Speaker 4: Somebody chop up the carrots and bring out the tomatoes.
Speaker 4: It's time for Pukelu's puke lunch.
Speaker 3: Awesome. Please don't eat that. Please don't eat that. That's part.
Speaker 4: Please put the puke down. Welcome to Pod meets World. Oh,
Speaker 4: I say my name.
Speaker 3: You're officially doing too much. Danielle. You're officially doing too much.
Speaker 1: She's gonna start tangling seriously.
Speaker 4: Welcome to Pod Meets World.
Speaker 3: I'm Daniel Fischel, I'm right or Strong, and I'm Wilfredell.
Speaker 4: When it comes to the legacy of Boy Meets World,
Speaker 4: there is a lot we leave behind, the effortless, family
Speaker 4: friendly mix of comedy and drama that TV still has
Speaker 4: problems perfecting the comfort of its characters. Eric T. Panga,
Speaker 4: Sean Angela, I mean Bill Daniels. It seems like, no
Speaker 4: matter how many Emmys he won before he took the
Speaker 4: role of mister Feenie, it's now the character that will
Speaker 4: define an incredible career in Hollywood. But one other very
Speaker 4: cool aspect about Boy Meets World that seems even more
Speaker 4: relevant in twenty twenty five the careers that started right there.
Speaker 4: On an ABC Friday Night. We've talked to Adam Scott,
Speaker 4: whose first real TV set was that of John Adams, High,
Speaker 4: Ethan Sipple early career, Linda Cardellini, and Britney Murphy. We
Speaker 4: had future superstars just driving by saying hi, on their
Speaker 4: way to much bigger projects. Yet it seems like our
Speaker 4: show is still one of the things they're constantly reminded
Speaker 4: of now three decades later, and our guest this week
Speaker 4: is a perfect example of this trajectory. She was a
Speaker 4: two timer, appearing in two Boy Meets World episodes, season
Speaker 4: two's Danger Boy and season three's The Grass Is Always Greener,
Speaker 4: playing Laura and Hillary respectively. But she'd breakthrough in nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety nine with two films that helped define an entire
Speaker 4: era of cinema, The Gross Out Slapstick of American Pie,
Speaker 4: creating a revolution in theaters for the R rated teen comedy,
Speaker 4: and American Beauty, a Best Picture winner that set the
Speaker 4: standard for black comedy and is constantly listed as one
Speaker 4: of the century's best. She'd become Hollywood's it girl at
Speaker 4: a speed that's rarely seen on the screen. She'd follow
Speaker 4: up with movies like Sugar and Spice, Domino and Spun
Speaker 4: and Let's not forget about the American Pie sequels, a
Speaker 4: franchise that appears to be getting another installment soon, and
Speaker 4: she's made endless TV appearances from Psych to Six Feet
Speaker 4: Under to Chicago Hope. But today we are talking to
Speaker 4: her about the start of her career, the time she
Speaker 4: played two different flirty girls on the TGIF sitcom Boy
Speaker 4: Meets World and helped our legacy live forever. Welcome to
Speaker 4: Pod meets World. Someone we have hoped to interview for
Speaker 4: a while. It's Mina Suvari.
Speaker 3: She's kind of there.
Speaker 1: Hey, does this feel so weird to be back all
Speaker 1: in the room together thirty years later?
Speaker 5: This is wild? This is wild. I don't know if
Speaker 5: I have enough words, you know, guys, I was. I
Speaker 5: was looking up the episodes that I was in, which
Speaker 5: is like a whole other conversation. I was in two
Speaker 5: of them, but it's my first credit on IM.
Speaker 2: Wow, So was it actually your first job then?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 5: I had done some commercials. Yeah, I had done a
Speaker 5: couple of commercials. I did a Rice Serroni commercial, which
Speaker 5: I always joke that I was like the other girl.
Speaker 5: I didn't even get to eat the rice aerronie and
Speaker 5: I got my SAG card.
Speaker 4: Okay doing that? Did they let you eat it at
Speaker 4: lunch at least?
Speaker 1: Or no?
Speaker 5: Funny? Do you you know the actress Vanessa Shaw? Yeah,
Speaker 5: so it was her sister Natalie Shaw, And it was
Speaker 5: like a joke where it's like, you know, we're at
Speaker 5: high school, we run into each other and wearing like
Speaker 5: the same outfit, and then she was like talking about
Speaker 5: it over the race, and so I was.
Speaker 4: Like the other girl like can I have a bite anything?
Speaker 5: But this was but so I did. I did that.
Speaker 5: I did like a Pizza Hut commercial. I did a
Speaker 5: Kodak commercial, and then yeah, I was like doing these
Speaker 5: kind of like guest spots, you know, yeah, the Chicago Hope.
Speaker 5: I was always like the rebellious teenager or like totally nineties,
Speaker 5: like slightly naughty, solicious team.
Speaker 4: Were you played some flirty girls in your two episodes
Speaker 4: of Boy Meets World. We first saw you in season
Speaker 4: two in Danger Boy Uh, and we just talked about
Speaker 4: in your intro that there are quite a few people
Speaker 4: Boy Meets World was their first credit Adam Scott Ethan
Speaker 4: Sipplee You had you ever seen Boy Meets World before
Speaker 4: you auditioned for it?
Speaker 5: No, but it's not It has nothing to do with that.
Speaker 5: I just sort of no. I mean I still kind
Speaker 5: of live under a rock like I wasn't. I was
Speaker 5: kind of living in this space of being in LA
Speaker 5: and it being new and adapting to I came from
Speaker 5: South Carolina, so like adapting to high school and auditioning
Speaker 5: after school and now I was sort of like in
Speaker 5: this weird grind of you know, it took me a
Speaker 5: long time to really understand like the business aspect of things,
Speaker 5: or kind of being a part of it. I was.
Speaker 5: It's so hard to describe, but I was really just
Speaker 5: kind of living in this place of like, you know,
Speaker 5: doing this, doing that, like not thinking too much about it,
Speaker 5: going on the auditions. I do you remember though, with
Speaker 5: the show and the first episode for me going over
Speaker 5: that line he drinks water, like over and over and over.
Speaker 2: I'm really the first episode. I remember your second one.
Speaker 1: You played like a bouncer, like letting people into the
Speaker 1: like club, Yeah, where I think it's where Danielle, you
Speaker 1: were pretending to be the French. French all right, but
Speaker 1: what was your first episode? Something about drinking water?
Speaker 6: No, I remember your I don't know why, but your
Speaker 6: exact line and performance sticks in my head.
Speaker 3: I don't know why does he spits water? Why does
Speaker 3: he spit water? It's just in my mind.
Speaker 4: When he does, when he's pretending to be the fountain,
Speaker 4: remember when he's.
Speaker 3: Like, well, there's it.
Speaker 5: I just watched it again. Another girl. I assume my
Speaker 5: friend you and writer you're like the girls are here
Speaker 5: or like the girls are coming, which is always and
Speaker 5: then we kind of show up and she mentions that, yeah,
Speaker 5: he spits water, and then I'm like, he spits water,
Speaker 5: and then something like, oh, I want to see that,
Speaker 5: can you do it for me? It was funny watching
Speaker 5: it again now because I remember doing it like a
Speaker 5: lot more I don't know, with like more pizazz or.
Speaker 3: More more like when they were really.
Speaker 5: They used like the one that was like the middle
Speaker 5: of the road, like kind of like interested, but like not.
Speaker 1: Even doing it all week by the time we got
Speaker 1: to tape. Now you were probably just like.
Speaker 5: I mean, my mom would talk about it too, and
Speaker 5: I would runt it with her. He drinks water, He
Speaker 5: drinks water, like because it was like my wine.
Speaker 3: Yes, your first big job, your first drink. He drinks water, drinks.
Speaker 5: He spits exactly funny too because that was such a
Speaker 5: I mean, I only did it really with this show,
Speaker 5: and then there was another show that I guests start on,
Speaker 5: but that whole experience, and I know you guys were
Speaker 5: so used to this, but it was like a totally
Speaker 5: different entity and like so nerve wracking being there an audience,
Speaker 5: and like because I haven't I don't have like a
Speaker 5: lot of theater experience, so it was pretty pretty like
Speaker 5: exciting but also terrifying at the moment. You couldn't mess up,
Speaker 5: You couldn't. There was a lot of that, you know,
Speaker 5: that those those nerves around it.
Speaker 4: For me, Do you remember your audition at all?
Speaker 5: I don't. Can we talk about why I was in
Speaker 5: two episodes? Yes, different characters because it always makes me laugh?
Speaker 5: And when you talk about other people coming from the show,
Speaker 5: did they.
Speaker 1: Ever do that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? It was tradition.
Speaker 5: Ye. Really, It's so interesting to me because it blows
Speaker 5: my mind that I don't know how much that would
Speaker 5: happen nowadays.
Speaker 6: Like no, because there's there was no streaming at the time,
Speaker 6: so you couldn't binge. Yeah, so it's like if you
Speaker 6: show up here and then hey, you show up six
Speaker 6: months later, nobody's going to put the two together.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: It's like, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: Our producers also just really if they liked somebody, especially
Speaker 1: a kid, you know, because the pickings were slim, they'd
Speaker 1: be like, oh, we'll just bring so and so back,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: But I don't know did you have to audition for
Speaker 2: the second one or I'm.
Speaker 5: Pretty sure I did, guys, okay for sure, but I
Speaker 5: don't remember the audition per se. And I do know,
Speaker 5: but that's just me because again I'm horrible. But I
Speaker 5: do have a lot of photos as well. Oh really,
Speaker 5: both of us. I have both, and I'm so bad,
Speaker 5: damn it. I'd have to come back on.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I want to see those.
Speaker 4: If you can just take pictures of them or scan
Speaker 4: them and email them to us, we would love to
Speaker 4: see them. We'd love to post them on our socials.
Speaker 5: Yes, I do have them, and I have some of
Speaker 5: me like in the makeup chairs, yes, getting ready, And
Speaker 5: then I have some of us like outside the studio.
Speaker 5: That's so cute out by the studio door. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 5: being kids.
Speaker 4: Do you remember the wardrobe? It is very nineties and
Speaker 4: we just loved it. You're wearing a tight green sweater
Speaker 4: over a pink polka dot top. Yes, and you were
Speaker 4: actually one of two girls to wear that.
Speaker 3: Polka dot top on the show.
Speaker 4: Oh we saw a few episodes. Yeah, we saw a
Speaker 4: few episodes later and I was like, Hey, that's a
Speaker 4: pink pot top. Dare they That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: So they had this kind of theme like we'll have
Speaker 5: them back. We like the polka dot body suit or whatever.
Speaker 5: Maybe we'll change it up. And put a green sweater
Speaker 5: over it. I did see, which I thought was really cute.
Speaker 5: Somebody commenting that they they watched that episode because they
Speaker 5: thought my outfit was so cool.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, okay, it is. It's very cool. You looked
Speaker 4: so cool at it.
Speaker 5: And in the second episode with like the was it
Speaker 5: like Doc Martin's and like the dress, yeah, very nineties,
Speaker 5: it's all back.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it's I know, I know. Do you remember
Speaker 4: any I mean, I want to see these pictures of
Speaker 4: you with writer. I think that sounds so cute, But like,
Speaker 4: do you remember any specific interactions with with any of us?
Speaker 5: I just remember everybody being like really nice and friendly
Speaker 5: and you know, just welcoming. And again, I think I
Speaker 5: was really caught up with a lot of nerves and
Speaker 5: like just feeling kind of not like fully overwhelmed, but
Speaker 5: like starstruck to all of it, you know.
Speaker 3: And I hung out.
Speaker 1: I had such a crush on you, and I do
Speaker 1: spend Yes, I spent the entire week trying to hang
Speaker 1: out with you as much as I could.
Speaker 3: You don't know this, Maybe I wasn't that obvious, but
Speaker 3: like I remember, you.
Speaker 1: And I spend a lot of time together, and like
Speaker 1: hanging out in the classroom and schoolroom and then and
Speaker 1: you were.
Speaker 3: Just the coolest girl I had ever met. I was
Speaker 3: like obsessed with you.
Speaker 5: Well, that just shows like how kind of dumb I am,
Speaker 5: because I just thought you were really nice.
Speaker 4: He's like this so friendly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but it was. Yeah, I do.
Speaker 7: Remember us, like, you know, like hitting it off and
Speaker 7: feeling more connected.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that meant everything, you know, because I mean
Speaker 5: it's you know, a bit like later in my career,
Speaker 5: I was I was able to do an arc on
Speaker 5: Six Feet Under, and it was kind of like that
Speaker 5: same thing, like you're going into this, you know, this world,
Speaker 5: this entity that's already been completely set up, and it's
Speaker 5: a family, and it's like so hard to fit into that,
Speaker 5: and especially when you're just doing like, you know, a
Speaker 5: couple of lines. Right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So you're back for season three for The Grass
Speaker 4: is Always Greener. You play another flirty all this time
Speaker 4: named Hillary. And I think it's so interesting that every
Speaker 4: time we ask somebody who did more than one episode
Speaker 4: and we say, do you remember having to audition again,
Speaker 4: most of the time the answer is no. And it
Speaker 4: really does make me think I find it hard to
Speaker 4: believe they would make her audition again, especially Michael, who
Speaker 4: loved working with actors. He just liked working with and
Speaker 4: like regularly would bring back actors. Michael was always really
Speaker 4: good about that, Like if you liked somebody, he'd bring
Speaker 4: them back on another show.
Speaker 1: I have the same casting director, Sally, Yeah, for all
Speaker 1: six all seven seasons.
Speaker 3: So I feel like, yeah, I feel like you were
Speaker 3: just on the roster.
Speaker 5: You know. I feel like, oh, i'd love to know.
Speaker 5: I mean, that was the biggest compliment. I don't.
Speaker 7: I wouldn't put money on that, but that sounds nice.
Speaker 7: It's like I mean, because you know, it's.
Speaker 5: That was just part of it. Yeah, And I mean
Speaker 5: it's wild just to see how much of it has changed,
Speaker 5: Like that was such just again a big part of
Speaker 5: it going into a room with like I don't know,
Speaker 5: twelve plus people and I have to kind of like
Speaker 5: do it one shot. And you know, nowadays it's like
Speaker 5: your can self tape, you know, comfort wherever and do
Speaker 5: it as many times as you want. You don't have
Speaker 5: that part of it.
Speaker 4: So yeah, do you remember getting any specific direction on
Speaker 4: either of your two episodes? Do you remember working with
Speaker 4: the directors?
Speaker 7: I don't.
Speaker 5: That's horrible. To say, but it's no, I don't. But
Speaker 5: it's it's not just that part of it. I think
Speaker 5: it's also I wasn't like tuned to that in a way,
Speaker 5: Like it's so hard to describe. I sort of I
Speaker 5: wrote about my life a little while ago and sort
Speaker 5: of talked about.
Speaker 7: A lot of my younger years and like what that
Speaker 7: was like for me and what perspective I had.
Speaker 5: I was so used to it.
Speaker 7: I mean, the best way I've been able to kind
Speaker 7: of put it is that I.
Speaker 5: Was so used to kind of like doing the do
Speaker 5: like doing the grind, kind of going in as long
Speaker 5: as I completed what I had to do, Like, I
Speaker 5: felt very separate from a lot of I maybe this
Speaker 5: is why I did pick up on things of the writer,
Speaker 5: but like I felt very separate from the rest of
Speaker 5: like the crew or the cast. I didn't. I had
Speaker 5: to learn later in the industry, like how I really
Speaker 5: was able to hold apart with that, And so yeah,
Speaker 5: I didn't. I didn't have that perspective of like understanding
Speaker 5: what I was doing and working with the director to
Speaker 5: kind of like complete this this thing that we're all
Speaker 5: in together, right.
Speaker 4: The collaborative nature of how it comes together.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, so I think I might have been more
Speaker 5: caught up and just sort of I mean taking the direction,
Speaker 5: but not like remembering those collaborative like compete in moments.
Speaker 3: Wow, you're also fifteen, you know, like.
Speaker 5: Yeah fifteen sixteen. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Did you have a crew of young actors that you
Speaker 4: hung around with in LA around this time? Did you
Speaker 4: go to traditional school? Who were your friends?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 5: Gosh, I mean I came out to LA and I
Speaker 5: went the first two years to Notre Dame, Okay in
Speaker 5: the Valley, and I had come from an all girls school,
Speaker 5: so I was going into a co ed private Catholic
Speaker 5: not Catholic. That was very interesting. And no, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't.
Speaker 7: I had to.
Speaker 5: Start all over in a way. So I did have
Speaker 5: a best friend that I hung out with the most Nicole,
Speaker 5: but I didn't have like a slew of friends. Like
Speaker 5: I was totally like the nerd, very much made fun of.
Speaker 5: It was hard for me to do work or you know,
Speaker 5: like I was given a hard time from the school
Speaker 5: or like having to do makeup work the teachers, things
Speaker 5: like that. So I joke like, you know, working on
Speaker 5: American later that it kind of gave me my high
Speaker 5: school experience because it was opposite. And then I went
Speaker 5: to Providence in Burbank for the last two years, so
Speaker 5: I transferred over. I was very much into like academics,
Speaker 5: getting my work done, but I.
Speaker 3: Was like ready to read.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're ready to get out of there. You're originally
Speaker 4: from Rhode Island, right, but you ended up in New
Speaker 4: York to model.
Speaker 6: I was.
Speaker 5: I was born in Rhode Islands, and then I lived
Speaker 5: there till I was about well, I lived somewhere else
Speaker 5: just for one year. When I was eight, I came
Speaker 5: back to Rhode Island and fourth and fifth grade. During
Speaker 5: that time, when I was younger, we would drive to
Speaker 5: Boston and I was part of Cameo Kids, which was
Speaker 5: a modeling agency in Boston.
Speaker 7: I believe they let me go when I lost my
Speaker 7: two front teeth.
Speaker 5: You can't model anymore. Take a break. And then and
Speaker 5: then after Rhode Island for middle school, transferred from middle
Speaker 5: school to Charleston, South Carolina. And then by that time
Speaker 5: there was like a local modeling agency. It was called
Speaker 5: Milly Lewis. I just went with a friend, kind of
Speaker 5: one of those like you know, take a class and
Speaker 5: like learn how to put on makeup. Do you remember oodles?
Speaker 4: Oh, are you kidding? My kit and Kaboodle was everythingoodles.
Speaker 5: Learn how to put on makeup, like take a photo,
Speaker 5: this kind of thing. And then it started to snowball,
Speaker 5: like they wanted me to join the agency, and then
Speaker 5: they wanted me to go to a model in competition
Speaker 5: that was nationwide. Long story long. I ended up signing
Speaker 5: with Wilhelmina, but in their kids division called Wee Willie's,
Speaker 5: which was in New York. And so then I was
Speaker 5: twelve twelve, I did the summer in New York, thirteen.
Speaker 5: They wanted me to come out to La still under Wilhelmina,
Speaker 5: and then I got my race running commercial. But then
Speaker 5: they're like you should move out here and whole after
Speaker 5: big discussion, my parents decided to come out and then
Speaker 5: I started high school and so then I was just
Speaker 5: sort of like auditioning after school, that kind of thing.
Speaker 5: I remember even with Rice and wrote sorry race leaving
Speaker 5: the audition thinking the casting director absolutely hated me, like
Speaker 5: there was no way I was going to get the job.
Speaker 5: But I got the job.
Speaker 4: She's like, wow, my perceptions really off, you know, And
Speaker 4: then yeah.
Speaker 5: And then just started to did like boy, meets Roll
Speaker 5: like a Chicago Hope Er did an episode.
Speaker 6: Of R.
Speaker 4: Were your parents in the industry at all? How what
Speaker 4: did they do? How did they just are you an
Speaker 4: only child? How did they just decide to pick up
Speaker 4: and move across the country?
Speaker 5: Great question. I have three older brothers. Wow, the one
Speaker 5: up from me was a bit caught in the mix.
Speaker 5: The older two were already in college by then, beginning college.
Speaker 5: And yeah, I remember a lot of like cross country
Speaker 5: driving road trips in my grandmother's fleetwood Cadillac Nice. Those
Speaker 5: were the days of the road trips, transporting everything over.
Speaker 5: And my father had me pretty late. He was older
Speaker 5: than my mom, so he was sort of retired by then,
Speaker 5: and I can only assume, yeah, they were kind of
Speaker 5: going with it and it, but yeah, we didn't really
Speaker 5: I had uh, I have like two second cousins out here.
Speaker 5: It was like the only family, so we were able
Speaker 5: to connect with them. And then yeah, just started the
Speaker 5: the journey. You can look back and see the couple
Speaker 5: crazy managers ahead. And then but like you know, finally
Speaker 5: from from Oh, I was with gold Marshak. Do you
Speaker 5: remember Golden Marshak You reread Burbank, There was do you remember, Uh,
Speaker 5: there was that big brown building off of Olive and
Speaker 5: there was a restaurant called Adults like the Hangout. So
Speaker 5: around that time of like having the commercials and probably
Speaker 5: working on this show, I was with Golden Marshak and
Speaker 5: then I eventually was introduced to an agent at GERSH
Speaker 5: and then I was there for a bit. So yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean, I've lived here way too long.
Speaker 4: And I think about if my kid was deciding to
Speaker 4: act and then somebody said to me, listen, Adler's really talented.
Speaker 4: I think you guys should move to New York. I'd
Speaker 4: be like, well, we're obviously not going to pick up
Speaker 4: for the kid, for the six year old, like you know,
Speaker 4: it just and yet so many people we talked to
Speaker 4: who it totally paid off for that it was the
Speaker 4: right move, that families are just willing to take that
Speaker 4: leap based on you know, instinct and obviously the knowing
Speaker 4: it's it's so it's so remarkable, like thank god your
Speaker 4: parents were like, yeah, you know what, I'm retired, and
Speaker 4: you know, did your mom work? Was she able to
Speaker 4: just get a job out here?
Speaker 5: No? No, she didn't. Actually, I mean I was sort
Speaker 5: of like supporting the family then I was also going
Speaker 5: to throw in there. When we came out here, we
Speaker 5: stayed at the oak Wood, Oh yeah, which is now
Speaker 5: like something else and like.
Speaker 3: They should just go back to Oakwood. It's ridiculous. Do
Speaker 3: you remember your building?
Speaker 5: I don't remember my building, but I do. I remember
Speaker 5: like the pool area. I remember like a wreck area
Speaker 5: where I tried to take an aerobics class and just
Speaker 5: heavily mailed somewhere in the back. I was like, by
Speaker 5: my day, they had like a communal like a piano
Speaker 5: in there, and I would sort of just like wander
Speaker 5: around the oak Wood, like you know, I remember hiking too.
Speaker 5: I started hiking. I think I even hiked up like
Speaker 5: that hill that's like blind Oh yeah, do that too.
Speaker 5: Those were kind of the days too. I mean I
Speaker 5: grew up like in the eighties, and it was sort
Speaker 5: of like the lock see a dinner, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, come home in the light when when the sun
Speaker 3: starts to go down. That's how it's supposed to be.
Speaker 5: So I would like wander around the oak Wood, and
Speaker 5: eventually as I got older, and then we moved to
Speaker 5: off of Glen Oaks on the other side of the river.
Speaker 5: By Jan Fernando, and across the street was a Blockbuster,
Speaker 5: and I do my brother, one of my brothers worked
Speaker 5: there for like a summer memorable Buster.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, I'm married because of block
Speaker 4: I'm married.
Speaker 3: Because of Blockbuster.
Speaker 6: So yes, oh yeah, I was returning a tape while
Speaker 6: my wife and I re met, and then I proposed
Speaker 6: her right in front of what used to be the Blockbuster.
Speaker 3: Five years later.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so he still has a Blockbuster card in his
Speaker 4: wallet that he carries around with him for. We don't know, listen,
Speaker 4: we don't know.
Speaker 5: It's amazing.
Speaker 3: I have no problems with anything. They just said.
Speaker 5: Was the best.
Speaker 4: Thank you, be kind and Rewind and be kind rewind yep, exactly. Well,
Speaker 4: after Boy Meets World, you were just off to the races.
Speaker 4: Are kiss the Girls? And soon after American Pie. So
Speaker 4: much of young Hollywood broke out from this movie while
Speaker 4: you were filming. Did you know it was special? Did
Speaker 4: it just feel special?
Speaker 5: Oh? I told you like the worst With these answers,
Speaker 5: I just had no clue. And again, I mean I've
Speaker 5: recently talked about this, but that point, that period of
Speaker 5: my life was pretty heavy and pretty dark. So I
Speaker 5: was saved very much by working on that film and
Speaker 5: you know, going to work with like Chris Klein and
Speaker 5: people that really made it beautiful and positive. It was
Speaker 5: a It was a nice rescue from a lot of things.
Speaker 5: So no, I did not have that concept. I worked
Speaker 5: on American Pie and American Beauty back to back pretty.
Speaker 7: Much, and then they came out back to back. And
Speaker 7: I've mentioned this, I will not lie.
Speaker 5: I honestly thought that every movie made a hundred million dollars,
Speaker 5: Like I just of focusing on the work, doing my job,
Speaker 5: being a good student. But I didn't have that ability
Speaker 5: to look at a script and think like, people are
Speaker 5: gonna love this or this is gonna be a.
Speaker 6: Hit, And well, if you just stuck with movies and
Speaker 6: had an American in the title, you were doing fine.
Speaker 4: Then.
Speaker 7: And then I put that in my writer in my Deal,
Speaker 7: my mother, only.
Speaker 4: American in the title. Did you have any reservations about
Speaker 4: working on something that was like so obviously pushing the
Speaker 4: envelope at the time.
Speaker 5: On American Beauty, well both of both. Oh well, but
Speaker 5: American Pie was like the sweet Sweater sets. Yeah, you
Speaker 5: were remember them asking me if I sang towards the
Speaker 5: end of the audition I was like, yeah, I was
Speaker 5: in the choir for three years, you know, middle school.
Speaker 3: Like great, that's good, and you're doing your oppression of yourself.
Speaker 5: True, I'm not really a singer, but I do remember
Speaker 5: going into the studio with Chris and like working on
Speaker 5: this song and it's funny because I love it, but like, man,
Speaker 5: when I hear that song, I'm like And then in Beauty,
Speaker 5: I was pretty much like living it to a certain extent,
Speaker 5: which I finally talked about recently. So that was kind
Speaker 5: of like a no brainer. Yeah, No, definitely wasn't like
Speaker 5: this is tawdry. I was like, oh, it's different.
Speaker 4: Are you writing a memoir? You said You've been writing
Speaker 4: about this a lot.
Speaker 6: It did.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's called The Great Piece. It came out in
Speaker 5: twenty twenty one, and I finally was like, here's my
Speaker 5: side of the story. So I was because for a
Speaker 5: long time I was caught in this place of I
Speaker 5: mean especially back then too, like doing press for American Pie,
Speaker 5: and I was always trying to come up with like
Speaker 5: the one liner and make it sound great. And I
Speaker 5: finally was a well to just you know, reveal that again.
Speaker 5: It saved me in a lot of respects, and I
Speaker 5: wasn't necessarily. I mean, I did a thing with Jason
Speaker 5: and his wife Jenny, it's called dinner in a movie,
Speaker 5: And I went on and we with Alison Hannigan and
Speaker 5: we watched American Pie and talked about it again, and
Speaker 5: I just didn't. I didn't what is it like relate
Speaker 5: with them in the way that I think a lot
Speaker 5: of them were. So I was just living very much
Speaker 5: in like a different space. So I missed out on
Speaker 5: a lot of that, like camaraderie and friendship or just
Speaker 5: understanding what we were making. I would kind of like
Speaker 5: go in do my job. Even on American Beauty. I
Speaker 5: remember thinking one day on set, I'm literally I'm so
Speaker 5: grateful to have a job and everyone's so nice, Like
Speaker 5: it was that.
Speaker 4: Simple, right, Yeah, do you mind sharing what was going
Speaker 4: on with you in your personal life? I have not
Speaker 4: read the memoir. I'm going to read it now, but
Speaker 4: just a lot of, you.
Speaker 5: Know, things that I think through childhood led me into
Speaker 5: feeling very insecure and abandoned, and I ended like a
Speaker 5: lot of really dark relationships, especially by the time I
Speaker 5: was right before working on American Pie, and so I
Speaker 5: was living with someone who was a lot older than me.
Speaker 5: It was like taking me to school, started doing a
Speaker 5: lot of like different drugs, and so playing someone like
Speaker 5: Heather was completely opposite to what I was living. It
Speaker 5: became very like abusive and very like sexually abusive. So
Speaker 5: I think that's why I had no, you know, qualms
Speaker 5: with relating to Angela. I was sort of used to.
Speaker 5: It's interesting too, not to get like dark round going
Speaker 5: met the world, but it's interesting too how I watched
Speaker 5: myself with with like especially the second episode. I'm in
Speaker 5: season three and and there's just like a comfort around that,
Speaker 5: like sexuality and showcase. I mean, some things I even
Speaker 5: worked on. I'm trying to remember right now. But my character,
Speaker 5: I have a lot of photos from that too. My
Speaker 5: character was a teenage prostitute, and I'm like, what is
Speaker 5: append around? Like, you know some of these things are
Speaker 5: it being kind of normal back then? Like that's a
Speaker 5: whole other conversation, especially like the nineties, like being sexualized
Speaker 5: young Oh yeah yeah, And I was like, oh I
Speaker 5: was so easily can just send those things. But it's interesting.
Speaker 3: Memoir.
Speaker 5: It's heavy. I appreciate it, but it's more about like
Speaker 5: it's been really rewarding for not just me but being
Speaker 5: able to help a lot of people, you know, just
Speaker 5: by talking about these things, because I think I felt
Speaker 5: like I needed to have it all wrapped up in
Speaker 5: a bow and be putting back then and for a
Speaker 5: long time after that, and I was sort of done
Speaker 5: playing that roles. Yeah, this is yeah, because I feel
Speaker 5: like it does. It's a lot more of a service
Speaker 5: just kind of being honest and talking about it and yeah,
Speaker 5: talking about how those things kind of can unfold. Yeah,
Speaker 5: writer and I have talked about how much like those
Speaker 5: that feeling in your twenties where you just feel like
Speaker 5: you're supposed to be good at all the things, like
Speaker 5: I'm finally here, this is the adulthood I have been
Speaker 5: waiting for and looking around and somehow feeling like everyone
Speaker 5: else knows how to do everything?
Speaker 4: Why do I not know how to do anything? And
Speaker 4: then you realize like no one, no one knew how
Speaker 4: to do anything. Everyone was figuring it out, but no
Speaker 4: one was talking about the fact that no one knew
Speaker 4: what they were doing exactly.
Speaker 2: So now imposter syndrome.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but the adults too, I mean everybody every week.
Speaker 6: The thing, Yeah, the thing we talked about is as
Speaker 6: especially as child actors, is you assume at all the
Speaker 6: adults around you know exactly what's going on, and you're
Speaker 6: following their.
Speaker 3: Days, say, is right, interest yep, And that's the way
Speaker 3: it's got to go.
Speaker 6: And then you become an adult and you're like, I'm
Speaker 6: still figuring this out. I don't know what the hell's
Speaker 6: going on. So it's yeah, it's very interesting to see
Speaker 6: how just the idea that somebody's older than you obviously
Speaker 6: means they have it together.
Speaker 3: It's like, no, that's not the case. So yeah, no,
Speaker 3: it's funny.
Speaker 5: I still feel like that's sometimes I'm like, they have
Speaker 5: it so together. But yes, I mean it's kind of
Speaker 5: comforting in a way hearing this because I remember vividly younger,
Speaker 5: thinking that I think it was when you turned eighteen
Speaker 5: I had this concept or was it twenty one? I
Speaker 5: had this concept that like, when that happened, you just
Speaker 5: knew everything.
Speaker 4: Right, is you get a download?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you get a magical pill, you know everything going on?
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 5: And then that happened and I was like, oh, gosh,
Speaker 5: I don't know anything.
Speaker 6: Yeah exactly, And I think, you know, strangely, I think
Speaker 6: it's actually probably worse for kids now because social media
Speaker 6: makes it where everybody's got this incredible life look at
Speaker 6: all these pictures, when really nobody does.
Speaker 3: It's all lies. The whole thing is lies.
Speaker 6: So it's just, uh, yeah, I couldn't imagine going through
Speaker 6: I mean, what we all went through was tough enough,
Speaker 6: but now doing it where everybody is in.
Speaker 3: The public eye, it just seems like it would be
Speaker 3: such a daunting task.
Speaker 5: And I'm sure you've gotten this question before, but I mean,
Speaker 5: can you imagine working on the show with God.
Speaker 3: Oh, God be too horrible? God, no, be awful. I
Speaker 3: couldn't imagine.
Speaker 5: No, Yeah, there was something nice about about that. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean a lot of things, not feeling that pressure.
Speaker 5: I mean I also remember like being new to LA
Speaker 5: or just like new to the business, and you know,
Speaker 5: you'd go to the grocery store and you're in the
Speaker 5: checkout out and they're the magazines, right, like that was
Speaker 5: our information, and I I remember thinking all of that
Speaker 5: was real, like somebody, and then it wasn't until like
Speaker 5: more experience in the industry, and then being there was
Speaker 5: one interview I gave that I swear it felt like
Speaker 5: they must have just mixed up the pages completely because
Speaker 5: I was reading it and like in bold there were quotes.
Speaker 5: I was like, I never even said that, like not
Speaker 5: even blows to saying yeah, And I realized, yeah, they
Speaker 5: could be something like sex is like uh, it was
Speaker 5: something like along the lines of like once you do
Speaker 5: it more, you get also just like what like it
Speaker 5: wasn't even the room for these questions but I and
Speaker 5: then I realized like, oh, none of that is true.
Speaker 5: But I had this concept that like if it was
Speaker 5: there and it were on the page and that was
Speaker 5: an interview, like that was word for word what the
Speaker 5: person said, I had no idea that it was constructed
Speaker 5: or like manipulated in that sense.
Speaker 1: Right, right, So American Beauty is one of those. It's
Speaker 1: one of my favorite examples in my own life of
Speaker 1: seeing the difference in perception of a project while it's
Speaker 1: being made versus when it comes out. Because we were
Speaker 1: we were shooting boys still and an old studio teacher
Speaker 1: came who I had worked with when I was like
Speaker 1: eleven or twelve and had become friends with my mom,
Speaker 1: and she came to the set to visit my mom,
Speaker 1: and we were hanging out talking and we're like, oh,
Speaker 1: so what are you working on And she's like, ough,
Speaker 1: this awful movie.
Speaker 3: It is so weird.
Speaker 1: I don't and I don't know if she was the
Speaker 1: studio teacher or she was just there for a couple
Speaker 1: of days, but she was.
Speaker 3: Like, it's Kevin Spacey and I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's like it's trying to be funny, but it's just
Speaker 2: it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: And she like gave us the worst elevator pitch for
Speaker 1: this movie that we were like, wow, it's because but
Speaker 1: it's like a big movie and she's like, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: got actors, but it's gonna be so bad. There's no
Speaker 1: they're just gonna bear. And we like so then when
Speaker 1: the movie came out, it was like that's the movie she.
Speaker 3: Was talking to.
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, you know, so you just never know,
Speaker 1: Like so here was a crew member, maybe only there
Speaker 1: for a day or two, but she was reading the
Speaker 1: script and like knew the movie and was.
Speaker 3: Like, this is a disaster. There's no way this is
Speaker 3: gonna be That.
Speaker 5: Is so fascinating awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's true, right, I mean half the time
Speaker 1: we don't know, Like even when we're acting in a movie,
Speaker 1: we're like, is this gonna be any good or is
Speaker 1: this gonna have any cultural value? And then something like
Speaker 1: that happens, And so what was the transition for you? Like,
Speaker 1: because you have these two movies come out back to
Speaker 1: back and before that you had sort of been regular
Speaker 1: actor just doing the job, and now you're suddenly a star.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was really weird.
Speaker 7: I remember, well, I wasn't able to go to the
Speaker 7: premiere for American Pie.
Speaker 5: I was working on a film called Sugar and Spice
Speaker 5: at the time in Dallas, and.
Speaker 4: We had like I love that movie, by the way,
Speaker 4: for that movie, I wanted it so bad.
Speaker 5: Amazing how you went in I want I read.
Speaker 4: I read that script and I was like, this is great.
Speaker 5: It was originally do you remember it was originally called
Speaker 5: Sugar and Spice and Semi Automatics.
Speaker 4: Yes, exactly, Like I did change the title.
Speaker 5: But I mean that was awesome too. Working with Francine McDougal,
Speaker 5: female director, that was great. But I remember we had
Speaker 5: a football scene and so there were a lot of
Speaker 5: extras because a I didn't exist. Yeah, there were real
Speaker 5: people there, and I started hearing people yelling Heather choir chick,
Speaker 5: and I was like, oh, just going on you know,
Speaker 5: and then I remember people asking me for a photo.
Speaker 7: With me, and I was like, this is so weird,
Speaker 7: and it made me feel it just was really strange,
Speaker 7: and it made.
Speaker 5: Me feel uncomfort ball because I felt like I'm no,
Speaker 5: I'm no better, like different than you. And so that
Speaker 5: was kind of like the beginnings of it. And that
Speaker 5: was that was in the summer, late summer. I remember
Speaker 5: coming back to la after that and going to the
Speaker 5: American Beauty premiere and then everybody kind of saying congratulations,
Speaker 5: like this is amazing, and I just remember not being
Speaker 5: able to understand that or digest it, because again I
Speaker 5: just I was like thank you, like I just kind
Speaker 5: of what that meant, you know, and people were trying
Speaker 5: to kind of like get my attention into that, like
Speaker 5: this is so great, congratulations and I was like cool, thanks,
Speaker 5: you know, happy to be a part of it. And yeah,
Speaker 5: then it kind of became, I guess, the norm of
Speaker 5: like doing photo shoots and press and traveling and things
Speaker 5: like that. I do remember, though, having kind of like
Speaker 5: a midlife crisis in my early twenties after that, because
Speaker 5: I hadn't gone to college and there were a lot
Speaker 5: of things like you know, when I was younger, I
Speaker 5: wanted to be an architect. I chose medical research for
Speaker 5: my career. Day at school, I ever thought of like acting,
Speaker 5: and so I was like in this phase of you know, oh,
Speaker 5: I can go to UCLA. I looked into it. They
Speaker 5: were going to let me go like the first two
Speaker 5: years as an extension student, but then I'd have full
Speaker 5: time the last two and I kind of just chose
Speaker 5: at that moment that I chose, I guess my career
Speaker 5: because I felt like I could be in any you know,
Speaker 5: sitting to learn. I didn't have to necessarily be there.
Speaker 5: But yeah, it was like a hard time for me
Speaker 5: because I kind of felt like I didn't have an
Speaker 5: identity because I was Yeah, I remember it was sort
Speaker 5: of at that moment feeling like there's the there's this
Speaker 5: mina and then there's like the real mina, right, And
Speaker 5: I had to kind of like come to terms with
Speaker 5: that or or learn how to navigate that because everything
Speaker 5: was It just was very strange for me to be
Speaker 5: like recognized and because I never got into this industry
Speaker 5: for that reason, so weird.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, do you remember any specific directing or working
Speaker 4: with Alan Ball for American Beauty, like you do you
Speaker 4: remember that experience.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I remember working with everyone. I remember
Speaker 5: working a lot with Sam and having a lot of
Speaker 5: rehearsal us even working on scenes that didn't make it
Speaker 5: into the film. I felt, I felt like I was
Speaker 5: being very uh, I was given this really great gift
Speaker 5: and sort of spoiled in a sense because we did
Speaker 5: so much rehearsal and it was so helpful awesome. I mean,
Speaker 5: this sort of also feels like a time for the
Speaker 5: most part gone. I mean, I've gone films where it's
Speaker 5: like you're just so in and out and you don't
Speaker 5: have that process anymore, and so I'm really grateful that
Speaker 5: I had that then. But yeah, I just I remember,
Speaker 5: I mean, because again I didn't like hang out with
Speaker 5: people then. It was like so much in survival mode
Speaker 5: and like surviving the horror of like my real life
Speaker 5: that And I think it also was coming from a
Speaker 5: place of just never feeling good enough. So I just
Speaker 5: do my work and I kind of like disappear. I
Speaker 5: was always like wanting to kind of like be back here,
Speaker 5: and and but when I was there, I do remember
Speaker 5: just feeling so cared for by Nam, particularly because you know,
Speaker 5: and it was so necessary. But yeah, yeah, there was
Speaker 5: a lot of really wonderful things, a lot of fun things,
Speaker 5: but sort of it just all kind of feels like
Speaker 5: a I don't know, it was like so much happening
Speaker 5: that I needed to eventually learn how to pick up on.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I talked about even like there were so many
Speaker 5: moments where I felt like my life was happening for me,
Speaker 5: and it took me a while to catch up to that. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Do you think it's a movie that could be made
Speaker 4: now in twenty twenty five, That's.
Speaker 5: A great question. I mean, I don't see why not.
Speaker 5: I feel like that's what's so wonderful about the film
Speaker 5: is that, I mean there's certain topic and subject matter
Speaker 5: that I feel like is still continuous, very present. The
Speaker 5: yes and no, Yeah, yes and no depends on you
Speaker 5: know what exactly I think you're analyzing, because it also
Speaker 5: was I think a big part of it a certain
Speaker 5: place and time, there's a certain there's a certain amount
Speaker 5: of subject matter that yes, I think could and then
Speaker 5: there's a certain subject matter that I think. It was
Speaker 5: a perfect showcase in conversation around like what is continuously
Speaker 5: hidden but like that still exists too, So.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I'm just curious because you've had such an
Speaker 6: interesting career and some of the projects are so different
Speaker 6: from each other. Is there one that you're really proud of?
Speaker 6: I mean, I know you're probably proud of a lot
Speaker 6: of them, but is there one that really stands out
Speaker 6: for you?
Speaker 5: Gosh, I'm so bad with these questions because like they
Speaker 5: don't something to me in a different way. I mean, yes,
Speaker 5: and I'm proud of all of it, but it all
Speaker 5: it's different for me because as I've gotten older, I've
Speaker 5: felt more and become more connected to all of it,
Speaker 5: and that's really changed it for me. I think a
Speaker 5: lot about well, I have things that I've done that
Speaker 5: haven't come out yet. I did a film called Vampires
Speaker 5: of the Velvet Lounge where it was just a lot
Speaker 5: of fun, and that's been in post. I did a
Speaker 5: film called All You Need Is Blood and that was
Speaker 5: really really cool and exciting. I think that one's on
Speaker 5: Keino Quino movies. I mean, they've all been like different
Speaker 5: for me. I just finished a project called Death of
Speaker 5: a Brewer. It's based on a book called Beer Money,
Speaker 5: and I got to play a woman of temperance and
Speaker 5: it's period and never done anything like that.
Speaker 4: That's cool.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, so they're all and our crew was like,
Speaker 7: I just didn't want to leave.
Speaker 5: Everyone was so lovely and our cast and yeah, so
Speaker 5: it's it's it depends on like what it is. I mean,
Speaker 5: I think about the place that I've been in and
Speaker 5: being able to appreciate it. I feel like a lot
Speaker 5: of that came for me a bit later, of course.
Speaker 5: I mean that to me that I was so happy
Speaker 5: seeing that as like it was like going down and
Speaker 5: I didn't know if they'd listen anything of like the commercials,
Speaker 5: but it's literally like the first thing on my IMDb.
Speaker 5: It's so awesome not it? To me, that's like really
Speaker 5: really beautiful and really special.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 4: We ask a lot of our guests this question, were
Speaker 4: there any roles you auditioned for and almost got that
Speaker 4: still haunt you? Like the minute you mentioned sugar and
Speaker 4: spice for me? And I was like, is there anything
Speaker 4: you auditioned for?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 5: Yes, you're gonna put me on the hot seat tell
Speaker 5: the story. Yes, I mean the one that I auditioned
Speaker 5: for several times, I tested for and was communicated to
Speaker 5: that it would be mine was Spiderman.
Speaker 3: Oh and they gave it to Toby maguire.
Speaker 4: And how did he do that to you?
Speaker 5: Yeah? But you know but again, like I think that's
Speaker 5: that's what like allows for so much growth and have
Speaker 5: strength in this industry. Is like, I mean, I've even
Speaker 5: had these moments with now I've been working more in
Speaker 5: like development and like pitching, and it's like people can
Speaker 5: kind of come at you a certain way like yeah,
Speaker 5: and you're like.
Speaker 2: We're like no, but I thought I thought we're just
Speaker 2: gonna something. Yeah, I think it.
Speaker 5: I mean, those are those are the moments that like
Speaker 5: we all have. I mean you talked about like with
Speaker 5: Sugar and Space too. It's like those are the moments
Speaker 5: that you have and you're just like yeah, but you
Speaker 5: know what, like I still see this and I still
Speaker 5: love this, and it's not you know, it allows you,
Speaker 5: I think, to build like new.
Speaker 7: Muscles that are so important because not.
Speaker 4: Like that all right exactly. It's not just like here
Speaker 4: you go, here you go, Oh you want this, Okay, you.
Speaker 5: Got to really work for it, you know. And I
Speaker 5: and I'm grateful for that because it allows me to
Speaker 5: just have a completely new perspective that I really try
Speaker 5: to stay neutral with. Like it just wasn't meant in
Speaker 5: some way other things that and I'm you know, and
Speaker 5: you're able to see that like in the long run,
Speaker 5: like oh, well, life brought me here and I was
Speaker 5: needed here versus there.
Speaker 1: Right in this industry, it's so hard compared to like
Speaker 1: almost anything else though, in that those opportunities when they're
Speaker 1: presented to you are literally life changing, right, like in
Speaker 1: terms of like I mean when you audition for a
Speaker 1: TV shoot network for a show, they make you sign
Speaker 1: a six year contract.
Speaker 3: And you're literally able to see, oh, this could be
Speaker 3: how much money I'm making.
Speaker 1: This could be in something like Spider Man, Like yeah,
Speaker 1: like that's a three picture thing. I mean, that's like
Speaker 1: and so it's so hard in the.
Speaker 2: Moment because you're like, I don't want to invest too
Speaker 2: much in this, but you can't help it.
Speaker 1: Because it's like, but that would change my life in
Speaker 1: a way that probably you want at that moment. You know,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to see how to have any sense
Speaker 1: of reality, you know, especially when you're younger.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, no, for sure, I think a lot, Like
Speaker 5: for me now because I have a son and he's
Speaker 5: four and a half, and so many times like if
Speaker 5: I even try to go to that place. Then I
Speaker 5: look back and I understand, like, but if this didn't
Speaker 5: happen and that didn't happen, Yeah, it happened. Like I
Speaker 5: never would have had my son right in the way
Speaker 5: that I do. I wouldn't you know, life would have
Speaker 5: kind of maybe taken me over here. I wouldn't have
Speaker 5: met that person. So yeah, I always try.
Speaker 3: To like rein it in, yeah, we're here for a reason.
Speaker 3: We're here for a reason, yeah exactly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and like and we're here as ourselves individual for
Speaker 5: that person, you know. And I think that's sort of
Speaker 5: like what we were touching upon earlier, like feeling like,
Speaker 5: oh I have to be twenty and like be perfect
Speaker 5: and know it all. Like we don't have that, and
Speaker 5: that's I mean, it's still happening. I think even when
Speaker 5: you brought up social media, like even to a worser extent,
Speaker 5: we're really missing that we're all individual in adding our
Speaker 5: own thing to it. We don't have to be this
Speaker 5: like everything, not everything has to be that. Yeah. So
Speaker 5: I find a lot of like comfort in that and
Speaker 5: allowing myself to feel that way and you know, just
Speaker 5: remember that it's like this is what I have to
Speaker 5: bring to it versus someone else, and if that's meant
Speaker 5: you know, then that's great. And I've always tried to
Speaker 5: look for anything that I can learn in my own
Speaker 5: life through the work that I do, because I've seen
Speaker 5: this weird like symmetry between personal growth that I've needed
Speaker 5: and then the type of project that might come my way.
Speaker 5: We try to stay really open to that and work
Speaker 5: with it.
Speaker 4: I have to talk to you about American Pie five
Speaker 4: the funeral?
Speaker 3: Are you going to be in it? Is this real?
Speaker 3: Who's dead?
Speaker 5: This is so wild because everyone's been asking about it.
Speaker 5: I think it would be awesome, even like when I
Speaker 5: saw Jason and Jenny and Michelle, like we don't really
Speaker 5: know what's going on, Like there's nothing, there's nothing official
Speaker 5: but from if I can safely say, from what I know,
Speaker 5: fans have, like I think on YouTube they've even created
Speaker 5: trailers for this. I believe that this is a huge
Speaker 5: admirer of the film and franchise who has like written
Speaker 5: this script. So there's like things lingering, but there's nothing
Speaker 5: official that I know of. I think it's a great idea.
Speaker 5: I think it would have to be something like that
Speaker 5: along along those lines, and it'd be awesome to come back.
Speaker 5: I think everybody is like really wanting it, But I
Speaker 5: don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't write, you don't there's no official word. You
Speaker 4: have worked consistently throughout your entire career. How did you
Speaker 4: avoid burnout?
Speaker 5: Oh I did burn out?
Speaker 4: Okay, book, I Yeah, no, I have.
Speaker 5: I mean, it depends on what you mean by burnout.
Speaker 5: I mean I talk about a lot of like just
Speaker 5: disconnection and especially like early on, and then I got
Speaker 5: married very young. I was married at like right after
Speaker 5: American Beauty and sort of repeated this strange generational trauma
Speaker 5: pattern and played that out. But yeah, so again I
Speaker 5: was like living as like twice my age when I
Speaker 5: was twenty from like twenty five.
Speaker 7: And yeah, I mean I've definitely been.
Speaker 5: I like to say that I've lived many lives. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I've been, and then somehow I came out of it.
Speaker 7: I think I've been able to really.
Speaker 5: Navigate by being blessed with you know, the right people
Speaker 5: around me at the right time. And and yeah, I
Speaker 5: mean just how I talk a lot about how I
Speaker 5: feel like being in this industry, being an actor, being
Speaker 5: able to perform this art really saved my life to
Speaker 5: a certain extent, because it.
Speaker 7: Allowed me to process a lot of things that were
Speaker 7: so necessary.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but yeah, I mean it hasn't been easy at times,
Speaker 5: and you know, I just kind of keep I have
Speaker 5: a lot of friends that are not in the industry,
Speaker 5: so I'm able to ground myself through that and yeah,
Speaker 5: just somehow, somehow, I mean, listen, thirty years is a
Speaker 5: long time, and I feel grateful and I'm even still alive,
Speaker 5: like at certain moments, but I am. I'm very happy
Speaker 5: now because of like, throughout all that process has just
Speaker 5: given me really the perspective that I want to have,
Speaker 5: and so it's really good with all the things that
Speaker 5: I'm able to move forward with because it's just like
Speaker 5: I said, I finished that film Death of a Brewer,
Speaker 5: and it was just so it was like everything that
Speaker 5: I would have ever wanted it to be. But I
Speaker 5: think a lot of that came from me allowing myself
Speaker 5: to be that person and feel connected to everyone. And
Speaker 5: it was awesome because it was just an independent film
Speaker 5: that we were making. But again, our cast and especially
Speaker 5: our crew, it's beautiful when it lines up like that,
Speaker 5: when part of this thing and it's not about like,
Speaker 5: I don't know, any weird like hierarchy or ego, your
Speaker 5: ego that you see all the time. And in those moments,
Speaker 5: I realize, like, this is why I do what I do.
Speaker 4: You mentioned your son. If your son wanted to become
Speaker 4: an actor, would you let it?
Speaker 5: Such a great quess. I don't. I don't have him
Speaker 5: out there. He has no idea what I do. He
Speaker 5: just that I go and I work. And now he's
Speaker 5: started to say, like, I want to cut work to
Speaker 5: a town. But I've I mean, just personally, this is
Speaker 5: like how we do things. Everybody does it differently. But
Speaker 5: I really, I really care a lot about giving him
Speaker 5: the opportunity to be who he is and not me
Speaker 5: Savari's son. I want him to, you know, just develop
Speaker 5: like the life that he wants and the interest that
Speaker 5: he wants, and not have it be through me at
Speaker 5: this age. So we'll see. I mean, you know, I
Speaker 5: know that I would love him to like set it
Speaker 5: up a bit differently, like if I had gone to
Speaker 5: college or have a degree or some sort of like
Speaker 5: hmm thing to fall back on. I would want to
Speaker 5: navigate it probably a bit smarter than I did, because
Speaker 5: I think for me it was sort of I'm not
Speaker 5: gonna lie like it felt many times like this is
Speaker 5: all I know how to do.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I know that feeling too well, yeah.
Speaker 5: And I have to figure that out because that's just
Speaker 5: what I do. And so if I could allow him
Speaker 5: to just feel a little bit more choice in the
Speaker 5: matter than that would be great. But I remember working
Speaker 5: with I did a film called Don't Tell a Soul
Speaker 5: with Jack Grazer, and I was talking to Who's Awesome,
Speaker 5: And I was talking to his mom on the set,
Speaker 5: and I remember and getting to know her, and I
Speaker 5: remember reading an art article that she was talking about
Speaker 5: his child acting and fame and all of this stuff,
Speaker 5: and the way that she presented it to him. I'm
Speaker 5: not quoting it perfectly word for word, but she was
Speaker 5: trying to communicate to him that she was supportive of
Speaker 5: him wanting to do these things, but just remember that
Speaker 5: it should always be fun, and at the moment that
Speaker 5: it's not fun, you know, we should we should readdress that.
Speaker 5: And I just thought that that was such a great
Speaker 5: approach to it, because it's so it's so important for
Speaker 5: that to be part of it, I believe, and not,
Speaker 5: you know, I remember feeling like again I had to
Speaker 5: get a job at like fourteen or fifteen to like
Speaker 5: support my family or just the stresses of that. So yeah,
Speaker 5: I would want to just kind of be smart about
Speaker 5: things or and pay attention and create options or choice
Speaker 5: for him. But we'll say, I.
Speaker 4: Mean, will you please tell us the name of your
Speaker 4: book one more time where we can get it, tell
Speaker 4: us about some of.
Speaker 3: The projects you have coming up?
Speaker 4: Okay, ordered it?
Speaker 5: Well, it's called the Great Piece I had. I was
Speaker 5: I talk about it in the book, but I would moving,
Speaker 5: and I had everything. I had a storage unit and
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, I want to get rid of
Speaker 5: this storage unit. I don't need it anymore.
Speaker 7: And I had these bins where I kept a lot of.
Speaker 5: I have the photos. I got to go through these
Speaker 5: the photo and I had my diary, and I had
Speaker 5: this binder it was like a red you know those
Speaker 5: old school binders, three ring binder, and I had I
Speaker 5: had a typewriter, so I typed up like fifty sixty
Speaker 5: loose leaf pages and a lot of it was like poems.
Speaker 5: And that again was like an outlet for me to
Speaker 5: communicate a lot of what I was or process what
Speaker 5: I was experiencing. And I called it the Great Piece.
Speaker 5: And so when I found it. I had this moment
Speaker 5: of thinking like maybe I can publish my poetry book
Speaker 5: or I was gonna option it as like a series idea.
Speaker 5: I thought, maybe I can get this out, and I can.
Speaker 5: It can be cathartic for me, but not fully doing it.
Speaker 5: And then I had a friend sit with me and
Speaker 5: he read some of it, and he said, you should
Speaker 5: publish this as a memoir. And I remember thinking like, what, Like,
Speaker 5: first of all, I'm not even like at that age
Speaker 5: to do that. Yeah, but I thought about it, and
Speaker 5: I thought, you know what, if I'm going to if
Speaker 5: I'm going to share this at all, then I'll share it,
Speaker 5: you know, one hundred and fifty percent. And so so
Speaker 5: I titled it the Great Piece as well.
Speaker 4: I love it. And then when are some of the
Speaker 4: movies coming out that you said you had won in post?
Speaker 4: I can't wait to see these. Where can we see them?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I don't know where yet. I just know that, well,
Speaker 5: Vampires of the Velvet Lounge they were there's a lot
Speaker 5: of effects.
Speaker 4: Okay, so I believe those were.
Speaker 5: Just finished and I'm not quite sure. I did called
Speaker 5: the Ick with Joseph Kahn that we were in theaters
Speaker 5: a very limited release here a couple months ago. And yeah,
Speaker 5: I don't know like all of where.
Speaker 4: To see them, Okay, but keep an eye out. Yeah,
Speaker 4: are you on social media? Can then can people follow you?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I just I have just my name minus to
Speaker 5: Marian Instagram. When you talked about one of those burnout moments,
Speaker 5: I had this moment where I deleted my Facebook, I
Speaker 5: deleted my Twitter, I'm done.
Speaker 4: With social media.
Speaker 5: And then I was going to delete Instagram, but I
Speaker 5: forgot my password. And then one of my reps was like,
Speaker 5: can you just keep one? Like it's some I was like, okay,
Speaker 5: but I definitely was like I can't take it anymore.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I'm on Instagram and I and I like it.
Speaker 5: I like to focus on the aspect of how it
Speaker 5: like gives us the opportunity to really share, like what
Speaker 5: we're interested in.
Speaker 7: Yeah, something else being created, So so I'm on there.
Speaker 4: Okay, great. Thank you so much for spending your time
Speaker 4: with us. We have been so excited about the possibility
Speaker 4: of interviewing you since the moment you popped on our
Speaker 4: screen when we were in season two of our recap,
Speaker 4: and so thank you for finding the time to be
Speaker 4: with us. We have really enjoyed this conversation. You are
Speaker 4: truly lovely and it's been a really beautiful conversation.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me, and thanks for just thinking
Speaker 5: of me and making this possible, waiting for me to
Speaker 5: get on. Yeah, that's like a scheduling thing, but I
Speaker 5: really appreciate. It's so nice. It's so special, like this
Speaker 5: is what it's about.
Speaker 4: Yeah, agreed, Thank you for being with us. Photos. You
Speaker 4: have our email address, and yeah, we're going to read
Speaker 4: the book. Maybe it'll maybe I'll switch it out for
Speaker 4: my next book club. Yes, thank you, Mina. It was
Speaker 4: good to see you.
Speaker 5: All right, take care bye, guys, Bye bye.
Speaker 3: Wow, man, I can't I really can't wait to read that.
Speaker 6: I know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so ordered it up now.
Speaker 4: I have a crush on her, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: She wouldn't. She wouldn't recognize it anyway, No crush back
Speaker 3: in the.
Speaker 2: Day, everybody, she just forgot.
Speaker 4: No she didn't. Maybe she did.
Speaker 3: She was playing it cool. That's right, exactly right, that
Speaker 3: makes sense.
Speaker 4: Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Speaker 4: Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on
Speaker 4: Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your messages.
Speaker 4: Pod Meets World show at gmail dot com. And we've
Speaker 4: got merch.
Speaker 3: He spits merch? Why does he spit merch?
Speaker 4: Pod Meets Worldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 3: We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 6: Pod Meets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by
Speaker 6: Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen Carp
Speaker 6: and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
Speaker 6: producer and editor, Tara Sudbaksh producer, Maddie Moore, engineer and
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