Speaker 1: It started in gymnastics when I was like nine or ten.
Speaker 1: I was doing what's called giants, where you hang by
Speaker 1: one bar and your full body is hanging in your
Speaker 1: full body rotates around the bar. It's called I used
Speaker 1: to do that. I used to do that all the time.
Speaker 1: I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, okay, you
Speaker 1: know when you just swing your full body. Yeah, where
Speaker 1: you just swinging around? Of course. Yeah, I was trying
Speaker 1: that this morning. Yeah, I know. I am Jenna Elfman
Speaker 1: and I am an actress ever growing. Here we go. Hello, Hello,
Speaker 1: gentle listeners, and welcome back to my favorite podcast, Off
Speaker 1: the Beat. I am, as always, your host, Brian Baumgartner. Now,
Speaker 1: as you know from the introduction, you've just heard, the
Speaker 1: incredible Jenna Elfman is joining me on the podcast today.
Speaker 1: She has been in a lot of your favorite shows
Speaker 1: and movies, Fear, the Walking Dead, Big Stone Gap, Friends
Speaker 1: with Benefits, but perhaps most famously, she starred as the spunky,
Speaker 1: free spirited Dharma on the groundbreaking sitcom Dharma and Greg.
Speaker 1: Now this is probably clear from Jenna's bright, shining golden
Speaker 1: globe that sits on her mantle, but she was truly
Speaker 1: amazing as Dharma. I'm a big fan and I felt very,
Speaker 1: very lucky to get to speak with her right here
Speaker 1: before your very ears on this podcast. I loved talking
Speaker 1: to her, and I know after listening you are going
Speaker 1: to love her too. Now, in addition to being a
Speaker 1: very talented actress, Jenna was also once a very talented
Speaker 1: ballet dancer. Now I didn't realize this, but she was
Speaker 1: so good she almost went professional before she pivoted into acting.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna leave it to Jenna to tell the
Speaker 1: whole story. So here she is, without further ado, my
Speaker 1: new bestie, Jenna Elfman. Bubble and Squeak. I love it.
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak, Bubble and Squeaker cookie every month, left
Speaker 1: over from the Nat Poole. Hello, Jenna, how are you?
Speaker 1: I'm so good. How are you? I'm good? Well, it's
Speaker 1: good to see you. Um you you're rare. Actually, I
Speaker 1: was thinking about this because this this seems anathetical, but
Speaker 1: you grew up and were raised in Los Angeles. I
Speaker 1: feel like this is in our business. Actually, it seems
Speaker 1: like everyone I talked to us from Kansas or I
Speaker 1: don't know, India, Canada. A lot of funny people from Canada.
Speaker 1: Surprisingly exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and my husband Body
Speaker 1: were both native Angelino's. It's amazing you you weren't. Now,
Speaker 1: I I mean, I'm skipping ahead a little. I heard
Speaker 1: that you you met on a commercial. Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: The callback of a Sprite commercial in Sprite Breeds Love.
Speaker 1: That should be you should be there's new spokesperson, the
Speaker 1: two of you spright. It was well, it was funny
Speaker 1: because the slogan is I like the way you make
Speaker 1: me laugh. And frankly, that is the thing with Body
Speaker 1: and I has been humor. That's been the thing that's
Speaker 1: kept us together thirty one years. And there's the whole story.
Speaker 1: And I'll let you do your interview, but come on,
Speaker 1: you you you during a spray. I don't know what
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? Tell me? He was the
Speaker 1: story of meeting U. Briefly. So we were at the callback,
Speaker 1: you know, we go in there and it's always that
Speaker 1: awkward thing of like tell a joke and you're like,
Speaker 1: oh god, and I don't tell jokes. It's like not
Speaker 1: my thing. So my Body was being his most charming
Speaker 1: self because I was in the room and this was
Speaker 1: his moment to court me and so he was, you know,
Speaker 1: tap dancing and being there, you know, with his humor
Speaker 1: and being very charming. He thought and was telling a
Speaker 1: joke that I my eyes couldn't have rolled back farther
Speaker 1: in my head and um, and I just felt awkward. Um.
Speaker 1: And then he walked me to my car and said,
Speaker 1: you look just like my girlfriend. You have a head
Speaker 1: shot so I can show her. And I was like, okay, weird, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: but the weird thing is he I did look just
Speaker 1: like a girl he was dating, but she was like
Speaker 1: a year younger than me, but like literally we looked
Speaker 1: like we were related. And then he was like teasing
Speaker 1: me the whole way walking to me to my car
Speaker 1: because I parked. It was this audition place where like
Speaker 1: there's no parking ever, so I was parked in the
Speaker 1: car board of a random person's apartment and so he
Speaker 1: was giving me hell about like when if they come home.
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't know. It was going to
Speaker 1: be a fast audition anyway. We end up getting the
Speaker 1: job and we're on set. We keep getting rained out,
Speaker 1: so we're just spending day after day together hanging out
Speaker 1: on set and the trailer whatever, getting to know each other,
Speaker 1: and we film a bunch of vignettes together and then
Speaker 1: we end up. You know, it takes a while before
Speaker 1: before it starts airing, and it was a national commercial,
Speaker 1: and by this time we're like boyfriend girlfriend. Now it
Speaker 1: starts airing, he gets edited out, I'm in the commercial.
Speaker 1: He then has to procuress and progressively watch every like
Speaker 1: sixty dollars worth of residual that that I'm getting, and
Speaker 1: the here's the punchline ishes that the vignette that they
Speaker 1: used of me is a quick moment of me go
Speaker 1: falling with laughter, and it was him right off camera
Speaker 1: making me laugh. Oh, I can't believe you said together that.
Speaker 1: If I were him, I probably would have just been like, God, yeah,
Speaker 1: and here we are. That's and you're still to get
Speaker 1: thirty one years thirty one years together? Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: you're not really supposed to talk about age, but I
Speaker 1: know thirty one years is a long time. You met
Speaker 1: young then, Yeah, I was a nineteen and I'm fifty now. Wow, congratulations,
Speaker 1: thank you? That No, that is amazing. Um, okay, so
Speaker 1: before this, before the sprite commercial you're in, you're in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. I understand you're your folks are not in
Speaker 1: the business, right, Your your dad is a an aircraft executive,
Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah? He wrote, like security policy at
Speaker 1: whose aircraft company? Oh? Okay, when did you know that
Speaker 1: acting or or the business? I don't know. I always
Speaker 1: hate that phrase. And I just used it that that
Speaker 1: was something you were interested in? Was it? Was it?
Speaker 1: High school? Younger? Younger? I had told my mom I
Speaker 1: had a career in ballet, like before I became an actress,
Speaker 1: because you know, your mom puts you in ballet class
Speaker 1: and that's what you knew. And so I just did
Speaker 1: that while I was in school. But apparently when I
Speaker 1: was like three or four, I told my mom, I'm
Speaker 1: going to be very famous on TV one day, you know,
Speaker 1: And it was like I was a TV kid. I
Speaker 1: enjoyed watching things on TV, playing in my playpin. My
Speaker 1: brother was ten years older and my sister was thirteen
Speaker 1: years older. My mom had had some miscarriages between my
Speaker 1: brother and I, so there's this like ten year age gap.
Speaker 1: So I would be like sitting there and watching them outside,
Speaker 1: watching them come home with their friends, and you know,
Speaker 1: I would I was watching like Get Smart and Bewitched
Speaker 1: and Brady Bunch and all these things while my mom
Speaker 1: was tending to them. And I don't know, I must
Speaker 1: have just I think I liked. I thought I thought
Speaker 1: it was very interesting what people could make me laugh
Speaker 1: or could captivate my attention or make me feel different emotions,
Speaker 1: you know, And I thought, that's that's that's interesting because
Speaker 1: from a very early age I was really troubled by
Speaker 1: seeing that people had suffering in them as a young
Speaker 1: toddler and child and just being around in life. I
Speaker 1: love my mom would apologize for me staring at people,
Speaker 1: but I was a people watcher. I was very interested
Speaker 1: in humanity and human behavior and curious about people. But
Speaker 1: I would observe so much suffering and I was like
Speaker 1: it captivated my attention and I was like, how is
Speaker 1: a little child can I make someone feel better? And
Speaker 1: if they were suffering, that means it went bad, which
Speaker 1: means it was good before, you know, there was a
Speaker 1: lot they lost something and became sad, and how do
Speaker 1: you get them back to before they became sad? And
Speaker 1: that was something that like really took a lot of
Speaker 1: my attention as a child. Was this like empathetic concern
Speaker 1: and um and I think that I also remember I
Speaker 1: think Jungle Book was the first movie I ever saw
Speaker 1: in a movie theater, and it moved me to tears
Speaker 1: at this one point, and I felt that sense of
Speaker 1: empathy and emotion, and I thought it was so weird
Speaker 1: how a two dimensional screen could make arouse emotion human
Speaker 1: emotion in me. And I thought, oh, maybe that's a
Speaker 1: way you're in people's homes when you're on TV. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's the way I can make people feel better. Right.
Speaker 1: That is so interesting and also so incredibly mature. I
Speaker 1: mean the idea, because I was about to say I
Speaker 1: was the same way, like studying human behaviors. But I
Speaker 1: don't think I had at all what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: which is actually a journey like that. You were mature
Speaker 1: enough to say, oh, they're they're in a bad place
Speaker 1: right now. Then for you to start to identify that
Speaker 1: so early, that's that's amazing. Yeah, I just remember it
Speaker 1: occupying a lot of my attention. I don't know, I
Speaker 1: guess that's how I entertained myself or something. It was
Speaker 1: just that was my hook. You know, there's some kids
Speaker 1: that like to you know, they play with drink and
Speaker 1: they like to undo things and try and figure out
Speaker 1: how to put them back together. Certain kids are you know,
Speaker 1: they just have these inclinations in areas and human beings
Speaker 1: were kind of mine fascination. Right. So you you went
Speaker 1: to l A County High School for the Arts. Now,
Speaker 1: was was that for dance? Yeah? That was for dance
Speaker 1: for dance, okay, yeah, I would go there and then
Speaker 1: then after school we get out at four o'clock and
Speaker 1: then we me and my friend would went to the
Speaker 1: same ballet school in Santa Monica, West Side Ballet, and
Speaker 1: so we take the It was in al Hambro County
Speaker 1: High School for the Arts, which is east of downtown
Speaker 1: l A. So then it was like peak traffic time.
Speaker 1: You can imagine the ten Freeway at four pm or
Speaker 1: fift thirty going from al Hamber to Santa Monica five
Speaker 1: days a week. But that's how dedicated we were at,
Speaker 1: you know, becoming professional ballerinas, and so that's just what
Speaker 1: you do. Right. You had an injury, is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was. It started in gymnastics when I was like
Speaker 1: nine or ten. I was doing what's called giants, where
Speaker 1: you hang by one bar and your full body is
Speaker 1: hanging in your full body rotates around the bar. It's
Speaker 1: called I used to do that. I used to do
Speaker 1: that all the time. I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: you know when you just swing your full body you're
Speaker 1: just swinging around of course. Yeah, I was trying that
Speaker 1: this morning. Yeah, I know. But I had dismounted, crooked,
Speaker 1: landed on the edge of the mat and tour for
Speaker 1: ligaments when I was really young, so that kind of
Speaker 1: set the stage for like just a vulnerable right ankle.
Speaker 1: And then I'm going through doing ballet and I go
Speaker 1: do summer programs on full scholarship to Pacific with West
Speaker 1: Ballet and Seattle, Washington, which was really fun, but that
Speaker 1: was a very intensive program, and my ankle would just
Speaker 1: from the stress, stress and everything, it would just activate.
Speaker 1: And then I had a tendants separate from the bone
Speaker 1: that I had to be in a cast. And it
Speaker 1: was just like these recurring things, and I at a
Speaker 1: certain year in my later teens it was time to
Speaker 1: either go into a ballet company, which I was considering
Speaker 1: doing going into Pacific with West Ballet because I always
Speaker 1: got full scholarship there and I thought that's this is
Speaker 1: the right transitional point. But then it was like this
Speaker 1: ankle injury was so recurring. I went, I'm I'm going
Speaker 1: to spend more time icing and tending to an injury
Speaker 1: than I am creating, and that's not a career. And
Speaker 1: it was mainly being on my toes and doing point
Speaker 1: work that was the triggering factor. So I went, well,
Speaker 1: let me dance and TV and film because it's more
Speaker 1: jazz or lyrical. So that's when I started making that
Speaker 1: transition and got a dance agent and started going on
Speaker 1: auditions for things that had dancers in them and uh,
Speaker 1: and that started kind of that transition from dance to
Speaker 1: on camera like acting and all of that. Right, did
Speaker 1: you ever consider acting as a child. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I had articulated it as acting, but I knew
Speaker 1: I wanted. I knew I loved Make Believe. I knew
Speaker 1: I was obsessed with human behavior and human beings, and
Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to reach far and wide in
Speaker 1: terms of whatever it was I was going to create.
Speaker 1: I wanted it to be like hundreds of millions of people,
Speaker 1: like I wanted to reach a lot of people. Um,
Speaker 1: But I to know if it was acting per se
Speaker 1: more than just effecting affecting affecting, yeah, like and leaving
Speaker 1: them with an effect to create it upon them. You
Speaker 1: know that I could move them to think a new
Speaker 1: thought or move their emotions somehow, and in doing so,
Speaker 1: remind them that they're alive and that there's hope. You know.
Speaker 1: That was sort of like my thought process. I think, right, well,
Speaker 1: I read online your at least your first credited job
Speaker 1: is as a dancer in a Depeche Mode music video.
Speaker 1: When when did you start studying acting? When did at
Speaker 1: least that seed start? When I met my husband Um,
Speaker 1: I was dancing on the Academy, was one of the
Speaker 1: dancers on the Academy Awards in and that was the
Speaker 1: same month that I met Body on the Sprit commercial.
Speaker 1: It was after I had done the Academy Awards. I
Speaker 1: was like this big and one of this like an
Speaker 1: inch toll on the s Green and one of thirty
Speaker 1: and I went, this is the best job I can
Speaker 1: get in Ella as a dancer. I didn't have plans
Speaker 1: to go to Broadway cause I didn't really sing. And
Speaker 1: I went, I don't feel like I can make that impact.
Speaker 1: That was what my sort of You know, I hadn't
Speaker 1: articulated it, but I just knew that impression of a
Speaker 1: goal I didn't feel like I could do that being
Speaker 1: an inch big and one of thirty and not having
Speaker 1: like my own name identity. So I went, I think
Speaker 1: it's time to start acting. And so that was that transition.
Speaker 1: And I had met body that month and I was like,
Speaker 1: where do you I need to study acting, and so
Speaker 1: he's like, well, I study here. I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll go there. I had done some improv classes. My
Speaker 1: mom put me in like improv comedy classes when I
Speaker 1: was a teenager for commercials, just so that I had
Speaker 1: some tools for like commercial auditions. So I had done
Speaker 1: some of that already, but I hadn't done seen study
Speaker 1: or character work. So you were you were going to
Speaker 1: be a professional dancer. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: I didn't hang out at malls and do all the
Speaker 1: teenage stuff. I was in a dance studio, mastering of
Speaker 1: fine art, you know, like I really was dedicated to that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, and that's that's such a tremendous Yeah, as
Speaker 1: you say, a tremendous amount of time and number of
Speaker 1: hours training. So you're doing commercials and you're you know,
Speaker 1: you're on TV, but you're dancing, and then you start
Speaker 1: you start taking classes. And when does it sort of
Speaker 1: click for you that this is something that I can
Speaker 1: that I can do? Was it right away or yeah?
Speaker 1: I think so. Actually, this is when it started good
Speaker 1: asking me this question, Brian. Thank you. This just reminded me. Um.
Speaker 1: I just remember this when you asked that. Earlier on
Speaker 1: when I was a teenager, my mom had me do
Speaker 1: one acting private with an acting coach that was scene study.
Speaker 1: It was like a little mini thing. It was just
Speaker 1: he and I, like in a dance studio, just to
Speaker 1: rent the space or whatever. And I remember that moment
Speaker 1: of being in total belief of who I was as
Speaker 1: that character, like being another person with all the thoughts
Speaker 1: and emotions in that environment with that story that's going
Speaker 1: on as a human being and that. And I remember
Speaker 1: getting so much sensation out of that, and I felt
Speaker 1: so alive, um in that all by myself in this space,
Speaker 1: and I was like, this is amazing. This is stimulating
Speaker 1: and fulfilling. And I was like wow. And I think
Speaker 1: that is probably when I went, oh, it's kind of magical, right.
Speaker 1: It was like you were truly in this other existence knowingly,
Speaker 1: and I just thought, Wow, this is this is special.
Speaker 1: This isn't something everybody does. This is like really cool.
Speaker 1: So that that suspended moment of you know, and for
Speaker 1: me today when the cameras rolling and the director says
Speaker 1: action like that is the safest place ever for me
Speaker 1: because everyone agrees in that moment that that's the story,
Speaker 1: and and the cameraman, the focus puller, the sound technician,
Speaker 1: the prop man, everybody is in agreement that this is
Speaker 1: the story from each of their jobs. And I just
Speaker 1: think that that is I think we take for granted,
Speaker 1: we don't really think about it. But when you really
Speaker 1: think about that, that's pretty cool that I will never
Speaker 1: forget that, Jenna, No, I'm serious, I will I will
Speaker 1: never forget that because you're right. In life, look, everybody
Speaker 1: plays a character to one degree or another, right with
Speaker 1: with your friends, with your spouse, with your kids, with
Speaker 1: your businesses, so whatever. Like everyone's constantly playing a version
Speaker 1: of themselves. That works in this situation. At the same time,
Speaker 1: if you're with a group of people, everybody else has
Speaker 1: their own agendas and are playing their own specific roles
Speaker 1: and at the same time trying to figure out what's
Speaker 1: really going on beneath the surface, and all of those
Speaker 1: things are happening, all of the time. But what you're
Speaker 1: saying is so true. In the moment of acting in
Speaker 1: a scene, everyone's objectives are set and everyone who's around
Speaker 1: are are helping to support this one moment that everyone
Speaker 1: agrees on. I just literally re said what you said.
Speaker 1: But this is gonna stick with me forever. So you
Speaker 1: think it's something you just never think about. Ti you
Speaker 1: think about it and then you gee zs how magical
Speaker 1: and special it is. Yeah, that's amazing. I love that. Okay,
Speaker 1: So people, I'm not I'm trying to make this about me.
Speaker 1: People give me shipped all the time, right, because when
Speaker 1: I moved to Los Angeles, I met the folks on
Speaker 1: the office like three months later, right, And so people
Speaker 1: are like, oh, come on, how are you you know?
Speaker 1: But I'm like, no, guys, listen, I had this whole
Speaker 1: career that happened before this. But you, I mean, this
Speaker 1: is this is amazing. I did not know that. Like,
Speaker 1: you were so focused on being a dancer, and this
Speaker 1: transition happened for you really quickly. I mean it sounds
Speaker 1: like you had this experience that was sort of transformative
Speaker 1: early on. But you meet your husband and you start
Speaker 1: you start taking classes, and you immediately respond to the
Speaker 1: work it sounds like. And then not much later you
Speaker 1: find yourself as a series regular on your first show, Townies.
Speaker 1: What was that experience like for you your your first
Speaker 1: show after you know, doing commercials and guest star stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had. It was a lot of work to get
Speaker 1: an agent, like not a pertial but a theatrical agent.
Speaker 1: So I had to navigate and all the things I
Speaker 1: did to make that happen. Um. So I finally got
Speaker 1: an agent in the summer of and then immediately started
Speaker 1: getting guest star roles. So I was just getting my
Speaker 1: feet wet and you know, doing a series of guest
Speaker 1: star roles both comedy and drama, and then pilot season
Speaker 1: in the January February of n and so I went
Speaker 1: on start going on those auditions, immediately went to network
Speaker 1: on one of them, didn't get it, and then going
Speaker 1: to network on Townies came up. I went I was
Speaker 1: the first actress cast in that, and it just felt
Speaker 1: it felt right, you know, I felt like I've been
Speaker 1: working so hard. I was like very happy it happened
Speaker 1: so fast, but in my own experience didn't feel like
Speaker 1: it happened fast because I've just been putting in four
Speaker 1: years of study and working my ass off and dreaming
Speaker 1: about trying to get an agent, trying to make this happen.
Speaker 1: So everything felt appropriate. You know. I never felt undeserving
Speaker 1: of it, or I never felt doubtful of myself because
Speaker 1: I had legitimately busted my ass to put in the
Speaker 1: work and worked really hard to get it. So I
Speaker 1: was enjoying having achieved it and learning that next chat,
Speaker 1: you know, like now you have the job, but now
Speaker 1: this is a whole new learning curve. And ham Freyman,
Speaker 1: she directed every episode of Townies, and she taught me
Speaker 1: everything about four camera and everything I needed to learn.
Speaker 1: And I certainly did not know, you know, down to
Speaker 1: even like what wait to put on which foot so
Speaker 1: you're not block blocking the light of your fellows for
Speaker 1: that camera, you know, and you know, those first press
Speaker 1: interviews and all of the whole all the whole package
Speaker 1: of things that comes with that that's brand new and thrilling.
Speaker 1: And then learning about the politics of co stars, you know,
Speaker 1: and how to be in that group. It's not just
Speaker 1: your journey, and for me, I was a little on
Speaker 1: my journey, and then I had to learn throughout these
Speaker 1: next jobs about everyone's collective process and you grow up
Speaker 1: a bit. So that was interesting and cool. And then
Speaker 1: the last day of filming, because it so then it
Speaker 1: was like at thirteen million viewers, it wasn't enough and
Speaker 1: we were getting canceled. Oh those were the days. Oh gosh.
Speaker 1: And but I had gotten noticed from my work on
Speaker 1: the show. It was sort of like, who's this new
Speaker 1: funny girl. And frankly, I didn't know I had any
Speaker 1: ability at comedy that was special or unique or anything.
Speaker 1: I just studied as an actor, so I was just
Speaker 1: doing the character in my point of view, and I
Speaker 1: twenty Century Fox called me for a general interview. So
Speaker 1: I went to that meeting and then drove to work
Speaker 1: at Radford to film the last day of Townies. And
Speaker 1: after the meeting, by the time I pulled up at Radford,
Speaker 1: they had called and offered me a million dollar development deal. Wow,
Speaker 1: So that was nice. That was That was also I
Speaker 1: would say that, yes, you made an impression on Townies.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's incredible. Okay, keep going, so you know
Speaker 1: you have that, you know this show is ending, yet
Speaker 1: you know that that you have this. Yeah, And then
Speaker 1: it was a bit of a journey of like ABC
Speaker 1: wanted to be. It was Jamie Tarsus at that time,
Speaker 1: and so I went and head of general with Jamie
Speaker 1: and she's like, we want you. And so then it
Speaker 1: was the lovely problem of to do a studio deal
Speaker 1: or a network deal and what should I do? You know,
Speaker 1: Like I remember my husband and I was sitting in
Speaker 1: the car. We were like trying to figure out, like
Speaker 1: what are the pros and cons of a network deal
Speaker 1: versus a studio deal. And then we went well, with
Speaker 1: the studio deal, you could go to any network, but
Speaker 1: on a network, that's it, you know, And so we
Speaker 1: just thought maybe there was more creative and our histic
Speaker 1: access and flexibility with a studio deal. So that's the
Speaker 1: one I decided upon. And then they started sending me.
Speaker 1: Funny sent me a list of writers that they had
Speaker 1: deals with and said, pick whoever you want to write
Speaker 1: a show for you. I was like, okay, I've never
Speaker 1: done this before. I'll just start at the top of
Speaker 1: the list literally, and it was Jeff and Jaff and
Speaker 1: I went and had a meeting with them and they
Speaker 1: were like, we think you're great, but we're already developed
Speaker 1: some developing something for this season. So you have to
Speaker 1: wait till next season, and I had the instinct that
Speaker 1: I have momentum and I didn't want to wait, so
Speaker 1: I just kind of went to the next one on
Speaker 1: the list. And at that right in that period of
Speaker 1: that week, Chuck Lorii had sent over and Dottie Dartland
Speaker 1: had said over kind of a sketch of this character.
Speaker 1: The bottom line for her was she was who she was,
Speaker 1: not this layered neurotic thing. But like if she's happy,
Speaker 1: you scratch the surface, you don't get a different beast,
Speaker 1: you just get more of her. And that was the
Speaker 1: concept for this character. And then they ended up working backwards,
Speaker 1: Well how do you get somebody like that? Well, maybe
Speaker 1: hippie parents who just allowed her to be, you know.
Speaker 1: And at that time it was very unique for that
Speaker 1: kind of character because it was a lot more at
Speaker 1: the time women in comedy on the on shows, it
Speaker 1: was more neurotic. And so anyhow, I went and had
Speaker 1: a general meeting with Dottie Dartlin and Chuck Laurie where
Speaker 1: they pitched me Darma and Greg. It was like they
Speaker 1: pitched it and I saw the entire thing. I saw
Speaker 1: all the success. I literally it was so right, and
Speaker 1: I was just so connected to where I was at.
Speaker 1: You know that, I was like, I didn't go home
Speaker 1: and ask my agents, what do you think I didn't
Speaker 1: ask my husband. I didn't. I literally said yes, let's
Speaker 1: do it, and we shook on it right there at
Speaker 1: Jerry's delia venturable Art. And that felt really good to
Speaker 1: just own me knowing this is the right thing. I
Speaker 1: just could see myself in it. I don't know, it
Speaker 1: was just beautiful. It was just those moments that happened
Speaker 1: that you're like, uh, you cherished forever, you know. Yes, Uh,
Speaker 1: for those of you Darman Greg five seasons to two
Speaker 1: thousand two, Jenna wins the Golden Globe for her role
Speaker 1: as Dharma, three Primetime Emmy nominations for Best Actress. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know what you said is what I was thinking
Speaker 1: about this morning. That there wasn't female characters like this
Speaker 1: at the time. I mean it really, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Did you ever talk about Lucy old Ball? I mean
Speaker 1: to me, the boldness, the physical comedy that's really where
Speaker 1: almost not since then was there sort of a central
Speaker 1: female character that was able to do so much? Did
Speaker 1: you ever talk about I Love Lucy or or were
Speaker 1: there shows that that you found Darmin Gregg sprouting out
Speaker 1: of I never taught. I didn't directly talk about I
Speaker 1: Love Lucy that I remember, But for me, I grew
Speaker 1: up obsessed with I Love Lucy and have seen every episode,
Speaker 1: oh every single one through wherever I had to get them.
Speaker 1: I love my mom, love Lucille Ball, and I love
Speaker 1: Lucie Ball. I loved it. I could watch it. Um.
Speaker 1: It was just totally hit my jam as a kid.
Speaker 1: And you know, I enjoyed, like I said, Get Smart
Speaker 1: and and Mash and all of these other shows. You know,
Speaker 1: Judy Holiday and Born Yesterday is also like uber favorite
Speaker 1: of mine because if you really watch her in that,
Speaker 1: I mean, she's brilliant and I don't know, I it's
Speaker 1: like one of those things where it was just an affinity.
Speaker 1: You know, it just got my goose. You know, it
Speaker 1: was just my jam and so it was inspiring to me,
Speaker 1: and probably was. And and the Carol Burnett Show. I
Speaker 1: love Carol Burnett, but you know, Tim Conway and Harvey
Speaker 1: Corman were my jam. Like I was a little girl
Speaker 1: obsessed with them. These two men, middle aged men that
Speaker 1: I was like, I couldn't get. It was like chocolate
Speaker 1: fudge like I couldn't get enough of it. And so
Speaker 1: I think that just when you watch as much of
Speaker 1: it as I did it, it educates you. You know.
Speaker 1: It's I was educated in physical comedy by literally watching
Speaker 1: every single thing of those So I think that that
Speaker 1: was just in my cellular spiritual, cellular makeup of an education,
Speaker 1: you know. And maybe they wrote towards my physical comedy
Speaker 1: from seeing townies. You know. I don't know how it
Speaker 1: all came to be on that, how everything piece together
Speaker 1: so well for me in terms of them writing, but
Speaker 1: it was created for me. So maybe they just saw
Speaker 1: what I had and wrote towards that, you know, right,
Speaker 1: because you were in on it so early. Did you
Speaker 1: screen test with the men? I'm talking, of course about
Speaker 1: Thomas Gibson who played Greg. Did you did you have
Speaker 1: something to do with the casting? Did you read with
Speaker 1: him beforehand? Okay, yeah, yeah, they had me. I mean,
Speaker 1: the show was my show and they created it for me.
Speaker 1: So I was they had me in when they you know,
Speaker 1: not every casting, but on the callbacks they had it
Speaker 1: narrowed it down to a batch. And also with Thomas,
Speaker 1: he came in and there was other guys who were
Speaker 1: great you know, they were great, but he came in
Speaker 1: and it was like the show was happening. I mean,
Speaker 1: you might as well just turn the camera and it
Speaker 1: was all happening that and it's dynamics and chemistry that
Speaker 1: you can't put on a page. It's just that dichotomy
Speaker 1: of his character and how he was raised and my
Speaker 1: character and how she was raised. You know, he's a
Speaker 1: lawyer and is like a no until it's a yes,
Speaker 1: and she was a free spirit. It was a yes
Speaker 1: until it was a no. And so those that dichotomy,
Speaker 1: it was just worked. You know, it was just work.
Speaker 1: It worked at that time, at that moment, it was perfect.
Speaker 1: And I remember he read and left and I looked
Speaker 1: at Chuck, and Chuck stood up and just made like
Speaker 1: a home run swing, grand slam gesture, and we were like,
Speaker 1: that was it. That was that was it? It was it.
Speaker 1: It was amazing. Yeah, it's it's interesting. We talked a
Speaker 1: lot about this and my experience on the office, and
Speaker 1: one thing that Greg Daniels, our showrunner at the time,
Speaker 1: said is you can't write behavior right. You have to observe.
Speaker 1: As you talked about earlier, it's about the very small
Speaker 1: nuances that every individual responds to things in totally different
Speaker 1: and unique ways. And as an actor, you you put
Speaker 1: those in a bag and hope you can replicate them effectively,
Speaker 1: But you can't write it. It just happens there in
Speaker 1: the moment. Yeah, And it's not even anything I thought
Speaker 1: about either. Wasn't like I was thinking of behaviors. I
Speaker 1: just knew the DNA the home base, you know, For me,
Speaker 1: it's often finding what's the home base for a character
Speaker 1: in terms of what's their main what are they in
Speaker 1: at any given time, but what's the main thing that
Speaker 1: they're in, what's their home base? And for her it
Speaker 1: was yes, And so I just leaned into you know,
Speaker 1: it was just yes, and and every character is different.
Speaker 1: With NTV my characters, she's so insecure. Her space doesn't
Speaker 1: extend more than like an inch and a half from
Speaker 1: the front of her face. Like she's not extroverted, you know,
Speaker 1: like she can't. So that then anything that came at
Speaker 1: me was was just like, oh my god, because she
Speaker 1: was suddenly her life was like a reality show literally,
Speaker 1: and she's a ups driver and is just trying to
Speaker 1: start this relationship with him, like and everyone in America
Speaker 1: is giving their opinion it was, you know, so that's
Speaker 1: where she was at. That determines once I locate like
Speaker 1: the home base, then it brings about these behaviors that
Speaker 1: you don't have to sit there writing on the page.
Speaker 1: It just comes because you know, that comes from that
Speaker 1: home base. So anyway, I love that. I don't call
Speaker 1: it a home base, but for me, it's the same thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a physical characteristic. There's something physically about how that
Speaker 1: character that you're creating moves in the world or exists. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that tempo, like Kevin has an identifiable like meter, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And the way you held your body,
Speaker 1: you just could set the meter at that tempo. I like,
Speaker 1: you're in my house, Like I've watched so much. I
Speaker 1: mean we're like on a kick for the last year
Speaker 1: and a half, Like we're watching every episode of the Office.
Speaker 1: And Randy Cordray, by the way, was the line producer
Speaker 1: on both I Think Townies and definitely Dharma and Greg.
Speaker 1: I love Randy. He's amazing. Uh, let me share him
Speaker 1: in common. But yeah, I love I love watching you guys,
Speaker 1: And it's so fun when you see wonderful actors that
Speaker 1: are relishing the character they're creating and it's just is
Speaker 1: that right fit at the right time for them. It's
Speaker 1: so inspiring, you know, to watch where you are in
Speaker 1: your mind and kinetic how it manifests kinetically, and it's
Speaker 1: just so delightful to see that, especially, you know, knowing
Speaker 1: what your rhythm and personality is as you and you
Speaker 1: see the difference. You know, it's so fun to see
Speaker 1: how you transformed yourself. Yes, well, thank you for that.
Speaker 1: But yes, that idea that you talked about about, you know,
Speaker 1: the space only exists two inches in front and if
Speaker 1: anybody comes at it's that. Yeah, and I've talked about
Speaker 1: this before, but for me, one of the things about
Speaker 1: Kevin was he was not aware of his size in
Speaker 1: the space and that and that he could not could
Speaker 1: not rotate on on his hips, so there was no
Speaker 1: there was no turning left or right. His entire body
Speaker 1: had to move in that direction in order to look
Speaker 1: that way, which takes time, which is about the rhythm
Speaker 1: that you're talking about. Yeah, what what made you come
Speaker 1: up with that? Did that? Just was it reading the
Speaker 1: dialogue that then put you in that part of your
Speaker 1: body that way and then that's what came of it,
Speaker 1: or was it someone you saw that you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is that guy? And then like where did that
Speaker 1: come from? For you? Well, it's a little bit tricky.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. You know, I did so
Speaker 1: much theater that for me always the physicality was was
Speaker 1: a part of it. So I guess based on the
Speaker 1: words and how it was written and then translating that
Speaker 1: for myself in terms of yeah, everything physically. So it
Speaker 1: all always just kind of where it landed in. You
Speaker 1: write that impression of that guy, you just kind of
Speaker 1: landed in your body that way. Yeah, Exactly why did
Speaker 1: the show end or was this a collective decision or
Speaker 1: was this a network decision? And how how much time
Speaker 1: did you know? At the end? It was such a
Speaker 1: anticlimactic way to end for something that had been so awesome.
Speaker 1: We you know, it was like any other year you
Speaker 1: finished the season in May and or April, and your
Speaker 1: wait to find out if you got picked up until
Speaker 1: May and then it was like nope, you didn't, and
Speaker 1: that was it. I mean, it wasn't like, hey, this
Speaker 1: might be the last season. It was like it was
Speaker 1: any It was a season like any other to my knowledge. Anyway,
Speaker 1: if there had been talk of it maybe being the last.
Speaker 1: I hadn't been informed, so I wasn't filming that last
Speaker 1: season making sure I'm soaking it all in the way,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like and with all the
Speaker 1: all the ceremony that you would do if you notice
Speaker 1: the last season of something you had all been living
Speaker 1: with for five years. So it was so weird to
Speaker 1: then just not be coming back to work after all
Speaker 1: of that, And it was a mystery frankly for a
Speaker 1: long time for me, and I ultimately that one of
Speaker 1: the executives had then created his own production company or whatever,
Speaker 1: and then I had worked on a show that was
Speaker 1: with that production company and I later called him. I
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, can you answer something for me?
Speaker 1: And uh, and he was like, you know, like the
Speaker 1: licensing couldn't ultimately make a licensing deal with ABC in
Speaker 1: a way that wouldn't cause it to lose money if
Speaker 1: it went past five years. I was like, wow, really,
Speaker 1: like that was it? That's it? Like that huh, wow,
Speaker 1: that's a buzz kill. That's that's interesting. So thank you
Speaker 1: for telling me. But you know, oh that's too bad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was kind of but whatever. It was such a
Speaker 1: great time while it lasted, and I'm so I pushed
Speaker 1: and pushed and pushed and had been working very hard
Speaker 1: to make the episodes available on DVD or you know whatever,
Speaker 1: and UM was very insistent on that because I didn't
Speaker 1: want it to just now be not available. And there
Speaker 1: was some music licensing rights where the third season and
Speaker 1: on couldn't be made into a DVD. So I got
Speaker 1: the first two years released on DVD by pushing twenty
Speaker 1: very hard, repeated for years, and then when streaming came about,
Speaker 1: I was like, can we really look at that? I
Speaker 1: asked my lawyer, can you call them, let's really look
Speaker 1: at this, because now that might be different rules because
Speaker 1: it's considered TV. And then it got packaged in a
Speaker 1: thing and Hulu bought it, so now all five seasons
Speaker 1: are available on Hulu, which just thrills me because I
Speaker 1: just that was so much hard work and it's it
Speaker 1: was such a beautiful time, and you know the response
Speaker 1: from fans is so awesome. They just like become joyful
Speaker 1: when they see, oh I loved you know, it's just
Speaker 1: the effect Dharma created it, like and how much laughter
Speaker 1: and they found themselves or some like with the office,
Speaker 1: you know, they find them or some part of their
Speaker 1: family one of those characters and it makes them laugh
Speaker 1: and gives them relief from life. Yeah, your character specifically,
Speaker 1: I think socially in terms of you know, what the
Speaker 1: show did had a very feminist perspective, and I feel
Speaker 1: like showed, unlike many shows on television, a really strong, independent,
Speaker 1: funny woman taking the lead. Are you proud of that
Speaker 1: or do you see that as the show's legacy in
Speaker 1: a way? You know? I I see it, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: see it that in the most fun, charismatic way. You
Speaker 1: can own your space and you don't have to be
Speaker 1: an asshole, and you don't unless you want to, you know,
Speaker 1: or you can. I mean, a woman frankly can be
Speaker 1: whatever she wants. And but I loved that it was
Speaker 1: she lead with love, but she was who she was,
Speaker 1: and that there can be a lightheartedness to owning your space.
Speaker 1: There can be a playful quality, not where you have
Speaker 1: to diminish your power by being cookie or playful. You know,
Speaker 1: you can be serious and however you want to do it,
Speaker 1: but just that it can be loving and present and whole.
Speaker 1: And I loved that about her. And I had a
Speaker 1: lot of people write letters that were like going to
Speaker 1: commit suicide, and they decided not to because Dharma showed
Speaker 1: them that it's okay to be themselves, even if it's
Speaker 1: quirky or offbeat or not the usual, It's okay and
Speaker 1: it's worth sticking around. And I got so many of
Speaker 1: those letters. It was like wow, you know, And so
Speaker 1: I think there was this multidimensional effects of having fun
Speaker 1: and being her fully and my enjoyment within that was
Speaker 1: probably a bit contagious too, and improved the mood enough
Speaker 1: that maybe they could think a little more clearly. However
Speaker 1: that went down, but I do think it was an
Speaker 1: an obvious feminist example, you know, right awesome and truly,
Speaker 1: you know, I was. I was alive at the time
Speaker 1: and watching television. I mean, I can't overstate what a
Speaker 1: significant impact it had on television at the time it
Speaker 1: was on. And I think also today and roles, be
Speaker 1: it Mindy Kaling and the Mindy Project or uh Ellie
Speaker 1: Kemper and Kimmy Schmidt. I mean, allowing women who are
Speaker 1: potentially quirky but strong with strong personalities to to lead shows.
Speaker 1: I think it has a huge effect on television today.
Speaker 1: Also by the tons of films, a bunch of comedies. Uh,
Speaker 1: to name a few, six Wives of Henry Lafe, Love Heards,
Speaker 1: Friends with Benefits, Big Stone Gap. Is there any film
Speaker 1: that happened, say after Darman Gregg that you feel like
Speaker 1: was able to transition and pivot you in a new direction,
Speaker 1: be seen in a different way. I think Keeping the
Speaker 1: Faith was one for me because for me it was
Speaker 1: definitely transitional because I filmed it right, I don't know,
Speaker 1: in the hiatus before one of the last seasons of
Speaker 1: Dharmin Greg and I had to be a woman in
Speaker 1: this film, and I frankly had only been a girl before,
Speaker 1: and in Darmin Gregg it was a girl. You know.
Speaker 1: I was so in that canetic cuteness of dharma that
Speaker 1: it's like you're kind of scared to not do it
Speaker 1: because it's really working for you, especially when just what
Speaker 1: feels like just yesterday you were scrounging for top Rawman.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, you're a little nervous to not
Speaker 1: do the thing that's like, you know, being lauded and stuff.
Speaker 1: So but I that was with Edward Norton and Ben Stiller,
Speaker 1: and it was Edward Norton's directorial debut, and we filmed
Speaker 1: it in New York and it was, you know, these
Speaker 1: three childhood friends, and I was one ended up becoming
Speaker 1: obviously Edward Norton, the priest, Ben Stiller, the rabbi, and
Speaker 1: I was the ships that they grew up with, who
Speaker 1: became a very strong businesswoman, and they kind of reunite.
Speaker 1: She comes back to New York for business and they
Speaker 1: all reunite, and then a sort of love triangle ensues.
Speaker 1: And Edward it was so cool because I really admire
Speaker 1: him as an actor. You know, he helped me develop
Speaker 1: that character. And so to work with someone I really
Speaker 1: admired as an actor, it was like let it. Growing
Speaker 1: my eyebrows in and lowering my voice, slowing the kinetic
Speaker 1: factor down, slowing my everything down, speaking slower. I felt
Speaker 1: like I wanted to die. I was so uncomfortable. I
Speaker 1: remember that first day. I was scared to death and
Speaker 1: we were, I mean, sweating and uncomfortable because I was
Speaker 1: so far out of my comfort zone of what was
Speaker 1: tried and true and that I had been working on.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I also, this is so weird. I
Speaker 1: ultimately somewhere in there I had hyper thyroid and had
Speaker 1: gotten diagnosed maybe just before that or whatever, but I
Speaker 1: had a hyperactive thyroid, which actually probably kind of contributed
Speaker 1: to that kinetic aspect of myself that it was hard
Speaker 1: to sit still or whatever. But it worked so okay.
Speaker 1: But uh, but anyway, it was, for various reasons, very
Speaker 1: hard to just slow down my speech, sit quietly, change
Speaker 1: my whole thing to be this girl. And I didn't
Speaker 1: feel connected to all the things I felt burning to
Speaker 1: make the scene funny or to do these things. And
Speaker 1: it was so different for me, and it was it
Speaker 1: made me go from girl to woman using my craft,
Speaker 1: and it was a really huge learning experience for me.
Speaker 1: And I could prove to myself by doing that job
Speaker 1: that I can be a woman. I can find power
Speaker 1: and stillness. It's okay to feel that power that comes
Speaker 1: up when you are still, because frankly, if you're always kinetic,
Speaker 1: it is a dispersal your you could dilute your power.
Speaker 1: And so I think that was also part of the
Speaker 1: awkwardness and uncomfortable, was like being still, it's powerful, and
Speaker 1: I was kind of scared of that until I got
Speaker 1: used to it. Yes, that's so interesting. So now in
Speaker 1: a well, I would call it a very big departure
Speaker 1: from at least what you're known for. Obviously you have
Speaker 1: done dramas, but it doesn't get any more dramatic than
Speaker 1: Fear the Walking Dead? Were you a fan of the
Speaker 1: Walking Dead before Fear of the Walking Dead? Were you
Speaker 1: aware of this show? Were you a fan? I was aware,
Speaker 1: because I don't know how you could not be aware
Speaker 1: of it, of the whole Walking Dead universe. Um, I
Speaker 1: was certainly aware in terms of my personal kind of
Speaker 1: where I would go to for entertainment. Zombies wasn't the genre.
Speaker 1: Horror wasn't my genre in terms of like, this is
Speaker 1: not where I leaned, you know, I would you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sort of late to certain things. But and and
Speaker 1: that transition from where I was in my mental artistic
Speaker 1: journey to that arriving and landing in my lap was
Speaker 1: like couldn't have come at a better time, And it
Speaker 1: would like kind of saved my joy, my artistic joy.
Speaker 1: Like I was really in a kind of a rut
Speaker 1: and kind of bummed out at like how things had
Speaker 1: progressed on shows that I had done, and was tad
Speaker 1: worked so hard to make things work, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to start spressing myself artistically in a new way. I
Speaker 1: had to reinvent myself because I wanted to do something new.
Speaker 1: I needed a new challenge. And it lands like ten
Speaker 1: days after making some adjustments in the structure of like
Speaker 1: you know, my representation or whatever and sorting some things out,
Speaker 1: it May called and offered me the job. And then
Speaker 1: at that point I promptly watched every episode of The
Speaker 1: Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. That was a
Speaker 1: lot of viewing. Um, but I felt like, this is
Speaker 1: a huge entertainment universe. The fandom is as a character
Speaker 1: in this piece, and all the mythology is its own thing,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I need to like fully go
Speaker 1: in all the way and educate myself on this, and
Speaker 1: in doing so, I became a fan myself, and I
Speaker 1: really loved the storytelling, you know. So it's it's been
Speaker 1: really three sixty lots of good sensation for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: your experience now having been on the show a long time,
Speaker 1: do you do you feel that the environment around work
Speaker 1: is different than a comedy or not? For me, it is,
Speaker 1: it's a totally different experience. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's just drama comedy or like this Walking Dead universe,
Speaker 1: because it's there's drama, but there's a mythology to it.
Speaker 1: So in terms of how character stories connect and bounce
Speaker 1: off each other, they're very circular, especially because we had
Speaker 1: crossover characters from Walking Dead to Fear. So when I
Speaker 1: joined the show it it had gone through like a
Speaker 1: revamp of sorts in season four and they had really
Speaker 1: brought it even more under that umbrella and started connecting
Speaker 1: story and character more rather than two different shows. So, um,
Speaker 1: I had a lot to learn, and so I my
Speaker 1: whole process with the script and everything I had to
Speaker 1: I felt like I was starting over. I literally felt like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, wait a second, in terms of how
Speaker 1: much I have to understand story wise. Um, so, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been challenging in the greatest, most stimulating way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it, love it. I have
Speaker 1: a great friend. Don't know if you've run into him,
Speaker 1: Cary Peyton. I love Cary. I love, love love Cary. Yes,
Speaker 1: we went to school together. Actually, you know, he's talked
Speaker 1: to me a lot about I Mean, there there's fans
Speaker 1: that they're always rooting for certain things, or they don't
Speaker 1: like certain characters, or they don't want certain storylines. But man,
Speaker 1: with the Walking Dead thing that I mean the fans
Speaker 1: have it all figured out and mapped out, and well,
Speaker 1: my understanding is if you, if you veer away, you
Speaker 1: risk the wrath of of the fans because a lot
Speaker 1: of them know no more than anybody. Oh they do,
Speaker 1: but they analyze and re analyze and slice and dice
Speaker 1: and examine and flip on every edge and corner. And
Speaker 1: it's admirable. Actually it's pretty amazing. But that's what makes
Speaker 1: the Walking Dead universe so special is it invokes that
Speaker 1: in you. It invokes this like real examination of characters
Speaker 1: and intentions and consequences and really forces you to look
Speaker 1: at all of this. I really admire the commitment of
Speaker 1: the fans. It's quite something. I've never seen anything like it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in addition to your work there, you are taking the
Speaker 1: podcast universe by storm, You're you're veering very, very heavily
Speaker 1: into my lane. Just make sure you stay on your own.
Speaker 1: Not one, but two podcasts. Kicking and Screaming with your
Speaker 1: husband body not for children? I love that. Are you
Speaker 1: having fun with him doing that? Oh? Yeah, I love it?
Speaker 1: You know it's it's we felt like we actually wanted
Speaker 1: to do a scripted comedy about marriage starring the two
Speaker 1: of us, uh, because we felt like any show about
Speaker 1: marriage we had seen was either um sort of like
Speaker 1: multi cam light or like let Me Kill Myself now,
Speaker 1: single camp about marriage, and we couldn't. We never have
Speaker 1: seen anything kind of in between where it captures the glory,
Speaker 1: the torture, the politics, the games, the love, the French everything,
Speaker 1: and then it just kind of became its own thing,
Speaker 1: and you know, every kind of person seems to relate
Speaker 1: to it. We don't like give advice. We just talked
Speaker 1: about our own ship in a humorous, very straightforward way.
Speaker 1: And we also felt like, you know, celebrities or public figures,
Speaker 1: their relationships always seem managed by publicists and made private
Speaker 1: and you never really know, and we just thought, oh,
Speaker 1: for crying out loud, let's just talk about it. Marriage
Speaker 1: is funny, like relationships are funny, and so we just
Speaker 1: love talking about it and we are best friends and
Speaker 1: we have been through everything. Yeah, well thirty one years,
Speaker 1: that's a long time. So there's Yeah, there's definitely not
Speaker 1: not a need for new topics. I have to say,
Speaker 1: what you were just talking about about television shows, It's
Speaker 1: so true. There either has to be a major problem
Speaker 1: or or everything is just perfect and hunky dory, yeah
Speaker 1: and incidental and yeah, yeah, I'm married myself. There's this
Speaker 1: is more than all those things. Thanks, you're complicated and
Speaker 1: they can be equally awesome and terrible at the same
Speaker 1: to Yeah, you're like so glad they're there and you
Speaker 1: can't wait for him to get out of the house
Speaker 1: at the same time with equal force and passion. Also,
Speaker 1: your friend, Heather Dale, all the things now I have
Speaker 1: I have listened, I have listened to kicking and screaming.
Speaker 1: Tell me about all the things I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know about all the things when I'm we moved to Austin.
Speaker 1: She I met her and we just hit it off
Speaker 1: and we always have these fun conversations, and I don't know,
Speaker 1: we just were like, let's talk about it publicly. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about all the things that we talked about. And
Speaker 1: maybe you know, it's a little like pandemic born of
Speaker 1: you know, is there anyone else out there kind of
Speaker 1: needs a friend. Let's share our friendship with them, because frankly,
Speaker 1: I was feeling a little lonely. It felt so good
Speaker 1: to meet her and have the sisterhood, you know, in
Speaker 1: my neighborhood. And that's really what it is, and we
Speaker 1: talked from you know, more serious subjects to like stuff
Speaker 1: and we film it and it's on YouTube or you
Speaker 1: can listen. But we're kind of cute to look at,
Speaker 1: so you know, you can watch it on YouTube, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's just fun. Frankly, and the longer I've
Speaker 1: lived my life and the more I've seen in this
Speaker 1: world doing things that actually are fun are really important. Yes,
Speaker 1: and you are fun. You are fun. And also you
Speaker 1: moved to Austin, Texas, and I'm there's a huge part
Speaker 1: of me that's very jealous of you. I feel like
Speaker 1: everyone is moving to Austin, Texas. Austin's read that really is.
Speaker 1: It's a great city. Really, I never thought i'd live
Speaker 1: anywhere else. I'm like, I'm I'm so hardcore Angelina like
Speaker 1: that's through various factors of the filming, the pandemic. I
Speaker 1: started homeschooling my kids myself, and it just made sense
Speaker 1: to live where I was filming instead of all the
Speaker 1: commuting and stuff. It's awesome. Congratulations on Austin. By the way, Jenna,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for talking to me. I appreciate
Speaker 1: your openness, your thoughts. Again, I'm never going to forget.
Speaker 1: Everyone is working together to create one moment and everyone
Speaker 1: is on the same page, and it's really the only
Speaker 1: time in the world that that happens, and that's a
Speaker 1: special thing. Yeah, thanks so much for talking to me.
Speaker 1: It was such a pleasure to get to know you
Speaker 1: a little bit. And good luck in Austin. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me Jenna listen. You are the best
Speaker 1: and I am not just saying that because we podcasters
Speaker 1: have to stick together, all right. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining me today. I cannot tell you how much
Speaker 1: I appreciate it and how much I enjoyed meeting you
Speaker 1: and for you listeners, Thank you for joining me as well.
Speaker 1: Make sure to like, follow, subscribe, leave a funny comment
Speaker 1: on the at Off the Beat, Instagram, anything to let
Speaker 1: me know how you're liking the show. In fact, one
Speaker 1: lucky listener who leaves a comment or review, I'm going
Speaker 1: to choose your comment or question and I'm going to
Speaker 1: feature it in an upcoming episode, so stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1: Thank you all for joining me, and we will see
Speaker 1: you next week for another episode of again my favorite podcast,
Speaker 1: Off the Beat. Off the Beat is hosted an executive
Speaker 1: produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our excutive producer Langley.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Emily Carr, and
Speaker 1: Hannah Harris. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary. Our
Speaker 1: theme song Bubble and Squeak performed by my great friend
Speaker 1: Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by seth Olandski