Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Work in Progress friends. This week we are
Speaker 1: joined by an actor who I admire so much. Today's
Speaker 1: guest is none other than Janny Smale. She is an
Speaker 1: American actress born here in New York, one of six siblings,
Speaker 1: and she has been working in film and television since
Speaker 1: she was a little girl. Known for her roles in Lovecraft, Country,
Speaker 1: Birds of Prey, Underground, and True Blood, she is here
Speaker 1: to discuss her brand new Apple TV show, Smoke. The
Speaker 1: show centers around an arson investigator who begrudgingly teams up
Speaker 1: with a police detective as they race to stop two arsonists.
Speaker 1: It is a twisted game of secrets and suspicions, and
Speaker 1: journey stars opposite tarn Edgerton in this incredible thriller. Today
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about what it was like to
Speaker 1: film the show, work with the iconic Dennis Lahne, and
Speaker 1: a lot about what it means to juggle this life
Speaker 1: performing and acting and traveling and creating with motherhood and
Speaker 1: self discovery. And you'll hear a little bit about the
Speaker 1: lessons the two of us have learned along the way.
Speaker 1: Let's dive in with my friend Journey. Hi, honey, I'm
Speaker 1: so happy you're here, my love. How are you.
Speaker 2: I'm happy to see you.
Speaker 3: It's been forever.
Speaker 1: I know, it's been a long time.
Speaker 3: You look fabulous. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: You look fabulous. This press tour is working.
Speaker 3: Oh well, you know, I got a team of experts
Speaker 3: helping it work.
Speaker 1: We need it, especially when you got little ones at home.
Speaker 1: It's like somebody helped me. Look like I've.
Speaker 3: Slept right right, And then you know, the press to word,
Speaker 3: it's almost like you're running a marathon. As you know,
Speaker 3: you just sit in that room and you get asked a.
Speaker 1: Lot, and you got to make them feel fresh every time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh I feel it. Well, I'm excited about the projects.
Speaker 1: But before we talk about, you know, what's happening in
Speaker 1: life at the moment, I want to go backwards a
Speaker 1: little bit.
Speaker 2: Okay, how far back are we go?
Speaker 1: Like all the way back?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Which is fun for you, especially because you've been working
Speaker 1: since you were a baby. But I always wonder, like
Speaker 1: when I sit with somebody, whether I know them or
Speaker 1: I'm just meeting them, whoever sits in that chair has
Speaker 1: an impressive resume, Some cool new project like something in
Speaker 1: the world. And I wonder if you could go back
Speaker 1: in time and hang out with your little self at
Speaker 1: seven or eight years old, do you think the woman
Speaker 1: you are today would see herself in that little girl?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yes, because I actually meditate on that little girl
Speaker 3: a lot. Really, Yeah, because I do believe so much
Speaker 3: of what we're doing is in response to our childhood,
Speaker 3: you know. And I'm one of those nerds who you know,
Speaker 3: I'm reading books on attachment theory and you know me too, Yeah,
Speaker 3: so you feel me, you know. And so like all
Speaker 3: of the primary attachments we had and the core memories
Speaker 3: we had during those moments, I think about, you know,
Speaker 3: just in how I see the world. It's also how
Speaker 3: I construct characters, you know, when I'm approaching them in
Speaker 3: my work. But yeah, that little girl, I mean, she
Speaker 3: she was. She was a lot of fun. She was.
Speaker 3: She was a lot of fun. There was a lot
Speaker 3: going on around me when I was six or seven,
Speaker 3: how so, Okay, so I think around that age my
Speaker 3: famly I was I was doing full House, or I
Speaker 3: had just finished doing Full House, and my family had
Speaker 3: been I had been offered by the producers of Full House, offered,
Speaker 3: you know, your seven to do a spinoff of Full House.
Speaker 3: You know, my character resonated with.
Speaker 1: Folks for some reason, I you know, but.
Speaker 3: My pay grade. And so my mom said no to
Speaker 3: the spinoff, and she said, I've got six kids at
Speaker 3: the time, she had five and one on the way.
Speaker 3: And she was like, I ain't doing no more damn
Speaker 3: TV unless they're all in the same show, because y'all
Speaker 3: got me running around with all these different kids, and
Speaker 3: I'm trying to be everywhere with all of them. She
Speaker 3: was very protective, very hands on. We never had a
Speaker 3: nanny or anyone else watch us other than her, and
Speaker 3: she was stretched thin. And so the producers, Bob Boyette,
Speaker 3: Miller Boyette, they said, wait, there's more, bring them all in,
Speaker 3: and so they gave us all our own TV show.
Speaker 3: She had us go into this meeting that happened. Yes,
Speaker 3: she had us go into this meeting. We performed Shut
Speaker 3: Him Down by Public Enemy.
Speaker 2: I was Flavor flav Oh, I did the Flavor Flav verse.
Speaker 3: I don't even know. Maybe I had a clock around
Speaker 3: my neck. I don't know. A room full of white
Speaker 3: men at Warner Brothers, and she had us perform this
Speaker 3: very militant song and they gave us our own TV show,
Speaker 3: all six even the baby that was Bacon in the oven.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this is amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So there was a lot a lot going on
Speaker 3: around me, a lot of excitement during that time, a
Speaker 3: lot of newness for the first time, Like we moved
Speaker 3: into a house that was really nice, remember that, you know. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's snapshot of my life during that time.
Speaker 1: Wow. And did you love it? Did you love acting? Performing?
Speaker 1: Even from a young age.
Speaker 3: I always did. I was always performing at home. My
Speaker 3: mom loved musicals and old films. Sound of music probably
Speaker 3: was on repeat throughout my childhood. American in Paris. You
Speaker 3: know Gene Kelly, fred Astaire sid Cherise. I always wanted
Speaker 3: to be, said Cherise with those long legs, you know.
Speaker 3: And so she would put she would put down plywood
Speaker 3: on the floor in our apartment in Elmhurst, Queens, and
Speaker 3: she got me some tap dance shoes. Me and my
Speaker 3: brother Jesse was just tap dance all the time to
Speaker 3: these musicals. So, I know, I always loved the art
Speaker 3: of performing and that exchange that you get when you're
Speaker 3: performing for someone, right, you know.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's so interesting because especially I think for a
Speaker 1: kid learning any skill like that that really puts you
Speaker 1: in your body. It gives you a sense of agency
Speaker 1: really early. You know, you understand that you are capable
Speaker 1: similar to sport.
Speaker 3: And I like it to sports too. Yeah, I like
Speaker 3: in it to little league.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, little league AISO, like whatever it is. I
Speaker 1: think what we know that maybe folks who don't work
Speaker 1: in this industry might be a little misled about, is
Speaker 1: that when you are an actor or a performer, a musician,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever you do like you're part.
Speaker 3: Of a team.
Speaker 1: You're in a cast, you work with a whole big.
Speaker 3: Crew of collaborators.
Speaker 1: Yes, like it's team sports, and you've got to learn
Speaker 1: how to support the team, but also stay in your lane.
Speaker 1: You need to be able to fill in for somebody
Speaker 1: if you're you know, not able to do their job
Speaker 1: one day. And so I don't know, I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty cool to hear about how you were finding yourself
Speaker 1: in that work.
Speaker 3: I completely agree with your perspective on it. And it's
Speaker 3: funny because I find myself gaining so much inspiration from
Speaker 3: sports from athletes. I watch it religiously. My son now
Speaker 3: has taken the sports obsession to a whole nother level.
Speaker 3: But I gained and I always have gained inspiration from
Speaker 3: the way athletes push their bodies, how mentally tough they are,
Speaker 3: the way they have to work with other personalities and collaborate,
Speaker 3: and the flow that athletes have to be in. You
Speaker 3: can when you're watching a tennis match, you're watching Coco, right,
Speaker 3: and you're just like, ooh, she's in the flow right now, right,
Speaker 3: That's what we try to achieve on set or on stage.
Speaker 3: You know, you try to find that rhythm. It's like
Speaker 3: a musician, you know, a jazz band. Yes, they're improving,
Speaker 3: they're in tune with their partner, you know. The pianist
Speaker 3: can't go too far off without being in vibe with
Speaker 3: the basis, right, Like, So there is something about that
Speaker 3: dance that that you have to be in with the
Speaker 3: cameraman or camera woman, right, like the with your fellow actor.
Speaker 3: It's very true, and I love that you you have
Speaker 3: that same experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally, And I think there's something really interesting too.
Speaker 1: All these little connections are firing in my brain. Like
Speaker 1: you talking about the way you love to research, you know,
Speaker 1: for roles, but also for yourself as a person. You know,
Speaker 1: reading books on attachment theory figuring out as an adult
Speaker 1: where your patterns come from from your childhood. Like, I
Speaker 1: think that's especially important for anyone who's a performer, whether
Speaker 1: you're a performance artist or a performance athlete, because you
Speaker 1: do learn to push yourself to extremes, you do learn
Speaker 1: to put the work above all else, and eventually you
Speaker 1: have to come to terms with at some point in
Speaker 1: your life like, oh, I'm so good at performing, I
Speaker 1: might not be feeling and I got to figure out
Speaker 1: how to recalibrate that.
Speaker 3: Or it might be only allowing myself to feel when
Speaker 3: when I'm made for me.
Speaker 1: Oh that yeah. And it's interesting, not that I want
Speaker 1: this conversation to be about this topic, but I just
Speaker 1: hear something in you that something in me recognizes. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know if it's when you've built
Speaker 1: your whole beautiful life and then you realize you're not happy.
Speaker 1: I think there's a wisdom that comes when women take
Speaker 1: up their agency and go through a divorce, as we
Speaker 1: both have, Yes, we have, And I'm like, oh, whatever,
Speaker 1: the thing is that I've really learned through this construction
Speaker 1: and then deconstruction process. I see in you, I see
Speaker 1: in you, and I know it's hard, but not to
Speaker 1: be cheesy, I'm like, I'm proud of us. We've clearly
Speaker 1: done some work. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, I'm proud of us too, because it takes
Speaker 3: courage to say I actually need more and I want more,
Speaker 3: I deserve more. Yeah, And society doesn't always hold space
Speaker 3: for those of us who feel that we're entitled to more,
Speaker 3: because it's like, well, you got this, this and this
Speaker 3: sit down, shut up, be happy like what you're complaining about, right,
Speaker 3: And so it does take a lot of courage to
Speaker 3: say I know what my worth is and I know
Speaker 3: what I deserve to receive in return. So it's a risk.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I'll actually get it in this lifetime,
Speaker 3: but I'm I feel that it's I'm worthy enough to try.
Speaker 1: To try that part.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you know. I don't want
Speaker 1: to project my experience onto you, but I think, especially
Speaker 1: when you do the kind of work that requires so
Speaker 1: much of you and you do show up in big ways,
Speaker 1: in big spaces, when you know what a high bar
Speaker 1: you have forgiving and you realize that bar is not
Speaker 1: being met in return, I actually think it's a really
Speaker 1: brave thing to say it's not about entitlement, it's not
Speaker 1: about it's not even necessarily about that deserving right. It's
Speaker 1: about I believe that I'm worse what I give, and
Speaker 1: if someone doesn't, you know, how do you let that
Speaker 1: person be the closest person to you in your life?
Speaker 1: You can't.
Speaker 3: And that could be, that could be a toxic relationship.
Speaker 3: That can be your co workers, that can be your
Speaker 3: agents or your lawyers, right, you know. I've found things
Speaker 3: like that have actually shown up and manifested in several
Speaker 3: different ways. Sometimes I find like, oh, it's so hard
Speaker 3: for me to let go of people past their exploration date.
Speaker 3: It's really hard to just go hard, Oh this relationship
Speaker 3: has actually run its course. That was very hard for me.
Speaker 2: It's still hard, but it's less hard.
Speaker 3: I've gotten I've walked it out enough, you know, to
Speaker 3: be able to detach. But in studying attachment theory, I
Speaker 3: noticed my patterns were the inability to detach yes you know,
Speaker 3: and go wait, why is that? Like?
Speaker 2: What's that?
Speaker 3: You know? And you do do your own self a
Speaker 3: disservice because not everyone is built for a lifetime walk
Speaker 3: with you. Sometimes it's a season, or it's a reason.
Speaker 1: Or it's a lifetime life done. Yeah, and now a
Speaker 1: word from our sponsors that I really enjoy and I
Speaker 1: think you will too. I had to really think about
Speaker 1: that a lot because I realized, and it's weird, right,
Speaker 1: there's something you can love about yourself and also it
Speaker 1: can hurt you, Like I don't like to give up
Speaker 1: on people, but sometimes that means I'm trying to hold
Speaker 1: on to something that no longer exists.
Speaker 3: Do you feel that it's holding onto a potential? Like, yeah,
Speaker 3: believing the potential and maybe not.
Speaker 1: Sometimes And sometimes I think it can be. Really I
Speaker 1: think there's a difference between dreaming with someone and the
Speaker 1: dream being attainable in this life. You know, I really
Speaker 1: did a lot of work around what do I want
Speaker 1: the future to feel like? What do I want a
Speaker 1: family to feel like? What do I want to build?
Speaker 1: And then I built it? But I realized like it
Speaker 1: almost I almost felt like I built a house, but
Speaker 1: the house was empty, you know.
Speaker 2: And it.
Speaker 1: Was a house and it was great. It was like
Speaker 1: Pinterest's perfect house. But I think, particularly again as performers
Speaker 1: and also as women, like, at least for me, I
Speaker 1: can see all that stuff. I can see the attachment theory.
Speaker 1: I can see what I learned that was good and
Speaker 1: bad from my parents and their relationship, from generational family stuff.
Speaker 1: I can see what I took from societal messaging, and
Speaker 1: I can go, oh, I get I get why I
Speaker 1: really tried to be as like responsible as possible and
Speaker 1: make this plan. But if the if the plan is hollow,
Speaker 1: if the house is empty, like, don't you want to
Speaker 1: go fill it? And so I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: I think there's a really important shift that's happened. Certainly,
Speaker 1: I really see it over the last decade, like we
Speaker 1: could have this conversation, you know, over a bottle of
Speaker 1: wine with friends. Over the last decade, I've seen far
Speaker 1: more people, and I think it had a little to
Speaker 1: do with me too, you know, far more people say
Speaker 1: these things are not right at work. And then a
Speaker 1: lot of people, once they started talking about the right
Speaker 1: and wrong in their life, were like, oh, I might
Speaker 1: actually have to talk about my life. Also, if I
Speaker 1: only send her work and I don't send her my life,
Speaker 1: what am I doing? And so I always think it's
Speaker 1: interesting when us artists hit whatever point we hit where
Speaker 1: we realize, oh, I have to pour into myself the
Speaker 1: way I pour into my work, the way I pour
Speaker 1: into my characters, the way I pour into my people.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you think it's a deeper resonance that desire
Speaker 1: to model worth and what you deserve and the right
Speaker 1: kind of life because you're also doing it for your son.
Speaker 3: Yes, the stakes are definitely higher. I find after having
Speaker 3: a child who learns so much more from your choices
Speaker 3: than what you say to them. He learns so much
Speaker 3: more from how I move through life, how I deal
Speaker 3: with disappointment or sadness, by watching you, by watching me,
Speaker 3: he learns so much about work ethic by watching me.
Speaker 3: He has now these goals and these ambitions, and it's
Speaker 3: beautiful because he relates it back and he kind of
Speaker 3: mirrors himself to me. He's starting to do that in
Speaker 3: ways that I was like, oh my gosh, Like I
Speaker 3: don't know why I thought, and it probably is my
Speaker 3: own bias, but I thought, like, oh, if I had
Speaker 3: a daughter, they would probably mirror. But no, I mean,
Speaker 3: like he looks at me and it's like small things,
Speaker 3: you know, Like he wants to get six pack, So
Speaker 3: he's like, Mami, teach me how to get a six pack,
Speaker 3: you know, but he's yeah, he watches my behavior a
Speaker 3: lot and is influenced by that. So the stakes are yes,
Speaker 3: way higher now, and I feel like the greatest gift
Speaker 3: I can give him is being my whole self. Alfred
Speaker 3: Wooded long ago gave me this book called Whole Parent,
Speaker 3: Whole Child, and it's a beautiful book and it talks
Speaker 3: essentially about that of you cannot be able to pour
Speaker 3: into your child and raise them to be their full
Speaker 3: best self if you yourself or not.
Speaker 1: Yes, there is a stat A friend sent me a
Speaker 1: video that actually said that the highest predicting determinator of
Speaker 1: an adult's happiness is how happy their mother was.
Speaker 3: I've read that in their childhood. Yes, I've read that
Speaker 3: somewhere and major. It is major, because you know what
Speaker 3: I found very early in Hunter's childhood, I was dealing
Speaker 3: and struggling with major mom guilt. You know, I nursed
Speaker 3: him for three years. I gave birth to him in
Speaker 3: my bathtub. I was like, yo, I'm a dude, like
Speaker 3: my mom was. She gave birth to all six of us,
Speaker 3: natural childbirth. You know, nursed us, didn't believe in extending
Speaker 3: extended nursing, and so like a lot of her philosophies
Speaker 3: and her standards, right, I was holding myself too.
Speaker 2: My mom's situation was so different and very unique.
Speaker 3: Right. She didn't have to ever have someone on set
Speaker 3: with us watching us because she was behind the camera
Speaker 3: and we were the ones in front. And so in
Speaker 3: my situation, I'm the one in front, and so I'm going, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I want Hunter on set with me. I'm nursing.
Speaker 3: He refused a bottle because he got hype to it, right.
Speaker 2: He got smart too.
Speaker 3: He got him to the fact that, okay, like around
Speaker 3: six months, I remember, it was like, okay, if I
Speaker 3: take this bottle from my aunt, that means mommy might
Speaker 3: go to Target.
Speaker 2: So he started boycotting the bottle, right, smart, really smart.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, I see how I'm gonna get the
Speaker 1: I want.
Speaker 3: And he's like, I'm not doing this. She's not passing
Speaker 3: me to Aunty, your uncle or to daddy. It's gonna
Speaker 3: be her. I went directly from the source, you know.
Speaker 3: And so he start started refusing the bottle. And so,
Speaker 3: you know, me shooting Lovecraft Country or Birds of Prey
Speaker 3: doing stunt rehearsal, he's right there, you know, in the
Speaker 3: trailer or at rehearsal, and I had to have help,
Speaker 3: and I felt so much guilt about the fact that, like,
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, I got to go and do this scene.
Speaker 3: It's a really emotionally challenging scene. So for the next
Speaker 3: hour or so, I need him to stay in the trailer.
Speaker 3: He can't com on set because he can't see Mommy.
Speaker 1: Like that, right, Like you need to focus and I.
Speaker 3: Need to focus, and I need to do your right,
Speaker 3: I need to do my work. But I dealt with
Speaker 3: a lot of mom guilt that wasn't processed and I
Speaker 3: didn't really know where to put it. And it really
Speaker 3: was that philosophy of that book of giving yourself the
Speaker 3: approval to feed into your well, to do your to
Speaker 3: pursue your passions, to take the bath where you need
Speaker 3: to take the bath, to go to target when you
Speaker 3: need to just have alone time, right or whatever. That
Speaker 3: thing is giving yourself the approval to do that, knowing
Speaker 3: that if you don't, you will run out of gas.
Speaker 3: And that doesn't help him, and that helps no one.
Speaker 3: That serves no one. There's no Mommy Olympics, there's no
Speaker 3: reward that you're winning at the end of the year,
Speaker 3: exactly as it's sacrificing. Yeah, exactly, and it's a marathon,
Speaker 3: it's not a sprint. You need to have endurance in
Speaker 3: order to be present with him and play with him.
Speaker 2: And it's okay, you know, it's okay.
Speaker 3: For him to see me pursue my dreams. It's actually
Speaker 3: a beautiful thing for him to see the sacrifice that
Speaker 3: I make for my work and how hard I work.
Speaker 3: It's okay for him to see the image of a
Speaker 3: woman being the bread winner. It's okay for him to
Speaker 3: see me being ambitious and passionate and going, baby, you
Speaker 3: know what. Right now, Mommy has to go in this
Speaker 3: room and I have to study this scene. But when
Speaker 3: I finish, I'm gonna come out and we're gonna play catch.
Speaker 3: Right Like, giving him those boundaries in the parameters I
Speaker 3: think is healthy. And I've had to process and give
Speaker 3: and be kind to myself over the past few years,
Speaker 3: because of course there's moments where he's like, no, why
Speaker 3: you you know, And there's sacrifices that my work requires
Speaker 3: that he make. Yeah, but there's also a lot of
Speaker 3: benefits that he gained from from what mommy does and
Speaker 3: the kind of life I can provide for him, the
Speaker 3: travel that he's he's been able to be a part
Speaker 3: of I mean, like he went to the Steve Irwin
Speaker 3: Zoo in Australia, got a private tour that's a pet
Speaker 3: of rhino DJ the rhino he got to pet, you know,
Speaker 3: like all these experiences. He got to meet Steph Curry
Speaker 3: last year. Hello, okay. And so as he gets older,
Speaker 3: he's slowly starting to appreciate what I do and actually
Speaker 3: find respect for it and gratitude. And that is a
Speaker 3: real muscle that I'm trying to strengthen in him, which
Speaker 3: is hard in kids, And it's hard in kids who
Speaker 3: grow up with a lot, you know, to understand that yo,
Speaker 3: to whom much is given much as affected. Right, So
Speaker 3: like we gotta give back, we gotta go and volunteer,
Speaker 3: we gotta yeah, we gotta do all these things because
Speaker 3: look how blessed we are. Man.
Speaker 1: It makes me think about something. What a crazy sentence
Speaker 1: I'm about to say. I don't know. A month and
Speaker 1: a half ago, I think we had Michelle Obama on
Speaker 1: the pod. I was literally like, what is happening? And
Speaker 1: I asked her about motherhood and she said that her
Speaker 1: mother had this phrase that you know, has echoed for
Speaker 1: her whole life. I'm not raising babies. I'm raising adults, amen,
Speaker 1: And that thing to to give your kid evolving agency
Speaker 1: as they evolve, to show them how you move in
Speaker 1: the world as an adult, as a responsible parent, as
Speaker 1: a dedicated worker, as a volunteer, as a human that
Speaker 1: for you, your little boy always knows he can come to
Speaker 1: like that raises a generation of adults. And I think about,
Speaker 1: at least for me, you know, my parents didn't know
Speaker 1: any of the stuff we know now about how to
Speaker 1: raise babies, how to talk to them, what to do
Speaker 1: for them.
Speaker 3: They didn't have the language or the tools, and a
Speaker 3: lot of the research wasn't done yet, you know, all
Speaker 3: the things.
Speaker 1: And I think about the learning and the unlearning that
Speaker 1: our generation has had to do.
Speaker 2: Unlearning is very key. Unlearn a lot, a whole.
Speaker 1: Lot, oh boy. And I just think about, like how
Speaker 1: cool our kids are going to be when they're our
Speaker 1: age because they've just had more resources and information and
Speaker 1: opportunity to imagine themselves in these spaces they see you
Speaker 1: or or us in evolution. It's cool. Yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Out for our sponsors thinking about family and like, you know,
Speaker 1: the examples we set you talk about how your mom
Speaker 1: was the one behind the camera, you know, and it
Speaker 1: led into this amazing world for all of your siblings.
Speaker 1: I mean, six kids and y'all are all in this
Speaker 1: industry in some facet.
Speaker 3: Does that not all anymore? But at a point, at
Speaker 3: a point, yes, yes.
Speaker 1: When was that this amazing thing when you got to
Speaker 1: do this show together? But then as y'all started growing
Speaker 1: and going out into the world and working in these
Speaker 1: different arenas, did it almost mean you got to spend
Speaker 1: less time together as a family.
Speaker 3: Oh no, honestly, we were like we were We were
Speaker 3: like a pack a herd.
Speaker 2: That oh you everyone went together, you know.
Speaker 3: Like my mom if one of us got a gig,
Speaker 3: right like a movie or TV show, instead of her
Speaker 3: flying there. It got to a point where she would
Speaker 3: ask the studio for the money that they were going
Speaker 3: to spend on the flights. Give her the cash, and
Speaker 3: she would drive us all there in the suburban. I mean,
Speaker 3: she was she was. She was gangster, you know, she's
Speaker 3: very strategic, she was very smart. But also she had
Speaker 3: no one to watch us we did. It's not like
Speaker 3: we had a lot of friends or extended family. She
Speaker 3: didn't have people she could leave us with. And my
Speaker 3: parents separated when I was twelve, and so I have
Speaker 3: to say, I think that's one of the reasons why
Speaker 3: we might. I'm so close with my siblings. There's six
Speaker 3: of us, and I have five best friends in them.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's when I say, I can show you
Speaker 3: my text threads of like the sibling text chain, it
Speaker 3: just it just girl just comes in. Everyone's always talking,
Speaker 3: like the conversation is always you know, We're just so close.
Speaker 3: But we were alway had you know. And if I
Speaker 3: had an audition, then Jazz was doing my hair and
Speaker 3: Jake was maybe making the you know, and Jesse was
Speaker 3: running my lines with me like it. It really was
Speaker 3: this this beautiful microcosm of everyone supporting everyone. There was
Speaker 3: no jealousy, there was no competition. It just was not allowed,
Speaker 3: and everyone was expected to serve the cause, the mission.
Speaker 2: And it really was I.
Speaker 3: Think about survival because when you think about it, this
Speaker 3: became the family business. This became the income. It became
Speaker 3: the way we were able to take care of each other.
Speaker 3: My father mom separated, like I said, when I was twelve.
Speaker 3: He worked for Pacific bell at and t He was
Speaker 3: a blue collar worker. He didn't he didn't make enough
Speaker 3: to support us, and certainly didn't you know, give enough
Speaker 3: child support to support us. It became something where it
Speaker 3: was us kids going out and working and my mom
Speaker 3: finding us gigs and us living paycheck paycheck in a sense,
Speaker 3: until you know, my brothers got older and they started
Speaker 3: working regular jobs to contribute. But you know it, it
Speaker 3: was I don't even remember what your original question was.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm going on the tangent. But I
Speaker 3: think that's that's one of the beautiful things about very
Speaker 3: unconventional childhood. Yes, she was behind the camera, but I
Speaker 3: learned so much about the industry from her. You know,
Speaker 3: she just was so unwilling to sacrifice certain things and
Speaker 3: unwilling to sell integrity, unwilling to just take things because
Speaker 3: they were paying really good. You know, I was offered
Speaker 3: a number of jobs that she said no to that
Speaker 3: where it was either with someone who was a really
Speaker 3: awful person, and it would have put me in a
Speaker 3: very compromising situation getting me out of a very awful
Speaker 3: and toxic work environment. And yes, but like I said before,
Speaker 3: she was behind the camera.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, yeah, I mean it's such a lesson
Speaker 4: in you know, business.
Speaker 1: Yes, and remembering like, no matter how cool the set
Speaker 1: is or the job is or whatever, like it's business
Speaker 1: and I love that, you know, y'all have been able
Speaker 1: to stay so close. I ask because I think about
Speaker 1: how much I love what we do, but how often
Speaker 1: it takes me away from the people I want to
Speaker 1: be close to.
Speaker 3: Oh no, it's so true. It's like, yesterday, my TV
Speaker 3: show Smoke premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, which is
Speaker 3: very exciting, awesome. It played so well, but it was
Speaker 3: also the same day of my niece's fifth grade graduation,
Speaker 3: you know, and so everyone sending me pictures of her,
Speaker 3: and you know, I'm I tried to face time. But yes,
Speaker 3: that for sure is part of the sacrifices is missing
Speaker 3: out on How many birthdays or primary moments are you missing?
Speaker 1: How did it feel to premiere the show here?
Speaker 3: It was a full circle moment? Yeah, yeah, yeah, in
Speaker 3: a number of ways. You know, when you work on
Speaker 3: something for so long and then it's like your little secret,
Speaker 3: it's your little baby that you've birthed, and then you
Speaker 3: get to share it with the world. So it was awesome.
Speaker 3: It was awesome to watch it in front of an
Speaker 3: audience and get the feedback and it played incredibly well.
Speaker 3: You know, it was quite thrilling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, will you tell our friends at home what
Speaker 1: Smoke is?
Speaker 3: So. Smoke is a crime thriller for Apple TV Plus
Speaker 3: at premiere is June twenty seventh, created by Dennis Lahane,
Speaker 3: one of our premier writers. I mean, I don't know
Speaker 3: that you can write crime thriller better than Dennis. And
Speaker 3: I've been a fan of his since Mystic River and
Speaker 3: you know, Gone, Baby Gone, and Shutter Island and so
Speaker 3: many Blackbird which was on Apple as well, But anyway,
Speaker 3: it's based on true events in which an arson investigator
Speaker 3: played by Tarren Edgerton is paired with a trouble detective
Speaker 3: played by myself, and they are assigned to investigate to
Speaker 3: serial arsonists and through this investigation begin to suspect that
Speaker 3: each other are not who they can claim to be.
Speaker 1: That's so juicy. Also crazy fun fact because when I
Speaker 1: was reading up on the show, it centers around John
Speaker 1: Orr and back in the day, I played his daughter
Speaker 1: in a movie with Rayleoda.
Speaker 3: Wait what yeah?
Speaker 1: So of all the like things wait be talking about today? Guy,
Speaker 1: it was like, I think it was maybe my second
Speaker 1: job I was at USC and it filmed in LA
Speaker 1: and I would drive from class and I would go
Speaker 1: to shoot this movie and I was on set with
Speaker 1: Raleiota and John Likeguizamo, who I just.
Speaker 2: Who's in our show?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Come on? Like this is so it's crazy. So I'm
Speaker 1: so excited to see it, you know because as a
Speaker 1: young actor to think about, like, you know, how do
Speaker 1: you imagine what this sort of story would do to
Speaker 1: a kid when this happens in your family? And now
Speaker 1: I get to watch my friend be on the adult
Speaker 1: side investigating it. I know that's crazy. I know it's
Speaker 1: so fun.
Speaker 2: Wow full circle.
Speaker 1: Come on, Yeah, it's really really it's so cool.
Speaker 3: Because he was an interesting person. Yeah, they're the podcast
Speaker 3: Firebug that this is loosely inspired by is wild. If
Speaker 3: anyone wants to.
Speaker 1: Listen to I'm like, wait, I want to listen to that.
Speaker 3: You should listen to it. It's he was writing a book,
Speaker 3: you know, about an artison investigator who's secretly an arsonist,
Speaker 3: and so that element is in our show as well.
Speaker 3: But it's Dennis really has created of a heightened and
Speaker 3: fictionalized version of that, and my character is really the
Speaker 3: birth child of Dennis's mind. You know, when I met
Speaker 3: with him, one of the first things he said, one
Speaker 3: of the earlier things he said to me, was, you know,
Speaker 3: we all say we want to be happy, and yet
Speaker 3: why are we consumed by the very things that want
Speaker 3: to destroy us? And that's my character in a nutshell.
Speaker 3: She is metaphorically playing with fire. I mean, there are
Speaker 3: these elements in her life that are just dangerous that
Speaker 3: she's drawn to. And it's interesting because I know, I
Speaker 3: don't know that it's unique to me, but I definitely
Speaker 3: can see myself and those struggles in the past right
Speaker 3: like where you are going. I know this is not
Speaker 3: healthy for me, but I'm choosing it anyway, and I'm.
Speaker 2: Hoping that it doesn't turn out how I'm afraid it will,
Speaker 2: and it does.
Speaker 1: It's like when you're blind, faith or your desire to
Speaker 1: see the good just bites you in the ass. Yes.
Speaker 3: Yes, And that manifests in so many different ways, totally
Speaker 3: a toxic relationship. It could be our toxic, toxic level
Speaker 3: of ambition being a workaholic.
Speaker 2: It could be the childhood.
Speaker 3: Trauma that we still have in process and the way
Speaker 3: that manifests. And so Dennis has woven all these very
Speaker 3: complex layers into my character Michelle, who's a detective, former
Speaker 3: marine who finds herself in a relationship with her boss,
Speaker 3: who's the captain of the precinct, who's married.
Speaker 1: Oh boy who leaves.
Speaker 3: His wife for her, only for Michelle to then say
Speaker 3: she no longer wants to be with him now, and
Speaker 3: going back to attachment theory, you know, I spoke to
Speaker 3: a therapist just specifically about Michelle, and she's very much
Speaker 3: so an avoidant, which I am not. You know, I've
Speaker 3: historically I've been attracted to avoidance. Guilty is charge.
Speaker 1: I had a couple of those myself, and.
Speaker 3: So it was so fun to weave those elements into Michelle,
Speaker 3: someone who has she has real childhood trauma, she has
Speaker 3: a mother wound, a deep betrayal that happened when she
Speaker 3: was young with her mother, and it was beautiful to
Speaker 3: be able to weave that in to the way she
Speaker 3: sees the world, the way she attaches and detaches in
Speaker 3: those patterns.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how do you how do you begin to build
Speaker 1: a world for a character? And I like, I want
Speaker 1: to ask you this question that I like to ask
Speaker 1: because I know you're a research nerd, and so am I. So,
Speaker 1: I'm like, girl, tell me about your good Like, where
Speaker 1: where do you start? You know, when you make when
Speaker 1: you get this information? Former marine now a detective making
Speaker 1: bad choices, probably a little addicted to the chase. You
Speaker 1: get this nugget, I would imagine, because Dennis is brilliant. Yeah,
Speaker 1: her childhood, Like how do you begin to build her house?
Speaker 3: I begin answering all the whys and the who, what, where, why? When?
Speaker 3: So that's really where I start. Yeah, you know, what
Speaker 3: do I know about her environment? What does the text
Speaker 3: tell me? I fill that in in her biography and
Speaker 3: any holes that the text doesn't tell me, I go
Speaker 3: to the source, screenwriter Dennis Lahane in this case, ask
Speaker 3: him questions pick his brain of Okay, so what happened
Speaker 3: to her? What is this? Why does she do this?
Speaker 3: And all the questions he gives me. Any holes left,
Speaker 3: I fill in myself through research, through either speaking through experts.
Speaker 3: In this case, I spoke to not just therapists, but
Speaker 3: I spoke to former Marines. I trained with a former
Speaker 3: a veteran who served in the military. Just had to
Speaker 3: be an expert and weaponry honestly, because she deals with
Speaker 3: guns a lot. I interviewed firefighters and arson investigators. I
Speaker 3: read the Firebug podcasts, you know, watch documentaries, which then
Speaker 3: leads you to other films of this topic. And so honestly,
Speaker 3: it's really about filling up the well. And then I
Speaker 3: also just have several coaches that I work with. I
Speaker 3: have a physicality coach, I have, you know, my acting coach.
Speaker 3: I have my fitness trainer. And for this I'm normally
Speaker 3: journey I can my weight. I can tend to be
Speaker 3: a little bit on the leaner side. And so because
Speaker 3: she's a form a marine who is working in a
Speaker 3: very male dominated field, who has a little bit of
Speaker 3: body dysmorphia, who dealt with insecurity from her weight when
Speaker 3: she was a child, it manifests through her doing these
Speaker 3: crazy intense workouts. So I went to my trainer, Jeannette Jenkins,
Speaker 3: and was like, I gotta put on muscle. I gotta
Speaker 3: put on weight. And so I put on fifteen pounds
Speaker 3: of muscle before we started shooting. By the end of shooting,
Speaker 3: I had put on twenty pounds. Wow. Crazy way of
Speaker 3: eating of like eating five meals a day.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, were you just like taking
Speaker 1: hard boiled eggs to the face.
Speaker 3: Like oh my gosh, and like these protein powders and
Speaker 3: like the weight gainer shakes, and yeah, just eating in
Speaker 3: between takes and snacking all the time and trying to
Speaker 3: have a calorie surplus, but doing it in the right
Speaker 3: way and the healthy way as much as I could.
Speaker 3: I wasn't eating donuts and doing it like that, you know,
Speaker 3: which I would have loved, but also break out, so
Speaker 3: I had to like watch the skin, you know, And yeah,
Speaker 3: it was it was. It was awesome to be able
Speaker 3: to just physically transform and feel stronger because that was
Speaker 3: the goal.
Speaker 1: Is Okay, then you feel like this person.
Speaker 3: Yes, there's a there's a dominant presence that she needed
Speaker 3: to have when she walks in her room. Yes, and
Speaker 3: you know, how does she what's her posture? How does
Speaker 3: she walk? Like what's her gait? All those things are affected,
Speaker 3: you know when you feel stronger, And man, Janette, she
Speaker 3: got me. She got me up to I could do
Speaker 3: a hack squat squat of lifting two hundred and sixty
Speaker 3: pounds by the time we were done, and she got
Speaker 3: me feeling incredibly strong.
Speaker 1: So that's so cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll be.
Speaker 1: Back in just a minute. After a few words, from
Speaker 1: our favorite sponsors. When you think about that, you know,
Speaker 1: love for research. One of the things I love about
Speaker 1: the way you speak about your work is that you're
Speaker 1: never afraid to shy away from real themes that are
Speaker 1: in it, especially when you're doing a lot of these
Speaker 1: historical projects, you know, whether it's the Order or love
Speaker 1: Craft Country like it. It offers, I think, the opportunity
Speaker 1: to share history and even things that are loosely based
Speaker 1: on history, to invite an audience in and to encourage
Speaker 1: them not to shy away from who we are from.
Speaker 3: You know, and how we got here.
Speaker 1: Yes, you can uncover the things that as a society
Speaker 1: we often want to tuck away, like in the corner.
Speaker 3: Keep in the dark.
Speaker 1: And how do you kind of layer the historically relevant
Speaker 1: jobs with your love of process, Like do you ask
Speaker 1: a director to put you in touch with the historian
Speaker 1: or is it very much the similar thing where everything
Speaker 1: you find in the research leads you to another thing
Speaker 1: and you're just trying to get as much of it
Speaker 1: in your brain and body as you can by the
Speaker 1: time the camera roles.
Speaker 3: When I did the Order, I did ask them to
Speaker 3: put me in touch with a few former special agents,
Speaker 3: which they did. It depends on the project, and yeah,
Speaker 3: who can help me and who's a resource? Production is
Speaker 3: typically very beneficial in that way and have a lot
Speaker 3: of resources at their disposal and encourage that sort of
Speaker 3: research for you. Yeah, but a lot of it is
Speaker 3: self motivated, and you're right, it is. Okay. It could
Speaker 3: be a YouTube clip that makes you down a path
Speaker 3: and then that leads you to something else, And it
Speaker 3: really comes down to the level of curiosity the individual has.
Speaker 3: And I have an immense amount of curiosity about humanity
Speaker 3: and what drives us and what motivates us. It just
Speaker 3: helps me understand my own life more. And I do
Speaker 3: think that as part of the reason that I do
Speaker 3: what I do. Storytelling to me and art is essential
Speaker 3: because it helps us understand humanity.
Speaker 2: If we understood.
Speaker 3: Patterns in history more, I think we wouldn't be where
Speaker 3: we are today. I agree with you. You know, if
Speaker 3: more of us knew about unfortunately Nazi Germany, right, like,
Speaker 3: we would be able to recognize real rhetoric and real
Speaker 3: talk of a dictator.
Speaker 1: Currently right wouldn't be saying oh no, it's not that,
Speaker 1: because it is. And literally the quotes.
Speaker 3: Match, literally match, okay, And so I do feel like
Speaker 3: it's the job of the artist to just tell the truth.
Speaker 3: And how do you tell the truth? You just do
Speaker 3: the research, right, you dig deeper, you ask the questions.
Speaker 1: And you know what you're carrying into the room with you.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly. It gives you more confidence. I find in
Speaker 3: the times when, like when I was younger and I
Speaker 3: don't know that I had as much technique as I
Speaker 3: do now, those moments I think I can watch the
Speaker 3: work and go, oh, I see why I was there
Speaker 3: because I didn't know you had to do this and
Speaker 3: this and this, you know. But I also have to
Speaker 3: say I give so much credit to a lot of
Speaker 3: the individuals I've actually worked with along my career that
Speaker 3: I just kind of stole there their technique really, you know,
Speaker 3: asking them questions, Okay, well how do you do this? Well?
Speaker 3: Why do you do this? And then going all right,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna try that out.
Speaker 1: What's one of the best answers you've gotten to that question,
Speaker 1: Like from someone you have worked with who you admire,
Speaker 1: what was a Oh, that's really good.
Speaker 3: Denzel Washington, Oh, great debaters. He directed the film that
Speaker 3: I was in, and it was like taking a masterclass
Speaker 3: and he a lot of the tools. I mean, I
Speaker 3: literally you know, when you're working with someone like Denzel
Speaker 3: you better keep a note on notes and literally taking
Speaker 3: notes every single day of what he says or how
Speaker 3: he directs me or little nuggets he gives me. And
Speaker 3: it was you know him who first told me about
Speaker 3: this idea of writing a biography for your character. Knowing
Speaker 3: everything about your character, even down to the kind of
Speaker 3: sheets they sleep on, what do they eat for breakfast.
Speaker 3: It helps you think like the character, so that on
Speaker 3: the day, whether you're improving or or not having no dialogue,
Speaker 3: there's something going on in your head. Yes, because if
Speaker 3: you're thinking about the boom operator whose shirt is like
Speaker 3: rising up as the hoad in the.
Speaker 1: Boom, or like sorry, you've got to pull that tea down.
Speaker 3: Or if you're thinking about the fact that the director's
Speaker 3: eating the donut that you wish you could eat right now,
Speaker 3: but you're not gonna do it. You know, if your
Speaker 3: if your head is not actually thinking the thoughts of
Speaker 3: the character, the camera will see it. You can just
Speaker 3: get lost. And it's and it's it's like a bliss
Speaker 3: or euphoria, yes, that you are able to feel.
Speaker 1: Absolutely it's it's like a feeling of weightlessness.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when you're in the flow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's beautiful when you think about that, like the
Speaker 1: joy of what we do. Being in that flow. You
Speaker 1: can obviously reflect on the people you've worked with and
Speaker 1: the sets you've worked on, continued to build your toolkit.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like, looking back, there is a role
Speaker 1: you've played that in hindsight you realize changed you in
Speaker 1: a way that you didn't expect.
Speaker 3: I really have developed a very spiritual relationship to my
Speaker 3: instrument and I really feel that all of them come
Speaker 3: to me in a moment that I need them the most,
Speaker 3: in a moment when there's something in myself I have
Speaker 3: to exercise through them. There's something that I'm struggling with,
Speaker 3: there's a pattern I'm in, or there's a block, you know,
Speaker 3: in the pipes, And so.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't pick one.
Speaker 3: I think they're all an evolution and if you pull
Speaker 3: out one of them, I wouldn't be who I am
Speaker 3: or where I am today. Even the bad ones, you know,
Speaker 3: you learn a lot from the bad ones totally, and
Speaker 3: even the toxic environments. Dare I say I learned at
Speaker 3: a very early age how to recognize toxicity how to
Speaker 3: recognize how adults enable toxicity being in environments where it's
Speaker 3: like you know, when you're a child. In the industry, unfortunately,
Speaker 3: any child is going to be exposed to certain adult
Speaker 3: behavior they shouldn't be. And I learned a way of
Speaker 3: protecting myself and recognizing it. And so I am honestly
Speaker 3: grateful for it all. Yeah, and that might for some
Speaker 3: people strike you know, accord as like odd, but I
Speaker 3: truly am grateful for it all. It has created me,
Speaker 3: and it has given me tools in my craft, in
Speaker 3: my character and my characters, but like my actual character,
Speaker 3: it has built my own character. You know, Yes, I
Speaker 3: feel that.
Speaker 1: Too, And you know yes, working with wonderful people teaches
Speaker 1: you where to set the bar. But the toxic experiences
Speaker 1: I do think are invaluable. Would I wish them on anyone,
Speaker 1: but what it teaches you, you know, I know I.
Speaker 3: Know what to look out for.
Speaker 1: In a way I could not had I not seen
Speaker 1: the bad side. I am a better co star and
Speaker 1: producer because I know what bad ones look like.
Speaker 4: Yes, And I do think if you choose to take
Speaker 4: what you wouldn't wish on someone else, and what maybe
Speaker 4: you wish you didn't have to experience, but turn it
Speaker 4: into a learning.
Speaker 3: At exactly fuel you and it can.
Speaker 1: Actually support people around you in an even better way. Yes,
Speaker 1: And that I just think is how we figure out
Speaker 1: how to make lemonade out of lemons.
Speaker 3: Right, Yes, And I really I feel it's so important
Speaker 3: for us to lift up the ones who are not
Speaker 3: that way. I remember I was doing the Burial with
Speaker 3: Jamie Fox.
Speaker 1: He is who's lovelier than him?
Speaker 3: I mean, come on, come onliest, the loveliest, generous, I mean,
Speaker 3: pours into everyone. He produced it along with his producing
Speaker 3: partner Tatari Turner and Fox Hold their company produced it.
Speaker 3: They made sure that the majority, if not all, of
Speaker 3: the department heads were women. It was a woman director
Speaker 3: and writer woman DP like, I mean, unbelievable set. Right.
Speaker 3: But there was a moment we were doing a scene
Speaker 3: and there was someone on set who disrespect did a
Speaker 3: crew member, and Jamie stopped the take and he gave
Speaker 3: a long speech about how we will not tolerate anyone
Speaker 3: disrespecting anyone. There is no rank. We are all linked.
Speaker 3: He said, it was so beautiful to see this man
Speaker 3: who's I mean, this man is so talented. He's a
Speaker 3: freaking alien. He's so talented, but to see him hold
Speaker 3: everyone accountable in such a gracious and beautiful way. I mean,
Speaker 3: it was a moment I'll never forget. Like as great
Speaker 3: as his performance is in that movie, and it is phenomenal,
Speaker 3: and I loved you know, it's a joy to work
Speaker 3: alongside him. It was that one moment that I will
Speaker 3: remember the most though.
Speaker 1: That's what makes you love him forever, right right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And I just say, beauty.
Speaker 1: Of what he does, it's the beauty of who he.
Speaker 3: Is, amen, And it's why he can have longevity. It's
Speaker 3: why he can have you know, he's at the top
Speaker 3: of the top of the game still, right and having
Speaker 3: done it for decades. And so yeah, I think I
Speaker 3: think all of the experiences I welcome because it has
Speaker 3: taught me and it has made me grow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it. Well, when you think about what's next,
Speaker 1: I mean, like you said, the you know, the show premierees,
Speaker 1: it's like your baby goes out into the world. But
Speaker 1: also it's it's done. You know, it's finished, and then
Speaker 1: you're onto the next, whether it's a personal thing or
Speaker 1: a professional thing. Like as you look out at what's coming,
Speaker 1: what feels like You're a work in progress.
Speaker 3: That's really good. I really am on the vision board.
Speaker 3: It is about becoming very intentional with stepping behind the camera, producing, directing,
Speaker 3: ushering forward store worries whether I'm in them or not.
Speaker 3: I don't need to be the but like helping to
Speaker 3: expand the gaze of who gets to tell our stories,
Speaker 3: who gets to define who we are as women, who
Speaker 3: we are as others? Right, Like, I am not interested
Speaker 3: in continuing to complain about the problem if I'm not
Speaker 3: going to help solve it. And I see that we
Speaker 3: have come so far in the industry. You know, I
Speaker 3: don't know that decades ago I would have been able
Speaker 3: to even have the opportunity to play a role like
Speaker 3: Michelle in Smoke, who is so layered and complex and flawed.
Speaker 1: It would have been you mean, she wasn't described as
Speaker 1: likable girl, I write the word to the ground right, right.
Speaker 3: And that she can be many things, and she can
Speaker 3: make really questionably ambiguous, she can make morally ambiguous choices right,
Speaker 3: and and she doesn't have to be all knowing or
Speaker 3: all strong. I mean the strong strong women. Come on,
Speaker 3: I'm over it.
Speaker 2: A strong black woman, I like bored with it and
Speaker 2: can just.
Speaker 3: Give me flaws because flaws are truthful.
Speaker 1: Let us be messy, let.
Speaker 3: Us be messy, let us break the law, let us,
Speaker 3: you know, run away from the person we should actually
Speaker 3: be with. Let us do all the self sabotage of
Speaker 3: the world. Because I want to see myself up there.
Speaker 3: I want my niece to see herself up there. I
Speaker 3: want my friends to see themselves up there. Like I'm
Speaker 3: not interested in the girlfriend who has to be the
Speaker 3: ear for the man's plot being pushed forward, right, But
Speaker 3: I'm also not interested in the robot who's all powerful
Speaker 3: and all good, because none of us are, you know.
Speaker 3: So that is my intention is to work with filmmakers
Speaker 3: and collaborators who push me, who helped me grow. I
Speaker 3: just want to continue to grow and be better. Growing up,
Speaker 3: my mom always had me reading these biographies of the
Speaker 3: greats like Catherine have burned me, you know, her autobiography,
Speaker 3: and studying their patterns. And you're not going to have
Speaker 3: longevity if you stay stuck and rigid and doing the
Speaker 3: same thing. How are you evolving and changing? And That's
Speaker 3: what I'm interested in, being a work in progress.
Speaker 1: I love it. Well. Congrats on the show and all
Speaker 1: the things. Really happy for you.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I'm very very proud of you. This is
Speaker 3: a beautiful platform you have. Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 1: We enjoy it. We got good people over here. Come
Speaker 1: back anytime.
Speaker 3: I will be back, Okay,