I had the weirdest experience.
We were at south By Southwest and so we were running around with you know, all different groups of friends and filmmakers. It was an amazing time, by the way, It's just a wonderful festival. And one of our friends who lives in Alaska was had was like, oh, let's meet up for dinner, and we met. We met her for dinner, and there was another woman there who was like her old friend from high school who happened to
be in town. So we hadn't met her, and I I showed up late, but I was all dressed up because we were going to a premiere and so I was like, oh, hey, nice to meet you, Stephanie. Hey you round rider. And then we sit down and then we proceed to, you know, order sushi talk. We're like thirty five forty five minutes into our meal, we get into a really the conversation I've been having a few times lately, which is probably would be good pre show chatter.
The other time, like this whole conversation about whether you hear a voice in your head while you read or it's like called like IRV, like internal narrative I know. Anyway, so we're having that conversation, and and me and this woman, Stephanie are the two people at the table who do hear voices in our head like while reading and so like Alex and our friend Ashley is.
Like, what are you guys talking about? We're going and so like stephan and I are like, yeah, you know, and she's looking at me.
She goes, yeah, you're right or strong, and I'm like, yeah, oh my god.
It was like in the middle of the same In the middle.
I'm like, oh, did your internal narrative voice just come out? Like what what do you But she's like, oh my god, I would have dressed better. My god, Ashley, why didn't you tell me?
I'm like, this is the weirdest moments.
It took you this like we're in a like we're having dinner, like we're splitting sushi like what.
It was such and then she like couldn't get over it.
And then it was just you know, we were just teasing her mercilessly, but it was so it was so funny. It was like right, like you know that like the reality of a person being in front of you versus somebody that you grew.
Up with or like had teen back.
It was like it had nothing to do with like looks or it was just like it took her that long and then she was like genuinely flustered and like kind of fangirl and it was like like none of this, Like she's like, I know, and I knew that, actually knew you too.
I should have put this together. You're wearing a boy meets World t shirt? Was I thinking?
But that must happen so many times, you know where it's like it's such a delayed realization.
And people just don't say it out loud or you.
Know, how often did you get recognized while you were there all the time since I shaved?
Since I shaved, I'm like, you know, and like Alex is so piss because she wants me to grow the beard back, and I'm.
Like, no, I kind of this is great.
We'll getting into every party anywhere you need a table, like everyone's like coming up. Like I was like, I'm kind of liking being famous for the first time in my life. Don't take this away from me. Like God, so much podcast now it's like so many It's.
Just so funny because I just went home, I'm airports cars. What I've just crowds and crowds of people out to dinner. Not a single time you got a shave.
Man, I don't think that would do it either.
Would you try it? Would you try it?
Sure?
I don't care if you shaved and grew your hair down to your shoulders like Peak will erra hair.
I mean, I think we could get Peak will back. It's just it's getting pretty long.
Pretty longing.
I don't know if you could get Peak will back. I don't know Peak, I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean I kind of like the gray and the beard is the thing.
I like the gray and your beard too, and I like your beard. I'm just saying this is a social experiment.
Just to see if I get recognized, because I do not get wrecking.
And I think I was lying only leave your house to walk your neighborhood, So.
That's not true. I'm out all the time. I was just traveling for the tour.
I mean we I was with him. I traveled with him everywhere last year.
Recognized.
No, he does not at all.
It's so strange to me where it's like.
I think, will you shave for our first live show? Maybe for the live shows.
You get a tattoo.
I'll think about it. I'll think about it.
I'll think about it.
Here's the biggest problem.
Here's the biggest problem for me with the tattoo, guys, because I have been thinking about it.
Where am I going to butt it your neck?
That's like, yeah, yeah, drop, I like tear.
Drops, but with with globes, with glo globe globe.
How many laughs we've killed It's like how many times you killed it on stage?
Just boom? Then I don't need Yeah, I don't know where i'd get it either.
I don't know. I don't know right already knows his spot.
I think to you where you know, Well, I.
Have the inside of my arm, so I would probably just do the other inside of my own But.
It would depend on what it is, because like you kind of want something, yeah, like you have to figure out what the shape.
It would work pretty perfectly.
I know, I know, I don't know where I would put mine, Like maybe I.
Don't want it to be in a spot that like people can see all the time.
So yeah, I don't know.
I'm doing my left nipple.
You won't ever be shirtless, you've already said.
But I mean, your whole goal is to is to be so ripped that you are walking around shirtless all the time.
Oh yeah, exact well, that's yeah, that's the plan.
I watched a movie last night where it's an awful movie, but the lead character he's just got an eight pack and there's times he's literally one point on an airplane, no shirt on, and I'm like, yep, that's a that's percent correct.
I just I just saw a really good play. I went and saw forty four the musical, the Barack Obama Musical that's playing in Culver City right now.
And is it.
About Barack Obama or starring Barack Obama, because those are two.
It's about Barack Obama. It's about his presidency. It's so freaking good. I'm actually going again. But two of the performers, all of the performers are beautiful, and but two of them are in the kind of shape that make you go.
Gosh, So what is the full routine?
Like it?
This very clearly requires a level of dedication that's just like wow, this is really it's truly like your body's a work of art. And while I was watching the play, I was like, you know what, yes, I do want that. I'm willing to do it, and then literally I woke up in the morning and was.
Like, but I do also have to have dessert after breakfast.
And I'm realizing I just don't have that.
I don't have it.
It's it's un I mean when you're talking about like the Ryan Reynolds shredded on camera, stuff like that, the Channing Tatum and stuff, it's super unhealthy.
Well, yes, I also don't know that all of that's natural.
The people that I'm t talking about it was not an unnatural it's just truly I think they probably eat a lot of protein, very little carbs, and they eat a lot of vegetables. They drink a lot of water, and they are regularly in the gym.
That's part of being a stage actor for that, you know, it's like part of the They have the at night and they probably spend most of.
Their their dancers, so they're also dancing, and it's part of like their body is an instrument in ways that mine will never be.
Well, mine's an instrument too, It's just a tuba.
So you know, you need a good brass section to Danielle take on the truck. I'm as what I am. I'm a timpany drum. Yeah, so it's just the way it works.
Welcome to Upon Mets World.
I'm Danielle Offishal, I'm Right or Strong, and I'm Wilfordell.
Over the seven seasons of Boy Meets World, we had some pretty interesting guest stars, from Nancy Kerrigan to Jim Abbott, to Vader to Tom Bosley, who played himself but was also kind of mister Cunningham but was also involved in the FBI's campaign against Russian espionage. Anyway, we never went the easy route when it came to stunt casting. It's actually one of the more endearing aspects of the show.
We weren't your typical family sitcom, so we didn't cast your typical cameos, and this week's guest might be the coolest example. Once dubbed the Petite Picasso at just twelve years old, this child prodigy changed the landscape of art in the nineties. She escaped communist Romania as a baby and settled in California, where by the age of two she was creating original drawings with pen and ink, then
at five watercolors. At seven, she graduated to oil and acrylics, and at eight she had her very first solo show, and then she never looked back. She was a phenomenon, appearing on Oprah and The Rosi O'Donnell Show while traveling the world to display her pieces the new toast of the art scene.
Before she was.
A teenager, she had already sold millions of dollars in work, far outliving any naysayers calling her a gimmick with celebrity collectors like Alec Baldwin, Calvin Klein, Leah Ioka, and Little Richard. And somehow, for some reason, she still took time out of her busy schedule at nineteen ninety eight to spend a week on the Boy Meets World set to play herself as a major character in the season six episode better than your average Corey, And I'm gonna tell you
she was a natural. She can't just be good at one thing, apparently, stay in your lane already McArts in. When we started this podcast, we hope to bring back some people we didn't expect to reunite with, and this week we have done it. Welcome to Pod meets World, the most cultured guest star we've ever had. Sorry, Robin Leach, It's al Lexandra and Nikita.
Good morning, Oh my gosh, hi, hi wow. This is awesome.
Just a few co workers reuniting thirty years later.
Unbelievable, right, oh man, hi hi hi wow.
Oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much for being here.
We obviously want to dig deep into your appearance on Boy Meets World and how you had the goal to not only be a child prodigy but also a very good actor. But before we jump into that, I want to get a little into toddler art. My son is five, and his art is alarming, alarmingly bad. I look at you when I ask this, Why is he so bad at art?
Well, you know, it's it's so funny. I also, I have a nine year old and a three year old, and everyone is always like, oh my gosh, are they talented? Are they talent? Like I don't think so, no, really not really, like I don't know. I want to be nice mom, but also like it's kind of crappy, so like I don't know, you know. But and it's so funny because my daughter is always complained. She's like, I fuck, like I am I not supposed to be good at this?
Because you're good at this. I was like, I don't think that that this works like, yeah, it's not, but you know what it is. I think, more than anything, the idea that they're doing something, especially now, you know, like when we were kids, doing things with our hands was sort of what we just there's the only thing we could do because we didn't have iPads and we didn't have all these other distractions and you know, preoccupations
and interest and whatnot. So I think it's less about how what the quality of his work is and much more about the fact that he's like sitting down and mixing colors and using his hands and getting dirty, And I think that's you have to find the glory in it that way, and then like, you know, maybe one day he will get better.
You never Yes, yes, he's also better at certain types of art. When I give him a canvas and paint, I'm actually very impressed. When he takes a pencil and he tries to draw anything, it's like barely.
I mean even then, I'm like, al, so, why are they so small? So small? There's a whole page here, why is everything so small?
Well, I'm always looking for a studio assistant, so you never know.
Okay, great, Please keep him in mind.
When did your parents start to realize like, oh, what she's doing is not typical.
It's funny because you have two answers to this question. If you ask my mom, you get one answer. If you ask my dad to get another answer. My dad was like, she's quiet, she's out of trouble. There's not a bunch of kids in our apartment. I don't care what she does. You know that was kind of like the the energy surrounding that at that point. And then you had my mom. I'm you know, an immigrant. I came here when I was two years old. I didn't
speak English, so I was really in kindergarten. You had my mom that took the you know, really like sentimental emotional concern, like, oh my gosh, she's going to be a weirdo route because all she does is sit here in color and she doesn't have any friends, and no one comes into the house. Meanwhile, no one's coming to the house because my dad made it very clear no one should come. You know, my parents were working crazy hours. This was back in the nineties. You know, my mom
and dad came here. We have a wild story. We reunited when I was only two years old. My dad left when my mom was six months pregnant with me by the way, like no way for him to like slip into her DMS and be like love you baby, right, I was like no back in the day, and they just left on this like agreement of like hope and love and respect and admiration and I'll like catch you with the states basically.
You know, and so, oh my gosh, a.
Wild, wild story. Just that in and of itself is amazing and one of the proudest things that I'm a part of. But I think, you know, you had once once we were here and settled and they're working, and I had a babysitter and all these things. It was very nerve wracking for my mom to see that I was so absorbed because it wasn't going back to you talking about your son. It wasn't that they didn't look at what I was making and going wow, she's so talented, like look at the skill set, look at her use
of color. It was more of like, wow, there's nothing else that interests her. She's obsessed.
Yeah, concern, concern, truly.
And and you know, at one point they had taken away I was like loving coloring books. They'd taken away my coloring books and then, you know, they give me plain sheets of paper, and I, having only known a coloring book, I kind of made my own. I'd like staple ten sheets together and draw an outline with a
sharpie and then color those in. And so I think they only got wind of this being more than just a hobby or whatever, you know, when my third grade teacher called them into like a parent teacher a meeting and kind of like, okay, let's talk about the bag that during free time all she does is draw.
And my mom's like, I know, widhood, we're very concerned.
My dad's like, isn't it good? You know, she doesn't like boys, she draws, like this is a win win, you know, And so they at that point I think I had they made a very grave mistake. They took me to an art store and asked, like probably you know a college kid who was smoking a lot of pots, like what should she do next? Because she paints and watercolors all the time and coloring books. And he's like,
I don't know oil paints. So I started painting with oil paints by the time I was like seven eight, which is not recommended, by the way, or a seven or eight year old and I had accumulated as like, I don't know fifty sixty seventy canvas is at this point, and my third grade teacher in this in this meeting, you know, my mom's like, yeah, I don't know, it's
all she wants to do. And we're at work all day and my grandma had moved here to raise me at that point, and you know, my mom is telling me all she does is want to paint, and we make sure she does her homework first and don't worry, you know, yeah. And he's like, okay, well, you know what else And she's like, why did you come over and see? So I was like the kid these third grade teacher came to her house very strange, and you know, at this point, I had kind of monopolized the space
that we were living. We lived in a townhouse at the time, and my parents had moved all the furniture to the middle of the living room to make room to make room for me to paint on the outside of the couches, which is so crazy, right, And he came and he saw all this, and he said, oh, we should have a like an exhibit for her at the library. And I had no idea what that meant I was like cool party cupcakes, like let's do it,
you know. And I had my first exhibition when I was eight years old at the public library and Whittier, which is where I lived at the time, and we hung like sixty seventy canvases on the wall, and that was basically I mean, I think it was that moment that sort of solidified to my parents that like, and even then, honestly, I think it took more than that, but you know, they realized like, Okay, this is a
great way to keep her. And I think, you know, having little kids, you realize how valuable it is to keep them interested and excited and curious and exploring constantly. And I think given their insane work schedule and sort of that disconnect that we were offering inevitably because they're working all day long, they're happy to know that I had something that kind of centered me, ground me that they still had like rains over and away, but was
truly my own thing. So I think it's probably around then, like when I was like, you know, ten years old, when they're.
They were they appreciators of art.
I mean, could did they know like the quality of the work or were they just like, oh, it's not oh really, okay.
Definitely not.
So then I'm advising you.
They weren't like saying, hey, look at this great painting by Picasso, look at this and like any of that. It was just you kind of free, free reign.
Well, so I had seen my first Picasso in person. The LA Museum of Art was hosting this insane retrospective and it was April Fool's Day, nineteen ninety four, and that my parents, my parents took me to that exhibition the first time. That was the first time that I had like a physical encounter with his work. I mean, anything that I was exposed to was whatever the public school system was offering at the time, which was a lot more than it is now. But that's another conversation
for another day. But you know, they it was limited because, yeah, they didn't have sort of the lifestyle of like going to museums and going to galleries and like those are things that I try to do with my kids now. But no, again, I think it was the sort of relentless obsession that I had with it that was the most. Like my mom at one point tried to get me
to like tap dance instead of draw. You know, it's like I'm tap dance, like this is so weird, you know, like anything just like show us that you're not weird. You know, it was sort of falling, you know. Yes, it turned out that I was just so deeply like I loved it. I loved colors. I loved how you could mix one color with another color to get another color. I love that I could say things without like confrontation
of having to say them. There's all these elements, especially at really such a formative age when life is just weird and awkward as it is. You know that I had this other language where there was no judgment, There was no It was just like me and my thoughts
and whatever I wanted to say. And do you know, later on, once I started traveling and getting a lot of exposure, judgment was abundant, but you know, I still tried to keep my private experience of like making things as non judgmental and as fun and as honest and as open. And it was like a diary. It was literally a visual diary for me growing up. And might go to the zoo and I'd come home and I'd paint a painting about going to the zoom. You know, so no, I mean, I don't think in the moment.
I think retrospectively. I could look back and be like, wow, all everyone did is make stick figures and lollipop trees and rainbows, and like I made weird faces with three eyes, and you know, I think so in that sense, I don't. I had a heart, you know what it is. My parents did a really good job of not making me feel ostracized, you know. And I also had an incredibly open relationship, particularly with my mom at that age, where you know, I'd come home and tell her about any
bullying episode. I'd come home and tell her about someone teasing me. You know, I had very ethnic lunches growing up, being Romanian. You know, there's a lot of reasons that I wasn't the most popular kid. And so because I had that rapport with my mom, especially both my parents, but especially my mom, like I think it helped sort of keep a very so I was like even keeled and levelheaded for the most part. So I never even if I was really good. I was just like, this
is what I like to do. And that said, I didn't figure that out until later that I had a skill set that I was just maybe naturally born with that. I cultivated the older I got, and the more that I you know, made art wow.
And so how then do you make the jump from the wittier public Life Library exhibition into like the blue chip art scene. What's what happens after that first exhibition?
So that first exhibition led to a lot of you know, the world is so different now, right Like back then, it's like being in the local newspaper was like all the jam, you know, and like doing the local news things that five PM turn it onto. It's like now it's like how many sixtok views does it have? How many? It's a completely different sense of uh, sensationalism and you know, viewership and audience and all that. You guys know that
better than I do. But I think I garnered a lot of this like local kind of hype and excitement and enthusiasm. And the story itself was pretty novel and that you know, here's this little short, blonde girl in pig Sail. We watched that episode.
We talked about how much they tried to make you look so young, and you look like a contemporary of Ben.
Yeah, yeah, well she's also just you had so much poise.
So much present.
You just yeah, you're.
You're you had like an adult, like very mature presence, you know, just naturally or maybe because of your experiences leading up to that, but yeah, you definitely.
Like they were they were working hard.
It was especially next to Lindsay Ridgeway, who's like a foot and a half tall at the time, right, it was like, wait, wait, they're the same age.
How is that possible?
It is so funny. I like, I had such a wow. It was really awesome watching all that. But you know, I I I ended up having a few of these local shows if you will. Like after the library, there was this really cool hipster guy that owned the bookstore slash gallery slash coffee shop. He's like, let's hang some paintings on the wall, you know. Okay, Like again, my parents. You have to understand, my parents are working these crazy shifts,
like baarently making ends meet. They're trying to support a very expensive habit at this point because I'm wanting canvases and paintb I mean, I don't know when the last time you guys went to an art stories but it is no joke. Yeah, you know, And so my mom she loves to tell this story of like she's like I always ask her, like can you like dilute the pain, like just like make the two blast for like a week instead of a day, Like is that possible? It's
like no, this is what I feel, mom. I have to use all of the twenty five dollars deal.
Yeah.
So, and so you know, they they try to do their best to do supporting this and and you know our lives and all the other things in between, and so you know, when they had this opportunity, the guy's like okay, sure. My dad's like okay, sure, Like let's give you this many paintings. We price them out of a couple hundred bucks each. He had an event and like the entire like everything on the wall sold, you know. And I think that's when everyone's like, wait.
What, wait, hold on a minute, is there a chance to make money at this right?
Because you know, the incentive and the impetus behind that first exhibition had nothing to do with commercialization or giving me the platform to be a famous artist. Or it was sheer like there's a lot of crap in our house and we would love to put it somewhere else so I can like vacuum like my Mom's like, you know, rationale behind it. And at that first show, in fact, there was a gentleman who came up to me to buy a painting and I was like offended. I was
like what, no, these are mine. We can't buy this, you know're like no way. And then he went to my dad and I was like, look, I can't convince her. You got to go back and talk to her. And so he came back with this whole like pitch. It was because it was April Mother's Day was coming up. You know, I need to get a gift from my mom calling you're so nice. I'm all right, fifty bucks. So I sold this like tidy eight by Ted. It was my first painting I ever sold for fifty dollars.
And you know again like yes, fifty dollars, Dad was more than fifty dollars is today for sure. But still it wasn't this. It didn't open up this idea that Okay, here we're gonna we're gonna kill it, We're gonna crush it, like let's go, you know. And so this this next series of shows that I had that also started creating and galvanizing a lot of attention and a lot of publicity. You know, it was like really just this wild domino effect because in life it is so I've found, at
least in my experience. You know, everyone's always like waiting for things or working towards things, but sometimes things just happen, like a ton of bricks falls on your head, and it just happens. And it could be in an email today or back then a phone call, or someone knocking
on our door or whatever it was. And so I had a few of these coffeehouse exhibitions, and a collector of an artist that was represented by a publishing company that I ended up by signing with saw my work and went to like the head of the art publishing company and says, you know, you have to see this
little girl. She's amazing. This guy's like I work with artists on their way out, like literally on their way out, you know, who have an entire lifetime of work to support their petig and their history and all these things. And like she's nine, like no things, like she's going to be a teenager and she's gonna like you have no idea what this is. It's a fluke, it's a flash on the pan. It's you know, the whole thing, and and and this man was like, you know, he
kept persisting. He's like, look, I'm one of your biggest buyers, Like I just want you to just just give her, give her a chance, come, you know, come to her studio or whatever. At that point, I think he had bought something from the from the coffee shop gallery place met me, had come to the studios something like this.
And so I think, you know, when when when they walked into my parents had converted our girl at the time, we were living in Norwalk, and they converted our garage into a studio, and you know, when he walked into the garage and saw these like really large scale canvas, you know, the the dichotomy between this little, you know, girl and these big pieces was like very impressive and it added so much to the sensatialism of the story and and and all of that. And so he walks
in and it's kind of like, oh wow. And then I start, you know, articulating my thoughts on the work, and I think that the work, you know, the sort of impressive scale of everything, my ability to communicate as well as I was able to communicate at that age naturally, for whatever reason, maybe because My mom made me read all day long, all the time, which I hated her for that, and there's I mean, I thank her for forcing that on me more than anything in the world.
But she made me keep a vocabulary journal.
Wow, by the.
Way, I still keep one. But she would make me keep a vocabulary journal of words that I had, like didn't know, and it was all it was what caused this. It's really funny because like, now I have my own kids that I'm trying to find ways to like you know, burden them with consequence so they learn lessons or whatever. Is very different time that we're living in that doesn't work as effectively as it did for us. But you know, I had asked her one too many times what the
word negotiate meant, and she was pissed. She was like okay, She's like, okay, you know you're not paying any attention to any of this. So we're going to start a vocabulary journal. And at the end of the month, when you prove to me that you not only know all those words fully and holy and immercivelly like, I need to see you, I need to hear you. I have my old list. I need to hear you use them in conversation with us. This this, this, like, we'll take
you to SeaWorld. I was like, oh, sick, like right, let's go.
But I don't you know, it's just I think so she was literally negotiating with you about the word negotiating.
Hands down, hands that works. But it's really funny because there was all of these things I think coupled that you know, created for a great, you know, pr story at the very least, right, and so everyone around, and most were much older white men, were like, all right, this looks good. You know, she can hold a conversation, she can talk about the work, she's poised, she's all
these things. Talented people like the work. They resonate with the story and the the you know, authenticity, the family story. Is this true American team.
I was like a banger, like, you got it all one, you're cicking all the boxes, ticking all the boxes, definitely yep.
And and so I think that that created this excitement. And I mean fast forward. I was ten years old, and you know, after lengthy conversations and my parents explaining to me, you know, at this point, they I already lined out what the requirement of production would be, what kind of tours we're looking at. I mean, I was in fourth fifth grade. This would have meant that I'd be missing, you know, majority of my school year traveling.
Big big sacrifice, big responsibility, big commitment, you know. And so I agreed. I was excited. I was like, let's go, and I signed my first deal. Uh, my father on my behalf, my parents on my behalf. But I there was there too, inside of a cozy little booth of sizzler, yes, and all.
The dreams come true.
Shrimps slid YEA lived like why could I just eat all that and not diemorrow?
You know?
And and so that's basically, you know, in a very abbreviated way, the dynamic and the unfolding of this whole story.
Well, the art world, much like Hollywood, isn't necessarily known for its kind and caring inhabitants. There's obviously sharks and con men everywhere. How are you, as a child navigating this and how is your family navigating that world as well?
You know, That's the thing. I was never faced with that side of it and that reality, and I think my parents worked very tirelessly to protect me from that great whether it was you know, conversationally, whether it was building one hundred LLCs around my brand, whether it was doing whatever they needed to do to just really keep me me and my autonomy separate of the mess that you know inevitably was going to occur. It's almost as
if they had a crystal ball. There was a lot of things that went wrong, a lot of greedy people involved, and I was always held steadfast in this, in this cocoon, you know, and not left unaware so that I could be taken advantage of. But really, just like we got you. You keep making stuff if you love it, you keep doing it. When you stop loving it, tell us we're here to like see you out and save you, you know.
And so I think that that is entirely a testament to their parenting, to their They're also like they're a wherewithal like my dad. It's so funny because I just moved studios recently. My studio has been in my parents' house for the last thirty years. By the way, I'm this year is thirty years since I signed that first contract,
which is crazy woice. Oh, but I just moved studios and I was coming across, you know, in my attempt to clean, which I'm terrible at doing I came across all of these like cool fines, and I was like, you know, all these like amazing discoveries and memories and just kind of you know, it's it's it's seeing. It's just it's like this real, weird nostalgia that I experience and this amazing, fulfilling like story that I've created for myself with my parents, because of my parents, because of
my grandma's sacrifice. My grandma moved here when I was four years old, leaving her sixteen year old son, my uncle, and my grandpa to whom she was still very married, to raise me because my parents were working all like, this is so much of a bigger story. And while you know, yes I was hard working and disciplined and responsible and had dignity, talented, thank you, all of those things, it was it's such a team effort, that's the reality, you know. And so I think I can't answer that
question without recognizing them. They can't answer it without recognizing me, you know. So it's sort of this dance that we've just kind of danced for the last thirty years together.
Well, it's a very similar story to what we talk about with what we do as well, and with every child actor we have interviewed, it is impossible to say to give the credit or to explain how one person's life happens without also explaining all of the different people and decisions and choices that were made in order to get you there.
So that is a perfect segue.
Into how do you end up on our Boy Meets World set?
Were you twelve or thirteen?
I think I was thirteen?
Okay, how does it come to you that they want you to have a starring guest role on Boy Meets World?
Had you ever heard of the show?
Yes? I did, of course I had very limited time, so it was a part of like, you know, my my daily curriculum, if you will, or weekly curriculum. But I that's that's actually I have to like really dig dig to answer that, because there's sort of this like weird sequence of interest that people kind of expected me to naturally have because I was now suddenly in the public eye. So it's like, oh, she's good on TV, she should act like, you know, she's cute, she should
we should address her? Oh we should, you know. Whatever was And so I think I personally didn't take that initiative to try to delve into an entirely different space because again, I was so deeply consumed by by making
art and that's all I cared about. But I ended up like, yeah, there was a lot of people around me at the time, and you know, people were always saying like, she should act, she should act, she should model, she should do this, she should That's like I can't even get my kids from like one basketball practice to another. Like I don't know how my parents had jobs. I
had did all this. So at one point or another, I ended up by getting signed with with wm ME and I had an agent, and I did the whole thing, and I was going to auditions like I like had really fun experiences and it was great. But I'm simultaneously not even juggling but really like like nurturing this whole other career that's full force, full fledge taken off. So
I think it was a hard balance. But when this came up, it only made sense because it was also an opportunity to fit into a storyline of like normal kid life, right because my life and my story had taken on such a different like you know, paradigm, in such a different space, and it was like I think.
I also, for me, it was important to remember that I'm not so strange and that I'm not so different, and that there was you know, I still had a pool to to want to connect to things that made sense for my age, you know, And are you kidding me? I mean, I can't tell you guys how many people reach out to me on an absolute regular basis, like
I am a really good like Embellisher. And this is literally being said in full transparency and honesty, like constantly going, oh my gosh, I saw you on this episode of I loved it, or like it just up again or whatever.
You know.
When I told our daughter, I didn't even know she knew. She knew I think what Girl Meets World was first, and then and then when I told her, she said, what you just told me? No, like she was like everything else I did in life didn't mask. I told you about that I was on an episode of Boys World. And then it's like, oh, you're.
Cool, Oh my gosh, but wait, so you have an agent, you're with W and me and you are auditioning, but you don't audition for Boy Meets World like this, this was written for you.
No, you should have seen who they were going to cast a player.
She had an audition to be.
So do you remember, Like we know that Michael Jacobs is a huge art fan, We're assuming Michael had been paying attention.
To your career.
Do you remember getting the phone call or your agent's getting the phone call with the ask like Michael Jacobs would like you to be on an episode of Boy Meets World.
Do you remember finding out?
I do. I do remember. I do remember, and I was just so excited to get to do something different like that's you know, I think the thing that makes me love art making an expression and self expression in journal as much as I love it is that there's never a promise, there's never a guarantee, there's never like a foreseeable trajectory, like the journey can always take you
to all these different places. And so whenever I was given an opportunity to do something outside of my comfort zone or outside of what I normally, you know, formally did, I was very excited. As a child especially, and as a child that was like, you know, living the crazy worldwood life that I was living. But I do remember,
of course, how can I not? And I was like, all right, let's go, let's do this, and I don't think I understood the scope of I don't know that I understood at the moment, like this whole episode is going to revolve around me and I the story about you know, finding yourself and appreciating your history. And it's just it's such a in looking back and then living
this life that I've lived. Since then I realized, like it still tracks like that entire the entire messaging of that episode still tracks and stay is so true to who I work so hard to be and who I'm hoping to you know, also raise in my children, and this like it just and that's the thing. It's like, no, like what kind of programming does that anymore for like teenagers?
Like right, nothing, that doesn't exist anymore. It doesn't.
It's one of the things we talk about all the time is for some reason, somewhere, someone decided on some level at the networks that kids are totally different now and wouldn' appreciate stuff like this anymore. And I just think that's one hundred percent wrong. So yeah, this stuff like this just doesn't really exist. Disney Channel a little bit, we'll kind of touch on this, but the kind of in between young Disney channel and you know old NBC.
There's kind of nothing anymore, and it's just this this this wasteland.
Unfortunately, well you know what it was.
It's just there was this there was this perfect marriage of all the things that you know, made being young cool, but then all the things that parents didn't want their children to sort of lose in the face of that effort of being cool, you know. So it's like there's like, you know, because listen, I'm raised by very traditional people, and so like I'm forty or I'll be forty this year, and my dad, if I'm watching a sex scene with him, he will still cover my eyes like that.
You guys have children, I know what this is about.
Yeah. So, like even I remember, like you know, like the little like you know, the the peck on the lips between the pangan corey and like stuff like that that was still a little like taboo for my age at least and for what I was allowed to be exposed to. But that's what brought in an audience to be like, Okay, this is relatable, this is real stuff.
And then you still had that wholesomeness. You still had that entire like vibe that I think, you know, it's so sad to see it kind of like dissipate or be. There's got to be a way to like reignite that and bring that back. And I mean, you guys should just resurrect that whole concept on your own. I'm here to support you all the way.
Thank you.
So you said this was something that had to be fit into your very busy schedule.
Do you remember were you there all week?
Did you attend the table read straight through to tape night or were you there only for a couple of days. What are your memories about the work week?
I I, yeah, any of that. I do remember craft service.
Okay, when you're a kid, everybody remembers crass.
Tell us about your memories of craft.
That's all I cared about. There was snacks and food galore and sweets and just there was no no and like I was not allowed to like drink soda. I don't know what my dad thought was in Coca cola, but like I was not allowed to drink it, and so I was like having soda. I was like, let's do this, like.
You where it's at.
Do you remember giving us our scripts?
I don't. I don't.
So you did you gave us each a script, which I still have mine somewhere with a nice like the only script I kept from drew something for each of us signature.
Yeah, it's really cool.
You drew us each other like our own personal little picture, and then you wrote something really nice on all our scripts.
Yeah, it was really sweet.
Oh that's awesome thing.
Do you have any memory of the tape night where you at a live studio audience keeping?
Okay, I do that.
I remember that. I remember because I think I was so overwhelmed with emotion. I like, weirdly, I've always loved public speaking, Like I got this like weird high from it. I've enjoyed it. I remember I was I had to give a like acceptance speech at the Lincoln Center in New York. I don't know. I was like also twelve thirteen, fourteen around there, and I was so nervous up until I got on there and I was like, oh, I'm going my speech and like running through my ideas and
how I was gonna flow through it all. And I was like sweating, sweating, sweating, and then I got up there. So I remember being so incredibly nervous because I was like, what if they don't clap and what and and I don't know who it was, but I remember someone told me, like we're giving them cues like don't worry, like they know they know.
Yeah, no way.
Michael Jacobs used to always tell us, don't worry if they don't like your joke. I have a machine that thinks you're hysterical. So it's like, okay, all right, that's good to know.
Were both of your parents at tape night?
Like?
Did did your grandmother come? Do you remember who was there?
If my grandma came, My parents definitely came. My parents came over, but probably probably Mama came to. I have to look, you know, and going and having doing this move. I'm coming across like phot things that have just been shelved for so long, and I'm finding so many sweet memories and I'm gonna go like, once I go through everything, I'm gonna find I tried to see if I could find anything, but there's like a whole nother attic at my old studio that I'm too scared to go into.
There's just you know, I'm working on digitizing all of that, so I'm gonna it'll all come back to me, you know, I get like a flash and a picture. I mean, that's the thing. I think. The chaos of my life was so overwhelming that it almost worked as this double edged sword. Like it, you know, gave me all these wonderful memories and experiences, but a lot of those memories were kind of blurred because I was just like on
autopilot a lot of the time. You know, Like once I was in high school, I only attended school twice a week because I was on like red eyes every single week, going for shows and different events. And I kind of carried that through, you know. Once I was at UCLA, I was able to model my schedule more
to my my liking. But same thing. And I think when are in like just that repetitive cycle of doing, you know, well, the production of the art wasn't the same the experience of promoting the art and myself and all of that. It was a very well oiled machine, you know, and I was just like, I think that in many ways kind of like surprised a lot of these memories because I was just trying to like get through it, just get through it, you know.
So not to go back too far, but you mentioned something really interesting when we first started talking, and then I'm curious, as you're now moving studios and you're finding this old stuff. You said, this essentially in your life is a visual diary. So when you find something, a piece you haven't seen in a while, do you instantly go back to what made just like you're reading a diary page, like you're right back to what made you pay that pit?
Wow? Yes, that's a great question. But it functions precisely as a portal. It is so bizarre. It literally I look at piece, I enter it, and it's as if I'm like having this like I don't even know, this like psychedelic experience going back in time. It's the most bizarre thing because particularly with a very very early work before you know, life gets lifey and you get jaded
and things happened, particular with that early work. I mean, it becomes this like visceral back into the past experience, you know, like where I'm I can feel that feeling, I can feel the sentiment. I can often like I have smells that I associate with certain pieces. It's very strange, and I mean, listen, I can't make that claim for every single work, because I am very productive and prolific and I make a lot of things sometimes for the
sake of just exercising my hand. It's not always you know, this deep profound meaning or whatnot, but there are certain pieces, a lot of them that do that for me. And I think, so long as I have that connection with the work, I think I'm okay. I you know, during a very exhausting time of my life, I think I've
lost that a little bit, which is really sad. Creative, you know, you don't want to lose that connection with what why you're making, what what you're making, you know, just do it for the sake of, oh whatever, because I have to fill up you know, requirements or whatnot. But no, that's that's it's It's so interesting. I wonder. I don't know if it's that way for every artist or every every person or like performers, like it does
that happens you guys? I mean of course, right, because you have days you remember certain things that you were going through that day, or like maybe something terrible happened in your personal life, but you still had to show up on set, right.
Like yeah, yeah, I think you're kind of in a rarefied air though, especially you, because there's you're not going to have a lot of artists, especially visual artists, who's you know, career goes back to the time when they're six.
And seven years old.
So yeah, I think you're you're you're probably be in a very that'd be a very very boring reunion of artists who started at seven. I'm guessing there's it's yeah, you're not going to be filling a hiat.
But I think for like when we've been doing this rewatch, it's happened to all of us at some point or another word. Because we don't we won't remember the episode, we won't remember like what happens next, but then suddenly we'll kind of remember the feeling in our body of like being there, and like that's happened to all of
us at one point or another. And like sometimes it's about what's happening behind the scenes, like I'm like, I'm not I'm uncomfortable, Like it's making my skin crawl or something.
I was like, oh right, that was a bad day on set.
It is a little bit of like, you know, but it's not as conscious, you know, because we weren't the ones always creating there. You know, our bodies were there, our voices were there. You're talking about having put so much mental exercise into why this thing exists.
You know a lot of times we didn't know why it existed.
We were just kind of thrust out onto stage and like go, yeah, so yeah, it's a little different.
Okay, So after you do Boy Meets World, do you do you do any other acting? Have you ever thought about canntinuing to act or acting again?
It's so funny. I did a bunch of different auditions. I remember I audition for Princess Leah. I did. I did like a bunch, like a bunch of bunch of bunch and it's just like it was very, very hard to stay committed. That in and of itself is its own job. You know. Like it's so funny because my dad's like, my our daughter loves theater. She's you know, loves loves and she's very theatrical and so it suits her.
But you know, my dad's like, you should get her into auditions, and you I was like, yeah, who's going to drive her. It's going to drive her, Like I'm going to uber her to auditions at nine? Like what, like we can't you know, He's like, but I think there was just so much going on, and our cops were all so full, and the travel schedule was so demanding, and it just wasn't a sustainable thing to I couldn't nurture my studio time' an honor my studio time holy
and do something else. I think that was kind of the issue, my interest and the fun that I had doing it, And you know, I think I probably could have ended up being not bad at it if I if I continued, was there for sure, But it's you know, it's kind of like picking and choosing. I you know, it wasn't it was impossible to do both at the same time.
At least, yes, I totally understand that.
My mom jokes because I used to say I was a gymnast before I was an actor, and my mom was like, no, Danielle, you were just in gymnastics. You you took gymnastics. But I could not do them both because I couldn't commit to gymnastics class and also regularly be at auditions. So we all had to make a choice totally sacrifices.
I mean, listen, you guys were kids too. It's no joke, like it's you know, you you choose, and if you're lucky enough to have the guidance and support of wonderful people, parents, managers, agents, whatever it is, then that's your extra bless But like it's not, you know, I look back, I'm like, dang, I can't imagine my daughter having the schedule that I had, Like, I mean, I'm telling you, we can't study for twenty vocabulary words in five days. Like, I don't know, right, right? I know?
Well, wait, so you've you've talked about kind of different times you've gone through in your life and with starting young, did you ever burn out? Was there ever a time where you were like, I'm done, I don't ever want to touch a paintbrush again.
Hmmm? So I never had that resentment towards the craft, so to speak. I think my resentment was towards the lack of understanding from the people that I was working with at one point in my life. And it's not that I'm blaming other people, right, I think it's the expectation that began surrounding me. I think the fact that I showed up for so many years in a certain way that you know, if I wanted to like reel it back a bit, it was like WHOA, don't need
twenty red paintings or whatever, you know. And I think it was and that's just I think becoming an adult and growing up and recognizing that you know, people are trying to control you, and that you do have your own identity and you have to work on that.
And so.
The burnout for me was not between me and the act of art making. The burnout was I can't keep up with the demand of the work, which is a beautiful problem, and it was a great problem, but it was impacting the quality of the work, and it was making me feel like I wasn't excited anymore about going to share the stuff that I was making. And in that moment, I knew that I was hitting some kind of like a wall or a block or whatever you
want to call it. Because I thrive. I love being able to take the workout and talk about it like that's the artist I am, that's the artist. Maybe it's because it's how I was trained to be or told to be. It doesn't matter. I love doing that. You have a lot of artists contemporaries of mine, that literally don't even show up to their own openings, you know, or like the work must speak for itself. I'm like cool, bro, that's great, but like also like not everyone has this
ability like you. I've always made an effort to try to get people to be cool with art, right because I as a child, I think I could speak for all of us probably, like the only exposure to art that you would have is like when you were forced to write a report and you had to go to the museum that one time in your life, yep. And then when you like stuck your nose too close to a canvas, like there'd be a security guard swatting your face out of the way because oh my god. You know.
So there's just this like elitism that's always associated with art. There's always just like you're not smart enough, you're not
rich enough, you're not And I hated that. I hated it because for me, it felt like such a primal need to connect with the emotions attached to a painting or a sculpture, Like I wanted to, like you go up to a canvas and smell it, and I want to go up to a bronze piece and touch it, and you know, And so that's how I'm like obsessed with public art and I think it's so important, like within like, you know, the the life of any community.
I think that you know, I just it's it's, it's it's really it's been a there's certain things that have taken a greater level of importance for me now that like I've kind of gotten out of like the chaos, and I've been able to sort of create my own design, if you will, for what I like, you know, I'm still having my shows a couple of times a year
with galleries that I want to work with. I'm constantly in my studio the best I can be, but then I'm also surrendering a bit of that time so that I can be with my kids, so that i can do other projects that I'm working on, you know, delving into different spaces, and I think it's just kind of it's ebbs and flows. It's never like you just there's
not really like a certain mole that you that you fit. Like, I just had this like runoff kind of cycle that I was obligated and I felt very responsible to so many people to maintain, you know, from my family, you know, at one point, over twenty employees to like, you know, it's no joke, Like I'd come home from school at
three pm. I had a guy whose sole job was to bring reproductions of my pieces, so like lithographs, and I would sit for like two hours and sign after school, and sometimes depending on edition releases, I would sit and sign before school at like five to like seven in the morning when I left. You know, like these are weird expectations and not like it wasn't this like bohemian artists experience that, like one day I will live on
a goat farm and it's gonna happen. But until then, right, yeah, you like I didn't get that like whole, like on the beach in Tahiti and I'm just painting and then there's like someone coming to take my paintings and the nifely go to New York. Like this is the whole thing, you know. And I think that I wanted to always because it was born of true, real passion and it wasn't born of my parents capitalizing or exploiting or you
know whatever. I think I always had that as a foundation and that's what kept me so deeply connected even when I felt like exhausted, you know.
And I'm curious from an artist's standpoint, because you said that your studio had been in your parents' house for like thirty years. Have you noticed that the art has changed now that the location has changed?
Great question. So my studio was outside of the physical home. But yeah, so what began happening again happening is, you know, boundaries get blurred and everyone gets real cozy and excited.
And you know, when before I had children, I was able to like come in with a more kind of clear schedule, like I'm in the studio for eight hours today or I'm painting all night and sleeping till two pm tomorrow because I can, you know, And when I had that sort of approach to the work process, it was less impacted by everyone else, if that makes sense, you know, like it just now because I am at the Mercy, I'm an underpaid employee.
To my.
And I basically just have to do everything you know, for want to and have to, but do a lot of things that take me away from my studio. I find like windows of time now, so it's like, you know, three four hour block or you know, my husband is a wonderful co parent and so he's very supportive and sometimes I'm like I need to be in the studio before I lose my mind, like I'm not cooking dinner.
For the next three days, no one talked to me unless the house is trumbling, like, please do not call me two times in a row, I will go nuts, like everything's okay, you've got this. I have to go. I have to go. I have to go, you know. And so it's it's it began happening where I was, like, you know, coming in, I had this like sacred period of two, three, four or five hours. Sometimes I'd make things. Sometimes I would just sit there because sometimes you can't
just turn it on a button and start painting. And then you know, my dad would come home early and he'd be like, I bought a bottle of wine. I'm like, god, it's two thirty PM. Like I have three hours in here before I have to go, do you know second grade math? Like I can't like no, and also like please leave, like leave, I love you, but like I want to be in here by myself. So you know, it's it's that wasn't the the the urge for the move.
The move just had to happen. It was a natural like and and but I realize now that there are certain things that just the experience in my studio was no longer just mine with my work, which is what I love most about it and why I held so steadfast to it and the most egotistical, selfish way. I mean, I think that is the greatest part of any part of the art experience for any artist. And there's something about us that loves this solitude and loves this time
with your own thoughts and with your own feelings. And you know, when there's constant people intercepting that with the purest of intention, it's really messing up the flow, especially when the flow is limited now and it's not you know, me staying up from midnight to six am, like you know, I'm I'm I'm working on crunch time here and I want to try to see what I can do and like so in that sense, it's been really beautiful for me to kind of like I'm in and out at
any time. I don't feel bad if like the dog barks because I went through the side gate at one in the morning, I don't There's like all these things that they weren't even problems or impediments, But now I can look back and be like those were subconsciously kind of affecting the way that I was connecting with with this process of making my art, and so you know,
it's I think the work. I don't know if it's necessarily different, but I'm surely living it in a different way, so it must it must be in some capacity, because yeah, it must be.
Well, the theater of your high school, Lutheran High of Orange County, is now named after you. I'm just wondering if we could possibly say that it's because of your work on Boy Meets World?
Are we are welcome?
Right?
Honestly, you should all be up there with me.
You know.
It's so crazy because I received such deep support from my alma mater. They like off the bat, were like, let's go. As long as you can keep a certain GPA, We're with you.
You know.
Again, I was only attending school two times a week. I remember my parents approaching a lot of the like LA high schools, and you know, I think at that point there's such a flux of child actors. They're like, no, right, so we're not dealing with this, no, you know, and and and the good and the bad that that comes with with with all of that, and so I couldn't go to I ended up going to school in Orange County because they were basically the only ones who were
willing to take this ryde with me. And you know, I think I always returned back to this like real appreciation and like whatever the reason is that they chose to say es is irrelevant, because it was the right thing and the right time for me. You know, It's what I needed. I needed another brick added to you know, this this this this house of my life and experience that we were building that I was lacking and I needed that extra like cushion and guidance and support, and
we got you. And you can do this also, and you know you have certain responsibility for your grades, but if you cover that, like we're happy to like take the rind with you, you know. And so it was again a lot of these these these realizations have come only well after the fact. You know, I was obviously deeply grateful for them and all of that, But only now years later can I understand like that was also a big commitment for them, and truly a big risk.
I mean, I was a teenager. They didn't know if I was going to go off the rails at any point, I mean, why not, you know, and so huge liability and they still did it, and so I'm so grateful for them. I think they they understood that sense of gratitude and respect and it was mutually a mutual sentiment that we shared. And so you know, they decided to build this beautiful performing arts center that's you know, really become like kind of this important staple in the community there,
Like they do amazing production. I was just there a couple of months ago, like two months ago, and I saw, you know, this entire theater and arts programming that they're running, like I was in the ap art class, like working with someone with the kids, and like it's just I'm you know, really proud to be associated and affiliated with
anybody who recognizes how important the arts still are. And you know, like even in the face of all of the surge of social media and technology and all the things, like you still need your designers and you still need your creative eyes and like, don't tell me AI, like I don't want to hear it, Like yeah, use it for efficiency, no problem, Like I'm all about it. By the way, I needed cliff notes of book that's being read in the fourth grain. I was like, I'm not
reading for your hundred pages right now. Absolutely not. Could you please tell me? I literally it's as if I just discovered chapter GPT by the way, in the last two weeks and I got caught red handed, and my daughter's like, can you download on my iPad?
I was like, no, no, no, not.
Money to.
Bypass reading. You have to do it.
But you know, it's it's so it's so funny because I I want, I still really believe. I believe that it's not a lost cause. I believe that there's you know, we have to honor that, you know, that part of the brain. And it's not about your skill set. It's not about how good you are, how trained you are.
I think this need to just find something where you could be your us to you and your truest you and just like whatever that is, dancing, kicking around a soccer ball, I don't care, you know, but it's like
really reconnecting with that impulse to self express. And you know, I obviously sustained the visual arts for very obvious reasons, but I think it comes down to anything that is able to generate this space to pause, yeah and maybe say something thoughtfully and not just because it's clickbait and quick and fast and you know, it's like, so yeah.
Alexandra, thank you so much for being here with us. Thank you for being a part of the legacy of Boy Meets World. It's really been so wonderful to have you. You are infinitely more fascinating than I ever. I mean you were you were fascinating on paper, but talking to you, getting to know you a little bit better, you're even more interesting and fascinating than you appear on paper.
So thank you.
Thank you for bringing that to us and sharing it with us. And honestly, it's a little intimidating when you think about how great you were coming into what we did and doing it so effortlessly, and yet none of us could step into what you do and do even a fraction of what you can do.
Grow We're irrationally angry.
Thank you. Thank you guys for being a part of one of the most meaningful memories in my in my life. I'm so grateful, and thanks for giving me street cred with all the kids these days.
I really thank you. It's been such a joy to see you and thank you so much.
Emotional thank you.
Are you. Are you doing any any shows around here that we can come and say hi and see your work and all that kind of stuff.
My studio is open to you guys anytime. But yeah, I am I'm having I'm doing a show on park Sity, I'm doing a few things outside of the state. I just did an event at the end of the year this year sort of announcing that I'm moving into the home space. So I'm going to create like functional part Basically, Oh, I can actually show you this. Here is my handy dandy candle holder.
This, this is going to be one of the pieces.
This is gonna be one of the pieces.
Also cool, so I'm.
Taking you know. The thing is like with thirty years of IP, I could literally sit and never make anything again, which is obviously not gonna happen. But we realize we have all this incredible these assets of images that like also like, if you bring in and create the right team, it doesn't have to be stuff that I'm sitting there dissecting all day long. Like, if we work collaboratively with people who can see things through a different lens, it just makes sense to bring the work into a much
more like tangible situation. And like, you know, a lot of my collectors like great obviously they can afford the paintings, but their walls are filled up, so they're like, what's next.
And then there's a lot of people who like don't have the ability, Like I collect art, but half the things I want to buy are well outside my means, you know, And so I would love to create an entire like landscape of work that is functional, that's you know, beautiful, that's representative of who I am, and that people can actually afford to buy. So that's where we're apps.
That's awesome.
I have that, But until I will see you guys.
Until then, where can people find you?
Also?
Yeah, we will come visit for sure, but where can people find you?
What is your Instagram? Where can people see what you're doing?
My Instagram is alex underscore Nikita. I love Instagram. I don't know how to use any other social assets, okay, and that's the only place. And I'm very sharing on there sometimes to sharing, I get phone calls a couple times a day, going close friends only please, so you know, But that's the best place, and I actually, for me,
it's been a wonderful platform. Like I know everyone has love hate relationship with these things, but I've mentained such a nice like it's given me the chance to say the things when I don't, you know, necessarily have been all figured out in the studio, and I use it all the time.
Well, we will find you there, and I hope our listeners find you there as well. Thank you again, so much, so great to see you. We will be in touch to make plans to come visit.
Thank you so much. I can't wait. Thank you, Thank you guys. This is it's so great.
Oh wow, my gosh, we're going to that studio.
Were to that studio.
I didn't even want to get into it, but I was so drawn to the piece that she was sitting in front.
Of the colors of that and the horse. Oh man, it just looked amazing. Yeah, looked amazing.
What a life.
That's so cool, man, It's just cool.
Yeah, it's so you know, what's you know, what's really cool about it to me is how much she clearly is an artist because of process, not.
End result, do you know what I mean?
Like I feel like a lot of like even when I think about the things that I've always wanted to do, like be an actor, be a writer, Half the time I hate the process being on set, but I hate auditioning. I hate going.
I hated all the all the work, which but you have to you.
Have to love all the process, right And with writing, like I've you know, very only recently come to this realization like all my life, I've been writing as if I'm going to someday not have to write.
Again, do you know what I mean?
Like, Oh, I'm going to write the thing that's going to be big enough to that, And I'm like, wait to what all I'm gonna want to do is keep writing, so stop being like enjoyed the process. And she seems like from the get go it was like this meditative like self like it was like loving herself, you know, it was like part of like I'm just going to do this because this is how I am becoming who I am going.
To be, and it was therapeutic for her.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was like it's like part of her being that she's just going to take the hours every day to do and like that's so cool and I think that's reflected in the work, right, and that's why it's good.
Even when she said and then sometimes I would just sit there because you can't just flip the switch and be like if I I you know, listening to her talk about being a mom and her limited hours of things, and I think, yeah, you know those times where it's like, Okay, I've got a prep for the show I'm directing next week, and I've got an hour and a half and I've got to read the script and I've got to break it down. And it's like if I then had to sit there and couldn't do the thing, I would be like,
oh my gosh. And yet for her, like you said, it's so much of it is just like that's the process and that's what I'm doing today, and that's okay. The Yeah, that grace and acceptance of it of it all is, and that she loves it.
Yeah.
Yeah, also truly once once again a through line we keep seeing supportive parents. Yeah, completely supportive parents that are not throwing you in any business They're not doing for any other reason than whenever you hear as any sort of young entertainer artist, whenever you hear do it to listen no longer fun and then find something else.
It just takes such a weight off of everything. And yeah, it's great to hear that.
Also, the trust they placed in her to say, you know, like when she made that decision that she was going to go on tour with her work, and she was like many many conversations and them really explaining to me what it was going to require. Yeah, it's like you know when you when you have you have to trust that your kids are actually understanding and they how can you? How can you truly understand until you've been in the shoes, But you have to go, Okay, I've prepped you.
You want this.
Of course, if you chan in your mind will back out, but like, this is a big decision and they trusted her. It's it's yeah, really great. Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode of Podmeets World. As always, you can follow us on Instagram pod meets World Show. You can send us your emails podmeets World Show at gmail dot com. And we've got merch.
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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, Maddie Moore engineer and Boy Meets World Superman Easton All. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at Podmets World Show or email us at Podmeets World Show at gmail dot com