One on One: Riki Lindhome

I Am all In.

You, I Am all In with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.

Everybody Scott Patterson I Am all In Podcast one on one interview with Ricky Lindholm. Ricky played the role of Juliet for four episodes two thousand and five two thousand and six. She also appeared in season three as a student at Stars Hollow Higher. First appearance Seam five, episode fifteen, Jews and Chinese Food. Last appearance Season six, episode nineteen,

Were, Thank you for having me.

Could you just start in your career.

Well the same way I got my role on Gilmore Girls, which was casting director workshops. Do you remember those? I never did it out lot.

I never did those.

Well, I'm from a town of one thousand people, so I knew truly nobody. I didn't know a dentist here. I knew nobody, and so the only way I could meet anyone was by doing these workshops. Which it really makes me sad that they're not around anymore, because I don't know how people can get in the door.

Otherwise it's interesting. I don't know either. How do they do it now?

I don't know.

No meetings, no casting sessions, no nothing, nothing.

But I did a casting director workshop with one of the associate casting directors and they were talking about how to get a role on Gilmore Girls, and they said, you just have to talk really fast, and I'm like, oh, I already do that. I talk so fast. Everyone always tells me to slow down. So I was like, ooh, this might work for me. And then he brought me in and I played I think it was like student number three or something. Years years before I played Juliette.

Right, So you appeared in season three as a girl in a classroom. Then season five you come in as Juliet, one of Logan's friends. Yes, so did you have to audition for and did they bring you back in and give you that character?

She just got another audition. Yeah, I auditioned again. So I auditioned for like the student. I was like sort of bullying LAURALI I'm like, didn't you get pregnant as a teenager or something? And then they thought of me again and brought me back as just a different person. And I was really grateful because I've never played two characters on one show before.

Had you been a fan of the show before you came on.

I'd never seen it before I did that workshop, and then once I did that, I was like, I feel like I could be on this show. And then I watched it and I was like, oh, I love this show, right, And then I was like, I really hope I'm on the show.

So when when we first when we're first introduced to Juliet as the friend who won't eat because she doesn't want to gain weight, which is that was That was a really funny scene. That wasn't Jews and Chinese food, very very funny. What did you think when you got the script and you saw the part and you had to play in this episode?

This is going to sound awful. I thought I wasn't going to get it because I was too large. That's where my mind was. I was like, I'm not thin enough to play someone who won't eat. I just thought there's so many thinner actresses that I went that I wouldn't get it. And I was like, oh, okay, I guess I'm wrong. I just sort of put that own that barrier in my own head. I don't think that I'm large, but I just was like looking around the room, I guess and was like, I don't know that this

So what do you remember from that dinner scene with Matt Alexis and the rest of the crew from the Life and Death Brigade. Did it take a long time to shoot those dinner table scenes?

Oh?

So long you usually take forever.

Yeah, I was stunned. I remember that I went last. I remember that I went last, and I think by the time I went, Alexis had to like go to get like she'd been there like the whole time, and then she had to go get like ready for the next scene or something. So I remember acting toward an X when it was all the all the people, and then she was like a taped X, right, she like had to leave for something. Wasn't like she's like, I won't do my line. She wasn't like that, but.

She had to go green Ex on a stanchion. Yeah, I've acted with Greenex's on stanchion polls before. Yes, some of my best scene partners.

But I know, right, sometimes they're better than the scene partners you get, not on Gore Girls, but no, But I remember just like loving all those people. It was so fun. I was just like I was just thrilled to be there. I couldn't believe it.

Yeah, yeah, we're really enjoying the Light Life and Death Brigade. We really enjoy all those guys, and really really enjoying Matt Zugrie and what he did with Logan and.

Gosh He's good, isn't he he is.

He's so smooth.

God, he's such a good actor. He makes it seem very effortless. And I'm like, oh, he is crushing this scene.

He's just man, he's so smooth at the door when he came to her door, and just just all these lines just flying out of them so easily, and it's just also thrown away. It's just great.

I love it. It's so good.

Is any funny?

Oh God, he's funny. I loved like hanging. We actually all hung out in real life a little bit. Oh yeah, because you know, we were all like in our twenties with you know, not in relationships and with nothing to do, so we're like, let's go drink somewhere or whatever. So yeah, we hung out like a handful of times. And they all came to see me in a weird play that I did in Culver City.

Oh that's nice.

Yeah, they supported you, that's really yeah, Yeah they were.

And then Alexis and I actually made a short film together.

Is that right?

It was like, yeah, it was Gosh, when was it? I think it was No, it was right, And I think it was before the writers the two thousand eight writers strikes me. It was like two thousand and six or seven or something around there. It was when it was very hard to make sure. Now people can make them on their phones, but it was very hard then. But we did it.

And what was the name of that little film.

It was called Life Is Short?

Life Is Short?

Yeah, and it was with me Alexis and Seth Carlin and Sam Levine.

And can can we see it? Is it? Is it out anywhere? Is it on DVD? Is it?

You know? It was It's just a short film and I put it on YouTube, but there was just all this unlicensed music, so it immediately got taken down. Yeah, I didn't, I mean it was I don't. I didn't know, you know, I wasn't trying to. I don't know. I didn't have I didn't know that. You couldn't use that stuff.

You got to pay the rolling stuffs.

Y can't pay Randy Duman.

You got to pay the estate.

Yeah.

Yeah, they're expensive, that's the thing, all right. So you have Oh did you know your character was coming back in season six?

They tell you no, No, I had no idea. That had not happened to me before. So yeah, I was I was super excited that I got to keep doing it. It was just fun. It was just a good vibe and everyone was kind of in the same place in life and it was just fun.

Right right. So you've been in so many iconic shows. Do you have a favorite character that you've got to play?

I think my favorite character was my character on Pushing Daisy's. I just did one episode of Pushing day Z's. I think it was like the second episode, and I got to play this like bleemiccar salesman, and that doesn't sell it very well, but it was very fun. I don't know what it was. I was just like I just had to play it, and I was just very excited about it. So maybe that mm hmm, but I guess it could change depending on the day. What's your favorite character you've ever played? Oh?

Man, I think the one I'm playing now.

Yeah.

I'm doing a new series called Sullivan's Crossing.

Oh nice.

Yeah, and he's just you know, he's got a lot of there's a lot going on in his life.

And is it a comedy or drama?

Oh no, no, no, no, it's it's it's it's a it's a rom drama.

Oh nice.

Ye. Part of them I'm part of the drama.

I'm part of the drama.

So it's like I'm a strange from my daughter and there's all kinds of issues and pass, there's a pass, there's a whole thing which comes up. So it's it's it's it's really my favorite so far. And of course Luke because it was well, of course, because it's you know, that's Luke. Oh.

I know I should have said Juliet, but I don't know.

Would you like to redo on that? Hey, who's who's your favorite character.

That you Julie or student number two?

On these amazing characters, Nothing can even come close ever in the history of the universe as long as we'd be acting, millennium would be Thank you for clearing that up. So you play a therapist in a very popular Netflix show Wednesday.

Yes, that was a dream job.

How did you get that part? It was? Did I sound shocked? I shouldn't sound shocked. How did you get that part? Yeah?

See, then it shocked if he said how did you get why did they cast you?

No?

I got that part because it was during the pandemic and everyone's you know, just taping from home and I didn't know exact I was trying to I read this just like the couple scenes, and I couldn't quite get the tone. I was like, what is I was like, is it a comedy as a drama? And I packed to my manager and she's like, oh, it's actually Wednesday Atoms because in the script I think the character was called Willa or something. And then I was like, oh, okay, got it, got it. And so I was like, what

Me your agents really need to work on their I mean that's like a celebration, you know.

I was like, I need like a woo.

Take you to lunch and hey, let's celebrate exactly.

I guess not during the pandemic.

But they sent an email saying they approved your tape. And then she was like, oh my got a job.

She was kind of like, oh that is no. She just laughed when I pointed that out. She's like, yeah, that isn't very She's like, well, it's exciting. And then I had to move to Romania like a week later, and I moved for seven months.

What yeah, so what is a gig?

Yeah? It was the best?

So what what is Romania like it?

It's like, okay, so it's beautiful. Everyone's very nice, but it's also very different. Like I remember my first day on set, I just went in to get a COVID test and there was like a little COVID tent and the nurse was smoking a cigarette inside the tent and I was like, oh, got and she handed the cigarette to the PA did my swab and then put the cigarette back in her mouth, and I'm like, Okay, I'm in a different place. This is like a slightly different culture.

I'm like, well, so you so you went where? Tell me where you went? Where you want to Oh my gosh.

I went all over Greece. I went to Sweden, I went to Paris, I went to Italy. I went to the Arctic Circle like in Finland.

Yeah.

No, I just went everywhere Arctic Circle, yes, yeah, I went like I saw the Northern Lights, I went dog sledding, I camped out in this igloot. No. I was on my like eat, pray Love. I was like, I will never be I have this much free time in Europe where I am like just so close to everything. And I was like I need to take advantage of it, and so I just I And I'd also been sitting in my apartment for a year because of COVID like everyone else. So I was ready to see the world.

You were ready to party. I get it. Yeah, that is yes.

And they had a baby coming when the show was over, so I was like, I need to live it up before he's here, because I knew that my life would become, you know, more sedentary once the baby came.

So I was like I need to Oh you you personally were having it. Oh okay.

So I was like I got to see everything I can.

But now you have all these grapes. You have a son or a daughter.

A son?

Oh how old is he? Now?

He's sixteen months?

Oh god, yeah, I have a nine year old and there's just nothing you do daughter, his son, nothing, there's isn't it the best? Every day is magic? It's magic.

I totally agree.

Yeah, it's just.

People warn you, They're like, oh, bubb And then I was like this is great, Like yeah, it's hard, but like, honestly, so is being on Gilmore Girl's That's right, right, you work, you know, fifteen hours a day or so, it's just like it's hard, but it's like, yeah, it's incredible. It's so worth it.

If you work as a team and you pick up some slack here and there, and you know, it's it's wonderful. The whole time is magic. I mean the way they grow and little ways every single day and you can see it.

Yeah, and he's so sweet. He's got so much hair. It's like like like this huge mop of curly hair. He looks like you know, Annie with brown hair.

It's so cute.

He's so sweet. So yeah, I'm so in love.

Yeah, no, me too. I just you know, the couple of times I've had he's such a good kid. He's such a good hearted, big hearted kid. And a few times that I've had to discipline him, it just crushed me. It just killed me. I had to just leave the room and break down, you know what I mean. But you gotta do what you gotta do. Yeah, but man, you know it's like you've got that kid's heart in your hand, and oh man, I love being a dad more than anything. It's it's you know, that's my favorite role.

Yeah.

And it is not a movie, no, it's.

Yeah, but it's insane. It's I I It was the best year of my life, hands down, Like, there's what compares to that, like the birth of your first child, the best job ever traveling Europe. I was like, just this is I was just like, while it was happening, I was like, I can't believe that this is what I get to do. Very fortunate.

We live in interesting times. Yeah, did you know when filming Wednesday that it was going to become as popular as it has become.

No, nobody knew. Nobody knew, no, no, not because it was so far removed. Like we were just you know, in Bucharest and it was COVID. It was just it was just such a it was so far away from everything we and we couldn't see the other scenes. So because of COVID, the protocols, you know, we'd travel in our own little car to the set and it was like an hour away and you're in you're you're just so quarantined, and then you're back to your hotel that I could I never saw the big picture. All I

But some pr came out a few months ago about how her her work schedule is beginning to really wear her down and that she didn't There was some speculation that maybe she wasn't returning or she was trying to get Is any of that true? And have they resolved those issues? Is the show still on? Is it still on?

Yeah?

Oh, I highly doubt that's true. I'm sure she's returning. That that would surprise me. She loved playing Wednesday. Everyone loves Jenna. She was the captain of the ship. She was incredible, Like, you cannot find someone in the cast who's not obsessed with Jenna. She's so awesome. She's like, I can't I can't imagine that being the case. I didn't actually hear that. I was like, oh, I'm sure

But I tell you the media, man, they really when they get their fangs in.

Yeah, wow, I didn't even Wow, it's funny. I didn't even hear that.

It was like all these entertainment headlines. Wow, one day.

This is why I don't think it's true, because the cast is like all gossips with each other about everything, and no one said anything to me about that because people would have been panicked, like, oh, are we not doing it again?

Or so there's definitely a season two as far as I know.

Yeah, I mean I think it's going to depend on the strike more than anything.

Well, sure, then we find out tomorrow. I know you're going to find out tomorrow what's going on? Yeah, are you still on uh Wednesday, are you still on the show.

I don't know yet because my character my character dies in the show, but like, we don't see me get buried. We don't see so I don't know what they have planned for season two.

Okay, so let's talk about your famous comedy duo, Garfunkel and Oats. Where did you get this idea from? This is obviously a Simon and Garfunkle hall and all.

Yeah.

I went to see Hall of Notes at the Hollywood Bowl and I was in the very back. I had terrible seats, and so you have to look at the screen and the camera guy like didn't realize they were a duo, so it would just be Haul alone and then Oats in the band just like he was only in these wides and I'm like, this is just kind of funny. He just was the it was just the

So you're a singer songwriter, you play, play guitar.

Yeah. Yeah. We do comedy songs and then we write songs for you know, other people. We write songs for animated movies and TV shows and things like that. We wrote a song for a Big Bang Theory and you know and stuff. And yeah, I just love writing songs. It's the it's the best I do too.

I've written a ton of them. Really, I spent I used to spend a great deal in my free time writing songs.

Yeah, it's a lot. It's time consuming.

It's like a whole But but you don't I don't notice the time going by when I'm doing it, you know, I just don't know. None of my wife says, are you coming to dinner? I said, what do you mean? I started writing at lunch. Just six hours just went by, you know. Yeah. Really, yeah, I get in the.

Song, I guess I get in the zone a little bit, but it's painstaking for me. I don't have an effortless ease about songwriting. I'm just like, I like, yeah.

What are you writing songs for yourself.

Well, I write songs for the Yes, I write songs for our band to perform. We do, and then we also write songs for other people, Like we wrote a song for the Lego movie. You know we you know.

So you're so you're actually selling songs to productions.

Yeah, yeah, good for Well, it's an interesting it's been like a pretty well traveled route. Like a lot of comedy bands suddenly get jobs writing songs for legit things. That's just like a lot of comedy bands have done that. We're like, we're like, ooh, we want to do it. And so yeah. The first people that called us were the SpongeBob movie, and then we wrote a song for that.

And then because they saw your comedy work, they saw a song that we wrote called the Loophole, which is easily the dirtiest song we've ever written I far, and we were like, that's the song that made you hire us and they're like yep, and we're like, okay, this is going to be fun, and they were very cool.

It's a really really it's a dirty song.

Well, I'm supposed to go to Nashville and co write with some artists down there, and I've never done it before. I've never co written, and I'm terrified. I don't know how to do it.

Really, You've never you've never done that, it's so.

Fun've never done a co writing session. I think I did one once and I just didn't know what to do right, because for me, it's just sort of getting an idea and hearing something in my head and then getting it down and then lyrics come.

And oh, so your melody first, lyrics not vocal. I think it's I think it's easier when your lyrics first, because then people can sort of picture the melody together.

Now the words come from the sounds. The words come from that's the last thing that comes.

I think most people are like you. Our stuff is all like punchlines, and so the words have to come first.

Yeah, they gotta comfort but no, no, But sometimes it's it's an idea, it's a couple of words put together. It's like, what makes that melody sound right? And yeah, not a lot of words can fit into certain sounds right, And a lot of times they don't even make sense, and I don't care. They just sound good.

Yeah, that's a lot of songs I feel like. I feel like collaborating on a song on a song is like dating. Like some dates will go sometimes you'll like a lot of chemistry and you're like, oh, this is so fun, and sometimes you'll be like, yeah that was it was nice to meet you.

Cool.

Yeah, yeah, we'll totally finish that song some days. Like I think it's just like.

That, right right, right, So who are your big influences? So us Simon and gar Phone call Hall and Knows.

Who are who are you influences?

Is?

My two big influences are weird Al and Stephen Sondheim. Oh really yeah, our stuff is very just like it's like musical theater. It'sh musical theater with jokes, so it's not really actually I just like Hollan Notes and Simon and Garfunkle. We don't actually sound like them. We're I love the word density of Stephen Sondheim, just how he fits so many words in one sentence. And we'd now because it was my introduction to comedy music.

Interesting yeah, interesting yeah. So did you ever do any of the Gilmour songs in your shows?

No? He did not even think of that. Our shows are like they're really are rated, they're very Yeah, they're they're for adults.

They're very Where do you Where do you perform?

We performed in Nashville a bunch of zenies really just like yeah, just comedy clubs and theaters and just everywhere. We've performed in Australia.

And do you have an agent and you go on tours and that kind of oh.

Yeah, oh really yeah all that stuff.

So what kind of venues are you playing? What kind of crowds?

Are mostly just comedy club mostly, you know, like five or six hundred people and we do like four shows in a weekend something like that. It's so fun. We've been on hiatus though because of COVID and we haven't gotten back into it. But I'm really wanting to are.

You gonna play around La? You gonna you know, get knock the rust off in LA venues?

And I just started playing solo songs around LA just two weeks ago. Yeah really, I'm this is like, yeah, this is nothing to do with gummer girls, but I'm trying to write a musical about fertility, and so I was just like playing the songs and comedy clubs just because I don't know, why not, why not seeing how they go? Because they're funny. They're supposed to be funny.

Oh man, it's really niche.

People do not expect that. When I walk out, I'm like, so this is about being infertile. Here week go. And then I just like just began and I'm oh, well, you bought a ticket because you have to sit there. Well, when do you go to Nashville?

Well, I don't know. I was supposed to be God, I've delayed this so many times because of work. Work always comes up and gets the way. I'm all excited to get down there because it's Warner Chapel that wants me to come down and n and work with some of their artists. And I just like, why me, You know, what are you talking about?

You start you having like a little bit of the imposter voices? Yeah, yeah, I think that's good. Right. It's good to be like nervous or to be like because then it makes you be like, it makes you like want to be excellent. If you're like, if you don't doubt yourself at all, I feel like that's bad. You got to be like can I do this? Can I do this? Because it makes you like step up in my car.

But I know when I'm writing my stuff. What is absolute shite and what is sort of decent and what is you know, the rare one that's like, oh that's you know that could do something, that could be something. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, I hope I have time to go do it. I really want to go do it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm really curious about the experience. And they want me to play at the Blue Bird Cafe and I'm terrified. I'm like, no, I'm not going to play.

Well, you know, if we strike tomorrow, you'll have time.

I guess I will.

Yeah, you'll find out tomorrow.

Maybe well we'll cross paths on the road.

Yeah, exactly. That sounds so fun though, Yeah, what kind of music do you play? Well?

I you know, I really like writing for a band, okay, because there's just so many options and so many sounds, and you know, there's so many genres you can mix with a band and with a synthesizer and with this and then you know, and a Fender and stratocaster, and you know, that's the kind of alchemy that I like to sort of try to come up with me. But the only time I've ever toured was with two acoustic guitars. And guitar, a really great guitar player backing me up

I'm not very good at it either, but I enjoy it. I'm like a bus I'm like, for some reason, it doesn't bother me.

But you enjoy it.

See as good as I need to be for comedy songs.

Okay, because that's the thing. It's it's the jokes right.

Right, Like I'm not getting on Broadway anytime soon, but I can tell the punchlines.

I just you know. And I really worked on my voice at one point and got it in great shape. And I was going to this coach and he was charging me all kinds of money and he had these great voice building techniques and they worked and I was just singing out and I was like wow, and I mean I have to do that to sound passable. Yeah, it's not going to be great, right. And then you hear like great singers, You're like, well, you know, they work at it too, some of them, don't. They just

It does sort of bum me out when I'm around like a real thing because I'm writing, you know, this musical right now, and when I make the demos, I'll make them myself first, and then I'm like, what if I hire and then I have this like sort of you know, stable of demo singers. I'll hire one of them, and I'm like, well, now it's so much better. Like that sucks because it is way way way better. And they just sing it once and I'm like, I guess we should do it twice since you're here right right right.

But it's like, it's just if that's what you wanted to be in life, that's that's what I should have done, or that's what people should do from the time they're a kid, and then they're like in their twenties and they're doing it and they you know, they know how to do this and to conjure the the you know, the the muse and to go out there. It's just I don't know, it's just hard. Now.

Yeah, some people just have that gift and it's just.

They have to do it. That's the thing. They have to do it. They can't not do it.

I feel like I was given like a sprinkle of every gift and I'm like, well, I'll still do it. I'm like, I'll be a B minus at fifteen things. You know, I'm like, I can't, you know, I don't know.

Then I wish I could be a B minus at one of them. Jeez. But anyway, so you know what, let's have you back on because we you know, we'll talk more music, we'll talk all these gosh, look at all your resumes, very very impressive.

It's a It's a lot of B minus stuff everywhere, and I'm kidding it's good sometimes.

I'm okay, So how do we find out where you are playing?

Just on my Instagram or my website.

Okay, so you'll announce, Hey, I'm going to be at the comedy store Friday night. Come see me. Yes, yes, all right, good, all right, I talking to you. I may show up one night. I'm really intrigued. I love to laugh and I love singers and writers and the whole thing. I think it's well, thanks for coming on, so nice to meet you, and good luck with everything. Thank you too, and I hope I can find a show and find the time to come out and see it because it would be a real gas I would