Hey, everybody, thank you so much for joining us over here on our park Hopper episode. As we are every week, very excited to speak to our guests, but I'm a little extra excited because Halloween Town was amazing and so much fun. But April O'Neil and teenage mutant Denjit Turtles. This is a very important movie for me growing up. I also have a weird connection to this movie, which we will get into, but please help us welcome Judith Hope.
Hello, Hello, how are you? I am good? It's raining in Nashville. Oh so I love it. Yes, and we have such fall vibes here.
Oh I'm so jealous.
Well, I want to thank you first for coming because I know, especially around this time of year, you must just get in its busy. That's good. That's how we like to do it, like to catch everybody early and get it in there.
I really wanted to be here and talk to you because tis the season.
Yes it is. And we just watched the first Halloween Town. Now I've seen it. I was a fan when I was younger. I will say, rewatching it, I kind of had to remember so much of the things that happened in the movie. But this was Will's first time seeing the movie. He hadn't seen it yet.
Virgin I was.
He which I was happy because you know, some of the d coms sometimes they don't they don't hit the mark. No, but this one, being such a huge franchise, we both knew going into it, you know, there's a lot to love and it and for me it was the you know, nostalgia of it was incredible. For Will, I loved that it lived up to this big franchise.
Names good if you have kids, it's really you know, it's a funny because who knew, you know, when we did this film, it was just a it was a standalone film. It was the Disney Channel really in its infancy. It was one of the very first movies that they did, right. You know, back in those days, there was this demarcation
line film and television. Either you were a film actor or a television actor, and then there were those of us who were trying to straddle both and going, I don't get what the big deal is, Like, it's all acting. It's kind of like you're driving a car. Is that a Mercedes? Or is you go you're still driving a car. I know most people are going to be like, what
is she talking about you? I'm aging myself. But then there was the Disney Channel, and that was kind of like No Man's land because it was just for kids and if you were as serious actor, you know, you were doing serious acting. And but I was sent the script and then I was told that Debbie Reynolds was attached to it, and so a legend, a legend, and so pretty much I was in, Yeah, she's doing it. And now all of those demarcation lines are gone and
it doesn't matter. And Disney Channel, on its own, you know, just grew into what it is.
British British actors got it a lot quicker than American actors set television, film.
It didn't matter if the piece is good, the piece is good.
And you had people like sir Ian McKellen doing a sitcom because it was good.
So well, it's acting, Yes.
That's the thing.
You just want to do it and you don't want to be a snob about it. And there was real pressure in the industry to be quite snobbish about it. And it just never laid right with me.
So I get that too.
Had you worked with Disney before on any other I had, I.
Had done like pilots for Disney. I had I'm trying to remember at that point, had ABC. No, it was pre ABC Disney.
That was the right time because I was show.
Yeah and so, and I had sort of started on ABC in a soap opera, you know, my very first one of my very first jobs in New York. And but I mean it was Disney. We all grew up with Disney and and I lived, you know, in Studio City, so I drove past Disney studios all the time. So it was like an an amazing building and all. You know, Yeah, it was iconic and and of course Debbie was iconic and is still iconic even after she's not with us anymore. She remains an icon.
Yeah. Well, we always say that actors don't die, they're just unavailable. Yes, yes, she would love that.
She would love that.
You know, they don't also don't age.
You know. Is so then did they just offer you the role or you No.
I went in and met with the head of Disney and the executive producer and it was a very sweet script. And you're right. So, you know, sometimes you go back and you watch the things that you liked when you were little, and you're like wah wah wah, and this just had a tremendous amount of heart in it, and you know, it had so much sweetness to it. But the head of Disney Channel at the time, Sun was a huge Ninja Turtle fan. So when I walked in the room, he said, you know, I would love to
get it, you know, an autograph for my son. And he loved it, and you know, what did you think? And and we just talked about it. And I might have read, I might not have read. I don't remember, but I knew kind of when I walked out the door, it was like, I'll be really surprised if you don't get that job. Yeah, And I really like them both, and share a stringer with the executive producer and it was her first execu producing her EP job, and and
we just had we went on this adventure. It was just supposed to be one film, and it did so well programming wise, like it just broke all their records, and they rushed the second one out and then really they did.
They It was a quick, quick, it was around.
It was quick. But we didn't end up going back to Saint Helens, Oregon, where we shot the first one. We ended up going to Vancouver, Okay, and we did the second one there, and then there was a little bit more of a pause in between the second and the third one, and then we went to Salt Lake City and then we shot the last two there and and I think, you know, on the fourth one, because we didn't have our Kimberly, And it remains a mystery why exactly Disney made that choice.
But Kimberly, Kimberly a pal. She's been already and she'll come back again.
But I what, you know, how you know, it's just a brilliant She was brilliant.
And negotiations are always challenging, Schedules are always challenging, trying to get all the pieces to come together. I learned a long time about don't try to figure it out, like it will make you crazy, because because there's so many moving parts, there's so many things happening behind the scenes that you don't know anything about, and sometimes the cards shift and you're not supposed to be part of it, and it's like, but what I'm like? She was such
the heart of it, and and we missed her. Sarah Paxton came in, and Sarah was coming off of she is a lovely young woman now a grown woman. She was just come off of Aquamarine, and you know, she had some really big shoes to fill. And my feeling was, we have to embrace her, we have to love her, and we have to help her fit into these massive shoes. And and I think at that point, you know, high School Musical was rising, rising, rising, and becoming the phenomenon
that it was. And then they were like, and we're done because we thought, oh, this could keep going. Who knows, but you know four was it was a great run. It was a great run.
You don't think there'll be a fifth?
Well, you know, never say never. Yeah, I mean they did Holcus Focus, all right, I know true that it would. You know, I'm in I get to see the fans a lot because I do a lot of comic cons. I do a lot of comic cons with Kimberly and also with Daniel Hurt now her husband. For anybody who doesn't know, it's Young Calibar in the second movie, and so we are asked, it is astonishing the fan base
for this film. It's nuts, and it's worldwide. I was in Saweta, South Africa about fifteen years ago in a little restaurant, and I had a little girl come up to me and say, oh, oh, you're a mother from Halloween. Oh wow, what I'm doing here? And you know, it was really kind of a surreal and wonderful moment. And and so we would all love to do it again. Obviously, it's always you know, is Disney on board and you know,
what's the script? But fans have devoted all kinds of time to coming up with what that story would be. They I'm constantly handed scripts and outlines. Really oh wow, oh there is a thirst. You can't even well.
They have a place that the where you guys filmed an Oregon is set up for people to tour. Isn't that what we heard from?
Yeah? Yeah, it's it's Saint Helen's, Oregon. And it's a sweet little town that when the highway came through, instead of sending people through town, they sent them off in another direction and so the town kind of lost its luster. People moved away. It's, you know, sort of a classic American story. But it's the sweetest little town. It's right on the water, and they transformed it into such a magical place and it was really smart because the town,
you know, council or something. I think somebody came to them maybe with an idea, and the town council paid for it and it turned into a celebration. I don't know where it is right now, if they're going to keep doing it. I know that there's been some changes that I think, honestly, we're overdue. So you know, I think they're going to try to remake it, and I know that, you know, every time we go back, it's just this great trip down memory lane, and the fans really love it.
So were the first two done there? Or just the first one?
Just the first one? The first one, okay, but it was the town square was such was like a character in the film. Yeah, yes, and so and on the city hall. And what it did is it really brought tourism back to Saint Helen's, Oregon. And it, you know, the first I know, the first time Kimberly went back. She went back by herself, and I think there were on it might have been one night or two nights, and on that first night there was like fifteen thousand people.
It was nuts crazy. Yeah, And then we did a tribute to Debbie Reynolds and it was it was Cray there was they took very seriously, so we had like, you know, I think we needed it at all, but they had like a police escort and we were like, it was like this is a kid's movie. Everything, like nothing's gonna happen. It was, yeah, it was, but also like come on, like we're fine, Yeah, we're going up in here. This is all about love and uh no,
but it was. It was pretty funny. And I said, you know, this is the closest I've ever been to being a Beatle. And you know, Luke Perry was a really dear friend of mine. God rest his soul. And he was saying that when he was doing nine O two one oh, like he had to be smuggled out of a hotel in a laundry basket, and he was like, yeah, it was like being a beetle man. It was crazy.
He had There are times there was there's video of him like if he he was going to do a mall appearance, and there are people like almost jumping to get team.
They had to rush them all I mean.
And he was a guy who really didn't He was a super fun guy. I love him. He's like a brother. And that was not like he was never courting. That was never the thing he was aiming for. He just wanted to be a good actor. He wanted to act, he wanted to have a career, and that was a surreal I think when that all died down, he felt a lot of relief. I know some actors don't always feel that way. They're like, yeah, he was not the I need more guy at all.
Okay, so you do this movie pre social media? Yeah, free any of the internet. Really, it's just it's not the nineties. God love him, I miss him all day.
Yeah. Right.
Did you know or.
Have any idea how popular the film was when it came out?
Well, when it came out, yes, because you know, it was in the trades. You know, they broke Disney. They didn't say it like that, but I mean we really gave We got numbers that they had never gotten, and it was it helped to legitimize that, especially having someone like Debbie and having you know, people there from film because there's that line and really, I'm so glad it's gone. But they they knew they had something and that's why
they rushed it out. Now when we were doing it, just you never know and you hope, but it's it's really lightning in a bottle. Like I've done so many things, I've been fortunate enough that I've been attached to or part of projects that have that have a longer life than just when they came out where, and that's that's a great thing, but it's never guaranteed, and you never really know if you're going to be in one of those.
But we did have Debbie Reynolds who was our fairy godmother, and she so this was before social media, and Debbie was the first actor that I had ever worked with who traveled with stacks of eight x tens to sign autographs because everywhere she went people asked her to sign an autograph, and we used to, especially when we were shooting the first film, So we had our trailers off to one side and say we had to go and shoot a scene in town hall or something or in
the town square. So we had to get from the trailers to the town square. And it's a little town in Oregon, and Hollywood has come to town, so you're going to spend as much time as you can hanging out watching, especially if you're a kid and you want to an actor or you just want to be close to this thing that's exciting.
It's magical.
It's magical, it is, and so Debbie knew that, and so she always had step to accommodate fans. And she always stop and she always take a picture and people would, you know, she would just find autographs and hand them out like handy. And it was this because it was pre social media. I thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. And I was like, because I, I didn't do that, but I wasn't Anny Reynolds, right, So I didn't and I and one day we were trying to get to set and it took so long and
I just looked at her. Finally they're like, we need you guys, and these are of graphics that I looked at her and I loved her to death, and so you could we were close enough that you could really tease each other. And I said, oh my god, girl, you would just pose with a coat hanger. And she got serious. She looked at me and she said, I'm going to tell you something. If you do not have fans, you do not have a career. And it was one
of those moments. Debbie had a profound effect and influence on all of us, and all of us have our own stories of her. She was one of the most generous people. She was such a teacher in so many ways. And she was hilariously funny and saucy as hell and just you know, swore like a sailor. And I just but she started out, she started out she always like presented as like a church lady. But that fell apart like in ten minutes, and so when she got into my face like that, it was like, I'm getting a
piece of information that's really really important. And it's true, Like if you don't have fans, if you're not kind and generous and open hearted and keep your arms open for them and embrace them and be curious about them, and then you won't have a career.
Because yeah, it's a completely smotic relationship.
It really really is. And I think that you have to you they made you.
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, it's absolutely true.
Okay, Well, one of the things you talk about is that you were involved with projects that have had longevity and have the nostalgia attached.
So I gotta go a little.
Bit into teenage Mutant Ninja tourntles, which is for nineteen ninety This is I have a weird connect I told them before I have a weird connection to this movie because Michael Turney. Yeah, his mother was a manager in New York and oh yeah, I came partners with my manager in New York when I was a child actor and manager, Steve Gold at gold Star Talent Management.
I was true well when I sided with them.
And then I moved out to LA when I got Boy mut World at sixteen, and I've been out here ever since. But his mom so started managing me and wanted him, because he was a city kid, to experience life in the country. So she used to put him on a bus to my family in Connecticut and we used to hang out and he'd be like, where are we going and be.
Like, We're going into the woods.
He's like to do what, like just to be in the woods.
That's where it.
So when he then said your chicken coop, yeah, well no, I.
Had didn't do the chicken cup. We did motorcycles all and then.
Fun stuff so that the kids could never do it right. Yeah.
And then he said I'm doing this movie Teenage Mutant and Turtles, and I was like, wait what, And this became I was so jealous.
I was I was.
Turtle Green with Envy. So I'm curious, can you walk us through a little Did you know the ip? Did you know what Teenage Mutant before?
Okay at all?
Nothing, you know?
So what was that like when you heard about the project?
And were you just like, wait, so I'm essentially the girlfriend before Turtles.
No, the way that it went down is my agent who left the planet. He sadly, he diedabates in nineteen ninety one or ninety two. And he handed me the script and he called it Teenage Mutant Ninjain Turtles and said, now they're Ninjain Turtles. I was like, what is that? And he said ignore the title. And I thought it was handing me a horror script and for a scary movie or something. And he said, but it's a very
sweet role and it's a really sweet film. So at the same time, I was doing a movie with Robin Williams called Cadillac Man. It was Robin Williams friend dresser. It was a great Yeah.
No, it was a underrated, underrated Robin Williams movie.
Totally underrated, heeddy, yeah, it was a great cast. And so on Fridays, so we shot in Queens, New York and then I had to fly and do pre protection in Wilmington, North Carolina, and so I would always try to get out of work on Fridays as early as possible. And I was it was kind of an improv movie and like you could weasel your way out a little early because they never knew like who was going to be in the shot and you know, And so I
would try to get out of there. And one time Robin looked at me and he said, where are you running off to. You're all like you're trying to get out of the movie. You we're all trying to get in the movie. And I said, oh, I'm actually doing another movie. And he said, he said what are you doing? And Robin was another totally influential, very generous actor. And I said, oh God, I can't believe I have to say these words out loud. And I said, I'm doing
movies called tenage Mutant. What what? And I said, it's it's called a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now ignore the title. It's a really sweet screw. And he said they're making a movie of that.
Oh.
I was like, how would you know this? And he said, are you playing April I about died and I said yeah, and he said, I have all the comic books. And I knew about the comic books. I didn't know about that it was a TV show, and so he helped like get me out on Fridays. And then finally I shot out in the film, and then or they wrapped me out of the film, and then I went to Wilmington.
And then when we premiered at Universal, he flew down from San Francisco with his whole family and it meant the world to me.
That really awesome.
And then Kevin Eastman, who is the creator with Peter Laird of Ninja Turtles, was in a comic book store in San Francisco and saw Robin and went up to him and said, oh, mister Williams, I'm just a huge family named Kevin Eastman. I'm the creator of everyone teenage.
Too.
And then a friendship they started a friendship.
Wow is awesome. Well, I am a voiceover actor. I have been for twenty.
Years in such a great job.
I love it so much. And the only like really, the only.
IP I've never been involved in that has killed me and I've come so close so many times is Teenage Turtles.
The only one. Well, next up is the last Ronan, So you.
Know, I know, I know. So what was what was shooting that film?
Like? It was really exciting? Well, first of all because I didn't know anything about it, Like I had no idea. I couldn't conceptualize what a teenage mutant ninja turtle might look like. And I thought, are they on all fours?
They were as babies until they got stuck in the ooze.
That's what happened exactly. Oh that the first time I flew to North Carolina and they took me in to the creature shop. And the creature shop was Jim Henson had a creature shop in London, and his son, Brian Henson, he now runs Henson Company, brought all his guys to Wilmington, North Carolina. They had come up with these animatronics, which
is this brand new technology never been used before. And I walked in and I saw them and they were in They had one fully assembled where they had the head, they had the body, they had the shell, they had the arms, they had the legs, and then they had the puppeteer who was like Hello April, and the mouth was moving and the eyes were moving and he's off to the side. And then I met the poor guys who were playing the turtles and it was surreal, wildly exciting,
and I thought, oh, this is so cool. But again, no idea if this film was going to be successful or not. And legend has it they did a screening of the film. New Line got the distribution rights. They did a screening over at Paramount for the film. It was all adults. They're watching the film. Nobody laughed, nobody got excited. It was just like a terrible screen wow. And so a couple of producers left and thought, Okay,
well that's it for us. We'll never work again. And then the film opened up a couple of weeks later and they thought, let's just drive around and see if anybody is a Wing and there were lines around the block. Yeah, it was that year, this little film. It kind of helped put New Line on the map, even though you know, they had the Freddy movies and stuff, but this it was in the top ten highest grossing movies of nineteen ninety.
And we had a whole battle pr wise with Pretty Woman in the newspaper every week that we were both in the you know, in the theaters at the same time, it was great fun.
It's a great I mean, it is a great movie. It is it is.
You know, this is way before people were doing decent comic book adaptations. Yes, Batman had come out in eighty nine, so there was people were open to more of a kind of cartoony look to things.
So when you took the grit and then the re and then that you.
Could see the turtle you bought the turtle you bought them, it was like, I'm in, yeah, you got it.
I'm there.
Well.
But the difference with this movie that I think was what made everybody so uncomfortable in the screening was it was a little dark. Yeah it was, and there was there was some swearing, and that was you know, And what I think what they did is I think that everybody treats kids like they're supposed to be happy and sunshiny and really this is the care free time of your life. Well hi, yeah, childhood is traumatizing. Look at all the adults walking around trauma, you know, traumatized. And
it didn't talk down to kids, it didn't. It wasn't preaching anything to them. It was just showing this wonderful slice of life back when kids were out smoking cigarettes, running, you know, doing all the things that they did that they were allowed to do. They didn't have all the hermetically sealed bags around them that kids have now and and I think that's why the movie has had such staying power and the Turtle universe just keeps expanding. I'm just stunned. I'm stunned.
So did were you asked to be in Secret of the US did you decide not.
To do it? Now? What happened is they fired me? What? Yeah, I have a little bit of a okay, so being cast as April, I you know they I am that spirit of like, if I see things that I don't agree with, I'm going to say something. And there were things happening on that. So it's an ultra little budget movie, right. It's Golden Harvest, which is a Chinese film company that you know now they have to work with unions and stuff. And we were working six days a week. We had
a full first unit, full second unit. You know, there was so much that they had to do deal with and there were so many corners getting cut and there were safety issues. Stuntmen were getting hurt, they were getting put back on planes, back back to China. You know, there were things that were happening that were not cool, and I, being very April, spoke up. I'm a little sister. I had two older brothers. You had to like yell
to be heard. And not that I was yelling in any way, but I was taught like, if you really believe something, you should say something. What I didn't know then and I learned very quickly, was a woman in Hollywood who has a point of view will probably get herself fired. And they didn't want to hear what I had to say because because honestly, I'm a young woman.
It's my first starring role in a film. You're if this happened today, I would know how to say what I said defending like they wanted to cut out all this stuff in the Farmhouse, which is such an important part of the film, and they were saying, kids don't care about that, it's just fluff. I was like, what this is the story? This is like, you can't cut this, and not that that's my job, it's Steve Barron's job.
But they you know, they fired him, they fired me, they like, and the second movie reflects all the changes that they had. This lightning in a bottle and it was such a huge success, and then they changed everything and that's doesn't make any sense, but that's what they did. So that's why I wasn't in the other one.
Yeah, bringing in Vanilla Ice did not save Secret of.
Youth, No, but you so it's a great song, and you guesn't think they did. But I, you know, it's hard of being in the business. And obviously I hold no grudges. Otherwise I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. I wouldn't I would have gotten really upset. For me, it was like.
Welcome to Hollywood, baby, if you haven't promise to love you back.
And it was like part of the process of like, if you want to do this thing, you're gonna lose an eye, you're gonna get knocked out, you're gonna you got to keep getting back up, keep getting back up. And and so while I would have loved to have continued, I don't think I would have enjoyed those second and third versions of how they were doing them.
Yes, you were only going to have more of an opinion because you were going to be more invested in and it's you know, it's it's hard because it is so true. Nowadays, women know exactly how to get what we want and we know we have a void.
We're still working on it.
We're still working on it, but it's a lot better than it used to be, and we have more confidence because we also have band together and we found like our power, you know, in our voice.
And the thing about that film was in so many ways it was like movie making summer camp, and we were all in this thing together, and there like there was creative like Steve barn Is an amazing director. It was such a joy to work with him, and like there was freedom to express yourself. But there were you know, sometimes in the executive realms, there there are egos that you inadvertently step on their space and it just happens, and it's sort of part of it. And honestly, don't
regret it because that's what April would have done. And I love that I still would have said those things because I wasn't wrong.
No, you're also you didn't It's not like you weren't asked back to be in Godfather too, So.
No Godfather three.
Yeah, right there, at the end of the day, you don't really miss out too much by by not being secret of the ooze.
Right, and I have such a connection to the fans. I just leaned in hard during COVID because friend Dresher is a friend of mine, and she was She's the person who really started the table reads during COVID for the fans. You know, we're all stuck in the house, so let's let's do something for them. And so I got everybody together, I had some help, and we did a table read of not the whole script. I got vetoed on that one, but I wanted to do the
whole thing. And I just started seeing like how much really doing comic cons, how much this means to the fans. It is the world and so full circle moment. Debbie Reynolds taught me everything I know about that and how important it is to connect with them and to create a space where they get to tell you what their experience is. So I do.
I do the cons too, and they're the best, so much fun.
Hopefully our paths will cross.
I'm I'm sure, I'm it is is.
It's a weird little subculture, but it's so much fun.
Great.
Yeah, it's my favorite. I'm a nerd, it always have been. So the world's just catching.
Up with me as far as I'm concerned.
I know, you know, the way that I look at is the nerds win. Yes, they win, they won. They were always the cool ones.
Anyway, I have a super hot wife and a great career.
I'm pretty happy.
Yeah, you put that on a man outside your house, but you got it.
You got it.
Well, I want to go back a little bit to Halloween Town because sure some of the things, like our producers. We've got these amazing producers. When I love best about them, they are super fans. Oh so many things, especially I love that everything else they I love it because they've they have knowledge, They've got the way to figure out stuff.
So one of the things they told me, and I was shocked, was that this budget of the film that you guys had I wanted to see, Like we read that it was only four million, and with the set design, the costuming, the makeup, I mean, it seems like that is little for what you guys really like achieved on during the process of filming this. Do you remember how
they were pulling all that off? Was someone calling in a friend who doing it for free, Like I just it's crazy to see what you guys did with four million dollars.
We had one of the greatest designers who oh gosh, what was his name? It was our production designer. It will come to me in a second. It's coming up through the memory banks and the only you get the more youth store in there. And I learned if I just give it a minute, it shows back up. But he was such a genius. They were just really lucky that Alfred Zoul Alfred he is no longer with us. Yes, we loved the Googles, well, we loved, don't love, but
he was phenomenal. We had uh Dwayne Dunham, who was one of the original editors on Star Wars.
Yeah, you want to, you want to.
He won an Academy Award I think for for Return of the Jedi, which is crazy.
Yeah. And so we had a great helm, We had a really fun script. We had a great cast. I mean, come on, those kids, you know, Kimberly Brown, j Paul Zimmermann, Emily Rose. I mean, it was just uh, Robin Thomas as Calibar, I mean, and the creatures that we had, I mean they were they were brilliant, and so there was so much that was that fed into it. But were you a shitz Creek fan. Yes, yes, so in
the what is the Little movie they made? After as like warmest regards or something, and they talked about like the making of Shit's Creek and how they had no budget, right, and they they somehow it, you know, the clothes and everything was just so amazing. I think sometimes when you're limited by no budget, it forces you to be way more creative than you would be if you had a lot of money. And I think we see that sometimes in movies that have gigantic budgets. It's like, where's the
creativity here? It's like they just threw money at everything. So while you always want more money, sometimes it's you know, necessity is the mother of creation, and so they had to dig deep.
Well, you know, they got your director on board by telling him the budget.
It was thirty million.
No, I didn't know that's oh.
So he was originally told there was going to be a thirty million dollar movie and then they went, sorry, it's four you've.
Heard me wrong.
Slightly different budgets, yes, shocking.
That Hollywood wouldn't tell the truth about something.
Well, I mean, thinking a Disney channel was going to have a thirty minute We've done quite a few in this was.
Probably there are budget for a couple of years, years exactly.
So yeah, thinking that that was the truth, I mean, that's that's crazy. But when you did the second as you went through the franchise, what we've seen with others and talking to other people with big franchises and the budget builds, did you guys see that as well? I mean, are we go because we haven't. I haven't seen. I've only seen the first one. I haven't seen the second or third one, fourth. I bet you've done because he's seen.
I will say this. I want to say this gracefully. Certain studios aren't known for being very forthcoming with their dollars.
Yes, we've said many times, we've all were all Disney kids, all Disney kids.
We loved being Disney kids.
But they are.
But they were company.
They were a type fisted company.
They are.
And if they could get you to sell your dog and give them the money, I said, they can put it into craft service. They would y And that's probably too harsh, but I'm saying I'm joking. But but not and they definitely they would spend a little bit more, but not a lot more. Right, we got paid a little bit more, but not a lot more, but there were little There were enough increases to keep you coming back.
I think for all the departments, for the directors, for the art directors, for the you know, the production designers and all that, and so it did increase, but never I think where you would hope.
Sure, yeah, do you now do you know the genesis of Halloween Town? Do you know how it started?
I've heard stuff, but it sounds like you might have. Yes.
Well, well it started with a question to the producers from their child who said, yeah, where did the creatures go on the thirty?
After the thirty first? All of them that were on the street, where do they go?
So they wrote a thing for NBC which was going to be an adult version, like a real hard edge hitting So maybe that's.
Where the thirty million dollar budget they were able to say that was going to happen.
But yeah, so that's I mean, it was to see how you get from that to what we just saw with four million dollars at Disney Channel as opposed to however many tens of millions of dollars it would have been on NBC. You see the different variations and versions that Halloween Town went through.
And like you said, you guys were sort of the pioneers of or part of that, the first of having these big numbers and everything. Even though they were excited for the second one, they really didn't have any guarantee that it was going to keep, that it was going to be just as good, if not better. You know that they were still figuring out. And this is one thing Will and I are seeing as we're watching all these different d cooms. This was the era of them
kind of figuring out what is a real dcom? Where are we what's what's the bar? You know, how high do we you know, set it and everything? And I mean something like Halloween Town blew through any expectation they probably ever had for this movie.
Well you want to have a fun night, watch Halloween Town first and then go watch the new Zombies movie when it comes out, which has a forty million dollar budget for Disney Channel. Oh yeah, yes, yeah, And so you see what you helped to create.
Create, Yes, because we are for them.
Yeah, I mean we watched the budgets change and just across the board, like when when it started to go crazy. And I remember I did a film called Armageddon and with Michael Bay and at that time it was the biggest, which is also it was a touchdown Disney picture, and it was the biggest. It was like one hundred and twenty million dollars, which then was the biggest budget ever.
It's like nothing ever and.
That it just kept growing, growing, growing, growing growing, And now it's so astronomical that it's so hard to make films. And I and they're you know, they pin all their hopes on the tent pole film, and I think what people really are craving are some of these you.
Know, filmmakers actually made movies again.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that are a little less I know, you know all this stuff.
Fun fact about Armageddon, if you take out all the slow motion, it's only fourteen minutes long.
Yeah.
A lot of people aren't weren't aware of that when they actually saw it. It's a very just people just walked normally. It's a fourteen minute film.
Yeah, such a fun I had lunch with Steve Buscemi every chance I got, and it was such a great cast. It was.
It was an incredible cast.
I'm seeing lived Tyler first thing in the morning, coming to the makeup trailer with no makeup and just looking dewy, fresh and delicious and stunning. I'm sure stunning, it was like, and she was just as sweet and kind as could be. So it was it was fun.
So speaking of cast, are you entire with anybody from Halloween Town still?
Oh? Yes, I was at Kimberly and Daniel's wedding. Oh nice, it was. It was so good. It was so good. I mean, Kimberly was thirteen years old when we first started working together, and I and we've stayed in touch the whole time, and we were friends in La and we'd get together and we walked, and it was really fun when she got to be old enough where she
could come over and have a cocktail. And when you moved from you know, mother daughter to friends, although we were never mother daughter because she, you know, she had a mom. But I was definitely tasked on that set. You know, if I'm working with kids, like you've got to wrangle the kids, and it's a it's a challenging thing. People always ask me like, oh, my kid's so talented. Should they be in the business. I'm like, no, No, I don't do that. Why would you do that if
they want to be an actor? When they turn eighteen, they could go get an agent and they could go do auditions. It's hard, so hard to do though, I know, But but I had worked with and we know the stories. Like some kids they're fine, they turn out fine, and
there's a lot that don't. Yeah, and I felt like I'd seen kids be treated like there were adults on sets in ways that you know, they can be pretty rough with actors, like they're not always as tactful as maybe you would like or and I felt like, you know, they're their job is and you know this, well, your job is so much harder than everybody else's. You're getting up, you're in rehearsals, you're shooting, and you're going to school.
Every free moment you were spent going back to class and doing school and then coming back.
You would know, right, it's sober. I don't feel like I learned anything.
Oh god, I disagree entirely.
Oh yeah, I wasn't. How is that for you?
So I had I went to normal school and then would book jobs I didn't have while I was really in school, except for Bold and the Beautiful. My senior year of high school. Oh god, she was reoccurring a like, you know, weekly type thing where I know Will's experience was much different. Mine was going and doing guest starring, So it was a couple of days here and there, commercials,
you know, music videos, that kind of stuff. And I was going and working for a couple of days and coming back and I just, I mean, because it was having a teacher for just a few it was like having a substitute teacher in class, like on my regular class. Yeah, I doesn't know what our lesson plan is. She's just
kind of given like basically homework to give us. So that's what I would do, is homework for three hours, but throughout the day, because it was fifteen minutes here, thirty five minutes there, you know, to build up the three hours for the day. I never learned anything. My experience was different than Will's though, So I feel like you, I mean, actual.
Teacher relationship I did.
We did seven seven years of Boy Me to World, and I was only I only did school the first year, but my grades went from a C minus to an A plus. I graduated highest honors. Because it's just you and a teacher for three hours, right, try to try to like you know, write notes to your friends and and get distracted when there's just one teacher sitting in front of you, you can't. So my grades skyrocketed. Ben Savage went to Stanford writer went to Columbia. I mean
we all all went out and went to school. I mean, yeah, it was great.
I loved it. But at the same time, I had to fight to be an actor.
Well, and that's you know, I love that. And I think that I was trying to fight to be an actor and my parents were having none.
That's kind of My parents were like, go to college and like, and I did.
But I didn't live in LA I grew up in outside of New York and it wasn't yeah, there you go. I was in Westchester.
County, Okay, yeah, there you go.
And so but I saw so many kids who, you know, like I did Nashville and so it was Lennon and Maysie Stella and you know, we did sixties and they were there all six seasons, and they were I could see the pressure mounting. I could see the you know, and they're great, Oh my gosh there and they've turned out beautifully. But it is a harder job for the kids than it is for the adults.
And with the age is the problem.
There's no line none, things that would you know, older women, stuff like that on the set that I weren't treating me like I was fifteen. Yeah, I mean, yeah, there's so it's it's a strange world to be in, but it's also all I personally believe a lot of it comes down to just the family you were raised in. I mean, I'm so close to my family that they knew I had to do thet you They did.
Exactly I had. That was the same thing. I mean, being around, you know, hearing other people's stories. It's like, it's so sad to me because it just wasn't my experience. My parents were on set with me. Their eyes were on me at all times, you know, yeah, and I felt protected and I felt like they if there was anything that was a little bit it wasn't, you know,
just don't do that. It was explained to me. This is why, you know, because one day you're going to be on a set by yourself if you want to continue acting, and you need to be able to you need to advocate for yourself, and you need to be able to protect yourself and know how to not put yourself.
On so wait, so your parents essentially told you why you couldn't enjoy Halloween.
They didn't just not explain it to.
You exactly like in Halloween.
Town, it's just you did You didn't at all, didn't explain it at all.
But so you know, when I read a script, I was like, what so much uh oh sounds can I be?
So my experiences, oftentimes your given scripts where they don't necessarily answer all the questions. So your job as an actress to answer all the questions. And I thought, Okay, I am a witch who is pretending to be a human. I married a human. I have half human half witch children. I've seen et I know what happens so smart. If they knew that I had half witch kids, they would come and take my kids, yes, and they would do
exactly and that they would do experiments on them. And then I imperil every single person who's in Halloween Town. And so it was an act of love.
I'm keeping you alive by doing that, and that's why.
But it wasn't in the script, and I had to make that up and justify that for myself to understand why I was doing what I was doing. And it was funny because my role was described in the script as I was kind of like a Martha Stewart. I went in, Who's kind of perfect, and everything's kind of nice. And because we had no budget, you know, my clothes literally probably came from Goodwill, right, And I went for a fitting and it was like, this is glooing not loving it.
He said, Marcia. Marcia's right, Marcia.
And so they tailored everything and I got to first day on set. I'm in, I'm having my hair done, and it's like, oh gosh, we are going off the rails with this hair. And it was the executive producer was in there kind of orchestrating the whole thing and didn't want any hair going in your face in any way, so everything had to be like chalacked back. And I remember like feeling like something bad had just happened to me.
And I went out and I showed and like, and then I go into my trailer and I put on my wardrobe and nothing fits. It's like they tailored it for somebody else's body. So now I've got like crazy hair and clothes that don't really fit. And I go to the director and I'm like, and he looked at me and he said, what happened? And I said, oh, well, you know, and so you know, help put the look together. And he was like, oh, you look great. I was like, oh,
and I will get no help for this. So I went back to my trailer and it was the first time ever that I felt like, I'm embarrassed. This is not how I saw my character looking. This is not I oh my, you know, I have cameltoe. I can't these these pants don't fit like. And I had a wonderful acting teacher and she was like, the script her name was Diana Castle, and the script is your treasure map. And so it was like, all right, look, yes, all of these things are true, but that's not why you're here.
You're here to tell a story. So what's the story. It was like, I'm a witch who's pretending to be a human. Oh, so you're not your authentic self. You're pretending to be something that you're not. Would that mean that you're close don't quite fit right, and You're hair is a little off, and you don't really fit this thing because you're not being you. You're pretending to be something else. And once I landed on that, I was like, damn. The door of my trailer flew open. And my camel too,
and you ready to go. This is what humans do, this is what I do. And I'm such an ugly shirt. I could probably undo that button and let me I'm down a little bit, but I'm a cancel sitting and so I could. And then as the films progressed and Gwen lightened up, you know, it was all sort of her coming into her own skin. So she definitely had an arc as well. But you know, it's my job to make sense of the nonsense sometimes and so.
On.
But I was mean because I loved Well, that's.
That's what's important. And we thank you so much for joining us today. This has been so cool. I don't think we're going to go past Cameltoe. I think that's.
Gonna yeah, that's gonna scene scene.
It's a perfect but we have three more of these to do, so hopefully we will be able to get you back and you can come on and talk.
About some of the other one.
Well, definitely, Kimberly. I love nothing more than spending time with her, and actually just to let people know we're going to be together doing Galaxy Con in December in Columbus, Ohio. I think it's like December six.
Oh cool.
We're doing a bunch of Galaxy cons next year, so hopefully we'll cross paths.
I hope. So I love those shows. Yeah, there's a great show.
Hopefully we'll be able to cross Oh, I hope.
Kimberly and I met at a convention and have been have continued our friendship. After that. We ended up at october Fest in Tulsa, Oklahoma together. So you never know where you're going to end up or what you're going to do these little towns.
It's great, but thank you for joining us.
Well, you guys are amazing. It was a pleasure being here. Thank you for asking me. And now we're friends.
Now we're friends.
So we will see you at convention and you are going to come back and join us.
I can't wait to watch the evolution of what happens with the storyline, the characters, everything. This was so fun and I loved being able to watch it with my daughter. It was so sound. She's four, so.
The day the beginning.
Section scared her a little bit, but I was like, we're good, we're good, We're good, and then she ends up loving it.
Yeah, oh good, good, good.
Of course your kids have watched, right, you've had to have that.
They have, they have it, and they were actually they would come and cut themselves in little places in the set and watch moment shoot and they had to be very very quiet because cool and they were really there just for the craft service. Of course, that's why.
We're all there.
At the end of the day. What I'm there for is the craft service. The craft service is my treasure map.
Yeah, exactly. I've been working in my kids were in school and they're like, okay, so this is what I want off the table, and like I literally I always felt like such a beggar because like at the end of the day, I'm swiping stuff off. Yeah, it was like, we're gonna want because I never really let him have sodas very much. We want coach and you know, chips, some kind of chips. We're gonna need that too. So yeah, I was like filling my bag on them.
So nice, thank you, and we will please come back and join us again.
I would love to I would love to you guys. What a pleasure. Bye bye.
So sweet.
She's one of those people that just got stories for days.
You just want to sit down and listen to all the things that she's saying, yeah, I didn't want.
To talk, so idyone have to explain everything to her. But it made me feel like her figuring out what Ninja Turtles was like, I'm like figuring out between me and Will Will I just got this movie and You're like, what's it called? And I'm like, I don't.
Know, like blue Beetle something like that. Yeah, it's gonna it's called Booster Gold. I'm like, what it's.
Called green Lantern?
Yeah? What is that?
And I'll be doing the same thing. I'll be like, they're having me rumba Is.
That a thing? Isn't that the thing that cleans the floor when you leave? Like? What's going on? I love it?
That was so funny. I was just giggling inside, going She's literally explaining a story that could absolute into me.
Well, thank you all for joining us, and thank you Judith Hope for joining us.
How cool was that?
And join us next time again as we are going to be watching Smart House, which I seen. I hoping it's about a house that's really smart.
I think that I haven't seen this one, but it is one the fans have been dying for it.
So I can't wait.
I'm stoked.
We are checking it out. Join us next time. Thank you everybody, and we will see you later. Five payn