Speaker 1: Ye who at the Sunset Tower Hotel my fave joined
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles on a really cold and rainy day. Today,
Speaker 1: we are all having lunch with an accomplished, incredible actress.
Speaker 1: She is OSCAR winner, screen Actor Guild Awards, National Board
Speaker 1: of Review Awards, Critic Choice of Golden Globe a BAFTA,
Speaker 1: and I am talking about Octavia Spencer, handsome. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: there's rock hard body and I've got I know, Marshall,
Speaker 1: this is the best idea. Octavia walks into the Tower
Speaker 1: bar immediately starts cracking jokes, and she's just a vision
Speaker 1: and a force, always to be reckoned with. But what
Speaker 1: she doesn't know is that today I got a couple
Speaker 1: of surprises for her. Eric, come on over, meet Octavia
Speaker 1: and you get Activita drink again. Well, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to have some diet Pepsy. My first surprise is a
Speaker 1: bottle of Octavia's favorite cocktail, and it will surprise you,
Speaker 1: which I kind of quickly realize may not be the
Speaker 1: perfect gift. I'm a terrible driver. And the fact that
Speaker 1: there's rain but it's dry. I try did you try
Speaker 1: January last about? Well for me, it probably won't be
Speaker 1: very dry. When I get home. So everybody who's pulled up,
Speaker 1: I have Octavia's favorite drink, even she is a part
Speaker 1: of it. So the intention of this was to toast
Speaker 1: season three. I'm sure to be told that this could
Speaker 1: be a part of it. You're telling the telling people
Speaker 1: pulled them a chair. What your favorite drink is? My
Speaker 1: favorite drink is the sangria Maria Hoia from Trader Jews.
Speaker 1: We should probably pop it open up to say, okay
Speaker 1: a little a little bit, So pull up a chera
Speaker 1: because for ruining some New Year's resolutions today teers tears.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you that is good. I'm Bruce Bozzy
Speaker 1: and this is my podcast table for two. So season three,
Speaker 1: Truth Be Told. It is on Apple TV. It dropped
Speaker 1: on January twentie. I mean, this ship is real, Poppy
Speaker 1: is so you know, I'm gonna start there because I
Speaker 1: also want to talk about your star. You have this
Speaker 1: big year for you. Yeah, so this is an intense season. Okay,
Speaker 1: Now there's some real ship going down in this town
Speaker 1: and Poppy is not happy, and so she finds it out.
Speaker 1: Tell me about truth, Tell me about Poppy Scoville. You
Speaker 1: know what I love about this character and what's wonderful
Speaker 1: is that it's an anthology series, so you know, you
Speaker 1: don't have to have seen season one or two to
Speaker 1: be up to date of what It's a different mystery
Speaker 1: that we saw each season. But what I loved is
Speaker 1: we've seen Poppies art. When you first meet her, she's
Speaker 1: just left The New York Times and moved back to
Speaker 1: California where her family is big house husband. Um. And
Speaker 1: but she didn't have his last name, you know, she
Speaker 1: was using her mother's maiden name. She didn't even have
Speaker 1: uh Scoville, which is her dad's She finds. There's a
Speaker 1: lot that we we we go through with Poppy. But
Speaker 1: it's it's funny because I think she essentially is finding
Speaker 1: herself and I don't think she ever realized that she
Speaker 1: was lost, you know what I mean? And I think
Speaker 1: that's what life is. And u uh, work wise, she's
Speaker 1: she is committed to being a journalist and and truth
Speaker 1: is at the center of everything and um, but the
Speaker 1: the thing about journalism is that the journalists is never
Speaker 1: a part of the subject. Poppy being a podcaster is
Speaker 1: always a partner, you know, so put everyone's life and risk. Yes,
Speaker 1: she does, she really does. For the truth for the truth,
Speaker 1: and that's where it is. It's so much fun to player,
Speaker 1: very interesting because I don't know, um, I danger truth.
Speaker 1: I understand as me personally, you always want to tell
Speaker 1: the truth. You always want to be truthful in situations
Speaker 1: and relationships and the people you love, the people that
Speaker 1: surround you. But there's this this mechanism within her to
Speaker 1: where it's it's uh, I think it becomes a detriment
Speaker 1: to anyone around her if they're involved in the mystery,
Speaker 1: because it's like the p suit of truth harms a
Speaker 1: lot of people. Well, that's an interesting thing you bring up,
Speaker 1: because it does, like you, you know, in season one,
Speaker 1: you really put your family in a very difficult position
Speaker 1: and your sister, I mean, it's heartbreaking when they arrested
Speaker 1: your sister and and and it's it's beautiful in a
Speaker 1: tragic way when they start to take off her how
Speaker 1: she presents herself Octavia. And so I thought to myself,
Speaker 1: I'm like when your dad's pissed at you. And now
Speaker 1: you know in season three, you know, like you said,
Speaker 1: it's an aanhalis, So everyone's in a different place in
Speaker 1: their life and your family and you're living in a
Speaker 1: different place. Um, is there anything Poppy would not do?
Speaker 1: Because or is the truth that I think she's learned
Speaker 1: a lot about Because everyone has an interesting relationship with
Speaker 1: the truth. Everyone has a different perception of the truth.
Speaker 1: And I think that is where and how she has
Speaker 1: matured throughout the seasons, because in season one, it was
Speaker 1: you know, it didn't feel self righteous to her, but
Speaker 1: it was, you know, from everyone else's perspective. And going
Speaker 1: into season three, with all of the losses of whether
Speaker 1: through death or through divorce, or through divorce of marriages,
Speaker 1: divorces of friendships, she has had to reconcile that within
Speaker 1: herself that everyone has a different relationship with the truth,
Speaker 1: and some things she's not entitled to know. Um. But
Speaker 1: when it comes to victims and justice, that's where she
Speaker 1: will turn over every rock and that's where I I
Speaker 1: I love that she's evolving as a person, But personally,
Speaker 1: I just don't think that we're all entitled. We're entitled
Speaker 1: to everyone else's truths unless they want to tell them,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Completely Like there you can
Speaker 1: lean into someone's truth and they can say that and
Speaker 1: we all have it, ye have it in our lives.
Speaker 1: Are things that just don't come near. But I'm nearly done.
Speaker 1: But it's like, literally just you can't stop you. And
Speaker 1: you're right. The beauty of it is it's you can
Speaker 1: watch all three. You can watch kwan you but but
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, you watch one and you need to
Speaker 1: watch the second and ends and you're like, oh my,
Speaker 1: take a break. Play. That's why binging. I hate that
Speaker 1: they've you know, introduced binging into our lives because it's
Speaker 1: like you better have a little time because you start
Speaker 1: watching stuff and it's like, let me hit play. No
Speaker 1: Apple says it to me yesterday when I'm talking streaming. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's how many hours you have your events? Did down
Speaker 1: you eb out your deep? I'm like that you think
Speaker 1: when we're done having our lane, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: sit with you again, Tony more hours today. First of all,
Speaker 1: congratulations Octavia Spencer. She got a star on Hollywood Boulevard.
Speaker 1: This is a big deal, you know what, It really
Speaker 1: is a big deal. And you know, you talk about
Speaker 1: your tribe and I'm gonna quote you here, Octavia, and
Speaker 1: you say, twenty six years ago when you drove from
Speaker 1: Alabama to l A with three thousand dollars and a
Speaker 1: four inch TV in his suitcase and a heart filled
Speaker 1: with dreams. These drinks and then you talk about the tribe,
Speaker 1: and I always say, you know, there's the John Cassavetti's
Speaker 1: if you're listening. He had a tribe. He had John Rolands,
Speaker 1: he had Peter Falk, he had you had John Hughes
Speaker 1: growing out up Ringwald. Ya Bo, you're part of a tribal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's talked to us about your tribe and your truth
Speaker 1: in that. Oh my god, it's so funny because you
Speaker 1: dream when you're wherever you are, dreaming about coming to
Speaker 1: Hollywood or going to New York, being a person in
Speaker 1: the entertainment industry, your stage or film. You always envisioned
Speaker 1: that journey. It's like, it's you, it's me, me and me.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1: And when I when I actually moved out here, I
Speaker 1: realized it wasn't a solitary journey that the people in
Speaker 1: my life, but we were all in pursuit of the
Speaker 1: same dream. And it was I met Melissa McCarthy, I
Speaker 1: mean I met them, Alison Janny, I met them all
Speaker 1: when I first moved out here. And because you met
Speaker 1: in Octavia were p a s Joel Schumacher film, which coincidentally,
Speaker 1: prior to this, I watched. I'm watching it. There you
Speaker 1: are the nurse. We won. That is you know, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: but that but that was the truth. And you know, Uh,
Speaker 1: Tate Taylor. I met Sandra Bullock, Sam Jackson, Matthew McConaughey.
Speaker 1: To meet all those people on the very first job
Speaker 1: that I got to work on, and then to meet
Speaker 1: Uh to have that relationship. Tay and I have been
Speaker 1: thickest theeves, you know. And it's so funny because I
Speaker 1: moved out to Los Angeles when I was twenty six.
Speaker 1: My actual career for everyone else started when I was
Speaker 1: forty two. That's when you know, everything have been for
Speaker 1: me because you know, Tate Uh and Brunson Green, who
Speaker 1: was the producer of The Help and Tate wrote and
Speaker 1: directed it. They fought for me to have that role
Speaker 1: in The Help. I mean I auditioned. They didn't. They
Speaker 1: didn't audition anybody else than they they wanted me. But
Speaker 1: I had to go in there and do the job.
Speaker 1: And so it was. But it was the comfort of
Speaker 1: having the tribe there and we've just rolled along all
Speaker 1: these years working on each other's you know things, and
Speaker 1: it's just I'm so grateful for that because that is
Speaker 1: that is my truth, and and knowing how those relationships
Speaker 1: and hard work, because you know, there are so many
Speaker 1: talented people in this town who haven't broken through, and
Speaker 1: I'm no more talented than they are. Um uh. I
Speaker 1: think it's a little bit of luck, a little bit
Speaker 1: of a lot of little a little bit of talent,
Speaker 1: a lot of training, but a lot of relationship. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to table for two. When we're talking with the
Speaker 1: amazing Octavia Spencer. She is inspiring on so many levels,
Speaker 1: but something I always come back to is her tenacity
Speaker 1: and persistence to go after her dreams no matter how
Speaker 1: long it takes. We're going to get into all of it.
Speaker 1: But first we need to order some lunch. So what
Speaker 1: are you gonna have for us? Salad? Okay, a little
Speaker 1: chop salad with yes right, yes, I mean look at you.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at you, and I'm like, right, I'm going
Speaker 1: to do the job with the chicken as well. To
Speaker 1: your last point, take the time to prepare for your opportunity. Yes,
Speaker 1: can you talk about that? I I think, especially given
Speaker 1: where we are with technology and social media. Um, there
Speaker 1: are steps in the process. I think that people want
Speaker 1: to skip because it's it's about it's about fame sometimes
Speaker 1: and it's about um being out there. Oh you know,
Speaker 1: no one has noticed me yet. And I I think
Speaker 1: you have to be prepared because you don't know when
Speaker 1: that opportunity is going to come. So you have to study.
Speaker 1: And when you think about it, I remember my mom
Speaker 1: and it was the most practical advice she has ever
Speaker 1: given in And it's just part of it's my mantle.
Speaker 1: You know. Whenever you if you're the first job you
Speaker 1: ever get, if it's a fry cook, um, if it's
Speaker 1: a newspaper, boy, someone's going to train you and how
Speaker 1: to do it. This is how you sell your newspaper,
Speaker 1: This is how you cook my fries. Whatever else it is,
Speaker 1: whatever field of study, you're going to have to train
Speaker 1: and UM, so take the time because if you're three
Speaker 1: years in, if you're fifteen years in, if you're one
Speaker 1: year in, if you don't have the comfort of training,
Speaker 1: that's your foundation. And if you don't have, you know,
Speaker 1: your your land legs. When that opportunity presents itself, it
Speaker 1: could mean failure. Yeah, because if you don't build upon it.
Speaker 1: You don't have the you don't have the goods, you
Speaker 1: don't don't have the foundations. You have to have that
Speaker 1: foundation because whatever it is, you know, everybody feels like
Speaker 1: an impostor. You know. So if you haven't done the
Speaker 1: best to prepare for whatever it is, you can't go
Speaker 1: to You can't be a doctor without going to med school.
Speaker 1: What I mean, nobody's gonna let you doctor on right right,
Speaker 1: and the fool that does mind, I get off the table.
Speaker 1: So it's it's really true. You know. I found myself
Speaker 1: when I you know, um, when I graduated college. I
Speaker 1: went into the NBC Page program and you know, it
Speaker 1: was it was a great program. And I gave tours
Speaker 1: and I think, similar to you and Tay, like always
Speaker 1: had fun. It was always something kind of little trouble going.
Speaker 1: I was just given to us, to these people. And
Speaker 1: one of the assignments I had was on the Today Show,
Speaker 1: which nobody wanted because it was super early in the morning,
Speaker 1: summer of eighty nine. And I did and so I
Speaker 1: did I interview, you had an interview for I kept
Speaker 1: pointing to the producer and she was like one word
Speaker 1: of advice stopped pointing an interview, and I was like, oops,
Speaker 1: And I did it. If my job was literally like Octavier,
Speaker 1: you would call you to have a segment on and
Speaker 1: I'd get you to hair and make up. I gat
Speaker 1: you with five in the morning. So I did it
Speaker 1: for that summer. I was runningrunning, running, and uh not
Speaker 1: my last day. Jane Pauli said, here's your last day,
Speaker 1: and she goes, if you would like, I'd like to
Speaker 1: write you a recommendation. I said, well, why all I
Speaker 1: did was get people to make up and to hair
Speaker 1: and ran scripts for you. And she said it wasn't.
Speaker 1: What you did is how you did it, and you
Speaker 1: always came to work with smiling face. And so I
Speaker 1: think that's our lessons in life. Yeah, and your you know,
Speaker 1: so your journey from twenty six to winning the Academy Award,
Speaker 1: that that foundation is so important. Yes, it is. You know,
Speaker 1: was there ever a time in that period where you're like,
Speaker 1: what am I doing? Why am I? Hear? Well, that's
Speaker 1: why it's important to have a tribe. That's true, because
Speaker 1: when you have those moments of self doubt, your tribe
Speaker 1: will surround you and lift you up from those moments
Speaker 1: of despair, and I didn't have a lot of moments
Speaker 1: like that, but when I did, it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: of course you're going to be great. Of course you're
Speaker 1: gonna succeed. Because I was watching all of my for
Speaker 1: I remember when Melissa McCarthy God Gilmore Girls. I remember
Speaker 1: when Alison Jenny got The West Wing. I remember when
Speaker 1: my friend Stephen Rodgers, who wrote Itonia Um all of
Speaker 1: his movies. You know, we're selling as a writer. So
Speaker 1: I was just a part of this group and no
Speaker 1: one ever allowed anyone to think that they weren't going
Speaker 1: to make it across the finish line. And that's how
Speaker 1: we all got there together, you know. And it just
Speaker 1: there were moments though you know that you're like what
Speaker 1: am I doing? Uh? And the funny thing is when
Speaker 1: success happens, the years fly by because you're on a
Speaker 1: plane on a location, on a you know, and you
Speaker 1: look up and you've been working for four years. And
Speaker 1: so then I realized I would start to measure time
Speaker 1: by you know, family and kids and growth, and it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, you're in your second baby, what's going on.
Speaker 1: I just love every aspect of the journey, and I
Speaker 1: know that I love every aspect of it because I
Speaker 1: was in it with a very uh strong group of friends,
Speaker 1: very fun group of friends. I can remember, you know,
Speaker 1: hanging with Janny or hanging with Date, and you know,
Speaker 1: being with you and hearing the stories filled with laughter
Speaker 1: and and and the truth, and all was spokes back
Speaker 1: to the truth. You know, people that really loved each
Speaker 1: other and weren't going to let their success because you know,
Speaker 1: some people get successful and then they ditch. They dined
Speaker 1: and ditch, they're out. So they weren't they weren't ever
Speaker 1: living truthfully then, So would you say that the moment
Speaker 1: for you that changed at all was winning the Academy Award.
Speaker 1: I was leading up because I think about when The
Speaker 1: Help came out. It was a huge book, It was
Speaker 1: a huge ensemble cast. If I didn't get that part,
Speaker 1: even if I hadn't been considered for the Academy Award,
Speaker 1: and what of you look at all the women in
Speaker 1: that film. You know what I'm saying, And how the
Speaker 1: careers have progressed. I think had I not been a
Speaker 1: part of that film and that ensemble and that troop
Speaker 1: of of actors associated with that project, I don't know
Speaker 1: that the career trajectory would have been the same. I'm
Speaker 1: glad that the film was successful. Um, did the Academy
Speaker 1: award help? Absolutely? But the first thing is I actually
Speaker 1: had to get a role that would lead to an
Speaker 1: Academy Award or a BAP to, you know, to help
Speaker 1: us come up a conversation. You know, it's an incredible movie,
Speaker 1: thank you, And it also has come up and could
Speaker 1: it be done today? And I get confused with that
Speaker 1: answer question because part of me is like, well, if
Speaker 1: it happened, why why can't the story be told? I
Speaker 1: think what's happening in society right now is very very
Speaker 1: dangerous because you know, we are scrubbing the history books,
Speaker 1: and if we can't point to our historical references, and
Speaker 1: if we can't point to things like that in art,
Speaker 1: in history, where do we We're repeating history now because
Speaker 1: we've been stripping those truths away. So for me, uh,
Speaker 1: could help be made today? I don't know? Should the
Speaker 1: help be made today? Absolutely? It represents um, real people
Speaker 1: who made real contributions to society, who were never rewarded
Speaker 1: for those contributions exactly, so their stories should be told.
Speaker 1: Their stories should be told. For me to sit there
Speaker 1: and watch that movie and be a white guy from
Speaker 1: New York City. It was very emotional story. I yes stuff,
Speaker 1: So I think it is a very sliper. It's a
Speaker 1: slippery slope. But what what I because I just remember
Speaker 1: um everyone saying you know uh for me, and this
Speaker 1: is my truth as as a black actress in Hollywood
Speaker 1: is diversity and inclusion. I don't have a diversity problem.
Speaker 1: I'm a black woman. I don't have a diversity problem.
Speaker 1: I think when we don't include people from all walks
Speaker 1: of life, when we don't see that representation on film
Speaker 1: and television, in books, in literature, there is a sense
Speaker 1: of invisibility and people not understanding the contributions that all
Speaker 1: people may to this the fabric of this society. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to my conversation with Octavia Spencer on Table for Too.
Speaker 1: I just love talking to Octavia because, you know, she
Speaker 1: reminds me of what it can mean to not only
Speaker 1: have a big heart in the entertainment business, but really
Speaker 1: how important it is to help people behind you become successful.
Speaker 1: You use the word invisibility, and I think it's a
Speaker 1: great word because I've often said growing up in the
Speaker 1: eighties and being a gay guy I learned how to
Speaker 1: become visibly invisible. And I feel like when you were
Speaker 1: growing up, were there people that you felt you saw
Speaker 1: yourself in. And now sitting in the seat at Octavia
Speaker 1: Spencer sits and this huge heart. What is the responsibility
Speaker 1: or do you feel a responsibility that comes with that?
Speaker 1: I think if you had asked me when I was
Speaker 1: twenty six, and I felt a responsibility, Um, even though
Speaker 1: I had nothing to be responsible for, get nobody do
Speaker 1: my name. But if I were successful at twenty six,
Speaker 1: I would said no. You know, I'm an artist and
Speaker 1: I want to you know, my job as an artist,
Speaker 1: as a creative person is to shine a light, illuminate
Speaker 1: things in society, but also provide a little bit of escapism.
Speaker 1: Uh have a voice in the creative process. Uh, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want to bear a responsibility. And now where
Speaker 1: I am and understanding that women, women of color didn't
Speaker 1: necessarily have access or a voice and and uh their
Speaker 1: place in this in this industry, I do have a
Speaker 1: responsibility and I'm excited about having that responsibility. That's why
Speaker 1: I'm excited about being a producer. Growing up, you know,
Speaker 1: I I looked like most people out there for my inspiration.
Speaker 1: And so you saw the oprah Winfreeze and the Sicily
Speaker 1: Tyson's and the Dying Carols and oh my god. Because
Speaker 1: I'm a big literature nerda I'm an English major. So
Speaker 1: that's all I did was read uh Dr Maya Angelou
Speaker 1: and so many you know artists and writers you know,
Speaker 1: Baldwin everything, you know what I mean. So I looked outward,
Speaker 1: and of course I was inspired by their work. But
Speaker 1: now at this age, I remember it was my mom,
Speaker 1: you know, working to make sure that we, you know,
Speaker 1: had education and and and access to a life that
Speaker 1: she wasn't privy to. As I think about my college days,
Speaker 1: my mom passed when I was seventeen, it was my sisters,
Speaker 1: you know, all of us working you know, jobs and
Speaker 1: getting scholarships and help student loans to help pay for
Speaker 1: each other's education. So where I sit now, um, yes,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of people that were visible to
Speaker 1: be and educators were very important to me because they
Speaker 1: were always encouraging me, uh to you know, I always say,
Speaker 1: reached for the tallest branch on the highest tree, because
Speaker 1: the further you reach, the further you'll go. But now
Speaker 1: I realized it was family and that that that insulated
Speaker 1: group around me. And that's why family is so important
Speaker 1: to me and friends are so important because it's the
Speaker 1: it's life imitating. I mean, you're a master storyteller. What
Speaker 1: do you love about producing? Like, what do you look for?
Speaker 1: It's funny that people don't know this, but there are
Speaker 1: a few things that I you know, if my mom
Speaker 1: had lived, I would have definitely you know, gone to
Speaker 1: law school and you know, been a part of a
Speaker 1: different world. And this is more the dream that I
Speaker 1: had for myself. Um. And but I actually wanted to
Speaker 1: be a producer, even though I didn't know what producers did.
Speaker 1: And now that I've realized that that's what you bring.
Speaker 1: You put the projects together. You're the puzzle person. And
Speaker 1: I've always been a puzzle person in real life. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to do that first. And it's funny that
Speaker 1: acting facilitated that, um because you know, yeah, you didn't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that the chicken or the egg. I
Speaker 1: got the egg and the chicken, and I'll take a
Speaker 1: both like eggs and I like chicken. My very first
Speaker 1: producer credit, and it was an executive producer credit, was
Speaker 1: Proovel Station I and Nina Yang bon Jovi and uh
Speaker 1: Forest Whittaker, Um it was their movie, and uh Ryan
Speaker 1: Coogler wrote it and I read the script and loved it.
Speaker 1: And I don't know why. I thought Ryan Coogler was
Speaker 1: a young Jewish kid and I read it and I thought,
Speaker 1: this kid who probably has no relationship to to Oakland
Speaker 1: or whatever. Wow, he was able to really get in there.
Speaker 1: And I feel it so visceral, and I I wanted
Speaker 1: to do it, and when I met Ryan was like, here, okay.
Speaker 1: So there's so much that I got wrong, but falling
Speaker 1: in love with that script and being a part of
Speaker 1: that production and talk about diverse crew, it was just
Speaker 1: one of the most amazing experiences that I've had as
Speaker 1: an actress. Man. Though we've come a long way, and
Speaker 1: I don't think it's been a good trajectory because I
Speaker 1: did Fruitbale Station about you know, uh gun violence and
Speaker 1: you know, violence against young black men. Because I I'm
Speaker 1: not a mom, but I'm a sister. I'm an aunt
Speaker 1: and we say I'm an aunt and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a cousin and I'm a friend. So I wanted
Speaker 1: to be a part of that film. And how I
Speaker 1: became a producer. Is that movie was only made for
Speaker 1: like nine hundred thousand dollar US and they had a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thou dollars fall out of it. I
Speaker 1: had just won the Academy Award for the help. I
Speaker 1: had just finished snow Piercer. We were filming in the
Speaker 1: summer and some other financing fell through, and I said, well,
Speaker 1: I have some new vo reached friends. Let me call them.
Speaker 1: You know, they've got some money from the you know,
Speaker 1: let me call some people. And I made some calls
Speaker 1: and we were you know, and I put a little
Speaker 1: money in and we're just patching things, uh together, And
Speaker 1: um Nina and Forest were so generous because the other
Speaker 1: thing when I realized like they didn't have a budget
Speaker 1: and they had me in this wonderful hotel, and I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I could pay for my own hotel.
Speaker 1: Let's use this money and this is pretty m for me,
Speaker 1: and let's use it to you know, get other actors.
Speaker 1: And so they were so generous and said, you've done
Speaker 1: so much, can we offer you an executive producer credit?
Speaker 1: And of course I wasn't gonna turn that down. And
Speaker 1: uh so then I just starting it's just what I
Speaker 1: gravitate towards as a as an artist. If it resonates
Speaker 1: with me, I feel like hopefully it will resonate with
Speaker 1: with with audiences. And but I always look for stories
Speaker 1: that might at first seem bleak, but there's always a
Speaker 1: thread of hope and light in the end. I'm another surprised.
Speaker 1: Oh tell us, Oh my god, I'm gonna kiel tape,
Speaker 1: diet too beef and two chicken. I love you so
Speaker 1: much right now that argentinean be supposed to be the
Speaker 1: best in l A small little place on Sautel and
Speaker 1: Venice Boulevardo like Christmas. That just clink. Look, can we
Speaker 1: do another clink on that? Because this is just amazing.
Speaker 1: Thank you. When you're having lunch with baby, we have
Speaker 1: to make it special. Spencer at the table, there's clapper,
Speaker 1: which means good god, I'm totally screwed up your January. No,
Speaker 1: you didn't. You just made me realize that it's about
Speaker 1: life and I have to moderate. Your body of work
Speaker 1: is amazing and it is peace for itself. Um So
Speaker 1: along the way of making those choices, I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: a multitude choices that you didn't. You said no to
Speaker 1: what what makes you not do a project. It's interesting. Uh.
Speaker 1: I know some people when they when they read a
Speaker 1: script um they look at their character and the prominence
Speaker 1: of their character, and you know, my character could be
Speaker 1: the lead, my character could be part of an ensemble.
Speaker 1: It's just what is the contribution of that character, how
Speaker 1: integral to the story is she? But I choose projects
Speaker 1: as a whole. When I sit down and I read
Speaker 1: the script, if the creatives behind it, if I if
Speaker 1: I don't believe that they're going to be able to
Speaker 1: execute it in the manner that the script if it
Speaker 1: has to be on the page. But if it's not, uh,
Speaker 1: if it's on the page and the people around it
Speaker 1: aren't and they don't have to be named or storied people,
Speaker 1: they just have to know what they're doing. And I
Speaker 1: love writer directors, you know. Ninety I would say the
Speaker 1: work that I've done is for people who have written
Speaker 1: things for me or they are the writer director. And
Speaker 1: I love that because if you're the writer director, you're
Speaker 1: not um looking through someone else's lend. If it's on
Speaker 1: the page, I know that you're going to be able
Speaker 1: to actually cute Guillermo del Toro for the Shape of Water,
Speaker 1: I was only supposed to meet with him for like
Speaker 1: thirty minutes, and it turned to like a three hour lunch,
Speaker 1: right the best time, because I was a big fan
Speaker 1: of his and he he said, I wrote the script,
Speaker 1: I'm going to send it to you, and I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna tell you anything. And I was like, well, okay.
Speaker 1: I got home and I read the first page. My
Speaker 1: character is not in the first page. But I read
Speaker 1: the first page and I called him and I said,
Speaker 1: I'm in, Like, you haven't even had time to read it.
Speaker 1: But I read the first page and I was so
Speaker 1: I knew, you know, I just knew. And then when
Speaker 1: I when my character it does come into the script,
Speaker 1: I was already in and I just I'm in. Just
Speaker 1: tell him I'm in. Okay, So you talked about I
Speaker 1: didn't know you were a literature major. Are you? What
Speaker 1: are you reading now? What are you right now? I'm
Speaker 1: reading Michelle Obama. I just I think she's an amazing
Speaker 1: writer and she has has had a really interesting life.
Speaker 1: The next thing that I want to do is join
Speaker 1: a book club and read multiple things at once, because
Speaker 1: I used to have this voracious appetite for you know, material,
Speaker 1: and now I'm thinking, well, where do I look. I've
Speaker 1: never been a huge reader. I like the idea of reading.
Speaker 1: I'm the slowest reader. Like I was reading The Kite Runner,
Speaker 1: and four years later, how's that book? I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: on page third. He's like the movie. I finished it.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm getting a lot better. I get really caught
Speaker 1: up in and to my genres and I I love mysteries.
Speaker 1: I literally live in the mystery world and thrillers and
Speaker 1: so anything Patterson does, it's like, you know, and I
Speaker 1: love Dean Conson, I love all of you know, but
Speaker 1: they're a little spooky and a little so now I'm
Speaker 1: it's funny where I am in life. I kind of
Speaker 1: don't want the fantasy of those things anymore. I'm into
Speaker 1: other people's life experiences and not fiction but nonfiction. So um,
Speaker 1: that's where I am. And it's a weird place because
Speaker 1: I have stacks of books that are like getting dust
Speaker 1: that I haven't cracked open yet. Um that I bought.
Speaker 1: And I also love reading children's literature. You love reading
Speaker 1: it or are you part? Did you have a project?
Speaker 1: I actually I wrote a children's book because I I, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I am dyslexic, and Mystery saved my reading
Speaker 1: life because my teacher in the first grade gave me
Speaker 1: Encyclopedia Brown, and she said, you're gonna want to pay
Speaker 1: attention to every thing in the book because you don't
Speaker 1: know what is a clue. And of course you're like,
Speaker 1: because I would ta about a text, you know, I
Speaker 1: would start reading, and if the narrative didn't catch me immediately,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't do it. Then when I started
Speaker 1: reading mysteries, I couldn't put them down, you know, in
Speaker 1: a very different way. I mean I read I read
Speaker 1: every Hardy Boy, Nancy Drew, every single one. I read
Speaker 1: every Encyclopedia Brown, the Box Car Kids, like every single one.
Speaker 1: But that's that's kind of who I am. When I
Speaker 1: become a fan, I then have to consume everything you do.
Speaker 1: That's the tribe you're in. You all are just fully in,
Speaker 1: ye Like that is what I think is so spectacular
Speaker 1: about everything you and your group is like you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're in, We're in, Like we're gonna go and whether
Speaker 1: it's just going out to some steakhouse you know well
Speaker 1: and John's driving on you know, it's like because where
Speaker 1: am I? What am I doing? This? Er, I like you.
Speaker 1: Mullet's good. I'll lot that it was a ponytail at you.
Speaker 1: It's cute. No, it's it's my Wisconsin waterfall. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to love. I was always being asked Hollywood has a
Speaker 1: diversity problem. I said, well, Hollywood may, but I don't
Speaker 1: have a diversity. But I'm diverse in my nature. Um.
Speaker 1: And that's what I love though about finding projects and
Speaker 1: being a producer, because the other question I'm asked a
Speaker 1: lot is what's the role you're meant to play and
Speaker 1: destined to play and that you want to play and
Speaker 1: the role I've always wanted to play. The role that
Speaker 1: I feel that I'm into play is that of a
Speaker 1: producer to create opportunities for everyone who wants to be
Speaker 1: a storyteller, Um, but especially people who don't have access
Speaker 1: to opportunities. Is there something that you would like to
Speaker 1: bring to screen of someone's story that you would like
Speaker 1: to tell. It's funny because Donna Gelotti, producer of Hidden Figures,
Speaker 1: brought me a script and uh, she's just one of
Speaker 1: the most fascinating people. The subject of the script, Um,
Speaker 1: Wie Roundtree Johnson. I don't want to say too much
Speaker 1: about her story. I'll tell you off of mine, but
Speaker 1: I am excited about telling her story. She was a lawyer,
Speaker 1: She lived to be a hundred and four. She had
Speaker 1: the opportunity to be the national head of the Double
Speaker 1: A CP and she actually chose to take on a
Speaker 1: case that was in her community. UM, and boy was
Speaker 1: she up against some very powerful forces. And UM, she
Speaker 1: won that case. And when you read her story, when
Speaker 1: you read her, you know, just reading her obituary, it
Speaker 1: was like she's one of those those women that you
Speaker 1: kind of really didn't know about, you know. I won't
Speaker 1: say she was necessarily a hidden figure, UM, but she
Speaker 1: she was. UM. And I think her story definitely deserves
Speaker 1: to be told because I get to play a lawyer,
Speaker 1: I had to actually be one, UM and I'm excited
Speaker 1: about that because of the impact. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: that ripple effect that she was able to have in
Speaker 1: her community, amazing people's lives that you don't know, the
Speaker 1: magnitude you know, and then when you learn, um, wow,
Speaker 1: look a person can do exactly the fact that you
Speaker 1: say that. And and I am so grateful for the
Speaker 1: educators in my life from my mom, because when you
Speaker 1: recognize an and when you nurture that curiosity and kids, um,
Speaker 1: but let them know that they have something special, whatever
Speaker 1: it is, that we all have something to contribute to
Speaker 1: the world. And if people felt better about what their
Speaker 1: contribution is. I mean, you know, if it's a person
Speaker 1: that's an amazing cook and you're feeding you know, your family,
Speaker 1: or you want to open up bakery, that should be celebrated.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. No matter how big or
Speaker 1: how small, those contributions are important. And I think the
Speaker 1: world will be a much better place if people, um
Speaker 1: recognize that in each other and encourage that. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Yeah, I do know what you're saying.
Speaker 1: And I do think that we have tended to value
Speaker 1: something that's much more glamorous and lucrative as opposed to
Speaker 1: valuing the sort of the whole landscape and the and
Speaker 1: the small and the significance of the small. You know,
Speaker 1: and I know you know you've for your mom and
Speaker 1: and it's it's so it fills me with such joy
Speaker 1: an emotion because you had your mom for seventeen years
Speaker 1: and you the power that she gave you in that
Speaker 1: short period of time absolutely is amazing, It really is.
Speaker 1: And that power you have given to all of us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you for saying that. I feel very fortunate, and
Speaker 1: uh what, I love quoting movies, especially the color purple.
Speaker 1: But this isn't the color purple. This is Spider Man
Speaker 1: too much, whom is given much as expected. And I
Speaker 1: I I definitely believe that for my life and my career.
Speaker 1: And I'm just I'm very I'm happy, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: happy that I have those opportunities. It's always sad when
Speaker 1: lunch ends, but luckily for Octavia, I'm sending her home
Speaker 1: with a jug of Trader Joe Sangria and a ton
Speaker 1: of leftowners. Hey, Eric, I'm taking I'm taking my stuff.
Speaker 1: Mama doesn't cook and when you have diffud, So everybody,
Speaker 1: thank you for plowing up ature with Octavia and I today.
Speaker 1: This is a magnificent lunch. You gotta check out Truth
Speaker 1: be Told on Apple. It's amazing. I love you too,
Speaker 1: and thank you for having Thank you, thank you, and
Speaker 1: thank you for my meal leisure. My Tree Table for
Speaker 1: two with Bruce Bozzy is produced by ir Heart Radio
Speaker 1: seven three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Bruce Bozzy, Jonathan Hoss Dressed and Nathan King. Table for
Speaker 1: two is edited and written by Tina Mullen and researched
Speaker 1: and written by Bridget arsenalt Our sound engineers are Emil B. Klein,
Speaker 1: Paul Bowman and Melyssa Midcalf. Table for two is l A.
Speaker 1: Production team is Danielle Romo and Lorraine viz Our. Music
Speaker 1: supervisor is Randall poster. Our talent booking is by James Harkin.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Amy Sugarman, Uni Share, Kevin Uvane, Bobby Bower,
Speaker 1: Alison Cantor, Graber and Barburn Gen and Jeff Klein and
Speaker 1: the staff at the Tower Bar in the world famous
Speaker 1: Sunset Tower Hotel. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.