Vanessa Evigan Meets World

00:00:19
Speaker 1: Do you want to talk about last night?

00:00:20
Speaker 2: Roynert?

00:00:21
Speaker 3: Should you talk about last night?

00:00:22
Speaker 4: Do you want to talk about last Do you want to talk about what happened? But I saw Will in the wild last night. He went out to an event and it wasn't a Podweights World event. It wasn't business related. I mean, I guess it was kind of business y, but it was just for a friend.

00:00:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:00:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, So George Wong directed a movie called Weekend in Taipei, and George is, you know, one of Will's oldest friends. And I haven't hadn't actually seen him, I think for like nine or ten years really, yeah, but he had recently reached out for me and Alex to help him out acting in a short film that he's making. And you couldn't do it.

00:01:00
Speaker 1: You couldn't do it. I wouldn't.

00:01:02
Speaker 4: And then so we just reconnected and we've been talking and then he said, oh, I directed this big movie and Luke Proissant uh produced it with him and wrote it with him and uh. So he had the premiere last night and he invited me and Will and I was it was so fun.

00:01:16
Speaker 2: Man, you guys you were going to see each other there. It wasn't like you spotted him in the wild randomly.

00:01:22
Speaker 4: No, okay, it was it was bizarre. I mean, I thought about it when I got home. It was like, that was so nice to like hang out with Will and talk and like not be podcasting right or doing the show or a convention. It was like, oh man, it was just it was fun.

00:01:36
Speaker 5: It was.

00:01:36
Speaker 4: But the movie is really good.

00:01:37
Speaker 1: It is.

00:01:38
Speaker 5: But the thing that was so fun was our business is in such a ridiculous kind of state of flux. It doesn't know what it is anymore. We don't know what's happening in the industry at all. And then there's these little nuggets of like what it used to be like going to a premiere, you know, even though it was kind of a smaller premiere, there was still a little red carpet and I sat there and I watched a whole but I didn't walk it, of course, But I sat there and I watched a whole bunch of like celebrities that I've seen before. And there's all these cool like ferraris set up outside because there's a lot of car chases in the thing. And then you go to this little reception afterwards with it, and it was just like a taste of what it used to be in La you know, and a lot of it is kind of ridiculous, but it was fun. There was a pageantry to it that I think I got a little taste of last Night and you get to see a great film at the same time.

00:02:23
Speaker 1: It was a fun night and.

00:02:24
Speaker 4: It's coming out in theaters, which I'm really excited about that.

00:02:27
Speaker 2: Pings feel like they're coming out in theaters, which I'm so happy about, even if it's limited release.

00:02:31
Speaker 5: Yeah, people are missing, but we're amazed at how fast like they come out in theaters and then a week later you can I know exactly.

00:02:38
Speaker 1: I mean, it's so fast.

00:02:39
Speaker 4: But isn't that part of the problem, like that you're like, I'm not gonna Yeah, things should like be forced to stay in theaters and then it should be like, well.

00:02:47
Speaker 1: It used to be you'd have to wait six to eight.

00:02:49
Speaker 4: Months for a movie to come out on VHS, you know, and remember that.

00:02:52
Speaker 5: It was like you'd walk into Blockbuster or something and be like, oh, that's right, whatever just.

00:02:56
Speaker 3: Came out on DVD.

00:02:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, the coolest.

00:02:58
Speaker 4: I think that's really important for the cultural like the zeitgeys, you know, I mean that's that's the problem with streamers. It's like even when they have good, big movies, they kind of just come and go. You know, showers get a lot of cultural time because like everybody's watching them for weeks or binging them that week. But like movies, it's I've been really sad to see things just pop up on Netflix that that are good and then you know, big movies with big stars, and then you try and talk to other people about them and it's like it's not on their algorithm, so they never popped up, and then yeah, it's it's it's it's a bummer. I missed the culture of like everybody's watching the same movie that summer or that winter or whatever.

00:03:35
Speaker 2: You know, let's go see Joker two together, Yeah, I heard.

00:03:43
Speaker 3: I'm one of the tractors.

00:03:44
Speaker 4: I didn't like the first ones, so I definitely had no interest in the second.

00:03:47
Speaker 3: Did anyone see Wild Robot? You did sart opening day? I want to see it in theaters.

00:03:54
Speaker 2: I saw them you can stream it for the same price we could go see it in theater, and I was like, no, I want to see it in the theater.

00:03:58
Speaker 3: Okay, that's one of.

00:03:59
Speaker 4: The best books too, to read to your kids by the way, Oh my god, Like there's there's two or three of them, but the first one, yeah, it had been recommended in Indian and I just spent like, you know, two weeks reading it every night, and it was it's beautiful. It's so touching and fun. And then the movie I couldn't believe that it visually it was just you know, like animation is so cool these days. Like I love that we're finally past the point of like making everything look real, and now we're making things like look stylized, you know, like Mitchell's Versus Machines, like these like interpretive like takes with CGI, you know, so it's not just like make it look real anymore three dimensional. It's like, give it some style, give it its own look and feel.

00:04:39
Speaker 1: And that's one of the reasons.

00:04:42
Speaker 2: Why I was just gonna say, speaking of animation, our very own. Will Fredell is starring in a Lego Marvel Avengers movie Mission Demolition.

00:04:56
Speaker 3: He plays Dennis. It's out right now. I've already seen it three times.

00:05:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's on Disney Plus my kids love it. Will sent me a text and was like, hey, FYI, I've got a movie coming out and I think the kids are gonna like it. And I was like, what how come I know nothing about this? When did you do this? Why are you keeping secrets from us? And so the next day was a Saturday. We came out on a Saturday. Rightday was a Friday night. Okay, so Friday night, so Friday night we we was literally the day it came out. I said, do you want to see Uncle Will in a movie? And Ather was like, yeah, which one's Uncle Will? And then there's a whole opening with all the Avengers and Will isn't one of the Avengers. He plays Dennis, and so literally every character is that Uncle Will.

00:05:43
Speaker 3: Is that Uncle Will. I was like, no, no other, I'll let you know when we get to him. Is that Uncle Will is uncle Will? Ironman is that Uncle Will. I was like, when we see Uncle Will, I'll let you know no all time. Finally I was like fast warning to uncle.

00:06:01
Speaker 1: Is God yet No.

00:06:03
Speaker 3: It was so fun, It's so cute. Highly highly recommend you watch it.

00:06:07
Speaker 1: It was cool, It was cool. We had a ton of fun doing it.

00:06:09
Speaker 5: The Lego world is you know, a perfect combination with something like Marvel two.

00:06:13
Speaker 1: It just works on all the levels. So Yeah, we had a blast.

00:06:16
Speaker 3: You can't go wrong with with wilfred Ell and Kevin Smith, you know.

00:06:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the two of us together, so ye's kind of cool.

00:06:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, so fun. Welcome to pod meets World. I'm Daniel Fishal, I'm Right or Strong, and I'm Will Ferdell.

00:06:40
Speaker 2: When a sixth grader not only changes schools, but moves towns all together, it's not an easy process, especially when you're just about to start filming a sitcom that gives you extended leaves of absence for weeks at a time. So when I did transfer to ay Wright Middle School in Calabasas, California in nineteen ninety three, the front office thought it would be a good idea to pair me with a buddy and a signed friend who coincidentally was also a child actor. And thus began the friendship of Danielle Fischle and Vanessa Evigan, one that would extend to high school and then into adulthood and motherhood and now.

00:07:17
Speaker 3: Whatever podcast hood is.

00:07:19
Speaker 2: We spend our summers either in her bed bath and beyond vanilla scented Ford Explorer or my bed bath and beyond vanilla scented Toyota four Runner blasting sublime and gossiping about boys.

00:07:30
Speaker 3: We liked on the way to Malibu Beach. And so when she in the.

00:07:34
Speaker 1: Moment more California than.

00:07:42
Speaker 3: Did really was, it was the best.

00:07:45
Speaker 2: And so when she was cast on Boy Meets World during season fives, if you Can't Be with the One you love as the recently rhinoplastid Kimberly Susman, I couldn't have been more excited. She had just come off starring on her own show UPN's Social Study and also six episodes of Against the Grain on NBC with a young Ben Affleck, and would later appear on You Wish Norm How I Met Your Mother, and as Britney Hodges on over two dozen episodes of The Young and the.

00:08:12
Speaker 3: Restless, and they probably shot all of those on like one day.

00:08:16
Speaker 2: Coincidentally, Boy Meets World wasn't Vanessa's first Michael Jacob sett. Her debut was as a background eight year old on My Two Dads, a show her father, Greg Evigan, starred in opposite Paul Riser. And today we have forced her to come to talk to us minus the Sublime and Vanilla car smell about that one time in nineteen ninety eight, she was on the Boy Meets World episode that dealt with teenage drinking. Welcome to the podcast, Vanessa Evigan.

00:08:43
Speaker 6: Yeah, yes, Oh my gosh, I don't even know how to use a computer.

00:08:50
Speaker 3: Hey, it's so good to see you. Good to see you too, Oh my goodness, here, thank you for being here.

00:08:57
Speaker 2: I was just explaining to the guy and the whole world about how you and I met that you were my assigned buddy.

00:09:06
Speaker 5: Buddy assigning friends to Danielle or.

00:09:13
Speaker 4: Chance it assigned us.

00:09:14
Speaker 6: I don't even remember.

00:09:15
Speaker 2: That you were my assigned buddy at a e Wright when I first started there in sixth grade.

00:09:22
Speaker 3: The school was like, yes, the school was.

00:09:25
Speaker 2: Like, we are going to put you in touch with this very sweet, fun, wonderful girl.

00:09:30
Speaker 3: We think you guys will really hit it off, and obv we did.

00:09:34
Speaker 2: But literally they were like, you can't come in here without any friends. And you were my sweet friend who like showed me around the school and showed me where to eat lunch, and and that's literally how we met.

00:09:47
Speaker 6: At the beginning of our amazing.

00:09:49
Speaker 3: Friendship, I know, our lifelong friendship. So that reminds me.

00:09:54
Speaker 2: I guess if you don't remember being my assigned buddy, maybe you don't also remember what I was wearing on that first day of school, or do you remember the story about what I was wearing on the first day story?

00:10:06
Speaker 4: I thought, maybe we just actually remembered.

00:10:10
Speaker 2: It's a very funny story. I know, Oh my gosh, it's so cringe, but okay. So in Orange County, where I grew up before I moved to Calabasas, the first day of school, at least all through elementary school grades one through five the only thing I had been to. Everyone got very dressed up for the first day of school, like your first day of.

00:10:32
Speaker 3: School outfit was a big deal.

00:10:34
Speaker 2: And my best friend Jessica from elementary school, we used to plan our outfits all summer long, what are we gonna wear, and like, at least the first day, if not the whole first week, we would wear kind of fancier clothes then you end up wearing for the rest of the school year. So on the first day of sixth grade to eighty Wright, I was like.

00:10:50
Speaker 3: I'm new to this school. I wore.

00:10:54
Speaker 2: I wore like one beast blacken white, little floral jumper, like like a pant pant suit.

00:11:05
Speaker 3: Jumper those one beast.

00:11:07
Speaker 4: Like like a blossom style.

00:11:11
Speaker 2: And I also wore like pantyhose and ballet flats, and I my mom My mom swears she's like, I tried to talk you out of it, and I do remember her saying like, I don't think they're gonna do that. I don't I don't think it's gonna I don't think. I don't think you're gonna want to be wearing this today. And I was like, no, no, I was very sure this is what I wanted to wear. And I got there and it was like, you know, nineteen ninety three, and everyone had on beat her jeans, converse beaning.

00:11:41
Speaker 3: Old T shirts, flannels.

00:11:44
Speaker 4: Like it was.

00:11:47
Speaker 2: Absolutely nothing remotely like what I was wearing.

00:11:51
Speaker 3: And all day I was like, this is so uncomfortable.

00:11:54
Speaker 2: And my favorite memory, aside from meeting Vanessa that day, is that as I was walking alone down a hallway, a walks toward me, making this face at me the whole way and looks me up and down, and as he passes me, goes.

00:12:05
Speaker 3: Are you going to a funeral?

00:12:07
Speaker 5: Oh?

00:12:07
Speaker 3: My god, you had the best style.

00:12:11
Speaker 6: I can't even imagine anyone thinking that we were going to a funeral.

00:12:14
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, No, he really and I was like, that is exactly what it was. I was like, I should just run with it.

00:12:19
Speaker 2: Immediately after school, I have to go write your funeral, right Grandma, Grandma, Grandma.

00:12:23
Speaker 3: I gotta go making me wear this right now. Actually, my mom picked me up from school and she was like, how would your day? And I was like, we are going shopping now, and the immediately I.

00:12:32
Speaker 2: Bought all all new clothes store exactly and yeah, anyway, tell me.

00:12:37
Speaker 1: Please tell me. Jan Fisher has a photo of that.

00:12:40
Speaker 4: I hope so.

00:12:41
Speaker 2: I don't think we have somewhere, but it's it's pretty, it's pretty mortifying.

00:12:45
Speaker 3: I think about it about once a month. Vanessa.

00:12:50
Speaker 2: We just watched If You Can't Be with the One You Love and we attended Kimberly Susman's nose Job party.

00:12:58
Speaker 6: Oh yes, how do I You look?

00:13:01
Speaker 3: Fantastic?

00:13:02
Speaker 2: Wanted to ask you, what are your thoughts on the episode?

00:13:06
Speaker 6: Now?

00:13:06
Speaker 3: It is armuably maybe the most.

00:13:09
Speaker 2: Very special episode we had had, at least up to that point on the show. What did you think about it watching it today? I?

00:13:16
Speaker 6: Well, I watched it actually my son. I let my son wanted to watch it, and it was such a big deal. Obviously, because Ben, you know, he takes his first drink. I think, so that was a big, big deal and.

00:13:29
Speaker 3: Now is a mom.

00:13:30
Speaker 6: I'm like, oh my gosh, this is like it's gonna happen one day to me. I'm gonna have to like be the mom that So that's how I thought of it now. And I also was like, wow, you know, nice.

00:13:41
Speaker 4: Pat of brawl.

00:13:42
Speaker 6: What was happening with but like everything and I'm not remembering what an interesting haircut. I was looking back at it going and then I thought, gosh, that was such a great show. I loved it. I forgot how awesome it was and how I mean it was funny, and then there was those moments where and everyone was so good in it. It wasn't like it just.

00:14:04
Speaker 5: The show in general or that specific episode episode.

00:14:11
Speaker 1: Comedy.

00:14:13
Speaker 6: Yeah, no, I mean.

00:14:14
Speaker 4: Everyone, it's a heavy episode.

00:14:16
Speaker 6: It's heavy, heavy for the time, you know, and yeah, like really and it was wild. I kept trying to figure out, like, is my TV like the even like just just the quality of the show. Right, Wait a minute, I'm trying to get the call. I'm like, you know what, it's just perfect the way it is. And then I'm like, this was those were the good days. They really were the good old.

00:14:38
Speaker 2: Like we do talk about how weird it is to not have everything in like four K, Like we're like, oh, wow, you can't read.

00:14:45
Speaker 4: You can't read. Everything's all blurry.

00:14:48
Speaker 5: You're trying to pause it to read stuff in the background, and it just never can never kind of get it exactly where you want it.

00:14:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's weird.

00:14:54
Speaker 6: Yeah, but you all look exactly the same, literally, like I'm not kidding, I'm not I'm serious. It's so wid especially you Danielle, Like wow, I mean, thank you, you know you guys, just uh yeah, it was so fun. That was a really really really like just not only the fact that we were best friends. Yeah, and we got to do that show together. I was like, oh my gosh, this couldn't be like more special.

00:15:19
Speaker 5: So you were you were friends then continuously from sixth grade up through this. So did you tell Danielle like I have an audition for Boy Meets World or did Danielle did you go to the producers and they were like, that's she's like my closest friend, You've got to bring her on the show.

00:15:35
Speaker 1: I mean, how did that work?

00:15:36
Speaker 6: Yeah? I remember, because well Michael Jake. You know, my dad was on My Two Dads exactly. I had known Michael because I was an extra on My Two Dads and I was like seven, and you know, I had audition and I was like, oh, this is so great, this would be so fun, but it's you know, it's probably not gonna happen. And then I just remember them sending everyone out, sending everything at home and telling me to stay and I was like, oh cool, I think that this was gonna happen. And then I remember I think, I remember messaging you saying I think I'm I think I'm going to do an episode of the show. And it was just awesome.

00:16:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you you paged she paged me. Yeah, I paged her.

00:16:12
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:16:13
Speaker 6: I was like, remember the I mean we used to have the goal. You got the updated pagers to where you could like code. Lots of words came in on those. Yes, it was just like a phone number anymore. Yeah, we we three two.

00:16:28
Speaker 2: I don't know, I just remember I it's not my number anymore, but my cell phone number was ended with eight zero zero eight, which in page your code was boob.

00:16:40
Speaker 6: I actually remember, because you have to memorized numbers back then. Like, do you remember cell phone that? Like, we actually had cell phones that had the curly wires?

00:16:49
Speaker 4: Are runners?

00:16:51
Speaker 3: We don't remember those two? Oh yeah we Yeah, you had the Ford Explorer. I had a for Runner.

00:16:57
Speaker 6: Well that was after I crashed the fore Runner.

00:16:59
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, right, tell us.

00:17:01
Speaker 4: About that childhood I've ever heard from our TV shows.

00:17:06
Speaker 6: The best part of it all though, my parents were out buying me a car with my money because I was acting thankfully and I'm thinking I'm getting a new car. They're like, well, you should think yourself and then.

00:17:18
Speaker 3: Buying me a car. No, you're buying you a car.

00:17:21
Speaker 6: Literally, thirteen days after I got my license, I was driving behind my boyfriend at the time. Uh, and I just I don't know what happened, but I swear the car just flipped itself into neutral on the highway, on the freeway and on the one oh one, and I spun out and hit the center divider head on, and thankfully I was okay. And I swear you were supposed to be with me, or someone was supposed to be next to me in the car, because I just me, Yeah, I mean it was either you or I feel like I don't know who else.

00:17:54
Speaker 4: It would would have been, And Daniel, didn't you have like the exact same thing happened.

00:17:58
Speaker 2: I also crashed my toy A fore Runner on.

00:18:02
Speaker 5: Should not be driving inherent issue with the Toyota fore Runner.

00:18:07
Speaker 6: They're bad, dangerous cars.

00:18:09
Speaker 2: My car hydroplaned and her car flipped into neutral. But yeah, and I also hit the center divider, completely spun out and total MYR might I recommend a people?

00:18:19
Speaker 4: Well?

00:18:20
Speaker 6: Yeah, I just kept going down after that when my parents were like, well, you totaled your car, so we're gonna get you an old uh used Ford explorer that I mean that thing. I don't know, that thing where they say fixed or repair daily found.

00:18:35
Speaker 1: Exploder.

00:18:36
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, oh my gosh.

00:18:42
Speaker 2: So what was it like seeing yourself that age on screen? Was this the first time you had watched the episode, like since it had aired that many years ago?

00:18:50
Speaker 5: Yes?

00:18:50
Speaker 6: Yes, because I watched it briefly for a second. My son was like, I really want to watch it, and and I was like, okay, trying to remember if it was like a pro appropriate right. You know, he's listening to this isn't in a jelly roll right now, so I think we're okay.

00:19:08
Speaker 1: How old is he?

00:19:09
Speaker 6: Well? He's seven twenty seven. We argue like a lawyer. I don't know, it's it's it's he's my he's my husband made over. But but no, him and my daughter they both wanted to watch it. But my son ended up seeing, uh seeing it, or at least just just a little bit of it, and he was like, why what what is that on your nose? And I was like oh, and I was trying to explain that to him. Then he was like, you had your nose done? And I'm like not really, no, no, no, no, no, I was done. People think I did, especially after that. No, I don't know why people thought it was real, but no, wait, what were it was the main question?

00:19:45
Speaker 3: What did you think seeing young Vanessa on screen?

00:19:48
Speaker 6: I thought she was so cute. Yeah, oh she was a cutie. Definitely not my best acting. I felt like I was like, WHOA, Maybe got to get into some acting class after that.

00:19:58
Speaker 3: No, you were not much. You were not given much with what you had.

00:20:04
Speaker 6: It was fun, it was sweet, and I actually remember it all so well going back to that, like it was it was really fun and cute, you know. I just those were just such fun times. I don't know, it was just drawing.

00:20:17
Speaker 4: Do you remember the discussion about the whole nose job thing, Like, was it ever talked about like why this character was having this party or like was we were trying to figure out, like what was the point of it, because it's like they don't really make a joke. We don't really make a joke out of it. No, but then you're wearing this thing on your face the whole time.

00:20:35
Speaker 6: I know, I guess I don't remember. I vaguely remember it just being like me being like a snotty, snooty kind of rich, mean girl kind of thing. I don't know why classify that as a person who would haven't read.

00:20:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.

00:20:53
Speaker 6: That's what We're trying to have a party for it, right, right, But yeah, I don't really remember why.

00:21:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we thought we had the same conversation.

00:21:02
Speaker 2: We were like, was this was this a thing people were doing all the time back then? Like oh, nose job parties, I know, and teenage nose job parties.

00:21:14
Speaker 4: We must have had a conversation about It's some note session. It must have come up, but I don't remember it at all. I mean, all I remember is that you know, it was the episode about drinking, but it's it's a bizarre like it's element.

00:21:26
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was a little because the show is definitely about the I mean, the drinking is clearly the importance of the show, right, and then for whatever reason, you know, spruce it up with me with a Fonda with a nose jobs.

00:21:46
Speaker 2: It was really really do you what do you remember about the week? Like, do you remember the table read? Were you there for the table read? Do you remember the run throughs? What do you remember most about the week?

00:21:57
Speaker 6: I do remember. I remember being really nervous. I think just because I had a crush.

00:22:04
Speaker 3: I think on Matt Lawrence.

00:22:06
Speaker 4: Matt Lawrence, and.

00:22:14
Speaker 6: Then I answer, what's that? Everybody did? Probably I actually I don't remember. I was like cruising through the the podcast some of the podcasts, and I saw the one he was on, and I actually was like, wait a minute, he looked so familiar, and then I was like, oh my gosh. And then he was joking or he was saying something about in sync was there, and they thought he was mean, but it was because he had a crusher on you. And I was like, we all had crushes on everyone.

00:22:43
Speaker 3: That is the way it was as a teenager.

00:22:44
Speaker 6: Yeah, clearly, and so I just but I was nervous, I think, because like you were my friend and I wanted to make sure I did a good job. And it was just, you know, when it's that close to home, and I think that I think I was friends with them then then or after, I don't remember, And so it was one of those like you just know people, and yeah, you want to make sure you do good job. And obviously Michael was you know, I'd work with my dad so much, and I was like, I got to make sure I do, you know, leave a good impress And I feel like I did a couple of his shows though after that or maybe before it.

00:23:15
Speaker 2: So good, you did leave a good impression, I guess. So was Michael like a part of your family life? What do you remember? What years was my two dads on And was Michael still like a prominent figure in your family life at the time that you were on Boy.

00:23:27
Speaker 6: Yeah, he really was. He was just I just, I mean, my memories of him were just I mean, oh, my dad always like talked so highly of him, and I always thought he's really funny and serious though like he he didn't scare me, but he was like he's coming in to make changes. They're gonna change, you know, things are like yeah, you know, And I think I was maybe a little I had known that that he you know, he's really smart, he's really talented, but he's also like quick, comes in, you know, makes changes, leaves, wants him to be done and wants it to be right. And I was like, okay, I kind of just make sure you know, I hear toes. Yeah, I don't zone off to my add world where I'm like squirrel, what did he say? So, yeah, it was, and I think I was at the table reading. I'm pretty sure I was. Yeah, yeah, because I was. I think I was really nervous, like turning red on my chest and like sweating and probably like I like real blondes, do you know.

00:24:28
Speaker 1: No, that's a good way to describe Michael.

00:24:29
Speaker 5: He was very intense, but he's also arguably the funniest person I've ever met in my life. Yes, I mean, he's just very quick witted with that kind of stuff.

00:24:37
Speaker 6: So yeahah, you don't have like that many hit shows back to back to back and.

00:24:40
Speaker 5: Are without knowing exactly. Yeah, I mean, aside from being a brilliant sitcom writer, which he is, brilliant, just even even the way he would tell just a basic joke. It's just he had the structure down.

00:24:53
Speaker 6: He was just fun totally. And wasn't he pretty dry too? Like I feel like was he dry or I don't?

00:25:00
Speaker 5: I mean, I mean it depended it dependent on how he wanted to tell the joke. He could switch between dry to you know, kind of bigger too.

00:25:08
Speaker 1: I mean it was, yeah, he was. He was just funny.

00:25:10
Speaker 6: Yeah, he really was.

00:25:12
Speaker 2: What is it that gave you the acting bug as a kid? Was it growing up on sets with your dad?

00:25:18
Speaker 6: It was? And it was actually it's like, my biggest memory of it all is there was an episode on my two Dads called I don't remember the name of it, but where Paul Reiser was a leprechaun. And yeah, literally like he's he's a leprechaun and all these kids are coming to see him, and my dad, I guess, asked Michael, like, hey, my kids, you want you need extras? And he's like, yeah, I need a bunch of extras. You know, would your kids be up for it? And I'm I had to have been six, five, seven, I don't know, and my brother and I did it and my dad will know. He tells the story today to this day. He said Michael had to him up to him and say, hey, can you tell Vanessa? Or maybe it was the camera man, can you get to stop staring into the camera like and and But from that moment on, I knew I wanted to be an actress, I guess. And my dad kept saying no, no, no, and then fine, and then he would say go get into a play. And then I got into a play, and then he's like you know, and then finally I think when I was about eleven, they were like, okay, well we'll let you do it. And then that's when I got my first acting job, and and then my first series regular, which was awesome.

00:26:36
Speaker 3: Tell us about that.

00:26:37
Speaker 1: What was what?

00:26:38
Speaker 2: What do you remember about your first audition, your first book job?

00:26:41
Speaker 3: What was it?

00:26:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, the first one was called Jack's Place, but my the big first one for me was against It was called Against the Grain. He was with Ben Affleck and he was my brother, and Robin Lively and John Terry, Donna Bullock. Like. It was a great a great cast, I mean, and it was a football show. It was I was honestly like, it was a critically acclaimed NBC show that I mean didn't happen after the first season, which was a bummer because it was so was like a football show and it was so good. But you know, and then Seventh Heaven came out and it was basically like they just did something right that we didn't do, I guess, but yeah, it was. Yeah, it was. That was my first like real memory and then you know, it was lucky to work a bit. You know, I still do occasionally when I'm I think kids right now are my focus? How to do more than one thing at one time?

00:27:41
Speaker 2: Tell me a little bit about social studies too. I remember you doing social studies.

00:27:46
Speaker 3: Yes, that's right. That that was a show right back.

00:27:50
Speaker 6: To back Tuesdays. You that was that was said, That was upn It was great. My biggest memory of that was Film next Door to Milisha and like Brandy, I don't know, there was like all these fun shows and Sabrina and that was fun. That was actually the days the that I did your yes because the hair it was like funny. I really had fun with that show. That was like a height like a I wasn't high school. We were in you know, like junior high sixteen, yeah, junior high high school sixteen.

00:28:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I.

00:28:30
Speaker 6: Guess it was high school. And it was just really fun. It was it was wild because we we we got that. We did that. I did the pilot of it, and then they got this big meeting together after the pilot, and then we got picked up and they started recasting the whole show, and I was like, oh my gosh, oh no, and they faintly kept me, but they recasted I guess older they went with the people. I guess that the original I don't even remember, but it was like really young. I looked way older than everyone. I guess we were all the same age though, must have been those paths they kept patting me with. They continue to do it in every show I was ever in, Like in bra.

00:29:12
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I mean, yes, I got it.

00:29:17
Speaker 6: I mean I watched the It's World. I was like, okay, I mean that was what real fake? But you know continued.

00:29:27
Speaker 2: Do you remember was that something you wanted? Was it something like you were on? Were you self conscious in asking for.

00:29:34
Speaker 6: Them or was it I think I might have been because like at ay right, there was a few episodes of you know, not episodes literally into situations where like I had the bra and then the girls would like show their I mean, it was ridiculous, you know. I don't know if you remember that, but like no, but anyway, I I think I was so self conscious of that. I was pretty bullied. Actually, I was so thankful when I met you because I feel like I could breathe again, Like I had a friend, you know, just wasn't mean and pushing me into park cars and ripping my brow off so literally. And I'm not exaggering when I say that, So I might have that might have been. Why But as I got older and did you know shows when I was supposed to be like my twenties, they were then telling me I hated to you know, add more, which I was totally fine with then, but must have been, you know, right like now I could care less. I'm like, you know, they're fine. Now, they're better than they were then. Yeah, lucky with the kids. But yeah, I don't know. I think it must have been must have been maybe or that maybe it was like the cool snotty girls supposed to have big boots.

00:30:45
Speaker 2: I have no ideas, so funny, I know I have memories of that being a thing too, But in the reverse. I remember I worked on something where someone was supposed to be a teenager was a teenager and they felt like her chest was too big, and so they bound her with an ace bandage in order to look smaller. And so I do remember that being like a topic of conversation, and I was just wondering, like, in your case, you really noticed it on boy Meet's World. I did not notice it. I can I just I did not notice in any way. It didn't look fake to me.

00:31:18
Speaker 6: I didn't.

00:31:18
Speaker 2: I didn't pay any attention to it, but you obviously noticed it. And so I was wondering, is that something that you came with an insecurity and were like, listen, let's give me a little quote unquote help in this area, or if it was just something discussed. Maybe it was a combination of it.

00:31:33
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure. I mean I was always like, yeah, I give me more, the more, the better, you know, But I don't feel that way now. But but yeah, that was uh yeah, it's just wild how how like things little things had happened in school can really just like follow through with you for so long. Yeah, possibly forever unless you deal with it. But luckily I dealt with it, and now I just think it's funny right now you can joke about it. Oh yeah, because I could like probably remember the bra too. I mean.

00:32:05
Speaker 4: It was thick.

00:32:07
Speaker 6: I mean I want to go back.

00:32:08
Speaker 4: I want to go back to your dad for a second, just because I'm so curious, like, and I've been asking other people this question lately, which is because my son is very much like a performer and he's like lovely acting and whatnot, and I'm like, my wife and I are both actors, and I just don't know how to like help him or talk to him. Did your dad ever like talk to you about like did he teach you how to act? Did he give you notes? Did he how did how did that relationship work? Or did he just say let other teachers and directors take care of this.

00:32:39
Speaker 6: It's a really good question, you know. First of all, I almost want to say congrats, And I'm sorry about like that, because I always my husband and I always say like we just really hope they don't want to get into it and we know the journey and like how I mean, for a show to go as long as yours went unheard of, you know, and for it to be that well known it's it's and I think that people really think, like I have moms all the time, like, oh, do you think you can help me get my kids into acting? Can you get you think we can get them an agent? And I'm like, I don't even know where to begin now, but I know that my dad clearly did not want me to be in the business until I begged him to the point where he was like fine, And I I remember vaguely kind of, I think, meeting with a few agents, and then I ended up falling into like I think I was with Iris Burton first. Wow, remember that name, but.

00:33:34
Speaker 4: She was legendary, legendary.

00:33:36
Speaker 6: Yes, she was wonderful. But he did coach me a lot. He did help me. He's a wonderful coach, and but also very like critical, like I would watch them and be like and he's like, yeah that I mean, you just weren't listening or you weren't like really helpful. Especially as an adult too now, like gosh, those were things I like to carry over because there's nothing worse in watching an actor who's just like not listening and they're just like throwing out their lines and they're not connected. And obviously I was super young then, But I feel like as I got older, I noticed, you know, roles, and I didn't like what I did. And I was like, oh, and you know, I studied with Warner Laughlin. So to answer your question, studied, I mean Warner Laughlin is like my go to coach, Like I coach with her forever and still do from time to time, even just like on the phone. But yeah, my dad will help me. My sister sometimes will run stuff. You know, I'll if I have a friend, like I mean a couple of friends, Like a lot of people have moved to Nashville, which is wild, so I'll like work with them on stuff sometimes.

00:34:49
Speaker 3: But because that's where you live now, or any.

00:34:53
Speaker 6: Of you here, I know you're not.

00:34:55
Speaker 3: No, no, we are not.

00:34:58
Speaker 2: Actually you mentioned your sister, so I want to te talk a little bit about your siblings, because your brother went on to become a very successful songwriter, and your sister is also an actress best known for doing dance moves I wish I could do.

00:35:12
Speaker 3: She was in the Step Up of Movies, two of.

00:35:14
Speaker 5: The two of the more important ones of the of the of the series of four, She's in Step Up to the Streets.

00:35:21
Speaker 1: In the fourth one.

00:35:23
Speaker 6: Actually, I think Fifth one loves Step Up, really loves it.

00:35:32
Speaker 4: Any of them their their life.

00:35:34
Speaker 1: It's really want to Yeah, I mean Step Up two.

00:35:38
Speaker 5: When when we meet Moose in two, it really kind of changes the entire amazing tire ball game.

00:35:44
Speaker 1: But I mean, for all those movies, you got no idea. I mean, he really.

00:35:49
Speaker 6: Loves my sister dancing together one time.

00:35:51
Speaker 5: No, I don't dance at all a matter of fact, I'm completely and totally opposed to it.

00:35:55
Speaker 1: But the films are wonderful, yeah, which is really all that matters. Yeah, they're great.

00:36:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, So tell us a little bit about your sister, Brianna, your brother Jason Evgan.

00:36:04
Speaker 3: Okay, you guys are very you're an entertainment family. We are.

00:36:08
Speaker 6: We definitely are. My my brother, I'll start with my brother. He he is, but they're both my younger brother. Younger brother and sister. My brother is kind of started off in a band and and you know.

00:36:22
Speaker 3: Just really want to tell us about the band.

00:36:24
Speaker 6: He was in the After Midnight Project, but they were first Illusion and then you know he I think at some point he kind of just realized like this isn't I mean, he was signed and then unsigned, like Jack Osborne signed him, and he was doing a little bit here and there, and then I think one day he really really realized, like, I'm going to try and catalog my music and see what happens. And he did, and he did some Disney stuff and then he got his first big because he's a writer and a producer and a phenomenal singer and can do every instrument. I mean, he's truly like a brilliant He's like a he's like a genius when it comes to so yeah, he's like a genetic defect. I don't understand. Yeah, he so heart attack. But that Demi Lovado sings was like, I feel like the one that got him on the map really and then and then it followed with like, you know, talked Dirty to Me, that Jason Derula song, and then a slew of incredible Room five songs, and then he's got like he's I mean, he's I feel like if you name a person's he's wrote or he's.

00:37:31
Speaker 3: Worked with my dear friend Sabrina Carpenter, yes he has. Yeah.

00:37:35
Speaker 6: And then him and his wife started their own little project called Elephant Part, which is phenomenal. I mean, it's like the best music your kids can listen to it too, because it's just wonderful. Me she just wanted to dance. It's so happy. And then my sister, you know, she was an dancer and went to Campbell Hall and literally was like doing a recital and this guy named Matt just love her and decided to manage We wanted to manage her and got her an audition for a Step Up and she missed our family Hawaii trip for it and this better, this better be a better payoff. Yeah, because you're not you're not an actress, like this was your first you know, it was literally like her first thing ever, and she was just a natural, absolutely, like as you know.

00:38:20
Speaker 5: And I think, uh, I think if memory serves, the Step Up movies were produced by David Nixy, who's Early nick Say's dad.

00:38:29
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:38:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, so Lily nix Say's dad produced all the Step Up movies.

00:38:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, gosh, we are all so connected.

00:38:36
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, really small world.

00:38:39
Speaker 6: Yeah, and John Chu directed to I believe, and maybe all of them, I don't know, and he's so talented.

00:38:47
Speaker 3: So yeah.

00:38:48
Speaker 6: And now my sister is actually in Africa. She lived in Africa and she lives in Zimbabwe and she is married with a child, and they are this amazing force. Just they have a documentary coming out. They're doing so much basically just to they're working on creating sustainable living for people that I mean, it all kind of flows together. It's really hard to explain in a nutshell and I can't do it. But she's just making a huge difference over there.

00:39:19
Speaker 1: Right now, and I'm so proud of amazing.

00:39:21
Speaker 6: Yes, and she was only supposed to go during COVID for like a year and a half or two years, and then she found met her husband, who's wonderful and he's the reason women are allowed to be rangers in Africa. He started something there and he preserves all this land. So they're just an incredible couple. And yeah, and I really miss her, but she is coming back out here in November. Abundant Village is her thing, and she's doing a lot of a lot of talks and you know, just fundraising like public speaking, speaking and getting people familiar with what she's doing. So yeah, wow, that's cool. And they're my best friends, both of them. They're just great humans. So that's the most import In part.

00:40:01
Speaker 2: Going back a little bit before when we were talking about against the Grain and Social Studies, two shows that could have been massive, huge breaks, but then were life was cut short, as they so often are with shows that just get yanked off the air before they're really given a chance.

00:40:16
Speaker 3: Do you remember one was that heartbreaking for you? And two?

00:40:21
Speaker 2: Did your dad have any advice or like, what did your dad say to you then when that happened and you were probably devastated.

00:40:29
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, it's always hard. It's always hard when you when you get canned or canceled or you know, all picked up or it was hard. Especially the Against the Grain one was hard because it was like critically acclaimed. They were like NBC's it's like their favorite show and it's gonna you know, it's it's gonna be huge, blah blah blah. And I'm a kid, so I'm just thinking, great, you believe it's so young. I think I was twelve or thirteen maybe, and it was really sad. I mean I remember because we all just got so close and Ben was like felt like a brother, and I just I didn't want to go back to school either because it was so hard.

00:41:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just wanted to stay ever forever.

00:41:15
Speaker 6: And yeah, it was hard. It was heartbreaking. And and when Social Studies was canceled too, that was really hard because I mean that was another one, Like you said that, we just they really thought that one was going to work. And I don't really know what happened. And you know, anytime you're you just it's just hard.

00:41:33
Speaker 4: I don't know.

00:41:34
Speaker 6: My dad's advice was just keep going. If you love it, don't give up. And it's it's a business that's going to either it's going to either build you up, break you down, or crush you and you won't be able to do it. So you have to be strong enough to stay in it or you got to quit. And I'm like, and not quit, but just like walk away and do You always said find something you love to do that you're good at, that you can make money at. And I'm like, okay, I think I'm pretty good at it. I can make money at this. I love it, but I you know, you know what it's like, it's like up and down, like I watched my dad and my sister and I will all so I always say, any job is a blessing and exciting and I'm like, you never know when you're gonna be back on set again. Yeah, I love I mean, I love it. I think it's so fun.

00:42:16
Speaker 3: Do you have any memories of young Ben Affleck.

00:42:19
Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely, Yeah. He was a cute one still is wild. How I mean to think Ben just I mean I can't. I mean, he's like he's been Jen Low or whatever Ben j that even I heard of that. I love it. Yeah, I mean, honestly, my memory is my guardian because my parents were trying to like take my sister places. My dad was working, my mom, you know, all of us, and I'm on the show, and my brother was like on a traveling hockey league. So this Kelly was our babysitter and she was eighteen I think, or she's like twenty one, I would say, and I think just head over heels for him, and I just it was just that was my biggest memory because I was like too young. I always like thought he'd really cute.

00:43:16
Speaker 2: And probably had a crush on him, right, but he was like a big brother more than someone.

00:43:20
Speaker 6: Yeah. Uh huh. He actually is the reason I started a really weird habit that I still do. And my sister and brother and my parents will notice it, but I'll and you probably remember it, Danielle, maybe but I go.

00:43:30
Speaker 3: Like, yes, okay, yes, your little mouth thing you do.

00:43:35
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, it's like a rabbit. I'm actually smelling my breath. But one day on set I was just doing that, like not really knowing what I was doing, and Ben was like, are you what are you doing? You look like a little rabbit. What are you doing? I was like, I don't know, and I literally I'm not kidding with you. It became the worst habit. I just started doing it because.

00:43:57
Speaker 2: How are you doing You're blowing mouth, You're blo out of you.

00:44:03
Speaker 3: To smell your breath.

00:44:04
Speaker 6: Yeah, And it didn't start that way, but now now it's actually like a really interesting way to tell if your breath smells. My brother would be like, you're doing it, you're because then it got to the point where I would literally be doing it in the middle of a scene.

00:44:20
Speaker 3: Oh my god.

00:44:21
Speaker 6: You know when someone points something out's how they say to your don't oh yeah, not your kids are doing is they're going to keep doing it and like ignore everything they do that's not right.

00:44:30
Speaker 4: There?

00:44:30
Speaker 2: Aff Yeah, yeah, did you watch your Boy Meets World episode when it aired on? Like, did you did the whole family gather around and watch your episode.

00:44:54
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure we all did, like I'm I mean, and if you weren't there, we must I must have had like I don't know, we had to have done something. I know we definitely watched it, Like, I'm pretty sure it was very exciting that it was, you know, coming on and you.

00:45:08
Speaker 2: Know, well, as as everyone knows, Jensen and I also went to high school together. So Jensen knew you as you guys were friends as teenagers, and Jensen swears that you two watched a social studies episode over the phone together probably, by the way, was a thing you did.

00:45:26
Speaker 4: The most I've ever heard. Yeah, let's watch a TV show one of us and talk about it.

00:45:32
Speaker 3: Yes, while on the phone together.

00:45:34
Speaker 6: It was hilarious. Yes, I mean those were the good old days when you pick up the phone and like actually talk to people. Yeah, I mean I don't sorry, Jensen, I don't remember that that well. But I remember we were friends. Well that's good friends. And then when I and then when I found out you guys got married, I was like, thank god, just it's so nice when you see like people finding each other that are yes and love and all that.

00:46:00
Speaker 2: So yeah, so as we mentioned you now live in Nashville, just an absolutely beautiful family living what could only be described is what looks like a Hallmark movie shot on a farm. Your property is absolutely gorgeous. You are always your photos look just every but you're also so real. Especially over the last couple of years, Vanessa has really embraced I think after years of feeling a lot of pressure to live like a quote unquote perfect life visually of a certain aesthetic on Instagram, Vanessa realized the damaging effect that was having on her own mental health and figured if it's affecting her mental health, it's probably affecting other people's and she did not want to contribute to the furtherance of it. And so you kind of adjusted what you post, and now you post very sometimes absolutely gorgeous photos and wonderful things, but they're also you post very relatable topics, and you have very relatable humor, and you show what your life is really like as a mom of two still work. As you mentioned you you recently did a movie not that long ago. Why don't you tell us about some of the projects you have right now and then I'll go back to your home life.

00:47:07
Speaker 6: Well, thank you for saying that. It is very important to me to be real.

00:47:12
Speaker 5: I I.

00:47:14
Speaker 6: Kind of can't even get on Instagram often anymore because I'm just like a little Yeah, so I really try to try to be very real and right now I just post what I feel like. It's pretty out. It's flowers that are blooming and so pretty and I planted them from seeds. But yes, I'll go back to that. But I did. I've done a couple things since I had kids, but not a ton. I was really thankful. I did a Western in I think it was like twenty twenty one.

00:47:46
Speaker 3: Yes, that's what I was talking about.

00:47:48
Speaker 6: That was that was really really awesome. That was one of my favorite, probably one of my favorite jobs. I side for point means world of course because it will. It filmed in Nashville, and I was like the lead female in it and it was just me and a bunch of men on horseback with rifles and.

00:48:09
Speaker 4: It's cool cool.

00:48:10
Speaker 6: Yeah. So and it took place you know, in the I don't know, late some time before you know anything. So we are all there all nineteen early nineteen hundreds or eighteen.

00:48:23
Speaker 5: Okay, yes, probably the probably around the if it was a Western, you're probably around the eighteen sixties.

00:48:27
Speaker 2: Thanks for being smarter century late eighteen hundred, eighteen hundreds.

00:48:33
Speaker 6: I was like, yeah, I mean I get it, but like, I definitely didn't have that an eighteen hundreds of a few things there. Well, it wasn't like a million twenty million dollar movie where the people were like, Okay, we got to move all these.

00:48:47
Speaker 4: Things out of the world.

00:48:48
Speaker 5: Right. The cowboys are talking to each other on cell phones?

00:48:52
Speaker 6: Right, how can I not put this movie into a comedy though I don't really do things like hormal, I don't know, but it was so fun and I got to get my kids were in it, which was so cool, and my husband, which is the ultimate, like he literally got so into the role. It was maybe fifteen second role.

00:49:17
Speaker 3: He hit a fifteen second cameo.

00:49:19
Speaker 6: Yeah, he gets killed, but he went method yes, and he gets shot off the horse by sorry if I'm reading the movie. Spoiler is such a brilliant movie that you don't know no trace Atkins, who's a song country singer, Yeah, a country singer, Yeah, rides up on a horse and shoots him. And my husband is a horse. He rides horses, And that wasn't meant to be in the movie. But I told the director. I was like, hey, Mike, you know, my husband's actually really good rider, and he probably loved to like ride in on it, so he kind of changed the whole thing around for him. And he runs, he trots up like gets in the fight, gets shot, and he falls off the horse himself, does the stunt, doesn't Adlise. He's got to do it probably fifty times because you know, it's a movie, like, and he was like doing the thing like where you're like on the ground something and he couldn't walk for like a week after that. I mean, it was good. He looks great and the kids were so adorable in it, and that was really it was so fun and yeah, so that was like the most recent thing I did. And I feel like I've been kind of like my agent will send the auditions and I just am like, yeah, maybe I'll be like put myself on for that one. But I I just like would never want to turn a job down, right, So if I were to just happen to get it, I would never want to be like I can't. Yeah, I was gonna get it, but just you know, when I was like I'm gonna.

00:50:46
Speaker 2: And if it shoots in Nashville. That makes it a lot easier for you than having to travel for.

00:50:51
Speaker 6: It because it's in Atlanta or Nashville, you know, working sometimes California just kind of depends on what it is.

00:50:56
Speaker 4: So just nothing shooting in California anymore.

00:50:59
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a Georgia, I know it is. It really is, and it's you know so and they just need to get it here now too. I feel like so many people have moved here. It's crazy, I know. Yeah.

00:51:10
Speaker 4: I feel like all of La just left from Nashville in the last ten years.

00:51:14
Speaker 6: I know, Jason Priestley, Melissa, everybody was like all like, so Shane West just moved here, which I just found a picture of us together.

00:51:21
Speaker 2: All Oh, yeah, me too. I've got a great picture of you, Me and Shane West those days.

00:51:25
Speaker 6: Corbyn and Corbyn, Oh my gosh, we have the short things that the belly rings. Oh my god, oh gosh.

00:51:32
Speaker 3: I know, did we ever belly buttons piers together?

00:51:35
Speaker 6: And we did?

00:51:36
Speaker 3: We did, That's right, that's right. It was so fun.

00:51:40
Speaker 1: Either of you still wear belly button piercings?

00:51:43
Speaker 4: No, I didn't think so.

00:51:47
Speaker 3: I committed to mine though for a long time.

00:51:50
Speaker 6: Here's a lot longer than me I had.

00:51:51
Speaker 3: I had mine until I was like thirty.

00:51:54
Speaker 6: We had a lot longer than I thought too. Yeah that's mine. Yeah, mine didn't last after a jump? And why off of the cliff? Oh yeah, it was pretty rough.

00:52:03
Speaker 1: So we did it? Get ripped out?

00:52:06
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.

00:52:08
Speaker 6: Ish fully, Oh gosh, why did you let her do that? Pam? Like, I don't blame mom, Like I was the one that like did it.

00:52:21
Speaker 2: So you mentioned that you were able to have your kids, Maverick and Bertie Rose in the movie with you. If either of them said that they wanted to pursue a career in the entertainment industry, how would you and your husband Miles approach it.

00:52:36
Speaker 6: I don't know. I guess I I maybe go along that same route my dad did and say like, Okay, well let's let's start by getting me in a play or something. Yeah, if you do, and really work their way up to it. And I'm quite frankly, I don't even know, Like I know, I still have an agent. I could probably say, hey, you know, could you send them out for something or hear? But Maddick's really into sports right now, thankfully, I Bertie could, like I wish I had her dramatic. I mean, I'm dramatic, but she's like next level. I've never seen anything like. I mean she can. We're at that point where I don't know, like, are you really is this like doing? We need to go to the doctor every day, right, do we? Like? I mean, the whole thing. But if if anyone were to go that way, I would say it might be more her, Like, gosh.

00:53:25
Speaker 4: I don't know.

00:53:25
Speaker 6: I really want them to be like lawyers or doctors or I don't.

00:53:29
Speaker 4: Know, fishermen, something sensible, no tough one.

00:53:37
Speaker 2: So let's say you had the chance to tell young Vanessa the one we saw on Boy Meets World. And let's say you get to tell her one thing about your life? Now, what would you What would you tell her? If you could go back in time and tell young Vanessa something, what would you tell her?

00:53:54
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, I feel like that that kind of stuff makes me like cry. I would say, you have no idea how great it's going to be. It's hard now, and it's nothing. It's it's nothing that you could possibly imagine it's going to be. Yeah, Like I couldn't even like ever imagine this would be my life. So I would. Yeah, I think.

00:54:29
Speaker 3: That's such an important lesson.

00:54:30
Speaker 2: It's such an important lesson because I know it's the same thing for me too.

00:54:34
Speaker 3: You know, I thought I had it.

00:54:35
Speaker 2: I thought I was like, you know, I'd go down different paths thinking like, well, I have to I have to purs like, what's my future going to be? It's going to be like this, And you go down that route and then you feel like you get a door shoved slammed in your face and you're like.

00:54:47
Speaker 3: Well, but that's what I'm supposed to do. And you're like, oh, you know what it's It's not what I'm supposed to do.

00:54:52
Speaker 2: This is what I'm supposed to do, and then that door slams in your face and you're like, well now I feel so super lost and it must be me and something's wrong with me, and and it's actually that No, you're not supposed to know what it's going to be, and whatever it does end up being is going to be beyond anything you're capable of imagining for yourself. So stop worrying about it so much. Stop trying to manipulate it, stop trying to control it. Stop trying to shove a square peg into a round hole and just go live the life and enjoy the journey.

00:55:19
Speaker 3: To wherever it takes you.

00:55:21
Speaker 2: So that's such an important lesson, and I'm honored to have been on the journey with you for all these years too.

00:55:29
Speaker 6: You're just like anytime I think of you, even my Dad's like it's official, but yeah, I mean, yeah, you're I mean you're just like all joy when I think of you and all of our memories together, and you know, even when we get to see each other now in California, when I come back and I'm going to see you the next time i'm out there, I'm going to come back.

00:55:55
Speaker 3: Okay, yes you are.

00:55:56
Speaker 2: And I also will come visit you in Nashville. I want to see your place.

00:56:00
Speaker 6: Yes, definitely. I mean, my Myles jokes all the time because I'm like trying to like just give people land. I'm like, we have so much land. You want, you can have it, build yourself a home. We'll come out and charge you for the acreage. So just just come. We'll just build a community.

00:56:16
Speaker 3: I love it. That's what writer's dream, yeah dream, Yeah, communal living.

00:56:20
Speaker 6: Hey, please, I mean come all right, we'll give you and your wife would like become fast like, yeah, you know, all.

00:56:30
Speaker 3: Right, thank you so much for being with us. Vanessa. It's always so good to see you.

00:56:35
Speaker 2: Thank you for coming and revisiting these these uh these teenage years and your time on Boy Meets World with us. We appreciate you so much and I look forward to seeing you sometime soon.

00:56:45
Speaker 6: Thank you for having me on to see you here. Bye.

00:56:50
Speaker 4: Oh. The fact that she had like it sounded like she had like a rough like fifth or sixth grade. It's like, and she was so beautiful and like what I would have assumed is like the popular girl, you know. And the fact that she has like these bullying memories. Ye all never know, you never know, you never know, you're you're right exactly. But it's so funny because here she is getting cast as on our show the popular meme girl, because that is kind of her her look at that age, you know, you would assume, like, well, this girl's fine, like this girl is going to have confidence and be told and of course it's just never the case. You have no idea what's going on inside.

00:57:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, Vanessa did.

00:57:27
Speaker 2: She had a very very rough all all of junior high was extremely rough for her, and also a significant portion of high school, and she was really bullied, and you know, it's something she I'm so proud of her because never ever did her negative experiences in junior high school or high school change the kind of person that she was.

00:57:54
Speaker 3: She never let it make her angry or jaded or mean.

00:57:58
Speaker 2: She was always just a consistent, bright, beautiful, fun, awesome, wonderful person. But the truth is, you know, she she turned it inward. She had a lot of pain inside, and she had a lot of self doubt, and she had a lot of self esteem stuff. And I don't think I'm talking out of school to say she's worked very hard on herself, sure, and it shows. It's one of the reasons why I mentioned her social media because when you do go to it and you see her, she's very open about, you know, struggling with body image and self image and figuring out how social media plays into her life is in a way of being able to share with friends and family, but also not contributing to something that seems fake. And so it's very she's just she's an open book. And I just love and appreciate and respect her so much, and I'm truly lucky to have known her for all the years that I have and I'll never I'll never not be in touch within us, just that they actually have, you know, I don't know, but she has said give it away.

00:59:08
Speaker 4: I have at least like one hundred, one hundred and fifty eight years. It's a horse ranch. It's an actual horse ranch.

00:59:14
Speaker 2: And she's got a farm and she's got Yeah, I mean, from what I understand, it's like a city. It's a city of acreage, California.

00:59:25
Speaker 4: Guys.

00:59:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, she is.

00:59:26
Speaker 1: She and her husband owned Tenna. There you go.

00:59:33
Speaker 2: Thank you all 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.

00:59:44
Speaker 1: It's official March. I love it.

00:59:49
Speaker 3: Pod Meets Worldshow dot com writer send us out.

00:59:52
Speaker 4: We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produce and hosted by Daniel Fisher, Wilfred and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman. Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor Taras sudbachsch producer Maddi 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 World Show at gmail dot com