Jenna Von Oy Meets World

00:00:18
Speaker 1: I have had a cold now for eight days.

00:00:20
Speaker 2: I can't keep it nine days. Whatever it is, it will not go away.

00:00:23
Speaker 3: And I keep hearing all.

00:00:25
Speaker 4: These random people giving me advice on how to get rid of it. And the one I heard yesterday was just doing shots of bourbon with lemon in it, which sounds great, and I feel like I'm just going to be.

00:00:35
Speaker 1: With you drunk and then you don't mind having a cold.

00:00:39
Speaker 4: I'm wondering if you guys can give me any advice about the random, most random ways you've heard to get rid of the common cold, which is just not going away.

00:00:47
Speaker 5: I shan't okay, Well, first of all, do you use a netty pot?

00:00:53
Speaker 4: What a nutty pot? I do not use a net I feel like I'm put things up my nose.

00:01:01
Speaker 5: And then okay, Well, I would like to say that a Nettie pot one is great even if you don't have a cold. It helps prevent you possibly from getting sick, because nasal visage is getting all, you know, helping keep it clear from germs, and when you are sick, it will help push things through faster. I really cannot say enough wonderful things about a Nettie pot and I would highly recomon do it in the show?

00:01:27
Speaker 1: Do we just enter an Nettie Pot commercial? And I didn't realize it? It's like it also leads me to believe do we have the copy.

00:01:35
Speaker 6: I don't know what the pot Neteethpot.

00:01:38
Speaker 5: You can get it at your local CBS, Walgreens, Nettie Meets World.

00:01:46
Speaker 1: I've actually never used the pot, but I know people like around me you swore it, but it's I also heard it's kind of addictive, though, like one of those things like once you clear your nasal passages.

00:01:55
Speaker 5: I don't recommend using it every day. I don't recommend using it every day if you're not sick. If you're sick, I recommend using it every day if you're not sick, a couple times a week, maybe just once a week, or maybe you just pick and choose, like before you go on a plane, after you come off a plane, like places where maybe you're going to be in extra jermy environments. I use it in the shower so that I don't have to worry about, you know, it dripping down my face or feeling like I'm drowning. I can just figure out the best most comfortable position to be in to use it.

00:02:24
Speaker 6: I really highly recommend that.

00:02:25
Speaker 5: And there is a little bit of truth will to the idea of the bourbon that's kind of like a hot toddy.

00:02:30
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's honey lemon, a little bit of your favorite type of alcohol.

00:02:35
Speaker 5: And a cinnamon stick. And it will help one help you sleep. It will sue the sore throat, it will it will just give you a little bit of extra rest.

00:02:45
Speaker 3: I have no symptoms other than my head.

00:02:47
Speaker 6: Is clogged for I can hear it.

00:02:50
Speaker 2: Just I cannot kick this thing. It is killing me at this point.

00:02:54
Speaker 6: I'm so sorry. I also really love Faara Flu.

00:02:57
Speaker 5: If you don't want to do the alcohol version a night time I'm fair flu. They make a daytime theiflu. I'm also a really big fan of Floonse.

00:03:05
Speaker 2: It really.

00:03:07
Speaker 3: Works on me.

00:03:08
Speaker 4: The the afron is the stuff that's scary, not touch and it works so well.

00:03:12
Speaker 2: And then next thing you know.

00:03:13
Speaker 6: That that is addicted.

00:03:15
Speaker 5: I don't recommend. Yeah, I don't reckon. My dad had an afron addiction. Couldn't breathe image at one point.

00:03:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, it happens fast too, but it's such a good.

00:03:23
Speaker 5: Product, and then you can't breathe without it. So flose doesn't do that. It's non addictive. So you know, Will I, I really I think if you started a regiment of Nettie pot Flownase a hot body and or a faraflu, and you're gonna feel better in a couple of days.

00:03:38
Speaker 2: I'm just going to stick to the bourbon. I think that's the way. I'm It seems the easiest way, just to start taking.

00:03:43
Speaker 6: Bourbon the least natural.

00:03:46
Speaker 4: Tell you, though, I'll meet you in the middle and I will drink bourbon in the shower.

00:03:49
Speaker 2: Okay, so we'll do that.

00:03:52
Speaker 1: Perfect sold, wonderful.

00:03:55
Speaker 6: Welcome to pod meets World. I'm Daniel Fischl.

00:03:57
Speaker 1: I'm right or strong Will Fidel.

00:04:00
Speaker 5: At this point in the podcast, we all know about Andy and Danny, the unstoppable nineties duo that took photos throughout all of Los Angeles and held up childhood blankies that looked like genitals in front of handmade.

00:04:11
Speaker 6: Cars like it was nobody's business.

00:04:15
Speaker 5: But what you don't know is that we had a third amigo, someone who was in just as many photos and also held just as special of a place in my heart and also Will's hart.

00:04:27
Speaker 6: But we'll get to that later.

00:04:29
Speaker 5: Our guest this week is best known as the iconic the Dorothy six lemuur On Blossom, the eccentric best Friend, nicknamed because it took that amount of beers for her conception. She'd also be seen in The Night Story Really it was Yes, Wow, isn't that funny? I didn't know that either. That's great.

00:04:50
Speaker 6: She'd also be.

00:04:51
Speaker 5: Seen in the nineteen ninety nine sitcom The Parkers and heard as Stacy in the classic A Goofy movie. But we'll always remember seeing her in real life in that red convertible Toyota Selica, where she was the coolest woman any of us knew, and there was no way you could convince us any different. This week, we are thrilled to welcome not only a nineties sitcom legend to pod Meets World, but someone from the inner circle of myself, Will and writer.

00:05:22
Speaker 6: It's Jenna VANOI.

00:05:25
Speaker 2: Thought I was white, white, Selica.

00:05:29
Speaker 6: Hers was red.

00:05:31
Speaker 5: Let's ask her if hers is white.

00:05:35
Speaker 6: I'm gonna be I'm gonna be.

00:05:39
Speaker 7: Walking abound.

00:05:39
Speaker 5: Tell me was your convertible convertible Selica white or red?

00:05:46
Speaker 7: I'm just curious. At first, I have to ask who said what I said red?

00:05:50
Speaker 1: I said white? I don't remember.

00:05:53
Speaker 7: I mean, I'm gonna go with the guy I dated.

00:05:55
Speaker 2: Was correct, thank you.

00:05:58
Speaker 4: My Selica was read. Hers was white. That's one of the reasons we bonded at dinner that night.

00:06:04
Speaker 7: Yes, that's correct.

00:06:05
Speaker 6: Wow, believable. I'm really.

00:06:11
Speaker 7: So I'm going to see you. I'm so excited.

00:06:17
Speaker 5: First of all, my whole life, I've wanted a red Toyota Selica convertible, and I've attributed it to you my entire life. I've said it in panels, I've said it everywhere.

00:06:25
Speaker 1: Well, you were inspired by her, but then it became red in your magic. So your version was going to be right, that's how you're gonna be. You were gonna be like your version.

00:06:32
Speaker 7: Yeah. Yeah, it was like you know the dream that took off room.

00:06:36
Speaker 5: Yeah, you were the inspiration and I just wanted the cherry red. Wow, it's pretty pretty amazing. So to jump into all of this, do you know how many photos we took together and related to that? Do you have room in your house for a few boxes full of them?

00:06:56
Speaker 7: No, because my mother has already sent me all of the ones that she's stockpiled in her attic, and there was far more of a packrat than I ever gave he credit for. So no, there's no room, no room. I will say this. So I have a nine and an eleven year old, right, and I was I'm threatening this summer to make them sit down, and I actually kind of think this is a brilliant idea. I'm very excited about it. I'm threatening to make them sit down and go through all of like the old Team Beat magazines and tear out the pages, and like, I think this is a really good summer project. Guys, I'm really.

00:07:30
Speaker 1: You're going to make them Yeah, you're gonna consolidate.

00:07:34
Speaker 7: I like that, Yes, because my mother gave me all these boxes of magazines and I was like.

00:07:39
Speaker 6: What am I gonna do with all this? I have all of mine too.

00:07:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's great. Just to take your pictures out, you can call it between Beat.

00:07:46
Speaker 2: Thank you very much.

00:07:47
Speaker 1: My god.

00:07:48
Speaker 2: Yep, I'll show myself out. That's fine.

00:07:51
Speaker 1: I'm officially done for the day.

00:07:52
Speaker 7: Let me just say that some things never change, all right.

00:07:56
Speaker 1: Do you guys have any memory of meeting Jenna or Jenna? Do you remember meeting us? Because for me, you just appeared fully formed as the most experienced, coolest, nicest like when we showed up on boy Metsorre that was like, who can we trust that knows what's happening in this whole crazy experience And it was like Jenna and you were just like.

00:08:19
Speaker 7: The rock for all of us and what worked the world was I totally balanced and good.

00:08:24
Speaker 1: Like I don't know, you were the folest person ever. I think you will list you were sixteen or seventeen. You had been on a hit sitcom that was like ahead of us, like two or three seasons in so when we started, I just know that we all looked to you. It was like, how can we be more like Jenna? And like you were just always around. You were so kind, You were so nice for the parents. You like had your own apartment maybe already or just your own car. So you were just like everything we wanted to be. And was like how do we who do we trust? Right? I mean, don't you guys remember feeling this way? And I don't remember meeting you. I just you were just like this fairy that entered our life and like I knew I needed you in my life. And I remember everything about meeting Jenna, all.

00:09:05
Speaker 7: The confidence that.

00:09:09
Speaker 1: Of course I remember meeting Jenna.

00:09:10
Speaker 2: I remember where we were. I remember the first night we.

00:09:12
Speaker 6: Met, of course, because tell us the story?

00:09:15
Speaker 1: Well we do you want to tell it?

00:09:16
Speaker 2: Or should I tell it?

00:09:17
Speaker 1: You're the guest, you should tell it?

00:09:19
Speaker 7: I kind of would like to defer to you for a moment.

00:09:23
Speaker 4: Well, So Jenna was writing an article for was it a teen magazine?

00:09:29
Speaker 7: Yeah? I think it was teen be?

00:09:31
Speaker 1: Was it teen Beat?

00:09:32
Speaker 2: Okay?

00:09:32
Speaker 3: And so was it Scott Appel?

00:09:36
Speaker 4: Somebody put us together through a publicist, put us together so you could interview me.

00:09:42
Speaker 7: I feel like there was probably underlying matchmaking things happening that No, probably, but that's besides.

00:09:49
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:09:49
Speaker 4: And so we went to an Italian restaurant in Burbank and we both ordered salads because both of us were too embarrassed to eat in front of each other, and neither of us I think took a bite the entire night we sat there.

00:10:01
Speaker 7: Wow, likely because we were talking too much, but maybe also because we were nervous about eating in front of each other, yet.

00:10:07
Speaker 4: In front of each other, and we were. We instantly found out we had all these things in common.

00:10:13
Speaker 2: We were from Connecticut.

00:10:14
Speaker 4: We both drove Toyota Celica's and we kept she was recording it, and she kept stopping the tape and then going back and being like, oh my god, we just found out another thing that we had in common.

00:10:23
Speaker 3: It was just one thing after another, and we just kind.

00:10:27
Speaker 2: Of started dating after that.

00:10:28
Speaker 3: We were just kind of together after that night.

00:10:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, how long did you guys?

00:10:32
Speaker 4: Date?

00:10:33
Speaker 3: For?

00:10:35
Speaker 2: Four months? Six months?

00:10:36
Speaker 1: Okay?

00:10:38
Speaker 7: Right, I mean at sixteen. I feel like it was a pretty link.

00:10:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.

00:10:43
Speaker 7: She broke up with me in a parking lot in Connecticut. But that's like a story for another time.

00:10:48
Speaker 6: That story.

00:10:49
Speaker 5: Forget the story, tell that story, Jenna Gough.

00:10:54
Speaker 7: Fine, it's fine. I'm not scarred from it or anything I did ironically, So here know, there actually was a very precious thing, which was that it was the first Valentine's Day. This fun, fun little secrets that I don't think anybody knows first Valentine's Day that either of us had ever had a significant other. Yeah, which, ye, a significant other you can have at sixteen. And and he gave he was he was so sweet and gave me his favorite Whaler's sweatshirt.

00:11:25
Speaker 6: Not the jersey, the sweatshirt.

00:11:26
Speaker 7: Big you guys. That was like, so yeah, yeah, I can't believe we're like in this in minute what four address? This is like record? So yeah, what Siri is talking to me now, She's like, here's what I found. God knows what She's.

00:11:43
Speaker 1: Got sweatshirt wh.

00:11:49
Speaker 7: Yeah, so Whaler's sweatshirt, which I actually located I think about two years ago and was like, holy crap, SI left this and I took a picture of it because I was going to try and send it to you, and I don't I don't know if I like found you online and send it to you or not, Like I was going to try and find you on social media and like send it, but I think, yeah, I.

00:12:09
Speaker 2: Don't have any social media.

00:12:11
Speaker 6: Correct.

00:12:11
Speaker 5: Do you take a picture of it before you donated it or do you still have it? You know?

00:12:16
Speaker 7: I actually don't know the answer to that because I was getting out of a storage unit and I'm not going to say I had this what shirt and a storage unit? But you did break up with me in a parking lot, so storage unit.

00:12:27
Speaker 1: I mean, I do feel like we at least you kept it at all.

00:12:30
Speaker 6: I do know what I mean.

00:12:32
Speaker 5: Come on, we know how you met, so now I think it's only appropriate we know how it ended.

00:12:37
Speaker 7: But correct, correct, correct, but no hard feelings. I mean, you know, forty years.

00:12:41
Speaker 4: Later we saw each other. After that, it wasn't what I mean, Jenna was around for a while.

00:12:49
Speaker 1: At least, you were just the You were the most experienced, like actor.

00:12:57
Speaker 7: So bad experienced actor okay, yeah, just like make sure we add actor to like the very yeah's.

00:13:03
Speaker 6: You were a fast girl.

00:13:04
Speaker 1: No, no, no, you were just the one who knew the ropes of like being on a sitcom and how to manage like the teen magazines and like where to go. Like I don't know, like, did you go to ed de Bevik's with us? I feel like that seems sounds about right.

00:13:18
Speaker 7: Like that's highly likely. Y.

00:13:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like that you were just in and that you were in the scene in a way that like, you know, we didn't we just looked up to you. I just remember looking up to you and you were so cool and fun and we just liked each other. And I just remember like thinking, yeah, it's so funny to look back and be like, yeah, you were actually probably only sixteen and probably had no clue what you were doing either.

00:13:39
Speaker 7: But do you feel like that how people who are only a couple of years older than you seem so much older at the time. Yeah, I'm like in my brain and of course I still feel this, and I'm like, oh, you're twenty seven, We're the same age. It's totally fine. Yeah, Like you know, at that time, I feel like I looked at you as being my peer and being the same age as me. Meanwhile, I was obviously a couple of years older than you, and that pines in age was just that gap was so huge. What I think, what I remember most for you, writer is the cruise that we all yes, which was so and so insane looking back.

00:14:23
Speaker 4: But for you, hell it was it was Yeah, ocean hell is what we've called that.

00:14:30
Speaker 1: No, well, okay, oh wait, but you were there old on we you were in the first year, right, or were you there when Danielle went? I think you were there the first year.

00:14:37
Speaker 6: She was there with me.

00:14:39
Speaker 1: She was oh did you do both years?

00:14:40
Speaker 3: Then?

00:14:41
Speaker 4: No?

00:14:42
Speaker 7: Okay, I didn't know there were two years.

00:14:44
Speaker 1: I went two years.

00:14:45
Speaker 6: I went two years.

00:14:46
Speaker 7: Too, Wow, you went two years. Yeah, there might have been reasons why they didn't invite me back. It's I think you.

00:14:54
Speaker 5: I think you did do the second year because good, that's so you weren't invited the first year, but you got a invited to the second year.

00:15:01
Speaker 7: Okay, fair well, that sounds better.

00:15:15
Speaker 5: So will mentioned already you're from Connecticut. How did you decide to become an actor? And what did your parents think of you wanting to do this?

00:15:23
Speaker 7: Other than that I was nuts. You know, acting is not It's not in my family at all. My mom is from a small town Wisconsin. My dad is from Fairfield, Connecticut, very you know, fairly small town. And when I was about three years old, there was a Jordash Jean's commercial and all these girls were doing ballet and I loved to dance, and I took dance classes at the time, essentially because my parents didn't know what to do with me because I had so much energy, which now as a mom to a firecracker of a nine year old, I'm like, oh, goat feeling my poor parents. But so I think, you know, I saw this commercial and I was like, oh, all these girls are dancing, and I don't know what goes through one's mind prior to understanding that there are actually people on display on the television, that it's not robots, that it's not I don't I mean, I don't know what you think prior to that, but for me, that was my first indication that there were actually humans that were doing these roles and they were dancing, and these were kids like me, and it made sense to me, and I was like, oh, well, that's what I want to do. So I started telling my parents and they were like, oh, that's so cute. You know, you're gonna fight fires one day, dance and dad where Georde Ash Jean's the next. And I was like, hmmm, no, it's that We're done. Here we go and scene. So yeah, they started, they didn't know what to do. They ignored it for a while. And then this woman my dad was a longtime server at a really beautiful water fall front restaurant in Connecticut that served he served, you know, people like Paul Newman and were the stewart for many many years and it was just like this classic traditional restaurant and the bartender there. Ironically, or maybe not so ironically, when my dad told her that I wanted to be an actress, said to him, Oh, that's funny. I just started taking my son to New York for auditions. I'm I'm a manager. Now I've become a manager. My dad was like, I don't really know what that means, but cool, and she said, well, I'd love to meet her. And I went to her house and she was like, oh, yeah, we're going to do this. And so she started taking me to New York for auditions and still plenty of money along the way. My dye, oh no, because it was one of those situations where, you know, my parents were so green and yeah, I know them. They're both from small towns and they they had no idea and which really, in the long run, as much as it sucks to say this, like it's kind of a beautiful thing. My parents didn't know any better and that they were amateurs in the whole thing. You know, we learned together, we grew together in the business to understand it better and and well not be taking taken advantage of quite so much. But but yeah, So this woman took me to New York on the train for auditions for years, and then at some point when we realized sort of more of what was going on, my parents started taking me in instead.

00:18:30
Speaker 6: So what was the first job you booked?

00:18:32
Speaker 7: It was a It was a Jello Pudding Pops commercial with Bill Cosby.

00:18:36
Speaker 3: Now I remember this.

00:18:38
Speaker 2: We talked.

00:18:39
Speaker 7: Yes, I was an extra. One of the girls licked a jello pudding pop after she was told not to lick it and got her tongue stuck a Lah Christmas in the Christmas Story. Yeah, and it was, but it was quite. It was quite the memorable day.

00:18:57
Speaker 6: Tell us more, I.

00:19:00
Speaker 7: You know, other than her getting her tongues, Like, that's really the bulk of my memories. Henrible because of that.

00:19:07
Speaker 3: So how old were you when you did the commercial?

00:19:10
Speaker 7: Six years old?

00:19:11
Speaker 2: Six? Okay, so yeah you were you were in the young group. Yeah, you're in the young group for us.

00:19:16
Speaker 7: So me, Joey, Melissa Hart, Sarah Geller, Natasha Leone, these are Alison Porter, like, these are all people that I was in New York with and yeah, grew up with and.

00:19:32
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, so you knew Joey before Blossom.

00:19:36
Speaker 7: So I didn't know Joey, but we were both auditioning in New York at the same time. I mostly knew the girls because we would end up at the same auditions. Yeah.

00:19:50
Speaker 4: When did you then get or hear about Blossom for your first time?

00:19:53
Speaker 2: Was it a thing?

00:19:54
Speaker 4: Were you auditioned in New York and they flew you out to l A or were you already in Los Angeles?

00:19:58
Speaker 7: Yeah, I auditioned a new Yeah.

00:20:01
Speaker 1: You guys were the cool New York kids. We were, and we'll both yeah, it was another thing we had in common.

00:20:06
Speaker 3: We had, we had a lot in common when we met.

00:20:08
Speaker 4: It.

00:20:08
Speaker 1: Always there's always this. The network test came down to two people from LA and one New Yorker always and then New Yorker always got it.

00:20:17
Speaker 7: It sucked for us, but not true because I went to network for Roseanne with Sarah Gilbert and she got it.

00:20:25
Speaker 4: We always saw the l A people as the ones that were actually getting.

00:20:28
Speaker 1: The But when they flew you out from New York and they put you up in a hotel, you felt so much cooler. You can give you that extra bit of confidence, like they're flying me out, I.

00:20:38
Speaker 7: Mean that's probably fair. Yeah, Like I'm not taking the train to the audition today, I'm flying it. Like that's pretty high tech.

00:20:46
Speaker 4: And staying at the Universal Sheridan is always there's always it was.

00:20:51
Speaker 7: Always that Howard Johnson's, which may not Howard Johnson's anymore on like Vineland or Joe's.

00:20:59
Speaker 1: Oh my I with my manager all the time, with Bruce and I at that Howard Johnson's. Yes, oh, I remember the taste of the instant coffee that you would get in your room.

00:21:11
Speaker 7: Yeah, for me, it was there. It was like an attached restaurant at the time, you know, going back a little bit far, and they had these like fried clams and clam chowder. And of course it was not like an East Coast clam chowder at no, I mean not even close. But it was like the only thing even close to home that I could find, and I was latching onto it like yes.

00:21:31
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I can't let one thing pass rider. How old were you when you were drinking the instant coffee in the hotel.

00:21:36
Speaker 1: Room, Probably starting at eleven. I was like super sweet.

00:21:41
Speaker 4: It would like it would be like it was like wait a minute, you're now tell as a kid you're drinking the coffee.

00:21:46
Speaker 6: I started drinking coffee at twelve.

00:21:48
Speaker 7: I started drinking coffee at six years old on my way to New York for three am, because we would have to we would leave from Fairfield train station. There was a Dunkin Donuts at the train station, and I would have to be in by six am or whatever, so we'd have to leave my house at six or at three rather to get there by six, and so my dad would get me half coffee, half cream. I tributed all of my Napoleon Napoleonic stature. I have my coffee obsession, my father getting me dunkin donuts.

00:22:26
Speaker 6: And now I say the same thing.

00:22:28
Speaker 5: I'm horizontally challenged because of the coffee at twelve.

00:22:32
Speaker 7: As fun sized, blind sized size.

00:22:36
Speaker 4: At eleven years old, the coffee would have ruined the taste of my cigarettes.

00:22:44
Speaker 5: Okay, so will you tell us a little bit about what we'll ask the blah how did Blossom come around?

00:22:50
Speaker 7: So I auditioned in New York the same day that I auditioned for Blossom. And this is like the most probably one of the weirdest stories for me, because I'm not really a believer of ghosts or things of that supernatural things of that nature, just not very much. A I like logic. I really love logic. I really embrace logic, and so things like that kind of tend to elude me. However, on this particular day, I was auditioning for three different things. One was a show called Lenny, one was a show called Blossom, and one was some sort of miniseries or commercial or something. And I got on the train with my mom and we sat in the back and this man was sitting in the row in front of us, and he turned around and he started talking to me, because in those days, a grown up can talk to a child and it's not terrifying now. And this man was like, you know, what are you going to New York for? And I said, Oh, I'm an actress. I'm going to some auditions. And he goes tell me about them. And normally I would not have done that, right, I would have felt very uncomfortable and not done this. For some reason, I felt very comfortable, and I said, I'm going on an audition for this show, this show or this mini series, this show and this commercial or whatever. He was like, Blossom that one. You're gonna get that? Get ready?

00:24:13
Speaker 1: Wow geez?

00:24:15
Speaker 7: And I was like okay, thanks.

00:24:18
Speaker 4: Well.

00:24:18
Speaker 7: At the next stop, we looked and he was gone, like he had gotten up and left. We hadn't noticed he had totally disappeared. And I was like, Mommy, what would happen if, like I did get this show and it filmed in California? And she goes, oh, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, and I was like, I think we're at it. He just said I'm getting it, and lo and behold I go. And I auditioned for the show, and then I also auditioned for the show called Lenny. So Lenny and Blossom were both created by Don Rio, amazing, just phenomenal writer. Both were with Thomas shows. One was NBC, one was CBS. And when I was flown to California to test for Blossom, I was also flown to California to test for Lenny.

00:25:09
Speaker 1: They were vying for you. Yeah, and that's always the best way to be in hollywod.

00:25:13
Speaker 7: Let's I mean, yeah, I'm not not complaining at all and uh and so, but Blossom was first, and before we went to network, they brought Miam and I together at the Sunset Gower lot and we went up to this room and I'll never forget this, Like I can remember what she was wearing. I remember what I was wearing. Of course they told me to bring I had worn this like crazy wide brimmed purple hat to the audition and when I got the callback, they were like, tell her to wear the hat, and so network work, they were like, tell her to wear the hat again. So it became part of my character. You were the character, right, and being a New Yorker or being you know, being from the East Coast, just being an East Coast girl. Like I talked, I talked quickly. It's you know, south now for seventeen years, so probably sounds I'm like very bipolar in my in my chair or in my language. But but back then I was very much sounded East Coast and uh and I think that the fast talking yeah, derived from that. And uh so, yeah, So they brought me up and I talked to Maam and we did the scene together, and then we went into Network together. She had already gotten the role. They brought me in with her because they knew that they wanted me and and they wanted to make sure that that was what happened. Joey was also there, so you know, they had us and they told us talk about crazy because this would not happen now. We walked out of the room. They told us to hang on for a second. They told us we got it outside of the room. She was at Network when it happened.

00:26:52
Speaker 1: My hold on a second. But Mie was the show, right, she was already cast, like the show was being built her out but you and Joey both got the art at the same time in the chemistry test. Amazing.

00:27:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I saw the show.

00:27:04
Speaker 1: They were like, here's the show.

00:27:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, mine had done Beaches already, right, I mean, that's where she's.

00:27:09
Speaker 7: Why they created And then she had also done a show called Malloy, a very short lived show called Malloy after Beaches with Jennifer Aniston. And so they knew that she could. I feel like they knew that she could carry a sitcom. Dawn for she could carry a sitcom. And now in retrospect, of course, we all know that it's.

00:27:28
Speaker 1: Quite interesting that that used to be the Like, I don't know do they still do that where they like see a kid actor and then go give that kid a show and build an entire Like that was how our show got created, that was how Wowson got created. There was the Gabby what's her name show that wast her own show. Like if you were a kid actor and you had like a breakout role in a movie, you would just get a sitcom the next year they would build a whole. I don't know if they'd do that anymore.

00:27:53
Speaker 5: That's so, Yeah, Disney Channel doesn't mean that and Nickelodeon, even that girl Leyley was you know, so it's not necessarily having a role in a movie. But maybe you have a song, or you're a big social media talent their you know, influencer type thing. If you're a personality, a big personality as a kid, they might try to build a show around you. I mean, Miam was such a force at such a young age. What were your first impressions of her?

00:28:21
Speaker 7: I think really the same impressions that I have now. I just know her a hell of a lot better. And she's brilliant. I don't think anybody meets Miami and thinks, you know, yeah, yeah, she's okay, she's so smart, like that's it. You know, that just doesn't happen. She's She's a phenomenal woman. And I will say that we are a lot closer now than we were back then. You know, it was a little bit odd with us growing up together because she and Joey and I were so on such fart ends of the spectrum when it came to our likes and dislikes, and you know, she likes Elivius Costello and Joey and I were singing harmonizing to boys to men like it was very desperate scene. But but she's just like, but she's always been so cool because she's never been afraid to be her, very just unapologetically her and I and that's something that I've you know, writer, you talk about you talked earlier about like looking up to me and being experienced, Like I looked at Miam like that. And although she had never done a show before, and you know, Joey and I had both spent years already in the industry prior to being on Blossom. You know, he did give me a break and all of that, and I, you know, and I'd done tons of guest spots and mini series and movies and whatever else like, but myam to me somehow was just this this like essence of knowledge and and like, you know, just there's she's just a fount of knowledge and and she's all has been super professional, which I will say to all of our credit is something that and I imagine this was the same on your show too, But all of us really really put a lot of stock in being professional at all times. Yes, you know, I look at shows that are on now and I think, you know, it's a very different it's a very different scene, and you do have sort of, like you said, Danielle, the the those who sort of are involved because they've gained notoriety through some other avenue like social media, which doesn't necessarily prepare them for the type of work ethic that happens on a set like.

00:30:43
Speaker 3: We had absolutely what was the set of Blossom?

00:30:47
Speaker 7: Like you know what it was? It was really awesome, Like we had a lot of inside jokes and we had like Miam and I used to it we laugh now because we used to have these like little codes that we would send each other about boys. Will I'm sure your name.

00:30:59
Speaker 6: Was in there where Oh it had to be, I'm sure.

00:31:03
Speaker 7: Actually, let me say so, you met her for the first time not that long ago, like a couple of weeks ago, and she she sent me a text and she was like guess what and she the picture of you guys together, and I was like, no way, that was my first boyfriend. She goes, dude, I know that's my point.

00:31:21
Speaker 4: Well, that's what I wanted to ask you, because she said to me she were we were talking and she said, why did you never come to the set?

00:31:27
Speaker 1: I wondered that too, because I never.

00:31:28
Speaker 6: I still I don't think I didn't.

00:31:30
Speaker 4: I you never because and I answered truthfully and this, and I'd like to know I'd like you to answer this, because I was never invited you. Even when we were dating, you never invited me to the set of Blossom. Maam said it was because you thought she would she would try to steal me. And she was joking, of course as she was saying that, but she said, why didn't you come? And it's when I realized you had never once invited me to come to the set.

00:31:54
Speaker 1: A boy, Yeah, she was always I remember, yea.

00:31:59
Speaker 7: All the time. It more likely was because I was worried about what the hell Joey would say?

00:32:05
Speaker 2: Oh really, probably that makes sense, you know.

00:32:10
Speaker 7: Yeah, we've always had very much like this brother sister relationship where like and never he's kind of like the wild card for me, where I don't I don't noways no, it's gonna come out with that, and I probably just like I probably wanted keep it private and not feel everybody was.

00:32:28
Speaker 1: In on it, you know, so you weren't embarrassed by me?

00:32:32
Speaker 7: Oh, for the love of God, No, no, now I don't know.

00:32:37
Speaker 1: But yeah, well, now, well everybody is. I want to have the Joey conversation. I want to hear what that was like, because when you started the show, he was obviously already working as a child actor, but he became like the Joe Lawrence we know because of Blossom, Right, So what was that progression like as his character became, you know, this phenomenon, and as he became this public figure and then a musician, like what happened there?

00:33:12
Speaker 4: Well?

00:33:12
Speaker 8: As his hair grew, I feel like so did his popularity, Yes, and so did his He go, I don't know, I'm just guessing.

00:33:24
Speaker 7: I love me some, Joey, I say not. My point in all of this is that when we started the show, he yeah, I think you know, he'd done a lot of shows before. He, by far of all of us, had the most experienced. Sure, For as much as I had on my resume, it did not it could not compete with Joey having been on a series before and really understanding that.

00:33:51
Speaker 3: Day to day he worked NonStop from the time he was five years old. I mean, he was the consummate.

00:33:56
Speaker 1: It wasn't even a child actor. He was just an actor we'd been working for ever.

00:34:00
Speaker 7: And well and well deserved.

00:34:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely so talented, so talented.

00:34:05
Speaker 7: And so I think, you know, the the interesting thing was to watch what happened as we grew enough into our our bodies, ourselves that the audience, like all the girls would start throwing. I mean they would. We would come out for intros before the.

00:34:28
Speaker 6: Show, you know, they'd cast intros.

00:34:29
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, and people would like girls would throw underwear and I'm like, I don't know if they packed them and they're personal wearing them first, I don't want to know, but they're the underwear were flung well well aimed. Might I add flung had a teenager and you know, and we were like we were like twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and it was just that's what's so crazy is we started to show when so I was twelve and I'm trying to think, so that would make I guess Joey thirteen and I am fourteen, because I think I want to say we were like a couple of years off from each other, and uh yeah, so we just we we literally went from being kids to being teenagers and him being this teenage heart throb almost overnight, and they would fling underwear, the condoms were thrown.

00:35:25
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, this bizarre, Like I.

00:35:29
Speaker 7: Don't even know if I knew what condoms were when they were That's how like early on it was. And yeah, it was just bizarre. But also this kind of brilliant phenomenon that happened where it was like the making of an idol of a.

00:35:50
Speaker 4: Teenage Yeah, you really got to see them from the inside of the making of a teen idol, like going back television wise, you're talking David Cassidy, Scott Bao. I mean, this is like a generational teen icon. Was Joey Lawrence in the late eighties early nineties. I mean, he was that peak of talent and of popularity. It was.

00:36:12
Speaker 2: It was amazing, and so why should he not do.

00:36:15
Speaker 7: A music video where he wraps and rides around like a you know, a jokal gym thing like that's a great naturally, that's the.

00:36:22
Speaker 9: Next he throws the football to himself. He throws the football and then catches the same football. It's very impressive, very impressive.

00:36:33
Speaker 7: I feel like you've spent more time watching it than.

00:36:36
Speaker 4: I My stepdaughter from the time she was a little kid. Nothing of love can't fix for your baby has been her jam. So it's yeah, I mean, but again just very impressive to both be the quarterback and the wide receiver at the same time.

00:36:52
Speaker 7: Totally, totally, and I feel like at the next Super Bowl we should really like him. Make sure some people know about that, because that's how it brilliant is.

00:37:01
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:37:02
Speaker 5: So Blossom was a mid season replacement that ended up going one hundred and fourteen episodes.

00:37:08
Speaker 6: When did you know it was a hit? And were you recognized all the time?

00:37:14
Speaker 7: So you know something that I don't, which is it was one hundred and fourteen episodes. For some reason in my head, I was thinking it was like one hundred and twenty two or twenty three. But I also confusing it with the Parkers right now.

00:37:25
Speaker 6: Which okay, it's highly possible.

00:37:29
Speaker 7: Yeah, it, I don't know when we knew. I can tell you that the you know, we did the pilot, it did not get picked up. I had gone so when going back a little bit, when I went to LA, when they flew med to LA from New York, and I went to Network for Blossom, and they told me right then and there, they told Joliana that we'd gotten it. I then did not go to Network for Lenny, which was immediately following like an hour or two later because I already had a show, so I had to skip it. Well, when Blossom didn't get picked up, Don Rio called me and said, hey, would you like to be on Lenny instead? And I was like, well sure, I yeah, not an idiot. Yeah, So I went and did Lenny. We did the pilot. That show was already picked up, so I was on CBS. CBS had no idea, They didn't They didn't know that I was the same girl from Blossom, which is super weird, but we'll go with it. I had like curly hair on one show and straight hair on another, and apparently it was terribly deceiving.

00:38:36
Speaker 6: Yeah you had Clark Clinton, Clark Clark Kent classes.

00:38:39
Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly. And then Lenny got halfway through the season and Blossom got picked up as a mid season replacement. With this revamp of UH, Ted was being the single dad as opposed to parents. We had, you know, originally a mom and a dad, so it's Ted Wass as a single parent. But they wanted to keep all the kids. So at that point, you know, Don Rio told NBC, well, you know, I've got Jenna on this other show, and they were like, what are you talking about. He was like, well, we're gonna have to recast six because Jenna is on my other show on CBS. And they were like, you're kidding. Oh okay, so they recast the role. Halfway through the first week, Don calls me in my schoolroom and says, so, listen, how do you feel about doing two shows at once?

00:39:30
Speaker 1: Yes? Wow, you're such a badass school sudro over it.

00:39:37
Speaker 7: I was like, I'm in.

00:39:38
Speaker 1: I get off the phone.

00:39:39
Speaker 7: My tutor, my tutor, God bless her, who I'm still friends with. I don't know if she remembers this or not. I gotta ask her. But Sandy was like, so, uh, Don doesn't really call you in your school in the school much like what's going on. I was like, oh, I'm gonna do both shows. She was like, and when are we gonna do school? I was like, I'll figure it.

00:39:59
Speaker 1: Out, school right Networks.

00:40:04
Speaker 7: So I did both shows and we did. We filmed one on Tuesdays and one on Fridays for half a secon and I went back and forth and I did both shows. And then at the end of the first year, Lenny had been on CBS up against Murphy Brown, like with Murphy Brown, but it was during the goal War, and it just I mean, we got preempted so many times. There was way that show could live.

00:40:26
Speaker 3: What was Lenny very briefly, who was who was on Lenny based on.

00:40:30
Speaker 7: This comedian Lenny Clark? Awesome, awesome, A lot of work.

00:40:34
Speaker 1: Since actually yeah, Lenny Clark, Yeah, Lenny.

00:40:38
Speaker 7: And and then Lee Garlington, phenomenal actress played his wife. There were great, great cast members, I mean just great. It took place in Boston. He's this Boston comic and it was like kind of the sort of the initiation of of comics having television shows.

00:40:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's like the Boston guy too.

00:40:59
Speaker 2: It's Lenny Clark. Yeah, he's Boston.

00:41:01
Speaker 7: Yeah, he is Boston through and through. Yes. So yeah, So I did that for half a season and then it got canceled because of being prempted so many times. I just couldn't get the numbers up because of that and and that. But Blossom, but Blossom went and uh and so then they finally, you know, then they because at first I had to be a guest star on Blossom because I was irregular around money. So for like the first half a season of the first year of Blossom, I was a guest star I think until they could could technically legally make you make me a regular. But yeah, so we did. We did that and and yeah it was just like this crazy, crazy situation that I can't imagine happening now, and I yeah, it kind of blows my mind.

00:41:50
Speaker 1: And six became such an identifiable character? Was it always I mean you talked about like wearing the hat at the network and stuff, But was it always written like as this very identifiable, fast talking, quirky or was that kind of did that evolve with you in concert with the writing creating the character?

00:42:09
Speaker 7: This is called Jena driving too much coffee as a kid?

00:42:15
Speaker 2: True start?

00:42:17
Speaker 7: Wait did I answer the full question that you asked me before? I'm trying to think. I feel like there there was a tube parter and my the second part.

00:42:25
Speaker 6: Of it was did you get recognized all the time?

00:42:28
Speaker 5: Oh?

00:42:28
Speaker 7: Well, like when did we know that the show was?

00:42:30
Speaker 6: Like did we did you know it was a hit? And did you get recognized all the time?

00:42:35
Speaker 7: I feel like so when the show got picked up as a mid season replacement for a couple of years, I don't feel like the first year or so it was sort of just even keeled. And then I want to say something weird happened with like Warren Littlefield was president of NBC at the time, and I think, if I recall correctly, and I hope I'm not misquoting all of this, it's obviously been a His daughter was like obsessed with the show when he was going to cancel it, and she was like, oh my god, please please don't do that. Like I think we almost single handedly can can thank Warren Littlefield's daughter for the show being being given that that chance UH to continue. And then it really really took off. And I will say that the moment. There were like two moments where I was like, oh my god, I think actually, like maybe people watched this show and it's a thing. The first was I went to a Boys to Men concert.

00:43:36
Speaker 6: Shocker and I can't wait to talk to you about music go on and.

00:43:41
Speaker 7: And mc hammer was also in concert with them. And I was in like Peoria, Illinois doing some sort of like signing or something, and you know, and people started climbing. I was in like a little box thing and people started climbing it to get autographs and they had to carry me. They had actually had and I was like geezh okay, like this might this might mean people watch the show. The second one was that they parodied us on Saturday and Saturday Night.

00:44:16
Speaker 1: It definitely that's it, that's it for us, like.

00:44:19
Speaker 7: Like mal Shannon and that was Yeah, I don't know, maybe it wasn't Molly Shannon. I'm trying to remember who was in there, but like Mike Myers, definitely Mike Joey.

00:44:31
Speaker 1: Joey, Yeah, I remember saying yeah, but you.

00:44:34
Speaker 4: I mean, Blossom is also one of those shows, and it might be right at the tail end of it, frankly, but where the opening title sequence was hugely important to the show. Yeah, I mean these were you know, back in the days of Family Ties Cosby Show, the opening title sequence was really important.

00:44:51
Speaker 3: It started to go away.

00:44:52
Speaker 4: Seinfeld got rid of it essentially entirely, Boymans World even got rid of it entirely. But that I remember distinctly people singing the home humming along with the song, seeing you all come out and dancing. I mean, it really was its own character at that time in television where that opening title sequences were important. I mean it really it mattered what your opening title sequence was, and Blossom was one of the last ones that was really had that signature.

00:45:17
Speaker 7: I don't know if I've ever realized that. You know, the original song was Bobby Brown's Don't Worry I'm blanky prerogative.

00:45:29
Speaker 1: It was a real hy pregative that was like.

00:45:31
Speaker 7: The initial theme song. And then I don't know what happened. I'm sure it was a like a rights issue and they couldn't it wasn't sustainable, but uh yeah, and then it became you know, I think it's doctor John is who sings my opinionation, and then that became like the the thing, so weird.

00:45:56
Speaker 5: So music is a huge part of your life and was always a passion of yours.

00:46:01
Speaker 6: Where did that come from? And tell us what it's meant to you over your life?

00:46:08
Speaker 7: I mean, music was always I think my dad sings my you know, I mean my dad sings, but it's like, you know, church choir. And I grew up listening only to classical music, and I think my mom listened to John Denver. That was about the extent of my music knowledge.

00:46:25
Speaker 10: Like my mom didn't doesn't like Elvis at all, didn't like the Beatles, so like I had to teach myself music and which now this has become a big thing in my household, Like when I'm cooking dinner, I put on music from different genres and different eras for my girls because I really I'm like, okay, who's sing this?

00:46:43
Speaker 7: Come on?

00:46:45
Speaker 1: You know, like my daughter.

00:46:49
Speaker 7: Exactly. And my daughter has taken to wearing Cyndy Lopper gloves to school on a daily base mat her outfit. So I' mean it's fine, It's all good. I don't know that school's thrilled with me about it, but I'm but I'm thrilled.

00:47:00
Speaker 6: I love happy.

00:47:01
Speaker 7: Yeah, we're channeling the eighties over here. But yeah. So I kind of like taught myself music and it was always super important to me. I wrote from the time I was very very little. That was always an outlet for me in some former fashion, and I think it started out with music and poetry and things of that nature. And now I write, you know, film scripts, and I write for a lifestyle publication in Nashville and all that kind of stuff. So I've been I've always written, just in different in different capacities. But because my parents didn't really raise me to know a broad musical horizon, I was very excited being on Blossom because we had crazy cool music guests, everybody from BB King to you know, little Richard See and See Music Factory. Like the list just goes on and on and on. I mean, it was a phenomenal, phenomenal, eye opening musical experience, I think to be on the show because Don Rio is such a music fan that he invited as many people as he could that he loved and respected to the show. And you know, and we all had really vast and varied musical Mayam was very much the like violent Femmes and Elvis Costello and and and you know again, Joey was very and Joey was the boys to men and and and you know, and all of that, and so it was kind of a cool exposure.

00:48:44
Speaker 6: That's so great.

00:48:45
Speaker 5: Yeah, you've mentioned your daughters a couple of times. Now you have two daughters, and you've been able to write about your experience with the situation Mammady books. What would you say is the most important lesson you've learned in Mother Grace?

00:49:01
Speaker 7: Just Grace capital g R A c E. My kids are amazing. My older daughter is Gray, she's eleven. Uh. And then my younger daughter, Marlowe.

00:49:15
Speaker 1: Is nine, and you know her name is Gray.

00:49:18
Speaker 2: Her name is gret.

00:49:21
Speaker 7: I was like, wow, no, no, I mean they make me go gray by wearing the ball. Now they're and they're amazing, They're they're so awesome, Like it's just it's really cool to parenting is really cool. Like adulting sucks ass, but parenting is really cool. And I think some they're you know, they're so Yeah. Gray's in middle school and she's my introspective, avid reader. She's kind of me at her age. She very much wants to people please, and she's like she wants everybody to know she's trying her best, and she's kicking butt in school and she's like in the gifted program and she's you know, I mean, she's freaking brilliant and she's super intuitive. If she understands things that it's just not even right. It's not fair and not right because because there are just conversations we shouldn't have, but we do and they're awesome. And I pour myself a bourbon and we sit down and we chat. But and then Marlowe is like my little spitfirefirecracker. She's kind of me once I realized that I had a voice, And I'm super impressed that she at nine years old already knows that she has one's Wow, it's pretty pretty cool.

00:50:45
Speaker 5: So if your girls came to you and said they wanted to get into acting, what do you think you would say?

00:50:52
Speaker 7: Well, they have, which is crazy. I think this is probably the first interview I've done since I haven't done one in a while where question has been asked, and like in the past, you know, I was always like, wow, if they're really serious about it, obviously you know this. This industry comes with its pitfalls, and it's I mean, there were so many highs and lows on a daily basis really with this industry. And but having experienced as much as we all have, particularly during a time when I think that we understand work ethic and and sort of like the sort of old school industry the way that we do, which I have a lot of appreciation for old school industry, I feel like I could coach them through it in a way that would you know, my parents were so green, they just didn't know about any of it, And having the background that we have makes it a little bit easier. At the same time, having the background makes me sit back and go, you better really want it, kid. Yeah, So yeah, I you know, they just need to really want. I want to know it's coming from them. It's not a hey, you did it, so I'm curious about it being this is awesome. You should be curious about everything. Please be curious, be curious about it all. But to actually pursue this industry, I need to know that you want it for you. This is your passion, not your passion because it was my passion or is my passion. Yeah, and you know, both of my kids have expressed high, high level interest in it, but they're both really young and I so I also understand that we live in a world where social media has produced very you know, people with a lot of notoriety that haven't necessarily used talent to get there. That's like, you know, I'm just trying to be fair about this whole thing. Like social media isn't a necessarily always based on talent. Now that's not to say it isn't based on business savvy, totally different thing. But to actually be an actress, like I want to know that you have talent and want.

00:53:15
Speaker 4: This is like what you actually has to be about the art or expression, yeah, not not personal desire to do it.

00:53:22
Speaker 7: Yourself too, right, not that like Taylor Swift is famous, ergo I should be famous, right, Like, this is not you know, that's not what I'm working. I'm not going to work with that. So so I'm really I'm careful. I'm mindful about thoughtful all about their about their pursuits, because I just want to make sure it really truly is coming from the right place and coming from their art and and and nothing else.

00:53:50
Speaker 6: Have they watched Blossom? Do they know how cool you were?

00:53:53
Speaker 7: And are? Well? I don't know about cool, because I'm pretty sure if you ask both of my children they'd be like, oh, have you seen our mind dance? I'm I want to say they've seen an episode of Blossom. I believe I showed them an episode of Blossom a couple of years ago because they were what they were asking about it, and I wanted them, you know, I'm proud of it, like I am really proud of it, and I want them to have context. At the same time, I don't want them to feel any sense of weird entitlement by that, or like confusion that somehow I don't know, that's just not really a part of our lives at this particular juncture, you know, And I want them to feel my sense of pride and understand my work ethic without thinking that it's cool that I.

00:54:49
Speaker 2: Was on the show.

00:54:50
Speaker 1: Right, right, do you still get recognized?

00:54:52
Speaker 7: Yeah?

00:54:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. How long have you been in You're in Nashville, right, how long have you been there?

00:55:01
Speaker 7: Here's what's crazy. So come April, I'll be here seventeen years. Wow, And I was early and I was in La seventeen years. So this bizarre thing for me is is hitting this moment where I'm like, oh, wow, I've actually been in both places.

00:55:20
Speaker 6: Just as long.

00:55:21
Speaker 7: Yeah, for an equal amnt of time.

00:55:23
Speaker 6: So cool, so weird.

00:55:25
Speaker 5: So looking back now almost thirty five years, so's awesome, debuted, I hear nothing. What I know looking at young Jenna's work dating young Wilfredell at the time. Yeah, how do you feel about young Jenna and what message would you like to give to her today?

00:55:50
Speaker 7: Oh gosh, it's I mean, it's kind of the same message that I give myself and my kids now about about having grace. I think you know, I knew exactly what I was getting into at that time, in the sense that it was my passion. I wanted so badly to continue working. I was the one who begged my parents to be an actress. I you know, wasn't their idea, it was mine, and I continued to have one passion for it. I still do. You know, being in Nashville doesn't change the fact that I absolutely love being on camera. I love memorizing lines. I love writing scripts, I love reading scripts. I love sitting with the cast at the first read.

00:56:42
Speaker 2: I love.

00:56:42
Speaker 7: I love all of it. I love all of it, every every last.

00:56:45
Speaker 2: Bit of it.

00:56:48
Speaker 7: But I think the biggest thing for me would just be, you know, we all go through our own evolution with self awareness, and I had a really hard time, I think. I you know, we were on shows during a time when someone like Tracy Gold was getting called fat, yeah, and it was drastically affecting her view of herself, and it caused her to in a big way and caused her to have an eating disorder, you know. And I think we probably, all, in our own ways, Carrie with us, certain elements of that time of feeling like really we could like you know, now everybody's far more careful about what they joke about. To be fair, you know, everybody's really aware of mental health, particularly following COVID. You know, and we were on shows during a time where they made a lot of fun of things because they they could, and it wasn't nobody was saying, hey, maybe that's maybe that's harming this person in the long run.

00:58:11
Speaker 1: So I don't know.

00:58:12
Speaker 7: I'd like to think that what I would tell myself is to just sort of take it with a grain of salt. And I probably wouldn't believe it if I heard it. I probably heard it from somebody then and didn't you know, as we all have to go through our own experiences with it. And I'm very much a visual person, so I'm not shocked that I had to be hands on in all of it to really appreciate that. But I'd like to think that having self awareness and evolving and adulting, man, I feel like it has helped me, has helped me outgrow some of those some of those difficulties with self confidence, you know, which is also again why I go back to it's so interesting to hear you say writer that I've seemed so so confident, because I felt so far from confident during that time. And ironically, I want to say that because I did my MS podcast at one point and I want to say she said something similar to me, and like, I just there is nothing that I never ever felt confident. I still wake up in the morning and drink my cup of coffee and I'm like, do I feel confident today?

00:59:21
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:59:22
Speaker 7: We'll see how it goes, Like you know, so, it's so interesting to hear other people's perspectives relatively kind of shining a shining a light on your own opinions on it.

00:59:36
Speaker 5: But well, Jenna, you were one of the coolest people we knew back then, and you're still one of the coolest people we know today. And we are honored that you spend your time with us this morning. It's so good to reconnect with you. Please let us know the next time you're in La we would absolutely love to do that dinner.

01:00:02
Speaker 7: Still existed, which I'm assuming it doesn't.

01:00:05
Speaker 1: There's one well ren Selica's.

01:00:09
Speaker 4: Restaurant and look at each other while not eating salad, and Jenna and I will record it on a tape recorder for teen b and I'll bring my mom, who will take a photo shoot for us.

01:00:19
Speaker 2: Love it.

01:00:20
Speaker 7: I think we've got it. We've hit the nail on the head here.

01:00:22
Speaker 4: We've got to find that tape Jenna, We've got to find that tape of the original first date.

01:00:26
Speaker 7: Oh my god, I wonder if I probably turned it into team Beat. It's either you know, burned somewhere, or it's in like some scary archive in some mic.

01:00:41
Speaker 2: It's on microfish somewhere.

01:00:44
Speaker 7: I mean, thank you so much.

01:00:49
Speaker 5: This was Awesomeank you so good to see you, big, big, big hug. Can't wait to give it to you in person. You jugs same here, all right, bye bye. It's so interesting how many women we speak to who all have you know, the same the same stories. And it's not just women. Of course, men in the industry also have their own, you know, feelings of insecurity and whatever. But really, you know, almost every woman we talk to has some story about feeling not beautiful or you know, worried about whether or not they were overweight. And you know, they're always the people that were like, wait, what like are It's just you know, you aren't a good judge of yourself.

01:01:38
Speaker 1: We are, certainly in terms of the looks, but even even in terms of like it's so funny that she didn't even think of herself as like put together.

01:01:44
Speaker 6: Or are confident when like she was the all the most.

01:01:48
Speaker 1: Confident, funny like knew everything about like I just you know, and yeah, it's you know, it just goes to show that like no matter what stage you're in, whether you're a teenager acting on a TV show or a forty four year old sad dad, to get out of your own way, like don't worry about it, like just be just be focused on you know, your goals and the thing you want to be and be in the print and just just worry about that. Like if you if you worry too much about who you are, what you look like, what you sound like, or what people's perception of you, it's it's never good. Like it doesn't it doesn't help any like because you actually will never know, you know, like you could be going through the worst time I said than done.

01:02:28
Speaker 4: Though everybody says to themselves like I'm not going to care and people think about me, I'm not going to care how I look, and it's almost impossible to do.

01:02:34
Speaker 2: Everybody seems to care about all that stuff all the time.

01:02:37
Speaker 4: And so it's the older you're getting older, I'm getting I'm trying to let that stuff go, but it's hard. It's yeah, you know, it's different now, than it was when I was fifteen sixteen, but it's still always there.

01:02:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, when you're that age too, it's really hard for you to understand that you're actually not the center of the universe.

01:02:54
Speaker 6: Right, Fundamentally, you're supposed to.

01:02:57
Speaker 5: Think you're the center of the universe at that time, and yet trying to tell yourself no one else is thinking this as much as you are.

01:03:05
Speaker 6: Is impossible that Well, if you're on.

01:03:06
Speaker 1: A TV show, you actually are kind of the center.

01:03:09
Speaker 6: You're the center of that.

01:03:10
Speaker 1: I mean, that's it's so weird, right, Like when you're an adolescent and you still do think the world revolves around like we're social life, and then like your friends, the people you work with are also being recognized everywhere you go. It's a weird thing. Like it's a very it's distorting. It was always a distorting mirror.

01:03:29
Speaker 5: Well, thank you for joining us for this episode of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com, and we have merch.

01:03:40
Speaker 1: Jenna Selica is White March.

01:03:43
Speaker 6: I can't believe you were right about all that. I'm never wrong. How did this happen?

01:03:50
Speaker 3: Writer?

01:03:50
Speaker 6: Send us out?

01:03:51
Speaker 1: We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast producer and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfordell and Writers. Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman. Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara Subasch, producer, Mattie Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World superman Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at podmets World Show, or email us at Podmeats Worldshow at gmail dot com