Madeline Zima Meets World

00:00:18
Speaker 1: Adler learned his first curse word, which was ass.

00:00:25
Speaker 2: That's barely a curse word. That's acceptable on television. That's fine.

00:00:30
Speaker 3: That's probably where he heard it, and he said he said, Asie said something about like somebody was going to beat someone's ass, and Jensen said, what did you just say? And he was like, I'm going to beat that guy's ass. Gens was like, oh, that is another another word for butt, and we just prefer that you say butt, and he was like, okay, so.

00:00:57
Speaker 2: He hasn't he doesn't acknowledged the power yet. No, And he went through a phase I guess was probably like seven or eight where it was like when he realized he could get a rise out of people by swearing, and oh man, it.

00:01:09
Speaker 1: Was just over right.

00:01:11
Speaker 2: Well, we said like, you can swear at home, just don't swear in front of other adults or other kids. And once he knew he had that freedom, it was like car rides would just become a swear fest. And then it was like wanting to find songs or things where people swore, and that was like, oh my god, you just wanted to like keep quoting them and talking and was like okay, dude. And then he finally he exhausted himself. But it took a while. It was like a good six months of just having to swear, and like it finally was just like, you know, it's boring. Yeah, it's actually like a sign of limited vocabulary. Like if you can't find a more creative way to say something, you just think that saying the effort is funny. It's minimal humor.

00:01:52
Speaker 3: Adler has been trying to figure out what the effort is for years, so have I.

00:01:57
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's a verb, it's a noun, it's so many things.

00:02:01
Speaker 1: The F word.

00:02:02
Speaker 3: And then one day he said, Mom, I know what the F word is? And I said you do, and he goes, yeah, freaking And I went.

00:02:16
Speaker 1: Exactly, yeah it is. That's a word that starts with F.

00:02:22
Speaker 3: And then yesterday again he asked, Jensen, does the F word stand for Fox?

00:02:32
Speaker 1: So close? So so close? But thankfully, thankfully you haven't crossed that bridge.

00:02:40
Speaker 3: So yeah, anyway, I'm uh, I just can't believe it, but he's six. We've done a really good job in our house of not cursing around our kids. We just we just don't do it. As a matter of fact. For a while, Adler was saying, oh sh which was like so cute.

00:03:03
Speaker 1: My favorite thing he would ever say.

00:03:05
Speaker 2: No, Indi, indies brought what the heck into our life, that's what we love too. He's like, Dad, what the heck.

00:03:11
Speaker 1: That's what he's saying.

00:03:12
Speaker 2: That's great, yeah, or shoot shoot No. Alex made the mistake last month, literally a month maybe a month and a half ago, because she decided that she swore too much, and she was like, I want to swear less. So she told India that she would pay him a dollar every time.

00:03:27
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it's up.

00:03:30
Speaker 2: To thirty eight dollars and India is holding her too.

00:03:33
Speaker 1: He's like, I want every last.

00:03:35
Speaker 2: Day he won and she's like no, come on. And then and then we were in Costa Rica for her birthday and he was like, how many times you just wear in Costa Rica? You should have kept track for me? Well, that's what he's claiming. He's like an accountant now he suddenly you know, he just loves it. He loves And then he tried it with me. I'm like, no, there's there's no f and way I'm going to keep track of I swear. I'm I'm fine with the amount of swearing that I do. I like it. I'm very comfortable with it.

00:04:04
Speaker 1: What does Indy like to spend his money on?

00:04:07
Speaker 2: That's a good question. Nothing. I mean there's stuff the kid wants for nothing, like we you know, if he wants something for real, we usually buy it for like Christmas or his birthday. Usually gets big things that he wants. And then like if we go somewhere, like he always needs clothes because he's growing, so we're constantly buying him like shirts that he wants. As far as like we go somewhere and he's like, I want a T shirt from this plaace or whatever, We'll buy it for him. So that's like and then stuffed animals. He has like an entire stuffy kingdom.

00:04:34
Speaker 1: Oh so yeah, my kids are rifriend is ruck.

00:04:36
Speaker 2: I never was into stuffed anim Yeah. So so every time we're like somewhere, he begs for like a little stuffed animal if we're traveling, So we end up buying him that. But like, otherwise, what else do you want?

00:04:47
Speaker 4: Kid?

00:04:47
Speaker 2: Like, I don't know what you need? And yet he wants money. He wants the idea of money, and we like we did open up a like little bank account for him, and you know, we try to keep track of it, but he never spends it. He never needs so it's like, what are we doing? This is so anyway, Alex owe him thirty eight bucks. He's holding her to it, even though I don't know what he would do with it.

00:05:07
Speaker 3: But yeah, my kids have gotten gift cards for their birthdays and then they've just kind of sat in a drawer. And then every now and then, Jensen, like since I've been you know, during the Dancing with the Stars run, Jensen would say, Uh, if you guys are really good this week this weekend, I will take you shopping and you can use your gift card.

00:05:28
Speaker 1: And they would be like what.

00:05:30
Speaker 3: And then they'd get to walk into a store and pick something with their gift card. And I think it's also the cutest thing that both of them are obsessed with. They still have more money on the gift card, right, so, like they had a twenty five dollars card, but they only bought a fifteen dollars thing. And then they come home and they're like, look what I got. I spent my own money on it, and I still have money on the gift card and I'm like, wow, They really they're enjoying that.

00:05:57
Speaker 5: You know what else Adler really likes, and it's kind of funny to me, is he likes spending the gift card money. But I've asked him, we'll bring this money along in case you need more, and he's like, the actual money.

00:06:10
Speaker 2: We've been having this weird thing the last couple of weeks where we've realized Indy has a very accurate assessment of the value of money. Oh like we would have, we assumed because he talks about like wanting to be a billionaire or whenever talks about money, talks about it in like kid terms. But at one point we were like, how much do you think that would cost? We asked him about a car or something, and he nailed the price exactly, and then we were like, how much do you think our house costs? Nailed it? We're like what, So now our big thing is we just quiz him on like how much do you and he's pretty accurate. I have no idea where he got this, because we don't talk about money in front of it. It's like not like something we but at somewhere along the way, and I encourage because I've had this conversation with other parent friends who they just assume their kid doesn't. But I ask your kid, ask your kid, like how much do you think? And I think right around this age, So Indy's gonna turn eleven next month. I think that's like when you really do start kind of figuring it out. Like the idea of like a million dollars right, kind of gets into perspective and you're like, what does a million dollars buy? Or I don't know how he's picked it up, but he actually has picked it up, and like we're kind of impressed. I'm like, all right, dude, but he still doesn't do anything with money or no, what you know he wants to buy? But yeah, I mean he wants to be a billionaire. And I keep saying to him, I'm like, doesn't that sound kind of miserable, Like what would you do? What would you are?

00:07:27
Speaker 1: Not going to sound miserable to him?

00:07:28
Speaker 2: No, but I don't know what he wants to do with it, Like he just wants the status, right, but like what you would you act? I was like, do you realize if you're a billionaire, everybody around you is constantly asking you for money because they know that it's you can afford it and you're never going to like really lose it. And he's like, yeah, I guess that's true.

00:07:44
Speaker 3: But but like I think about that, and I think, why would that bother me? If it's never gonna it is true, it's never going to actually affect me. If I would, I would love to have you.

00:07:54
Speaker 2: Searching it away and everybody. But think about it. You have like you have like probably ten people and your immediate circle like family, and like, yeah, you know that, you'd be like, I'm going to help them out. I'm going to buy them a house. And then if you're really worth a billion dollars, you're gonna have like another twenty people. Yeah, like hey, could you help me out? And you'd be like, oh, yeah, I'll help you out.

00:08:13
Speaker 5: Listen. I don't mean to put Danielle on blast here, but her charitable heart is humongous.

00:08:18
Speaker 1: It all sounds amazing to me.

00:08:20
Speaker 5: She helps people, She helps people secretly in so many times financially.

00:08:25
Speaker 3: Yes, but also I do think then it would be like, once you've asked and I have helped, you say it's like I need help with a down payment for a house, and I would be like yes, absolutely, or you know, my medical bills or you know, yes, or I am struggling to put food on the table.

00:08:45
Speaker 1: Yes.

00:08:46
Speaker 3: But then once you're like out of that situation. If it were like three months later or even a year later, and you were like, I really want to take a trip, I'd be like we No, No, we did that already.

00:08:59
Speaker 1: I I help.

00:09:00
Speaker 2: I gave you, I gave you. Would would never end I know you would be in this you'd be in this position of like endless loop and yeah, and it's like where do you draw the line? Because I like, well, my people in my town, people in my country. I didn't want to help everything.

00:09:14
Speaker 1: I know, that is the thing.

00:09:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd have no money. That's why I want to be a billionaire. I want to be a billionaire so that I could give it all away, all the way.

00:09:21
Speaker 2: And that's why you'll never be a billion because you gotta be somewhat prudent and somewhat selfish.

00:09:29
Speaker 3: You're right, Welcome to pod Meats World. I'm Danielle Fishl. I'm right or strong, and we are missing will Fredell. He really wanted to be here, but he is traveling home from Connecticut, so we will sadly miss him for today's interview. We will be taping a live episode of Pod Meets World at Disney California Adventure Park on December fourth, twenty five.

00:09:57
Speaker 6: If you live in the Southern California area or if you can be in the Southern California area on December fourth, we have an opportunity for you to join us.

00:10:04
Speaker 3: Between now and November twenty fourth of twenty twenty five, you can enter for your chance to win tickets to attend the Coast one oh three point five Private Holiday Party at Disney California Adventure Park on December fourth, twenty twenty five, including an overnight stay at the Disneyland Resort Hotel for a family of four and two day, one park per day tickets to Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park.

00:10:32
Speaker 2: Plus you'll have a chance to meet us while we're taping an episode of Pod Meets World inside Disney California Adventure Park.

00:10:38
Speaker 6: Visit Coast one oh three five dot com forward slash pod Meets World now to enter for your chance to win.

00:10:53
Speaker 3: One of my favorite Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes is from season four. It's called Wandering Bear, and there's a running joke where Larry, who was an early adapter to electric cars, thinks it's a mandatory courtesy amongst fellow Prius owners to wave at each other as they pass in the street, a little head nod to say I'm part of the club too, And I often think being a former child actor has the same unwritten rules. It's such a small group of people, some still in the business thriving, some who've entered a new field of work completely, but no matter what, we all share a unique experience that shaped our lives at a young, impressionable age, and it's impossible to fully explain to those who didn't live it. So I think a lot of us feel comfortable around fellow child actors, knowing there's a shorthand and care we treat each other with. And so this week's guest, though we've never met her, is someone we would absolutely give the Prius wave too. She broke onto the scene at just seven years old in the nineteen ninety two thriller The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, quite a first gig, and it wasn't much later that she book the type of sitcom you dream of playing. Grace Sheffield on The Nanny, a hit show that lasted six seasons in catapulted fran Dresser and the entire cast into the spotlight, but where some seven year olds who grew up on a sound stage living in front of a live studio audience might rebel against the industry. Now, as an adult, she has continued to appear on tons of TV shows, including Gray's.

00:12:23
Speaker 1: Anatomy, Heroes, California, Caation.

00:12:26
Speaker 3: You, and Hacks, as well as movies like Subservience and Bombshell. Also worth noting.

00:12:32
Speaker 1: As a child, she starred in the Hulk.

00:12:34
Speaker 3: Hogan vehicle Mister Nanny, and yes I will be asking her about that. And so this week we welcome to podmeets World a fellow member of the club.

00:12:44
Speaker 1: It's Madeline Zema.

00:12:47
Speaker 4: Hi, Madeline, let me turn on my on your camera so we can sign that. Okay, I don't know, I'm really bad as.

00:12:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, you did it, you did it.

00:12:58
Speaker 3: Listen, every time you enter a zoom room, there's always there's always so many things.

00:13:03
Speaker 1: You're like, am I going to do it?

00:13:04
Speaker 4: Right?

00:13:04
Speaker 1: Is the camera on? Where's the mute?

00:13:07
Speaker 4: And then it's just I'm I'm like, I'm an a'm millennial, Like I guess we all are. Issue every single time technology, just I'm not good.

00:13:18
Speaker 3: I've recently went on TikTok live and every time, the most embarrassing part is where I go.

00:13:24
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, how do I exit? Is it this button?

00:13:26
Speaker 3: And like you're still on live as people are watching you be old and just not know how to leave.

00:13:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's called the millennial pause, right, yes, yeah, where it's like and it's we can't hide it. You know. I am great getting older because what's the alternative.

00:13:45
Speaker 1: Right exactly? The sweet sweet sleep of death.

00:13:49
Speaker 3: So Maln, thank you for joining us as fellow members of a child the Child Actor fraternity.

00:13:56
Speaker 1: We have a lot to chat about.

00:13:58
Speaker 3: You were born in Kaneta, like our dear friend Wilfred Ell, who unfortunately could not make it today. But when did you start making that trip into the city to start auditioning.

00:14:10
Speaker 4: My first job was when I was twenty eight months.

00:14:14
Speaker 2: What oh you were Yeah? Were young?

00:14:17
Speaker 4: Yeah? I was young. I'm actually happy Will did not join because he was my childhood crush.

00:14:23
Speaker 1: Oh oh man, We're going to have to redo this when he's.

00:14:26
Speaker 4: Oh no, no, no.

00:14:28
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:14:29
Speaker 4: So twenty eight months, my mom took me on an open call that she saw in the paper, which was for a national campaign called come on into Downy if you know UK. We were all so young, so I think it was like nineteen eighty.

00:14:47
Speaker 1: Seven, Oh my gosh, and I was just.

00:14:51
Speaker 4: About two years old, and I was one of I think thousands of There was at least a thousand baby at the open call, and I somehow booked the job and I managed to keep working in a Do you.

00:15:03
Speaker 1: Remember the audition?

00:15:05
Speaker 4: What I remember was having fun.

00:15:07
Speaker 5: No.

00:15:07
Speaker 4: I mean like I literally.

00:15:10
Speaker 5: No.

00:15:10
Speaker 4: I just felt like I owned that room.

00:15:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. You walked out and you were like, I mean, I've got it.

00:15:17
Speaker 4: Go home, nine hundred and ninety nine other babies. No, no, no, I I you know, I just I honestly just always loved being around people, and I loved playing they believe, like I'm sure we all did, and do you know, So it's a natural part of being a kid. So I've always I always kind of rail against when people are like child actors, and you know, there's a lot of stank around that term, and I always want to highlight the success stories because people don't ever do that. Like Brian Gosling was a child actor. DiCaprio was a child actor. Reese Witherspoon was a child actor. I mean, like super intelligent, loved people who had to confront really early things like identity, success, showing up on time, Like those are things maybe too early to confront it twenty four months, So that's of damage. But there's also a lot of things that were you know, instill that I still feel like are amazing qualities too.

00:16:20
Speaker 1: Totally.

00:16:21
Speaker 4: I feel like, yeah, I don't know, I feel very grateful for my weird path.

00:16:27
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, we are right there with you.

00:16:29
Speaker 3: I mean we talk about it all the time that like, are there moments that are that are tough or difficult, Sure, but also like some of those moments made us who we are today, and like it wouldn't trade any of the lessons or the experiences.

00:16:42
Speaker 4: Do you guys never get can I ask you a question? I know that Do you ever get tired of being asked? Both of you guys? I mean, I know, Danielle, this is like the thing that everybody says to you, like all the time. Do you get tired of people asking you? Like it it's saying like I had a crush on you growing up? Is that like something that you like? How do you see that gracefully to both you and Ryder.

00:17:03
Speaker 2: I mean it's just a thank you. I mean, yeah, I don't know, it's it's there's there's not much more you could say. I mean, I feel like people saying they have a crush is like cool, thanks. Well yeah, it's also just like you can't return the sentiment because you're just meeting them, right, so you can't be like, oh, I also have a history with you, because you don't. But yeah, it took me a long time to get comfortable with the idea that like one sided history is not necessarily a bad thing, you know what I mean. Like I used to be like that's weird, like I don't know you, and I would be alienated by that. I kind of pushed the the like put up my walls. And it's only recently that I've been able to say like, actually, that's kind of cool. Like when I think about how I felt about people I saw in movies or on stage, and you know, yeah I would I had feelings for them, and I think you know the hardest part was when we were actually teenagers and we were meeting other teenagers. That was uncomfortable because then it was like I know you, I love you, You're a part of my life, and you'd be like, no, I don't.

00:18:02
Speaker 4: You know, and they're like we could probably date, Yeah, we could hang out.

00:18:06
Speaker 1: And you're like yeah.

00:18:08
Speaker 3: I agree with writer that the hardest part was as a teenager and then and then always second guessing whether somebody was really interested in getting to know you or was kind of in love with the idea of you. As an adult, I always accept it never gets old hearing that somebody had a crush. It's never get it's never like annoying or like whatever. It's always very complimentary. But there's definitely I feel a distance from it. I know that what they felt was physical attraction. They thought I was an attractive person, and they loved the concept of who they thought I was based on a character I was playing. So I'm I'm very aware that they're not actually telling me they had a crush on me. They had a crush on their idea of me, based on one aspect of me that is me, myhysical appearance, and the other that's mostly written by Michael Jacobs.

00:19:06
Speaker 1: See what they love is my physical body with Michael Jacobs, and I just.

00:19:12
Speaker 3: Say thank you, and it's yeah, it's never what about for you? Is that an awkward situation for you?

00:19:19
Speaker 4: I mean people don't normally say that because I was young and not like I wasn't you know. I mean I had a long awkward phase. So no, people don't really people know. People don't come at me like that, you know what I mean. Like people will say things that are wildly inappropriate from the californication stuff. Oh, and they'll say things that are like gross, and I just hope that you know that you can laugh it off and move on or witty to say. But most of the time you just stand there stunned, kind.

00:19:50
Speaker 1: Of like huh yeah cool.

00:19:53
Speaker 4: I wish I wish a guy would step in and just be like, back off, buddy. I wish I had like a and I have. I have had some guy friends or like boyfriends or whatever be like hey.

00:20:03
Speaker 1: Like yeah, yeah, I need you to take a step.

00:20:05
Speaker 4: Back, man, But no, like I haven't. I haven't had too many people be like crush on you growing up. Mostly people tell me they had a crush on friend dresser and I'm like, I'll.

00:20:17
Speaker 1: Let her know.

00:20:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know, speed doll right here, hold on, yeah, brand soly Maroney.

00:20:26
Speaker 1: I'm here with what's your name? What exactly Kevin keV.

00:20:29
Speaker 3: Okay, you also have two sisters who are in the business. How did did the three of you were you were you guys attacking auditions as a trio?

00:20:39
Speaker 4: We attacking you know, We're We're all just We're all just had the creative and performative bug. But then also my mother was a dancer. She owned her the studio, and so she instead of being a dance mom because I was in dance, and then I had the chance to be like, Okay, I'm gonna do this or do that, and I wanted to play make believe. And then my sisters were like I was the oldest, and they're like, wait when I do that? And then so and it just we got incredibly as you guys know, like it's talent to a certain degree, but then it's also luck. And we all got lucky. And we were all on network shows in the nineties. So I was on The Nanny, Yvonne was on Er, and Vanessa was on a short lived show called Murder One with Stanley Tucci and Daniel It was a Stephen Bogcoch show. And we were just really were lucky. And yeah, I mean, I booked I booked Julie's gold when I was on the Nanny and they wouldn't let me out to do it, and then my sister Vanessa ended up doing it and Peter Fonda won a Golden Globe for that, So I mean we I feel so grateful for them because I truly don't know who I would be or if I would have survived, you know, like the rejection, thirty years of rejection leaves an imprint on you. And then having other people who were there every step of the way and they get it and they have your back is like, uh, you know, the greatest gift. But you have brothers and sisters. And I worked with your brother I think on a movie. I think I worked with Chris, Right, that's your brother or Silo.

00:22:15
Speaker 1: I was like you, I was just checked out, Yeah, my brother Chris.

00:22:19
Speaker 4: I was like, brother's name is Shiloh. I got this so wrong?

00:22:22
Speaker 1: So wrong? No, my brother? Yes, wow, okay, on what movie?

00:22:25
Speaker 4: I think on a movie called I Am Watching You, he was an a D.

00:22:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he my brother is an a D. He's been a he's been a line producer. He goes back and forth between those two that's so cool. Oh my gosh, I'll have to tell him I'm talking to you today.

00:22:40
Speaker 4: Yes, I don't think I've ever met Shiloh, but I did do running charades one time at your fam with Rachel. Racheler invited me to her house and and that's how I know that Ryder has like an encyclopedic knowledge of film is very impressive. So but yeah, it's.

00:23:00
Speaker 3: So funny to me that how different Writer and I are because one of the ways my husband always knows when someone's actually met me or not is if they say anything about being at a chain restaurant. I met Danielle once in Orange County at an Applebee's and jen Z's. That's definitely happened. And with Writer, anytime somebody mentions running charades, I'm like, yeah, that definitely happened. Like that definitely happened you guys. You guys definitely hung out.

00:23:25
Speaker 2: But so, how did your family manage three different shows at the same time? Was your parents are bouncing between sets?

00:23:32
Speaker 4: Like no, my mom, my dad had a full time job. He's still a computer programmer, even though he should have retired. He's like, I'm never going to retire. Still just got rehired at a new company doing computer programming. Wow, I know, and today's it's his birthday. Happy birthday, dad, little Scorpio father. How did my mom manage it? I don't know. She's insane, My mother is, you know, she just finished a novel. She's just like the most vicious person. Like, yeah, she's she's bedridden and blind and she did a novel. She was like, she did it on an app called plod where you just you dictate and then it records everything down and my sister helps her edit it, and she just she's she's the most ambitious person I've ever met. So it truly wasn't us. My mom did it all and would hire her sisters. She's the eldest of seven, so she's like a natural boss sisters to take care of us. So we had Aunt Susie taking me to the nanny and then like she would take Yvonne into you know whatever show and then hire or have somebody else. Cousin April would take us to take Vanessa to you know, like we were all it was like that. She she had employees and she was running like a little mini empire, but not really because we weren't making that much money.

00:24:50
Speaker 1: But was she always blind or has she gone blind?

00:24:55
Speaker 4: No, No, she's she's gotten blind over years. Not to like bring down the vibe, but yeah, yeah, you know had like long long term stuff health and all that stuff. Yeah, wow, she's again she's doing better than.

00:25:11
Speaker 2: All of us.

00:25:11
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously the strongest, happiest brain.

00:25:15
Speaker 3: I wrote a novel and I'm like, oh god, I just all I want to do today is take a nap. So I'm so so impressed.

00:25:23
Speaker 1: Was moving to la always.

00:25:26
Speaker 3: Something your family event like talked about doing eventually or wasn't.

00:25:31
Speaker 4: I have to give all the credit to my mom because my dad had a job on the East coast in Pennsylvania. We had our whole family there, and I think it's like she took me to pilot season was really happening on the West coast and I was working, so it was like it seemed to make sense and it was just her kaka mami idea to be like, I'm going to take our whole family. She took me out, I think, just initially.

00:25:56
Speaker 1: And then I looked a.

00:25:58
Speaker 4: Show called Our Song with George Hamilton and Lauren tom who played on Friends. We Know Lauren, Yeah, you know Laurence. She's just lovely, lovely, the sweetest. I've run into her recently and she just always is just like the loveliest human being. So I worked with her and that show didn't get picked up, and then I think the very next pilot season, I got The Nanny, and so that was that and it kind of was like, we have to stay out here.

00:26:27
Speaker 3: Now before we jump into The Nanny. I want to ask you about hand that rocks the Cradle.

00:26:33
Speaker 4: Ask me about everything.

00:26:34
Speaker 1: I'm okay, what was that audition?

00:26:37
Speaker 3: Like, considering it is such a creepy movie and it's for a great director in Curtis Hansen.

00:26:43
Speaker 4: I mean, I can't remember the exact audition except for that I wanted so badly to book it because there was like many, you know, callbacks they like put kids through the wringer back of the day, like callbacks for like dude, like why, But I remember I messed up, Like my mom was like it would be cute if you said, if I book this, will I get an Academy Award? And I think it's something along the lines of like if I booked this, am I going to get an Oscar Mayer Award?

00:27:10
Speaker 1: You know?

00:27:10
Speaker 4: Like, I got the I almost got the term right, but then.

00:27:13
Speaker 2: Not, which probably worked in your favor.

00:27:15
Speaker 4: They were like, yeah, exactly, So.

00:27:19
Speaker 1: Oh that's so funny.

00:27:22
Speaker 4: And everybody was really nice on that set. Apparently I got to meet Leonard Cohen, who I'm like, whoa this fan of? Because he was dating Rebecca de Morney at the time. I don't remember, but I was watching the documentary I'm Your Man, which is a beautiful documentary if you haven't seen it, and I'm like, at my mom's house, she's like, you know you met him, right, I'm like.

00:27:42
Speaker 2: What I met?

00:27:44
Speaker 4: I met Leonard the Leonard Cohen, and yeah, anyway, so I was like, I was flurred by that, but just.

00:27:53
Speaker 2: Goes to show how clueless we were when we were kids situations just being like, well, this is just the way the world works. We just go for movie a movie, and job a job and meet all these amazing people.

00:28:02
Speaker 3: Yeah. Wow, so this was your first movie. It was also Julianne Moore's first movie. I mean, that's pretty awesome company. What do you remember about working with her?

00:28:12
Speaker 4: She was lovely and then her husband directed an episode of Californication later. Oh and so I got to see her. She came to set, and I was so nervous that she would weirdly judge me for the nudity, because I was like, oh, the her concept of me is when I was a baby, and then you know, I have done the nudity in this in this show, and I for some reason felt like, oh, she's gonna look down at it. And I'd forgotten about boogie Nights, I know. And she was so nice and she couldn't have been more warm to me, and she's like, you know, I thought of you, and I was. She's like, I watched this movie and it reminded me of you, and I was thinking of how you're doing, and I was like, you remember me. She was the sweetest. Like that just makes I'm sure you guys feel the same way, having been in the industry a long time. Is when someone is talented and kind and they and they want any in any area of life, You're just like, ugh, it gives me hope. Yes, those lovely, kind human beings who also have been doing it forever and they get their moment like a Melanie Lynskey. I don't know if you guys know her, Oh yeah, he's just like every time I see her in something, it fills my heart with joy because she's so brilliant, but then also she's the kindest human being and it just and Julianne Moore from my slivers of you know, like snapshots of time with her was the same way.

00:29:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, just like love.

00:29:37
Speaker 4: Just coming at you and and and kind of people bolstering each other up, you know.

00:29:44
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:29:45
Speaker 3: We have quite a few connections between Boy Meets World and Hand That Rocks the Cradle.

00:29:49
Speaker 1: First, a PA on the movie.

00:29:52
Speaker 3: Lynn McCracken would become our stage manager and then a director on Boy Meets World.

00:29:57
Speaker 1: And Matt McCoy was the original.

00:30:01
Speaker 3: Dad on our show, but he was replaced mm hmmm, got nixed after the No.

00:30:08
Speaker 4: Mat McCoy is also a sweetheart.

00:30:10
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, so I feel like just just with those connections, we're we're already connected for life.

00:30:17
Speaker 4: I mean, yes, on top of meeting each other's siblings minus Shiloh.

00:30:23
Speaker 1: Right exactly, we need to make that happen.

00:30:26
Speaker 4: But I just I've also just like loved you guys forever, Like I have to say, all so so grateful to be asked to be on the on the podcast, and I feel like I'm like am I one of the cool kids now, you guys, because you guys were always like, you know, in in all the teen Things, and everybody wanted to like TGI Friday like t G I f of like Step by Step and Boy Meets World. That was the musty TV like Friends and Feld for our generation, for the younger ones. Like people did not miss it. I didn't miss it. It was like it was like the plus. I worked with Ben Savage then on a very uh you know, a lifetime movie. Yeah, recently or a couple of years back. It was like maybe ten ish years ago called Lake Effects.

00:31:20
Speaker 1: Okay, lake Effects. That's so funny. Wow, the connections just keep rolling.

00:31:24
Speaker 2: Well, so, wait, what years were was the Nanny on?

00:31:28
Speaker 4: The Nanny was? Good question. I don't know. I know my ages. I was six when we did the pilot, seven when it was picked up to series. Like, you know how long those ye were? So I was like already the next I was already a year older by the time I got picked up series, So six to seven to thirteen.

00:31:49
Speaker 1: I did you were born in eighty five?

00:31:51
Speaker 4: I was born in eighty five, so I think it.

00:31:52
Speaker 1: Was ninety one, Tonty.

00:31:54
Speaker 2: It's about the same time. We were on the air at the exact same time.

00:31:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, ninety two, ninety three to ninety nine, ninety eight, something like that. I don't know.

00:32:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were ninety three to two thousand, so yeah, we were overlapping. How long afterhand that rocks the Cradle? Did you get the Nanny?

00:32:13
Speaker 2: A year?

00:32:14
Speaker 1: Okay?

00:32:14
Speaker 5: Wow?

00:32:14
Speaker 1: So pretty quick?

00:32:16
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean I was working. I was just always working. I got really lucky and I was good and I showed up on time and had showered. I don't know, you know, so yeah, it was like the next year, I think.

00:32:33
Speaker 2: So it's interesting because you started so young, because I mean, like Danielle and I didn't actually start acting until we were ten. We were late comers. Did you ever have the moment where we were like do I know how to act? I?

00:32:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I'm still every day.

00:32:48
Speaker 1: But did you ever.

00:32:49
Speaker 2: Did you ever like take an acting class or like make decisions about or did you just be like, I gotta I'm going to figure this out on the fly and keep going.

00:32:57
Speaker 4: You know what's funny is that, truly I had a lot of like uh insecurity around that because I started so young, and I was like I wasn't trained, you know, I didn't go to drama school or anything like that. And then later I did an acting class that kind of reinforced what I already was doing the whole time, because as a child, you're already accessing your imagination. You're already personalizing things like, oh, my mommy's sick, like you're seeing your mom in front of you. You don't, you don't think like it's you know, that whole thing of the process and the craft of acting is to learn how to do that. I was always just doing it so and I didn't have to access my inner child. My inner child shows up before I do, you know what I mean. Sure, you guys feel that way too. There's like such a like a strong part of that ten year old part of yourself is more imprinted and you're more in touch with it than the average chow right, because it was the person showing up and having to be a professional a little earlier that most people. So it really it reinforced later, like, oh, the craft part of it. I already do all those things. I already find a song that means something, or a smell or whatever. Like I had a process, it just didn't really have words for it. I was just kind of unconsciously if that makes sense.

00:34:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally makes perfect sense. I feel like I actually went more the opposite direction, like my insecurity drove me to like, oh, I have to figure out this craft. I must be doing something wrong, only to like in my twenties come back around and be like, no, I think the instincts were already there, Like I need to go back to that sort of like you said, like the childhood make believe part is that's the essence of acting really. But I had to go like full circle to come back to it, you know, because I felt this pressure to, like especially when I hit my early twenties and everybody was coming out of theater programs, you know, suddenly, like my competition was like all these people who had discovered acting at eighteen or twenty, and they were really, you know, well trained and could talk about acting in a way that I never could.

00:34:57
Speaker 4: They had lingo, they had, but by the way, it didn't you you know, it doesn't really matter, you know, Okay, cool, they've got the fancy lingo and they've got like wind in their sales from being like I'm a whatever graduate. We didn't have because we had the industry kind of giving us loops of like this is how you're seen, and you have a sense of how people see you. Perception and reality are something that you have to confront earlier on, which feeds insecurity. It's not like ego actually, which is why I think like child actors and people who've survived in the industry a long time are such a special breed of human because we didn't kind of come to LA with like a grandiose sense of self. Actually, the industry sort of found us when we were just mid stride, mid play, kind of doing our thing. And I think that that's I think that's a kind of a beautiful distinction because you aren't afforded the like I'm the grandiosity of some people who're here, Do you know what I'm saying that?

00:36:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, On the flip side, though, you also, like I was thinking about this the other when we were kids, I remember being palpably aware that they were very untalented kids who would get jobs, do you know what I mean? Like, which doesn't happen as much when you're an adult. Like when you're an adult, it's like there's the pool of actors. It's like you don't just get apart because you look cute and hit your mark, whereas when your kids, like I remember a lot of times being in situations being like, well this person is not an actor.

00:36:28
Speaker 4: Yes, they're just they're cute.

00:36:29
Speaker 2: They could they say the line's right and they got cat or they're someone's kid, whatever, which also feeds the sense of like do I belong here? Is there a reason I'm here? Like? Do I have a right to be here? I don't know?

00:36:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. The reality of the industry is is a is a rough one, and so the comparison and being super hyper aware and critical of both ourselves and everyone around us. We internalize the things that we sort of hear whispers of or have a sense of because kids are so intuitive. Yeah, you don't even have to have someone tell you something. You could feel things you know right like on that you're like, oh, they're disappointed in the way that that was delivered. Can you internalize those things? And it becomes the inner critic. That's not a critical parent, it's not a it's the world. And you internalize ideas about the way the world sees you towards yourself, which it is not something that most people ever confront in their lives like me I have. I had, you know, absorbed more rejection by the time I was eleven years old that most people will absorb and their whole lives, you know, and having to confront that and like process it and do it in a healthy way without like you know, a substance or whatever like that is. I'm really proud of the person that I've become because I've faced down so much, how many things that most people never look at.

00:37:53
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I want to talk to you about when you remember meeting Fran Did you guys do a chemistry test?

00:38:11
Speaker 4: Oh? Yeah, yeah. I was like, who's this lady with the voice? I didn't know it was her show was like I think I didn't know till like later, like one of the again, like one of the seventeen million auditions that we hoops we had to jump through as good little trained monkeys, And I was like this lady with the voice, And then at some point I realized she was important in the.

00:38:33
Speaker 1: Room, right, you were like star.

00:38:36
Speaker 4: He liked me, and I remember, I do remember there was a choice that my mom specifically told me not to do, but I had for some reason gotten locked into it. You know, when you're an actor and you get clocked into a line reading or at whatever, and I was like, I had set a line and went like this, which is such a like a little kid thing. I went, you know, like something like that. I did it in the room and I was like, no, why do I Yeah, I screwed it up, but I still somehow got the job. I think I was again by that point like kind of more polished and stuff. Apparently I auditioned for Diane Keaton when I was young, for he called The Good Mother. She didn't direct it, but she was in the chemistry you read, and I did remember this that like I said hello Diane, and and then somebody said, oh, this is Diane, and this is everyone else, and I said hello Diane, hello everyone else. And I guess it was so so sassy that he was like, she's too slick and I couldn't so being too slick for dian Keaton, which I'm honored just to have been called that. Yeah, but but it worked out in the Nanny because you kind of had to be sort of you know, yeah. I remember just her voice and then I was like, those voice wasn't going to go over again.

00:39:52
Speaker 3: And that was the whole thing, right, that's so funny, and by all accounts, it seems like she really had to stand up for herself a lot on this show, and in the nineties that was not an easy thing for women in the industry. Do you recall her ever having to be kind of a tough ass and put her foot down so that she could accomplish her vision.

00:40:12
Speaker 4: I think that's just naturally who she is. Yeah, I think that's just naturally who she is. I think there's even there's even like old I'm gonna get called someone's gonna throw a spirit at me for saying this, But there's old interviews of Pran where she's like, yeah, I'm a bu and she kind of just owned that. Maybe before that was something that women could own, right, and she could stand in the fact that she made that happen for herself. Do you guys know how the Nanny got Greenland and got made No, she was on a flight, on a flight, like a first class flight, and she happened to be sitting next to Jeff Sagansky, like the president of CBS, and she started pitching him her show, and like by the time the plane landed, she basically had a shunbelievable, Like stuff like that doesn't happen anymore. But she just was one of those people who, like my mother, believed in herself and in fight of everything else and everyone else, someone could be that part of ourselves where we internalized the critic. She didn't have that, Yeah, had an internal part of herself that was like I'm doing this and yeah, you know, I'm the star and I feel, you know, like comfortable with all that and that it's yeah. So I definitely saw many moments like that.

00:41:31
Speaker 1: Do you think that influenced you at all? Like, did that? Was that? Okay?

00:41:35
Speaker 3: I love that, It definitely did.

00:41:38
Speaker 4: But I also was like, you know, there's there everyone is a teacher, right, so like there are certain things that you take from every single person, and you're like, some things you're like and some things you're like. You know, so there are both of those things were true on that set. You know, I think it was beautiful to have a woman be so powerful and owning herself so much. But also, you know, I think I was young and didn't know to celebrate all those things at the time because at that time women still were judged really harshly, and I probably was a part of that, you know, societal soup. If that mean yeah, I didn't learn until later that like about feminism or about although my mom was always very like strong, powerful woman, but there were things about those those aspects of a personality that I really shied away from that I that I didn't feel safe in, if that makes sense.

00:42:42
Speaker 3: I think as a child it as an actor, it's impossible to have embraced seeing that because we are told and it's apparent when you look around you that being a team player and being easy to work with and being directionable, those are the things that get you work. Those are the things that make you an asset. And we're constantly chasing the validation of I. They like me because I'm easy to work with. They like me because you're a trooper.

00:43:16
Speaker 4: I hate that term. Oh my god. I the word trooper is so triggering because I've done so many horror films where you're just like kind of basically abused. We're horrible to work on. I don't know any actor who actually enjoys it under.

00:43:32
Speaker 2: I went through, I went through my face but no, no, now now I want to direct them.

00:43:39
Speaker 4: I get it, I get it, but like, but like as a girl in a horror film have to be.

00:43:45
Speaker 2: Naked and you.

00:43:48
Speaker 4: And it's freezing and it's you and you're covered in sticky you know, cold blood and and you're like, you know so and then they're making like, you know, five dollars barely covering your gas to get to debt. To be honest, maybe.

00:44:04
Speaker 2: You have a honeywagon if you're on location, and.

00:44:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, I've done so many of those, and so I whenever people would be like you're such a trooper, it's usually after you've hurt yourself and you're noting the company and you're like, right right, yeah, you can fire a file for workers comp and like, why didn't I do that?

00:44:26
Speaker 3: Anyway, So as the show starts to catch fire, it becomes a global sensation. How did you keep a level head? And what was your school situation? Were you in a traditional school or were you home schools? What were what were you doing?

00:44:54
Speaker 4: What? I want to know what you guys were doing too? I was, I was in regular school.

00:44:59
Speaker 1: So was that public school?

00:45:00
Speaker 4: Oh my god, what a mistake. Our parents so bad? Okay, sorry, but like no, our parents messed up. Like I was in public school with Burbank.

00:45:10
Speaker 2: There weren't a whole lot of options back then. Like now you meet child actors and they're all like online school or they do like correspondence courses, like I went to a tiny like alternati hippie school in northern California and they were just they were just like do whatever you want, which is fine, but like otherwise, there wasn't that many options unless.

00:45:28
Speaker 4: You know, like, dude, I was bullied. I don't know about you, Danielle, were you bullied into? Like for me, it was brutal, like I was not like like I don't know I was.

00:45:39
Speaker 5: I was.

00:45:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, people would come after me and like chase me down after class, like it was. It was so bad that they took me out of school.

00:45:47
Speaker 3: Actually, oh my gosh, Bourbank. I feel like, were there not other child actors at your school?

00:45:53
Speaker 4: I didn't, you know, No, not not at not at Miller Elementary, and not at John Muir. John Muir was really bad, but no, there were no other child actors. I should have been in and and then eventually I was at homeschooled. Yeah, but it was it was not it was a bad move. It was a bad okay because I was there for right, You're like working for three weeks and you have hiatus. Yeah, so that one week a month, I'm back in school.

00:46:18
Speaker 1: That's exactly what I did.

00:46:20
Speaker 4: Target. Well did you go did you have other child actors that were like at the were you in public school like.

00:46:26
Speaker 1: I was in public school?

00:46:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I and and there were other child actors, not necessarily in junior high, not necessarily other kids that were gone as often as I was, And so there was like, I don't I wouldn't even call it bullying. There were some people that would, like, you know, throw an insult at me occasionally, like.

00:46:45
Speaker 1: Oh, the princess is back, welcome, but you know you, where have you been?

00:46:48
Speaker 3: Like there was some of that, but I was never like aggressively, I was not. I would never even call it bullying. And then in high school, after I had already been because we started Boy Meets World when I was in sixth grade, So I went through sixth, seventh, and eighth, and then all basically all those same kids just moved to high school with me. And by then it was just like yeah, old news, Danielle's you know, Danielle's famous, and and and I had no issues.

00:47:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was never experiencing like the famous part, like nobody wanted to be my friend because of Not The Nanny. I think because on your show it was a little bit more about the kids, like right right, and your storylines were important, and so yours is important. On The Nanny, we were we were sort of props, like both like you know, just we weren't really we had one or two storylines the first season and then that was like not really, we weren't really like a part. We were part of the show just because the show was called The Nanny, but we weren't really like and it didn't feel like we were a really important part of the show.

00:47:51
Speaker 2: So how many of you were how many of you were there? There was Nicole, Tom, you.

00:47:55
Speaker 4: And Ben Salisbury. It was three of us three nights.

00:47:57
Speaker 2: And were you guys all in set school together?

00:48:00
Speaker 4: We were all in set school together.

00:48:01
Speaker 2: One studio teacher or did you have two?

00:48:02
Speaker 4: We had one one studio teacher, and then eventually they all graduated and I got to have two studio teachers. I had had Leslie Hall. I don't know if she's still around or not, but she was amazing, and then I had more Murray Mednick. I don't know, I don't know if the last guy's name what his last name was not Medniic, but but he did. He did. My I had like a private, you know, school education in a way because he taught me Latin like trigonometry and something else like at the same and algebra the same. Like he would come in special days just for my like yeah, you know, elective courses. So I was grateful for that extra attention around my schooling to a certain degree. But yeah, yeah, we were all in set school. Banking hours you guys remember that?

00:48:52
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh yeah, remember the banking hours. You're going to bank today? All right, We've got enough banked hours. You can work all day.

00:48:59
Speaker 4: I love those days when I got to just be on I don't know about you guys. Were you just same that, You're like, I'm one of the big kids. I get to do what I actually enjoy doing, and and I just felt like it was the best. Yeah.

00:49:14
Speaker 1: Absolutely.

00:49:14
Speaker 3: We always talk about loving the multi caam aspect of Boy meets World. Being in front of a live studio audience. Did you like that putting on a weekly play aspect of it all?

00:49:25
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it was so exciting, and honestly, I think everybody felt like once we got rid of the live audience that the show started to decline.

00:49:33
Speaker 2: Do you know do you know why you guys got rid of the audience?

00:49:36
Speaker 4: I don't know. It wasn't obviously about my pay grade, but I have no idea. But I know that once we started having the laughers come in, did you guys grab laughers?

00:49:45
Speaker 5: Not on?

00:49:45
Speaker 2: Boy?

00:49:46
Speaker 1: No, did you show shows I direct? Now we use laughers?

00:49:49
Speaker 4: Oh cool? So so you guys both direct. Now I've directed a little bit, but it's been very hard to like break in that. So it's the best feeling, right, every all the all the all the experience that you guys have, you finally get to put it into something and be sensitive to the actors communicate and then when the children on set, you have this extra understanding and sensitivity around that like it's it's it's a again, there's amount the amount of experience and value that you bring from just that much skin in the game, right that ours doing something like Jody Foster is what.

00:50:27
Speaker 2: And actors feel it. They they they when you walk on set and you're an actor who's turned director, they're so much more comfortable. There's immediately like, oh you get what's going on here, and it puts everybody at ease. It's it's it's like a superpower. It's so wonderful.

00:50:40
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, like Jody Foster is one of the same, like where you're just like But it's funny though to me, the the perceptions in the industry where it's like Jody Foster is is this amount of value And then like I've always felt like lesser because of being a child actor. I don't know if you can felt that way. So it's like you almost have like more of a chip on your shoulder to prove, like I have intelligence and and like and all these other things to offer. Yeah, I don't know, but that's so cool that you guys both directed. I wasn't. I didn't know that you directed to Danielle. That's so cool.

00:51:15
Speaker 3: On a on a weird uh, it's going to feel like a tangent, but it is a related note.

00:51:20
Speaker 1: Do you have any trouble picking out.

00:51:22
Speaker 3: Your clothes or getting getting dressed on a regular basis?

00:51:27
Speaker 1: I have.

00:51:27
Speaker 4: I have executive dysfunction, like on a make your level. I don't know if you guys have that, because you know so much, so many decisions were decided for you, so that that that confidence in yourself definitely is something that like when I'm not resourcing and having like Meditated and Daniella taking care of myself, I definitely get overwhelmed. And when I'm hungry. When I'm hungry, it's like my partner is like, you need to eat because I can't, Like I can't function if I get on angry, it's just like I leave my body or something.

00:52:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, craft service always there, I don't know, and.

00:52:07
Speaker 4: Still my favorite part of set. It's like this is ninety percent of while I still do this all the time, and I still always like will steal like a banana or an apple, like like I've got to squirrel the.

00:52:17
Speaker 7: Way to bring this home, got to bring this home, got to bring food home wearing it for later.

00:52:23
Speaker 1: You guys have that, yeah, yeah we yeah. And before we.

00:52:27
Speaker 2: Started this podcast, I realized that like I practically have a panic attack every time I'm getting changed, Like I like I just hate putting on clothes. And I like went into the other room to ask my wife. I was like, just getting dress stressed you out? And She's like, what are you talking about? And I realized it was like all right, because we always had like little quick change rooms between scenes that we'd had to go and like change while the audience is waiting the whole crew, and I just totally internalized that I still like can't stand changing clothes.

00:52:52
Speaker 3: I also have no idea what does or does not look good on me. I have no idea what my taste or style is. I just if I.

00:53:00
Speaker 1: Don't go into the room and have.

00:53:02
Speaker 3: A fully put together outfit of like here's your belt, here's your shoes, and I'll hang it all back up. I'm neat and tidy and I'll do a t I'm a trooper, I'm a team player. But I just don't know it's been picked for me. Where's my polaroids?

00:53:18
Speaker 2: You know?

00:53:19
Speaker 4: I'm the same. I literally put this sweater on and then I looked at the at the frame beforehand, you know you check the thing on the zooke, and I was like, that looks crazy. I was like, I better take that off myself. It's not too cold. But yeah, I definitely have that, and clothes have always stressed me out. I don't like shopping, I don't like putting on outfits. The whole thing I rejected. So yeah, I'm not a girlways into clothes never happened.

00:53:46
Speaker 5: Uh.

00:53:47
Speaker 3: While researching The Nanny, I did uncover one of the weirdest facts about the show. Roger Clinton, the brother of President Bill Clinton, appeared in three episodes.

00:54:02
Speaker 4: Was wow. I didn't even know that, but yeah, he was really nice. He was really nice. Everyone was. You know, my mom was in love with Bill Clinton. Everybody was so like, maybe Bill will come.

00:54:12
Speaker 1: Do you think Bill will come?

00:54:17
Speaker 4: This is like no, he was yeah, he was president, he was president. You know. Yeah, he was just really nice. Roger Clinton was a sweetheart from what I remember, very very nice to me. You know. Anybody who had kids and came on set was just like love. Yeah, and even people who didn't have kids, but they was just exciting to be like breathe the same air as them. Like Elizabeth Taylor was on The Nanny whoa Yeah, And there was a memo that went around that was like we weren't allowed to look in her eyes.

00:54:46
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I knew it was going to be that.

00:54:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, just like crazy rules that were like from a bygone era of golden age of Hollywood. Yeah. And Donald O'Connor, who's the guy who does the like backwards flip and singing the rain and he worked with Marilyn Monroe in some movie. But he would tell me stories about Marilyn Monroe. When I was little, Jason Alexander was on the Nanny and did like the time step with me. I was like, I know how to do a time step because of my little bit of dance backgrounds. It was like, you know, I was showing he's like very good and I was like torch kids, Dancel likes my time, you know. And he was so sweet. So it's like I always remember the people who were so generous and like lovely with me. Yeah.

00:55:29
Speaker 3: Well, we grew up in a really like Boy Meets World was a very family environment. But that's partially and maybe mostly because we were a kid more of a kid slash family show.

00:55:42
Speaker 1: What was set like for you guys?

00:55:45
Speaker 3: Was it did it feel more like an adult adult environment that you were thrust into or did it did it all?

00:55:51
Speaker 1: See?

00:55:51
Speaker 4: I did feel more like it wasn't. I'm always like I'm always you know, I don't have much of a filter, so it's really difficult all the time. I'm like, okay, just it was. It was an adult environment for sure. It wasn't like you know, uh, it wasn't oriented around the children.

00:56:09
Speaker 2: Okay, you know, on it exactly exactly.

00:56:14
Speaker 4: And then there were a lot of grown up, you know jokes, and it's like, we got to throw the kid out of the room so we can make the joke about sex out of that. I think, you know, there's probably like will be like a mash up somewhere of like all the times they threw Gracie out of the room so that she could say something sassy or yeah. So it was like it was more like that. And but again, like I wouldn't change any of it for the world. I'm not like, I'm not shading the show. It's it's that I learned so much and I and I and I grew so much from watching everyone and everything, you know what I mean. But I had awareness of like a dirty joke earlier.

00:56:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, right right, that makes sense.

00:56:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, the fashion of the nanny has had a bit of a TikTok resurgence, a lot of pants suits, and I know that even Sabrina Carpenter has found inspiration in the outfits. Are you surprised by the nanny renaissance?

00:57:08
Speaker 4: No, I'm not, because again, it was ahead of its time, being like a female forward show and a show that was yeah, like outfit changes, that's like the whole thing now, you know, Sabrina Carpenter does it. Taylor Swift, It's like changed those outfits.

00:57:23
Speaker 3: Girl.

00:57:25
Speaker 4: It's kind of impressive how much fashion was on the show, and Brenda Cooper, who was the costume designer, deserves full credit for that because she was pulling like Bob Mackie and all these designers way before Sex and the City even. You know, it's like it was just ahead of its time, and then you know, everything that's old becomes new again as you guys never comes back around. So it doesn't surprise me that people are really like digging into the Nanny and France. Fashion was like it was really the star of the show, aside from like, you know, her voice and her chemistry with Charles Shawn. So like, you know, I mean Charlie, you know when I say things weren't oriented around the children, Charlie, and like, there were a lot of people who were great on the show. So I'm not trying to show and all that stuff. I just want to clarify that. But yeah, I'm surprised about the Renaissance. It's just it's just it makes perfect sense to me.

00:58:22
Speaker 3: You have gone on to appear in so much stuff. When you're filming Californiaication or Hacks or High Potential, does the nanny ever come up?

00:58:30
Speaker 1: Do people talk to you about it?

00:58:32
Speaker 4: You know, Californication? Not really?

00:58:35
Speaker 2: Not really.

00:58:35
Speaker 4: I mean, I know people don't really ask. You know, on sets, people are all too busy, you know, doing their own thing and work, so people aren't really like, what was it really like working with that person. Some people will ask about David Lynch because it's such a cult favorite, so people will ask about David Lynch.

00:58:52
Speaker 3: Well that's my next question. So if you want to go right into it, go for it.

00:58:56
Speaker 4: Well you ask a question, Okay.

00:58:58
Speaker 3: So you appeared in the twenty seventeen revisit of Twin Peaks, and he passed away at the beginning of this year, so I wanted to hear about what your experience was like with him.

00:59:09
Speaker 4: I have I have such fond memories of working with David Lynch. I got to work with him for two whole days, which was a luxurious amount of time to shoot like basically two scenes, right, and I there was such a sense of like like a cold following around him, like he's the cult leader. And everyone's like, yes, sir, you know that whole thing. But I'm I've never played that game because I've just been doing this so long. I'm not I'm not really starstruck by most people. Musicians for sure, but like actors or like directors, I'm like, I know the game, kid, And even with David Lynch, I just didn't have Although I was a fan, I wasn't like I wanted to ask questions and I was free to ask questions. So there is a scene where they're they're, you know, spraying me with a ton of it's like two hundred and fifty gallons of blood, right, and I'm oh my gosh, naked, and everyone's we got one shot with the blood. We got one shot with the blood. And everyone's just like, you know, stressed and freaking out. Not David, of course, he's like he's like, you know, one of those people they talk about, like Steve Jobs, where reality bends and warps around them. Like he's like on set smoking which was like not allowed, but of course he was smoking, but just like in this aura bubble and everyone's like okay, we got one shot with the blood and they're about to call action, and I just like raised my little hand, my little naked hand, and I was like excuse me, and everyone's like dead, dead silent, And I was like, do you think maybe instead of just doing the blood, maybe we'd just do a plate and you can add the blood later if you wanted, and then and then you could do the blood after that way you have an option. And it was dead silent. I mean, everyone just like you really just shell Dave Lynch was to do and and he's like, you know what, Tracy got a pretty good idea, let's do that. So literally we did two takes. We did one that was dry where they could add the blood later, and one with the blood. And afterwards, the first Ada came up to me and was like, you're a very brave girl, and I was like, oh am, I I didn't realize, like I just did something that made perfect sense to me from an experiential standpoint. And then and then also he took it in because great directors like you guys, know, great people like are open to the best idea in the room, no matter where.

01:01:38
Speaker 1: Totally best idea wins.

01:01:41
Speaker 4: Yes, it wins. He goes aside, let's have room for the best idea. So that's my experience of David, which.

01:01:49
Speaker 7: Was, what a cool story, what a great experience, What a proud moment for you, Like yeah, yeah, where you're like, yes, I have been paying attention and to have had the confidence to say, listen, I'm not I'm the one in this body who's about to have this blood sprayed, and to think if it goes wrong and then I'm going to be in.

01:02:15
Speaker 3: This high stress. They're not never gonna be happy if something goes wrong. They're not going to say we only get one take, We're gonna have to do it again on another day. And like if I just raise my hand and make a suggestion, I guess it could go one of two ways. But the like, that's just incredible. I'm so proud of you. I like want to I just am so that's so incredible. I'm so I'm so thrilled we know that story.

01:02:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, well it was again a testament to him as a as an open, you know, collaborative artist.

01:02:47
Speaker 3: Yeah. I also cannot let you leave without talking to you about the nineteen ninety three cinematic experience that is mister Nanny. You appeared in the movie alongside star Hulk Hogan. It is about a former pro wrestler who is hired to be a bodyguard slash nanny for braddy kids, whose dad is also being stalked by his business rival. I need to know everything about this experience.

01:03:16
Speaker 4: I was, okay, so there's so many things. He was there with his kids. Okay, name is Terry, and I just remember him like there was some scandal about him right before we started, Like it was that he had smoked marijuana, right which is now no going to care, but back in the das the scandal of whole. So I'm no, I know that there's he's he's had some other stuff come out which I haven't heard but people of you know. And then I was like, I didn't know. I don't know what the deal is. But my little snapshot of an experience with him was that he was really the sweetest to me, and he had a think a wish kid on set more than once, and he was just you know, you know, like just he would do his bit for whoever. It was very sweet, and we tortured him. I mean we literally like had to do all these crazy stunts with him and he gets electrocuted, and you know, but he was so sweet. The director was so sweet. I worked with Sherman Helmsley from uh that old I can't remember the Jeffersons, the Jeffersons, Sherman Helmsley and Mother Love, and they were both just so warm and sweet. I have so many pictures of Mother Love just like holding me when I'm like, oh kiddo, And and everybody was just great, like I just it was one of those things where I felt I kind of felt like respected and like a part of it right, you know, like a part of the whole process. And and yeah, Huole Cogan was just super super nice to me as a kid, which was all my memory of him.

01:04:48
Speaker 1: Well, that's that's good to hear.

01:04:50
Speaker 4: Yeah.

01:04:51
Speaker 3: My last question for you is if you could go back in time and talk to let's say seven year old Madeline, what advice would you give her? Now?

01:05:01
Speaker 1: What would you say to her?

01:05:03
Speaker 4: I mean, I do this all the time in therapy. Is this the therapy?

01:05:05
Speaker 1: This is the therapy part?

01:05:09
Speaker 4: I would tell her like I would tell like any young girl to trust themselves more than like that little voice inside is right no matter what anyone else tells you. And the more you trust that and you move from that place of like honoring yourself, you will be happier. People will recognize you more because there'll be more of you there, and you'll be proud of yourself like I was that day on set with David. Normally you could just let that moment go by. But the courage to stand up and allow yourself to be seen and to speak from with you know, from an authentic place that you just yeah, you just you get a point, you know you kind of you, you level up, you beat the big boss inside that that critical, internalized voice of the world that says you can't do it, and then you feel like, you know what I did.

01:06:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great.

01:06:12
Speaker 4: I feel fantastic.

01:06:14
Speaker 2: Be true to yourself. Don't be a trooper exactly.

01:06:19
Speaker 4: Put that on the shirt you feel something, Say something.

01:06:25
Speaker 3: Madeline, Where what are you working on now? Where can people find you? Tell us everything?

01:06:30
Speaker 4: Okay? Well, I am releasing a web series that me and my sisters wrote together. I'm just little snippets of it called What's Her Face? That's just for fun, it's not It's very lighthearted. It's about three child actors growing up with the arrested development and unable to sort of put They're grown up, undis gone. And then I did two films recently, one called Reunion with Ryan Hansen and Jake Choy and and and it's it's It's gonna be so funny. It's about a twenty year high school reunion. And uh, I'm trying to remember everything else. And then I just did a movie called The Bench that will be coming out with rel Howery Little rel Yes, yeah, from get Out and so yeah, well, you know, just plugging away. I'm still managing to get work. And I feel so grateful and I'm so grateful to be here with you guys.

01:07:27
Speaker 1: So thank you.

01:07:29
Speaker 4: I feel like one of the cool kids.

01:07:31
Speaker 3: Now you are officially a part of the cool Kid Pod meets World crew.

01:07:39
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for spending your time with us.

01:07:40
Speaker 3: It was wonderful talking to you, getting to know you a little bit, and just thank you for thank you for being here with us.

01:07:46
Speaker 4: Thank you guys for having me. It was just a joy.

01:07:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, good to see you.

01:07:50
Speaker 4: Bye, Hi, take care.

01:07:52
Speaker 2: Oh she got off quick. She did not have the millennial pause exited.

01:07:55
Speaker 3: She did not she knew exactly how to exit. You know what I bet I bet Tara helped her exit. They're like, ow, she's so.

01:08:04
Speaker 2: Cool, so cool, My god, yeah, it's.

01:08:07
Speaker 3: So it's I cannot believe that it still surprises me after this many conversations with former child actors, how many things in common we have, it shouldn't surprise me at all.

01:08:19
Speaker 1: But the only thing I think.

01:08:21
Speaker 3: She said that I didn't totally resonate with was when she talked about how in touch with her inner child she is. And I was like, I feel like I don't have any access to my inner child because I think I stuffed it so much. I think I to me, you know, but I mean we had a different experience. We were told how to be a child. We were given line readings on how to be a child, yes, instead of being told to discover how to do it. And so I think from the from age ten on, I stopped being a child and just started pretending to be a child or.

01:09:02
Speaker 2: Just trying to be a grown up as quick.

01:09:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, well yeah, I became an adult pretending to be a child, and so it was like there was no real discovery of childhood or teenagehood even And then that's what I spent my twenties and thirties doing I guess so yeah, but wow, she was really a that story about David Lynch and her saying like, hey, guys, we could shoot a plate.

01:09:28
Speaker 2: You could do it a different way. This doesn't have to be this hard.

01:09:31
Speaker 1: I can really help you out anyway.

01:09:35
Speaker 3: Well, thank you all for listening to 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.

01:09:44
Speaker 1: And we've got march.

01:09:48
Speaker 2: Maybe we can do the merch as a plate and add the wheel later.

01:09:55
Speaker 1: Writer, you're a genius. Pod Meets World Show do dot com writer send us out.

01:10:02
Speaker 2: We love you all, pod dismissed. Podmeets World is an iHeart podcast producer hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfridell and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman. Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tarasubasch, 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 World Show at gmail dot com.